It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve got my hands on the very first copy of Ab4 mini comic. It’s got some of Zac’s best work to date (and hey, the story isn’t bad either!). I’ll also have a limited number of copies of Assholes #3, so if you’d like to buy one at SPX  in Rockville shoot me an e-mail and I’ll set it aside for you.

I’ll have much more at APE in San Francisco, the Long Beach Comic Con and MoCCA in NYC.

So, yes, I’ll be doing some shows in the months to come.

Even if “Scott Pilgrim” could have ended with the fourth volume, I’m glad it didn’t. The fifth book is easily the best so far– Scott dealing with his insecurities around Ramona, Kim becoming more important as a supporting character, plot threads seemingly discarded from the (awful) first volume returning. (Spoiler free, because by now you really should be reading these books).

The fights actually take a back seat here to the relationships between the characters, as they bicker, get drunk and try to hold on to each other as they invariably grow older and apart. It’s quite good stuff, especially when Scott has to fight a killer robot every few pages. It’s also the first volume that has a proper cliffhanger, setting the final volume into motion.

But the best part? Scott desperately trying to hold on to Ramona, making forced conversation about old X-Men story lines from the 80s as Ramona tries on clothes in a mall, gets dressed and goes about her life. It’s so heartbreaking and funny at the same time. Probably the best moment in the entire series by far.

This could have– perhaps should have– been the final volume in the series. Yeah, there’s still two more to go, but, spoilers,