Category Archives: Comics This Week

EYG Comic Cavalcade #97

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May 11, 2024

It is time for the Comic Cavalcade once again. I picked up a bunch of new books this week this past Wednesday. There is also a bunch of books that I picked up on eBay and some new back issues of Amazing Spider-Man.

I have picked up some New Warriors books on eBay. I am going to start working on filling out the New Warriors. The first volume of New Warriors is missing several of the later books. I did pick up the entire volume 3, issues #1-20. I do love the New Warriors and I am always down for more of this group of characters.

New books this week:

Saga Volume 2 &3. On Free Comic Book Day, I picked up the entire 9 volumes of the Saga series from Image. I have found time to read the second and third volumes this week. They are so good. I was told that I would love this series, and I really do. There have been some shocking things happen that I did not see coming. It truly is a human story of a family struggling to get by. Hopefully, I will be able to carve out some time to keep going on this collection.

The Last Mermaid #3. Story and art by Derek Kirk Kim. I love this book too. This issue was just packed with visual storytelling and the imagery of the book is off the charts. I have to say that the design of the issue is special and helps make this excellent book stand out even more.

Avengers #14. “Blood Hunt Part One” Written by Jed MacKay and art from C.F. Villa. Joshua Cassara & Guru-eFX did the cover art. A new band of Avengers, led by Steve Rogers, steps up while the other Avengers are missing/in deep trouble. Cap brings us Kate Bishop, Quicksilver, Hercules and Hazmat. These are a nice mix of characters and each one is able to share their voice during the battle with vampires.

Fantastic Four #20. “To Work Wonders” Written by Ryan North and art by Carlos Gomez. Cover art by Alex Ross (Gold Medalist). This issue focuses upon the continual familial rivalry between Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm. These two are always competing with each other, even if they are working as cashiers at the same grocery store. Very strange issue, but it did show the depth of the relationship between the two of them.

Amazing Spider-Man #49. Written by Zeb Wells with pencils by John Romita Jr. Cover art was by Romita Jr., Scott Hanna, and Marcio Menyz. The White Rabbit has been turned into a vampire and Spidey is on the case, looking to help his foe.

Crocodile Black #1. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and illustrated by SOM. Andrea Sorrentino did the cover art (Silver Medalist). Brand new series from Boom! Studios and I loved this so much. I did not know what to expect, and I can guarantee that what they gave us what nowhere near what I thought it might have been. I love it when a series can keep me off balance and this certainly did. I can’t wait to see where they take this book.

Strange Academy: Blood Hunt #1. Three separate stories, all written by Daniel Jose Older. Three separate artists for each, including Luigi Zagaria, Eric Gapstur & Scott Hanna, and then Eric Gapstur. Cover art was by Humberto Ramos and Edgar Delgado. I do love Strange Academy so I was excited to see them involved in the Blood Hunt crossover. I will say that the three stories surprised me although these blended well.

Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin #2. Written by J.M. DeMatteis and art by Michael Sta. Maria. Paulo Siqueira & Rachelle Rosenberg are the cover artists. As things are happening with the Osborns, Spidey takes on the Sandman.

Ain’t No Grave #1. “Chapter One: Denial”. Written by Skottie Young and art and cover art by Jorge Corona (Bronze Medalist). New Western series with some real unexpected twists. I love Skottie Young’s writing and this takes our main protagonist into a trip to try and kill Death. Literally? Seems so. A beautifully illustrated book too.

Daredevil #9. “Introductory Rights Part Nine” Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Juann Cabal. Cover art by John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Richard Isanove. Daredevil and Elektra take on Bullseye and matt Murdock finally goes to see Foggy to let him know that he is alive. Foggy does not take it well, as one would expect.

Dracula: Blood Hunt #1. Written by Danny Lore and art by Vincenzo Carratù with cover art by Rod Reis. I guess it makes sense that if vampires are everywhere across the earth that Dracula would be involved. But did you expect him to show up and help Blade’s daughter, Brielle Brooks?

Doctor Strange #15. “Blood Hunt, Pt. 1” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Pasqual Ferry. Alex Ross did this cover art too. Doctor Strange has been turned into a vampire, so he separates his astral form to try and help stop Blade.

Blood Hunters #1. Three stories featuring three separate characters: Clint Barton, Man-Wolf and Dagger. I have to say that the cover of the issue (which was done by Greg Land & Frank D’Armata) made it look like this was a team up between these characters. Instead, it was three separate stories with only the vampires to connect them. It was neat seeing Dagger and Man-Wolf again.

Captain America #9. “The Desert of the Unknown“. Written by J. Michael Straczynski and art and cover art by Jesus Saiz. Cap heads to Chile and picked up a penguin along the way. And I do not mean Oswald Cobblepot.

Giant-Size X-Men #1. “Truth or Die” Written by Ann Nocenti and art by Lee Ferguson. Bryan Hitch & Alex Sinclair did the cove art. A solo story of Angel, aka Warren Worthington III, trying to survive Maze, a trainee of Arcade. This attempts to go deep into the mind of Warren, but honestly, this was at best okay.

The Mildly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #9. Written by Tate Brombal and art by Isaac Goodhart. Cover art by Nick Robles. We return to Christopher and his life and we spend some time with Christopher and his two friends in the Monster Club. We get some info about Christopher’s mysterious background as it is sort of his birthday.

X-Men: Forever #3. “Unhappy in their own Way” Written by Kieron Gillen and art by Luca Maresca. Mark Brooks did the cover art. Two main arcs happening. One with Nightcrawler, Mystique and Destiny and the revelation about parentage. The second arc was with Hope and her potential sacrifice to save everyone.

Transformers #8. Written by Daniel Warren Johnson with art by Jorge Corona. Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer did the cover art. The Autobots are beginning their plans to fight the Decepticons and Carly wants in. Optimus Prime does not think that is a good idea.

Geiger #2. “The Hunter and the Hunted” Written by Geoff Johns and art by Gary Frank. Gary Frank & Brad Anderson did the cover art. A small town deals with the Glowing Man to take care of a recent masked raider that had been causing trouble in the town.

The Deviant #5. Written by James Tynion IV and art and cover art by Joshua Hixson. It feels like a while since we got a new issue of this series, but it is just as compelling as it was then. What has Michael done? We see some of little kid Michael in a flashback this issue as older Michael is being arrested.

Deadpool #2. Written by Cody Ziglar and penciled by Rogê Antonio. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. Deadpool and Taskmaster team up to take what was supposed to be an easy mark. Thing do not go as they had planned. Not good when Crossbones shows up.

Other books this week: Boy Wonder #1, Monsters are my Business #2, Captain Marvel #8, Night People #3, and The One Hand #4.

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of May 6

It is time again this week for the three medalist for best cover of the week. I must say that I eliminated one possible cover this week because I picked up a variant version of The Creature of the Black Lagoon Lives #1 which I really loved. But since this was actually released a few weeks ago, I decided to not count this one as a comic cover medalist. The original cover (Cover A) did place in the medal round prior so it is not like it comes out empty handed. Call this an honorable mention.

Otherwise, we had several comics in the running this week. There were some really cool covers that did not place in the top three. It was two independent books and one Marvel. And the Marvel cover artist has been a medalist several times already.

Bronze Medalist

Ain’t No Grave #1

Image Comics

Cover art by Jorge Corona

A new Western series written by Skottie Young. The cover has some wonderful Western imagery blended together.

