The art has a lovely, swooshy, vogue-ish feel to it that really does put you in mind of sashaying catwalk models and blinged-up sparkly darlings all mwah-mwah air-kissing away. In other words, he’s captured the utter vacuousness of their illusory world to perfection.
– Jonathan on Knockabout’s Paris
St. Colin & The Dragon signed editions (£6-50, My Cardboard Books) by Philippa Rice.
“My Clopsy got burnt!”
Wheezing myself into extinction over that line, I’m still salty-eyed with laughter. Clopsy, by the way, is one of the many sturdy steeds issued to the King’s chump champions including MY CARDBOARD LIFE’s own Colin. There’s Stormcloud, Captain, Bully, Dynamite and wedding-cake-coloured Clopsy who makes My Little Pony look like a Shire on steroids.
Also, all our current copies aren’t just signed but sketched in. Each one’s different! And you should see the current sketches in our restocks of MY CARDBOARD LIFE – so elaborate!
So. Another comicbook collage created from cardboard, variously patterned paper, cloth, gold/silver foil and – I don’t know – Wheetabix or something, this is Philippa’s first relatively long-form foray into her unique brand of cut-and-paste comedy and, liberated from the need for a succession of instant punchilines, it is on fire! Err, as is everything and everyone else here.
A dragon’s egg has descended from the heavens like a comet ‘cross the sky, and we know how well that omen bodes. Acutely aware of how badly a bad-breathed, bad-tempered dragon’s presence can wreak havoc with property values – along with the properties themselves – the local wizard / wise man recommends treating it like gold for a year, feeding it up so it’ll then fly away:
“Food for dragons:
Sheep
Pigs
Goats
Crabs
Babies
Not suitable:
Salad
Anchovies
Boiled egss
Cakes
Chewing gum”
Dutifully our peasants bring the beaming beastie sheep after fluffy white sheep and our dragon is delighted! Absolutely delighted! It loves sheep. But after four seasons pass, there are no sign of wings and the dragon is gutted when no longer wanted and doesn’t react well to eviction. It’s time to teach the world to singe; and you can forget the perfect harmony.
That, then, is merely the premise. What follows is a life-lesson about making friends, playing nice, and appreciating what you’ve got while you’ve got it. All of which potentially saccharine sentiments are undercut beautifully by Philippa’s uncontrollable mischief whilst enhanced by an exuberance that takes it beyond all measurable levels of cute. It’s too, too funny, and there will be all manner of unexpected metamorphoses as Cardboard Colin finally takes charge and actually gets a result. Well, several results.
As to the craft involved – the pageant of paper-play – that in itself is what will bring so many smiles. The original dragon’s egg in itself is a work of wonder. I think it’s the wit with which Rice has interpreted what’s in her head using the full potential of materials repurposed for her vision, and I love the way the gaily coloured king dances across the page to his knights, like Rick Mayall in Black Adder II only way camper still and almost in jim-jams.
Bonuses include a ‘Celebrity Clopsy’ one-page and four alternative covers. Also: Philippa’s signature on each and every copy. The punchline, by the way, is right up there with ASTERIOS POLYP’s. You’ll see what I mean when you get there.
SLH
Buy St. Colin & The Dragon and read the Page 45 review here
The Shark King h/c (£9-99, Toon Books) by R. Kikuo Johnson.
“The sea is full of surprises today.”
Stunningly beautiful, with more than a nod to Gilbert Hernandez on almost every full-colour page, this is from R. Kikuo Johnson whose debut Night Fisher was so electrifyingly impressive it would have definitely been Page 45 Comicbook Of The Month had it only existed back then.
It’s a short children’s story based on the Hawaiian legend of the shape-shifting shark god Kamohoalii who terrifies then rescues a woman prisings limpet from an outcrop of rocks above treacherously deep waters. Soon they are married, then the mother’s with child. Born with an instant affinity to water and a ravenous appetite beyond his tiny body, Nanaue can’t help snatching the fishermen’s quarry from out of theirnets right under their noses, but his inability to control the shark side dormant within finally gives the game away and he flees from the beach for his life. Thankfully, the moment has been prepared for…
The poignancy for me lies in the wife and mother losing both her loved ones, one after the other, to the sea. It’s their nature, their destiny, but I’d reassure your children they’ll be back. Nanaue yearns for his father but at least has his mother who copes as best she can when Nanaue brings home his increasingly unwieldy daily catch: going to need a bigger cooking pot!
