Elephant Men #1 by Starkings & Moritat

You’re not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover.  I don’t think that applies to comics.  The cover art on this comic piqued my curiosity and it turns out this was my pick of the week out of five other comics.

 This sci-fi series is set a couple hundred years from now in a place called Mystery City.  It is populated by humans and genetically engineered mutants.  There are elephants, crocodiles, rhinos, hippos, and other various beasts walking on their hind legs, wearing clothes and talking.  As some of you know, I have a soft spot for talking animals.  The first story focuses on Savanah (a human child) making friends with Ebony (an elephant man).  As they talk we are shown gruesome flashbacks of Ebony’s violent past as a gun-toting killing machine. 

This is the first time I’ve read this series.  It reminded me of a cross between Astro City and We 3.  I was disappointed when the story ended abruptly but was overjoyed when I realized this issue was actually two comics.  I flipped it over and there was another story!  It was great, talk about getting your money’s worth.

 The writing is excellent.  The artwork is awesome.  The cover art is the icing on the cake.  Pick of the week!

The Walking Dead: Vol 1 Days Gone Bye

I would walk by this comic at first and I kick myself for it now, because when I bought four trades of it, I read them all in two days. I'm of course talking about The Walking Dead by once again…Robert Kirkman(Invincible). I'll be talking about the first Trade paperback entitled Days Gone Bye.

As always Robert Kirkman's writing in this book is outstanding, at first I thought "ugh a zombie comic? No way that could be good." I will allow three peope to hit me really hard for thinking that. First off let me say this is far from a horror comic, I mean yes there are zombies in it and they want to eat people, but as you would see if you read it, this comic is more about character progression, that is of course if they live long enough.

In the book ex-police officer Rick Grimes wakes up from a gunshot-induced coma, from there he finds himself in a new dangerous world where flesh eating zombies outnumber the living. Later hearing that people were told to head to bigger cities for protection he figures that his wife and child headed to Atlanta to be with her parents, so he finds away to the police station borrows a car and heads out.

From here on Rick finds himself in some disasterous situations, the story throws you some interesting twist and turns as he finds a camp of living people to take him in. How will they react? Will the living prove to be more of a danger than the zombies?

In my opinion this story is a nice break from all other comics I read. I still love them, but it's nice to read something alot different sometimes.

"In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living."

Invincible: Vol 1. Family Matters

Action! Straight up with this book starts off with. I know what you're thinking already..

"Oh great another horribly written action comic."

I'm sorry to inform you my friend, but you are wrong. First glance I admit I ignored it. I thought the colors were amazing…but just didn't think it would make a good story. Boy was I wrong. Robert Kirkman's(The Walking Dead, Ultimate X-men) extraordinary straight foward style of writing gives this book a smooth and exciting read. Mark Grayson (Invincible) is a High School boy not far from normal compared to any other teenager…except that his dad is Omni-Man, the most powerful superhero on the planet, and now it seems that super gene is being passed to him. Finding out he's invulnerable and he can fly, What's a boy to do? Well what else but put on some bright colored costume and fight crime. Getting himself in some sticky situations Mark looks to his dad to help him go through this…you know superhero stuff. Meeting other colorful characters in the process. Anything can happen at anytime in this book, and it will. If you ever been somewhat curious…Hell even if you've never heard of this book…pick it up. If you like good writing and awesome action, this book will not dissapoint. It truly is "Probably the best superhero comic in the universe."

Mark's mom: I guess I can look foward to you both being late from now on…

Mark: Actually…Dad was sucked into a portal about fifteen minutes ago, I dont think he'll be home tonight. It was some aliens we fought earlier today…I'm sure he's fine.

Damn that's great.

Buy Invincible Vol. 1 at Amazon.com