Oh hell, it's all caught up with me. I am never, ever going on holiday again.
This is Donna's first novel, which I cannot wait to read... See, Donna doesn't just write war comics, she's actually
been in the U.S.
army.
-
Stephen on Permanent Party by Donna Barr.
Strangehaven vol 3:
Conspiracies (£9-99, Abiogenesis) by Gary Spencer Millidge. Alan Moore. Just thought I'd start my
preview with two words that'd grab your attention. In fact, why listen to
my praise, when you can read Alan Moore's? This is honestly what he says,
and while you're reading it, remember, that books one and two are always here,
and that Alan is slightly off his trolley, given that this is firmly set in the
English countryside, not on some outer realm of Cthulu's... even though I really
wouldn't want to find myself stuck in the village in question. Brrr.
"A darkly glittering example of the soap opera noir, Gary Spencer Millidge's
STRANGEHAVEN is an occasionally-opening portal into the beautifully realised
otherworld, a plane all the more intriguing and sinister for its resemblance to
our own mundane territories. Perfectly controlled and naturalistic
storytelling creates a wraparound illusion of the everyday in which surreal and
threatening incidents are studded like unnerving little jewels. Gary
Spencer Millidge is a consummate craftsman, a watchmaker patiently constructing
his own unique universe. For a passport to a planet of unsettling delights
that writhe beneath the surface of the ordinary, I strongly recommend that you
attempt to be there when the portal next opens." Yeah, and I'd recommend
some coffee, Alan. One of the many neat tricks Millidge manages is
thoroughly accessible layouts, as clear as Bryan Talbot's (also a big fan of
this series), so that you don't have to have a degree in comic literacy to
relish the book.
Promethea Book Five
h/c (£16-99, ABC/DC) by Alan
Moore & J.H. Williams III. Final volume of a series which DC for once
refrain from referring to as "ground-breaking"... when in fact it was precisely
that. Thirty-two issues discussing the towering achievements and almost
limitless potential of the human imagination? I'd say that broke
some ground, tilled it for planting, then scattered the seeds of its
thought-provoking eloquence all over its fertile shores. If I thought for
five seconds that this would be how the world would die, in an ecstasy of
revelation and communication, I'd welcome the Apocalypse. As it is, if you
read this series and fail to experience revelation yourself, I'd be very much
surprised. Also this month...
Promethea Covers Book (£3-99, ABC/DC) by J.H.
Williams III & Mick Gray. It's not a
book at all, actually, it's in the regular U.S. comicbook format.
Basically, it's an unsigned version of the comic which came as part of the
limited edition version of PROMETHEA #32: a collection of the covers to the
series, with a new cover of sequential art written by Moore and drawn by visual
god and chameleon, Williams. Only this time it contains essays by J.H. on
how he set about composing them. Just as with the limited edition, you are
warned that "supplies may be limited, orders may be allocated", so please book
now because last time round that meant us receiving fewer than half our
orders. Some less scrupulous retailers held onto theirs to auction them
almost immediately on e-bay for several hundred dollars. All of ours went
to customers for £32-99, except the one I grabbed for myself, and which I still
have sitting here whilst I wait to have the posters framed. Although an
offer of £500 would persuade me to hand it over, if only to send my mother on
holiday.
The Plot: The Secret Story Of
"The Protocols of The Elders of Zion" h/c (£12-99) by Will
Eisner. It's a long-established and ghoulishly provided for truth
that when someone in the music industry dies, sales shoot through the
roof. Well, we sold one extra of Eisner's magnificent TO THE HEART OF THE
STORM, and a copy of DROPSIE AVENUE as a direct result of the death of the most
important creator in American comics, both to the same guy, and I don't think
he's on this list, but if he is: bless you, sir! I can't believe how
little curiosity has been displayed otherwise. This is Will's final
work. The Protocols of The Elders of Zion was a hoax. A very
successful hoax, to the extent that some remain convinced it wasn't. Supposedly
it had been written a hundred years ago, as a blueprint of Jewish domination of
the globe. Naturally it fuelled the fires of anti-Semitic conspiracy
theory no end. "Eisner takes on the whole history of the wretched book,"
it says, and that's a mot juste, if ever I read one - the "wretched".
"Note," the solicitation goes on, though, "Not available in Germany."
Why?
Drawn & Quarterly Showcase vol 3 (£9-99, Drawn & Quarterly) by Sammy
Harkham, Matt Broersma & Genevieve
Castreé - Another D&Q showcase is
definitely reason for celebration around these parts. The first book gave
us Kevin Huizenga's epic '28th Street' and the second book furnished us with an
unsettling piece by Jeffrey Brown. This volume's cover artist is Genevieve Castreé whose limited edition
book & record PAMPLEMOUSSI sold out very quickly. Sammy Harkham is
probably best known for assembling KRAMER'S ERGOT but here he provides an
exclusive story. Rounding off the volume is British artist Matt Broersma,
someone I've not come across before but, going by the pedigree of the other
contributors, should be excellent.
Stray Bullets vol 3: Other People 10th Anniversary Edition
(£12-99, El Capitan) by David Lapham. The most worrying comic in the business, where
private lives are shattered by violence. Please remember, this isn't the
old volume three, this is the awkwardly repacked volume three, now containing
#15-21. Volumes one and two - of the 10th Anniversary editions - now
in stock.
Freebooters h/c (£19-99, Fantagraphics) by Barry
Windsor-Smith. Another of Sir Barry's
almost-finished projects, finally released as a complete work with over fifty
new pages of material. As lush as those barbarian prints his studio used
to release, with more than a touch of the
East.
100 Bullets vol 8: The
Hard Way (£9-99, Vertigo/DC) by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo
Risso. I'd so love to reveal the climax to
this sultry sucker - I never saw it coming. Sufficient to say that we're
well passed the half-way mark now, so anything could happen. The write-up
to this tangled tale predominantly set in a New Orleans bar doesn't do it
justice. Major players come together for reckonings, some of whom find
their hands tied whilst others discover fresh choices, and as ever innocents and
not-so-innocents are caught in the brutal crossfire. The heat is well and
truly on before the next volume's "family" reunion in Miami. One week I'll
find time to reread the whole thing in one sitting and work out where the
balance of power looks like lying. For an overview of the series, please
see the Page 45 10th Anniversary
Booklist.
Late Bloomers (£16-99, Fantagraphics) by Carol
Tyler - Not only do we get over thirty pages of
new colour work but there's another one hundred pages of recent and unpublished
work. Some titles I recognise, some I don't. If you enjoyed her JOB
THING or even if you didn't, it's worth giving this a look when it comes
out.
Sheep Of Fools: A Blab Storybook hc (£9-99,
Fantagraphics) by Sue Coe & Judith Brody - Is
this the book that was supposed to come out via Drawn & Quarterly? I
saw some article about Sue Coe saying something to the effect of "D&Q got in
contact with the wrong Sue Coe, they must have been thinking of the one who
would change her work to suit an editor". Nicely put. "Sheep of
Fools describes the desperate and cruel economic phenomenon of 'live transport'
(sheep being transported across oceans to be slaughtered), illustrated by Sue
Coe's powerful images. Coe's true 'yarn' harkens back to the beginning of
the Wool Mart through which the British refined their Parliamentary system, its
rules, and dispersal of power."
We All Die Alone hc (£19-50, Fantagraphics) by Mark
Newgarden - "Acclaimed cartoonist Newgarden has
done everything from co-create the 80s pop culture fad "Garbage Pail Kids", to
have his comic strip syndicated in such publications as L.A. Weekly and The New
York Press. This syndicated comics make up the bulk of this book, the
balance drawing on Newgarden's long form stories from various anthologies,
including the much lauded "Love's Savage Fury."" The title comes from one
of the short strips that appeared in (I think) RAW. Maybe there were
different version throughout the years but I remember old New Yorker-type
cartoons, bar napkin things all tied together by the phrase 'we all die
alone'. There was a drunk at the bar, someone on their death bed, Miss
Lonelyhearts in the singles bar. For each scene, the phrase read slightly
differently.
