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* june *

Everything about this book looks right. Think Geoffrey Darrow on pencils, Paul Pope on inks and Vince Ray doing the layouts. Then say they’re doing an ultra violent rock ’n’ roll lone gun(wo)man story and you’re close.

 
- Tom on Bambi & Her Pink Gun
 
b o o k s   f o r   j u n e   2 0 0 5
 
Ice Haven hc (£12-50, Pantheon) by Daniel Clowes - Reprinted and expanded from Eightball #22, this is not only a great comic but a great use of the comic form.  Split into 29 short stories, this feels like a reaction against his previous work, DAVID BORING.  Both tales have a whodunnit at the centre (the shooting of David and the disappearance of an Ice Haven youngster) but neither dwell on them, instead taking other routes.  We get to meet many inhabitants of the sleepy mid-western town each given their own strip.  Each strip is in a slightly different style.  Where BORING appeared as, and acknowledged the fact that it appeared as, the three acts aping the classic movie script format this one is shown as snippets.  Classic Clowes girls such as Vida and Violet are at turning points in their lives.  Two local poets have a feud that only one of them knows about.  A child has a passionate, unfulfilled interest in his step-sister.  The detective, hired to find the missing boy, is unaware of his wife's indiscretions.  When it first came out I had to re-read because I couldn't believe that Clowes had achieved what he had achieved.  In this version the story has been expanded from 38 to 88 pages and I'm curious to see what's been added.
 
AEIOU or Any Easy Intimacy (£7-99, Topshelf) by Jeffrey Brown - " Originally printed as a limited edition with hand drawn covers, Top Shelf presents the final chapter of Jeffrey Brown's so-called 'Girlfriend Trilogy." AEIOU continues to explore the subtleties of relationships explored in CLUMSY and UNLIKELY, concentrating this time on the differences between knowing and loving someone, invoking the reader's relationship with the book as a parallel to being involved with someone. The story is told with Brown's trademark expressive drawings and juxtaposition of humor and heartache."  This time, more than before, it's what's left out that's important.  These are just flashes of the relationship, we're only given fragments in the same way that Jeff was.  We've seen, through MINISULK and I AM GOING TO BE SMALL that he's no one-trick pony and this might be the last Jeff book of its kind. 
 
WE3 (£8-50, Vertigo/DC) by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely.  Stunning.  Not for the first time Morrison questions man's less than honourable relationship with animals, and this time goes for the jugular as a dog, a cat and a rabbit - household pets on which we as a civilised species traditionally lavish profound affection in the home, yet which we are perfectly content to have experimented upon, out of sight and out of mind, in order than make-up may be silky-smooth or to prove what is more than bloody obvious (that sticking a bonfire into your mouth is not conducive to good health or longevity) - are converted into abominable military hardware, their brains drilled deep with wires, their instincts vocalised as simplistic text messages, then abandoned as a project about to be terminated.  One scientist finds sympathy (not when she was sawing into their skulls - this may be vanity talking instead) and unwittingly unleashes three ferocious killing machines who won't be stopped in their tragic bid for freedom.  Every now and then a comic comes along that's so different, it takes your breath away, and this is the latest.  Morrison and Quitely have a long history and a big reputation, yet here, staggeringly, they hit overdrive on what is at heart a simple tale, but in execution a riveting, emotionally traumatic, visually mind-blowing tour de force which will swiftly head your list of "Comics To Buy My Friends Who Don't Read Comics".  Quitely's panels-within-panels are insanely detailed, perfectly positioned and merciless in their content.  I cannot think of a single customer who wouldn't be thoroughly affected by this.  You might not thank me for the recommendation when you start reading, but I recommend it all the same, if only to leave you feeling distressed, disgusted and perhaps a little ashamed.  That's okay, I'm with you on that.
 
Sandman Mystery Theatre vol 3: The Vamp (£8-50,Vertigo/DC) by Matt Wagner, Steven T. Seagle & Guy Davis. The return of SMT artist-proper, Guy Davis, makes all the difference as a young man, womaniser and socialite, is attacked in the act of sex, his mouth, nose and urethra all sewn shut, and his body drained of blood.  When Wesley climbs the 1940s fire escapes to dig around at the scene of the crime, he finds a matchbox from a club where his new girlfriend, the dangerously adventurous Dian Belmont, hangs out.  Why are more bodies turning up with similar, increasingly brutal wounds, and is there a connection between the victims?  More racial segregation, sexual repression and dark, dirty alleyways in one of the most atmospheric comics I've read, anchored firmly in its particular time and place.  The balance between crime and romance, secrets and slow revelations is perfectly judged, and I love the way that Dian's determined to be open-minded, yet somehow struggles to live up to her aspirations - in this instance, as it all gets a little sapphic after a bit of weed.  For an overview of the series as a whole, please see the 10th Anniversary Booklist, free on the counter.
 
A Fine Line Press Collection (£29-99, A Fine Line) by Donna Barr - "Collecting everything that Donna Barr's A Fine Line Press has published by traditional printing methods since the company was founded in 1996, including STINZ, THE DESERT PEACH and BOSOM ENEMIES.  Nearly $100 worth of books for half that price.  Containing 13 books in all."  Here's a review of one of them - Stinz: New Souls / Bosom Enemies: All Turned Around (£12-99, A Fine Line) by Donna Barr - There's something about transformations of the human body that's always disturbed me.  I'm not talking about Ballard's 'Crash' idea of bodies transformed by technology or the body modification tribes but fantastic, nightmarish transformations.  Two memories from television - first a program on BBC2 where rhythmically swaying trees hypnotise a man until his legs turn into a trunk and then he's a tree himself.  Stayed with me for years.  Still gives me the creeps twenty-odd years later.  The second is a scene from Britannia Hospital where Malcolm McDowell's character stumbles upon a room with a half pig/half man horror.  Oh, you could probably add a scene from 2000ad's 'Flesh!' where three men are melded with a t-rex to those two.  Humans becoming something else, morphing into something un-human.  
Barr's Bosom Enemies also makes me queasy.  Here are soldiers from different wars that have been altered.  One day they took a wrong turn and ended up as a centaur, a half-horse.  Human torso, equine legs.  They are kept as horses/slaves by men smaller than themselves, with horse heads and human everything else.  As Katherine Keller says in her Sequential Tart review (reprinted here) Bosom Enemies is a book about "social class, the nature of freedom, blind stubbornness, ignorance, and the treatment of animals".  Allegory in the tradition of the best fairy tales but with the sharp teeth and claws of the originals. 
And you get more on the flipside of the book!  Oh, I've missed Stinz Loewhard.  Not read any for a while.  He's a centaur (slightly different from both races mentioned above) and after the war (there's always war in Barr's books, soon I'll tell you about the Desert Peach) he returned to the valley, married a firebrand that could put up with him/keep him safe, raised children/colts and quietly became a legend.  Now we get to see one of his daughter's suitors, someone from outside his village.  The boy doesn't know quite what he's getting himself into. 
Her art is both direct and highly decorative while still organic.  Each page seems to have grown from a single panel, the lines edging their way across the page like vines covering a wall.  Barr seems like one of those folks who have to draw, it's in their blood, there are stories that have to be put to paper. 
 
Cute Manifesto (£12-99 Alternative) by James Kochalka - "James Kochalka's 'Dianetics'. A powerful mixture of philosophy and comics that can literally change your life forever. In a dangerously uncertain world, Kochalka plots a theoretical path to happiness. Collecting his most intensely thoughtful work, Kochalka tackles all of the big issues... comics and art, birth and death, technology and joy, and everything in between. Included are THE HORRIBLE TRUTH ABOUT COMICS, REINVENTING EVERYTHING PARTS 1 AND 2, SUNBURN, THE CUTE MANIFESTO and even Kochalka's famous 'Craft is the Enemy' essays."
 
Satiroplastic hc (£12-99, Drawn & Quarterly) by Gary Panter -  "This facsimile edition of the pocket sketchbook diary shows his everyday creative spasms not in chronological order.  Imagine scenes from a family vacation to Oaxaca, Mexico, Brooklyn still-life, interspersed with 9-11 images, comics and illustrations."  First of a three-part set, this book covers December 1999 to November 2001.  Seeing Panter's section in KRAMER'S ERGOT FIVE bought back the excitement that I got from his sketchbook pages in RAW.  His ragged line on either figure drawing or Japanese pop-culture and packaging was wonky and naive but fresh. 
 
