Comic Quickies: Let the Phantasmagoria Commence

The Zaucer of Zilk #1: Wanna talk about a book that leaps off the shelves? It was hard to not notice The Zaucer of Zilk when I walked into the comic shop a few weeks ago.  With a cover more vivid than the technicolor dreamcoat, I just had to pick this up and flip through it.  The inside of the comic was on par with the cover, and the art style was certainly eye-catching and offered up some incredibly psychedelic and mind-bending illustrations. (My lady said it looked like one of her old Lisa Frank stickers!)  The art seemed to be completely different from anything else on the shelves, so I decided to pick it up and give it a read.

The Zaucer of Zilk is co-written and illustrated by Brendan McCarthy, a guy whose writing is as far out as his art.  The story follows a young man who wanders into a candy shop, steals some candy, eats it, and winds up in a strange, psychedelic fantasy land where he holds the noble title of Zaucer of Zilk.  Along with a magical wand and some strange companions, The Zaucer finds himself caught in an elaborate trap set up by his enemy, the Errol of Raine, who's trying to steal the Zaucer's magic wand.  Along the way a lot of really strange, weird and oddball shit goes on.

The Zaucer of Zilk has got to be the weirdest thing I've ever read in my life, yet it was still pretty entertaining.  McCarthy can draw some really weird shit, but I gotta say, I enjoyed taking my time with the art and soaking it all in.  Just out of sheer curiosity, I'll be looking forward to seeing what happens next with the Zaucer.

Godzilla The Half Century War #3: I don't claim to be a Godzilla fan, which is kinda strange given my affinity for monsters, but god damn, James Stokoe has created one absolutely amazing Godzilla comic.  You don't have to look any further than the cover to know that you'll be getting some absolutely amazing artwork when you buy this comic, but you're also getting a really amazing story.

Stokoe's story follows a team of soldiers who specialize in trying to reduce the amount of death and destruction Godzilla wreaks whenever and wherever he happens to pop up across the globe.  He doesn't come around all that often, but when he does, the AMF is there. So far Godzilla has cropped up in WWII Japan, Vietnam during the Vietnam war, and In this issue, in Accra, Ghana in 1975.  In fact, a shit ton of other monsters are on hand as well, and they all appear to be drawn there by some sort of homing beacon.

Everything is dialed up to eleven in this issue, the monster fights, action, destruction, and incredible art are all off the chain here.  Stokoe pretty much puts on a clinic for how to make a fucking incredible comic.  There's more going on in one splash page here then most other comics combined.  Reading Godzilla The Half Century War is a treat.

Multiple Warheads #1:  Rounding out this comic quickies where amazing art rules the day, is Brandon Graham's latest, Multiple Warheads.  This dude was very impressive with King City, and his work on Prophet has been awesome as well.  A year ago, I had never read a single thing by the guy and now I'd easily place him as one of my top five favorite comic creators.

Multiple Warheads is a comic I've been eagerly awaiting for a while now, especially since Graham handles all the comic creating tasks, and I've been eager to see him unleash his comic creating skills on a title that is 100% his own.

Well, my wish was granted.  This first issue of Multiple Warheads weighs in at a whopping 48 pages of Brandon Graham comic-creatin' genius.  The story follows a young couple, Sexica and Nikoli who are on a road trip together after their home was destroyed in a bombing.  Sexica was once an organ smuggler, and sewed a werewolf penis on poor Nikoli.  Now he has dreams of the wolf's past life.  Then there's also Nura, another organ smuggler, who also appears to be pretty handy with the sword she has strapped to her back.  It's unclear exactly what everyone is doing here and why, but as I learned from reading King City, Graham isn't the kind of guy to worry much about plot, and instead prefers to just let the story go wherever it may.

I'm up for whatever as long as Graham keeps cranking out the level of amazingness he produced here.  This is one absolutely beautiful looking comic, and a lot of fun to read too.  Graham is a modern master of the pun, and each page is laced with at least one great pun, if not more.  My favorite was the misogynist parlor.

I think my favorite thing about this comic is the fact that all signs point to the fact that Graham is making exactly the comic/art he wants to be making, without having to make any compromises.  That is a rare thing, and Multiple Warheads is a better comic for that fact.  This is an absolute must read.