Young eyes will sparkle over the subaquatic dives. Likely they’ll be terrified by the majestic silhouette of the king’s true finned form placed so perfectly on the page. They’ll laugh out loud at the snap-snap snapping of the hungry jaws morphing out of the young boy’s back. Me, I’m still in awe of the opening, early morning splash page as the young woman leaps over the rocks below the waterfall in search of her sea snails, the verdant misty mountains cast in cool, purple shadow, the sky behind a bright yellow.
Published by Françoise Mouly’s Toon imprint (yes, that Françoise Mouly, for this is RAW Junior) the book even has some top tips for teachers and parents in the back when exploring these books with young minds. There’s also a website you can visit for free online lesson plans etc. It’s really quite the package and this is far and away the finest book in the range so far.
SLH
Buy The Shark King h/c and read the Page 45 review here
Science Tales h/c (£11-99, Myriad Publishing) by Darryl Cunningham…
This time around we find Darryl in full-on debunking mode, as he takes on the scientific lies, hoaxes and scams that annoy him the most, those being: electroconvulsive therapy, homeopathy, the moon landing, climate change, evolution, chiropractic, the MMR jab debacle and the general denial of irrefutable scientific evidence. I personally would have included shampoo adverts with their pseudo-science, made up chemical names and definitive surveys based on massive sample groups of errr…100 people, but that’s my own personal bugbear!
It’s well researched by Darryl as in each case he goes to great length to not only show how preposterous the various claims are, but also how just unreliable the particular people making those assertions are themselves, and in the case of climate change the infinitely more sinister aspect of just who it is that’s funding the idiots. But this is no diatribe, instead it’s a meticulous picking apart of the ridiculous web of half-baked facts and fiction that’s often woven around one or two grains of truth, usually completely taken and distorted totally out of context, to prove his case. Anyone who enjoyed Darryl’s previous work, Psychiatric Tales, which was a Page 45 Comicbook Of The Month, will definitely enjoy this. Darryl also employs the same understated clinical yet also slightly comical art style this time around, once again inserting himself as a talking head from time to time for additional narrational emphasis.
SLH
Buy Science Tales h/c and read the Page 45 review here
Paris (£15-99, Knockabout) by Maarten Vande Wiele, Erika Raven, Peter Moerenhout…
Ah, capricious whimsy at its finest as our three heroines Chastity, Hope and Faith set out to find fame and fortune in that most chic of cities, and whilst they might be named after virtues, these ladies will do pretty much whatever it takes to try and succeed. Initially at least, I thought that Hope, a beautiful girl left with ugly scarring on one side of her face after a car accident as a small child in which she also lost her mother, was intended to be the moral rock around which the story would be built; for upon arriving in the big city as a naïve, sensitive soul and hiding her scars beneath her locks, she seems immune to the insidious moral corruption that is utterly prevalent almost everywhere she turns.
Her two roommates Chastity, a party girl who’s determined to sleep her way to the easy life whilst acquiring more than a few column inches in the gossip magazines along the way, and Faith, a singer harbouring dreams of the big time who’ll stab absolutely anyone in the back, repeatedly, to get even a centimetre ahead, are two beautifully observed examples of the modern airhead wannabes and two-a-penny manufactured muso-clones that currently clutter the social landscape like so much detritus.
However, as the story progresses and Hope experiences an unexpected breakthrough into the world of modelling, and is then offered the opportunity to have plastic surgery to fix her imperfection to become a truly unblemished beauty, she inevitably succumbs to the temptations and ego-titillations that accompany such success. From that point on, it’s no longer a question of whether she’ll fall, just how far she’ll drop and how fast she’ll be travelling when she hits rock bottom. It’s going to hurt…
Chastity and Faith meanwhile are also finding that the road to wealth and fame isn’t always straightforward, and that sometimes you’ll need to sell your soul, not just your body (though that goes without saying) just to survive and stay in the game. It’s almost like a fairy tale in reverse really, which is a pretty chilling allegory that the myriad fame-hungry never-will-be suckers of our modern world – who are only too happy to humiliate themselves for the chattering classes’ televisual entertainment on increasingly absurd reality shows – would do well to pay attention to. If they could read, that is.
