For some reason there have been a lot of #0 and #1 issues being offered from a variety of different publishers lately. What’s surprising is that they have been pretty good for the most part.

From Avatar’s neo-zombie book Crossed, Radical’s sci-fi Freedom Formula, and Devil’s Due’s sexy Mercy Sparx, there is something new for everyone to check out. The best part? Each one of these books has a cover price of $1 or less!!

Take a look at some books offering more than less in this Dollarama Edition of The Checklist!

Freedom Formula #1
Radical Comics presents its newest title in a prestige format that is almost as impressive as its $1 cover price. Set in a future time, after The Government Wars, Freedom Formula is about genetically engineered people racing retro-fitted warsuits. Its art is fantastic, taking a style that is close to manga and adding the signature digital painting of all of Radical’s comics. This is a great book, and for a measly buck, it’s a steal at 4 times the price.

Rest #0
Part of Devil’s Due’s “The New Ninety-Nines” event, Rest tells the story of a world where a super-drug has been invented that eliminates the need for sleep. I find the idea of a “24-Hour life” to be extremely intriguing as a story concept. This book was conceived by Heroes star Milo Ventimiglia (Peter Patrelli), and the promise of a big conspiracy story laced underneath this drug has me hooked.

Mercy Sparx #0
Josh Blaylock’s contribution Devil’s Due’s “The New Ninety-Nines” is the story of Mercy Sparx, a devil-woman who is sent to earth on a mission from Heaven to hunt errant Angels. One of the details about this book I think is really cool is that she has a number of tattoos. Now, as a devil-girl, getting gnarly tattoos isn’t very rebellious, so instead she has a whole bunch of Harps, Clouds, and Pearly Gates. Things that would have totally irritated her parents. She can transform back and forth into a human form (“who’s also hot”), and that’s where this prelude issue ends, but I am so in love with this concept that I can’t wait for issue #1 in October.

Crossed #0
Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows tell the tale of a virus that turns people into homicidal monsters. Sounds like your typical Zombie tale, right? Wrong. In typical Ennis fashion, he turns the Zombie tale on its head. People infected with the virus in Crossed don’t turn into mindless flesh-eaters; instead they retain their human intelligence, gain strength and speed, and are overcome with an unquenchable hunger for violence, mayhem and murder. It’s so much creepier to think of the monsters in this book as ration human beings, and it makes them much harder to defeat as well. This prelude issue didn’t give away much of the story, but it was chock-full of violence and gore. I expect this book to re-define horror comics, and I’m really stoked for issue #1.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 12:01 am and is filed under Reviews, The Checklist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.