There are many things on my bucket list, and playing Halo is one of them. In the meantime, the next best thing is to read the comics. And I’m so glad I did.

The level of sophistication that keeps coming with Spencer & Locke 2 continues to astonish me, as I devoured Issue 3. Readers can enjoy Spencer & Locke 2 #3 on its own and be completely satisfied with the story within its comic book pages. That’s the talent of writer David Pepose, creating elements dedicated to this particular chapter, while still connecting the dots for longtime fans of this Sin City-meets-Calvin and Hobbes story.

I’m a child of the '80s (born in ’78), so my informative years were spent with The Goonies, Monster Squad, The Lost Boys, It, and other stories of kids coming together and against all odds defeating something way above their paygrades and combined heights. Urban Legendz embraces that really great credo of all for one and one for all, as Dwayne, just entering his teenage years, finds himself a transplant to Brooklyn along with his older high school-aged brother, Curtis, and his dad who happens to be a police officer. They’re moving there from Illinois, leaving the death of their mother behind to start a new life…by entering into their parents’ old life, as Brooklyn was the city Dwayne’s mom and dad grew up in.

Art books and archives like the Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive series are a treasure trove of information for creative minds. Even ignoring the value the book has as a piece of art itself, the small insights into the creative process of some of your favorite stories can be invaluable. I've been a fan of the Final Fantasy series for as long as I can remember, and I've often revealed in learning more about the creative process behind each game. To that end, I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive Volume 3, which focuses on the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th installments in the series.

First published in 2016-2017 by Kadokawa Corporation, H. P. Lovecraft’s long-form story, At the Mountains of Madness, will release this month by Dark Horse.  Known for adapting such literary works by Maxim Gorky and Anton Chekhov, artist Gou Tanabe is back to adapt his next expedition into H. P. Lovecraft’s cosmic horror world.  Tanabe’s first Lovecraft adaptation was the 1921 short story, “The Outsider,” published in 2014 and the Eisner-nominated The Hound and Other Stories.

Mind MGMT is a seminal work of fiction. Regardless of medium, this is one of the finest works of the past decade, and it was all brought to you by Matt Kindt. To take on the jobs of writer, artist, and colorist in something this complex, with this many moving parts, and t keep up with the consistency of excellence that Kindt does, is nothing short of amazing.

Looking for a new space adventure? Then, I may have found the one you are looking for.  A sequel to Descender, we are dropped into a universe where technology has been systematically destroyed by a new religion led by a non-human creature who is referred to as Mother. It is unclear yet whether her power is based on magic, the supernatural, or something else.  Humans are outliers on every habitable world that we’ve seen so far, and being caught with technology is punishable by death.

Tabletop RPGs are one of the most satisfying ways to tell a story, and with their recent boom in popularity, bringing RPGs into the comic book medium is an interesting way to show this beloved form of cooperative storytelling in a new light. With the release of the first volume of Die, RPGs are taken to another level, as the idea of a comic about a group of teenagers playing an RPG is injected with a liberal dose of creative fantasy storytelling with a modern twist.

Brian Wood’s Sword Daughter continues to deliver the high watermark for comic book storytelling with issue #7 hitting store shelves on June 5th. Visually stunning. Emotionally intelligent. Shockingly simple. The book continues to surprise this cynical reviewer by delighting all capable directions of narrative without getting stale. I would recommend this book to literally anyone, as it has something to offer readers both young and old.

“The impossible isn’t a limitation—it’s an invitation.” These words, oft-repeated by a number of characters, are the driving force behind Impossible Incorporated. They open the door for everything from time travel to psychic communication to an exploration of the multi-verse—at least in theory. Most of what we get from this comic in actuality is metaphysical philosophy lessons.