Let’s get to it! Travis is in black, I’m in blue, and there are comics to be examined … but not, it seems, what’s on the cover of this month’s Previews #361, a comic which is not actually solicited in this month’s catalog! Oh, those rascally rapscallions at Marvel!
The solicits are not at Newsarama, which is weird, but Image itself has them!
On page 40 we find Die #1, a new series by Kieron Gillen. It’s drawn by Stephanie Hans, so it will look gorgeous, and the title is an oh-so-clever double meaning, as it means both what you do when your life is over and also a many-sided shape that people use in games to determine their moves. It’s about role players who happened to call up something horrible and how they deal with it as adults. Yes, the solicits even lean into the “Jumanji” connection, but so what if it’s a bit derivative? Gillen is amazing, Hans is amazing, and I’ve been looking forward to this since June, when Gillen told me about it. Whoo-hoo!
Earlier in the catalog the Previews people suggest IT as another touchstone, which seems apropos as well. It does sound cool, so I’ll get the trade, and not even mention how jelly I am of you already knowing about it!
The first volume of Farmhand in on page 56. This has been a somewhat surprisingly good series – I knew it would look good, because Rob Guillory is a good artist, but Guillory’s writing is quite solid, too. He learned some lessons from collaborating with John Layman for years, so the series is a bit twisted and funny, but it also starts out a bit more humanistic than Chew did (Chew became so later in its run). It’s a neat comic.
I’ve been waiting for this trade, so I’m in, especially since it’s 10 bucks. Insert comment here about how I still haven’t gotten the first Chew Smorgasbord HC at my shop, so Image needs to get that back in print, dammit!
I don’t know if The New World on page 58 is any good, because Ales Kot is very hit-and-miss, but it’s Romeo and Juliet in a Mad Max world, which isn’t a bad thing, and I’m getting it because Tradd Moore is drawing it, and Moore is terrific.
Yeah, I’ll probably get this one. Eventually.
I’m not sure about getting the trade of Stellar (page 60), because I don’t love Joe Keatinge’s work and he was kind of a dick the only time I’ve ever talked to him, but the premise – what does a warrior do after winning the war? – isn’t bad, and Bret Blevins on art is always a treat. I’ll have to think about it.
Keatinge’s Glory was fantastic but a lot of the rest of his work I’ve read is merely ok (with his Morbius being awful). But the man who brought us Sleepwalker is on art, so I may go for that.
I like the descriptor tags for Man-Eaters 4 on page 78. “Self-help, Survival Guide, Feline Studies”.
Once again, it’s not Newsarama, but the full solicits are here!
Mind Mgmt gets a fancy omnibus on page 107, with 400 pages for 25 bucks. It’s an excellent series, so if you haven’t read it yet, here’s a good place to start!
I’m not sure how fancy it is, as it is a softcover, but I actually did read this series from the library, and it is excellent. Someday I will get around to owning it!
It’s still fancy!
I would skip the hardcover of Xerxes: The Fall of the House of Darius and the Rise of Alexander on page 111, because it’s 30 dollars for five issues, and given that it’s Miller doing his expressionistic best, it won’t take you long to read. It’s actually a very weird story, and probably worth reading, but not for that much coin.
Not too long ago I got the HC of 300 at a library sale for 2 bucks, so I’ll wait until serendipity drops this in my lap!
Dark Horse does a lot of the EC archives, and usually I don’t get them simply because they cost a lot, but I may have to get The EC Archives: Piracy on page 120, even though it’s 50 bucks. Pirates are hella fun, and this features stories drawn by Wallace Wood, Jack Davis, Al Williamson, Graham Ingels, Reed Crandall, and Bernard Krigstein, among others. That’s not a bad line-up. Plus, there’s a foreword by … Marilyn Manson? Fuck the heck?
Aaaaahhhhh! (duh duh duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh duh!) Yeah, that’s weird, because you’d think if he’s doing one for any of them, it’d be a horror one. I’m glad DH is getting a lot of these shorter and later EC series collected. And I’m kicking myself for not getting the second Panic one when it was offered!
Hey, Newsarama actually has the solicits!
