Click the full post link below for a tentative list of titles due to ship next week.
15 Love #1 (Of 3)
All New Batman The Brave And The Bold #8
Amazing Spider-Man Ghost Rider Motorstorm One-Shot
American Vampire Survival Ot Fittest #1 (Of 5)
Anita Blake Circus Of Damned Ingenue #4(Of 5)
Annihilators #4 (Of 4)
Ant-Man And Wasp TP Small World
Avatar Last Airbender TP Vol 1 Lost Adventures
Baltimore Plague Ships HC Vol 1
Batman And Robin #24
Batman Arkham City #2 (Of 5)
Batwoman TP Vol 1 Elegy
Birds Of Prey #13
Black Panther Man Without Fear #519
Blue Estate #3
Booster Gold #45
Breed III #2
Captain America By Dan Jurgens TP Vol 1
Captain America Fighting Avenger TP
Captain America No Escape TP
Creepy Comics TP Vol 1
Danger Girl Campbell Sketchbook HC
Dark Tower Gunslinger Little Sisters Of Eluria Prem HC
DC Comics Presents Impulse #1
Deadpool #38
Deadpool Team-Up TP Vol 2 Special Relationship
Doc Savage #15
Empowered Special #2 10 Questions For Maidman
Fear Itself Deadpool #1 (Of 3)
Fear Itself Fearsome Four #1 (Of 4)
Fear Itself Spider-Man #2 (Of 3)
Flashpoint Citizen Cold #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint Deathstroke The Curse Of Ravager #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint Emperor Aquaman #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint Frankenstein Creatures Of Unknown #1 (Of 3)
Generation Hope TP Futures A Four Letter Word
Ghost Rider #0 Point One
Golly TP Vol 1 Catching Hell
Green Lantern Movie Prequel Kilowog One-Shot
Green Lantern Movie Prequel Tomar-Re One-Shot
Green Wake #3 (Of 5)
Incredible Hulks #630
Iron Age Alpha #1
Journey Into Mystery #624
Ka-Zar #1 (Of 5)
Li'l Abner HC Vol 3
Li'l Depressed Boy TP Vol 1 She Is Staggering
Magnus Robot Fighter #6
Mister X HC Brides Of Mister X & Other Stories
Moriarty #2
Morning Glories #10
Mystery Men #1 (Of 5)
New Avengers #13
New X-Men By Grant Morrison TP Vol 2
Preacher HC Book 4
PunisherMax #14
Red Robin #24
Samurais Blood #1 (Of 6)
Savage Dragon #171
Scalped #49
Screamland Ongoing #1
Something Monstrous GN
Spawn #208
Stand No Man's Land #5 (Of 5)
Star Wars Old Republic #1 (Of 5)
Superman #712
Superman Chronicles TP Vol 9
Supreme Power #1 (Of 4)
Sweet Tooth TP Vol 3 Animal Armies
Titans #36
Transformers Classics TP Vol 1
Twilight Experiment TP
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #159
Unwritten #26
Walking Dead Weekly #23
Wolverine #10
X-Men Alpha Flight Prem HC
X-Men Legacy #250
X-Men Second Coming TP
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Due To Arrive 01/06/11
The Gosh! Authority 31/05/11
First up, IMPORTANT BORING STUFF: [Blah blah Bank Holiday Monday blah blah delay] This week's comics are arriving on Wednesday ie. the same day we put them on the shelf. They could arrive late in the afternoon, or early in the morning, my point being: nobody actually knows but the truck driver. If you're able to wait until Thursday to pop your cheery face through the door that would probably be a better idea.
Onward!
Given that the International Alternative Press Festival was held over the weekend just around the corner from this very shop, it make sense that the best stuff on the shelf is of the hand-delivered, self-published variety (mostly dropped in by the artists themselves on the way home from said festival). Becky Cloonan’s Wolves arrived in a FedEx box of course, but that’s no reason to discount it:
“Anyone who has been following my blog for a while might remember that last year I published this short story in an anthology me and some friends published in Japan for a convention in Tokyo - it was originally in Japanese; this version will be in English, and will have a few added pages,” Cloonan said on her blog a while back when she was still looking for a printer. Inside Pulse has a review and tells you what it’s all about. It’s a limited, screen-printed and signed edition of only 1000 copies so if you fancy one you’d best hurry in.
The second issue of The Comix Reader is piled high on the Gosh! counter, full of one-pagers by those you’ll have seen in the previous issue (Lord Hurk, Ellen Lindner et al) as well as new additions to the line-up including our very own ridiculously talented Mr Barnaby Richards. If you missed the first issue here’s Richard Cowdry, the brains behind the whole operation, telling you what the point of it all is:
Hey Comix Reader dudes!
Put some previews on The Internet or I will continue to use year-old flyers!
Love, Hayley
“A few years ago I went to an exhibition of 60's Underground Comix at the ICA. Even though they were presented under glass display cases, they radiated the power and energy of artists who were free to do as they pleased. There was also some modern cartoon art on display, and comparing the two, I had to ask : Where did all the fun go? The Comix Reader is in part an attempt to recapture some of the free spirit of the underground press.”
Meat Hill #2 is the second instalment of the story set in a distant retro-future London, “a heady mix of superheroes, monsters, jazz bands and greasy spoons,” by the aforementioned Gosh! Favourite Lord Hurk, who also dropped in the second issue of Static Revolter. That’s “revolter” with a “t” which I have been calling Static Revolver for probably about a year – I can only blush and apologise. It’s by Hurk and Gosh! alumni Kevin Ward and it looks even better than the last one. Here’s a teaser picture of some screenprinted covers drying on the rack (and a colour off being completed but it’s the best I’ve got for now).
Ian Edginton and Ian Culbard add another Sherlock Holmes classic to their line of graphic novels, The Valley of Fear. It’s the fourth and final book in the series which Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing is such a fan of:
“…These four volumes are among the most exciting treatments of the Holmes novels that I've ever seen -- Culbard's pulpy, golden-age illustration style complements Edginton's sharp eye for pacing to great effect… I've loved Sherlock Holmes all my life, and I've read the original novels a dozen times or more, but these adaptations still brought new life and energy to the familiar texts.”
Paul Hornschemeier (The Three Paradoxes) has been serialising a story in Mome for years and this week sees it collected in softcover. Life With Mr. Dangerous is about a girl who spends too much time watching a cartoon and starts to think the main character is talking to her through the television. In an interview with Newcity Lit he said he “wanted to write a story about that strange time between your early twenties and whatever adulthood is supposed to be. When you’ve embraced reality by getting a job, renting an apartment, getting a cat or a dog or a car or a fern — but you don’t really know who you are yet.” Here’s another preview in the form of snapshots taken at the printer’s before the book was assembled into a book. But in this one you get the added bonus of a jetlagged author smiling next to it.
