DC Action News Hosted by Alex Jaffe Produced by Esper Quinn
The Skinny – “Reporting Bravely and Boldly every Wednesday as the news breaks from the center of the Multiverse.”
DC Action News is a great little podcast that sets out to do what it does, and is quick and clever. Formatted as a newscast, DC Comics loremaster Alex Jaffe essentially recaps the events of the current week’s DC comics. And if you just want a recap of this week’s comics issues, it’s great. But the real joy in the show is the clever twists he takes with the format, presenting the over-the-top comic book stories as serious real events. This ten-minute weekly mini-podcast is all about delivery. It’s the difference between a super-fan telling you about how a terrorist group lead by a super-intelligent psychic gorilla tired to steal the Moon and getting that story from Walter Cronkite. The show mostly focuses on the ‘prime’ Earth, the one that the comics usually take place in, but also features segments from ‘Absolute’ Alex Jaffe and other versions of the host from the various alternate realities that crop up in comics, and occasionally features additional interviews and cameos. The most recent episode, which lampshades the ‘Fifth Wednesday Phenomenon,’ in which for some reason almost no terrible events happen in the world on the fifth Wednesday of each month, is my favorite so far. Since the ‘news’ was light, the majority of the episode was dedicated to a Reporter on the Street segment which featured a bunch of delightful podcaster cameos answering the question: Does ACAB include Batman? DC Action News is published weekly. You can subscribe or listen to episodes at DCActionNews.com or through your podcatcher of choice. I highly recommend giving it a listen.
Today is the first Saturday in May, which mean’s it’s Free Comic Book Day! Sponsored by beleaguered Comics publishing monopoly-holder Diamond Distribution, the event offers a variety of free comics to the public to bring them into local shops. Due to no longer being distributed by Diamond, it appears that DC Comics will not be taking part in the event, but there will still be plenty of books for sale, along with other events at your local shops. Here are some of the ones I’m most interested in this year:
Fantastic Four / X-Men – Marvel Comics I was never a big fan of the Fantastic Four. While I liked them alright, the pioneering family of superheroes always felt a little too stuck in the ’60s to me. But writer Ryan North and artist Humberto Ramos have been killing it in their monthly title, one of the few that I’m actually keeping up with these days. So I’m looking forward to their FCBD offering this year, especially paired with a new X-Men story from the writers of NYX, my favorite of the post-Krakoa X-Men titles. It may be marketing for upcoming MCU movies, but it’s top-shelf Big 2 comics, so I’m here for it.
Tower Dungeon & Issak – Kodansha These pair of samples from Kodansha both look really interesting. In Tower Dungeon, Sci-FI Manga creator Tsutomu Nihei turns his hand to a dungeon crawler-inspired Fantasy setting, and it looks like it will have his signature dark twist to the typical ‘Farm boy seeks his fortune’ narrative. Issak is an unusual Historical story from writer Shinji Makari and artist Double-S about a Samurai that finds himself in Europe during the Thirty Years War.
IDW Dark: Find Your New Fear – IDW IDW is launching a new horror imprint, and this FCBD sampler includes four previews of upcoming M-rated horror titles.
The event will also feature a ton of family-friendly content and tie ins for Archie, Spider-Man, Power Rangers, Star Wars, and more! The event helps bring the public to locally owned businesses, but the books aren’t free, so if you visit your local shop, be sure to support them with a purchase, too. Many stores will have special events with prizes, guest artists and writers, and more! You can find participating stores in your area, along with the list of this year’s books, at https://www.freecomicbookday.com/
Star Trek Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way Written by Ryan North Drawn by Chris Fenoglio Colored by Charlie Kerchoff Lettered by Jeff Eckleberry Published by IDW
The Skinny: A Choosable Path Adventure that feels like a great stand-alone episode of Star Trek.
