Photo by Christopher Butcher

Want to try reading comics? Don’t know where to start? Want to try something different?

Wednesday is New Comics Day! Each week, The Comics Observer spotlights up to three brand new releases worthy of your consideration. Sometimes we list more on really good weeks. All of these have been carefully selected as best bets for someone who has never read comic books, graphic novels or manga before. They each highlight the variety and creativity being produced today. These are also great for those that haven’t read comics in awhile or regular readers looking to try something new.

While we can’t guarantee you’ll like what we’ve picked, we truly believe there’s a comic for everyone. If you like the images and descriptions below, click the links to see previews and learn more about them. You can often buy straight from the publishers or creators. If not, head over to your local comic book store, check out online retailers like Things From Another World and Amazon, or download a copy at comiXology, or the comics and graphic novels sections of the Kindle Store or NOOK store. Let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook.

For a full list of this week’s new releases, see comiXology, ComicList.com and PREVIEWSworld.

(Please note these aren’t reviews. Recommendations are based on pre-release buzz, previews, and The Comics Observer‘s patented crystal ball. Product descriptions provided by publisher.)

Miles Away by Anthony Montgomery, Brandon Easton and Jeff Stokely

Miles Away
Written by Anthony Montgomery and Brandon Easton
Illustrated by Jeff Stokely
Published by Antarctic Press
Genre: Action/Adventure
Ages: 12+
128 pages

Created by hyperspace heartthrob Anthony Montgomery (Star Trek: Enterprise), and co-written by Brandon Easton (WB’s new Thundercats series), Miles Away is an epic action adventure about Maxwell Miles, a shy, teenage orphan with super-photographic reflexes. Max’s already odd life goes beyond Twilight Zone territory when he encounters alien refugees who involve him in an interstellar war connected to his family’s dark past! Aided by remarkable companions, young Max battles evil entities on two worlds: Future Earth and Ro-Twyla!

16-year-old Maxwell Miles is like most teenagers – full of questions and insecurities. For ten years, one question has haunted him: “Why did I lose so much, so early in my life?” With both parents disappearing under mysterious circumstances and a guardian who doles out vague and limited information, Max’s thirst for knowledge is rarely quenched. Unlike most teenagers, Max develops a superhuman ability, he is enlisted by a shadowy organization to battle evil around the globe, he allies with two aliens on the run, he saves their planet from destruction, he prevents an alien invasion and he has to maintain a solid grade point average despite having the laziest study partner on Earth. Max learns the hard way that some questions should never be asked because the truth hurts much more than curiosity.

Kinski by Gabriel Hardman

Kinski
Written and illustrated by Gabriel Hardman
Published by MonkeyBrain Comics
Genre: Comedy
Ages: 12+
23 pages
$0.99 (digital only)

Frustrated with his dead end career as a chicken feed rep, Joe is looking for something. Turns out that “something” is a four-month-old black lab puppy named Kinski. Joe is going to save this dog. What at first seems like a simple rescue mission escalates into a righteous crusade…but crusades don’t usually work out so well, do they?

Kinski is written and drawn by Gabriel Hardman, the illustrator/cartoonist on Hulk and Agents of Atlas for Marvel, and the original graphic novel Heathentown from Image/Shadowline. He is also a storyboard artist for movies such as Inception, Tropic Thunder, and X-Men 2.

Strange Attractors by Charles Soule and Greg Scott

Strange Attractors
Written by Charles Soule
Illustrated by Greg Scott
Published by Archaia Entertainment
Genre: Science Fiction
Ages: 14+
128 pages
$19.95

The City is an Engine. Heller Wilson has found the key.

From acclaimed writer Charles Soule (27, Strongman, Swamp Thing) comes a mathematical thriller about Chaos, Probability, and the race to stop a citywide disaster.

In 1978, Dr. Spencer Brownfield saved New York City from itself, bringing the city back from the verge of collapse and ruin. And for thirty years, his small, unnoticed adjustments to the city’s systems have kept the city afloat. Or so he claims to Heller Wilson, a young graduate student that Dr. Brownfield has chosen as his successor. But are Dr. Brownfield’s claims about The Butterfly Effect and how his “complexity math” apply to the city’s patterns of life real, or are they the ravings of a man broken by the death of his wife and daughter, desperate to find some kind of control over the world around him?

Part sci-fi, part philosophical exploration, part thriller, Strange Attractors examines what you can control in your life and what you can’t, and how important it is to recognize the difference.

The Dream Merchant by Nathan Edmondson and Konstantin Novosadov

The Dream Merchant #1 (of 6)
Written by Nathan Edmondson
Illustrated by Konstantin Novosadov
Published by Image Comics
Genre: Science Fiction
Ages: 16+
64 pages
$3.50

Haunted by recurring dreams, a boy named Winslow is hunted by mysterious beings and protected by an old traveler. Soon Winslow will realize that what is in his dreams is what the rest of the world has been made to forget — and what strange entities will stop at nothing to erase from his mind.

A double-size issue to kick off a new sci-fi series from Nathan Edmondson and newcomer Konstantin Novosadov.

All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely

So far in this here column, I’ve touched on superheroes and appreciating comics’ history – so, it seemed only inevitable that I got down to focusing on the Man of Steel himself.

Inevitable, yeah, but the truth is, I’ve been putting this particular edition off. See, I’d never really read Superman till fairly recently, which isn’t really a problem, but … hoo boy. Look, this is kind of embarrassing to admit, so I’ll just come out and say it. I was one of those guys.

That’s right: I used to think Superman was boring.

