Strange Talent of Luther Strode #1

Written by Justin Jordan
Art by Tradd Moore
24 pages, color
Published by Image Comics

I know I’m not the only person who, back in the day, sent away for the free Charles Atlas guide to become a muscle man. I never actually read it, mind you; my sisters found out I’d ordered it and teased me so mercilessly that it got thrown out, unopened. But if you’ve ever read old comics, or issues of Boy’s Life (for all us former Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts), or anything else from back in the day, you’ll know about the allure of those advertisements. That’s what’s so great about the first issue of The Strange Talent of Luther Strode; Justin Jordan and Tradd Moore have taken boyhood dreams and turned them into something distinctly creepy.

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A Zoo in Winter

By Jiro Taniguchi
232 pages, black and white
Published by Fanfare/Ponent Mon

I appreciate talented creators who have a wide range of styles, and Jiro Taniguchi definitely falls into that category. From the nail-biting tense mystery of Summit of the Gods, to the quiet and contemplative Walking Man, each new Taniguchi project is slightly different than the previous. A Zoo in Winter is his latest book to be translated into English, and it’s a loosely autobiographical book about Taniguchi’s early life and how he became a manga artist. It’s more A Drifting Life than Bakuman, and it makes me already hoping for a sequel.

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Justice League Dark #1

Written by Peter Milligan
Art by Mikel Janin
32 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

Justice League Dark is simultaneously one of the stranger and more logical books from DC Comics’ re-launch. With characters like John Constantine, Madame Xanadu, and Shade the Changing Man now back in the main DC Universe (while in the case of Constantine, still continuing his mature-readers Hellblazer comic), it was just a matter of time until they all teamed up. Having them in their own Justice League comic, and written by Vertigo mainstay Peter Milligan? It’s so strange it could just possibly work.

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