Best New(er) Comics--2016 in Review

Relatively New

There are two books that have had some issues come out and which I feel both are starting strong. One is a mini-series that is about at its half-way point and the other is for now an ongoing, although it is up to the creative team how long they want to make it.

Black

I first heard about this comic when it had a massively successful Kickstarter campaign that also led to it being picked-up by Black Mask Studios. I wanted to check it out because it has an artist I like a lot--Jamal Igle--and has a killer concept. The idea is that a very small portion of the population happen to have super-powers, and they all also happen to only be black people. This is of course a really loaded concept, but writer Kwanza Osajyefo has pulled it off so far and Igle's artwork is of course wonderful. This title is a mini-series which just had the third issue come out and will feature a double-sized finale for issue #6, so it is about halfway done. Considering how much I've enjoyed the book so far I'm excited to see how the book finishes, and if any future stories set in this world may occur once this wraps!

Kill or Be Killed

Ed Brukaer and Sean Phillips basically are as in-sync with another as an artist and writer can be. There are not many creative teams that have worked together as much as these two, and their latest project of, "Kill or Be Killed," is a fascinating blend of crime-drama kind of like, "Criminal," but with a healthy dose of supernatural/demon aspects a bit like their work on, "Fatale." The basic plot is a college student named Dylan survives a suicide attempt but then is told by a demonic presence he has to kill people every so often or he will die. This leads to him being a murderer, but he seems to actually be killing people who it turns out are awful human beings, so is he crazy, or something else? As the book is only at issue #4 (I believe) a whole lot remains to be revealed, but for right now I'm extremely impressed with what I've read and look forward to seeing if at the end of the day our protagonist turns out to be kinda-sort a good guy, or just is flat-out evil.

Still Smells/Reads as Fresh!

Depending on where these books go during 2017 they may very well reappear when I'm going over everything at the end of the next 365 days (I know, I know, we had 366 this year). It is always good when a book starts strong, and even better when that strength can hopefully continue!