Goody two-shoes
But let’s be honest here: Chances are, plenty of you have been one of those guys too. “Superman’s too much of a boy scout. He’s not relevant in today’s world. He’s just sooooo dull!” I’ve heard ‘em all before because, at one point, I used to spew them all myself.

It was an easy thing to do when you were a kid in the 90s, a time when it was soooo cool to be angsty and we demanded that our characters had to be more “grim and gritty” (whatever the hell that means). And it didn’t help that everyone else I knew felt that way too. As filmmaker Max Landis put it in his short film The Death and Return of Superman, “Nobody gave a [redacted] about Superman.” I mean, yeah, we all looked back fondly on the Richard Donner films, but that was it.

But that all changed for me in 2009. I started to give a [redacted] – and indirectly, it was because of the Fantastic Four.

Writer of steel
Mark Waid is an incredible author of comics like Kingdom Come, as well as the scribed of widely popular runs on The Flash, Daredevil and Fantastic Four.

That last book, in particular, was why I attended his 2009 writers’ festival talk in Singapore. I was a huge fan of his take on Marvel’s first family (with the late, great artist Mike Wieringo) and I just wanted to meet the guy, shake his hand and thank him.

Mark Waid

So, I sat in for his talk and that’s when I discovered he was a big Superman guy. No, wait. Scratch that. Mark Waid was the biggest Superman fan I’d ever met. Ever. I’d say a good 75% of his talk that day was about why Superman was the greatest superhero ever. And while I wasn’t a convert that day, my interest was certainly piqued.

The first Superman comic that I actually purchased was All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. It was a colorful, sometimes hokey, but always fun book that first introduced me to what I’ve come to realize is one of the defining traits of the character. But I’ll get to that later.

Anyway, I still didn’t give big blue much thought again after All-Star Superman, not till last December

The reading list
I was making my annual list of resolutions that I was inevitably probably going to break and for some reason, I thought, what the heck. Let’s give Superman the proper shake he deserves. I mean, I wasn’t an angsty little kid any more and his message of hope kind of stuck with me. Ah, but where to start?

So, I turned to a couple of friends who’re pretty big Superman fans. (They’re no Mark Waids, but they’d do just fine.) They eagerly handed me a reading list of what they felt were good Superman comics for a novice like me and I was off.

Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid & Leinil Francis Yu

“An ideal to strive towards.”
When I finally found some of those comics, I sat down and read them. And I reread them. And I went out and looked for more. And I read those too.

And truth be told, I’m mostly done with that reading list, but I’m already looking for even more. Because that defining trait I mentioned earlier? In the very best Superman stories out there, that trait shines like a beacon.

Books like Waid and Leinil Yu’s Superman: Birthright or Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen’s Secret Identity – the one thing that they have in common is that they show you why Superman, the oldest superhero around, was the first of many.

Because when you’re an angsty kid, you don’t consider it. That there had to be a reason he endured all this time. And, finally, I figured it out. His greatest defining trait? It’s something that many of my favorite heroes have reflected in some form or another since the last son of Krypton crash landed on earth.

That trait is hope.

And, if you ask me now, there’s nothing boring about that.

Wayne Rée’s been writing professionally for about ten years. He’s worked in everything from advertising to publishing, and was even part of the team that created Singapore’s very first tattoo magazine. He dabbles in screenwriting and photography, travels way too much, and is currently putting together his very first short story collection. He blogs about his upcoming book, storytelling and other things at http://waynereewrites.com.

World of Archie Double Digest #26

The Reggicization of Betty: A Review of “Sue Sue Baby” from World of Archie Double Digest #26

Fabulously drawn by Dan DeCarlo, this story takes on the thorny issues of sex and rivalry and, to a lesser degree, living in a litigious society.

As usual, Betty and Reggie are stuck playing second fiddle when Archie lacks sufficient funds to take Veronica out. Today, Betty appears to take the doormat approach — “you can get sweet music from a second fiddle,” she muses — but soon the reader comes to witness an undercurrent of resentment that leads to Betty’s moral downfall. Reggie, the lonely egoist who lacks true friends, his own worst enemy, here, makes the most unlikely alliance with the usually-purehearted Betty.

Archie, Veronica and Betty meet on a sidewalk in their suburban neighborhood. As Archie and Veronica simmer in sexual frustration due to Archie’s money problems, Reggie runs Archie down with his skateboard. In a moment of homoerotic subtext, Archie lies prone on the sidewalk due to Reggie’s machinations. Veronica seizes the opportunity to threaten Reggie with a frivolous lawsuit, claiming Archie is badly injured and demanding $100,000 in damages. Reggie, alerted to her motives by Betty, offers Veronica passes to a disco, and Archie bolts from his prone position on the sidewalk, accepting the settlement. As he and Veronica race toward the disco like itchy lovers racing for cheap hotel room, Betty and Reggie share a wicked laugh. Turns out the disco is no longer in business, and that the reader has just witnessed a rare moment of partnership-in-crime between these two unrequited lovers, an act which could well threaten the psychosexual dynamics of the group. Perhaps for the very first time, the reader can picture Betty and Reggie finding some quiet spot to vent their sexual frustration in a forbidden liaison, the mean jock bedding the virtuous heroine. Such irony — there is, in fact, a little bit of Reggie in Betty.

Some may have misgivings about this development, but I was pleased to see Betty fed up enough with being used by Archie to ally herself with Reggie in foiling their plans. To see Betty’s darker self reflected in Reggie’s black eyes is exciting to behold, and I’m hopeful this relationship dynamic will be further explored.

