Welcome back to Critical Blast’s long-running weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

Comics shipping this week

Quite a few series getting relaunched this week...

It's bee a truism for a while now that Country and Pop have blended together so much that there's not much of the old school Country left. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as it's produced a lot of great music. But it's also come at the cost of the original sounds -- the steel guitars and the honky tonk piano -- that you maybe didn't realize you'd been missing until you hear it.

Fortunately, there are still country artists who still walk the walk, and draw inspiration from their music from the lived life.

A prime example: Paul Bogart, whose just released his latest single, George Jonesin', off his CD, LEATHER. If you've even a passing reference with the genre, you get the reference, and Bogart deftly encapsulates the zeitgeist of the Silver Fox with this story-song of lost love and drowned sorrow lyrically and melodically.

WONDERLAND rears its ugly head once more in the Grimm Fairy Tales universe, with Raven Gregory at the helm of the crazy train.

A new madness is coming, and it begins in the form of Mr. Monarch -- a.k.a. Caterpillar. I don't know what evil he's about just yet, but I know it's vile because he begins his plans at a day care center.

That's the first of many hooks that are being set in this first issue, that finds Calie Liddle and her daughter, Violet, estranged from each other. Calie is doing the book tour thing as a famous fiction author, retelling her Wonderland story as a work of the imagination rather than a horrifying reality, and Violet is purposefully ignoring all her calls.

You know, sometimes you can actually tell a book by its cover--or, in this case, a DVD by its jacket.

The GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS is one of those movies that, if you pick it up to look at it, you’re already classified as one of those who likes weird and strange things...which kind of classifies you as weird and strange yourself. I freely admit I am one such person, drawn to this DVD by the sheer strangeness, nay goofiness, of its title, and upon reading the jacket I was compelled to to take it home to watch.

Believe me, I make no assumptions that I’m going to see something other than what I expect when I choose one of these movies, so I am rarely disappointed; and I’m not here. This movie was everything I thought it would be. Its everything you would think it would be. This movie, by great movie standards, is bad--but by bad movie standards, it's great!

From the pen of Keith Champagne and the pencils of Tom Nguyen comes THE SWITCH: ELECTRICIA, a superheroes and supervillains saga in the tradition of KICK-ASS and THE AUTHORITY and made possible through the use of Kickstarter.

Electricia is a bad girl. Very bad. She controls electricity and uses it to commit crimes with her fellow criminals, collectively known as Murderer's Row. They have a satellite and everything, and an array of powers that dwarf Electricia's own. Like their leader, Lover Boy -- a mullet sporting tub who controls you with his voice, Dr. Hate -- an evil genius trapped in the body of a purple cat, Interstellar -- a boy possessed by an alien space god, and... Vladimir Putin? Yes!

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s long-running weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

The month has just gotten underway, and it's already getting hotter! 

Our Critical Blast Bombshell for July enjoys the unique opportunity to design costumes both as a hobby and as a profession, adding emphasis to the adage, "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life."

With a portfolio of cosplay that runs through several genres (and mixes some of the together in the best of all possible ways), Critical Blast is pleased and proud to present to you the...

Ah, the comic art pin-up. What once used to be a one or two page bit in KATY KEENE grew into full-blown books in the 1990s from Image and Marvel when they turned pen and ink to ride the popularity of the SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SWIMSUIT issues.

Zenescope is continuing that tradition, but with a fan twist. Instead of a swimsuit issue, their pin-ups are dedicated to cosplay. It's something that's become a bit of a trend. And to make sure you're not just plunking down coin for a collection of art pages, Zenescope includes a short story to serve as the lead-in, with Skye Mathers costume shopping and then  having to take out a demon while wearing a LEGEND OF ZELDA costume. (Spoiler alert: Shang prefers Poison Ivy to Harley Quinn!)

Some of us have parents who are lawyers, plumbers, doctors, investment brokers, pharmacists, or police officers.  Cassidy’s father is a history scholar. Her mother fills in the history with ghost stories, and together they write books.

The family lives in up-state New York with a cat named Grim.  Cassidy loves taking pictures with her clunky, vintage camera.  Unknown to her parents, Cassidy’s life intersects with their careers.  Cassidy was thrown over the railing of a bridge and drowned in the cold river while attempting to take the perfect sunset picture.  However, a ghost named Jacob pulled Cassidy from the water.  Now Cassidy can cross the “Veil” between the living and the dead, and Cassidy and Jacob form a special bond.

School is ending for the summer, and Cassidy’s parents have agreed to take the family along while recording documentaries for TV in different haunted cities around the world.  Their first adventure is in the old city of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Peter Fonda drew shock and outrage across the country when he took to Twitter with a profanity-laced rant; and it may have been a bridge too far for moviegoers.

