Comic Book Pick Of The Week

The Ballad Of Sleeping Beauty #5

Written by: Gabriel Benson
Art by: Mike Hawthorne & Mike Atiyeh
Format: Monthly
Price: $1.99
Publisher: Beckett
Synopsis: The mystery deepens as Cole's enemies close in for the kill. Cole knows why Drake is after him, but what is Drake's connection to Red and the Sleeping Beauty? In this issue, Cole, Red and Will jump on a train hoping to put some distance between themselves and Drake. But Drake is one step ahead of Cole, and puts him in a situation where has to choose between saving his friends, or taking his revenge.

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Issue #1 was the highlight of Free Comic Day this year. It also marked one of the smartest strategies by a comic publisher in the last 20 years. Give away issue #1 and hope you hook enough people to come back for issue #2. Considering the low success rate of typical small press books, why not try something like this? And with the company's trading card division being as profitable as it is, they had enough cash to make the gamble feasible. It certainly worked on me, and a lot of other readers too. If they don't pull the trigger on this concept, I guarantee they'd be looking at about a ¼ of the sales numbers they currently have on this book. Which would be a shame, because the other key to this strategy - a solid story - is most assuredly in place. Think Unforgiven with the titular fairly tale's plot and you have the basic concept. The pacing definitely differs from what most readers will be used to, but after a few issues you get used to it. The entire first issue (and previews of #2 - #4) are available on-line here.