Fatima: The Blood Spinners

Not another zombie comic! At least, that’s what you’d say if the creator were anyone other than Hernandez (Love and Rockets), who dispels concerns by fashioning an unpredictably strange and wonderful tale. In a weird and hip future, Operations, a mysterious DEA-like organization with a stealth craft and the powers of invisibility, is doing its best to fight the dealers of Spin, a drug that turns its users into bloodthirsty zombies. Fatima, an agent of Operations, tells the sad tale of the battle against Spin, its dealers, and its victims. She’s an efficient, capable agent with a mysterious past that Hernandez only hints at through eyebrow-raising tidbits—for instance, Fatima was raised in a hatchery. The battle against Spin does not go well: Fatima finds herself struggling to survive, and questioning the role of Operations in the surging Spin plague. Hernandez’s boundless imagination—characters named Puggy Bittermeat and Bob Soup—and deadpan yet sexy art combine with his skill for pulp dialogue for a uniquely loopy tale. (Apr.)