ImageThe Light #1 (of 5) by (W) Nathan Edmondson (A) Brett Weldele
The new series from the writer of Olympus and the artist of The Surrogates. In Oregon, a mysterious virus infects anyone that looks into an electric light. An abusive father blindfolds his daughter and together they escape town as people are burning alive from the inside out. A fierce, action-packed and gritty tale of survival, The Light is 28 Days Later meets 30 Days Of Night. 24 Pgs / FC / $2.99 Visit Weldele here. There was a 5 page preview at Newsarama here.
Lee: While this seems to be a new take on the generic zombie-virus theme, the strength of the creators makes me interested. It’s worth getting the first issue. And, even though it’s an Image book I bet these guys actually finish it on time. A rarity for Image books.
Jim: Definitely worth a look at issue #1. Zombie tales are just like super hero stories, while we have seen a lot of them, if done well they can still be entertaining.
Turf #1 by (W) Jonathan Ross (A) Tommy Lee EdwardsA four- issue hard boiled noir crime thriller with girls, guns, fangs and aliens.New York, 1929. The height of prohibition. The cops turn a blind eye while the mobs run the city, dealing in guns, girls and illegal liquor. But the arrival of the mysterious Dragonmir Family from Eastern Europe with more of a taste for blood then booze co-incides with a series of brutal attacks on the gangsters themselves. As the gangs fall before the fangs, only handful of mobsters survive. But an unlikely alliance formed between tough guy Eddie Falco and a character from a LONG way from New York City – a long way from Earth in fact - offers the humans a glimmer of hope. As the strong willed young reporter Susie Dale from the Gotham Herald tries to survive in the middle of the maelstrom, and an ancient prophecy unfolds, no one can guess who’s going to win the battle for this particular slice of Turf. 32 PAGES / FC / $2.99
Lee: This is another big release for Image. I really like Edwards art and the covers look great so I’ll try the first issue.
Jim: I agree again. It has a strong artist and a premise that could go either way. Still Image has had some great successes lately with Chew and Cowboy Ninja Viking.
Splatterman OGN by (W) Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray (A) Giancarlo Caracuzzo & Paul MountsSplatterman is the blood soaked story of two comic creators and their ultimate horror character creation gone very bad. A “done-in-one” graphic novella that truely lives up to its title, it’s all brought to you by the twisted minds of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (Jonah Hex, Powergirl, Back To Brooklyn) and illustrated by Giancarlo Caracuzzo (The Last Resort) and Paul Mounts (Powergirl, Wanted) and lettered by Bill Tortolini. 72 Pgs / FC / $6.99
Lee: 72 pgs for $7 is a pretty good price but I’m not sure I want to read a blood-gore book. I wonder if this isn’t just an attempt to out B&Gore Ennis’s work over at Avatar.
Jim: This has a lot going for, not the least is the writing team, but gore done strictly to have gore, I don't know. This will have to be a release day decision.
NBMHome for Mr. Easter GN by (W/A) Brooke A. Allen
Tesana has never really fit into anything before but her daydreams. But an attempt to connect to her peers by joining in a pep rally committee leads her to discover a little white rabbit that lays bright colored eggs. Realizing that she may have found the real Easter Bunny, Tesana embarks on a journey to restore him to his natural habitat, to keep him safe from greedy hands! 6x9, 208pp, B&W, trade pb, $13.99 See preview pages here.
Lee: It looks like I’ll finally have an Easter related book in my collection! This looks like a book that will be a ton of fun to not only read but look at. The previews are really good.
Jim: Yeah, I happy for you. The Easter Bunny hole must have been a tough one to fill. I goes Easter is not a big deal for me as I gave up Easter for lent - ha, ha. I crack myself up sometimes.
Pantheon BooksBodyworld HC by (W/A) Dash Shaw
An Eisner Award-nominee! Fifty years from now, a devastating civil war has left the country in shambles. Professor Paulie Panther - botanist, writer, and hopeless romantic - arrives in the experimental forest town of Boney Borough to research a strange plant growing behind the high school. Paulie soon discovers that the plant, when smoked, imparts telepathic powers. But when he shares this remarkable drug with his new friends, he finds that they're not interested in mind-expansion. Indeed, it appears that Paulie's brash individualism might not be at all welcome in a town that prefers conformity! 384 pgs. $27.95 Visit Shaw’s site with extended previews here.
Lee: Definitely check out the previews. Well, it’s not so much a preview as the whole comic… but it’s still worth checking out. This is very interesting indeed because it appears to be trying to do so much. And, it largely succeeds. Good themes, good art, and a ton of previews… what’s not to like.
Jim: Great premise. Maybe it was just marijuana and it was so much conformity as everyone is stoned.
PapercutzClassics Illustrated Vol. 09: The Jungle HC by (W) Upton Sinclair (A) Peter Kuper
The Jungle recounts the shocking tales of immigrant Jurgis Rudkus and his family, who find themselves at the mercy of a brutal system in the stockyards of Chicago. The original book's expose of the dangerous and unsavory practices in the meatpacking industry created a public furore that led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act. The mood and atmosphere of the times is captured beautifully by Peter Kuper's artwork. $9.99
Lee: This is a must have! I’ve gotten a bunch of these and Papercutz is doing a great job of reprinting these. In this case, Kuper (probably best know for Spy v Spy) does an amazing job translating Sinclair book. This is well worth the investment.
Jim: I'm so over Classics Illustrated.