Der Stuwwelmaakies hc (£12-99, Fantagraphics) by Tony Millionaire - Tony's SOCK MONKEY doesn't tend to do it for me.  This is where it all comes alive.  You still get plenty of Drinky Crow and Uncle Gabby but there's more violence, more drinking, more bullets and much more crude humour. 
 
Life's A Bitch (£10-99, Fantagraphics) by Roberta Gregory - "Bitchy's real name is Midge McCracken. She is perpetually about a year older than I am (she graduated from high school in 1970) and represents a sort of everyperson, working in a job she really doesn't like with people she would not choose to be around, barely making enough to get by. She reads a lot of papers and magazines and watches lots of TV and seems to really know what is going on around her, but is so bitter and cynical sometimes that she can't get up the initiative to actually try to change her circumstances. Besides, she would hate to give up that little thrill from being 'right' about how stupid everyone else is and how every day proves to her what she knows all along: that 'life's a bitch and then you die.' "  Two hundred and forty pages culled from the 14-year run of NAUGHTY BITS.  Also includes a new story about the death of Midge's father.
 
Doonesbury: The Long Road Home (£6-50) by G.B. Trudeau.  In spite of Trudeau being one of the most scathing American syndicated cartoonists at work today, in spite of the general level of hatred held here for the current American regime, and in spite of apparent demand for these books, when we finally broke and began stocking the superb DOONESBURY book on the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, it took ages to sell three copies.  So we decided, "fair enough," and didn't bother buying the next one in.  And then, of course, people asked for it.  So what shall we do, eh?  Stock this latest seven-month collection of strips in which the bodies start coming home, and the bravest, most patriotic of Americans who've obeyed every order return, crippled, to find little in the way of support... only to watch the volume sit there?  Or do we ignore this solicitation, at which point the orders will flood in?  It is a dilemma.
 
Peculia & The Groon Grove Vampires (£6-50, Fantagraphics) by Richard Sala - "This tongue-in-cheek horror novel manages to both parody and celebrate elements of modern horror.  The book follows five college students - survivors of the dark force of a powerful evil - who are summoned seven years after a dastardly event, to defeat the evil again."
 
Mome vol 1 (£9-99, Fantagraphics) by various - "MOME will feature the same collective of artists every issue, allowing artists and audience to grow together and build an ongoing identity that is highly unusual for the world of contemporary comics.  The first volume will feature John Pham's '221 Sycamore Street', Paul Hornschemeier's six-part graphic novella, 'Life With Mr Dangerous'; Anders Nilsen's full-colour 12-page absurdist monologue, 'The Beast'; and more by Jeffrey Brown, David Heatley, Andrice Arp, Kurt Wolfgang, Gabrielle Bell, Jonathan Bennet, Sophie Crumb, Marc Bell and Sammy Harkham."  This looks like an excellent anthology.  Apparently taking its cue from the success of KRAMERS ERGOT and including quite a few of that book's featured artists it promises to be a quality read.  Any place you can get a quarterly fix of Bell, Brown, Harkham and Pham has to be a good thing.  Jordan Crane will be designing the package and Sammy Harkham provides the first cover.
 
Sex, Rock'n'Roll & Optical Illusions hc (£19-99, Fantagraphics) by Victor Moscoso -  One of the original ZAP contributors, an underground comix legend and a man who revolutionised the rock poster art in the 1960s.  Moscoso's art has changed little over the last 40 years.  His piece in the recent ZAP could have been put out back in '68 or any time after. 
 
Dead West vol 1 (£9-99, Gigantic Graphic Novels) by Rick Spears & Rob G - " During the westward expansion, a small Indian village is wiped out.  Years later, the single surviving Indian returns to get his revenge. He places an ancient curse on the town in which the dead rise from their graves to prey upon the living. Into this inferno wanders a bounty killer on the hunt for a fugitive.  He’s no hero - he couldn’t care less about this dusty town or its rotting problems.  He has men to kill, even if he has to raze the town to do it."  From the same team that bought you TEENAGERS FROM MARS.
 
Valerian vol 1 (£11-99, Ibooks) by Jean-Claude Méziéres & Pierre Christin - " Valerian and his beautiful, sharp-witted and sharp-tongued partner, Laureline, live adventures set against visually stunning backgrounds: complex architectural inventions, futuristic machines, otherworldly landscapes, and odd-looking aliens that are staples of artist Mezieres's seemingly boundless visual inventiveness. The stories are gripping and of epic proportion, sweeping along in trilling, hyper-space speed."  Apparently the VALERIAN series inspired Luc Besson's THE FIFTH ELEMENT.  The cover of this English language reprint has the yellow flying taxi that Dallas drives and a scuzzy yet twinkling city at night behind it.
 
Solstice (£8-50, Active Images) by Steven T. Seagle & Justin Norman.  I wonder why this isn't at Vertigo.  Steven is the author not only of IT'S A BIRD... but much of the SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE.  I don't know who Justin is.  "The shortest day of the year is the longest day of Hugh Waterstone's life.  His father, Russell, a millionaire with a fatal brain tumour, drags Hugh to the four corners of the earth in a desperate search for the legendary Fountain of Youth.  But there's a reason this mysterious wellspring has never been found... a reason its most noted seekers have all seen their lives end prematurely.  And on the shortest day of the year... the solstice... Hugh will discover the secret of immortality the hard way."
 
Lucifer vol 8: The Wolf Beneath The Tree (£9-99, Vertigo/DC) by Mike Carey & Gross, Kelly, P. Craig Russell, Ted Naifeh. Reprints #45, 50-54.
 
Age Of Bronze vol 2: Sacrifice s/c (£12-99, Image) by Eric Shanower.  The story of the Trojan War which Publishers Weekly chose as one of the best books of 2004.  Sales here exist, but aren't nearly as strong as they could or should be, given how popular such stuff would be in other media.  How much more ancient history do we have?  300?  Come on!
 
Cavalcade Of Boys vol 1 (£8-99, Poison Press) by Tim Fish - "The critically acclaimed series revolving around the romantic lives of a number of gay men.  While the character's sexual appetites have been described as 'healthy', the series focuses on the complexities of modern gay relationships and friendships."  Stephen described Tim Fish's entry in the PRISM anthology ("It's My Duty") as, "surprisingly harsh... a guy frightened of losing his boyfriend when said boyfriend returns for a tour of duty in the US Navy, outs him to his superiors by sending them a copy of a gay magazine in which they're both pictured cavorting around, topless, in a nightclub."
 
Concrete vol 1: Depths (£8-50, Dark Horse) by Paul Chadwick.  You utter bastards.  Looks like this is splitting up the early short story collections, and inserting rarities that weren't originally included.  Well, I'm delighted for newcomers who'll now have access to a more affordable series of beautifully imaginative collections, but it's a bit of a bugger for long-term supporters.  CONCRETE used to be an easy sell ten years back when there was comparatively little straight fiction and this was closest you could get outside of LOVE & ROCKETS and WHY I HATE SATURN, but now it's a little more difficult.  This isn't straight fiction - or rather it is if you can just accept that Ron Lithgow, former political speech writer, is now trapped in a body which to all intents and purposes looks like it's made from organic concrete.  After that, it is straight fiction, extolling the miraculous beauty of nature and contemplating the human condition, for although Concrete - as he quickly becomes known - has had so much taken away from him, his new body allows him to venture where few others could (right to the bottom of the ocean, or to the tallest mountain peak) and see the evening sky with far superior senses.  As an outsider, he also acquires a different perspective on what's happening around him.  Just to give you an idea of the sort of stuff Chadwick conjures up, there's one short story that sticks in my mind, in which Concrete imagines what the world would look like if he left a trail of Concrete in every space his body passed through.  Chadwick's art is fully up to the task, and here he includes a short autobiographical account of a cross-country hitchhiking expedition.
 
Grendel: Red, White & Black (£12-99, Dark Horse) by Matt Wagner & others - The second Grendel anthology book in red, white and black.  This time around tales of the spirit of vengeance are told by Jill Thompson, Farel Dalrymple, Dan Brereton, Stan Sakai, Andi Watson, Michael Zulli and others.
 