They’re doing a Batman and the Outsiders series (page 2) and there’s no Looker? Yeah, I’ll pass. Booooooo, DC!!!!
Goddess Mode on page 4 is about a future where humans are provided for by an A.I., and the protagonist is the woman who does tech support for it. Of course she discovers there’s something fishy going on, but frankly, I would read the hell out of a series just about her terrible job doing tech support for a godlike A.I. We don’t need fishy things going on for it to be a good story!!!!
On page 23, in Flash 60, there’s a corrupt police state in Corto Maltese, which is that famous Euro comic, iirc. Although wasn’t there a reference to it being a country in DKR?
Possibly? I don’t have my copy handy, so I ain’t looking it up. But yes, Corto Maltese is Hugo Pratt’s famous series. That’s an odd deep cut for a generic DC comic.
Page 27 has Hawkman 7, which still lists Bryan Hitch as the artist, which I believe has been the case for each issue. Which is surprising!
Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing gets the Absolute treatment on page 50, and while $100 is a lot for comics I already own, I do love me some Absolute Editions. Dang it.
What is both interesting and irritating is that it says it is newly colored. Argh …
They’re offering a trade of the early Adam Strange stuff on page 51, which I swear they offered before in some form but cancelled it. Hope they get this one out, because I just read the JLA crossover issue (Mystery in Space 75, in this collection) and dug it.
It’s $150, but Detective Comics: Before Batman looks sweet, as DC gives us the first 26 issues of the series in two fancy hardcovers. Another huge expense I will have to ponder.
Yeah, this one is tough, because it’s interesting from an historical perspective, but some of the Golden Age stuff is tough to read and enjoy. I did read that there will be some sort of “revelation” about an early creator of this stuff who has not gotten their due before now, but I don’t know what exactly will be revealed, so I am intrigued from that aspect. It comes out in March so I can probably save up until then! Or not, actually….
Augh! While there’s a trade of Scooby Doo Team Up on page 65, there’s no listing for a new issue! No!!!
Once again, Newsarama drops the ball for the full solicits, so go here!
On page 145, we get Rocketeer Reborn, which is a modern take on the character. Cliff Secord’s jet pack has been found, and apparently a bunch of people want it! Elsa Charretier is writing this with her writing partner, Pierrick Colinet, and while it’s disappointing that she’s not drawing it, Javier Pulido is, and Pulido is absolutely terrific, so this is probably going to be worth a look.
Yeah, I’ll probably check out the trade.
San Glanzman’s Voyage to the Deep, which contains four tales of the “shape-shifting atomic submarine Proteus” (you know, I prefer my atomic submarines to pick a shape and stick with it!), is offered on page 159 from the It’s Alive imprint. This sounds like a shitload of fun, although it is $25 for 144 pages. But you people should love Glanzman if you don’t already, so you should check it out!
I have to check, but I thought I got the print version of this with the Kickstarter, and as of now, it hasn’t come out. I could be wrong, though. I do have the PDF of it, though, so maybe I will get around to writing about it soon. I talked about the Kickstarter when it was live.
You know you need to check out the solicits here!
One of our faves, Juan Ferreyra, is doing the art for the Killmonger mini on page 12. So it will look great!
I saw that and was bummed. I mean, yeah, I’ll read a Killmonger mini-series just because Ferreyra draws it, but man, I wish a writer I liked would team up with him for a long-running Image book, because the way Marvel and DC use artists these days is terrible.
Ooh. On page 108, Marvel starts the Decades collections, with the 1940s and The Human Torch vs. The Sub-Mariner. I may have read bits of this stuff, and some Golden Age stuff is…ok, I said that bit in the DC section. But this is reasonably priced and should be cool, and the upcoming trades look cool too.
On page 135, Marvel has What If? Classic: The Complete Collection volume 1, which collects the first 12 issues of the series and might be worth a look. Honestly, until we get to the issue where Wolverine eats a baby, they’re just wasting my time!!!!
…OK, I don’t know what that one is, but this explains all those True Believer books from last month or the month before. I have several of these, I believe, and they’re decent.
I guess you could check out the solicitations on Bleeding Cool?
