Pregnant vampires, killer comic books, and the Max Rebo band
Comic Pilot Season 2023: The August 9th Roundup
This is the inaugural “pilot season” roundup, and seven words in, there’s an issue — comics are weird.
All the new comics for the week came out yesterday, Wednesday August 9th, as they do every Wednesday, on what is popularly known as New Comic Book Day (NCBD). Books come out on Wednesdays because stores get them on Tuesdays, and are not allowed to sell them until Wednesday. The nearly industry-wide standard for this is due to an essential monopoly on comic book distribution by one particular company.
Except not all comics come out on Wednesdays — confusingly to everyone involved, DC Comics (Superman, Batman, etc.) come out on Tuesdays. Even the “normal” Wednesday books that are supposed to be delivered on Tuesdays, sometimes don’t show up. Could be a publisher, printer, or delivery delay. It could also be that the name was incorrectly listed on that date, or it was a completely different book, or…
That’s just on the retailer side. On the customer side, I have to discover what the new books are through a melange of systems, including helpful retailers who put little “New Release!” signs on a shelf, a list of new releases that is updated from the same near-monopoly on a website that is not nearly as helpful as it believes, and social media posts from creators.
And that’s why I had to visit four different shops across 25 miles on the Wisconsin-Illinois border to find seven of nine new titles. The remaining two are victims of non-delivery and the even more complicated and frustrating phenomenon of induced-scarcity. UPDATE: I found the remaining two! It’s a comic book miracle.
It’s a mess. I’m hoping with these roundups that I can alleviate the stress of navigating this labyrinthian system to literally any degree, especially for folks who are new to it.
Let’s kick it off with our first Comic Pilots Scorecard. This is a quick-look at the new titles by publisher, along with their writer and artist credit, and the Pilot Season Comics recommendation.
Stealing from TV pilot statuses, the recommendations are:
Series Pickup — A rare recommendation, this means you should not only seek out the book, but grab it monthly from your local comic shop, or buy the trade as soon as it comes out.
Pilot Pickup — Grab the first issue and give it a shot.
Roll — Seek out issue #2 to decide whether to continue, or borrow it from a friend/local library when it’s eventually collected to see if you want to buy.
Pass — Not recommended unless you fit a very specific criteria.
Terminated — I really doubt this will ever come up, but this would be a flat out do not recommend.
I recommend this glossary for comics lingo if you’re unfamiliar.
Image Comics:
The Enfield Gang Massacre #1 | W: Chris Condon, A: Jacob Phillips | REC: Series Pickup
Oni Press:
Dwellings #1 | W/A: Jay Stephens | REC: Series Pickup
Dynamite Comics:
Vampirella/Dracula: Rage #1 | W: Christopher Priest, A: Christian Rosado | REC: Pilot Pickup
AWA Studios:
Madness #1 | W: J. Michael Straczynski, A: ACO | REC: Series Pickup
Boom! Studios:
Mech Cadets #1 | W: Greg Pak, A: Takeshi Miyazawa | REC: Pilot Pickup
Scout Comics:
Comic Books Kill #1 | W: Shane Berryhill, A: Hoyt Silva | REC: Roll
Marvel Comics:
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi — Max Rebo #1 | W: Daniel José Older, A: Paul Fry | REC: Pilot Pickup if you know who Max Rebo is
Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance Alpha #1 | W: Benjamin Percy, A: Geoff Shaw | REC: Pass unless you’re a big fan of these two motorcycle lovin’ fellas
Children of the Vault #1 | W: Deniz Camp, A: Luca Maresca | REC: Pass unless you’re a current X-Men reader
The Enfield Gang Massacre #1
Folks, we’re eating good tonight. This is an immediate 5-star green flag thumbs up high NPS recommendation from me. This is probably the best comic from this week, and it was already a pretty dang good one. Granted, I have a particular affinity for westerns. But Enfield Gang Massacre goes beyond putting “yet another” typical western story forward.
I have to start with the physical presentation itself. The pages are a rougher paper — you can feel the grit, and combined with the beige color, gives the whole book a vibe of being found in the back of a dusty local library or shuttered newspaper shop. This intentional dating continues with ads for $3.99 revolvers, wanted posters, and an entry from The Texas Record Issue 86, July 1996 describing the fictional background of the book you finished reading.
This is a cool gimmick, but wouldn’t be enough for me to give such a stellar recommendation if the art within from Jacob Phillips and the script from Chris Condon weren’t top-line work.
