Love Letters #6

Every month, every single month, there is gold in comics. I could do this blog every week and the same would be true. There are so many trustworthy creators, and so many awesome up-and-comers, that you could easily stumble into a new obsession at any moment. Famously, people have been saying that comics are dying since pretty much the time they first started publishing them, and there are plenty of people who will always say that they’re just not as good as they were back in whatever decade grumpy old men are fawning over this week. But don’t be fooled, it takes a minimum amount of effort to find gems all over the place right now, in every genre, from every publisher. Books that are telling stories that could only possibly be told in this way, and case in point... 

Absolute Martian Manhunter #1 

Writer: Deniz Camp Art: Javier Rodriguez 

Come on now. Some people are so ridiculously talented that it can feel frustratingly unfair, and this is a case where two of those types of people came together to write a book. The first of two issue 1’s from writer Deniz Camp this month I’m writing about, and I was so excited to see what all the hype around this book was about. Unsurprisingly, it delivers on every level. There is so much in here that could truly only work in comics, even putting aside the gimmick of the final page that plays with the actual format of comics themselves, the rest of the issue is something truly unique and completely surprising to see come out of a major comic book publisher. The simple pitch of the plot is that FBI agent John Jones is caught in an explosion at a coffee shop and comes out of the experience seeing strange colours and hearing the thoughts of people around him. It all ramps up as the issue moves along, permeating everything inside and outside of his mind. 

An incredibly well done issue that comes across as a true collaboration between writer and artist, nothing here could be nearly as good if they weren’t working in such harmony together. It’s gorgeous, not just becuase the art is staggering or the writing is tremendous, but because they’re also complementing each other so perfectly the entire time. Believe the hype, find yourself a copy of this book and get on board the train while you still can, losing your mind has never been so fun. 

Monkey Meat: The Summer Batch #1 

Writer and Artist: Juni Ba 

If there’s one thing the world could use right now, it’s a cannon blast of anti-capitalist, anti-corporation, anti-consumerist short stories by one of the most gorgeous artists doing it today. How nice then, of Juni Ba to deliver a sequel (kind-of) to 2022’s Monkey Meat, in the same anthology style as the original, and with the same levels of bite and ferociousness directed at our corporate controlled world. And oh man, it’s beautiful on newsprint paper, using a limited black, red and yellow colour palette that makes every page pop, accenting all the right areas and directing your eyes through the story. He does bring out some other colours for the darkly funny fake advertisements that break up the book, and they’re works of art in their own right. Monkey Meat is giving you something so real and clearly deeply heartfelt, showing true horrors presented satirically, in a way that isn’t so far away from a reality you could see us heading towards. If the revolution is a comic book, let it be this one. 

Dai Dark Vol 1-3 

Writer and Artist: Q Hayashida 

Gory, gruesome, violent, dark and most of all, fun! So much fun! Dai Dark is a dystopian sci-fi adventure, following the life of teenage boy Zaha Sanko, who’s just trying to survive in a universe where it’s been prophesised that having possession of his bones will grant you any wish. It’s a premise that leads to some dark and gruesome moments, but the humour of Dai Dark is what makes it a seriously good read. It’s never afraid to be irreverant, silly and goofy, and every time it strays down a darker, more serious path, it pulls itself back to a much lighter tone. The core cast so far being Zaha, his sentient backpack, his semi-sentient spaceship and (literal) Death, it’s able to set up horror themes, build up drama and tension, and pay it all off with absurd and funny conclusions. At the very least, it’ll leave you hungry for a Meapswich (a meatball-spaghetti sandwich, a.k.a “The Best Sandwich in the Galaxy!). 

Assorted Crisis Events #1 

Writer: Deniz Camp Artist: Eric Zawadzki Colorist: Jordie Belaire 

What a meal of a book. The second Deniz Camp book on the list this month, and let me just make a point out of what an incredible writer he’s become, his books are absolutely at must-buy status. Assorted Crisis Events is set in a vision of our world, where time is coming apart at the seams and “Atypical Temporal Phenomena” are causing the impossible and unbelievable to be common place, almost boring events. People appear (and disappear) from all over history and the future, city blocks disappear, replaced by prehistoric swampland, “people are born, grow old and die, but not always in that order” (we’re told, treated to a panel of a newborn baby bursting out of an old man’s chest). It’s insane, it shouldn’t work as a story, but it does, in an incredibly poignant way, because what it’s really trying to convey is the struggle that we’re all going through right now in real life. The world truly does seem upside down, and “unprecedented times” seem to be happening, well, all of the time, and like the people in Assorted Crisis Events who are just trying to get to work, it’s so easy to feel completely desensetised by all of it. This issue is about reality, and trying to decipher what could possibly be real in a world where nothing is off limits, and it sets up such a fertile playground to tell stories in that I’m starving for the next issue already. 

As a late addition, it also felt completely unfair to write such a block of text about Assorted Crisis Events and not mention the job the Eric Zawadzki did on art here. He packs so much detail into every page, most of the issue takes part in some kind of crowded setting, and he really lets loose on filling every one with all kinds of characters from throughout time that really make the premise of the book so believable. And despite doing such a great job with those zoomed out intricacies, it was his awesome use of facial expressions that wowed me the most on this one. Such an all around A+ effort.