A man receives an invoice of millions for the life he’s lived thus far, simply being alive! The man tries to understand his predicament by calling the company charging him and, amidst this Kafkaesque scenario, unexpectedly finds romance at the other end of the line - but what will happen to him if he can’t pay the bill?
Following the death of Martian Manhunter, the Justice League is no more. But when the Green Lantern Corps capture Lobo, whose recent most heinous crime is killing the New Gods, they turn to the scattered League for help in ensuring he makes it to trial. Batman’s plan? Hide out in the ruins of Apokolips…
Spiteful witches, monsters lurking in abandoned towers, homicidal dolls, crazed lighthouse keepers (as if there’s any other kind!), dissatisfied mushroom-sitting gnomes, child-eating ogres, gods, seals, and Inuits - Sergio Toppi wrote and drew a lotta imaginative fantasy-based comics from the late ‘70s to the late ‘90s, and a bunch of ‘em are here in The Collected Toppi, Volume 1: The Enchanted World.
It’s a sweltering August on a French beach campsite and teenage boy Leonard is there with his family for a summer holiday. And then, one night, Leonard watches a boy called Oscar strangle to death on a swing - and doesn’t step in to help. Even stranger, Leonard then decides to bury the body and tell no-one about it! With a mere day left of his holiday before he returns home, will Leonard’s actions be found out or will his secret lie buried along with Oscar?
A kid cutting his schoolteacher’s throat with a knife is just the latest in a string of bizarre incidents in and around 1890s Utah. A theory is floated that it’s due to the water coming from the old Canary Mine in the mountains and Marshal Azrael Holt is dispatched to join a geologist in investigating the alleged source. But the Marshal’s bloody past ain’t done with him jest yet…
Two coppers investigate the death of a superhero in Powers, Volume 1: The Subtitle Explains the Premise!I’ve read quite a bit of Bendis’ work but never his best known earliest comic, Powers - until now. And I wasn’t impressed.
Sonny and Xavier have found shelter from the international assassins after them in a hidden off-the-grid camp in British Columbia - but said assassins aren’t too far behind so they’ll only get a temporary respite… until the next one! And then they gots to run again! And… that’s the series, really. Fight, run, hide, repeat.
Red Hood somehow gets drafted into the latest roster of the Suicide Squad. Their target? Get Joker! Get Joker what - a decent storyline to appear in? It’s been a while - and this book ain’t changing that! Then Joker takes Waller’s boom box that blows up the Squad. What’s gonna happen next? I’m sure most people can wait to never find out, and they would be the smart ones.
Why Read collects some of Will Self’s essays from 2001 to 2021, most containing a literary angle, but some are about random topics like Self’s personal history with Australia, a trip to the haunting modernist ruins of Chernobyl and the ongoing environmental crisis. It’s a decent collection that’s got some stuff I enjoyed, some stuff I didn’t, and some stuff that was a bit of both!
Stray Dogs was one of the best comics of 2021, following a group of dogs slowly realising that their current owner was a serial killer who had killed all of their former owners. It’s a great done-in-one original horror story.
Hummingbird Heart is the underwhelming and seemingly pointless follow-up to Travis Dandro’s excellent 2019 memoir King of King Court. Whereas the first book was about his drug-addicted father and the chaos he brought to Travis’ early life and family, Hummingbird Heart isn’t about anything nearly as compelling or standout.
Set in a dystopian future where a major city is ruled over by thugs, the elderly but legendary hero returns for one last adventure - one last gasp to stand up to evil. Joining him is a young female sidekick, representing the future of justice - can the two of them bring hope to a bleak world? This is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Turtle Knight Returns!
Batman/Catwoman is the coda to Tom King’s Batman run - or, perhaps more accurately, a lengthy and increasingly dull victory lap that amounts to 12 issues (13, if we count the bumper special) of back-patting!
Thomas Muntzer was a 16th century German rabble-rouser who hated the Church and led an uprising against the upper classes, citing Jesus’ teachings for why the rich shouldn’t be, and so on. He knew what was up. What a scam organised religion really is. But it didn’t take and several centuries later Eric Vuillard wrote up the episode in this dinky book, The War of the Poor.