Also collected is Citizen Rex by Mario and Gilbert Hernandez (Love & Rockets) which was a six-issue miniseries set fifty years in the future where an anti-robot movement is happening. “I just like the whole idea of robots, always have. To me, they’re free of the constraints of race, religion and societal mores that hamstring humans, and of course they piss people off,” said Mario in an interview with Comicbook Resources. It runs alongside some preview pages if you need ‘em.
Howard Cruse (Wendel) sees his Stuck Rubber Baby reprinted in honour of its 15th anniversary. It’s about gay and race relations in the 1960s American South, and is partly autobiographical. It comes with a new introduction by Alison Bechdel (Fun Home) and Newsarama have a review. If you’ve never seen it before head to Cruse’s website to see the teaser pamphlet he drew way back before the book was printed for the very first time.
Cullen Bunn (The Sixth Gun), Shawn Lee and Matt Kindt (Super Spy, 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man) have teamed up for something they admit is totally ludicrous – The Tooth – a 200-page graphic novel whose main character has no face or eyes and is essentially just a yellow fang on legs. “[It’s] Swamp Thing-meets-Clash of the Titans-meets all the awesome comics your mom threw away when you went to college kind of a book," said Bunn at CbR, where they have a preview too. There are monsters, dragons, vicious demons, sorcerers, vengeful spirits and from the sounds of it they all take a thorough beating from The Tooth.
Constructive Abandonment is a hardcover collection of small surreal paintings accompanied by minimal text by two founding members of The Royal Art Lodge – an influential Canadian collective that parted company about three years ago – Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber. “Beyond often being extremely funny, there is frequently something poignant in these works that speaks succinctly to culture and human experience more generally; I am totally amazed at how these two are able to say so much with such an economy of means,” says the Drawn & Quarterly blog. Preview here.
From Fantagraphics you can have Eye of the Majestic Creature which is a collection of semi-autobiographical and fantasy-based comics by Lesley Stein. “Larrybear is a naïve woman on the verge of Whatever, a cute Candide floundering about in an increasingly complicated world,” writes The Comics Journal in their review. PDF preview available here.
There’s another Richard Stark Parker book on the shelves – that’s the prose variety rather than the Darwyn Cooke adaptations. Backflash is the eighteenth volume of a hefty twenty-four, and they all come highly recommended from us lot behind the counter.
Warren Ellis and John Cassaday’s Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth sees the light of day again in the form of a deluxe hardcover. The Planetary crowd cross paths with Batman – that is every version of Batman that has ever existed in the character’s history: Bob Kane’s original, Adam West’s ‘60s camp extravaganza, Frank Miller’s Dark Knight and all the others in between. No reviews of this new edition as yet but Pop Matters wrote a good one back in 2003 when the comic was originally published. This hardcover differs from previous editions in that it now boasts Ellis’ script for the story at the back of the book.
As for new comics, here are some of the things you can slap on your standing order:
Hellboy: The Fury #1 (of 3) by Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo which Mignola says “is kind of this giant, apocalyptic wrap up to this middle chapter of Hellboy's life.” He talks about the whole crazy story arc in an interview over at Comicbook Resources, and there’s a preview of Fegredo’s typically excellent artwork here.
Reed Gunther #1 is an all ages comic by two brothers (Shane and Chris Houghton) which was existing as a self-published series until Image picked it up not so long ago. Reed Gunther’s a goofy cowboy who – along with his bear, Sterling – rides through the Old West fighting monsters and catching runaway trains. Comicvine has an interview with the pair (who also run How To Make Comics classes for kids over in the US, aw) and Comics Alliance have a preview.
Jonathan Hickman (FF) embarks on the second chunk of his popular series with S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume II #1 illustrated by Dunstin Weaver (X-Men). The League of Comic Geeks has a preview.
Grim Ghost #2 is a new supernatural series by screenwriter Stephen Susco (The Grudge) and Tony Isabella (Black Lightning), illustrated by Kelley Jones. We missed the boat on this one, first issue-wise, but we’re trying to get some more in. Broken Frontier have a review already, and say it’s “highly recommended candy for your brain.”
Static Shock Special is a one-shot tribute to the late comic creator and TV animation legend Dwayne McDuffie, who was instrumental in the production of animations like Justice League and Ben 10 (he died earlier this year following complications after heart surgery). It’s 32 pages of stuff by Felicia Henderson, Denys Cowan, Prentis Rollings and loads of others. Henderson talks to CbR about the project.
50 Girls 50 #1 (of 4) by Frank Cho and Doug Murray with artist Axel Medellin. There’s a big interview at CbR with all of them, but Cho summarises its content thusly: “We've got dinosaurs, we've got primitive aliens and giant bugs and women getting their clothes torn off. Issue #3 is all about dinosaurs. Doug wrote a great story about a race of dinosaurs that were descendants of these hyper-intelligent reptiles. So, you have the women who are evolved from apes versus the reptile people who evolve from dinosaurs. Issue #4 has more aliens in a haunted ship type of story.” I think that covers everything but you can have a preview just in case.
All the Flashpoint stuff is kicking off so if you’ve lost your checklist here it is again. You can cross these ones off this week:
Flashpoint: Batman – Knight of Vengeance #1 (of 3) by the 100 Bullets crowd – Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso with covers by Dave Johnson. “I think this Batman is a little bit more of a bad-ass than we've seen before,” Azzarello told Newsarama, “And that includes when I've written Batman, even though I've written some bad-ass Batman stories. This Batman is older, and he's much more angry. He's not the brilliant detective. He's still a brilliant tactician. I think he's even called that in Flashpoint. But he's much more of a pragmatic individual. His motivations come from a different place, and how he acts on them. It's not what you'd expect from Batman.” Preview here.
Flashpoint: Secret Seven #1 (of 3) by Peter Milligan and George Perez. “I don't know if I'm Vertigo-izing the Secret Seven, but it doesn't feel like a straight up superhero team book, whatever the hell that is. There is some weirdness and strangeness in there, as you'd expect from a book featuring Shade, The Changing Man. It's pretty dark and psychological, which I suppose suggests there are elements of Vertigo in it.” More of that interview here and a preview too.
And Flashpoint: Abin Sur The Green Lantern #1 (of 3) by Adam Schlagman and Felipe Massafera about which I can tell you nothing but where they’ve stashed the preview.
