Greetings, Folk! Woo-Hooo! Four-Color Comics! Comics!
Thanks for joining me for volume one, number two of Four-Color Bullet! I hope you enjoy today’s books as much as I do!
Comic Book Store Shout Out! This column’s comics were suggested to me by Galaxy of Comics’ very own Chelsea, with special assistance from Domino, The Wonder Cat! If you find yourself in the Van Nuys area pop on in and check out their store! A very cool store and great people behind the counter! Thanks for your suggestions, Chelsea!
Writer: Simon Spurrier
Art and Cover: Jonas Goonface
Variant Covers: Sonny Liew, David Aja, Jen Bartel
BOOM STUDIOS
Godshaper #1
In 1958, the world’s laws of physics went a bit off, and all the conveniences of life simply disappeared:
“Electricity, ignition – anything that made life easy: gone.”
In their place the people of the world were given their own individual… gods. Pretty much anything you needed or wanted would be provided by these gods if they were strong enough and if you prayed hard enough. They create the world’s currency – no dollars, shekels, or yen, thank you very much – again, depending on their strength and your prayers. Every person is connected to a god, and every god to a person.
This story is about Ennay, a nogody and a Shaper. Shapers are raised without gods and as such they are shunned by society. One in ten thousand people are raised as Shapers, and although nobody wants them around, they are capable of reconfiguring gods; make them better, more attractive, more impressive.
Nobody wants them around, but they need them.
Even though Ennay is a “nogody” Shaper, his travelling companion is Bud, who himself is a god, which begs the question: does this nogody have a god after all?
Ennay is also a musician, a performer of Cantik, something the god class just can’t stand. Picture you playing your favorite jam and your parents telling you to turn it down, or trying to take it away from you because it’s dangerous, or something like that. Counter-culture stuff. But being who he is, Ennay always gets caught up in other people’s drama. And when he and Bud meet Smudge, drama goes to a whole new level.
Simon Spurrier (The Spire, X-Men Legacy) writes a really good story. The pace of this first issue is tight, and draws you in. I’m fascinated with the gods and I look forward to hopefully finding out the reasons behind their creation and appearance in the world, as well as why there are godshapers.
Jonas Goonface’s art has a real cool underground comics vibe with a dash of Guy Davis and it captures Spurrier’s script perfectly.
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Pere Perez
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT LLC
Faith #1/Faith #2
If you read Valiant’s Harbinger series, you’ll remember Faith Herbert as Zephyr, a member of The Renegades, a group of psiot superheroes. Now on her own, Zephyr, in her secret identity as Summer Smith, writes for a website, hangs with her friends (two of which, along with her boss, know her secret) and gets a kick out of being a superhero.
Faith is not your ordinary, run of the mill superhero. She’s a genuinely happy person, and quite the movie quoting sci-fi fan geek. And as a fan geek myself, I mean that with all of the positive kudos I can put out there. She’s one of those characters that when she smiles, you can’t help but smile, too.
Writer Jody Houser (Rogue One) and artist Pere Perez (Unity) are giving traditional female character-driven comics some dust to eat. This is a character that is approachable, not stand-offish in any way, and as believable a character as you can get, costume, cape, and powers notwithstanding. Other artists on the book include Marguerite Sauvage, the amazing Colleen Doran, Kevin Wada, Jelena Kevic-Djurdjevic, Cary Nord, Emanuela Luppachino & Brad Simpson, Colleen Coover and Kano, and fantastic colors by Andrew Dalhouse, Dave Sharpe, bringing his great talents to the lettering.
I’ve still got more catching up on new titles to do, so I’m going to take my leave now. Please let me know what your thoughts are on these titles, and let me know about books you like that you think I’d be interested in following. I’d love to get your feedback. Until next time:
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Contrary to popular belief, Myk Price wasn’t rocketed to Earth as an infant, wasn’t a test pilot chosen to protect a space sector, wasn’t exposed to Gamma radiation, and has never been picked up by an English sounding whack job with a multi-colored scarf flying around in a blue police box.
He’s still holding hope for the English sounding whack job, though.
A naturalized Californian, Myk (pronounced “Mike”,) is a husband, musician, massage therapist, and is re-embracing his many decades love of comic books. When not riding around on his motorcycle, playing music for belly dancers with the band, Rhythm Caravan, or performing with the Los Angeles Recorder Orchestra, Myk can be found reading comics and avoiding household chores by telling his lovely wife, Nola, “I can’t, Honey! I have a deadline!”
To be fair, she doesn’t buy it, either.
