So if you like stories that feel like a 1990s Jim Carrey acting out Hieronymus Bosch's fever dream, you will enjoy The Ludocrats. It has violence, fourth wall breaks, and a character named Voldigan the Perfidious. If nothing else, comics like these help us appreciate the silliness of life and the value of spontaneity. For those reasons, I recommend it.

Fans of Judge Dredd will enjoy this comic because it offers Dredds quintessential no-nonsense intensity. New readers will also appreciate Judge Dredd: False Witness #1: it offers a lens through which to see our own world. And it judges our worldharshly.

Reading Godshaper is a refreshing experience"notably different than reading the often trite, two-fisted pages of simpler stories. Godshaper is a groundbreaking comic, full of exciting motion and thoughtful commentary. In an animalistic world filled with subpar stories and derivative artwork, Godshaper stands tall as proof that comics can evolve.

I refuse to believe that The Living Finger's living finger is just a living finger. It means something, and I will figure it out. In the meantime, this comic offers enough intriguing action to satisfy my need for bizarre entertainment, and I look forward to more in the next issue.

Past the Last Mountain is more than a fantasy comic: it is an exciting, heartfelt action story that uses interactions between fairy-tale characters and government officials to create an effective social commentary. Allor's narrative soars gracefully from page to page on the wings of Joyce's nuanced artwork. The characters are complicated, which makes them refreshingly relatable, and the story is relevant. In a 2013 lecture for the Reading Agency, author Neil Gaiman noted the benefits of escapism, arguing that fantasy worlds offer readers a safe place to acquire knowledge and tools with which to better tackle problems in real life. Past the Last Mountain offers this sort of fantasy world"use it.

Many plot-based questions remain after the last panel of this issue, but the characterization of Jason causes most of my confusion. Reactions to this protagonist come in two mutually exclusive forms: apathy or disgust. Either Jason is an empty vessel that carries the reader from moment to moment, or he is an intensely lonely sociopath who falls in love with Wendy, his pet finger. Hopefully, future issues will point us in the right direction.

Santeria: The Goddess Kissis an ambitious comic, and I appreciate the attempt to pack one comic with a variety of locations, characters, and moral questions. Though the first issue was weighed down by exposition, it presented some exciting themes, and maybe the next few issues will offer fewer words and more characterization. If so, I look forward to reading them.

I read Deer Editor shortly after watching the producers of Spotlight"the biographical film about the journalists from The Boston Globe who exposed sex abuse in the Boston area by Catholic priests"take home the Oscar for Best Picture, and I believe that, though Spotlight deals with some heavier issues, audiences today appreciate the relevance of both stories. Maybe that appreciation is fueled by pervasive cynicism and a widespread belief that the inveterate criminals of today need to be exposed. Maybe we see ourselves, on some level, as investigative antiheroes, flawed individuals who search for truth, so we relate to characters like Bucky. Whatever the reasons, Deer Editor is a fun, meaningful read, and I recommend it.