Fanboys Vs. Zombies #2
Written by Sam Humphries
Art by Jerry Gaylord
Ink Assists by Penelope Gaylord
Colors by Nolan Woodard
Letters by Ed Dukeshire
Covers by Humberto Ramos, Hary Randolph, AlE Garza, Zombie King Arthur Suydam
Cover Colors by Nei Ruffino, Blond
Created by Ben Silverman and Jimmy Fox
BOOM! Studios
Release Date: May 02, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

A few years ago, a circle of five friends attend Comic-Con International: San Diego, nickname themselves ‘The Wrecking Crew 4 Lyfe,’ and vow to return every year together. Flash forward to today, they’ve all come to the Con but jealousy and competitiveness have torn them into factions. All of a sudden, folks that thought they were suffering from Con-rot, that feeling of weariness and nausea most of us have when we’ve spent way to much time on the floor of a Con, have become flesh-eating zombies.

By the time we get to Fanboys vs. Zombies #2 the Wrecking Crew 4 Lyfe are among the few survivors left at Comic-Con. Now one of our heroes, Rob, is fixated solely on rescuing a celebrity crush. On top of that, the convention center has been rigged as a disaster relief center, built to withstand bombs and hurricanes, trapping them inside. And worst of all, they’re facing off against a horde of zombie D&D Cosplayers [...]

Alabaster: Wolves #2
Written by Caitlín R. Kiernan

Art and Letters by Steve Lieber
Colors by Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover by Greg Ruth
Designer Amy Arendts
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 9, 2012
Cover Price: $3.50

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a strange title pounced out of Dark Horse last month and leaped onto comic review sites (including this very one), causing critics to shout their approval for Alabastor: Wolves. People spoke of the art by Steve Lieber and the writing (the dialogue in particular) by Caitlín R. Kiernan as being strong and fresh and unique. What particularly piqued my interest, however, was just how vague folks were in describing what actually happens in the book. Most reviews I read went something like this: “It’s about a little Albino girl who speaks with a southern drawl, walking a wasteland filled with werewolves and other monsters, who talks to a bird and an angel who tells her who to kill. Oh, and she might be crazy.”

“Heck,” I thought, “I can describe a comic better then that.” [...]

I’m Not A Plastic Bag
Story and Art by Rachel Hope Allison
Forward by Jeff Corwin
Edited by Rebecca Taylor
Design by Fawn Lau
Archaia Entertainment
Release Date: May 8, 2012
Cover Price: $19.95

I’ve read comics with some pretty strange protagonists before, but this one was definitely a first. The main character of I’m Not A Plastic Bag is a large island made entirely of garbage, based on an actual place — specifically, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a large spot in the Pacific Ocean which, due to currents, collects most oceanic debris. By debris I mostly mean trash that washes out to sea, water bottles, tires, plastic bags, etc., and by large I mean estimated to be twice the size of Texas. So, very, very large.

Writer and artist Rachel Hope Allison‘s book is an odd and pretty ballet. This large, unruly mass of trash (loosely resembling Aqua Teen Hunger Forces‘ Meatwad) tries desperately to interact with the beautiful oceanic landscape it exists in, only to destroy whatever it touches, meanwhile getting bigger and bigger. There are touches of the Frankenstein monster here, which I suspect is what Allison was coyly referring to in the title. It’s almost entirely wordless with beautiful colors that tastefully know when to incorporate photography and mixes crazy layouts with lovely splash pages [...]

Take a second and think back on all those life-changing regrets you have in life.

Now suppose you have the chance to relive those missed opportunities. You can say and do all those things you wished you’d said or done. What would you do? What’s it going to take to get closure?

If you’re has-been comedian and actor, Guy Krause, these questions aren’t hypothetical anymore. In Dark Horse Comic’s new series Reset veteran underground comics artist/writer Peter Bagge brings his unique brand of humor to this story. Discovered by a rep from a small tech firm during a D.U.I. class, misanthrope Guy is recruited to be a guinea pig for a virtual reality product that lets him hit ‘reset’ on his life.

Probably most well known for his seminal 90′s funny book Hate, which famously mixed the Seattle grunge scene with curmudgeonly cartoonish aesthetics, we recentlly talked with Bagge about his comics career [...]

Take a minute and think about your favorite bad guys. Whether it’s planet-devouring Galactus or not-quite-as-threatening Captain Boomerang, supervillains come in all shape and sizes. The Supervillain Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Destruction and Mayhem shows how you. Yes, YOU can be a part of this exciting, competitive world. We sat down with author, Matt Wilson who adapted the book from his blog The International Society of Supervillains, written in the voice of bad guy King Oblivion, PhD.

