Ok, looks like it's not a bad week for pamphlets. Last week saw the release of Ivan Brunetti's Misery Loves Comedy collection (Schizo #1-4 + way more), which may have been the best comic I've bought since NYComiCon (back in February). Also, Black Gas 2 #2 proved to be a surprisingly awesome read (more on that later). Most of the books I pulled last week were all pretty good, and this week looks to be equally as awesome.

Here's my upcoming pull-list for tomorrow (there's a bunch of other books I'm not bothering to buy right now, so they are excluded from the list):

• Spirit #6
• Madman Atomic Comics #2
• Criminal #6
• Newuniversal #6

I said what I have to say about Ed Brubaker in the last post, so I won't mention it again. Criminal is possibly one of the funnest monthly reads out there from a mainstream publisher (although I'm sure the creators involved will debate the usage of "mainstream" since this is part of Marvel's creator-owned-and-operated imprint), which proves that there is in fact an audience for mainstream books that don't involve fucking super heroes. I'm a little concerned with the tentative plot on this one, since it so closely follows the ending of the previous story arc, which was the weakest section of the story, but I maintain faith.

This is only the second issue of Mike Allred's newly relaunhed Madman series, and while the first issue proved an interesting read, it gave little indication of the direction or quality of issues to come. Still, it's fucking Madman! How can you go wrong with that?

newuniversal is hands down, the best sci-fi comic book series being put out right now, from any publisher. Do yourself a favor and read the damn book. You won't be sorry. Even if Kenneth Connell/Star Brand looks more and more like Josh Holloway with each issue.