Click here for CIVIL WAR II tie-ins
Click here for VALIANT reviews
Click here for REVOLUTION tie-ins
Click here for important DC REBIRTH issues
THE ABSOLUTE BEST OF HARVEY HORRORS (HC)
Publisher: PS ARTBOOKS
Art: BOB POWELL, HOWARD NOSTRAND, various
Slipcase Edition: 125 copies in full colour slipcase • 600+ Pages • £63.99 / $99.99
Bookshop Edition: 1,875 Copies hardback book • 600+ Pages • £53.99 / $79.99
Just when you thought it was safe to check out what PS is up to, they go and do this to you: 600-plus gloriously state-of-the-art newsprint pages of the all-time greatest stories from arguably the field’s only serious competitor to Bill Gaines’s EC imprint, Harvey Comics.
This brand new huge volume (and we mean huge) features selected stories from CHAMBER OF CHILLS, WITCHES TALES, TOMB OF TERROR, BLACK CAT MYSTERIES -- including the remarkable “Colorama” from BLACK CAT #45 --plus, until now, the unreprinted MAN IN BLACK, issues #1-4, September 1957 to March 1958. And as though that were not enough, there’s a cover gallery on glossy paper and selected original artwork for you to drool over. Hoo-eee, boy ... things just don’t get any better than this, and that’s the truth.
Limited to just 2,000 copies and split across two editions.
I didn't order this, because I've got all the Harvey Horrors books. I should've read the fine print*, though, because it contains something I don't have and do want: Man in Black #1-4. D'oh! I'm kinda glad I didn't notice, though, because I don't want to drop a C-note for four reprints, and if I'd seen it, I would have.
(*At my age, anything that isn't a headline is" fine print.")
AMERICAN BLOOD (GN)
Publisher: FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
Writer/Art/Cover: BENJAMIN MARRA
$14.99
American Blood is an unholy collection of cartoonist Benjamin Marra’s provocative short stories from the past several years. Born from the crucible of 1980s trash culture and exploitation entertainment and focused like a laser through the prism of Marra’s brain comes this nasty brew of revenge, power and passion. It is a reflection of the things that America celebrates and for which it is scorned, and often blurs the lines between the two. This is the definitive assembling of Marra’s most underground work.
The artwork looks a bit amateurish, so if this is going for an underground vibe, it's succeeding.
ASSASSIN'S CREED: LAST DESCENDANTS – LOCUS #1
Publisher: TITAN COMICS
Writer: IAN EDGINTON
Art/Cover: CASPAR WIJNGAARD
Cover A: CASPAR WIJNGAARD
Cover B: VALERIA FAVOCCIA
Cover C: IAN CULBARD
Cover D: VERITY GLASS
Cover E: NOVEL
Blank Sketch Variant available
32 pgs • FC • $3.99
Titan Comics is thrilled to announce an all-new Assassin’s Creed miniseries! This four-part comic series is penned by Eisner-nominated Ian Edginton (X-Force, H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds) and ties directly into the forthcoming Assassin’s Creed young adult book series, Last Descendants by Matthew J. Kirby. Fans of the Assassin’s Creed video game will also be able to revisit the Victorian London setting of Assassin’s Creed Syndicates.
The first issue of Last Descendants - Locus expands Titan Comics’ popular Assassin’s Creed comics line, which already includes Assassin’s Creed: Assassins and Assassin’s Creed: Templars.
Ian Edginton teams up with rising star artist, Caspar Wijngaard (Image Comics’ Limbo) to bring a new dimension to the legendary video game franchise! In Last Descendants – Locus, readers will follow the story of Sean, a teenager caught up in the Assassin s Creed and Templar conflict in present day, as he peers back into the memories of his ancestor Tommy Greyling and gets to experience the sordid squalor of Victorian London (as seen in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate). A captivating adventure unfolds, with Greyling hunting for the answers to a mystery that could change the world,
Released late 2015, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is considered one of the strongest entries to date, with review websites GameRankings and Metacritic ranking the series at 82.27 percent and 78/100. The franchise’s highly anticipated first movie starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard is released in theaters this December.
The debut issue of Last Descendants - Locus comes with six variant covers to collect: four art covers by artists Wijngaard, Valeria Favoccia, Ian Culbard (A Study in Scarlet), and Verity Glass (Doctor Who), a Novel variant and a blank sketch cover.
This all-new storyline in the world of a modern classic will delight longtime fans and freshly converted Assassin’s alike.
I'm not sure what a "novel" variant is. But here's one more comic book I'll have to read before the movie comes out. Oh, the pain, the pain!*
* I need to get my PhD so I can legitimately be "Dr. Smith."
ASTRO CITY #39
Written by KURT BUSIEK
Art by CARMEN CARNERO
Cover by ALEX ROSS
32 pg • FC • $3.99 U.S. • RATED T
In the 15th century, the Hanged Man made a promise. Today, he needs a lawyer. A look back in at Marta Dobrescu, and her life in Shadow Hill, Astro City’s occult enclave -- a life dealing with ghosts, demons, family, romance, and other horrors. And the Hanged Man won’t be her only new client, either. Part 1 of a 2-part story drawn by guest artist Carmen Carnero (Adventures of Supergirl, Dragon Age, Cyclops).
Astro City alert!
Click here for BATMAN BEYOND: REBIRTH #1
BECOMING ANDY WARHOL (GN)
Publisher: SELFMADEHERO
Writer: NICK BERTOZZI
Atty/Cover: PIERCE HARGAN
$24.95
Celebrated during his lifetime as much for his personality as for his paintings, Andy Warhol (1928-87) is the most famous and influential of the Pop artists, who developed the notion of 15 minutes of fame, and the idea that an artist could be as illustrious as the work he creates. This graphic novel biography offers insight into the turning point of Warhol's career and the creation of the "Thirteen Most Wanted Men" mural for the 1964 World's Fair, when Warhol clashed with urban planner Robert Moses, architect Philip Johnson, and Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Becoming Andy Warhol showcases the moment when, by stubborn force of personality and sheer burgeoning talent, Warhol went up against the creative establishment and emerged to become one of the most significant artists of the 20th century.
I find Warhol vaguely interesting as a phenomenon, but I wouldn't want to find myself "becoming Andy Warhol." Still, there's history here to be learned.
BILLY BUDD KGB (GN)
Publisher: DOVER PUBLICATIONS
Writer: JEROME CHARYN
Art/Cover: FRANCOIS BOUCQ
Mature • $19.95
Inspired by Herman Melville's novella, this graphic novel from the creators of The Magician's Wife recounts a gifted and innocent young man's recruitment by the Soviet secret service and his adventures in New York City as a spy. This edition boasts a new English translation by author Jerome Charyn and an Introduction by Paul Pope.
I hated Billy Budd when I had to read it in junior high, but maybe I just didn't realize how much better it would work if he was an agent of the Soviet Union.
Wait, what?
Click here for BLOODSHOT REBORN #17 review
BRIEF HISTORIES OF EVERYDAY OBJECTS (GN)
Publisher: PICADOR
Writer/Art/Cover: ANDY WARNER
$20.00
In the tradition of A Cartoon History of the Universe and, most recent, Randall Munroe's What If? comes Brief Histories of Everyday Objects, an intrepid, graphic tour through the unusual stories behind the creation of some of the overlooked items that surround us in our daily lives. Chapters introduce readers to a cast of inventors whose ideas led to the ballpoint pen riots, cowboy wars and really bad Victorian practical jokes. Structured around the different locations in our home and daily life -- the kitchen, the bathroom, the office and the grocery store -- Andy Warner traces the often surprising histories behind the items we often take for granted.
