Catch It at the Comic Shop December 18th, 2019

Welcome to Catch it at the Comic Shop, where the Panel Patter team looks at what's coming out at your favorite store or digital device this week. Each one of us that participates picks up to five items due out this week, with a little bit about why we like them. (NOTE: We use solicitation material for this, so if we miss creators, please talk to your publisher!) Sometimes we might only have a few items to share, other weeks, keeping it to five will make for hard choices. Here's what the team wanted to highlight this week...

James' Picks:

Black Stars Above #2 by Lonnie Nadler and Jenna Cha, published by Vault Comics
This is an engaging, effective rural horror series. It's a story about 19th century folks living in the remote wilderness, and one young woman who has to delver a package, and all of the weird and scary stuff that awaits her in the woods. I very much enjoyed the first issue of this series, as I thought it did a really nice job setting up the cold, dark, remote world in which these characters live. Jenna Cha does a fantastic job binging that desolate world to life, with wonderfully detailed, thoughtful art.  I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Folklords #2 by Matt Kindt and Matt Smith, published by Boom! Studios
The world of Folklords is one full of magic, and dwarves and elves and quests and adventure. But there's a young man in this world who's having visions of another world. A strange one, full of metal horseless carriages, and people wearing suits and neckties, and watches. So he decides to go out on a quest to the mythical Folklords and see if they can tell him what his dreams mean. The first issue of Folklords was a lot of fun. This was a really entertaining, accessible comic thanks in large part to the wonderfully rich art of Matt Smith. His slightly cartoony, highly engaging style is well-suited to fantastic worlds and adventures. I definitely recommend this one.  
The Old Guard: Force Multiplied #1 by Greg Rucka, Leandro Fernandez and Daniela Miwa, published by Image Comics
The first Old Guard miniseries was one of my favorite comics of 2017, and I'm thrilled that the band has gotten back together to tell more stories. This is a story about functionally immortal soldiers who have found each other over the years, and work together as mercenaries/bounty hunters, etc. They range in age from several hundred to over six thousand years old. The first arc was a fantastic, satisfying story, with wonderful, stylish and colorful art from Leandro Fernandez and Daniela Miwa, and I'm thrilled to see the whole team back for more.

Wonder Woman: Dead Earth #1 by Daniel Warren Johnson, published by DC Comics
If Daniel Warren Johnson is working on a project, I'm going to read it. Whatever it is. He's an incredible artist that does stunning commissions (you should follow him on Twitter if you don't already). But he's more than just an amazing commission artist, he's an incredibly skilled visual storyteller. His last two books, Extremity and Murder Falcon, have been some of my favorites each year that they came out (including this year). He tells intense, fun, emotional, action-packed stories that are just really metal. I mean, in Murder Falcon, the power of heavy metal was literally what saved the world from invaders from another dimension.  This Wonder Woman story seems to take place in the distant future, on a post-apocalyptic Earth. I'm thrilled to see what Johnson does in this story. I've seen preview pages and they are staggering.