Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY

THANKSGIVING

Thanks for stopping by.  No comic books today because of the holiday.

URGENT HOLIDAY TIP!

I just saw this today and it was AWESOME!!!

Indies Preview Review For January Part 2 of 3

Part 2 and the last comic book talk until after Thanksgiving.

D. E./Dynamite Entertainment

Dreadstar Omnibus SC by (w/a/c) Jim Starlin

Jim Starlin's Dreadstar is now available in the Omnibus format! The first and complete arc (made up of the first 12 issues) from Starlin's epic saga is collected in one place! The pages in this new edition have been produced by digitally scanning from the original film! Also featuring the original covers and character art! Dreadstar features the adventures of Vanth Dreadstar and his crew! Dreadstar, the last survivor of the destroyed Milky Way Galaxy, found himself transported to the Empirical Galaxy! There, recruited by the sorcerer Syzygy Darklock, Dreadstar helped bring an end to a two-hundred-year-old war between the corrupt Monarchy and the fanatical Instrumentality. Containing close to 400 pages of story, art and more! $29.99
Lee: After Captain Marvel and Warlock this is Starlin’s best work. Dreadstar is a perfectly executed space adventure with plenty of action and adventure. If you haven’t tried it before, this is a nice inexpensive way to do it.
Gwen: I've never read this material but I've enjoyed other work by Jim Starlin so I'd be willing to try it out.

Drawn & Quarterly
Goliath HC by (w/a/c) Tom Gauld
Goliath of Gath isn't much of a fighter. Given half a choice, he would pick admin work over patrolling in a heartbeat, to say nothing of his distaste for engaging in combat. Nonetheless, at the behest of the king he finds himself issuing a twice-daily challenge to the Israelites. Day after day he reluctantly repeats his speech, and the isolation of this duty gives him the chance to banter with his shield-bearer and reflect on the beauty of his surroundings. This is the story of David and Goliath as seen from Goliath's side of the Valley of Elah. Goliath's battle is simultaneously tragic and bleakly funny, as bureaucracy pervades even this most mythic of figures. $19.95
Lee: This sounds really, really good. There is a certain irony in painting Goliath as a peace loving paper pusher.
Gwen: Interesting, but I can't say I care much for the David and Goliath story anyway. As far as the "bad-guy" perspective I'd recommend Thomas Garner's Grendel. Although it's not a comic book.

Fantagraphics Books
Is That All There Is? HC by (w/a/c) Joost Swarte
Fantagraphics proudly presents the first English-language collection of this Dutch master! Joost Swarte revitalized European alternative comics in the 1970s with a series of satirical, elegant and beautifully drawn short stories. Is That All There Is? will collect virtually all of his alternative comics work from 1972 with great pains taken to match Swarte's superb coloring. His techniques include watercolor, retro duotones and a fiendishly clever use of Zip-a-Tone screens. $35.00 You can read a brief bio here or visit his site here.
Lee: Everyone knows I am an art guy and it doesn’t get any better than this. Swarte art is unlike anything in America and is just… just… mind blowingly good.
Gwen: I'll take Lee's word on this one as I'm more of a story person.

Heavy Metal Magazine
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Vol. 01 of 03 by (w) Michael Mendheim (a/c) Simon Bisley
When sinister forces trigger a dark prophecy, warrior Adam Cahill must travel to Hell itself to stop the Four Horsemen from destroying the Earth. Only with the help of three corrupt souls, chosen by Divinity, can he prevent the End of Days. $14.95
Lee: Bisley drawing the horsemen of the apocalypse? I don’t think there was ever a better pairing of artist and storyline. Actually the story is going to be irrelevant because the art is gonna be great.
Gwen: Story is never irrelevant sir. Even with gallery art the artist is trying to convey some sort of message or story =P

Humanoids Inc
Whispers in the Walls GN by (w) David Munoz (a/c) Tirso
A gothic tale of horror from David Muñoz (co-writer of Guillermo Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone film) and artist Tirso. Czechoslovakia, 1949. What Evil lurks within the walls of an ancient Children's Infirmary? After the murder of her parents Sarah, a young orphan, is about to discover just that. This complete story collects issues #1-4, plus the unpublished final two issues as well as bonus artwork. $19.95
Lee: This is easy buy for me because I have pretty much loved everything by Humanoids in the last year. That’s not true, there was one book that was just ok, whereas most of the others have been very good to excellent.
Gwen: I find the concept to be intriguing but I am not familiar with the earlier work. Excellent title though, if nothing else. It gives off a good creepy story vibe.

The conclusion on Friday, now go and eat lots of Turkey!

Indies Preview Review For January Part 1 of 3

Lee: There isn't as much as usual this month but the books that are being solicited are really strong. That's good because my budget has been crushed lately.
Gwen: Hah, I feel you on tight budgets!

