Pick of the Week
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Size: pages
Price: 4.99
It’s been a while since we’ve held up an anthology book as the Pick of the Week. That is most likely because the days of the issue based anthologies seems to have been retired in favor of the larger, trade format anthology like Popgun or Flight. But back in the day, there used to be some fantastic issue based anthologies with shorter stories that gave you a taste of a story and had such a wide variety that you had a blast reading it, like the old Marvel Comics Presents or Dark Horse Presents books of the late 1980s/early 1990s. Those were days.
Liberty Comics reminds me of those books where you had a fantastic cross section of talented creators. each giving you a few pages of their story and making each page an adventure. What’s even better is that this anthology goes to support a good cause, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, an organization (along with The Hero Initiative) that we all should be supporting. So if you scoff at the $4.99 price tag on this, remember that it’s going to one of the most important charities in the comics industry. Not only that, but you get a huge bang for your five bucks with Liberty Comics #2. Eleven stories and three pinups from the likes of: Jason Aaron, Moritat, Ben Templesmith, Mike Allred, Dave Johnson, Paul Pope, Brian Wood, Jimmy Palmiotti, Dave Gibbons, Neil Gaiman, and Jim Lee and LOTS more, that’s not even everyone who worked on this book, the list goes on with the likes of Jim Rugg, Chynna Clugston-Flores, Cameron Stewart, Stuart & Kathy Immonen and more. So many great talents gave themselves to a great cause, resulting in a fantastic comic book.
I don’t have the time or space to praise every story in this issue. You’re going to have to go pick it up for yourself and find your favorites. But I do want to highlight a couple of stories that made me the most excited.
We spoke with Ben Templesmith and Ben McCool at the San Diego Comic-Con about the book they announced, Choker. While Choker isn’t due to come out until next year, Liberty Comics #2 features our first peek at sequential art with a six page story that introduces us to the main character, Johnny Jackson, with a vignette in the book’s setting, Shotgun City. It’s probably expected to say, but if you’re a fan of Fell or Templesmith’s recent work like Welcome to Hoxford, then you’re going to love Choker. Templesmith’s art just sings on these six pages, with a dark tone over a basic five panel layout per page. McCool’s characters and stories are just as devilish as he teased in San Diego. All together these six pages make me excited for the ongoing and damning the wait for the first issue.
I was delighted to read the Mr. Gum/Madman story written by Jamie S. Rich, with art by Mike Allred AND Dave Johnson. How great is that? Two of the best artists I’ve seen working together to tell a hysterically fun, satirical story about selling out.
Somehow I had missed the fact that Brian Wood had a Channel Zero story in this issue. Channel Zero was the first comic by Brian Wood that I ever read and still probably holds up as my favorite. In addition to his writing, Wood is also a talented artist and if you’ve been reading DMZ, then you have to read Channel Zero. This is probably as good an introduction to it as any story could be, with a simple four page story of urban rebellion that was both fun to look at, as well inspiring.
There were three great surprises. The first was the one page rant by Chynna Clugston-Flores, one of my favorite creators of whose work we don’t get nearly enough. Next, the Painkiller Jane story written by Jimmy Palmiotti and drawn by the awesome Jim Rugg totally delivered. Finally, the Apocalipstix story by Ray Fawkes and Cameron Stewart not only made me laugh, but looked great in color. OH! And the Paul Grist silent Jack Staff story! I’m not doing very well at isolating my favorite stories in this issue, am I? They’re all so good! Jason Aaron writing comedy/satire about censorship! Five pages of black and white Paul Pope art with Loverman. A darling three pages from Kathy and Stuart Immonen! A Dave Gibbons Martha Washington pinup! Covers by John Romita Jr. (Kick-Ass) and Tim Sale! A six page story written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Jim Lee, in a style that I bet you’ve never seen before from Lee. Seriously this book is ridiculously filled with such great content, it’s almost too much to take in one sitting.
I don’t think a single of issue of a comic book has given this much talent and this much great content in just one issue in a very long time. Don’t take my word for it, go pick up Liberty Comics #2 and find out for yourself. In the process you’ll be helping out the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and getting yourself some badass comics to read, not a bad deal if I do say so myself!
Ron Richards
It doesn’t get any better than Loverman.
ron@ifanboy.com
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I should’ve picked this up. I had it on my pull and I only had 2 other pulls this week and I still didn’t pick it up. Angry at myself.
I’ll definitely pick this up. I only have two things on my pull list, now I have three.
Guh!?
No just joking there; great pick Ron. Totally out of left field in one case; but totally makes sense when you realize how important and entertaining this comic is. I flipped threw it at the store but sadly I didn’t pick it up. Out of character for me but…..well I already had 2 $4.99 comics and I just couldn’t afford this. If it’s still at my LCS next week then I will pick it up.
My pick was Incredible Hercules by the by. It is, to me, the best single issue to come out this year. Shame that no one, other then Jimski, reads it who works for the site. That’s gotta change very soon…
FUcckkk, now I have to go out and get this.
I saw this at my store, and even picked it up. I should have looked at the damn list of creators, that would have convinced me to pick it up, damn. I’ll go back this weekend. Glad you enjoyed it so much.
I went with The Walking Dead. A great issue, but every other book I bought this week fell short for me. With the exception of Uncanny X-Men. It was surprisingly good…with one glaring problem involving Magneto and Caesar. :-/
the walking dead …..was the pick of the week!!!!! ahhhhhhhhh
Can’t argue against charity
Agrues w/ Hellblazer Walking Dead was the POW hands down.
