One of the cool things about blogging - and being a comics blogger who hasn't started taking himself too seriously - is that I will often be asked to review a book based on another review I did.
For example, thanks to my Close, Personal Relationship(TM) with Mike Luoma, I was asked to review Kurt Belcher's The Stars for Earthbound Comics. Being the personable, willing chap that I am, I read the book and gave it a shot.
It's actually a pretty solid read, and well worth giving a glance.
If you had to give a cursory, compare-it-to-another-series kind of descriptions, think The Authority but with a slightly less dramatic approach. It's not typical superhero fare (with its geopolitical bent), but what makes it entertaining is that it has a slightly less-than-typical approach, focusing on an initial "incident" which then moves towards the obligatory bringing-new-members-on-board.
It's the approach that makes this book enjoyable - this could have easily been a typical superhero story, but there's something about the near real-world approach that makes the book sing. There isn't the obligatory "this-story-reflects-real-life-events" approach that marks other books; if anything, there are some clever variations to this story that make it work. (A slightly knowing sense of celebrity entitlement helps inform the book). It's the kickoff to a six issue mini-series that, quite honestly, may give not just higher profile indies, but also the "big two", a run for their money.
The Stars is available via Indy Planet and Drive Thru Comics; this may be a book that is worth bugging your comics shop to stock.
If your New Year's resolution is to broaden your comic palette, The Stars is a really good book to start off with. Highly recommended.
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