Image Comics; $3.99 

There are a lot of things about Geiger that continue to impress me issue after issue. One of the top ones is the effective use of storytelling real estate by writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank. In your average monthly comic book, there are about 22 pages of story (not including ads, editorial pages, etc.). When the creative team uses full-page or two-page splashes, they eat up a very high percentage of that storytelling real estate. This almost inevitably leads to the remainder of the issue feeling either crammed or light weight. 

Somehow Johns and Franks have avoided this pitfall despite the use of more than one splash – four, to be precise, in this issue – and they’ve been doing it on a consistent basis. The only way this can work is with a fair amount of thought going into the project. Franks isn’t afraid of nine-panel grids or pages with characters talking, and this really assists the balancing act.  

Not many creators can pull this off so regularly. There may be others doing it, but Jim Zub, on his current run on Titan’s Conan The Barbarian, is the only other one pulling this off like clockwork who immediately springs to mind, although Mike Grell did it regularly in Warlord and John Sable, Freelance back in the day. 

This issue also reveals another piece of the puzzle about the Unknown War as it introduces Geiger readers to The Northerner, a Union soldier from a reality in which the South won the Civil War. The next issue promises his origin. 

If you haven’t checked out Geiger, rush out now in a buying frenzy. Get the individual issues, the trade paperbacks, or the deluxe hardcovers, but do it now and get caught up. It’s been great and it looks to be getting even better. 

– J.C. Vaughn