I love this kinda stuff. I used to have a book that simply named the parts of everyday objects, which was fun, because I didn't know most of those things had names (and histories, as it turns out). Like chairs. You know what the arms, seats, backs, legs and other obvious parts are, but do you know what a manchette is? A spindle? A stretcher? Somebody borrowed that book, and never returned it. I want it back!
Where was I? Oh, yeah, I love this kinda stuff. Might flip through this one to see if it's worth twenty simoleons.*
*Did you know that "simoleon" is a word created by mixing words from two different languages? "Simon" (French coin) and "Napoleon" (English pronunciation). And that such a blend is called a macaronic mixture? Someone write a book about those kinda words, too!
Click here for CAPTAIN AMERICA: SAM WILSON #13
Click here for CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS #5
CAPTAIN CANUCK #9
Publisher: CHAPTERHOUSE COMICS
Writer: KALMAN ANDRASOFSZKY
Art: LEONARD KIRK
Cover: KALMAN ANDRASOFSZKY
Variant: Photo
$3.99
It's Redcoat versus Bluefox to the death, with Captain Canuck caught in the middle! Nuff said! Also available with a photo cover variant with Laura Vandervoort (Smallville's Supergirl) as Blue Fox.
What is Laura Vandervoort doing on this cover? She was just on several episodes of Supergirl (yes, ironic), so she can't be hard up for work. Or is it because she's Canadian, and is just supporting the home team?
Click here for CAPTAIN MARVEL #9
CARTHAGO (HC)
Publisher: HUMANOIDS INC
Writer: CHRISTOPHE BEC
Art: ERIC HENNIOT
Art/Cover: MILAN JOVANOVIC
Mature • $34.95
The megalodon, the prehistoric ancestor of the great white shark, was the most ferocious predator of the seas, an 80 foot killing machine extinct for millions of years. But when divers drilling in an underwater cave are attacked by this living fossil, oceanographer Kim Melville discovers that this creature may not only have survived, but thrived, and is reclaiming its place at the top of the food chain.
We're gonna need a much bigger boat.
THE CASTOFFS #1
Publisher: LION FORGE
Writers: BRIAN SMITH, M. K. REED
Art/Cover: MOLLY OSTERTAG
Lion Forge Comics announced today the expected release date of the latest title from their ROAR COMICS all-ages imprint, THE CASTOFFS, featuring writers Brian Smith (The Stuff of Legend) and M. K. Reed (Americus), and artist Molly Ostertag (Strong Female Protagonist). This four-issue young adult miniseries centers on three female mages who accidentally restart an age-old war with a robot army. The first two issues will have battle wraparound variants that depict an historic conflict that took place in the lore of the world of the series. Variant cover artists are Rosemary Valero-O'Connell (Lumberjanes) for issue #1 and Sloane Leong (From Under Mountains) for issue #2.
ROAR COMICS Senior Editor Adam Staffaroni says, "Brian and M. K. have both done incredible world building and character building in their work, and I was thrilled to have them collaborating on a brand-new fantasy world filled with such depth and detail. And Molly's ability to bring it all to life simply blew us away."
I don't know any more about this than what it says above.
CHEAP NOVELTIES (HC)
Publisher: DRAWN & QUARTERLY
Writer/Art/Cover: BEN KATCHOR
Hardcover • 112 pages • 10.8" x 8.5" • b&w • $22.95 USD / $26.95 CAD
Drawn & Quarterly has acquired world English rights to Ben Katchor’s landmark graphic novel Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay with Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. Originally published in 1991, Cheap Novelties is one of the first graphic novels of the contemporary graphic novel golden age and proves Katchor’s prescience as both a cartoonist and urban chronicler. Rumpled, middle-aged Julius Knipl photographs a vanishing city -- an urban landscape of low-rent apartment buildings, obsolete industries, monuments to forgotten people and events and countless sources of inexpensive food. Cheap Novelties is a portrait of what we have lost to gentrification, globalization and the malling of America that is as moving today as it was 25 years ago. D+Q brings the classic back into print on its 25th anniversary with a deluxe hardcover edition, complete with new cover and material.
“Ben Katchor is all around us. From reading Julius Knipl in the weeklies, to seeing his musical The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island at MassMoca in the early 2000s and being a huge admirer of his 'Metropolis' strips, his influence and genius as one of today’s creative visionaries is unparalleled,” said Peggy Burns, Publisher and Acquiring Editor. “I am a bit obsessive in my love for the forlorn subtlety of Ben’s comics, and until I hold it in my hands, I won’t believe that D+Q is publishing Cheap Novelties. (But we really are!)”
Proving the everlasting relevance of Cheap Novelties, as recently as August 2015, J. Ryan Stradal selected it as one of the top 10 books about food for the Guardian newspaper: “Katchor’s illustrated stories of solitary urban photographer Julius Knipl, who tacitly observes the author’s version of a mostly-vanished New York, are often preoccupied with the lonely city dweller’s relationship to food. Eating alone at cafes, calling for public mustard dispensers and bemoaning the lost moments of afflatus that followed a Bromo-Seltzer, Katchor’s protagonist is as much wonderer as wanderer – and between his experiences and conjecture lie a humorous and quietly profound survey of the overlooked aspects of the urban food experience.”
In December 2014, StoryCorps founder Dave Isay selected Cheap Novelties as one of his top five books on lost worlds in the Wall Street Journal: “Ben Katchor’s sublime collection … chronicles the wanderings of Julius Knipl, a rumpled photographer-for-hire taking pictures of buildings in a gently surreal streetscape that vaguely resembles Manhattan’s financial district of old. Knipl laments a fading world of dairy cafeterias, tchotchke salesmen and trophy manufacturers.”
Katchor is the cartoonist of "Hand-drying in America," "The Jew of New York," "The Beauty Supply District" and "The Cardboard Valise." He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and was a fellow at The American Academy in Berlin and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Katchor has created comics for The Forward, Metropolis Magazine and The New Yorker. His weekly strips include: "Julius Knipl," "Real Estate Photographer," "The Jew of New York," "The Cardboard Valise," "Hotel & Farm" and most recently "Shoehorn Technique." Katchor is the only cartoonist to have won an Obie Best New American Work, for his libretto and drawings for The Carbon Copy Building, a collaboration with Bang on a Can.
Katchor has also collaborated on several works of musical theater with composer Mark Mulcahy, including The Rosenbach Company (a tragi-comedy about the life and times of Abe Rosenbach, the preeminent rare-book dealer of the 20th century); The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island, or, The Friends of Dr. Rushower, an absurdist romance about the chemical emissions and addictive soft-drinks of a ruined tropical factory-island; A Checkroom Romance, about the culture and architecture of coat-checkrooms and Up From the Stacks about a page working the stacks of the New York Public Library in 1975. His TED Talk is titled "Comics of Bygone New York."
Katchor is an Associate Professor at Parsons The New School for Design in New York City where he is the director of the New York Comics & Picture-story Symposium, a symposium for the study of text-image work. For more information visit www.katchor.com
As you can see from all the bloody words above, D&Q is pretty excited about this book. I'll take a look, but I'm usually disappointed by most cartoonists' insights on the human condition. They're usually not all that insightful. I'm encouraged that this guy has some academic credentials, which may elevate the discourse.