Charlie’s Angels is offered in trade on page 189, and I like Layman and Eisma, so I’ll be getting this. I know it’s fluff, but it’s probably entertaining fluff!
Yeah, I was waiting on this one, too.
Leah Moore and John Reppion write solid Holmes stories, so I’ll get the trade of The Vanishing Man on page 191, even though the solicits spell it “Shelock Holmes.” I mean, if they’re going to gender-switch the detective, the name is right there, but I don’t think Moore and Reppion were quite that bold in this story!
Sigh – Rich has them, so here they are!
Yeah, I got nuthin’. Take it away!
Just that Feathers is in softcover on page 217, by Jorge Corona, whose art looks good from what I’ve seen.
Let’s get to the back of the book!
Aardvark-Vanaheim has Canadian Vark on page 232, the new Cerebus in Hell? book, with that up to the minute parody of the cover of American Flagg 1. However, this issue is all new stuff, so yay?!
Action Lab has the trade of Double Jumpers volume 2 on page 234, and the first trade, with a group of programmers transported to their own video game’s world, was pretty good, so I think I’ll be getting this.
Man, if I had money I’d get the HC of Babyteeth Year One on page 238 from AfterShock, since I’ve passed on the trades but it sounded cool. A teen mom is giving birth to the Antichrist. Donny Cates is pretty good from the stuff I’ve been reading of his lately.
It’s pretty good. Some of it is wildly predictable, but some of it’s not. And Garry Brown’s art is pretty good.
I’m also looking at Her Infernal Descent, in trade on page 247, with a mom trying to get her family out of hell with the help of William Blake and Agatha Christie, because why not?
Yeah, I forgot to mention that. I’ll be picking that up.
Mega Ghost on page 250 from Albatross Funnybooks sounds fun, about a kid who can summon a supernatural robot to fight the occult. I’ll probably wait for a trade!
Our pals at Amigo are mashing up their characters in Crossover 1 on page 257, pitting Nancy in Hell against the Apocalypse Girl. I haven’t read either of their books yet, but I will still probably get this because the Amigo stuff is usually pretty good.
I read the first Nancy in Hell story, and it was all right. This is a weird idea, but it’s either going to be really good or really bad. We shall see!
Antarctic Press is teaming with ROK Comics, which apparently does animation on mobile devices, which means they’re beyond my technical capabilities. But one comic they’re doing on page 260, Heroes at Large, about a group of government sponsored heroes in the ’40s getting thawed out now with their old attitudes still intact sounds fun. I’ll hope for a trade!
I could probably handle it on my desktop, but yeah, I don’t have a very good mobile device either. Mine has an actual keyboard instead of a virtual one, because I’m old-school!
Pfft, I use the old timey letters on each of the numbers of the phone dial. Plus, my battery seems to have crapped out on mine, so I have to take a look to see if I can find a new one somewhere!
I’d love to order a shitload of these Avatar books offered for cheap, but a few months ago they had a “big sale” and then sent my shop the books I wanted at cover price, not the sale price. WTF, Avatar? So I may still order these but I will approach with caution.
You didn’t pay full price for them, did you? Because that happened with me, too, but if you look at your store’s invoice, despite the full price being listed, they only paid what they would for a 6-dollar book (as the ones from a few months ago were on sale for $5.99). So they shouldn’t have charged you full price. If they did, I doubt it was on purpose – they just looked at the listed price on the comic – but they got the sale price, so you should have too. Just to let you know.
Oh, I brought it up with my guy. I have several in my pull box still that I have to pick up, but the one (Mercury Heat v1, I think) I got he did charge me the low price. I’ll have to remember to let him know to check his invoice, but he’s pretty good about knowing what’s going on.
A Wave Blue World has a few books on page 279, but I’m looking at All We Ever Wanted, their latest anthology. This one collects inspiring science-fiction stories, and while I usually contribute to Tyler’s Kickstarters for his anthologies, I missed this one (I can’t remember why, but I think it was a good reason!), so I’ll pick it up now. Their books are usually quite good!
