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Izar Lunacek and Jernej “Nejc” Juren are fresh new faces to the English-language comics market, and with “Animal Noir,” they join the list of cartoonists who use anthropomorphic characters to tell stories about the human condition. Private Investigator Immanuel “Manny” Diamond is the star of this crime story, centered, so far, on the theft of some very incriminating tapes. It’s “Zootopia” meets “8mm.” PREVIEW: “Animal Noir” #1 In a world where giraffes are detectives, hippos are the kingpins of crime and zebras make up the oppressed population, things are not what they seem in this animal kingdom. Manny is just a guy trying to close his latest case quietly: his uncle, an influential judge, asked him to look into a robbery. The items stolen are tapes of “hunt porn” — prey fantasy movies where the hunt is staged and one of them possibly stars the judge’s wife in her youth. As if that weren’t enough of a potential scandal, the cops are also looking for the cache after rumors of a snuff

Holy crossover, Batman! “Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77” is the best of DC Comics’ television team-ups yet! Energetic, witty, and true-to-character, the series’ first issue (collecting the first several chapters of the digital comic) is a master class in how to have fun in comics. The creative team obviously understands the characters, placing them in a decades-spanning story that employs a deeper plot construction than ever considered for the TV shows, while including campy (but fun) elements like Robin’s “Holy ____!” catchphrases and a cliffhanger ending. Let’s face it: you know good things are in store when a Bat-title begins with Eartha Kitt’s purr-fectly in-character Catwoman stealing a rare book for Talia al-Ghul. The theft sets the Caped Crusader off on a nostalgic adventure, and the story shifts to the day that young Bruce Wayne met Wonder Woman during World War II. The rare book in question is part of a two-volume set being auctioned at an event held at stately Wayne mano

Readers familiar with “The Thrilling Adventure Hour” podcast will find comfort in the fact that the co-creators of that podcast, Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, are the writers on the Phil Hester-drawn “The Thrilling Adventure Hour Presents: Beyond Belief” #1. The main story is a smart, twenty-page tale titled “The Donna Party,” where Acker and Blacker take the Doyles out to the suburbs to check in on Sadie Doyle’s dear friend, Donna Donner, who is moving into a new house and a haunted situation. The rhythm of the Doyles’ dialogue makes an appearance in this tale but isn’t as pervasive as on the podcast. This isn’t a podcast, however; it’s a comic book, and Acker, Blacker and Hester have the flow of the comic book story nailed down tightly for a whole new audience to meet Frank and Sadie. While the plot centers around the horror of a haunting, Acker and Blacker insert some humor and plenty of character-revealing bits into the Doyles’ banter to give readers more than enough evidence of wh

Kicking off this series with “The Sad, Sad Song of Widow Johnson, Part One,” writers Ben Acker and Ben Blacker introduce readers to Sparks Nevada. J. Bone draws the action in “The Thrilling Adventure Hour Presents: Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars” #1, which follows the #0 issue from last year and serves as a continuation of investigations into the origin of one of the more popular stars of “The Thrilling Adventure Hour” podcast. In addition to twenty pages of new story in the continuing adventures of Sparks Nevada, Croach the Tracker and a handful of supporting characters, the issue also gives readers a reprint of “The Thrilling Adventure Hour Presents: Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars” #0, making this comic a one-stop shop for readers to leap into action alongside Mars’ most entertaining marshal. Acker and Blacker continue to plum the early days of Nevada’s training as this comic opens on Earth in the thirty-first century. Sparks Nevada is at the United Solar System Alliance Academy,

“Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman” #6 collects three stories from the digital comic by the same name into a print edition. The out-of-continuity, anything-can-happen nature of the digital comic series has always promised a lot of fun but, for this issue at least, the contents aren’t quite as inspiring as one would imagine. The high point of the stories in “Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman” #6 is Drew Johnson and Ray Snyder’s art in the main story, “Generations.” Johnson’s layouts were never quite suited for the digital version of the comic, due to the page not having all panels cleanly divided between the top and bottom halves of the page. As a result, some panels had portions chopped off and other ones looked to be re-arranged. That’s not the case here, and Johnson and Snyder’s art comes across much more energetic and expansive. His return to the character after having drawn her about ten years ago is definitely welcome. Michael Jelenic’s story for “Generations” feels

