Welcome back, friends. The Starship Omega plummeting through the Cosmos has returned, swerving out of the way of an errant cosmic calamity. We’ve finally regained cruising altitude, and a flesh-bot of your desired gender/gender combination will be along to massage your pinkish naughties soon. My name is Caffeine Powered, and I’m the Custodian and Lead Seminal Slinger aboard this Galaxy Cruise. Right here about this time, as I am ripped to the gills on a cheap Theraflu knockoff and fighting a lengthy head cold, I’m going to pontificate on what I’m enjoying this week. And so are you! That’s the whole gimmick behind this nonsense, Monday Morning Commute. More Theraflu!

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There ain’t a multitude of titles hitting the shelves this week, and that’s aiight for two reasons. First, it saves my pittance of an allowance from evaporating with over a week to go until the next paycheck. I am a poor ass academic surviving on tutoring wages, though to be fair, what I am paid for what I do is patently ridiculous. Second, the comic books that are dropping have my tits tweaked. My nips are a deep, hungry red, begging for the funny rags to fiddle them.

This den of perversion and adolescent banality is Buy These F**king Comic Books. Within these walls we shall all share the comic books we’re excited for on a given week. I know my tastes sucks raw farts out of my dead grandmother’s ass, so remind me of the titles I missed. If you don’t know what is arriving on a particular Wednesday, Comic List will help you out.

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Ooph! It’s been a minute. How have you all been? I haven’t written this column in what, a month? Or so? Haven’t been to the comic store either in about that much time. It doesn’t have anything to do with a lack of love for the medium. Just been busy. Did my first convention, and been spitting annoyed at the idea of DC jacking off to the New 52 and Marvel yet again unleashing a torrent of new #1 issues. I recognize that doesn’t mean I have to punish the indie creators and all the other interstellar wonderful comics out there. For that, I apologize. Lords of the Funny Book, with ragged knees and cut-up hands, I drag myself to you in supplication.

Let us return to Buy These F**king Comics!, the column where we share the rags we’re picking up on a given week. Don’t see your title in my list? Good! Hit me up with recommendations. Audience participation is crucial.

Don’t know what’s dropping? Hit up Comic List.

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Man, I got myself that throbbing tip for the Brandon Graham and company Prophet. Despite owning all the single-issues, I went and snagged myself the first collection. $10.00? All in one tidy place? Fuck bills, buy comics. Ripping open that Amazon box, I was all kid like and shit, as if I hadn’t read the series already. Fantastic.

Sweet merciful lord, bare pity on me. I am not worthy of all the hotness that Image comics continues to unfurl. I am not. However, with your blessing I will sweat all over them like the excited fanboy I am. New works from Fraction? Graham? And more?

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Come one! Come all! Into the comic book column where we gather around the sacred hearth, the Pull List. Gathered around the resplendent flames as they lick our lollies, we share the comic books we’re interested in on a given week. Though not an Alpha Male, more along the lines of a First Sacrifice, I’ll go first. After done condemning my taste with your judgey eyes and pinnacle eyes, throw your chips into the bulging fire and pray the Gods of Well-Stocked Shelves smile upon you.

Not sure what is coming out? Hit up ComicList.

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As a lifelong nerd, I occasionally delude myself into thinking that I’ve acquired superpowers. Truth be told, most of the time my faux-epiphanies are innocuous. So instead of jumping to my death in a moment of perceived super-flight, I just render myself nauseous after a hyper-metabolism delusion inspires me to eat fifty buffalo wings too many.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking, and I can’t disagree. I’m the type of moron that gives comic book fans a bad rap. But every now and then, my fantasies enable me to do something pretty rad.

For example, what would happen if I stopped thinking of myself as a hack-writer/petty-blogger? What if I started to believe that I could actually correspond with artists whose work I admire? And what if, in the midst of this Pepsi-drinkin’ daydream, I actually contacted someone in the hopes of sharing their words with the world?

Well, then we’d get a feature like the one I’m about to present — an interview with Farel Dalrymple.

As one of the founders of Meathaus, the creator of Pop Gun War, and one of the artists currently working on PROPHET with Brandon Graham, Farel Dalrymple is a comics creator worthy of respect and admiration. Despite his incredible workload, Mr. Dalrymple was gracious enough to respond to my semi-coherent questions. And this might just be the type of reinforcement that convinces that I do have superpowers after all.

Dangerous.

Punch it into hyperspace to see Farel Dalrymple’s thoughts on comics anthologies, his current work, and even Type   O Negative.

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…Man, I fucking hate coming up with headlines sometimes. Funny books drop today, and we as comic book hounds zig and zag our asses to the Comic Farm to snag that which interests us. This column right here is intended to serve as the watering hole where we all share the wares we snagged. I can’t do this alone, people. What are you buying this week?

Not sure what’s dropping? Hit up ComicList.

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Last fall, Caffeine Powered started telling me about a comics creator by the name of Brandon Graham. He told me that he was hooked to this Graham fellow’s blog, as it featured some absolutely mind-bending artwork. Always the petulant younger brother, I scoffed at Caff-Pow’s suggestion that I visit aforementioned blog, and returned to my regularly scheduled activities (which probably consisted of drinking beers, listening to Mastodon, and playing Mario Kart).

At the time, the name Brandon Graham was whisked away to the mental data file I’ve labeled The Zillions of Things Caffeine Powered’s Tried to Foist Onto Me.

But by mid-January, the file was retrieved and brought to the forefront of my mindscape. After all, this is when Prophet #21 dropped. This comic – a relaunch of an early 90s Rob Liefeld series — massaged naughty regions of my nerd-mind that’d gone chaste for years. The panels before me contained images of kooky monster-beasts and bio-technology and gritty action, presenting them with a multicolored urbanity. After mainlining this single issue, I was addicted to John Prophet’s post-cryostasis adventures.

And when I realized Brandon Graham was the scribe of Prophet? Well, I called up Caffeine Powered and told him, “Goddamn dude, you weren’t joking.”

To atone for my sins, I reached out to Brandon Graham to see if he’d be willing to share some thoughts with Omega-Level. In the following interview, Graham reflects on inspirations old and new, teases prospective releases, and reaffirms the adage that the greatest rogues rock eyepatches.

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Hello friends. Gals. Guys. Transpecimens from an alternate dimension reading this in the future as some ethnographic study on our primitive simian brain-stems. This is Funny Books We’re Snagging This Week, the comic book column where we spaz and spout and maybe even rub it a little over the week’s funny book releases.  Everyone’s invited! Especially if you find something not covered. Not certain what’s coming out? Hit up ComicList.

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