Geeks Of Doom: Hello Matt Wilson. Can you describe The Supervillain Handbook briefly?

Matt Wilson: Sure. The way I sort of sold it is like this: Unemployment is so high, and there are all these problems with the economy for the last several years: why wouldn’t people think about Supervillainry as an option? However, I’d warn everyone not to take any advice from the book. I have no legal responsibilities for any City Halls attacked by irradiated killer apes.

GoD: Very safe. You’re credited on the cover this way – “As told to Matt D. Wilson.”

MW: The actual credited author on the cover is King Oblivion PHD, it’s all written with his expertise. It’s an expert’s guide to being a bad guy. The whole book is presented from an unreliable narrator perspective where according to him, he always wins. I might do something later where we find out what the real case is [...]

Fear Agent Vol. 6: Out of Step
Story by Rick Remender
Pencils by Mike Hawthorne and Tony Moore
Inks by John Lucas
Colors by Lee Loughridge
Letters by Rus Wooton
Covers by Tony Moore
Trade Cover by Jerome Opena and Matt Wilson
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 18, 2012
Cover Price: $16.99

Rick Remender‘s redneck space opera Fear Agent has drawn to a close, all that’s left to do now is read the obituary, close the casket, toss the flowers into the grave and call it a day.

Remender (X-Force, Punisher) has been teaming with an array of comic book talents, most notably artist Terry Moore (Walking Dead) since 2007 on this colorful ode to rocketships and ray guns. Heath Huston, formally from Ennis, Texas, is now roaming the galaxies seeking adventure, excitement, and a handle of whiskey…

[Minor spoilers begin] at least on the surface. What he’s actually searching for is a place in the universe. He’s the last of the Fear Agents, a battalion that unsuccessfully fought an alien occupation of Earth that wiped out most of the population, including much of his family. [Minor spoilers end] [...]

3 Story: The Secret Files of the Giant Man
Story & Art by Matt Kindt
Digital Production by Clay Janes
Design by Matt Kindt with David Nestelle
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 18, 2012
Cover Price: $3.50

Dark Horse’s graphic novel 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man explores the life of Craig Pressgang, an American born during the Second World War who suffers from gigantism, grows to be three stories tall, and finds a place for himself as a U.S. government spokesperson. The book itself is told from the perspective of the three most important women in his life, his mother, wife and daughter, as he grows from a period of optimism to alienation and isolation for being so unique. It’s often said that the book, written by Matt Kindt, is a sprawling metaphor for the American spirit since the 1940s.

This isn’t that book. This book is a bit …ahem… shorter in stature [...]

Space Time Condominium: Season One
Written and Art by Dave Dwonch
Action Lab Comics
Release Date: February, 2012
Cover Price: $14.95

Space Time Condominium starts with the premise of a man living with different versions of himself from across the multiverse and the story spins wildly out of control from there. It’s a webcomic written and illustrated by Dave Dwonch, with a new print version published by Action Age Comics. It is SO GOOD in so many ways, but misses the mark a few times.

So, the story goes like this: A crisis is destroying the multiverse as a scientist named The Gate Keeper flees his timeline, that’s about to be destroyed, with a mysterious plan that involves gathering 5 different versions of a man named Griffen Griffens, builds a condo in a tiny pocket universe unaffected by the crisis, and have them all live together. Whew, what a sentence. Oh, and it’s a comedy! [...]

Axe Cop, Vol. 3 TPB
Written by Malachai Nicolle
Drawn by Ethan Nicolle
Colors by Dirk Erik Shulz
Designer Kat Larson
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 28, 2012
Cover Price: $14.99

There will never be a comic quite like Calvin and Hobbes. For ten years Bill Watterson worked on an extraordinary ode to the trials and tribulations and joy that comes with being an imaginative 6 year old. It was arguably the greatest newspaper comic strip this side of the twentieth century. In part that’s because its main character was allowed to be as selfish and destructive as he was sweet and imaginative, in other words, he was allowed to feel like an actual 6 year old.

Then one day the strip was gone and comics have been trying to fill that void ever since. Other artists and storytellers have tackled friendship and growing pains, but one comic, Axe Cop, has emerged that really captures the sense of play that kids have. The make-the-story-up-as-you-go-along sensibility where dinosaurs, robots, and aliens are casually thrown into a plot. And unlike Watterson who would usually pull back to his real world in the last panel, Axe Cop digs deeper and deeper into its world of make-believe [...]

