Indie Comics April 13th 2011

Well I say "Indie" I had enough Image Comics to warrant their own post but then Boom Comics Farscape would be on it's own...
Farscape #18
So much is going on in this book right now. We build up towards the end of the War of the Uncharted Territories story. A lot of anticipation now as several major plots are set to end in rather spectacular ways in upcoming issues.
This issue Commandant Aeryn stops a mutiny and attack on the remaining weapons supply and gets several more, slightly unwilling, additions to their growing resistance. Roiin and Chiana join a motley crew on the way to meet up with the resistance and Chiana seems shocked that Aeryn is in charge of the peacekeepers, clearly getting the wrong end of the stick, but also not knowing Roiin's reasons for going along. Is he going to finish his bounty on Deke?!


Meanwhile Deke's weird ass super powers look like they have saved Moya and Pilot from several Kkore ships attacking them. I wonder if they can save him from Roiin or what role the will serve as he grows older. Plus for the big finish, the Kkore find out the location of the resistance and plan to attack immediately!
I have major love for this book. The look and motives of such a large cast (hell make that universe) handled so brilliantly, by both writer and artist. Speaking of which Will Sliney commented a thanks on one of my old raves about how much I love this book which proper made my day!

Infinite Vacation #2
The guy who was going to kill him at the end of last issue was in fact Mark again. He is then kidnapped by a whole gang of himself of which the introductions had me wetting myself with laughter.

I feel really cheeky posting a whole page, but you need it for the full effect. Plus it doesn't matter too much, because you are all going to go pick this up anyway, aren't you. AREN'T YOU!

Turns out he is wanted for his own multiple murders so the gang of hacker Mark had found him and swapped him for Pedophile Mark just before the police got there. After some brilliant small talk they realise that whoever is after him through the actual killings is only after one Mark out of the trillions they killed and the 3 they nearly killed, they are only after him! So they hide him with the dead enders, that group of protestors who are against the infinite vacation. When in this deadender universe he is in, he bumps into the same purple haired Claire from last issue, the chances of this are off the scale never going to happen so he is mega surprised. He goes with her to the Singularist/ dead ender meeting and we learn her heartbreaking backstory and why she doesn't believe in the Infinite Vacation. He decides he'd rather not leave his own fate in the hands of a bunch of himself and asks her for help.
It is at this point that the art changes into a photo comic as we are shown an interview in the style of a news report with a representative of the Infinite Vacation company. It's bits like this that make the worlds in this book seem more believable. During the interview it crops up that there are allegations about Mr Vernon, his boss at the Infinite Vacation company having insanity and anger issues. We then cut back to the regular art and see a Detective Mark being punished by Mr Vernon for not finding the Mark they are after, and he is punished by being killed by some ultraviolet ultra violent killer Mark. Presumably the one whom is killing the other trillions of Marks also.
This is such a complex idea and story yet it is completely accessible and really enjoyable. You would have though to get this much story into two issues would have been impossible, and this is going to end up being one EPIC limited series! It's almost a shame when Nick Spencer is restrained by normal story telling on superhero books because I could read this kind of stuff all day. Let him loose more often!

Li'l Depressed Boy #3
As adorable as ever. LDB lost the bet at the bowling alley and now has to go to a thrift store, which I'm guessing is some kind of charity or second hand store, to try on dead people clothes. Then they check out the music section and Jazz gets a record but goes back to LDB's to play it. He finds out it's her Birthday today and she is having a party later. A party he is told that trolls wont be attending.


He comes along only to be swamped by more hipster kids. As if visiting the thrift store wasn't enough. He gives her his old record player as a gift and then a band starts playing and cops turn up (probably just about the noise) but hey ho that's the cliff hanger! A really sweet Little LDB where he realises he cant play any instrument and a record player is the best way to make music. This is an absolute geek and pop culture gem.

Madman All-New Giant-Size Super Ginchy Special
I've had to wait a long time for a new Madman and the Atomics comic. It's also half a massive hallucination of Franks after touching poisoned tipped spikes. Another short story now, done by a blogging favorite of mine called Emi Lenox. She draws an adorable Joe and Madman. Really dig the style.


Matt Kindt's offering is pretty fun as it explores a minor background vilain from one of the original Madman comics who is given this huge inter stellar story only to come back to Snap city and write a book about it. Tozo's story sees Joe and the Prof. use a magnet to get a microscopic bullet out of Madman's brain. Then a huge amount of different artists do pin up pages at the back.
I must admit when I was looking for this I actually had in my head something a lot bigger, about wednesday comics size, and hard back. Turns out that that 20th anniversary monster is still to come, and not only having some of the biggest names in comics doing strips for it, it will also re print EVERY SINGLE PIN UP! Hell to the yes. I just hope it's affordable else I will seriously cry.