Northlanders #40, "The Hunt" (no #1, it's a done-in-one story arc) starts sparely - the narrator follows a Viking and a deer he hunts in a forest where neither has seen any other life besides birds and trees for a week. The date-stamping (Sweden Circa A.D. 1000) and character voiceovers don't start until later, and the focus stays on the poignant struggles of mammals in snowy winter as exemplified by this one hunt...

American Vampire #15, "Ghost War" #3, starts in the middle of a firefight in the Taipan landing. Then it moves to nurses shipping out and Pearl's first tour of duty overseas, and back to Taipan and the civilians attacked by both vampires and Japanese troops...

There's also two multi-page previews this time:

• American Vampire : Survival of the Fittest issue #1 - while the "Ghost War" arc of American Vampire is in WWII Asia, this other branch of the series is going from NYC to WWII Europe
• the "Jan. 1980" issue #1 of Super 8, which advertises a movie (and maybe or maybe not a new comic series too).

Halcyon #5 ends the series with mostly a big fight among ex-villains who turned over a new leaf; ex-"heroes" who miss brutality from which to rescue people; and at least one superhero who refreshingly still knows that the freedom to not get maimed, raped, and/or killed is more important than the freedom to maim, rape, and/or kill...

Turf #5, "The Bloodfather," wraps up another miniseries well. Most of it is the final showdown among vampires, vampire-wannabes, aliens, gangsters, molls, cops, attack dogs, etc. Amid the blood there are touching moments on family and friendship too. It ends with a few last-minute new twists as well as a bang.

American Vampire's reached WWII, and copes with American troops having fought in both Asia and Europe by having two parallel story arcs. While "Ghost War"'s set on Taipan, "Survival Of The Fittest" #1 starts the ETO side story. Felicia Book's an adult now, practically grew up with the V.M.S. (there's a nice 2-page splash of their East Coast HQ), and then a botanist (yes, his work is relevant here) in Romania in 1941 needs their help...

Echo #30 wraps up the second great Terry Moore series of which I know. Sure, there's a big showdown at the beginning of the issue, but it goes from showdown to standoff to reconciliation very smoothly and quickly, then I don't want to spoil the rest even within spoiler tags. Meanwhile, just as Echo turned out to be a side story of Strangers in Paradise, I wonder if Rachel Rising will turn out to be a side story of Echo and Strangers in Paradise.

Northlanders #41, "Thor's Daughter," is another done-in-one arc. This one's about a 14-year-old girl, orphaned daughter of the dead chief of a small island village and his longer-dead wife, and trying to lead the living village warriors... There's also a preview of Brightest Day Aftermath : The Search for Swamp Thing.

While lately a bunch of the series and miniseries I've read have ended, there's always more to start. All Nighter #1, "Stealing Coins," starts a miniseries that's part slice-of-life and part crime drama, about a young woman starting college as an art major and trying to put her ex-boyfriend and burglaries behind her. If you like The New York Four and Five you might like this too...

American Vampire #16, "Ghost War" #4 starts with the heroes trapped in Unit 732. It's based on Unit 731 IRL but with vampires, of course. Now I grimly wonder how American Vampire : Survival of the Fittest will have Nazis use vampires in concentration camps in this alternate history... Meanwhile, Pearl's been deployed to Allied-held south Taipan. This subplot actually reminds me a bit of Winter in June by Kathryn Miller Haines, so if you like this check out that novel about a young American woman posted in the Pacific in WWII and solving another mystery when off duty (it's 3rd in a series so you might want to start with The War Against Miss Winter). There's also a preview of Cowboys from Vertigo Crime.

Memoir #4, "The Hunt," managed to make things in this mystery miniseries about as confusing as they could get without revealing or repeating anything, so I'm guessing the turning point and dénouement will be within a few pages of the next issue.

In Red Wing #1, "Learning to Fly," Jonathan Hickman starts another time travel miniseries (and starts it in media res with flying cars dodging sauropods!). Then things get much less linear...

All Nighter #2, "Stealing Glances," keeps up the changes of pace starting with its cover - no blood or weapons in sight on this one (of course blood or weapons don't necessarily make a cover bad, but is it just me or do they seem to be on a lot of comics covers there days?).

Once I open the book the drama of vetting someone to be a new housemate, starting college, and meeting an ex-crush continues...


edit: found a better version of the cover

Last week but I didn't get to read it until this week, Ōoku : The Inner Chambers vol. 6 by Fumi Yoshinaga came out in English. It's an alternate history of the Tokugawa shogunate (and a stirring yet not preachy condemnation of abuse). It's also a much better translation than Samurai Executioner got - Yoshinaga's old-fashioned Japanese is translated into old-fashioned English instead of left in romanji that doesn't have any time-period connotations for people who don't speak Japanese. Vol. 6 isn't a good jumping-on point, so I recommend starting with vol. 1 especially if you liked Y : The Last Man.