Silver Medalist

Crocodile Black #1

Boom! Studios

Cover art by Andrea Sorrentino

New book from Boom! Studios has a very compelling cover. The guy on the bench with that alligator behind him is cool, but I loved the red highlights down on the ground around the body. Is it blood? Maybe, it looks awesome though.

Gold Medalist

Fantastic Four #20

Marvel Comics

Cover art by Alex Ross

EYG Hall of Famer Alex Ross earns yet another medal this week with the great FF cover that is not only beautifully drawn but tells a fun story with Ben and Johnny. What is going on here? I don’t know, but I am excited to find out and that means the cover does its job well.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #96

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May 5, 2024

Free Comic Book Day special edition

To all the Star Wars fans out there, happy Revenge of the 5th, the day following May the 4th Be With You. Otherwise, this is a super special edition of the EYG Comic Cavalcade featuring the events and books of Free Comic book Day!

May 4th was more than just Star Wars Day this year. This year it also was Free Comic Book Day, a day where the companies release a bunch of promo comics, and comic shops around the country give them out for free.

I hope everyone understands that these are not free for the comic shop, who has to purchase these books (yes, at a reduced rate) and pay for shipping. This is why it is so vital that when you partake of a free book, you find something else to purchase at the shop as a thank you for all you do type of thing.

I had a wonderful day with Free Comic Book Day this year. I started the day with a movie that was really bad (Tarot…quite the stinker) and lunch at Burger King before heading over to Comic World.

I walked in the store right after the shop opened at noon and there were plenty of people already there. In the hour and a half (or so) that I hung out there, it was really quite busy, which is awesome.

There were some fabulous moments as I sat and watched people in the store. Some of the highlights included one young boy, probably around 10-11, who came in asking about the free comics and store owner Ben directed him to the table of books. The boy had eyes bulging and he said “thank you” in such a grateful way that you could tell that he meant it. It was such a cool moment, a small little moment that helped make the day great. With hope, a day like this could help create a future comic book fan.

That is, of course, one of the main purposes behind the entire Free Comic Book Day concept. Comic books are a niche hobby and it is important that the comic companies find a way to find new readers than just the same people that buy their books every Wednesday.

Another fun moment for me was when my teacher friend Ambarlee showed up with her three kids to buy their first comic books. She had the boys pick out a comic from the wall each before going over to the free table. I know she also picked up a trade paperback of Rainbow Rowell’s She-Hulk run (she enjoyed the She-Hulk Disney + show). They then grabbed a few of the free comics including One Piece, the Spidey and Amazing Friends, and the Spider-Man/Ultimates book. I had to take a pic of her holding her little girl who looked to be intently reading the comic in her hand.

Then, of course, I did my own purchasing. I picked up a rousing 21 free comics. Most of them had already been pulled in my box for me, which I appreciate so much. These included such books as Romeo vs. Juliet, The Cursed Library Prelude #0, Energon Universe #1, Flash Gordon #0, Dying Inside, One Piece Ace’s Story, Marvel Voices #1, Boom! Box 10th Anniversary Extravaganza, Hellboy, Monster High, Cursedverse #1, Stories from the Atlas Comics Library #1, Absolute Power #1, Conan: Battle of the Black Stone,Dr. Who #00, The Valiants, Gannibal, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

A couple of others:

FCBD: The Worlds of James Tynion IV: This included reprinted material, but two of them were Mementic and The Woods. I did not know either of these books and I may be interested in looking into them. The book indicated The Woods: Deluxe Edition is coming soon. Tynion is one of my favorite writers currently working with Something is Killing the Children (which is one of the key series that got me picking up independent books), The Department of Truth, and W0rldtr33.

FCBD: Blood Hunt #1: The prelude to this upcoming vampire story in Marvel includes Spider-Man fighting Doctor Dark and Dracula showing up. This also featured a back-up X-Men story by Gail Simone, featuring Jubilee. Simone will be the head writer on the upcoming new Uncanny X-Men series. Simone has been a huge proponent of Free Comic Book Day and supporting your local comic book shop.

FCBD: Spider-Man/Ultimate Universe #1. This had a weird Spider-Man story that I thought was an Ultimate Spider-Man story at first, but Peter did not have his beard, so I think this was supposed to be the regular Spider-Man. The back up story featured the Ultimates, trying to retrieve the original Human Torch. There was also a couple pages of Venom here.

Along with the FCBD books, I purchased a bunch of books from my shop.

Saga Volume 1-9. Brian K. Vaughn’s epic independent book is collected in nine volumes. I read volume one and I have to say that I was hooked. This first volume collected the first six chapters and we are introduced to some great characters and some major surprising twists. The nine volumes are contained in a beautiful container with art by Fiona Staples. I am excited to read the rest of this series moving forward.

X-Men: 198 #1-5. I picked up this mini series because I had never heard of it before and the five issues were packed together at a very reasonable price. This was a story taking place when there were only 198 mutants left on the planet (after Wanda’s No More Mutants, I believe). The government is moving the remaining mutants to Xavier’s School, and trying not to use the words internment camp. This has some really dark moments and seeing Cyclops and some of the other X-Men backing the government was tough. Kitty Pryde’s response was very understandable as the connection to the Holocaust is not missed on anyone. This was a fascinating read with a group of characters that I have not seen much of over the years.

Marvel Team-Up #9, 10,15. These have been at Comic World for awhile, and I have eyeballed them at different times, but this was a good point to buy them. I love Spidey and Marvel Team-Up was always one of my favorite books growing up. This has Ghost Rider, Human Torch and Iron Man in these issues. #15 in particular is in beautiful condition. I have not rebagged my Marvel Team-Up books yet, but I know I did not have any of these.

The Tomb of Dracula #36-38, 57. I bought several Tomb of Dracula books a few months ago and these were still at the shop. I figured this would be the perfect moment to pick them up. I do like the character of Dracula, and with the Blood Hunt coming up, this feels very relevant.

I finished up with an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen on the trip back to Maquoketa. As I was driving, I remember thinking what a great day this was. I had a blast with Free Comic Book Day and I hope everyone else had an excellent experience too.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #95

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May 3, 2024

This past Wednesday, I took a personal day from school and I went to Comic World to hang out that afternoon on NEW COMIC BOOK DAY! It was glorious. I got to talk to my friend Todd, read the new books this week, and just enjoy the ambiance of the store.

Tomorrow, then, is FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! Across the country, there are comic shops celebrating this special day with comics put out by the comic companies to hopefully hook some new readers and promote their new comics. I am looking forward to going to Comic World tomorrow and joining in on the celebration.

However, you should not just go to your comic shop and take the freebies that they have because it is not free for the shops. This is a post that EYG Hall of Famer Gail Simone talking about Free Comic Book Day:

“ABOUT FREE COMIC BOOK DAY

Hello again, everyone.

I say a version of this every year, many of you have seen many variations. I apologize for repeating myself a bit, but it’s kind of important.

Really, it’s vital that you know, comic stores love having you come to Free Comic Book Day. Many of them make it a kind of all-day party and we all love having new people and long-time readers come by a great store and leave with some fantastic comics. It’s a great experience for almost everyone. Kids love it, adults, it’s just a great time for all.

Lots of stores have sales, guest appearances, cosplayers, sometimes even cake or other treats. I love it, one of my favorite days of the year.

This year, in just a couple days, I will be at THE GOLDEN AGE 1942 store in historic Maryville, Tennessee. Come say hello!

Now, there’s a couple things I say every year, just for the record.

First, most people think that the comics that the stores give away for free are free to the stores.

