Blood & Dust: The Life & Undeath Of Judd Glenny #1
Written by William R. Martin and Adam J. Orndorf
Art by Roy Allan Martinez
Colors by Raymund Lee
Letters by Kel Nuttall
Covers by Brett Weldele, Roy Allan Martinez
Action Lab Comics
Release Date: August 3, 2016
Cover Price: $3.99

Vampires. Every few years they resurface in the literary world. Though to be fair, they really haven’t gone away this time. There’s something about them that really piques the interest of large percentage of readers, myself included. Mine stems from reading early Anne Rice books, but I find most of what’s produced these days to be lacking in originality and versatility. Mind you, I did say most. Blood & Dust: The Life & Undeath Of Judd Glenny #1 is certainly an exception to the rule. Please allow me to elaborate further.

It takes more than skill and money to create a comic book. It takes passion and persistence, most likely in equal amounts. That’s exactly what the creators behind Black Suit Of Death The Series – Issue #1 have going for them. It’s a story with a science fiction background but shrouded in the mysteries of the ancient world. For this story is no less than the origin of the Grim Reaper!

Without spoiling anything, the story is as follows: thousands of years ago, a distant planet suffered from overpopulation. A scientist is therefore tasked with solving the energy crisis. Building a biomechanical suit that takes the life force of the unworthy and sends it into the planet to sustain the occupants, the scientist is denounced and exiled with his creation to the primitive planet of Earth. Passing from one bearer to the next for millennia, a new mythos of death is born: The Grim Reaper. Who will be the next recipient and what will they do with it? Well, that’s the point of this comic and Kickstarter campaign!

BOOM! Studios has been producing some really interesting mini-series lately and we’ve just learned about another intriguing series coming soon.

Codebreakers, written by Carey Malloy with art by Scott Godlewski, promises “clandestine thrills and excitement that only BOOM! can deliver.” There will also be covers by Unthinkable‘s Julian Totino Tedesco and Brett Weldele (The Surrogates).

I’m pretty much on board with anything BOOM! produces so I’ll be picking this one up.

Crack the code with Codebreakers this April, but in the meantime, check out the official press release below.

The Surrogates
The Surrogates: Vol 1
The Surrogates: Vol 2: Flesh & Bone
The Surrogates Operator’s Manual: Vol 1 & 2 (Hardcover)
Written by Robert Venditti
Art by Brett Weldele
Top Shelf Productions
Available Now

The Surrogates caught me by surprise when it came out a few years ago. Here was a book with a unique premise, which appealed to the Sci-Fi fan in me, as well as the crime drama/mystery fan. The story was fairly unique to me: In the future most people will not leave their houses at all, they do all their business and interactions through the use of realistic looking robots called Surrogates. These surrogates have changed all aspects of society: cops don’t have to worry about being killed in the line of duty; gender roles are easily switched by using a surrogate opposite of the users actual gender; and body image is no longer a problem, since your surrogate can be as good looking as you want it to be. All of this changes when someone begins to go around destroying other people’s surrogates. What follows is an examination of how we interact with each other in an online world, the role of religion verses technology, and really just a well crafted mystery.

The original Surrogates mini-series, by Robert Venditti is an interesting piece of work. It’s one of the most thought provoking series that I have read over the last few years. The world we live in today is one where people can go years without actually meeting people they interact with every day. You can keep up with complete strangers via any number of message boards, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, or a million other social networks. You can raid a dungeon in World of Warcraft with someone who could be half a world away, or they could be your next door neighbor, and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. The Surrogates takes the concept of this isolation that many people live their lives in today, and asks what would happen if no one had to leave their house if they didn’t want to. The best thing it does though, is take this interesting concept, and wraps it up in an also interesting murder mystery.