Grass Kings #1
From The New York Times bestselling writer Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT) and Peter Panzerfaust artist Tyler Jenkins comes a rural mystery series chronicling the tragic lives of the Grass Kings, three brothers and rulers of a trailer park kingdom, a fiefdom of the hopeless and lost, of the desperate poor seeking a promised land. Eldest brother Robert leads a grief-stricken life, having lost his daughter to a tragic accident, followed by his wife disappearing one morning never to return. When an enigmatic young woman named Maria flees to their community in search of safe haven, Robert takes her in. Will his decision lead to ruin and retribution dooming the Kingdom? Perfect for fans of Justified or The Fade Out. Oversized first issue featuring 30 pages of story!
A comiXologist recommends…
SNOWBLIND by Ollie Masters and Tyler Jenkins
I cannot tell a lie, I picked up Snow Blind because there was a wolf on the cover (I think it’s actually a fox), but what I found was a delightful, noir mini-series set in the bleak, snow-covered landscape of Alaska. It’s a compact and straightforward mystery that was an absolute page-tuner due to it’s good pacing, intriguing characters, and wonderful art.
Snow Blind is the story of a teenager named Teddy who is a detective fiction aficionado. In the first chapter/issue he is caught by the police trespassing in the library, trying to read. His family, originally from Louisiana, has moved to Alaska for reasons unknown to Teddy. At a family party where Teddy’s father has a little too much to drink, Teddy takes a photo, posts it to social media and it goes viral. To Teddy’s surprise, his family (his dad in particular) are more similar to the characters in the crime fiction he’s reading than he knew. The disaffected teenager is thrust into the middle of his own detective fiction yarn and Teddy takes it upon himself to play Philip Marlowe.
Ollie Masters has crafted a wonderful story that offers a lovable lead character in the detective fiction and noir obsessed amateur sleuth Teddy (note The Third Man poster in his bedroom) and pairs it with an intriguing modern take on the classic detective story. The hero slowly uncovers the truth; his idyllic and rather boring nuclear family is actually concealing their ties to criminality. Tyler Jenkins’s art is masterful. The watercolors perfectly capture the mood of this story and emphasize the Alaskan setting. Snow Blind is a beautiful comic that is an interesting, introspective look at noir stories. My only regret was that it was only a few issues long. I’d like to spend more time in this universe.
Josh is the email marketing manager at comiXology who wants to spend more time in Alaska.