They are not. Each comic is paid for by the stores. At a greatly reduced price from normal comics, yes, but they are sold to the store by the bundle, and with many many dozens of FCBD comics, it adds up hugely fast. Multiply that by gosh knows how many people in line, it’s a significant number, all given away for FREE, no cash coming back to the retailer at all.

But that’s not all. They also have to pay shipping, which anyone who runs a business knows, is astronomical.

So, every book they give away is paid for by the store, twice, really.

On top of that, it is almost always necessary to hire extra help for the day. They might have to purchase more stock, after one of the slower parts of the year, sales-wised.

If they have decorations or publicity or cosplayers or creator guests, they are paying for each of those expenses. There’s a lot of expenses I am missing, I’m not a retailer. But they are there.

Free Comic Book Day is darn expensive for comics retailers. Most are delighted to have it, it’s a great day to get people to come and celebrate comics and learn about the stores. None of them would want you to feel guilty about coming and picking up the books, that’s what’s SUPPOSED to happen.

However, I would ask everyone going to Free Comic Book Day this weekend to do me a personal favor and SHOP a bit there, too. Even if it’s busy, hang around, have fun, and do a bit of shopping.

If each person purchases something ON FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, it helps justify all the expense, and ensures that the store will be able to continue ordering great stuff, and having the annual event again next year and beyond.

If there’s a TPB you have been thinking about, or a statue, or an action figure, I urge you to consider buying it ON FCBD, if at all possible. If your budget is tight, even buying a comic or some comics off the rack or back issue bins helps a LOT, I promise you, and you are doing something awesome for the community.

Comic shop owners and workers work long hours, often for thin profit margins. But they’re the ones who will look for that book you want, that will special order things, that will recommend you a book not to make a sale, but because they know you will love it. They are the force keeping the hobby fun, social and convenient.

So please, if you have ever really loved shopping at a great comics shop, look around and purchase something on this fun day of celebration in particular, okay?

You’ll be my hero. 🙂

Thank you,

Gail

PS. No comic shop has ever asked me to talk about this, they just want you to come and have fun. They don’t want you to feel any kind of bad on FCBD. This is all from me, about the economic reality of the expense of putting on the event, because I am more shameless. 🙂

PPS. Thank you all!

PPPS. Have a great Free Comic Book Day, all right?

PPPPS. Get Marvel’s FCBD book this weekend, my first ever X-Men story is in it!

PPPPPS. THANK YOU RETAILERS, YOU LOVELY MERCHANTS OF JOY“

I plan on buying several comics this weekend along with the large number of free comics that I have pulled for me.

Speaking of back issues, I have four Amazing Spider-Man issues, #433, #435-437 as I continue to work on my ASM collection.

After all of that, here are the books this week:

Incredible Hulk #12. “Doctor Voodoo and the Soul Cage Part One” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art and cover by Nic Klein. The Incredible Hulk has been an okay read recently, but I loved this issue as Hulk goes to Strange Academy trying to save Charlie from the soul cage. Banner and the Hulk head into the soul cage to try and save her, while another Hulk, one that looks fairly Immortal, shows up with Voodoo. This was the best issue of Hulk since the Al Ewing run.

7174 A.S. #1. Creative team:  TP LOUISE and  ASHLEY WOOD. This is one of the books that I found interesting. Unfortunately, I did not like the issue. I did not feel connected to this at all.

Space Ghost #1. Written by David Pepose and drawn by Jonathan Lau. Cover art was by Michael Cho (Silver Medalist). While I did not like 7174 AD, the new Space Ghost series from Dynamite was awesome. Space Ghost was shown to be a bad ass and the issue was just great. It was a little hard seeing Brak as a monstrous villain, btu I am down for it.

Blood Hunt #1. Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Pepe Larraz. Cover art Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia. I also picked up a variant cover issue with a cover by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau (Bronze Medalist). The new vampire story arc in Marvel kicked off with Blade turning heel and attacking the Marvel Universe. There are some shocking moments with major characters dying, but I have problems with that. They aren’t dead. They will return from death soon and it is sad that I feel no angst over the loss of any of these characters. Otherwise, Blood Hunt is off to a cool start.

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #5. “8-Ball” Written by Jed MacKay and illustrated by Alessandro Cappuccio. Cover art by David Paratore. Shroud was revealed as the new Moon Knight but Tigra and Hunter’s Moon was not having any of it. But Blood Hunt started with a major event with the Darkforce users, including Shroud.

Ultimate X-Men #2. Writer and artist Peach Momoko. Hisako has met another mutant, who seems to be able to control the weather… hm. I have enjoyed these first two issues of the new X-Men book. I like how it is so different than the regular Marvel Universe X-Men.

Ghostlore #10. “Churning the Grave” Written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Leomacs. The middle section was illustrated by Sally Cantirino. The cover art was by Reiko Murakami and Sally Cantirino. Harmony and her father Lucas have reunited, but she is not happy with what her father is planning to battle Shane.

The Blood Brothers Mother #1. Written by Brian Azzarello and drawn and cover by Eduardo Risso (Gold Medalist). Awesome new Western series from DSTLRY. This is a beautiful and brutal new series as we see the beginning of the brothers and how they came to be.

Invincible Iron Man #18. “If I Only Had a Heart” Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Creees Lee. Cover art was by Kael Ngu. Iron Man and Magneto vs. Stark Sentinels and Nimrod. What more could you ask for? How about War Machine?

Get Fury #1. “1. Sweet Bird of Truth” Written by Garth Ennis and penciled by Jacen Burrows. Dave Johnson did the cover art. Nick Fury is trapped in North Vietnam and the US government is worried about what he knows. So they send Frank Castle after him. Honestly, that sounded cool, but I just could not get into this. I was not a fan of this issue.

X-Men #34. “Love-Hate” Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Joshua Cassara. Terry & Rachel Dodson did the cover art. The X-Men are coming after Charles Xavier. Logan and Shadowcat are together again. What will happen?

Spider-Woman #7. “New Kids on the Block” Written by Steve Foxe and art by Ig Guara. Leinil Francis Yu & Sunny Gho did the cover art. Spider-Woman is discovering that there are still plenty of problems in San Francisco. However, she meets up with a new team of heroes, The Assembly, which has some similarities.

Immortal Thor #10. “Getting the Axe” Written by Al Ewing and drawn by Carlos Magno. Alex Ross did the cover art. I am not sure how I feel about this. Thor battled a fake Thor, the Thor of Roxxon. And it is a frame job. Not sure how I feel about this storyline. I do love Al Ewing so I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Zorro: Man of the Dead #4. Written and drawn by Sean Gordon Murphy. This is the final issue of this mini-series. I really enjoyed this book from Massive comics and I am sorry to see it end. I hope this is one that will earn another volume of issues moving forward.

Other books this week: Count Crowley: Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter #3, Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII #1, Power Pack: Into the Storm #5, and Minor Threats #2.

Happy Free Comic Book Day to everyone!

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of April 29

It was a light week this week as there were only 18 new comics this week. I know, that does not sound like a light week, but compared to some of the recent weeks, 18 is like nothing.

Two of the three medalists this week are variant cover D books.

Three medalist this week…

Bronze Medalist

Blood Hunt #1

Variant Edition (Cover D)

Cover art by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau

A beautiful cover featuring Greer Nelson, aka Tigra. Todd gave me this because he thinks I love Tigra, but he mixes Tigra up with Hellcat. Still, this is a lovely cover and I do like me some Tigra.

Silver Medalist

Space Ghost #1

Variant Edition (Cover D)

Cover Art by Michael Cho

I love this Hanna-Barbera inspired cover with Space Ghost and the kids he saved. Just because there is a monkey, it does not make them Zan and Jana.

