Tabatha #1
Created and Written by Neil Gibson
Pencils and Inks by Casper Wijngaard
Color by Casper Wijngaard and Anja Poland
Letters by Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
TPub
Digital Release Date: November 28, 2012
Cover Price: $0.99

Never judge a book by its cover. We’ve all heard that, right? Well, toss that in the rubbish bin. The cover is what drew me to this comic and I went in hoping for something dark and twisted. Guess what? I got my wish. Tabatha #1 delivered in spades.

Imagine a sunny day in Los Angeles, birds are chirping and kids are playing. It’s just another day in the life of Luke, the friendly mailman out on his route. After getting harassed by his boss, he got right to work delivering packages and envelopes to the public. Getting attacked by a little old lady, being subjected to a very naked and very large man, getting to flirt with a sexy, tattooed beauty…these are just regular occurrences with our happy-go-lucky postal employee.

Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls
Written by Scott Snyder
Pencils by Greg Capullo
Inks by Jonathan Glapion
Colors by FCO
Letters by Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
DC Comics
Release Date: May 9, 2012
Cover Price: $24.99

Batman: The Court of Owls is a deconstruction of Batman and Bruce Wayne’s vision of Gotham City. The DC Relaunch provided a landscape in which writers and artists had a way to completely recreate characters and the DC Universe as a whole into their vision. Scott Snyder doesn’t exactly do this. The Court of Owls works as both a perfect starting place for new readers to comics as well as experienced readers who have kept up through the Grant Morrison saga and Snyder’s work on Detective Comics. Characters created and explored during that time period are even featured in the opening pages of this book, so it’s not a title that completely ignores its past, which, whether on purpose or not, parallels the concept of this book. And this book is quite simply a masterpiece.

In Court of Owls, Scott Snyder tells a story of how the past of Gotham City, a past unbeknownst to The Batman, has come to haunt The Dark Knight in a way that no one, other than Snyder, could have ever imagined.

Angel & Faith #8
Executive Producer: Joss Whedon
Script by Christos Gage
Art by Rebekah Isaacs
Colors by Dan Jackson
Letters by Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
Covers by Steve Morris, Rebekah Isaacs with Dan Jackson
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 28, 2012
Cover Price: $2.99

Geez… miss a couple of months of a comic book series and everything is different. Lots of introspection in this issue leads me to believe I need to go get the missing comics and play catch up. Sure, Faith is still leading the slayers around but she seems to have her hands full at it.

What makes a slayer turn on one of her sisters? It seems guilt does. Though they seemed well matched at first, Faith gains the upper hand and disarms her fellow slayer. A very sensitive Faith gives the other girl some rather helpful advice but allows her to deal with the pain in her own way, though not as she would have her do.

King Conan: The Scarlet Citadel
Written by Timothy Truman
Art by Tomas Giorello
Colors by Jose Villarubia
Letters by Richard Starkings and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt
Chapter-Break Art by Darick Robertson with colorists Dave Stewart and Richard Clark
Cover by Gerald Parel
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: February 28, 2012
Cover Price: $14.99

By Crom, finally a tale worthy of a king! King Conan: The Scarlet Citadel is a compilation of the four-issue mini-series of the same name. This is a story from Conan’s later years retold in glorious fashion. And for the first time we hear the tale directly from the Cimmerian himself.

We start the story with Conan relaxing on his throne as the King of Aquilonia. A young scribe, Pramis, is tasked with chronicling the exploits of the famous monarch for the kingdom’s libraries. Once convinced to share some of his history, Conan settles in to tell the story of his capture by the evil sorcerer, Tsotha-Lanti. Imprisoned beneath the Scarlet Citadel, the captured barbarian is quick to realize that he is not meant to survive his stay in the dungeon.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 9 #2
Based on the television series created by Joss Whedon
Script by Andrew Chambliss
Pencils by Georges Jeanty
Inks by Dexter Vines
Colors by Michelle Madsen
Letters by Richard Starkings, Jimmy Betancourt
Cover by Steve Morris
Alternate Cover by Georges Jeanty, Dexter Vines, J.D. Mettler
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: October 12, 2011
Cover Price: $2.99

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 9 #2 starts off with dead bodies, credit demons (no, really), and a big dose of cold, hard reality for Buffy. Add to that some creatures of the night doing a little breaking and entering and you have the makings of a good BTVS story!