NEW COMICS OCTOBER 9TH

Halloween is on the way, judging by some of this weeks biggest books.
Walking Dead enters its bi-weekly run as the groups all head to war. You can tell its an important story because it comes with about a dozen different covers, which apparently fit together as a large poster.
Archie gets in on the zombie action as Afterlife With Archie begins. A new regular series where Arch and his gang all get undead. Showing a little restraint it only has 4 different covers on this one.
Proving they can still do a good horror comic, Vertigo has another new entry this week with Coffin Hill, the story of a girl growing up under a curse dating back to the Salem witch trials.
 The Forever Evil spin-offs begin as Arkham War #1 ships. This one ties together elements from the various Villain month issues, as the Arkham inmates battle the Blackgate inmates for control of Gotham ( with Bane waiting on the sidelines to take out the winners).
DC starts another obvious team-up book, Superman/Wonder Woman. Written by Charles Soule ( Swamp Thing)and art by Tony Daniels(Batman),this one looks like an easy sell.
Keiron Gillen has some experience writing about 3 warriors from his stint on Journey into Mystery and Thor. But his newest work is titled simply Three. Its the story of 3 slaves attempting to escape from 300 of the finest Sparta has to offer.
Just to be different, Image sends us the first issue of Rocket Girl, a sci-fi series involving time travelling cops, by Amy Reeder.



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Look kids...comics. ( Not actually for kids)

Hinterkind #1

Hinterkind is the new ongoing Vertigo series from Ian Edginton and Francesco Trifogli. It's technically a post-apocalyptic story, but not one of endless wastelands or crazed infected zombies.

The end of the world in Hinterkind wiped out most of the population of earth, while simultaneously covering it in trees, plants, shrubs and other greenery. Skyscrapers are jungles and highways are gardens. The story focuses on a group of remaining humans as they live day-to-day, evading encounters with the feral wildlife that now populate earth.

Humans are not only an endangered species, but are also closer to the bottom of the food chain. There also seems to be more than just wild animals inhabiting the planet though, as trolls, ogres, giants, dwarfs, and other fairytale creatures are a part of this world. It's kind of reminiscent of Fables in a couple ways, so fans of that book might enjoy Hinterkind.

It's a good first issue, and it clocks in at 28 pages of story and art. Because the book is set in a lush green paradise (which is kind of nice for a post-apocalyptic book) the artwork is vibrant and strong. The writing is equally well done, and this first issue sets up the rest of the series pretty well. Hinterkind is a good value for the $2.99 price tag.

The Witching Hour #1

Perfect for October reading, The Witching Hour is an oversized issue containing nine short horror stories from various writers and artists. There's a lot of variety in this book, as it's not just stories about ghosts, goblins and witches.

The Witching Hour is definitely for mature readers, and not because it's too scary for the youngsters.

There are more than a few heavy mature subjects in some of these stories. Sexual orientation and sexual abuse are a couple of the themes in this compilation, and they can be laid on fairly heavily. Sometimes the scariest stories are rooted in reality, so a couple of the shorts in The Witching Hour aren't about monsters, but rather people. Relationships, abuse, and war are all present.

Sure enough, there's also the classic spirits/witches/demon stories, and the psychological thriller stories with twist endings. There's even an alternate reality story about Arthur Miller's famous play, The Crucible. It's a pretty contrasting glance at the parallels between the Salem witchcraft trials and Communism.

Kelly Sue Deconnick delivers a creepy monster story about a woman obsessed with spiders, and there's an interplanetary horror story focusing on astronauts stranded on Mars. It's a great compilation for fans of horror and Halloween, and definitely for mature readers