This Week's Comics: May 9, 2018

Only one print comic book this month. Yowza. But it was at least a good one: IDW's The Highest House by Mike Carey and Peter Gross--the same team that brought us the brilliant The Unwritten 1 (among other things). The only bad thing about this book is that it's a limited series, and this is issue 4 of 6. 

Here are some of the good things:

(1) It's big. How big is it? Just look:

(And yes, I do keep a copy of Nexus #6 close at hand. Doesn't everybody? 1

(2) The art is beautiful, and Peter Gross really knows how to make use of the extra space this format affords him. The art reminds me a bit of Kaluta, but it's not really that much like MK. More the same sensibility.

(3) Mike Carey knows how to tell a story. He also knows what to leave out, which kind of amazed me in this issue. No spoilers here, but oh, this man can write.

(4) Mike Carey knows how to make you care about characters. Even the bit players matter to me here. No mean feat, that. 

(5) IDW seems bound and determined to put the best quality comic books out on the stands. When that's combined with quality work, it's  really impressive.



And on the digital front, I got and read the aforementioned Dungeons & Dragons Volume 1: Shadowplague from Comixology Unlimited, and liked it enough to get the rest of the "free" issues in the series--#6 through #15. And a 100 page Spectacular from January 2012 as well. And so far it's all been between good to very good. In fact, the only disappointment to date has been a story in the Spectacular that was written by R. A. Salvatore, of whom I expected great things and only got meh things. But big picture: I have really enjoyed these books so far--especially the humorous asides and the messing around with conventional storytelling. So I'm going to find me some more, even if I have to pay for it. More news as it happens. 




1  I am really going to have to go back and re-read that series. Matter of fact . . . hold on for a minute. There. Book One of The Deluxe Edition (which contains issues 1 through 12, aka 1 -2 of the trade paperback edition . . . which I mention only because apparently DC crapped out and will not be releasing any more hardcover versions, so there's that. I have a lot of the single issues in my basement, but I really like reading the collected editions, so I might just see if the library can carry me through to the end of this. Assuming I don't poop out on it. But I remember being quite thrilled with it the first time around, and it has been a while since I swam in those waters.

2  It's hard to believe this book is 34 years old. I've re-read it a bunch of times, and to this day it stands as one of my all time favorite books . . . and the only comic book I know of which successfully combines philosophical musings, humor, and full frontal action. It's also my vote for Best Use of The Badger character ever. And that's no small thing in my book.