Cobb #1 - IDW

Another classic black-and-white magazine courtesy the cool folks at IDW, publishers of Doomed!

This is Cobb, written by Beau Smith and drawn by Eduardo Barreto, about a hard-bitten former Secret Service agent who is now a quasi private detective, along with his longtime mentor, Jack Murphy, and Murphy's comely niece Molly. It's hard-bitten, violent, and full of tough talk, like any good private eye story should be! Cobb gets taken in by his mentor after landing in jail, and they get drawn into protecting a young Russian woman on the run from a mobster.

Cobb is a regular standard size comic from IDW, but for whatever wonderful reason they decided to do this black and white, magazine-size edition, which collects the first three issues of the regular series. It's one long sixty-five(!) page story, along with classic-style pin-ups and character bios.

All told, it makes for a really beautiful package--no ads, and the paper is of very high quality (ironically, that's my only quibble--I'm not sure Cobb needs such nice, high-falutin' paper stock. this kind of gritty story in this format cries out for the more rough, typical b/w magazine paper). It's a good solid tale, well told, with equally solid art by Barreto.

In a world of mostly superheroes, a good old fashioned private eye comic must be a hard sell, but IDW seems to be trying to buck that trend with a lot of their titles, so they're probably the best place for Cobb. The indicia says "Cobb Magazine #1"; I hope that means they have every intention of doing more!