“Sue Sue Baby” originally appeared in Archie’s Girls Betty and Veronica #159, March 1969.

Maria St. John is the byline of a published writer and performer hailing from the East Coast and currently living in northern Los Angeles County. She has been overthinking Archie Comics since the age of 7.

Photo by Christopher Butcher

Want to try reading comics? Don’t know where to start? Want to try something different?

Wednesday is New Comics Day! Each week, The Comics Observer spotlights up to three brand new releases worthy of your consideration. Sometimes we list more on really good weeks. All of these have been carefully selected as best bets for someone who has never read comic books, graphic novels or manga before. They each highlight the variety and creativity being produced today. These are also great for those that haven’t read comics in awhile or regular readers looking to try something new.

While we can’t guarantee you’ll like what we’ve picked, we truly believe there’s a comic for everyone. If you like the images and descriptions below, click the links to see previews and learn more about them. You can often buy straight from the publishers or creators. If not, head over to your local comic book store, check out online retailers like Things From Another World and Amazon, or download a copy at comiXology, or the comics and graphic novels sections of the Kindle Store or NOOK store. Let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook.

For a full list of this week’s new releases, see comiXology, ComicList.com and PREVIEWSworld.

(Please note these aren’t reviews. Recommendations are based on pre-release buzz, previews, and The Comics Observer‘s patented crystal ball. Product descriptions provided by publisher.)

Benny Breakiron in The Red Taxis by Peyo

Benny Breakiron Vol. 1: The Red Taxis
Written and illustrated by Peyo
Published by Papercutz
Genre: Humor, Adventure
Ages: 7+
64 pages
$11.99

Benny Breakiron is an honest, polite little boy with an an exceptional quality: he possesses superhuman strength, can leap over huge distances, and can run unbelievably fast! This little kid packs quite a punch, and he devotes his play time to stopping crime and injustice.

In this first volume, a new taxi service has moved into Benny’s town threatening to put Benny’s friend, taxi driver Mr. Dussiflard, out of business. The more Benny learns about the Red Taxi Company, the more he realizes something isn’t right. Who’s behind this mysterious enterprise, and just what are they up to? Benny aims to find out and put a stop to it once and for all, and hopefully keep the property damage to a minimum!

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks

Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong
Written by Prudence Shen
Illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks
Published by First Second Books
Genre: Young Adult
Ages: 12+
288 pages
$16.99

You wouldn’t expect Nate and Charlie to be friends. Charlie’s the laid-back captain of the basketball team, and Nate is the neurotic, scheming president of the robotics club. But they are friends, however unlikely—until Nate declares war on the cheerleaders. At stake is funding that will either cover a robotics competition or new cheerleading uniforms—but not both.

It’s only going to get worse: after both parties are stripped of their funding on grounds of abominable misbehavior, Nate enrolls the club’s robot in a battlebot competition in a desperate bid for prize money. Bad sportsmanship? Sure. Chainsaws? Why not. Running away from home on Thanksgiving to illicitly enter a televised robot death match? Of course!

In Faith Erin Hicks’ and Prudence Shen’s world of high school class warfare and robot death matches, Nothing can possibly go wrong.

Will & Whit by Laura Lee Gulledge

Will & Whit
Written and illustrated by Laura Lee Gulledge
Published by Amulet Books
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Ages: 12+
192 pages
$12.95

Wilhelmina “Will” Huxstep is a creative soul struggling to come to terms with a family tragedy. She crafts whimsical lamps, in part to deal with her fear of the dark. As she wraps up another summer in her mountain town, she longs for unplugged adventures with her fellow creative friends, Autumn, Noel, and Reese. Little does she know that she will get her wish in the form of an arts carnival and a blackout, courtesy of a hurricane named Whitney, which forces Will to face her fear of darkness.

Laura Lee Gulledge’s signature visual metaphors will be on full display in this all-new graphic novel, a moving look at shedding light on the dark corners of life.

Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes by Matt Kindt

Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes
Written and illustrated by Matt Kindt
Published by First Second Books
Genre: Crime
Ages: 14+
272 pages

Welcome to the city of Red Wheelbarrow, where the world’s greatest detective has yet to meet the crime he can’t solve—every criminal in Red Wheelbarrow is caught and convicted thanks to Detective Gould’s brilliant mind and cutting-edge spy technology.

But lately there has been a rash of crimes so eccentric and random that even Detective Gould is stumped. Will he discover the connection between the compulsive chair thief, the novelist who uses purloined street signs to write her magnum opus, and the photographer who secretly documents peoples’ most anguished personal moments? Or will Detective Gould finally meet his match?

Matt Kindt operates with wit and perception in the genre of hard-boiled crime fiction. Red Handed owes as much to Paul Auster as Dashiell Hammett, and raises some genuinely sticky questions about human nature.

You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack by Tom Gauld

You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack
Written and illustrated by Tom Gauld
Published by Drawn and Quarterly
Genre: Humor
Ages: 14+
160 pages
$19.95

A new collection from The Guardian and New York Times Magazine cartoonist

New York Times Magazine cartoonist Tom Gauld follows up his widely praised graphic novel Goliath with You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, a collection of cartoons made for The Guardian. Over the past eight years, Gauld has produced a weekly cartoon for the Saturday Review section of Britain’s most well regarded newspaper. Only a handful of comics from this huge and hilarious body of work have ever been printed in North America – exclusively within the pages of the prestigious Believer magazine.

You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack distils perfectly Gauld’s dark humor, impeccable timing, and distinctive style. Arrests by the fiction police and fictional towns designed by Tom Waits intermingle hilariously with piercing observations about human behavior and whimsical imaginings of the future. Again and again, Tom Gauld reaffirms his position as a first rank cartoonist, creating work infused with a deep understanding of both literary and cartoon history.

