This Week in Comics
My pulls for July 16, 2025 and other stuff related to me and comic books.
In my brief time working at a comic book shop I’ve come to realize that there are a few types of customers. Most are amazing people, interested in characters, and stories. Friendly once you break through the shell and they know the shop is a safe place. These are the people who after their first convention hopefully have found their tribe. Unfortunately, just like any group you have a few who… ugh. I might even be one of those “ugh.” people maybe I just see myself in these people, and hate myself for it. At least I hope I’m not a comic book snob. If you like something, Great! I won’t hold it against you, as long as you don’t hold what I like against me.
In the comic book world- who am I? I read certain books, and am working harder to know who the writers and artists I like are. I read mostly DC titles. I haven’t read X-Men since John Byrne left the title. I don’t read much horror or comics that would be considered NSFW. If the cover has a scantily clad woman on it… I’m most likely not going to buy it. We have someone who has as part of their pull instructions “hot covers”… umm… Okay. I was born before Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, or Voltron. My G.I. Joe could date Barbie. I’m old. So any comics or toys tied to these products don’t interest me. I name drop conventions I have attended, and artists I either have bought their art or have met - I usually only buy art from the artist at a convention. For the record, “met” means I have maybe mumbled a greeting to… I’m an introvert fanboy and never know what to actually say. I like going to cons because at a real comic book conventions you can talk about books you love to people and not feel like a weirdo.
The shop I work at got some love this week, I must have already left for the day but glad the Comic Book Couples Counseling Podcast had a nice visit.
If you’ve been following this blog for a while you know what I read and I’m actually going through my collection to determine what I want to keep. Like how when I first retired I started to pair down what I was really invested in. LEGO, Comics, Games, Geocaching, MINIs… I’m now down to comics & drawing as my main areas of interest, so now I need to go back and start thinking about what comics I want to keep. I have around 18 months to get things to a manageable size. Yes, I will be trying to find good homes for some of my LEGO sets and comics.
My Comics:
Nothing Special Volume 3 Pride and Pompousness by Katie Cook
Phantom Road #14 Image Comics W: Jeff Lemire A: Gabriel Walta Still in 1997 and finding out more and more about this weird alternate world whose gateway is at Billy Bear Truck Stops and how everything fits together.
Absolute Batman #10 DC Comics W: Scott Snyder A: Nick Dragotta
Ghost Pepper #1 Image Comics W: Ludo Lullabi A: Adriano Lucas
Los Monstruos #3 Dark Horse Comics W: James Robinson A: Jesús Merino -Secrets revealed, and the cased is almost closed. But will Perry survive long enough to go on that date with Rosie?
Absolute Flash #5 DC Comics W: Jeff Lemire A: A.L. Kaplan
Detective Comics #1099 DC Comics W: Tom Taylor A: Lee Garbett
Red Shirts #1 IDW Publishing W: Christopher Cantwell A: Megan Levens
As always I highly recommend all the comics I have pulled (unless I say otherwise in comments). DC’s Absolute Universe has been refreshingly different, although considering that was started as a universe under the control of Darkseid it makes sense that it is rather dark. It is a wonderful place to start with mainstream DC heroes if you don’t want to deal with decades of continuity or looking for something out of the ordinary.
Nothing Special Volume 3 Pride and Pompousness by Katie Cook I know you’ve probably already heard me gush about Katie Cook and Nothing Special. I was reading it on WebToons and still waiting for the latest arc to finish up. Since then she’s had a lot of stuff happen to keep her from drawing but she’s back and with a format change from WebToons scrolling to books it’s been awesome. Katie has gone back and added more details to pages filling them with little easter eggs and commentary. In some cases some of the subtle stuff now stands out more in other cases there’s just so much more to look at!
Yes, the art style is cartoony- I love it, and frankly don’t care what you think. The story is a coming of age tale that started with Callie and in these volumes has moved on to both Lasser (the Demon) and Declan (the boyfriend). In volume two we were heading out to find help for Declan whose broken wing (did I mention he’s a fairy?) has been causing him pain, and they head off to a gathering of fairies to find help. The only problem is that these are fairies of a different class and Laurel Poppyfield is about to die passing along all of her generations of magic to her heir. That’s where things get interesting you see Declan’s wings are pink… which is a recessive trait only in the Poppyfield bloodline (want to know more about genetics- Read The Science of Dogs Graphic Novel by Andy Hirsch). This means that Declan is Laurel’s long lost grandson. Now the hijinks ensue as a boy, raised middle class human, now has to deal with fae high society. I feel his pain. Every time I would go out with my grandmother I realized that my Southern California upbringing did not prepare me for midwestern country club life. I learned a lot about etiquette and mostly keeping my mouth shut and standing up straight. Reading the pages where Declan is having to try and be nice when all he wants to do is go read in a corner… I know that feeling all too well.
