Extra Playful was the title of John Cale’s last release, his 2011 EP that saw him visiting much lighter territory than his fans had become used to over recent years. It turns out this was an aptly teasing title that suggested mischievous misdirection, as the poppier melodies that made up that record are eschewed for a greater sense of vintage violence on brilliantly-titled new album Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood.

It seems like Jeff Lemire shouldn’t be successful. The artist and writer tells emotional stories, uses non-traditional art and watercolors to create impressionistic settings and characters, and seems obsessed with tales about family and fatherhood.

Given that it’s only been four years since Mark Oliver Everett published his memoir Things the Grandchildren Should Know, there must be a strong temptation to dismiss Tim Grierson’s new biography of Eels as superfluous. To do so though would be unfair, as Blinking Lights and Other Revelations offers a welcome objectivity that the autobiography by nature lacked.

Hollow Face, the boogeyman of Intruders, haunts children when they’re trying to sleep, lying in wait in the dark corners of their bedrooms for the perfect moment to steal their faces, because he doesn’t have his own (for some barely-explained reason).

Four years is a long time. After releasing three albums from 2004 to 2008, Tilly & the Wall took a bit of a break following 2008’s O. During this time, three of the band members married and had children, while the other two moved to Los Angeles from the band’s home base in Omaha, Nebraska. What has reemerged from this self-imposed hiatus is an album that is quite different from any of its predecessors, one that will no doubt surprise fans of the band’s other albums.

Henry and Jane are the new caretakers of a luxurious old building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Better known as “The Drake,” the building has played host to more than its fair share of tragedies in its 90-year history. Suicides and murders are a norm there; both ghosts and occult societies have called The Drake their home.

Jane (Rachael Taylor, Charlie’s Angels) and Henry (Dave Annable, Brothers and Sisters), a young couple on the verge of starting their grown-up life together, become the resident managers of the historic Drake apartment building in New York City’s Upper East Side.

Throughout its history, Swamp Thing has seen a who’s who of comic writers-Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, and Brian K. Vaughan have all worked on the title. DC has now turned over the reins to Scott Snyder, who has gone from a mostly unknown short-story writer to one of the hottest names in comics.

This quirky legal drama would have registered better if not for two things: 1) The New Jersey shtick has worn out its welcome to the point of being annoying, and 2) Fairly Legal, a show with some similarities in tone and premise on a competing network, is doing it with much more charm.