After the Fire
Written by Tom Waltz
Art by Guiu Vilanova
Colors by John Alderink
Color Assists by Arto Heino, Joel Bartlett, Krista Schuhman, Leanne Fitzpatrick, Ron Kieser, Tom Rollinger & William Jones
Letters by Amauri Osorio & Tom Waltz
Title Logo by Gerry Kissell
Edits by Chris Ryall
Cover by Pintu
IDW Publishing
Release Date: July 11, 2012
Cover Price: $7.99

Debuting as an original digital graphic novel, After the Fire is being released in July as a print comic, and you should be VERY happy about that. For this review, I’m NOT going to get into the print vs digital dicsussion, but I do think the book will get a lot more exposure on the racks of comic book stores, and that’s a very good thing, because it’s one heck of a read!

Writer Tom Waltz, who’s KILLING it with his awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series from IDW right now, writes a fantastic story of supernatural revenge, good vs evil, and just all-around awesomeness. This is a comic for people who love comics, and for people who would NEVER read a comic. Seriously, if you’re looking to get one of your friends into reading comics, THIS is the book that you’ll want to give them. It’s a truly unique comic, centering around a pair of cops who are hard-working, dedicated, upstanding officers (or so we think), who are the victims of a couple of corrupt officers in their department.

Dark Shadows #5
Written by Mike Raicht
Art by Guiu Vilanova
Colors by Carlos Lopez
Letters by Troy Peteri
Cover by Francseco Francavilla
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: May 9, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Dark Shadows #5 is very entertaining. In a lot of ways. You can take it seriously or not, but either way you’re going to enjoy it. It seems that main character Barnabas Collins doesn’t really WANT to be a vampire, which is interesting. I’m not an expert on vampires, but usually once people turn into them, they really seem to enjoy it.

Series writer Mike Raicht turns out a interesting story for this issue. While it’s fun for us, the reader, it’s no fun for any of the characters involved. There are a lot of what some people would call “soap opera” elements to comic story telling, but this title is a STRAIGHT-OUT soap opera, just with horror theme to it. It’s really nice to read a comic once in a while where there are NO super powers, no fights or super weapons, just good, solid drama and that’s what this comic is. Sure, there’s a vampire element to it, but Raicht really gets the reader invested in Barnabas Collins the MAN, not Barnabas Collins the VAMPIRE.