Guide to tomorrow's Free Comic Book Day

Tomorrow, May 5, is Free Comic Book Day, and Salon has celebrated with a tremendous guide to comics for the noviate -- lots of great suggestions for people looking to start (or renew) a love affair with funnybooks. Apropos of this, let me reiterate my frequent plugging for my favorite comics store ever, The Secret Headquarters in Silver Lake, Los Angeles.

THE HORROR! THE HORROR!

The Astounding Wolf-Man (Image Comics)
Rising star Robert Kirkman ("The Walking Dead," "Invincible") is launching his new werewolf series with this freebie, drawn by Jason Howard. It's a totally straightforward monster-adventure comic, but crisply drawn and smartly executed, with little touches of characterization and coloring and design that enhance its sense of fun. A-

Jack the Lantern: Ghosts (Castle Rain Entertainment)
If you were reading comics in the '80s, you might remember Tim Vigil's ultraviolent, hyper-stylized horror series "Faust." Vigil drew eight pages of this murky, sloppy, incoherent, incomplete horror-fantasy story, which is the only reason anyone might want to look at it. D

Last Blood (Blatant Comics)
This first issue of a miniseries has exactly one clever idea: vampires protecting the last living normal humans -- their food supply -- from a plague of zombies. Too bad the actual writing is clunky and badly paced, and the scribbly black-and-white artwork is wretched. D+

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