ANDY’S PICK :: Nemo: Roses of Berlin is the newest installment in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill do it again.  The creative team takes us back to 1941 and Janni–Nemo’s daughter (and current Captain of the Nautilus)– gets involved with the military action of WWII.  What makes this book along with all the other LoEG books stand out above other books is the ‘fictional’ world in which these adventures occur.  It is not just populated by the heroes of British Pulp fiction, comic books, radio and TV series, Moore and O’Neill add extra layers to their reality. For example, in the world of LoEG, the Beatles did not exist.  Instead it was The Rutles that changed the musical world in the MOD sixties.  So as we drift back towards Nazi era Europe, it is not Adolph Hitler in charge, but rather Adenoid Hynkel–the title character from Charles Chaplin’s farce The Great Dictator.  This looks to be something special.  Worth the money; worth the effort.

CRAIG’S PICK :: SEX CRIMINALS #5: In 1970s fandom, we used the term “groundlevels” to describe comics that combined fan genres like science fiction and fantasy with adult visuals and subject matter(s). “Groundlevel” refers to the middle position these comics occupied between the DC-Marvel “mainstream” and the excesses of Crumbian undergrounds. Dave Sim’s Cerebus was one early groundlevel comic, Wendy and Richard Pini’s Elfquest another, and nowadays, when I look at the artistic and commercial renaissance at Image Comics, I see the rebirth of the groundlevel aesthetic. Saga gives us adult science fiction–adult enough to precipitate an iPhone and iPad ban on the images of gay sex in Saga #12–while Pretty Deadly splices the Western to hallucinogenic storytelling à la Alejandro Jodorowsky’s cult movie El Topo (1970). These comics are weird and adventurous, but the genres are familiar.

A big part of the adult content of the groundlevels was sex. I bought Star*Reach #1, my first groundlevel, in 1975, when I was twelve years old and too young to know what sex was. Star*Reach #1 was edited by Mike Friedrich, the man who coined the word “groundlevel” and who convinced Howard Chaykin, Walt Simonson, Steve Skeates, and other pros to contribute to his comic and exercise creative freedoms mostly not available at the Big Two. One artist who ran with the freedoms Friedrich offered was Jim Starlin. His contribution to that first issue of Star*Reach have a lot in common with his trippy work on Captain Marvel (both feature Death as an actual character in their stories), but Starlin drew his green-skinned Star*Reach girls topless, something Stan “the Man” Lee never brought to the pages of the Fantastic Four. I paid a pricey 75 cents for Star*Reach #1, took my dirty book home, read it, and immediately grew hair where there wasn’t hair before.

The Image comic that would seem to carry forward that “dirty” groundlevel tradition is writer Matt Fraction and artist Chip Zdarsky’s Sex Criminals, a book with a highly-publicized high concept: it’s about a couple (Suzie and Jon) whose orgasms freeze time. The book gets funky quickly–the second interior page of Sex Criminals #1 is a full-page splash of our protagonists bangin’ in a public bathroom–but sex actually isn’t what this book is about. After the bathroom scene, Sex Criminals #1 shifts abruptly to a direct-address monologue by Suzie, who tells us about her troubled past (her father’s murder, her mother’s grief), her oddball adolescent school days, her early sex life, and her meet-cute with Jon. She also talks about masturbation, and her discovery of the magic properties of her orgasm, but even that deepens our sense of her as a character, as in the scene where Suzie  pauses reality so she can scream at her mother about all the emotions they repress and leave unsaid during the normal flow of time. Sex Criminals incorporates elements from many genres–pornography, crime, a cadre of “Sex Police” out of a Norman Spinrad science fiction novel–but the twin hearts of the book are its characterization and its focus on the emerging intimacy between Suzie and Jon. Sex Criminals is more a rom-com than any other genre.

(If you’re at least 18 years old, and want a more rough trade Fraction, read Satellite Sam, Fraction’s collaboration with Howard Chaykin. For me, Chaykin was there at the beginning, with his hard-R “Cody Starbuck” story in Star*Reach #1, and I’ll probably be ogling a Chaykin drawing of a woman in lingerie and garters when that anvil falls from the sky and pulverizes me. There are worse ways to live and die.)