I think the scariest part is whilst it would be easy to conclude the story here is unrealistically dramatic, I actually suspect it’s pretty much bang on the money, which of course makes it all the more enticing a read, as whilst I’m usually a sucker for a happy ending, I, like pretty much all of us normal people if we’re honest, enjoy watching a good celebrity meltdown in full car-crash effect. Yes, they may be people underneath it all, but they’re celebrities first and foremost, so one can’t help fell they do probably deserve it. At least a little bit…
The art, by one of the three collaborating writers, has a lovely, swooshy, vogue-ish feel to it that really does put you in mind of sashaying catwalk models and blinged-up sparkly darlings all mwah-mwah air-kissing away. In other words, he’s captured the utter vacuousness of their illusory world to perfection. An unexpected guilty pleasure this work turned out to be then, much like reading a gossip magazine, only infinitely more satisfying.
JR
Paris
Reset #1 (£2-75, Dark Horse) by Peter Bagge.
Mining a similar vein to Taniguchi’s A DISTANT NEIGHBOURHOOD (two volumes) and Alex Robinson’s TOO COOL TO BE FORGOTTEN, but in his own inimitable car-crash comedy style, HATE’s Peter Bagge returns to the realms of virtual reality. First there was the identity crisis of OTHER LIVES, now it’s that eternal question about whether – given the opportunity to relive major moments – you’d change any decisions you made in your life: things you did, things that you said, things you can never take back. Now you can, or at least washed-up actor/comedian Guy Krause can, after he signs up as a guinea pig for a virtual reality experiment. Thing is, is he only going to make matters worse? I don’t know! He keeps pushing the reset button!
Lead scientist Angie Minor has done extensive research into Guy Krause’s history, gleaning all manner of intimate details based on Guy’s stand-up routine, extensive media coverage and interviews – that’s what makes him the perfect candidate – but she’s even dug out the relevant college yearbooks. And that’s where the opportunities for exploration begin: on Graduation Day as Gail Malone, a girl Guy had admired from afar, says the first and last word she will ever say to him: “Spaz.” It’s a moment that’s sure left its scars.
Speaking of research, I can’t believe how well Peter Bagge’s thought this through – how they know each specific detail which an increasingly paranoid Krause questions – and can’t wait to see where he’s going. I’ve no idea what the backers are actually after yet, but I think that they’ll get what they want. However many times Guy Krause walks out, he keeps coming back: convicted of road rage, he’s been off the stage for too long, and when he tries to secure the spotlight again, however minor, the rug’s pulled from under him at the last minute. Those mysterious backers are pretty ruthless.
SLH
Buy Reset #1 by shouting and snapping down the phone on 0115 9508045 or entering our own virtual reality at page45@page45.com
Severed h/c (£18-99, Image) by Scott Snyder, Scott Tuft & Attila Futaki.
Nasty, nasty, nasty.
A crafty placement of raised spot-varnish creates quite the chilling 3-D effect as a gnarled hand, dripping with blood, tears through the cover and its unsuspecting city of Chicago to reveal a set of eyes staring right at you that definitely don’t have your best interests at heart.
In BATMAN: THE BLACK MIRROR, American Vampire’s Scott Snyder proved he could successfully mess with our minds, playing upon our expectations to keep us guessing as to the protagonist’s much maligned innocence or psychopathic guilt. Here, along with co-writer Scott Tuft, he plays upon our fears, our worst nightmares of being lost and alone a long way from home, helpless and hopelessly trapped. Then there’s the matter of trust, and the sinking, hollow horror of finding it most misplaced.