Ballad Of Halo Jones (£12-99, 2000ad/DC) by Alan Moore & Ian Gibson >>  This is the big one. It's unfinished, and owing to one of Alan Moore's regular principled stands/strops it will almost certainly remain that way. And yet somehow that doesn't matter. Halo Jones grows up on the Hoop, a claustrophobic no-hope ghetto floating off the coast of a future America. Where does she go? Out. What does she do? Everything. We'll probably never know where this story was meant to end - though there are hints in the framing sequences - but as it is, it culminates in Book Three, where Halo fights in an interplanetary war. This is no gung-ho space opera, though; it's one of the most sad and gruelling depictions you'll ever see of military life, the comic everybody thinks Charley's War is. It may have been early in Moore's career but it's already clear that he's a titan of the medium, and it really hasn't dated at all. Pretty much essential.
 
The Complete Indigo Prime (£12-99, 2000ad/DC) by John Smith & Mick Austin, others >>  I'm not sure why Chris Weston isn't on the credits because he did the wonderfully fevered art for the 10-part Killing Time, and that's probably the key Indigo Prime story...any idea, Mr Editor? Indigo Prime was John Smith's pet project, so what you're getting here is unfettered John Smith. This means that there are many Mad, Brilliant Ideas, but also that there are passages where you'll have no idea whatsoever what's going on unless you happen to be on the right drugs. Still, pretty pictures! Well, I say 'pretty' but that's probably not the word for stories about interdimensional weirdness, reality breakdown and Jack the Ripper...trying to explain Indigo Prime is a bit like trying to explain Sapphire and Steel (with which it does have some similarities, though the tone is much more visceral and laced with black comedy). I really like it, but be warned, some people find it annoyingly self-indulgent. In fact, some people find me annoyingly self-indulgent too, which may explain that.  
 
Rogue Trooper vol 2: Fort Neuro (£11-99, 2000ad/DC) by Gerry Finlay-Day & Brett Ewins, Cam Kennedy, Colin Wilson >>  Another series of stories in which the Genetic Infantryman and his talking accessories wander moodily around war torn Nu Earth getting into scrapes. Thinking about it, this would have made quite a good American TV series...you know, like the A Team or the Fugitive never actually seemed to advance their own quest, they just ended up in the middle of a different mess each week? Ah well, some good artists on this volume, though it's hardly the high point of either Ewins' or Kennedy's career.
 
Superman/Batman vol 3: Absolute Power h/c (£12-99, DC) by Jeph Loeb & Carlos Pacheco.  Superman and Batman rule the world with fists of carbuncled flesh and steel, taking no grief from dissident vigilantes like Green Arrow.  But when one of them pops it, the pair are sent careening through a series of equally strange alternate earths to face old DC favourites like Kamandi and Sgt. Rock.  Who?  How?  Why?  What?  When?
For softcover versions of previous SUPERMAN hardcovers, please see "also scheduled", below.
 
Batman: War Games Act Two (£9-99, DC) by Bill Willingham, Ed Brubaker & others.  In Act One, Bruce Wayne runs out of cucumber sandwiches just as his Great Augusta arrives to take tea.  In Act Two, after impersonating his own friend and much light bantry in the pantry and the beautiful English countryside, it now transpires that, as a child, Robin was absent-mindedly swapped for the script to FABLES, and left in a handbag in the corner of a cloakroom of Victoria railway station, on the way to Brighton. 
All right, that's Act Three.  Act Two: What's in Orcale's diary? 
""Today, I broke off my engagement to Nightwing.  I feel it is better to do so.  The weather still continues charming.""
"But why one earth did you break it off?  What had I done?  Babs, I am very much hurt indeed to hear you broke it off.  Particularly when the weather was so charming."
"It would hardly have been a really serious engagement if I hadn't broken it off at least once.  But I forgave you before the week was out."
"[Crossing to her, and kneeling against her wheelchair]  What a perfect angel you are, Barbara."
"You dear romantic vigilante.  [He kisses her, springs up, and jumps out of the window.]  I wonder if it's too late to phone Blue Beetle?"
 
New Teen Titans: Who Is Donna Troy? (£12-99, DC) by Wolfman, Jimenez & Pérez, Jimenez, Giordano and others.  "Who is Donna Troy?"  I dunno.
 
Invincible: The Ultimate Collection vol 1 h/c (£23-50, Image) by Robert Kirkman & others, intro by Bendis.  >>
How appropriate that this book has Bendis up-front, as "Invincible" not only owes a huge debt to Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man book, it should offer to clean its shoes twice a day.  With its tongue.  Ahem.  Mark Grayson is an American high school senior, he has a few friends, a few enemies at school, would like to mess around with girls but doesn't have the nous or the confidence, and is your common-or-garden teen.  Except his dad is the most powerful superhero on the planet...and now it seems that Mark has inherited some degree of his powers.
 
[It's dinner time in the Grayson household]
Mom: "So....how was your day, Mark?"
Mark: "Fine.  I think I'm finally getting superpowers."
Mom:  "That's nice.  Can you pass the potatoes?"
 
Mark's dad eases him into the whole powers schtick gradually, the (admittedly crappy) name "Invincible" comes about in true superhero comic book fashion (his High School Principal says, in telling him off: "you're not invincible you know"), and there's your usual band of other powered teens and adults, rubbish supervillains and general high school hijinks.
The book really kicks into life just after halfway through, when something so shocking, so life-changing, so unexpected happens that I would ruin the whole thing for you by even hinting at it any more than I have just done.  Suffice it to say that it throws everything up into the air for the second half, and the pieces are still falling down by the book's close.  It's like the first half is a drab, dour 0-0 affair, only for the teams to come out in the second to score a hatful of goals from a dozen chances each.
It's lightweight fare (for the most part), but entertaining nonetheless.  Kirkman's superhero antics aren't anything special, but his dialogue has a nice touch (especially the manner-of-fact "home life of the superhero" scenes) and there are a few amusing references (Rorschach, Star Trek) peppered around.  The issues presented in this book have been collected as the first three trade paperbacks, so value-wise the HC collection is a good deal - definitely one for fans of USM, and even those tempted by USM but who dislike Marvel or Spidey.
[Editor's note: #0 ships in May @ 50 pence]
 
Ultimate Fantastic Four vol 3: N-Zone (£8-50, Marvel) by Warren Ellis & Adam Kubert.  Still one issue to go, but an entertaining first-contact scenario with mischievous dialogue, imaginative, slight-of-hand science-speak and plenty of spectacle.  If I was buying a present for someone interested in the dodgy-looking film, I'd definitely go for the Ultimate version.  Although Straczynski surely can't fail to do something useful with the regular series in a month's time (I'm liking the cover to #528, with more than a touch of the Barry Windsor-Smythes).
 
Ultimate Fantastic Four vol 1 h/c (£19-99, Marvel) by Bendis, Millar, Ellis & Kubert, Immonen. As usual, the first two softcovers from the Ultimate universe, where they've started again from scratch for a more discerning reader, in one larger-scale hardcover, plus extra bits. 
 
Fantastic Four Omnibus vol 1 h/c (£65-00, Marvel) by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby.  First thirty issues and Annual #1 from the early '60s in a volume as tall and wide as the Ultimate hardcovers.  Buy these colour issues separately in the Marvel Masterwork series, and it'd rack in at 99 quid.  In that respect, an absolute bargain.  Well, in any respect, actually, since it works out at £2-00 an issue, less than the current monthly.  And I haven't finished yet: all the original letters pages, pinups (Sue sitting cross-legged on a table, complete with faux signature: "To all my adoring fans! xxx" etc.), critical commentaries, a historical overview and no mention whatsoever of how Marvel ran off with the original pages and failed to pay Jack Kirby any decent royalties, unlike the millions Stan Lee rakes in.  Oh, did I just hit you with a downer?  Sorry.  Here's Stan Lee talking about his recent lawsuit after Marvel failed to cough up on the royalties it owned Lee for the films:
"Don't forget, I've written about superheroes all my life, and they're the good guys.  And they always do the right things.  And I always thought our company is the good company, and we always did the right thing. And we always tried to treat the artists and writers and the editors well. And that... and suddenly I felt I wasn't being treated well, and it... it... it really hurt."
Awww, did it huwt?  Did it weally?  And how much are you going to pass on to Steve Ditko, mate?  And after you treated him, the co-creator of Spider-Man, so well that he never got royalties from day one or the movie contract you did.
Anyway, it strikes me this afternoon that I keep referring to titles like this as if everyone knows what I'm talking about.  From now on I'm going to attempt at least one explanation a month, so here we go:
A science boffin, his blonde girlfriend, her air-headed younger brother, and the boffin's best mate from college - with no previous experience in flying a space rocket, I don't think (I could look it up in the black and white volume, but I'm at home today - haven't read it for years) - take a ticket to the moon, and find themselves bombarded by cosmic rays.  In reverse order: Ben Grimm comes out looking like a Boots make-up-counter assistant with elephantitus; Johnny bursts into flames, Sue - in an astute piece of feminist commentary - turns invisible, and Reed Richards finds he can stretch himself as far as readers' imaginations.  As a family, they fight underground monsters, shape-shifting aliens and a European tyrant with a tetchy temper and a tendency to bellow about himself in the third person singular, whilst Ben and Johnny squabble and Susan feints a lot.  Kirby's art grows swiftly more confident until it's buzzing with energy and a whopping, in-your-face scale, and Stan... well, Stan does what Stan does: corny.  Future first appearances in the title include The Inhumans, The Black Panther, The Silver Surfer, and Galactus.
 