Humor Can Be Funny
(£7-99, Alternative Comics) by Sam Henderson - And while we're dissecting comedy but keeping it
with the funny, here's Sam Henderson. Sometime writer for Spongebob
Squarepants and all-time humourist. This is the long-awaited reprint of
the 1996 collection of early mini comics that predate the current run of MAGIC
WHISTLE. He's funny. He's master of the butt joke. He
makes you think about laughing while you laugh. He makes you laugh about
thinking because it's so ridiculous.
Runoff
vol 2 (£7-99, Oddgod) by Tom Manning
- Strange book, can't really remember all that happened in the first volume but
I know I enjoyed it in a Twin Peaksy sort of way. Not that it was at all
Lynch-like, it was just strange and enjoyable.
Bone vol 2: The Great Cow Race - colour edition
(£6-50, Graphix) by Jeff Smith.
Another pocket-sized helping of newly coloured high fantasy. Gran'Ma Ben
races some cows. As do Phoney and Smiley Bone - in a pantomime cow
suit.
Alchemist's
Easel (£11-99, Active Images) by Al Davison. Neil Gaiman provides an introduction to this
new collection of dream-inspired shorts from the author of SPIRAL
CAGE.
Little & Large
h/c (£5-50, Dark Horse) by Tony Millionaire. Full-colour biography of Britain's unfunniest
pair of comedians since the Krankies. Alternatively, although you wouldn't
have guessed it from the title, this is another Sock Monkey album boasting two
more interconnected yarns following Snn Louise's grandfather's decision to lop
down a tree, rendering its inhabitants homeless. While Grandfather sets
about fashioning an object from the lumber, Uncle Gabby sets about finding the
displaced spider a new home... THAT DARN YARN, its predecessor, was
wickedly clever.
Dead Boy
Detectives (£6-50, Vertigo/DC) by Jill Thompson. DC marketed Jill's last Sandman book (DEATH: AT
DEATH'S DOOR) as "authentic manga", by which they meant it looked a little
Japanese, and was printed the same size as Tokyopop's volumes. This time,
though, all the elements are in place (except of course, that Jill is American,
and this wasn't first published in Japan). Youngsters? Check:
Gaiman's Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine schoolboys are its stars.
Supernatural? Well yes, they're dead. Private Girls'
School? Yup, they're going undercover there to discover how Annika's best
friend has vanished. Cross Dressing? It's an all-girls
academy, Dum-Dum - that's what they have to do to go underco!
Expect fashion, melodrama, spoilt brats, infatuation, wholly unrealistic
dialogue and an appearance or two by Death herself. Listed, like all
other Vertigo titles, as a "Mature Readers" title, which - it strikes me - is
surely at considerable odds to its target
audience...?
Y The Last Man vol
5: Ring Of Truth (£9-99,
Vertigo/DC) by Brian K Vaughan & Pia Guerra, José Marzan jr.. Yorick is the sole human male to survive the
mysterious plague which wiped his fellow men off the face of the planet.
But now he too is struck down after losing his unused engagement ring.
Plus, his monkey's gone missing, there are two separate, murderous factions in
town, and his sister's back as well. Yorick, if I were you, I'd lie back
and enjoy the anaesthetic. We still don't know what caused the
catastrophe, but by the end of this volume you will know how Yorick
survived. Well, survived until now.
Hellshock: The
Definitive (s/c £12-99, h/c £32-99, or even more if you want an original sketch inside,
Image) by Jae Lee. Before Jae Lee
surprised everyone with his massive leap in ability during the Paul Jenkins
INHUMANS series (hugely recommended), consolidating his reputation on Grant
Morrison's FANTASTIC FOUR 1235 (again, mischievous and darker than noir - about
to be reprinted) and THE SENTRY (see recent "review extra"), he found some small
notoriety on NAMOR for his angular images, then attempted his own tale,
HELLSHOCK, which went through a couple of incarnations (I'm sure there were
two), both of which were aborted. I couldn't begin to remember what, if
anything, it was about, but the overall aesthetic looked like THE CROW with a
St. George Cross on his face. Now he's finished it (I wonder what the
temptation was like to start again on a third version?), and this book reprints
the last first three issues and, for the first time, provides the
ending. What does it say here? "In the confines of a psychiatric
hospital, a suicidal young woman meets an enigmatic stranger who believes he is
an angelic presence not of this earth gifted with the powers of GOD. Is
she being seduced into a cult... or is she bearing witness to a miracle?"
Can't hurt to stick around if you're suicidal, I
guess.
Hammer Of The Gods
vol 2: Back From The Dead (£10-50, Image) by Mark Wheatley &
Michael Avon Oeming. Old and new stories of
the Norse/Viking variety.
Liberty Meadows vol 3: Summer Of Love
(£9-99, Image) by Frank Cho. Talking animal
and cheesecake comedy, set in a countryside sanctuary. Cho's artistic
lines are better than this comedy punches, but you can't fault its
heart.
Mage vol 2: The
Hero Defined hc (£32-99, Image) by Matt Wagner - Big man with beard
does stuff. Some people lost interest by this point.
Kinetic (£6-50, DC) by Kelly Puckettt &
Warren Pleece. Delightfully unpredictable
if not downright weird tale not remotely connected to the DC Universe,
nor told in anything resembling its conventional manner. Life is challenging enough for Tom inside and outside
of school, and it's not surprising he's become so shy and
self-contained: his body has revolted at a very early age, leaving him
vulnerable to a number of potentially
fatal conditions including haemophilia, diabetes and, most noticeably,
amyotrophy. But perhaps the most debilitating effects of
all stem from the smothering of his mother, who, in her well-meaning but
obsessive concern for his health, constantly disempowers the boy, humiliating
and - in one instance involving a girl - effectively emasculating him.
Then, all of a sudden, his vulnerability vanishes when his
body doesn't just repair itself overnight, but overcompensates. No
medical explanation, that's not what this is about. This is about being an
idiot, about putting your foot in it, and completely blows away the idea that if
you're used to being awkward, the arrival of "superpowers" is going to
somehow set you on the road to glorious accomplishment. Or ruin your
wardrobe. Or even get the girl. Coloured in bleached
tones by Brian Haberlin, Pleece's subdued artwork is perfect for the story
of an introvert who can't stop himself spying on a girl as she undresses,
or stop himself confessing to her afterwards.
Idiot.
Authority: Human On
The Inside (£11-99, Wildstorm/DC) by John Riley & Ben Oliver. If The U.S. President can't destroy The
Authority by force, perhaps he can do it by stealth, by tearing them apart from
the inside, where it'll do the most damage. Or, as I wrote of the
hardcover....
John Ridley, as DC never tire of insisting, wrote the Three Kings
screenplay, and there are some moments here of... well, if not eloquence, an
attempt to appear eloquent. The basic idea is that The Authority are
undone by their humanity (read: emotional baggage), whilst a wave of despair, so
destructive that it will cause the human race to implode in the Mother of all
Sulks, is being drawn inexorably from the future to the present. And the
key to solving this is for a
(gratuitously) tortured Shen to hug a child. Bless. Unfortunately
the wave of despair continued to wash over me long after the story ended and well into the afternoon, fuelled by another
cheap shot at France, and an abrupt, deeply unsatisfying hocus-pocus ending I
spent half an hour trying to justify in my head. And I could, in the end
and just about, but I'm reasonably sure that's not my job, or the generally
desired response. I couldn't justify the Erinyes' involvement at all,
though, or their connection to the President's resident schemester.
