We ended up trying a fair amount of new series this year and liked most, so what we used for criteria here was--if we were to show up at both A to Z Comics and Green Brain Comics and come home with one of everything we've subscribed to, which would we want to read first. Listed in alphabetical order:
Abbott from Boom! Studios. A limited run series written by Seladin Ahmed and drawn by Sami Kivela.
Set in early 1970's Detroit with a strong female protagonist, the series combined journalism, with thoughts on gender and race, and oh yeah, there were also some supernatural forces just to make things even more exciting.
Aquaman from DC, beginning with issue 43. The first issue of a new run written by Kelly Sue DeConnick and drawn by Robson Rocha. A problem sometimes with reading authors and not series is that occasionally you'll jump to a series that's ongoing. In this case though, DeConnick starts it up from a point that one really never has had to read any prior Aquaman's to be able to jump in. Looking forward to more issues.
Black Hammer from Dark Horse. This is an entire stand-alone universe of new superheroes
created by Jeff Lemire. There is the title comic itself, but has also had a few titles of limited run series that spun off from the original, but are also penned by Lemire to help flesh out the universe without taking the time of the main story. Various artists on each title. Lemire is slowly building a universe that rivals all other comic universes.
Giant Days from Boom! Studios. Written by John Allison and drawn by Lissa Treiman and Max Sarin. What was once a self-published title, that was given a six issue limited run from Boom! is now in the middle of year four. Three wildly different girls meet up at the university level, become best friends and the stories go from there. Funny, poignant--it's obvious that Allison knows each of his characters very well.
Gideon Falls from Image Comics. Written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Andrea Sorrentino.
More of a horror comic than the others with a bit of a police story/detective line as well. It has a much higher creep factor than anything else I'mwe're reading now.
Knight & Beard from Open Field Studio. Written and drawn by Tara Kurtzhals and Sarah Bollinger. This due has created a fantasy series with a spitfire young female and a gentle giant that constantly find themselves in trouble (see, spitfire). A great tale of friendship and really catchy artwork as well.
Maneaters from Image Comics. Written by Chelsea Cain and drawn by Lea Miternique. Four
issues in and this is becoming one we nudge toward the top of the reading pile after getting home. The last issue, written as an issue of Cat Fight magazine was one of the best satirical pieces on gender issues that we've ever read.
Olivia Twist from Dark Horse's Berger Books. Written by Darin Strauss and drawn by Adam Dalva. A really exciting updated version of Oliver Twist. Modernized while keeping the best elements of the original story with some great art--this was an excellent limited run series.
Royal City from Image Comics. Written and drawn by Jeff Lemire. One of his quieter
efforts set in a small town in Canada. While we really like his bigger efforts, we love this type of series. A family rifled with dysfunction from dad down on to the youngest, in a town that's falling apart, made for an extremely compelling read month after month.
Strangers in Paradise XXV from Abstract Studios. Written and drawn by Terry Moore. While we really enjoyed Echo, Rachel Rising and Motor Girl, we were very excited to hear that Moore was going back to his SiP characters (not that he hasn't dragged some from that other trio of titles in as well). The first year back has been excellent.
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