One year ago young, aspiring musician Jack Garron stumbled upon evidenced that he was adopted, ever since when he’s been gripped by the secret hope of finding his father. Instead of confiding in his loving, adoptive mother he managed to make contact, and the last letter he received mentioned a fiddle-playing gig in the city ofChicago. That’s where Jack’s heading now, having run away from home to stow away on a freight train. But the freight train’s occupants are far from friendly, while what’s waiting for him inChicagois even worse. What follows is a cruel breadcrumb trail that will take Jack further from home still; what’s so damnably clever is how that trail was laid.
Unlike BATMAN: THE BLACK MIRROR this isn’t an “Is he or isn’t he?” – we know right for the beginning that there’s a murderous, cannibalistic monster waiting in the wings, adopting a succession of seemingly beneficent guises and preying on the young and vulnerable, so when Jack strays too close for comfort the dramatic irony racks up a tension so taut it’s not true. As to his new friend Sam(antha), found on the freight train, just… don’t go there.
Attila Futaki’s art has a fine period feel while the colours are suitably dowdy, for this is all told in retrospect. Even the countryside low-lit and earthy. It’s a far from comfortable set in series of uncomfortable, bleak or outright hostile environments: bedsits and bars, hotels and motels and shacks in the middle of nowhere.
SLH
Buy Severed h/c and read the Page 45 review here
H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror (£13-50, IDW) by H.P. Lovecraft, Joe R. Lansdale, Robert Weinberg & Peter Bergting, menton3…
Yet another decent Lovecraft adaption, this particular short story revolves around a demented individual Wilbur Whateley who is determined to get his hands on an original copy of the Necronomicon for the purpose of performing a ritual allowing the ‘Old Ones’ to return. When the librarian at one of the few places to have such an item, Miskatonic University, refuses to let him have it, Wilbur breaks in late at night to help himself. It’s at this point that events take a surprising turn (or perhaps not considering it is Lovecraft) and everything starts to unravel for poor old Wilbur. Probably the closest thing you’ll get to a happy ending in a Lovecraft story, this, if memory serves. Respectable art from Bergting and the oddly named menton3, which I presume is a pen name rather than a jazz ensemble filling in on inks during a particularly quiet gigging period.
JR
Buy H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror and read the Page 45 review here
Abe Sapien vol 2: The Devil Does Jest And Other Stories (£13-50, Dark Horse) by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Patric Reynolds, Peter Snejberg, James Harren…
More finny fun with the Bureau’s laugh-a-minute gagster. That’s a joke by the way. A relatively hotchpotch collection of patchy shorts, frankly, much like Abe’s… I really would rather see these solo titles focus more on the characters themselves which – given Abe’s weird and wonderful origin that has only recently been partly revealed in the main BPRD title and with so much more alluded to and clearly yet to come – would have been far, far more interesting to me, than just yet another ghost story. Hellboy obsessives, please note that he guest-stars in one of the stories.
JR
Buy Abe Sapien vol 2: The Devil Does Jest And Other Stories and read the Page 45 review here
genetiks [I] (£14-99, Archaia) by Richard Marazano & Jean-Michael Ponzio…
First volume of some cutting-edge speculative fiction which in addition to being a great little bit of sci-fi in its own right also posits one or two perturbing questions we’re all probably going to be worrying about in the not too distant future; such as the ownership of mapped human genomes and the possibility of genetic manipulation to achieve vastly extended life spans. For the lucky chosen few, that is… and also the consequences for the unlucky expendable few who get experimented on for the ‘greater good’ along the way.
Wisely this work stays away from getting into really hard science and instead concentrates on a character-driven plot as the usual set of dodgy scientists, snooping activists and nosey reporters, power mad businessmen and mysterious men in black bursting through doors in the dead of the night are all used to good effect to drive the story along.
