Comics Alternative

This week, Derek and Andy W. -- fresh from their trip to HeroesCon -- return with a discussion of three new, fascinating, and...well, whacked out comics. But they're all whacked out in their own, unique ways. They begin with the release of Gilbert Hernandez's Grip: The Strange World of Men (Dark Horse Books). This is not really a new work from Hernandez, as Grip was originally published in color as a five-issue limited series from Vertigo in 2002. (The new book contains only black and white art.) But the recent Dark Horse release marks the first time that the entire story has been collected. What's more, Hernandez provides four new pages that function as the setup of this strange narrative. And what a weird and twisted story it is, but it's one that distinctively bares the mark of Gilbert Hernandez. The guys attempt to follow the various narrative threads, but making sense of this story is beside the point. What matters is Hernandez's imagination and the fun to be had slipping into his narrative world. Derek