A little over a year ago My Chemical Romance lead singer Gerard Way made his first foray into comic books with The Umbrella Academy. His writing was pretty good, but the surrealistic world that he creates is very entertaining. The artwork by the relatively unknown Gabriel Bá is reminiscent of Hellboy’s Mike Mignola, yet clearly has a voice of its own. The stunningly designed and painted covers tie everything up in a nice neat graphical package not seen enough in comics.
This book got a bit too much hype, likely due to Gerard’s rock and roll following. But it’s definitely worth a read. The first run can be picked up in graphic novel form. The new series The Umbrella Academy: Dallas hit the stands this past November. I long ago stopped buying single issue comics, so I’ll have to wait for the trade paperback on this one.