American Barbarian
Tom Scioli. AdHouse (Diamond, dist.), $19.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-935233-17-6

In this latest offering by Scioli (Godland; The Myth of 8-Opus), readers are treated to a sci-fi epic that is over the top in the very best sense of the expression. Once again channeling Jack Kirby, Scioli gives us the tale of Meric—youngest of seven sons and proud progeny of the Yoosamon Dynasty—in what can best be described as Thundarr the Barbarian meets Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, with homages to Star Wars thrown in—the half-Wookie, half-Scream-villain, Buu-Chaka, comes to mind. Meric must avenge the slaughter of his father and five of his six brothers at the hands of Two-Tank Omen, a giant pharaoh with tanks for feet. All that Meric has are his wits and his star sword (and, yes, okay, a bunch of allies that include dinosaurs). Even those readers who might not get the humor and intelligence of Scioli’s writing can’t help being blown away by what he can do with pen and ink. The strong visceral connection to the comics of days gone by makes this book worth reading for this experience alone. Most readers will simply read it because, for lack of a better word, it’s awesome. (Mar.)

Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention
Paul Guinan & Anina Bennett. Abrams, $24.95 (176p) ISBN 978-0-8109-9661-8

This handsomely crafted follow-up/companion piece to 2009’s critically acclaimed Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel once more finds its authors firing on all cylinders as they chronicle the Tom Swiftian exploits of a turn-of-the-20th-century minidynasty of scientific innovators and adventurers. Accurately resurrecting the look and style of the era’s pulp fiction accounts of real-life celebrities with a steampunk flair, the volume follows the super-scientific accomplishments of the Reades, Frank Senior and Junior (and to a lesser degree, those of “Wild” Kate Reade, Frank Jr.’s daughter), and how they blazed a path of invention and far-flung adventure across the globe. Rife with warfare, airships, quaint robotics, aquatic exploits both above and below the waves, dangerous encounters with wild animals and “exotic” indigenous peoples, and a head-on collision with actual history and its figures, there’s a lot to satisfy even the hardest to please of readers. As in Boilerplate, actual media from the era have been cleverly altered to include the Reades. The result is a stunning multimedia confection of the highest order that creates a detailed and delightful world. (Feb.)

John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Devil You Know
Jamie Delano, David Lloyd, Richard Piers Rayner, Mark Buckingham, Bryan Talbot. DC/Vertigo, $19.99 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-4012-3302-0

Several tales of surreal horror tinged with magic and social commentary are reprinted in this collection of early issues from writer Delano’s original run on the Hellblazer series. John Constantine, a magician most accustomed to the seedier sides of both the United Kingdom and the occult, must first come to terms with his past. He revisits the scene of a failed ritual that gave him a powerful demonic entity, and then must confront the same demon years later when it returns for vengeance. In another story, a visit to a beach town protesting a new power plant leads to Constantine having a vision of a nightmarish future brought on by an environmental disaster. More than 20 years after being first released, the art by Rayner, Buckingham, Talbot (Alice in Sunderland), and Lloyd (V for Vendetta) still evokes a powerful atmosphere, drawing readers into the strange and often profoundly discomforting events of Constantine’s life. Each story follows a nightmarish dream logic, blurring the line between real and fantasy and casting dark reflections on the world of reality. (Jan.)

Morning Glories Deluxe Edition
Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma. Image, $39.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-60706-430-5

Owing debts to television shows like Lost and The Prisoner, as well as The X-Men, this tale is much more than the sum of its parts. The list of influences hints at what’s to come, but Spencer manages to put it together in unexpected ways. A group of teens are hand-picked for an elite private boarding school that turns out to be more of a nightmare, with a mysterious agenda, a sinister faculty, unexplained deaths, and other scattered weirdness. Each character is fleshed out through flashbacks—the Lost influence is strong here—that also examine motivations and mysteries. The one challenge to enjoyment is the constant stream of crass sexual barbs spewing out of Ike, the sociopathic rich brat. Disruptive to the flow and tone of the story, this onslaught of sexual harassment feels overdone and eventually becomes a burden. If its point is to provide female characters with an object of retaliation to prove their strengths, it’s unnecessary given events in the actual plot that are more than suited for the purpose. Eisma’s art functions mainly as a stand-in for television cameras and living actors. (Dec.)

