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Wednesday is New Comics Day
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Hellen Keller saves the President
Tara Chase saves the Queen
Old Superman joins the JSA
Glenn Ganges frags his co-workers
And a comic book to read for the rest of your life

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week.

5. HELEN KILLER #1
Written by Andrew Kreisberg; art by Matthew JLD Rice
Arcana Studios
$3.95

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Usually with this list I try to suggest new comics that are coming out this week that I think will be a good read and worth your time and money to seek out. Sometimes though, I like to point out peculiar books that I'm not necessarily recommending you run out and buy because they could very well be a disaster but there's something potentially brilliant in there that's worth pointing out anyway, just in case. The trick is I never come right out and tell you when I'm talking about one of these types of books.

Having gotten that out of the way, let's talk about this potentially brilliant new book that imagines Helen Keller as an early 20th century government agent who has regained her sight and hearing (plus got some super-strength as a bonus) thanks to the help of Alexander Graham Bell. Can she use her newfound abilities to protect President McKinley from anarchist assasins? The artwork in this new series is obviously going for a Frank Miller feel which is appropriate being that we're talking about a blind superhero, essentially.

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4. QUEEN & COUNTRY (Definitive Edition) VOL. 2

Written by Greg Rucka; art by Jason Alexander, Carla Speed McNeil and Mike Hawthorne
Oni Press
$19.95 | 376 pgs

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I missed when the first volume of this handsome little collection came out so I figure I should make up for it by calling out volume 2. Queen & Country was a smart and mature spy comic written by novelist and DC comics regular writer Greg Rucka that ended last year (though it continues with non-Rucka written spinoffs). This nice, 6x9 paperback collection gives you issues #13-24 and comes equipped with a very cool Tim Sale cover.

Q&C features two of Rucka's specialities: a tough, hard drinking female lead and a realistic take on espionage. Focusing on a group of British SIS operatives called the "Minders" and in particular, an agent named Tara Chase, Rucka delves into intense action as well as the type of bureaucratic battles that real spies must have to fight on a regular basis. Rucka writes with all the skill of John LeCarré and is helped out by a team of artists who draw in a stylized, cartoony style that surprisingly works for such realistic subject matter.

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3. JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA VOL 2: THY KINGDOM COME PART 1
Written by Geoff Johns and Alex Ross; Art by Dale Eaglesham, Ruy Jose, Fernando Pasarin and Rodney Ramos; Cover by Ross
DC Comics
$19.99 | 160 pgs

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Anyone who has read and enjoyed Mark Waid and Alex Ross' classic JLA-in-the-future graphic novel Kingdom Come will definitely want to check out this collection of the latest issues of the ongoing Justice Society of America comic. Graying, Black emblemmed Superman from the future somehow ends up in the present where he meets and joins up with the JSA. Since the JSA have been missing their own Superman since the Crisis of Infinite Earths eliminated the redundancies of Earth 2 back in the 1980s, it makes perfect sense for Kingdom Come Superman to fill that slot.

Alex Ross works with regular JSA writer Geoff Johns on the plot and also provides the covers while Dale Eaglesham does a great job of making KC Supes look a lot like the Alex Ross version from the original book.

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2. GANGES #2
By Kevin Huizenga
Fantagraphics
$7.95 | 32 pgs

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Probably my favorite book of Fantagraphic's oversized pamphlet line is Kevin Huizenga's Ganges. Each issue collects a group of reflective short stories that thoughtfully examine the little details of life while occasionally adding in some fantastic, cartoony elements that help lighten the weight of all the philosophical breakthroughs. Huizenga, who has recently broken out of the mini-comics world and into the big time with this book and last year's hardcover collection Curses, has a pleasing cartooning style that is reminiscent of Hergé.

In Ganges, Huizenga has created a stand-in for himself named Glenn Ganges. He's a normal, unassuming married guy living in the suburbs. In this issue, Glenn is working for a dot com company and spending a lot of office hours playing first person shooter video games. Ah, I remember those days myself very fondly. It's like this comic book knows me or something.

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1. JESSICA FARM VOL. 1
By Josh Simmons
Fantagraphics
$14.99 | 96 pgs

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Okay if you thought that Helen Killer book sounded weird wait til you get a load of this one. It's about a young girl living in a house inhabited by strange creatures like a talking monkey and a naked manservant named Mr. Sugarcock. But that's not even what's weird about this book.

Not even close.

Jessica Farm collects the beginning of a story that Josh Simmons started in 2000, at the very beginning of his career. He has drawn one page a month since then and will continue to do so until he completes the story in the year 2050. Every 96 pages he will release a collection like this and in 2050 he'll collect it into a one volume 600 page definitive collection. Simmons admits that he's just making the story up as he goes along but the point of this all is really to detail his own growth as an artist, month by month, for the rest of his career.

The book itself has been described as Alice in Wonderland meets David Lynch. You can get a good sense of Simmons penchant for the weird and off putting by reading this brilliant little Batman comic he has on his own website.

Respected comic reviewer Jog The Blog has an informative review on this first volume and raises the philosophical questions that this endeavor brings up like: how many of us will still be alive when this story is completed?

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