Click here for CIVIL WAR II: KINGPIN #3 (of 4)
DEAR CREATURE (HC)
Publisher: DARK HORSE
Writer/Art/Cover: JONATHAN CASE
B&W • 200 pages • HC • 7'' x 10'' • $22.99 • Age range: 12
A monstrous love ballad
Deep beneath the waves, a creature named Grue defies his nature, no longer wanting to eat lusty beachgoers, no matter how their hormones call to him. Grue discovers love after finding Shakespeare’s plays in cola bottles. When his first attempt at companionship in the world above ends ... poorly, Grue searches for the person who cast the plays into the sea. What he finds is love in the arms of Giulietta -- but with his wicked past catching up to him, Grue must decide if becoming a new man means ignoring the monster he was.
Brand-new hardcover edition of Jonathan Case’s debut graphic novel!
Rising from a brine of drive-in pulp and gentle poetry, award winner Jonathan Case’s Dear Creature is the love story you never imagined!
Dark Horse will produce a hardcover edition of the rising star’s debut graphic novel, first published by Tor Books in 2011.
Praise for Jonathan Case’s Dear Creature:
“Marvelously entertaining ... A funny, bizarre, unexpected pleasure that gives a creature from the depths heart and soul.” -- Kirkus Reviews
“Exuberantly weird ... Startlingly assured for a debut effort.” -- Publishers Weekly
“Pretty much perfect.” -- ComicsAlliance
I don't see why anyone should be surprised. From King Kong to the Creature from the Black Lagoon to Mars Needs Women, monsters are always hot for our babes. Are human women just universally attractive for some reason?
Click here for DETECTIVE COMICS #941
DISNEY PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN #1
Publisher: JOE BOOKS INC.
Writer: CHRIS SCHWEIZER
Art/Cover: JOE FLOOD
$2.99
Return to the world of Captain Jack Sparrow in these untold tales of pirate adventure on the high seas! After squaring off with Captain Barbossa in a cursed duel, Jack is back on the run. And while Admiral Norrington may have given Jack a head start on his escape, the chase is now on.
Only a matter of time.
THE EC ARCHIVES: WEIRD FANTASY VOL 2 (HC)
Publisher: DARK HORSE
Writers: BILL GAINES, AL FELDSTEIN, WALLY WOOD
Art: AL FELDSTEIN, WALLY WOOD, JACK KAMEN, GEORGE ROUSSOS, JOE ORLANDO, MAX ELKAN
FC • 216 pages • HC • 8 3/16'' x 11'' • $49.99 • Age range: 14
Foreword by rock-and-roll legend Gene Simmons!
The fantasies just get weirder at Dark Horse! This wonderful and bizarre volume collects issues #7-12 of the groundbreaking comics anthology -- remastered in glorious digital color! Featuring twenty-four breathtaking tales from iconic writers and artists including Al Feldstein, Jack Kamen, George Roussos, Wally Wood, Joe Orlando and Max Elkan.
Dark Horse reprints the famous science fiction comic series!
It's been a while since DH has done a "new" Archive, so I've already ordered this one. I'm hoping they'll finally finish reprinting all the EC books before I die.
FROSTBITE #1 (of 6)
Written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON
Art and cover by JASON SHAWN ALEXANDER
32 pg • FC • 1 of 6 • $3.99 U.S. • MATURE READERS
Long after Earth has entered its second ice age, humanity has learned to cope with the frozen elements. In this cold and bleak future, heat is power, and brutal gangs roam the icy wasteland looking for it. If that wasn’t enough, a terrible disease nicknamed “frostbite” is literally freezing people from the inside out. Once you catch it, the effect is instantaneous. There is no immunity, there is no cure.
Until now. Doctor Henry Bonham and his daughter Victoria have found the key to ending frostbite. If they can get from Mexico City to a secret government outpost in Alcatraz, they could stabilize life across the globe. But to do that they’ll need to stay alive. That’s where Keaton comes in. She and her crew have faced worse journeys before, but never with the potential consequences this one poses if they fail.
A new miniseries from acclaimed writer Joshua Williamson (The Flash: Rebirth; Nailbiter) and artist Jason Shawn Alexander (Empty Zone; BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY), FROSTBITE is a science-fiction action miniseries unlike any other.
We should see more future-apocalypse stories where the Earth only has two seasons -- hot and really hot -- and there's not enough water. That's far more likely than another ice age. Just ask Venus.
GARDEN OF FLESH (HC)
Publisher: FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
Writer/Art/Cover: GILBERT HERNANDEZ
Mature • $12.99
Garden of Flesh is a sexually explicit retelling of the story of Adam and Eve, but one that blurs the lines between erotica and pornography, as only Gilbert Hernandez can. Leave it to Hernandez to explore the story of Original Sin from a perspective you didn't get in Sunday school. As an added bonus, longtime Love and Rockets fans will recognize some beloved characters/actors portraying key players.
I'm not really sure I need to read a sexually explicit re-telling of the story of Adam and Eve. Does anyone? Weird choice of subject matter there, Gilbert.
Click here for GENERATION ZERO #2 review
GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARY VOL 1 (GN)
Publisher: SELFMADEHERO
Writers: M. R. JAMES, LEAH MOORE, JOHN REPPION
Art: ANEKE, KIT BUSS, FOUAD MEZHER, ALISDAIR WOOD
$14.95
Curl up by the fire and enter the sinister, supernatural world of Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936), the master of the English ghost story.
Chillingly atmospheric, quietly terrifying, M. R. James's stories explore the darkness just beyond the flicker of the candle, behind the creaking door. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary Vol. 1 comprises graphic adaptations of four of James's most compelling and unsettling stories -- "Canon Alberic's Scrapbook," "Lost Hearts," "The Mezzotint" and "The Ash Tree" -- plunging readers into a world of pervasive, creeping disquiet.
This is a graphic novel to be read on a winter's night, a book to curl up with-but not a book for the fainthearted.
I'm already in a world of pervasive, creeping disquiet. Those darn kids won't stay off my lawn! Well, maybe this book will keep me distracted. Sounds creepy!
HAPPINESS VOL 1 (GN)
Publisher: KODANSHA COMICS
Writer/Art/Cover: SHUZO OSHIMI
$12.99
A creepy and suspenseful coming-of-age story (with vampires!) from the creator of the hit Flowers of Evil. The biggest loser in high school goes out one night to return a DVD and gets attacked by a blood-sucking woman. She asks if he wants to die or live. He chooses to live, but when he's back in school he finds himself craving blood. When his desire becomes unbearable, he realizes he has climbed onto a female classmate and is trying to bite her neck. He stops himself, but she hugs him close. She asks, "Did you really want me that much?" A supernatural story of sexual awakening, growing up and suburban vampirism, Happiness follows a dorky boy who is attacked by a girl in an alley.
This sounds kinda creepy, too. Girl, vampires are not sparkly boyfriends! They are predators! Oh, wait, most teenage boys are kinda predatory. Maybe you've got it right after all, unnamed manga girl.
JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS #1
Publisher: ARCHIE COMICS
Script: MARGUERITE BENNETT, CAMERON DEORDIO
Art/Cover: AUDREY MOK
Variant Covers: VERONICA FISH, FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA, and more!
32 pages • full color comic • $3.99 U.S.
GRAB THE LATEST, SUREFIRE TOP-OF-THE-CHARTS NEW RIVERDALE SERIES!
