This week’s must-read digital comics feature a robot hero having a mid-life crisis in D4VE from MonkeyBrain Comics, a bloodthirsty hit woman who lives up to her enigmatic name of Violenzia and supernatural scares from the latest installment of James Tynion IV and Jeremy Rock’s The Eighth Seal.

D4VE (MonkeyBrain Comics)

After a slightly lacklustre run of new titles that have failed to capture the excitement and innovation of their first year, MonkeyBrain comics are back to their very best this week with the launch of Ryan Ferrier’s D4VE. The tale of a former robot soldier now stuck in a dead end office job as a result of the robots conquering the galaxy and turning ‘human’, D4VE takes the familiar tropes of office drudgery that we’ve seen in films like Office Space or the first half of the Incredibles and gives them one of the most imaginative twists we’ve seen in years. Essentially it’s the Terminator meets the Office! Packed full of smart pop culture references and tons of sight gags and wordplay Ferrier’s script has a real edge to it and is backed up by artist Valentin Ramon who gives the book a Geoff Darrow-esque level of detail. With an edgy mature tone that keeps the right side of good taste, but with plenty of fun, D4VE is packed full of everything from hum drum droids in everyday clothes to invading aliens and robot strippers, all of which makes this is one of the smartest and most original books we have seen in some time!
D4VE is available from ComiXology for £0.99/$0.69

Violenzia (Fantagraphic Book)

Fantagraphics is a name with a real heritage in print publishing who have made their first forays into the world of digital this week with Richard Salla’s Violenzia. Despite being a digital only release it has a very ‘print’ look and feel with a loose sketchy style, lush colours and beautiful hand drawn lettering. but underneath this pretty exterior is the bloody tale of enigmatic hit woman, Violenzia, and her attempts to take down the despicable cult of The Blessed Temple Of Our Master On The Moon and its leader Xadico. Violenzia has a very European feel to it (although that could just be the lead characters beret!) and reads like an R rated version of Paul Tobin’s Bandette with tons of guns and violence as Violenzia lives up to her name and takes action into her own hands. With shoot outs that are like something from a John Woo film rather than an indie comic, mixed with a cool ‘Parisian’ swagger, if this is the type of quick and punchy one shot we can expect from Fantagraphics in the future then we cannot wait for more!
Violenzia is available from ComiXology for £2.99/$3.99

The Eighth Seal #5 (Thrillbent)

James Tynion IV and Jeremy Rock’s horror/political/thriller The Eighth Seal takes the creeping terror of a 1970s horror movie and mixes it with some West Wing style political machinations and a generous does of Lovecraftian tentacled beasties. Thanks to it being part of the Thrillbent family it uses Guided View to the utmost allowing Tynion and Rock’s story of the first lady who has a dark supernatural secret to ramp up the tension and add in plenty of scares. Unlike traditional page turners where the whole story is mapped out in front you, The Eighth Seal takes you through the story one creepy step at a time adding in even more chills! In this the 5th issue the first lady’s secret unveils itself in the most public of forums, while there are creepy goings on behind the scene that may go some way to explaining what is affecting her. An absolute must for anyone looking for a creepy horror story that doesn’t just rely on blood and guts!
The Eighth Seal is available from ComiXology for £0.99/$0.69 per issue