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:
Crowded is a really fun comic, set in a ridiculous world (basically our own) that I wrote about previously. This is a fantastic comic and I'm excited to pick up the next (and final?) arc. It's got hilarious dialogue and great characterization, and gorgeous, hilarious, action-packed art from the always great art team of Ro Stein and Ted Brandt, and colorist Triona Farrell. Here's what I said previously about the world of Crowded:
The government allows Reapr (a crowdfunding assassination app) to exist. It started when some cabinet members were assassinated and it was traced back to a crowdfunding campaign. The government couldn’t stop it, it became popular. They tried everything but couldn’t shut it down. Anyone can start a campaign on anyone, and if you get a second person to fund it you’re in business. Anyone can collect on a campaign by killing the target. But after the campaign is over, you can’t start another one against the person. Law enforcement couldn’t stop it so now they just allow it and penalize it with red tape. In Crowded, everyone is trying to kill Charlotte Ellison (Charlie). Someone has started a Reapr campaign against her and the total is quickly over a million dollars. Charlie finds Vita on Dfend to hire her as a bodyguard. Charlie lives entirely in the gig economy. She drives for Muver and Drift. She rents out her car to people on Wheelsy. She rented an old dress out to someone on Kloset. She walks dogs on Dogstroll. She babysits on Citysitter and loans money on Moneyfriender. She tutors calculus. She spends time with folks on Palrent. And everyone wants to kill her. All sorts of craziness ensues.
Primordial is the latest miniseries from the creative team that brought you Gideon Falls. That's great news, because I loved Gideon Falls. It was an amazing, weird, sci-fi-horror meta-story, with tons of twists and turns. Primordial is a period piece, but it sets up a different 1960's than we remember. There's no space race. Something has scared America and Russia away from going out into space. We don't know what yet exactly, but whenever it is, it prompted both nations to switch to using animals in test flights rather than human beings, and to eventually stop running test flights altogether. As the story moves along, we do see some of what has happened to these animals, and I don’t wanna say too much, but this comic is fun and weird and absolutely worth a read. Artist Andrea Sorrentino is doing some of his best work yet, with weird, innovative, mind blowing layouts and splash pages. The work definitely has a Frank Quietly vibe to it, which goes along with the weird nature of the story that feels a little bit like a Grant Morrison story. These are among the highest compliment so I can give about a comic. Dave Stewart does wonderful work in coloring the drama scenes that take place on earth, and the vivid and weird scenes that take place… Elsewhere. This is a must read for sci-fi fans.
Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow #8 by Tom King, Bilquis Evely, and Mat Lopes, published by DC Comics
The final issue! I'm so sad to see this book go; it's been a long time since I was this sad to see a comic series end. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow was my favorite superhero comic of 2021. It's a truly special book, and takes the reader on an incredible physical and emotional journey with Supergirl, and Ruthye (your new favorite character). The art from Bilquis Evely and Mat Lopes (on colors) is just astounding. Evely's detail and emotion on every page is just remarkable, and Lopes does some of the most beautiful, breathtaking colors you'll ever see. My recommendation is not "start at issue 8", it's "go back and read this amazing story from the beginning". My in-depth review of the first 4 issues is here.
I love a good Garth Ennis war comic. And that's great news, because all of his war comics are great. This one sounds like a doozy.
1944: Imperial Japan still commands most of Asia. Determined to regain their hold on Burma, the British send a special forces unit - the Chindits - deep behind Japanese lines. Their mission is to attack the enemy wherever they find him. What awaits them is a nightmare equal to anything the Second World War can deliver.
Colonel Keith Crosby and Doctor Alistair Whitamore have old scores to settle, being veterans of the long retreat through Burma two years before. But neither the jungle nor the foe have gotten any less savage, and when the shooting starts and the Japanese descend on the smaller British force in their midst, every man will be tested to his limit.
I'm not familiar with P.J. Holden's work, but on a quick search, given all of his work for 2000AD, it looks like his gritty, detailed style will work perfectly for the story that he and Ennis are telling.
I've really enjoyed Victor Santos' work in comics such as Violent Love and Black Market, and I'm excited to pick up this new comic. This story concerns a former superhero who is now acting as a mob enforcer. That sounds like an excellent premise, and Santos has (with writer Frank Barbiere) previously gone into the world of crime in a world full of superheroes with Black Market. Santos has an incredibly appealing exaggerated style in the tradition of Darwyn Cooke, Bruce Timm, and more recent artists such as Elsa Charretier. It's really fun work, and I'm excited to pick this comic up.