Friends, countrymen, lend me your long tails and ears for hats—the Pussycats are back! In this series kick-off, Josie’s getting the band together to help achieve her dreams of musical stardom. But for the group to last, it needs a strong foundation of friendship and trust. Can the girls get going, or will Alexandra’s plotting put a stop to the whole thing? Don’t miss comics’ supreme songstresses’ return to the limelight in this exciting first issue!
Josie. Valerie. Melody.
Together, they’re known across the world as the mega-famous rock band Josie and The Pussycats.
JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS #1 launches from the stellar creative team of co-writers Marguerite Bennett (DC Comics’ Bombshells), Cameron DeOrdio and artist Audrey Mok (Heroine Chic).
Fans have been demanding a new JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS series for years and Archie Comics is proud to deliver a new ongoing series that will follow Josie and her friends on their journey to achieve their dreams of musical stardom.
Following hot on the heels of the blockbuster ‘New Riverdale’ re-launches ARCHIE and JUGHEAD series, and this July’s BETTY & VERONICA from Adam Hughes, the new JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS series will explore the foundations of the friendships between Josie, Valerie and Melody and their rivalry with Alexandra Cabot.
“I am incredibly grateful and outrageously stoked to be working on JOSIE,” says co-writer Marguerite Bennett. “JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS is zany, high-energy, hilarious, and utterly sincere. The book can't launch soon enough.”
I read this back to back with the Afterlife with Archie book featuring that world's version of the Pussycats (Earth-Z?), and enjoyed the heck out of both. Maybe one influenced my appreciation of the other, or vice versa, but now I can't separate the two in my head, which is kinda fun.
Anyway, this version of Pussycats (Earth-A?) seem older than Archie and the gang -- I think Josie and Melody are in college, and Valerie has an actual grown-up job that threatens to be a career. That means a wider variety of plots are available, and the humor can be more grown-up, too.
Speaking of which, there's a joke in here that I've read three times looking for some innocent angle, but I can't find one. There's no two ways around it, IT IS DIRTY. It is a dirty joke, having to do with Josie's naughty bits, and their natural lubricants. There's also multiple references to Melody's "active social life," which can be read two ways.
I know, I know! In an Archie book! Lethal zombies and ultra-violence is one thing. But sex talk? Hard to believe!
These were throwaway bits of dialogue, so that really isn't the focus of the book, but it sure let me know this isn't my sister's Josie and the Pussycats.
KAMANDI THE LAST BOY ON EARTH ARTIST’S EDITION VOL 2 (HC)
Publisher: IDW PUBLISHING
Writer/Art/Cover: JACK KIRBY
HC • BW • 144 pages • 12″ x 17″
Jack Kirby’s epic story of Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth continues! Collecting six consecutive complete issues (#11-16) which includes the incredible story of Klikklak, the giant grasshopper! In a world full of talking animals, Kamandi struggles to make a life for himself as he searches for his fellow humans in a post-apocalyptic landscape! The raw power of Jack “King” Kirby is evident on every page in this gorgeous Artist’s Edition. Plus, “The Hospital,” the story of how the animals gained their intelligence!
For Kirby and/or Kamandi fans.
LADY MECHANIKA: LA DAMA DE LA MUERTE #1 (of 3)
Publisher: BENITEZ PRODUCTIONS
Writers: JOE BENITEZ, M. M. CHEN
Art: MARTIN MONTIEL, PETER STEIGERWALD
Art/Cover: JOE BENITEZ
$3.99
After suffering a tragic loss, Lady Mechanika takes a trip to a small Mexican village just in time for their Día de los Muertos celebration. But the festivities turn truly deadly after the arrival of the Jinetes del Infierno, the mythical Hell Riders. A very special Day of the Dead Lady Mechanika three-part story!
I've never read any Lady Mechanika, but it usually has awesome covers.
LIGHT (HC)
Publisher: BUNO
Writer/Art/Cover: (W) ROB CHAM
$19.99
Magnetic Press & star comic writer/artist Ulises Fariñas announce Buño, a unique new comic book publishing imprint at Magnetic Press. The imprint is independently operated and curated by Ulises Farinas & Storme Smith.
The first 3 titles to be published by Buño will be: LIGHT (written & illustrated by Rob Cham), CLOUDIA & REX (written by Ulises Fariñas & Erick Freitas, illustrated by Daniel Irizarri), and THE GUARDIAN FORCE DESIGN MANUAL (written & illustrated by Ulises Fariñas, inked by Mike Prezzato).
“We started Buño because we want to make this industry better,” said Fariñas. “I'm a Latino creator, I'm Cuban American, I'm Cuban/Afro-Cuban, I'm a lot of things, and I want to not just hear publishers talk about diversity, I want to be that diversity, and I want to make that possible for others as well.
“Buño is an indie publisher and a half, but we've been working with our like-minded partners Magnetic Press because Buño will be jumping beyond the small-scale self-publishing model to get these new books into the hands of audiences all around the world, and no one does that better than Magnetic Press."
Magnetic Press President & Publisher Mike Kennedy said of Buño, “Ulises has fostered an amazing and eclectic community of artists and storytellers with such a wonderfully diverse range of style and vision. We’re excited to see these projects make their way out into the world, and are thrilled to provide an opportunity and channel to help him get these fantastic titles out there.”
“Buño is a silly made-up word, and it really reflects the kind of content we want to publish,” said Fariñas. “We’re going to publish comics that are fresh and unexpected. We are going to make the kind of books you can make when you have 100% creative freedom.”
The first title to be released by Buño is LIGHT, a silent, original graphic novel written & illustrated by Rob Cham. Light is a silent graphic novel that follows a pair of adventurers from a black & white world as they embark on an epic quest to collect five magic gems of color from deep inside the earth and bring them to the surface to return color to the world. Their perilous journey through torch-lit darknesses takes them to vibrant secret caverns, endless passages, crystal-clear waters and encounters with strange beasts, dangerous creatures and mysterious hermits.
Writer/artist Rob Cham creates beautiful and vivid illustrations that gradually evolve from black and white subterranean worlds to bright colorscapes. This inspiring all-ages story recalls retro video games and role-playing games, creating a one-of-a-kind mythos of magic lands and mischevious creatures.
Sounds interesting, but I don't know if it's twenty-dollars interesting.
JOURNEY INTO FEAR VOL 3
Publisher: PS ARTBOOKS
Writers/Art: Various
Slipcase Edition: 125 copies in full colour slipcase • 252 Pages • £44.99 / $69.99
Bookshop Edition: 1,875 copies in full colour slipcase • 252 Pages • £36.99 / $59.99
Hey, it’s all here, culture-lovers: walking dead folks (loads of ‘em) -- some of them even still sporting their heads -- witches, ghosts, werewolves and enough vampires to go into the second-hand dentures business. Every now and again you come across a bevy of four color frights that seem to have been created just for you. Well, they were created just for us folks here at PS Towers ... and, because we loves ya so much, we’re sharing ‘em wit youse. Sheesh, ya never had it so good, ya big lunks.
About Journey Into Fear - Volume Three:
This third and final volume brings together September 1953-September 1954 issues 15-21.
Limited to just 2,000 copies and split across two editions.
Yes, I'm still getting these. They're really stacking up!
