Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Artifacts, Comics, green wake, hack slash, haunt, image, Mark Millar, Witch Doctor

Ten Thoughts About Ten Image Comics – Artifacts, Godland, Green Wake, Hack Slash, Haunt, Mad Man, Monster Trucks, Tales From Beyond Science, Witch Doctor

What can I say, the arrival of DC Comics titles into the UK has been delayed this week. Not to worry, because I did get to look at all the Image titles…

Now, you know those "Previously On Buffy" one page summaries at the beginning of comic books to help new readers get up to speed? The one in Artifacts #12 just makes me more confused. And that's what I missed, on Artifacts.

Well this has been a while coming. But not to worry, because Godland #35 tells you to just start reading, which is far better. Clear, concise and incredibly imaginative storytelling, both self aware and yet devil may care. Continuity is rejected for a cool moment and a plot twist as cosmic forces do their stuff on macro and micro levels. The closest I can compare this comic is Grant Morrison and Richard Case's Doom Patrol, the way they combined sixties imagery and ideas with ultra modernist thinking, new ways to reinterpret the nostalgic. Thoroughly engaging with all sorts of artistic and storytelling tricks for your $2.99. Dazzling.

In Green Wake #8 there's a very nice early moment where the book talks about perspectives, and the reader is shown two groups of people. And there's an assumption that the voice is from one of them – when it could so easily be from the other. Rather neat that. Also, great use of hands…

If you don't know what to expect from Hack Slash #11 going in yet, then I pity yopu. Sex, violence and machinations to get from one to the other and back again. Even across multidimensions. Watch for the breast cutting sequence, I'm sure someone will want to turn that into a tattoo.

Talking about perspectives, Haunt #20 ia all about the perspective of one, okay, two men, sharing the same situation but from different view points, even when they are practically the same individual. And the viewpoint is one of an industrial alien planet, full of fanatical religious hierarchy. So, yes, one man with a super powered ghost inside him might be of interest to said folk. Depends on your perspective.

Pretty much everyone you like in comics has got something in the Madman 20th Anniversary volume out today. A massive collection of Madman stuff from Mike Allred, there's also work from Peter Bagge, John Byrne, Frank Miller, Frank Quitely, it seems neverending. So many people, and a figure who, in some ways, must always be alone…

Mice Templar #3.6 begins with a "Previously seen on" of length and complexity before moving onto a glossary of terms that lasts to columns before even thinking about the first panel. Yet it sets up a world so beautifully and engagingly, that the comic serves to colour in the details. And the shortness and squatness of the characters only emphases their actions as they leap into war. An excellent comic book, and this issue in particular is one that fans of 300 should love, without the latent homophobia.

I wrote about Shaky Kane's Monster Trucks back in August. I said it reminded me of A Very Hungry Caterpillar. It still does.

Tales From Beyond Science is probably the Mark Millar book you weren't expecting to read today. With Ryan Hughes, Alan MacKenzie and John Smith, the four created a series of 2000AD short stories that either 2000AD has no intention of reprinting – or doesn't have the full rights. Which is where Image Comics comes in . Say, I wonder if they could do something similar with Zenith?

In Witch Doctor: Resuscitation #1 it just becomes more and more obvious that this is House MD where MD stands for Magic Doctor. The same interstaff relationships are preserved, the structure, the attitude towards everybody, all encased in amber. It just has a little extra magic dust, to get rid of the various problems that stop doctors doing their jobs to maximum efficiency, such as, the patient getting in the way…

BAsed on this week's offerings, is there a publisher quite as diverse as Image Comics in their offering? Is there anyone close?

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