The Very Frustrated Monster
Written by Andi Green
Illustrations by Andi Green
Monsters in My Head LLC
Release Date: October 25, 2012
Cover Price $14.99

Everyone has bad days. We all recognize this in the abstract, that bad days are a universal experience. However, a bad day is also very personal, a solitary experience that leads us to say such self-centered things like: “why this happening to me” and “it’s not fair,” while rebuffing commiseration from others by declaring “You don’t understand!” We know this isn’t true, because if the rule holds that everyone has bad days, then people understand, but it doesn’t feel that way in the moment.

This experience is the premise of The Very Frustrated Monster, latest in the series of WorryWoo monsters books by Andi Green. Each book in the series follow a different WorryWoo creature with a particular emotional problem, like confusion or insecurity.

Ménage à Bughouse
Written by Stephen Lafler
Art by Stephen Lafler
CO2 Comics
Release Date: June 4, 2012
Cover Price: $39.99 HC; $24.99 TPB

Steve Lafler spent twelve years (1992-2004) writing Bughouse, during which he explores so much of the characters and the world, that it can be tough to encapsulate. The book follows the virtuosic Jimmy Watts and the other members of his band, Bughouse, as they rise through Bugtown’s (read: NYC) music scene during the jazz and ragtime explosions. Now, all three of the Bughouse stories – Bughouse, Baja, and Scallywags – are collected in this new omnibus from CO2 comics. Although he initially wanted to deal with the intertwinement of drug culture and the music scene, he also wants the book to be fun, and so the stories are light and breezy.

The way that Lafler deals with drug abuse is actually pretty unique in its own right. Everyone is almost laughably blunt about drugs in the book. Some sample lines of dialogue…

Fatima: The Blood Spinners #4
Story and Art by Gilbert Hernandez
Edited by Diana Schutz
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: September 19, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

So, have YOU been reading Fatima by Gilbert Hernandez (Love and Rockets)? No seriously, have you been following this madcap adventure through space, time, and zombies? I know that zombie storylines have been spreading in pop-culture like… a plague that is unrelated to zombies. Let’s just say its spreading like a Contagion. I don’t actually think it’s necessary or wise to list off all the zombie-related media out there right now. I mean, really: when Brad Pitt is the lead in the $125 million dollar adaptation of a highly acclaimed zombie novel by the son of Mel Brooks, I think it’s possible to say that a saturation point has arrived. That The Walking Dead is a best-selling ongoing comic, and the most popular show on a cable channel that Mad Men also calls home, AND apparently has certain character prologues being novelized, means I think we can throw out “˜possible’ and replace it with “˜redundant’. When I feel confident that I can mention the zombie preparation campaign by the CDC without linking to it because I’m positive everyone and their unborn (zombie, obviously) children have heard of it already, well that’s just straight tautological. Wait, so why read this mini-series, which closes this month? Oh right, because its awesome.

The Cape: 1969 #3
Written by Jason Ciaramella
Art by Nelson Daniel
Lettering by Shawn Lee
Editorial Assist by Christopher Schraff
Edited by Chris Ryall
Creative Consultant Joe Hill
Inspired by the Short Story “The Cape” by Joe Hill
IDW Publishing
Release Date: September 12, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

And so here we are at The Cape: 1969 #3, the power is in Captain Chase’s hands, and with two issues to go, the only question remaining is: how will he use it and how far will he go? For anyone not reading The Cape: 1969, it follows a medevac pilot in Vietnam who just so happens to be the father of Eric and Nicky, the brothers from The Cape. He finds himself in a bad situation, against a sadistic Vietcong troop commander, and then some Weird War Tales stuff happens.

Writer Jason Ciaramella is committed to making this a rather believable war story with superpowers instead of a story about superpowers that just so happen to take place in a historical setting; or at least a good war script with superpowers. Artist Nelson Daniel is a great companion to this project. His drawings aren’t ‘gritty’, but certainly show enough ability to make a war story, and are actually quite refreshing in contrast. Meanwhile, his use of colors remains top notch. His palette of ruddy browns, greens, and oranges complement the dark tone of the story; he also has a special knack for making grotesque violence distinct with blazing reds saturating the backdrops enough to bleed through the page. The use of screen tones is a little obtrusive here, without giving the book the vintage charm I think he’s going for, but it’s not a big deal.

Criminal Macabre: The Iron Spirit
Story by Steve Niles
Art and Lettering by Scott Morse
Edited by Scott Allie and Daniel Chabon
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: September 12, 2012
Cover Price: $19.99

Writer Steve Niles may have had greater success with works like 30 Days of Night, but it’s the embittered hunter of the supernatural demons, Cal McDonald, that is his iconic character and the one Niles has continually returned to for 22 years. And, after all this time, it seems as though Cal is having a bit of an existential crisis with his current predicament.

Criminal Macabre: The Iron Spirit takes a little excursion from the main narrative of the series – the war between man and seemingly every supernatural monster ever dreamed – to do a one-shot detective story. When the book opens, Cal is trying to come to grips with his recent… undeath. The bad is that he can’t sleep, he has no blood, and his hands are kind of cold and clammy; the good is he can still drink and smoke (and do both without the adverse health effects, I assume, so: bonus?) and has picked up the ability to sense other members of the undead. I’m sure Niles will explore it further, but whatever rules he has for the undead, the message seems to be that there is no relief from life in undeath. Or, as Cal put it: “I seemed pretty much like myself, just dead and tooling around like before.” The mechanics of being undead are perhaps the most interesting thing about this comic, and I don’t mean that as a backhanded insult. It’s the kind of thing that keeps Cal compelling beyond the mysteries he’s trying to solve.