Beasts of Burden #1 (of 4) — Writer: Evan Dorkin;  Art:  Jill Thompson Burden Hill is a quiet, storybook town that keeps experiencing brushes with supernatural evil. Its residents are clueless about this… but their pets aren’t. Beasts of Burden is about the group of dogs (and occasional cat) who defend it. Given that premise, you’d think this book would be a cutesy mess, but check out those credits: Evan Dorkin, the creator of Milk and Cheese, doesn’t do cutesy: he does clever, funny, strange and sometimes chilling. Jill Thompson, the creator of Scary Godmother, does evocative painted art that … Continue reading →

Archie #601 — Writer: Michael Uslan;  Pencils: Stan Goldberg;  Inks: Bob Smith This is part two of the six-part “Archie Marries Veronica” story — and, yes, it’s an Elseworlds tale, set after the cast has been through both high school and college (try explaining that to civilians: “Well, it’s not real. Yes, I know none of them are ‘real…’”). It’s also, so far, utterly predictable: he proposes, there’s a little “You’ll always be my best friend” scene with Betty, they get married, he joins the Lodge company and becomes a competent-but-overworked executive, and, at the end of this issue, Veronica … Continue reading →

Love and Rockets: New Stories #2 — Creators: Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez 100 pages of new Hernandez Bros. art, in a trade package with great production values, for $15 — that’s always going to be worth it, yes? They split the pages: Jaime offers the second half of Maggie, Penny Century and others in a superhero… well, “romp,” I guess, although it turns out to be a little more serious than that; Gilbert has two stories, neither with any of his “regular” characters; one’s an 8-pager about a high-school girl who (of course) ends up in a sort-of soft-core porn … Continue reading →

Models, Inc. #1 (of  4) — Writer: Paul Tobin;  Pencils: Vicenc Villagrasa;  Inks: Terry Pallot and Vicenc Villagrassa This has mostly received attention for its backup story (8 pgs. by Marc Sumerak and Jorge Molina) featuring “fashion icon” Tim Gunn, A.I.M. and a suit of Iron Man armor.  It’s not bad as a typical Marvel celebrity suck-up story, less rushed and more logical (and with better art) than the Obama or Colbert ones, and not quite as whorish as, say, Uri Geller in Daredevil. The main story is a modern take on the more-serious, soap-opera-y Silver Age version of Millie … Continue reading →