Before I start rambling, I’d like to point out that there WILL be a new comic tomorrow, and next week will follow the usual Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule.

I say this all the time, but I want to use the blog part of the site a little bit more often, especially for non-shilling-for-my-own-merchandise purposes. So this time I’m going to shill for other people’s merchandise, and talk a bit about comics that I’ve been reading that I think you should too, because they’re really freaking good.

The Exterminators (Vertigo/DC), by Simon Oliver and various artists

From the title I assumed this was some kind of really brutal superhero book in the same vein as Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s The Boys. I was a little surprised to find out that it was about actual exterminators. The pest control kind. I’d consistently  heard really good things about it, though, and so I picked up the Vertigo: First Cut trade paperback, which had the first issue in it and found that it was strangely fascinating. The story follows Henry James, an ex-convict getting back on his feet while working for his step-father’s pest control company, Bug-Bee-Gone. Which would be all well and good if he didn’t end up in the middle of a corporate conspiracy, a vermin insurgency, and ancient Egyptian mysticism. Yes, it’s as weird as it sounds, but it’s also one of the most compelling books I’ve read in quite a while. I’ve read the first three volumes and am going to be starting the fourth fairly soon.

DMZ (Vertigo/DC) by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli

I found out about DMZ from reading the first issue in Vertigo: First Cut. Wood and Burchielli tell the tale of the second American Civil War, which has seen rural America rise up against the government that they feel is ignoring them. The war has reached a stalemate in New York City, with the US on one side and the Free States on the other, with Manhattan Island stuck in the middle. The book isn’t actually about the war, but about photojournalist Matty Roth, who finds himself stranted in Manhattan Island and makes it his mission to document life in the DMZ as it really is. There’s a whole lot of political and social commentary present, but I didn’t find it to be the obnoxious kind. Burchielli’s art is a weird mix of cartoony and super-gritty, but it fits the story perfectly. I started the third volume last night.

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