Lastly, in the world of the redesigned Wonder Woman you can get Wonder Woman HC Volume 1: Odyssey, which collects the first seven issues of J. Michael Straczynski’s run (or six issues plus the short in #600 if you’re being pedantic). It’ll be on the shelf next to this week’s Wonder Woman #611.
That’s it for comics. If you’re looking elsewhere for entertainment let me point you towards Stratford. Children’s authors Neal Layton, Ed Vere and Gosh! Favourite Sarah McIntyre (Vern & Lettuce) have created a 3D Monsterville which I’m not even going to both explaining because it won’t do it justice. Go look at these pictures.
Or (or “and”) you can go to Brighton and see Steve Aylett’s documentary on pulp science fiction author and philosopher Jeff Lint (The Caterer). According to Wikipedia, “He was the first person to steal Michael Moorcock's 'Multiverse' idea and the first to point out to Jack Vance how unfortunate the title Servants of the Wankh really was.” The movie stars Alan Moore, Stewart Lee, Steve Aylett, Josie Long, Jeff Vandermeer, D Harlan Wilson, Robin Ince, Mitzi Szereto, Bill Ectric, Andrew O'Neill, Vessel (of A+ band David Devant & His Spirit Wife fame, aka Mr Solo), Leila Johnston, 7-Inch Stitch and more, and is screening in Brighton on June 26. More on the movie at its website, and you can secure your seat in the West Hill Community Hall here. The man wrote an (as yet unpublished) novel called The Man Who Gave Birth To His Arse. How could you not want to see this film?
-- Hayley
In Store 26/05/11 - 01/06/11
Click the full post link below for a list of items in store this week.
Betty & Veronica Double Digest #191
2000 AD #1736
30 Days Of Night Night Again #2 (Of 4)
50 Girls 50 #1 (Of 4) (Frank Cho)
Adventure Comics #527
Al Capp's Complete Shmoo Newspaper Strips HC Vol 2
Alan Moore’s A Small Killing TP New Printing (Oscar Zarate)
Aliens Vs Predator Three World War TP
Avengers Academy #14 Point One
Backflash PB (Richard Stark)
Batman Beyond #6
Boys #55 (Garth Ennis)
BPRD Dead Remembered #3 (Of 3)
Breed TP Vol 1 Book Of Genesis
Buffy Season 8 TP Vol 8
Captain Britain HC Vol 1 Birth Of Legend (Chris Claremont)
Citizen Rex HC (G & M Hernandez)
Constructive Abandonment HC
Comix Reader #2 (B. Richards et al)
Criminal Last Of Innocent #1 (Of 4)
Dark Tower Gunslinger Battle Of Tull #1 (Of 5)
Darkness #91
DC Comics Presents: Superman Infestation (Joe Kelly)
DC Universe Online Legends #9
Death Of Zorro #4
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep #2
Doctor Who Insider #3
Dracula Company Of Monsters #10
Dungeons And Dragons #7
Eye Of The Majestic Creature GN
Fathom Vol 4 #0
Fear Itself #3 (Of 7)
Fear Itself Deep #1 (Of 4)
Flash Gordon:
- Invasion Of The Red Sword #2
- Mercy Wars #0
Flashpoint #2 (Johns/Andy Kubert)
Flashpoint: Abin Sur The Green Lantern #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint: Batman Knight Of Vengeance #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint: Secret Seven #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint #1
Godzilla Kingdom Of Monsters #3
Green Hornet Year One #10
Green Lantern Brightest Day HC
Grim Ghost #2 (Kelley Jones)
Halcyon #5 (Of 5)
Hellboy The Fury #1 (Of 3)
Herc #4
Heroes For Hire #8
House Of Mystery #38
Hulk #34
Intrepids #4
Iron Man War Of Iron Men TP
Irredeemable #26
iZombie #14 (Roberson/Allred)
Jonah Hex #68
Jurassic Park TP Devils In The Desert (John Byrne)
Kevin Smith Kato #10
Kill Shakespeare #11 (Of 12)
Life With Mister Dangerous GN(Paul Hornschemier)
Marvel Previews June 2011
Marvel Zombie Christmas Carol #1 (Of 5)
Meat Hill #2 (Lord Hurk)
Moon Knight #2 (Bendis/Maleev)
Osborn TP Evil Incarcerated
Ozma Of Oz #7 (Of 8)
Peanuts: Happiness Is A Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown HC
Planetary/Batman Deluxe HC(W. Ellis/J. Cassaday)
Previews #273 June 2011
Queen Sonja #17
Red Spike #2 (Of 5) (Mark Texiera)
Reed Gunther #1
Secret Six #34 (Gail Simone)
Sherlock Holmes: Valley Of Fear SC (I. Edginton/I. Culbard)
SHIELD #1 (Jonathan Hickman)
Shinku #1
Solomon Kane Red Shadows #3 (Of 4)
Amazing Spider-Man #663
Static Revolter #2 (Hurk/K. Ward)
Static Shock Special One-Shot
Stuck Rubber Baby SC New Edition
Suicide Forest TP
Superboy #8
Superman New Krypton TP Vol 4
Sweet Tooth #22 (Jeff Lemire)
Tarzan Jesse Marsh Years HC Vol 9
Thor For Asgard TP
Thunderbolts #158
Tintin Young Readers Edition GN Secret Of The Unicorn
Tooth HC (Matt Kindt Et Al)
Turf #5 (J. Ross/T. L. Edwards)
Walking Dead Survivors Guide #3 (Of 4)
Walking Dead Weekly #22
Weird Worlds #6 (Of 6)
Who Is Jake Ellis? #4
Witchfinder: Lost & Gone Forever #5 (Of 5)
Wolves SC Ltd Ed (Becky Cloonan)
Wonder Woman #611
Wonder Woman HC Vol 1 Odyssey
Astonishing X-Men #39
Deadpool Classic TP Vol 5
Wolverine Hercules Myths Monsters & Mutants #4 (Of 4)
Uncanny X-Force #11
X-23 #11
X-Factor #220
X-Men #12
X-Men Great Power #1
X-Men To Serve And Protect TP
MANGA
Biomega GN Vol 6 (Of 6)
Naruto 3-In-1 Ed Vol 1
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Due To Arrive 01/06/11
Click the full post link below for a tentative list of titles due to ship next week.