Click here for M.A.S.K.: REVOLUTION #1
Click Here for MICRONAUTS: REVOLUTION #1
Click here for NEW AVENGERS #16
Click here for ROCKET RACCOON AND GROOT #10
SENTIENT #1
Publisher: HERMES PRESS
Writer: M. ZACHARY SHERMAN
Art: J. BROWN
Art/Cover: EMMANUEL XERX
$3.99
What if everything you knew about your life was a lie? When unassuming advertising illustrator Robert Moore begins having brutal nightmares that quickly bleed into his everyday life, he must try to decipher the truth from his torrid dreams, violent delusions, and his skewed perception of reality. But when Robert realizes his long-time girlfriend is sneaking around behind his back, he discovers that the truth to his nightmares is more extraordinary than anything he could have ever imagined. The beginning of a new, extraordinary, title; read it every month!
I posted this just for the stunning cover.
SHAME VOL 1
Publisher: RENEGADE ARTS ENTERTAINMENT
Writer: LOVERN KINDZIERSKI
Illustrator: JOHN BOLTON
224 pages, HC, $29.99, Adult
“Sadly, as often is the case, Mother Virtue’s selfish wish echoed like a dinner bell in the Heart of Darkness.”
Mother Virtue, loved by all and revered by the children in her small town, is the purest woman on earth and longs for nothing more than the blissful country life she already has ... except, in her most private and solitary moments, when she secretly pines for a child of her own. In fairy tales, just like real life, the power fueling wishes can be strong enough to make them come true, and this time, a dark entity known as Slur, the Shadow of Ignorance, rises to the task. Mother Virtue is cursed with Slur’s child, a being of powerful magic and even more powerful rage the world will come to know as Shame. The two women, vehemently opposed but inextricably linked, shape events the only way they can, with love and retribution, through death and rebirth and war, marching towards a showdown for the fate of humanity that was destined from the start.
A pulse-pounding dark fairy tale about morality and choice, desire and ambition, selflessness and pain, from veteran comics creator Lovern Kindzierski (Heavy Metal, Tarzan) with fully painted artwork by the legendary John Bolton (Books of Magic).
ABOUT THE CREATORS
Lovern Kindzierski is a successful writer, colorist, and illustrator based in Winnipeg, Canada. As a colorist he has received several Eisner, Harvey, and Schuster Award nominations. As a writer, he has worked on some of the comic industry’s most culturally resonant and far-reaching franchises including Spider-man, Wolverine and Star Wars. His writing on Tarzan garnered him a Harvey Award nomination for Best Writer.
Based in London, England, and described by director Robert Rodriguez as a "god" for his art for Peter Straub's The Green Woman, John Bolton is one of the most revered comic book illustrators of all time, with stunning painted work for all franchises including X-Men, Batman, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, Marada the She-Wolf with Chris Claremont and the fantasy classic Books of Magic, written by Neil Gaiman. He was seven when he first encountered a paintbrush and it was love at first sight, offering him a way to create what he saw in his mind and set it to paper. Thus began a lifelong ambition of creativity connected by one underlying theme – the interesting and bizarre.
So this is what John Bolton's been up to! His name alone means I'll take a look. I still have and look at Marada the She-Wolf, although the story is basically just a collection of Chris Claremont cliches.
Click here for SPIDER-WOMAN #11
STAR TREK: WAYPOINT #1 (of 6)
Publisher: IDW PUBLISHING
Writers: DONNY CATES, SANDRA LANZ
Art: MACK CHATER, SANDRA LANZ
Cover: MARC LAMING
Subscription cover: MARK BUCKINGHAM
FC • 40 pages • $4.99
To celebrate 50 years of STAR TREK, IDW Publishing, under license by CBS Consumer Products, boldly launches a new series which honors the legacy of the various Starfleet crews which have inhabited the Star Trek universe over the past five decades.
From Captain Kirk to Archer, and everyone in between, each issue of Star Trek: Waypoint will feature brand-new stories starring fan-favorite characters written and drawn by some of today’s top talents. The debut issue will feature contributions by Donny Cates (The Paybacks, Interceptor), Mack Chater (The Fuse), and Sandra Lanz (Prophet) with more exciting stories by all-star creators to be announced soon!
Cates and Chater will team on the lead story set during Star Trek: The Next Generation era which sees Geordi La Forge and Data put their scientific minds together to decipher a mysterious ship’s coded message. Their discovery may alter the course of scientific human history as we know it!
Lanz will write and illustrate the back up taking place during Star Trek: The Original Series and shines a spotlight on Uhura as she navigates a strange planet. Stranded, she attempts to make contact with a bizarre alien creature.
Star Trek: Waypoint will feature cover art by acclaimed artists Marc Laming (Planet Hulk) and Mark Buckingham (Fables) with future variant covers planned featuring Star Trek artists from the last 50 years of Trek comics. Set a course for your local comic shop and prepare to engage this September when issue one of this thrilling new series arrives!
• 30 pages of brand-new material!
• Check out the variant covers featuring STAR TREK artists from the last 50 years of Trek comics!
• Ask your retailer about the variant graphic cover!
This anthology is what IDW will publish while they gin up a new, post-Star Trek Beyond title. Not bad for a stopgap.
STREET FIGHTER UNLIMITED #10
Publisher: UDON
Writer: KEN SIU-CHONG
Art: JOE NG
Cover A (Story cover): GONZALO "GENZOMAN" ORDONEZ
Cover B (Ultra Jam variant): JEFFREY "CHAMBA" CRUZ
Cover C (Incentive – Homage variant): JEFFREY "CHAMBA" CRUZ
32 pg • Full Color • $3.99
The monthly Street Fighter series hits double digits with Street Fighter Unlimited #10, featuring story by Ken Siu-Chong and art by Joe Ng. About the story: “With the Secret Society’s sinister plans fully revealed, one fighter from the tournament rises to challenge their angelic host. It’s Ryu versus Gill, man versus god, in a battle for the Earth’s future!”
This issue’s standard covers include CVR A (Story cover) by Gonzalo “Genzoman” Ordonez Arias, and CVR B (Ultra Jam variant) which continues the 12-part connecting image drawn by Jeffrey “Chamba” Cruz. The issue also features a retailer incentive homage CVR C by Jeffrey “Chamba” Cruz, which pays tribute to a vintage comic cover from the 1980s. Ask your local comics retailer about how to obtain this rare incentive cover!
They sent a press release, which I have dutifully posted.
SURGEON X #1
Publisher: IMAGE COMICS
Writer: SARA KENNEY
Art/Cover: JOHN WATKISS
Editor: KAREN BERGER
40 PAGES • FC • M • $3.99
NEW SERIES – OVERSIZED FIRST ISSUE!
“CUTTING LOOSE,” Part One
What do you get if you cross a far-right British government with an antibiotic apocalypse and a gruesome murder? The birth of Surgeon X and her renegade practice. Extreme times call for extreme medicine.
SARA KENNEY, acclaimed documentary, factual drama and animation filmmaker (Angels and Ghosts) and master artist JOHN WATKISS (Sandman, Conan, Deadman) join forces with KAREN BERGER, award-winning and Vertigo-founding editor to produce this unique, darkly comic medical thriller, which will horrify and delight in equal measure.
Set against the backdrop of an antibiotic apocalypse in near future London. Rosa Scott, a brilliant and obsessive surgeon becomes Surgeon X, a vigilante doctor who uses experimental surgery and black market drugs to treat patients. But as Surgeon X, Rosa soon develops a godlike-complex, deciding who will live and who will die. Ultimately, she believes that to survive in this compromised world her own warped moral code is the one she must follow -- even if it endangers those closest to her.
