Number One Comic Books

(Rebekah's Pick) Trust Fall from AFTERSHOCK COMICS written by Christopher Sebela art by Chris Visions                        

Ash Parsons was raised to believe she's special. As someone with a quirk of genetics that lets her teleport things, she's the golden goose of her family.

Her family is the foundation of a struggling criminal outfit trying to get ahead in the world and Ash is able to pop out whole fleets of cars and entire bank vaults. But while she can teleport valuables and her accomplices, she can't teleport herself - making every job a trust fall with her family there to catch her and escort her to safety. It's a perfect setup but as things begin to change and the Parsons move up in the world, Ash will find herself pushing back against her golden cage, with deadly results.              

(Rod's Pick) Stranger Things: Six from DARK HORSE COMICS written by Jody Houser with art by Edgar Salazar                                              

A teenage girl with precognitive abilities has struggled through a lifetime of exploitation, only to end up the pawn of a government agency that wants to harness her powers for its own ends. You've seen the show Stranger Things, but this is your first glimpse of the strangeness that happened before the series began!                          

(Brian's Pick) DCeased from DC COMICS written by Tom Taylor with art by Trevor Hairsine                                        

"I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was Death, and Hades was following close behind him." - Revelation 6:8

A mysterious techno-virus has been released on Earth, infecting 600 million people and turning them instantly into violent, monstrous engines of destruction.

The heroes of the DCU are caught completely unprepared for a pandemic of this magnitude and struggle to save their loved ones first...but what happens to the World's Greatest Heroes if the world ends?                                         

(Joe's Pick) Psi-Lords from VALIANT COMICS written by Fred Van Lente with art by Renado Guedes                                          

Who are the cosmic beings known only as the Psi-Lords? And how will they change the course of the Universe in this brand-new ongoing series? Four astronauts awake in an otherworldly prison with no memory of how they got there! What is their connection to the Psi-Lords? And how will they escape?

(Rod's Pick) Batman Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III from DC COMICS AND IDW PUBLISHING written by James Tynion IV and art by Freddie E. Williams II                      

The 80th anniversary of Batman collides with the 35th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in this stunning concluding miniseries to the BATMAN/TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES trilogy. Our heroes have battled the evil of the Foot Clan in Gotham City and Bane in New York, but now Krang has gotten his hands on the most dangerous technologies in the DC Universe-and no universe is safe from his wrath! Co-published with IDW.                          

(Rebekah's Pick) Thumbs from IMAGE COMICS written by Sean Lewis with art by Hayden Sherman                      

Imagine someone like, say, Mark Zuckerberg created his own army of tech-obsessed teens and directed them to take on the government. What would the fallout be? Charley "Thumbs" Fellows is a member of just such an army. Poor and raised by the influential MOM™ app, he finds himself in the center of a war.                      

(Joe's Pick) The Ride: Burning Desire from IMAGE COMICS written by Doug Wagner with art by Daniel Hillyard and Adam Hughes                         

THE RIDE celebrates its 15th anniversary with a five-part story from the award-winning team of PLASTIC, plus a special backup feature from ADAM HUGHES! After serving a hard 15 years in prison on a murder plea, former Atlanta P.D. detective Samantha Vega now makes her living as a bouncer at an exotic dance club. But life on the outside isn't easy, especially when enemies have scores to settle...                              

(Brian's Pick) Gogor from IMAGE COMICS written and drawn by Ken Garing                             

From KEN GARING, the writer/artist of the acclaimed series PLANETOID, comes an all-new ongoing series of wonderfully weird high fantasy! Deep underground, among the floating islands of Altara, the mystical Gogor sleeps. But trouble brews above ground as soldiers of the Domus impose their will across the land. Now, a young student named Armano must awaken Gogor and begin his quest to protect the culture of Altara. This debut issue kicks off with 28 pages of story!

Joe talks with Doug Wagner and Daniel Hillyard about their upcoming book, The Ride: Burning Desire.                       
THE RIDE celebrates its 15th anniversary with a five-part story from the award-winning team of PLASTIC, plus a special backup feature from ADAM HUGHES! After serving a hard 15 years in prison on a murder plea, former Atlanta P.D. detective Samantha Vega now makes her living as a bouncer at an exotic dance club. But life on the outside isn’t easy, especially when enemies have scores to settle...                             
Pick up your copy of The Ride: Burning Desire on Wednesday, the 12th of June at your local comic shop.                               
Be sure to also pick up Doug and Daniel's last collaboration, Plastic. It's available in paperback trade so you're getting the full story in a single book. You will not be disappointed!                      

Episode contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame!

(Joe's pick) Excellence from IMAGE COMICS written by Brandon Thomas with art by Khary Randolph                                   

Spencer Dales was born into a world of magic. His father belongs to the Aegis, a secret society of black magicians ordered by their unseen masters to better the lives of others-those with greater potential-but never themselves.

Now it's time for Spencer to follow in his father's footsteps, but all he sees is a broken system in need of someone with the wand and the will to change it. But in this fight for a better future, who will stand beside him?