30 Days Of Night Night Again #2 (Of 4)
50 Girls 50 #1 (Of 4)
Adventure Comics #527
Aliens Vs Predator Three World War PB
Amazing Spider-Man #663
Astonishing X-Men #39
Avengers Academy #14 Point One
Batman Beyond #6
BPRD Dead Remembered #3 (Of 3)
Broken Trinity TP Vol 2 Pandora's Box
Captain Britain HC Vol 1 Birth Of Legend
Citizen Rex HC
Criminal Last Of Innocent #1 (Of 4)
Dark Tower Gunslinger Battle Of Tull #1 (Of 5)
Darkness #91
DC Comics Presents Superman Infestation #1
DC Universe Online Legends #9
Deadpool Classic TP Vol 5
Fear Itself #3 (Of 7) Fear
Fear Itself Deep #1 (Of 4) Fear
Flashpoint #2
Flashpoint Abin Sur The Green Lantern #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint Batman Knight Of Vengeance #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint Secret Seven #1 (Of 3)
Flashpoint The World Of Flashpoint #1 (Of 3)
Green Wake #3 (Of 5)
Halcyon #5 (Of 5)
Hellboy The Fury #1 (Of 3)
Herc #4 Fear
Heroes For Hire #8
House Of Mystery #38
Hulk #34
Intrepids #4
Iron Man War Of Iron Men TP
iZombie #14
Jonah Hex #68
Jurassic Park TP Devils In The Desert
Marvel Zombie Christmas Carol #1 (Of 5)
Moon Knight #2
Osborn TP Evil Incarcerated
Ozma Of Oz #7 (Of 8)
Planetary Batman Deluxe HC
Red Spike #2 (Of 5)
Reed Gunther #1
Secret Six #34
SHIELD #1
Solomon Kane Red Shadows #3 (Of 4)
Static Shock Special #1
Stuck Rubber Baby SC New Edition
Suicide Forest TP
Superboy #8
Superman New Krypton TP Vol 4
Supreme Power #1 (Of 4)
Sweet Tooth #22
That Hellbound Train #1 (Of 3)
Thor TP Thunderstrike
Thunderbolts #158 Fear
Turf #5
Uncanny X-Force #11
Walking Dead Survivors Guide #3 (Of 4)
Walking Dead Weekly #22
Weird Worlds #6 (Of 6)
Who Is Jake Ellis #4
Witchfinder Lost & Gone Forever #5 (Of 5)
Wolverine Hercules Myths Monsters And Mutants #4 (Of 4)
Wonder Woman #611
Wonder Woman HC Vol 1 Odyssey
X-23 #11
X-Factor #220
X-Men #12
X-Men Great Power #1
X-Men To Serve And Protect TP
The Gosh! Authority 24/05/11
Everyone grabbed a copy of Paying For It last week before I got a chance to nab one for myself, so if you (like me) are waiting on news of a restock: this is it. Come get ‘em.
Joining it on the new shelves is Vertigo’s Strange Adventures #1, a science fiction anthology featuring all new stuff by Peter Milligan (Hellblazer), Scott Snyder (American Vampire) and Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth), plus the very first chapter of Spaceman (a new series by 100 Bullets creators Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso), all topped off with a cover by Paul Pope (100%, Heavy Liquid).
Comics Alliance have a full contents page for those who like to open their presents early, but it’s all quiet on the preview front.
Back in 1999/2000 Peter Bagge (Hate) and Gilbert Hernandez (Love & Rockets) teamed up for Yeah! – a nine-issue all-ages series about an intergalactically famous girl group who were totally unknown on their home planet Earth. 
“My daughter by then, in 1999, was eight, nine years old, and she was a girly girl and hated to way my comics looked and was like, “Do a comic for girls.” So it was very much me writing something that would entertain her,” said Bagge, of his Comics Code of Authority-approved (!) book. “I managed to convince Gilbert Hernandez to draw it, because I knew that he would capture that sort of Dan DeCarlo 60s or 70s Archie look. Since I’m ripping off Josie and the Pussycats, it may as well look like it.” Fantagraphics have a preview.
If you like Bagge chances are you’re a fan of Johnny Ryan too. This week’s Take a Joke collects all the best bits from his one-man laffs anthology Angry Youth Comix as well as a bunch of stuff yoinked from the pages of Vice magazine. There’s all manner of potty-mouthed things you’d expect from Johnny Ryan. Preview at Fantagraphics.
Last week Kurt Busiek was all about Dave Stevens and The Rocketeer but this week it’s all Jack Kirby. Kirby: Genesis #0 is the prelude to a new series he’s writing, illustrated by Alex Ross in their first collaboration since 1994. They’ve trawled through years and years worth of Kirby’s unused ideas and forgotten designs which they’re expanding upon to make a whole new series in itself. There’s a big long interview with them at Comicbook Resources and a preview here.
“I think something that's important to say about Jack Kirby that we can't say about anybody else over this last 100 years of creating comics and comic strips is that there isn't this wellspring of an unending sea of ideas for every artist,” said Ross. “At least not all the ones I've admired. Certainly, some people have come along and created all kinds of characters, but to have this many offshoots and things that were done independently that could be mined for creative potential...when you look at some of Kirby's designs and see the intricacy of thought and detail he'd put into a throwaway drawing, you realize this was a mind that was exploding with concepts. That's a very unique thing for a very unique person, and it makes it very special for us to be doing this. We couldn't just do this with Artist X, Y or Z.”
The Comics Journal are slowly loading old pre-Internet Comics Journal issues onto their new website and most recently made this available: an interview with Kirby by Gary Groth from 1990.
“I was a movie person. I think it was one of the reasons I drew comics. They galvanized me. When Superman came out it galvanized the entire industry. It’s just part of the American scene. Superman is going to live forever. They’ll be reading Superman in the next century when you and I are gone. I felt in that respect I was doing the same thing. I wanted to be known. I wasn’t going to sell a comic that was going to die quickly.”
Craig Yoe always delivers some of the most handsome books on the shelves, and this new one should be no different. Krazy Kat & The Art of George Herriman HC is his tribute to the genius comics creator featuring rare art, memorabilia, and new essays by the likes of Jay Cantor, Douglas Wolk, Harry Katz, Richard Thompson, Dee Cox (Herriman's granddaughter), Craig McCracken, Bill Watterson, along with reprinted classic ones from Gilbert Seldes and e. e. cummings.
Lewis Trondheim’s Approximate Continuum Comics were some of the first autobiographical works to come out of France. This volume from Fantagraphics (previewed here) collects the first three chapters from The Nimrod (which were originally released in English as regular American floppies) as well as a bunch of previously untranslated stuff, plus a section at the back in which the real life characters pick fault with Trondheim’s depictions of themselves. David B. has got something to say, as does Trondheim’s Mum. How often does that happen? The Comics Journal have a review of it. While you’re in the mood for some Trondheim you might like to pick up Dungeon TP Monstres Volume 4: Night of the Ladykiller, also featuring work by Joann Sfar.
