SETH’S PICK :: BEST OF MILLIGAN AND MCCARTHY HC: We live in an era where an endless wave of past stories are being newly collected (or re-collected) and remastered for new audiences.  As with anything, this wave doesn’t always yield wonderful results.  However, this week offers you a chance to pick up a true gem of previously published, never before collected comics.  Dark Horse’s The Best of Milligan and McCarthy collects over 250 pages from these idiosyncratic creators.  Throughout their careers, Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy have exhibited a wide range and use of satire in their work.  Be it at Marvel, DC, Vertigo, or 2000 A.D., these creators are always reliable.  This new hardcover collects many of their influential stories from the eighties, like Paradax, Skin, Rogan Gosh, and Freakwave.  These are quirky, psychedelic, multi-layered comics that will both befuddle and entertain upon repeated readings.  If you’re already a fan, here’s a way to collect all of these stories in one handy volume.  If you’re not familiar with these works, flip through a copy at Heroes this week, and prepare to encounter mind-blowing comics from two greats of the ’80’s British comics invasion. 

ANDY’S PICK :: HELLBLAZER #300: Ah, Johnny, we hardly knew ye! It’s the end of an era and (coming as no surprise to the world of monthly comics) the start of yet another new era. Writer Peter Milligan and artists Giuseppe Camuncoli & Stefano Landini along with cover artist extraordinaire Simon Bisley bid farewell to everyone’s favorite neer-do-well occultist in the dirty haunted trench coat. John Constantine was created by Alan Moore and
during the classic American Gothic storyline in Swamp Thing over 30(!) years ago. Since then, ol’ JC has been a Vertigo Universe stand-by. This landmark issue is the third and final part of the last storyline aptly titled “DEATH and Cigarettes”. Hellblazer has been a terrific series and it has proven to be the true flagship title of Vertigo Comics. You owe it to yourselves to give this issue a try. If you love it (and if you are a horror fan, I know you will!) then you will want to go back to the beginning and devour the trade paperbacks. They are legion and they are terrific. And for the love of comics forget that god forsaken movie!