Rejoice, friends, because a new Scott Pilgrim volume is here, and the good news? It’s probably the best one so far. Without losing Scott’s likeable slacker ethos, O’Malley presents a maturation of his character, as we see that to be worthy of a real relationship, he might need to do more than defeat seven evil exes in martial combat. He might actually have to grow up a little. Seeing Scott, the perennial slacker/wastrel, try to interface with the mechanisms of reality like applying for jobs, actually doing a job and deciding if he’s infatuated or really in love is not only as funny as ever, but fairly substantial and affecting in terms of Continue Reading »

Writer: Rick Spears
Artist: Chuck BB
Company: Oni Press

More than a loving homage or simply parody, Black Metal manages to be a sincere love letter to heavy metal music as well as a humorous send-up of it. In many ways, Black Metal is what the various incarnations of the KISS comics should have been. Where the KISS comics are always so damn sincere about their goofy trappings, Spears and BB provide a wink and nod to the audience that they realize that this stuff can be seen as kind of goofy, but they do it in a way that recognizes the inherent stoner cool of the whole thing, and so it’s more of a fantasy/adventure comic than a humor Continue Reading »

Writer/Artist: Vasilis Lolos
Company: Oni Press

Some books grab you. There is no rhyme or reason to why they do, they just do. Sometimes it’s a slow process, a creeping sensation that slowly leads to what is a crescendo of awesomeness that can not be denied. Or in other cases it can sometimes be like the immediate bang of a shotgun, resulting in a story that simply grabs you by the neck from the very first page, the style and substance of the book blaring like a blazing sun in a sea covered by a thick fog. The latter is what the first volume of Vasilis Lolos’ The Last Call is; it’s a story that takes hold of you from the first Continue Reading »

What is a “Hot Pants” pick? Quite simply, it’s a book that all five reviewers on this site believe is worthy of your time. It may or may not be one of our favorite books, but it’s that rare breed of comic that struck all five of us, with our different tastes, as a good read. Queen & Country is our latest “Hot Pants” pick.

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Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Brian Hurtt
Company: Oni Press

Every now and then, you run across a concept that just clicks, from the moment you first hear it. That’s the case with The Damned, which combines soul-trafficking demons with the vivid look and feel of prohibition-era crime, resulting in a book that reads like a cross between Hellblazer and The Untouchables. While Bunn probably could have spelled out his setting a little more clearly in this opening issue, the atmosphere is dead-on, the lead character very intriguing and the political plot at the center of things equally promising. In addition, Brian Hurtt continues to get better and better with each project, and his work Continue Reading »

Writer: Jamie S. Rich
Artist: Joelle Jones
Company: Oni Press

When it comes to romance comics, manga pretty much has the market locked up right now. That’s where the girls are, and romance is a chick genre, right? Wrong. Well-written romance is the purview of both sexes, and there’s plenty of room for differences within the genre, from the teen sex comedy of many shojo to the romantic comedy of True Story Swear to God to the mature exploration of relationships that is found in 12 Reasons Why I Love Her. Oni Press has tackled the romance genre memorably before, from Christine Norrie’s Continue Reading »

What is a “Hot Pants” pick? Quite simply, it’s a book that all four reviewers on this site believe is worthy of your time. It may or may not be one of our favorite books, but it’s that rare breed of comic that struck all four of us, with our different tastes, as a good read. Local is our latest “Hot Pants” pick.

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Writer: Ted Naifeh
Artist: Ted Naifeh
Company: Oni Press

Yar, be on the lookout, there be pirates lurkin’ ‘bout!

At first glance, this book seems almost like the sort of thing that you would give your son or daughter, a cute little number but not really worth your time. Don’t hand it over just yet though, for what lies inside, beneath its vibrantly colored cover, is a story that can easily succeed in finding the kid in all of us.

The story follows a young lass named Polly Pringle, the daughter of a high ranking official in the Vervenvania (yes, you heard right) Government and a member of the Continue Reading »

Writer: Brian Wood
Artist: Ryan Kelly
Company: Oni Press

After a short hiatus, Local has returned stronger than ever. Local #6, set in Brian Wood’s stomping grounds of Park Slope, Brooklyn, is easily the best issue of this series thus far. It is a quintessential New York story in some ways, about the difficulties of roommates and the loneliness of a big city, but those same qualities also translate into universal feelings and resonate with the developing personality of Megan, the lead character of the series. The cramped and bustling environs of Brooklyn also prove to be an ideal setting for Kelly to show off the amount of detail Continue Reading »

Writer: Antony Johnston
Artist: Christopher Mitten
Company: Oni Press

The post-apocalyptic wasteland may not be a great place to live… but it’s a rich place for stories, and Antony Johnston and Christopher Mitten have come up with an interesting new twist on the ruined Earth genre in their new ongoing series Wasteland. Johnston’s plot and characters may seem comfortably familiar, with a ruined but recovering civilization reminiscent of our own, a stranger from the desert and a series of dangerous mutants from the wastes, but look a little deeper and you’ll start to see the layers of the book. Psychic abilities, several religious beliefs and different interpretations of the “Big Wet” that caused the disaster, all Continue Reading »