Matthew
Agrees, w/ the above post. it has been a long night.
Matthew
Yeah? Well it’s also been a while since you had a DC book as pick of the week!
I didn’t know this book existed.
I’m with Stuclach. Never heard of this and I definitly didn’t see it at my shop.
@ato220 – It was definitely at our shop.
I’m almost positive that if the cover had featured anyone or anything other than Kick-Ass, I would’ve picked it up. Obviously not a smart decision on my part, but that’s exactly what happened.
Looking forward to getting this from dcbservice.com in a few weeks. However, WALKING DEAD #66 was the first book I read and I knew immediately that it was my pick. An absolutely gut-wrenching, pivotal issue that injected new energy into a series that has been coasting on excellence for some time. Yesterday, I teared up while reading a zombie comic.
My shop may well have had the book, but I didn’t know to look for it and, like Paul, would probably have ignored it instantly if I had noticed it and seen the Kick-Ass cover (sorry Kick-Ass fans).
I picked this up on a whim, and Im so glad that I did. I havent read it yet since I couldnt stay up to finish everything, but I love anthology books like Popgun. Will share my thoughts later though. Also, I got the awesome looking Tim Sale variant cover!
Had no intention of getting this, but it sounds great. May have to go back to the shop!
I’ll have to check this out. The list of creators is so good, and I didnt even realize this was coming out this week. I’ll definitly pick it up when I go back to the comic shop.
Didn’t see that one coming, and this was completely under my radar. Still I kind of love it when a POTW is something unexpected and gives me something new to seek out..you kind of had me with the fact that Dave Johnson even breathed somewhere near the interior art. LOve the man’s covers, but the world needs more sequential work from the guy.
Ok just finished reading it on the train. There were some really great stories in this! I particularly loved the Mr Gum story, The First Censor and The Apocalipstix (with art by the AMAZING Cameron Stewart). Now I’m also quite looking forward to Choker. The other stories were just ok IMO, so I didnt make it my POTW. I gave that to (and I know Im gonna get alotta flack for this) Deadpool #900.
does Wednesday Comics count as an anthology? if so, it hasn’t been THAT long since an anthology book has been POW 😉
chirst on a Crunch. I haven’t gotten any new comics for almost 3 weeks. I’m in withdrawals. i need them. yeah, so i’m pretty excited for the books this week
@PaulMontgomery and @stuclach There is also a Tim Sale "noir" cover if you don’t want to buy the Kick-Ass cover.
@ghettojourno – Thank you for the info.
I’m going to look for that.
Two Brubaker POW’s in a row for me (Criminal and now Marvels Project). It’s like it’s 2006. Though I mostly credit my enjoyment of ‘Marvels’ to Epting and Dave Stewart; not that the writing’s bad, but there’s not a whole lot to the story, it’s the art that’s killing. Storywise, my favorite thing this week was ‘Batgirl.’
I had to go with Unwritten. The last two issues have really shined. Also really enjoyed Hellboy and BPRD. Enjoyed both The Marvels Project and JSA vs. Kobra as well. All told, it was a pretty strong week for me. The weakest, by far, was Batman: Blackest Night. I enjoyed the first issue setup, but this final issue seemed realllllly obvious and mediocre. I expected more.
I had seven 5-star books… and one 2-star (damned Detective Comics Annual!). Tough choice on the PoW for me but I flipped a coin mentally and went w/ Red Robin.
This was a really great week of comics for me. Personally, I went with Fables but The Unwritten came very, very close. I don’t even think that this was the best anthology comic of the week though – it was very good but I’d give the nod to the House of Mystery Halloween Annual.
The Tim Sale cover btw is in the last page of the Kick Ass cover and I assume vice-versa.
@miyamotofreak Both covers are included in the issue regardless of the cover purchased. Funny story, I personally pulled the JRJR Kick-Ass cover on Wednesday, but when I went to pick up my pulls today I had the Tim Sale "noir" cover instead. I’m pleased either way, though.
I have to admit, I was really underwhelmed by this. I don’t know why even. I want to call the issue perfunctory but that’s not quite right. I guess I would explain it this way, it seems like many of these stories were written to fill a charity book rather than being stories many of them would have written. The Paul Grist story was fantastic. I have the distinct feeling I’ve seen Loverman before. Choker was pretty good. And I enjoyed Gaiman’s story – I love his 100 word stories. I don’t know… if this issue wasn’t supporting the CBLDF, I would be a little disappointed by it. Still, there was a lot to enjoy here.
For me, it was Adventure Comics by a nose over Incredible Herc. Still, great review Ron.
After finally reading my comics from the past couple weeks, I have to give this week’s pick to Liberty Comics as well. Lately, I’ve become a vocal fan of anthology comics. I liked the Hero Initiative book and LOVED the Strange Tales issues and this is right up there in my favorites. And the good cause nature of some these titles doesn’t hurt.
Loverman’s my new favorite superhero!!! Great pick Ron!
Just a heads up that maybe you want to remove from the credits. Gail Simone and Joelle Jones were solicited to have a story in the issue but it didn’t make it in.
lol do you know that this book is COMPLETELY gone from my store? Gone. Zip. Nowhere to be found. =|