Starting with something other than the obvious Marvel and/or DC Comics:
ABE SAPIEN: THE HAUNTED BOY arrived this week from Dark Horse Comics!

This is cool because it’s a one-shot (meaning for the most part a one issue story) featuring an awesome character from the Hellboy universe! What’s even cooler is that Hellboy creator Mike Mignola wrote the issue with fellow writer John Arcudi. I find most the time whenever Mignola has a second writer on board, it can be a much more enriching experience. Patric Reynolds is responsible for the art on this tale. Reynolds’ sketchy yet clear and accurate story-telling abilities are great for these kinds of stories and the fact that the amazing Dave Stewart is on colors ensures this to be worth while read.

Next is a series from Vertigo Comics titled: NORTHLANDERS #21: THE PLAGUE WIDOW PART 1 OF 8

Northlanders for the most part is a Viking Anthology Book written by Brian Wood (who also writes a BlerghCast favorite, DMZ, as well as many other great books). With each new story in Northlanders comes a new artist, this is one of the aspects that I love about this book. It’s exciting to see what the new story will be as well as the new artist that’ll be illustrating it. This time we are treated to Leandro Fernandez on art and from what I’ve seen, it looks fantastic. This particular story takes place in Viking Russia A.D. 1020 and this focuses on a year in the life of a village plagued with disease who have closed their doors unsuspecting of who they’ve locked themselves in with. I highly recommend this book to lovers of survival fiction, crime, and historical fiction. Northlanders has been an awesome book from the start and “The Plague Widow” doesn’t look like it’ll disappoint.

Finally, from the super-hero side of DC Comics, I have to bring up a book I’m *VERY* excited about. That book is BATWOMAN IN DETECTIVE COMICS #858 What you have here is a character created by writer Greg Rucka. What’s noteworthy about this Batwoman character is that she is a lesbian and the controversy that sparked years ago when she was first introduced into the DC Comics library of characters. I’ve found that it can be difficult for male writers to write believable women. Greg Rucka is not one of these writers. He’s created a very realistic portrayal of this character and makes her interesting aside from the fact that she probably likes the Indigo Girls (sorry). This particular issue begins the 3-part story of this character’s origin making it a great place to jump on if you have the desire to (and I hope you do!!!). What’s really got me excited about this comic though, is the art. J.H. Williams III is a guy who pretty much blows just about everyone out of the water. Each page of his is so dynamic yet they don’t get lost in the translation of the story. He’s fantastic and I would pay 3 bucks for 22 pages of his art alone.I highly highly highly recommend checking this out, it’s a fun and unique costume book that has yet to disapoint.

So there ya have it: 3 particular issues that I’m excited about this week, but that should be enjoyable to anybody who has little to no experience with these titles or comics in general. I hope I gave ya something to check out and that you enjoy ‘em! So untill next week (hopefully), I’ll leave you with some more J.H. Williams III amazing-ness

It’s a good feeling to reach some sort of goal. Getting this design up was a small goal of mine. I’ve been busy with multiple projects and getting ready to move, so it’s great to finally push this live. Want to thank Tio and Wes for not putting a lot of pressure on me getting something up quick. It still isn’t finished in my eyes. A little rough around the edges, but I will be doing touchups as I get the time.

As far as the actual design goes, the inspiration came from a picture I came across of a chicken. What struck me about the photo was the pose and colors of the chicken. It wasn’t your typical run of the mill farm chicken, this was a wild golden and tan chicken who looked like she could kick some ass. Blame it on timing, but this is what we ended up with. I try to justify it in thinking that “blergh” sounds like something a chicken might say, granted it was gargling alcohol while popping out an egg.

Well here it is. Hope you enjoy!