While my appreciation of Paul Pope’s Heavy Liquid is on record, I’ll submit that his 100% series, published in the early 2000s and now collected in a single edition from Vertigo, was definitely a step forward in maturity, subject matter, and storytelling. Not better, necessarily, but a natural and appropriate follow-up.

In the introductory forward of The Flash: Rebirth comic writer Matt Cherniss admits that when it comes to superheroes, “keeping them dead is often harder than actually killing them in the first place.” While ending the life of beloved character always carries a level of gravitas to it, death in comic books is more or less like hitting the creative reset button

Vertigo Crime delivers another pulpy treat, this time in the form of Native American exploitation thriller The Executor. Writer Jon Evans (Dark Places, Invisible Armies) and artist Andrea Mutti (Break Point, Le Syndrome de Cain) team up for the first time to tell the story of former hockey star Joe Ullen.

Vertigo has this habit of launching new books at a $1 price tag. I, Zombie is the latest to get this treatment, and it’s certainly a better investment than other notable things you can get for a buck, like a McDonald’s Double Burger, for instance. I, Zombie is far meatier, brainier, and goes down a lot better.

The Unwritten is an ongoing comic book series from DC’s Vertigo imprint. The first trade collection, Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity is available, and collects issues 1-5, plus it includes some background and sketch material at the end.

While Scott Kolins has long been a fan favorite amongst a certain strata of DC Comics fans (with your reviewer being chief among that grouping), the Solomon Grundy miniseries, which this trade paperback volume collects, is the first testing of his chops as a writer as well. Sure, there was co-writing by DC writer supreme Geoff Johns on “The Curse,” the first chapter of this volume, but it’s largely Kolins’ time to shine…or not.

A series that cites a “special medical consultant” in the opening credits is bound to have some interesting stuff in it. Of course, the accompanying art above and on the facing page of exposed brains (one in a splaying skull; the other more of a science book model) helps set the mood of the book immediate as well.

If you want a case in point of why comics on the iPad (or a similar device) will never replace good old paper, point people to Viking: The Long Cold Fire, by Ivan Brandon and Nic Klein. Holy jeez, this hardbound, oversized book is beautiful.

I’m not crazy about the cover dress on The Night Owls, the trade compilation derived from a title running on DC’s Zuda online project. After all, one of the coolest things about The Night Owls is the sort of olde timey feel of it, and the garish orange and full color, oversized renditions of the characters are an eyesore that’s not doing the very good content any favors.