Comics Alternative

This week Andy and Derek review three new #1 comics: the Vertigo anthology Time Warp, Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin’s The Private Eye (Panel Syndicate), and Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta’s East of West (Image Comics). They have their hands full with Time Warp, given the variety of quality creators and engaging narratives contained in this plus-sized issue, but they still find the time to look at two recent examples at genre bending. Vaughn and Martin’s The Private Eye is a futuristic detective/noir tale established on the premise that technology and social media have gone wrong. The Two Guys with PhDs note that this narrative has much in common with Y: The Last Man, another series based on a faulty cultural contingency. East of West, on the other hand, is a genre free-for-all, mashing up elements of sci-fi,westerns, alternative history, and apocalyptic narratives, and topped with a generous dollop of violent gore. It’s not a title for those with a queasy constitution. Andy and Derek then turn their