JUSTIN’S PICK :: HELLBOY IN HELL #1: While all the staff at Heroes are friendly and familiar, at times our tastes can run pretty different. It results in some genuinely good conversation (and good-natured ribbing) but if there were any staff-wide consensus, Mignola-drawn Hellboy would have to be it. I’m sure I’m not the only one picking this, and that should tell you something (i.e. BUY IT).

RICO’S PICK :: HOUSE OF FUN (ONE-SHOT): Serious comics are for kids! Us grown-ups like our comics violent and hilarious! Thankfully Dark Horse presents all of Evan Dorkin’s hilarious comics from their recent Dark Horse Presents series without all those other “serious” comics Dark Horse presented. It features Milk and Cheese, Murder Family, the return of The Eltingville Comic Book, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Role-Playing Club, tons of new strips, and more. Whether you like your comics hilariously violent or violently hilarious, House of Fun has something for you!

SETH’S PICK(s) :: HELLBOY IN HELL #1/AVENGERS #1:  Yes, it’s a two pick week for me.  Hellboy In Hell #1 brings creator Mike Mignola back to full-time illustrating his most famous creation.  Yes, he killed Hellboy, but now he can take him through all the different realms of hell.  Now that HB’s free from the physical world, Mignola can draw whatever he’s always wanted to, without needing to be bound to continuity.  It says a lot to me that with all the things Mignola might have done (and it could’ve been anything from more movies to continuing to have other talented folks like Duncan Fegredo illustrate his creation), he really just wanted to get back to drawing Hellboy.  That’s something I respect, and have looked forward to seeing for quite a while.

Avengers #1:  When the Marvel Now books were announced, I said the two near-guaranteed most promising titles were Thor: God of Thunder and this book.  Writer Jonathan Hickman has proved countless times over that he can handle large casts (Fantastic Four and FF) and big concepts (S.H.I.E.L.D. and Manhattan Projects).  Now he’s tackling an enormous cast of over 18 characters, and returning the Avengers to big, cosmic stories.  Artist Jerome Opena really left an indelible mark on Uncanny X-force, and brought a visual dynamic to Rick Remender’s stories that I don’t think anyone else could’ve done.  On paper this title looks like a no-brainer, and I’ll be really shocked if this doesn’t end up being a great book.

JUSTIN’S PICK :: FF #1: The concept of a “New Fantastic Four” is nearly as classic as Marvel’s First Family themselves. And while you’d be hard pressed to beat a line-up like Spidey, Hulk, Ghost Rider and Wolverine, Matt Fraction and Mike Allred promise some interesting adventures  featuring Ant Man, She-Hulk, Medusa and the love-‘er-or-hate-‘er newbie Miss Thing. This one could go either way, but whichever direction, Allred’s art is always worth a peep.

SETH’S PICK :: MULITPLE WARHEADS: ALPHABET TO INFINITY #2: Okay, I know this is a little longwinded for a staff pick, but bear with me on this one.  I admittedly jumped on the Brandon Graham bandwagon late.  I didn’t read King City in single issues, and didn’t buy the trade when it debuted.  In fact, the first thing I read by him was a short story in Dark Horse Presents called The Speaker.  Still, that impressed me enough to get me to buy Mulitple Warheads #1 (and King City), and I’m happy I did.  Since the first issue hit the shelves I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around Graham’s work and figure out some way to write about it for a review.  It’s a challenge, because Graham’s comics seem like an entity unto themselves.  There are elements of manga and science fiction, which anybody can see, but the most striking thing about these books to me is just how much material Graham crams into each issue.  I wouldn’t say this is done with excessive dialogue or description, either.  There are all kinds of little byways that branch off of panels or that materialize in empty space.  Sometimes these manifest in verbal wordplay, sometimes they’re more like little occurences that might have little to do with the overall narrative, but enrich it nonetheless.  The end result is that the comics can be read and re-read over and over, with each time offering a chance to catch something that was missed during earlier readings.  I avoided Graham’s comics for a long time because I wrongly thought they might be a little too gimmicky for my liking.  After having spent some time with them, I now see that he puts a lot of thought and soul into his work, and in the process has created some truly unique comics.

RICO’S PICK :: NOWHERE MEN #1: Earned fame is becoming a foreign concept but Nowhere Men promises a world where top scientists are revered as celebrities. Image publisher Eric Stephenson writes it, Nate Bellegarde draws it, Jordie Bellaire colors it, Steven Finch (Fonogafiks) designs and letters it and I can’t wait for it.

Of all the avenues weaving around and through comics, the comic strip has probably undergone some of the more significant changes in our lifetime.   As production and readership of physical newspapers continues to diminish, so does the variety of printed content.  Naturally, comic strips are one of the things that inevitably ended up on the chopping block.  When I was kid, I knew the work of Charles Schulz, Gary Larson, Hank Ketcham and more, but even in the eighties, the relevance of the strip started to wane.  With the exceptions of Calvin and Hobbes and Cul de Sac, there haven’t been too many truly great strips that captivated large audiences in recent decades.  But, alas, this post isn’t meant to mourn the passing of the comic strip as a form.  No, today I want to turn your attention to a lesser known strip that many of you have probably never even heard of: Ben Katchor’s Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer.

I discovered a collection of Katchor’s strips by accident at Heroes a few years back.  If there is an unfortunate aspect of my stumbling upon Katchor’s work, it’s that I never read the actual strips as they initially appeared.  Regional papers never carried his strips and even today, you won’t see his latest strips in Metropolis magazine very easily (though you can link HERE for a look at a few of them).  It was sheer curiosity that lead me to pick up this random collection.  How exciting can a book be when its chief character makes a living taking pictures of various odd buildings around the city?  As it turns out, it’s not especially exciting, but it is a brilliant example of how the comic strip remains a fascinating form of entertainment.

The first thing you’ll notice about Katchor’s work is that the strips are simple, usually following an eight panel grid, and almost always crafted with pen, ink and gray tones.  These look like the product of the monochromatic city whose stories they capture.  Katchor might not have the skilled pen of someone like Richard Thompson or Bill Watterson, but his art is unique among strip artists.  Most of the characters appear as short, pudgy and a little broken down.  That’s not to say there’s not joy present in the series, only that frequently it appears as a side note.  When a character does seem to find a kind of simple happiness, there’s a feeling that it might be the result of a simple-mindedness, or a failure to see a larger picture.  Yet, there’s a kind of ebullience that a reader can feel by getting lost in the mundane elements of these strips.

This is one of the great strengths of Katchor’s work.  It offers opportunity to observe the tiniest of objects and situations, which enables something akin to escapism, but also an appreciation for the minute detail.  Like many strips, it’s probably best to read these one at a time, capturing the essence of their original publication.  However, I find Katchor’s work to be quite accessible in a larger coalesced setting.  It’s more like reading a series of vignettes than a dense narrative.  The result is something that might be the literary equivalent of observational comedy.  Katchor’s city is populated with plenty of eccentric characters, but they seem to live with the conviction of their actions.  There’s a level of acceptance that these characters show, where seemingly pointless tasks (like a diner’s analysis of soda crackers) are celebrated regardless of their miniscule impact on the world around them.