Taking to the Internet to vent about immigration policies, Fonda's comments included suggestions about tossing President Trump's son Barron into a cage with pedophiles. These comments went public barely a week before Fonda's newest movie, BOUNDARIES, was to see limited release from Sony Pictures.

Where AVENGERS INFINITY WAR was a great action movie filled with moments of comedy, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP is a great comedy movie filled to the gills with lots of action and adventure.

Ever since the events of INFINITY WAR, people have been asking: Where was Ant-Man?

Well it turns out that Scott Lang (PAUL RUDD), after choosing to side with Captain America in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, was apprehended for his participation in the events and placed under house arrest for two years. And he's learned a lot while attached to his ankle bracelet -- like drumming, and up-close card tricks.

It was going to be a good day. Wednesday's always were. Far enough away from last weekend to be over my hangover, and close enough to the next weekend I could start anticipating my next drunk.

Since I was going to be lucid for a little while, I thought it would be a good idea to find something to distract my brain from the glitz and glamour of the grafitti-spattered heroin houses and hoopties that doubled as homeless shelters. It being a Wednesday, my local comic shop had just the ticket: new comic books.

But like any mind-numbing drug, the longer you use them the more you need the good stuff to get the same high. Fortunately, I had a hookup with connections and an eye for quality.

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s long-running weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

Perhaps the brightest star in Dynamite's publishing sky has been PROJECT: SUPERPOWERS, a world populated by superhero characters who have fallen into the public domain and repurposed to work in the modern era -- no mean feat, since so may of them were created to oppose the Nazi forces during World War II.

To explain the disappearance of the heroes, and how they return to active duty still in the prime of their lives, we were given a tale of Hitler discovering Pandora's Box, and the heroes voluntarily sealing themselves up within it to save the world, only to be released decades later.

That epic is retold in part in these pages, written by Rob Williams and drawn by Sergio Davila, as Dynamite prepares to relaunch the series with a new #1 issue next month on the heels of this #0 introductory chapter, designed and priced to hook in new readers.

When a former soldier is set up for a heinous crime so well that even he thinks he committed it, the district attorney (RICHARD JENKINS) is assured he has an open-and-shut death penalty case. But when the case makes national news, it comes to the attention of Jack Reacher (TOM CRUISE), an off-the-grid veteran who makes his way across the country to see that justice is done -- and the man is buried. Reacher knew the man in the service, and knows he got away with a horrific crime there.

So it's something of a mystery that the accused killer would ask for Reacher in the first place. Alas, that's the elephant in the room that nobody asks about -- sort of like, if Charles Foster Kane died alone, then who heard him utter the word "Rosebud?" But I digress...

BLACK LIGHTNING is a CW show that differs from the rest of the DC Comics' based Arrowverse, and not just because it's completely separate from it. CRESS WILLIAMS plays the titular superhero, Black Lightning, aka high school principal Jefferson Pierce. As Pierce, he's a legend in the city of Freeland for his record with getting students into college. But he's legendary for another reason as well -- several years ago he cleaned up the community as the electrically-charged vigilante, Black Lightning. But he went into retirement, and the city of Freeland has gone steadily downhill ever since.

RWBY has many lovable characters that share their experiences with each other, and demonstrates what teamwork and friendship can really accomplish.

The show is an animated series focusing on four young women whose stories intertwine, even though their intentions lead them down different pathways. After an unintentional meeting at Beacon Academy, the four become Team RWBY, and together overcome things that they thought were impossible before, providing support to each other both in battle and at school.

Apparently, a group of "fans" have decided to make an effort at remaking STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, a movie that has mixed reviews to say the least. 

On Twitter, they posted:

While this is silly for a variety of reasons I will get to, I do have to give these guys some credit...at least this is an attempt (a silly one, but still at attempt) to bring their grievances to Disney directly.  It's sure better than harassing and threatening actresses on social media.  

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Weeks after its stunning decision to cancel Roseanne, ABC is officially moving forward with a spinoff of TV's current No. 1 series — without controversial star Roseanne Barr.

Following aggressive talks with exec producer Tom Werner, the Disney-owned broadcaster has handed out a 10-episode, straight-to-series order for Roseanne spinoff The Conners (working title). The new take, which will also be a multicamera comedy and premiere in the fall, will follow the Conner family who, after a sudden turn of events, are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before. 

Ah, the 70s. When we thought bell-bottoms and corduroy were comfortable fashions, and our thick, pile carpets were called "shag" for a reason I was too young to know.

One of the many, many highlights of the decade, however, was the television series CHARLIE'S ANGELS, a trio of former police women who went freelance to work for Charles Townsend, who was never seen but whose name was on the detective agency. They were tough, they were smart, and they were sexy, at a time when the feminist movement meant something.