This work also comes as close as I have seen anybody come to getting away with manipulated art that is based on photographs. It doesn’t quite manage it though, with the usual problem of facial expressions feeling rather static, and thus losing the flowing sense of continuity that illustrated sequential art achieves effortlessly when done well. Still, aside from that particular element, it’s rather neat, and makes me think before too long someone will really totally crack this particular artistic approach. They’ll probably be a robot, mind you…
JR
Genetiks [I]
Hellcyon (£9-99, Dark Horse) by Lucas Marangon…
Another title trying desperately far too hard to be the next Appleseed / Ghost In The Shell. However, like the recent woefully bland GHOST IN THE SHELL STAND ALONG COMPLEX manga by Yu Kinutani, without the master himself on the pens, Shirow it is not. I couldn’t establish whether it was the same artist doing the covers; I think it is the same guy, and if so, he’s certainly put considerably more effort into aping Shirow’s style on the front than inside where it all just goes a bit flat and two-dimensional, which doesn’t sound much like the future to me. The story is a kind of Appleseed / ENDER’S SHADOW mash-up. And that’s being kind. Far too kind. I can’t resist finishing with a bit of the dialogue, which seems in places like it’s been put together by randomly picking phrases out of a hat, just in case you were somehow under the misapprehension that I enjoyed this.
“I want to live in Paris some day. What you did back there was very impressive.”
“I’ve never killed anyone before. I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck.”
JR
Buy Hellcyon and read the Page 45 review here
Wolverine And The X-Men vol 1 h/c (£14-99, Marvel) by Jason Aaron & Chris Bachalo.
“Whiskey!”
“Whiskey!”
“Whiskey!”
“Come back here, you stupid blue rats!”
In which a visit from the Department of Education school inspectors passes without incident. <snort> Everything that could possibly go wrong does go wrong on the first and possibly last day of term at the new Jean Grey School For Higher Learning, and teachers will surely empathise. There is, however, a great deal more that can go wrong in a school full of mutants which boasts the most dangerous boys’ bathroom in history. Also on the roll call: a junior Shi’Ar warrior, a young and studious member of the alien Brood, a mini-Apocalypse and the spawn of Krakoa, theLivingIsland.
“Is it a him or a her? Can a walking island have a gender?”
“Figure at some point it’ll come in handy to have school grounds that can fight back in need be. Plus I’m trying to teach it to turn our ponds into beer.”
And then there’s the infestation of tiny blue Bamfs out to steal Logan’s liquor. It’s an anarchic mix of misfits which makes the pupils of St. Trinians look like paragons of dutiful obedience, calm and conformity. That Kitty Pryde is headmistress is not unexpected; that Wolverine’s the headmaster is insane. The Toad is their janitor, by the way, and will be spending some considerable time cleaning up that bathroom later on.
Following directly on from the mini-series X-Men: Schism wherein Cyclops and Wolverine stopped seeing eye to eye, there has been a mass evacuation from the X-Men’sisland ofUtopia, Wolverine opting to educate the children rather than allow them to fight. Joining their faculty is the Beast who stopped enjoying Scott Summers’ increasingly militant company quite some time ago plus Iceman, Rachel Grey, Cannonball, Chamber, Husk, Karma, Frenzy, and Doop. Yes, Doop. He of the translatable alien language.
The schism was engineered by Kade Kilgore, school-aged son of a wealthy arms manufacturer, who’s forcefully inherited a fortune and multiplied it considerably by selling Sentinel technology on the back of the some pretty successful worldwide scare-mongering. It also secured him his seat as Black King of the Hellfire Club. His next move, then, is something of a surprise.
Writer Jason Aaron (SCALPED) appears to mainlined raw, liquid sugar, for the whole, frantic fiasco is played purely for laughs, and long may that continue. There’s even a couple of pages of school twitterfeed and a school prospectus in the back complete with extracurricular activities, special events and the proud school motto, “The best there is at what we do”. Courses include “Algebra Sucks: I Know, But You Still Have To Learn It” which is, naturally, delivered by Professor Bobby Drake who couldn’t even spell ‘quadratic equations’ let alone solve one.
Chris Bachalo (DEATH, SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, GENERATION X) plays the perfect co-conspirator with cartoon comedy postures, expressions and hyperkinetic action against backgrounds with an enormous attention to detail, injecting background and even foreground jokes galore. That he’s managed to make Apocalypse Jr. look cute is extraordinary.
Meanwhile the unruly Mr. Quentin Quire, Kid Omega, starts as he means to go on, dripping with attention-seeking sarcasm.
