We're shifting all of our blogging over to our new website. The weekly Gosh! Authority will no longer appear here so change your RSS feeds, browser bookmarks or simply replace this memorised web address in your head with a new one.
-- Hayley
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Dear Internet, change your bookmarks.
Due to Arrive 06/07/11
Click the full post link below for a tentative list of titles due to ship next week.
15 Love #2 (Of 3)
50 Girls 50 #2 (Of 4)
Adventure Comics #528
Anita Blake Circus Damned TP Vol 1
Astonishing Thor #5 (Of 5)
Batman And Robin #25
Batman Beyond #7
Batman Knightfall TP Part 1
Broken Bat New Ptg
Blue Estate #4
Broken Trinity TP Vol 2 Pandora's Box
Cap And Thor Avengers #1
Captain America First Vengeance TP
Captain America Hail Hydra TP
Cars 2 #2 (Of 2)
Chew #19
Classic Next Men TP Vol 1
Conan Legacy Frazetta Cover #8 (Of 8)
Conan TP Vol 5 Rogues In The House
Danger Girl Campbell Sketchbook HC
Dark Tower Gunslinger Battle Of Tull #2 (Of 5)
DC Comics Presents Superman #4
DC Universe Online Legends #11
Doctor Solar Man Of Atom #7
Elephantmen #32
Fear Itself #4 (Of 7) Fear
Fear Itself Uncanny X-Force #1 (Of 3) Fear
Fear Itself Wolverine #1 (Of 3) Fear
Fear Itself Youth In Revolt #3 (Of 6) Fear
Flashpoint #3
Flashpoint
Abin Sur The Green Lantern #2 (Of 3)
Flashpoint Batman Knight Of Vengeance #2
Flashpoint Secret Seven #2 (Of 3)
Flashpoint The World Of Flashpoint #2 (Of 3)
Gladstone's School For World Conquerors #3
Godzilla Kingdom Of Monsters #4
Gotham Central TP Vol 2 Jokers And Madmen
Green Arrow HC Vol 1 Into The Woods
Green Wake #4 (Of 5)
Halo TP Blood Line
Hellboy The Fury #2 (Of 3)
Heroes For Hire #9 Fear
Heroes For Hire TP Control
House Of Mystery #39
Hulk #36
Infinity Inc HC Vol 1 The Generations Saga
Intrepids #5
Iron Siege TP
iZombie #15
Jonah Hex #69
Kull TP Vol 2 Hate Witch
Locke & Key HC Vol 4 Keys To The Kingdom
Locke & Key TP Vol 3 Crown Of Shadows
Mad Harry Potter Special #1
Magic Knight Rayearth Omnibus Vol 1
Magnus Robot Fighter #7
Marineman #6
Memoir #4 (Of 6)
Moon Knight #3
Moriarty #3
Mysterious Ways #1 (Of 6)
Northlanders TP Vol 5 Metal
Ozma Of Oz #8 (Of 8)
Red Skull #1 (Of 5)
Reed Gunther #2
Repulse One-Shot
Revolver TP
Rodd Racer One-Shot
Scarlet Prem HC Vol 1
Screamland Ongoing #2
Secret Six #35
Shinku #2
Solomon Kane Red Shadows #4 (Of 4)
Spider-Girl #8
Suicide Girls #4 (Of 4)
Superboy #9
Supreme Power #2 (Of 4)
Sweet Tooth #23
That Hellbound Train #2 (Of 3)
Thunderbolts #160 Fear
Titans Annual 2011 #1
Trailblazer One-Shot
Transformers 3 Movie Adaptation #4 (Of 4)
True Blood Tainted Love #5
Uncanny X-Men #540 Fear Itself
Usagi Yojimbo Ltd HC & TP Vol 25 Fox Hunt
Vengeance #1 (Of 6)
Walking Dead Survivors Guide #4 (Of 4)
Walking Dead Weekly #27
Wolverine And Black Cat Claws 2 #1 (Of 3)
X-23 #12
X-Files 30 Days Of Night TP
X-Men #14
The Gosh! Authority 28/06/11
In the words of Professor Farnsworth, “Good news, everyone!” Gosh! has outgrown its wee shop at 39 Great Russell Street so WE’RE MOVING to new, bigger premises at No. 1 Berwick Street, Soho – the first time this has happened in just over 25 years. Our fancy new shop is being kitted out by Callum Lumsden whose work you might have seen Mary Portas praising on telly. That alone is all very exciting – but there’s MORE! Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill will be joining us for a signing on the 30th of July to celebrate the release of their League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969 and to tread biscuit crumbs into the carpet I will no longer have to hoover. The new shop opens on Saturday the 6th of August and we’ve got more signings and events to dribble out in bite-size chunks over the coming weeks.
I’ve just read an interview with Peter Maresca, the man who accidentally became a publisher just because he wanted to show off his collection of classic strip comics. With a stash that included Little Nemo and Walt & Skeezix who wouldn’t? The latest from Maresca’s Sunday Press is Forgotten Fantasy: Sunday Comics 1900 – 1915 and it gets top billing this week not just because it dwarfs everything beside it, but because Maresca puts so much effort and love into these mammoth books that probably daunt most retailers. They’d probably be easier to set sail on than get home on the tube. In this new one you can find The Kin-der-Kids, Wee Willie Winkie’s World, and The Explorigator by Henry Grant Dart, Nibsy the Newsboy by George McManus, Dream of the Rarebit Fiend Sundays by Winsor McCay, and dozens of other bits from John Gruelle, Gustave Verbeek, Herbert Crowley, John R. Neill and more. There’s also this one:
“Many pages display a "steampunk" sensibility 100 years before it became a popular comics sub-genre. Charles Forbell's Naughty Pete (1913) is unlike any comic strip of its day, with a look that is decades ahead of its time. In theme and design you can sense the work of Frank King, Charles Schulz, Jules Feiffer, Bill Watterson, and, of course, Chris Ware.”