The Accidental Salad looks like an Ignatz book only it isn’t – it’s part of the wave of new stuff we got from Blank Slate Books last week. The UK publisher has hatched a plan to produce large format comics showcasing previously unpublished artists and Joe Decie’s The Accidental Salad is the first off the block. “[It’s] the cream of my current work, including a nice chunk of new and unseen strips,” Decie told Dave O’Connell (Tozo) in this interview. Head to his blog to see what he’s all about: ink washed stories of the everyday with a twist of the absurd.
Also from Blank Slate are two books by German comic artist Mawil, the first time any of his colour stuff has appeared in English: The Band and Home and Away. In the former Mawil relives his schoolboy fantasy of being in a rock band, while the latter has nothing to do with a terrible Australia soap opera. It’s actually about growing up in East Berlin after the wall came down and fighting videogame addiction. Joe Matt (Spent) thinks it’s brilliant.
French graphic novelist Peggy Adam’s Luchadoras has the same sort of look to it as Persepolis. Set on the Mexican border, it’s about a woman attempting to escape an abusive gang-member fiancé, a corrupt society and a world of senseless atrocity. Basically, it’s about all sorts of things you can’t cram into a one-sentence synopsis eloquently or remotely well. It was chosen for the 2007 Sélection Officielle at the Angouléme International Comics Festival, and Broken Frontier have a review. They reckon you should read it once then read it all again.
Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale SC by Belle Yang is also about fleeing an abusive boyfriend, though in this story she shacks up with her Old World Chinese parents. Much like Maus, it’s about her relationship with her father and learning how he and her ancestors survived in China in during World War II. Yang talks about it in this interview and CbR really like it.
On the subject of “grim and foreign” how’s this one: Prison Stories by Igor Hofbauer, a Croation underground illustrator and poster artist. “Prison Stories is a rolling narrative of seven interlocking stories exploring imprisoned characters. The book is frankly terrifying. Not in a ‘goblins are going to eat my skull’ way, but a ‘humanity has deserted all bonds of allegiance’ way,” writes Last Hours, before going on to compare the mood of it to Charles Burns’ Black Hole.
Clonk is something that almost snuck in under the radar entirely. There are nearly no reviews of it, almost as if the thing doesn’t exist. Why? I don’t know. It looks marvellous in a Jason kind of way, or maybe even Goodbye Chunky Rice. It’s like a creepy kids book that starts with a suicidal hanging, so maybe that’s why. The Innsmouth Free Press has a rave review and here are two preview pages hidden in a corner of the publisher’s website: One. Two.
If you’re after something actually cute with no underlying weirdness Jeffrey Brown has just the ticket: the unbelievably twee postcard set The Cutest Sneeze in the World. Someone is already enthusiastically posting them all over the world. It’s about cats sneezing, cats getting out of bags, cats expanding, and cats looking at things, but if it’s any better than Kim Jong-il looking at things I’ll eat my hat.
Peter Hogan and Chris Sprouse’s six-issue miniseries Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom is now in paperback, and if you missed it the first go round you should read this interview with Hogan at CbR, where he talks about getting one of the best gigs in comics.
Gutwrencher was a four-issue story by Steve Niles and Keith Giffen that first appeared in 2006. “Gutwrencher really is the most straight forward horror thing I've ever done because it's really a nod to the horror movies of the '80s – the slasher films, the Prom Nights, the Friday The 13th's and things like that. It's about a high school reunion and the kid who thought he was abused in high school by all these people who comes back for a little revenge. I'll leave it at that,” said Niles, way back when. It’s out in trade paperback tomorrow, so you can grab that and their more recent Doc Macabre in hardcover to add to your grisly reading pile.
Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston (of The Coffin fame) see their series about dreams and levels of reality – Deep Sleeper – collected in hardcover for the first time ever. No new reviews so you can have this old one for now.
Also in hardcover is Peter Milligan’s 5 Ronin, which he talks about with CbR, with each of the five issues illustrated by a different artist: Tomm Coker, Dalibor Talajic, Laurence Campbell, Goran Parlov, and Leandro Fernandez. Next to it on the X-shelf you’ll find Mystique By Brian K. Vaughan: The Ultimate Collection TPB collecting issues #1 to #13 of the blue lady. Mark Millar and Chris Bachalo’s Ultimate War HC has arrived too, and if that’s not enough Millar for you there’s always the new issue of CLiNT.
The Tattered Man is a one-shot from the Jonah Hex team – Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti – about a spirit of vengeance whose existence has something to do with the WWII concentration camps. “I have always believed in giving people a second chance (except ex-girlfriends) and the theme of redemption and making hard choices have always interested me. It’s my human nature to believe there is some good in even the worst person… and this story takes an interesting idea/concept and runs with it. That said, there is a lot of simply horrible people in this book that die in horrific ways… but we make sure, at least, that they have what’s coming to them.” More of that interview at MTV Geek.
DC Comics Presents Green Lantern: Willworld by J.M. DeMatteis and Seth Fisher reprints stories from the early days of Hal Jordan as Green Lantern. DeMatteis described it as “Green Lantern meets Little Nemo in Quantum Wonderland. A playful, surreal, quantum physics fairytale.” It has been out of print for ages so bag a copy while you still can. Also, Seth Fisher’s an excellent artist who didn’t end up doing a whole lot – five years after receiving an Eisner nomination for this Green Lantern comic he died at the age of 33 after falling off a roof in Japan.
Lastly, here’s a couple of things from the wilds of the Internet that you might like:
A gallery of Bill Sienkiewicz covers that somebody sent me after I whinged that cover artists always draw the same grimace on every superhero face. If only there were more Siekiewiczes.
Jeffrey Catherine Jones has died. The Comics Journal posts an obituary and some pictures of lovingly rendered naked ladies. “I am a romantic and a painter and I love women…The female form just reflects light so simply and beautifully,” he once said.
That’s about it. I’ve just been told that next week people with proper jobs get another Bank Holiday Monday (I don’t, I’ll be here). The comics will be doing that thing where they arrive on the same day we’re allowed to sell them, so in all probability they won’t be available to buy until Wednesday afternoon. If you can save your visit until the Thursday it’ll be less chaotic and there will definitely be comics. You know the drill!
-- Hayley
In Store 19/05/11 - 25/05/11
Click the full post link below for a list of items in store this week.