On page 288, Classic Comics Press has two books by Warren Tufts – the Complete Lance and Casey Ruggles volume 1. The first is $100, the second is $59.95, but they’re both over 300 pages and I can’t honestly decide if I want to splurge for both of them or just one. Dang it. Anyway, Tufts is really good, so if you haven’t seen his art yet, you could get one of these books!
ComicMix does something unexpected and brings out GrimJack Omnibus volume 4 on page 290. The reason this is unexpected is because these are kind of the red-headed stepchild of GrimJack – it’s no longer John Gaunt, but Jim Twilley, as the title character. I own all these issues but I’ve never read them, and I’m trying to decide if I should get this or not just to keep up with the trades. I’m sure they’re good, though, because the Gaunt stories are great, and it’s still John Ostrander (plus excellent art by Flint Henry).
Hmm, I didn’t know that. I have a decent chunk of the original run, but I’m not sure what all I do or don’t have. I probably will end up passing, though, just because I have too many other things I want, and not enough money for them all.
Fantagraphics has an anthology of Jay Lynch’s work on page 300. Ink & Anguish is the title. I may snag this, as I met the dude once, and even did an obit for him here.
I forgot to mention Memorabilia by Sergio Ponchione on the same page. It’s a quasi-biography of Kirby, Wood, Ditko, Eisner, and Corben, and the page of art they show is superb. It’s only 56 pages for 17 bucks, so it might be a bit dear, but it looks really keen.
Yeah, I noticed that when I flipped through again, but it didn’t get me to the point of putting it in here myself!
On page 302 is a new book of Dame Darcy stuff, Hi Jax and Hi Jinx: Life’s a Pitch, and then you Live Forever, from Feral House. I will probably get this to go with my Meat Cake HC from a few years back.
Oni has the first trade of The Long Con on page 326, which sounds fun, about a comic convention that becomes a community after an apocalypse. It’s co-written by Dylan Meconis, remember.
Of course I remember! I’m trying to decide if I should get this or the inevitable giant-sized collection coming out later, but then I worry that it will never get to that because it’s not financially viable for the company. Dang it!
I’m wishing I could snag the Guerillas Omnibus Edition on page 333, by Brahm Revel, about a bunch of chain smoking chimps fighting in Vietnam, which is inherently a cool premise! I need to win the lottery!
Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, I will point out that that’s not how you spell “guerrillas.” That thing has gone through so many printings with at least two different publishers, and no one has ever bothered to check!
Dang, I did not know that!
Oni has an interesting definition of “as seen on TV”, because of the 4 books they highlight on pages 334-335, only one is from a TV show. The others are written by people who have written for TV shows. Ok?
That’s strange. Maybe the others have been optioned for television but haven’t made it there yet?
Another omnibus that sounds cool is the Papercutz/Super Genius collection of Jessica Abel’s Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars on page 338. Sounded cool but I probably can get it at a library.
Yeah, I like Abel quite a bit, but that subject matter does not interest me at all.
I may need to get Ken Reid’s Creepy Creations HC 1 from Rebellion on page 340 to go with the Faceache HC I got (available again on page 341). He’s got a cool Basil Wolverton style. If I read the Faceache book before the order deadline maybe I’ll get this!
On page 342 Scout Comics has a couple of cool collections. Jazz Legend is about a weird psychedelic drug and what it does to a jazz musician and writer, while Heavenly Blues is about a heist in the afterlife. They both sounded good.
Yeah, I might get both of them. Or just one. We shall see!
Source Point Press has one that might be interesting on page 344. The Cabinet is a story about a group of “social outcasts” who come together on a mission in the Northwest Passage in 1901 and decide to assassinate the president. You know, like you do on missions to the Northwest Passage.
Well duh. That is a graphically cool cover from a design standpoint.
Indeed it is!
Page 346 has Fantasmagoria Holiday Special 2018 from Starburns Industries Press. The first issue was decent (and I may do a full review of it still), so I probably will get this too.
Fabien Nury’s Angola is on page 351 from Titan. This is about the prison, not the country, and apparently it’s a “gritty 1950s gangster thriller.” Well, that sounds fun.