Essential Fantastic Four vol 4 (£10-99, Marvel) by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby.  As a counterbalance, I should perhaps mention that you could also buy the first forty issues, albeit in black and white, for 22 quid, being vols one and two of the Essential series.  This is #64 to 83 and annuals 5 and 6.  By now Ben has mutated, and looks like a mud-track after a three-month drought.  Actually he did that a lot earlier, but I forgot to mention it.
 
Fantastic Four Visionaries: George Perez vol 1 (£12-99, Marvel) by Roy Thomas & George Perez. It's Fantastic Four month.  A few odd stories around the #160 to #185 mark.  Want to see Luke Cage's tenure on the team?  It's here.
 
Fantastic Four Tales vol 1 (£5-50, Marvel) by Brandon Thomas & Michael O'Hare.  Kid-friendly version.  See "also scheduled" for film adaptation, if you must, although you can also buy that separately at £3-50.
 
X-Men/Fantastic Four h/c (£12-99, Marvel) by Akira Yoshida & Pat Lee. You can probably grab a brick for free at most building sites.  Far more effective as a weapon, infinitely more enjoyable as a book.
 
X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong h/c (£12-99, Marvel) by Greg Pak & Greg Land.  Beautiful.  By which I mean it looks lovely.  Has Jean returned from her twenty-fifth grave to haunt her ex-husband and the hussy he's bedded down with? Or is it just the Phoenix entity messing with their minds?  
 
Captain America by Jack Kirby: Bicentennial Battles (£12-99, Marvel) by Jack Kirby.  The man couldn't write.  That's all I'm saying.  He just couldn't write.
 
Marvel 1602 s/c (£12-99, Marvel) by Neil Gaiman & Andy Kubert, Richard Isanove.  We already have this over here, but son you'll be able to buy it without Panini Publishing's painful "design" work.  It's 1602 and Queen Elizabeth is concerned about the fiery sky and what it foretells for her throne.  Actually, we've reviewed this half a dozen times already - it's even in the booklist.  It's Marvel characters appearing when they shouldn't be, in Elizabethan England.  The fun is spotting who's who, and working out why.
 
Marvel Comics Presents: Wolverine Classic vol 1 (£8-50, Marvel) by Chris Claremont & John Buscema.  Precedes Wolverine's solo series which you can read in black and white (ESSENTIAL series) or colour (WOLVERINE CLASSICS vol 1).
 
Bugs Bunny vol 1: What's Up Doc? (£4-50, DC) by lots, Daffy Duck vol 1: You're Despicable (£4-50, DC) by lots.  Both DC and Marvel are doing a better job catering for younger readers these days, even if all Marvel are offering is superheroes.  In addition to Batman, Superman, Teen Titans and JLA pocketbooks, however, DC have lots of licensed properties like SCOOBY DOO and THE POWERPUFF GIRLS.  Do ask if you can't find them.  We're going to start stocking more.
 
Heartbreakers Meet Boilerplate (£6-50, IDW) by Anina Bennett & Paul Guinan.  Retro science fantasy featuring bi-planes, lady aviators and a walking, talking immersion heater.  The cover's heading in a Trevor Charest direction, and the interiors in sepia don't look too shoddy either.
 
The Spider Collected h/c (£12-99, Titan) by Jerry Siegel, Ted Cowan, Reg Bunn & Garry Leach.  Let me take the first of two opportunities to emphasise that the good man providing the introduction to this book is not me, but the former editor of COMICS WORLD magazine and occasional contributor to COMICS INTERNATIONAL's Q&A section, Steve Holland.  I'm Stephen.  Or Stephen L. - for which I have been much mocked by naughty Mr. Millidge - on account of saving the face of poor Steve who would doubtless not thank you for confusing us.  Steve Holland's a very sound bloke with an enormous knowledge of comics history, and, as evidenced here, an affection for 1960s pulp sort-of-superheroics I do not share.  "From the moment he swung onto the pages of UK anthology title LION on 26 June 1965, The Spider made it his goal in life to carry out the "Crime Of The Century" and become the "King of all Crooks"," writes Steve.  And in spite of the fact that whatever he might have achieved in that arena would eventually be eclipsed by Robert Maxwell, The Spider proceeded to scuttle round skyscrapers like his more colourful namesake, in black pointy booties and skullcap.  Jerry Siegel co-created Superman.  Alan Moore is lending his name to a project based in some part on the revival of this chap and his stablemates, called ALBION.  You'll find it in the comics section, below.
 
Angel Fire (£9-99, Shattered Frames) by Chris Blythe & Steve Parkhouse.  Another UK entry, this time for horror.  John Dury is not a nice man.  He's a corporate predator who preys on businesses - eats them up, spits them out - and enjoys it.  Money, power, drugs!  The latest designer drug is Angel Fire, a potent hallucinogen, and John Dury's downfall. 
 
Wasting The Dawn (£10-99, IDW) by David Hurwitz with doodles by Breed is a novel.  A vampire novel.  Brian K. Vaughan says it's "a vampire story for people who thought they were sick to death of vampires", but there's no explanation here for what he could possibly mean.  If I remember my Anne Rice correctly - and there's little guarantee that I do - isn't a vampire's immortality frozen in the moment of the victim's transition?  By which I mean, if you had brown hair at the time you were given the ultimate hickee, you keep it forever; if you're grey or - like me - even more follicularly challenged, you don't get your old auburn locks back - you stay grey or fuzzy.  With that in mind - be it so or not, because let's face it vampires don't exist outside of governments and landlords, so just run with me here - can you imagine being given the Twin-Hole Hello just after you've lost your very last tooth?  You'll spend eternity desperately trying to gnaw victims to death with your gums.
 
Star Wars: The Comics Companion h/c (£15-99, Dark Horse/Titan) by Ryder Windham, Daniel Wallace & Tsuneo Sanda.  A guide to the comics, from the old Marvel effort to the present, with old and new illustrations.
 
The Weird And Occasional Michael Netzer Digital Internet Forum Sketchbook (£10-99, Mahrwood Press). Something to do with the Millarworld internet forum.  Introduction by Mark Millar.
 
Comics Journal Library vol 5: The Great Illustrators (£15-50, Fantagraphics).  There's no good reason why they should stick to the original idea - if such it was - to gather together all the old COMICS JOURNAL interviews of single subjects (vol 1: Jack Kirby, vol 2: Frank Miller, vol 3: Robert Crumb) for a huge retrospective of someone's career in transit (very interesting to see views or at least priorities changing as someone like Miller is interviewed at different stages in his development), but the title does smack a little of the vague.  "Classic Comicbook Fantasy Artists", maybe?  Frank Frazetta, Burne Hogarth, Mark Schultz and Dave Stevens.
 
Mirrormask: The Illustrated script h/c (£23-50) by Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean.  Four hundred pages long, this is boasts a substantial amount of McKeanery given that he directed the upcoming Jim Henson Pictures feature-film written by Gaiman.
 
