Weekly Treats! The One Trick Rip-Off, Reset, Fables

At 288 pages, book of the week is a hardcover piece of chunky punk. You can see the influence of Paul Pope's flowing, energetic art style in several comic artists in recent times and The One Trick Rip-Off  + Deep Cuts (Image) is great chance to catch up on work dating back 18 years in the Dark Horse Presents publications as well new stories and work created several years ago but not seen before.

While Peter Bagge's idiosyncratic art style sometimes polarises people, its bendy cartoony style actually masks a thoughtful approach to characters in his writing. Reset (Dark Horse) is an original graphic novel about an grouchy actor/comedian who's career has reached such a low that he's been arrested for a driving offence. That is until he's selected to be the test subject for a virtual reality experiment which allows him to re-visit moments in his life.

There's the latest volume of the mighty Fables saga - Fables vol. 18 Cubs in Toyland (Vertigo) written as ever by Mark Willingham and with frequent partner-in-crime Mark Buckingham. The book also includes a nice two-part back-up story illustrated by Gene Ha. JH Williams III's Batwoman vol. 1 Hydrology (DC) arrives in paperback and also the new collection of Robert Kirkman's Invincible vol. 17 What's Happening (Image).

A couple of number ones to mention this week: Threshold #1 kicks off the DC space adventure crew with a strong chin and a stout heart; meet The Star Rovers, Star Hawkins, Space Cabbie, Tom Tomorrow, Captain K’Rot (Carrot geddit?!) and Star Ranger. The ever-dependable Keith Giffen writes and Tom Raney illustrates. And finally Savage Wolverine #1 written and illustrated by Frank Cho, a man who we know loves a bit of dinosaur and Shanna action therefore you may not be surprised to know that in the story Wolvie wakes up in the Savage Land a hunted man, with Shanna his only ally...