And Then I Read: THE UNEXPECTED 1

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

This 80-page one-shot from Vertigo is a strange beast indeed, from the cover on. I can only guess that the reason for it is to keep the trademark on the title active, and that's merely a guess. There are some interesting stories within. What would you expect from the unexpected? Certainly twist endings, and there are a few, but there are also some stories that just tell a good tale with perhaps some creepy or science fictional overtones.

"The Great Karlini" by Dave Gibbons offers up the story of an escape artist with some unfortunate personality flaws that catch up with him in the end. Nicely done, both story and art, though I would have liked larger caption lettering.

"Dogs" by G. Willow Wilson and Robbi Rodriguez is an actual shaggy dog story with some amusing moments.

"Look Alive" by Alex Grecian and Jill Thompson is one of the oddest zombie stories I've seen in a while. Looks great, though!

"The Land" by Josh Dysart and Farel Darymple is a sad story of a Mexican worker on a Texas farm who becomes a victim of circumstances, and there are some effective folklore horror moments. The art is quite good.

"A Most Delicate Monster" by Jeffrey Rotter and Lelio Bonaccorso is about a scientist who has brought some Neanderthals to life from old DNA, and his odd relationship with them. Played very nicely with humor and a pretty good twist ending.

"Family First" by Mat Johnson and David Lapham is a post-apocalypse story of a grim sort with rather nasty characters. Not a bad read, and the art looks good, but not my kind of story.

"Alone" by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Rahsan Ekedal is an unusual broken romance story with ghostly elements, and a quite innovative art style that I liked a lot. Good work by both writer and artist.

"Americana" by Brian Wood and Emily Carroll (sample above) is my favorite entry in this comic. Another post-apocalypse story, it breaks the mold of the entire issue by having an uplifting message about the strength of family in trying times, and it spans a long period of time in a few pages very effectively. Not an original concept, but very well done indeed.

"Blink" by Selyin Hinds and Denys Cowan is actually a prequel to an upcoming series, VOODOO CHILD, and treads familiar voodoo ground in New Orleans. I wasn't impressed with the story, but the art is quite nice.

Anthologies like this are rare these days, especially from DC, so this was a nice change of pace and I enjoyed reading it overall. Recommended.