Comics I’m Picking Up the Week of August 28, 2019

Here are the books I’m looking forward to seeing at my local comic store the week of August 28, 2019.

Tommy Gun Wizards

Publisher: Dark Horse
Words/Story: Christian Ward
Art/Colors: Sami Kivelä

“Eliot Ness and his team of Untouchables work overtime taking on dangerous criminals that hide in the seedy underbelly of 1930s Chicago. Except in this world, Al Capone isn’t dealing in alcohol, but in magic. With Lick, a drug that grants magical powers to anyone who ingests it, mobsters become wizards, ordinary men become monsters, and darker secrets than Ness can imagine lie at the heart of it all.”

Category: Tried and True Creators

Why I’m Excited: I first discovered Christian Ward when he was turning ancient Greece’s Odyssey into a space opera with tripped-out powerful feminists. His work with G. Willow Wilson on her Invisible Kingdom has been great as well. As this is his first project as primary writer/scripter, he’s been been plowing up Twitter with excitement that is hard to ignore. Pairing with the new-ish Sami Kivelä this, is a better fit for the crime-infested word of the story than Ward’s signature brights and clashing colors.

Dark Horse Comics

Doctor Mirage

Publisher: Valiant Comics
Words/Story: Magdalene Visaggio
Art/Colors: Nick Robles

“How do you solve the case of your own death? Paranormal expert Doctor Shan Fong Mirage was born with the ability to see and speak to the dead—an ability that has mysteriously stopped working. Have her powers failed or is something far more sinister at work? Will she figure out her fate and the fate of the one she loves the most? Valiant’s gripping supernatural mystery starts here!”

Category: Tried and True Creator

Why I’m Excited: Looking back at past posts, I was trying to figure out when it was that Magdalene Visaggio went from up-and-coming talent to the prolific three-books-a-month dynamo of 2019. For me it was the work on Eternity Girl that cemented her as always worth checking out. With Doctor Mirage I hope that we get to see more of the existential leanings that she’s brought to smaller runs like Sex Death Revolution, to the superhero genres she’s written shorts for like Ms Marvel. Unfamiliar with Nick Robles, I found his most recent work a short piece in Marvel’s War of the Realms event anthology called “Wiccan and Hulkling” in My Drag Brunch with Loki and I knew they would be a good pair.

Valiant Comics

Grease Bats

Publisher: BOOM! Comics
Words/Story: Archie Bongiovanni
Art/Colors: Archie Bongiovanni

“Along with their friends and plenty of beer, Andy and Scout are just trying to make it through their 20s, survive late capitalism, and navigate the dating world. Tough and loving Andy is a genderqueer trans individual, who dates like there’s no tomorrow, while Scout, an all-feelings-all-the-time mistake-maker, is still languishing over her ex-girlfriend from like two years ago.”

Category: Support Emerging (Local!) Creators

Why I’m Excited: This interview.

BOOM! Comics

Mall

Publisher: Vault Comics
Words/Story: Michael Moreci, Gary Dauberman
Art/Colors:Zak Hartong

“Here in the heartland of the U.S. of A., the world has ended! But worry not, because the mall still stands. And within the walls of this consumeristic mecca lies a new world order: box store tribes and name brand gangs, all vying for limited space and resources. So, actually…you can worry! Especially for poor Andre Reed, who after the assassination of a tribal leader has to navigate the mad haven to prove his innocence, and prevent the end of world, again!”

Category: Support Emerging Creators

Why I’m Excited: Having worked for eight years at the Mall of America and having wandered its bowels I can understand how survivalists would want to take shelter there. The sun-lit atriums could be used for gardening (MoA would also be useful for aquatic farming). The vast parking lots would make it difficult for things to approach unnoticed. The mass of the concrete would make temperatures somewhat constant. (Fun fact: MoA has no heating system, only cooling and dehumidifying.) It might be happening even now. . . .

Vault Comics

Barack Panther: Barack in Black

Publisher: Antarctic Press
Words/Story: Kelsey Shannon
Art/Colors: Kelsey Shannon

“Agents O (Barack “Barack Panther” Obama) and K (Joe Biden) work for the Pols in Black, an unofficial government agency that provides immigration services and regulation of all things alien on Earth. Well, that’s how it used to be, but administration changes have cut off much of their resources at a time they need them most. Now an alien visitor to Earth needs to ‘phone home’ to get back, and until he can, O and K need to keep him from being ‘put on ICE’.”

Category: Tried and True Creator

Why I’m Excited: Because sometimes when the world is burning (the Amazon, literally), it helps to laugh. Maybe the extraterrestrials that find the decayed remnants of our civilization will be able to see that we were once a creative and playful species once.

Antarctic Press

Also out this week: The inevitable Marvel #1000 (yes, Thanos is on a cover); Phil Noto selling Oscar Isaacs realness on the cover of Star Wars: Age of Resistance Poe Dameron; and a super-cute YA take on the Halloween theme park, Pumpkinheads by superstars Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks.

See you at the racks!