A Descent into Dullness

The cover to the latest Knights of the Dinner Table does look a bit like the rush job it was, but its very much an excellent tribute to the late Dave Trampier.  Trampier was one of the old school 1st Edition artists for the D&D rule books, as well as the creator of the D&D-ish comic strip Wormy...

Lobster Johnson faces both a cyborg mobster AND a cyborg gorilla in the latest part of the "Get the Lobster!" arc...

Bee & Puppycat take a job to fix a music box on the Snowglobe World.  While still in their pyjamas.  All very cute...

The Lumberjanes go on a dungeon crawl and face guardian beasts and puzzle traps and at one point make use of a Fastball Special.  The 'Janes kind of feel like the perfect compliment to Rat Queens in some ways...

And after much chaos and opposite hijinks and a giant everybody vs. zombies brawl, Finn & Jake finally, FINALLY manage to complete their quest and get Monkey Wizard to kidnap Art Princess in Adventure TIme: the Flip Side...

The burgeoning New Warriors team encounter a few surviving New Men (the High Evolutionary's human/animal hybrids), Caninus and Felinatus.  Who are urged by Scarlet Spider to pick new names.  They go with Jake Waffles and Mr. Whiskers, 'cause why not.  Also Hummingbird loves Speedball's secret dark emo-ness...

Astro City introduces the Dancing Master, ancient God of Love and contemporary of the Hanged Man.  And briefly the cheerful bank robber, Gundog.  And a drone exploring Jupiter's moon Io.  I like when comics show how much further science can go with access to weird super-science...

And finally we've got Shutter, where the assassination attempts keep coming at Kate, almost killing her friend Alain.  Plus an anthromorphic fox wielding a katana and riding a dinosaur...

Been really slacking on these again.  Which does highlight how little DC/Marvel I'm buying as singles right now.  If I don't count Vertigo imprint books, its a single title from each right now.  Mainline DC just isn't putting out much I want to follow and Marvel's $4 per issue thing is becoming more and more of deal breaker.  Including on the title I'm still getting in singles, New Warriors.  I'm liking this relaunch.  The characters, Yost's dialogue, the High Evolutionary based initial arc.  All good.  But I still may switch to trade waiting like I'm doing on Superior Foes, Ghost Rider, She-Hulk and the Daredevil relaunch.  'Cause $4 for a 20 page book is bullshit...

At least from the Big Two.  I'm ok with that price point for twenty pages of transgender action/adventure for IDW's Samurai Jack.  Plus shinier paper.  Or even better, $4 for twenty-TWO pages like kaboom!'s Adventure Time and Adventure TIme: the Flip Side.  Four bucks for Finn & Jake mistaking a nucleur silo for a traditional dungeon?  Or teaming with LSP to try and rig a prom election to get a monkey to kidnap a lady painting?  I'm down with that...

Hunh, Wonder Woman is only twenty pages as well.  Didn't notice that happening.  Still its sticking at the three dollar price point.  Plus its more cross-title setting with DC, and WW mostly avoids the general ongoing DCU stuff...

The Unwritten gang continue to try and make their way across broken London while avoiding the constant war stories.  But they do find out that Pullman is behind the whole thing, all part of another plot by him to try and slay the Leviathan...

Charles and Edwin and Crystal manage to avoid damnation and death and such in Dead Boy Detectives.  And someone gets to burn down their school.  Sure it was accident.  Mostly an accident...

Knights of the Dinner Table sticks to concentrating on the ongoing return of the uber-sword story.  With Brian and Sara getting an offer from said mad sword...

I'm pretty sure I missed an issue of Pretty Deadly at some point here.  Because there is otherwise an awful big jump in the story before it reaches the climax of this first arc...

In Invincible Universe, the Lizard King learns a valuable lesson.  Just 'cause you alter a person's DNA to make them a reptile, doesn't necessarily mean an alignment change.  And then IU goes on hiatus.  Again.  Hopefully when it gets started again it will have the same title.  I'd say even money on whether or not that happens...

Fatale picks back up with Jo and Nick and soon enough everything is all obsession and murder and stolen magic eyeballs...

This issue of Prophet gives some back-story on plant person Hiyonhoiagn and his race the Kinnian.  Plus..well plus the normal hard to accurately and easily describe scifi weirdness...

I'm starting to wonder if Police Chief Higgens' drive to arrest Lobster Johnson is entirely in the cause of Law & Order...

King Conan returns to the sea in pursuit of the Heart of Ahriman, gets captured by slavers and meets some old friends amidst the rowers.  And just like that Amra the Lion is reborn...

Empowered: Internal Medicine is another one-shot.  With Warren teaming with Brandon Graham on this one.  Graham is pretty damn amazing drawing Emp and Ninjette doing super-surgery on an alien spaceship baby...

And another one-shot from Dark Horse, this time Beasts of Burden: Hunters & Gatherers.  With the animal guardians of Burden Hill facing off against an invisible giant lizard monster.    And ending with an alliance between the Crows and the Rats.  Who still have their Rat King...

And finally a new Dark Horse Presents.  The main things interest for my in this one would be the "Nexus" story, a Kel McDonald Revolutionary-era balloon crossing of the English channel and the monstery mystery story involving kids teamed with the ghost of Davey Jones...

This issue of Knights of the Dinner Table has lots of Weird Pete. First he finishes up his gig as a temp player to run Dave's character as the UT+1 narrowly avoid total disaster while scouting the region where uber-sword Carvin' Marvin is at rest (though Brian still thinks he has a way to game things to his advantage). And then Pete is with his regular Black Hand group as they spend some time gaming at Newt's swanked out game room...

Astro City continues with the character assassination of Winged Victory, although she gets ongoing assistance from Samaratin and the Confessor (and the Confessor's army of Altar Boy agents)...

The 2nd issue of Dead Boy Detectives is actually from January, but I managed to miss it then. Child of celebrity Crystal struggles to fit in at her new boarding school. Or the place that the titular leads were murdered. Which is part of what she is there to investigate...

In order to force Monkey Wizard to kidnap Princess Painting, Finn and Jake team with expert Princess kidnapper the Ice King in Adventure Time: the Flip Side. Which then involves a jewel heist. For reasons...

And a new Lobster Johnson mini, Lobster Johson: Get the Lobster. With the first issue having some berserk pro-wrestlers...

Invincible Universe has the wedding of Kid Thor and Knockout. And like nearly all super-human weddings it goes...less..than perfectly...

And a new arc of Fatale with Jo taking a more aggresive role and seeming to have a long-term plan that involves former writer Nicolas...