Comics I Bought This Week: September 17, 2009

I'm back from the comic shop this week and I got two new comics plus a book about comics:

The Walking Dead - 65

Ex Machina - 45

"Marvel Comics in the 1960's: An Issue by Issue Field Guide To a Pop Culture Phenomenon"

And now for a review of something I've read recently.

Mysterious the Unfathomable Issues 1-6 by Jeff Parker and Tom Fowler

One week I was picking up some new comic series that I had never read before. I do that from time to time to try and find something new. It was issue number two that I picked up and I liked it. I didn't see another issue until number four came out but I liked that one too so I tracked down the ones I missed.

"Mysterious the Unfathomable" is a book about a magician of the same name. He poses as a stage magician but his magic actually works. A lot of actual magicians do the same thing in the world of Mysterious. The book also stars his new assistant. A young woman named Ella.

I'd say the book was in the comedy/horror genre. It's drawn in kind of a big foot style but with more detail than is normal for that type of drawing. It's kind of Eisner-esque. I like the artwork. It's well drawn but sometimes the storytelling suffers because there is so much jammed into a panel. I get it though, the artist is trying to fill up the page with the world and it's creatures that he has created.

The horror angle mostly comes from the story. Mysterious gets involved in the affairs of some demons and bad guys from hell who want a piece of him. The demons may look a bit like Dr. Suess characters but they'll kill you and eat you just the same. There is definitely death and danger in this book.

Mysterious and some of his compatriots are not very exemplary people. He's not a bad guy but not quite a hero either. This is not a book about a heroic magician as we are all used to. It is a fun book though. It's not the greatest comic ever made but it's a good example of the craft. If you want to check out something a little different give Mysterious the Unfathomable a try.