Fantastic Four Activity Books (£2-75).  Kerosene not included.
 
also scheduled:
Incal vol 2:The Epic Journey (£12-99, Humanoids/DC) by Alexandro Jodorowsky & Moebius
Transgenesis 2025 vol 1: Ancestor Program (£11-99, Humanoids/DC) by Anne Ploy Loic Malnati
Chronicles Of Conan vol 8: The Tower Of Blood & Other Stories (£12-99, Dark Horse/Titan) by Roy Thomas & John Buscema
Batman Archives vol 6 hc (£32-99, DC) by Bill Finer, Bob Kane & others
Superman: Godfall (£6-50, DC) by Michael Turner, Joe Kelly & Talent Caldwell, Jason Gorder
Elfquest: The Grand Quest vol 9 (£6-50, DC) by Wendy & Richard Pini
Avignon: Gods & Demond (£12-99, Image) by Ché Gibson & Jimmie Robinson
Amazing Joy Buzzards vol 1 (£12-99, Image) by Mark Smith & Dan Hipp
Nameless: The Director's Cut (£10-50, Image) by Joe Pruett & Phil Hester, Bruce McCorkindale
Ride vol 1 (£6-50, Image) by many
Fantastic Four: The Movie (£8-50, Marvel) by Mike Carey & Dan Jurgens
Spiderman Team-Up vol 1: A Little Help From My Friends (£5-50, Marvel) by Todd DeZago & others
Spiderman/Human Torch: I'm With Stupid (£5-50, Marvel) by Dan Slott & Ty Templeton
Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Submariner vol 1 hc (£32-99, Marvel) by Bill Everett
Marvel Masterworks: Captain America vol 2 hc (£32-99, Marvel) by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas & Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Jack Sparling
Best Of Amazing Spiderman vol 4 hc (£19-99, Marvel) by J. Michael Staczynski & John Romita jr, Mike Deodato jr
Captain America & The Falcon vol 2: Brothers & Keepers (£11-99, Marvel) by Priest & Joe Bennett
New X-Men - Academy X vol 2: Posed (£9-99, Marvel) by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir & Michael Ryan, Paco Medina
New Invaders: To End All Wars (£12-99, Marvel) by Allan Jacobsen & C P Smoth, Jorge Lucas
Hulk Gray (£12-99, Marvel) by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale
X-Files vol 2 (£12-99, Checker Book) by Kevin Anderson, Charlie Adlard, Miriam Kim & others
Complete Jon Sable Freelance vol 2 (£12-99, IDW) by Mike Grell
John Law: Dead Man Walking signed & numbered hc (£32-99, IDW) by Will Eisner & Gary Chaloner
Street Angel vol 1 (£9-99, SLG) by Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca
Eddy Current vol 2 (£6-50, Atomeka) by Ted McKeever 
Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman: Trinity s/c (£11-99, DC) by Matt Wagner
JSA: Black Reign (£8-50, DC) by Geoff Johns & Don Kramer, others
The Ballad Of Sleeping Beauty (£14-50, Beckett) by Benson, Hawthorne, Atiyeh
Defex vol 1 (£9-99, Devils Due) by Marv Wolfman & Caselli, Raj
Dragonlance: The Legend Of Huma (£9-99, Devils Due) by Knaak, various & Mike S. Miller, Stotz
Lurkers (£11-99, IDW) by Steve Niles & Nat Jones
Marquis vol 1 limited edition hc (£26-99, Oni) by Guy Davis
 
 
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Antique Bakery vol 1 (£8-50, Digital Manga) by Fumi Yoshinaga.  "Winner of the Kodansha Award!" proclaim the proud publishers (other recipients have included AKIRA, FRUITS BASKET, INITIAL D and GTO), but I don't give a monkey's.  For me it's just one more excuse to dust off the "fruit fancy" phrase for another helping of boy/boy coy joy, as world class pastry chef Ono finds himself stuffing all manner of tarts - just like he used to at school (ba-dum!).  No one could resist his magical charms back then, except for dashing young Tachibana.  Overreacting to the advance perhaps, Tachinaba grew up to become a middleweight boxing champion, whilst Ono spent years perfecting his golden buns.  Now it seems their paths are due to cross again.  Will Tachibana continue to refuse Ono's no-no, or will Ono's pastry prove too tasty?  And if temperatures rise, who'll be first out of the kitchen?  Join us in two months time where it may finally be proved that you can have you cake, and eat it.
 
Yellow vol 1 (£8-50, Digital Manga) by Makoto Tateno - More yaoi.
 
Bambi & Her Pink Gun (£8-50, Digital Manga) by Atsushi Kaneko ~ Everything about this book looks right. Think Geoffrey Darrow on pencils, Paul Pope on inks and Vince Ray doing the layouts. Then say they’re doing an ultra violent rock ’n’ roll lone gun(wo)man story and you’re close. Mark got a Japanese copy of this crazy book a few years ago. I thought it was far too obscure and insane to ever get a release here. I am stoked I was wrong.

Bambi (a courier) has a price on her head and every badass in the land gunnin’ for her after she kidnaps a kid, Pambi. Which for some reason she trails around on a leash as you would an unruly dog. Brains leave skulls, guts meet the carpet and eyeballs learn to fly as Bambi brings her brand of vigilante justice to every sucker who tries her.  If the Bride came up against Bambi, Uma Thurman would have a very wet dress.

 

Princess Ai vol.2 (£6-99,Tokyopop) by DJ Milky, Courtney Love ~ When most musician types try and cross media you can expect a little cynicism (from fans and critics), and a lot of Diva egotism. Plus where comics are concerned a total misunderstanding of the medium (remember the KISS comics?!, UGH!). So, much respect to Miss Love, who gets a team of people who know what they’re doing to take care of the whole thing. What we end up with is a fun, slightly fantastical, retelling of the whole early nineties “Grunge” phenomenon. In the first volume Ai, a princess from another dimension, comes to Earth to escape the evil tyranny of the Queen bitch. Totally confused by our strange uncaring planet and misunderstood by its inhabitants, she flails about in a tattered dress with a Heart Shaped Box tied around her neck. Until she meets a scruffy bleach blonde boy with three chords and the truth!  And decides to become a singer. I think his name was Kirk, or something.

 
Yotsuba vol 1 (£6-50, ADV) by Kiyohiko Azuma - New manga from the creator of AZUMANGA DAIOH
 
Buddha vol 2: The Birth (£6-50, Vertical) by Osamu Tezuka
 
Oh My Goddess! vol 21 (£7-50, Dark Horse) by Kozuke Fujishima - Attention all GODDESS fans.  Dark Horse has stopped their monthly serialisation and will be bringing it out in new books.  The previous volume contains the last few comics they bought out and 50% new material.  It's vol 19/20 just to be confusing. 
 
 
 
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The Bakers #1 (£2-25, Kyle Baker) by Kyle Baker.  And suddenly, we have parenthood!  FLUFFY!  A LITTLE STAR! And now THE BAKERS!  If you've yet to pick up either of Kyle's gorgeous home life, home truth tomes (KYLE BAKER, CARTOONIST vols 1 and 2, always in stock), here's a far more affordable entry point.  All-new stories ("Comparing notes in the playground, Lillian discovers she's been shortchanged by the Tooth Fairy.  Dad gently explains that the Tooth Fairy, like Santa, prefers rich kids."), plus a consumer info section including "Toys That Hurt You Feet When You Step On Them" versus "Toys That Keep Playing The Same Irritating Tune Over And Over All Day".  This really is beautiful stuff, bang on the nose, with universal truths as well as individual quirks, and if you've yet to fall in love with Kyle Baker as a comicbook creator (WHY I HATE SATURN etc.) - and I don't personally see how that's possible - you will fall in love with Kyle Baker the father.  Massively recommended.
 
Nat Turner #1 (£2-25, Kyle Baker) by Kyle Baker.  And now for something completely different.  It says here that is ideal for classroom and family entertainment, but I'm praying that doesn't mean the horror's been muted too far.  Nat Turner was a key figure in the fight to end slavery (he led the 1831 slave revolt), so naturally he ended up in prison and on his way to execution.  This is a series based on his "confession", dictated in said prison, beginning with his mother's initial kidnapping, branding, and transportation.  Kyle writes, "It's like Glory, except if Morgan Freeman got hanged and skinned at the end."  The art's darker, rougher than what you're used to from Kyle (even though it has to be said he's already one of the most versatile draughtsmen in any business), and this will be no dry or amateurish tract.  Two new Baker comics in one month - to ignore either in this, the real Golden Age of Comics, would be an act of culpable ingratitude.  My cup runneth over.
 
