It’s been a wild few months for the comics industry, no? For the first time I can remember, there has been a massive rescheduling of releases. (The elders of our community have told me the tale of the blizzard that nearly killed DC in 1978, I’d reckon this is worse). As such, a lot of the comics slated for the summer months have been pushed back. I’ve already recommended a few of those, and changing release dates aside, my words on them still stand. Check it out! So here we are going to talk about the other comics solicited for August. The ones we haven’t looked at yet. Usually, inclusion on this list is a recommendation. Today, it’s a little more complicated. So read each entry, and see if you are the person who may enjoy these titles! I fervently hope that you are.
As always, the full solicitations are on the Image Comics website.
10. Uncle Jesse Have Mercy dot gif
I don’t think I’m ever going to be a fan of the work of Mirka Andolfo, but clearly someone is into her, because they keep putting her name above the titles of her books. But there is something so enticing about her fully realized tone. It’s just a lot- the fetishy stuff comes on too strong for me, the horror stuff is too disturbing to me. But not “getting” Andolfo comics has become an exciting exercise in titillation. I gasp, I recoil, I come back for the next issue. And that’s something! There are comics that I enjoy that have less of an impact on me. So I’m putting this one in here for you people who like scary scary sexy stuff. And maybe for you people who, like me, enjoy the frustration of art that is just beyond your grasp.
MIRKA ANDOLFO’S MERCY #4 (OF 6)
WRITER / ARTIST / COVER A: Mirka Andolfo
COVER B: Giuseppe Camuncoli
JULY 29 / 32 pages / FC/ M / $3.99Just when Goodwill needs her most, Lady Hellaine is on the verge of collapse! Will unexpected help from an unlikely ally be enough to turn the tide? Place your bets: it’s time to unveil the identity of the infamous Woodsburgh Devil, and if you thought the end of the previous issue was shocking, well—think again! You’re in for a hell of a ride, fellas.
9. So bad that it’s good?
Ugh, so OK, you probably best know Bomb Queen from those pin-up posters that made you uncomfortable to go into your local comic shop. You know the ones I am talking about? And “Bomb Queen” has always been a low quality if sometimes deeply imaginative series that is mostly just boobies. This is the first new “Bomb Queen” series in eight years and it is going for provocative and what can I say? I am provoked. In this new series, buxom bad girl Bomb Queen travels back from the apocalypse time of 2024 to 2015, with the goal of beating Donald Trump in the election, presumably using her boobies. Creator Jimmy Robinson has grown to be a well respected figure in the comics biz, so maybe he will pull this off? But I suspect to be horrified.
BOMB QUEEN: TRUMP CARD #1 (OF 4)
WRITER / ARTIST / COVER A / COVER B: Jimmie Robinson
AUGUST 26 / 32 pages / FC/ M / $3.99It’s 2024, and supervillain Bomb Queen wants to stop Donald Trump from becoming president for life. Her plan: campaign against Trump, steal his voter base, and lay bare America’s dark underbelly in the process.BOMB QUEEN returns after eight years in a brand-new series featuring all the explosive satire and twisted fun her fans have come to expect—in other words, it’s pretty much guaranteed to offend everyone!
8. An artifact of its era
And bringing home our theme, here’s the 25th anniversary of “Witchblade.” Man, comics do not do right by women. I got into “Witchblade” at a young enough age that I didn’t really know any better, so I’m always going to have nostalgia for it (especially the wild 2001 TNT series). If you want a high quality, updated take on the character read the current run, by Caitlin Kittredge and Roberta Ingranata. That series is the moody supernatural mystery/thriller “Witchblade” has always wanted to be. But if you want to see where it all began, this 25th anniversary reprint of the first issue is a fascinating historical relic. I don’t want to use it as a prop to claim that there aren’t problems in comics (see the previous entry on this list), but it’s interesting to see what is the same and what is different.
Continued belowWITCHBLADE #1, 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
WRITER: Christina Z., David Wohl
ARTIST / COVER A: Michael Turner
JULY 29 / 40 pages / FC/ M / $4.99Celebrate the 25th anniversary of WITCHBLADE with this deluxe commemorative edition of the first issue that launched a universe! Return to the classic issue with writers DAVID WOHL (DARK SECTOR ZERO, Brothers in Arms) and CHRISTINA Z. (Bloodrayne), and legendary artist MICHAEL TURNER (JLA) as they introduce Sara Pezzini, Kenneth Irons, Ian Nottingham, and of course the mystical gauntlet itself to the world! This limited edition will only be printed once, and a set, limited quantity will be available based on orders, so don’t miss out!
