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:
Fantastic Four #1 by Ryan North and Iban Coello (cover by Alex Ross), published by Marvel ComicsFantastic Four is the granddaddy of Marvel comics, the one that started it all. And the Hickman Fantastic Four run is probably my favorite ongoing run on any comic ever, but I've had mixed feelings about the various FF runs that have come since Hickman. But I'm always willing to give a new FF book a chance. And so I'm excited to check out this new book by Ryan North and Iban Coello. North is a terrific, very talented writer known for The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and a number of other comics, along with clever books such as How to Invent Everything and How to Take Over The World. These sound like books that you know Doctor Doom has on his bookshelf, so I think he's a great choice to write the book. And I don't know Iban Coello's work too well, but he's a very talented artist with a modern, dynamic superhero style. So I am very excited to see what this team can do.
Traveling to Mars #1 by Mark Russell and Roberto Meli, published by Ablaze
If Mark Russell is writing a book then I am going to check it out. That's a rule for me. Russell is writing some of the smartest comics out there, and they're also typically some of the funniest comics out there. But he isn't just a writer of funny comics, he can write poignant books as well. I'd point you to Not All Robots which is both funny and incredibly tragic. And as funny and clever as The Flintstones was, it had some of the most brutal and poignant moments I've read in a comic. So I'm sure that Traveling to Mars will be an excellent read. This is the story of a man who is dying, and is traveling to Mars, and has a chance to think about and reflect upon his life. I don't know Roberto Meli's work beyond the very strong preview pages I've seen, but I'm sure this will be an excellent read.
Two Graves #1 by Genevieve Valentine, Annie Wu, and Ming Doyle, published by Image Comics
I know verylittle about this comic. It sounds like it's got a weird, mysterious premise. But the draw here for me is that the art in the story is written from two different perspectives, one drawn by Annie Wu and one by Ming Doyle. Each of Wu (Hawkeye) and Doyle (Mara) are fantastic artists whose work I've really enjoyed in different books. I love the idea of seeing a story depicted from a few different perspectives, by different artists. I don't know a lot about this book, but I know it will look great.
Love Everlasting #4 by Tom King, Elsa Charretier, Matt Hollingsworth, and Clayton Cowles, published by Image Comics
I adore Love Everlasting. It's one of my favorite comics of the year, because it's weird and smart and gorgeously drawn and colored, and it is clearly going to weird and big places. This particular issue of Love Everlasting is a really poignant one, about love and loss and memory. If you're not already reading this book I highly recommend you get caught up. It's a really special series. Elsa Charretier is a fantastic illustrator, and she really brings these wonderfully vintage, surreal words to life, with the amazing Matt Hollingsworth on colors.
Specs #1 by David M. Booher, Chris Shehan, and Roman Stevens, published by Boom! StudiosSpecs is a new series that I really know very little about. There are misfit teens that order a pair of novelty glasses, that start out fun, and seem to lead to weird and unexpected and terrifying results. That sounds amazing! I'm thrilled with that premise. Of course, the "glasses revealing weird stuff" reminds me of John Carpenter's They Live, and what little I've seen of the art from Chris Shehan looks excellent.