We’ve all seen those multi-part stories before. Something big happens in the first chapter, then the next few chapters are a holding pattern in which everyone runs around but nothing of real import changes. Finally, the conclusion rolls in and everything happens at once. “Usagi Yojimbo: Senso” is not one of those comics. Each issue of this six-issue series has upped the ante, and Stan Sakai continues that trend in “Usagi Yojimbo: Senso” #4. This is how the plotting for a multi-part storyline should look. “Usagi Yojimbo: Senso” #4 picks up right where the previous issue left off; Usagi and Tomoe buried under where a new space ship has crashed down into Japan, while Gen and Chizu have both fallen in the fight against the aliens. Sakai continues to find a way to balance the action with personal conflict; we learn more this issue about why Tomoe is married to someone other than Usagi, and how much that decision is hurting all three parties involved. At the same time, though, there’s a lo

After a 36-issue run, the second volume of “Dark Horse Presents” recently came to a close, despite winning multiple Eisner Awards and running a number of top-notch serials. With the swift re-launch of the anthology into a third volume, I think that Dark Horse’s management and I were in the same agreement on why it never got the critical sales level it needed; despite being a great bang for your buck, the 80-page length/$7.99 price point was scaring readers off. So with that in mind, how’s the new “Dark Horse Presents” looking? The one serial that we had in the previous volume of “Dark Horse Presents,” Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse’s “Resident Alien,” is back and it’s always a pleasant experience. Their “The Sam Hain Mystery” is no doubt leading into a new mini-series by the same name, and it bridges the material from the last mini-series by including material both in the present and the past. Hogan takes care to keep this new-reader friendly — you can figure out what’s going on wit

The inaugural issue of “Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman” reunites “The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men” co-writers Gail Simone and Ethan Van Sciver. In part one of “Gothamazon,” Simone sits in the writer’s chair by herself, with Van Sciver drawing the tale of Wonder Woman answering Oracle’s call. That’s right — Oracle is back. This series, like “Adventures of Superman” and “Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight,” is out of continuity, allowing the creative team to bring in whatever they desire in order to tell their story. In this case, Simone has chosen to reflect back to the pre-New 52 era, with Barbara Gordon serving her role as Oracle, as she asks Wonder Woman to cover for an unavailable Batman. Simone’s Diana is a cerebral warrior, cognizant of her task and more than capable of accomplishing what needs to be accomplished. In this case, Wonder Woman is facing an alliance of Batman foes: Joker, Riddler, Poison Ivy, Penguin, Two-Face, Mister Freeze and Man-Bat. The situati

It’s been a pleasure to read Stan Sakai’s “Usagi Yojimbo” over the years, watching the characters grow and age slowly as the saga unfolds. But because of the slowed down time frame, there are some things I assumed we’d never see, like Usagi’s son Jotaro as a full-grown man, or the final battle between the young Noriyuki and the evil Lord Hikiji. So of course, “Usagi Yojimbo: Senso” #1 sets out to prove me (and the rest of the readers) wrong — but perhaps not entirely in the way we were expecting. Jumping 20 years into the future, “Usagi Yojimbo: Senso” #1 opens with the forces of Noriyuki and Hikiji preparing for what could be their final battle. Usagi is now a general and part of the Geishu Clan. Jotaro leads one of Noriyuki’s forces, with Gen as a general as well with another of the forces. A new weapon is being introduced that could turn the tide of war. The end for one of these two sides is imminent. And then, Sakai pulls the rug out from under the reader on the last page. “Usag

The revival of “Dark Horse Presents” (which in its first incarnation was the first comic published by Dark Horse) is a little over two years old now, and that makes it a good a time as any to check in and see just what it’s up to. The book seems to have found its rhythm, offering up a wide variety of tales, most of which are well-suited to the anthology format. Because, contrary to what one might otherwise think, there’s more to an ongoing anthology comic than just chopping up a bunch of longer stories into pieces and calling it a day. David Lapham’s “Juice Squeezers” is a good example of a comic that is perfect for inclusion in “Dark Horse Presents.” It’s got a wonderfully odd premise — high school students whose after school club is really a cover for them to fight mutated massive bugs — but one that could use a little boost to find its audience. By letting us ease in, Lapham’s able to use the eight-page installment structure to his advantage; we’re only on the second chapter but t