Gold Medalist

The Blood Brothers Mother #1

Cover art by Eduardo Risso

New Western series from DSTLRY, the cover wraps around the book and it has some layered feel to it. It really is a gorgeous piece of art and the extra large book makes this standout even more. Great cover.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #94

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April 28, 2024

It was a regular week of comics, and yet there are still a pile of them to get through. I really do collect a ton of books from the different companies.

There are also a couple from eBay this week as I had seen an advertisement for these two in one of the Dark Horse books that I had read (I think it was the Count Crowley book) and I was interested in them. Dark Horse has been a company that I have not paid as close of attention to as I have Image or Boom! Studios when it comes to independents, but I think that is changing.

Todd also continued to pick up back issues of Amazing Spider-Man for me. He grabbed me issue #199 and #331. He did not try to price gouge me this time though. 🙂

This week’s books:

Superior Spider-Man #6. “The Greater Good” Written by Christo Gage (from a story by Dan Slott) with art by Mark Bagley. Bagley & Edgar Delgado did the cover art. The Doc Ock-Spidey team up to stop Supernova continues as the enemies are forced to work together, but they are anything but copacetic. Things are also going poorly for Spider-Boy and a bunch of people in New York City.

Borealis #1-3. Written by Mark Verheiden & Aaron Douglas with art by Cliff Richards. Borealis is one of the mini series I saw advertised and I dug the concept. It had a True Detective: Night Country vibe to it as a current trooper returned to her home in Qinu. The series included organized crime and mystical spirits. This was a quality story that I was captivated by.

Lunar Lodge #1. Written by Tyler Marceca and art & cover by Mirko Colak. This was the other Dark Horse book that I picked up on eBay and this was another hit. The first issue has a lot of set-up, but it is very intense and there is a real feel that something horrible is about to happen.

Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver #3. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Lorenzo Tammetta. Cover art by Russell Dauterman and variant cover by Romy Jones (Gold medalist). I bought two copies of this, specifically for the one cover, which I loved. Wanda and Pietro are still fighting with each other, but the Wizard is still a problem. Thankfully, Vision is there as an impartial observer.

Something is Killing the Children #36. “Road Stories: Part One” Written by James Tynion IV and illustrated and cover art by Werther Dell’edera. This felt like a one-shot issue of Erica Slaughter’s past and I liked it a lot. Just Erica helping a kid fight off a monster. The basis of the story. I wonder if the “Road Stories” arc will deliver more like this or if it will end up as an overarching tale.

Ultimate Spider-Man #4. Written by Jonathan Hickman and art by guest artist David Messina. Cover art by Marco Checchetto & Matthew Wilson. What an amazing issue. This was literally a dinner meeting between Peter and MJ and Harry Osborn and his wife, Gwen Stacy. The interactions between the four adults brought as much drama as a slugfest with a super-villain. Ultimate Spider-Man has been a spectacular Peter parker story so far.

Amazing Spider-Man #48. Written by Zeb Wells and art by guest artist Todd Nauck. Cover art by John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna & Marcio Menyz. Ben Reilly, Hallows’ Eve & Dr. Kafka are all involved going after the Winkler device which Spidey and Betty Leeds also want. It might be able to clear Ned Leeds’ name, and motives are everywhere.

Universal Monsters: Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives #1. Written by Dan Watters and Ram V and illustrated by Matthew Roberts. Roberts and Dave Stewart did the cover art (Silver Medalist). Thought eh Creature from the Black Lagoon may not be my most favorite of the Universal Monsters, this issue was fantastic! I liked it way more than the Dracula book, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I am totally in on this new Universal Monster series.

Drawing Blood #1. Story by Kevin Eastman & David Avallone with artwork by Ben Bishop. Kevin Eastman did the cover art. This was quite a story. Last week, I had, what I thought, was this issue in my pull list. It looked weird, as it was wrapped in a plastic covering. When I opened it (which I considered not doing as the collect in me), it turned out to be just a series of fliers of this issue’s cover. I assume that was meant as promo material for the store and since I was down for the book (maybe the only one?) they assumed this was the book. That got all straightened out and this came out this week. It is an interesting story of a cartoonist.

Man’s Best #2. Written by Pornsak Pichetshote and illustrated and cover by Jesse Lonergan. Our three animal characters are trying to find their way home while avoiding the Klangers. The two dogs and a cat have issues with listening to each other which puts them all in danger. This has been a intriguing Boom! Studios book so far.

The Infernals #3. “Chapter Three: Covenant” Written by Noah Gardner & Ryan Parrott. Art by John J. Pearson with Lola Bonato. Pearson & Sam Wolfe Connelly did the cover art. More demonic offerings from Sam and Jackal as they are being pursued by Saturday and Sunday, the Devil’s assassins. Wild storytelling in this series.

X-Men: Forever #2. “Quiet Council” Written by Kieron Gillen and art by Luca Maresca. Cover art was by Mark Brooks. The X-Men, including Hope, look to resurrect those killed, but the biggest force they look to bring back…the Phoenix!

Wolverine: Madripoor Knights #3. “Black Widow: Spy” Written by Chris Claremont with art by Edgar Salazar. Phillip Tan & Sebastian Cheng did the cover art (Bronze Medalist). Black Widow takes center stage inside Madripoor as Wolverine and Captain America stay in the background ready to help when needed. These three characters really work well together and make for an enjoyable series so far.

Feral #2. Written by Tony Fleecs and art by Trish Forstner. Fleecs and Forstner teamed up for the cover art. The three cats are stuck in the woods with a bunch of rabid animals chasing them. Can they escape from the danger and find their way back to their home before something eats them?

Jackpot & Black Cat #2. Written by Celeste Bronfman and art by Emilio Laiso & Giada Belviso. Adam Hughes did the cover art. Jackpot is forced into trying to steal something from the White Rabbit and her friend Black Cat tags along to help. However, there is more to the story than you would expect (although I had it figured out not too long into the story).

Daredevil #8. A oversized special edition of Daredevil with several stories contained. Some focus on Matt Murdock, some focus on Elektra and others are them together. Writers include Saladin Ahmed, Ann Nocenti, D.G. Chichester, Elsa Sjunneson and Erica Schultz. Artists include Tommaso Bianchi, Stefano Raffaele, Ken Lashley, Eric Koda and Jan Bazaldua. John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Richard Isanove did the cover art.

Pine & Merrimac #4. Written by Kyle Starks and illustrated and cover by Fran Galan. Parker and Linnea are stuck on an island with a cult and they have been discovered. They are desperately trying to escape from their clutches, which leads to one of the most shocking final panels of the book.

Avengers #13. “Hit Back: Part Two” Written by Jed Mackay and art by Francesco Mortarino. Cover art is by Joshua Cassara and Marte Gracia. The Avengers continue their battle with the Stark Sentinels and MODOK/3D man. However, little did we know that Black Panther has a plan.

Blade #10. “Mother of Evil: Finale“. Written by Bryan Hill and art by Elena Casagrande. Casagrande and KJ Diaz did the cover art. Blade faces off in a showdown with the ancient evil called Adana in this volume’s final issue.

Other books this week: GODS #7, W0rldtr33#9, The Six Fingers #3, Project Cryptid #8, Rare Flavours #5, The Bloody Dozen #5, and Night Thrasher #3.

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

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Week of April 22

Normal week this week. Still a bunch of books.

My #1 this week is a variant cover that I picked up off the stands. I had the cover A already, but I really liked the cover C and it gets the gold medal this week.

