You are in luck, my friend, as there are so many AMAZING comic books out this week that you could probably buy one at random and still get somethin’ snazzy! Still, my job as a Forbidden Planet columnist is to provide you with some professional perspective to guide the dart of your paycheck towards that big red bulls-eye of a great read. Please consider the following:
Too Much Coffee Man Omnibus, Shannon Wheeler (W/A), Dark Horse
Back in my day “Hipster” was called “Grunge” and there were several great comics out detailing the finer points of Grunge anthropology. Peter Bagge’s brilliant “Buddy” and “Hate” comics spring to mind, as does Shannon Wheeler’s Too Much Coffee Man.
Too Much Coffee Man is the café culture’s zeitgeist, an armchair super hero who worries about the universe’s gestalt while sipping mocha with his friends Too Much Expresso Man and Too Much German White Chocolate With Almonds Girl. Yes, really.
They don’t fight much crime, but they do ponder their place in the vast quandary that is human existence…and it’s really flippin’ funny! The TMCM Omnibus from Dark Horse collects a snot load of this good stuff for a cheap-oh price! Pick this book up and drop it on your lavatory cistern for easy retro-cool credibility.
Secret Society of Super Villains HC, Various (W/A), DC
When you’re done feeling all erudite and superior after that last book, bring it back to basics with this collection of Super-villains punching brightly colored dufi in their collected bread baskets!
Secret Society of Super Villains HC is a gorgeous, full color reprint edition of silver age comics featuring silly DC villains trying their darndest to get the upper hand on their good-guy foils. It will be weird, it will be stupid, it will be silly…but it sure won’t be boring!
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
There’s enough great books out this week that you’ll wonder if you’ve died and gone to comics heaven. Malinky Robot Collection: Stories and other Bits, by Sonny Liew and Image Comics, collects some smashing all-ages material from one of comics current hot artists! Meanwhile, Fear Itself Fearsome Four #3 reunites Wolverine, Spider-Man, The Hulk and Ghost-Rider as the Fantastic Four (which itself is a long story.) Sergio Aragones Funnies #2 from Bongo is sure to be hilarious and brilliant.
SO many good books…but if I could only recommend one this week? NO QUESTION, hands down, everybody should read this book:
WE3, Grant Morrison (W), Frank Quitely (A), Vertigo
Morrison and Quitely are our Lee and Kirby…they tell amazing stories together that blow the socks off most of what competing teams come up with.
WE3 is a deeply disturbing look at animal testing and the industrial military complex told through the filtered thoughts and dialog of a missing doggie, kitty and bunny who have been transformed into walking, indestructible battle tanks.
One of the best comics of the past ten years collected in hard cover with some new material. Slam Dunk, game over, best book of a week that offers MANY great books.
Sometimes it’s great to be a geek!