Star Trek Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way is a ‘choosable path adventure’ set somewhere in the continuity of Star Trek: Lower Decks, by the creative team that has been killing it recently with a recent ongoing series, delightful one-shots, and surprising minis. While I have read a little of their previous work, I haven’t seen more than the first couple of episodes of the show. But I greatly enjoyed this graphic novel as a bit of a taste of what the show is like, written by a writer squarely in his wheelhouse and drawn by an artist who knows exactly what they are doing. North is no stranger to ‘Choosable Path’ stories, having writing the wonderful and surprising To Be or Not To Be and Romeo and/or Juliet, a pair of prose Shakespeare choosable path adventures that are somewhat a bit more complex than this entry, but share a similar tone and excitement for the genre. The graphic novel format has its own advantages in conveying the compact information more quickly, and drawing the eye in ways that a prose page cannot. North and Fegoglio also captures the magic of Star Trek’s more daring and experimental episodes, directly referencing some of the highlights of the franchise as well including some wilder easter eggs. Depending on the choices the reader makes, series main character Mariner and the crew of the Cerritos could fight off an invasion by Borg, a hostile attack from Khan himself, or a visit from a hard-partying space god. But as each story branch reaches its conclusion, readers will notice a pattern emerging. This is the point where the book goes from referential game to something much more interesting and special. North has a gift for understanding and manipulating the structure of media he’s working in. Warp Your Own Way isn’t simply a riff on the “Choose Your Own Adventure” novel format with a Star Trek: Lower Decks license. North and Fenoglio understand the assignment on a deeper level, and use the structure of a graphic novel and choosable path format to tell a Star Trek story in a way that only they could pull off. My favorite episodes of Star Trek are the ones where they break away from the usual structures and plots and do something strange and different; like the Star Trek: TNG episode “Cause and Effect,” which was essentially a repeat of the same period of time due to the ship being caught in a time loop. This book ultimately has some of that energy. Fenoglio’s art is pleasing and easy to follow, which works well in a few sequences that break not only the story structure but the page itself in a fun way. Kerchoff’s colors are bright and eye-catching and just what you expect for a book like this. It matches what I’ve seen of the show, but I’m not an expert there. If there is a flaw it is that this book feels somewhat detached from the source material of Lower Decks itself. There are some sequences that establish the characters, but there is a broadness to the story that feels like it could be pulled from any Star Trek series, swapping the crew of the Cerritos for the Enterprise or Voyager and still come through relatively unchanged. Having seen very little of Lower Decks, I can’t really be sure here, and this wasn’t a detriment to me as a new reader coming in. New readers won’t have to catch up to enjoy the story. Star Trek Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way is available now in print from Your Local Comics Shop or digitally wherever you buy books or comics.
The Big Burn #1 Written by: Joe Henderson Drawn by: Lee Garbett Colored by: Lee Loughridge Lettered by: Simon Bowland Published by DSTLRY
The Skinny: The Perdition Job
A great heist or crime story relies on making your antiheroes just a little bit less bad than the people they’re stealing from. The original Italian Job cast of patriotic criminals and the remake’s crew of professionals out for revenge work because the audience is rooting for them to succeed despite the nefariousness of their plans. The Big Burn #1’s pair of down on their luck bank robbers bring the reader onboard in just a few pages with a whirlwind of gutsy heists played against an equally turbulent romance. It’s fun and exciting right up until they’re caught. And that’s when the Devil himself shows up. When down-on-their-luck thieves Carlie and Owen sell their soul to escape jail, they’re free to resume their high-octane romantic crime spree. But the thrill is gone, both in crime and love. The only option left is to steal their souls back. Henderson’s writing is sharp and quick here, dropping the reader into the story quickly and getting the reader on the main characters’ side from practically the first page. They also do a great trick of just laying out the stakes and making it seem very natural through the use of character. By the time Owen has is near-death experience and the Devil gives him a tour of Hell, while explaining directly to his face that he likes to set people up to fail at the very last second, We already know what Owen is going to do, because we know that he isn’t going to be able to resist rolling the dice on the chance of pulling off the heist of his afterlife. Garbett’s art and Loughridge’s colors are also putting in great work. The bright, fast-moving montage of ballsy bank robberies and daring jewel heists draws the eye, right up to where it hits a brick wall. And right when things are at their darkest (with a palate to match) that’s when the Devil oozes his way into the page, all black mist and red highlights. And Garbett’s Devil is nothing if not equal parts chilling and seductive, made up of all red highlights with impeccably coiffed long black hair and dressed to the nines with not a single thread out of place. He dominates the page in the exact way that a character of his import should. The biggest bad that our hard luck protagonists could take on, without a prayer of coming out on top. But if it were easy, it wouldn’t be a heist, would it? The Big Burn #1 is out in print in deluxe format from DSTLRY. You can find it at your local comics shop or order online at DSTRLRY.co. This first issue has me hooked, and I can’t wait to see where the story goes next.