But first…

Bronze Medalist

Wolverine: Madripoor Knights #3

Cover art by Phillip Tan & Sebastian Cheng

Wolverine, Captain America and Black Widow are in Madripoor and there is some cool action. I love the way the heroes are layered on the cover, especially the giant Wolverine in the background.

Silver Medalist

Universal Monsters: Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives #1

Cover art by Matthew Roberts & Dave Stewart

This was not even my favorite of the covers of this book as I have now ordered the cover by Joshua Middleton. That does not take away from this beautiful cover with its pink highlights and the iconic Universal Monsters character. This was a fun issue too.

Gold Medalist

Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver #3

Cover art by Romy Jones

Nothing better than seeing Wanda relaxing on her bed, perusing some of the comics from Marvel Comics, including that oddball Roxxon Thor book. This variant cover is so cool, especially with those weird soles of Wanda’s shoes. It is “Approved by the Witch Code Authority“. What more can you want?

EYG Comic Cavalcade #93

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April 22, 2024

I am back with the second part of last week’s large pile of comics after the mysterious disappearance of the week’s prior shipment. I don’t want to miss another week of books again.

Next books:

Blue Books: 1947 #3. Written by James Tynion IV and art by Michael Avon Oeming, who also did the cover art (Silver medalist). We have reached the point where we are ready to start talking about Roswell and the events surrounding that. I thought this was very interesting.

Moon Man #2. Script by Scott Mescudi and Kyle Higgins with art by Marco Locati. This was a pretty good follow up to the first issue of this book. I did enjoy the manner in which the art was presented in this issue. Some of the larger panels were really epic.

Beware of the Planet of the Apes #4. Written by Marc Guggenheim and art by Alvaro Lopez. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. This prequel to the first movie wrapped up the series and it was enjoyable. Maybe it was not spectacular, but I did like it. It has been one of my favorite of the 20th Century Studios imprint so far.

Ultimate Black Panther #3. Written by Bryan Hill and drawn by Stefano Caselli. Josh Cassara & Guru-eFX did the cover art. T’Challa meeting up with Killmonger and Ororo looking for Moon Knight and some of the African gods. I have liked this new take on Black Panther and his surrounding cast, especially Shuri and Okaye.

Captain Marvel #7. “Bonds to Break” Written by Alyssa Wong and art by Jan Bazaldua. Stephen Segovia & Romulo Fajardo Jr. did the art for the cover. Captain Marvel and Genis-Vell battled in the comic. The item that possessed Genis comes out and prepares to take on Carol.

Resurrection of Magneto #4. “Reawakening” Written by Al Ewing and drawn by Luciano Vecchio. Stefano Caselli and Jesus Aburtov did the cover art. Magneto is back. What kind of Magneto is he? This is the question that this issue poses. This is perhaps my favorite issue of this series so far.

Avengers: Twilight #5. “And the Truth is Rain.” Written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Daniel Acuna. Cover art by Alex Ross and Acuna. The futuristic tale of the Avengers taking on a returned Red Skull continues. I have said before how I am not a fan of alternate future stories, but this is tremendous. Chip Zdarsky is at his best so far in this series. And the last page’s reveal of the Hulk is awesome.

Incredible Hulk #11. “Frozen Charlotte: Part Three” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and illustrated by guest artist Danny Earles. The Frozen Charlotte storyline has not been my favorite, but I did like how it wrapped up. What happens to Charlie is a neat twist.

Jill and the Killers #4. Written by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs and illustrated by Roberta Ingranata. Cover art by Sanya Anwar. This mystery series wrapped up after the answer of the mystery was revealed. This was a very special series that was very unexpected from Oni Press.

Animal Pound #3. “Chapter Three: Piggy Performs” Written by Tom King and illustrated by Peter Gross. Animal Pound is a really good look at political theater. They follow through multiple elections inside the animal pound and it really shows what politics are like. By the way, I have a feeling that I know whom is represented by Piggy.

What If: Venom #3. Written by Jeremy Holt and penciled by Manuel Garcia. Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr did the cover art. I have not been much of a fan of these Venom What If issues, but I love the What If series so I am collecting it. Venom bonded to Dr. Strange is fine. That’s about it.

X-Men ’97 #2. Written by Steve Foxe and drawn by Salva Espín. Cover art was by Todd Nuack & Rachelle Rosenberg. This prequel series to the new animated X-Men ’97 series on Disney + has been okay, but it does not measure up to the exceptional animated series. Sabretooth and the Marauders make a guest appearance.

Dead X-Men #4. “Hyper Ballad” Written by Steve Foxe and art by David Baldeon, Bernard Chang, & Vincenzo Carratù. Lucas Werneck did the cover art. This felt weird since it should have been read before the Rise of the Powers of X #4, which I have already read. Still, this was fine.

Fall of the House of X #4. “The Turn” Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Lucas Werneck & Jethro Morales. Cover art is done by Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia. Things are coming to a conclusion with this storyline as the X-Men are facing down with Nimrod.

House of Slaughter #22. Written by Tate Brombal and illustrated by Antonio Fuso. Cover art by Nimit Malavia and Werther Dell’edera. Sunny Boucher has gone out of his way to help protect his friend Jace Boucher, but at what cost?

Night People #2. “The Secret Life of Insects” Written by Chris Condon and illustrated by Alexandre Tefenkgi. Cover art by Jason Shawn Alexander. Honestly, this series has not been enjoyable so far. This is based on a novel by Barry Gifford, but I just have not liked it at this point.

Giant-Size Hulk #1. “Reuben’s Train” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Andrea Broccardo. KJ Diaz did the cover art. I enjoyed the issue with the Hulk on a train. However, it did not turn out well for the train.

Ghost Rider: Final Vengeance #2. “Vengeance is Mine” Written by Benjamin Percy and art by Danny Kim. Juan Ferreyra did the cover art. The Red Hood continues as the brand new Ghost Rider, who stole the Spirit of Vengeance from Johnny Blaze. This series is darker than before and I like it.

Kill Your Darlings #8. Story by Ethan S. Parker and Griffin Sheridan and art by Robert Quinn. This series has ended with this issue and I am glad it is done. I have not been a huge fan of this book over the last eight issues. This is one of the books that I started and basically finished because I wanted to be a completist. This does have a cool wrap-around cover, though.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #92

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April 19, 2024

So, this was a huge week of comics, because of the mysterious disappearance of the shipment from the previous week to Comic World. I had 38 books this week and that was just massive.

Because of the amount of books to read this week, I decided to split this week into two sections. I have a handful of books read right now, and then I will continue to read more to hopefully do another Comic Cavalcade prior to NEW COMIC BOOK DAY next Wednesday. That is the goal, at least.

It is amazing that it was just a few years ago that I only purchased Marvel Comics books. Now, I collect more independent comics than Marvel books. Marvel is still my favorite company, but I have gained a new respect for the stories created by talented creatives. Recently, I am starting to look through the catalogue of Dark Horse, which I have not paid enough attention to over the last year or so. There are some new books from DH this week that were fun.

Books this week, Part One:

Ms. Marvel #18. “Meanwhile in Wakanda” Written by G. Willow Wilson and art by Francesco Gaston. Nelson Blake II and Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. So this was, of course, not a book from this past week. It is one that I picked up on eBay. I have been inventorying the collection and I found that I was missing this issue of the Ms. Marvel series. I found it on eBay to fill in that volume. I do very much enjoy Ms. Marvel. More on her later.

