Pick Of The Week: New Comics, But Which Do We Recommend?

Another new batch of comics came out this week from all corners of the comic book industry, but which three have we picked out to recommend to you?

Home Sick Pilots #2 (Image Comics)

Written by Dan Watters

Art by Caspar Wijngaard

Ever read a first issue and move on, only to read the second issue and wonder how you could’ve been so nonchalant? Home Sicks Pilots shouldn’t have had anything to prove after its first issue, but this second issue is even better. Basically, imagine Christine except, instead of a haunted car, Ami and her friends are dealing with a haunted house.

There’s more! While issue #1 introduced the idea that the house was looking for items that had been stolen off the property, issue #2 sees Ami encounter one of those objects and the ghost that possesses it.

It’s amazing how many variations Wijngaard can find on the series’ blue and pink color scheme and the character design work for the ghost, when it possesses someone, is story-based and wonderful. Watters has made the bond between the three friends Stand by Me level good, and whenever letterer Bidikar shades in one of the speech bubbles it’s always the perfect punctuation point or, in the case of one speech bubble, the perfect way of throwing what’s being said into question. The retrospective narration rocks and this series is going places. – Rachel Bellwoar

Future State: Justice League #1 (DC Comics)

Written by Joshua Williamson and Ram V

Art by Robson Rocha and Marcio Takara

Future State: Justice League #1 has some great fun with the readers with its turn-paging revelations that make this new title such a riveting read. If the story doesn’t grip you, the art most definitely will. Add to that a contrastingly dark story involving the Justice League Dark and you have another amazing new edition to the DCU.

And that’s before I’d even delved into Ram V and Marcio Takara’s take on a new-future Justice League Dark, also included in this bumper-sized issue and  equally as good, bit in very different ways. It’s a more gothic tale that contrast with teh brighter colours fo the future, but delivers on surprises too.

If one of DC Future State’s remits was to introduce new talents and new voices to us, then Future State: Justice League #1 succeeds on that front in spades. One issue in and I’m already a fan. A fan of this new Justice League of the future as well as fan of Robson Rocha’s artwork. I’m sold! – Olly MacNamee

Read the full review here.

Space Bastards #1 (Humanoids)

Written by Joe Aubrey and Eric Peterson

Art by Darick Robertson

Postal delivery across the known universe is a life-threatening job where only the toughest and wiliest survive. And new recruit, David S Proton, doesn’t seem to have either of these qualities. A loser in life, he’s taken on one of the most violent jobs in the galaxy, but is he up for the challenge? A brilliantly black-humoured space-romp with plenty of gore and more.

Originally put out as a crowdfunded graphic novel and now re-packaged as single issues, you don’t just have to be a fan of books like The Boys, but I think it helps. Tough, difficult-to-love central characters who have to either sink or swim in this fast-paced, you-snooze-you-lose, violence-prone universe dreamt up by the creators; by the end of this issue you will most definitely be rooting for new recruit David S. Proton. You may even fist-pump the air when you see what a transformation he has undertaken too. And in such a short time. Clearly a more formidable and intelligent character than the one we first meet at the start of this comic book, I found myself invested in him, and in the irresistible rascal Manny Corn too. 

A brash, ballsy book with a dark and satisfying humour running through it, with not one but two revelations at the end that should have you hungry for more.  – Olly MacNamee

Read the full review here.