by Paul
Tough week for Bill Skarsgård, huh? Even our UPS guy is coming in and dunking on this new Crow trailer, and for what? I thought it was fine. He’s fine in it. And if he wasn’t, it’s not like he would even be the worst Crow ever. Edward Furlong played the Crow like he was being held hostage by a drug cartel. Marc Dacascos looked like he was dressed as Brandon Lee for an office Halloween party, but he gets to live his life. So what gives? Is it that, by having the gross effrontery to survive the filming of this Crow re-make, Skarsgård punctures people’s romantic notions surrounding the first movie and Brandon Lee’s death? Lee was so young and un-formed as a celebrity persona when he was accidentally killed on the set of The Crow that it’s only natural that our perceptions of him would harden around that character, a murdered man cut down in the prime of his life alongside his fianceé. Because the news of his death was the first time most people became aware of him, and because storytelling is a way we’ve coped with life’s injustices since the dawn of time, I think a lot of people ascribe Brandon Lee’s death on the set of that specific movie to a kind of grim destiny. By surviving the filming of this re-make, Bill Skarsgård suggests that maybe Lee’s death wasn’t romantic, or fate. Maybe it was just a freak accident that ruined a lot of people’s lives for no good reason, and life is really just a complex web of overlapping coincidences that add up to one big mess. Maybe The Crow was just a regular movie this whole time. Maybe we like it for the wrong reasons. But chin up, Bill Skarsgård! Though today you may be tempest-toss’d by life’s YouTube commentors… There’s Always Next Week!
FERAL #1
Art: Trish Forstner | Story: Tony Fleecs (Image Comics, $3.99)
As we discussed last week with Man’s Best, I really am an abysmal chump when it comes to stories about plucky animals in danger. They don’t even have to be good. Replace any human in the most risible, hackneyed scenario with a sad-eyed dog or wisecracking cat and see how dewy my eyes become instantly.
No surprise, then, that Trish Forstner’s Stray Dogs is my favorite comic from the last few years. She draws the way I wish I could draw, wringing every drop of pathos and anxiety out of the adorable Don Bluth-esque dogs she’s placed in the home of a serial killer. It’s twisted, subversive stuff. Now she’s back again with Feral, about a trio of housecats adrift in a world beset by a rabies outbreak, and I cannot wait. I’ve looked forward to this for months. Buy it, read it, read it again.
PRE-ORDER IT: Trish Forstner & Tony Fleecs Main Cover | Trish Forstner & Tony Fleecs Variant | Blank Sketch Cover | 1:10 Trish Forstner & Tony Fleecs Variant | 1:25 Sweeney Boo Variant
PRIMER #1
Art: Gretel Lusky | Story: Jennifer Muro and Thomas Krajewski (DC Comics, $3.99)
It might be controversial to say it, but DC’s superhero comics for the last two decades or so have often been, in my opinion, in questionable taste. My opinion! Yes, I am a creampuff who gets gooey over cartoon animals, but DC heroes are always getting their arms torn off or raped or burned to death or their moms killed or their girlfriends killed and it happens more often than I would like. Where DC reigns supreme, though, is the YA superhero book. They have this on lock. Gabriel Picolo and Kami Garcia’s Teen Titans books are all winners, and Yoshi Yoshitani’s I Am Not Starfire is a classic.
I’ve never heard of Primer before, because I am, as longtime readers know and new readers must suspect, a clod. This is a four-issue re-print of a graphic novel from 2020 (maybe that’s why I don’t remember it). The premise—an artistic girl comes into possession of a set of body paints that give the wearer superpowers—is brilliant, and Gretel Lusky’s art makes you want to crawl into her panels and live there. If you don’t buy it, I will, and I work here so I’ve got the edge. Make your move.
PRE-ORDER IT: Gretel Lusky Main Cover
SAM AND TWITCH: CASE FILES #1
Art: Szymon Kudranski | Story: Todd McFarlane (Image Comics, $2.99)
The last time I read an issue of Spawn, it was about a guy named Paul getting crushed to death by spiked walls for twenty pages while Spawn looked on. I said, “Well! I never!” and went to find a comic about a cuddly animal. Now here’s Sam and Twitch: Case Files #1. I can’t relate the two things. They’re just part of the pageant of life. I take my hat off to Sam and Twitch, though. They’ve stuck it out long enough to have their own Wikipedia entry. They’ve been drawn by great artists like Ashley Wood, Alex Maleev, and now Szymon Kudranski. In silhouette they kind of look like Drew and Varun as detectives. Varun’s leaving us in two weeks and we’ll miss them. Come by the shop and say good-bye while you have a chance.
PRE-ORDER IT: Kevin Keane Main Cover
ON FOC THIS WEEK
Click here to see all titles on FOC this week.
MOON MAN #2
Art: Marco Locati | Story: Kyle Higgins, Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi (Image Comics, $3.99) | FOC: 3/25
As Ramon tests the limits of his new abilities, the astronauts return to Janus for more assessment—and the world begins to react to the news of a real-life superhero.
Marco Locati Main Cover
Erica D’Urso Variant
Greg Tocchini Variant
NINJA FUNK: B.A.D. MUSIC #1 (OF 4)
Art: Alessandro Micelli | Story: JPG (Massive/Whatnot, $4.99) | FOC: 3/25
Following the battle at the Ninja Funk Dojo and capture of BB, B.A.D. Music retreats to their headquarters at The Nexus. With the love of Lazerwolf’s life as irresistible bait, there’s no doubt in Queen B.A.D.’s mind that her nemeses will come knocking, and she’s ready for them…
Will Lazerwolf, JPG Mcfly and Wolfgang see the trap for what it is, or run headlong into disaster? Find out in Ninja Funk: B.A.D. Music #1!
David Mack Main Cover
Alessandro Micelli Variant
Tyler Kirkham Variant
SLASH PRESENTS: DEATHSTALKER #1
Art: Jim Terry | Story: Slash, Tim Seeley, Steven Kostanski (Vault Comics, $4.99) | FOC: 3/24
The cult-classic warrior-hero Deathstalker bursts into the comics scene from an all-star lineup of creators including Slash (Guns N’ Roses) and writer-director-creature-FX-wizard Steven Kostanski (Psycho Goreman, The Void)! Deathstalker finds himself once again caught between forces larger than himself—a virgin worshiping cult, a sorcerer hell-bent on saving the world through mad science, and the pissed-off army of the Abraxeon kingdom… not to mention his ex-lover, Princess Evie. Monsters, magic, and mayhem abound… can’t a guy just swing his sword anymore?
Nathan Gooden Main Cover
Jim Terry Variant
Conor Boyle Variant
John Patrick Ganas Variant
Dan Panosian Variant
Boris Vallejo Variant
Angela Wu Variant
Boris Vallejo/Slash Signed Variant (Allocations May Occur)
