Coming Soon! (February)
Happy Valentine’s Day! Or Galentine’s or Anti-Valentines! Whatever floats your boat. Regardless of which you pick, I hope February is a good month, especially when it comes to reading comics. Since this is my first post of the month, I wanted to take a look at some comic book news as well as a few of the upcoming or new titles that I’m excited about!
Page to Screen: Umbrella Academy
This article has about perfect timing since tomorrow is the official release on Netflix of the adaptation of the Umbrella Academy series! Published in 2008 by Dark Horse Comics, Umbrella Academy is a twist on the old trope of superhero families, with a group of six gifted children having been adopted by a millionaire inventor after the bizarre circumstances of their births (all on the same day to women who didn’t even know they were pregnant). It was written by Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Ba, with coloring by Dave Stewart and originally was comprised of two volumes. It’s recently been announced that a third volume will be published in July of this year, returning to the original series. I’ve always heard praise for the Umbrella Academy series, which seems part Fantastic 4 and part Mystery Men, but never got around to reading it. As is my way, I will be binge reading the series for next week so that I can watch the show! Have you been watching any of the recent comic book adaptations? Let me know what you think!
New Releases for February
Criminal (Image Comics) – January 9th (#1) & February 13th (#2)
Criminal was one of my favorite series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips a few years ago when I went on a Brubaker reading binge. The gritty, noir world was made into perfection by Brubaker’s excellent characterization of flawed invidividuals getting wrapped up in criminal circumstances that they often couldn’t control. And Phillips art was a perfect complement. But I somehow completely missed hearing about the return to the series last month and have some catching up to do! If you like gorgeous art, gritty dark universes and flawed but sympathetic antiheroes, you need to check out Criminal! I’d definitely recommend checking out the old series first because it’s excellent but I can’t wait to dive into the new one!
Sharkey the Bounty Hunter (Image Comics) – February 20th
Back in 2017, Netflix and Mark Millar announced that the former had acquired Millarworld, Millar’s publishing company that is most well known for Kickass and Kingsman. While they’ve already set up several series and stand alone movies to be added to Netflix in the near future, they’ve also announced a new series, Sharkey the Bounty Hunter! I’ve previously been pretty mixed on Millar (loved Red Son, ambivalent on Huck and downright hated Chrononauts) but I can’t help but be intrigued by the idea of an intergalactic bounty hunter running around in a beaten up old ice cream truck and tracking down outlaws. It sounds ridiculous and fun and hopefully on the side of Millar that I like and a little less Ennis-like. The first issue will be out on February 20th and a feature film will debut on Netflix in the near future!
That about wraps up what I’m most excited about this month! Have any suggestions for releases that I didn’t mention and should have? Let me know in the comments! And while the bi-monthly posts was a good change to try, Graphic Reviews will be moving back to a monthly segment as keeping track of it was just too much of nuisance. And I’ve missed getting the chance to talk about comics more often! See you next week!
– Cait