Tomorrow, May 4th will be this year’s Free Comic Book Day! This yearly event features comic shops around the US giving out free promotional comics and other goodies. It is a chance for fans, readers, retailers and creators to get together to celebrate the medium and have some fun. It is the perfect opportunity to find a shop in your area, catch up on the storyline for your favorite books, or discover something new that you will love! This Free Comic Book Day is bittersweet for me because it will be the first year in a while that I won’t be celebrating it at Pulp716, which closed last fall. However, I am going to be visiting a couple of shops in the area that are new to me. I’m looking forward to checking them out! In addition to the usual previews from Marvel and DC, there are a number of great books this year, including a new Hellboy story an a retrospective of work form James Tynion that I am looking forward to. You can visit the Free Comic Book Day website to check out this year’s books, read interviews with creators, and use their locator tool to find a participating store near you!
Godzilla Valentine’s Day Special #1 Written by: Zoe Tunnel Drawn by: Sebastian Piriz Colored by: Rebecca Nalty Lettered by: Johanna Nattalie Published by IDW
The Skinny: Spoiler alert: Godzilla doesn’t find romance.
For the most part, the thing that irritates me the most about Hollywood adaptations of properties such as Godzilla or Transformers is the repeated attempts to force the narrative into a human story. I cared very little for the humans when the story should be about the transforming robots or giant monsters that have secured top billing. But as a one-off story, I really enjoyed this comic, which focuses on the relationship between a, for lack of a better term, dai kaiju chaser, and an EDF lieutenant trying to keep her out of harm’s way. When Piper is caught up in a Godzilla attack while at work, she’s 1. critically injured, and 2. suddenly unemployed. But the sight of seeing the giant monster so close was exhilarating. She begins studying and chasing the giant monsters. When Sauveterre finds her running towards the danger instead of away from it, they try and stop her, through steadily escalating means, for her own safety. A cat-and-mouse game ensues, and this being a valentine’s day comic, I’m pretty sure you know where it’s heading. The writing is light and sweet, with just enough kaiju action to feel like we see enough of the behemoths to justify their presence in the story. The characters work because they don’t come on too thick and feel appropriately small compared to the giant monsters they are chasing. The art is clean and engaging, with bright colors. It is a good match for the tone of the story, and a sunny, personal contrast for the usual Godzilla stories. The reader gets a good view of the monsters, but almost always at a remove, contrasting the personal conflict with global ones. Godzilla:Valentine’s Day Special is a fun little one-shot comic, even if you aren’t a romance reader or a fan of giant monsters. You can pick up a copy digitally through Amazon, or in print at your Local Comics Shop!
If his long-running webtoon Lavender Jack proved anything, it was that Dan Schkade knows how golden-age comics work, and how to take everything that’s great about them and present them for a modern audience. Long-since relegated to reruns, Schkade brings us into his new take on the classic hero in medias res, as we follow the Earthman on an exciting attack on Ming the Merciless that is equal parts rescue and climactic final battle. But when the smoke clears and Ming is seemingly defeated, what happens next? Following a classic newspaper serial format of six short comics and one full page a week, Schkade’s writing is thrilling without getting bogged down or getting confusing by the format, and his art is kinetic and clear in an incredibly tight space. The launch is only a couple of months old, so if you’ve ever been curious about this classic character but hesitant to pick up the originals, this is a fantastic place to start.
