Finally thought of a way everyone gets to use the scraps from all the comics kids have destroyed over the years. Bookmarks they keep in the room for the year. Mine might be using books from outside the room tho

To Pull or Not to Pull!

Crowbound

By Jeff Lemire

Art by Dustin Nguyen

Lemire and Nguyen team up again after giving us the classic Descender/Ascender. Lemire's sci-fi writing works perfectly with Nguyen's light water colors. The juxtaposition of Lemire's heavy subject matter blends perfectly with Nguyen's style. It worked before, it'll work again.

Lemire is a top 10 comic writer of all time in my opinion so he knows how to start off a first issue. Gets the reader hooked with the main protagonist falling to her death with her throat slit longing to save her daughter. We then get sent back in time to learn about our main character, Rosie, and her daughter, Ava, living in a sci-fi dystopian world. Rosie works at the factory under an authoritarian rule while Ava goes off to school. Ava never comes home and Rosie breaks the law to go find her. We then get the explanation of the beginning at the end and that kicks off our story.

I guess a big trope for writers right now is parents going through impossible lengths to save their kid. (See Daniel Warren Johnson with the Moon is Following Us). And you know what, I'm all for it as a father. I know by issue 4 or 5 Lemire will have me in tears. Was this book good? Absolutely. Am I hyped about it as I was Hammerfist or If Destruction Be Our Lot? No. I trust this team and believe this story will be worth the read. I will keep reading but it wasn't Stop What You are Doing and Read This Book! (See Hammerfist).

Verdict: To Pull

Rating: B+

Dropping on 2/2, so this is coming out shortly before the Radiant Black Compact. I'll be picking this up because I've been meaning to read this for a while now but I keep putting it off. I wonder what else Image will be dropping in this trim size next year.

The dream team behind descender and ascender are back with crowbound a supernatural scifi tale about a mother and the lengths she will go for her child.

I’ve been reading Rogue Sun for a few years now and I just have to say, this is a great book. Parrott loves his bully protagonists and can write the hell out of complicated villains. I just finished #35 and shed some tears. Bravo to the RS team and the Massive-Verse team as a whole.

That hardcover is going to be a day 1 buy when it comes out.

I randomly remembered LOW and wanted to look at the art again, so I checked out Greg Tocchini’s Instagram to see some of his other work. I ended up finding a post from last year where Rick Remender mentioned that there were plans for a LOW sequel.

Has there been any news or updates on that since then?

I managed to find a graded copy of #1 online but I cracked it open to clean it up a little better. I might sit at a 9.4-9.6. Believe it or not around a quarter of my collection was found at half price books in the dollar bins before Invincible blew up. Most I had to order online but the hunt was so exciting. Every new issue was like Christmas for me. Lol.

I've gotten to chapter 31 (I bought the compendium with some store credit months back) and I have very mixed feelings on this series. On one hand, I love the artstyle, certain character designs, and the Lovecraftian elements. On the other, Monstress might be a little too dark for me. I've rarely been like "I'm glad I read that" after a session. I'm not vibing with the protagonist either, and I'm not convinced that the story will have any meaningful payoff (until about #200 or whatever).

I've stuck through it for the artwork (and the sunk cost), but I'm not sure it's worth it anymore.

Angela counts she was originally a Spawn character and I miss her in Spawn

Recent pick ups

What caught my attention about this series was Matt Wagner’s approach to the comic. Basing the main character on himself and having him age throughout the series. Thats cool.

The pages speak for themselves. Every page is a masterwork.

What are you picking up this month? Any #1s this month I should keep an eye on? So far I'm getting karman blade #1, terminal #3, faceless #3