It’s a very trade and graphic novel heavy week here in The Pull, as my buys, recommendations and curiosities are pretty deep on that side of the comic world. But it’s all going to start with a single issue, and one by one of my favorite comic creators in the world.

Book of the Week: Steeple #1

I could just write “John Allison” and that would be an adequate explanation here. I’m obviously Team Allison, and that isn’t stopping with Steeple, the new Dark Horse series that he’s writing and drawing. I’ve read the first issue and it is typically quite good, with this issue setting the table quite nicely, laying out the cast, world and core story all in one issue. It might not be as funny as Giant Days or Bad Machinery – it’s still funny, though – but it’s early and there’s a lot to lay out here. We’ll get there, but either way, this is a great start regardless of humor.

Plus, for those that mostly know Allison for Giant Days – I imagine that’s a fair amount of you – welcome to the glorious world where he both writes and draws. There are few cartoonists who are better at character acting than he is, which adds to the humor and the characters significantly. He does phenomenal work here, and I get the feeling that two of the book’s leads – Billie and Maggie – are going to end up being classic Allison characters by the end of this five issue mini. I can’t wait to read it all, because this is going to be a good one.