You know you’re having a bad day. You wake up at 3 AM in an alleyway. You’ve been beaten, robbed, spat on. You’re in the bad part of town. They even took your shoes.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, they also trashed your robot.

That’s where we come into the story of “Citizen Rex,” a new comic book collaboration between Mario and Gilbert Hernandez, two of “Los Bros. Hernandez” who produce the legendary “Love And Rockets” comics and graphic novels.

Published by Dark Horse, “Citizen Rex” tells the story of Sergio Bauntin, who under the name “Bloggo,’ writes a web-based gossip column that debunks urban myths and blows the whistle on corruption in his Fair City, which seems to be equal parts Orweillian nightmare and Chandleresque Film Noir.

Mostly written by Mario (the least prolific Hernandez brother) and mostly drawn by Gilbert (The collaboration is a little more seamless than that. Both are supremely capable writer-artists and they each contribute to both the story and the art.), “Citizen Rex” is a crime-drama soap opera with a science fiction sheen.


Here’s a sample from the first issue.

There’s plenty to take in with this story. There are robots, super-powered lunatics, and thought police. And we can’t forget the Ninjas, the robot hospital, or the very convnincing rubber foot. In fact, there’s an entire black market trading in prosthetic body parts. There is also a giant chunk of something, a few stories high, that is mysteriously deposited in the middle of the street one night plus the mysterious robot passing himself off as human. And that’s just in the first issue of this six-part series.

I can’t say enough about Los Bros. Hernandez. These are guys who have been on the cutting edge and at the top of their game for nearly thirty years now. This is a good chance for those of you who haven’t been exposed to these masters of the form to check them out. This is an all-new set of characters in an all-new story. And its this week’s cool comic.

Issue two has just been released. I’m picking it up as they publish them, but you might want to wait until the series is collected as a graphic novel early next year. Personally, I can’t wait to see what happens next.