Cris Peter

We at ComicsAlliance love comics, and we love music, so this week we’ve decided to combine those two loves and create playlist tributes to some of our favorite titles. Think of these as something to listen to while you read the comic, or an introduction to the vibe of a comic if you're not yet a fan. Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro and Cris Peter's Bitch Planet is one of the most important comics being published today. In addition to being an amazing sci-fi story with glorious butt-kicking women, it’s rife with feminist critique of patriarchy, while still maintaining an inspirational tone. Putting together this playlist, I thought I’d be choosing angry, riot grrrl songs, but what I ended up with feels more like a modern celebration of women. I think Bitch Planet itself is kind of the same thing.

I had absolutely no interest in Marvel’s Gwenpool Special #1 when it was announced. I like Spider-Gwen a whole lot, but what looked like essentially a gender-bent Deadpool in pink? Yeah, the best I could come up with was a shrug at the news that this random mash-up character would be getting a holiday issue. Which is why I’m quite honestly shocked that I liked Gwenpool Special #1. I liked it a lot. It’s a real Christmas miracle, people.

The purpose of this Art of Color series is twofold: to highlight some of the best colorists working in comics, and to explain what it is about these artists' work that makes their comics better. With Cris Peter's work in Casanova: Luxuria, we have someone who perfectly exemplifies both criteria.

Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro's Bitch Planet has the single best comic book title of the year. It's the kind of title where I stopped in my tracks when the book was announced months ago, and just from hearing those two words, thought "that's perfect" -- and that's before I heard that the premise backing it up was a modern feminist sci-fi take on women-in-prison flicks. From the moment I heard about it, I knew this comic was going to be amazing. Until I actually sat down and read it, though, I had no idea just how amazing it was going to be. That's the thing about the first issue of Bitch Planet. It doesn't hit the ground running; it kicks off by blasting you into space and setting up a story of a world where the penalty for not knowing your place is a life sentence in a violent, neon-pink hell, juggling multiple points of view for a story of just how cruel that world can be. It's thrilling, it's violent, and it's one of the best first issues of the year.

Today sees the release The Names #1 by Peter Milligan and Leandro Fernandez. Published by Vertigo and described as Kill Bill meets The Wolf Of Wall Street, the book tells the story of Katya Walker, a woman who is thrown into a web of financial and technological intrigue after the sudden suicide of her husband -- a suicide that we learn in the first pages of issue #1 was not committed out of despair but at the behest of a man called the Surgeon, working for a world-dominating cabal of financiers known only as the Names. Dubious that her husband would take his own life, Katya's search for the truth takes the reader through a violent, decadent and technologically advanced world of money and power that teaches the young woman not just about the chilling reality of how the world works, but about the role her husband was subtly preparing her to take should the Names ever go too far. Drawn in a wildly expressive and sexy style by Leandro Fernandez with delicate, mood colors by Cris Peter, The Names is has some aesthetic and narrative similarities to Vertigo's revenge epic 100 Bullets, but with a very contemporary theme obviously inspired by current events such as the Global Economic Crisis and, presumably, the enduringly frustrating fact that its cruel architects have not been brought to justice. ComicsAlliance sat down with Milligan to talk about the real-world inspiration for The Names, his plans for the project, and to break down some special moments from its first issue.

Earlier this year, Marvel announced it was dusting off its Marvel Knights imprint -- which had been dormant since 2010 -- with three new comics under its banner. The initial launch of Marvel Knights was unquestionably one of the most significant moments in the publisher's recent history. The imprint's focus on creator driven stories, largely unencumbered by continuity, saw both critical and comme

The third, and by our estimation most intense, arc of Casanova will a potentially mind-bending conclusion next week in the pages of Casanova Avaritia #4, by writer Matt Fraction, artist Gabriel Bá, colorist Cris Peter, letterer Dustin K. Harbi...