Another New Comic Book Day is just around the corner! Click the jump to check out some of the new comics hitting the shelves at your local comic book shop this week.
Disclaimer: I received advance copies of all comics featured this week courtesy of their individual publishers.
Opinions are my own.
The Beef #1 - Image Comics
Well, this is… pretty weird. The Beef is about a guy named Chuck who works at a slaughterhouse. Parts of it give me the vibes that it’s set in an Anthony Bourdain food dystopia with weird sci-fi cities in the backdrop and nonstop talk about beef production, but that may just be the style. Flashbacks show Chuck bullied as a kid, his father was also a cow-killer and kind of a screw up in a small sins-of-the-father town. In the present, Chuck faces his old bullies, who are still super racist assholes, and tries to stand up to them. A combination of the exotoxins in beef, genetically modified fruits and vegetables, the electric equipment used in the cow slaughtering process, and the environment of a futuristic cow farming community have all mixed together to cause Chuck to Hulk out into a massive meat monster at the sight of his love interest nearly dying at the hands of his asshole bullies. Looks like we’re off on a zany adventure of love, action, and beef.
Battlecats #1 - Mad Cave Studios
This one opens with a literal quest. Like an RPG quest with completion requirements and everything. That’s when I knew I was gonna love it: the first page. Battlecats isn’t hiding what it’s supposed to be right from the title. Set in the year 550 C.y. (which I hope to the Lion God stands for “Cat Years”) Battlecats follows a fantasy party of anthropomorphic cats sent on a quest by the king to slay a great beast. That’s all you need to know. Each of the main cats is immediately recognizable as a standard RPG class - the fighter, the mage, the scout, etc. With all of the characters easily developed in a matter of seconds, this premiere issue doesn’t waste time with exposition and gets right to the action. Blood begins to fly right away, this is not your little brother’s cat comic. Battlecats will be available digitally through Comixology.
What comics are you picking up this week? Let me know in the comments below?