KHARY RANDOLPH (We Are Robin, Noble, Black, TECH JACKET) and BRANDON THOMAS (HORIZON, The Many Adventures of Miranda Mercury, Noble, Voltron) ignite a generational war in this action-fantasy series, made entirely by creators of color, and committed to one truth above all others-Excellence is Real.                

(Brian's pick) Red Sonja and Vampirella Meet Betty and Veronice from DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT written by Amy Chu with art by Maria Sanapo                                  

Mystery, murder, and mayhem descends on Riverdale as four of your favorite comic book women meet for the first time. A string of paranormal, unsolved murders leads the vampire hunter Vampirella and her sword-wielding barbarian partner Red Sonja to the small, sleepy town where things always seem to happen... There they discover Betty and Veronica, investigative reporters for the high school newspaper, also hot on the trail of the same killer.                        

(Rebekah's pick) Last Stop On the Red Line from DARK HORSE COMICS written by Paul Maybury with art by Sam Lotfi                               

Detective Migdalia Torres investigates a vicious strangling on a Boston subway car with no feasible leads. As potential evidence produces dead ends, Migdalia inadvertently takes in a vagrant named Yusef who may have a supernatural connection to the crime at hand.                          

(Rod's Pick) Ascender from IMAGE COMICS written by Jeff Lemire with art by Dustin Nguyen                         

"THE HAUNTED GALAXY," Part One - Set ten years after the conclusion of DESCENDER's storyline, magic has taken the place of machinery and the rules are very different indeed... Mila, the daughter of Andy and Effie from DESCENDER, spends her days exploring the lonely wilds of the planet Sampson and trying to stay out of the clutches of the evil disciples of the all-powerful vampire witch known only as Mother. But, like her parents, Mila doesn't like to play by the rules, and when a certain robot pal of her dad's shows up, nothing will ever be the same!

With all the scope and heart of the sci-fi classic DESCENDER, LEMIRE and NGUYEN reunite to take readers on an unforgettable fantasy quest!

Rebekah's Book - Orphan Age from AFTERSHOCK COMICS

Writer: Ted Anderson

Artist: Nuno Plati 

One day all the adults died, all over the world, at the same time.

Now it's twenty years later, and the children - all grown up - are still rebuilding the world. Horses and caravans are the only thin lines connecting tiny, scattered settlements - little sparks in the great dark night. Gasoline is gone, phones long-dead, television a memory. The only power in America is the New Church, the religion of the angry children, that blames the destruction of the old world on the dead adults.                    

In the settlement of Dallastown, a stranger comes riding in one day, telling a story of escape from the New Church's unstoppable Firemen. The Church is on the march, and the world might burn again - and the only hope might be a scared teenage girl, a gunslinger keeping his secrets, and a woman of few words and long knives. Welcome to the Orphan Age.                       

Joe's Book - Faithless from BOOM! STUDIOS                                           

Writer: Brian Azzarello 

Artist: Maria Llovet 

Faith. Sex. The Devil. Faith likes to dabble with magic. Her friends think it's cute-and not just a little off-putting, but it's part of her charm and her warped search for purpose in a world that makes too much sense. But she's a true believer and knows there is a power within her reach. She's right, of course. It just took a while for that magic, that temptation, that unknowable thing to find her... In short--Faith is bored as hell. And Hell has noticed.                           

Brian's Book - Fairlady from IMAGE COMICS                 

Writer: Brian Schirmer

Artist: Claudia Balboni

Every fantasy epic ends with a war. But what happens when the war is over?

After posing as a man to join the army, Jenner Faulds returns home to The Feld for a new start as a "Fairman"-a specially licensed private investigator. But sexism didn't end on the battlefield, and as the only "Fairlady," Jenner gets stuck with the cases nobody else wants. Hitting the streets to solve The Feld's overlooked mysteries, Jenner finds that the smallest cases hide the biggest secrets.                                 

Rod's Book - Setion Zero from IMAGE COMICS                       

Writer: Karl Kesel

Artist: Tom Grummett

"GROUND ZERO," Part One - A team of fearless adventurers uncovers the secrets behind UFOs, MONSTERS, and LOST CIVILIZATIONS! It's "JACK-KIRBY-does-The-X-Files" in this miniseries by one of comics' classic creative teams-KARL KESEL (Harley Quinn, Superboy) and TOM GRUMMETT (The Death of Superman, Superboy)-and some of the greatest alternative cover artists in the industry!

(Brian's Pick) War of the Realms from MARVEL COMICS written by Jason Aaron with art by Russell Dauterman                               

The dark elf Malekith wages a war that has spread from one otherworldly realm to the next, setting them all ablaze, and now it's time for that war to finally explode into the last realm standing: ours. All the worst monsters from the Ten Realms come pouring in over the globe, and it will take the biggest heroes in the Marvel Universe to stop them from conquering Earth – and the whole realm! Jason Aaron has been building to this for the last six years in his Thor comic book and the ramifications will have a lasting effect on the Marvel Universe for years to come!                               