Hellboy: The Island #1 of 2 (£2-25, Dark Horse) by Mike Mignola.  After two years at the bottom of the ocean (can you imagine the wrinkles?), Hellboy washes up on an island of shipwrecks, where he is tempted by dead men singing (just another Conservative Party conference, then) and ignores advice from an ancient enemy.  As you would, actually.  Turns out he might have done better to take it on board.  This follow-up to THE THIRD WISH two-parter promises riddle-riddled dialogue and boat-rocking revelations.
 
XIII #1 (£50p, DB Pro/Alias) by J Van Hamme & W Vance.  Most recent cheap comics have been little more than samplers or sketchbooks.  This is the full-sized first issue of what's been the most requested European comic I can think of - even before there was a console game developed.  It's also the first time this work's been translated, so I've been selling everyone that's been asking 100 BULLETS instead.  Let's see if I can't reverse the polarity of that particular neutron flow, and tempt 100 BULLETS onto XIII...  You wake up somewhere you do not recognise, with no memory of your life to that point.  All you have to go on are preternatural reflexes, and a tattoo: XIII - the roman numeral for thirteen.  Oh, and then there are the killers on your trail.  And the police.  And the military.  Evidently, you've been a bit of a bad boy. 
 
Shaun Of The Dead #1 (£2-99, IDW) by Chris Ryall, Zach Howard & Jason Brashill - Official adaptation of the excellent film. 
 
Scarlet Traces: The Great Game #1 of 4 (£2-25, Dark Horse) by Ian Edginton & D'Israeli.  KINGDOM OF THE WICKED team return for a sequel to the SCARLET TRACES h/c (£9-99), which saw Victorian boffins reverse engineering space technology from a Martian invasion to extend the British Empire even further.  Forty years on and Britain has taken the war back to Mars, but initial enthusiasm for the perilous campaign has waned over time and with pressure building across the globe back home, free speech being sacrificed to maintain order, and not one single soldier having come back from the red planet, dead or alive, it seems as if things are about to deteriorate rapidly.  They are.  With the press being prohibited from travelling to the front line on Mars, photo-journalist Lady Hemming is forced to go under cover to find out just what's going on, and whether it has anything to do with the captured Martian's assertion that "There are worse things on Mars than us".  Painted in what looks like gouache (a thicker watercolour), the art from D'Israeli looks cleaner than usual, with crisp outlines and a more restrained choice of colours.  MINISTRY OF SPACE or HEART OF EMPIRE fans could do worse than check out the first issue, and, if you like what you see, head on back for the original hardcover. 
 
Northwest Passage #1 (£3-99, Oni) by Scott Chantler.  Scott produced the bright if lightweight Motown piece, DAYS LIKE THIS.  Here he's turning to hands to the wilderness of the new frontier, with Canadian cowboys, French mercenaries, English forts and indigenous Indians, and the art strikes me as ELFQUEST-esque.  I can't think of much less likely to get me excited.
 
Albion #1 of 6 (£2-25, Wildstorm/DC) by Alan Moore, Leah Moore, John Reppion & Shane Oakley, George Freeman.  Let me take this second opportunity to emphasise that that the good man providing the introduction to THE SPIDER book associated with this resurrection of UK characters (see above) is not me, but the former editor of COMICS WORLD magazine and occasional contributor to COMICS INTERNATIONAL's Q&A section, Steve Holland.  I'm Stephen.  You can call me "Steve" if you want (I'll just be thankful you're speaking to me at all) but it's a long long time since I thought of myself as a "Steve".  It's a bit too blonde American-man-of-action. I make this distinction both for Steve Holland's dignity, and because unlike Steve I'm largely unaware of the lineage involved in this title.  I recall references to Robot Archie in Grant Morrison's ZENITH, and of course there's The Spider himself whom I remember seeing on shelves when I was five... and being thoroughly disappointed wasn't Spider-Man.  That really is it, I'm afraid, so all I can do is tell you that under a Dave Gibbons cover you'll find Alan Moore's daughter and some other guy, who between them were responsible for WILD GIRL (of which we've sold precisely one copy per issue), providing the script for something purportedly "plotted" by Alan involving UK legends Robot Archie, the Steel Claw, Captain Hurricane and the Spider, and where they've been hiding for the last twenty-five years.
 
Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere #1 of 9 (£2-25, Vertigo/DC) by Mike Carey & Glenn Fabry & NOT Neil Gaiman! 
Goodness, Mark got a little excitable there, didn't he?  But he's right, this is not by Neil Gaiman, which is why his name's in the title.  Neverwhere was, apparently, "the classic novel of urban fantasy by the New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed writer of SANDMAN."  I don't think so.  I love Neil.  I love him as a guy, I loved SANDMAN, I love most of what he's done, but I cannot for the life of me conjure up any context in which Neverwhere could be described as "the classic" novel of anything.  Still, if you can't be arsed to read the prose, here's another version with pictures (there was also a ropey TV series).  "Hidden far beneath the modern city is London Below, a strange alternate world of swirling colours [I've corrected DC's American - you might have noticed I tend to do that a lot], casual magic and gothic danger, populated by misfit characters who have, quite literally, fallen through the cracks of the workaday world above.  The tale begins as Richard Mayhew, a very decent but very ordinary man, stumbles across Door, and extraordinary young lady from a London that Richard never dreamed could exist.  His single act of kindness towards her immediately costs him his fiancée, brings a pair of unthinkably ruthless assassins to his flat, and sends him on a quest that could quickly end with his own untimely demise."
 
Astro City: The Dark Age #1 of 16 (£2-25, Wildstorm/DC) by Kurt Busiek & Brent Anderson.  Of course it's been resolicited, it's ASTRO CITY.  Here's what I wrote in anticipation seven months ago, when it was proposed as a twelve-issue storyline: Twice the size of even the longest ASTRO CITY tales so far, and easily the most eagerly anticipated (this is me writing this, not a DC employee, I've read all the letter columns, listened to customers, and have more than my own share of curiosity to boot), in which we'll finally learn why citizens of the city feel so ashamed when they mention The Silver Agent.  Set in the early '70s, in the wake of a global catastrophe, two brothers deal with family secrets and social upheaval.  Containing far more humanity than most superhero series, this really isn't an action comic - it's a reaction comic that generally has as much to with the ground-level individuals in residence as it does to the more colourful characters flying across the skyline.  It was one of the first comics containing superheroes outside of WATCHMEN and DARK KNIGHT RETURNS to rate as intelligent, but it's been so infrequent and indeed overtaken that its profile has dropped to the point that one forgets that Neil Gaiman was moved enough to provide an introduction to one of the previous books (all four softcovers and one hardcover permanently in stock).  Brent Anderson is its permanent artist, another rarity in a superhero series, lending it a consistency of style most lack, and I've just realised that it doesn't go without saying that this is Kurt's own baby through and through.  But it is, which is why it's so much better - so very much better - than anything he's done outside of MARVELS, and the SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY trade.
 
Authority/Lobo Spring Break Massacre (£3-50, Wildstorm/DC) by Keith Giffen, Alan Grant & Simon Bisley.  Giffen recently complained about the current state of the vampire thus:  "I'm so sick of the fag in a cape.  Any gay readers out there, I'm sorry.  I know that was not the PC thing to say, but c'mon..."  I honestly can't tell the difference between that and referring to a black superhero as "another n***** in tights", and then saying "Any black readers out there, I'm sorry.  I know that was not the PC thing to say, but c'mon..."  Yes, come on, where's our sense of humour?  I love the way he hides behind "PC", and can't even summon the courage to write "I know that was fucking offensive, but c'mon..."  Anyway no vampires here, capes or otherwise, but the Authority does boast amongst its roster a couple of male lovers in leotards, so doubtless there'll be much indelicate badinage from less than sensitive space-biker Lobo.
 
What Were They Thinking?! (£2-99, Boom!) by Keith Giffen & Wally Wood - Giffen re-scripts an old Wood war comic. 
 
Wildsiderz #0 (£1-60, Wildstorm/DC) by J. Scott Campbell, Andy Hartnell & J. Scott Campbell.  From the creator of DANGER GIRL comes a story of five teens who create colourful holographic forcefields that resemble animals, which allow them to duplicate the "powers" of those particular creatures.  BATTLE OF THE PLANETS, then, only prettier.  Eight pages of story; the rest is behind-the-scenes stuff.  The first issue goes on sale in August - the second in May 2006, probably.
 
Strange Girl #1 (£2-20 Image) by Rick Remender & Eric Nguyen.  Demons on earth, God in his heaven, end of the world.  Includes obligatory feisty young girl.
 
