Pick Of The Week: Three Top Titles We Recommend From The Last Week In Comics

Nearly the weekend and nearly time for another trip to your local comic book store, if you’re able to safely. And if you do find that you’re at your local store what might you want to pick up? Well, here’s three recommendations for you to consider picking up:

The Vain #1 (ONI Press)
Written by Eliot Rahal
Illustrated by Emily Pearson
Colored by Fred C. Stresing
Color Assists by Macy Kahn
Lettered by Crank!
One last job. How many times have you heard that used in gangster movies? And if they do pull the job off, when is it ever the last one? Now apply that concept to vampires. Lost and her crew steal blood, not money (they’re vampires – it makes sense), but it’s the same problem. How do you restrict yourself to one last job when you live forever? While issue one starts out as a Bonnie & Clyde type chase, it ends somewhere completely different, and I can’t wait to see where Pearson and Rahal take this series next. Crank!’s speech bubbles are placed just right, so they don’t distract from Pearson’s line art, and the colors by Stresing and Kahn are charmingly moody. I’m especially interested to see if Wanda becomes a sleeper character, like Martha on The Americans. – Rachel Bellwoar

Frankie and the Creepy Cute Critters
Written and Illustrated by Caitlin Rose Boyle
Lettered by Tom B. Long
Frankie is so excited to start at a new school but when the other kids call her Frankie Scary it takes the wind right out of her sails. It’s not Frankie’s fault her wings look more like a bat’s, but to make herself feel better she decides to go on a nature walk with her pet wooly bear, Tuna. Along the way she encounters different animals and starts to understand why the other fairies might’ve been afraid. She also learns that being scary’s not a bad thing, and that she doesn’t have to change who she is to make friends. With a Bug’s Life approach to perspective (Frankie’s smaller than a frog), Frankie’s enthusiasm is contagious, and Boyle uses her field journal to teach readers facts about possums and other creepy critters. Fun and educational at the same time, Boyle’s colors feel reminiscent of children’s book author, Todd Parr’s, while Long’s speech bubbles help the conversations move at a fast clip to match Frankie’s zeal for the subject. – Rachel Bellwoar

Once and Future #12 (BOOM! Studios)
Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Dan Mora
Colour art by Tamra Bonvillain
Another all-action blockbuster issue as the horror of Grendel’s mother glares down on Duncan and his gran menacingly. Duncan is looking more and more the hero he was destined to become. Plus a revelatory family reunion down the barrel of a gun too. And in that reunion we get something of an explanation to the whole saga so far and the particular magic at play in our own corporeal world. But, are we all tied to our destinies? It’s certainly a theme that’s been running through this book, in one way or another, since issue #1. It’s also a closing of a chapter while setting into motion the next story arc with some very interesting revelations at the end of this particular issue. All the while, given an otherworldly sheen from the magical Tamra Bonvillain. – Olly MacNamee