The phone-calls are coming from... INSIDE THE BOOK!
Severed #7 (Pick of the Week): That's all, folks -- at least until the hinted-at sequel by the Brothers Scott (who are especially Grimm but nowhere near familial-related). Snyder and Tuft round out the series with some interesting musings on dreams, immortality, and what's left after a brush with cannibalism (literally and figuratively). I'm not the sort of guy to double-dip in my comic/graphic novel purchases but this is a series I'd very well be interested in buying in hardcover for the bonus material. Also, when a page is painted black, IT'S BLACK. Moody hardcover out in April.
Team: Scott Snyder, Scott Tuft, Attila Futaki.
Batwoman #6: Amy Reeder of Madame Xanadu fame picks up art duties from J.H. Williams III. She holds her own, a talented artist who can draw distinct and honest ladies, but Williams is in a class all of his own, especially in his two-page spreads which Reeder tries to mimic (no doubt from the script). Some of it works, some of it doesn't, but there is a brilliant 3-panel spread of Batwoman after a shootout that comes off as vampiric and downright menacing. The story tries to provide lip-service to all the characters and gives a "okay, I'll buy it" explanation of the Weeping Woman's origins, but plods along without anything supremely earth-shattering.
Team: J.H. Williams III, W. Haden Blackman, Amy Reeder, Richard Friend, Rob Hunter.
Thief of Thieves #1: This is the first story I've read written by Nick Spencer (I know, I know) but I fail to see where the story-distinction from Robert Kirkman comes in. Nevertheless, the new series by Image Comics starts warmly enough with art by Shawn Martinbrough. It's nice to see an art style for a crime book that doesn't look similar to Sean Phillips (Near Death falls into this category) but the real credit to this goes to colorist Felix Serrano whose use of orange at the end of the issue creates a create mood of tension. Not falling on it's face out of the gate I'm wondering what more the series has in store, but I do hope for a somewhat more brisk pace in future issues.
Team: Robert Kirkman, Nick Spencer, Shawn Martinbrough, Felix Serrano.
VERTIGO: Preview 2012: Four stories in one bundle. It's a hard thing to review an issue without the full product primarily because of the lack of appropriate beats and the clincher "last-page-cliffhangers". What can be taken from this little collection is Dominique Laveau: Voodoo Child brings back my "Books-With-Voodoo-in-the-Title" quota to 1 and has a Sean Murphy vibe on art (very good news), The New Deadwardians has a pop-art feel for gore which might make it more tolerable for a wider audience, Saucer Country by Paul Cornell is an interesting concept, and Fairest is another Fables spinoff that I won't be buying -- not out of spite, just a lack of interest.
Team: Everyone and their mother.
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