Preview pages run alongside that interview but there are a few more over at Sunday Press.
From Top Shelf you can have Lucille, the English translation of an award winning French graphic novel by Ludovic Debeurme. Two complexly traumatised teenagers who have inherited strange and terrible problems from their families embark on a bold trip across Europe to try and overcome them. Clocking in at 550 pages you can expect this one to weigh you down a bit. So far, Debeurme’s stripped-back line art universally reminds every reviewer of John Porcellino, Anders Nilsen or early-Chester Brown indie comics – it’s not his set style though, as I discovered when I delved further into the Internet and discovered these frankly creepy illustrations. There’s a preview of Lucille here (though I’ll warn you they’re not the cheeriest 15 pages of comic you’ll read today) and a review here and here.
Marvel are going through their bottom drawers again and just like the Grant Museum finding a dodo they never knew they had, they discovered some Steve Ditko pencils they never got round to publishing. In the introduction, Karl Kesel writes about how he had too much on his plate back in 1986 so had to pass on inking some other Ditko job, but he gets another go at it in Incredible Hulk & Human Torch: From The Marvel Vault #1 and is pretty astounded and thankful about it too. Read all that in the online preview. Next to it on the shelf you can also grab the Incredible Hulks Annual #1 written by John Layman of Chew fame. Preview here.
Kesel is revelling in it this week – he also gets to see his work next to Jack “King” Kirby. Captain America Rebirth is a one-shot collecting Tales of Suspense #63, #65 – #69 by Stan Lee and Kirby, in which the origins of Captain America and the Red Skull are revealed. The issues are all fully remastered and re-coloured and Kesel writes and draws a new framing sequence. Don’t forget you can get more Captain America in the All Winners Squad: Band of Heroes #1 (of 8) by Paul Jenkins and Carmine Di Gidandomenico where it’s WWII and Cap heads up a top-secret all-hero unit of the military. The Daily Blam has a preview.
Speaking of WWII, Fabien Nury and John Cassaday’s (Planetary) I Am Legion HC is a supernatural take on the event. “I've always been a bit of a WWII buff, and the way Fabien inserted the supernatural element into a wartime thriller made it an easy choice,” said Cassaday back in 2008 to Comicbook Resources. “I didn't want to be a part of any cliché run-of-the-mill horror story. There's nothing out there quite like it, at least not in comics.”
Paul Cornell is one of the most English men in England so it’s little wonder he swung it at DC so he could stage the entire first issue of Knight & Squire entirely at the pub. The six-issue miniseries illustrated by Jimmy Broxton (The Unwritten) is collected in trade-paperback this week. Here’s an old interview I linked to before the comic landed.
There are some fairly horrific things in comics this week, not least of which is Something Monstrous by grim-doings enthusiast, Mr Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) and R.H. Stavis. Illustrated by Stephanie Buscema (who started out as an inker for her grandfather John Buscema), it’s about something mysterious killing all the old people in town. Buscema’s cartoon retro art is the hook on this one – head over to her blog to see what I’m on about.
Robert Kirkman’s new Image imprint Skybound sees is flagship title hit the shelves this week. Witch Doctor #1 (of 4) is a book Warren Ellis has simply called “mental”. In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, writer Brandon Seifert said “[artist] Lukas [Ketner] and I are both big fans of series that blend horror and SF with other genres — Lukas loves The Goon, I love Buffy, and we both love Hellboy and Doctor Who. Those are all series where you can do a variety of stories with a variety of tones, and Witch Doctor is sort of our own personal equivalent. More specifically, I love the idea of the occult doctor, the doctor who investigates the supernatural. That’s an idea that’s been around almost as long as horror fiction, but I’d never seen it played straight. I wanted to see a hero who approached monsters the way a doctor would, instead of being played as a generic monster hunter or mystic. Lukas and I both love jerky, snarky anti-hero types, and we thought it’d be fun to make our occult doctor sort of a Dr. House type. So that was another element. The last thing, the final ingredient, was the monsters. Pretty soon into thinking about Witch Doctor, I realized the monsters all needed to be crossed with actual diseases and awful stuff from real biology. For me, that’s when everything finally came together, and we had our comic." Preview and a review over at Comicbook Resources.
The Sixpenny Murder is a one-shot about Victorian street crime that was made as part of a 16-week program for modern-day youths involved in gang culture and the like. It’s written by John A. Short, publisher at Kult Creations, and illustrated by David Hitchcock (Springheeled Jack). Review and preview at Escape From Tomorrow.
Richard Moore of Boneyard gives you a new four-part series with Gobs #1 about a bunch of goblins who, after being kicked out of their old favourite pub, set up a new one in the hollowed-out body of a dead giant. As you do.
In the Marvel camp you can get Marvel Universe Vs The Punisher -– the four-issue miniseries by Jonathan Maberry and Goran Parlov in trade paperback, as well as Marvel Universe Vs Wolverine #1 the first of another four-parter by Jonathan Maberry, this time with Gosh! Favourie Laurence Campbell on art duties. Preview of that one here.
One Month To Live was a five-part series penned by four different writers (Rick Remender, Rob Williams, Stuart Moore & John Ostrander) and illustrated by even more artists (Andrea Mutti, Koi Turnbull, Shawn Moll, Shane White, Graham Nolan & Jamie McKelvie) As for the plot: “This was a concept that [Wacker] had come up with after dealing with some personal issues... It’s a unique story in the Marvel Universe exploring things that we all can relate to, an examination of mortality, somewhat akin to ‘The Death of Captain Marvel’ but with an everyman bestowed powers. [Main character Dennis Sykes] is sort of like any of us in this situation... We all think we have 70 to 80 years to mess around; Dennis realizes he’s only got 30 days. It boils down to him discovering what is truly important to him, and what kind of mark he wants to leave on the world.” The rest of that interview and preview pages are here.