Customer Ted Williams was wondering whether it was just him. It
wasn't. Pencils range from impressive to
can't-tell-who-that-is-by-their-face, which is
always slightly annoying.
Absolute Batman:
Hush oversized h/c (£32-99, DC)
by Jeph Loeb & Jim Lee, Scott Williams.
Joining LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, AUTHORITY and PLANETARY, BATMAN: HUSH
is given the 8"x12" slipcased treatment, reprinting both volumes in a single,
oversized hardcover. Extras include the two-page sequence previous
available only on-line, a sketchbook, and an issue-by-issue commentary.
Batman locks lips and joins forces with Catwoman to unravel an insidious plot
which takes him into conflict with Poison Ivy, The Scarecrow, The Joker,
Superman and Rah's Al... Rarhs Al G... that old bloke with the
beard.
Superman: For
Tomorrow vol 2 h/c (£16-99, DC)
by Brian Azzarello & Jim Lee, Scott
Williams. Concluding volume to the mystery
involving the disappearance of millions. Superman talks knowingly to the
priest some more, then discovers it was his own damn fault in the first
place. 176 pages, many of which remain on my desk,
unread.
Marvel Visionaries:
John Romita Sr. h/c (£19-99,
Marvel) by others & Romita
Sr. Random - sorry, classic -
issues from the big man's run on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, DAREDEVIL, and FANTASTIC
FOUR along with other assorted superheroics, plus some more unusual pieces like
MENACE #11, YOUNG MEN #s 24,26 and VAMPIRE TALES #2.
Marvel Masterworks:
X-Men vol 5 h/c (£32-99, Marvel) by many. Reprints UNCANNY X-MEN #43-53 along with
AVENGERS #53 and bits of KA-ZAR #2,3 and MARVEL TALES #30. Notably really
only for a couple of things: Bazza Smith looking like Jack Kirby (one issue),
Steranko bringing his neo-gothic-on-drugs sensibilities to the title (described
by others as "cinematic"), and green-tressed Polaris learning she's Magneto's
daughter, only she's not (but maybe now she is).
New Captain America
vo 1: Out Of Time (£14-50, Marvel) by Ed Brubaker & Steve Epting, Michael Lark. There've been several recent stabs at finally
creating a decent Captain America comic. The most successful -
wholly successful - is the ULTIMATES series, in which Millar
transforms the gaudy goody-two-shoes into a soldier - a soldier who swears,
barks orders, follows the chain of command and kills for his country.
Moreover a World War II soldier with appropriate chips on his very
broad shoulders, who disdains modern freedoms and popular culture like most
eighty-year-olds would and do. And the last volume of this title had its
moments as well under Rieber, when real-world terrorism raised its
many heads and U.S. military ruthlessness was also explored. It was a
little confused, but the best in the regular Marvel Universe's history.
This one, however, seems to me to be playing it even better: you get a familiar
supporting cast in the form of Nick Fury and Sharon Carter, it has historical
flashbacks which rewrite Bucky's role as an effective soldier rather than
irritatingly cheery, ruddy-cheeked mascot (as well as forming the spark to the
conflict), and it's all very military/espionage with plenty of grey areas.
Grey areas which seem to include inconsistencies in the Captain's memory (and
so, presumably, in ours), which Fury may be in on. Plus Brubaker plays
with long-term readers' expectations by kicking it off with a deliberate
plot-by-the-books in which the Red Skull (nazi who's face is... a red skull) has
for the five millionth time acquired the cosmic cube - an object transparently
made out of perspex, yet which lends its wielder infinite powers over reality -
and is set to yadda ya yadda. Nope. By the very first issue it's
clear that ain't happening. Those who've read Brubaker's work on GOTHAM
CENTRAL and SLEEPER will already know that the writer is perfectly capable of
taking slightly silly superhero ideas
and making them breath-takingly gripping by turning them into rather different
genres - crime and espionage - so it should come as no surprise that so far he's
managed much the same trick with this. Steve Epting's art is, of course,
gorgeous, like a soft Butch Guice with plenty of shadow, but the surprise is
Michael Lark's flashbacks. Lark is a criminally underestimated talent who
recently helped GOTHAM CENTRAL anchor itself firmly on American urban street
corners and in workaday police precincts, and who here provides flashbacks
which feel like Epting himself doing flashbacks, to the extent that
I hadn't realised it was Michael. The story hasn't finished yet, so I
end on a note of caution whilst voicing a little surprise at the relatively
steep price here. #1-7.
New Avengers vol 1:
Breakout (£12-99, Marvel) by Brian Michael Bendis & David Finch. There was a Thursday a couple of months ago in
which an issue of THE NEW AVENGERS arrived on the same day as the latest
ULTIMATES. At which point I faced a fanboy meltdown until I'd managed to
smuggle them both out of the shop and up to the third-floor Saltwater bar in town, where I
helped myself to two full pints of chilled Kronenberg Blanc and sat staring at
the covers in bewilderment. Let me tell you, it's been several years since
I last failed to comprehend instinctively
which comic I wanted to savour most that night. I think an
issue of CEREBUS did once materialise on the same day as FROM HELL, but you'd
have to go back some twenty-five years since I last faced this dilemma on a
superhero front. And then I had no access to Kronenberg. So yeah,
I'm loving it. And no, you don't get a preview. Ha
ha.
Avengers West
Coast: Vision Quest (£16-99, Marvel) by John Byrne. Before NEW AVENGERS came Bendis' and Finch's
AVENGERS DISASSEMBLED story arc, which did what it said on the can: it tore the
team (and, literally, one of the team members) apart. Whence, NEW AVENGERS
and - any moment now - HOUSE OF M, in which everyone has to decide what to do
with an insane but comatose Scarlet Witch, before she wakes up and starts
making pigs fly, baked beans taste like food, and Dave Sim want to marry
again. Bendis drew on two moments in the Avengers' history in which the
Scarlet Witch had already shown signs of not being "all there" (although
marrying a robot wasn't the clearest sign of sanity), and this is the main
one. The Vision (her husband) is abducted, reduced to nuts and bolts, then
reassembled using an Ikea instruction manual. Of course there are bits
missing - his feelings, for a start. There'll almost certainly be a second
volume in which Wanda's children are dealt with (clue: they don't actually exist
- something she should have cottoned onto far earlier given that everyone
got a good night's sleep and the same nappies were used without ever being
changed), and when I'll be forced to look up the word "doolally" in Roget's
Thesaurus. In the meantime, for those interested, this is what
happened. However, I went back myself whilst preparing to write my first
of thirty-six reviews for the Bendis series, just to make sure I'd got my facts
right, and it served only to remind me just how tame Byrne's art was beginning
to grow, how awful superhero dialogue was and generally still is, and how
disappointing (in spite of that) I found Byrne's disappearance from the
title, just before he had chance to finish it. Imaginative plottery,
sure. Ridiculous, also.
Pulse vol 2: Secret
War (£7-99, Marvel) by Brian Michael Bendis & Brent Anderson. Far better than volume one, this returns a
bewildered Jessica to the spotlight of her story which began in the four
ALIAS volumes. Pregnant with Luke Cage's child, Jessica's world and
apartment both come crumbling down when Cage is attacked completely out of the
blue, and knocked into an impenetrable coma (he has steel-hard skin - but, I'd
have thought, quite a soft mouth and gullet). Nor is the hospital
safe. Who's doing this, and what does it have to do with a covert mission
Nick Fury sent Cage and others (including Captain America) on all those years
ago? (N.B. The mission itself is chronicled in SECRET WARS, whose
issues are somewhat slow in appearing, so no sign of a book yet, sorry.) A
fine evocation of frustration and sheer, abject
terror.