Lee: I think you miss the point of these books. Yeah, it's Classics Illustrated but it's classics by some of the best artists in the medium today. Artists given free rein to produce a beautiful book. These are masterpieces not only of written word but of art too. They are worth the investment.
Pure Imagination PublishingMovie Comics Featuring: Man from Planet X SC
Hollywood goes Comics! Gil Kane does The Lost World; Evans and Williamson depict When Worlds Collide; Wally Wood takes a Fantastic Voyage; Cameron does The Man From Planet X; and Buscema does Ivanhoe! Rare movie adaptations from some of comics finest! $25.00
Teen-Aged Dope Slaves and Reform School Girls SC
Pre-Code comics at their worst! Teens run wild, get hooked, and more often than not wind up dead. Drugs, sex, and death. Top it off with a Kurtzman venereal disease story, and it must be on your coffee table. Impress your friends. Make them want what you have. $20.00
Lee: Everytime I swear off PI’s books, they come out with something new and amazing that I must have. To start with are reprints of Kane, Williamson, and others at their prime. This is material that will probably never be reprinted elsewhere. That’s a gotta have. And how can you pass up Dope Slaves? There are few things funnier than 1950’s ‘socially aware’ comics. Think “Reefer Madness” in book form.
Jim: I have so much of this era of material from these artist that I need no more in my collection, although it sounds awesome.Radical Publishing
Legends the Enchanted HC by (W/A) Nick Percival
You think you know them? Think again! Violently ripped from the pages of folklore emerge the Enchanted, supernatural immortals living in a dark, steampunk, creature-infested world where nature, technology and foul magic are in constant conflict. When the twisted, burnt remains of the half-wooden, half-mechanical warrior, Pinocchio are discovered, wolf-hunter Red Hood and giant-killer Jack realize the fragile rules of their existence have been shattered. With the help of the other Enchanted (the mercenary Goldilocks and psychic exterminators Hansel and Gretel), Jack and Red team up on an adventure to stop whatever, or whoever, is destroying their powers and murdering their kind. $19.95 Visit Percival’s website here.
Lee: I read the preview of this the other night and it was… different. I’m not sure it’s my cup of tea, but it’s got merit. It’s a violent, and very bloody, take on fables. So, if you’ve read Fables from Vertigo and felt it wasn’t… enough. It wasn’t bloody enough, violent enough, dark enough… then this is the book for you.
Jim: You should have read some of the Grimm Fairy Tales stuff I used to read from Zenoscope, blood and gore with plenty of women! Radical, whether you like the material or not, always produces a quality book.
Top Shelf Productions120 Days of Simon GN by (W/A) Simon Gardenfors
Swedish cartoonist/rapper Simon Gärdenfors left his home to spend four months on the road. His rules were simple: During the 120 days he wasn't allowed to return to his home, or to spend more than two nights at the same place. Otherwise, anything could happen - and it did. The result was an epic adventure across Sweden as Simon slept on strangers couches, visited an ostrich farm, ate a psychedelic cactus, practiced free love, received death threats, was beaten up by teenagers, got adopted by a motorcycle gang, drank obscene amounts of alcohol, and sacrificed his underpants to the Nordic god Brage. $14.95 An extended preview here.
Lee: Seriously, who thinks this sh*t up???? Leave your home for 4 months???? I give him credit and I’m sure this is a heck of a story and it’s something that I could never do.
Jim: At this point in my life this type of adventure does not appeal to me. I bet the 20 something crowd would love this book.
Hey Princess GN by (W/A) Mats JonssonHey Princess is a story of moving to the big city, and being young, insecure and desperate to be as hip as everyone else. When first published in Sweden, the book received praise among both critics and readers for its incisive and entertaining account of indie pop-listening young people in the mid-1990s. Hey Princess takes its place in the proud tradition of self-deprecating, confessional, sex-obsessed and guilt-ridden autobiographical comics, but stakes out a unique identity by virtue of its Nordic setting and biting social criticism. $14.95 Visit Mats here make sure you click ‘in english’ and ‘comix’ for previews
Lee: While the art looks incredibly crude, the story sounds immensely entertaining. Since I was a 20-something single in the 1990’s I’m sure this will bring back many happy, and probably not-s0-happy, memories. Top Shelf has a way of finding quality material so I’m going to take a chance, but if anyone but Top Shelf were publishing this, I would’ve passed.
Jim: I will pass. I was a 20 something earlier then Lee.
From Shadow of Northern Lights Vol. 02 SCNever before has this much talent been brewing so close to the Arctic Circle, and this volume gathers the work of Marcus Ivarsson, Sofia Olsson, Sara Granér, Kobeinn Karlsson, Anneli Furmark and many, many more. Pick up this anthology and check out this emerging and amazing Swedish comics scene. $14.95
Lee: It’s not often that I pick three very similar books from the same publisher but these are worth it. Yes, they were all published in a country that only gets three hours of sunlight in a good year but they are all very different. Of the three, I think I’m going to try this anthology first. The opportunity to get a wide variety of art and story is too appealing to pass up.
Jim: See the anthology is the most appealing to me. For $15 I get to experience a slew of talent that I may have had no exposure to before. Add into the mix that it is from a quality publisher and this is certainly worth a gamble.
Lee: This really was a great month. After the last few which were light, we're back to full tilt budget crushing delight.
Jim: I managed to not be as tempted as Lee and while I spent a few bucks I was not crushed.An occasional breather is good.
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