2000 AD #1735
Judge Dredd Megazine #311
5 Ronin HC (Milligan/Campbell )
Accidental Salad SC (Joe Decie)
Alter Ego #101
American Vampire #15 & HC Vol 2
Approximate Continuum Comics GN (Lewis Trondheim)
Secret Avengers #13
Band SC (Mawil)
Batman Brave And The Bold Emerald Knight TP
Detective Comics #877(S. Snyder)
Butcher Baker Righteous Maker #3
Captain America #618
Captain America Official Index To Marvel Universe TP
Ultimate Comics Captain America HC
Carbon Grey #3
Charlaine Harris Grave Sight GN Vol 1
CLiNT #8 (M. Millar/J. Ross Et Al)
Clonk GN Vol 1
Conan Road Of Kings #5 (Of 6)
Crossed 3D TP Vol 1 (David Lapham)
Cutest Sneeze In The World Postcard Set (Jeffrey Brown)
Daomu #4
Marvel Masterworks Daredevil TP Vol 2
Deep Sleeper HC (P. Hester/M. Huddleston)
Doc Macabre HC (Niles/Wrightson)
Dungeon TP Monstres Vol 4 Night Of The Ladykiller(J. Sfar/L. Trondheim)
DV8 Gods And Monsters TP (Wood)
Even The Giants GN (J. Jacobs)
FF #4 (Jonathan Hickman)
Forget Sorrow An Ancestral Tale SC
Futurama Comics #55
Gotham City Sirens #23
Green Arrow #12
DC Comics Presents: Green Lantern Willworld (J.M. DeMatteis/Seth Fisher)
Green Lantern #66 (War of GLs)
Green Lantern Corps #60 (War GLs)
Green Lantern Corps Revolt Of Alpha Lanterns HC
Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #10 (War of Green Lanterns)
Gutwrencher TP (Niles/Giffen)
Hellraiser #2
Home And Away GN (Mawil)
House Of Mystery TP Vol 6 Safe As Houses
I Never Liked You SC New Ptg
Incorruptible #18
Incredible Hulks #629
Infamous #6 (Of 6)
Influencing Machine HC
Iron Man 2.0 #5 Fear
Justice League International TP Vol 6
Justice Society Of America #51
Kato Origins #9 The Hellfire Club
King Conan Scarlet Citadel #4
Kirby Genesis #0 (Busiek/A. Ross)
Krazy Kat & The Art Of George Herriman HC (Craig Yoe)
Lengths #1 Weird Hours
Luchadoras GN
Magnus Robot Fighter #4 (Of 4)
Marvels Project: Birth Of Super Heroes TP (Ed Brubaker)
Mighty Samson #3
Mission #4
Namor First Mutant #10
Onslaught Unleashed #4 (Of 4)
Pixar Presents Cars #1
Power Man And Iron Fist #5 (Of 5)
Prison Stories SC (I. Hofbauer)
Punisher In Blood TP (R. Remender)
Robert E Howard's Savage Sword #2
Ruse #3 (Of 4)
Secret Warriors #27
Simpsons Summer Shindig #5
Slaughterman's Creed One-Shot
Smurfs GN Vol 6 Smurfs & Howlibird
Amazing Spider-Man #662
Astonishing Spider-Man/Wolverine #6 (Of 6)
Spider-Girl #7
Stan Lee's The Traveler #7
Star Wars Darth Vader & Lost Command #5
Strange Adventures #1
Strange Case Of Mr Hyde #2 (Of 4)
Suicide Girls #2
Action Comics #901
Super Dinosaur #2
Take A Joke TP (Johnny Ryan)
Tattered Man One-Shot(J. Palmiotti/J. Gray)
Mighty Thor #2
Tom Strong & Robots Of Doom TP (P. Hogan/C. Sprouse)
Transformers 3 Dark Moon Movie Adaptation TP
True Blood Tainted Love #4
Ultimate War Prem HC
Uncanny X-Men #537 (K. Gillen)
Unknown Soldier TP Vol 4 Beautiful World
Venom #3
Walking Dead #85 (R. Kirkman)
Walking Dead Weekly #21
Chaos War X-Men TP
Daken Dark Wolverine #9.1
Deadpool #37
Emma Frost Ultimate Collection TP
Mystique By Brian K Vaughan Ultimate Collection TPB
Wolverine #9
X-Men Earth's Mutant Heroes #1
X-Men Legacy #249
X-Men Spotlight
Xombi #3
Yeah GN (P. Bagge/G. Hernandez)
MANGA
Gente TP Vol 3 (Of 3)
Gundam 00 Season 2 GN Vol 3
Mega Man Gigamix TP Vol 1
Saturn Apartments TP Vol 3
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Due To Arrive 25/05/11
Click the full post link below for a tentative list of titles due to ship next week.
5 Ronin HC
Action Comics #901
Amazing Spider-Man #662
American Vampire #15
American Vampire HC Vol 2
Art Of Amanda Conner HC
Astonishing Spider-Man Wolverine #6 (Of 6)
Barks Bear Book HC
Batman Brave And The Bold Emerald Knight TP
BPRD TP Vol 3 Plague Of Frogs New Ptg
Breed Vol 1 Book Of Genesis TP
Broken Trinity TP Vol 2 Pandora's Box
Butcher Baker Righteous Maker #3
Captain America #618
Captain America Official Index To Marvel Universe TP
Carbon Grey #3
Chaos War X-Men TP
Conan Road Of Kings #5 (Of 6)
Daken Dark Wolverine #9 Point One
Daomu #4
Darkness #91
Darkness Origins TP Vol 3
DC Comics Presents Green Lantern Willworld Deadpool #37
Detective Comics #877
Dungeons And Dragons #7
DV8 Gods And Monsters TP
Emma Frost Ultimate Collection TP
FF #4
Godzilla Kingdom Of Monsters #3
Gotham City Sirens #23
Green Arrow #12
Green Lantern #66
Green Lantern Corps #60
Green Lantern Corps Revolt Of Alpha Lanterns HC
Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #10
Halcyon #5 (Of 5)
House Of Mystery TP Vol 6 Safe As Houses
Incredible Hulks #629
Infamous #6 (Of 6)
Iron Man 2.0 #5 Fear Itself
Justice League International TP Vol 6
Justice Society Of America #51
King Conan Scarlet Citadel #4
Li'l Abner HC Vol 3
Magnus Robot Fighter #4 (Of 4)
Marvels Project Birth Of Super Heroes TP
Memoir #4 (Of 6)
Mighty Samson #3
Mighty Thor #2
Mission #4
Marvel Masterworks Daredevil TP Vol 2
Mystique By Brian K Vaughan Collection TP
Namor First Mutant #10
Onslaught Unleashed #4 (Of 4)
Power Man And Iron Fist #5 (Of 5)
Punisher In Blood TP
Robert E Howard's Savage Sword #2
Runaways TP Vol 4 True Believers Digest New Ptg
Ruse #3 (Of 4)
Secret Avengers #13 Fear Itself
Secret Warriors #27
Spider-Girl #7
Spider-Man #14
Star Wars Darth Vader & Lost Command #5
Star Wars Legacy War #6 (Of 6)
Strange Adventures #1
Strange Case Of Mr Hyde #2 (Of 4)
Super Dinosaur #2
Tattered Man One-Shot
Thunderstrike TP Youth In Revolt
Tom Strong And The Robots Of Doom TP
Transformers 3 Dark Moon Movie Adaptation TP
Transformers Prime TP Vol 2
True Blood Tainted Love #4
Turf #5
Ultimate Comics Captain America Prem HC
Ultimate War Prem HC
Uncanny X-Men #537
Unknown Soldier TP Vol 4 Beautiful World
Venom #3
Walking Dead #85
Walking Dead Weekly #21
Wolverine #9
Wonder Woman #611
X-Men Earth's Mutant Heroes #1
X-Men Legacy #249
X-Men Spotlight
Xombi #3
The Gosh! Authority 17/05/11
Chester Brown’s Paying For It has arrived and I’ve been instructed not to say anything rude on the Gosh! Blog. Let’s see how long that lasts.
