New comic: DMZ

I frequent the new comic book store in Tenleytown, Fantom Comics, next to the Container Store and the Best Buy.  The owner is starting to know my tastes, and his recommendations are increasingly accurate.

His latest recommendation is "DMZ", from Vertigo.  Knowing my love of post-apocalyptic earth, I suppose you’re not surprised to find out that it’s the story of the US after a modern civil war after New Jersey secedes from the United States.  Manhattan becomes the demilitarized zone contested by both the US Army and the Free States of New Jersey and others. In a weird twist of fate, a photographers assistant on assignment ends up trapped in Manhattan.  He’s the only member of his news team left alive, and he explores the island and it’s inhabitants through the pages of the comic.

Artists collectives with guns, zookeepers in Central Park with land mine fields, it’s all there.  Darkly funny in its commentary on our nation’s new relationship with war, it’s an excellent read.