Air introduces us to an airline stewardess in a post-9/11 world named Blythe. Blythe probably shouldn’t be a stewardess; she’s so deathly afraid of flying that she has to take medication in order to keep from losing her shit on the job. Her world gets turned upside down on the day she checks the bags of a mysterious man with fleeting accents and half a dozen names. Is he friend, foe, or just a nobody? Throw in a belligerent German passenger, Blythe’s best friend Fletcher, an anti-terrorism organization called The Etesian Front, and G. Willow Wilson’s four-year road map for the series, and you’ve got Air.

Despite dealing with as serious a subject matter as international terrorism, Air manages to be romantic and whimsical, and in no small part due to the art. Turkish artist M.K. Perker has created a fan out of me with his unique style. Characters have long and well-defined features that lend themselves to conveying emotion through body language and facial expressions. This allows for a character’s demeanor to be read without words, though there are plenty of them.

Conversations in Air, however fictitious certain scenarios may be, feel real and natural. Plot also flows naturally from panel to panel, page to page, and so far for each of the four issues always a scene with something new, abstract and wonderful that catches me off guard. I love it. It’s a breath of fresh… gas.

As Air is only on issue four, your local comic shop would be the best place to find it. ScifiGenre.com, the shop I use, still shows all four issues in stock on its website. A trade paperback collecting the first five issues will be coming out in March of 2009.

Jonathan Hickman has completed one mini series so far, however, called The Nightly News. The original 6 issues first shipped between November of 2006 and July of 2007. Unfortunately, I was late to the party and didn’t find out about the book until I visited Hickman’s website, but I immediately put in an order for the trade paperback. It arrived this week.

The Nightly News is what I would describe as a thriller/conspiracy/mystery graphic novel about corporate media and one group’s desire to see it crumble by any means necessary. I have just finished reading for the second time since Wednesday, and The Nightly News is what I wish all comics could be. It’s daring, beautiful, artistically acute, intelligent, honest, and it defies convention. Every page is memorable. There is no filler. I apologize for gushing, but I really couldn’t get through this post without it and to expand on the plot would be to do a disservice to your experience with it.

I cannot recommend The Nightly News enough if you are somebody looking for a breath of fresh air from their comics. Or maybe you just enjoy a good conspiracy story; you won’t be disappointed. Really, it’s worth buying for the artwork alone. Be aware that it is intended for mature readers, however. You can probably find it at your local comic shop. Failing that, it’s currently available from SciFi Genre.

Premise aside, Dynamo 5 is a whole lot of fun, and it’s drawn beautifully. There are just enough twists and turns to keep me interested from month to month, but not so many that I feel like I’m being exploited. It has been coming out for just over a year and is at issue #14 plus an annual, so it has been coming out pretty regularly. Trade paperbacks for Dynamo 5 have also been coming out in a timely manner, the first of which contains the introductory story arc, covering issues #1 – 7. It’s available at what appears to be a permanently discounted price of $8 from Sci-Fi Genre, or $10 from Amazon.

Speaking of mature content, look out for it in Rasl as well. The main character, Rasl (believe it or not), is an extra-dimensional art thief. However, somebody’s on to him, and he doesn’t know how they’re able to track him down. This is because Rasl hops from dimension to dimension by using a special suit (pictured), but it would appear that where he ends up is somewhat left to chance. So far, Rasl has been able to discern if he is in his home dimension depending on whether or not Bob Dylan’s music exists. I’m also not sure where he procured such a highly useful yet undependable suit; there are still many unanswered questions as the book is only two issues in and appears to be on a quarterly release schedule. I’m hearing that it is to be an on-going series and not a mini, so it’s probable that there is a lot of it to look forward to in the future. I would like to see it put out on at least a bi-monthly basis, though; I had almost forgotten about it between issues one and two as I picked up the first one on a whim. However, after reading issue two this last week, I can safely say that I am hooked, and I would like for others to share my joy.

As of writing this, Sci-Fi Genre has both issues one and two in stock in their back issues section. Think fast!

A Red Mass For Mars, specifically, is to be a 4 issue mini series about the end of human civilization. Humanity, to this point, has persevered through global warming, super-viruses, nuclear winter, and being ‘cleansed’ by nanobots. However, Earth now faces an external threat, and only external forces can help to save them. I came across a CBR interview with Hickman that took place in September of last year, and even though I personally went into this book blindly, I think it’s probably worth reading his description of the book:

“[CBR:] I don’t want to keep you from your relaxation any more than is necessary, so let’s get right into it. Introduce “A Red Mass for Mars.”

[Hickman:] Well, the story takes place in one of those post-apocalyptic, “Blade Runner” kind of futures that we all as comic book fans are familiar with. Things are bad and now they’re going to get even worse. I set up all of that so that I can play against type and what normal expectations of a story like this usually are. My other new book, “Pax Romana,” and “Red Mass for Mars” are both books about society. One is a historical science fiction story and the other one is a super hero kind of story, but they’re both about society; one taking a look at it macroscopically and the other microscopically and “Red Mass” is the latter. Ultimately, it’s about if one man could actually affect the future of society, what would that mean and what if he chose not to do it? What if he had demands? What if he just wasn’t in the mood? It kind of spirals out of control from there.”

Since I am recommending this so long after the book has been on shelves – almost a full two weeks – I am afraid that you may not be able to find a copy at your local comic shop. Should that be the case, you may be able to find it at some online comic retailers such as Sci-Fi Genre (where I get my comics!), MyComicShop.com or even eBay. Check out issues #1 and #2 of Transhuman while you’re at it; you won’t regret either purchase.