A comiXologist Recommends (something special)

Copra #1-6 by Michel Fiffe

Ok, let me just take a minute to compose myself.  Reading Copra, thinking about Copra, talking about Copra gets me kind of riled up.  Copra is exciting.  Copra is a happening.  Copra is happening.  Copra is something new.  Copra straddles the line between conceptual and commercial. Copra is…Copra.

Let’s get one thing out the way- yes, Copra does bear a superficial resemblance to Suicide Squad.  It’s not an accident, and it’s not something creator Michel Fiffe shies away from.  Michel, like all good people, is a devout fan of the original John Ostrander Suicide Squad series, and to some degree the original intent of Copra was for Fiffe to create something like a continuation of that series on his own terms.  But Copra isn’t fan ficition, it isn’t an imitation and it isn’t an infringement.  If Fiffe is borrowing familiar elements, it’s in the service of crafting something that feels unlike any comic you’ve read before.  Yes, it has superheroes and dazzling action sequences, but there is an element to it that’s elusive and ethereal, a bit strange but ultimately inviting and invigorating.  

Michel Fiffe could be the future of superhero comics (he’s done some books for Marvel and Dynamite based on the strength of Copra).  He’s certainly a key voice in the future of comics in general.  His blending of the familiar with the inscrutable taps into the very essence of what a comic is, of our shared consciousness of the medium‘s collective history, of what a comic feels like, the world it inhabits, both concrete and intangible, almost like a dream.  Copra is everything a comic should be, everything a comic needs to be, and it expands the cosmic edges of what a comic can be…See, I told you Copra got me riled up.  

Harris Smith is senior production coordinator and comiXology’s Tumblr editor.  He is currently riled up.