Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 3, Issue 11

Just a couple of days into Blogger Thief Gate 2011, as we’ve affectionately started calling it around here (well, I have, anyway), and we have good news to report.

Blogger Thief Gate 2011 is now...officially over.

As mysteriously as it came, the crisis has now passed. An email was sent, an email was received, and our posts are now off the site in question. And that gnawing annoyance that's lingered in me and Nathaniel since Monday?

Pretty much gone completely, thanks for asking.

I mean, sure, I could go on about just how annoyed I was at the whole situation, but I won’t. Go on about it, I mean. Because it's now been resolved, and that would be pointless. Also, more importantly, it’s Wednesday, and that means one thing.

It’s not Tuesday anymore.

And that is awesome. Because I hate Tuesdays. Officially and irrevocably. They’re like the Thursdays of the beginning of the week. Pointless. Tedious. Stupid. And you have to go to work the next day.

But Wednesday. Oh, Wednesday is so much better, with its fancy middle-of-the-week status and, in my case anyway, promise of a half an hour extra sleep in the morning. Glorious, really.

Plus, we get new comics. So how bad can it be, right? And speaking of, before we dive right into this week's batch of books (well, technically, "book"), a brief aside.

This week's WfW will be short--one book, to be precise--because, as you may have noticed in the title, today's issue is number 11. And the number 11 is a Bad Luck Number. Maybe not for everyone, but certainly for me.

This goes back to an old baseball superstition of mine, which entailed me wearing the number 11 and tearing everything in my throwing arm, then spraining my ankle a week before having to report to my college baseball preseason camp, then re-tearing everything in my arm once it healed the first time, and then, to top it all off, being hit in the face with a pitch, breaking my jaw in two places.

And then, this week--the 11th week of the current volume of Waiting for, we have our blog's content stolen. Coincidence? Most certainly, as our content was actually being stolen for a number of weeks previous.

But we just happened to find out about it on this, the 11th week. Coincidence? Probably still yes.

Either way, though, I'll be keeping things on the brief side today. So, on to our one book this week.

From Top Cow/Image, we have issue three of a book that I just discovered a couple of weeks ago, and have fallen madly in love with. Twilight Guardian, written by the excellent Troy Hickman and with beautiful art by Siddharth Kotian, is a new series about a young woman who thinks she's a super hero.
Actually, it's much more than that. The Twilight Guardian patrols a small section of her suburban neighborhood every night--nine blocks to be exact--and she investigates the people around her, and works with the police when she can.

Having no super powers, things like Christmas lights not conforming to code are high on the Guardian's list of things to keep an eye on. That is, until a criminal known as the Dusk Devil appears.

Or does he?

You don't actually know, because the Twilight Guardian may not be entirely stable. Her patrol may stem from a form of OCD, and by issue two we know that she has stopped taking her meds.

Hickman's writing here shines, as most of the first issue is told in captions, like a very old school super hero story, from the point of view of our heroine. The story opens up a bit in issue two, as the Guardian meets other vigilante "super heroes" at--where else?--a comic convention.

Obviously, since this is already the third issue of a four-issue mini-series, I'd recommend either waiting for the trade or going back and picking up issues one and two. Over at Comic Book Resources, you can read a preview of issue one.

And here's the solicitation information for today's issue three, from Image:

The Pilot Season Winner Returns in “Heroes and Villains” Part 3!

It’s a case of multiple personalities as Twilight Guardian is pitched several possible interpretations of her tireless war on crime in her very own comic book! Which identity will Twilight Guardian choose? And has her arch villain Dusk Devil finally come to confront her on her home turf?

Eisner-nominated creator and writer Troy Hickman (Common Grounds) and talented up-and-coming artist Siddharth Kotian (Eat The Dead) continue the highly anticipated four-issue mini-series. Issue #3 features a portrait of Twilight Guardians by Jeffrey Spokes (Witchblade, Irredeemable).


As artist Kotian says on his blog, "At the heart of it Twilight Guardian is about celebrating the awesomeness of comics."

Well put.

The writing is spot-on, the art is great, and I'm really enjoying this book. I'm so glad I decided to give the first two issues a shot on a light-shipping Wednesday a few weeks back. Give it a shot; I think you'll dig it, too.

And with that, I must say farewell. Before I do, though--what are you Waiting for?

2 comments:

Troy Hickman said...

Thanks so much for the review! Glad you're digging the book. Hopefully the final issue (for now, fingers crossed) will grab you as well. Again, thanks; this is the first review I've seen of #3, so it's a great start!

AJG said...

Well, that was pretty cool.

Thanks, Mr. Hickman, for the comment, and thanks for making such great comics.