1. Sex Criminals #3 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (Image)
If you've noticed a lot of comics sites mentioning that they love sex criminals, you can be pretty sure they've not lost their minds and are instead referring to the absolutely amazing Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky series, Sex Criminals, the third issue of which exploded onto shelves this week - and it is, of course, mind-blowingly good. A lot of comics have recap pages but few have recap pages like Sex Criminals', where it begins at the start of creation with the big bang and goes on to explain evolution before running out of space to even talk about the last two issues! Amazing. The George Washington quote on the inside cover - "To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country" - is an indicator of the main plot which is that our heroes, Suze and Jon, can stop time momentarily when they orgasm, and move around while everyone else remains stock still; using this power, they've decided to rob the bank that's foreclosing on Suze's library. Except now they've done the heist, they've encountered some strange people unaffected by the time stop who wear pure white clothes and seem evil - and the leader looks like David Bowie in the early 70s. I say main plot because this comic is called Sex Criminals, but so far the comics have mostly been about the life stories of Suze and Jon, and this issue is no different. The two have just discovered that they both have the same time-stopping orgasm power and have fallen hard for one another. Their first date sees them recounting their sexual histories before deciding to use their powers to get back at the banks, so by the end of this issue we're all caught up to the present. There's this great play fight in a sex shop, we see the early stages of a relationship grow, Jon does some terrible things to his boss's office plant - but the highlight of this issue has got to be the musical number. Yeah, this comic has a musical number! Sort of... The song is Queen's Fat Bottomed Girls which Suze begins belting out in a pool hall on their second date and the sequence is absolutely killer with Zdarsky putting Freddie Mercury's iconic yellow jacket onto Suze, brilliant lights flash, the background characters become dancers and backup singers - and the lyrics are all censored! That's right, they couldn't get clearance from Queen to reprint the lyrics in the comic which Fraction explains in the caption boxes covering up lyrics! iTunes actually refused to sell Sex Criminals #3 because of sexual content (there's a graphic scene in the sex shop when Suze and Jon are watching a porno of Barton Fink - "Hard-On Fink") and Fraction didn't want to get sued by Queen to boot, so played it safe. Honestly though, I think the scene is made that much better by being covered up the way it is - have you ever seen anything like this in a comic? Plus we all know how the song goes so we can re-read the comic with the song blaring, singing along with Suze! Fraction, Zdarsky - these guys are killing it with this series. I love the characters, the story, the art, all stuff I've said before when I've rec'd Sex Criminals #1 and #2, but I keep saying it because it continues to be one of the best original comics of the year. This is something special, guys, don't miss out - as Chris Hansen might say to himself before he tapes To Catch A Predator, pick up Sex Criminals today! * Those are my picks of the week, hope you found some good stuff to read and if you've got some recs for me to read, or feel I missed out on a special comic this week, let me know in the comments below. See you guys next week - go read some awesome comics!