Here’s an odd piece of news. Pat Mills (2000AD) has penned a series of comic strips to launch the game inFAMOUS by PS3. The strips are a series of moral dilemmas featuring celebrities like Beyonce, Jay-Z, Cheryl Cole, Lady Gaga and the like, illustrated by a bunch of UK comics creators you’ll no doubt recognise. You can see them over at the inFAMOUS website.
And finally, Eddie Campbell has started blogging again. If I were you I’d get amongst it NOW because you never know when he’ll chuck a strop again and disappear from the Internet. Heads up for those in Australia: he’s doing at talk at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Graphic festival, at which Robert Crumb is a guest too! Can someone give Crumb a piggyback on my behalf?
-- Hayley
P.S. RSSers! This is the last post I'll be doing at the blogspot. Please change all your bookmarks etc over to our website.
In Store 23/06/11 - 29/06/11
Click the full post link below for a list of items in store this week.
2000 AD #1739 & #1740
Judge Dredd Megazine #312
27 TP Vol 1 First Set
American Vampire #16
Angel Omnibus TP Vol 1
Aquaman Death Of A Prince TP
Artifacts #8 (Of 13)
Avengers Childrens Crusade #6 (Of 9)
Batman Arkham City #3 (Of 5)
Batman Incorporated #7 (Morrison)
Batman Knight And Squire TP (Paul Cornell)
Detective Comics #878
Butcher Baker Righteous Maker #4
All Winners Squad Band Of Heroes #1 (Of 8) (Di Giandomenico)
Captain America
- America’s Avenger #1
- First Vengeance #4 (Of 4)
- Rebirth One-Shot (Jack Kirby)
Creepy Comics #6
Danger Girl Army Of Darkness #2
Daomu #5
Daredevil Yellow TP (Tim Sale)
Death Of Zorro #5
Dr Who Insider #4
Drums #2 (Of 4)
Dungeons & Dragons HC Vol 1 Shadowplay
Fear Itself Black Widow #1 Fear Itself
FF #5 (Jonathan Hickman)
Flashpoint Green Arrow Industries One-Shot
Flashpoint:
- Hal Jordan #1 (Of 3)
- Project Superman #1 (Of 3)
- Canterbury Cricket One-Shot
Forgotten Fantasy: Sunday Comics 1900-1915 HC
Gobs #1 (Of 4) (Richard Moore)
Goon #34 (Eric Powell)
Gotham City Sirens #24
Green Hornet Strikes #8
Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #11 (War of the GLs)
Green Lantern Movie Prequel Hal Jordan One-Shot
Heavy Metal Summer 2011
I Am Legion SC (John Cassaday)
Incorruptible #19
Incredible Hulk & Human Torch: From Marvel Vault One-Shot (Steve Ditko)
Incredible Hulks Annual #1
Iron Age #1 (Of 3)
JSA 80 Page Giant 2011 #1
Justice Society Of America #52
Knights Of The Dinner Table #175
Lucille GN
Mad Magazine #510
Magdalena #7
Marvel Previews July 2011
Marvel Universe Vs Punisher TP
Marvel Universe Vs Wolverine #1 (Of 4) (Laurence Campbell)
Marvel Zombies Supreme #5 (Of 5)
One Month To Live TP (J. McKelvie)
Previews #274 July 2011
Project Superpowers Black Terror TP Vol 3
Ratchet And Clank TP
Red Robin Hit List TP
Rocketeer Adventures #2 (Of 4)
Scalped #50 (J. Aaron/D. Haspiel)
Secret History #15
She-Hulks TP Hunt For Intelligencia
Simpsons Super Spectacular #13
Sixpenny Murder One-Shot
Sixth Gun #12
Something Monstrous GN (S. Niles)
Amazing Spider-Man #664
Amazing Spider-Man Big Time One-Shot
Spider-Man Original Clone Saga TP
Strange Case Of Mr Hyde #3 (Of 4)
Super Dinosaur #3
Marvel Masterworks Mighty Thor TP Vol 3
Thor TP Blood And Thunder
Thunder Agents #8
Transformers Heart Of Darkness #4
Ultimate Comics X #5 (Art Adams)
Vampirella Scarlet Legion #2
Venom #4
Walking Dead #86 (R. Kirman)
Walking Dead Weekly #26
Witch Doctor #1 (Of 4)
Wonder Woman #612
Deadpool Dead Head Redemption TP
Uncanny X-Men #539 (K. Gillen)
Wolverine Best There Is #7
X-Force TP Sex And Violence
X-Men Prelude To Schism #4 (Of 4)
X-Men Second Coming Revelations TP
Xombi #4(Frazer Irving)
Air Gear GN Vol 18
Yakuza Moon True Story Of Gangsters Daughter GN
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Due to Arrive 29/06/11
Click the full post link below for a tentative list of titles due to ship next week.