Good Riddance by Cynthia Copeland

Good Riddance
Written and illustrated by Cynthia Copeland
Published by Abrams ComicArts
Genre: Memoir
Ages: 16+
224 pages
$17.95

When you think you live in a Norman Rockwell painting—married 18 years, three kids, beautiful old house in the country, successful career as a writer—you don’t expect there’s another side to the canvas. Until you read a lovesick e-mail to your husband… that didn’t come from you!

Good Riddance is an honest and funny graphic memoir about suffering through and surviving divorce. Cynthia Copeland chronicles the deep pain, confusion, awkwardness, and breakthroughs she experiences in the “new normal” as a wife who’s been deceived, a mom who’s now single, a divorcée who’s dating, and a woman who’s on her own figuring out what she truly wants from her life. Copeland tells her story with an emotional candor and spot-on humor that makes Good Riddance poignant, painful, and hilarious all at once.

For some more info on the making of this video, see CoreyBlake.com.

ComicKick

This month we take a look at three very dark stories that are up right now on crowd funding pages. A fallen angel, a forgotten hero, and a frozen world are all seeking publication funds with your help.

Romulus + Remus

There are invisible lines that govern this world. Lines between hero and villain, mythology and history, old world and new. What would happen if the lines blurred and the sides become indistinguishable? Writer/artist Scott A. Ford asks this question with his new action/horror series Romulus + Remus. The series centers around the concrete angel named Roman who has been on the run ever since he fell to Earth. As his past catches up with him he discovers the demons he must fight are internal as well as external.

Romulus + Remus issue 2 by Scott A. Ford

Ford has been working on this series, his first, since 2009. “Early in the development process I became fascinated with Ancient Roman society and religion,” Ford said. “It was a huge creative revelation for me to see Ancient Rome as this incredible threshold between so many big ideas, namely: Greek mythology and Christianity, old world and modern society. I already knew that I wanted to deal with duality as the central concept, so the symbolism of ancient Rome fit in perfectly and helped expand on the idea.”

One of the key themes Ford plays with is ancient vs. modern. He goes on to talk about taking these old world concepts into the world of today. “Bringing it into a modern setting (perhaps ambiguously modern at first) was important to show that the ideas behind the symbols are not purely ancient and these thresholds can be said to still exist in a modern context; society and ideologies are constantly in a state of transition.”

The first issue of Romulus + Remus was published in a small run back in April 2012. One of the goals of his fundraiser is to do a reprinting of the first issue as well as printing the second issue.

Romulus + Remus has until June 10^th to raise C$4,500 (Canadian Dollars).

Bloodthirsty: One Nation Under Water by Mark Landry and Ashley Marie Witter

Bloodthirsty: One Nation Under Water

In 2005 writer and Louisiana native Mark Landry watched as New Orleans was destroyed twice. Once by the natural disaster Hurricane Katrina, and then again by the bungled disaster response.  Having moved away he thought there was nothing he could do to help the people he saw on his television screen until he realized that as a writer there was one thing he could do: tell a story. Bloodthirsty: One Nation Under Water is that story. He teams with artist Ashley Marie Witter (Interview with the Vampire: Claudia’s Story) and project mentor Georges Jeanty (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight) to give New Orleans a comic book hero of their own.

When we first meet former Coast Guard diver Virgil LaFleur he’s a broken man set to leave New Orleans forever. Before he can leave, his younger brother is murdered by a cabal of disaster capitalist who harvest the blood of the homeless to extend their own lives. “These vampires are not supernatural,” Landry explains. “They have a genetic anomaly, which provides extreme longevity, but they have to drink blood. In this particular society, they’re feeding off of those who can’t really do anything to stop them.”

Virgil dons what looks like a typical superhero costume but Landry wanted the costume to visually define Virgil’s quest for redemption and justice. “He is a walking statement against the evils affecting his city and his country,” Landry says. The cape is a tattered American flag left to him by his father and Landry goes on to say what meaning the flag has. “Virgil had the flag in a glass case, above which is a sign that reads, ‘In case of emergency, break glass.’ Suffice it to say that Virgil breaks the glass. When Vigil first puts it on, it’s pristine. It was his father’s military funeral flag. But as Virgil embarks upon his journey to fight the evils of the city, the flag takes its share of the hits”.

Virgil LaFleur sketch by Ashley Marie Witter

However unlike most heroes Virgil does not wear a mask and there was a reason behind that too. “Virgil is an economically disadvantaged veteran,” Landry explains. “So, to those who run the city, he is already invisible. He doesn’t need a secret identity. And by the time he starts fighting back, everyone knows his name. There’s no place for him to hide. All there is left for him is total commitment to his cause. He’s more like Robin Hood in that way.”

Even though the title may have you believe it’s in reference to the villains, Landry also says it applies to our hero as well. “Virgil is absolutely obsessed with taking these people down, so in a way, he is seeing red. Without giving away too many spoilers, let’s just say he’ll have to be careful to draw the line between himself and the real villains, or there could be some very negative consequences.”

Bloodthirsty: One Nation Under Water has until June 1^st to raise $15,500 for the first four issues of this eight issue miniseries. If they can raise $33,900 they’ll have enough for all eight issues and if they get to $39,000 they’ll collect all eight issues into two volumes.

