Its back to basics for this comics reporter this week with a throwback Thursday Triple-Shot!
What’s better than some single issue comic reviews to get you out to the store this week and enjoy that spring weather. Matt Hawkins (Top Cow President, Think Tank) safecracks his way into a mega-church with The Tithe #1 and Larry Hama (G.I. Joe, Wolverine) takes on Batman and the classic Dark Knight substitute Azrael in Convergence: Shadow of the Bat #1.
The fine folks over at Dark Horse let us have a sneak peak at Cullen Bunn’s Harrow County #1, mentioned in our interview a few weeks ago!
THE TITHE #1
WRITER: Matt Hawkins
ART: Rahsan Ekedal
Publication Date: April 15, 2015
Price: $3.99
Publisher: Top Cow/Image Comics
UPC: 70985301875900111
Buy it HERE
The Tithe refers to the 10% donation of wages donated to a church or religious organization. Actually, there’s a verb form of that word as well as a noun, and the tradition is ancient so don’t come after me with pitchforks if I’m only slightly correct!
Last year, we talked with Top Cow President Matt Hawkins about his spy-fi comic Think Tank. I enjoy listening to Matt’s views on comics creation and running the Top Cow brand in various podcasts and interviews.
Matt and artist Rahsan are at it again with The Tithe. Three armed robbers invade one of those Disney mega-churches at Sunday mass in Jesus masks.
In the front of house, a young lady highjacks the television screens a la ‘Anonymous’ with images of the pastor Miles Tibett in ungodly compromising positions and spending the churches’ money on extravagances. This organization is called “SAMARITAN” on the teleprompter signoff.
This is at the heart a great heist story, with religion and mega-churches as the playground. The FBI investigates SAMARITAN and other misallocated and tax-free accounting from the church with two very cool and opposite leads. Dwayne Campbell, a Baptist and believer is a family man. His partner Jimmy is a younger dude, a ‘hacker’ (apologies, not even Mr. Hawkins has a better name for this kind of computer savvy security breaching tech nerd gone good) and an atheist.
As what follows traditionally in Matt’s creator-owned books are some essays, behind the scenes to his research and a bit on his background as a former churchgoer turned atheist.
You can read this as a fun heist comic and not feel like someone is preaching or anti-preaching at you. The view on religion and faith is very balanced here between our two main FBI agents and that’s a great way to experience the book, by identifying with both.
Rahsan Ekedal also does a great job on art, including complicated gadgets and action. My favorite is his rendering of the robbers in the Jesus masks. They look creepy and so out of place robbing a church!
I will be looking forward to reading the rest of the series and seeing if Jimmy can break into the SAMARITAN firewall!
CONVERGENCE: BATMAN – SHADOW OF THE BAT #1
WRITER: Larry Hama
PENCILS: Philip Tan
INKS: Jason Paz & Rob Hunter
Publication Date: April 15, 2015
Price: $2.99
Publisher: DC Comics
UPC: 76194132628300111
Buy it HERE
I was briefly enjoying a thicker wallet by fasting on DC Comics until the Convergence nonsense was over (I said it! I’ll say it again!) until I saw a preview on Tuesday for one of my favorite 90s characters Azrael on the cover of this book.
Upon further inspection, Larry Hama was credited as the writer and I have no choice but to see what Mr. “Been faking it all my life” Hama could do with Batman!
Next week, Larry takes on Convergence: Wonder Woman so my desire to stay out of the dome has been thwarted by my favorite writer.
To be honest, DC, I have exactly two feelings on the subject.
One is please give Larry Hama more work. ‘Nuff Said.
Two: please wake me when I can read Venditti & Jensen’s The Flash again. I was enjoying that. I know it is a time of adjustment, and we can both take a break from each other for a bit. I’ll be back (but not something as absurd as a 52 week Batman Eternal Take 2).
Words spoken by Bruce Wayne and Jean Paul Valley definitely have a different tone from the pen of Larry Hama. In fact, stylistically overall this felt like an old 90s Shadow of the Bat book. Philip Tan’s art is serviceable (read: not bad, this is not a slam) but the action gets a little hard to follow on first read. Much like a classic G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero story, upon a re-reading, the choreographed fight scenes involving multiple vehicles headed this way and that actually makes sense if you pay attention.
Bruce and Jean Paul reignite the rivalry they have — while at the same time go Bat to Bat and also Brave and the Bold team up style.
I’ll be on the fringe edge of the dome here, harvesting my The Simpsons Tapped Out Donuts with these Hama Convergence books trying to make sense of the time-shifting and ‘Wetworks’ talk for now. I’ll leave my interest in the main storyline of Convergence to culminate in a wikipedia search sometime in 2017 when I remember “oh yeah, that was a thing that they did”.
HARROW COUNTY #1
WRITER: Cullen Bunn
ARTIST: Tyler Crook
COVER: Tyler Crook
Publication Date: May 13, 2015
Price: $3.99
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
UPC: 7 61568 26606 1 00111
Buy it HERE
This fully painted gothic tale of a small town debuts next month (May 13) from the same creative team that is giving us The Sixth Gun: Dust To Dust.
Cullen Bunn (Magneto, Sinestro, Venom) and Tyler Crook (ˆ) bring a tale of a town with a creepy past and all sorts of (literal) skeletons in the closet. The Salem Witch Trials are certainly an inspiration, but Harrow County seems to imply that the burning of a witch doesn’t necessarily mean all the Voodoo is gone from the body or the town.
In fact, you might think this catalyst was the origin of some of the creepiness lingering around for years.
In the present day 1920s or so – we meet Emmy, a nice young farm girl plagued by nightmares of many things, but especially a tree she sees from her window.
On a walk through the woods, she discovers that perhaps her dreams are prescient, as she uncovers the talking skin of a boy she followed into the bramble.
Do you remember The Waltons? Picture that show with the X-Files and Donnie Darko thrown in for good measure. Fans of Jeff Lemiere’s Sweet Tooth and supernatural horror that exists only in the realm of comics like B.P.R.D. will enjoy this one.
Again, I’lll be following along with this series as it develops (and listening; Tyler Crook also wrote and performed a soundtrack). From stellar art to a creepy ‘southern gothic’ storyline, Harrow County is a book with Saga-level potential and can appeal to comic fans as well as horror genre television shows like American Horror Story.