27 TP Vol 1 First Set
All Winners Squad Band Of Heroes #1 (Of 8)
Amazing Spider-Man #664
Amazing Spider-Man Big Time #1
American Vampire #16
Angel Omnibus TP Vol 1
Aquaman Death Of A Prince TP
Avengers Children's Crusade #6 (Of 9)
Batman Arkham City #3 (Of 5)
Batman Incorporated #7
Batman Knight And Squire TP
Broken Trinity TP Vol 2 Pandora's Box
Butcher Baker Righteous Maker #4
Caniff HC
Captain America Americas Avenger #1
Captain America First Vengeance #4 (Of 4)
Captain America Rebirth #1
Chew #19
Conan TP Vol 5 Rogues In The House
Creepy Comics #6
Daomu #5
Daredevil Yellow TP
Deadpool Dead Head Redemption TP
Detective Comics #878
Drums #2 (Of 4)
Dungeons & Dragons HC Vol 1 Shadowplague
Elephantmen #32
Fear Itself Black Widow #1 Fear
FF #5
Flashpoint Green Arrow Industries #1
Flashpoint Hal Jordan #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint Project Superman #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint The Canterbury Cricket #1
Godzilla Kingdom Of Monsters #4
Goon #34
Gotham City Sirens #24
Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #11
Green Lantern Movie Prequel Hal Jordan #1
Incredible Hulk & Human Torch Marvel Vault #1
Incredible Hulks Annual #1
Iron Age #1 (Of 3)
JSA 80 Page Giant 2011 #1
Justice Society Of America #52
Mad Magazine #510
Magdalena #7
Magic Knight Rayearth DH Omnibus Ed Vol 1
Marineman #6
Marvel Adventures Avengers TP Captain America Marvel Universe Vs Punisher TP
Marvel Universe Vs Wolverine #1 (Of 4)
Marvel Zombies Supreme #5 (Of 5)
Mice Templar Vol 3 #5
Marvel Masterworks Mighty Thor TP Vol 3
One Month To Live TP
Ratchet And Clank TP
Red Robin Hit List TP
Rodd Racer One-Shot
Sam & Twitch Complete Collection HC Vol 1
Scalped #50
She-Hulks TP Hunt For Intelligencia
Something Monstrous GN
Spider-Man Original Clone Saga TP
Strange Case Of Mr Hyde #3 (Of 4)
Suicide Girls #4 (Of 4)
Super Dinosaur #3
Thor TP Blood And Thunder
Thunder Agents #8
Transformers Prime TP Vol 3
True Blood Tainted Love #5
Ultimate Comics X #5
Uncanny X-Men #539
Usagi Yojimbo #138 & Ltd HC & TP Vol 25
Venom #4
Walking Dead #86
Walking Dead Weekly #26
Witch Doctor #1 (Of 4)
Wolverine Best There Is #7
Wonder Woman #612
World Of Archie Double Digest #8
X-Force TP Sex And Violence
X-Men Prelude To Schism #4 (Of 4)
Xombi #4
The Gosh! Authority 21/06/11
Exciting things are afoot! We have a brand new website designed by our very own Julia Scheele (with a Meet The Staff page and everything, hello how do you do) so make sure you switch your RSS feeds and bookmarks, etc. Also we’ve also got ten pieces of original art from Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s upcoming League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969 on our walls. They’ve been there for about a week and already loads of you have come and gazed up at them with longing and downright impatience.
We may be biased but we highly recommend popping in for a real life preview if you haven’t already, and while you’re here you can reserve your bookplated copies with our handy standing order service. I will keep going on about this until you do, yes.
Top of the pops this week is the Scary Godmother Comic Book Stories TP by Gosh! Favourite Jill Thompson (Beasts of Burden, soon to be a motion picture don’t you know). It differs from the most recent Scary Godmother hardcover in that it’s a collection of the comic book stuff rather than all of her children’s books stuck together. There are also nineteen pages full-colour sketchbook which – if sitting beside her and watching her sketch for hours at a Gosh! signing is anything to go by – should be a compendium of ridiculously beautifully and polished artwork of a calibre rarely found in bonus sketchbook sections. She really is an excellent artist and a lovely lady too. Here’s a preview courtesy of Dark Horse.
Chester 5000 VXY is a book I wouldn’t suggest doing a Google image search on if you’re positioned at, say, the front door of a comic book store: it is rude, ladies and gentlemen. “Chester was originally a seven-page story for one of the Eros anthologies,” says creator Jess Fink over at Sequential Tart. “It was just a little idea I had, I was really inspired by the Tijuana Bibles which were these little eight-page illegal porn comics sold on the street during the '30s and '40s.” Formerly a webcomic, it’s a wonderfully drawn silent story set in 1885 in which a busy inventor creates a robot called Chester to keep his sexually frustrated wife occupied. It gets a funny review over at The Comics Journal by someone who has handled more comic book pornography than I knew existed. This preview comes courtesy of Top Shelf and carefully skirts around the ruder pages which (if you’re curious) you can find for yourself. If I stick one the Gosh! Blog I will be summarily fired.
Also dragged in from the wilds of The Internet is Gingerbread Girl by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover which was serialised in the lead-up to its Top Shelf collection. “At heart,” Tobin told CbR, “it’s a strange bird of a character study focused on the main character, Annah, with a changing group of narrators (including a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a magician, a pigeon, a thug, a store clerk, a doctor, an English bulldog, and many more) searching for the truth behind our ‘Gingerbread Girl,’ who believes that her mad scientist father extracted a part of her brain (the Penfield Homunculus) and used it to create a sister for Annah.” Comics Alliance have an 18-page preview.
The McSweeney’s logo on my oft-worn giant squid vs. colossal squid T-shirt has had some subliminal effect on our books-ordering dude and we now have a McSweeney’s shelf here in Goshland. They’re not new books but we’ve never had them before so I thought I’d do a guide to our red-faced and screaming corner of the bookshelf (I’m making a newborn baby analogy right there). If you have no interest at all in McSweeney’s I won’t be the least bit offended if you skip this bit in which I probably come off sounding like some Southern preacher man. I now give you Five Paragraphs In Which Your Regular Gosh! Blogger Gets To Legitimately Poke About On The McSweeney’s Website For Ages During Work Hours And Likes It:
While looking for a review or some pictures or in fact anything to give you good people at home some sort of idea of what to expect from Animals of the Ocean, in Particular the Giant Squid I came across this half-review/half-personal account of what it’s like to be an intern at McSweeney’s. I offer you a snippet, now:
“If there’s one truth I uncovered in my time as an intern for a McSweeney’s publication, it’s that the people there love getting together, writing a silly book, and publishing it under a ridiculously and undeniably false assumed name… This stems, I think, from the noble fact that they do not care whether or not their business loses money. When I began my internship with The Believer last year, an old poetry professor who once conducted an interview for them cornered me in his office (no homo) and demanded to know how they manage to stay afloat. My answer to him then, which, accrued with all of the “insider” knowledge I have gathered since, is also my answer to you now, is this: I have no idea. What I observed was that the Believer and McSweeney’s teams devote all of their effort to quality and an overwhelming desire to appeal to their own left-of-center sensibility… and for that reason they ought to have sunk. But they didn’t and that’s the McSweeney’s miracle.”
