Today is the first New Comic Book Day in months and it is such a relief. Mostly because I didn’t necessarily want to write 600 words about how I used Just For Men to dye to grey out of my (patchy) beard yesterday…but by god, I would have.
While there aren’t a ton of new books out today, some new comics are better than no new comics. It’s going to take a while for new releases to get back up to speed since the industry hit pause a couple of months ago. Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok’s Three Jokers book got bumped from June to August so it’ll still technically be considered a Sumer event book…but considering this book has been hyped for literal years a couple of additional months is manageable.
Here’s what I’ll be picking up!
Hill House Comics
DC Comics
In recent memory, DC has been doing a bang-up job of attracting interesting talent and allowing them to curate their own imprint sub-labels under the larger DC umbrella. I personally have a huge soft spot for the Gerard Way curated Young Animal line of titles since their release coincided with me dipping my toes into the world of writing about comics. Also, all the releases in that line are phenomenal…go grab some back issues, pick up the trade paperbacks, whatever. Just read ‘em.
I was petty geeked when DC announced they had partnered with Joe Hill to produce a line of horror-themed comics under the Hill House imprint. Much like the Young Animal line of books, I’ve enjoyed the hell out of every single book they’ve put out to date and I’m hoping the line continues for a long as possible.
That being said, I recently had a conversation with a friend at a comic book shop who let me know that I was petty much the only person reading the titles. I’m not sure how the books are charting sales-wise for DC but I know that they hit the pause button on most of the Young Animal books due to slow sales (the good news is that Doom Patrol and the phenomenal Far Sector are still being published).
If you’re a fan or horror the Hill House books are incredibly worthwhile to check out. I’m no horror aficionado but it seems like it would be something of note to see a major publisher like DC invest in a line of horror comics. The thing I love the most about the imprint is that it illustrates how versatile the genre can be. Daphne Byrne is a gothic horror book, The Plunge is about ghosts from the deep, and Basket Full of Heads is about a basket full of heads.
My personal recommendation would be to have your LCS pull all the first issues of the various Hill House titles and give them each a try. You’re bound to find something you’ll like. My current fave is The Low, Low Woods…I haven’t nailed it down yet but there’s something about the tone of that book that hits my brain just right and sticks with me.
Ghosted In L.A. #10
Sina Grace (W/A)
Siobhan Keenan (A)
I don’t really have much else to say about this title other than that it’s been one of my favourite books over the last year. It’s been a consistently good read AND I cannot believe that it’s scheduled to end with the twelfth issue. The concept (a college freshman finds a haunted apartment complex…in L.A.!) feels like it’s just getting started. I sincerely hope that this is just the end of the first arc or volume or whatever and that there will be more Ghosted books. Maybe the protagonist transfers schools and we’ll get Ghosted In NYC. I hadn’t intended for this to turn into an impromptu pitch meeting but here we are.
There’s just SO. MUCH. STORY in this book and it feels like it could keep going forever, which is the hallmark of good fiction. Every character in the book is interesting and I just dig the hell out of it. So, if your LCS has the collected trade of this (or back issues) pick them up and binge-read them and that should keep you busy until next week!
