Over on artist Scott Wegener’s blog, it was announced quite a while ago that Volume 2 of Atomic Robo has been announced and verified and production has started.

That’ll teach me for forgetting to check it.

For a month.

So yeah. I feel like an idiot right now, but Great Freaking News! Thank you Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener and Red 5 Comics. Thank you very much for putting out this work, and thank you very much for continuing it.

Yes, cameos. And cameos that made me laugh.

It’s that time of the month! Atomic Robo 5 came out Wednesday and with it the fun and entertainment I have come to expect. A Pavolovian response indeed, with Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener (note: I don’t even have to check the spelling on their names anymore) bringing the goods for the fifth month in a row.

Go buy this comic. Go buy every issue of this book you can find; it’s that good. Give it to friends that scoff at your comic-buying ways. Tell them you can show them a story that has Nikolai Tesla’s self-aware electric man fighting robotic mummies in the desert. Tell them this same Atomic Robo hits Nazis. And then tell them that this same character is beating hell out of brains-in-robot-bodies and watch them scoff!

Then watch them come to realize that this is a fun book.

Clevinger’s brand of humor (evidenced in his wonderful webcomic 8-Bit Theater) and Wegener’s Mike Mignola-esque art go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly.

It is the third week of the month. That means that my pimping of Atomic Robo needs to be posted.

Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener  continue the action, even though this issue is quieter than the last — can’t all be summer blockbusters. We follow Robo through the aftermath of the Exploding Pyramid Mummies from last issue and a flashback story detailing his journey with the Mars Lander in 1974.

With cameo appearances by Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan!

I’ve praised this title for the past three months, you think I’m going to stop now? Buy the damned thing. Encourage more of this type of book. Encourage the creators to bring Robo back after the six issues are done.

This was probably the hardest one to decide on. With Hybrid Bastards!, Potter’s Field, and Fall of Cthulu vying for the honor, there was one book that I kept looking at: Red 5 Comics’ Atomic Robo.

The sense of fun and frenetic action that writer Brian Clevinger and artist Scott Wegener have delivered in every issue (3 so far, 6 scheduled) of this book is infectious. There are no complaints of “decompression” here; the story is in the book and there’s enough talking to fill the balloons . . . but you find the pages almost turning themselves.

While independent books can struggle in this Diamond-dominated direct market, Atomic Robo seems to be finding an audience — this is great news — and hopefully we will see more of Nikolai Tesla’s electric man after this too-short six-issue run is done.

Runner-Up: Potter’s Field
Not A Chance: Countdown: Arena

There, I’ve come clean and I’ve said it. Brian Clevinger of 8-Bit Theater fame has crafted one of the most enjoyable comics out there, for any company, and the company that’s to be commended for publishing it is Red 5 Comics. No joke.

It’s implausible, it’s waaaaaaaaaay out there, and it’s fun. It’s how I used to feel as a kid when I got an issue of Spider-Man or whatever I was reading at the time and couldn’t wait to get home to open the cover and just have some fun.

Lots of comics nowadays have lost that. Atomic Robo revels in it. It’s 22 pages of complete lunacy — issue 3 deals with Robo taking down a 5,000 year old Egyptian built pyramidal solar-powered deathray, for Bog’s sakes — but it’s relentless in the sheer joy that it brings to every page.

Go out. Buy it. There’s only 6 issues, which is a complete shame, but buy enough of ‘em and maybe we’ll get lucky and get a monthly out of it.

Atomic Robo, from Red 5 Comics, was first released on October 10th. From an independent publisher, however, something this good is easy to miss. Too many people go into their LCS with their pre-defined pull lists and don’t browse the shop.

I’ve seen this. This isn’t a Good Thing.

Written by Brian Clevinger (8-Bit Theater, Nuklear Age) this series follows Robo, a creation of Nikolai Tesla that has achieved sentience. And was drafted. Funny and full of anachronisms, Atomic Robo is well worth picking up if the LCS still has a copy, or ordering through the LCS for the upcoming second printing, if able.

The art by Scott Wegener is very clean and sharp, providing a good mixture with Clevinger’s story. I enjoyed myself while reading this book, and laughed at a few parts. It’s rare when a book can do that, and I believe this book will make a fine addition to any collection. Well, if you like humor books. But a robot punching Nazis. It’s really a can’t-miss kind of premise there.