Indie Preview Highlights May 2013 - Brand new books YOU should know about

Greetings, trusty G-Mart shoppers.  Advance orders for May 2013 will be up today, March 4.

So you may be asking yourself...what the heck should I order?  Is there anything new to subscribe to?  I don't have time to look through every preview until I find something interesting.

Never fear!  We're here to streamline your life!  Today, we're looking at two brand new series that will be debuting this May.  Be sure to order yours at the G-Mart subscription and Advance Order page to get that sweet 35% discount at g-mart.com.

Now, here's what we're excited about:

The Wake

Vertigo
Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy

Why you should care:  Anyone that DC trusts Batman with, you know has to have some serious chops.  After some truly stellar groundwork with The Black Mirror and Gates of Gotham, Snyder has most recently surpassed critical expectations for the Dark Knight with a little arc called Death of the Family (you might have heard of it) whose final issue earned a very rare perfect 10 from IGN.

As if a Scott Snyder original series wasn't good enough, then they had to go and get Sean Murphy.  The industry's top writers want this guy to draw their stuff for good reason.  Murphy's characters have a wonderfully sketchy expressiveness, and his backdrops are photoreal, yet emotional, similar to Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes, as evidenced by his collaboration with Grant Morrison in Joe the Barbarian.

Why we're excited:  This is the team that brought you the Nazi arc of American Vampire which should be reason enough.  But the concept itself is very intriguing.  Snyder and Murphy are heading into uncharted waters (so to speak) for the comic world: nautical horror.  Anyone who remembers (fondly or no) James Cameron's The Abyss will recognize the style of the one-sheet.  This will be intelligent horror in a setting comics rarely goes into.  Snyder calls it one of the most ambitious stories he's ever attempted.  "It all begins with a single terrifying discovery at the bottom of the ocean."  This ten-issue run will follow the pattern of American Vampire, probably coming back if there's enough interest and demand.  Whether it gets beyond issue 10 or not, we're going to be the first to dive in.

Suicide Risk

BOOM!
Mike Carey and Elena Casagrande

Why you should care:  Mike Carey has been quietly plugging away at one of the most unique comics on the shelves.  The Unwritten, if you haven't been privileged enough to read it, is on its 46th issue and it's showing no signs of slowing down yet as it's about to cross over with a little series called Fables (and if you haven't read that yet, then we suggest you stop reading this and go do it.)  Carey's bizarre vision of a depressed geek celebrity finding out he really is the main character of his father's popular novel series reads like a whip-smart mashup of Doctor Who, The Matrix, and Reading Rainbow.  Carey's plotting and world-building is consistent and deep, but he's never content to beat a dead horse.  He has a remarkable ability to see the million different possibilities that a single premise germinates, and he takes the time and care to explore every one of them.  This man's an expert genre-hopper, first making his name with the Sandman spinoff Lucifer, then with The Unwritten's literary fantasy, and now Suicide Risk is his own original world of superheroes.

Why we're excited:  You know how a story idea just jumps out and grabs you, and you think "yeah, that's a great idea.  Why didn't I think of that?"  Suicide Risk is a world of superhumans, not unlike Marvel and DC.  The hook?  The main character is not a superhero.  Just a normal beat cop named Leo who wants to make a difference.  Oh, and "The supervillains outnumber the heroes by dozens to one."    Sounds like Marvels meets GCPD.  Also, it will be Elena Casagrande's first ongoing project, and we love seeing new blood on the scene.  Remember when nobody'd heard of Pia Guerra?

Ten Grand

Image
J. Michael Straczynski and Ben Templesmith

Why you should care:  Image, proud publisher of the most high profile indie comic out there The Walking Dead, seems to hit gold every few years.  They just did it with Matt Kindt's Mind MGMT, (which recently scored a high profile movie deal) and it looks like they're giving veteran writer J. Michael Straczynski a chance to do his own thing.  This series is about a mob enforcer who takes on the job of killing a man who turns out to have strong demonic powers.  The job costs him his life and his girlfriend's.  But an angelic force resurrects him and gives him the chance to be with his lover again for five minutes every time he dies in the name of good.

Why we're excited:  Straczynski's been on the scene for a good while now.  He's been lauded for his stellar Spider-Man work and split fans down the middle with his controversial Superman:  Earth One, but we haven't gotten much in the way of an original series since 1999's Rising Stars.  Fans of Farscape will know how fun this guy's brain can be, and we're excited to see where it takes us.  Ben Templesmith's art is nothing to sniff at either.

DOOMSDAY.1

IDW

John Byrne

Why you should care:  John Byrne is a very important comics writer.  His career spans the history of the entire industry.  He's penned pivotal moments in Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four, and even attempted a pretty wild Superman reboot called Man of Steel.  Here he's updating a series from the '70s called DOOMSDAY +1.  

Why we're excited:  We love seeing old guns coming back to prove they can still hang with the new kids in this 4-issue miniseries.  Some concepts, namely the post-apocalyptic kind, are timeless enough to resurrect.  Apocalypses have been enjoying a lot of limelight recently in the industry and wider culture, and Byrne was doing it before it was cool...in the 70s...before anything was cool.  We also love that he's acting as both writer and artist (the singer/songwriter, writer/director of the comic world).  

Dream Thief

Dark Horse

Jai Nitz and Greg Smallwood

Why you should care:  Dark Horse has been on fire lately.  Bringing everyone's favorite demon-clobberer in this year's miniseries Hellboy in Hell and the unlikely victory of bringing, arguably, the industry's most sought-after talent Brian Wood onto a brand new Star Wars series have been serious wins for the indie publisher.  This miniseries looks like a good attempt at staying abreast of the indie market with a brand new miniseries from an  award-winning writer.  We wouldn't be surprised at all if this was a hit.

Why we're excited:  Not everything has to follow the maxiseries model.  Dark Horse has proven that short bursts of miniseries from talented writers and artists can inspire entire worlds and fan followings just as easily as long runs (think Hellboy) .  Jai Nitz won an award back in '04 for his miniseries Heaven's Devils for Image, and we're glad to see he's back in the market of original ideas.  John Lincoln is a thief with a problem.  He accidentally stole a mask that has one or two demons inside it that may or may not be causing him to kill people in his sleep.  Every day of his waking life, Lincoln must figure out where he was last night and somehow escape from the malevolent spirits that are using him as a marionette.