X-Force: Shatterstar
(£10-50, Marvel) by Rob Liefeld, Brandon Thomas & Marat Mychaels.
Everyone cancelled the comic, so who out there wants the
book?
Combat Zone: True Tales Of GI's In Iraq (£12-99, Marvel) by
Karl Zinsmeister & Dan Jurgens. You
didn't have to cancel your orders on this monthly - Marvel cancelled it for you
before it even started. I leave their misuse of the apostrophe as it
stands. Yeah, I've probably done it myself all over this
mailshot.
House Of M:
Excalibur Prelude (£7-99, Marvel) by Chris Claremont & Aaron
Lopresti. Otherwise known as EXCALIBUR vol
3. Lots of unrelated airborne fisticuffs occur which have nothing to do
with the HOUSE OF M mini-series, while Magneto wails, repeatedly, "Help my
daughter!" Reprints #11, 12 and 13, 14 which have yet to
appear.
X-Men:
Golgotha (£8-50, Marvel) by Peter Milligan & Salvador Larroca. A big blob starts making the X-Men
irrational. Iceman falls for Polaris (who hasn't been rational for years,
so that wasn't very rational, was it, Bobby?), Havok grows jealous, Gambit
doesn't think he loves Rogue any more, so Wolverine, always the predatory
opportunist, gives her a snog. Then more blobs show up. Substandard
for Milligan, with murky art.
Doctor Spectrum:
Full Spectrum (£10-99, Marvel) by Samm Barnes & Travel Foreman. I have some bad news, and some bad news.
The bad news is that this SUPREME POWER filler, which appeared whilst
Straczynski caught up on his schedule, is neither relevant nor involving.
The bad news is, they're about to do it again. SUPREME POWER - a superb
series of political expediency and military viciousness - will grind to a halt
any day now as a MARVEL MAX (mature readers) title, and then relaunch eventually
as a MARVEL KNIGHTS (guns etc.) title. In between there will be two
mini-series, one written by Straczynski (no word on the art, yet) one not.
The first features Hyperion; the second, I forget. Way to sully a series,
guys.
Ultimate X-Men vol 11: The Most Dangerous Game
(£6-50, Marvel) by Brian K. Vaughan &
Stuart Immonen. See last
sentence.
Ultimate Spiderman
vol 13: Hobgoblin (£10-50, Marvel) by Brian Michael Bendis & Mark Bagley. Not so here, where Bendis shows no signs of
losing his way. Harry Osborn has had a truly shitty time of it. It's
about to get worse. His control freak of a father turned himself the
psychotic monster known as The Green Goblin, killed his mother, tried to kill
his ex-girlfriend (Mary Jane), got captured by the U.S. military, sent Harry
away, had him "conditioned" and - oh dear - has laid contingency plans.
Oh, you read that right? Harry was seeing Mary Jane? She could have
told Peter. Now Harry's back, he knows Peter's secret, but doesn't know
his own. In the meantime poor Aunt May is stuck in the middle without
having a clue what's going on around her. Sprawling quotations on
arrival.
Unstable
Molecules (£8-99, Marvel) by James Sturm & Guy Davis. From a couple of years back comes
this absolute gem (and this review), set
in the 1950s, which proved to be everything you'd expect from the creator of
GOLEM'S MIGHTY SWING, but not from Marvel. A young
woman named Susan spends her days attempting to cope with her role as
mother to her younger, bitter and egocentric brother, biting her
tongue whilst her narrow-minded, mummified neighbours bitch over the
fence, making pointed remarks about anything resembling a life she might aspire
to. Left to host book club meetings with those same, venomous prudes,
while her fiancé, Reed, analyses experiments with as much dispassion as he does
relationships, she tries desperately to hold on to something she might call
herself, knowing that there's no opportunity for that at all. Friend
of the family, Ben, stumbles over his own relationships, attempts to lighten the
mood, but Johnny drags everything and everyone down, including his nerdy
pal with even less of a life, with whom he shares an obsession with superheroine
comicbooks, but whom he ultimately abandons for a hip, bohemian escape route
regardless of the consequences. The clincher comes at the climax, when
Reed finally deigns to turn up to his own party, after the drink has flown
freely and the pressure valves have been released.
Each issue overpowered me
with its moving testament to struggling on. Making do, making up, hanging
on whilst... hanging on, in the vague hope of something more. Guy Davis
adapts his art to the era and more particularly the comicbook era, for here's
the secret - these four people are the mock-historical inspirations for the
Fantastic Four. The actual title is Fantastic Four: Unstable Molecules and
I'm not even delivering that in upper case, for fear of alerting you too
early. This isn't the Fantastic Four, and it will appeal to noone who
likes superheroes, because it has nothing to do with them. Nor am I going
to attempt to sell this to the hundred odd people I proactively sold the
Inhumans book to, because there's nothing here for them here either.
You're more likely to enjoy this if you like Seth!
Essential Killraven
vol 1 (£10-99, Marvel) by fucking thousands.
Excuse me, Mark, there's no need for that! No need for this
book, either, come to think of it. Sci-fi
barbar(ella)ism.
Lions, Tigers & Bears (£6-50, Alias) by Mike
Bullock & Jack Lawrence. Children's
comic with an old-fashioned Disney sensibility, in which little
Joey's bedtime fears are allayed by the gift of four big-cat stuffed
toys, one to protect each corner of his bed. Needless to say, they're
neither as inanimate nor cuddly as Joey first thinks, but they
are on his side.
The Adventures of Red Sonja
vol 1: She-Devil With a Sword (£12-99, D.E.) by various. Reprints
MARVEL FEATURE #1-7, including some Neal Adams art. Remastered colour,
same crazy chainmail bra.
Matter Of
Time (£8-50, Del Rey) by Juan Gimenez. Time travel tales from the artist on
METABARONS.
Shades Of Blue vol 2 (£7-50, Devil's Due) by Harris,
Nacion & Slayton, Story. Inferior "kooky" superheroine fare,
inexplicably published.
Nightmare Before
Christmas Manga
(£5-99, Disney) by... hey, it's
Disney. They don't need to tell us nuffin'. Everyone's a drone.
Looks like the same story as the film, but now you can read it rather than watch
it. But why would you? Especially since it might not be in the same
style.
Little Book Of
Horror: The War Of The Worlds (£10-50, IDW) by Steve Niles &
Ted McKeever. Fort-eight pages of Ted
McKeever illustrations, whole Steve Niles reduces the H.G. Wells classic to a
couple of paragraphs.
Capote In Kansas (£7-99, Oni) by Andre Parks & Chris Samnee. For Cold Blood, I'm informed, Truman Capote
researched his novel in Middle America, to fill it with "dirty, sad, disturbing
actions of real people". This is a fictionalised account of that
research.
Seal Team Seven
(£8-50, Ait/Planetlar) by Zack Sherman
& Roberto del la Torre. "When a submarine is mysteriously downed in
the Persian Gulf, C.I.A. tactician Douglas Griffin is reactivated back into his
former SEAL team to investigate. Simultaneously, a string of mystifying
terrorist attacks ravage the
planet."
Dr Who: The Tides Of Time (£14-99, Panini) by Dave
Gibbons, Steve Parkhouse, Steve Dillon & others. The complete run of Peter Davidson's
appearances in the comic strips of Dr. Who Monthly. Are you enjoying the
current series? Fast, isn't it?
Nicholai Dante: The Courtship
Of Jena Makarov by Robbie Morrison & Charlie Adlard, John Burns,
Simon Fraser, Slaine: Time Killer by Pat Mills & Glenn
Fabry, David Pugh, Asylum UK by Rob Williams & Boo Cook
(£9-99 each, 2000AD). Due to time constraints we don't have previews of
these, but Alex Sarll will be here in a couple of months time for when they
arrive.
