The second volume of The Unwritten takes up where the first left off, an adventure wherein Christopher Robin-Harry Potter pastiche Tom Taylor is caught up in a conspiracy involving his father, an ultra-famous author who’s gone missing, and the very real magic of fiction.

Every issue of The Brave of the Bold is a self-contained narrative that usually centers on one unusual team-up from the DC Universe (hence the title of this book). It’s a simple concept, but can prove to be quite engaging if done right. Team-Ups of The Brave and the Bold gets it mostly right.

Ever wonder what happens when space gods meet future, Earth-based in-laws? Jersey Gods features characters highly reminiscent of Jack Kirby’s New Gods, but, at least in the case of Barock, the main protagonist, they are mired in slightly more mundane situations.

A sort of old-school, hard-luck gumshoe yarn, taking place against the backdrop of what is quite literally a city where the damned spend their afterlife, Hellcity has some pretty compelling elements.

DC’s go-to psychological thriller scribe David Hine (Batman: Joker’s Asylum, Azrael) and artist Jeremy Haun (Batman: Streets of Gotham, Berserkers, Man-Hunter: Face Off) join forces on Batman: Arkham Reborn. The moody page-turner collects 2009’s Batman: Battle for the Cowl: Arkham Asylum #1, Arkham Reborn #1-3, and Detective Comics #864-865.

Chew is a great book beyond its meaty hook. It’s a stew of weird ideas, well-developed characters, hilarious situations, dark humor, and a little bit of sci-fi thrown into the mix.

Masked superheroes taking on a secret society bent on bringing on the apocalypse? Throw in a healthy dose of espionage, crazy sci-fi style hi-tech, and ancient magics, and you have the recipe for JSA vs. Kobra, one of the standout miniseries from the past year that’s now been collected in trade.

It’s been a full year since Vertigo Crime launched, and if Fogtown is any indication, they’re still ironing out their experimental branch of noirish storytelling.

Matt Kindt certainly knows how to set a mood; he did it in the sometimes kitschy, sometimes goofy, sometimes vicious, and always cool, Super Spy; he certainly did it in the often-haunting 3 Story.