A robust week of releases is led by two personal faves, so you know I’m all about this week’s slate of comics. So, let’s talk about my buys, recommendations, and curiosities in another edition of The Pull, with those old favorites doing new things leading the way.

Comic of the Week: Sleep #4

Sleep was already something I was into before it even released, as I am a Zander Cannon superfan. But it’s quickly risen to the top of my read pile as more issues have come out, with each entry delivering something new, wildly unexpected, and maybe even more than 12% sad in its tragic narrative about a man and the monster within. Forgive me for this obvious note, but don’t sleep on Sleep. It’s one of the best comics of the year, and one of the strongest Image titles going right now. It’s all about horror and humanity, and it’s a doozy in the ways we expect of Cannon and ways we don’t.

Trade/Graphic Novel of the Week: The Knives

I’ve read this latest graphic novel from Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips already, and I’m not going to limit this to my typical statement about how you should always buy Brubaker and Phillips collaborations. What I will say instead is this: This might be that team’s strongest work yet. Brubaker and the Phillipses Sean and Jacob deliver something incredible here, a sprawling epic in the Criminal franchise that folds in three different narratives and builds an interesting present and future for the larger world. This is a heck of a thing, as you could probably tell by me saying it could be their strongest work yet.