Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
This is an ongoing neo-noir series that is written as self-contained story arcs in a single fictional city. Start with the first TPB titled “Coward” and if you like it, keep going. They’re all gold. If you like The Wire, you’ll fall in love with these books. And, even if you don’t like individual issues, it might be worth it to put them on a pull list at a local comic store. It comes out sporadically (4 – 6 times a year), and the last quarter of each issue is filled with excellent original essays on classic/obscure noir books and movies.

Channel Zero by Brian Wood
After a new law, “The Clean Act,” censors all news and entertainment in order to preserve the image of America as a noble, Christian nation, a pirate broadcaster takes it upon herself to wake America back up. The artwork is stark black and white, and filled with anti-Clean Act subliminal messages hidden in the background. The story is engrossing, self-contained, and well executed on all fronts. Avoid the sequel.

DMZ by Brian Wood
Another American urban tale by Brian Wood. The concept of DMZ is simple. When all of our troops are overseas fighting in Iraq, a civil war breaks out in America between normal civilization and the mid-west separatists. The war grind to a stalemate, and NYC becomes a demilitarized zone between The United States and The Free States of America. The story is told from the perspective of a journalist who is abandoned in the DMZ by his corporation. Lots of political fuckery is involved as the journalist tries to survive among the native New Yorkers who couldn’t give a shit about either side and are just trying to live their lives.

Lore by TP Louise and Ashley Wood
When a small group of watchers in charge of keeping Earth’s ley lines in check is infected by an anarchist faction, all hell breaks loose on Earth. The normally small rivers of mana becomes unbalanced and all sorts of legendary boogeymen reawaken. Written in 5 chapters, the first few parts contain a stunning amount of hand painted artwork. The closing chapters are written completely as text. Dark and sexy with a folklore twist in an urban English setting.

Fell by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith
Neo-noir comic series written by Warren Ellis for blue collars everywhere. Each issue is fairly self-contained, and goes for about $1.95. Only six or seven issues were released, but it’s full of kick-in-the-crotch cop drama.

Grendel: Devil by the Deed by Matt Wagner
Grendel was the first comic series I ever read told from the antagonist’s POV. It follows the Machiavellian schemes of a young genius as he takes over the underworld of the entire East Coast through blackmail and murder. While the series was lackluster do to meandering storylines, the character of Grendel is exceptionally noteworthy. Thankfully, someone at the publishing house decided to boil down the entire series into one short TPB named “Grendel: Devil by the Deed.” It tells the entire story of Grendel in one sitting without getting lost in “you need this issue to understand what happened” nuisances. If you enjoy the character of Grendel, there’s a great TPB named Batman/Grendel that pits the two brains against one another.

Poison Elves: Lusiphur & Lirilith by Drew Hayes and Jason Alexander
Urban? Yes. Realistic? Kind of. The Poison Elves comic series went from fun, well-scripted junk food to abysmal tit fest and never returned. But somehow, this little gem came through. It’s a re-telling of the main character’s origin in a Romeo-and-Juliet framework. The setting is gritty, you give a shit about the characters, and the internal artwork is just fantastic (don’t let the covers fool you). Once again, this is a self-contained story, and you’ll never have to read another Poison Elves book to completely understand what’s happening.

Locke and Key is collected, American Vampire only has one issue out.

Points for a number of things I’ve never heard of! Awesome. Exciting.

Very much enjoyed Seven Soldiers, though.

A surprisingly WOD-esque series, in a way.

– c.

And Antony Johnston’s Wasteland.

1) How Loathsome, by Ted Naifeh and Tristan Crane – Collected and interesting. A portrait of sexual and pharmaceutical deviants.

2) Mouse Guard – Beautiful art, fun story and nifty RPG.

3) Freakangels – Free at http://freakangels.com or you can buy the collections. They’re up to book three, about to start book four.

4) Seven Soldiers of Victory – Grant Morrison’s work on Klarion the Witch Boy alone is worth reading these collections.

I’ll take you up on that offer. Give a shout when the time comes?

– c.

Got SCALPED on my list.

QUEEN & COUNTRY — oooh, duh, you know, never read it?

ESSEX COUNTY — wuzzit?

– c.

A couple other collected things that i’d be whoring for right now;

ESSEX COUNTY- an aquired taste and slow moving, but i loves it.
QUEEN & COUNTRY -simply great.