Having had the privilege of working at many of the Graham Crackers locations over the years, I have gotten to know the unique qualities of each store. Some are more focused on kids books, some have a larger high end back issue selection. And while every store has something for everyone, each store has a little something extra. I remember managing the Plainfield store on the weekends for several years and remember showing long time customers (who had spent hours wandering the aisles) something they had never seen before. While at our Naperville store, the staff suggested I visit the Local Creator/Small Publisher section (one of those special spots not in every store) and stumbled across two new titles!
SAPPHIRE SPECTRE #1 PUNKNCOMIX
Following the trend of multiple covers, Punkincomix gives the reader multiple options for this new title. Created, written, and drawn by JT Molloy, the tale of Sylvia Quinn Sloane is quickly related to us by a wonderfully comical moment between Sylvia and a guy hitting on her. And that seems to be the overall feel of the book. Scary yet humorous. Molloy’s writing skills are top notch as he sneaks concepts and future plot points into the story seamlessly and the story doesn’t get bogged down with backstory or lengthy discussions. His art style blends classic poses with insane perspective shots. This is a title with possibilty. Looking forward to issue #2. And while you have a multitude of cover options, Travis Starling’s version is my personal favorite. I give it 9 out of 10 Grahams.
REX RADLEY BOY ADVENTURER #1
With some help from his friends Leandro Panganiban, Paul Williams, Christine Hipp, and Jey Pawlik, creator Winston Gambro bring us the newest in a long line of adventurous teens! The world of Rex Radley is an incredible blending of storylines. Rex’s dad is protecting the world from an alternate dimension invasion of dinosaur people in the Amazon, while his mom is building giant robots to fight Kaiju in Japan. Now add in the Amazon jungle where his dad hangs out and a secret underwater base where his mom lives and your plate is full. As almost an homage to Saturday morning cartoons of the 60’s and 70’s, Rex’s adventures are told in short tales as Rex goes from Mom’s home to Dad’s. And that is the perfect way to share these stories with the readers. No epic crossovers, no full length end on a cliffhanger epics. Just simply well told, entertaining vignettes. And even better is that these are stories that are family friendly. This is a title that anyone can read and enjoy! I give it a 9 out of 10 Grahams.
I highly recommend swing by the Graham Crackers Comics store in Naperville to check out these and many more local independant comics. And remember to stay observant! Your local comic shop has oodles of special sections hidden among the new release racks and the boxes of back issues, explore!