Into the Red

"Into the Red" from Animal Man vol.2 (DC, 2011) by Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman

Though Jeff Lemire's comics cred is pretty high right now, one of the major draws of the New 52 Animal Man for me is Travel Foreman's crazy indy art. With Animal Man and other "DC Dark" books, DC has revived the Vertigo superhero genre the label itself has gotten away from and in the process created a place where things are fresher and more interesting than the company's more mainstream efforts. However, it still bears the New 52 stamp, which is to say art-driven stories with plenty of splashes, but a consequently slow pace. Modern comics keep building the case for trade-only releases this way, since the monthly has a lower and lower content for money ratio.