Animals of the Ocean, in Particular the Giant Squid is supposedly by Dr. & Mr. Doris Haggis-on-Whey and the ex-intern reviews it after the above (as an aside, I’m think I’m a fan of this guy’s book blog in which he talks amusingly, boldly and italicly about Pekar, Millar, Ware et al). By the same Haggis-on-Whey and in the same illustrated, hardcover vein you can also have Giraffes? Giraffes! which is about, well, y’know, and Cold Fusion which is about one of the most controversial scientific pursuits that can be conducted in a bathtub.
Timothy McSweeney (He’s Only Taking You Hiking Because He Can’t Afford Dinner) collects reviews of Lawrence Weschler’s Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences and interviews him too, which might sound a little in-housey but there are some books that can only exist in the sheltered sphere of oddball anthology fans and I reckon this is one of them. The Secret Language of Sleep (discussed over at The Guardian) is a square hardcover for you and your honeybee to have lighthearted fights over, and Poets Picking Poets is a sort of chain-mail poetry collection as this reviewer explains.
McSweeney’s #37 sees their quarterly anthology publication (featuring the likes of New Yorker regular Jonathan Franzen) return to book-form in a typically McSweeney’s way: it’s a book designed to look like a book! they boast (and it is, in M.C. Escher-esque 2D 3D), and if you’re a fan of their graphic design there’s always the Art of McSweeney’s to keep you happy. Finally, Read Hard is a paperback collection of essays and articles from the Believer magazine, reprinting such gems at Jonathan Lethem’s (Fortress of Solitude) essay on the American writer Nathanael West and if I wasn’t currently trying to read the longest novel in the history of everything you’d probably have to fight me for it.
Non-believers, I invite you back into the room.
A couple of big art books have landed on our doorstep this week. The Art of Doug Sneyd HC collects nearly 300 full-colour, full-page cartoons (some previously unpublished) by Sneyd who has been Playboy’s gag cartoonist since 1964. “Many people have always said that they read Playboy for the ‘articles,’ so I thank Doug Sneyd because I have always been able to say, ‘I read Playboy for the cartoons,’” writes this journalist who conducted a short interview with the man himself a couple of years back. Dark Horse has a preview.
There’s also Awful/Resilient: The Art of Alex Pardee HC showcasing the insane art of Californian Pardee – a bunch of monsters, visions of nightmare and the occasional decapitation. Ginko Press tell you what it’s all about.
Agonizing Love: The Golden Era of Romance Comics SC is by Michael Barson who had “already worked [his] way thorough big collections of superhero things and war comics and other manly pursuits” before a big collection of 40s/50s era romance comics landed in his lap and he fell in love with them. Barson talks about the melodramatic, tear-stained minidramas with NPR where there are some preview pictures too, and the NY Journal of Books has a review.
While the comics showcased in Agonising Love were mostly by men, Miss Fury – the first female superhero, predating Wonder Woman by eight months – in her skintight black catsuit was created, written and drawn by a lady called Tarpé Mills, using her non-gender specific middle name for print. “It would have been a major let-down to the kids if they found out that the author of such virile and awesome characters was a gal,” she said. Trina Robbins has picked the best of the stories and there’s even an unpublished, unfinished Miss Fury graphic novel from 1979. Preview over at Comics Beat.
If cowboys are more your thing you can pick up Roy Rogers: The Collected Newspaper Dailies and Sundays in hardcover, giving you the entire 12-year run of one of the most widely read newspaper strips of the 1950s. I don’t really need to give it any more of a push than to just say: Alex Toth.
Metal Hurlant Collection Volume 1 HC is the first of two planned collections reprinted short stories from the titular anthology by people like Geoff Jones (Green Lantern) and Ryan Sook (Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne). And there’s more old stuff rounded up in Dr. Strange: Into The Dark Dimension HC by Roger Stern, Paul Smith, Bret Blevins and Mark Badger – collecting Dr Strange #68 – 74 from 1974 in which the cosmic balance is thrown outta whack.
First Wave HC collects the pulp noir mini-series from a couple of years ago by Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets) and Rags Morales. “We’re moving Gotham. Where do you think Gotham City is? New York? Nah, how would you feel about L.A.? The sun sets in L.A. just like anyplace else. And I’m really kind of focusing on L.A. in the ’40s, when it was a new town in the ‘20s, ‘30s and ’40s. It’s pretty much a new place. There was certainly a bit of lawlessness going on. And there was a huge, huge divide between rich and poor. And I think that really works well for this.” Old interview and preview pages over at CbR.
In new comics this week you can have Dark Horse Presents #2 featuring – among other notables like Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, Paul Chadwick, Carla Speed McNeil and Richard Corben – my much-missed pal on the other side of the world, Patrick Alexander. He contributes (I think) eight pages featuring his character The Wraith (He stalks the night, like a moose!) and you can see some of it here.
Vertigo Resurrected: Sandman Presents Petrefax reprints a Sandman spin-off you might have missed if you weren’t there on the day. Written by Mike Carey (The Unwritten) and illustrated by Steve Leialoha, it was a four-issue miniseries all about Petrefax the young undertaker at the World’s End.
Speaking of undertakers, one might be required in this week’s Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #160 if everything goes wrong for the webslinger. It’s a top-secret polybagged affair but Bleeding Cool have spilled the beans and for those who want spoilers – here they are.
Outsiders has been retitled for its final issue to include the man who was there at the start. Batman and the Outsiders #40 even features a cover homage to that first issue back in 1983, as this blogger points out.
And lastly, Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search #1 is the first of three issues detailing the fallout of that event and the integration of John Constantine and Swamp Thing into the DC Universe. DC are being mighty shady on this one so no previews, but here’s the cover.
