After Wednesday

Greetings, crusaders! This week in comics was fairly heavy on debut issues—both in print and digital-only format—so some of the decisions were pretty tough. If you are new to this, here is a quick breakdown: I am a comic enthusiast who reads a bunch of comics every week, and then I choose what I feel is noteworthy and hopefully can help people to think some more about possible comics to read and stimulate some discussions among those who do. Cool? Ok, on we go:

“Old Red 203X #1″ (w/a) Rory Morris, Monkeybrain comics, 0.99 cents, available on comixology at http://cmxl.gy/1fIEitU

There is just something about anthropomorphic animals that I like in stories, probably forever fascinated thanks to George Orwell. Literary allusion aside, creator Rory Morris introduces a city on the edge of a bio-contagion crisis, and brings his spin on the buddy cop team-up with an independent visual approach that is trying to utilize the Comixology guided view technology. Good read and a great price for a very interesting debut for a digital indie.

“Samurai Jack #1″ (w) Jim Zub (a) Andy Suriano, (l) Shawn Lee, IDW comcis, $3.99

Truth? Never watched the show, so I think that qualifies me to walk into this one open-minded. What I found is a good comic adults and adolescents can share and enjoy. The wandering, lost-in-time samurai story opens up all kinds of possibility, and the first issue goes right for the weird and wonderful creature designs that always hit me in the right ways when comics (even existing properties) celebrate that a comic can be weird, wonderful, and a lot of fun for all kinds of folks. The fan base is built in for this one, but new fans will migrate quickly based on this introductory issue.

“Death Sentence #2″ (w) MontyNero (a) Mike Dowling (l)Jimmy Betancourt, Titan Comics, $3.99

We reviewed the first issue way back this summer, and I liked what I saw then, and issue #2 keeps things moving forward with character development, something that is a lost art in most serialized comics. The story of three different lives dealing with a very terminal, super-powers-inducing disease continues with a tight intercutting of the three separate paths the characters are on as they will, I hope, eventually meet head on for the resolution. This is also worth picking up as a very nice supplemental; the back of this issue details the writing process that is an informative look at one school of thought of how to write a comic. This comic is both entertaining and incredibly informative.

“Pretty Deadly #1″ (w) Kelly Sue De Connick (a) Emma Rios, (c) Jordie Bellaire, Image Comics

I seem to remember that this title had some heat on it from Image Expo, and many advanced reviews confirmed that this week. De Connick, Rios and Bellaire give everyone an opening chapter that is a funky, mysterious, scary, mildly poetic tale in what we can assume is the 19th century American west. If you thought East of West by Jonathan Hickman was doing an interesting job of spinning the western genre, you ain’t seen nothing yet till you give this book a look. This one may challenge you a bit, and honestly it threatens to stray too far off at points (but does manage to wrangle itself back to something cohesive), but your patience will be rewarded.

Alright, so four books that all offer something a bit different for all types of tastes. As always, please feel free to leave comments below about the picks or add some of your own over on our Facebook page, or mention us on twitter (@capelesscrusade) with the #afterwedensday so everyone can get in on the conversation. Happy reading, everybody!