Comics Alternative

On this episode of The Comics Alternative, Gene is back in the cohosting chair after a long absence. (He was last on the show for the interview with Joshua Hale Fialkov and Kody Chamberlain, but he hasn't been on a review show since October of last year.) This week, the Two Guys look at three new, yet very different, comics. They begin with Josh Simmons's Black River (Fantagraphics), a beautiful yet disturbing post-apocalyptic narrative. It follows a group of women trying to survive after some sort of catastrophic event -- we're never sure what -- the deadly travails that await them, and how the experience changes the group. Although the subject matter is violent and unsettling, Simmons's artwork is visually compelling. Next, the guys check out the first issue of 8House: Arclight, Brandon Graham and Marian Churchland's new series from Image Comics. Issue #1 reveals a detailed and fantastical world, complete with its own physics, as well as its own alphabet. Graham provides just enough story to satisfy, while