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Vol. 12
Story by Eiji Otsuka
Art by Housui Yamazaki
Original Cover Design by Bunpei Yorifuji
Translation by Toshifumi Yoshida
Editor and English Adaptaion by Carl Gustav Horn
Lettering and Touchup by IHL
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 21, 2012
Cover Price: $11.99

I hope you like high-concept because the best story in Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol. 12 involves haunted houses, struggling comedians, astral projection, dirty real estate deals, and a dude getting shot in the face with a nail gun, all in a brisk 75 pages that I must have read in under a half hour.

Full Disclosure, I wasn’t familiar with the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service series when I picked this volume up. It’s about five recent college grads with their own unique connection to the afterlife and who have formed a company which specializes in granting the dead their last wishes. Although, they seem to just kind of stumble into trouble. Think Ghostbusters by way of Scooby-Doo. But in Japan [...]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Micro-Series #2: Michelangelo
Global Conquest Edition
Written by Brian Lynch
Art by Andy Kuhn
Colors by Bill Crabtree
Letters by Shawn Lee
IDW Publishing
Release Date: March 7, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

The weird part about this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles renaissance we’re going through is seeing that word ‘Teenage’ still attached to them. Sad, but true, in just a couple years the franchise will be hitting 30. It’s not like there have always been great reasons to stick around as a TMNT fan, either. Many of us who grew up with them (Is anyone reading these books who didn’t grow up with TMNT in someway?), to various degrees, look back to the cartoons and movies and video games and breakfast cereals and Coming Out of Our Shells tour and wince a little out of embarrassment. What I suspect the folks at IDW understand is that we see the Eastman and Laird books as the high water mark, and while we accept the ADD kid-friendly stuff that came afterwards it’s time to move forward [...]

Criminal Macabre: Die, Die My Darling
Story by Steve Niles
Art by Christopher Mitten
Colors by Michelle Madsen
Letters by Nate Piekos of Blambot
Cover by Fiona Staples
Designed by David Nestelle
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 04, 2012
Cover Price: $3.50

Criminal Macabre: Die, Die, My Darling finds its anti-hero, Cal McDonald, adjusting to life after life. To being undead in other words. How is he taking the transition? He’s disgruntled, sure, but whatever, he seems to be disgruntled about a lot of other things, too.

Since 1990 writer Steve Niles, who you should know from the 30 Days of Night books/film (and if you don’t that’s your loss) has been doing his own take on the Paranormal Sleuth sub-genre in both comics and prose. Specifically, by Sleuth I mean the hard living, solving-crime-in-a-drunken-have type, and by Paranormal I’m talking about a casual slathering of vampires and werewolves. You like John Constantine? Give this a try [...]

Thief of Thieves #2
Story by Robert Kirkman
Written by Nick Spencer
Art by Shawn Martinbrough
Colors by Felix Serrano
Letters by Rus Wooton
Image Comics
Release Date: March 14, 2012
Cover Price: $2.99

Thief of Thieves #2 might not feel like much of a comic at first, my initial feeling was that it was underwhelming, but let it gestate some. I think there’s something interesting going on here.

The writing is the big draw for the new series from Image Comics. Or, to be more accurate, the writing process itself. The publishers’ star scribe/Chief Operating Officer, Robert Kirkman, is utilizing his experience as Executive Producer on The Walking Dead and acting as ‘Show Runner,’ in TV terms, on the title, which, in comic terms means taking ‘Story’ credit. He’s said, in essence, that he writes the broad outline of the story and that a different writer per arc will actually script the book. Morning Glories‘ Nick Spencer is tackling the first arc [...]

Monstermen and Other Scary Stories
Written and Illustrated by Gary Gianni
Additional Stories by William Hope Hodgeson, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard and Perceval Landon
Letters by Sean Konot, Todd Klein, and Clem Robins
Introduction by Michael Chabon
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 7, 2012
Cover Price: $24.99

At one point early on in Gary Gianni’s Monstermen and Other Scary Stories a main character gets a curse that leaves a disturbing mark on his head. It has to be seen to be fully understood because I can only describe it as a Stegosaurus Mohawk… and it’s maybe one of the single coolest things I’ve ever seen in a comic. A few pages later it’s gone, like a ghastly sight in a haunted house, never to be seen again.

Monstermen and Other Scary Stories was originally published as back ups in Hellboy beginning in the mid-90s, though Giannis’ work seems to be about as much Edward Gorey as Mike Mignola. Many avid comic book readers will be familiar with his work, which began first on Classics Illustrated adaptations, most famously on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He then won an Eisner for Best Short Story for the Heroes contribution in Batman: Black and White before settling into his current gig doing Prince Valiant. Monstermen stands out in his body of work as being his most original and innovative title [...]

