From ZERO vol.1, written by Ales Kot ( aleskot), illustrated by everyone that is awesome. That would be Michael Walsh, Tradd Moore, Will Tempest, Morgan Jeske.

I read this during my lunch break today and it was—unsurprisingly—a completely invigorating process. There is so much to love about this collection, and really about the whole of Kot’s work. I’ve read Change and Wild Children, and I’ve had this trade in my Comixology account for at least a year now and I finally got around to it. This is what I love about waiting on things—you can binge read them.

This comic is an act of love. That’s something that happens across the board in Kot’s work, he expresses something that is horrible and jarring and then turns it around to make that the horrible, but true aspects of life, a redeeming experience. There’s growth and the plot is rooted in a character growing. I’ve heard this tossed around somewhere but it brings back memories to college when I was reading Transmetropolitan. It reminds me of early-Warren Ellis and it’s not a Warren Ellis we see so much anymore. The only comic of his I’ve been reading recently is Supreme Blue Rose and I read his Moon Knight. The former I can’t make heads or tails out of and the latter was like reading The Raid but in comic book form. I like Ellis, I like his voice, but his work just doesn’t have the same ring for me anymore. I am looking forward to Injection.

So, love and Ales Kot; this must be how he gets astounding artists to work with him on this series. He works with a murderer’s row of amazing artists, because he loves them, loves what they do and loves what he’s writing. Organizationally, it must be very difficult as a manager to put together the whole of Zero. It must take quite a bit to organize. I think it’s a modern classic.