(Rebekah's Pick) Little Bird from IMAGE COMICS written by Darcy Van Poelgeest with art by Ian Bertram                                    

Director/screenwriter DARCY VAN POELGEEST boasts a long list of awards and accolades for his storytelling prowess and brings the same writing finesse to IAN BERTRAM's breathtakingly detailed artwork in the gorgeous, hyper-detailed miniseries LITTLE BIRD, following a young resistance fighter who battles against an oppressive American Empire and searches for her own identity in a world on fire.                                 

(Rod's Pick) Dark Red from AFTERSHOCK COMICS written by Tim Seeley with art by Corin Powell                                   

Charles "Chip" Ipswich isn't one of those coastal elites with a liberal arts degree and a job at a social media start-up who knows where all the best brunch places are... No, Chip is one of the "forgotten men." He lives in a rural area in the middle of the country where Jesus still has a place at the dinner table and where factories send jobs to Calcutta.                                    

(Joe's Pick) Bad Luck Chuck from DARK HORSE COMICS written by Lela Gwenn with art by Matthew Dow Smith                             

She'll need more than a rabbit's foot to get through this. Cursed at birth, Charlene "Chuck" Manchester hires out her own bad luck, providing disaster where someone else can profit. She can get you that insurance payout fortune-for a price. But bad luck doesn't always go as planned, and when Chuck gets stuck between a dissatisfied crime boss client, a cult leader, and a dogged insurance-fraud investigator, things get... explosive. Everything that could go wrong does-and only about half of it by accident.

MARVEL: NEXT BIG THING - 2019 is one of the biggest years for Marvel Comics EVER - and Marvel Editor in Chief C.B. Cebulski is here to tell you why! Join C.B. along with scribes Jason Aaron and Jonathan Hickman as they walk you through the biggest upcoming storylines in the Marvel Universe – and share a major announcement or two! Hold onto your hats, True Believers – This is THE must-attend panel for any fan of Marvel Comics. Do not miss it!

Iron Circus Panel at C2E2 2019, featuring founder C. Spike Trotman, creators Kel McDonald, Blue Delliquanti, Emily Riesbeck, Lisa Naffziger and moderator and assistant editor, Andrea Purcell, 

AfterShock Comics was created to push new boundaries by giving the comic world’s most creative writers and artists free reign to blow readers’ minds. There’s never been a better time than now to break away from conventional comics and dive into some of the edgiest, most thoughtful and most compelling content being published right now. Join Publisher/Chief Creative Officer Joe Pruett, EIC Mike Marts and a host of leading creators for a look at things to come!                                   

Guests:                                 

 Joe Pruett, Steve Rotterdam, Tim Seeley, Christina Harrington, Stephanie Phillips

In this episode we're covering these comic books: Transformers #1, Assassin Nation #1, Morning In America #1 and Ronin Island #1                               

(Brian's Pick) Tranformers #1 (2019) from IDW written by Brian Ruckley with art by Angel Hernandez & Cachet Whitman                             

A NEW ERA DAWNS! In the infinite universe, there exists a planet like no other: Cybertron! Home to the Transformers, and a thriving hub for inter-stellar commerce, it is a world brimming with organic and constructed diversity. Immense structures line its landscape. Mechanical giants roam across its surface. Starship-sized titans orbit its skies, keeping a constant protective watch above and below.                                  

Ancient Transformers merge into its very fabric. Small, mysterious creatures skulk in its shadows. It is a truly amazing realm, long untouched by war, and exuberantly reaching for the stars. This is the Cybertron that Optimus Prime and Megatron vie for in this bold new origin—a world of seemingly endless peace! All that changes when Bumblebee and Windblade take a newly-forged Cybertronian on his first voyage through this world of wonders—they are confronted by the hard reality of the first murder to have occurred on Cybertron in living memory!                          

(Rod's Pick) Ronin Island #1 from BOOM! STUDIOS written by Greg Pak with art by Giannis Milonogiannis                           

      After a mysterious attack wipes out the major cities of 19th century Japan, Korea, and China, survivors from all three lands find refuge on a hidden island and build a new society.

Hana, the orphaned daughter of Korean peasants, and Kenichi, son of a great samurai leader, have little in common except for a mutual disdain for the other. But these young warriors will have to work together when an army invades the island with shocking news: there is a new Shogun and the Island is expected to pay fealty in exchange for protection from a new enemy...a mutated horde that threatens to wipe out all humanity.                               

(Rebekah's Pick) Morning In America #1 from ONI PRESS written by Magdalene Visaggio with art by Claudia Aguirre                                  

The year is 1983. A series of disappearances afflicts Tucker, Ohio following the opening of a mysterious new factory. But when the town finds itself under siege from strange monsters, it's up to intrepid girl gang of no-account teen delinquents to try and figure out what's happening-and save everyone's lives before it's too late.                      

(Joe's Pick) Assassin Nation #1 from IMAGE COMICS written by Kyle Starks with art by Erica Henderson                         

Two-time Eisner award winner ERICA HENDERSON teams up with KYLE STARKS for a hilarious twist on the hitman trope that will have readers laughing in the aisles over ASSASSIN NATION.

The World's Former Greatest Hitman hires the 20 best assassins in the world to be his bodyguards. These mean-as-hell hired guns and murderers must work together to keep the new crime boss safe while attempting to solve the mystery of who's trying to off him.