Basketful of Heads Review (Joe Hill, Leomacs)

It’s September 1983, ‘cos the ‘80s is in these days, in a small coastal Maine town and June and her cop boyfriend Liam are busy being young and sexy. BUT DEN. Some inmates from the local prison break out - wuh oh! And then a storm hits, stranding everyone on the small archipelago - say whaaa! And June finds a magical axe from Norse mythology that keeps decapitated heads alive after it separates them from the body - hhwugiuhdsh! Time for… something… make it through the night/storm ok, I guess?

Stranger in the Shogun's City by Amy Stanley Review

Amy Stanley’s history book Stranger in the Shogun’s City is primarily about a Japanese woman called Tsuneno who was born in the northern Japanese province of Echigo (now Niigata) in 1804 and eventually fled the dull rural life for the more exciting city life on offer in Edo (the old name for Tokyo). It’s also about Edo and the radical change that it would experience during and shortly after Tsuneno’s lifetime.

Pandora's Eyes Review (Milo Manara, Vincenzo Cerami)

On the way out of her 18th birthday party Pandora is abducted and taken to meet - her real papa, who’s also a wanted international criminal! But little does she know that she’s being used in a dangerous game of cat and mouse…

Venus in the Blind Spot by Junji Ito Review

Viz Media’s blurb for Venus in the Blind Spot is really weird: it claims this is a “best of” collection of Junji Ito’s stories but, as far as I can tell, only one - maybe two - stories have previously appeared in print before: The Enigma of Amigara Fault and The Sad Tale of the Principal Post possibly both appeared in Dissolving Classroom. So this is a “best of” collection that features almost all-new stories!? The blurb also mentions special colour pages and illustrations from Ito’s latest book, No Longer Human, and it doesn’t. Also, it would’ve been good if the contents page listed in which collections the stories previously appeared, like most “best of” collections do, but seeing as this appears to be nearly all-new material then I can see why it didn’t!

Strange Adventures #2 Review (Tom King, Mitch Gerads)

Adam Strange has just published a bestselling memoir - but there are claims of lies contained within it. Lies that Adam claims not to know but is open to have investigated. Enter: Mister Terrific.

Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier Review

Pizza Girl is 18 years old, preggers and working at a pizza shop. Then she meets Jenny, a middle-aged mom with a son who will only eat pizza with pickles on. And so begins a strange friendship…

Batman: The Smile Killer Review (Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino)

Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino provide a coda to their miniseries Joker: Killer Smile with Batman: The Smile Killer. And it’s unnecessary, kinda stupid and undermines the story its following!

Undiscovered Country, Volume 1: Destiny Review (Scott Snyder, Charles Soule)

In the not-too-distant future…

For 30 years the USA has been closed off from the rest of the world - they put up the walls and stayed behind them. Now, a pandemic called the sky virus is ravaging the rest of the world and for the first time in decades America is reaching out. A figure who looks uncannily like the Uncle Sam of army recruitment posters claims to have the cure to the virus and invites a select group inside American borders to retrieve it. But what’s happened to the states in those lost years - and what awaits the group behind the wall…?

Spark by Naoki Matayoshi Review

Tokunaga dreams of becoming a successful manzai comedian (a type of Japanese comedy involving a duo, one straight man/one fool) with his troupe, Sparks. Then he meets up with an older manzai comic called Kamiya who takes him under his wing. Will they become the headlining comedians they hope to be?

Negan Lives! Review (Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard)

Nearly a year to the day after the last issue of The Walking Dead was published, Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard return for this unheralded one-shot: Negan Lives!

Just Like You by Nick Hornby Review

Set in the months leading up to the Brexit referendum in 2016, Lucy, a white 42 year old single mother of two, unexpectedly finds love with Joseph, a black 22 year old man of multiple part-time jobs. Just Like You follows the ups and downs of what an interracial relationship with a large age gap is like in a country getting more divided by the week.

Cut Review (Mike Richardson, Todd Herman)

A young woman wakes up in a locked room in a derelict house in the middle of nowhere, her arm cut, with no memory of how she got there. Who abducted her and why? Then she wakes up later and another young woman, also cut, is with her - what’s going on?!

Fangs by Sarah Andersen Review

Elsie’s a vampire and Jimmy’s a werewolf and they’re girlfriend and boyfriend and hilarity ensues and waffle waffle…

Batman, Volume 12: City of Bane, Part 1 Review (Tom King, Tony S. Daniel)

Gotham City is safe - the villains are in charge. Having weaponised Psycho Pirate, Bane controls the villains, as well as Gotham Girl, with Flashpoint Batman at his side. With the Bat broken and the Cat nursing him back to health on their honeymoon-that-never-was, it’s up to Robin to bring the fight to Bane. Should he fail, there is a terrible price to pay. Gotham City is safe - but at what cost?