It’s an autobiographical book about prostitution and being a john from the guy who did I Never Liked You. I can’t remember the last time a book arrived with such anticipation heaped before it (probably it’s because Chester Brown is excellent and the last time we saw a book from him was five long years ago – Louis Riel, an A+ piece of work). There are interviews all over the place but the most extensive one comes courtesy of The Comics Journal. Brown talks about how Dave Sim’s famously misogynistic rant section in Cerebus #186 had an effect on how he viewed romantic relationships:
“Up until [Cerebus #186] I just kind of accepted [that] everyone’s supposed to have a girlfriend and that’s the natural order. If you don’t have a girlfriend, you’re a loser. That’s what men do, they either have girlfriends or they marry—well, as long as you’re heterosexual. So, reading Cerebus #186, even though I didn’t agree with all the misogynistic views—I didn’t agree that women are inferior, all that stuff—still, here was a guy who was looking at male-female relationships in a different way. It kind of showed me, you don’t have to think like everyone else thinks about these things. Part of it was that I respected Dave a whole lot, and I knew him, and I thought he was very intelligent. That issue of Cerebus was a bombshell in a lot of ways. Like a lot of people at the time, I wasn’t sure, “Is he kidding? Is this a joke? Is he serious?” But it got me re-evaluating the whole male-female dynamic, and thinking about it in a different way, even if my conclusions are different from Dave’s.”
“Marriage is such a ridiculous, outdated institution that it almost doesn’t seem worth the energy to point out how stupid it is,” says Brown in another interview in the Montreal Gazette.
Jeet Heer, a friend of Brown’s (“Chester's sex life has long been a staple of amused and amazed conversation in my social circle”) writes a guest column at Canada’s Globe and Mail. “Ultimately,” he says, “sex work should be considered a trade, like auto repair or journalism. (Some people will never accept it; then again, some people will always hate the media, or mistrust their mechanics.)”
It’s causing a stir on the internet and people are arguing for and against it (prostitution and the book). Either way, I’m looking forward to reading it. Here are a couple of reviews at our favourite comic book acronyms, TCJ and FPI.
The biggest comic this week has got to be the Rocketeer Adventures #1 (of 4) – an all-new anthology series featuring Rocketeer stories by some of the best guys in the business: Alex Ross, John Cassaday, Mike Allred, Kurt Busiek, Michael Kaluta, Mike Mignola and Jim Silke (and that’s just the first issue!).
Comicbook Resources have a huge feature on it (preview pages too) in which they talk to everyone involved in this week’s issue. A portion of the profits go straight to the researchers currently trying to figure out a cure for the type of leukemia Dave Stevens died from back in 2008. A good cause and all that, but from the looks of it you won’t be needing that extra incentive.
Chico & Rita arrived some time last week so chances are you’ve already nabbed a copy. It’s the graphic novel version of the animated film (a Waltz With Bashir type deal) illustrated by the great Mariscal (legendary Spanish cartoonist who appeared in Raw back in 1980) and written by Oscar-winning director Fernando Trueba.
Inspired by the true story of Cuban band leader Bebo Valdes, it’s about a young piano player and his romantic entanglement with Rita, a singer. “1948 was the first year of the fusion between jazz and Cuban music: Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo,” said Trueba. “We set it in 1948 [because] we love all the Chevrolets and old advertisements,” added Mariscal, “Everywhere in the US and Europe people were dancing to cha cha and mambo. There was a big explosion of Cuban music.”
It’s another SelfMadeHero production so the quality is top-notch and they’ve even given us a bunch of signed and bookplated copies. Come in and grab one before they all go.
Ralph Steadman’s gone and done another book of splattery dog pictures. "To do another book about dogs in the wake of my three other books about dogs is, I am aware, a trifle excessive," he said. The Independent are into it – read their review here – and if you want to woof at some preview hounds point your nose at this.
Big heavy coffee table books from Gingko Press are all over the new release shelf this week making everything else look small and insignificant. In the unlikely event your gaze misses them, here’s what they’ve sent us:
Discrepancies HC by Alex Gross gives you pop surrealism aplenty. It includes most of the pieces from his most recent exhibition, as well as the entire show before that and various other bits from the sands of time. He talks to Hi-Fructose about it and they’ve got a fair whack of previews for you too.
More pop surrealism in Joe Sorren’s Painting/Sculpture: 2004 – 2010, published in conjunction with an exhibition of his in California. Head to Hi-Fructose again for an interview/preview.
EMEK: The Thinking Man’s Poster Artist HC collects a load of posters from the LA artist who helped revive the popularity of good old fashioned rock art. They’re a bit ‘60s psychedelia, a bit punk, and they’re done for the likes of NIN, Nick Cave, and Bright Eyes. Pictures at Gingko and the LA Weekly has an interview.
Monster Revolt! The Art of Dirty Donny HC gives you more rock and lowbrow art from the guy most famous for his work with Metallica (who provide the commentary in this book). Pictures at Gingko.
Not a big heavy hardcover at all but an artbook nonetheless is Zero: Jm Ken Nimura Illustration TP, a collection of colourful whimsy from the Eisner-nominated artist on I Kill Giants. Preview at Comic Buzz and if you’re interested in the details of the guy’s technique there’s a video interview over at The Comic Archive.
Joe Kubert’s Dong Xoai, Vietnam TP is in, thus completing the Kubert trifecta I mentioned last week.
