The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures
By Dave Stevens
Coloring by Laura Martin
Lettering by Carrie Spiegle
Volume 1 art assist by Jaimie Hernandez
Co-writers of Volume 2, chapters 2 & 3: Danny Bilson & Paul Demeo
Volume 2 art assist by: Art Adams, Geof Darrow, Gary Gianni, Mike Kaluta, Stan Manoukian, Sandy Plunkett, and Vince Roucher
Volume 2, chapters 2 & 3 covers by: Dave Stevens and painted by Dave Dorman and Paul Chadwick
Edited by Scott Dunbier
Collected Edition by: Justin Eisinger and Alonzo Simon
Cover by Dave Stevens
IDW Publishing
Release Date: March 18, 2015
Cover Price: $19.99

The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures is essential to your comic book collection. Reviewing a book like this is super hard. It’s all classic material, every bit of it. But, I’ll do my best.

Dave Stevens is a talented writer. He was a HUGE fan of this era of history, and it shows. Even though this material was written decades ago, it still applies and connects with the reader today. In this age where people watch movies and television shows and basically live their lives on their phones, it’s nice to visit a simpler time. One where the world was a lot bigger. People actually used their mouths to talk to other people, having conversations that lasted an afternoon, and were not limited to 140 characters. These adventures of Cliff Secord and the mysterious jetpack that he found will make take you from the edge of your seat, put you through the full gambit of emotions and give you the greatest gift that a story can give you: Hope.

Womanthology: Space
Written by Bonnie Burton, Sandy King Carpenter, Alison Ross and Stephanie Hans, Ming Doyle, Stacie Ponder, Blair Butler, Joelle Sellner, Ellise Heiskell, Robin Furth, Rachel Edidin, Jennifer de Guzman, Jody Houser, Devin Grayson, Christine Ellis, Barbara Randall Kesel, Allison Pang, Laura Morley, Cecil Castellucci, and Kiala Kazebee

Illustrated by Jessica Hickman, Tanja Wooten, Stephanie Hans, Jordie Bellaire, Stacie Ponder, Alicia Fernandez, Jean Kang, Maarta Laiho, Carli Idhe, Sophia Foster-Dimino, Leigh Dragoon, Sally Thompson and Kathryn Layno, Lindsay Walker, Elva Wang, Diana Nock, Chrissie Zullo, Sara Richard, Kel McDonald, and Isabelle Melancon

Colored by Jordie Bellaire and Ronda Pattison

Lettered by Rachel Deering, Robbie Robbins, Amauri Osorio, and Isabelle Melancon

Cover by Renae DeLiz
Series Edited by Mariah Huehner
Collection Edited by Justin Eisinger and Alonzo Simon
IDW Publishing
Release Date: June 5, 2013
Cover Price: $24.99

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that women receive enough of the limelight within the comic book industry; thankfully, artist Renae DeLiz (The Last Unicorn) came up with a fantastic way to showcase a variety of fantastic female talent and IDW jumped on board. Womanthology: Space is the collected addition of the first five issues of the monthly ongoing series of the same name. Building off of the success of DeLiz’s first venture with the graphic novel Womanthology: Heroic, Womanthology: Space is an amalgamation of short comics with the overarching theme of “space” created solely by established and up-and-coming female creators. Check out my impressions of some of the best and worst that this anthology has to offer!

Judge Dredd: The Complete Carlos Ezquerra, Vol. 1
Illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra
Colored by Carlos Ezquerra
Cover by Carlos Ezquerra
Edited by Justin Eisinger
Designed by Robbie Robbins
IDW Publishing
Release Date: April 23, 2013
Cover Price: $49.99

Confession of a comic book reviewer: I’ve never read a single Judge Dredd comic in my life. *Gasp!* It’s true. It’s never even been on my radar; however, having recently watched Karl Urban’s performance of the toughest Judge out there in the ultra-violent 2012 adaptation, Dredd, I have been clamoring to get my hands on some futuristic police enforcing material. Judge Dredd: The Complete Carlos Ezquerra, Vol. 1 is the perfect introduction to the world of Judge Dredd.

This massive 266-page collection pulls together a fantastic assortment of stories with illustrations by Carlos Ezquerra“”the man behind the design of Judge Dredd. What better way to immerse myself into Mega-City One than by reading some of the earliest Dredd stories around, combined with the premiere character interpretations of Judge Dredd and the world he’s sworn to protect? I’ll admit that these comics aren’t the most well written works you’ll ever find. They’re campy, no-holds-barred action comics, but they can be really weird and out there, which is what made me enjoy them. Not only does Dredd issue out justice to wrong-doers and criminals, but he protects Mega-City from alien invasions, disgustingly mutated creatures and viruses, and undead villains, just to mention a few.

The release of the undeniably awesome Dredd last September failed to kick some box office ass. But its tremendous sales on Blu-ray and DVD proved you can’t keep a good masked lawman down for long. You just gotta love Mega City-One’s toughest cop; he’s been blasting his way through absurdly violent – and often just plain absurd – comic book adventures for 35 years and has yet to lose a step, kept alive and charging hard thanks to many top-notch creative teams. One of the artists who made their name on Judge Dredd is getting a very special tribute courtesy of IDW Limited as Judge Dredd: The Complete Brian Bolland will soon be released in a special deluxe hardcover limited edition.

You can check out images from the book here below.

Memorial
Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Rich Ellis
Colors by Grace Allison
Letters by Neil Uyetake, Robbie Robbins, and Shawn Lee
Edits by Mariah Heuhner
Cover by Michael WM Kaluta
Collection Edits by Justin Eisinger & Alonzo Simon
Design by Neil Uyetake & Robbie Robbins
Introduction by Bill Willingham
IDW Publishing
Release Date: September 26, 2012
Cover Price: $24.99

It’s always a safe bet to trust your gut. Way back in February I wrote a lukewarm review of the new Fantasy book from Chris Roberson (Superman, co-publisher of Monkey Brain Comics) Memorial #3. I said, in essence:

What I just read is the middle of a larger story. It was ok, but it’s too early to say if the bigger book will be any good just yet.

I suspected it would deliver, but I’m kind of a coward sometimes. Add to that, for whatever personal reasons Fantasy is not a genre I’m usually drawn to. I have massive respect for your Elf Quests and Conan The Barbarians for their craftsmanship, but for as far back as I can remember it’s never been my bag, y’know?