This feels selfish, but kind of necessary.

So...that was a week, all right.

You might have thought 2020 would have prepared you for anything, but nope! I'm not even sure we've reached the very bottom of the barrel yet. And yet, I'm still going to take a couple minutes to blog about a comic, if for no other reason than it takes me away from doomscrolling Twitter. And it's a good one, that fits in a little with last week's books--but just a little! From 2000, Section Zero #3, "Ground Zero: part 3" Written and inked by Karl Kesel, pencils by Tom Grummett.

Sam Wildman has gone solo at the start of this issue, on a quest to rescue Section Zero's leader, his ex-wife, Doc Challenger. He starts with the mystic shop of Curio--think a really mercenary Madame Xanadu/Dr. Strange type. She's also colder than either of those, but seems amused by Wildman, or knows how to use him. Curio's artifacts point him in the direction of the sewers, which pits him against the Morlock-like Minions of the Rat King! The rest of Section Zero has followed Sam, but alien member Tesla is knocked out and held hostage, forcing the rest of the team to submit to being chained. The Rat King knew and had plans for Sargasso--his healing abilities would keep the cannibals fed for some time--but Sam and Thom, the 24-Hour Bug, are going to be given to the albino alligators!

When the heroes get free, the Rat King attempts to use another mystic thingee to exile them all, as had been done to Sargasso years prior; but the energy revives Tesla, who grabs it and unknowingly knocks the Rat King into the alligators. But, before they have time to plan their next move, mercenaries arrive for the thingee, with a hostage that they've already poisoned, leaving him ten hours to live...

I didn't read this when it came out, but that may be just as well, since this was the last issue and it ends on a cliffhanger! It would be eighteen years before co-creators Kesel and Grummett would complete their series with a Kickstarter-funded book, which would later be reprinted as single issues. It's a really fun book that I'm glad I backed; and I just got Kesel's latest Kickstarter book, Impossible Jones, yesterday! Give both a shot if you see them, and check out anything else they have going: they both seem super-nice, and I don't think I've read a bad book from either of them.