On The Comic Crush we review Liam Cobb’s What Awaits Them, the long-awaited and complete collection of Liam Cobb’s short-form comics. Bringing together the previous Breakdown Press releases “The Inspector” and “The Fever Closing”, this new anthology includes strips and stories from every part of Cobb’s career. Readers will be transported to exotic luxury islands, the darkest rainforests, snow-swept frontiers, and a bizarrely run Michelin-starred restaurant, and will discover the unique mix of lush extravagance and bleak realities that his comics bring to the form. Cobb’s comics reflect the relative loneliness of contemporary life with gleaming, monolithic architecture. Metaphysical love blossoms in the dank humidity of the jungle in a whirlwind of melancholy and mundanity. His clean, unmistakable lines razor the page through rich colour, transporting the reader to a clinical oasis, a gleaming utopia laced with irony and sweat. With these stories, Cobb invites you to submerge yourselves in his uncanny waters and discover, once and for all, What Awaits Them...
Read MoreTHE HARD SWITCH OGN (HC)
On The Comic Crush: An engrossing science fiction graphic novel about a spaceship's crew, and the end of non-renewable resources. Ada, Haika, and Mallic are on a mission . . . one last mission, before everything, everywhere shuts down. They’re raiding old, abandoned spaceships and wrecks for the (sometimes expensive) parts – and they make just enough money to get by. But living their nomadic, exploring life isn’t sustainable when they can’t afford fuel anymore. The time is coming when the mineral that makes inter-system jumps possible runs out. When it does, the scattered inhabitants of the vast galaxy will be stuck where they are. Everything will be different . . . unless the discovery in the latest wreck Ada, Haika, and Mallic are scavenging can unlock a whole new kind of interstellar transit.
Read MoreFANTASTIC FOUR BY RYAN NORTH VOL. 1: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE FANTASTIC FOUR? (TP)
On The Comic Crush, we discuss Fantastic Four by Ryan North Volume 1: Something has gone terribly wrong in New York! The Thing and Alicia are travelling across America to escape it! But when they stop for the night and wake up the morning before they arrived, they find themselves caught in a time loop that's been going on since before they were born! Meanwhile, Reed and Sue are on the run from their troubles - and make an unfortunate stop in a small town full of killer Doombots! But what is their terrible secret? And Johnny is left alone in New York - a city that hates and fears him! So it's time for a new identity - and a new job! Can the FF find their way back together and somehow rebuild their lives?
Read MoreDOCTOR STRANGE: FALL SUNRISE (TREASURY EDITION)
On The Comic Crush, Paul Dunne reviews Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise. Brace yourself for a Doctor Strange story like you've never seen! From the uncanny mind of Tradd Moore, the Master of the Mystic Arts stars in one of his most mind-bending adventures - now wilder than ever on the oversized pages of a Treasury Edition! Doctor Strange awakens alone in a distant world not his own. Lost of purpose and surrounded by danger, the wandering sorcerer must explore this land of blades and mystery to unravel arcane secrets and escape the deadly horrors that lie in wait! Strange is pulled in every direction by powerful figures while millions of lives rest in the balance - including his own! Who can he trust? Can this world's deadly ritual be stopped? Or is the answer simply: Blood? Heaven help us, it must be blood!
Read MoreMINOR THREATS VOL.1: A QUICK END TO A LONG BEGINNING (TP)
On The Comic Crush, Paul Dunne reviews Minor Threats: The first creator-owned comic series from Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum, showrunners of Marvel's M.O.D.O.K on HULU, and superstar artist Scott Hepburn (Tom Morello's Orchid) , this is a graphic crime drama about superheroes and villains and the last gasp of the colorful innocent days of the silver and bronze age before they're dragged into the grit-soaked modern era. It’s hard out there for a supervillain. Not the world conquerors, chaos engines, or arch-nemeses...but the little guys, the career criminals. The ones who put on uniforms, knock over jewelry stores, and get tied to telephone poles before the hero swings off to face the actual big bad. Times are tough for costumed crooks, and they’re about to get much worse.
Read MoreTHE WASP: SMALL WORLDS (TP)
On The Comic Crush, we discuss The Wasp: Small Worlds! Celebrate 60 years of the wondrous Wasp! Fashion designer, businesswoman, and founding Avenger - Janet Van Dyne has worn many hats over the course of her super-heroic career. And many costumes! But when an old enemy threatens Janet and her fellow Wasp, Nadia - seemingly against his will - the Van Dynes must confront the ghosts in their shared history to get to the bottom of the mystery! But something about this case seems unnervingly familiar to Jan. Can she figure out what it is in time to save both their lives? Trapped in a past where Henry Pym, the Ant-Man, was never born, will they be wiped from existence altogether?
