The Book of the Month for April 2012 is none other than Officer Downe: Bigger, Better, Bastard Edition (Image) written by Joe Casey and illustrated by Chris Burnham.

Bloody massacres in the name of the law!

Click here to read the written review!

The First Annual Prestigious Cammy Awards! I give you the nominees in the following categories: Best Writer, Best Artist, Best Cover Artist, Best Series, Best Miniseries, Best Single Issue, and Best Graphic Novel.

Tune in January 4th, 2012 for the results!

Green Hornet #20 by Brian Denham

Sometimes, it’s just the simple color scheme that gets me. The blacks & greens just pop-off the red background, making the Green Hornet to appear simply striking and ready for action. The hints of yellow help capture the eye, and make the image as a whole feel complete. I can easily see this as the cover of the next collection.

Uncanny X-Force #19 by Rafael Grampá

Favorite cover of the week, without question. While I did enjoy the painted menacing feel of Esad Ribic’s covers, this Grampá cover takes it to a different level entirely. The multicolored smoke from Nightcrawler(?)’s bamfing really captures my attention, followed by the different action poses of the rest of the team. It feels so balanced with all that negative space, and the characters themselves look cool in their wave-type formation. Beautiful cover, and I want it as a poster immediately.

Fables #112 by Joao Ruas

Very good timing on Vertigo’s part, I must say! This cover has me wanting similar visions of sugarplums and the like dancing through my head come this weekend. Holy Christmas Trinity, Three Spirits, call them what you will, but they’re each beautifully rendered in their own special way. The tiny crown above Santa’s head is a nice little touch.

Lady Mechanika #3 by Joe Benitez

After completing an entire semester of English literature, I became fascinated with the Victorian era, and the influence the culture had on steampunk. Looking at this cover, it makes me happy that little touches of the steampunk culture are alive and well, and it helps having such a cool background design paired with it. This gal comes with all the accessories; gun, mask, and fan. Joe Benitez sure knows how to draw a sexy-yet-classy woman!

Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes #1 by Chris Burnham

What, are you dense? Are you robotic or something?! He’s the goddamn Batman (Inc)! While it’s a simple-yet-effective design, I really like the multiple layers of Batmen being lead by Batman. The lime green color also resonates with me, and I don’t know why. I just automatically smile when looking at this cover, and that’s always a good sign when I’m picking and choosing them every week. Well done, Mr. Burnham!

Batman Incorporated #8 by Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn

If TRON and Batman had a baby, this cover would be the result. Sure Bats is great at solving crimes in his own city, but what about when it comes to cyberspace? That’s usually Oracle’s domain, so methinks Batman will be needing some help this issue. I love the way the cybernetics slowly creep into the real world, incorporating digital and gritty alleyway. The avatar for Batman is not too shabby either. Love the platinum gold coloring in front, with cooler colors in the back.

X-Men #16 by Jorge Molina & Joe Quinones

Doom! Magneto! Together at last (not in that way, sicko!)! There are several things I admire about this cover; the blue magnetic fields springing forth from Magneto’s hands, his cape encasing the stars and suns, and Doom flying right at the viewer in a rather menacing matter. It all fits together wonderfully, with that classic X-Men logo as the cherry on top. Lots of different shades of blue on this cover, and I absolutely love it! I’ve always wanted to see these two team-up or battle, and something tells me this issue might be the closest thing to making the 12-year old in me thrilled.

Brightest Day Aftermath – The Search For Swamp Thing #3 by David Mack

Want to know how to get me to select your cover? Well done watercolors. David Mack blew me away this week with his gorgeous watercolors depicting Constantine & Swampy, making John look almost angelic yet psychedelic. There’s not much more for me to say about this image, for I find myself getting lost in its beauty upon every glance. I’d like a print of it so I can frame it on my wall. This cover belongs in a (art) museum!

 Justice Society of America #54 by Darwyn Cooke

I have a theory about Darwyn Cooke; he is the original man out of time. He accidentally stumbled into a time machine that took him from the Golden Age, and plopped him out in the far-off year 2000! Instead of figuring out how to return to his own era, he picked-up a pencil and just started drawing from where he left off. With this final issue of Justice Society of America, I can think of no one better than Cooke to give this series the grand send-off it deserves. His style and these classic characters go together like apple pie and vanilla ice cream. Absolutely brilliant cover, and hands-down my favorite cover of the week.

Frankenstein And The Creatures Of The Unknown #3 by Doug Mahnke

I was not aware this was Doug Mahnke’s art at first. It looked like a mix between Quitely and Rocafort for a split second, but sure enough I can see Manhke’s style shine through. I love the sense of impeding doom on this cover, as the Creatures of the Unknown are surrounded by mechanical mayhem, with no hopes of escaping. The erratic lightning overhead adds a nice effect, and the cover as a whole does a good job of setting the tone for the title.

Baltimore: The Curse Bells #1 by Francesco Francavilla

Just a bell, you may ask? More like a CURSE BELL! Seriously, I would not want to ring this bell, nor hear it ring. Nothing good can come of it. I mean just look at it; it has tattoos like a badass! Bells shouldn’t have tattoos! With this Mignola title returning, it was only a natural fitting to have Francesco Francavilla doing a variant cover for this series, as he usually does for almost every title in the Mignolaverse. The man’s pulpish style is synonymous with the feeling of any Dark Horse book. I much rather prefer his variants to the original covers.

