In "Reason to be Excited," I spotlight things from modern comics that I think are worth getting excited about. I mean stuff more specific than "this comic is good," ya know? More like a specific bit from a writer or artist that impressed me.

Last month, I did a month-long feature where I asked horror comic book creators that I enjoy to recommend a horror comic book that THEY enjoyed. It was a lot of fun and I got to read (and re-read) so many good horror comics. However, in particular, reading some of the more recent stuff reminded me that it had been a while since I had done an installment of "Reason to Be Excited," which spotlights all the cool stuff out there in the world of comics and so I figured, "Okay, let's do a whole MONTH'S worth of 'Reason to Be Excited'" and this is the start of that!

In his recommendation of Nestor Redondo's Swamp Thing for last month's feature, the great comic book artist, Tyler Crook, specifically pointed out how he was really influenced by the way that Redondo worked the title of Swamp Thing into his splash pages (and sometimes panels if not splash pages)...

So Tyler worked the title of Harrow County, his top notch horror comic written by Cullen Bunn that tells the story of a young witch reborn trying to find her place in the Deep South with one foot stepped in the supernatural and the other in her humanity, into the splash page of pretty much every issue. The series ended last year, so I still count it as "modern," but to be fair, it started in 2015. Anyhow, I'm going to spotlight my ten favorite usages of the title by Crook in the splash pages.

I'll begin with the first issue, which set the precedent. Note that Crook drew each issue in water colors, giving it that extra ethereal beauty. Here, the title is worked into an eerie light in the clouds...

In the second issue, a snake crawling over a pile of sticks in the woods suddenly forms the title...

In issue #4, some bare tree branches spell out the title...

In #5, a beautiful set of clouds give us the title...

A cornfield is the setting for the title in #13...

In #23, various broken down tombstones in an old cemetery spell out the title...

In #24, a bolt of lighting spells out the beginning of the title while the ground that it displaces when it strikes spells out the rest...

Some overgrown vegetation spells out the tile in #28...

While #29 sees a brier patch spell out the title...

Finally, #30 shows the title glowing up from a bonfire...

Outstanding stuff. What a beautiful series Harrow County was, and Bunn and Crook are returning for a Tales of Harrow County miniseries next month!

Okay, now this feature is a bit less of a reader-interactive one, as I'm just spotlight stuff in modern comics that specifically impressed ME, but heck, if you'd like to send in some suggestions anyways, maybe you and I have the same taste! It's certainly not improbably that something you found cool would be something that I found cool, too, so feel free to send ideas to me at brianc@cbr.com!