Thankfully, during the month of March my first batch of comic picks will be coming in,
meaning this time next month I'll have some reviews to accompany my picks from Previews
order catalogue. In the meantime here are my top five picks to take a chance on for
the month of May:
1) Spider-Man, Tangled Web #14: Last Shoot. Written by Brian Azzarello & Raven.
Art by Giuseppe Camuncoli. Published by Marvel Comics.
If Marvel keeps bringing in the interesting variety of talent they have been, I might
find myself picking this book up on a regular basis. As a big fan of wrestling this
story holds a lot of appeal for me, featuring Crusher Hogan, the man Peter Parker
wrestled for cash after gaining his spider powers. The true draw of this book though
has to be WWF Wrestling Star Raven co-writing the book. Raven is a big fan of comics,
I'm a big fan of Raven, there is just no way I'm missing this book.
2) Sky Between Branches #0. Written and drawn by Joshua Middleton. Published by Com X.
Nearly every piece of promotional artwork for this series has been absolutely beautiful.
Unfortunately the solicitation for the zero issue does very little to inform readers as
to the content of the series, but I'm ordering a bit blind on this one regardless.
3) Way of the Rat #1. Written by Chuck Dixon. Art by Jeff Johnson and Tom Ryder.
Published by Crossgen Comics.
Jeff Johnson was one of my favorite artists during his run on Wonder Man in the 90s. The
notion of his artwork on a Jackie Chan style martial arts adventure comic sounds pretty
thrilling. I'm not a big follower of Chuck Dixon's work, but his core concept is a
pretty strong one for this book. Having a hero who is a master with one type of weapon,
but otherwise completely ineffective in combat, sets up a lot of storyline potential.
4) Edge #2. Anthology Format. Published by Crossgen Comics.
Despite a shrinking market, Crossgen Comics has managed to expand at a steady pace that
is near inconceivable all things considered. Until this point I haven't sampled any of
their titles but this deal is simply too amazing to pass up. For 9.95, a bit less than
buying four monthly titles, you get a trade paperback collection featuring eight issues
worth of material. Considering the company's strategy of publishing books in a variety
of genres and styles the chance of finding worthwhile stuff in this book is pretty high.
One of my biggest regrets about the comics industry in America is the lack of solid
anthologies. Hopefully, this format will prove succesful enough that the other companies
will follow Crossgen's lead.
5) The Art of John Bolton.
In the case that you are unfamiliar with John Bolton, he is one of the most talented
painters to work in the field of comic books. Bolton's work combines an uncanny realism
with a creepy and unnerving tone. His work on graphic novels like Harlequin Valentine and
Someplace Strange is the stuff nightmares are made of. Hopefully this collection of
paintings will be the first in a series of many for this incredibly talented artist.