great week for comics!

This week had some especially good releases. My pick of the week goes to Umbrella Academy #2 by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba (with The Sword #1 almost taking the top spot). Umbrella Academy is written by Gerard Way, the lead singer of My Chemical Romance (and I know for some people mentioning that would be considered a minus, but I like the songs I've heard and I think people who wouldn't try Umbrella Academy because of that fact are missing out) and this definitely continues all of the intrique and quirky elements of the first issue and expands on what exactly is going on. I love the title of this issue "We Only See Each Other At Weddings And Funerals." And with a new villainous group calling themselves the Orchestra Verdammten, how can you not like this book!? This isn't just a weird for weird sakes book though and has nice Mignolaesque art by Gabriel Ba (Casanova).

Ex Machina, like Brian Vaughan's other creator owned title, Y The Last Man, is just about always on with every issue. With the end of this issue it looks like things will be turned up another couple of notches. The central character of Ex Machina is Mitchell Hundred, who's the mayor of New York City and also used to be a superhero called The Great Machine (because he can communicate with machines and as silly as that sounds, Vaughan makes it work). Ex Machina has never been anything even remotely resembling a superhero comic (not that that's a bad thing) with politics almost being a secondary character while at the same time not being done in a boring Face The Nation fashion. I'd be remiss in not mentioning the always beautiful art of Tony Harris and Jim Clark with lush colors by JD Mettler.

Another great debut this week was Suburban Glamour written and drawn by Jamie McKelvie (artist on Phonogram). Suburban Glamour starts off appearing to be just an ordinary alternative "cool Kids" title, but by the end it goes into another direction and I'll be interested in seeing how Jamie McKelvie maintains a balance or whether he'll just go in one direction entirely. And while I've liked McKelvie's art in black and white the addition of color is good eye candy as well.

Marvel Zombies volume 2 #1 continues the craziness that Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips started with Marvel Zombies volume one. This series takes place forty years after the last series and is the same turn off your brain non stop fun with demented visuals by Sean Phillips (Criminal). It is pretty amazing that the whole zombie thang hasn't played out yet (although Marvel's October zombie varients on many of their titles may be pushing things). If you haven't read the previous Marvel Zombies (collected in hardcover), all you have to know about this series is that just about everyone in this universe are zombies including the superheroes and they're constantly hungry.