Monsters are My Business #1. Written by Cullen Bunn and art by Patrick Piazzalunga. Piazzalunga with Marco Brakko did the cover art. One of the new Dark Horse books I was talking about, this was a lot of fun. Strange characters and some exciting monster action.

Uncanny Valley #1. Written by Tony Fleecs and art by Dave Wachter. Boom! Studios has been a huge company too recently, as some of the best books of the month are from this company. This starts off with a troubled kid who has some kind of mysterious background and a grandfather who turns out to be a… cartoon?

Cobra Commander #4. Written by Joshua Williamson and art by Andrea Milana. Milana & Annalisa Leoni did the art for the cover. The mini series in the Energon Universe continues as the leader of Cobra heads to his power. Cobra Commander is shown to be quite the bad ass here, and we get our first glimpse of Destro.

Sam and Twitch: Case Files #2. Written by Todd McFarlane with Jon Goff (co-plot) and art by Szymon Kudranski. Thaddeus Robeck and Mirko Colak did the cover art. Problems between partners and a suspension lead Max to get out of New York and help a former friend with a serial killer case in a small town. I like this detective series inside the Spawn universe.

Roxxon Presents Thor #1. “Hate is a Color Called …Green” Written by Al Ewing and penciled by Greg Land. This is bizarre. In the continuity of the Immortal Thor, Roxxon has gotten the rights to publish Thor comics and they have made Thor a joke. This is the comic that Roxxon published and it reads like a giant product placement for Roxxon and its products. It is a strange comic and a blip in the storyline from the main Thor book.

Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace #2. “Starstruck.” Written by Iman Vellani & Sabir Pirzada and art by Scott Godlewski. Carlos Gomez & Jesus Aburtov did the cover art. Co-written by the MCU’s Ms. Marvel herself, this book features Lila Cheney and Mojo. It is always fun with Mojo and his obsessive desire for ratings. I said how much I love Ms. Marvel earlier, and she continues to be awesome.

What If…?: Aliens #2. Part Two written by Hans Rodionoff & Leon Reiser with art by Guiu Vilanova. Phil Noto did the cover art. Like Iman Vellani in the previous book, this is another comic featuring a celebrity involved in the creative process with Paul Reiser. His son helped him develop the story and co-wrote this one. A great continuation of this What If story. I do miss the Watcher in these books, but this has been a ton of fun so far.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #19. “Retribution: Part 3” Written by Cody Ziglar and art from Federico Vicentini. Vicentini & Richard Isanove did the cover art. A serious throwdown between Miles and Rabble that leads to a final end to the story.

Invincible Iron Man #17. “The Price of Knowledge.” Written by Gerry Duggan and drawn by guest artist Patch Zircher. Kael Ngu did the cover art. Feilong and Tony Stark comes to blows, but Feilong has a problem. He has lost control of the Stark Sentinels. AI cannot be trusted. Iron Man has an unlikely ally arrive to help out… Magneto?

Blow Away #1. Written by Zac Thompson and illustrated by Nicola Izzo. Cover art is done by Annie Wu (Gold Medalist). Another cool new series from Boom! Studios. A photographer has some mysterious job, but she is distracted watching some mountain climbers. Strange things happen in this series and I am excited to see what is going on.

Fantastic Four #19. “The Perfect Storm” Written by Ryan North and art by Carlos Gomez. Cover art by Alex Ross (Bronze Medalist). This was an awesome black and white (with red) noir detective story with Alicia Masters as the detective. It was a strange story that would make sense eventually. I really have enjoyed Ryan North’s run on this book as he has told FF stories in different manners every month.

Amazing Spider-Man #47. Written by Zeb Wells and drawn by guest artist Todd Nauck. John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna & Marcio Menyz did the cover art. Ben Reilly is back as Chasm, reuniting with Hallows’ Eve. They are after Betty Bryant and Spider-Man has to protect her.

Spider-Boy #6. Written by Dan Slott. “The Man Upstairs” art by Paco Medina & Walden Wong and “So You’re a Humanimal” drawn by Julian Shaw. Bailey Briggs is fighting the humanimals of Madame Monstrosity, trying to save his friend, Christina Xu. He does not succeed.

Something Epic #9. Written and illustrated by Szymon Kudranski. In the investigation into the death of Sherlock Holmes leads Noa and her duck friend to Mount Olympus and Zeus, who has also disappeared. They head off to see Hades in the Underworld. The new arc is fascinating and, dare I say it, epic.

Spider-Woman #6. “Star Light, Star Bright, The First Star I Punch Tonight.” Written by Steve Foxe and art from Ig Guara. Leinil Francis Yu & Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. Star is after Jessica Drew and they fight on a train. The train doesn’t stand a chance.

The Displaced #3. “Chapter Three: Everyone Needs to Eat.” Written by Ed Brisson and illustrated by Luca Casalanguida. This is fast becoming one of my favorite books of the month. The story of the survivors of the city of Oshawa, Ontario which has vanished, keeps getting more dramatic every issue. The cracks in the survivors’ connection are starting to show. This is a great book from Boom! Studio.

Black Widow & Hawkeye #2. “Broken Arrow: Part 2” Written by Stephanie Phillips and drawn by Paolo Villanelli. Stephen Segovia and Jesus Aburtov did the cover art. Black Widow and her new symbiote are out to save a injured Hawkeye against an assassin after him.

Spectacular Spider-Men #2. “Arachnobatics Chapter #2: Community” Written by Greg Weisman and penciled by Humberto Ramos. Ramos & Edgar Delgado did the cover art. Peter and Miles take on Vermin in the sewers of NYC and spend time at their coffee shop. There is also a mystery dealing with a burnt body. Is it a clone? I love the interaction between Peter and Miles.

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of April 15

Last week, a shipment of comics heading to Comic World was lost in the mail. Only Image books came in last week. That meant that there was a MASSIVE amount of books this week. A large number to narrow down to just three medalists. It was a tough decision as I had about ten that I had in the finals, finally moving down to the top three. No Image this week.

Bronze Medalist

Fantastic Four #19

Cover art by Alex Ross

One of the greatest cover artists of all time received another medal this week as Alex Ross brings an awesome cover featuring Sue Storm in a very original looking issue.

Silver Medalist

Blue Book: 1947 #3

Cover Art by Michael Avon Oeming

Blue Book has been one of the consistently beautiful covers, using the colors of blue and black every issue. The Dark Horse comic does a lot with a little.

Gold Medalist

Blow Away #1

Cover art by Annie Wu

Brand new comic from Boom! Studios. Much like last week’s winner, Phantom Road, less on this cover is more. The beautiful blue ice makes this feel very special while the character is in the distance, showing on how much this character has to go through. It is a lovely piece of art.

A few honorable mentions this week considering I got 38 comics this week: Night People #2, Something Epic #9, Black Widow/Hawkeye #2, Spectacular Spider-Men #2, and Avengers: Twilight #5.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #91

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April 11, 2024

Well, yesterday was NEW COMIC BOOK DAY…sort of.

If you saw the EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week post on Wednesday, you know what happened. The new comics shipment to Comic World was lost in the mail. Last I heard they had no idea what had happened to the shipment and they were waiting on a replacement order. The only books that arrived were the DC and Image books. There are a very limited number of DC books that I get, so this week was going to be a down week for comic issues.

I did get a few Image books and so the 91st edition of the Comic Cavalcade will press on.

