Comic books are all the rage right now, what with the Marvel Cinematic Universe dominating box office returns year in and year out. With companies like DC, Dark Horse, and Valiant trying to get their feet in the door, it’s understandable that you’d be sick of superheroes, and the majority of comics on the market aren’t helping much. Nevertheless, there are several comics out there to help you alleviate yourself from the saturation.
The Sheriff of Babylon
Set in the midst of the Iraq War, The Sheriff of Babylon tells the story of three lives tied together by both the conflict and the grisly murder of an Iraqi police trainee. To solve this murder, an American cop-turned-military contractor, an American-raised Iraqi woman on the governing council and an Iraqi police veteran must work together in spite of clashing allegiances and the delicate political landscape of post-invasion Iraq. Guided by the steady hand of Tom King, himself a veteran of the conflict, and accompanied with lush, meticulously detailed by Mitch Gerads, The Sheriff of Babylon has been described as “an Iraq War version of War and Peace”. It refuses to simplify the war into basic, digestible terms, instead finding nuance in showing both the American and Iraqi perspectives about the invasion. If you want an exhaustive, personal look at the Iraq War that also happens to be a rollicking murder mystery, The Sheriff of Babylon might be what you’re looking for.
East of West
Jonathan Hickman is a dense writer. Not “dense” as in “stupid”, mind you, but “dense” in the sense that his works are narratively complex enough to warrant charts in the actual pages of the book, and East of West is no exception. To give the barest of bare-bones elevator pitches, after an American Civil War that lasted for more than 20 years, three people in different parts of the world record three separate parts of the Message, a foretelling of the end times. Much later, in a far-future America chopped up into five different countries, a secret cabal known as the Chosen work to bring about the apocalypse. Meanwhile, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse gather their strength on Earth. There’s only one man standing in the way: Death, the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, out on a quest for revenge to reclaim something that he lost. If that sounded like a lot, it only gets stranger and more complex from there. But, like most all of Hickman’s other works, there’s a lot to appreciate if you’re willing to put the time and care into deciphering the layers he puts forth. Nick Dragotta’s art brings you further into this world, at times serene, at times disgusting, but always beautiful. East of West is a challenging science fantasy series, but it rewards those who put effort and attention into their reading.
Southern Bastards
On the opposite end of the spectrum from East of West, we have Jason Aaron and Jason Latour’s Southern Bastards. In comparison to the previous comic, Southern Bastards is a relatively simple story, set in the real world in a fictional town that’s nevertheless written and drawn with intimate familiarity. Just because it’s simple, however, doesn’t detract from its quality. The series focuses on Craw County, Alabama, and begins with the return of Earl Tubb, the son of renowned sheriff Bertrand Tubb. Earl doesn’t want to spend any more time in Craw County than he has to, but once he sees how much worse the town has gotten, thanks to the merciless high school football coach Euless Boss, he stays behind to set things right. Of course, it’s never that easy. Cynical, violent, and appropriately pulpy for a book with such a provocative title, Aaron and Latour create a living, breathing world that could’ve only been made by someone with firsthand experience of the South and all its accomplishments and failures. If a long, hard look at the South interests you, pick up Southern Bastards.
Paper Girls
A group of preteens band together to ride bikes after dark and fight the supernatural in the 1980s. Sound familiar? It should be noted, however, that Brian K. Vaughan’s surreal, richly characterized trip through a science fiction nightmare came out a year before Stranger Things began dominating Netfilx metrics. Paper Girls focuses on Erin Tieng, a 12-year-old girl who delivers newspapers in 1988. In the early hours the day after Halloween, she meets three other newspaper delivery girls, and they are forced to survive alongside one another when things entities from outside our world begin to invade. The four main characters share a wonderful dynamic, Cliff Chiang’s art is stark and perfectly meshes with the story and the plot winds and twists in ways that often blindside the reader completely. Paper Girls also takes influence from 80s horror and science fiction, but weaves them into a world that is weirder and more dangerous than anything the kids from E.T. had to deal with. If you like Stranger Things, 80s sci-fi, or Amblin Entertainment movies, give Paper Girls a spin.
Bonus: Hawkeye
I realize Hawkeye is a superhero, but Matt Fraction’s iconic run on the character is far-enough removed from typical superhero fare that it bears mentioning. Fraction’s run focuses on what happens in-between noted human trainwreck Clint Barton’s outings as the Avenging Archer alongside his good friend Kate Bishop, the other Hawkeye. Action does abound in the pages of this comic, but it’s tracksuit gangsters and international cartels instead of Doombots or HYDRA agents. The dialogue is snappy, the plot is both moving and hilarious, David Aja’s delightfully minimalist art and Matt Hollingsworth’s beautifully muted palette paint a gorgeous picture and at the center of it all is a painfully human protagonist, with all the misgivings and blunders that humans have, who nevertheless manages to prove that he deserves to stand alongside his fellow Avengers. Clint makes a lot of mistakes and hurts a lot of people, but his unwavering commitment to doing the right thing is on full display in the pages of this comic. If you’re interested in a human perspective in a world of gods, monsters, and mutants, Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye is the book for you.