Emily's Good
Nightmares h/c (£8-50) by Rob
Reger. Ruby Gloom's Guide To Friendship h/c (£8-50) by Mighty Fine. See, the joke is that they're both
miserabilists, and... it's over. See comic section for Emily's
just-in-time-to-be-too-late new comic.
Michael Turner Millenium Edition h/c (£19-99, Wizard). Artbook featuring lots of sketches and an
extended interview from the man responsible for FATHOM and SUPERMAN/BATMAN vol
2: SUPERGIRL.
MoCCA - Will Eisner: A Retrospective (£16-99,
MoCCA). Catalogue of this month's Will Eisner exhibition at the Museum of
Cartoon and Comic Art.
Heart of America novel (£8-99) by Warren
Ellis. "A burned-out private detective is enlisted by an army of
Presidential goons to retrieve the U.S. Constitution... the real one!" 308
pages of Warren Ellis prose. That'll keep you
going.
Permanent Party (£8-99, A Fine Line) by Donna Barr.
Oh hell, it's all caught up with me. I am never, ever going on holiday
again. This is Donna's first novel, which I cannot wait to read.
Over the next month, I'll be doing so (you lot have to wait until August, sorry)
so that I can have a proper review sorted in time for its release. In the
meantime, however, I'm going to work on an email interview with Donna to begin
teasing you with next month. And possibly the one after that. And
we'll keep accepting orders until we've taken her entire print run.
See,
Donna doesn't just write war comics, she's actually been in the U.S. army.
She knows what she's talking about. This is what you'll be reading
about:
"In 1971, women in the US Army were still WACS and wore high heels to
duty. Troops were assigned to
a Permanent Duty Station, where they could get all the alcohol they
could afford, and nobody ever checked an
I.D.. One woman soldier, illegally
pregnant, has a miscarriage and is accused of murder. The white girls say the
black girls helped her do it. The boyfriends start getting mixed up in it. And
the sergeants. All the booze in the world doesn’t help."
E.J. Barnes describes it
thus:
"'Permanent Party' is -- what? A Vietnam-era W.A.C.'s
Catch-22? A roman-à-clef? A murder mystery? A poetic memoir? Barr's ear for
dialogue is flawless, her descriptions of human physiognomy hilarious. The
dramatic rhythm is sporadic and punctuated, deliberately defying the breathless
crescendi of fiction with the unresolved panics and careless lulls of real life
in a gigantic bureaucracy. Small, throwaway bits of telling detail -- peeling
paint chips, a dog's sneeze on being patted, the smell of chicken frying -- give
the entire book a sensuous texture. The characters in this woman's Army are so
steeped in weirdness they wouldn't have been out of place in my college dorm
(and we were the campus hippies)."
also
shipping:
The Incredibles (£8-50, Dark Horse) by Brad
Bird & Ricardo Curtis. Adaptation.
Kong: King Of Skull Island (£12-99, Dark Horse) by Joe Devito &
Brad Strickland. There was a
hardcover.
Shadowrock (£6-50, Dark
Horse) by Jeremy
Love & Robert Love
Nightwing: Year One (£9-99,
DC) by Chick Dixon, Scott Beatty & Scott McDaniel, Andy
Owens
Superman: That Healing
Touch (£9-99, DC) by Greg Rucka, Geoff Johns & Matthew Clark, Rags Morales,
Michael Bair
Flash: The Secret Of Barry Allen (£12-99, DC) by Geoff Johns &
Howard Porter, Livesay. Collects #207-211
and #213-217.
Sgt Rock Archives vol 3 hc
(£32-99, DC) by Robert Kanigher & Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, Jerry
Grandenetti
Teen Titans Go! vol 3:
Bring It on! (£4-50, DC) by J. Torres & Todd Nauck, Larry
Stucker
Cartoon Network Block Party
vol 1: Get Down! (£4-50, DC) by many
Exiles vol 10: Age Of
Apocalypse (£8-50, Marvel) by Tony Bedard & Jim Calafiore, Mizuki
Sakakibara
X-Men: The New Age Of
Apocalypse (£13-99, Marvel) by many, many
Arcanum (£10-99, Image) by Brandon
Peterson
Thing: Freakshow (£11-99,
Marvel) by Geoff Johns & Sott Collins
Marvel Knights 4 vol 3: The
Divine Time (£9-99, Marvel) by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa & Jim
Muniz
Windsor McCay: Early Works vol 6
(£12-99, Checker Book) by Windsor McCay.
Army Of Darkness: Shop 'Til You Drop
(£9-99, D.E.) by people.
Breakdown vol 1 (£9-99, Devil's Due)
by Chuck Dixon & Dave Ross, Jim
Fern
CVO: Rogue State (£12-99, IDW) by Jeff Mariotte & Antonio
Vazquez
Legend Of Grimjack vol 3 (£12-99, IDW) by John Ostrander &
Timothy Truman
Legend Of Grimjack vol 2 hc (£26-99, IDW) by John Ostrander &
Timothy Truman
First Kingdom vol 2 (£12-99, Mecca Comics Group) by Jack
Katz
Spookshow International (£12-99, MVCreations) by Rob Zombie &
others
Cavalcade Of Boys vol 2 (£8-99, Poison Press) by Tim Fish.
Classic Dan Dare vol 6: Operation Saturn part 2 hc (£14-99, Titan) by
Frank Hampson
Modesty Blaise: Green Eyed Monster (£11-99, Titan) by Peter O'Donnell
& Enric Badia Romero
Justice League Companion vol 1 (£16-99, Twomorrows) by Michael
Eury
Nobel Causes vol 4 (9-99,Image)
by Faerber & Bueno
Sea Of Red vol 1: No Grave But The Sea (£5-99, Image) by Remender, Dwyer & Sam,
Dwyer
M.I.T.H.: Operation Smoking Jaguar (£6-50, Top Cow/Image) by two Helplers and a
Segovia.
Adventurous Decade: Comic
Strips In The Thirties (£16-99, Hermes) by Ron
Goulart
Finder vol 7: The Rescuers (£10-99, Lightspeed Press) by Carla Speed
McNeil
The
King (£12-99, Topshelf) by Rich
Koslowski
My Little Pony cine-manga (£2-99, Tokyopop).
Merciful mother of Milton Keynes! If you could see this pink! If you
could see it! Everyone round the country, buy a copy and send it
to Warren Ellis. See what happens. I'm feeling very
unwell.
Rica'tte Kanji
(£9-99, ALC Publishing) by Rica Takashima - "The adventures of college student Rica, as she
attends university in Tokyo and visits the gay and lesbian district looking for
friendship and love. Rica's story is sweet and funny, realistic and a
little wacky - with a refreshing lack of self-hatred and doubt, but with no lack
of real emotions." An interesting redress of the balance. To combat
all that boy on boy yaoi comes a (tasteful) girl on girl yuri tale. Will
it have the sensitive manga boys swooning in the aisles? I still find it
very strange that all these young ladies are reading about gay romance and
loving it in exactly the same way that straight males don't want to read about
lesbian action. Both sides would be highly scared by the reality of what they're
reading about. Actually, the difference here is that this book is written
by a female, about females, for females where the boy/boy stuff is by females,
about boys, for females. I can't see Gengoroh Tagame getting a translation
any time soon.
Yuri
Monogatari (£9-99, ALC Publishing) by various - And here's some more. "Seven stories from
artists and writers around the world that deal with all aspects of lesbian
relationships."
Robot vol
1 (£16-99, DMP) edited by Range Murata ~ And here's some Robots!
