A lighter week around the holidays, but we’ve still got two stellar issues! Sam reviewed a new stand-alone Lumberjanes issue from BOOM! Studios and Kylee continues through her favorite on-going series right now, Harrow County from Dark Horse Comics!

Check out our reviews and let us know in the comments what you’re reading!

Sam’s Reads

Lumberjanes #33

Author: Shannon Watters & Kat Leyh
Artist: Carolyn Nowak
Publisher: BOOM! Box
Source: BOOM! Studios DRC
★★★☆☆

It’s been a while since we had a standalone issue of Lumberjanes. We had a really great arc with Diane’s sort of psuedo-quest with the Roanoke girls, but sometimes it’s nice to step back and get a self contained story now and again. This issue does a really good job of connecting to a lot of the stuff that’s happened earlier in the series without anyone needing to know too much.

So if someone’s looking for a good jumping on point, this might just be it! (Though it seems like we’re getting a new arc once the new year starts so that’ll probably be an even better place to jump on.)

In this issue we get a little bit of follow up on our recent arc with Diane and a nod to earlier issues involving her and her brother, Apollo. Barney – who has fully embraced the Lumberjane life – gets a chance to briefly reconnect with their old friends. And Diane gets to have a little fun at the expense of her cabin mates.

The vast majority of what goes on in this issue isn’t going to have a whole lot to do with anything moving forward. But hey! That’s okay. We get a chance to spend sometime with the Zodiac cabin. We see Barney really settling into their own. And we get to see them all still getting along with the Roanoke girls which I think we all can admit is progress.

There’s no real set up for the next arc which leaves us wondering what the book has in store for the Lumberjanes in the next year. At this point, I guess we’ll have to wait and see! But we do get to see Carolyn Nowak back in action this issue. She’s always been one of my favorite artists throughout this series so I’ll never say no to more issues with her at the artistic helm!

Sam Wildman  is a co-founder and co-editor at Nerdophiles. Follow her on twitter @samaside.

Kylee’s Reads

Harrow County #19

Author: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Tyler Crook
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Source: Dark Horse DRC
★★★★☆

Tyler Crook returns to his baby just in time to remind us that Emmy has a life to live outside of her Family drama. After the revelations of last issue, she spends some time musing about how things could change with her new knowledge, if they should at all. It’s a stark reminder that, while this is a young woman, Emmy has an amazing amount of power at her beck and call with which she can easily choose to use for the wrong reasons – much like Hester before her.

Hunters disrupt her journey home, as she hides away from their dogs and watches them trample through the woods in search of prey, and it gives Emmy a sneaking sense of foreboding. She talks Pa into taking her to his old breakfast place, only to find the hunters there. The youngest, Luke, takes Emmy to meet the dogs that he trained and their intentions are made clear, much to Emmy’s dismay.

She warns them off their plans, but the inevitable happens… or does it? Crook’s artwork is rendered beautifully against the horrors of the the woods, with stark colors and unabashed gore. It’s nice to see him back in his element and giving readers a reason to be taken aback and awed at the same time.

Issue #19 of Harrow County gives readers another glimpse of outsiders and how their intentions can be just as harmful as those in town. With the previous arc wrapping up, Cullen Bunn gives a fairly straight-forward beginning to a new tale, but leaves the possibilities open for things to take any number of turns.

Kylee Sills is an associate editor at Nerdophiles. Really, it was a terrible plan from start to finish and I’m not sorry to see it end the way it did. Follow her on Twitter @kyleewho.