Weekly Treats! Nite Owl, Fatale, Journalism

“The hero known to the public only as Nite Owl announced his retirement today.”

For some curious reason Before Watchmen: Nite Owl #1 (DC) was the title I expected least out of, maybe because I thought it may be Batman-lite, but it could turn out to be one of the strongest. Written by J. Michael Straczynski, both Andy Kubert and Joe Kubert have done a fantastic job of the art.

 Going from Kick-Ass 2 to Avengers vs X-Men and now Hit-Girl #1 (Marvel) John Romita Jr certainly doesn't go wanting when it comes to high profile jobs. Mark Millar nimbly keeps the Millarworld momentum going...

Ahhh Gilbert Hernandez is name I always like to see on a comic and Fatima: The Blood Spinners #1 (of 4 Dark Horse) looks like a welcome dose of tongue-in-cheek sci-fi/horror/action. It features Fatima, handy with a gun which is useful in a future housing a drug call Spin which gives the user the ultimate high and then turns them into a zombie. So that's zombie by choice rather than an apocalypse or some viral outbreak.

The golden partnership of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips has delivered a new baby onto the shelves - this one is a mix of crime noir and horror entitled Fatale vol. 1. And after an age, the mystery/fantasy Morning Glories vol. 3 arrives. Both titles come from the rejuvenated Image publisher and are excellent examples of the way comics mix up the genres.

Journalism (Metropolitan Books) collects the pieces of journalism Joe Sacco has produced over the years for magazines, newspapers and book anthologies. Probably because of the nature of commissioned short story form the work is punchy, artistically detailed and a few pages are in colour. The comic reporting works of Sacco and Guy Delisle have pushed the medium into mainstream publications and its great to see new books from them both this year. The book features a long introduction from Sacco addressing the nature of comics journalism which is reproduced on the Macmillan website (see here).

Full list linked at the top of the page.