A Frozen World by Nick Andors

A Frozen World

Irongates is not the world you know. It’s an endless urban maze that stretches beyond imagination and home to countless stories. Writer/artist Nick Andors invites you to visit Irongates in his first graphic novel A Frozen World. Four citizens of Irongates serve as your guides to this cold forgotten world within a world. Each of their stories stands alone and yet together unify into a complete vision of the true nature of this world.

“The inspiration behind Irongates comes from my upbringing in New York City,” Andors said about the genesis of this world. “I grew up on the Upper West Side. When I was a kid the neighborhood was very mixed. My father took part in a community garden in one of the rougher pockets in the area–which, other than the few remaining housing projects, has been completely gentrified. Anyway, the block I grew up on was just an avenue over, however, the neighborhood was totally different. It was peaceful and very quite. When I would go with my father to the community garden, I was always fascinated by how animated the area was. I was too young to understand the negative aspects of the area–drugs and so forth–it just seemed like a really lively place. However, when I got older I started to have these strange recurring nightmares about the housing projects that surrounded the garden. In my dreams, all the negative aspects where magnified, the buildings were much bigger and the area was much more dangerous. I’ve always been interested in the darker aspects of city life and the picture that was painted of this urban dystopia in my nightmares seemed like the perfect platform to let my imagination run wild. Irongates is my vision of the craziest urban landscape possible.”

During our trip to Irongates we meet a scavenger who runs across a grim encounter, a widower who gains closure though an otherworldly experience, a woman who preys upon fellow predators, and a man who’s unique vision allows him to see Irongates as no one else does. “I’ve re-written and refined the stories and the artwork numerous times,” Anders said. “I’ve been working on this project for almost 8 years now. The only real unifying theme is the backdrop, which is Irongates. The book is really a portrait of that world and the stories are tools used to render its features.”

A Frozen World has until May 23^rd to raise $3,000.

Joe Kontor has been reading comics since before he could technically read. In April 2012 he started the Facebook page ComicKick as a place to spread the word and get people excited about comic book related projects on crowd funding sites. He also runs HorrorKick, a similar page for horror projects. He currently resides in Lincoln, NE where he reads comics, watches horror movies, and drinks coffee.

Photo by Christopher Butcher

Want to try reading comics? Don’t know where to start? Want to try something different?

Wednesday is New Comics Day! Each week, The Comics Observer spotlights up to three (sometimes a little more on really good weeks) brand new releases worthy of your consideration. All of these have been carefully selected as best bets for someone who has never read comic books, graphic novels or manga before. They each highlight the variety and creativity being produced today. These are also great for those that haven’t read comics in awhile or regular readers looking to try something new.

While we can’t guarantee you’ll like what we’ve picked, we truly believe there’s a comic for everyone. If you like the images and descriptions below, click the links to see previews and learn more about them. You can often buy straight from the publishers or creators. If not, head over to your local comic book store, check out online retailers like Things From Another World and Amazon, or download a copy at comiXology, or the comics and graphic novels sections of the Kindle Store or NOOK store. Let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook.

For a full list of this week’s new releases, see comiXology, ComicList.com and PREVIEWSworld.

(Please note these aren’t reviews. Recommendations are based on pre-release buzz, previews, and The Comics Observer‘s patented crystal ball. Product descriptions provided by publisher.)

Great Pacific by Joe Harris and Martin Morazzo

Great Pacific Vol. 1: Trashed!
Written by Joe Harris
Illustrated by Martin Morazzo
Published by Image Comics
Genre: Action/Adventure, Science Fiction
Ages: 12+
144 pages
$9.99

When fugitive oil heir Chas Worthington settles the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, plants a flag, and declares it his own sovereign nation, the reality of the environmental catastrophe is only the beginning of his odyssey.

From acclaimed writer Joe Harris (Ghost Projekt, Spontaneous) and artist Martin Morazzo (Absolute Magnitude) comes a sprawling adventure across earth’s newest, strangest frontier!

This volume collects the first arc of this breakout hit series – a sprawling adventure across earth’s newest, strangest frontier!

Peter Bagge’s Other Stuff

Peter Bagge’s Other Stuff
Written and illustrated by Peter Bagge and others
Published by Fantagraphics Books
Genre: Humor
Ages: 12+
144 pages
$19.99

Peter Bagge’s one-offs, with an all-star cast of cartoonist collaborators such as Alan Moore, Robert Crumb, Daniel Clowes, and Adrian Tomine.

During the 1990s and 2000s, Peter Bagge worked mostly on his “Buddy Bradley” stories in Hate and a series of standalone graphic novels (Apocalypse Nerd), but in-between these major projects this ever-energetic cartoonist also cranked out dozens of shorter stories, which are now finally being collected in this riotously anarchic book.

Peter Bagge’s Other Stuff includes a few lesser-known Bagge characters, including the wacky modern party girl “Lovey” and the aging bobo “Shut-Ins” — not to mention the self-explanatory “Rock ‘N’ Roll Dad” starring Murry Wilson and the Beach Boys. But many of the strips are one-off gags or short stories, often with a contemporary satirical slant, including on-site reportage like “So Much Comedy, So Little Time” (from a comedy festival) and more. Also: Dick Cheney, The Matrix, and Alien!

Other Stuff also includes a series of Bagge-written stories drawn by other cartoonists, including “Life in these United States” with Daniel Clowes, “Shamrock Squid” with Adrian Tomine, and the one-two parody punch of “Caffy” (with art by R. Crumb) and “Dildobert” (with art by Prison Pit’s Johnny Ryan)… plus a highlight of the book, the hilarious, literate and intricate exposé of “Kool-Aid Man” written by Alan Moore and drawn by Bagge. (Other collaborators include the Hernandez Brothers and Danny Hellman.)