Gotham Central #32 (£1-80, DC) by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka & Kano.  Is this the last story arc?  And will Batman fans finally give it the attention it deserves when a body turns up in Gotham... belonging to Robin?
 
DC Special: The Return Of Donna Troy #1 of 4 (£2-25, DC) by Phil Jimenez & Garcia-Lopéz, Pérez.  You'd be forgiven for thinking that when Bob Dylan wrote "Death Is Not The End", he was referring to the fate of Marvel and DC superheroes.  There are appears to be some sort of karmic balance thing happening: whenever one or two heroes are offed, a similar number must be resurrected.  Following IDENTITY CRISIS and DC COUNTDOWN TO INFINITE CRISIS (100 pages for 90 pence, more on which next mailshot but it may have sold out by then and I hereby pronounce it not bad at all - well, not bad for readers, fairly miserable for one character who's gone to that great sub-editor in the sky), it seems the revolving door is now spinning frantically, and Jason Todd in particular must be feeling as guilty as all get-out.  So here comes Dame Donna of Troy, former Teen Titan and now mythological Titan, currently fighting the good fight as Goddess of the Moon, but hmm, she wonders, didn't she used to be a little less cosmic and a bit more cosmetic?  Parenthetically, imagine being inked by your idol!  Phil Jimenez will also receive approval in part B, for his OTHERWORLD series at Vertigo which is both visually rich and not so slacking on the characterisation front either - a lavishly detailed high fantasy scenario complete with long white beards and giants, but also, on the human front, unfaithful lovers and gossip.
 
Son Of Vulcan #1 of 6 (£2-25, DC) by Scott Neatty & Keron Grant.  Young orphan on his way to get a job gains superpowers.  Good lord! 
 
Blacklight #1 (£2-25, Image) by Jim Valentino, Scott Wherle & Toledo, Deering.  Young woman stuck in a dead-end job gains superpowers.  Heavens to Betsy!
 
Flak Riot!  (£2-20, Image) by Michael O'Hare, Robert Place Napton-Upon-Thyme & O'Hare, Garcia.  Young, bored, lonely file clerk is whisked into another dimension... and gains superpowers.  Hold the front page!
 
Small Gods special #1 (£2-20, Image) by Jason Rand & Juan E. Ferreyra.   Superior "world-with-a-few-psychics" series, which investigates the personal repercussions for various individuals attempting to access their potential either for personal gain or the benefit of others. If you've been intrigued by reviews, you could do worse than to try this one, in colour.
 
House Of M #1 and 2 of 8 (£2-25, Marvel) by Brian Michael Bendis & Olivier Coipel.  Oh my god, Stephen's going to wet himself, isn't he?  It's Bendis, the New version of the Avengers, the Astonishing part of the X-Men, and the pencils aren't so far from Finch!  Yes, I'm very much looking forward to this, but first let's dispense with the hype: "I know you've heard it before," chums your best mate, Joe Quesada, thumbs aloft and arm around your shoulder, "I know it sounds a cliché, but never has the phrase, "And nothing will ever be the same again!" ever been more true.  Honest injun, even the phrase, "And nothing will ever be the same again!" will never be the same again!"  Ha ha ha!  'E's a scallywag, that old Joe!  No, it won't be the same because you've just upped the ante and drained even more of the already empty casket of trust with completely unnecessary exaggeration, but you'll continue use it all the same - as you have done ten times a year for the last several decades even though pretty much everything is the same as it was back then, except that you have a few writers on your staff right now.  Everything settles back down eventually.  Simon Robinson's right: even Hawkeye will return eventually.  "How incredible [will this be] you ask?  So incredible that we're going to be shipping you two incredible issues in June!"  That's right, the reason they're shipping them in June is that they're so "incredible".  It can't be that they need to schedule it that way, or that they're already ready or anything like that, it's because they're "incredible"!  How utterly stupid are superhero readers supposed to be?  You sold us one issue of X-MEN: AGE OF APOCALYPSE every week, and they was so far short of fucking "incredible" that even the Hulk might consider it defamation by association.
Try this:  "Page 45 is once again going to open each Sunday in December because our stock right now is so incredible we just have to sell you it more times a week!" 
Nothing to do with Christmas, obviously.
Following the squeal-away events of AVENGERS: DISASSEMBLED (yes, I squealed - quietly, mind you, and in the comfort of my own home), in which the whole world came crashing down upon the team when one of their own's fragile sanity finally shattered, taking with it the laws of probability and several of her close friends and colleagues, Wanda Maximoff, the mutant known as the Scarlet Witch, lies in a coma, looked over by her father, Magneto, and the X-Men's mentor, Professor Xavier.  But if she wakes up again, the consequences might prove irreversibly catastrophic.   So a decision has to be made, before it's too late...
Readers of NEW AVENGERS will receive this automatically because it's the same writer, the same storyline and a very similar artist.  ASTONISHING X-MEN customers won't, because we're not that pushy, but please feel free to ask.  In fact, you're encouraged to.  Marvel are releasing a 16-page sketchbook/preview in advance and that will also go to NEW AVENGERS customers, free of charge, and to anyone who's already put themselves down for this mini-series.  The rest we'll spread amongst ASTONISHING X-MEN readers (again, free of charge) to see if we can't tempt you.  The bits of dialogue I've read so far are as good as any Bendis I've encountered.
 
Astonishing X-Men #12 (£2-25, Marvel) by Joss Whedon & John Cassady.  Finale to the second story arc by almost-as-good-as-Morrison-when-Quitely-or-Jimenez-were-on-pencils team of Whedon and Cassady, but lo and behold: "the lives of the X-Men will NEVER be the same". 
 
Spider-Man: House Of M #1 of 5 (£2-25,Marvel) by Mark Waid & Tom Peyer.  They just can't resist it, can they?  Spurious spin-offs from NEW AVENGERS, spurious spin-offs from HOUSE OF M.  Mark Waid is a perfectly lovely man and popular with the average superhero crowd, so you know what?  Feel free.  It doesn't really tie into HOUSE OF M, though, it's just an opportunist "What If?" in which Spider-Man finds himself World Wrestling Alliance Championship Titleholder.  Not for me, cheers.  While we're at it, here's what they're going to throw at you further down the line in the way of "tie-in"s:
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
At the moment I can't confirm any creative teams, but if you're interested in HOUSE OF M and you're not yet reading Bendis' PULSE, those'd be pretty safe bets for quality and relevance.  I'd like to emphasise once more, you won't need any of it, but should you want individual bits and pieces, just ask, and should you want the lot, we can cater for that: just say, "I want the lot".  Then send your bank manager a box of chocolates or something.
 
X-Men: Kitty Pryde - Shadow & Flame #1 of 6 (£2-25, Marvel) by Akira Yoshida & Paul Smith.  Quite possibly the worst writer in superhero comics. Expect ninjas.
 
Gravity #1 of 5 (£2-25, Marvel) by Sean McKeever & Mike Norton.  The creative team responsible for the teen fiction series, WAITING PLACE (recommended as vastly superior to stuff like Dawson's Creek), reunites for kooky superhero stuff.  What a waste of two bright talents.
 
Ororo: Before The Storm #1 of 4 (£2-25, Marvel) by Sumerak & Barberi.  Neat title, I'll give them that.
 
Dream Police #1 (£2-99, Marvel) by J Michael Straczynski & Mike Deodato.  One-shot revival of an idea Joe had whilst working at Top Cow.  Cops and monsters.
 
Scatterbrain #1 (£2-60, APC) by Brendan Deneen & Tim Seeling.  Former sterling cop Detective Anderfold wants to steal Scatterbrain's thunder, because vigilante Scatterbrain's been stealing himself across the Devil's Hopyard rooftops to catch the criminals who've stolen stuff. Meanwhile artist Tim Seelig's seen stealing Dave McKean's HELLBLAZER cover designs, but has stolen the hearts of Trevor Hairsine and Tim Bradstreet who provide forwards for his book of digital artwork, Familiar Strangers @ £12-95.  I know there's a theme emerging here, but please pay for the comic.
 
Gǿdland #1 (£2-20, Image) by Joe Casey & Tom Scioli - "Adam Archer is Earth's star-powered champion.  But what does his existence mean for the rest of humanity?  And how long until the rest of the universe take notice?  Mind altering aliens!  Surreal super-villains!  All out action!  The greatest heroic epic of the new age begins here!"  Take a whole load of prime, late 60s early 70s Kirby and bring to the boil.  Cosmic dots, big machinery and space-suits.
 
