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:
Adventureman #5 by Matt Fraction, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, and Clayton Cowles, published by Image Comics
Adventureman is coming back! I love this series so much, it's just a pure delight of fun and wit and action and adventure. Before you pick up the new issue of Adventureman, you should go read the first volume. But before you do that, here's a little bit about the first volume (from my favorite comics of 2020):
"Adventureman is possibly the most purely fun comic I've read this year. It's written by Matt Fraction, illustrated by the Dodsons, and lettered by Clayton Cowles. So what I'm saying is, you're in incredibly capable hands with this book. What's great about this book is, well, pretty much everything. But more specifically, what's great about Adventureman is that it provides the reader with several different kinds of stories all in one. The story begins in an idealized, pulpy 1930's New York, as the city is under attack from evil invaders. But the police commissioner calls upon Adventureman and his band of science/mystical heroes to save the day. Adventureman is a classic barrel-chested, square-jawed Doc Savage type hero, and he and his allies do their best, and all appears lost...and then we realize that we've just been hearing about a story that a mom is reading with her son. It's present-day New York City, a much more mundane place. Adventureman is just a long-lost pulp-fiction character. OR IS HE??? You'll just have to keep reading to find out. I promise you'll have a great time, and you will just want to pore over the incredible art from Terry and Rachel Dodson. Seriously - the characters, the city - it's all so gorgeous. This book is a real delight."
I just read issue #1 of Echolands the other day and I immediately texted my comic shop owner afterwards, saying he had to pull issue #2 for me. This book is STUNNING. And considering how much great art I look at in comics, I really really mean it. The art in this book will blow your mind. It's a fantasy series set in a weird mishmash world that looks like San Francisco, but with lots of other weird elements to it. It concerns a person who can cause people's heads to explode when she gets upset, and magic, and all sorts of weird stuff. And There's like 20 different types of characters in this story, all drawn with different animation styles. And the layouts are innovative and weird and make reading this book a total adventure. J.H. Williams is doing in credible work, with the stunningly good colors courtesty of the exceptional (and keeps getting better) Dave Stewart. This book is a blast.
Crossover #8 by Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, Dee Cunniffe, and John J. Hill, published by Image Comics
My pitch for why you should read Crossover also comes from my 2020 favorites. This is a big, exciting comic, full of crazy twists, but also some really interesting ideas:
"Crossover is an absolute popcorn thrill ride of a comic, and some of the most fun I had reading a comic all year, which is why it's on this list even though only 2 issues have been released so far. It's a meditation on the significance of fiction and on our relationship to fictional characters. And it's also...a story about love and hope and community? Above all of that, it's a stunning work of art that you can stare at slack-jawed all day. There's so much happening in Crossover, and the comic is just bursting with ideas (in the same way that the extraordinary artwork from Shaw and Cunniffe burst off of the page). First, let me reassure you and tell you what I do not think this comic is about: I don't think this is intended to be any sort of Watchmen-style deconstruction of the superhero genre. This isn't a story about the world of superheroes; this is a story about us. Our relationship to fiction, our relationship to problems and fear, and ultimately our relationship to each other. But, you know, there's also superheroes involved."