Read More100 COMICS WE LOVE #98: OLD CAVES
On The Comic Crush, we pick another of our 100 Comics We Love: A retiree dedicates his days to combing a dense, snow-covered forest in pursuit of the unknown, and his nights to reminiscing about his wife. Old Caves is a peek through a frost-covered window at isolation, obsession, and the slow erosion of relationships. The high contrast black and white art enhances the sense of absolute solitude. Old Caves is one of the best-looking graphic novel debuts in recent memory.
Read MoreFANTASTIC FOUR: A COMIC CRUSH GUIDE
On The Comic Crush: check out our guide to Marvel’s First Family! Our short series of reviews and essays on some of the best modern FF stories is your entry point to the world’s greatest superteam!
Read MoreFANTASTIC FOUR: SOLVE EVERYTHING OMNIBUS (TP)
On The Comic Crush, we join the Fantastic Four and solve everything! Solve everything! Inside a room kept secret from even his closest friends and family, Reed Richards had scrawled upon the walls 100 of the biggest and boldest ideas his brain could produce. And, recently, he added a 101st, the most audacious ever: 'Solve everything.' It would be a mantra that would lead the obsessively intellectual Mr. Fantastic to do great works on behalf of humanity - and, in typically fantastic fashion, lead him into even greater trouble! For, as the big brain of the Fantastic Four will find out, solving everything carries with it a great cost and one that is perhaps too much to pay.
Read MoreBACK ISSUE BLUES: FANTASTIC FOUR - WORLD'S GREATEST (TP)
On The Comic Crush, we begin our look at the Fantastic Four when Marvel's First Family meets Millar and Hitch! When one of the world's greatest writers teams up with one of the world's greatest artists, the result is the truly World's Greatest Comic Magazine! Following their epic successes with ULTIMATES and ULTIMATES 2, Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch reunite to forge a new future for the Fantastic Four! Taking their cue from the wild-eyed, creative abandon of the classic Lee/Kirby years, Millar and Hitch make the book decisively their own! First up is the return of Reed Richards' old flame, Alyssa Moy, with news of worldwide calamity that only Mister Fantastic can help divert - but what if the price is his marriage to Sue? Next, the Defenders are back and barraging New York with high-velocity attacks. This mysterious group of heavies has taken out Doctor Doom and Johnny Storm - and that's not even their biggest surprise!
Read MoreNIGHT OF THE GHOUL (TP)
On The Comic Crush: A dazzling work of horror, intercutting between the present-day narrative and the story of a lost horror film. Director T.F. Merrit has spent decades confined in a retirement facility, which he claims is run by the Order of the Fly, a cult organization from his very own movie. And as the night goes on, Forest Inmann and his son Orson find themselves falling deeper into his cinematic nightmare. The writer and artist behind Batman: The Black Mirror reunite to shed light on a celluloid artifact once thought forever missing, perhaps with good reason…
Read MorePOISON IVY VOL.1: THE VIRTUOUS CYCLE (HC)
On The Comic Crush, Paul Dunne reviews Poison Ivy Vol.1: Pamela Isely has been a lot of things in her life: a living God, a super-villain, an activist, a scientist…and dead.In a new body that she didn't ask for and with a renewed sense of purpose, Ivy leaves Gotham and sets out to complete her greatest work: a gift to the world that will heal the damage dealt to it...by ending humanity. But plans have a tendency of changing, and Ivy realises life isn't just black and white and all humans aren't evil - except for the ones destroying the Earth with corporate greed. And Ivy will make. Them. Pay.
Read MoreONCE UPON A TIME AT THE END OF THE WORLD BOOK 1: LOVE IN THE WASTELAND (TP)
On The Comic Crush: A Post-Apocalyptic Fable Told In Three Parts For Fans of Saga! In this decades-spanning post-apocalyptic tale, Maceo and Mezzy have never met anyone like each other, and they'll need all the help they can get to survive a planet ravaged by environmental catastrophe. "Love in the Wasteland" kicks off the first arc of this epic trilogy that spans a lifetime as the dark mysteries of a ruined world and their own stark differences tear at the threads holding Mezzy and Maceo together. As they endure the horrors of plastic tornadoes and frozen sludge, Maceo proves to be more than just a burden, and they make an unlikely connection. But to their peril… they might not be as alone as they thought…
Read MoreDO A POWERBOMB (TP)
On The Comic Crush: From the creator of MURDER FALCON and Wonder Woman: Dead Earth comes the wrestling adventure of the decade! Lona Steelrose wants to be a pro wrestler, but she's living under the shadow of her mother, the best to ever do it. Everything changes when a wrestling-obsessed necromancer brings her to another dimension and asks her to join the DEATHLYFE tournament, the grandest - and most dangerous- pro-wrestling tournament of all time! It's The Wrestler meets Dragonball Z in a tale where the competitors get more than they ever bargained for!
