WLG #125: Give Me Independents!

By Michael A. Diaz

Holy cow this is one heck of a week. Seriously, I’m just looking at the books I’ve highlighted and already I’m thinking that my poor wallet needs a break.

And that doesn’t even include the books that I am buying but not highlighting.

Eesh.

It’s probably a good thing that I don’t own a house as of yet as I would just have to open up a second mortgage just so that I could pay for all of these comics.

Being an addict is hard, indeed.

However, being that there are so many books coming out from two of the biggest players on the block it got me thinking: what are your favorite independent books? Or, what forthcoming independent books are you most looking forward to?

For me Queen & Country, Blue Monday, and Lenore are independent mainstays, but coming up I am looking forward to Chynna Clugston and Ian Shaughnessy’s book Strangetown, as well as Local by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly. I missed out on Wood’s Demo and don’t want to miss out on this (nor his DMZ series either, but technically that’s not an independent book I realize).

However, I am sure that there are plenty of independent books that I am missing out on. This is where you come in; it’s called being interactive. We’ll get to that in just a second:

Standard Disclaimer: For those of you new to the WLG experience, here's how it works: Every week I check out the release schedule from the Diamond Comics Shipping List and decide which comics that I am going to spend my hard-earned money on. Yep, my money. I don't get any handouts. That's good, because it helps to maintain my objectivity. If I spend money on a comic book and it turns out to be crap I'm going to be upset.Now it’s your turn: I’d like to hear which independent books you’re reading, why you love them and (more importantly) why I might love them, as well as the independent books about which you’re drooling in anticipation.

And while I’m gushing about independent books, has anyone had the chance to read Alex Robinson’s Tricked? I virtually consumed Box Office Poison when I read it and have been eagerly anticipating its follow-up ever since. I almost bought Tricked at the Wizard World Chicago convention but all my spare cash was spent on ½-off trades. Just curious if anyone has read it and what they thought of it.

You know where to find me.

Now, on to this week’s books. As I said there’s a lot coming out this week so I’m going to have to be short and sweet if I want to get this up on time.

With that let’s see What Looks Good…

DC

AUTHORITY: THE MAGNIFICIENT KEVIN #2 (OF 5) (MR) $2.99 (Garth Ennis / Carlos Ezquerra)

Teaming the Kev with the Midnighter is just a horrible accident waiting to happen, which is just how I like it.

Irreverent? Maybe so, but this book is also a lot of fun.












BATMAN #645 $2.50 (Judd Winick / Doug Mahnke)

Winick and Mahnke are back on the title and I couldn’t be happier. It’s not that I thought that the fill-in story was bad, I just like the feel that Winick gives the book. I know that a lot of big names have touched this title in the last couple of years, but for my money Winick has written better Batman stories that any of the “names” or “events” have given us.

Just my two cents.






JACK CROSS #2 $2.50 (Warren Ellis / Gary Erskine)

Warren Ellis doing secret agents is kind of a no-brainer for me, so of course I am slobbering all over this book.

I think the thing that sticks in my mind the most is scene from the end of the last issue. It was a single, silent panel that said more about this character of Jack Cross than paragraphs worth of exposition could have revealed.







VIGILANTE #1 (OF 6) $2.99 (Bruce Jones / Ben Oliver)

I was first interested in this series when I heard that it was going to be touched up through WildStorm and kicked out by Micah Ian Wright and Carlos D’Anda. Obviously things have changed as Wright is now persona non grata over at DC (and understandably so), but my interest in this title remains despite the change in creative teams.

At the very least it appears that this is a book about a man that takes the law into his own hands, using guns to kill criminals. I have a weakness for such things (you can check my collection for all of the various titles featuring the Punisher, as well as Peacemaker, Wild Dog, and yes, Vigilante), so of course I’m going to be checking this out as well.

DEVILS DUE

DRAGONLANCE: CHRONICLES KURTH #2 (OF 8) $2.95 (Andrew Dabb / Steve Kurth)

I went on and on about the first issue and why the DragonLance series has a special place in my heart, so I won’t go through all of that again. Rather, I’ll just say that after that first issue I’m really looking forward to seeing this group of heroes encounters the draconians for the first time.

The sixth-grader in me that first discovered fantasy within the pages of DragonLance is loving every minute of this.






MARVEL

BLACK WIDOW 2 #1 (OF 6) $2.99 (Richard Morgan / Sean Phillips)

The first, or rather, previous Black Widow series by Morgan was a dark espionage tale and I quite liked it, so I am glad to see a sequel.

Also, ever since I first saw his work in the second volume of Wildcats I’m been a Sean Phillips fan. Now that Sleeper has wrapped up I miss my regular fix of his art, so this should do quite nicely.






DEFENDERS #3 (OF 5) $2.99 (Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis / Kevin Maguire)

I have to admit that I was expecting a rip-off of the hijinks that this creative team is well known for from their various Justice League runs and incarnations, but I am pleased to say that while they’ve maintained their brand of humor they’ve done it without seeming derivative. Well, mostly. This creative team seems to have a knack for showing their super-villains to be the megalomaniacs that they are, but hey, if it works it works. Besides, you have to be pretty full of yourself if you think you can conquer the world/galaxy/universe/whatever, which is exactly how this creative team depicts the villains they include in their stories.

NYX #7 (MR) $3.99 (Joe Quesada / Robert Teranishi)

When this book initially came out it had the potential to be so many things, but sadly, delays have pretty much killed this book. I am still geeked and hope that it gets a proper send-off, but when I look back on the potential that NYX had I get a little bummed out.










ULTIMATE IRON MAN #4 (OF 5) $2.99 (Orson Scott Card / Andy Kubert)

Excellent sci-fi goodness. Obviously Card knows his stuff.











ULTIMATE SECRET #3 (OF 4) $2.99 (Warren Ellis / Tom Raney)

Again, another no-brainer for me: Ellis doing science fiction. I have to admit that I will miss McNiven’s excellent pencils on this book, but as replacements go you’d be hard pressed to find someone as good as Tom Raney.

Besides, this gives me pause to geek out even further as I get the chance to see Ellis and Raney working together again, like when they relaunched StormWatch into one of my favorite comics of all time.




ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #83 $2.50 (Brian Michael Bendis / Mark Bagley)

Always a great read, but there’s the added bonus of the Black Cat (is it wrong to think a comic book character is hot?) and Moon Knight (I’m a big Moon Knight geek, I know; I’ve dealt with it and I’m OK).









YOUNG AVENGERS #7 $2.99 (Allan Heinberg / Andrea DiVito)

OK, the first arc is out of the way and now the team has been introduced, which means that now we can dive right into the action. Plus, this is the first time that I’ve gotten to see DiVito’s artwork in some time. I was quite the fan of his style on Brath (from the extinct CrossGen line) so I’m happy to see that he’s doing some fill-in work for former CGE cohort Jim Cheung.

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Have you thought of any independent books that I should be reading? If so, please stop by the Looking Good message boards (see link below) and let me what I should be reading. Or, if you’d rather send off an e-mail you can do that as well. The link is at the top of the column.

Until then,

Peace!

-Diaz

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Were Diaz's picks on the mark?
Have your say on What Looks Good at the Looking Good message board.

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