“The Wolverine Home For Wayward Boys. I can’t wait for that scene in the third act when your tough love finally breaks through my thorny exterior to reach the frightened, lonely little boy underneath. There won’t be a dry eye in the house. Should we just skip the drama and hug it out right here?”
“Shut your face, bub, before I cut it off. How’s that for tough love?”
“I’m feeling the magic already.”
SLH
Wolverine
Punisher Max: Homeless h/c (£14-99, Marvel) by Jason Aaron & Steve Dillon…
A fitting conclusion to Jason Aaron’s non-continuity run in which pretty much everybody dies with the body count reaching truly prodigious levels, as the Kingpin and Frank enter their mutual and most assuredly destructive end game. But fret ye not, MAX fans, as the baddest eye-patch-toting landlubber of them all, Nick Fury himself, is about to get his own MAX series.
JR
Buy Punisher Max: Homeless h/c and read the Page 45 review here
Batman: Venom (£10-99, DC) by Dennis J. O’Neil & Trevor Von Eeden, Russel Braun…
No, not a new DC-Marvel crossover which would no doubt have the fan boys positively covering themselves in web fluid through overexcitement, but a rather old Batman tale (c. 1990) from the now defunct LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT monthly bat-title. In a mildly interesting aside, that particular title when it started was boldly purporting to be telling self-contained five-issue arc stories using rotating creative teams that would be of ‘graphic novel’ quality (bearing in mind relatively little was collected at this time, and what was tended to be things of exceptional quality like Frank Miller’s BATMAN: YEAR ONE).
I suppose therefore it actually foreshadowed how modern comics have pretty much completely gone in recent years with the use of continuous multi-issue arcs, solely for the purpose of collecting as much as possible into graphic novels. There was some pretty good stuff in this title though, especially in the first few years, though this arc which was issues #16 – #20 was decidedly pretty average. So why are DC collecting this now? Well simply because it features the first appearance of the drug Venom which would go on to be used and abused by upcoming Bat-film villain Bane. Here Bruce, feeling somewhat inadequate after failing to save the life of a young girl being held for ransom, decides it be worth trying and that he’ll be able to keep it under control and not get addicted. Cue Bruce losing the plot, in a plot twist we just couldn’t see coming, as he can’t keep it control and gets addicted…
JR
Buy Batman: Venom and read the Page 45 review here
A Game Of Thrones vol 1 h/c (£14-99, Harper) by George R.R. Martin, Daniel Abraham & Tommy Patterson…
I was slightly sceptical that the ultra-dense plot-packed prose book and recent massive television smash would adapt well to comics, but actually Daniel Abraham has done an excellent job of conveying just how rich a world George R.R. Martin has created with its enormous cast of characters and locations, awash with political intrigues, dynastical double-dealings and Machiavellian manoeuvrings. Not to mention substantial amounts of swash-buckling action and demented monsters causing chaos. It certainly reads like the prose works, and the art from Tommy Patterson is pretty decent too, making this something which will should appeal both to seasoned Thrones fans, but also those wishing to see what all the fuss is about for themselves.
JR
Buy A Game Of Thrones vol 1 h/c and read the Page 45 review here
New Review For An Earlier Book
Strangers In Paradise pocketbook vol 5 (£13-50, Abstract Studios) by Terry Moore.
Featuring the controversial ‘David’s Story’ – the full history of what originally brought him to Katchoo on that rainy afternoon right at the beginning of the series. Also: see that scene and others played over again. Yeah, all looks a little different now, eh? Also, the funniest gallery show opening imaginable as Katchoo finally hits it big.
Also, also: check out pages 122 and 123 for Leah The Dead Girl. Do those eyes look familiar? Has Terry Moore’s RACHEL RISING really been gestating that long?! Too much of a coincidence. “Then she said something no one has ever said to me before… “Have you ever thought about making a story with your images?” I swear the idea had never crossed my mind, but once she said that it was, like, liberating and scary, all at the same time. Not just Deadgirl, the painting… Deadgirl… the story!”
For far more indepth coverage of this extraordinary series, please see reviews of SiPPKT VOL 1 and VOL 2 and, oh yes, VOL 3. One more book to go and it won’t disappoint.