Witch Doctor

Brandon Seifert and Lukas Ketner. Image (Diamond, dist.), $12.99 (112p) ISBN 978-1-60706-441-1

Demonic possession isn’t just a spiritual matter, it’s a medical condition—and Dr. Vincent Morrow is an expert at curing patients of parasitic demons. A dizzyingly imaginative romp, this graphic novel reads a bit like a mashup of Doctor Who with Lovecraft, as Morrow trains his new assistant, paramedic Eric Gast, on such cases as a boy infected with multiple demons—Gerasene syndrome—and a rash of babies who seem to be possessed but are only the offspring of a demonic mother. While much of the fun comes from the pseudoscientific jargon that Morrow slings around, the real draw is Ketner’s art, which bursts with revolting-looking monsters, married with an ornate style torn from ’70s horror comics. As the story evolves we learn more about a bigger picture—the Archaeons are returning someday to end the world—and Dr. Morrow’s other assistant, a taciturn young woman named Penny Dreadful, who is a patient and a “cryptophage,” or monster eater. Ketner’s art does more than justice to all of this with energy and elegance. While the basic story line refers to similar comics and movies, Siefert and Ketner make it all their own with the exuberant execution. (Dec.)

DC Comics: The New 52

Various. DC, $150 (1,216p) ISBN 978-1-4012-3451-5

DC Comics has collected all 52 first issues of their recent “new 52” relaunch, which skyrocketed DC’s sales and profile. By streamlining and reimagining the world of DC Superheroes, the editors planned to make the comics more exciting and accessible to new and lapsed fans. Did the actual comics live up to this lofty goal? Some more than others. Arguably the most important and controversial comic here is Grant Morrison’s Action Comics #1, with a darker and angrier Superman for today’s audiences. Paul Cornell’s Demon Knights #1, a sword and sorcery comic set in the DC Universe’s medieval past, is a genuinely creative adventure, and Jeff Lemire’s Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE #1 is as deliriously weird as any vintage horror comic. J.H. Williams’s Batwoman #1 goes nowhere in particular, but does it with vivid style and panache. Despite amateurish art, Scott Lobdell’s Teen Titans #1 is an exciting story that will appeal to actual teenagers. Still, the flagship book, Justice League #1, by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee is unaccountably nonsensical, and most of the Legion of Superheroes and Green Lantern–based books, contrary to reboot plan, will make absolutely no sense to new readers. Clocking in at eight pounds, this is an uneven behemoth that dedicated collectors will admire sitting on their shelves. (Dec.)

Killing Pickman

Jason E. Becker & Jon Rea. Archaia, $12.99 trade paper (144p) ISBN 978-1-936393-14-5

Homicide detective William Zhu’s career never prepared him for creepy serial murderer Richard Pickman. A vile fiend who horribly tortures and kills children as a sacrifice to a female demon in exchange for immortality and assorted dark powers, Pickman is apprehended after Zhu shoots him six times in the chest at point-blank range, which leaves him little worse for wear. That’s merely the first clue that Zhu is dealing with something other than a garden variety psycho, and it becomes increasingly clear that Zhu must permanently stop the killer, a gruesome act that will require the removal of Pickman’s beating heart. Becker’s script deftly fuses detective story and Lovecraftian horror yarn to good effect, but it is hampered by the book’s wildly uneven woodcut-like art. It’s unclear if the look of the illustrations is a conscious choice or the result of rushing to meet deadlines, but it nearly scuttles the whole project with its disjointed techniques. (Jan.)