I’m now knee deep into the most recent often delayed (remember Katie had a lot of stuff going on) WebToon and once again, wonderfully character driven as we find out more and more about Callie’s dad’s mysterious past and Lasser’s crazy family. I highly recommend reading these either online, or a better way to support Katie and the crew- in book form. They’ve announced she’ll be at Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, so I’m really looking forward to getting a hardcover of this volume from her with a doodle… hmm… but what?
Ghost Pepper #1 Image Comics W: Ludo Lullabi A: Adriano Lucas I keep trying to push myself out of my comfort zone. Dan Gaines- the late owner of Comic Carnival used to do this for me. He’d pull stuff that was just different for me because he thought I’d like it. For the most part he was right. There were a few titles I had to say no to, but most of them were great. Now I have to do it on my own. With Previews no longer in print as a magazine it’s a little harder to do. IN this case I followed Social Media and decided to look at what was being highlighted on BlueSky since I follow a bunch of creators over there. This one popped up and I figured, OK I’ll try it. I really wasn’t even sure what it was about, but figured I’d give it a shot.
We are in a post apocalyptic world in which a giant creature (humanoid) called “Cinder” has devastated civilization until a hero came to free the enslaved and banish Cinder. “Give Glory to Bataar!” That’s the set up… The world is still not great. The silver lining seems to be Loloi’s food truck serving the finest street cuisine! Unfortunately the government is rather heavy handed and goes after those who are not registered and have proper paperwork. People like Ash who just want’s a decent meal and maybe threaten “the balance of the world.” He’s still trying to figure things out and I’m looking forward to the next issue to see how things go and if my guesses as to his identity are anywhere close to correct.
Red Shirts #1 IDW Publishing W: Christopher Cantwell A: Megan Levens Yes, I’m a Trekkie. My earliest fandom experience dealt with falling asleep during the Star Trek episode Arena after my day had given a presentation to a group of science fiction fans in San Francisco which puts my age somewhere around second or third grade (7 to 9 years old). I’ve tried to keep up with Star trek films and TV shows and even some of the comics. The last run ended and now they are focusing on the true heroes of the Federation- The Red Shirts.
IYKYK- Red shirts are the cannon fodder of the Federation. These are the guys who beam down, but never beam back. In the original series these were the crew members who made sure the audience was aware that the situation was dangerous. John Scalzi write a book about them and now we have a comic devoted to them. The premise is this- if you actually survive a mission, you are put on a short list of people who will be assigned even crazier missions. In this case a mission to root out a spy. Unfortunately not everyone will make it back- such is the life of a red shirt. This being the first issue, we are setting things up, the mission, the characters, and the hope that whichever one we get attached to will survive… so far after one issue two have gone to join the Great Bird of the Galaxy.
Detective Comics #1099 DC Comics W: Tom Taylor A: Lee Garbett This was a comic I almost didn’t get, I had given my copy to a customer who had been looking for it after we had sold out.Thankfully later in the day someone who had it pulled decided either they didn’t want it, or they wanted a variant cover.
This brings the most recent story in Detective Comics to a close. For those not in the know, Batman was feeling a little down and discovered a company was offering a solution to aging for those wealthy enough to pay for it. <No Duh Spoiler> He’s wealthy enough to pay for it. He took some of the treatments and then went on to learn how the treatments worked… it wasn’t pleasant. There was fighting, a love interest, explosions, and other stuff. So he stopped this group’s operation in Gotham and went on to track them down getting Harvey Bullock and the Penguin involved. Harvey yes, Oswald was collateral damage. Batman is now just trying to find the guy in charge and get everyone out of their secret base safely.
<Actual Spoiler> Ambrose, part of the inner circle, might have spilled the beans while being questioned (great scene)… we find out everything about the organization and the location of the the head of this pyramid scheme… who doesn’t seem as smart as he thinks Hopefully the writers will be smart enough to return to this (even if it is only for a page) in 1,826 days.
Bruce does a great job with his explanations of what's being read. And here he made mention of hs vintage being 'before ....' . Well, I got him beat! My vintage enjoyed 'Classic Comics Illustrated' as a way to quickly read our English assignment. We'd walk the streets of Broad Ripple hunting fo our current reading! Careful not to trip on the streetcar rails! And I never became a fiction fan - the subject of almost 100% of today's comics - too involved in 'reality', like the news. But Bruce does a great job analyzing today's offerings!