Bagge is one of the funniest cartoonists of the century (20th or 21st), and this collection shows him at his most free-wheeling and craziest… 50 times over.

The Grey Museum by Lorenz Peter

The Grey Museum
Written and illustrated by Lorenz Peter
Published by Conundrum Press
Genre: Science Fiction
Ages: 16+
216 pages
$20.00

Set in the future, The Grey Museum is a galactic romp, following a small group of survivors as they fend with mystic beings, interstellar parasites and themselves. Everything here is decided by narcissistic gods and goddesses, disturbed spirits, and bored aliens. Our clueless captives are left to wander, meandering their way among ruins, souvenirs, and impossible trails, and the 300-year-old television station attempts to capture it all. The Greys, a cloned race of coffee-drinking pseudo-humanity, have created a machine to “contemplate” things from a distance and annihilate them by turning them into “Awht”. We experience death, rebirth and everything in between. The fate of all Earthly life is up to these eight hairy humans preserved in jelly, they just don’t know it yet.

Anastasia Betts by Anastasia Betts

I still remember my first year teaching in the classroom. What a fun, challenging, and eye-opening experience that was. I eagerly anticipated the students I would get to know, and how (with all the naive enthusiasm of a newbie), I would light the fire of inspiration under each and every one of them. I dutifully reported to campus, accepted the key to my classroom, and received from my principal a very tall stack of teacher’s manuals.

I started the year with gusto, following the pacing plans given to me by the district and the sequence of lesson plans laid out in the manuals. Before I knew it the end of the first trimester arrived and it was time to complete the report cards for my lovely young 4th graders. It was my first time ever filling out a report card, and I was excited to engage in this next new step of my teaching career.

The report cards were the newly designed, standards-based kind. As a result, I did not see one until it was time to fill it out. Had I gotten my hot little hands on one at the beginning of the year, my teaching might have been entirely different – for the “key” standards listed on the report card had very little to do with what I had been teaching from the teaching manuals and district assignments.

Understanding figurative language (similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, etc) was one of the important skills that I was to report on. How well had they mastered this knowledge? Were they able to demonstrate and apply their understanding? I experienced a moment of panic as I realized that my current prescribed curriculum did not even cover figurative language – yet here it was on the report card. And I was responsible for holding my students accountable for this knowledge.

I realize this is a lengthy introduction, but here I arrive at my point. With absolutely no tools in my classroom to teach figurative language (and I was determined to do so before I completed those report cards), I raided my comics and graphic novels collection for teaching ideas.

Green Arrow #13 by Kevin Smith and Phil Hester

The first experience with using comics in my classroom was a little rough. I barely knew what I was doing – but I knew that the kids were engaged, and excited to learn. And because they were engaged and interested, their retention of the concepts I was teaching was even stronger.

The next year, I was determined to be much more prepared. My collection of superhero comics was not large at this time (and, I wasn’t sure how manhandled I wanted my issues to get). So to limit some wear and tear, I saved up all the Sunday comics for months, and added them to my lessons on onomatopoeia. Handing out stacks of colored newspaper comics with my DC and Marvel issues elicited tons of “oohs” and “aahs” from my class. With highlighters and post-its they eagerly dug into the comics determined to find every last pop, bang, and pow.

In the coming years I continued to add to my comics collection. My lessons on personification moved to include the amazing comics series Babymouse by Jennifer and Matthew Holm, and also Owly by Andy Runton.

Similes and metaphors are found everywhere in comics. But as teachers, we want our students to move beyond simply identifying to creating their own. Comics provided the perfect stepping stone for such skills. Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man were all larger than life characters that made it easy for my students to develop figurative comparisons: he was fast as a speeding train, or he fought like an enraged lion, etc.

Babymouse: Queen of the World by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm

We moved from writing figuratively about established characters, to having students develop their own characters. I invited my students to create their own comics; tell their own stories – and include all of the examples of figurative that they had learned about. Together we created rubrics and criteria lists, through which the students assessed the work of their peers as well as their own. We had a “wall of fame” where students put up the best examples of similes, metaphors, and inventive onomatopoeia that they had found – in the commercial comics as well as the work generated by the class.

It was many years ago, but I realize looking back that these experiences with teaching figurative language launched what would become a very long love affair with using comics in the classroom. Not only did my students learn everything I wanted them to, they learned so much more. We continued to use the comics throughout the year – to teach elements of narrative, fiction, the hero’s journey and more. And because my students had learned all of these skills using a medium they loved and found engaging, they were more willing and ready to apply that learning to the text-only literature we read.

Using comics in the classroom can be as simple as bringing in the Sunday “Funnies” or the latest issue of Spider-Man or Teen Titans. Don’t be afraid to try – it opens a world of awesome opportunities.

Homework (for you to do on your own, with your kids, or with your students): Pick up any handy Marvel or DC comic and count the instances of onomatopoeia you find. Do the same with the Sunday Comics. Which has more? Which has more “rare” onomatopoeia? What purpose does the onomatopoeia server? How would the experience of the comic change if it wasn’t there? When is it effective? When is it not effective? How can you effectively use onomatopoeia in your own writing?

HAPPY READING!

Anastasia Betts is a former teacher, administrator, and UCLA literacy coach from California. She has delivered professional development courses, workshops, and seminars on using comics in the classroom, including participating on Comics in Education panels at Comic Con International: San Diego. Anastasia currently runs an independent curriculum development company called Curriculum Essentials, Inc as well as the website Graphic Novels 101. You can follow her on Facebook at Graphic Novels 101: Using Visual Texts in the 21st Century.