Red Sonja #1 (£2-25, DE) by Oeming & Carey, Rubi, Rodriguez & Isanove. Ah, we covered this with #0. 
 
Monarch of Manhattan #1 (£2-60, Pandora) by C. Edward Seller & H.G. Young.  Much has been made - in COMICS INTERNATIONAL at least - of Pandora (home to BARBARISE, JADE FIRE, SAVAGE WORLD) being the new Crossgen.  It's a load of tripe, though, because Crossgen appealed to the young, and this is fodder for the old and time-warp-trapped.  Ugly as sin as well.  The only parallel is that both expanded way too fast.  Crossgen is now bust, for precisely that reason.
 
Comics Journal #268 (£6-50, Fantagraphics).  Star attraction this month: Craig (BLANKETS, GOOD-BYE CHUNKY RICE, CARNET DE VOYAGE) Thompson.
 
Indy Magazine online (free, Alternative Comics) at www.Indy world.com/indy/  Here's a press release for their Spiegelman special and prior instalments:
Indy Magazine, the online quarterly about the comics medium, returns with an issue covering the career of Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist whose body of work includes "MAUS" and "In the Shadow of No Towers," and who, with his wife Françoise Mouldy, co-edited "Raw," the seminal international comics anthology.  Features include an analysis of Spiegelman's first book, "Breakdowns:" a 1977 hardcover anthology of his strongest short-form underground comix (including "Prisoner on the Hell Planet," "Ace Hole: Midget Detective," and the original three-page version of "Maus").  A two-part feature provides an exhaustive oral and visual history of RAW Magazine: In Part One, Françoise Mouly shares her recollections of moving to New York from France in 1974, meeting and marrying Spiegelman, exploring international comics, and opening up shop as a small-press publisher/printer under the RAW name.  Part Two surveys RAW Magazine's 1980 - 1991 lifespan, featuring commentary from Mouly and Spiegelman, as well as RAW contributors Charles Burns, Kim Deitch, Paul Karasik, Kaz, Jerry Moriarty, Gary Panter, R. Sikoryak, and Chris Ware. Both parts of the RAW history are heavily illustrated with dozens of rare images from the RAW archives, including a full visual bibliography, cover sketches, mock-ups, notes, color separations and photographs. An essay by Hillary Chute offers a close examination of eight graphic narrative structures that reveal Spiegelman's sophisticated use of the comics page to communicate meaning in "Maus."  Martha Kuhlman interviews Dr. Marianne Hirsch, author of the seminal essay "Family Pictures: Maus, Mourning and Post- Memory," on the academic response to "Maus."  Kartalopoulos considers themes, strategies and recurring imagery in Spiegelman's total body of work in light of the artist's candid autobiographical statements.  Spiegelman also appears briefly in cartoonist Phoebe Gloeckner's eight-page photocomics report of her recent visit to the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême, France. The piece further includes a glimpse at Robert Crumb's current graphic novel-in-progress, a literal comics adaptation of the book of Genesis.  The issue runs reviews of Gary Panter's "Jimbo in Purgatory," Arn Saba's "Neil the Horse," and Posy Simmonds' "Literary Life."
Indy Magazine was named "Best new comics magazine" in the Village Voice's annual "Best of New York City" issue, dated October 6 - 12, 2004.
Indy Magazine is published online by Jeff Mason and is edited by Bill Kartalopoulos. Indy began as a print journal edited and published by Mason between 1993 and 1998, and subsequently ran as an online magazine through 2001. In late 2002 Mason invited Kartalopoulos to revive and edit the publication. Redesigned and reinvented as an analytical quarterly, Indy Magazine relaunched in January 2004.  Previous issues in Indy Magazine's current volume have included: textual and graphic contributions from cartoonists including Art Spiegelman, Joe Sacco, Jerry Moriarty, Megan Kelso, Willem, Tom Hart, and Jason Little; features on subjects including Gustave Dore, R. O. Blechman, Ben Katchor, Peter Bagge, Honore Daumier, Milt Gross, and Caran d'Ache; interviews with Jules Feiffer, Françoise Mouly, Paul Karasik, and David Mazzucchelli; and previews and reviews of new and recently published work by Dan Clowes, Charles Schulz, Alan Moore, A. B. Frost, Craig
Thompson, James Sturm, and Dave Sim & Gerhard, among others.
Previous issues are archived online alongside the current edition: http://www.indyworld.com/indy/
Bill Kartalopoulos lives in Manhttan and also maintains the "Egon" comics news and information website: http://www.egonlabs.com
Jeff Mason is an attorney in Gainesville, Florida and publishes the "Alternative Comics" line of comic books and graphic novels: http://www.indyworld.com
Can I also add that as a printed magazine, they were good enough to cover Page 45?  I seem to remember the scurrilous Rich Johnston, who interviewed me during our second Independents Day, was doing it for that self-same publication.  We like Jeff: he's a good bloke.
 
 
 
m e r c h a n d i s e  f o r . . .   2 0 0 5
 
Quimby The Mouse wooden toy & book (£29-99, Dark Horse) by Chris Ware - Like one of those old, wooden, jointed toys held together with elastic that flopped around when you pushed the base.  Only with more misery.  And a 32-page hardcover book.  A two-headed Quimby with a bonus head of Sparky the cat.  The packaging will be beautiful.
 
Mini Fender Guitar Collection (£17-99 each, Dark Horse).  I kid you not, Dark Horse are offering four different electric guitars (which is bizarre enough) at 1/6 scale, and you even get accessories: strap, shield, transmitter, guitar stand and three mini picks.  Why?  Why do you get three mini picks?  In case you break one?!  Whilst playing?!   These are 1/6th scale.  What are you going to do with them?  Give them to some gibbons and see if they come up with a new single for McFly?
Actually, that might not be such a bad idea.  For McFly, I mean.
 
Calendars (various prices, please inquire).  Yes, it's that time of the year again (early Spring), when we're asked to order in calendars which will sell around Christmas - or not. Choose from: Bettie Page by Olivia, How To Draw Manga, Golden Age of DC Comics, Hellboy, Alex Ross, Shirow Masamune, Mutts, Tales From The Crypt, Usagi Yojimbo, Brom, Edward Gorey's Gashlycrumb Tinies, Frazetta, Giger, Luis Royo, Arthur Suydam, Batman Begins, Smallville, Emily The Strange, Ruby Gloom, Superman, Hulk, Spider-Man, Wonderwoman and so many more.  Choose now, though, because Emily and Bettie aside, we probably won't.
 
Kid Flash glow-in-the-dark t-shirt (£14-99, Graphitti). Lightning bolt and circle icon in white/green on black.  Small up to XL, with a little bit more for XXL.
 
Cerebus: He Doesn't Love You t-shirt (£14-99, Graphitti).  Same rules as above, this is Cerebus as Most Holy (Pope) on black, declaring "He Doesn't Love You - He Just Wants All Your Money".  Obviously I can't wear this behind the counter.
 
Full Metal Alchemist t-shirt (£14-99 for M, L, XL, £16-99 for XXL).  Red t-shirt with the schematic star logo on front, large logo on back, on title on left sleeve.
 
 
 
UK Postage (overseas at cost):
£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.  Hey Marcus!  Hey Carol!  Yoo-hoo!  You're the only two reading this bit.  Big hugs. S x
 
More information can be found in Comics International (£1-95), the Previews catalogue (£3-25), at www.ninthart.com and www.sequentialtart.com or indeed by e-mailing us at page45@page45.com
 
Want tips on producing your own comic? - Download the .pdf - http://www.reddingk.com/
 
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
Tom Rosin 
 
Page 45
9 Market Street
Nottingham
NG1 6HY
Tel: (0115) 9508045
Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm. 
 
Mailshots planted by Stephen and Mark, then ploughed up by a peccary with packed-up peripheral vision.  Tom digs in with BAMBI & HER PINK GUN and PRINCESS AI.  2000AD/Rebellion reviews grafted by Alex Sarll, whilst the INVINCIBLE h/c's propagated by Craig Johnson.  
Craig Johnson of www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com was the man responsible for persuading me onto The Panel there.  No stranger to propagation, Craig's also responsible for his wife having spent ni