One element that unites Sex Criminals, Satellite Sam, and almost all of Fraction’s writing is autobiographical passion. In “Avaritia,” the last (so far) volume of Casanova, Fraction’s ambivalence about his status as a star scripter/caretaker of the Marvel Universe inspired Cass’ horrible job as the guilt-ridden destroyer of a dozen universes and continuities. (Every time Cass eliminates a timeline, Fraction repeats like a mantra a hyperbolic, Stan Lee-esque phrase–“sound of spatiotemporal holocaust”–decorated at the panel margins with Kirby Krackle.) The pseudo-autobiography in Sex Criminals is less angst-y, and played more for comedy, with Fraction confessing (in the letter pages) that Jon’s sexual history in issue #2 “is verrry close to my own,” and that a Halloween egg attack came from an incident in his own life. Even as Fraction cannibalizes various genres for the Ballad of Suzie and Jon, he anchors his stories in personal experience.

In the visuals, Zdarsky likewise balances reality and fantasy. On his tumblr site recently, Zdarsky posted pictures of his real-life models for Suzie and Jon, and the resemblance between the models and the drawings is remarkable. The realism of Zdarsky’s figure drawing extends to subtle, highly communicative changes in body language, as in this sequence of panels from issue #3 where Suzie waits for Jon to text or call:

Yet Sex Criminals isn’t a kitchen-sink drama, and Zdarsky makes his pictures bizarre and funny too. The soft, colorful, swirling Photoshop effects that represent Suzie and Jon’s orgasms (and their transition to the frozen world that Suzie calls “The Quiet”) are lovely to look at, as are Zdarsky’s bold, monochromatic, almost-abstract covers. (More info from Zdarsky’s tumblr: each of the original covers for Sex Criminals #1-4 is designed around a single color from the CMYK model, and this week’s #5 incorporates all the CMYK colors: cyan, magenta, yellow and key/black.) Maybe my favorite element of Zdarsky’s art, though, is the incidental detail (or in comics slang, “chicken fat”) he sneaks into his picture backgrounds. When a teenaged Jon stops time to sneak into a sex shop in #2, Zdarsky packs his panels with all kinds of sight gags–one of which is an unexpectedly poignant poster for an X-rated video titled “Not the Life I Anticipated,” subtitled “But Here I Am I Guess” and featuring a topless, frowning woman half-turned away from the camera, shyly covering her breasts with her arms. In Star*Reach #1, Jim Starlin put his green-skinned Servants of Death on display for a uncomplicated voyeuristic gaze, and my 12-year-old self was (and is) grateful, but these days I prefer Sex Criminal‘s ironic, witty raunch.

So: viva the new groundlevels, and viva la Sex Criminals. If you haven’t read the comic before, you should know that the first trade, collecting #1-5, is priced at $9.99 and set to drop in a month or so. I prefer the single issues, because though the trade will feature a process section (titled, ahem, “Making Sausage”) with sketches and commentary, it probably won’t include “Letter Daddies,” Sex Criminal ‘s hilarious letters column, and I need to read Fraction and Zdarsky’s “Sex Tips.” (One example: “Sex is a wonderful and natural way to discover if your partner is a lousy lay or not.” Thanks, fellas!) These days, an active comics letters page is almost quaint and old-fashioned, and maybe Sex Criminals as a whole is old-fashioned too: despite the book’s playfully crude sense of humor, Fraction and Zdarsky insist on humanizing Suzie and Jon and using their fantastic premise as a pretext to explore the thrilling, terrifying experience of falling in love and starting a relationship. Works for me, baby.

SETH’S PICK :: SOCK MONKEY TREASURY HC: This is one I’ve been anticipating for some time now.  At over 300 pages, this sprawling treasury collects all twelve of Tony Millionaire’s award winning Sock Monkey comics, plus a full color novella, an illustrated storybook and a full length graphic novel.  Millionaire’s work, while easily enjoyed by young readers, is also something that adults can appreciate.  There’s an underlying sense of the odd and twisted in these narratives, which are wonderfully rendered in a style that conjures up memories of E.H. Shepard and Lewis Carroll fever dreams.  There’s also humor here, though it’s not nearly as dark as you might have seen in Millionaire’s decidedly adult Maakies strips.  With most of these books out of print, and the individual comics especially difficult to find, this treasury is absolutely the perfect opportunity to see why so many people respect Tony Millionaire and his inimitable work.  Just check out THIS incredible preview available on Fantagraphics’ website to see why I’m so excited about this book. 

RICO’S PICK :: STRAY BULLETS: KILLERS #1: Fans of David Lapham’s Stray Bullets original crime series will be happy to see the return of some familiar faces in this relaunch. New readers don’t have to worry though, every issue of Stray Bullets has always presented a self-contained story.