Read MoreDARK SPACES: WILDFIRE (TP)
On The Comic Crush, we review Dark Spaces: Wildfire: Legendary writer Scott Snyder presents Dark Spaces, a thrilling new anthology series exploring our deepest fears of the unknown. Six weeks into the slow burn of the historic Arroyo Fire, a crew of women from an inmate firefighting program are risking everything on the frontlines when their newest recruit-a white-collar convict with a deep network of shady dealers-discovers they're mere miles from her crooked former associates abandoned mansion. When she proposes a plan to abandon their duties and hunt for riches under cover of smoke and ash, the team must decide if they're ready to jeopardize their one sure path back to normalcy for a shot at a score that would truly change their lives... but is this a flicker of fortune, or a deadly trap?
Read MoreYOUTH VOL.1: TRUE FANTASY (TP)
On The Comic Crush, with Indigo Children out now, Paul looks back at Vol. 1 of Youth, the previous collaboration between Curt Pires and Alex Diotto. YOUTH is Larry Clark's Kids meets Chronicle. X-Men by way of Frank Ocean. It smashes together the violence of coming of age with the violence of the superhero narrative - as well as the beauty. YOUTH is a coming-of-age story that tells the story of two queer teenagers as they run away from their lives in a bigoted small town, and attempt to make their way to California. Along the way their car breaks down and they join up with a group of fellow misfits on the road. Embarking together in a van traveling the country they party and attempt to find themselves. And then something happens . . .
Read MoreTHE LONESOME HUNTERS VOL. 1 (TPB)
On The Comic Crush, Paul Dunne reviews The Lonesome Hunters Vol. 1: The Pitch: From Russ Manning Award-winning and Eisner-nominated Harrow County co-creator Tyler Crook comes this supernatural fantasy about loss, power, and destiny. An old and out-of-practice monster hunter in hiding crosses paths with a young girl that forces him to confront these chaotic creatures. As the beasts invade their tenement they set off on a supernatural road trip to stop these ancient evils in a story that explores the ways that youth informs adulthood and how early traumas can haunt us in old age.
Read MoreHARLEY QUINN (2022) VOL.1: NO GOOD DEED (TP)
On The Comic Crush, Paul Dunne checks out Stephanie Phillips’ Harley Quinn. But first, a word from HQ herself: Harley Quinn here to let everyone know that I’m starring in a brand-new graphic novel collection with a brand-new status quo! I’m coming back to Gotham City to make up for the sins of my past, and to help the city recover from the Joker War! But there’s no welcoming committee waiting for me, your favourite Maid of Mischief! And between you and me, some real creeps are working to keep the city broken. We can’t let that happen, can we? Rising-star writer Stephanie Phillips, my new partner in crime, takes me into a bold new era with her partner in artistic crime Riley Rossmo, who I gotta say designed a real nice new costume for me. You’re not gonna wanna miss this one, folks!
Read MoreCAPTAIN AMERICA - SENTINEL OF LIBERTY VOL.1: REVOLUTION (TP)
On The Comic Crush, Paul Dunne reviews Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty Vol.1! A new era of shield-slinging begins! When Arnim Zola launches a catastrophic attack on New York City, he meets his match - in two Captain Americas! But a shocking secret about Steve Rogers' iconic shield will change the way he views the 20th century he came from - and how he chooses to fight in the 21st! Steve follows a trail of coded breadcrumbs to Germany in pursuit of an elusive organization making bold and deadly moves, while Bucky Barnes' own investigation leads him to the high roller’s tables in Madripoor. Thousands of miles apart with no backup, will Steve and Bucky find what they're looking for, or are they both in over their heads? Featuring the shocking return of the Dryad herself: Peggy Carter!
Read MoreMODERN CLASSICS: THE IMPENDING BLINDNESS OF BILLIE SCOTT (NEW EDITION / TP)
On The Comic Crush, we launch our Modern Classics strand with The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott: Billie Scott is an artist. Her debut gallery exhibition opens in a few months. Within a fortnight she'll be completely blind. As Billie struggles to deal with her impending blindness, she sets off on a journey from Middlesbrough to London; into a world of post-austerity Britain and the problems facing those left behind. Her quest is to find ten people to paint for her exhibition, as well as the inspiration to continue with her art, and the strength to move on with her life.
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