Batman And Robin #26 by Chris Burnham

One name came to mind when I first saw this cover; Seth Fisher. It’s really creepy how much it feels like him, so major props to Chris Burnham for creating an image so wacky, yet so familiar at the same time. While the Eiffel Tower poking Batman in the eye does make me cringe (only because pointy objects in eyes freaks me out), the crumbling of the Boy Wonder is very well executed. So many nods to famous gallery pieces, that this cover itself should be hung in the Louvre.

Batgirl #24 by Dustin Nguyen

A very fitting final farewell cover to such an epic and enjoyable run. Nguyen does a marvelous job incorporating every character that made an appearance in its twenty-four issue life, that it truly is a walk down memory lane. Farewell Stephanie Brown, and thanks for all the memories. You will truly be missed.

What a great week it was for comics! Pick Of The Week goes to Grant Morrison & Chris Burnham for Batman Incorporated #7 (DC)! Fast Five picks include American Vampire #16 (Vertigo), Witch Doctor #1 (Image), Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #6 (Marvel), Scalped #50 (Vertigo), and The Goon #34 (Dark Horse).

No Pick Of The Week, but we have a wonderful Fast Five! Picks include Daredevil: Reborn #4 (Marvel), Batman Incorporated #6 (DC), CHEW #27 (Image), FF #3 (Marvel), and R.E.B.E.L.S. #28 (DC).

This episode has been brought to you by, VALKYRIE SQUADRON!

Batgirl #21 by Dustin Nguyen

With Stephanie poised ready for action against a gorgeous stained glass of the Grey Ghost, this cover is without a doubt not only one of my all-time favorite Batgirl covers, but Dustin Nguyen covers as well. The way he plays with the different geometrical shapes and colors all while keeping it so striking and gorgeous shows us how much time and effort Nguyen commits to his craft. This cover just grabs your attention, and sucks you in for the kill. If this cover was stalking you out in the jungle, consider yourself a goner. Even the perch is incredibly detailed! I don’t feel like I have to cover any other covers this week. We could just end this segment here and now. It may be a bold statement, but this could be a very likely contender for Cover Of The Year for me.

PunisherMAX #13 by Dave Johnson

There are two sides of Frank Castle, and only two sides; Vietnam Frank and Punisher Frank. With such flawless execution, Dave Johnson sums up Frank Castle in a nutshell with this very special Punisher skull yin-yang. Vietnam Frank was a killing machine who didn’t have an off-switch, and Punisher Frank, um, well, is the same thing only with years of experience and a mission of vengeance. With the current arc focusing on the origins of the Punisher while at the same time throwing a captured Frank Castle into a maximum security prison, this cover is the perfect concoction of both, letting the reader know what’s going on within the pages. No twists, no secrets, this cover is as honest with you as Abraham “Honest Abe” Lincoln.

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever #4 by Chrissie Zullo

Confession time; whenever I see solicitations for the next Cinderella issue, I get more excited for the actual cover itself by Chrissie Zullo rather than the current story. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in love with this current miniseries, but I’ve been in love longer with Zullo’s art going all the way back to her first work on the first Cinderella miniseries. Is that so wrong, to be completely head-over-heels in love with an artists covers? It’s not like I’m trying to marry them or anything (and believe me, I’ve tried!), I just want to whisper in it’s staple-hole “you are the most beautiful image I’ve ever seen.” Apparently society doesn’t allow this, and I must continue to bury my shame deep down within my broken heart. Slightly off-track, yes, but I’ve still communicated my point; this cover is amazing. Chrissie Zullo is amazing. Therefore, Chrissie Zullo could do nothing but covers for the rest of her life and I’d still melt into a warm puddle of goo every single time. Also, this cover in particular makes me suddenly crave those hard peppermint candies with the red and white swirl.

Batman Incorporated #6 by Chris Burnham

Not going to lie, I thought at first glance that this was a Frank Quitely cover. Upon closer look, it’s definitely a Chris Burnham cover. And that’s the thing I love about his style; it’s something familiar, yet he completely makes it his own. In this cover in particular, we get a wonderful look at the extended and updated Bat-family so far. With so many different caped crusaders now running all over the world, it’s nice to see them take time out of their busy schedules to take this one group photo. Some of the characters we’ve seen before, some we haven’t been introduced to yet. Either way, this cover intrigues me and looks like we’re going to be in for some epic fun with a flip of the page!

FF #3 by Daniel Acuña

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” -Michael Corleone, The Godfather: Part III. That quote was the first thing that came to my mind when seeing this cover. I love the multiple Reeds storyline that Hickman introduced, and I love Acuña’s painted style that helps illustrate that the boys are back in town. The best part about the multiple Reeds was the fact that each Reed, while incredibly smart, was also drastically different from our 616 Universe Reed. That’s what we’re treated to in spades on this cover, and the primary color of blue helping highlight the main Reed adds that extra ‘umph!’ factor. The rest of the Reeds are visibly pissed-off, and judging by the look on our Reed’s face, he knows fully well. I can see this as the cover to the second trade paperback as well. Very well done, and a true sight to behold!

In this episode, I have two Picks Of The Week due to Rob Granito stealing my Fast Five. The first Pick goes to Batman Incorporated #4 (DC), and the second to FF #1 (Marvel).

Remember folks, WonderCon is next weekend!

Cammy brings you coverage of Comic-Con 2009. Interviews with Ben Templesmith, Sal Abbinanti, Simone Bianchi, Thomas Jane, Chris Burnham, John Layman, Rob Guillory, and Rick Spears.

Special thanks to my sponsors Rising Sun Creations and Deadline Graphics.

Music: Ratatat – Wildcat