YAY! Full colour short stories by some of Japan's most sought-after character
designers. That's right, character designers, because they can employ
people to do all the repetitious drawing for them. That's a comics
industry! Range Murata (Last Exile, Blue Submarine No.6) has hand-picked some of
anime and manga's finest artists (himself included) to contribute. Also
featuring work from Ugetsu Hakua (Burst Angel) and Yoshitoshi Abe (Serial
Experiment Lain, NeiA_7, Haibane-Renmei). All people who don't have books in
print or manga translated, but people ask us for all the same. Did I mention
it's in full colour? YAY!
Kamui vol 1 (£6-50,
Broccoli International USA Inc) by Ringo Nanami
Guru Guru Pon Chan vol 1
(£7-50, Del Rey) by Satomi Ikezawa
SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos
vol 2 (£8-99, Dr Masters Productions) by Chi Wen Shum
Samurai Executioner vol 7 (£6-50, Dark Horse) by Kazuo Koike &
Goseki Kojima
Emily The Strange
#1: The Boring Issue (£5-50, Dark
Horse) by Cosmic Debris. Ten years on -
and, I suspect, three years too late to really scoop up the sales - the creator
of Emily The Strange brings the multi-million-dollar, copycat-spawning,
merchandise phenomenon to comics. Emily is a defiantly self-contained,
petulant young lady in black, whose slogans include "Fight like a
girl!" and whose wartime poster reads "I Want You... To Leave Me
Alone!". The sort of creature who used to exist only aged fifteen and
upwards, but who, in this embarrassingly precocious age (look at me
getting old), can now be found glooming about the shop as soon as she hits
double figures. In her fictional environment, she is friend to four wary,
duffed-up cats (which we currently have in stock
as beautifully visualised, fluffy stuffed toys), and no one
else. In the first of these 48-page, self-contained black, white and red
comics, Emily decides to perform some extracurricular homework involving animal
corpses, a needle a thread, and electricity.
All Star Batman
& Robin, The Boy Wonder
#1 (£2-25, DC) by Frank Miller & Jim Lee. Now, there's a creative team I would have bet
good money on never collaborating, and on a concept I could never have
envisaged Frank agreeing to risk his reputation on. Undeniably the
pencilled cover to this month's PREVIEWS is fizzing with energy and quite
giddy-making in its vertigo-inducing
perspective.
And I wanted to get that in within two sentences before
explaining what this is: a lumpy hybrid between Marvel's Ultimate range and
DC's Elseworlds. DC spin doctors have been out in force "explaining" that
this is/isn't a reboot and justifying the half-hearted approach to striking out
anew, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely have been cackling openly about what they
intend to do to Superman in their forthcoming companion title, whilst Mark
Millar is mystified as to why they didn't go the whole hog and start again from
the beginning. Me too. So let me try to elaborate, if I
can: these tales are, simply put, "classic Batman & Robin"
stories. I don't mean the stories are "classic", I mean they star what
many geriatrics consider to be the classic Batman and the classic Robin, before
anyone picked up the phone and voted "Death to the side-kick", even before the
original Robin, Dick Grayson, eventually tired of being dressed by his
mother, realised he was attracting all the wrong sorts of attention from
the wrong sorts of people, and began to wonder how he could get girls to take
him seriously (answer: stop wearing groin-hugging toddlers' trunks, and get rid
of the yellow). So: tales featuring Batman & Robin, not part of
current DC continuity, just stories to stand in their own right. What does
Miller have up his sleeve? Something, surely? I can't imagine there
being a complete lack of irony here, but on the other hand, as I said, I can't
imagine Miller being in on this in the first place. I'd be lying if I
claimed I wasn't curious.
Ships with two covers!!
JSA Classified #1 (£1-80, DC) by Geoff Johns &
Amanda Conner. Also ships with two covers!!!
Freshmen #1 (£2-25, Top Cow/Image) by Sterbakov
& Kirk. Comedy superheroics, with bodily functions. Ships
with three covers!!!!!
Tomb Raider/Witchblade/Magdalena/Vampirella (£2-25,
Top Cow/Image) by Simone, McCarthy & Chin. Ships with three covers in
strange ratios!!!!!!!!
Silent Dragon #1 of 6 (£2-25, Wildstorm/DC) by Andy
Diggle & Leinil Yu. Ships!!!!!!!!!!
JLA Classified #10
(£2-25, DC) by Warren Ellis & Butch Guice. Self-contained six-parter in which suicides at
Lexcorps, an explosion on the Amazon paradise of Themyscira and a deadly weapon
in Gotham are slowly linked together. Just a reminder: if you're down for
JLA: CLASSIFIED as a whole, then you'll carry on receiving it, but if you asked
to be down for the Giffen/DeMatteis story "I Can't Believe It's The Justice
League" which is currently running between #4-9 of this title, you won't.
Feel free to ask for an extension.
Prelude To
Infinite Crisis (£3-99, DC) by various. Following the DC
COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS one-shot (reviewed last month), four mini-series
have been set in motion (OMAC PROJECT also reviewed last month, the other three
to follow in part B), a few jitters and jumps have been felt elsewhere as DC
editorial attempt to galvanise interest in the forthcoming INFINITE CRISIS
mini-series where it's all supposed to culminate. If you've missed these
jitters and jumps, here's a handy reprint
of THE FLASH #219
and WONDER WOMAN #214 crossover in its
entirety, plus the lead story from SUPERMAN SECRET FILES 2004. Along with these
are select pages from nearly two dozen other DCU comics, with new text adding
context to each story
sequence.
Daredevil vs
Punisher #1 (£2-25, Marvel) by David Lapham. Good god. Yep, I think David Lapham wants
medical insurance. He's just had a kid. Lapham is, of course, the
creator of one of the finest comics of the last decade, the addictive and
complex victim comic, STRAY BULLETS. I used to call it a crime comic, but
it's more of a victim comic, as is his current, exceptional run on DETECTIVE
COMICS. There he has proved to be one of the few "Indie" creators who have
brought much by way of their true talent to the corporate superhero table
(another obvious one being Brian Michael Bendis!). However, I have no idea
what to expect from this, especially since he's drawing it, and not in STRAY
BULLETS style either. In some ways it looks a little old-fashioned,
but it's positively bristling with energy as well. One Marvel comic I can
guarantee sitting down to in July.
Defenders #1
(£2-25, Marvel) by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis & Kevin
Maguire - Okay,
I've read about three issues of the Defenders and that was back in the late
seventies. Basically, if an issue arrived in Calverton at the newsagent
behind the school I'd snap it up during my brief Marvel phase. So why do I
have a strange affection for this title? I'm even considering reading the
Essential Defenders book that just arrived. Must be the summer. This
is created by the same team that did the great 80s Justice League revamp and the
recent FORMERLY KNOW AS/I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOT THE JUSTICE LEAGUE.
Tongue will be in cheek.
Iron Man: House Of M
#1 of 3 (£2-25, Marvel) by Greg Pak & Pat Lee.
Fantastic Four: House Of M #1 of 3 (£2-25, Marvel) by John
Layman & Scot Eaton. Mutopia #1 of 5 (£2-25, Marvel)
by David Hine & Lan Medina. Last month I advised you of the full
extent of Marvel's shameless greed and the subsequent cash-ins they have planned
for the HOUSE OF M eight-part mini-series (which, in itself, I'm very much
looking forward to). As with last month, SPIDER-MAN: HOUSE OF M, these are
little more than "What If"s (the last one being for DISTRICT X). What I
anticipate happening during the main title is Wanda waking up and altering
reality. These, then, are the altered
realities.