Pages painted primarily with hues of blue, yellow, or pink dominate the book, giving “settings” to each of the story beats — until the catalyst of the story hits, and suddenly all three colors come crashing together on the same page. Condon’s dialogue effuses a dialectic legitimacy even for side characters — their accents are never hackneyed, but identifiable, unique, and personifying. I can hear them on the page.
I will be adding this to my weekly subscriptions immediately, and seeking out That Texas Blood, the Enfield’s progenitor series. There’s probably a good reason why I couldn’t find this in any shops within several zip codes — it deserves to be sold out.
Dwellings #1
This was such a goofy book. I don’t tend to love hyper-cartoony styles like this — nothing wrong with it, it’s just not my cup of tea. But there was something so familiar about the cover of this one that I wasn’t able to place at first. It’s not Archie or Looney Tunes, nor newspaper strip style like Dennis the Menace or Family Circus. The horror tag should’ve clued me in, as this is a delightful play on something that, credit to its name, intentionally never was very spooky — Casper the Friendly Ghost.
It’s that buoyant, childlike style, except here, the innocence is offset by a Lovecraftian/Hitchcockian(?) horror. The protagonists are steeped in a darkness that seems to leak from their small town. And while horrific events continue unabated — a crow god instills murderous madness, a PHD candidate is ever-farther from completing their research — the town around them continues to be bright and bouncy. It’s an eerie juxtaposition. Even as I write about it, it makes me want to scratch the uncomfortable nostalgia that apparently lives on the back of my neck.
This is a limited run, just 3 issues total, and I can’t recommend it enough. Grab these while they’re in your local comic shop, or when it’s hopefully collected.
Vampirella/Dracula: Rage #1
You know those TV episodes where it’s mostly flashbacks to previous episodes? They exist to “catch you up” to what’s going to happen next, I assume in case you missed a previous episode. They feel archaic now, relics of an age of broadcasted television that could not be revisited at any given time. Comic books do this too. Sort of.
Vampirella/Dracula: Rage #1 serves this purpose, but in that special way that TV is not capable of (or perhaps, willing to); it’s something I only really see in comics. The plot is simple: Vampirella is a vampire (duh) who, after a dangerous labor, loses her baby, only to discover it was actually stolen by a cult of her baby’s father — Dracula.
This story is told second hand by Dracula while also flashing back to the context of how Vampirella came to be in this situation. These flashbacks are not heavily explained, which leads me to think it’s likely the “catch up” from writer Christopher Priest’s previous Vampirella run.
Sometimes these books bother me. It can feel like the real estate is spent on getting you up to speed instead of telling a new, contained story. All credit to Priest’s characterizations and artist Christian Rosado’s raw, harrowing style here — I loved this book. It did exactly what I assume it is meant to — I want to read more Vampirella, immediately.
Rosado is the MVP here. Their art grabbed me right away. It’s frenetic, shadowed, and soaked in pinks and maroons and reds against dark black lines. Their Vampirella is like a feral animal, ready to lunge at you for even daring to turn her page. I have no context for this story beyond what is contained within, and I don’t need it. I just want more.
I’ll be looking for Priest’s previous run in an omnibus, and will definitely be grabbing this if and when it is collected as a trade.
Madness #1
I loved this book. It has a familiar concept and elevator pitch, but the execution feels so personal, vibrant, and BIG. The panels are primarily tall or long, and not overly cluttered with speech or gutters. Splash pages are used with great purpose, truly making me stop turning to just live in it. Then, when the world is turned upside down - BAM, suddenly panels are everywhere. Shortened, interrupting each other, cluttered. This is so well executed.
The script is an interesting twist on a pitch that feels well worn at this point, sharing DNA with The Boys and Invincible among others. Here, the focus is less on the familiar power structures of the heroes, but instead on the idea of “supervillain.” This shift of perspective is emotional and shocking.
The MVP of this book has to go to Sal Cipriano on letters — the action lettering is superb. It’s used sparingly and to great effect, emphasizing the power of the moments in question. The conveyance of plot beats within the action lettering was particularly neat, literally focusing your attention to the sound of a moment more than the visual.
I rarely pursue #2’s anymore, preferring instead to wait for when they are collected, but The Madness is a deserved exception. I’ll be adding this to the pull list immediately.
Mech Cadets #1
I really enjoyed Mech Cadet Yu a few years back, but never finished the 12-issue series. Absolutely not for any particular reason — just got busy with other books. This happens when there’s literally thousands of new titles out every year. So I’m quite glad Mech Cadets got picked up by Netflix, so that we could get more from the new same-titled series!
