Located in close proximity of the London docks, the district of Whitechapel drew immigrants from afar, looking for a better life from the lives they left behind. From 1888 to 1891, a cluster of brutal murders took place in the area by a shadowy figure referred to as the “Whitechapel Murderer” and “Leather Apron” at that time, but who is more commonly known as “Jack the Ripper.” Of the eleven murders, five are canonical to Jack and brought world attention to the district that was already rife with unsanitary living conditions and extreme poverty. Speculation as to the identity of Jack has alluded authorities and ripperologists since 1888, and, as such, Jack has become the subject of speculative and alternate fiction.

Out on comic book shelves this past week was the first issue of Black Jack Ketchum from Image Comics. From artist Jeremy Saliba comes an engaging cover of a tall, thin man wearing a young Lee Van Cleef Jr. expression from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly with a teenage Annie Oakley type by his side, standing defiant in the middle of a deserted main street right out of the Old West. I was drawn to this series for the weird western aspects after reading the brief synopsis for this four-issue series.

When Archaia merged with BOOM! Studios, I was concerned that the quality of the publications released by the independent publisher would suffer; however, the partnership has consistently continued to impress me, especially where it concerns The Jim Henson Company stories. Dragons is the second group of stories from Jim Henson's The Storyteller series. Like The Storyteller: Witches mini-series, the Dragons series will feature a story based on a central theme, written and illustrated by a variety of writers and artists in the industry.

Based on the animated television series created by Ben Bocquelet, The Amazing World of Gumball: Fairy Tale Trouble is written by Megan Brennan and illustrated by Katy Farina. This story follows the Watterson family as they enjoy a day at the Renaissance Faire being held at the school grounds of Elmore Jr. High. The day goes awry when the town folk find themselves in an alternate, middle ages equivalent of Elmore, and the kids must go a quest to find three magical items, so they can return to modern-day Elmore.

My fascination for the 1920s is a longstanding interest of mine, so when I saw IDW Publishing's Library of American Comics series had recently released Polly and Her Pals Volume II: 1928 – 1930, I was excited. While named after a tall, slender blonde named Polly who embodied the spirited liveliness of a post-World War I society, each week's strip actually focused more on Polly's parents, Paw and Maw Perkins. The aging couple represented the prior generation, as they coped with everyday issues in a progressive (Read: modern.) American society. Within the panel frames, each character was surrounded by an abstract-induced world which was influenced by many of the various art styles prominent at the time.

On Saturday, November 7, during the second day of Tucson Comic-Con (TCC) which was held this past weekend at the Tucson Convention Center, founder Mike Olivares announced Brian and Francisca Pulido as new co-owners of the con.