Photo by Christopher Butcher

Want to try reading comics? Don’t know where to start? Want to try something different?

Wednesday is New Comics Day! Each week, The Comics Observer spotlights up to three (sometimes a little more on really good weeks) brand new releases worthy of your consideration. All of these have been carefully selected as best bets for someone who has never read comic books, graphic novels or manga before. They each highlight the variety and creativity being produced today. These are also great for those that haven’t read comics in awhile or regular readers looking to try something new.

While we can’t guarantee you’ll like what we’ve picked, we truly believe there’s a comic for everyone. If you like the images and descriptions below, click the links to see previews and learn more about them. You can often buy straight from the publishers or creators. If not, head over to your local comic book store, check out online retailers like Things From Another World and Amazon, or download a copy at comiXology, or the comics and graphic novels sections of the Kindle Store or NOOK store. Let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook.

For a full list of this week’s new releases, see comiXology, ComicList.com and PREVIEWSworld.

(Please note these aren’t reviews. Recommendations are based on pre-release buzz, previews, and The Comics Observer‘s patented crystal ball. Product descriptions provided by publisher.)

Marble Season by Gilbert Hernandez

Marble Season
Written and illustrated by Gilbert Hernandez
Published by Drawn & Quarterly
Genre: Autobiography; Coming-of-Age
Ages: 12+
128 pages
$21.95

The untold coming-of-age story from a contemporary comics master

Marble Season is the all-new semiautobiographical novel by acclaimed cartoonist Gilbert Hernandez, author of the epic masterpiece Palomar, and co-creator of the groundbreaking Love and Rockets comic book series, along with his brothers Jaime and Mario. Marble Season is his first book with Drawn & Quarterly and one of the most anticipated books of 2013. It tells the untold stories from the American comics legends’ youth, but also portrays the reality of life in a large family in suburban 1960s California. Pop-culture references—TV shows, comic books, and music—saturate this evocative story of a young family navigating cultural and neighborhood norms set against the golden age of the American dream and the silver age of comics.

Middle child Huey stages Captain America plays and treasures his older brother’s comic book collection almost as much as his approval. Marble Season subtly and deftly details how the innocent, joyfully creative play children engage in (shooting marbles, staging backyard plays, and organizing treasure hunts) changes as they grow older and encounter name-calling naysayers, abusive bullies, and the value judgments of other kids. An all ages story, Marble Season masterfully explores the redemptive and timeless power of storytelling and role play in childhood, making it a coming-of-age story that is as resonant with the children of today as the children of the ’60s.

Who is AC? by Hope Larson and Tintin Pantoja

Who is AC?
Written by Hope Larson
Illustrated by Tintin Pantoja
Published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster
Genre: Fantasy; Superhero; Action/Adventure
Ages: 12+
176 pages
$21.99 (hardcover); $14.99 (paperback)

In this breakthrough graphic novel from the award-winning author of Mercury, there’s a new superhero in town—and she’s got kick-butt cyberpowers.

Meet Lin, a formerly average teenage girl whose cell phone zaps her with magical powers. But just as superpowers can travel through the ether, so can evil. As Lin starts to get a handle on her new abilities (while still observing her curfew!), she realizes she has to go head-to-head with a nefarious villain who spreads his influence through binary code. And as if that weren’t enough, a teen blogger has dubbed her an “anonymous coward!” Can Lin detect the cyber-criminal’s vulnerability, save the day, and restore her reputation?

With ingenious scripting from graphic novel phenom Hope Larson and striking art from manga illustrator Tintin Pantoja, this action-packed story brims with magical realism and girl-power goodness.

How to Fake a Moon Landing by Darryl Cunningham

How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial
Written and illustrated by Darryl Cunningham
Published by Abrams ComicArts
Genre: Non-Fiction
Ages: 12+
176 pages
$16.95

Is hydro-fracking safe? Is climate change real? Did the moon landing actually happen? How about evolution: fact or fiction? Author-illustrator Darryl Cunningham looks at these and other hot-button science topics and presents a fact-based, visual assessment of current thinking and research on eight different issues everybody’s arguing about. His lively storytelling approach incorporates comics, photographs, and diagrams to create substantive but easily accessible reportage. Cunningham’s distinctive illustrative style shows how information is manipulated by all sides; his easy-to-follow narratives allow readers to draw their own fact-based conclusions. A graphic milestone of investigative journalism!

Praise for How to Fake a Moon Landing:

“Cartoonist Darryl Cunningham… is a welcome voice, shedding some much needed light on the darker areas of science and culture… Cunningham does a remarkable job with difficult material and for high school students, just opening their eyes to the world around them, this is a terrific primer.” — ComicMix

Jerusalem by Boaz Yakin and Nick Bertozzi

Jerusalem: A Family Portrait
Written by Boaz Yakin
Illustrated by Nick Bertozzi
Published by First Second Books/Macmillan
Genre: Historical Fiction
Ages: 12+
400 pages
$24.99

Jerusalem is a sweeping, epic work that follows a single family—three generations and fifteen very different people—as they are swept up in chaos, war, and nation-making from 1940-1948. Faith, family, and politics are the heady mix that fuel this ambitious, cinematic graphic novel.

With Jerusalem, author-filmmaker Boaz Yakin turns his finely-honed storytelling skills to a topic near to his heart: Yakin’s family lived in Palestine during this period and was caught up in the turmoil of war just as his characters are. This is a personal work, but it is not a book with a political ax to grind. Rather, this comic seeks to tell the stories of a huge cast of memorable characters as they wrestle with a time when nothing was clear and no path was smooth.