Birds of Prey Written by Kelly Thompson Drawn by Leonardo Romero Colored by Jordie Bellaire Lettered by Clayton Cowles Published by DC Comics
Comics are all about reinvention, and this classic team on DC’s super-heroines is getting the band back together in the wake of 2020’s Birds of Prey feature film. Reinventing the team as less of a group of superheroes and more of a heist is always a compelling choice for me, and it puts classic leader Black Canary in an interesting and fun position. The dynamic for the team is fun and explosive, and the requisite inclusion of DC’s breakout star Harley Quinn is well-handled and feels natural. The rest of the team is made up of fun fan-favorites who rarely get their on spotlights like Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) and Big Barda, which is icing on a cool superhero cake.
Hawkgirl Written by Jadzia Axelrod Drawn by Amancay Nahuelpan Colored by Adriano Lucas Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou Published by DC Comics
This one is a gimme for my list. Hawkgirl isn’t a character I’m very familiar with, aside from a similar character from the early-00’s Justice League cartoon. Rising star Jadzia Axelrod clearly knows her stuff, though, and tells a compelling and satisfying story in six short issues. Accompanied by her own hit creation Galaxy, who debuted in a graphic novel in 2022, this is a showcase of cool high concepts and character-defining moments, delivered with the force of a superhero diving through a skylight. This is how you do legacy right, stitching character around (and sometimes through) established history while making something new and exciting. This was a six-issue mini, but I hope we see more of these characters (and this creative team) in the future. I could’ve read thirty issues, easy!
Fantastic Four Written by Ryan North Drawn by Iban Coello Colored by Jesus Aburtov Lettered by Joe Caramagna Published by Marvel Comics
I will admit that of all of the various Marvel characters and teams, The Fantastic Four has always ranked near the bottom, personally. They have a fun cohesive design, and smarter writers than I have written about how cleanly their debut marks the end of the Golden Age and the rise of the Silver Age. But aside from The Thing, I’ve never really cared much for them. They feel a bit too rooted in their time and place of creation, products of the Cold War, a nuclear family for the nuclear age. They’ve never really caught with me, and Mr. Fantastic in particular has always struck me as being a cliched relic, a Man of Science accompanied by his literally invisible housewife. But Ryan North has managed to find the great in these characters by driving them out of their secure and comfortable Manhattan skyscraper and sending them out on a trip across the country. As an X-Men fan, making your heroes pariahs is always going to be a step in the right direction for me, and giving them some meaty super-science problems to tackle outside of the mad scientist of the week has done wonders. This is going to be a run for the ages, and it’s (hopefully) just getting started. This is North’s Squirrel Girl writing all grown up.
X-Men Red Written by Al Ewing Drawn by Stefano Caselli, Jacopo Camagni, and Yildiray Cinar Colored by Federico Blee Lettered by Ariana Maher
It was difficult to choose just one X-book to put on this list, but X-Men Red takes the edge in terms of drama, scope, and shout out loud superhero moments. X-Men books are all about being outsiders, but what could be more outsider than an ancient civilization of super-powered beings finally trying to learn how to be at peace after milllenia of war? Marvel has a collection of these types of hidden civilizations, most of which came from the Fantastic Four’s rogues gallery, in fact. But the Araki have something a bit extra that groups like the Atlanteans and the Inhumans just don’t have going for them. Ewing knows his stuff and brings it to the table. It helps that we aren’t really supposed to be sure where we stand with the Araki, with their strange powers and alien morality. But where Blackbolt and his kin feel like plantation owners, perpetually ruling over an underclass they don’t view as human, the Araki are Klingons, strange and difficult, but with a refined sense of honor that can be tested. Having characters like Storm and Sunspot to bounce against them, forming rivalries and friendships, helps. That the strange warlords, who felt like they might invade Earth at any moment felt like they were also on their own back foot, from antagonists like Uranos and Genesis helped immensely as well.
Coffin Bound
Written by Dan Watters
Drawn by DaNi
Colored by Brad Simpson
Lettered by Aditya Bidkar
Published by Image Comics
The Skinny: This tale of Action and Philosophy feels like how you remember 90’s Vertigo Comics.
Izzy Tyburn isn’t just going to die. She’s going to unlive. Living in a wasteland of philosophy and barbed wire, she has become the target of the unstoppable assassin known as The Eartheater. But rather than take the fight to the killer, she’s going to destroy her own existence first.
