Publisher Image Comics - Review

Phonogram: The Immaterial Girl 1

Phonogram continues to be the best comic about pop music that you’re ever likely to read.

AIRBOY # 1

James Robinson’s “Lt. Mary Sue” leaves readers undecided whether the authorial voice is self-deprecatingly charming, or egotistically smarmy.

The Wicked + The Divine 1 & 2

Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s new series conjures up the spirit of Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore at their best.

Sex 1

In comics, as alas too often in life, Sex isn’t all it’s cracked up to be…

The Bulletproof Coffin, unlike pretty much 95% of the routine soulless dross that hits the funnybook shelves every week, isn’t about nostalgia for trademarks and icons. David Hine and Shaky Kane don’t create to maintain the status quo; they have produced a work of wonder that recollects that feeling you had when you first read a comic, that wonder, that lunacy.

Witchdoctor 1

Our hero here is a mystical doctor, taking a pseudomedical approach to the supernatural, here dealing with the traditional possessed kid. He wears a white coat and talks about parasitical infection by demons, and comes accompanied by a paramedic and some sort of weird anaesthesiologist, a mystical girl.

Reed Gunter 1

This is a lighthearted fantasy cowboy strip, in which Reed and his companion bear have adventures. This issue a female rancher is having problems with a giant snake eating her cattle. It was originally self-published in B&W, but is now in full colour – apparently there are four issues to be reprinted, then it moves on to new material.

Super Dinosaur 1

I’m not sure that the writer’s name will attract the right audience to this: it’s aimed at a young audience, and it hits its target pretty well. It feels as much like an animated TV show as a comic, really, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes one before long.

Undying Love 1

This is an impressive debut issue. The mode is sort of Buffyish, a horror vampire adventure story, though without any of the humour, and for once the attempt to step into that peerless territory doesn’t make your heart sink.

Elephantmen: Man and Elephantman 1

This is kind of a fake #1, and it fooled me. It’s sort of #30, really (and next issue is #31), but at least they give you a decent text intro so you know where you are: with some human/animal (mostly not elephants) hybrids created for a war that has now ended, and these ex-soldiers are struggling for a place in human society. Well, apparently they are – we see only one crude sign of any prejudice, and plenty of success.

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Image Comics