That’s your lot. Come visit our pop-up art gallery. It’s nice.
-- Hayley
In Store 16/06/11 - 22/06/11
Click the full post link below for a list of items in store this week.
Archie Babies GN
B & V Friends Double Digest #215
Jugheads Double Digest #171
Agonizing Love: The Golden Era Of Romance Comics SC
All Nighter #1 (Of 5) (David Hahn)
Art Of Doug Sneyd HC
Avengers Vs Pet Avengers TP
Secret Avengers #14Fear Itself
Secret Avengers Prem HC Vol 2 Eyes Of Dragon (Ed Brubaker)
Ultimate Avengers Vs New Ultimates #5
Awful/Resilient: The Art Of Alex Pardee HC
Batman And The Outsiders #40
Batman Gates Of Gotham #2 (Of 5)
Batman Red Hood The Lost Days TP
Black Panther Man Without Fear #520
Black Widow TP Name Of Rose
Brightest Day Aftermath The Search #1 (Of 3)
Captain America #619
Captain Easy: Soldier Of Fortune HC Vol 2 1936 - 1937
Carnage #5 (Of 5)
Cars 2 #1 (Of 2)
Disney Pixar Presents Cars 2
Chester 5000 HC (Jess Fink)
Cinefex #126 May 2011
Conan Road Of Kings #6 (Of 6)
Creepy Comics TP Vol 1
Dark Horse Presents #2 (N. Adams/H. Chaykin/P. Chadwick et al)
Darkness Origins TP Vol 3
DMZ #66 (B. Wood)
Dr Strange HC Into Dark Dimension (Paul Smith)
Dracula Company Of Monsters #11
Echo TP Vol 6 Last Day (T. Moore)
Fables #106
Fantastic Four Last Stand One-Shot
First Wave HC (Brian Azzarello)
Flashpoint Kid Flash Lost #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint Lois Lane & Resistance #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint The Outsider #1 (Of 3)(James Robinson)
Flashpoint The Reverse Flash #1
Gingerbread Girl GN (P. Tobin)
Girl Genius TP Vol 10 Agatha H & Guardian Muse
Green Arrow #13
Guild Bladezz One-Shot (F. Day)
Hellboy Library Edition HC Vol 4 Crooked Man (M. Mignola)
Hounds Of Hell GN
Impossible Man TP
Incredible Hulks #631
Infestation Outbreak #1 (Of 4)
Iron Man 2.0 #6 Fear Itself
Janet Evanovich Troublemaker TP
Justice League Of America #58
Juxtapoz #126
Kane And Lynch TP (Ian Edginton)
Last Phantom #7
Marvel Zombie Christmas Carol #2 (Of 5)
McSweeney’s Books
- Animals Of The Ocean HC
- Cold Fusion HC
- Everything That Rises SC
- Giraffes? Giraffes! HC
- McSweeney’s #37 HC
- Poets Picking Poets SC
- Read Hard SC
- Secret Language Of Sleep HC
Metal Hurlant Collection HC Vol 1(G. Johns/R. Sook et al)
Mighty Thor #3 (Fraction/Coipel)
Miss Fury HC (T. Mills)
Mission #5
Mystery Men #2 (Of 5)
Namor First Mutant #11
Next Men #7 (John Byrne)
Next Men HC Vol 1
Power Girl Bomb Squad TP
Rage #1 (Of 3)
Red Sonja: Revenge Of The Gods #4 (Of 5)
Roy Rogers Collected Newspaper Dailies & Sundays HC
Runaways TP Vols 5 & 6 New Ptgs
Vertigo Resurrected (Mike Carey)Sandman Presents Petrefax
Scary Godmother Comic Book Stories TP (J. Thompson)
Sigil #4 (Of 4)
Bart Simpson Comics #60
Silver Surfer #5 (Of 5)
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Prem HC Death Prelude
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #160
Spirit #15
Stan Lee's The Traveler #8
Star Wars Jedi Dark Side #2
Suicide Girls #3 (Of 4)
Action Comics #902
Superman #712
Terminator TP 2029 To 1984
The Lengths #2 Pay As You Go
Thunderbolts #159
Transformers 3 Movie Adaptation #3 (Of 4)
Vampirella #7
Walking Dead Weekly #25
Deadpool #39
Mystique By Sean Mckeever Ultimate Collection SC
New Mutants #26
NYX TP Vol 1 Wannabe TP New Ptg
Wolverine #11 (Jason Aaron)
X-Factor TP Vol 11 Happenings In Vegas
X-Men Legacy #251
X-Men Second Coming TP
MANGA
20th Century Boys Vol 15 (Naoki Urasawa )
Avatar Last Airbender TP Vol 1 Lost Adventures
Negima Omnibus GN Vol 1
Phoenix Wright GN Vol 1
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Due to Arrive 22/06/11
Click the full post link below for a tentative list of titles due to ship next week.
