I can’t say enough good things about the new anthology comic Island. Put together by Brandon Graham and Emma Rios it’s a collection of stories by all manner of artists working in the field from the well known, the lesser known to first timers. There’s no over-arching themes although visions of future societies do feature largely but these aren’t super hero, big brawl shoot ’em up comics, they’re about ideas, relationships and a bigger picture. Some strips are self-contained and some continue in the next issue, some even continue several issues later and the hit rate per issue is high.

Issue 3 just came out – worth it for the Faryl Dalrymple cover alone (above) – you can see previews over on the comic’s tumblr and order digital versions from Image if print copies are hard to find. What’s also refreshing is that it contains no ads whatsoever and all the usual publisher guff is kept to the smallest possible point size in the most inconspicuous place so you get the maximum amount of comics and the minimum amount of distraction. There’s no standard Island logo either so each issue looks different but you can tell it from other standard comics as it’s larger and has a perfect bound spine rather than staples.