New Comics for New Readers – May 15, 2013

Photo by Christopher Butcher

Want to try reading comics? Don’t know where to start? Want to try something different?

Wednesday is New Comics Day! Each week, The Comics Observer spotlights up to three brand new releases worthy of your consideration. Sometimes we list more on really good weeks. All of these have been carefully selected as best bets for someone who has never read comic books, graphic novels or manga before. They each highlight the variety and creativity being produced today. These are also great for those that haven’t read comics in awhile or regular readers looking to try something new.

While we can’t guarantee you’ll like what we’ve picked, we truly believe there’s a comic for everyone. If you like the images and descriptions below, click the links to see previews and learn more about them. You can often buy straight from the publishers or creators. If not, head over to your local comic book store, check out online retailers like Things From Another World and Amazon, or download a copy at comiXology, or the comics and graphic novels sections of the Kindle Store or NOOK store. Let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook.

For a full list of this week’s new releases, see comiXology, ComicList.com and PREVIEWSworld.

(Please note these aren’t reviews. Recommendations are based on pre-release buzz, previews, and The Comics Observer‘s patented crystal ball. Product descriptions provided by publisher.)

Miles Away by Anthony Montgomery, Brandon Easton and Jeff Stokely

Miles Away
Written by Anthony Montgomery and Brandon Easton
Illustrated by Jeff Stokely
Published by Antarctic Press
Genre: Action/Adventure
Ages: 12+
128 pages

Created by hyperspace heartthrob Anthony Montgomery (Star Trek: Enterprise), and co-written by Brandon Easton (WB’s new Thundercats series), Miles Away is an epic action adventure about Maxwell Miles, a shy, teenage orphan with super-photographic reflexes. Max’s already odd life goes beyond Twilight Zone territory when he encounters alien refugees who involve him in an interstellar war connected to his family’s dark past! Aided by remarkable companions, young Max battles evil entities on two worlds: Future Earth and Ro-Twyla!

16-year-old Maxwell Miles is like most teenagers – full of questions and insecurities. For ten years, one question has haunted him: “Why did I lose so much, so early in my life?” With both parents disappearing under mysterious circumstances and a guardian who doles out vague and limited information, Max’s thirst for knowledge is rarely quenched. Unlike most teenagers, Max develops a superhuman ability, he is enlisted by a shadowy organization to battle evil around the globe, he allies with two aliens on the run, he saves their planet from destruction, he prevents an alien invasion and he has to maintain a solid grade point average despite having the laziest study partner on Earth. Max learns the hard way that some questions should never be asked because the truth hurts much more than curiosity.

Kinski by Gabriel Hardman

Kinski
Written and illustrated by Gabriel Hardman
Published by MonkeyBrain Comics
Genre: Comedy
Ages: 12+
23 pages
$0.99 (digital only)

Frustrated with his dead end career as a chicken feed rep, Joe is looking for something. Turns out that “something” is a four-month-old black lab puppy named Kinski. Joe is going to save this dog. What at first seems like a simple rescue mission escalates into a righteous crusade…but crusades don’t usually work out so well, do they?

Kinski is written and drawn by Gabriel Hardman, the illustrator/cartoonist on Hulk and Agents of Atlas for Marvel, and the original graphic novel Heathentown from Image/Shadowline. He is also a storyboard artist for movies such as Inception, Tropic Thunder, and X-Men 2.

Strange Attractors by Charles Soule and Greg Scott

Strange Attractors
Written by Charles Soule
Illustrated by Greg Scott
Published by Archaia Entertainment
Genre: Science Fiction
Ages: 14+
128 pages
$19.95

The City is an Engine. Heller Wilson has found the key.

From acclaimed writer Charles Soule (27, Strongman, Swamp Thing) comes a mathematical thriller about Chaos, Probability, and the race to stop a citywide disaster.

In 1978, Dr. Spencer Brownfield saved New York City from itself, bringing the city back from the verge of collapse and ruin. And for thirty years, his small, unnoticed adjustments to the city’s systems have kept the city afloat. Or so he claims to Heller Wilson, a young graduate student that Dr. Brownfield has chosen as his successor. But are Dr. Brownfield’s claims about The Butterfly Effect and how his “complexity math” apply to the city’s patterns of life real, or are they the ravings of a man broken by the death of his wife and daughter, desperate to find some kind of control over the world around him?

Part sci-fi, part philosophical exploration, part thriller, Strange Attractors examines what you can control in your life and what you can’t, and how important it is to recognize the difference.

The Dream Merchant by Nathan Edmondson and Konstantin Novosadov

The Dream Merchant #1 (of 6)
Written by Nathan Edmondson
Illustrated by Konstantin Novosadov
Published by Image Comics
Genre: Science Fiction
Ages: 16+
64 pages
$3.50

Haunted by recurring dreams, a boy named Winslow is hunted by mysterious beings and protected by an old traveler. Soon Winslow will realize that what is in his dreams is what the rest of the world has been made to forget — and what strange entities will stop at nothing to erase from his mind.

A double-size issue to kick off a new sci-fi series from Nathan Edmondson and newcomer Konstantin Novosadov.