7. Legend, legacy, letterers
OK, this is a serious recommendation. Sort of. I mean, I haven’t read a single issue of this series yet. But this is Matt Fraction returning to the kind of adventure he used to do in “Cassanova” and “Immortal Iron Fist” and even “Hawkeye.” And I love that version of Fraction. The Dodsons are there too- Terry and Rachel. They are a rightfully celebrated art team in their own right, and for some reason seeing Fraction collaborate with a functional married couple really makes me smile. There’s a lot of good energy in that creative team. And I didn’t even mention Clayton Cowles! Probably the premiere letterer working today, Cowles does a ton of unremarked upon (but good!) work, and then the flashy stuff you see in “Thor” and “The Wicked + The Divine.” And with a genius team like these other three, I am sure Cowles is going to try something new, and the whole book will be better for it. This is a team strong enough that even an utter flop will be a cool read, and I got a feeling this book is no flop.
ADVENTUREMAN #3
WRITER: Matt Fraction
ARTIST / COVER A: Terry Dodson, Clayton Cowles, Rachel Dodson
AUGUST 12 / 32 pages / FC/ E / $3.99The rebirth of Adventureman’s legend and legacy continues—but with it follows the foes that once fought him to the edge of fatality! How can Claire and her family survive?
6. Lucky thirteen, by Satan!
One source of joy for me in quarantine has been artist Nicola Scott’s twitter. Her excitement for She-Ra, Final Fantasy VII, and general ray of sunshine demeanor has really been a fun way to contextualize her deeply goth style in “Black Magick.” Does this make her the living embodiment of Death from “Sandman?” That series also had a lot of witches in it. I’m minutes away from opening my third eye and seeing how all of it is connected. But “Black Magick,” it is good, the writing is great, and the artwork is extraordinary. It’s modern New England witch stuff. You know the score.
BLACK MAGICK #13
WRITER: Greg Rucka
ARTIST / COVER A: Nicola Scott
AUGUST 26 / 32 pages / FC/ M / $3.99“ASCENSION I,” Part Two Demons circle the bloody mess of Rowan Black’s life like vultures, while Internal Affairs investigators circle like sharks. Her friends and allies begin to sense the danger Rowan is in and come to offer what help they can…or to take her down if they have to.
5. The saga of the breaker
I have a couple of pet series that I rep really hard on these lists. Series that are personal favorites that I feel deserve more love. “Reaver” is first among those. Its first arc (now collected in trade) was the tale of a suicide mission, six prisoners disrupting a dark magical machine in the name of… well, their motivations are complicated, and that’s sort of the appeal of the story. The second arc, illustrated by Niko Henrichon (“Pride of Baghdad”) follows one of the survivors of the first arc, and is a completely different kind of fantasy story. Where the first was a mission about mysterious characters and their dubious motives, ‘The Grim After’ is a character piece, looking at the humble origins of the killer known as Breaker and questioning whether he can leave behind his life of bloodshed. I love this kind of well done grimdark fantasy, and “Reaver” just gets better and better.
Continued belowREAVER #10
WRITER: Justin Jordan
ARTIST: Niko Henrichon
COVER A: Becky Cloonan
AUGUST 05 / 32 pages / FC/ M / $3.99“THE GRIM AFTER,” Part Four As the conspiracy in Haas Haaden unravels, Breaker hacks his way into its center. And where Breaker goes…death still follows.
4. But what if the whole country was a quarantine?
Some comics are disposable fun, you read ’em month to month and forget about them. Some comics are engaging soap operas, leaving you wondering for a month after hitting you with a cliffhanger. And some comics are dense literature, rewarding repeat reads and forcing you to do research every month when a new issue comes out. “Undiscovered Country” is the latter. Depicting a virus-ridden Earth where a team must infiltrate the walled off and entirely quarantined United States, you may think that “Undiscovered Country” is only coincidentally prescient. But I’m here to tell you it is not. There are a ton of political predictions in this book, made by a razor sharp creative team. If you want an only slightly absurd version of the near future, this is the comic where you will find it.
UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY #7
WRITER: Charles Soule, Scott Snyder
ARTIST: Leonardo Marcello Grassi, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Matt Wilson
COVER A: Giuseppe Camuncoli
JULY 29 / 32 pages / FC/ M / $3.99“UNITY,” Part One The smash hit series written by New York Times bestselling writers SCOTT SNYDER (WYTCHES, AD: AFTER DEATH) and CHARES SOULE (CURSE WORDS, the forthcoming novel Anyone) with art by GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI (The Amazing Spider-Man, Darth Vader, Hellblazer), newcomer LEONARDO MARCELLO GRASSI, and Eisner-award winning colorist MATT WILSON (THE WICKED + THE DIVINE, PAPER GIRLS) continues! After barely escaping the deadly clutches of the Destiny Man, the expedition team has crossed over into the strange new zone of “Unity”—a futuristic world of gleaming technology and artificial intelligence. But will it be a safe haven for our heroes, or are they destined to be absorbed into the hive mind?!
3. Not forgotten
War comics often fail to hold my attention, but that is never the case with the works of Ales Kot. You know, I don’t actually know anything about Kot’s experience with the military, but his work is so trippy and absurd that he never explores the same themes as other works in the genre. So you look at the description of this new series, it looks something like Triple Frontier. Wartime buddies about to find themselves in violence once again, in another country other than their own. Under the pen of anyone else, I’d worry that the book would be cringe, but Kot is playing on such a level that I know it’ll be nothing like anyone’s expectations.
LOST SOLDIERS #1 (OF 5)
WRITER: Aleš Kot
ARTIST / COVER A: Heather Moore, Luca Casalanguida
JULY 29 / 32 pages / FC/ M / $3.99Vietnam, 1969. Juarez, forty years later. Three men tied by the war they left behind—on collision course with a new one.
2. Aperitif
Cop stories: perennially popular. Cop where the detective can absorb psychic impressions of food that they eat: admittedly cool. Criminal stories: cooler than cops. Criminal story where the thief can sit down for psychic meals with their target: ice cold. Oh and that first cop is in the crime story? And the criminal is his sister? Ding ding ding. We have a winner, chicken dinner.
CHU #2
WRITER: John Layman
ARTIST / COVER A: Dan Boultwood
AUGUST 26 / 32 pages / FC/ M / $3.99“THE FIRST COURSE,” Part Two Bodies start to pile up. And Tony Chu gets a new partner.
1. Big girl, you are beautiful
I’m always here for cool new takes on the Kaiju story, even if the name is kind of lame. And the description is kind of lame. OK, a lot about “Big Girls” seems like crummy marketing. It’s “a cross between John Wick and Godzilla by way of HBO’s Girls?” Is that because this is a semi-autobiographical story about a privileged woman told in such a way that you can’t tell if the story is critical or not? Is it because despite being a show about girls, the breakout star is actually a boy? And not just a boy, a “rudely large man” and a “brooding mountain?” Sorry, what were we talking about?
Continued belowOh yeah, a new comic called “Big Girls.” A comic written and illustrated by Jason Howard, he of “Trees,” “Astounding Wolf Man,” and “Cemetery Beach.” That last one is going to be key, because it walked a thin line between absurdity and profundity. And that’s the tone I’m hoping to see here. Zany sure, but also pathos. And I think Howard is the guy to do it. In fact, I’m confident he can. We’ll check back in here after the issue has dropped, to see if this book is as dumb as it looks or as cool as it can be.
BIG GIRLS #1
WRITER / ARTIST / COVER A: Jason Howard
AUGUST 12 / 32 pages / FC/ T+ / $3.99When men become giant monsters hellbent on destroying the world, only girls can stop them—BIG GIRLS. Meet Ember—she writes poetry, loves to read, and she’s a 300-foot-tall full-time monster killer! She and the other big girls are all that stand in the way of our world’s complete annihilation! Critically acclaimed artist JASON HOWARD (TREES) takes full creative control as the writer artist of a tale that’s a cross between JOHN WICK and GODZILLA by way of HBO’s GIRLS.
