Think Tank: Creative Destruction #1
Written by Matt Hawkins
Art by Rahsan Ekedal
Cover by Rahsan Ekedal
Top Cow
Release Date: April 6, 2016
Cover Price: $3.99

Think Tank: Creative Destruction #1 lives up to its name: heavy on smarts, and slow moving. Like any well-crafted, complex but believable sci-fi book or movie, this comic doesn’t stop to explain itself. The reader is expected to keep up with overflowing technical dialogue, while the plot slowly lumbers forward.

This first issue establishes a cast of characters and threads the web of motivations that connects them, but there’s no real action until the final frames, when a mysterious event establishes a mystery that needs solving. Did we need an entire issue of set-up? The Think Tank context deserves explanation, but we get that in the two-page black and white introduction. The next twenty-five pages would have benefited from a few more plot points.

Last month, I reviewed a comic that really hit home with me personally. You might remember it, it’s called The Tithe from Top Cow. (Here’s my review to refresh your memory.) Well, today I got to check out the second issue a couple of weeks early and it was just as phenomenal as the first.

Which brings me to the point at hand: We’ve been given the exclusive news to let the world know that this miniseries, The Tithe, is a mini no longer. Thanks to overwhelming interest and support, the publisher has given the go-ahead for the title to become an ongoing series. That means we are going to get more than just a single story that explores the hacker group Samaritan (I still think that would be a great title) and hopefully we will see a lot more from FBI Agents Campbell and Howard.

The Tithe #1
Co-Created and Written by Matt Hawkins
Co-Created and Art by Rahsan Ekedal
Colors by Bill Farmer
Letters by Troy Peteri
Covers by Rahsan Ekedal, Betsy Gonia
Image Comics
Release Date: April 15, 2015
Cover Price: $3.99

It’s interesting the way life seems to create coincidences. Take this comic book, The Tithe #1, for instance. I was just yesterday speaking with friends regarding the way some televangelists seem hellbent on bilking their viewers for every cent they have. Not to say ALL of them are like this, but there have been a notable few that have been caught and (somewhat) prosecuted for their crimes. Well, this comic spins in a slightly different direction.

Prefacing with an ironic quote from Jim Bakker, our story begins in a church on a typical Sunday in California. What seems like just another mega-church singing and giving praise quickly turns into a crime scene, albeit with few people noticing immediately. For you see, a covert group actually perpetrated an almost perfect robbery.

Right now we’ve got an exclusive first look at the variant covers for Top Cow’s The Tithe #1. The Tithe comes to us from writer Matt Hawkins and artist Rahsan Ekedal, and is slated for release mid-April.

The Tithe is about a group of hackers who are stealing from mega-churches called the Samaritan. Meanwhile, the Samaritan is being tracked down by a pair of FBI agents who are not necessarily opposed to the hackers but are duty bound to track them down. It is a classic heist story done in comic book form.

Check out cover A and the finished version of the ‘Sam’ cover B variant, as well as the layout concept art for all four cover B variants here below.

Keep a look out for the first issue of The Tithe in stores on April 15, 2015.

The 12-issue series Think Tank concludes with the aptly-named 12th issue “Conclusion” from writer Matt Hawkins and artist Rahsan Ekedal. In this issue, we’ll find out just what the war will take from Dr. David Loren.

Think Tank #12 will be released from Top Cow on February 4, 2014, but you can check out the cover and the first 7 pages of comic now after the jump.

Volume 3 of Think Tank, which will collect the final issues of the series, will be available on March 4, 2014. Catch up on the entire story with Volume 1 and Volume 2, which are currently available.