SETH’S PICK :: CAPTAIN MARVEL #1:  The former Ms. Marvel has been enjoying a resurgence in recent years, and that can largely be attributed to the work of writer Kelly Sue DeConnick.  Her last Captain Marvel series was as much a character study as it was an entertaining super hero romp.  For this new relaunch, DeConnick is teaming with David Lopez, an artist who, though he might not be a household name, has well established himself as a reliable and gifted artist.  Now, I know there are some among you who are weary of the increasing number of relaunches or new #1 issues.  Recent weeks have proven, however, that it’s worth giving some of them a look.  The recent debuts of She Hulk, Wolverine and the X-men, Ms. Marvel, and Moon Knight have all acted as reminders that there are plenty of opportunities for genuinely fun new comics.  I’d also like to point out that DeConnick is writing at the top of her game at the moment.  Her Image series Pretty Deadly remains a category-defying series that is also well worth your patronage.  With DeConnick’s momentum and the looming probability that Captain Marvel might appear on the big screen, it’s a good time to catch up with the character.

JUSTIN’S PICK :: 47 RONIN HC: No, this isn’t a movie adaptation; rather, it’s yet another variation on Japan’s “national legend”, which has actual, historical basis. Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson – who has a healthy, long-running fascination with the Land of the Rising Sun and its culture – pens this particular take, with the art deftly handled by Usagi Yojimbo creator Stan Sakai.

Currently the Comic Art Professional Society auctioning some great art donated by many industry giants and friends of Stan to help offset health care costs for his ailing wife Sharon. Stan is well-respected in the industry for his dedication to and consistency of craft (he also letters Groo; if that’s not dedication, I don’t know what is). If you’ve never picked up an Usagi book, well, there’s one solid recommendation. 47 Ronin is another. Help a brother out.

ANDY’S PICK :: AIRBOY OMNIBUS VOLUME 1: Back in the late eighties when I was buying 40 to 50 floppies per month, one title surprisingly leapt to the top of my new comics pile every time a new issue was released.  And that was Eclipse Publishing’s update of the Golden Age aviator classic Airboy.  I bought the first issue (published on a bold Bi-weekly schedule) because I was sure Airboy #1– along with every other premiere issue that came out– would one day make me independently wealthy (sigh) But from that first issue on, with a fast paced exciting story by Chuck Dixon and incredible art by Tim Truman, Stan Woch, Tom Yeates and  inker Willie Blyberg, I was hooked.  I read it faithfully all the way to the last issue and was sorry to see Airboy (and the rest of Eclipse) disappear over that last horizon. But now it’s back! This hefty edition– 308 color pages for only 29.95! collects Airboy #1-16–including the terrific Skywolf back-up series that begins in issue 9.  BTW–Skywolf is the Man!

JUSTIN’S PICK :: THE AUTEUR #1: If you’re one of those people who loves comics but loathes their self-imposed limitations, this is a book for you. An unclassifiable offering, writer Rick Spears weaves a mesmerizingly slimy portrayal of La-La Land, while James Callahan crafts art that’s somewhere between John Waters and Geof Darrow. Both Spears and Callahan will be guests at this year’s Heroes Con; pick up The Auteur so you can tell these fine gents what a bang-up job they did.

HEATHER’S PICK :: WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN #1: Marvel only made me wait a week to jump into the new Wolverine and the X-Men! Jason Latour takes the helm this week to guide some of my favorite mutants to graduation and beyond.  I’m especially curious to see what lies in store for Quentin Quire, who unexpectedly graduated in the WATXM #42.  Latour has shown that he has a good handle on Quire when he was the writer on the Captain America/Quentin Quire team up in A+X #4.  It also looks like both Doop and the bamfs will have some entertaining roles.

Mahmud Asrar is the artist on the new WATXM and what I have seen so far looks amazing.  I think the students of the Jean Grey School are in good hands.

ANDY’S PICK :: OZ HC: EMERALD CITY OF OZ: Have you been reading the adaptations of the L. Frank Baum OZ books from writer Eric Shanower and artist Skottie Young?  They are a genuine delight and they are also a textbook for successful comic adaptations.  Shanower and Young maintain the integrity and spirit of the source material but still manage to put their personal stamp on Baum’s enduring creations.  All 6 of their OZ collaborations are worth your time and money, but I have to say,I find this final story (at least for the foreseeable future) to be the best of the bunch.  The Emerald City of OZ focuses on Dorothy;s family.  Because of financial problems in the real world, she brings her parents/guardians Aunt Em and Uncle Henry to live in OZ.  The enchanted and overwhelmed Kansas couple take a grand tour of OZ with Dorothy and the Wizard while unbeknownst to all, the nefarious Nome King plots to have his army invade  the Emerald City. Can the Scarecrow, Glinda the Good and OZMA the really GOOD save the day?  You’ll just have to read this marvelous story to find out.  This HC edition collects EMERALD CITY OF OZ #1-5.  You will read it over and over!