"When I first heard this original and compelling concept, I thought it was time to get back into comics again,” said Berger. “I love that it explores the consequences of a world where the bedrock of modern medicine has crumbled, where people must adapt to a dangerous new reality, and where the lead character’s subversive nature makes us question our own sense of ethics and morality. So excited to be working alongside the fabulously multi-talented creator/writer Sara Kenney and the brilliant, masterful artist John Watkiss. Sara's vision is frighteningly real and beautifully executed."
The comic is informed by hundreds of conversations with scientists, physicians, historians, economists, ethicists & philosophers to create this deeply disturbing, yet authentic future world.
SURGEON X was funded by a Society Award from Wellcome Trust, an independent global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health. They support bright minds in science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education, public engagement and the application of research to medicine.
Enhanced Comics App
One of The Most Highly Anticipated Comic Books of The Year
Wellcome, a global charitable foundation that exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive, has funded an enhanced comics app for the highly anticipated new comic book series SURGEON X. The app will launch on September 28, 2016, with Image Comics’ publication of the first issue by debut comic book writer and acclaimed documentary filmmaker Sara Kenney (Angels and Ghosts), master artist John Watkiss (Sandman), colorist James Devlin (Testament), letterer Jared K. Fletcher (Paper Girls), and editor Karen Berger, the founder of Vertigo Comics.
First time comic writer Sara Kenney secured funding for both the app and the comic itself with a Society Award from Wellcome, which supported extensive dialogue with scientists, medics, biomedical ethicists and sociologists. SURGEON X is a medical thriller set in London in the year 2036, which asks: What if we lived in a world of antibiotic resistance and rationing, where the superbugs have won? In the series, Rosa Scott, a brilliant and obsessive surgeon takes things into her own hands and becomes Surgeon X, a vigilante doctor who uses experimental surgery and black market drugs to treat patients.
“The app invites the reader to search ‘behind the panels’ and ‘behind the balloons’ to find animations, documentaries and other exclusive content,” says Kenney. “It enhances the storyworld allowing the reader to find out more about the science and also the brutal fictional world our future characters inhabit.”
A new enhanced comic app will be available each month to accompany the content of each issue and timed to the same release, and will include:
• Animated scientific shorts narrated by Alice Roberts, Professor of Public Engagement in Science at University of Birmingham
• Historical footage detailing the medical science of antibiotic
• Futuristic animations of political campaigns, commercials & news reports from London 2036
• Documentary interviews with the creative team and the scientists, surgeons, historians, ethicists and philosophers who helped inform the series
• Original music and sound design
• The entire comic, both in color and in stylish black and white
SURGEON X marks the return to the comic book industry for Karen Berger, the award-winning, founding editor of Vertigo, who is editing her first comic series after a three-year hiatus.
“The app is the ultimate companion piece,” says Berger. “No one in comics has done anything quite like this before, and I was blown away by the idea of experimenting with off-the-page storytelling while keeping the purity of comics intact. Not only has Sara created a rich and incredible world, but with the app she’s using her filmmaking talents to expand on the concept in an exciting and special way.”
The SURGEON X Enhanced Comic App was created by Sara Kenney Writer/ Producer/ Director; Michael Mensah-Bonsu, Designer and Developer of Vuniiun Ltd., Simon Armstrong, Animation Director of Ticktockrobot; Oliver Kenney, Composer/Music Consultant; Marnie Chesterton freelancer for BBC, Producer of audio documentaries as well as Karen Berger and producer Duncan Copp.
The SURGEON X Enhanced Comic app is available September 28 in the App Store and Google Play Store for $3.99 U.S./£2.99 U.K.. For more about SURGEON X head over to: www.SurgeonX.co.uk
Talk about going all out! Not just lots of PR words, but an app with musics and more words and stuff! I'll definitely get it just to see where all this is going.
TANK GIRL: GOLD
Publisher: TITAN COMICS
Writer: ALAN MARTIN
Art: BRETT PARSON
Cover A: ASHLEY WOOD
Cover B: BLACK FROG
Cover C: ANDREY TKACHENKO
Cover D: LORA ZOMBIE
Cover E: BRETT PARSON
FC • 32pp • $3.99
Picking up where the critically acclaimed hit series Two Girls One Tank left off -- Tank Girl has lost one of her dearest friends, but inadvertently gained billions of dollars worth of Nazi Gold. What is she going to spend all that money on? Before we find out, her kangaroo boyfriend Booga must pay a penance by going right up THE FURRY ROAD. It's been swell, and the swelling isn't going down.
More Tank Girl for them what wants it.
TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #100
Publisher: BROADSWORD COMICS
Writer/Art/Cover: JIM BALENT
$2.95
"The Which Witch Bride."
Today is Tarot's wedding day. But it's her Doppelganger that is about to get Handfasted to her Beloved Jon! Raven Hex nor their Mother has seen through the glamour spell that masks the true form of the Bride!
Meanwhile the Real Tarot is forever chained in the fairy realm! In celebration of our one-hundredth issue of Tarot, Holly G! will be contributing her spin on our favorite Red Headed Witch! "Teen Tarot." So this Issue will have even more magickal art and stories!
100 issues? Really? Congratulations, Broadsword.
TARZAN ON THE PLANET OF THE APES #1 (of 5)
Publisher: DARK HORSE
Writer: TIM SEELEY, DAVID WALKER
Artist: FERNANDO DAGNINO
Colorist: SANDRA MOLINA
Cover Artist: DUNCAN FEGREDO
FC • 32 pages • Miniseries • $3.99
Dark Horse Comics will publish a new Tarzan tale with the help of BOOM! Studios, taking Edgar Rice Burroughs’s iconic hero to the Planet of the Apes in Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes!
Heavyweight writers Tim Seeley (Revival) and David Walker (Power Man and Iron Fist) will script a five-issue miniseries with Fernando Dagnino (Suicide Squad) on interior art and Duncan Fegredo illustrating stunning covers, making this a crossover event readers won’t want to miss!
“It’s a rare opportunity to get to work with two great properties, one great artist, and one hell of a cowriter, but Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes does just that for me,” said Tim Seeley.
In Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes, Tarzan and his ape brother Caesar, raised as brothers but separated by slave traders, reunite when the war between man and ape takes them from the jungles of Africa to the center of the Earth.
“Planet of the Apes was crucial in sparking my imagination as a child, and remains my favorite film franchise of all time. The creative challenge of combining that world with Tarzan, and the opportunity to do so with a great cowriter, an amazing artist, and a supportive editorial team was an offer I couldn’t refuse,” added David Walker.
This stunning crossover hits stands following the summer’s blockbuster film The Legend of Tarzan. Discover Edgar Rice Burroughs’s original superstar hero of the last century all over again at your local comic shop this September!
• From the writers of Revival and Power Man and Iron Fist!
• A co-publication with Boom! Studios!
Seems like a pretty natural crossover, doesn't it?
THREE STOOGES: RED WHITE & STOOGE #1
Publisher: AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY PRODUCTIONS
Writer: S.A. CHECK
Art/Cover: BRENDON FRAIM, BRIAN FRAIM
32 pages • FC • $3.99
What better way to celebrate the upcoming presidential election than giving readers what they want? More choices! The Three Stooges return this August with a brand new story that finds The Boys in the middle of some true political drama. American Mythology makes the hard choices easy by allowing fans to choose their favorite Stooge by offering three brilliant covers, each one highlighting Larry, Moe or Curly in all their patriotic glory!
