I just learned that a bunch of crows isn’t called a flock of crows, but a murder of crows. It can also be called a congress, a muster or cauldron of crows. You’d think I’d know this, as my hometown, Auburn, is kind of overrun by crows. It was a bad problem for a while but is better now, thanks.

I am proud of this little town and the entrepreneurs in it.  Despite being overrun by murders of crows, and the largest employer being a prison, local entrepreneurs make the best of it all. For example one local start-up coffee business calls their business Crow City Roaster. And a local (award-winning) brewpub calls themselves Prison City.  Hey, if you can’t laugh at yourself, what’s the point, right?

But back to a murder of crows.  I stumbled across this factoid as I was trying to understand the title of a new comic series from BOOM! Studios: An Unkindness of Ravens. And yes, you guessed it, and unkindness is another of those cool-but-archaic words for a bunch of ravens.

This series is up to its fourth issue, and I’m enjoying it way more than I should.  An Unkindness of Ravens is about a creepy little New England Town and the creepy little secrets it harbors. The protagonist is “the new kid at school”- a  high school girl named Wilma Farrington. And of course, everything and everyone is not what they seem to be.

The most fascinating thing about the series for me isn’t the story, but the way this comic tweaks the business model of a modern-day comics series. Right now, there’s so much innovation going on that it makes the behind the scenes stories as interesting as the comics themselves. Continue reading “With Further Ado #131: A Murder of Crows, An Unkindness of Ravens” →