End o' the year, so I thought I'd do a quick look-see at some regular series comics I've been reading over the past twelve months that deserve some hey-check-this-out!-type acknowledgement. All five are from the mainstream companies and are being packaged as ongoing series (though, given the state of the industry, who knows if we'll still be seeing all five this time next year). No Art Comics here (though some of the creators herein may've swiped from their less commercial peers), just some titles that've fulfilled my admittedly warped entertainment needs. In alphabetical order, they are:

Alias (MAX): Scripter Brian Michael Bendis takes the 'tec story mode that he polished in his Powers series and plunks it into the Marvel Universe. I have no memory of Jessica Jones' murky history as a superheroine (in the most recent issue, a character asks her if she'd once been in the Avengers), but that's no real detriment. As a hard-bitten p.i. in the V.I. Warshawski mode, Jones finds herself in sordid noir-ish cases involving 2nd-tier Marvel personalities (in one story arc, she looks for Hulk & Captain Marvel hanger-on, Rick Jones). Bendis' style is slow and deliberate - doesn't always pay off in satisfying resolutions either - but I like his world-weary heroine and the mean streets tone of his book. Only complaint I have is with the writer's use of frozen panels during long expositionary conversations: the technique, first utilized in Powers, may save a mess of drawing, but it too frequently draws attention to itself. I enjoy Michael Gaydos' face 'n' shadow focused art too much to accept any cheats on this front.

Automatic Kafka (Wildstorm): Pure gobble-de-gook or unpure gobble-de-gook? Beats me. Superman scripter Joe Casey and artist Ashley Wood have developed a "superhero comic" that at times reads and looks like something that could've come from the retarded narrator of The Sound and The Fury. Still don't know what the hell is going on, but I'm nonetheless titillated. Whole thing makes Grant Morrison's The Filth mini-series look like a model of linear scriptwriting, but there are plenty of funny moments that arise from Casey's clunking contrast between superhero comics cliches and his dubious junkie android hero. Of all the books in this list, the one most likely to provoke a what-the-hell-you-talkin'-about-Sherman? response from other comics readers.

Fables (Vertigo): Bill Willingham does for the world of fairy tales what Roger Rabbit did for 'toons: makes the characters living & breathing creatures who live by their own rules, then tosses gritty human motivations into the mix. Of all the current Vertigo series, this 'un is my favorite. Willingham's world is well-realized (first recall becoming acquainted w./ this guy through an Eros Comic) and full of sly allusions (current plotline is a play on George Orwell's Animal Farm - someone alert Chris Hitchens!) Artists Mark Buckingham & Steve Leialoha convincingly ground a world where a Goldilocks is a gun-toting radical and the three bears members of her would-be revolutionary army. This book frankly surprised me: I wasn't expecting it to be as richly developed as it is.

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