“What I expect people to see, and the way I tried to draw it, are those events the way that I imagined them, having read the material that [retired colonel] Bill gave me. I tried to do it in such a way that it doesn’t look like a comic book or a comic strip but perhaps more like a combat reporter - that is, somebody who was there while the events were happening. And that’s why I did it in pencil and a lot of it may seem unfinished because I wanted that feeling of immediacy and the illustrations that I’ve done convey that to the reader so they themselves would feel that they are looking at the events happening while they’re happening.” More at Comicbook Resources.
Liar’s Kiss HC is the debut graphic novel by Eric Skillman, a man whose name you probably don’t know but whose work you’ll definitely have seen (he designed the cover of Eddie Campbell’s Alec: The Years Have Pants, for starters). “Without giving too much away—it is a whodunit after all—the book is about a private detective, Nick Archer, who spends his nights with the woman he's supposed to be surveilling on behalf of her jealous husband,” he tells MTV Geek. “But when the husband turns up murdered, his cheating wife is the prime suspect and it's up to Nick to clear her name… and even in those two sentences I've already lied to you at least once. Sorry, it's just that kind of book.” With classic crime noir influences worn on his sleeve, you’ll probably be up for this if you’re a fan of Brubaker. Preview at Top Shelf, and a review at TCJ.
Yummy SC is a sort of true story – a graphic novel about the life and death of Robert ‘Yummy’ Sandifer, an 11-year-old gang member killed by his own gang, as seen through the eyes of a fictional classmate. “Back in 1994 I was a filmmaker teaching workshops to kids in the inner-city schools of Los Angeles. When the Yummy story broke, a lot of discussions started popping up among the kids. Some felt Yummy was a straight-up thug who got what he deserved. Others felt he was a victim too. At the time, there was a gang war going on in the area and there had been several memorials for students who'd been killed. Many of the kids had siblings who were in gangs or had been affected by gangs. It was a loaded topic.” Author G. Neri and illustrator Randy DuBurke talk about it here.
Having now met Robbie Morrison at our recent Free Comic Book Day signing, you should read some 2000AD stuff he did almost ten years ago. Collected for the very first time, The Bendatti Vendetta is a bloody gangland story set in contemporary Europe. Fully painted John Burns art throughout.
Chris Hastings’ The Adventures of Dr McNinja TP Volume 1 is a comic from The Internet.“In a world where a doctor can also be a ninja, you can expect some things. Little boys with large moustaches, giant lumberjacks, raptor riding banditos, Dracula's moon base... If you like action mixed with comedy and doctors mixed with ninjas, Dr. McNinja is a comic you'll most likely enjoy.” And why not? Anything can happen on The Internet, except for whatever happens in the story that’s exclusively print-only. They’ve put together a list of 10 Most Awesome McNinja Moments so you can do some preliminary detective work to see if you like it.
In hardcover you can have Powers Volume 1: Who Killed Retro Girl? which is the fully reformatted, redesigned, re-everything’d original Eisner Award-winning series by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming. You can also get the controversial 2003 five-issue miniseries by Mark Millar and Terry Dodson, Trouble. It was a (failed) attempt to reach female readers with romance stories, and the book caused a stir for the two reasons listed over at CbR’s Robot6. Dodson provides the illustrated cover on this one, so casual browsers won’t be creeped out by the original photo versions.
Shadoweyes: Volume 2: Shadoweyes in Love continues the offbeat teen superhero story by Ross Campbell who’s cast aside the plump goth girls of Wet Moon for a bit. Preview at Ghetto Manga.
DC Comics Presents: Batman Dark City by Peter Milligan (Hellblazer) will be of interest to anyone reading Grant Morrison’s Bat-related titles, because he’s picked up on the Demon Barbathos plot point that began in this three-issue run by Milligan back in the early ‘90s. “I was interested – and still am – in the relationship between Gotham City and Batman. Interested in how Gotham is a character in itself, as important and Batman, The Joker or, indeed, The Riddler. Because of the varied nature of Gotham City I suppose it’s a story than can be told in a number of different ways,” said Milligan, talking about the (then uncollected) series in this interview from last year.
New series Batman: Gates of Gotham #1 (of 5) by Scott Snyder (American Vampire), Kyle Higgins, and Trevor McCarthy seems to be all about the same sort of thing: “I think when people refer to Gotham as a character, what they're reacting to is the mood it creates, the shadow that the city casts. In our story, we're really exploring the make-up of the city, and trying to take that concept of Gotham as a character to another level.” More at Newsarama.
Drums #1 (of 4) is a new one from El Torres, the writer of the recent miniseries Suicide Forest. Preview at MTV Geek.
Alpha Flight #0 Point One provides a good jumping on point for new readers courtesy of Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente, with Ben Oliver illustrating the Canadian superheroes. Van Lente said some stuff about it in USA Today (preview there too). Pick up Booster Gold #44 for the return of Dan Jurgens and a Flashpoint prelude (preview). And if you’ve been following James Asmus’ annuals crossover story Escape From The Negative Zone (in Uncanny X-Men Annual #3 and Steve Rogers: Super Solider Annual #1) you’ll be needing Namor First Mutant Annual #1 for the third and final chapter (preview).
Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker (Invincible) indulge in their Science Dog side-project again with Science Dog Special #2. “I think Science Dog is something Cory and I always wanted to do – even when we were doing Invincible; so it's been fun to come back to it every 25 issues. After doing it in Invincible #25, #50 and #75 we didn't want to wait until #100 to wrap up the story. So basically what we've done with Science Dog Special #2 is run the 12 pages from Invincible #75 that continued from the other two collected in Science Dog Special #1 and then go ahead and do a wrap-up conclusion to the entire story – and it ends up being pretty much a full-size issue. The story gets pretty epic by the end – at that point we're 50+ plus pages into it.” More at Newsarama.
And finally, a bunch of notable X-books. There’s X-Men Giant Size #1 in which Christopher Yost, Paco Medina and Dalibor Talijic begin a story they’ll finish up in X-Men #12 next month (preview). Astonishing X-Men #38 continues with the parallel continuity thing (“The X-Men split into two teams, each on seemingly separate missions told by rotating creative teams that collide with major consequences for the X-Men!” writes The Comic Book Nerd), previewed here. Deadpool: Wade Wilson’s War is collected in trade, and if you missed the series by Duane Swierczynski and Jason Pearson you can preview the first issue at CbR. Dave Lapham and Kyle Baker’s popular run on DeadpoolMAX continues this week with #8, and you can get the first six issues of the series in hardcover too. “Will it be sophomoric? Yes. Will it be fun? Yes. Will it be smart? Define smart.” Preview of this week’s issue here.
Before I sign off, here’s a six-page comic written by Paul Slade and illustrated by Hans Rickheit of the webcomic Ectopiary.
Insects are weird.
-- Hayley