In the world of the Atheist, there's no God and assholes from beyond the grave are congregating in Winnipeg, but as you can see in this panel, Flash and Sgt. Rock comics are still on the spinner racks. Seems a fair trade, really.
With the recent bumper crop of quarter books at The Comic Book Shop, I've forgone buying some marginally entertaining books (Moon Knight, for one) in order to buy twelve-plus oddballs out of the bins. A lot of those have been books I wouldn't usually think of picking up. Some have been entertaining little trifles, like Thor: Son of Asgard or Green Lantern Corps: for a buck-fifty for a story arc, pretty darn good. There's been a couple I honestly regret dropping a quarter on--there's one particularly, almost offensively bad ish of the Warlord relaunch that comes to mind there. But there's been more that I almost feel guilty about not paying full price for.
High up on that list is the Atheist. I was more familiar with writer Phil Hester for his artwork; and while I remembered John McCrea from such books as Hitman and Cruel and Unusual (which wasn't bad, and wouldn't make a bad movie) but I wasn't a big fan. On top of that, this was a black and white book, and a bit more expensive on the cover.
But, this book grabbed me, and pretty quickly: An abrasive special advisor, with a few secrets of his own, starts investigating the mysterious convergence of runaways in Winnipeg, Canada, where they party themselves to death in large numbers. Each issue has enough of a twist and enough character bits, to make you really want that next issue. (I'm torn between trying to push this series and not wanting to spoil it, so I'm going to play it close to the vest here.)
Today's panel is from the Atheist #3, written by Phil Hester, art by John McCrea. I got the first three issues for less than a quarter of cover price of one, but I assure you I'm coughing up for #4. If and when it comes out: a quick check, then some cross-referencing, failed to find the book on Grand Comics Database, which makes me think it didn't get the exposure it needed, or deserves. Give it a shot, and check out those quarter boxes if need be.
How strongly do I encourage you to pick this up? I hadda write this post three different times, as it got eaten and wiped the first two tries. I think the second try was a better draft, but it's lost and gone forever, sorry. The first try I accidentally killed by trying to load IMDB, since the wife and I saw an ad for Disturbia and couldn't remember the character David Morse played on House. OK, I didn't know Morse's name until I looked it up, and it wasn't worth losing a post, but now I know and so on.
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