Mech Cadets is an easy sell — it’s mechs fighting aliens, but make it cute. Takeshi Miyazawa’s robots are a little softer, Ian Herring’s color palette are little more pastel than say Pacific Rim or Evangelion. Greg Pak’s characters are instantly familiar, easy to understand, and deliberately youthful and naive. He continues to capture the voice and feeling of adolescents so well (check out The Princess Who Saved Herself).
This was fun! I’ll likely pick up the trade when it hits, and will definitely catch the Netflix adaptation.
Comic Books Kill #1
I’m a sucker for noir and 30’s era crime stories. It doesn’t take much — you put a guy in a cool hat hidden by the haze of his cigarette smoke and have him narrate his own failure against a backdrop of cultural crime and death? A perfect afternoon.
Comic Books Kill #1 has that and more, so I was surprised when it didn’t quite click. I found myself distracted by a lingering question — is this…based on something? The narration starts so boldly, discussing how comics were linked to the mafia thanks to bootlegging and Canadian printers. Then we see what is totally definitely not the offices of what will be DC Comics, and are introduced to characters named Joe, Jack, and Bob. These are not random, innocuous names — they conjure up legends of comics history, Jack Kirby, Joe Shuster, and Bob Kane.
Which is fine — homage is great, no complaints. But it felt so specific, that I couldn’t shake the feeling I was reading something biographical. But it certainly can’t be…right? And that distraction pulled me out of the story, away from the emotional core of the lead.
I like the concept a lot, but I’d need to see #2 before committing to anything.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi — Max Rebo #1
I love this little blue pachydermic weirdo. He plays space jazz piano with his feet, which are the only non-trunk appendages he has. What’s not to love?
I don’t have a lot to say about these Return of the Jedi one-shots — they’re not actually series, and perhaps shouldn’t count for pilot season. On the other hand, one-shots can be a great way to get into comics without feeling like you’re missing something. In this case, if you’ve seen Return of the Jedi, then you’re good. These stories are all about seeing the events of the movies from the perspective of “that guy back there.” I will never say nay to that idea.
Pick it up if you’re a fan of the movies, and be on the lookout for the inevitable collection of all the one-shots I’m assuming are coming down the pipe.
Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance Alpha #1
I need to have a chat about someone at Marvel about these titles. That is so inaccessible and scary to anyone not currently deep in the books. My confusion looks something like: Why Alpha? I assume that’s first then, but #1 should tell me that already. So…is it a different title from non-Alpha #1? Is the next book going to be Beta? Why am I doing this? Should I go home?
Rant aside, this was actually a pleasant little self-contained story. Wolverine and Ghost-Rider once fought each other because comics. And now, the reason they fought each other, is back. So they both get on motorcycles and go try to figure out what’s up. That’s an easy sell for me.
However…I have no clue if it’s actually self contained. It continues in Ghost Rider #17 and Wolverine #36, neither of which I am following. Was this preceded by something important? No clue. I won’t be pursuing 51 previous issues to find out.
I’ll wait for the next issues to hit Marvel Unlimited — while fun I wasn’t blown away.
Children of the Vault #1
This is a hard book to even talk about. Like a lot of Big Two comics, this is steeped in so much other lore it would take pages to even give context to what’s going on. I barely understood it, and that’s thanks largely to Twitter (sorry, X) letting me know what’s going on with the current X-Men (sorry, Twitter-Men) comics.
It’s not that it’s bad. It’s not — honestly, for this kind of story, I was surprised at how much I was able to glean (I was expecting zero). The art is fine, the writing is fine. There’s definitely a good thesis being presented about the promises of outsiders and the extraction of livelihood from the Global South. But…
Some things are for fans only, and this is one of them. This is not a jumping on point for any new-to-Marvel readers, and frankly, if you haven’t been following X-Men then I doubt you’re better off. I’ll wait for Marvel Unlimited on this one.
I hope you enjoyed the first iteration of Pilot Season Comics Weekly Roundup. This has been such a good way to get back into the swing of regular writing, and it forces me to actually read weekly comics with some haste (the backlog continues to haunt me). If you do pick up any of these books, definitely let me know what you think in the comments.
Go ahead and send this to a friend who you want to get into comics — hopefully they can stop by their local comic shop this weekend and pickup the book that will get them into comics.
Remember to subscribe to the Substack — these roundups will remain free. If you enjoy this concept and want to expand the number of books I’m able to get to every week, I’d appreciate if you upgraded to a paid subscription. Paid subscribers will get access to deeper dives into individual books, trades, and throwbacks.
Enjoy your weekend, and see you next NCBD!