Here's that checklist once again, and
some of these issues will be out in July. As ever, my capitalist and
I-want-all-customers-to-be-happy-and-fully-catered-for self is delirious to take
your orders for any or indeed all of the following (just tell us you'd like all,
and we'll sort you out with them), whilst the withered bit of me I call a
conscience assures you that you will not even remotely need any of them in
order to enjoy the majesty I full expect HOUSE OF M #1-8 to
be.
BLACK PANTHER #7
CABLE / DEADPOOL #17
CAPTAIN AMERICA #10
EXCALIBUR #13-#14
EXILES #69-#71
FANTASTIC FOUR: HOUSE OF M #1-#3
INCREDIBLE HULK #83-86
IRON MAN: HOUSE OF M #1-#3
MUTOPIA X #1-#4
NEW THUNDERBOLTS #11
NEW X-MEN #16-19
SPIDER-MAN: HOUSE OF M #1-#5
THE PULSE #10
THE PULSE: HOUSE OF M SPECIAL EDITION
UNCANNY X-MEN #462-#465
WOLVERINE #33-#35
Now, some more
clues:
Secrets of The
House Of M (£2-99, Marvel) written by Mike Raicht. Boring old
encyclopaedic prose with illustrations. Not a
story.
The Pulse #10 (£2-25, Marvel) by Bendis &
Lark. This is the one tie-in I'll be very much looking forward to.
It's written by the same guy. Perfect opportunity to introduce yourself to
Jessica, and indeed this title. However...
The Pulse: House of M special edition
(40p) by Bendis & various might well be a prime bit of
fun, being as it is a newspaper, an "actual" edition of the column Jessica helps
write for the Daily Bugle.
Giant-Sized
Spider-Woman #1 (£3-50, Marvel) by Bendis, others & Mays,
others. All I want is a fair and
transparent industry. Well actually, I'd like a fair and transparent
world, but my mandate here is to talk about comics. I like everyone to
play fair and play nice. Imagine my dismay, then, when hot on the heels of
GIANT-SIZED X-MEN #3 (or 4, I forget), in which you have to fork out for
a whole lot of reprints if you want a few new pages written by Joss Whedon,
Bendis, one of my favourite writers for whom I've rarely had anything other than
fully fledged praise, agrees to be a party to this: a huge slab of
god-awful reprints of a character who, until Brian came along, no one would have
looked at twice, packaged together with eight pages of new story by
Bendis. Eight pages for £3-50. Shameful. With any luck they'll
appear in a NEW AVENGERS hardcover.
Hulk: Destruction
#1 of 4 (£2-25) by Peter David & Jim Muniz. It's Peter David
on Hulk, so I think there's a law that I have to mention it. The true
(i.e. reworked) story of The Abomination.
Hip Flask: Mystery
City (£3-50, Active Images) by Starkings & Ladronn. The third instalment of insanely detailed,
beautiful, genetically engineered anthropomorphics. Imagine BLACKSAD, if
it was set in the future, or Cassady inking Moebius.
Gun Candy #1 of 2 (£3-99) by Wagner, Dixon &
Stelfreeze, Pearson, Greene. After seeing the cover or a scantily clad
blonde with a gun in one hand and a stick of candy in... her mouth, I set about
reading the four-page preview out of duty rather than desire, but what do you
know? It was naughty, it was funny, and the timing was great. Reads
like THE RIDE, so it's not overly surprising to discover its creators
include a 22-page instalment of THE RIDE on the flipside to this
comic. OTT guns, cars, mayhem with a confessional tone you won't find in
many Catholic aisles. In fact Laci's phoning her confession in and leaving
it on the answering machine. It was fifteen minutes since her last
one.
Serenity
#1 of 3 (£2-25, Dark Horse)
by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews & Will
Conrad. Comic based on the film follow-up
to the Firefly TV show which I'm reasonably sure was axed. Still, it has
three different covers and Joss said Brett could write it. Sci-fi, upon
whose pages Laura Martin pretends she's colouring for Vertigo
(muddy).
Bonerest #1 (£2-20, Image) by Matteo Casali &
Guiseppe Camuncoli. "Bonerest is the surreal story of the mouthless man
known as Adam Bone. He has come to New York to settle a mysterious debt,
but unwittingly brings about the end of days. It all begins at the Taste
of the Apple diner where he meets a sweet waitress named Peace." Azzarello
and Jim Lee both allow themselves to be quoted as in favour. The bits I've
seen remind me of an old comic from our Fantastic Store days called... OBLIVION
CITY? Featured Metadude, or someone. Anyway, I can't say was
thrilled. The panel borders are horribly thin, as is the art
itself.
Mort Grim (£3-50, Adhouse) by Doug Fraser. "As
a Pale Rider aboard an old pounded cop bike, Mort Grim travels the desolate blue
highways of America in search of something lost. Could he find it in the
diner waitress Gabby?" I hope this doesn't get all surgical on
us.
Dead Eyes Open #1
(£2-20, Amaze Ink) by Matthew Shepherd & Roy Boney Jr.. A zombie comic
that doesn't involve shuffling about or eating brainz. Some of the dead
are coming back. They're perfectly intelligent and just want to carry on
where they left off. Like, with their wife and kids. But it's a
little hard for the living to adjust to, and - legally - can you kill a dead
man? Does he get benefits? A pension? All very reasonable
questions which might be quite fun to explore, but not when the art is this
amateurish and ugly, and the script so ploddingly
dull.
Lenore #12
(£2-20, SLG) by Roman Dirge - July, okay?
Night Mary #1 (£2-99,
IDW) by Rick Remender & Kieron Dwyer. Mary's father runs a sleep
disorder clinic where he uses his child, it seems, as cheap child labour, for
Mary travels into the "ghastly dreams of severely disturbed people in an attempt
to help them". Do you think he's even registered? Along comes the
obligatory serial killer, at which point Mary may have to start
admitting herself for treatment.
Banana Sunday #1 of 4
(£2-25, Oni) by Root Nibot & Colleen Coover. Looks a bit like BLUE
MONDAY, but with monkeys. Three of them. At a normal school.
Well, not that normal, evidently. Stylistically, reminds Mark of Mike
(THREE DAYS IN EUROPE) Hawthorne.
Courtney Crumrin Tales
#1 (£3-99, Oni) by Ted Naifeh. Change of format for this
deceptively perceptive series about young Courtney, her school, her
inattentive parents and constantly scowling uncle. Now it's a series of
one-shots, square-bound, and this takes us back to her uncles youth, as a
warlock.
Burying Sandwiches
(£5-50, Robert Sato) by Robert Sato. A Xeric Grant winner (not quite the
hallmark of excellence you'd hope, but all the same, better than no indication),
this is "the story of a girl who never should have been born on earth.
Includes culinary horrors, feeding frenzies, prescription drug drudgery, the
supernatural, sporadic violence, senseless hauntings, subtle tortures, fantastic
feats, drastic measures, disturbing visions, and a celebrity." My god,
it's Vanessa Feltz!
The Surrogates #1 of
5 (£2-20, Top Shelf) by Rob Venditti and Brett
Weldele. I don't understand why Top Shelf are publishing this. It
looks like something from IDW. It's neither their regular content nor
format. Here's what they said in the press release:
"Let me tell you, folks … this is a rockin' super-hero
series. Writer Robert Venditti, may be new to the scene, but he is one to watch.
He combines great super-hero traditions with those of sci-fi, cop dramas, and
murder mysteries. Artist, Brett Weldele, has been one to watch since his breath-
taking work on Clockmaker from Image. You will only need to see the first double
page cityscape of future Atlanta to know that this is his best work yet. … Check
out The Surrogates, you'll be glad you did." -- Filip Sablik, Diamond Staff Pick
for the May Previews
"The year is 2054,
and life has been reduced to a data feed. The fusing of virtual reality and cybernetics has ushered
in the era of the surrogate, a new technology that lets users interact with the
world without ever leaving their homes. It’s a perfect world, and it’s up to
Detectives Harvey Greer and Pete Ford of
the Metro Police Department to keep it that way. But to do so they’ll need to
stop a techno-terrorist bent on returning
society to a time when people lived their lives instead of merely
experiencing them. Welcome to The Surrogates, a daring,
five-issue, full-color miniseries from Top Shelf.
