Hey there Phoenix friends! It's dark outside and it's only 4:30. It's rainy and cold, and people are cuddling inside for warmth. Yup, it's December here in the PNW! So why not curl up with a good comic or three to tide you through to the end of the year. Need some recommendations? We've got a few! Just read on to find out more!
December Comic Highlights
Real talk for a sec - the winter is usually not the time when comic publishers break out their big guns for new books. And on top of that the team has had a pretty tumultuous October and November. So we don't have the huge long list of books for you, and this is coming out a little later than intended. So this is more of a "hey here are some fun highlights for books coming out this month" than a "looking ahead check these out," kinda blog post.
Timeslide #1
Marvel Comics
By Steve Foxe (writer) and Ivan Fiorelli (artist)
Okay, so technically this is a one-shot, but here me out. Marvel loves to find creative ways to give you sneak peaks at stories it has on the horizon. Timeslide is doing that through this book in the guise of a pair of grumpy time travelers headed back through time to stop someone from preventing the X-Gene from evolving at all. In the course of their adventures, the pair will showcase some of 2025’s upcoming big projects, reveals and secrets. So if you’re someone like me who likes not-quite-spoilering themselves on new books, pick this book up and see what piques your interest.
- Nick
Laura Kinney Wolverine
Marvel Comics
By Erica Shultz (writer) and Giada Belviso (artist)
Unpopular opinion: Laura Kinney is best Wolverine.
Hear me out - her arc of character development under Tom Taylor is incredibly good, funny, and grew her in some interesting ways while cropping away some of the more cringy loss of agency that she had early in her character history. Having her go back to being “X-23” after that just felt wrong and reductive. So imagine my surprise when I find out she’s not only getting a new ongoing series but it’s going to be under the Wolverine codename. Heck yeah!
- Nick
Metamorpho The Element Man
DC Comics
By Al Ewing (writer) and Steve Lieber (artist)
Al Ewing and Steve Lieber are going to do a book together WTF YALL.
No, seriously, this book excites me on multiple levels. Al Ewing is a writer known for his ability to pull deep cool things out of a character’s lore and shove them together in a way that both makes sense. He’s responsible for some of my favorite moments of the Krakoan age (see also: Storm, X-Men Red, and his general portrayal of Roberto Dacosta over the past decade of work), not to mention Immortal Hulk and Thor. Steve Lieber is a genuinely nice guy artist, whose art looks like it’s a perfect fit for this weird and off-the-wall series (don’t get what I mean? Check out Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen). He also happens to live in Portland and does office hours at fellow awesome store Books With Pictures where he offers helpful critiques for aspiring comics professionals.
Metamorpho is a character perfect for this duo. He dates back to the silver age. He’s got tons of weird backstory and lore to work with. He can turn his body into all sorts of strange compounds, y’know for fun. And also to fight crime, maybe? I mean he is supposed to fight something called Cy C.L.O.P.S., a self-described “hairy eyeball of crime.” This books looks bonkers weird and that’s maybe just what I need in the depths of PNW winter time.
And they put a chemistry pun in the ad copy. What’s not to love?
- Nick
The New Gods
DC Comics
By Ram V (writer) and Evan Cagle (artist)
I’m gonna start this off by saying that I am not a huge fan of the DC cosmic forces. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Jack Kirby (nazi puncher and all-round fun guy), but I kinda get lost in the story of the New Gods. To me they feel like they’ve got 1-2 really good stories that get rehashed and remastered with every new generation. Darkseid seeks the Anti-Life, Big Barda and Scott Free just want to live regular lives on Earth, etc. There’s nothing to their stories that feels truly new about them anymore.
This was the mindset that I went into reading a preview of The New Gods #1 with, and I gotta say, I’m really impressed by Ram V and Evan Cagle. The book feels very much like a departure from the usual stories in favor of something new. And it starts with Darkseid straight up being dead and the consequences of that happening. We see rare unguarded moments for the gods, which isn’t something I’m used to with DC’s cosmic stuff. And we’ve got Scott and Barda with a baby as the backup plot, which is kind of adorable.
So yeah! Color me very surprised and impressed by The New Gods. I’ve gotta say I’m looking forward to issue 2 already!
- Nick
Snot Girl (Returns!)
Image
By Bryan Lee O’Malley (writer) and Leslie Hung (artist)
I’ve been holding my breath since March 2020 but not for the reason you think. In March of 2020 Snotgirl returned from a 6 month hiatus for exactly one issue (which ended on an insane cliffhanger) before once again going on hiatus. I’ve been insisting to anyone who would listen that Snotgirl was not over even after four years passed with no new issues on the horizon. It couldn’t be. And then the announcement came! Snot Girl is officially back babey!!
If you’ve never read Snotgirl this is the perfect opportunity to catch up before the new issue comes out! Snotgirl centers around fashion blogger Lottie Person who lives an absolutely #PefectLife. Or at least that's what she wants everyone to think. Behind closed doors she is shallow and insecure, stalking her ex online and trying desperately to get her allergies under control. When she meets a cool new girl and starts an experimental new allergy medication everything seems better! But suddenly, Lottie is questioning her own reality as the impossible happens and her life spirals wildly out of control. Snotgirl is my weird girl comic of choice; one part fashion blog, one part psychotic break, ten parts snot.
December can’t come soon enough, this is about to become my entire personality.
Spoilers for Snotgirl Vol. 3 Is This Real Life? Below this point:
I have so many unanswered questions going into the rest of this series. After Meg and Ashley’s wedding went down in flames and Lottie and Caroline emerged from the woods as a couple after another inexplicable near death experience, where is Snotgirl going next? Who are Caroline and her weird brothers, really? What is their obsession with messing with Lottie’s mind? How much of this is real and how much is a bizarre side effect of Lottie’s meds?
- Elise
Juvenile
Image Comics
By Jesus Orellana
When terrorist attacks wipe out much of earth's population and those who remain to struggle with a deadly virus spreading like wildfire being a teenager somehow gets even worse than it already was. The virus, dubbed the Juvenile Virus, causes neurological side effects in teens and death in adults. Sara is a teenager locked in a facility meant to control the spread of the virus which medicates it’s teenage inhabitants and performs risky surgeries on them to help them survive to adulthood… or so she’s been told. When a rebel from the outside winds up in the facility and tells Sara that the virus doesn’t kill teens, it gives them superpowers, her world changes forever.
This looks like tropey (I mean this in a good way!), dystopian, teen, fun.
- Elise
Belly Full of Heart
Silver Sprocket
By Madeline Mouse
I had a chance to visit my favorite comics publisher Silver Sprocket in California a few months ago, and while I was there I was able to check out some of their upcoming books that hadn’t been released yet. Of those, the one that most stood out to me was a cute, squishy little single issue comic called Belly Full of Heart.
The cold, dark winter months can be difficult for a lot of people (myself included), and this book is a warm cup of cocoa and a fuzzy blanket to help get through it. It’s 40 pages of vignettes of the kind of small intimate moments that come with the early stages of falling in love. The non-linear panels and squiggly line art feel like staring deep into someone’s eyes in the soft light of a bedside lamp. It’s a perfect addition to the zine shelf of anyone who’s looking for something soft to keep them going this holiday season.
- Sloane
And that's it for our December look aheads! Next month's look aheads should be up in about a week for our January Look Aheads, and we're aiming for a 'best of 2024' post sometime before the end of the year. Thanks for reading, and if you saw something you wanted to add to your pull (or want to start a subscription for the book), use our handy little subscription update form and submit that request! We'll get right on that.
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