There’s another Philippe Druillet book on page 354: The Night, which he apparently did in response to his wife’s death. If you haven’t checked out Druillet yet, you really should, as he’s a genius artist. Yes, this is 25 dollars for 72 pages, but those 72 pages will be packed with gorgeous stuff and you’ll be able to linger on each page for a long time just marveling at the artwork!
Hmm, interestingly, that sounds similar to what I’ve heard about the inspiration for A Clockwork Orange and the description of the book makes it sound like a similar kind of story. Weird.
Valiant has the third trade of Britannia on page 370. I will finally be reading the first two trades soon, and will therefore decide if I get this one. Don’t spoil nuthin’ for me! (Update, Robert Stack style: I have now read these and they are very good, so I will be getting this!)
Robert Stack style? You’re so old! Also, I haven’t read the third, but it’s a different artist, just so you know. It looks pretty good, though. I’m looking forward to reading it when it’s all done, because you’re right – they are good!
Hey, Unsolved Mysteries is on Hulu, I think, and the gf and I have watched a couple episodes. We even watched a later season with Dennis Farina as host, but it was not as good.
Vanguard Productions has Wally Wood: Dare-Devil Aces on page 371. It’s a collection of Wood’s war comics, including two Cannon stories drawn by Ditko and inked by Wood (I’ve shown some of those before; they’re really beautiful). Yes, it’s 40 dollars, but it’s Wally Wood, for crying out loud!
You can’t judge a book by its title, apparently, because the Seven Seas book on page 416 is called I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, but it seems to be about a love story where one character is dying of pancreatic disease. No actual pancreas eating, unless it takes a gory turn later.
That’s not even judging a book by its cover, that judging a book by its title!
Travis wanted to point out something weird in the deep back of the book, but I guess he chickened out, so that’s all for this month! Have a nice time checking out the catalog!
Oh, I had to put that in? Here it is:
On page M94 is cell phone girl mobile phone stand, which is so disturbing I’m guessing Greg won’t include the picture (and I’ll be surprised if I even get to read this in the column!). Japan is weird, man.
So there!
Now you can have a nice day!
Hmmmm, not single thing to buy here.
Oh, well.
Maybe in February. 🙂
(the cell phone girl mobile stand is just plain weird)
So Glanzman’s Voyage to the Deep is going to be available to the general public? I thought those Kickstarter collections were only printed for the backers.
As with most if not all of the It’s Alive stuff, it started as Kickstarter first then IDW bringing out a general public version. But like I said, unless I’ve forgotten and didn’t actually get the print version, the Kickstarter version isn’t out to backers yet, so it’s a little presumptuous and annoying that the general public might get it around the same time backers did. (I get the Kickstarter updates, and while the new Glanzman Kickstarters were pushed, I don’t remember anything about backers getting their print copies yet, although like I said, I have had the PDF for awhile now.)
Yeah, I had heard that there’s been a number of problems/delays involving the physical books in the previous It’s Alive Kickstarters. That’s why in the most recent Lonely War campaign I only pledged for the PDF version (the first 10 pages were already sent in one of the recent update e-mails).
(By the way – and kind of on a tangent – did you ever get your book for the Section Zero Kickstarter? That’s one I wish would be published retail as well, since I missed making a pledge by about 1 hour.)
I haven’t gotten my Section Zero book just yet, but it should be shipping to me as we speak. There have been updates a-plenty but the book has not yet gotten to me (although I also have the pdf available on that too). Looks cool from what I’ve seen!
IMAGE:
Passed on DIE because I’ve seen this idea done a couple dozen times over in other media and at least twice in underground comics before.
Ordered PRODIGY (page 44) even though it’s probably just going to be Mark Millar writing his snarky excuse for intelligence as opposed to an actual smartest person who is more emotionally detached from society because he’s thinking on a higher level than everyone else. We’ll see.
Ordered THE FREEZE (page 46) – The premise is interesting to me. Everyone on earth is frozen except for one person and he has the ability to unfreeze them? At least it’s something I don’t recall seeing before.
Ordered SELF / MADE #1 (page50) – Not familiar with the creative team at all but the preview story pages were enough to intrigue me with the ad blurb.