SLH
Buy Strangers In Paradise pocketbook vol 5 and read the Page 45 review here
Arrived, Online & Ready To Buy
Reviews already online if they’rer new formats of previous books. Otherwise the most interesting will come under the microscope next week, while the rest will remain with their Diamond previews acting in lieu of reviews. “In lieu of”. Get me!
At The Caves (signed) (£4-00) by Lizz Lunney
Curse Of The Bogmen / Horseome (£2-00) by Lizz Lunney
A Dinosaur Tale / Tofu + Cats (£2-00) by Lizz Lunney
Dream Locations Postcards (£5-99,) by Joe List, Lizz Lunney, Soju Tanaka
The Babysitter’S Club: Kirsty’S Great Idea (£6-99, Scholastic) by Ann M. Martin & Raina Telgemeier
I’m Not A Plastic Bag h/c (£14-99, Archaia) by Rachel Hope Allison
The Avalon Chronicles vol 1: Once In A Blue Moon hardcover (£14-99, Oni) by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir &Emma Vieceli
Chew vol 5: Major League (£9-99, Image) by John Layman & Rob Guillory
The Boy Who Made Silence vol 1 (£17-99, Markosia) by Joshua Hagler
But I Really Wanted To Be An Anthropologist hardcover (£14-99, SelfMadeHero) by Margaux Motin
Black Orchid h/c (£18-99, Vertigo) by Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean
Folly, The Consequences Of Indiscretion s/c (£13-99, Fantagraphics) by Hans Rickheit
Stormwatch vol 1 h/c (£22-50, DC) byWarren Ellis & Tom Raney
Batman: Knightfall vol 1 (New Ed’n) (£22-50, DC) by Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant & Jim Aparo, Norm Breyfogle, Graham Nolan, Jim Balent, Bret Blkevins, Klaus Janson, Mike Manley
Gotham Central Book 4: Corrigan s/c (£14-99, DC) by Ed Brubaker, Gred Rucka &Kano, Stefano Gaudiano
Dark Tower vol 5: Battle Of Jericho Hill s/c (£14-99, Marvel) by Peter David, Robin Furth & Jae Lee, Richard Isanove
Wolverine vol 3: Wolverine’s Revenge s/c (£12-99, Marvel) by Jason Aaron & Renato Guedes (£12-99, Marvel) by Rob Williams & Ron Garney, Matteo Buffagni, Riley Rossmo
Ultimate Comics X: Origins s/c (£14-99, Marvel) by Jeph Loeb & Arthur Adams
Spider-Man: Flying Blind h/c (£14-99, Marvel) by Dan Slott, Mark Waid & Humberto Ramos, Emma Rios, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Kano
Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil vol 3 (£18-99, Marvel) by Stan Lee & Gene Colan
Onamori Himari vol 1 (£8-99, Yen) by Milan Matra
Onamori Himari vol 2 (£8-99, Yen) by Milan Matra
Itazura Na Kiss vol 7 (£12-99, DMP) by Kaoru Tada
Is This A Zombie? vol 1 (£8-99, Yen) by Sacchi
Highschool Of The Dead vol 5 (£10-50, Yen) by Daisuke Sato & Shouji Sato
Sailor Moon vol 4 (£8-50, Kodansha) by Naoko Takeuchi
GTO: The Early Years vol 12 (£9-99, Vertical) by Toru Fujisawa
True Blood vol 3: The French Quarter hardcover (£18-99, IDW) by Mariah Huehner, David Tilschman & DavidMessina, Claudio Balboni, Bruno Letizia
Mass Effect vol 3: Invasion (£12-99, Dark Horse) by Mac Walter, John Jackson Miller & OmarFranca
Sonic Select vol 5 (£8-99, Sega) by Sega
Gears Of War vol 2 s/c (£10-99, DC) by Michael Capps, Joshua Ortega & Liam Sharp, Leonardo Manco, Simon Bisley, Joel Gomez, Trevor Hairsine
Waiting for the new issue of FATALE? Try CRIMINAL: COWARD by the same creative team. The crime of our times: Zeitheist!
More seriously, if it was you in my dreams late Sunday night, could you please get in touch? Thanks ever so much. You were magnificent.
– Stephen