Grave

The first issue of Image Comics’ Winnebago Graveyard offers sacrifices, backwater carnivals and satanism through the American South, but opts for a surprising slow-burn approach which relies heavily on the artwork of Alison Sampson and Stephane Paitreau to create a sense of increasing dread. It’s an issue broken down into two segments, rather than one central narrative which ties itself together. At first we see two strangers dragged from their hotel room and taken to be sacrificed by a group of beautifully torchlit cultists in robes; the issue then cuts to the story of a family trying to reconnect with one another whilst on a drive through the rural American deserts. Each segment is successful in its own right, but they don’t work so strongly when paired against one another. After an opening sequence which burns brightly and effectively, showing off a honed sense of violence and gore, series writer Steve Niles doesn’t give the reader an idea of what they’re meant to feel by anythin

“Graveyard Shift” #1 introduces readers to a world where vampires exist, but beyond that, very few answers are given by Jay Faerber and Fran Bueno. A crew of police officers go on a late night raid to issue an arrest warrant only to have the suspect not only flee but display vampiric abilities. Shortly thereafter, they are all murdered along with the fiance of the only officer to survive their attack. It’s a decent story but it’s paced oddly. There is more page time given to the warrant scene in the beginning than any other. The scene doesn’t provide any character development other than to establish that a vampire is out there. Bueno gets a chance to lay out an intense showdown but it’s at the expense of the rest of he story. In fact, the only real depth we get for any character is Hope Kincaid, the aforementioned fiance. Liam, our protagonist, isn’t even given a last name. The reader is supposed to feel for his loss but he doesn’t seem very likable. (Before Hope was killed, I wonde

With no word on the future of “Gravel,” issue 21 looks to be the last. Concluding the third seven-issue story arc of the series, and the large three-part story arc that was built from each smaller arc, William Gravel finds his position as King of Magicians in England not so secure after a crazed magician has killed his allies, destroyed his places of power, and left him seemingly defenseless. As always, people underestimate Gravel and they pay for the mistake with their lives. It’s a pretty simple pattern, but it’s driven the series so far, and allowed Gravel to be engaging as he consistently rises to the challenge, most often through surprise and skill. Even with everything taken away from him, he’s still as good as he was in the first issue when he began his quest to take down the Minor Seven. Gravel’s nemesis, Bible Jack, only sees the Gravel that he became at the end of the second story arc: the new King of Magic in England, not as the simple combat magician that slaughtered his

Years back, when Wildstorm pulled up its leather-encrusted bootstraps and relaunched its core lineup with dream team creators — Morrison, Ha, Lee, Azzarello, Simone, other people — only one book really stood out as something special, and it wasn’t even one of the relaunches. I’m talking, of course, about “Welcome to Tranquility,” which didn’t have the benefit of two Gene Ha-drawn issues, or one Jim Lee drawn issue, or a handful of Azzarello stories about mean dudes, but it did have something else: personality. Gail Simone and artist Neil Googe injected so much character into the land of Tranquility — basically a retirement community for superheroes — that it stood above its Wildstorm peers as a title worth reading. In was dark and full of life, it was tragic and funny. It was good. And it continued on for a while even after Simone stopped writing it, which always seemed wrong, because out of all the work she’s done in comics, “Welcome to Tranquility” seemed to capture her authorial v