BROTHER

As the epic adventure of Takeo and Akio draws to an end, their former teacher and guardian, Master Kazé, sets out to help his young charges in their final challenge. But travelling to the land of Ogomo is far from simple, as bandits and loots wait round every bend…

Vampires Nick and Tree have been friends for over a thousand years by the beginning of Mike Gagerman, Andrew Waller, Etan Cohen and Evan Shaner’s “Blood Brothers” #1. With delightful — if occasionally crude — humor, the creative team takes readers along for the ride as Nick and Tree inadvertently stumble into a dangerous plot. The story starts out strong with some excellent chemistry between the main characters. However, some weak characterization ultimately drags the book down, making a book with great potential end as unfortunately mediocre. Throughout the issue, the humor is consistently on-the-nose, accomplished through witty dialogue, ironic situations and cutaway gags similar to those on “Family Guy.” Whether Nick is waking up to Sheryl Crowe’s “Soak Up the Sun” or remembering Tree’s decision to invest in the Hindenburg, the book excels in its funnier moments. This issue is laugh-out-loud funny, but not without its more subtle humor, especially when aimed at the ever-popular va

In “100 Bullets: Brother Lono” #1, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso reveal that the larger-than-life, most brutal Minuteman of their epic crime series “100 Bullets” is alive and well, despite being pumped full of lead by Dizzy Cordova. As his own spin-off miniseries begins, Lono lives a quieter life four years later. His new adventure begins with a voiceover, ending with the line “we all die as we were born…gasping for air.” After this symbolic and fatalistic two-page opener, “100 Bullets: Brother Lono” #1 is all action. Azzarello and Risso immediately introduce a gang, Las Torres Gemelas, whose tattooed leader ups the ante on violence and sadism for “100 Bullets.” There are two graphic torture scenes in this debut issue, and Risso’s stylized line both amplifies and downplays the horror. On one hand, Risso’s aesthetic isn’t gritty, but on the other hand, his composition skills and the starkness of his inks make these scenes even more intense. Similarly, Trish Mulvihill’s warm color