Vertigo released Tuesday morning a predictably beautiful preview of The New York Five #2, featuring the artwork of Ryan Kelly. Written by Brian Wood, the miniseries follows the stories of a group of young women in their first year of college in the Big Apple. The book is a continuation and refinement of the street-level and emotionally authentic comics Wood and Kelly have created in the past, namely Local and The New York Four.

A follow-up to the Minx graphic novel The New York Four, issue #1 of the The New York Five received uniformly excellent reviews across the comic book internet matrix, including a spot in G4/Blair Butler's Fresh Ink Online, and Kelly's cover for issue #1 was among our picks for the best comic book covers released in January. Issue #2 goes on sale this week in finer comics stores.

In response to a fan's question on Tumblr, Wood confessed that it was "a mistake" to conclude The New York Four graphic novel with a cliffhanger. The assumption was that a sequel was inevitable, but DC Comics' Minx imprint, which published The New York Four, was cancelled. Luckily The New York Five was ported to Vertigo and will, in Wood's words, end "pretty definitively," but with room for new chapters in the lives of his and Kelly's characters should this miniseries prove successful. "And if not," Wood wrote, "Ryan Kelly [and I] will always find projects to do together."



THE NEW YORK FIVE #2 (OF 4)

Written by BRIAN WOOD; Art by RYAN KELLY; Cover by BRIAN WOOD & RYAN KELLY

Everyone has secrets, and Riley's are well documented! But what about the other girls in THE NEW YORK FIVE? In this second issue, Merissa and Lona deal with ghosts both at home in Queens and coming into JFK on the red-eye...

Vertigo 32pg. Color $2.99 US Mature Readers