Talking animals, bad news in mask form, and an Earth trashed by a solar flare mark the three books we’re most interested in reading this week.
Regular Show #1 Currently, Regular Show is neck-and-neck with Adventure Time for the best allegedly-family-friendly show on Cartoon Network. It’s silly in character design and choices, but it’s also probably one of the more honest depictions of what it’s like to be in your early twenties and holding down a crappy job, which makes for an… interesting dynamic.
That the comics are in the hands of Boom!, specifically their Kaboom! line, is great news not least because Boom! knows how to make comics that feel like episodes of the show. K.C. Green of the webcomic Gunshow is a pretty inspired choice of writer, and we’ll be curious to see what this comic comes up with.
Dream Thief #1 If comic books have taught us anything, it’s that you never, ever, ever steal any mask, especially a mask from a culture poorly understood by white people, from a museum. If you’re really lucky, you’ll just be mistaken for a superhero and have to beat up some crooks.
Or if you’re really unlucky, you’ll be possessed by the spirits of the dead and used by them as a tool of vengeance while you sleep, and then get stuck with body disposal and covering up your crimes when you wake up. This is where John Lincoln winds up after he steals an Aboriginal mask.
So, yeah, you could say things start bad and they’ll likely get worse! Which is really just how we like our comics.
Doomsday.1 #1 If we’re being honest, John Byrne’s The High Ways wasn’t a fully cooked story: The motives of the antagonists weren’t 100% clear and why, precisely, Jimmy Cagney was pulling semis in space was never quite explained.
But this book has an unimpeachable concept: A bunch of astronauts see the world get hosed with a massive solar flare, only to realize, oh yeah, they’re going back whether they want to or not. That mix of SF and adult fear is potentially a great one, and if nothing else, Byrne will certainly make it… distinctive.
That’s our choice for this week: Check out the list for tomorrow and tell us yours.