For more information on the series, click here: http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog.php?type=12&title=416
For a recent interview with Rob and Brett on The
Surrogates, click here: http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=5068"
I'm
none the wiser.
Comics Journal #269
(£6-50, Fantagraphics). This issue, they declare, is devoted to exploring
the "Girls don't like comics" phenomenon. Which should be interesting,
since it doesn't exist. If girls don't like comics, how come nearly half
of our customers are now female? Don't tell Fantagraphics, though.
They hate good news. Interview with shojo creator Moto Hagio, words form
Lea Hernandez, and some manga inspection from Trina
Robbins.
m e r c h a n d i s e
Superman: Strength poster (£6-99, DC) by Alex
Ross. The cover to the third issue of the recent mini-series, in which
Superman punches a hole in a wall.
Wonderwoman: Identity Crisis poster (£6-99, DC) by
Michael Turner. From the cover to #4, on which Wonderwoman wields her
lasso of truth, glowing gold in the dark and tied like a noose. DC
describes it as "an elegant symbol of strength". We know exactly
what it is, cheers!
Doctor Who Activity Book
(£3-99). Comes with a broken compass for orienteering exercises, in which
you're challenged to find twelve checkpoints in forty-five minutes and
still be expected home three hours before you set out. Unfortunately
one checkpoint won't be position until 2013, and another's located in the hold
of The Beagle spaceprobe, last seen heading for Mars. Extra points for omitting to tell your mother you're
going in the first place, then leaving one of your mates stranded in a faceless
British suburb. If you find yourself in a bunker with the British National
Party, having wired their headquarters to explode, and you bottle out at the
last minute ("Do I have the right...?" Yeah, they're next door,
mate.), you will be disqualified.
This is
so much easier than talking seriously about comics.
* * * * *
£1-00 for the first comic (unless there's a book included in the package in which case it's just 25 pence), and 25 pence thereafter.
£1-00
each for Tokyopop or Lonewolf books, £3-00
for 'The Complete Bone', £1-50 each for all other books or t-shirts.
'JLA/Avengers
oversized double h/c slipcased edition', 'The Complete Frank', 'Locas', 'The DC Comics
Encyclopedia'
'Behind
The Panels', 'Cages', 'Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels' and 'Love & Rockets: The Complete Palomar'
will cost a flat £5-00 postage, but anything ordered on top of them will of
course be postage free, because.....
Maximum
postage for all this lot is £5-00.
Posters
and prints are sent separately @ £1-50.
Standing Orders:
To ensure that you never miss a single issue of a title you read, Page 45 provides a free standing order service either for personal collection or sending by post. All you have to do is tell us which titles you want, and we'll save them for you as they come out. You can visit or phone as often as you want, but we must hear from you at least once every three months, please. Single orders and reservations just as gratefully received as any others.
Want tips on producing your
own comic? -
Download the .pdf - http://www.reddingk.com/
More
information can be found in Comics International
(£1-95), the Previews catalogue (£3-25),
at www.ninthart.com, www.sequentialtart.com and www.qualitycommunications.co.uk/ci/ or
indeed by e-mailing us at page45@page45.com
The Page 45 10th Anniversary Booklist - over 30
pages of illustrated reviews featuring hundreds of the very finest comics
currently available - is free at the counter, or with any mail order
purchase. You could send us a quid's worth of stamps if you like, but why
not buy a comic? Comics are good.
Our web-site
address is www.page45.com. Construction, design and
management by Dominique Kidd.
Removal
instructions: there is no way out. Oh, okay, just type
'remove' in the subject heading, and feel our desolation.
Page 45
is a comic shop.
We
are:
Mark Simpson
Stephen L. Holland
Mark Simpson
Stephen L. Holland
Tom
Rosin
Page
45
NG1
6HY
Tel: (0115) 9508045
Monday to Saturday9am to
6pm .
Tel: (0115) 9508045
Monday to Saturday
Mailshots written by Stephen and Mark. Both of them are currently exhausted. Tom shows neither mental nor metal fatigue
whilst assessing ROBOT VOL
1.
l e t t e r
s
Skye's great.
Go to Skye. Huge island to the north west of The Highlands,
whose geography involves so much water that you're rarely more than a mile away
from it. Really, it's like some cross-section of the brain
with inlets - sorry, Lochs - everywhere. The landscape
is not of this planet. Even over the Bank Holiday period I counted no more
than 127 visitors swelling the 72 Scots and 276 English residents, plus their
123,232 sheep.
My mate Simon secured us a B&B with the friendliest couple in the
world. Only once do I think we messed up, when the landlord Tim complimented us on slipping back in at 2am, so
quietly he never heard a sound.
"I should hope not," I replied. "We're professional
burglars."
On with the show, and here's
some dark blue I don't appear to be able to get rid of:
Hi – Like you I get very annoyed at the prices Titan charge for a lot of American imports (not all to be fair – Superman: Secret Identity is slightly cheaper in Britain than America), and absolutely refuse to pay much more than the American price for any books.As a cheap swipe I thought it could be fun to set up a googlebomb – and I suspect you’re someone with the resources to make it happen.
Boy, do you overestimate my
technical capabilities.
We've a new phone in the shop now,
and I'm constantly having to ask Tom how to transfer a call. By the way,
if you do phone us up and we threaten to transfer your call upstairs or
downstairs, for goodness sake, please take your ear away from the
receiver. Those of you who've endured the sonic assault will know exactly
what I'm talking about.
If you’re not aware Googlebombing is a technique for deflecting google searches by linking to a page in question with the title of the search. This page (http://blog.outer-court.com/googlebomb/) has loads of examples.Personally I think a googlebomb sending “Titan Publishing” or “Titan Books” to this page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leech ) or a similar one would be in order….Dan Condon-Jones
Excellent!
Obviously we don't condone
this sort of sabotage. Just like we don't condone the price gouging
perpetrated by Titan.
Look what Diamond sent
us:
Nude Magazine: The publishers of Nude magazine are happy to announce that they have now got a website, and we at Diamond UK are pleased to pass on that information to you. If you have stocked Nude magazine you will know what is in store when you get to the site, if you have not stocked Nude magazine (and why not?) this will give you an idea of what the magazine is about. Go to www.nudemagazine.co.uk. Remember Nude magazine gets a double thumbs up from both me and Ben Cornish!
And us. It's not
naughty, don't worry. We stock it.
We also stock this man's work even though it is, from start to
finish, very naughty indeed:
Hello Everyone,Dr Parsons hopes you are all well. Here's one of my extremely rare updates, but there's big news afoot!THIS IS ME BY MICHAEL JACKSON is almost ready! 32ish pages drawn by the troubled star himself, with a running commentary from his art therapist (that's me). Please see the attached image for a taste of the kind of intricate delights that are on offer in this new, limited edition,self-published opus which is sure to blow your minds!
How much trouble
are we going to be in for stocking this...?
Just before Crismus I put out I'M A CELEBRITY HOSTAGE GET ME OUT OF HERE! Some of you may not know this, because you live in more conservative parts of the world where its tricky to find stockists for my self-published filth, but its a very yummy selection of brand new stuff - includingTHE TEN MOST COKED-UP TV PUNDITS EVER!SVEN GORAN-ERIKSSON'S GOOD SEX GUIDE