Action Comics #902
All Nighter #1 (Of 5)
Avengers Vs Pet Avengers TP
Batman And The Outsiders #40
Batman Gates Of Gotham #2 (Of 5)
Batman Red Hood The Lost Days TP
Black Panther Man Without Fear #520
Black Widow TP Name Of Rose
Brightest Day Aftermath The Search #1 (Of 3)
Broken Trinity TP Vol 2 Pandora's Box
Buffy Omnibus TP Vol 3 New Ptg
Captain America #619
Carnage #5 (Of 5)
Choker #6 (Of 6)
Conan Road Of Kings #6 (Of 6)
Dark Horse Presents #2
Darkness Origins TP Vol 3
Deadpool #39
DMZ #66
Drums #2 (Of 4)
Elephantmen #32
Fables #106
Fantastic Four Last Stand #1
First Wave HC
Flashpoint Kid Flash Lost #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint Lois Lane & Resistance #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint The Outsider #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint The Reverse Flash #1
Green Arrow #13
Guarding The Globe #5 (Of 6)
Guild Bladezz One-Shot
Impossible Man TP
Incredible Hulks #631
Infestation Outbreak #1 (Of 4)
Iron Man 2.0 #6 Fear
John Byrne Next Men #7
Justice League Of America #58
Kane And Lynch TP
Locke & Key Clockworks #1 (Of 6)
Magdalena #7
Marineman #6
Marvel Zombie Christmas Carol #2 (Of 5)
Mice Templar Vol 3 #5
Mighty Thor #3
Miss Fury HC
Mission #5
Mystery Men #2 (Of 5)
Mystique By Sean Mckeever Ult. Collection TP
Namor First Mutant #11
New Mutants #26
Next Men HC Vol 1
NYX TP Vol 1 Wannabe New Ptg
Power Girl Bomb Squad TP
Rage #1 (Of 3)
Rocketeer Adventures #2 (Of 4)
Runaways TP Vol 6 Digest New Ptg
Saga Of The Swamp Thing HC Vol 5
Secret Avengers #14
Secret Avengers Prem HC Vol 2 Eyes Of Dragon
Sigil #4 (Of 4)
Silver Surfer #5 (Of 5)
Spirit #15
Star Wars Jedi Dark Side #2
Super Dinosaur #3
Superman #712
Thunderbolts #159 Fear Itself
Ultimate Avengers Vs New Ultimates #5 (Of 6)
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #160
Vertigo Resurrected Sandman Presents Petrefax #1
Walking Dead Weekly #25
Wolverine #11
X-Men Legacy #251
X-Men Second Coming Revelations TP
X-Men Second Coming TP
Young Justice #5
Zatanna #14
The Gosh! Authority 14/06/11
Everybody stop what you’re doing and set up a standing order for THIS: The League of Gentlemen III triptych bookplate set. That’s a fancy way of saying Kevin O’Neill is retroactively adding a bookplate to the already-published-and-probably-already-in-your-house Century: 1910, and doing two more for the upcoming volumes (the next due in late July with the final one expected in summer next year so you’ve got something to read in the likely event you missed out on Olympics tickets). Don’t get pre-emptively stroppy if you already own a copy of Century: 1910 – it’s all taken care of. Read the blog post.
Joe Porcellino sent us a big care package of small press stuff from his side of the world. They’re sitting neatly (well, we’re trying – they’re funny-shaped) beside his own offerings of last week: The Game and the Monologuist Paper Blog Update. Along with issues of his own King-Kat Comics and Diary of a Mosquito Abatement Man, there are a handful of issues of late 90’s work by Tim Lane (Abandoned Cars) in his series Happy Hour in America.
The Jeffrey Brown influence is very strong in stuff like the AOA diary comics by Melinda Boyce, and Ten Thousand Things To Do by Jesse Reklaw. Diary and autobiographical comics account for most of the swag – L.A Diary by Gabrielle Bell, the Noah Novella by Noah Van Sciver (whose Blammo #6 and #7 are here too), and My Alaskan Summer by Corinne Mucha. Blindspot #1 is by Joseph Remnant, someone who has evidently spent a long time looking at the crosshatched panels of Robert Crumb. Bound & Gagged is the result of Tom Neely asking all the artists, cartoonists and writers he knows to do one-panel gag comics which could have been disastrous.
There are Clutch comics by Clutch McBastard, Jin & Jam by Hellen Jo, Asthma by John Hankiewicz, and one of the biggest of the lot – I Want Everything To Be Okay by Carrie McNinch. There’s Ruts & Gullies: Nine Days in St. Petersburg by Phillipe Girard, and bagged and ribboned comicbook diaries with Post-Its saying “Open me in private” by I-don’t-know-who because I’m sticking to the rules and can’t see inside them. There are several issues of Tugboat Press's award-winning anthology series Papercutter, which is dedicated to showcasing underexposed and emerging artists but you’ll most definitely know at least a few of them -- Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole), Jim Rugg (Afrodisiac), and Drew Weing (Set to Sea) are all here.
As for the rest of it – there are anthologies from countries I can’t locate on a map, like Latvia, which has also produced some big fold-out posters and bundles of colourful mini-comics from the their own equivalent of Nobrow. Some of them aren’t even in English (I’m looking at you, Colibri #2) but they look cool, so whatever. There’s a big anthology called Cyclops collecting an array of contemporary narrative art from people in Canada. I’m pretty sure I know where Canada is.
Speaking of which, here’s something nobody outside of Toronto has seen yet – except for this preview. Welcome to Oddville is a hardcover collecting all of (phenomenally talented and eye-wateringly busy animator and cartoonist) Jay Stephens’ all-ages weekly newspaper comic strip about an eight-year-old girl called Jetcat that originally appeared in the Toronto Star between 2003 and 2006.“It's pretty crazy, they tell me,” says Stephens to Comicbook Resources. “You'll meet a Ghost Pumpkin, Talking Bandage, Gangs of Apples and a very rude snail.”
Anya’s Ghost is another graphic novel by an animator, Vera Brosgol, who currently lives in Portland and does storyboard and concept art for Laika Entertainment – the company that produced the Henry Selick adaptation of the Neil Gaiman book, Coraline. As Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing said in his review, “Anya’s Ghost starts out as a simple young adult story about a girl who's having a hard time fitting in at school, moves smoothly into a lighthearted story about an awkward girl and her ghostly BFF, and then slides precipitously (and scarily) into a no-fooling ghost story that'll have you jumping out of your skin while you finish it off.” It’s Brosgol’s debut book (previewed at First Second) and if I were you I’d head over to her sketch blog to see what else she’s up to.
Also from First Second is Level Up by Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese) with art by Thien Pham (a man who is the president of his own fan club) about a guy whose parents want him to become a doctor but all he really wants to do is play video games. Preview at :01, and review over here. The cover of this book makes me miss my old Game Boy like nobody’s business. 
