BUY THESE FLIPPIN COMICS!! (8/7/2013) – SCI-FI RENAISSANCE

Hey, folks!  Johnny here, back again for another week of slingin’ philosophical about my favorite pastime!  Looking at this week’s releases, I was amazed at just how much great non-superhero fare there is to be read currently.  Not in a long time have I felt that the variety of books is SO great and SO varied, that it is the perfect time to introduce comics to friends and loved ones who might like comics, but maybe just don’t dig capes.  Here’s what I’d like to grab this week, and hit us up in the comments and tell us what you’re looking out for!

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OL PICK O’ THE WEEK

Trillium #1 (of 8) – DC Vertigo

It is no secret we here at Omega-Level are huge fans of writer/artist/Canadian Jeff Lemire.  While the dude is killing it over in the DCU on books like Animal Man, Swamp Thing, and Agents of S.H.A.D.E., it’s his independent works (I was gutted by Essex County, and Underwater Welder is the best Twilight Zone episode that never aired) that I really gravitate towards.  This book, a sci-fi adventure, seems to span eons, and is touted not only as a love story, but the LAST love story.  It reminded me of Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain (a film I quite liked – if only just for the score).  This first issue comes in at 28 pages, but as a flipbook with two stories of 14 pages, meeting in the middle.  Pretty sweet, and a must buy this week, ya’ll!  TRUST THE OMEGA-LEVEL

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PROPHET #38 – Image Comics

If not for maybe Saga, this is the most entertaining and inventive sci-fi monthly on the stands.  Brandon Graham and a rotating cast of fantastic artists (this month is Giannis Milonogiannis) present a Rob Liefeld creation in a wholly new and captivating light, as John Prophet is now a multitude of clones in a far-flung future who is assembling his own army to save Earth.  This is my Guardians of the Galaxy book, with a bunch of weird ideas and images thrown at you, never slowing down to explain stuff.  I also love how Liefeld’s old Image universe isn’t totally thrown out the window, as the cyborg Die-Hard is still around, and this issue deals with the children of Badrock!

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The Manhattan Projects #17 – Image Comics

Another fucking spectacular sci-fi book, this one with a great deal more humor than either Saga or Prophet, Hickman and Pitarra seem to delight in bringing us warped visions of our past.  I haven’t caught up with this series (always behind in reading, folks, ALWAYS), but the last issue I read ended with the beginning of the Oppenheimer Civil War, and I fucking LOVED it.  This book keeps getting better, I think.

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SATELLITE SAM #2 – Image Comics

Hubba, hubba, amirite doodz?!  Seriously tho, Chaykin’s pencils haven’t lost a step, and I think his work looks great in B&W.  The first issue was a lot of set-up, but I was so stoked to hear Matt Fraction say that Sam would be an ongoing, as this very Mad Men-esque look into the world of 50’s and 60’s television, and the debauchery behind the scenes, looks like it has tons of promise for stories of all kind.  I’m in.

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Catalyst Comix #2 – Dark Horse Comics

Joe Casey is a guy who loves to bring big, weird ideas back to comics.  Sometimes it’s deconstructionist in nature, but I think it could also be a bit reconstructionist, as his ideas are fresh new interpretations of comic book stereotypes (see: the out of print Automatic Kafka for a perfect example of this…if you can find it, it’s fucking amazing).  I wasn’t completely sold on this first issue, but the series features art by OL fave Ulises Farinas and the cover to #2 is done by one of the modern masters:  Paul Pope.

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OTHER DOUBLE-PLUS GOOD BOOKS:

All New X-Men #15 – Marvel NOW

Bendis keeps screwing with Marvel continuity something fierce…from the cover it looks like Jean Grey and Hank McCoy become loooooovers.  Wuh-oh.  Cyke, you jag.  Can you do NOTHING right?

Avengers #17 – Marvel NOW

Hickman is drawing us closer and closer to the Marvel EVENT TO END ALL EVENTS UNTIL THE NEXT EVENT IN SIX MONTHS.  I want to love these company-wide jams, and Hickman’s run on both Avengers and New Avengers definitely has my interest piqued, but I fear that I’m either too old to care, or too jaded to want to be excited.  Though if anyone can get me pumped for a big Marvel crossover, it’s Hickman.

Fatale #16 – Image Comics

Part detective-noir, part Lovecraftian Horror, and helmed by one of the top 2 or 3 artist/writer combos of the past 20 years (Brubaker and Phillips, natch).  There really isn’t much more I should need to say to get you guys on this book.  I read it in trades, but as each single issue has a ton of bonus content not found in collected editions, I should probably change my tune.

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That about does it for me!  I may mention a couple more books I found interesting below in the comments, as it looks like another big week for funnybooks.  Lemme know if any of my picks grab ya, and if not, what are rocking out to?

Hit it!