5 Most Interesting Comics of the Week

Every Wednesday, I preview the 5 most interesting new comics hitting comic shops, Comixology, Kickstarter and the web. These aren't reviews, just brief highlights. If there's a release you're excited about, let's talk about it in the comments.

1. Something Terrible

By Dean Trippe
Self-published

Superhero comics are often labelled "escapist fantasy" but sometimes the therapeutic power of reading (and making) comics can be underestimated. In this incredibly personal comic, Something Terrible, Dean Trippe reveals his own struggle growing up as a victim of sexual abuse and how the stigma and the often cited statistics of abuse victims growing up to be abusers themselves had caused him to live with an invisible gun pointed at his own head for most of his life.

Trippe is one of the biggest fans of Batman (and the inherent goodness of the character, which often gets lost today) that I've ever met. He draws in an immaculate, kid-friendly style that is very much inspired by the look of Bruce Timm's Batman animated series from the '90s. In Something Terrible he recounts just how important the character of Batman and other fictional, heroic characters have been to him over the years as he tried to deal with his own dark secret.

This is a really moving comic that, in the span of just 14 pages, is both agonizing and triumphant. I can only imagine how difficult it was for Trippe to confront these memories through the act of making this comic. I can also imagine how helpful it could be for people who have been through a similar situation to read his account, especially when Trippe dispels the myth of the abuse cycle and shows how he himself has overcome it.

Trippe is selling Something Terrible for only 99¢ as downloadable PDF and CBZ files.

2. Fairy Tale Comics

Edited by Chris Duffy
First Second/Macmillan Books

For art fans, you can't beat the lineup on this new anthology: Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, Jillian Tamaki, Luke Pearson, Emily Carroll, Craig Thompson, David Mazzuchelli, Raina Telgemeier, Karl Kerschl, Emily Carroll, Vanessa Davis, and more. Also, that wonderfully fun cover by Eleanor Davis. A sequel of sorts to 2011's Nursery Rhyme Comics also published by First Second and edited by Chris Duffy, Fairy Tale Comics takes 17 classic fairy tales like "Hansel & Gretel" and "Little Red Riding Hood" as well as lesser known stories like "The Bremen Town Musicians" and "Give Me The Shudders" and lets the artists put their own spin on them.

Though it's hard to pick just one of these great cartoonists to highlight, it may be most noteworthy to call out the presence of David Mazzuchelli, who is contributing his first new comics work since his groundbreaking 2009 graphic novel Asterios Polyp. Mazzuchelli, who has proven in the past to be able to work in a variety of styles, channels early newspaper strips similar to Winsor McKay in his contribution, "Give Me The Shudders."

In addition, The Abominable Charles Christopher's Karl Kershl gets to draw animals in a different style than we've seen on his award-winning webcomic. Craig Thompson, fresh off his 700 page graphic novel Habibi, tackles an 11th century Spanish tale originally called "The King and His Story-teller." And Emily Carroll applies her rich, watercolor approach to an array of medieval costumes and gowns in The Brothers Grimm's "12 Dancing Princesses".

Read more about the book here and read some in depth interviews and reviews focusing on individual contributors like Emily Carroll, Gilbert Hernandez, David Mazzuchelli and Craig Thompson.

3. Fantomex Max #1

Written by Andrew Hope; art by Shawn Crystal; covers by Francisco Francavilla
Marvel Comics

It's hard to believe that the character Fantomex has been around for over 10 years now. Originally created by Grant Morrison during his run on New X-men in the early 2000s, he's gained more popularity in recent years thanks to being a team member of the popular Uncanny X-Force. He's now getting his own four-issue mini-series in Marvel's mature readers MAX line, which is a big moment in the spotlight for this character.

Fantomex is an anomaly in many ways. Not only are there not a whole lot of new characters getting their own books from DC or Marvel these days (or being created in the first place for that matter), but Fantomex's origin and character traits are just hard to explain. He was created by the Weapon Plus program (the same people who brought us Wolverine) as a result of impregnating a human woman with nano-machines, and was then raised in a synthetic micro-environment dubbed The World. He believes himself to be French and speaks with a "faux-French accent" (what that actually sounds like is up to the reader's imagination). He also believes himself to be a mutant although Weapon Plus created him to be a "super-sentinel" meant to kill mutants. His power is misdirection which means stories with Fantomex often involve events that may or may not be really happening to those who cross paths with him (including us readers). He's very Morrisonian in a lot of ways.

Derived from the Italian comic book and film character Diabolik and the early 20th century detective from French crime novels Fantômas, Fantomex is a fun, weird, stylish character with a growing cult following. This new series is a sexy, violent thriller with a '60s, secret agent vibe, as the cover by Francisco Francavilla suggests. Marvel's MAX line allows creators to go heavy on the violence, cursing and sexual situations, so expect plenty of that here.

Read an interview with artist Shawn Crystal including some preview pages.

4. In The Dark

Edited by Rachel Deering
Kickstarter

By the time this article is posted, In The Dark will have easily reached its Kickstarter goal with many days still to go. It doesn't take long to scroll through the main project page and realize that this is going to be a high quality horror anthology with a great lineup for writers and artists involved.

Rachel Deering is no stranger to horror or to Kickstarter. She writes a comic called Anathema which has three issues available through Comixology's Submit program and was originally funded through as successful Kickstarter. She was also a writer and letterer for the Womanthology project which was a huge crowd funding success a few years back. As the editor for this new anthology she has recruited an array of writers and artists that are all either new stars in the comics world (like Cullen Bunn, Paul Tobin, Tradd Moore, Tim Seely) or just on the cusp of stardom (Christopher Sebela, Andy Belanger, Christian Wildgoose, Thomas Boatwright).

At over 250 pages, this hardcover book will contain 20 short stories with each creative team telling the type of horror story they want to tell. Deering is a vocal cheerleader for horror in comics and with the rise in popularity of that genre in comics today, this Kickstarter is hitting a good time. In addition to the comics there will be a historical piece, about the rise and decline of horror comics from the EC days to today, written by historian Mike Howlett.

Although In The Dark will easily reach its funding goal and IDW Publishing is helping out with the printing and distribution, the creators are working on this with no money up front and any money that exceeds the goal will be divvied up among them.

5. The Witching Hour

By various
DC Vertigo

It's anthology week it seems. But wait, it's even another horror anthology. The Witching Hour is an 80 page one-shot published by DC's Vertigo line featuring 9 stories of supernatural "Vertigo-ness." The lineup for this one includes some big names like Kelly Sue Deconnick, Fables' Mark Buckingham, the highly underrated Tula Lotay and Emily Carroll (who we just mentioned in one of this week's other anthologies, Fairy Tale Comics). Perhaps most notable is a story called "Mars To Stay" illustrated by Cliff Chiang and written by Brett Lewis who we haven't seen enough in comics since his highly acclaimed mini-series The Winter Men about former decommissioned super humans in post-Cold War Russia.

There are some preview images here and Cliff Chiang recently posted a preview page from his story with Lewis here.