For the last several years, I’ve been working on my documentary film and TV project, Dig Comics. The idea is simple: I’m pissed off that comic books, that wonderful art form deserving of the same stature and praise received by film, music, literature and television is virtually ignored by the American public. And that just has to change. It is the mission of Dig Comics to reintroduce the US to this vital, unique medium to the greater part of the country who aren’t even aware of the national treasure they are sitting on. And we also need to energize the core fan base for comic books to join us in a call to action, to become the emissaries and taste-makers for a whole new generation of readers. It’s time we all came into the sun and share our knowledge, our passion, and help nourish a dying industry along with the great many who could benefit from the awesome experience that comic books offer. Dig Comics has a plan for how to get this done – and a damned good reason why it MUST be done.

We live in a time of incredible work being created out there – truly a second golden age for comic books – and yet we are letting our Van Goughs fade away into obscurity, toiling away for tiny audiences, all the while producing art worthy of the greats. Of course, not every comic book is great, but neither is every song great. Would you not still want to introduce your friends and family to MUSIC? Imagine they never heard music! Would you not feel like you were robbing them if you didn’t push some into their ears? So it should be with comics! While comics has many fanatical adherents (like me), there are few (if any) casual readers. You go ask your neighbors when the last time they saw a movie was. Some might say they see five movies a week. Other might watch one or two movies a month, or even just a year – but they ALL watch movies. And listen to music, even read books despite all the premature reports of the death of literacy. But comics? Those same neighbors are more likely to have not read a single comic book in years, decades or maybe never. And an industry can’t really thrive with a handful of adherents. And too many are blind to the wonderful things comics offer. So what are we going to do about it?

Dig Comics animation spot by Scott Shaw!

Well, first we need to understand why this happened. It wasn’t always this way. Comics once had a huge audience in America. But a string of bad luck and poor decisions contributed to a steady decline. Many of these are well known. The publication of Seduction of the Innocent by psychologist Fredric Wertham, a book directly tying juvenile delinquency with the reading of comic books, delivered at the height of the paranoid McCarthy era. The subsequent Senate hearings where comics were very publically demonized in a very serious setting on the national stage. These were followed closely by comic book burnings, and public outcry. On the defensive, comic book publishers self-imposed its own censorship mechanism, further creating the image of a dangerous product in need of regulation. The people running the business side of things didn’t help much either. Bad choices on everything from pricing to distribution models and the nurturing of an insular fetish culture by top professionals made comics become less available and accessible as the decades wore on. There are a lot of stories like these and more which help explain why America turned its back on its own creation. We must tell them, and always seek the details to more fully see the picture.

But we also have to understand those other places in the world, those places where comic books DO enjoy a wide popular audience. We have to understand countries like France and Belgium, where comic artists are treated like rock stars, their names as famous as Kanye West, Steven Spielberg or J.K. Rowling. You can go to stores in Paris and find palettes of graphic novels, selling by the dozens at $50 each, being picked up by businessmen, old ladies and elementary school kids. There are public subways commissioned by the government to be designed by their artist, large museums and a comic convention twice the size of San Diego. On the other side of the planet, Japan does 5-10 times the sales of comics as the US, a multi-billion dollar business, yet with only half the population. Their creators are honored by statues of their creations in public parks, and one of the most popular reality shows in the country, starring one of the biggest artists they ever produced.

And perhaps most important – we have to show people what we have going on right here at home. We need to expose the great American works being produced by the great artists of our times. And superheroes are just the beginning. There are comics for everyone. Let us share our masters of horror. Let us tell tales of the great autobiographical graphic novels, rendered by some of the greatest storytellers of our times, sharing their experiences of ordinary life. Bring your teachers along to delve in the heady works of history, journalism, politics and even science drawn with loving hands, transmitting knowledge in a unique way. Help your friends escape into countless worlds of fantasy, science fiction, suspense and more. It’s all here in the comics, kids. All you need is someone to show you where to fish for it. And Dig Comics will do this for you – along with all the comics fans out there who share our cause and do their part in spreading the word.

How will Dig Comics do this? By providing fun, entertaining & informative content to comics fans and non-fans alike. We’ve already started. Our short film won Best Documentary at the San Diego Comic Con (watch it here at DigComics.com). And we’ve done more filming since. We’ve been trying to get the short developed into a TV show – the perfect platform for our mission. So far, we haven’t been able to get there, so we’re switching gears and taking matters into our own hands. I’m announcing here that Dig Comics will be made as a feature film. How will we do this? Well, that’s another announcement – one we will make in a few short weeks. And when the time comes, we will ask for your help in the effort. But once the film is made and we prove that we can bring an audience to the project – then we’ll get a show going, and much more as well. Dig Comics envisions multiple interactive platforms to help organize fans and pass the torch to the people. It’s a new century, people, and comics are on deck for a serious comeback. Let us work together so that names like Kirby, Hernandez, Eisner and Clowes are just as well-known as John, Paul, George and Ringo. I promise, we will make it fun for all. Come with us America, come with us and DIG COMICS!

Argentinean-born New Yorker and NYU film school graduate Miguel Cima is a veteran of film, television and music. He has worked for such companies as Warner Bros., Dreamworks and MTV. An avid comic book collector since he could read, Miguel began writing stories in 4th grade and has not slowed down since. He is a world traveler, accomplished writer, filmmaker, and comics creator. He is the writer, director and host of the award-winning documentary Dig Comics. Follow Dig Comics on Facebook. Read more of Miguel’s comic book recommendations.