Mind MGMT #23
Written by Matt Kindt
Artwork by Matt Kindt
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: June 25, 2014
Cover Price: $3.99

Issue 23 of Mind MGMT is here to remind you — we are all forgetful sometimes — that this is a series about many things, but focused on Meru; she is the main character, and don’t you forget again.

Unlike when the monk was able to see her as a majestic warrior, the reminder is done differently this time, but the effect is similar. It is easy to get caught up in the other aspects of Matt Kindt‘s fascinating, lovely series about miserable people with fantastic and unique mental powers. Powers that contribute to their misery and woe. So a gentle, or ferocious, reminder is needed at times.

The Last of Us: American Dreams
Trade Paperback
Written by Faith Erin Hicks and Neil Druckmann
Artwork by Faith Erin Hicks
Colors by Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover by Julian Totino Tedesco
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: November 12, 2013
Cover Price: $16.99

So, The Last of Us: American Dreams, is based on a recent hit video game. This has been happening a lot lately. Like, a lot a lot.
It’s also co-written by Neil Druckmann, who is the writer for the aforementioned video game: The Last of Us. He is the creative director for the game and has written for a few other big budget video games. Now, the story lines of video games have come a long way since Doom, or even Quake. In 1998, when Half-Life was released, it was hailed as a landmark in storytelling in an FPS. Since then, the quality of the story has become more central to the quality of game. You know this, I know this, anyone that is even remotely into gaming knows this, and I don’t need to make this a recent history recap. Still, this smacks of a commercial cash-in, and one that serves only to sell a new action figure, or some such, and eke out a few more dollars from the beleaguered masses. Hooray.

But it isn’t. Not really, anyways. Faith Erin Hicks (Friends With Boys), has been gaining popularity for a bit now, and while I wouldn’t say this is the culmination of that, she isn’t Alan Dean Foster, or a similar warm body contracted for a product tie-in. What she and Drukmann have managed to create is a teenage-rebellion story enmeshed in the post-apocalyptic world of a zombie-infection outbreak.

Mind MGMT #16
Written by: Matt Kindt
Artwork by: Matt Kindt
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: October 23, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

In many ways, Matt Kindt‘s Mind MGMT is a rather haunting look at memory, and the damaging manipulations and gaslighting characters have to contend with from external powers. The first six issues alone stand as one of the more compelling mind-fucks in recent memory (along with being a statement on desperation).

In issue sixteen we get a more thorough telling of Julinae, the woman who killed her family, purportedly, and was the subject of Meru’s first book. Her story has been hinted at on the margins (quite literally, and sorry) and discussed some through the proxy Meru’s own tale, but here she finally gets the spotlight, and like many of the threads introduced, her revelations have a vital importance to the primary story.

Building Stories
Written by Chris Ware
Illustrated by Chris Ware
Pantheon Books
Release Date: October 2, 2012
Cover Price: $50.00

Oh why, hello there, all of you assumedly beautiful people! So, we’re trying a new little something here at Geeks of Doom by having a conversation between a couple of writers (Peter AKA Cashmere Smoking Jacket & Michael AKA Spartacus!) about certain comic books, projects, and the like. This may be a format you’re familiar with from around the web, or it might be a brand new thing to you. Either way, we hope you enjoy it, and please, leave feedback and suggestions at the bottom of the page; we’d love to hear from you! Also, though it probably won’t burn your retinas or anything, please consider yourself duly warned of the use of adult language below.

So, let’s open up our inaugural chat by talking about the latest release by Chris Ware, a cluster of elements that add up to a thing called Building Stories.

Ignition Vol. 1
Written by Various
Penciled by Various
Colors by Various
Edited by Andrew DelQuadro
215 Ink
Release Date: Available for Pre-Order
Cover Price: $29.99

So, there’s a review in here, promise, and it’s going to be about the new collection from 215ink called Ignition Vol. 1. The lede is just, as people who call writing a profession say, buried. First, I need a moment to qualify what I mean and give a frame of reference. So, sorry, but: you can always circumvent that by skipping to the end if you’d like.

There’s been something of a renaissance of creator owned content lately, with a bevy of titles being announced from creators like Grant Morrison, Steve Niles, Brian K Vaughan, and other industry heavyweights. Although artistic control has been a high profile issue in the comics world at least since the early 90s -what with the Creator’s Bill of Rights in 1988, and the creation of Image Comics in 1992- the past calendar year has seemed like something of a watershed moment for the publicity and frequency of creator owned projects. Every major publisher, I believe, has an imprint dedicated to these projects, and the whole thing smacks of a cash-in. That sounds cynical.