Griffin's Picks for the week of 5/20/2026

1: Electric Chair #2 - Stranger Comics

            If you’re new to Adama Falp’s one man anthology (which I was, so you’re in good company), it’s a kaleidoscopic dive into psychedelia that harkens back to the days of Underground Comix. It’s also an anthology so you don’t need to read #1 to gain any sort of context.

It’s made up of three different stories that have nothing to do with each other with two page spreads of dense, trippy (as much as I vehemently hate that descriptor) artwork breaking them up. The first is a detective story featuring a diner, complete with a giant walking nose and a general air of paranoia that reminded me a bit of Richard Sala’s work. The second is a bit more slice of life, following comic dealers at a show as they try to purchase comics to resell and the trials and tribulations that align with that type of work. Finally, we’ve got Jimmy Hendrix on an acid trip, which is really just a vehicle for Falp to showcase his ability to draw psychedelic ‘stuff’.

You’ll know if you have any interest in this comic almost immediately. Ignore the old ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ and judge the hell out of this book by its cover, but also flip through it and see if it’s your type of thing. I love anything that feels like it’s for a weirdo like myself so I was able to tell pretty quickly that this would be up my alley. 

2: Absolute Green Arrow #1 - DC 

            If you like conspiratorial mysteries, then this is the book for you. This is the newest book in the Absolute line from DC, which if you’re reading this you’re probably aware, is insanely popular. It’s also the first new title for the line in a year, so if you missed the boat on the other Absolutes starting, here’s your chance. Written by Pornsak Pichetshote with art by Rafael Albuquerque, get ready as the Absolute Universe broadens its horizons. 

            If you didn’t read Absolute Evil, the biggest piece of context that you need is that Oliver Queen is murdered about five pages in by Hector Hammond. In the wake of his murder, his business partner Jubal Slade takes over their company, GreenArrows, and is using his position to pay off Hector Hammond to kill anyone that interferes with their plans. Slade and his bodyguards are then murdered by a masked vigilante (Absolute Green Arrow). Because of this, Dinah Lance, former MMA star turned bodyguard and former lover of Oliver Queen is manipulated into protecting Hector Hammond and assisting him in investigating Queen’s death. 

            I know it may be blasphemous, working in a comic book store and seemingly being the only person in the world that’s not head over heels for DC’s Absolute universe (with the exception of Absolute Martian Manhunter), but opinions are like armpits: We all have them and they all stink. But, I’m willing to give just about anything a shot. So despite my disinterest in the most popular thing going on in comics at the current moment, I read Absolute Green Arrow and while I wasn’t blown away by any means, it was enjoyable for me to try the first three issues. Using Green Arrow as a bit of a pastiche of the Punisher was an interesting twist to the story and it’s interesting to me that it follows Dinah Lance as the protagonist rather than whoever Green Arrow is.