On sale this week from Image Comics is the second issue of Brandon Graham's Multiple Warheads: Alphabet to Infinity, a comic whose only thing in common with the rest of the week's new releases is that it's printed on paper. Illustrated by Graham in a style that's at once lavish and cartoonish, Multiple Warheads immerses you in a sci-fi fantasy version of the world where quirky robots, nuisance ghosts and weird ancient ruins all exist side by side; where the assassin Nura searches for a body that fits a certain severed head; where the organ smuggler Sexica and her werewolf boyfriend Nikoli enjoy singing cigarettes on a road trip to adventure; and, as you'll discover in issue #2, where Graham crams in more puns and wordplay per panel than any other human has come close to achieving.


As readers of King City and Prophet know, the true pleasure of Brandon Graham comics (or comix) is getting lost in the worlds he and his collaborators imagine seemingly from the ground up. Indeed, the road-trippy, quest-based nature of Alphabet to Infinity seems designed as much to take us on a literal tour of Graham's wonderfully idiosyncratic vision of a Russian fantasy-future as it is to tell a story about these variously cute, sexy and violent characters. That story unfolds in a way that seems very leisurely compared to the info-bomb-like nature of most American comics -- which is not to say the book is slowly paced, but rather than simply telling you things, Multiple Warheads makes you experience them. It's a refreshing approach and one that demonstrates a more powerful command of the comics medium than Multiple Warheads' frequently comedic and sexy subject matter might immediately suggest, and it's one that definitely benefits from re-reading.

Issue one is still available in finer comics shops and digitally from comiXology. Issue #2 goes on sale this Wednesday at those same places. For now, enjoy this exclusive first look.