Paranormal Pop Comics Feb. 1

BY ERIN WOLF

The Transformers need a better alarm clock, Zombies duel cowboys at high noon and pesky kids open doors they're not supposed to in this week's Paranormal Pop Comics rundown:  

Infestation 2: Transformers #1 (of 2)
IDW
Written by Chuck Dixon; Art by Guido Guidi
“The Infestation is coming!  The Infestation is coming!” Almost a hundred years after Paul Revere’s ride but another hundred before Tony Stark invented the Arc Reactor (because both of those things really happened), the Transformers lie dormant in the year 1888 as thousands of fish monsters are surfacing from the depths of the ocean and invading the shores of earth. All the Autobots need to fight is a little jolt of power to rouse the sleeping Optimus Prime…don’t they know a bolt of lightning has 1.21 Gigawatts?   

iZombie #22
Vertigo
Written by Chris Roberson; Art and cover by Michael Allred
Eugene, Oregon, definitely looks like the kind of place a monster could get comfortable, besides the whole "end of the world" thing bumming everyone out. Vertigo's iZombie is a paranormal playground full of everyday supernatural beings just looking to live their weird lives without getting in each other's way.

Brimstone #7 (of 7)
Zenescope Comics
Written by Michael Lent and Brian McCarthy; Art by Hyunsang Michael Cho
Zenescope has described the Brimstone series as “28 Days Later meets Tombstone.” Issue #7, which is the last in the series, wraps up an epic showdown between the vicious fleshwalkers and a scrappy group of outlaws and thieves who, originally summoned to Brimstone to do a little house cleaning, now find themselves in a lethal shootout of survival with the undead. This zombie-western is a unique, fast-paced book that reminds me of a dream-like saloon ghost story so good it gets told and retold to any willing ear; endlessly recounting the horrors that once escaped from the cursed mining town of Brimstone way back when. Oh, and if they ever do make a movie out of this often overlooked gem, I insist that Timothy Olyphant (Justified) be cast as cowboy Vic, the Viper.    

Locke & Key: Clockworks #4 (of 6)
IDW
Written by Joe Hill; Art by Gabriel Rodriguez and Jay Fotos
In Clockworks, chapter 4: 'The Whispering Iron,' The tamers of The Tempest club are up to no good. This week we follow our favorite rambunctious band of teenagers as they dare to descend into the depths of the Drowning Cave in the hopes of collecting more keys than a high-school janitor. Thanks to those meddling kids, Ben Locke’s effort to keep the dangerous powers of the Whispering Iron from falling into the wrong hands is all for not and a whole paranormal world of mayhem is about to be unleashed in Lovecraft.

Also released this week:
Animal Man #6
DC Comics - Written by Jeff Lemire; Art by John Paul Leon, Travel Foreman and Jeff Huet
The Theater #4
Zenescope Comics - Robert Gill, Novo Malgapo and Michael Garcia
Scooby-Doo #18
DC Comics - Written by Scott Beatty; Art by Robert Pope and Scott McRae
Supernatural #5 (of 6)
DC Comics - Written by Brian Wood; Art by Grant Bond
Swamp Thing #6
DC Comics - Written by Scott Snyder; Art by Marco Rudy


Paranormal Pop Comic News:
DCEntertainment has announced that it is releasing a prequel series to writer Alan Moore and artist David Gibbons' "Watchmen."  The prequel, which is to be titled “Before Watchmen,” comes almost 25 years after the original series ran in 1986-87.


DC Entertainment co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee said in a joint statement, “After 25 years, the Watchmen are classic characters whose time has come for new stories to be told.  We sought out the best writers and artists in the industry to build on the complex mythology of the original.”


Although the internet is a-buzz with the announcement of the return of the beloved “Watchmen” franchise, not everyone is happy about the idea of a prequel.  Writer Alan Moore, notorious for his refusal to contribute to the film adaptation of “Watchmen,” has told the New York Times, “I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago.” 

Artist David Gibbons, however, harbors less animosity towards the project and is quoted on DC Universe’s website as saying, “The original series of Watchmen is the complete story that Alan Moore and I wanted to tell.  However, I appreciate DC’s reasons for this initiative and the wish of the artists and writers involved to pay tribute to our work.  May these new additions have the success they desire."