20 cool psychedelic comics to read after seeing Thor: Ragnarok

The Bulletproof Coffin (Cover image via Image Comics)

11. The Bulletproof Coffin

Image Comics’ Bulletproof Coffin is about as weird as they come. It draws on its bold artwork, courtesy of artist Shaky Kane (also a writer for the series, along with David Hine) to tell a very strange, very meta story.

The series focuses on Steve Neyman, a comics collector, who learns that his beloved comics may be sort-of set in reality. That’s thanks to a trove of golden age comics he discovers in an old man’s house. See, Steve is a voids contractor, someone who inventories the belongings of recently deceased people.

As he delves further and further into this realization, Neyman’s mental state either unravels or ascends to a higher plane (depending on the reader’s interpretation and generosity of mind). He’s soon drawn into the strange world of fake golden age heroes and villains. These include the Unforgiving Eye, Coffin Fly, Red Wraith, and Ramona, Queen of the Stone Age.

There isn’t a fantastically complicated plot to The Bulletproof Coffin, as there might be in other series mentioned here. But, strangely enough, that works towards this series’ advantage. You see, without the intricacies of a heavy duty plot, Hine and Kane are free to go totally wild with the art and insanity of the remaining story.

That even extends to the creators themselves. Kane and Hine insert themselves into the story, depicting themselves as reclusive cranks driven into obscurity as the comics industry passes them by. This meta focus adds yet another layer to this multi-textured, challenging, and rewarding work of boffo weirdness.