By Dan Brown

Time for more mini-reviews!

Here’s the lowdown on the stack of comics I picked up last week at L.A. Mood. As always, there’s no logic to these choices – other than each book showed up on my monthly pull list or I found it on the new-releases shelf in the store.

Escape From New York: Escape From Chicago No. 1: Any fans of Snake Plissken out there? If so, you’ll want to pick up this Mad Cave Studios series. At this point in the Escape timeline, the United States has splintered into isolated, walled prison states (after Snake escaped from New York and L.A. on the big screen, methinks the Windy City is the next obvious setting for the character). The highlight here is the art from Val Rodriques, whose precise lines and panel play bring Frank Miller to mind. My only nitpick: Man, this one is grim. Needs more John Carpenter-esque satire.

Batman of Two Worlds No. 1: Part of DC’s All In marketing campaign, I thought from the cover this would pair the main-continuity Dark Knight with his Absolute counterpart. I was wrong. No universes collide. Instead, we have Batman featured in a tale titled Short Cuts, and Absolute Batman in Cut Short. These are eight-page stories, so the pace is brisk. The art by Javi Fernandez and Nick Derington is uniformly strong.

Concrete: Stars Over Sand No. 3 and 4: Have I told you lately how happy I am Concrete is back? This is the kind of smart storytelling that I love, so I give this miniseries my strongest recommendation. It is not to be missed. These two chapters detail Concrete’s shattered thinking as he copes with amnesia. Scientist Maureen Vonnegut, the title character’s love interest, also takes a harrowing helicopter ride. I miss the narrative voice from 1970s comics, but Chadwick’s “voiceover” here is simply masterful. Added bonus: Gorgeous painted covers.

Fantastic Four First Foes: Dragon Man No. 1. All I saw was the Alan Davis cover, so I didn’t realize this series features not the comic-book Fantastic Four, but the Fantastic Four from last summer’s First Steps motion picture. So Mister Fantastic is drawn to look like Pedro Pascal with his dumb moustache. Most of the action revolves around Ben Grimm’s Thing, who is rendered in a Jack Kirby-esque way by artist Mark Buckingham.

Fantastic Four No. 16: Another one-and-done story from series writer Ryan North, who has been alternating single-issue tales with longer story arcs. This issue takes the FF back to their roots as explorers, and outlines the consequences when the quartet reveal themselves to a planet of aliens that has previously not had First Contact. The plot is too convoluted to explain here, but imagine what would happen on our Earth if researchers found conclusive evidence that Jesus Christ wasn’t divine. Each time the Fantastic Four try to correct their mistakes, they end up just doing more harm to the unfolding history of the alien planet. Might have worked better as a two-parter.

Fantastic Four DNX No. 17: Marvel’s First Family find themselves in what seems to be an endless cave. To make matters worse, they can’t remember who they are. It’s fun to see their personalities slowly (yet not fully) emerge as they try to find an exit. The Thing, because of his stony body, gives himself the name “Johnny Rockman.” I won’t spoil the ending, but there’s a reason why there’s so much humidity in that cavern.

Bizarro Year None No. 3: I’ve never been a huge Superman fan, so clearly I’m not the target audience for this title, which has Bizarro trying to emulate the Man of Steel. I do love all the opposite comedy though. Life on Bizarro World is the result of “unintelligent design” and smoking is good for your health: “A pack a day increases lung capacity and wellbeing,” cigarette labels state. Co-written by Kevin Smith. The art from Nick Pitarra gives off Mad Magazine energy.

Comics! The Magazine No. 7 and No. 8: Love the in-depth interview in No. 7 with frequent collaborators Ed Brubaker (writer) and Sean Phillips (artist), known for such tales as The Fade Out. There is also a focus in No. 8 on the ubiquitous pop-culture character du jour, Dungeon Crawler Carl. And yes, I do flip to the back to check out the comic-industry power rankings before reading anything else in the mag, whose digital director is London’s own Brian Garside. Why watch or listen to comic podcasts when you can read about them?

What comics have you been reading lately? Anything good? I would love to hear your recommendations in the comments.

Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 34 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly Graphic-Novel Group book club.