Wayne Markley

by Wayne Markley

Since there have been so many new releases lately that are great, I am going to devote this blog to a wide variety of different titles, both single comics and trades. There is no real theme to any of these outside of the fact that they have all been released in the last month or so.

Original Sin Annual

Original Sin Annual is a bookend to the miniseries that just wrapped up. As with most Marvel “event” series, I was disappointed in Original Sin. I love the concepts behind these epic stories (Civil War, Secret Invasion, etc.), but the conclusions always leave me cold, except for House of M which had a lasting impact on the Marvel Universe – until they undid it. This annual tells the tale of Nick Fury before he became director of S.H.I.E.L.D. after the war and how he ended up being who he was in Original Sin. (Which I will not give away in case you have not read it). It is a very fun story with clean art that is perfect for the story. It is set in the 1950s and I am not sure it really fits in with what has been told about Fury’s past, but I did find the story plausible. I really liked story by writer Jason Latour and artist Enis Cisic is someone to watch out for. He is very talented. Well worth checking out.

Birthright #1

Birthright by Joshua Williamson and Andrie Bressan is a new book published by Image Comics. I loved this first issue. The story is very original and the art is great. The basic story is a young boy is playing catch with father and the boy goes off into the woods to retrieve the ball and never comes back. Flash forward to a few years later and the police have a grown man who man claims he is the boy from a year prior and has been away in a land of ogres, fairies, and all sorts of nasties. Then the story really gets going and this is only the first issue. It is a great adventure story for all ages, maybe a little violent for the youngest readers. I have come to really love Williamson’s writing. Nailbiter, which he also writes and is also published by Image, is another of my favorite books.

Klarion #1

Klarion is a Jack Kirby character that has been around for a number of years and has just recently been given his own book. It is written by Ann Nocenti with art by Trevor McCarthy. I do not want to pass judgment having read only the first issue, but I must say I had a very hard time reading this title. I really like the art which is very different and almost psychedelic, and is appropriate for the character, but the story left me cold. I am not a huge fan of Ms. Nocenti’s writing so this could be the reason I did not care for this book. I will read the next couple of issues to be fair to the book, but after the first issue I was not impressed with the whole package, at least not yet.

Blacksad: Amarillo

At long last, a new volume of the Spanish via France crime saga Blacksad is out from Dark Horse. Blacksad: Amarillo finds hard-boiled detective John Blacksad in America and traveling across the Southern United States in the 1950s. The story opens in New Orleans and picks up where the last volume (Blacksad: A Silent Hell) left off and weaves it way through Texas and up to Oklahoma. Along the way, we meet a cast of characters that are right out of a crime noir thriller, including hit men, a crooked circus, con men, and lots of death and mayhem. Once again, writer Juan Diaz Canales crafts a tale that keeps you engrossed from page one to the very last panel with lots of twists and turns. Juanjo Guarnido’s art is breathtaking and, as with the other volumes in this series, his painted style is so cinematic it is like watching a movie. As with the previous volumes, I would be remiss if I did not point out the coloring by Guarnido. It adds a whole new dimension to the art that almost all other comics are missing. Whether you are in the streets of New Orleans or the dirt of the circus, all the details are so fleshed out you would swear you are there. Just a tour-de-force of storytelling.

Wonder Woman: The Complete Dailies

Wonder Woman: The Complete Dailies collects all of the Wonder Woman newspaper strips from 1944-1946 by William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peters, the creators of Wonder Woman. There never was a Sunday for this strip so this is the complete tale. If you are familiar with the Wonder Woman stories of the 1940s, you know what to expect. The storytelling and the art are just like reading an issue of Sensation Comics or Wonder Woman from that time period. H.G. Peters’ unique art is not really any better looking in black and white than in color and Moulton Marston’s storytelling is just as wacky as the comics. The bondage aspect of the stories seems to be toned down a little bit but otherwise it is what you would expect. This is not a great newspaper strip but it is very interesting from a historical perspective and is must reading for fans of the Golden Age Wonder Woman.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Sabrina the Teenage Witch has recently been revived by Archie Comics. Following the success of Afterlife with Archie, they have reinvented Sabrina as a modern day witch in a title called Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. It is written by the same writer of Afterlife, Roberto Aguirre-Sagasa, and is drawn by Robert Hack. This is a mature version of Sabrina which is much darker and violent than any previous versions of the character. The story has a lot of similarities as Scott Synder’s Wytches (from Image), which I am guessing due to similar source material about witches more than anything else. Like Afterlife with Archie, if you are a purist, this take is very jarring and not for you. I personally enjoyed it, as it has Sabrina’s Aunts Hilda and Zelda and Salem, but agai,n not as you might expect. The art is semi-realistic, almost photo-realistic compared to the traditional Sabrina. It is not really photo-realistic, but far more reality based than the Dan DeCarlos version we once loved. As a bonus, they reprint the very first Sabrina story by the afore mentioned Dan DeCarlo and writer George Gladir. Recommended for fans of Afterlife with Archie or interesting horror comics.

As you can see, there is a lot of variety in what is being published these days. It might be the most diverse period in the history of comics. There is almost surely something for everyone if you look around and expand your tastes beyond what you traditionally like. I am always trying new books and some of them are fantastic and some fall short, but trying something new is part of the thrill.

As always, everything written here is my opinion and do not reflect the thoughts of opinions of Westfield Comics or their employees. I welcome suggestions, and thank you to the suggestion you have already sent, at . Also, comments, disagreements, suggestions are encouraged.

Thank you.