One quirk of a quality Comic is the use of timed “hiatuses” for the author and artists to catch up, take time out and re-energize, SAGA is one that frequently takes breaks, and in fact has been in one since November of last year. So maddening to wait for the months to pass, so I was beside myself when it was announced that the comic was coming back after a 4 month hiatus! It was on the way to the comic store to see if the latest issue had finally come in, where I ran into an old friend who, after hearing how excited I was for Saga’s return, highly recommended a new series called THE WICKED AND THE DIVINE.
She explained that it followed these 12 Gods who come down
to Earth every 90 years in human form. Intrigued, I told her I’d check it out,
and when I picked it up, I found a beautifully illustrated, stylish series that
in fact reminded me a LOT of Neil Gaiman’s own Sandman “Endless” Characters:
Godlike beings wearing the forms of and mingling among the mere mortals of
Earth, taking care of business for two years before they all disappear once
again. I LOVED IT!
With both The
Wicked and the Divine AND Saga being published by Image Comics, I was naturally
curious when I saw that a brand NEW Image series had JUST started, a very
artistic and post-punky strip called THEY’RE NOT LIKE US, about a group of
eccentric super-powered teenagers holed up in a luxurious mansion where they
view the rest of the world with contempt even as they go about reshaping our
world for the (supposed) better. Such great writing and a likeable main
character, after two issues, I realized I had found yet ANOTHER great comic to
pick up each month!!!
Being so impressed with how terrific these Image Comics
series were, I began checking out what other titles the publisher had that I
might be interested in, and found a few new series that had just published
collected trade paperbacks of their first few story arcs, and I picked THESE
all up, too!
One was called THE FUSE and the other was called LAZARUS. FUSE followed the murder cases covered by two detectives (one, a seasoned and very kick-ass veteran detective woman named Ristovych, and the other a new by-the-book man named Dietrich) working homicide in a futuristic space station. The Trade paperback I picked up collected issues 1-6 of this series, and as its now only up to issue 11, it won’t take long to catch up!
LAZARUS is the story set in a futuristic society where powerful families run the various towns and each family has one member assigned as their “Lazarus”: a person with the duty of the bodyguard/enforcer/battle agent- Besides weapon and tactical strength and knowledge, this chosen one ALSO has the ability to revive after Death!! The series focuses on one particular family, the Carlyles and their Lazarus, the beautiful and deadly “Forever” Carlyle.
Man, I’ve always regarded Image Comics as a really
“Super-Heroey” line of comics, and with the first titles that I first knew from
them, like GEN13, SAVAGE DRAGON, SPAWN and INVINCIBLE, that kind of makes
sense, but boy, ever since “The Walking Dead”, they have become (to me) the
forefront in fresh and innovative tales! With all of these new titles to read
and enjoy, it is a new comic collecting renaissance for me!!!