Seeds is a graphic novel by Ross Mackintosh, who grew up in Yorkshire. In this, his first book (having spent the time between growing up in The North and Now as a graphic designer) Mackintosh charts the autobiographical story of how his own father’s unsuccessful battle with cancer affected him and his family. "Until the events in the book happened, I'd not really thought how it might feel when I get to the end of my life; who will be there, what will cause it, how I might react and how it will feel," Mackintosh said at CbR, alongside preview pictures. "I have young children myself and feel at the prime of life – at the beginning of something – but seeing my dad as a dying parent made me realise that's just what I am, albeit 40 years younger." It’s already been optioned for an animated film, says Geek Syndicate. That was quick. It’s £6.99 and a share of the proceeds will go to cancer charities.
Mark Schultz: Various Drawings Volume 5 is one of the best looking books on the shelf this week and also the proud bearer of the most pretentious blurb in my own living memory: “Schultz has never stopped expanding his visual vocabulary, never shied away from experimenting, never slowed in his relentless pursuit of graphic Nirvana.” But ignore that – this book is full of pulp and noir femme fatales, pin-ups, dinosaurs and scary ladies, spaceships and more, and it’s very good indeed. Most of the art is unseen stuff from private collections and commissions, as well as a few previously published bits so brilliant they warranted a second outing. Head to Flesk for some preview pages. It comes in both a limited hardcover edition and a softcover too.
Two art magazines full of old and beautiful illustrations this week courtesy of Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr (The Comics Journal archive now includes a piece on his whole unlikely publishing enterprise). There’s the Vadeboncoeur Collection of Images #12, showcasing stuff by Lejaren A. Hiller, Henry Clive, Sigismund de Ivanowski, J. C. Leyendecker, Arthur Rackham, Frank Godwin, Heinrich Kley, René Vincent, Willy Pogany, Gustav Tenggren, Charles Robinson, Eric Pape, Herman Vogel, Sarah Stilwell Weber, and Erich Schutz. Then there’s the Black & White Images Fifth Annual Collection which includes Daniel Vierge from the French L'Image of 1897, part two of Railton's Haunted House and Helen Stratton's Little Mermaid (both from 1899), comic art (shot from the originals, obviously) by Will Crawford and more.
Teen Angels & New Mutants by horror comics guru Steve Bissette (Taboo, Swamp Thing) originally began, as Forces of Geek said in their review, “as a companion article for the aborted, hardcover edition of [Rick Veitch’s] Brat Pack. It quickly expanded into a total dissemination of the sidekick phenomenon –considering every sociological condition that contributed to the real world environment that indulged them. Way more than a loving tribute to the work of a dear friend, this is the absolute, authoritative text on the subject, and should be required reading in every Sociology of Media program.” It’s a history of the boy sidekick, traces juvenile delinquency through the ages, is “a 400-page crash-course on teen pop culture, the fetishism of childhood, [...] the impact of the independent press on sequential publishing” and covers every ancillary topic that pops up along the way, however uncomfortable they may be. In other words: far too thorough and far-reaching a thing to sum up in a paragraph. In short, it looks worthy of your pocket-money.
In trade paperback this week you can have Walking Dead Volume 14: No Way Out, and Sam Keith’s original Batman graphic novel, Arkham Asylum: Madness which is both reviewed and previewed over at CbR. Ed Brubaker’s Captain America: Red Menace Ultimate Collection in softcover collects the entire story arc that followed Winter Soldier, featuring Russian General Aleksander Lukin and Cap’s eternal nemesis the Red Skull. The creator-centric Fantastic Four collections continue with Fantastic Four by Waid and Wieringo Ultimate Collection Volume 1 which means this might be one of those weeks where I totally lose the ability to say “ultimate”.
As for comics, there’s a new Alpha Flight eight-part series by Fred Van Lente and Greg Pak which ties into the whole Fear Itself thing (preview here) and no less than four Flashpoint titles to cross off your checklist. Assume the prefix Flashpoint is a given here so I don’t have to keep saying it. Deadman and The Flying Graysons #1 (of 3) by J.T. Krul and Mikel Janin is written about and previewed on the DCU Blog. There’s the Grodd of War One-Shot by Sean Ryan and Ig Guara, Legion of Doom #1 (of 3) by Adam Glass and Rodney Buchemi, and Wonder Woman & The Furies #1 (of 3) by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, with art by Scott Clark and David Beaty – none of the aforementioned being even remotely previewable anywhere on the Internet.
That Hellbound Train #1 is the first of a three-part miniseries based on Robert Bloch’s (Psycho) Hugo-winning short story of the same(ish) name. Joe and John Lansdale (30 Days of Night: Night, Again) are taking care of the words, while Dave Wachter (The Guns of Shadow Valley) is on art duties. Wachter talks about cover art on his blog and you can see some interiors over at Chris Ryall’s site.
Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths #1 (of 5) by John Layman (Chew) and Eisner-nominated artist Alberto Ponticelli is tailor-made for those of you who aren’t getting enough rampaging monster in Eric Powell, Tracy Marsh and Phil Hester’s series. “I'm very into Asian cinema, arguably moreso than American cinema, which mostly bores the crap out of me,” said Layman. “I wanted to fuse two of my favourite Asian cinema genres -- the monster movie with the hard-boiled gun-fu cops and gangsters movie. So the story is about a framed cop, wanted by the underworld and the police force, trying to clear his name, trying to protect his family, and trying to get revenge. He gets some help when he gets hold of the Mothra Twins, and starts using Mothra to systematically eliminate the families of the Tokyo criminal underworld.” More of that at CbR.
In other news, we’ve got more Paying For It on the shelf, a book which is still causing comics reviewers to have arguments with themselves. Read this at The Comics Journal and see what I mean. And we’ve still got some signed copies of Chico & Rita hanging about, but sadly none of them include this Mariscal strip which landed in my inbox a couple of days ago and cheered me up no end:
-- Hayley
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