This actually worked out pretty well for me as Todd had picked up a bunch of Amazing Spider-Man back issues for me. I had told him that I was going to start filling out my ASM collection with issues that I was missing since I had gone through my Amazing Spider-Man box , reboarding and re-bagging them. This allowed me to see the issues that I already had, which had always been the hold back for me buying back issues. There was a time that Todd had thought that I did not like back issues, but that was never the case. I just was never sure what I had already owned. As my project to re-box, re-bag and re-board all the older comics, while inventorying the books on CLZ has been moving forward slowly, I knew what was missing in the ASM camp.

Todd did go a bit in depth with his search for these back issues and came back from Des Moines with a pile of books (41 in all) for me to buy over the next several months. Since I did not have much in the pull list this week with the great comic box disappearance (was this worse than the truck/fire thing from last year… probably not because no one died in this. More inconvenient than anything else), I intended on buying the whole lot. Todd wouldn’t let me.

I am not sure why, but he held back most of the higher priced ASM books he had and even went a far as to keep the books with him to prevent me from circling back and buying them from one of the others at Comic World. I guess I appreciate Todd’s zeal to protect my bank account.

Anyway, I have a large group of Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 issues mostly in the four hundreds, but a few lower. I do love Spider-Man and having these are really cool. I’ll get those other ASM books one day, though next week looks to be a double week, with the books from this week and the books from next week. Oy.

Here are the few sparse books this week:

The Last Mermaid #1-2. Written and drawn by Derek Kirk Kim. I actually got The Last Mermaid #2 last week, but I could not read it because I was waiting for #1 to come in. I had missed it and Todd picked it up for me in Des Moines, so I got the chance to read them this week and I loved these two books. Absolutely gorgeous art on the interior of the book. I loved the different shape of the book. I would not want every comic to be this size, but this make this series feel different and original. It was a fun little story of a wasteland future time with a mermaid in a mech-suit in search of usable water. This was some beautiful visual storytelling and I just loved what has been given to us so far. I actually gasped at the end of issue two. I am surprised how connected I am to this mermaid and her little axolotl companion after just a couple of issues. This is wonderful so far.

Rat City #1. Written by Erica Schultz and drawn by Ze Carlos. Cover art by Ze Carlos (Bronze Medalist). This is a book taking place in the future with a character that has lost his legs in his military service and has been given state-of-the-art prosthetics. This is connected to the multitude of new Spawn books coming too. Honestly, this was okay, but it did not grab me enough to want to continue to follow this story.

Napalm Lullaby #2. Written by Rick Remender and art by Bengal, who also did the cover art (Silver medalist). Unlike the previous book, I found this to be an awesome issue. In fact, this really picked up from an okay issue #1. I really dug the story of Sam and Sarah and their father and their beginning of a trek to kill the Magnificent leader.. which led them into…Heaven? I am in.

Phantom Road #10. “Billy Bear One” Written by Jeff Lemire and art by Gabriel H. Walta, who also did the cover art (Gold Medalist). This is the end of Book Two, but it was clearly not a end of this series. Very compelling books, kind of a mix between The Walking Dead and The Langoliers. Jeff Lemire is one of my favorite writers currently working today and I will read most everything that he writes.

Transformers #7. Written by Daniel Warren Johnson and art by Jorge Corona. Soundwave vs. Starscream. Oofta! Who is the leader of the Decepticons? And what is going on with Optimus Prime? This issue brings several questions to the front and keeps the momentum of this series moving on.

That’s it for new books this week. Next week is a huge week with the Marvel/Boom! Studios/Etc. from this week and everything from next. More Amazing Spider-Man? Who knows.

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of April 8

So we have a strange week this week. My comic shop had their new comics lost in the mail. No one knows what happened to it. The only books that came out this week were Image/DC. I had nothing from DC which meant this week’s comic cover medalists are out of five Image Comics. Next week will be a large one.

Bronze Medalist

Rat City #1

Cover art by Zé Carlos

I don’t know anything about this issue except that sure looks like Spawn on the cover. I picked it up as a curiosity and because I liked the cover. I am interested to see what it is about.

Silver Medalist

Napalm Lullaby #2

Cover art by Bengal

I like this cover quite a bit with this new title from Image. Love the background on this cover as our main protagonists stand in front. I love how everything around them seem to leap off the cover. The title stands out beautifully too.

Gold Medalist

Phantom Road #10

Cover art by Gabriel H. Walta

I love this cover. Truthfully, it is not as much the art of the cover that stands out, but the coloring. This green makes this such a compelling cover. You remember the color because you do not typically see something like this.

Congrats to the all-Image week.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #90

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It is Wrestlemania weekend, so the time has been limited. I had to squeeze some books in-between everything that was going on. I still wanted to get Comic Cavalcade #90 done and published.

Books this week:

Count Crowley: Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter #4. “The Mad Monster” Written by David Dastmalchian and art by Lukas Ketner. If you read last week’s Comic Cavalcade, you know that I actually read the trade paperback that included this issue because of a mix-up at eBay. I received the missing issue from this Dark Horse series this week.

Doctor Strange #14. “Cobolorum, Pt. 2” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Pasqual Ferry. Cover art by Alex Ross. The D & D-inspired Cobolorum is completed in this Doctor Strange issue and the interactions between Taskmaster, Black Cat, and Hunter’s Moon was one of the strongest part of this storyline.

Captain America #8. “Intermezzo, Part Two of Two” Written by J. Michael Straczynski and art by Carlos Magno. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. Lyra, sister of Asmoday, also known as Life, recruited Captain America. This pair of issues was not as strong as the previous part of this book.

Sensational She-Hulk #7. Written by Rainbow Rowell and drawn by Ig Guara. Jen Bartel did the cover art. She-Hulk is doubting her relationship with Jack of Hearts because of an old flame for Jack, Ganymede, who has shown up at the space retreat. Little does anyone know that her mission is to kill She-Hulk.

Man’s Best #1. Written by Pornsak Pichetshote and illustrated by Jesse Lonergan. Two dogs and a cat (dressed as a dog) are the center of this new series. There have been a plethora of dogs/cats/animals leading comics over the last few years. This is yet another interesting book.

Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin. Written by J.M. DeMatteis and art by Michael Sta. Maria. Paulo Siqueira & Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. This is another of the short series that fall into a previous time frame. This one goes a long way back to the early days of the Amazing Spider-Man. The most interesting part of this series was the interaction between Peter and his Aunt May in the days and weeks right after the loss of Ben.

Under York #1. Written by Sylvain Runberg and art art by Mirka Andolfo. This is an intriguing new Image Comic book involving magic and the underground world existing beneath New York. New characters and a fun start.

Deadpool #1. Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Rogê Antônio. Inhyuk Lee In did the cover art (Gold Medalist). New series for Deadpool and there is a new villain out there. And Deadpool feels a little heartbroken from a previous failed relationship.

Geiger #1. Written by Geoff Johns and art by Gary Frank. Cover art by Gary Frank & Brad Anderson. Part of the Ghost Machine universe from Image, Geiger returns to a new book. I really do love the design of this character and I find it very interesting a read. Some futuristic post apocalyptic action.

Rook Exodus #1. Written by Geoff Johns and art by Jason Fabok. Jason Fabok and Brad Anderson did the cover art. A second of the Ghost Machine universe and it was another fascinating book. Rook has a helmet that allows him to control birds and he has wound up on a planet after escaping from a dying earth. This was a great book and I am looking forward to seeing the book continue. Scary giant bear too. Stephen Colbert says that bears are the ultimate killing machine. This is a gigantic example of that.

Redcoat #1. Written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Bryan Hitch. Cover art is done by Bryan Hitch and Brad Anderson. This is my favorite of the three new Ghost Machine books. A cowardly BritI ish redcoat named Simon Pure has become immortal. I enjoyed this book a great deal.