Following up on the fan-favorite previous issues, the publisher is releasing a full-length story pitting everyone’s favorite funnymen thick in the mix of the election process. After unwittingly being thrown into the national spotlight during a televised parade, The Stooges become the media darlings of a presidential hopeful looking to cash in on The Boys new fame. Things take a turn for the worse after a disastrously hilarious appearance on a morning talk show and only get crazier as The Three Stooges unleash their own brand of politics on the world.
Under license from C3 Entertainment, Inc. American Mythology Productions (AM) will launch The Three Stooges: Red White & Stooge as a full-color, 32-page comic book written by S.A. Check (Pink Panther, The Three Stooges) with art by Brendon and Brian Fraim (Vampire, PA).
The book adds an extra level of excitement by allowing fans and readers of both The Three Stooges and the new comic to dictate the ending of the book by purchasing one of three covers for the issue, and also joining in on the fun by casting their votes on social media. Who will become the next POTUS, or in this case DOOFUS? Only fans of the series know, and we can’t wait to find out!
“Who wouldn’t want to write this story? I mean, really. Writing for The Three Stooges is a dream come true for me, putting The Boys in one wacky scenario after another is as much fun to write as, I hope, it is to read,” said writer S.A. Check. “When American Mythology approached me about writing the issue, I literally jumped through the phone at the chance. The Three Stooges operate outside of normal conventions, whether we put them in space, fighting dinosaurs, or just baking a cake, the world around them just seems to conform to their own brand of comic genius.”
“We’ve been looking forward and planning this issue ever since we started publishing the new Three Stooges comics last spring. It’s a perfect setting to showcase The Boys and their unique brand of madness,” said Michael Bornstein, American Mythology’s publisher. “We decided to kick it up another notch by bringing the fans into the action by allowing them to decide the end of the story. They literally get to choose their favorite character and put them in the White House by either buying a cover with their choice of Stooge or participating on social media to cast their vote. This is a comic book event that we want everyone to have fun with and show their support for the Three Stooges by following along up to the big reveal with the book’s release. Get your knucklehead on and join us as we turn everything Red White & Stooge.”
Fans can vote for their favorite Stooge by ordering the cover of the candidate they love most at their local comic shop, on ComiXology or at the American Mythology Shop at americanmythology.net.
OK, everybody make the joke that we've already got stooges running for president, and get it off your collective chest.
Click here for THUNDERBOLTS #5
Click here for TOTALLY AWESOME HULK #10
TRANSFORMERS #57TRANSFORMERS: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE #57
TOWARD A HOT JEW (GN)
Publisher: FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
Writer/Art/Cover: MIRIAM LIBICKI
Mature • $25.00
In her first collection of graphic essays, Miriam Libicki investigates what it means globally and culturally to be Jewish, dating from her time in the Israeli military to her tenure as an art professor. Toward a Hot Jew is a new high watermark in autobiographical comics and shows Miriam Libicki as a powerful witness to history in the tradition of Martjane Satrapi and Joe Sacco.
I assume if I read this I'll understand that weird title.
VIKINGS: UPRISING #1
Publisher: TITAN COMICS
Writer: CAVAN SCOTT
Art: ANDREA MUTTI
Cover A: CHRIS WAHL
Cover B: MARK HAMMERMEISTER
Cover C: CLAUDIA CARANFA
Cover D: VERITY GLASS
Cover E: JOSH BURNS
FC • 32pp • $3.99
Titan Comics are excited to announce that following the fantastic sell-out response to the Vikings: Godhead miniseries, Vikings is returning for an all-new story!
Superstar writer Cavan Scott (Vikings, Doctor Who) re-joins series artist Staz Johnson (Batman, Spider-Man) to further expand the Vikings lore with Vikings: Uprising #1! This new story follows after the explosive events of the MGM TV show’s Season 4 mid-season finale.
Vikings: Uprising expands on Titan Comics’ hugely popular Vikings: Godhead, which sold out of its debut issue and went to a second printing!
This thrilling new #1 comes with five variant covers to collect with art by artists Mark Hammermeister, Claudia Caranfa, Verity Glass (Doctor Who, Assassin’s Creed), Joe Glass (The Pride) and a regular cover by Chris Wahl (Bob Fingerman’s Minimum Wage).
My wife read a few these and pronounced the art bad. Well, she's got a point -- it's not great. And they don't make much effort to make the characters look like the actors who play them on TV. I'm enough of a Vikings fan, though, that I'll continue to read 'em.
WELCOME TO BALLROOM VOL 1 (GN)
Publisher: KODANSHA COMICS
Writer/Art/Cover: TOMO TAKEUCHI
$12.99
A battle manga with ballroom dance! Fujita has drifted through middle school aimlessly, unable to find friends or anything that can hold his attention. Then, one day, he's attacked by a gang and saved by a mysterious man. But this isn't a karate master. Fujita's Mr. Miyagi is a ballroom dance instructor! Reluctantly, Fujita takes a few beginner's classes, only to find his inspiration, an entrancing, teenage dance prodigy named Shizuku. It's Fujita's first step into the high-octane world of competitive dance! Intriguing premise, frenetic action, and badass male and female characters will make this a must-read for both shonen and shojo manga readers.
The first sentence says it all: "A battle manga with ballroom dance!" I think I'm impressed. Japan can do a manga on just about anything, can't they?
WOMEN OF DARBY POP #1
Publisher: DARBY POP
Writers/Art: Various (CA) JEFF LANGEVIN
$3.99
The Women of Darby Pop is a specially-priced, double-sized floppy collecting short stories written and drawn by the winners of Darby Pop Publishing's second "Breaking Into Comics" contest. This unique anthology shines a spotlight on both major and minor female characters from nearly every book Darby Pop has published to date while simultaneously introducing readers to a wellspring of new talent.
The only problem is that I don't know any of the "women of Darby Pop." Should I?
WONDER WOMAN: A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS (HC)
Written by WILLIAM MOULTON MARSTON, ROBERT KANIGHER, BRIAN AZZARELLO, PHIL JIMENEZ, GAIL SIMONE, GREG RUCKA and others
Art by H.G. PETER, MIKE SEKOWSKY, MIKE DEODATO, CLIFF CHIANG and others
Cover by CLIFF CHIANG
400 pg • FC • $39.99 U.S.
Celebrate over seven decades of the awe-inspiring Wonder Woman, from early years as one of the first female superheroes in the comics industry, to today. This character has seen countless waves of feminism in her time as one of DC’s favorite heroes, what better way to honor her than by collecting the best Wonder Woman stories!
I've gotten some of these "75th anniversary" books, of which there's roughly 12 bajillion. They're nice, but only you can decide how much "nice" you can afford.
WONDER WOMAN: THE TRUE AMAZON (HC)
Written by JILL THOMPSON
Art and cover by JILL THOMPSON
128 pg • FC • $22.99 U.S.
WONDER WOMAN: THE TRUE AMAZON is Jill Thompson’s original graphic novel re-imagining of the early years of the Amazon Princess Diana, who would grow up to become Wonder Woman. This fully painted graphic novel is unlike any Wonder Woman tale you have ever read, told as only Eisner Award- winning writer/artist Thompson could. When young Diana has the fawning attention of a nation, she grows spoiled. But a series of tragic events take their toll, and Diana must learn to grow up, take responsibility, and seize her destiny.
Steeped in the mythology of this iconic character’s original conception, WONDER WOMAN: THE TRUE AMAZON is designed to appeal to a wide range of readers. It’s a fresh, stand-alone interpretation of the most famous and iconic female superhero of all time and the fulfillment of a dream project by one of contemporary comics’ most acclaimed creators.