Ordered rerelease of CREATURE TECH by Doug Tenapel (page 55)
Ordered FEAR AGENT: FINAL EDITION V. 4 by Rick Remender & Co. (page 56)
I’ve been getting STELLAR in singles, but I can’t really talk about it yet because I haven’t read them.
MAGE THE HERO DENIED #14 (of 15 – page 78) Gonna get the rest of this so I can finish out the saga.
DARK HORSE:
Ordered HELLBOY WINTER SPECIAL 2018 (page 92), BPRD THE DEVIL YOU KNOW #11 (page 95), and HELLBOY & THE BPRD: 1956 #2 (page 96)
Might get LAGUARDIA (page 98) but I don’t remember if I marked it on my order form or not.
BLACK HAMMER: CTHU-LOUISE one shot (page 101) – Even if I wasn’t getting the Black Hammerverse stuff, “Cthu-Louise” was too cute of an idea to pass up.
LIGHTSTEP #2 (page 109) is a maybe.
DEATH ORB #3 (page 121)
DC COMICS:
HOUSE OF WHISPERS #4 was the only thing I remember seeing. I might get the NEW TALENT SHOWCASE 2018 edition if I see anything in it worth getting.
BOOM:
I already have FEATHERS in singles from years and years ago – it’s pretty good from what I remember.
AHOY COMICS:
THE WRONG EARTH #4 (page 250) – Got the first issue last month and I guess I’ll read through the first story arc anyway. #1 was merely there to me.
CAPTAIN GINGER #3 (page 250) – Kitty cat pirates in outer space. Sweeeet!
ALTERNA COMICS:
ELIXIUM #3 (page 251). I know, I know, Alterna supposedly have sort of ties to ComicsGate or whatever. Not my concern. I already started reading the series, so I’m not going to quit.
A WAVE BLUE WORLD – ALL WE EVER WANTED I decided to get because you or Hatcher had talked about it earlier.
And I ordered the Druillet THE NIGHT HC also, because I often get Druillet’s collections from Titan. Just one more of his works.
I think that was it.
Edo: I didn’t buy a “Kickstarter” edition of Section Zero. I just went to Panic Button Press ( https://www.panicbuttonpress.com/ ) and ordered it directly out of Kesel’s online store there – he’s got overstock. My order is supposed to arrive Wednesday for the Hardcover Vol. 0 and a “Gorilla Dossier” print set. It was shipped out on October 4th via Blackbox and Fed Ex. I’ll let you know when I get it and if it arrives in good condition.
Thanks for the tip, Louis. Just checked the site – they don’t seem to offer international shipping, but there is a digital edition available (which is more in my price range anyway).
Edo: Yes, I realized after I posted the link that they might not offer the international shipping. Sorry about that.
Edo:
I just got my Section Zero shipment today – the HC arrived just fine, but the fulfillment group packed my Gorilla Print Dossier ($30!) wrong and it received some damage. *Grrrr* I contacted both the shipment group and Karl Kesel and let them know. Hopefully I’ll get a replacement set if I can return the damaged one or something. I’m more annoyed than angry about it because I know things happen in the shipping side as I ship my own books, but at $30 a Dossier, I can’t just let it slide. (I also mainly contacted Karl and told him because I didn’t want these morons doing that all the time in their packing and messing up his reputation by sending damaged goods.)
Grr, I still haven’t gotten mine and I did the Kickstarter! Yargh!
Travis: You probably are getting more than I did – possibly autographed and/or personalized with sketch or other things? All I did was order online from the print overrun. Not sure what all the KS offered.
Karl just got back in touch with me – Blackbox effed up the shipments with the Dossiers pretty badly. (Karl blames himself for not sticking a cardboard plate to keep the edges more flat, but honestly, this is entirely BB’s fault; I’ve shipped print sets of my own and I never had this problem when I do it myself, but if I hire an outside group, about half the time they screw it up.) So this could be why there’s a delay with your shipment, Travis. Just FYI.
I just got mine yesterday, and yeah, the Gorilla Dossier was a bit folded on one side. I may see if I can get a replacement, then. The book itself was packed very tightly in the box as well.
