NCBD

It’s New Comic Book Day and as per usual a whole host of comic delights have hit the shelves. So what have I enjoyed reading?
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It’s actually a bit of a slow week for me this week, there are a couple of titles I haven’t read yet (Booms Labyrinth 2017 special, looking forward to that, and Titan Comics Quarry’s War but more on that later in the week) but here are 3 I would recommend…. 

Star Trek Discovery #1 (IDW)

The first half of series 1 has just finished on Netflix (or where ever) and it seems to have split the Trek Fandom. A quick flick through Twitter and you’ll see views from both extremes of opinion with a host of people in the middle ground. Personally I loved it. I thought it had elements of the original series mixed with the overarching story ethics of Deep Space 9. Maybe DS9 being my favourite series makes me more inclined to enjoy Discovery because I’m more readily open to the murky under belly of the Federation. Who knows.

Anyway, issue 1 of IDW Publishing’s tie in comic book series kicks off this week and it is all about Klingons. From cover to cover, the honour driven, violent race take centre stage as Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson, the writers, take the reader back to the early life of T’Kuvma.

If you didn’t enjoy the show or didn’t like the New Look Klingons then this probably isn’t for you. The tone of the story and the artwork is quite grim, as you would expect from a story set on the Klingon home world. There are some amazing scenic panels drawn by Tony Shasteen that remind me of HR Giger’s work for Alien but the constant ‘mucky’ colours make it hard work in places.

Overall an interesting start to the series and definitely one to read if you liked Discovery.

Heavy Vinyl #4 (Boom Studios)

Formerly Hi Fi Fight Club, the Boom series reaches its conclusion this week, although it reads more like an introduction to a much bigger story. The opening pages of this issue are brilliantly designed and drawn with a real emphasis on character development.
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For more about this see my review on comiconverse.com

Sword of Ages #1 (IDW)

Gabriel Rodriguez, of Locke & Key fame, writes and draws this new sci-fi fantasy series from IDW. It’s part myth, part dungeon and dragons, and part extensive sci-fi epic.
It has a lot of parts.

The opening two chapters take a bit to get through as the pacing is deliberately, very slow. Rodriguez is setting the scene by throwing a lot of contrasting idea’s and imagery at the reader. Add to this a very high text content and the opening feels much longer than it is. However, this lays out the groundwork for the rest of the comic and as you turn the pages, the pacing increases and you get swept away by the action.
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A lot happens and Rodriguez had designed and illustrates a rich and varied world for his characters to inhabit. The short ‘chapter’ style of storytelling sometimes makes you feel that you are reading the collected works of a web series but other than that Sword of Ages is an intriguing first issue with plenty of character and scope.