Coffin Bound is a comic about the ways we face or avoid entropy. It is intensely philosophical, and has a 90’s Vertigo vibe, which is not surprising, considering his other recent work is the relaunched Lucifer book from last year. The story features a figure whose head is a vulture skeleton, a strip club where the dancers don’t stop at their clothes, and an assassin who refers to himself, at length, as a ‘psychopomp.’ It is quite good, but it leans much more towards philosophers than action.
DaNi’s art also feels very reminiscent of 90’s Vertigo. There’s a particular panel of her lighting a cigarette which feels straight out of Sandman. I had a great sense of nostalgia for the period in reading the book, whether that was planned or not.
Coffin Bound is the start of a strange and Existential road trip that will feel almost nostalgic to longtime Vertigo Comics fans. You can buy the first issue from your local comics shop, or get it digitally from Comixology.
Canto #1
Written by David M. Booher
Drawn by Drew Zucker
Colored by Vittorio Astone
Lettered by Deron Bennett
Published by IDW
The Skinny: A boy with a clockwork heart ventures into a dark world in this grim steampunk fairytale.
Canto’s people live in chains. Denied freedom, identity and even hearts, they toil for cruel masters bigger and stronger than themselves. But Canto believes in two things: A fairytale about a boy who saved a princess, and the girl who gave him his name. When she is injured by the cruel slavers, he’ll do the only thing he can to save her: Leave the confines of their labor camp and bring back her heart.
A sinister but none-the-less charming steampunk fable, Canto #1 opens with a familiar fantasy theme, but plays it expertly. Booher and Zucker’s steampunk fable starts on all the right notes for a great series. The story flows around the gaps in the characters’ knowledge, the questions that Canto will have to find the answers for. It is also doesn’t flinch away from the horrors of its world.
Zucker’s designs are doing a lot of great work here. Canto and his people are little clockwork knights, and their is brutal and violent without being gory. They don’t have or lose blood, but Time. It’s a clever and occasionally devastating use of metaphor that works well on the page. The designs are all funhouse mirror, with the squat, dwarfish slaves and their towering, bestial masters. Even Canto’s face looks like a mask. Astone’s moody colors are dark but also deep and rich. The art and colors are what really elevates the story.
Canto #1 is an excellent start to a story that looks to take a critical, or at least subtextual eye the tired quest motif. I can’t wait to see how far it goes with its material. You can find it digitally through Comixology, or pick up a physical copy at your local comics shop!
Crowded Vol 1: Soft Apocalypse
Written by Christopher Sebela
Drawn by Ro Stein and Ted Brandt
Colored by Triona Farrell
Published by Image Comics
The Skinny: A contract bodyguard has her work cut out for her protecting her latest client from crowdfunded assassins.
In a future where anything can be crowd funded, and the gig economy has taken over, even assassinations can be crowdfunded. But when wild girl Charlie’s finds herself with a million-dollar bounty on her head, her only hope may lie in bodyguard for hire Vita. If they don’t kill each other, anyway.
Equal parts action movie, dystopian thriller, and buddy comedy, Crowded is a wild ride.But the character work is what really sets the writing apart. Sebela delivers a lot of depth to these characters with very simple strokes. He takes stock tropes like the world-weary bodyguard and transforms them into deep, complex characters that you come to care about. Even the villain of the arc, slimy livestereaming assassin Trotter, is if not sympathetic, complicated in his motivations.
Stein’s art, with inking by Brandt, is expressive, bold and easy to follow. Farrell’s colors are a mix of glaring digital neons and the grays and browns of urban decay. The art really sells the story, which walks a fine line between goofy action and cyberpunk horror.
Crowded juxtaposes over the top action sequences with the very real cyberpunk horrors of a rising gig economy, omnipresent digital surveillance, and collapsing American infrastructure. As ridiculous as it all seems, it is a frighteningly plausible near future.
Crowded: Soft Apocalypse collects the first six issues of the comic, and is available from Comixology, the usual digital retailers, or your local comics shop. Support Me on Ko-fi
Hugh J. O'Donnell 