In the wake of Dynamite Comics’ last SHAFT mini-series, a powerful exploration of the titular character's origins, writer David F. Walker takes the reins once more for SHAFT: IMITATION OF LIFE. Walker’s approach to the character, famous for his eponymous film and television show, focuses on a deep characterization that those medias did not award him. Walker’s Shaft does not emerge as a complete character, but rather continues growing in a definite arc that finds cohesion with Dietrich Smith’s art.

In CHEW #53, Tony rejected Savoy’s plan to work together. And of course, Savoy isn’t taking it very well. CHEW #54’s prologue opens with an angry Savoy monologuing alone, wearing slippers in an armchair. He makes it abundantly clear that he is now done playing around and out for blood. Things don't look too good for Tony.

The year is 1989. We are in a small suburban town in Ohio. Our "heroes" are eighteen-year-old Madison and seventeen-year-old Duncan, and the contrast between them is stark. On the surface, she has everything that he does not; loving parents, a partner, money, good grades, and superpowers. We are given a very limited window into Duncan’s life, but the view we get is a depressing one. After the death of Duncan’s father, the two set out on the open road, and we learn that they are really not as different as they seem.

I arrived at C2E2 a little later than I would’ve liked. By 10:30am, there were already massive throngs of people on the festival floor, and there was nary a corner in McCormick Place where the decibel level dropped below a dull roar. I made it through security at C2E2 without receiving any strange looks. I was rocking a foot-tall Mohawk, and clad in a spandex Spider-Man costume, a spiked black denim, and clunky boots. In other words, I, in my Anarchic Spider-Man cosplay, was one of the more tamely dressed attendees at this year’s C2E2.