I have three small kids ranging from 2-8 years old. They love reading comics and books alike, and as a result I pick up all sorts of free and cheap comics to place in my spinner rack at home for their reading leisure. As you can image its full of Free Comic Book Day titles and any free promo comic I pick up from my local shop, Comics 2 Games. I just happen to be cleaning up our reading room (putting books away my kids didn’t put back on their own) and I noticed on my spinner rack the Detective Comics #27 freebie that DC put out back in July. I can remember grabbing and thinking how cheap it was that they re-used the Greg Capullo Batman Zero cover for it. It’s a free comic, so I gave it to the kids. Upon glancing at the cover this time around, I noticed something I hadn’t before. One name caught my attention. Sean Murphy. Why hadn’t I noticed his name before? Interest peaked, I sat down and gave it a read and holy hell was I pleasantly surprised, and oh by the way… it has a very interesting impact on the current Batman story arc.

It’s a new year full of promise and Image has even more to offer me as far as great reads go. Already Image holds the #1 & #2 spots in my top 5 titles to read monthly and now Image & Rick Remender have added a third. That’s right, Image Comics holds the top 3 spots in my favorite monthly titles to read. Today we are going to discuss the latest edition to that top 5: Rick Remender’s Black Science.

In an attempt to consume more of Scott Snyder‘s work, I reached out to my local library and picked up the first two trade of Snyder’s Vertigo title American Vampire. Holy crap is this book awesome. Vertigo. CHECK. Vampires. CHECK. Historical fiction. CHECK. (triple homerun) Our main character, the first American Vampire, is Skinner Sweet and prior to becoming a part of the undead, Skinner Sweet was a sadistic asshole and a murderous thief. He was last person you would have wanted to run into in 1880. Skinner, murdering bank robber, is wanted by a group of old country European vampires, whom he robbed several tens of thousands of dollars from. Seeking their revenge, they hire a detective from the Pinkerton Group to help capture him. While attempting escape from capture, Skinner Sweet is accidentally transformed into the first American Vampire.

Following up what I call one of the best three runs on Fantastic Four ever (Kirby/Lee, Byrne and Hickman for those keeping score at home), we have Matt Fraction penning both Fantastic Four and the FF titles. I have to admit I was expecting to be let down. It’s near impossible to follow up excellence with excellence. (Those types of things are left to the Niners and the Packers) But none the less, plenty of my fellow collectors stated I would not be let down and that I have to patient and let Fraction do his thing. So I did. Six issues and an Age Of Ultron later, we finally have some goodness to talk about.