Were Money No Object on February 23rd Featuring Outlaw Territory, Scalped, And Ghost Projekt

The Book I Want To Buy:

Outlaw Territory Vol. 2

by various; Image, $19.99

I’m a sucker for a good anthology comic.  I love the promise of a thick book jammed full of comics by a variety of creators; there’s always the hope that I’ll come across a new artist or writer whose work blows me away, or that I’ll find some hidden gem by a favourite creator that I would otherwise never get the chance to read.

The first Outlaw Territory, with its varied stories of the Old West was a good read; I expect that this one will be just as good.  Glancing over the list of people involved, it’s hard to imagine there wouldn’t be something in here that would please me:

RAFAEL ALBUQUERQUE, PAUL AZACETA, MARC BERNARDIN, WERTHER DELL’EDERA, JOSHUA DYSART, TOM FOWLER, FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA, ADAM FREEMAN, STUART IMMONEN, ROBERT KIRKMAN, ANDY KUHN, JEFF LEMIRE, JOSHUA ORTEGA, GREG PAK, SEAN PHILLIPS, DUSTIN WEAVER, LEN WEIN, JOHN WHALEN, MICHAEL WOODS and MORE! (taken from the solicitation; the caps are not mine).

I guess we’ll see if it can live up to the promise…

The Books I Think You Should Buy:

Scalped Vol. 7 Res Blues

by Jason Aaron, RM Guera, and others; Vertigo, $17.99

Okay, if you’ve read my Weekly Round-Up column on this site with any regularity, you would know that Scalped is tied with The Walking Dead as one of my two favourite monthly comics.  Jason Aaron’s sprawling story of life on the Prairie Rose Reservation is a powerful piece of comics literature, and never fails to impress me on a monthly basis.

This volume contains eight issues of the comic, including the emotionally charged arc Unwanted.  We also see a done-in-one story about an old couple living on the edge of the reserve, a story that introduces main character Dash Bad Horse’s father, and a two-part story that focuses on Shunka, Chief Red Crow’s right-hand man.

This book helps expand the tightly-knit group of characters, and has some amazing art by regular artist RM Guera, and guest artists Danijel Zezelj (a personal favourite) and Davide Fuorno.  I don’t understand how Aaron can get such praise and attention for his work at Marvel on titles like Wolverine and Punisher Max, yet sales stay low on Scalped.  If you’ve never read this book before, this volume may not be the easiest place to start, but it should draw you in to the lives of these characters.

Ghost Projekt

by Joe Harris and Steve Rolston; Oni, $19.99

Ghost Projekt was one of those mini-series that flew more or less under the radar of a lot of critics when it was published last year, but it definitely deserves some attention, as it is a smartly written and wonderfully illustrated supernatural thriller.

The story is about the remains of an old Soviet experiment which has been uncovered by thieves, and which has caught the attention of an American working in Russia to catalogue WMDs.  He is quickly, along with a difficult Russian agent, caught up in intrigue and weirdness.

I’ve long been a fan of Steve Rolston’s art (his Pounded, with Brian Wood, was great) but quickly found myself swept up in the scope of Harris’s story.  This is a good read – you should check it out.

So, what would you buy Were Money No Object?