Antarctica #10. Written by Simon Birks and art by Willi Roberts. Willi Roberts did the cover art (Silver Medalist). The finale of this series. This book wraps up with Hannah and her father face a deadly moment. This has been a very original run in a combo book from Top Cow and Image.

Void Rivals #8. Written by Robert Kirkman and art by Lorenzo De Felici. We get some background details about Solila’s past. Her past is coming back to haunt her… or maybe hunt her. Wait for that last page, it is a doozy.

Sam and Twitch: Case Files #1. Written and plotted by Todd McFarlane and Jon Goff. Art was by Szymon Kudranski. Cover art was done by Kevin Keane and Todd McFarlane (Bronze Medalist). A new book inside the Spawn’s Universe features Sam Burke and Maximilian “Twitch” Williams, a pair of detectives that do not necessarily follow the rules.

Ghostlore #9. Written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Leomacs. Cover art by Reiko Murakami and Jorge Coelho. Things go poorly for the people helping out Harmony. Shane has some deadly ideas going down. Harmony’s father reunites with her. Things are starting to fire up.

X-Men #33. “As the World Burns.” Written by Gerry Duggasn and art by Joshua Cassara. Joshua Cassara and GURU-eFX did the cover art. The X-Men are into the final battle with Orchis and they get some help from the X-Men of Doom.

Love Everlasting #14. “Acting Out of Love.” Written by Tom King and drawn by Elsa Charretier. We focus in on the Cowboy more and we find out who is behind the plans for Joan Peterson. It is her mother! This seems to be heading toward a finale, maybe?

Immortal Thor #9. “The Land of Lost Content” Written by Al Ewing and art by Ibraim Roberson. Cover art by Alex Ross. Skurge, Enchantress, Minotaur and.. Roxxon Comics?

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #4. “Hunter’s Moon.” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Alessandro Cappuccio. Cover art by Davide Paratore. Tigra and Hunter’s Moon are out to discover who this new Moon Knight is… and they learn the shocking truth.

Avengers #12. “Hit Back“. Written by Jed MacKay and art by Francesco Mortarino. Stuart Immonen did the cover art. After keeping out of it, Iron Man officially calls the Avenger into the conflict with Orchis, and they are executing it to a precise detail.

Other books this week: Minor Threats #1, Power Pack: Into the Storm #4, Grim #16, Deep Cuts #6, The One Hand #3, and Torpedo 1972 #2.

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of April 1 (no kidding)

Here we go with the best comic covers of this week. It is the week of April Fools Day but none of this is a joke.

Bronze Medalist

Sand and Twitch Case Files #1

Cover art by Kevin Keane and Todd McFarlane

The background characters from the Spawn universe have their own book and the pair of them standing before the darkness of Spawn and the red cape. The rain was a nice touch.

Silver Medalist

Antarctica #10

Cover by Willi Roberts

The finale of this Image book sports a beautiful cover with red and black tones. The form stands out as does the title in its vertical line.

Gold Medalist

Deadpool #1

Cover Art by Inhyuk Lee

Beautiful foil variant cover of the brand new Deadpool series. Is this the 90s? No because every fifth comic does not have a foil cover. It makes the ones we get all the more special. This is a stunning cover with the return of the Merc with a Mouth.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #89

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March 31, 2024

Happy Easter.

I’ve been picking up back issues on eBay and at Comic World quite a bit recently. It makes it easier to pick up back issues when I know what comics I already own. It is why my current process of cataloguing my comics on CLZ has been a great thing.

I had enough back issues available to warrant another EYG Comic Cavalcade, so after finishing and posting #88 yesterday, here comes post #89.

Monster Graphic Novel. Monster was a novel by Walter Dean Myers and it was adapted into the graphic novel format by Guy A. Sims. Art in the graphic novel was done by Dawud Anyabwile. I purchased this GN because of a new curriculum that we are looking at adding to my literacy class. The curriculum is HMH and it included this graphic novel in a unit. I purchased this hardcover version which was an old library copy as well as a soft cover version. I was actually reading this during down times as I was waiting to see if I would be selected for a jury. It is a story of a court case for a young boy who was accused of being the lookout in a robbery that led to a death. As the boy was on trial, he was picturing it as if he were making it into a movie. A very captivating read and very intriguing as I sat in the courthouse waiting to see if I had to do my civic duty (spoilers: I was not selected).

Groo the Wanderer #34-40. Written and drawn by EYG Hall of Famer Sergio Aragones. This was a run of the Marvel/Epic series featuring the classic klutzy barbarian. Yes, Groo can be repetitive. They take the same ten jokes or so and do so much with them. It’s why Sergio is such an amazing talent. When I had inventoried my Groo box, I had realized that I was missing more of that original Epic series than I had thought. This was some of the ones that I was missing. I absolutely love Groo.

Unknown Soldier #1-4. Written by Garth Ennis and art by Kilian Plunkett. Another character I loved when I was younger was DC Comics’ Unknown Soldier. I knew of this short series from DC’s Vertigo by Garth Ennis, but had never owned it. After coming across my Unknown Soldier books in my inventorying, I ordered this on eBay. This was very much different than the Unknown Soldier that I remembered, but every bit as thrilling and compelling. Setting the Soldier as more of a dark, morally-challenged character was smart and really worked in this context. I would recommend this to any fan of war stories/thrillers/mysteries. This would make a fantastic movie too.

Count Crowley: Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter trade paperback and issues #2,3. So this will take a little explanation. In yesterday’s Comic Cavalcade, I laid out the story of the first disappointment I had on eBay. This was actually a different kind of error from the site. I had ordered issue #4 of the original Count Crowley series. I had issues #1-3, and in fact, had included #1 in a previous Comic Cavalcade, but I was waiting to read the whole thing when I got the last missing issue. However, the seller who I had ordered #4 from did not send me #4, but, by accident, the trade paperback of all four combined (to be fair, they do share the same cover). I had contacted him about the error and he just said to keep the trade if I wanted. This was an error in my benefit, since I only paid like $3.99 for the trade paperback (yes, there was some shipping too). I went ahead and read the trade paperback, even though I am still waiting on a copy of issue four to complete my collection. This new horror book was written by David Dastmalchian (which is what attracted me to it in the first place), an actor who just starred in the excellent horror/found footage movie Late Night with the Devil. The art of the book was done by Lukas Ketner.

Count Crowley: Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter #1-2. The series by David Dastmalchian and Lukas Ketner continued where the original left off. There are werewolves, vampires, zombies (although called by a different name) and a host of a late night monster movie show. This has been a really creative and original concept and I look forward to the Dark Horse comic’s final two issues when they come out.

Marvel Chillers #5. “Cat and Mouse” Written by Tony Isabella and with art by Will Meugnot. Todd asked me if I wanted this book and the next one I’ll talk about. It was weird because both featured Tigra, who I like, but I was not a huge fan. I thought maybe Todd had mixed up Tigra with Hellcat, who I really do love. Truth, Tigra aka Greer Nelson was originally the Cat, the predecessor to Hellcat, so that might be what he was thinking. It looked like a cool addition to a collection so I said I would take it.

Spider-Woman #49. “Runaway.” Written by Ann Nocenti and penciled by Brian Postman. This was the other book Todd got for me that featured Tigra. This was in nice condition. A lot of times, these older back issues have paper inside that has faded from age. This story’s art inside still looked very good. This also had Jack Russell, Werewolf by Night in the book too.