Buying comics can be an expensive hobby. A lot of fans simply can’t afford everything they’re interested in, due to rising prices and the over-saturation of the market with superhero titles.
That’s why we’re here. Every week, the Multiversity staff is asked “What would you buy this week if you couldn’t go over $20?” and shares their reasons why, in order to help others who might have similar tastes make their own decisions in buying comics on a budget. Be sure to leave your own picks in the comments!
Johnny’s Picks:
Dutch #2 ($3.99): When Joe Casey saddles up and gets back on his 90’s b.s., I saddle up and do the same!
Man’s Best #1 ($4.99): Image Comics’ “The Good Asian” was perhaps my favorite miniseries from that company in the past couple of years, and writer Pornsak Pichetshote really knows how to craft a well-paced story. His partner on this is Jesse Lonergan, a cartoonist with a deft eye for fantastic pacing on the page as well – crafting a 9 panel grid page as smartly as a four panel page, or a 16 panel page, an artist with a keen sense of delivery and how eyes move across a page, and I think their partnership will work well on this space journey, sci-fi epic. While certainly containing the DNA of books like “The Incredible Journey” or “We3,” I have no doubt these top-tier talents will craft a book that feels fresh and exciting.
Dawnrunner #1 ($4.99): Not huge on kaiju stories, generally, but Evan Cagle’s art on this looked absolutely sick – a bit of Giannis Milogiannis’ “Old City Blues” vibes. Plus Ram V. is quickly joining the list of “Artists I’ll Buy Anything From.”
Total: $13.97 – I’ll also be grabbing the newest issue of the zine “Bubbles,” the 19th issue of the best comics fanzine being published today!
Kate’s Picks:
My Little Pony Mane Event #1 ($5.99): Spring means time to freshen up your look! Just don’t get bangs (fringe for our British friends). Like, ever.
The Holy Roller #5 ($3.99): It’s a good time to check in with this series and see how it’s doing. You’ll recall I enjoyed the first issue, but it didn’t bowl me over totally (pun intended). Is it still shooting spares or has it finally scored a strike?
Man’s Best #1 ($4.99): My friend and colleague Johnny likened this to a sci-fi version of The Incredible Journey and that is certainly an apt comparison. It has a lot of what made good animated sci-fi in the 1980s: out of this world stories but never skimping on the heart.
Total: $14.97 – and I’ll also add “Smash” #1 to this list for a who’s who of British comic royalty in an Ocean’s 11 style heist.
Mark’s Picks:
Man’s Best #1 ($4.99): On a surface level, it’s pretty easy to hear the pitch for “Man’s Best” and make a comparison to “We3” to the point that I feel like it’s inevitable this’ll happen. It means “Man’s Best” needs to be very clear about what it is and what it isn’t in its first issue―it’s the kind of marketing problem that I think could result in a very interesting comic, especially given the creative team of Pornsak Pichetshote and Jesse Lonergan.
Dawnrunner #1 ($4.99): I’m usually not much into kaiju mecha stories, but I remember the first time one hooked me. It was the second episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, with Shinji lying in bed in his new home, remembering the rest of the battle then curling up in the foetal position. And when I read the early press releases for “Dawnrunner” with Ram V. comparing talking about doing a kaiju mecha story through the lens of Arrival, a film that uses first contact with aliens to explore humankind, it feels like he’s planning to take this in directions I find very compelling. Characters that struggle with connection are just interesting to me. That and Evan Cagle’s art for the preview pages looked fantastic.
The Bone Orchard Mythos: Tenement #10 ($3.99): I remember back when “The Bone Orchard Mythos” was first announced, Andrea Sorrentino mentioned that one of the motives behind making the series was that it would tell stories that could be explored through various art styles. We saw a bit of that in ‘The Passageway,’ and ‘Ten Thousand Black Feathers’ pushed it a little further, but ‘Tenement’ really runs with that idea. The art style changes are foundational to this tale. And that makes sense, because ‘Tenement’ was originally going to be the introductory story to this universe. Ultimately, Jeff Lemire had to hold it back a bit because it kept growing. First it was an OGN, then a six-issue miniseries, and now it’s a ten-issue miniseries—and even then almost every issue is extra long. (I had to check, and by number of pages it actually runs a little over 13 issues.) Anyway, you need to see what Sorrentino is doing with these pages. This is truly the most epic installment yet.
Total: $13.97. And I’ll be picking up “Lotus Land” #5 so I can read the whole series at once when it finishes next month.