Supurbia #1
Created and Written by Grace Randolph
Art by Russell Dauterman
Colors by Gabriel Cassata
Letters by Steve Wands
Cover by Ale Garza
Cover Colors by Nei Ruffino
Boom! Studios
Release Date: March 7, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

The Real Housewives for superhero spouses? Ugh, what a revolting concept! How stupid. How insulting. How the hell did they make this work?!

Appropriately enough, as I was reading this book my girlfriend was watching a Real Housewives show. I hate Real Housewives. I really, really do. I hate the way the shows are shot, I hate how shrill the characters come off, and I really hate how petty and materialistic all their problems are. I asked her during the commercial what the program’s appeal was for her. Buried beneath all those problems, she said, there’s the story about the complex and competitive friendships women have with each other.

When you put the show that way it starts to sound interesting. Throw in some guys with capes, trade the reality TV format for a comic, and I’m there [...]

RoboCop: Road Trip #3
Written by Rob Williams
Illustrated by Unai De Zarate
Colored by Alejandro Sanchez
Lettered by Marshall Dillon
Cover by Fabiano Neves
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: February 29, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

The operative word here is ‘Trip.’ Y’see, RoboCop is going insane. He’s having flashbacks to his childhood that quickly turn into nightmares, and he’s seeing old enemies in hallucinations and talking to them.

Unfortunately, he’s dealing with a few other problems while he’s losing his mind. America has fallen, OCP has taken over Old Detroit, he and a handful of fellow officers are on the lamb, trying to cross the Michigan border to get U.S. military aid, and, as RoboCop: Road Trip #3 opens, he’s sinking to the bottom of Lake Erie, about to be mauled by a large, robotic mountain lion [...]

Hell Yeah #1
Written by Joe Keatinge
Illustrated by Andre Szymanowicz
Colored by Jason Lewis
Lettered by Douglas E. Sherwood
Image Comics
Release Date: March 7, 2012
Cover Price: $2.99

There was an interesting conversation in a lot of comic book communities a few months ago when DC rebooted its titles regarding what makes for a good first issue. Self-contained story or cliffhanger ending? How much character do you reveal? How much world do you need to build? How much do you save for later?

All very good questions we should ask ourselves, but what wasn’t properly addressed in that conversation was what challenges do independent creators have on titles that aren’t reboots of well-established franchises? What’s the hook going to be? When so much of the superhero appeal relies on interpersonal relationships it’ll almost always be an uphill battle for the new, indie title where there’s no established continuity [...]

Usagi Yojimbo #144
Created, Written and Illustrated by Stan Sakai
Cover Colors by Tom Luth
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: February 29, 2012
Cover Price: $3.50

Last month, in my review of Usagi Yojimbo #143, I ended by saying that I predict that the next issue would have plenty of action. If I knew then what I know now I would have replaced ‘action’ with ‘violence.’ Usagi Yojimbo #144 is a violent, violent comic.

In the last issue, the ronin rabbit came into a new town and befriended Mitsui, an old, hardworking soy sauce brewer whose warehouse was being threatened by the local competition. Well, surprise, the thugs have returned in this issue. One of Mitusis’ staff is killed and Usagi sets out with an ineffectual sheriff to arrest the men responsible. They resist arrest. Swords are unsheathed [...]

Memorial #3
Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Rich Ellis
Colors by Grace Allison
Letters by Shawn Lee
Cover by Michael WM Kaluta
IDW Publishing
Release Date: February 8, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

About four years ago my comic book store guy insisted I try a new IDW title called Locke and Key. While I enjoyed the art immensely, the story wasn’t doing much for me at that time. Today, it’s one of my favorite titles but I avoided it for years. Looking back, I can’t recall if it was because the subject matter was too dark or the characters seemed too dull, but I clung to some justification for a long time to avoid the book everyone was telling me was going great. I realize now that what actually happened was I didn’t allow the book the opportunity to build its own world [...]

The Sixth Gun #18
Written by Cullenn Bunn
Illustrated by Brian Hurtt
Colors by Bill Crabtree
Letters by Douglas E. Sherwood
Design by Keith Wood
Published by Oni Press
Release Date: January 18, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

If you are an avid comic book reader in 2012, you’re either one of these types of people:

1) You’ve never heard of The Sixth Gun,
2) You’ve heard it’s terrific, but you haven’t gotten around to it
3) You’re reading and loving The Sixth Gun.

To that first group, it goes like this: In the wild west, after the Civil War, there exists six mystical guns with unique abilities. Becky Montcrief is a young woman who finds herself in possession of the sixth, most powerful of these weapons. Now she’s on the run from sinister forces trying to possess it and is aided by treasure hunter, Drake Sinclair, and few other allies [...]