Yet another take on Wonder Woman's origin! I swear, the woman could populate infinite Earths with alternate versions all by her lonesome. It's by Scary Godmother's Jill Thompson, so if you like her work, you'll like this.
Click here for X-O MANOWAR #50 review
ZACK THE ZOMBIE EXTERMINATOR #1 (SIGNED)
Publisher: COFFIN COMICS
Writers: BRIAN PULIDO, MIKE MACLEAN
Art: DJIBRIL MORISSETTE-PHAN
Mature • $20.00
The limited "Chainsaw" Edition of Zack the Zombie Exterminator #1 is a full-color, collectible 24-page comic book, signed by co-creator Brian Pulido! Features a premium cardstock cover and is limited to 300 serially numbered copies! Comes bagged and boarded with a Certificate of Authenticity.
ZACK THE ZOMBIE EXTERMINATOR (HC)
Publisher: COFFIN COMICS
Writers: BRIAN PULIDO, MIKE MACLEAN
Art/Cover: DJIBRIL MORISSETTE-PHAN
Mature • $35.00
Features 96 pages of story & art! When zombies started rising, we expected the apocalypse. Instead we got ... pests. Zack is a redneck metalhead with a talent for zombie-splatting who showcase every second of gory mayhem on ViewTube. And his whole family gets in on the action. Overnight, Zack's exploits catapult him from viral video joke to prime-time cable hero, but with fame comes a fall from grace. To make matters worse, an ancient evil rears its ugly head, threatening to bring forth a hellish undead apocalypse. Zack: He's humanity's only hope. We're screwed. From the twisted minds of Brian Pulido (Evil Ernie, Chucky) and Mike Maclean (Sharktopus) comes the rise, fall and redemption of an American original, Zack the Zombie Exterminator.
I only posted this for the Walking Dead #1 homage on that first cover. Otherwise I am unfamiliar with Zach the Zombie Exterminator.
Replies
"The first sentence says it all: "A battle manga with ballroom dance!" I think I'm impressed. Japan can do a manga on just about anything, can't they?"
I've never understood how it is that American comics came to be so largely focused on super-heroes. Why shouldn't comics cover any topic imaginable?
BEST OF HARVEY HORRORS: If it makes you feel any better, Cap, I didn’t order this one, either… and I did notice Man in Black #1-4 in the solicitation. Maybe one of these days Canton Street Press will reissue them at $15 a pop.
EC ARCHIVES: The thing you have to be careful of is that now Dark Horse is starting to release volumes previously released by Gemstone. According to my records, Weird Fantasy v2 is new, however, as is the Haunted Horror volume solicited for July 27 (which either didn’t ship, or I didn’t update my records).
DC 75TH ANNIVERSARY: I haven’t bought a single one of these, not one, nope, not me. I’m the kind of guy who either has to have all of them or none of them. Some of the more unusual ones are tempting, though. Flipping through them I noticed that most of them contain Golden/Silver Age material as well as more recent stuff, but very little from the 1970s.
The Gemstone re-releases is what I was referring to when I said this EC Archives was "new." The last two or three have been DH versions of previously released Gemstone books, which I already own. So I get a bit frustrated when they reprint the ECs I have, when there are still so many I don't have. Grrr.
I've picked up a few of the 75th anniversary books here and there when they've been on sale, so what I have is sort of random. I'm also an all or none kind of guy, but I make exceptions with the 75th collections because they make research so easy. If, for example, I'm doing a column on Catwoman, I can look in my Fleisher Batman encyclopedia to see what the turning-point issues are, and instead of painstakingly finding them in Archives or Showcases, pull out the Catwoman 75th Anniversary book and most of them will be collected there. Makes research much, much easier.
The reason U.S. publishers are so focused on superheroes isn't because they love the genre, but because it's the only one that has sold reliably. Publishers don't focus much on non-superhero comics because they don't sell. It's not a choice; it's the market.
In 1954, the Comics Code virtually outlawed crime and horror comics, and watered down Westerns to where the heroes could only shoot the guns out of bad guys' hands and none of the usual violence that made the genre popular (Indian attacks, lynching, scalping, shoot-outs) could be shown. Romance comics were also virtually verboten, because mutual sexual attraction couldn't be addressed in any way. (Witness how the Superman/Lois Lane relationship devolved to one similar to that of Charlie Brown and Lucy Van Pelt.) After a few years of blah (and plummeting sales), comics re-discovered superheroes as a genre that could thrive within these restrictions and that saved the industry. The other genres failed to make comebacks when the Code restrictions were lifted, so essentially we have a lot of superheroes in comics because they were the last genre standing after we shot ourselves in the foot.
It's chicken or egg now to discuss why superheroes continue to be dominant. It may be that after decades of superhero-dominant comics that people who might be interested in crime, horror, romance or other kinds of comics don't even consider looking, because they're trained to think that comics are superheroes only. So it may be impossible to re-introduce other genres because the potential audience refuses to believe they're there (or that they could possibly interested in "funnybooks").
At any rate, it's still just superheroes that sell reliably, so that's what the publishers publish.
Interestingly, I took a college course on graphic novels, and at one point the professor mused aloud why it was that it had taken so long for U.S. graphic novels to start addressing adult subjects. I responded "The Comics Code of 1954." Because that's what retarded the industry for decades, letting Europe and Japan steal a march on us. He said, "no, that's probably not it." Sorry, professor, but it was.
The Baron said:
If you are just interested in reading Man in Black #1-4, they are available at Comic Book Plus.
I always thought that Josie & the Pussycats is a stronger concept than Archie.
Unfortunately the demise of the Comics Code happened after comics were essentially no longer available outside comic stores, so the general public can't easily see them and get interested.
The only way to break into the direct market comic stores with new/resurrected genres and often any new untested titles, IMO, is for those books to be returnable, at least until they find their audience.
The stores usually can't afford to sink money into anything they can't be sure will sell or know from experience hasn't sold. If they get enough copies to make them visible on the shelves and they have interesting covers they might break through.
Exactly so, Richard. Comic shops order for sell-through, so they don't order anything without a pre-existing audience, which is usually superhero comics. And the folks who go to comic shops are that pre-existing audience, and they want superheroes. It's self-reinforcing at this point.
Comics were a mass medium before 1954, with strong sales in every genre except, oddly, superheroes. Comics sales began to plummet after the Code, and even with the strong resurgence of superheroes in the 1960s they were heading for extinction in the late 1970s. The only way the publishers could survive was to go to the direct market, essentially embracing the status of comics as a boutique item. Maybe TV would have killed comics as a mass medium anyway, but we'll never know, because the Code did it first. And wherever comics would have gone post-EC is a thing we'll never know either, but I doubt it would have been superheroes. Now there's enough vague interest in comics that maybe a few non-superhero comics could find an audience, but first comics will have to break out of their self-imposed trap in the boutique shop and get those comics in front of new eyeballs. That's tough to do, because somebody's going to have to lose money on college bookstores and Wal-marts for a while to break open those markets, and who is willing to do that? Some have already tried and failed, which are cautionary tales.
On the other hand, this guy sees the glass as half-full:
http://icv2.com/articles/columns/view/35606/the-culture-wars-are-ov...
JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS: Intrigued by your comments, I read this one first. I counted three instances of sexual innuendo, one for each pussy, uh… cat.
EC: FYI, a Valor archive has been solicited for February 22.
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