If there is anything that a geek can tell you today, it's that comic books are back.  Not that they ever really disappeared; rather they have been heavily acknowledged by the Hollywood movie studios, video game studios, high profile newspapers and magazines like GQ. 

When did something with one of the geekiest stigmas of all become so awesome? 

Not that it matters.  What matters is that IN these high profile prints, they have some text allocated to promoting comics and volumes that might appeal to a greater audience.  And when audiences expand, the demand for high quality content generally increases and comic studios will need to fill that gap.

An example of this not-so-recent trend of comic exposure is a small article in GQ that talks about the Image comic "Casanova". 

Casanova has a lot of different aspects to it that can appeal to a wide audience.  The main character, Casanova Quinn, has that James Bond and Danny Ocean feel to him (calm, cool, has sexual escapades with women).  It's got some sci-fi elements (reminiscent of Cable and Deadpool) like time dimensions, floating casinos and crazy villains with many heads.  It has a bunch of organizations, known by acronyms (of course) like E.M.P.I.R.E. and W.A.S.T.E. and the standard military firefights that accompany such organizations.  Casanova makes sarcastic comments that are pretty similar to the style of Deadpool in comics of late.

The artist, Gabriel Bá, has a style with a minimalist feel (compared to the most of the artistically busy pages of action comics of today), working with only shades of black, white and some green.  It's not the most visually rewarding book but it maintains a level of intelligence that one usually doesn't find in this style.  The author, Matt Fraction, keeps the story rolling on a fast pace.  I had to read Casanova #1 twice because the story dives into the action and complex time and world extensions right away.  Once you get the feel of what is happening, the story brings the drive of James Bond movies without taking itself too seriously.

Amazon has the first volume up for sale right now, I'm not sure how many issues are included in the $15 pricetag.  As far as I know, the eighth issue just rolled out to stores a few weeks ago, so there is additional content after you finish the volume.