Now that people have largely stopped trying to be “The Walking Dead”, we’re starting to see some really great and unique work in horror comics, ranging from “The New Deadwardians” at Vertigo to books like “Ragemoor” from Dark Horse. And a lot of it is coming from IDW, with minis like “Road Rage” and “Frankenstein: Alive, Alive!”, which is worth getting for Bernie Wrightson’s gorgeous art alone.

But “Night of 1000 Wolves” is something else again.

Bobby Curnow, the writer, largely works as an editor at IDW: he only seems to have written one other book, a Godzilla comic. The key thing about “Night of 1000 Wolves” is that it moves. Curnow sketches in his characters, gets the threat to the family set up, and establishes that he’s not screwing around with a brutal splash panel halfway through the book. A nice touch is that the book is set in the Middle Ages, but not in a fantasy world, per se.

Dave Wachter, on the other hand, is an experienced comic artist, and here the art’s a nice mix of tribute to Wrightson and reflection of “fairy tale” type art. It’s superbly drawn, and he manages to create atmosphere without sacrificing any realism or detail.

In short, if you’re looking for something new at the FLCS, especially in horror, this is worth picking up. It’s not trying to be anything other than thrilling and scary, and it pulls it off handily.

Comixology is rapidly becoming the only way to read comics on tablets. They’ve just crossed 65 million downloads, and now they’ve finally gotten Marvel fully onboard.

It’s worth noting this is a big deal because Comixology not only lets you buy digital comics, it also allows you to buy physical comics through your FLCS. Essentially, you can use it to manage your subs: remove books, add new ones, and so on. The problem was Marvel’s books weren’t a part of that area of the app.

No longer. This might be both worrying and a relief to the FLCS, although it’s worth noting that digitally, Comixology doesn’t use a subscription model.

Oh, and also Marvel claims that by June, every comic will be day and date. Suuuuuuuuuure it will. Riiiiiiight! Whatever you say, guys! You’ve totally not blown this one before, so we totally believe you!

image courtesy Marvel and Comixology

This Week in Posters and Stills: Apatow characters be poopin’, Madea gets Levy |Film Drunk|

Jon Hamm Answers Questions From Teenage Girls, Continues To Be Good At Everything |UPROXX|

ROFLMNBAO: A Tribute To The Many Faces Of Tyler Hansbrough |With Leather|

10 Songs Celebrating May, National Masturbation Month |Smoking Section|

10 Memes That Originated from TV Shows |Warming Glow|

Bad Luck Brian Is Actually Surprisingly Lucky Kyle, Gives Reddit AMA |UPROXX|

So You Want In On The Facebook IPO, Eh? HAHAHAHA! |UPROXX|

Avengers Sound Editor Explains How He Used Lou Ferrigno to Create the Hulk Sound |Film Drunk|

Arianny Celeste’s FHM Philippines Shoot, Because Why Not? |With Leather|

Ron Swanson Should Be a Judge on ‘The Voice’ |Warming Glow|

Meme Watch: Movie Critic Kid Tells It Like It Is |UPROXX|

Tenacious D Recruits Danny McBride As a Roadie |Brobible|

Five Games that Are More Fun to Watch than Play |Unreality|

A Guide to Lunchtime Social Groups, Through Life |College Humor|

The Lost Intro To The Frankenstein Cartoon Circa 1972 |GorillaMask|

Rejected Fox Headlines For Obama Backing Gay Marriage |HuffPost Comedy|

21 Ways To Hide Your Booze And Drugs. (I hide mine in my stomach.) |Buzzfeed|

In the “I knew it all along” department, that “revenge-filled dentist pulled out ex-boyfriend’s teeth” article was a hoax |Fark|

VIDEO AND .GIF BELOW: Personal trainer cat will keep you on track. |via DP&F|

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Just a side note: apparently Diamond didn’t make enough phone calls this week because there’s a lot tagged “not verified by Diamond”. Generally we leave those out, but since it’s so bad this week, we’re leaving in those from major publishers. That said, if there’s a book you really want, definitely call ahead and see if if actually came out.

That said, what’s waiting for you at the FLCS this week?

• DC’s got both “The Culling” and “The Night of the Owls” going this week, and they’ve also got a new one-shot with a Mike Allred cover, “Mystery In Space”, that also features Andy Diggle, Kyle Baker, Ann Nocenti, and Paul Pope. That’s a lot of talent to throw at a one-shot, so we’re interested.
• Marvel launches “Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives” today, as well as the alternate continuity book “Takio”, which actually looks pretty cute, and…a new Marvel Zombies miniseries. Can somebody just shoot this concept in the head already?
• Image has the latest issue of “Fatale” and maybe the latest issue of “Thief of Thieves”, although that sits in the netherworld of “not verified by Diamond”.
• Dark Horse has more Buffy and Lobster Johnson, and also is selling a bunch of “Dragon Age” memorabilia this week.
• IDW has a busy week this week: they’re launching “Trio”, John Bryne’s new superhero book; a new Dungeons and Dragons book; “Night of 1000 Wolves”, a horror mini set in the Middle Ages; and “Frankenstein: Alive, Alive!” with art by Bernie Wrightson and script by Steve Niles. Well, it’ll look pretty at least.
• And BOOM! debuts Sam Humphries’ new SF book “Higher Earth”.

As always, let us know what you’re picking up in the comments!

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It’s time once again for our Friday comic book cosplay feature, casting the spotlight on the best comics related costumery from the cosplay community.  We’re focusing on those cosplayers who we think deserve special recognition for coming up with the best costumes, whatever the budget, and the photographers who capture them for posterity.

This week we’re featuring some awesome cosplay of Batgirl, Black Widow and Nick Fury, Livewire, Scarlet Spider, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, Tank Girl, Sinestro and Karu-Sil, Captain Midlands, Raven and Spawn.

Gamma Squad is committed to giving a voice to the cosplay community that thrives in groups like our friends at TheSuperheroCostumingForum.com. Each week we spotlight our favorite costumes and in addition we also host a regular cosplay contest, with the results forming a special theme week. We invite cosplayers, costumers and photographers to submit pictures of their work that relates to the theme (or any cosplay in general!) to our Flickr group to be considered. We’ll then pick our top choices and post them on Gamma Squad for the adoration of all.

Our current theme is:

• Indie and Small Press Cosplay

For now, enjoy this week’s selection!

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Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow, which also happens to be Cinco De Mayo, so you should celebrate the Gamma Squad way: get wasted and read comics.

Of course, that’s every Saturday here, but it’s nice that for once, a fair chunk of America will be joining us.

Anyway, what goodies can you expect from your FLCS? We break them down issue by issue under the jump. We’ll break out the Gold books under the jump.

As always, call your shop to see what they’re getting: not every shop will have all these books.
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