I may contact Karl Kesel about his new Kickstarter and maybe let him know about my Dossier, then.
It was just weird that mine also shipped on the 4th, and didn’t get there until after yours. Vagaries of the PO, most likely.
I just bought and downloaded the PDF version today; obviously I haven’t read it yet, just scrolled through it a bit, but man, it looks like a great book/package. By the way, I like that in the list of alleged supporters, Mr. Pelkie’s name is accompanied by “atomicjunkshop.com” (And I was rather amused that the title for the creator bios in the back is “Zero Talent”).
Naturally, I would have preferred the physical book, but I’m still happy to have it in any form. Looking forward to reading this.
I included that in — I had interviewed Karl Kesel for the site here about the book, and I believe when they asked for the names for the back I asked about including the url. It was cool to see it in there!
Louis: I just want to read Die because I like the creative team. I never care too much if it’s something I’ve seen before, because it’s really hard to come up with a new idea, or at least a new plot – most of the stuff we consume might have the trappings of the new, but then it turns into the same plots, so I don’t worry myself too much about that.
I’ve never been a big fan of Tenapel, so I didn’t talk about that!
I’ve seen a few Ahoy comics, and they look pretty good. I hope the trades come out!
Greg:
RE: DIE – See, Kieron Gillen being the writer is even more reason why I was able to pass on it. It’s not just about the concept, but it was part of the reason. Sure, everything’s been done before on some level of degree. This particular version just didn’t stand out as anything ‘unique’ to the concept, for me. YMMV.
* = That doesn’t mean you’re wrong to like or support Gillen or whomever else you like. It’s just my own quirk, and I’m not entirely consistent with it. (“Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I contain multitudes of personalities who want to be entertained, and I need not explain myself to you constantly.” LOL)
No worries about Tenapel. It’s not like I’m a fan of his, I just hadn’t seen it before and for some reason it caught my eye.
The Wrong Earth is… *shrugs* I’m really not sure I’ll go beyond the first story arc? I read the first issue and just wasn’t that into it, just got #2 today haven’t looked at it yet. The Captain Ginger book looks more like something I’ll potentially stick with.
Is there some reason you are waiting on trades? I mean, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. There’s no right or wrong to it. I’m just curious. Sometimes when I want to order a trade, my LCS has the back issues in stock and just sells me the back issues at less than the trade will cost (which is often cheaper than the singles cost).
Louis: I just like trades more these days – they look nice on a book shelf, and they collect all the many covers that comics have these days. As pretty much everything is collected, I don’t have to worry too much about that, either. Unfortunately, for some of the smaller publishers where I would get single issues, Diamond occasionally screws my retailer out of them, so it’s just easier to get the trade. I still get single issues for certain titles – if I know the book really doesn’t sell well, I like to do my small part, or if it’s someone I know personally and want to help out (I’m getting Farmhand in singles because I like Rob Guillory and hope the book does well). And trades are usually cost-effective, too – for DC and Marvel, they’re cheaper or the same price as the singles. My retailer does do sets of single issues which can be cheaper than trades, but he usually only does this for older DC and Marvel stuff, so for the weirder stuff I might want, getting a collected edition is just the easiest way to go.
Quoting
Peppermint PattyMs. Patricia Reichardt, this is a report on skipping through “Previews”. (+)> “Previews #361”
A whole catalog of blind-bird tix?
> G: “so what if it’s a bit derivative?”
Being derivative is integral to the function of writing?
> G: “Pirates are hella fun”
Maybe someday Cinebook will release Charlier & Hubinon’s REDBEARD (sample page) for you?
> “DC”
Why won’t Warner let them do those Flash and Supergirl books for the young?
> “Marvel”
Why won’t Disney let them do those Spider-Man and Avengers books for the young?
> “Boom”
For WAVES (p. 205, by Ingrid Chabbert & Carole Maurel), why did they cut the intro line displayed by all other outlets? (“A young woman and her wife’s attempts to have a child unfold in this poetic tale that ebbs and flows like the sea.”)