My Friend Dahmer

Derf Backderf. Abrams Comicarts, $24.95 (224p) ISBN 978-1-4197-0216-7

Readers of Derf Backderf’s the City strip in various alt-weeklies will immediately recognize his visual style (flattened landscapes and blocky characters who look uncomfortable in their own skin), but not the content in this visceral, ambitious new graphic novel. Instead of the City’s surreal, satirical ennui, Backderf explores a hard-to-believe autobiographical story. During the 1970s in Ohio, he attended high school with and befriended Jeffrey Dahmer, “the loneliest kid I’d ever met.” Backderf and his social misfit crew drift in and out of Dahmer’s story, which the author pieced together from memories and more recent research. It’s a barbed-wire portrait of a devil-minded teen with divorcing and neglectful parents. He slices up roadkill to see what it looks like, gets attention in school by doing imitations of cerebral palsy victims, and swims in alcohol to drown out his violent urges. The tone is sympathetic and enraged (“Where were the damn adults?”) while not excusing or making the story unduly fascinating. Backderf’s writing is impeccably honest in not exculpating his own misdeeds (the sections about how he and his friends encourage Dahmer’s spaz shtick while still excluding him make for brutal reading) and quietly horrifying. A small, dark classic. (Mar.)

Fearless

Mark Sable, David Roth, and PJ Holden. Image (Diamond, dist.), $14.99 trade paper (128p) ISBN 978-1-60706-467-1

This collection of the 2007 miniseries presents a city whose criminal gangs are kept in check primarily by the unceasing efforts of the vigilante named Fear. Contrary to the name he has assumed, Adam “Fear” Rygert is a man crippled by phobias, able to function only because he has access to a drug that neutralizes his anxieties. A superhero is only as invulnerable as his most easily kidnapped loved one; a mysterious third party steps in to assist gang lord Goran by striking at Adam through Lionel, Adam’s mentor and the source of Adam’s drug. Adam soon finds himself struggling against a foe who has more in common with Adam than Adam suspects, in a city thrown into chaos by the sudden availability of the antianxiety drug. While a competent reworking of very familiar superhero tropes, Fearless never exceeds the barely competent. Sable and company’s posturing vigilante never convinces that he has a reason to charge around the city in his armor; the reader is similarly denied any reason to care about these two-dimensional characters as they flail their way through a standard fallen hero plot. (Dec.)

The Grave Doug Freshley

Josh Hechinger and mpMann. Archaia Entertainment (www.archaia.com), $19.95 (168p) ISBN 978-1-932386-70-7

Mixing the western and living dead genres, Hechinger has created a graphic story that is not simply the clash of two genres but something altogether different. The story follows Doug Freshley, hired by his good friend, Shane McNally, to be a teacher and mentor to a young lad named Bat. When Freshley witnesses the murder of Bat’s parents at the hands of the Delanceys—a vicious family of thugs and lowlifes—he vows to fulfill Shane’s dying request to take care of Bat. The strange bit, of course, is that the attack on the McNally’s appears to result in Freshley’s death as well—except that it... doesn’t. As the living dead, Freshley does not conform to our expectations. He is not mindless or grotesque or terrifying (except to the Delanceys) but thoughtful and determined and of a mind to see that Bat’s well-being is looked after. The artwork by mpMann accompanies the narrative perfectly, capturing both the enigmatic character of Freshley and his relationship with Bat. Although there were many ways for Hechinger to steer the narrative toward a predictable ending, he manages to provide us with a resolution that is both satisfying and original. (Dec.)

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents: Vol. 1

Nick Spencer, CAFU, et al. DC, $24.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4012-3254-2

In this relaunch of a Silver Age superhero comic, two young agents, Colleen Franklin and Toby Henston, are assembling a new T.H.U.N.D.E.R. (The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves, in case you were wondering) team after losing almost all the members of the last one. If the prospects accept, they will receive superhuman abilities, but they will also face debilitating physical side effects and all but certain death. As a result, the chosen few are desperate men whose need to redeem themselves is stronger than their fear of death. Creative team Spencer and CAFU throw the reader into the middle of several situations at the start of this volume, and then flash forward and backward throughout the narrative, from the original mission in which teammate Raven was lost to Colleen’s and Toby’s recruitment pitches to their prospects, all the way back to the original 1960s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. team. The main narrative, drawn by CAFU, is finely detailed, almost delicate at times, but still capable of dynamic action sequences, while the backstories are drawn by other artists, with varying degrees of success. The lack of a continuous narrative gives the development of characters and relationships a fragmented feel, but the plot twists are satisfying. (Dec.)