:01 First Second
Silence of Our Friends GN by (w) Mark Long (a/c) Nate Powell
As the civil rights struggle heats up in Texas, two families - one white, one black - find common ground. This semi-autobiographical tale is set in 1967 Texas, against the backdrop of the fight for civil rights. A white family from a notoriously racist neighborhood in the suburbs and a black family from its poorest ward cross Houston's color line, overcoming humiliation, degradation, and violence to win the freedom of five black college students unjustly charged with the murder of a policeman. $16.99
Lee: First Second publishes is one of the best small publishers out there. The subject matter alone is very, very interesting but the fact that FS is publishing makes me think this will be a winner. If you like history and human interest then this is an easy buy.
Gwen: Texas is a scary place. Well, maybe not but that's how it seems sometimes! Seriously though, I agree with Lee - it looks like this will be a good read.

Olympians Vol. 04: Hade's Lord of Dead GN by (w/a) George O'Connor
Hades: Lord of the Dead tells the story of the great God of the Underworld and one of the most famous of all Greek myths: Hades' abduction of Persephone and her mother's revenge. Be prepared to see a new side of Persephone in this dynamic adaptation of the story of the creation of the seasons. O'Connor's vibrant, kinetic art brings ancient tales to undeniable life in a perfect fusion of super-hero aesthetics and ancient Greek mythology. $9.99
Lee: I met O’Connor at Balti-Con last year and picked up the first three books in this series. I can tell you they are great and the kids will tell you they are great. A fantastic read that will suck you right in! Perfect for kids and adults alike.
Gwen: Oh my gosh, this is awesome. I want it! I am a huge fan of mythology and my husband would probably get a kick out of this as well. The art looks great and I am definitely attracted to the subject matter.

The Week in Review – Nov 16

The death of the monthly periodical is not only a foregone conclusion, in some ways it has already occurred. There are a few reasons I think this is true. This is not to say that the monthly periodical will totally die, but that it will never be anything more than a small niche market item along the lines of vinyl records. Yes, Molly/Con we did listen to a thing called a record that spun on a thing called a turntable.

First off DC touted their new line as the end of decompressed storytelling and nothing could be further from the truth. I have two books I want to talk about in detail this week from DC and Justice League #3 is the model of a decompressed story, but I’m jumping ahead. None of the books have told a complete story yet and only a few books have really had any sort of actual story point conclusions. This becomes so glaring because by starting over 52 titles at the same time all the books are in the middle of storylines. Normally, like with Marvel right now, some books are finishing an arc, some are in the middle and some are beginning new arcs. All DC books are now in the middle. It is fast becoming obvious that it is easier to read things as collected editions. You get a better read of the story when read in chunks that now always seem to have to be in more than 22 page bites. That and the stories of the massive amount of returns and the incredibly rapid decline in sales from the first issues to the third issues show that DC’s marketing gimmick was that, a gimmick whose true impact has yet to be gauged. To me this is evidence that you are never going to generate a true new readership by dishing out prologues or opening chapters in a longer story to an ADD audience that wants an espresso instead of a coffee and drinks a red bull over a coke. 

Second was my talking with Lee about the recent hard cover collection of 100 Bullets. He said that is was a great read and that he picked up on so much more of the story but reading so many issues back to back. The writer constructed a story that told smaller stories over a few issues but was building to a larger overall story. Reading this as a monthly periodical the story often fell apart for me as I read so many different books and can’t hold onto all the minuet details a writer maybe imparting. Heck, trying to remember all the damn character names is a stretch. I’m looking forward to the re-read of the book though, because I know it is more of a novel. 

Birds of Prey vol 2, 1-13

I read a couple of the trades of the original series after listening to Jim talk about how wonderful Simone's work was on the series, and I'd read her fantastic work on Secret Six, too, so when this series re-launched I figured it was a good place to start. Of course, along came the new 52, and that was the end of that. In fact, this makes two books by Simone that appear to have reached a premature end because of the new DCU. While that's been a sore point for me with Secret Six, not so much for Birds of Prey.

In fact, I didn't continue with Birds of Prey to its end. Simone's last issue was 13, and that's where I stopped, though it went on a couple more. Even with Simone at the helm I never had as much fondness for this as Secret Six.

The cast for this run consisted of Oracle, Black Canary, Huntress, Lady Blackhawk, Hawk, and Dove. It made for a very pretty cast, with the exception of Hawk, who just appears insane most of the time. The book suffers from the modern comics scourge of a too langorous pace. It's a dernier cri we could do without.

The M*A*S*H Song Is Wrong: It’s Not “Painless”, It’s Senseless

“Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone” – from Fire and Rain by James Taylor

Well, it wasn’t “yesterday”; it was this past Monday when I learned that my brother’s best friend from childhood through high school had died unexpectedly at age 47. I couldn’t go down to the Memorial Service, because it was being held that evening back home in central Virginia, three to four hours away (or more depending on D.C. traffic). So, I didn’t find out how he died until a few days later – Suicide. Even today (Thursday) I learned even more details that add to this tragedy – He wasn’t found for four days! My brother hadn’t been in contact with him for 20 years, so it was probably much longer since I’d seen him myself. But still I remember him well: his laugh, his Jupiter Jones physique (when he was a kid), his peanut butter allergy (the first I’d ever heard about), his accomplished piano playing, and his comic books.