> T: “chain smoking chimps fighting in Vietnam”
They smoke chains? Sounds inherently cooler than…
— TET ’68 by Don Lomax (p. 287, $17 @ Caliber)
“Here we don’t fight for ground. We fight for body count. […] But I have more personal numbers to remember. [This second lieutenant] had given his life to save five of his wounded comrades. These are the numbers I use to make some sense of it all.”
* (6×3 pages) https://www.comixology.com/Vietnam-Journal-Tet-68/comics-series/100330
* (3 pages) http://www.war-stories.com/lomaxcomics/tet-2.htm
* (3 pages) https://calibercomics.info/products/vietnam-journal-book-5-tet-68
“Sure, these M113’s were designed to carry troops on the inside. [Then] the army found that an AK-47 round [would] rattle around inside until it was spent. […] It’s safer to ride on top.” (Book 3)
> G: “Fabien Nury’s Angola”
Standalone sequel to TYLER CROSS (shipped last month). Standard breakout story, better art from Brüno (Darwyn Cooke meets Bruce Timm?). Officially for ages 12+ (“mature themes” is n*ppl*s). $25 for a 1-hour read of 94 story pages you won’t reread for a decade or ten, and nice from the library.
* (5 untr. pages) http://www.dargaud.com/bd-en-ligne/tyler-cross-tome-2,14544-3f78ecac5ff4ea0725211b49969cdc3b
(For a gritty 1950s thriller and prison story, you may also like or prefer Cormac McCarthy’s ALL THE PRETTY HORSES? NY Times review…)
> G: “The Night”
The lyrical barbarity of Druillet’s Taj Mahal? Excellent choice, sir.
* (8 pages) https://bnccatalist.ca/viewtitle.aspx?ean=9781785866661
(THE NIGHT inspired MAD MAX just as LONE SLOANE inspired STAR WARS. Every George has his Druillet!)
> G: “Yes, this is 25 dollars for 72 pages”
60 story pages, and who’d notice in the DM?
> G: “that’s all for this month”
What about two tried-and-true temptations to wash down unending wishful fiction, demeaning mousetraps, and hardcovers overpriced for libraries?
— LIGHTER THAN MY SHADOW by Katie Green (p. 322, $20 @ Lion Forge)
Hopeful memoir of beating depression and anorexia: “Food is the medicine I need to get better. If I’ve got the will power to starve, I must have the will power to feed myself. All I have to do is eat. How hard can it be?”
* (30-page excerpt) https://lighterthanmyshadow.com/book-excerpt/
* (review w/ 3 samples) http://www.comicsbeat.com/review-lighter-than-my-shadow/
* (review) https://comicsworthreading.com/2014/07/18/lighter-than-my-shadow-recommended/
(And a bests-of-2017 that’s $20 for 500 story pages, 8×10″, 3-color, with 6-to-12-panel grids of solid storytelling, thread-bound opaque paper.)
— COLONIAL COMICS: NEW ENGLAND, 1750–1775 (ISBN 1682750027, $30 @ Fulcrum)
“[The origin story of the Boston-Tea-Party tea] matters, because it’s also a story of mercantilism, colonialism, commerce, greed, and the struggle for political and personal liberty.”
Graphic nonfiction of less-treaded history: Harvard gravediggers, Yale pranksters, branded counterfeiters, enlightened slaves, editorialists and cartoonists, Baptists and Quakers, the day royal authority died in New Hampshire, the Worcester revolt, the first casualty of the Boston massacre, one minuteman’s account of the battle at Concord Bridge…
* (first 3 stories) Ben Franklin; Molly Ockett; Owen Sullivan
* (review) https://comicsworthreading.com/2018/08/06/colonial-comics-new-england-1750-1775/
(Edited by Jason Rodrigues with J.L. Bell & A. David Lewis. You may remember its 1620–1750 volume from 2014, as it made the DM?)
—
Of course, Eddie Campbell’s “Man at the Crossroads” gambled on more @ http://www.paulgravett.com/articles/article/top_18_graphic_novels_comics_manga
Simon: That Redbeard book looks keen.
I figured The Night was shorter than 72 pages, but I’m still getting it! 🙂
Trish Trash Roller Girl is fantastic comics and my favorite thing that Jessica Abel’s done. Definitely check it out.