JUPITER’S LEGACY by Mark Millar & Frank Quitely, JUPITER’S CIRCLE by Mark Millar & Wilfredo Torres, ZENITH PHASE THREE by Grant Morrison & Steve Yeowell, REBELS by Brian Wood & Andrea Mutti and the return of STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL 1 by Terry Moore. News, as ever, underneath including a new comic from Brandon Graham and Marian Churchland!
Strangers In Paradise vol 1 Pocket Edition (£13-50, Abstract Edition) by Terry Moore.
There is no comic
I am fonder of than STRANGERS IN PARADISE.
I may have declared THE NAO OF BROWN by Glyn Dillon to be the finest work of comicbook fiction, and I have pronounced that the best body of comics anywhere in the world to date is the autobiographical ALEC: THE YEARS HAVE PANTS by Eddie Campbell, but there is no comic I am fonder of than STRANGERS IN PARADISE. It means the world to me, and I know the same goes for our Dee.
We have history, you see. We have a lot of history. We also have a lot of love, but nobody I know has as much love for his fellow human being as its creator Terry Moore, and it shines from this series as radiant as any sun in the heavens.
You can buy all 2128 pages of this epic, heart-warming, heart-cleaving story in the STRANGERS IN PARADISE OMNIBUS BOXED SET EDITION reprinted in two slipcased softcovers restored as nature intended them without several slices of self-censorship. Not only that but at Page 45 all of our copies come with its retailer print signed by Terry himself. Plus we have unbeatable UK and European shipping prices.
From the creator of RACHEL RISING and ECHO plus TERRY MOORE’S SKETCHBOOK: HOT GIRLS & COLD FEET and TERRY MOORE’S HOW TO DRAW – and, boy, does he know how to draw! – here we go!
“I don’t know what to feel anymore. You confuse me.”
Rarely am I allowed the luxury of re-immersing myself in our one my favourite series of all time: there are so many new comics and graphic novels each week which demand fresh reviews. But occasionally a window appears and I defenestrate myself immediately. And that’s very much akin to what the cast experience here: free-falling in love and experiencing one hell of an emotional turbulence.
Twenty years ago there was a relative paucity of comicbook fiction in the US and therefore UK readily accessible to women. Of course there were exceptions – LOVE & ROCKETS, EXIT, SANDMAN, CONCRETE – but exceptions they were and I could show you one hundred women I know personally whose first experience of comics, followed by an immediate love affair with the medium, was STRANGERS IN PARADISE.
Drawn by an artist who loves women as women and not stick insects, who can see the beauty and grace in a curvaceous thigh, and written by a man unafraid to be kind (I’ll put that into context with volume two), it had a heart of untarnished gold, embracing love as the one thing worth living for – and, if necessary, dying for – when so many play games with affection instead. Don’t get me wrong: there are those who play games here, there are those who are proud and stupid and nasty. And what one tends to forget is that actually Terry was really pretty damn saucy. Seriously: lots and lots of sex jokes. Do not denude Terry of his naughtiness!
Indeed the first three-issue mini-series was very much a slapstick burlesque in which we find the main protagonists Francine and Katchoo renting a house together. Katchoo is quite evidently in love with Francine, but Francine is in love with Freddie. Freddie is in love with no one but himself and only after one thing: sex. Francine knows that, Francine tells him that, which is why she won’t sleep with him. Instead, aghast at Freddie’s philandering, she spends most of her time in the fridge. Katchoo meanwhile is so fractious that she shoots alarm clocks. Imagine what she will do to Freddie Femur when she finds out he’s cheating on the absolute love of her life? It’s really quite cathartic.
But what arrested me on re-reading this is that I had forgotten how utterly shocking it was when the real story first kicks in and the comedy is buried under the weight of the protagonists’ past. I’ve typed twelve sentences here already, but I just don’t want to spoil it for you. Instead I will simply tell you that the following scene takes place round a bed nursed by nuns as Katchoo visits the one person in the past that showed her kindness while they both worked as high-class call girls for a certain Mrs. Darcy Parker. Emma is dying of AIDS.
“How you doin’, Chewy? You okay?”
“I’m fine, Emmie. Looking forward to seeing Canada with you when you get out of here.”
“Then you better grow wings.”
“Shhh… don’t talk like that.”
“Really. It’s okay. I talked to God.”
“…”
“I’m worried about you, Chewy.”
“Me?”
“So much… anger. It’ll eat away at you till there’s nothing left. You need to let somebody… in here.”
“You’re there, Emmie. You’re there.”
“I mean somebody who’ll stay with you..”
Katchoo has boundaries and they’ve been built pretty high. The only person she’ll let in is Francine who, let’s remember, is slightly distracted by a) Freddie Femur and b) the fridge. She has no idea how Katchoo really feels. Then along come David; sweet, doting David; puppy-dog David with whom Katchoo has a little fun. They meet in an art gallery and then in the rain (always, always in the rain) and no matter how many times he’s rejected he won’t go away, he just will not give up. He’s fallen head over heels in love with Katchoo, and he believes.
Which brings us to another of this series’ exceptional qualities: the arguments are long. They’re played out in all their confused complexities then exhumed later on, whereas in so many other series they’re merely nodes in a simple plot device. And they almost always end in rage, remorse and tears. Nothing is linear here. When is life ever that straightforward? Here’s David and Francine when Katchoo suddenly sends herself straight off the radar.
“So what was the deal?”
“I don’t know! You tell me! You’re the one who was with her! You’re the one she’s buddy-buddy with these days! You’re the one she talked to about that whole Emma thing! I’m just her best friend! She doesn’t tell me squat!”
“Francine, the only reason Katchoo talked to me’s because I was there and she really needed someone to talk to.”
“No sir! I’m not buying that! I’ve been here all along! She can talk to me!”
“She’s afraid to, okay?! She’s afraid if you find out what she’s done, you’ll hate her or something.”
“That’s absurd! I mean, we’re best friends! I could never…”
“I think that’s the whole point, Francine. Whether you want to admit it or not, what you two have goin’ on here is more than just friendship!”
“Of course it is! We… wait a minute! What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“I mean I’ve tried to fit in here and believe me, there’s no room!”
“I told you Katchoo wasn’t interested in men! She’s gay! You idiot!”
“Oh, I’m not so sure about that, but I definitely know why she’s not interested in men or anybody else right not… She’s in love!”
“With who?!”
“With you, of course!”
So when I so casually used to type that David is in love with Katchoo who is in love with Francine who is in love with Freddie Femur, it never did justice to this title. Francine is jealous of David’s place in Katchoo’s life, and wonders for a while if she may even be in love with David herself. Katchoo is absolutely dedicated to Francine but David is like no other young man she’s ever met. He’s kind, he’s considerate and sensitive. But David… David is not who he seems. Which brought about what was quite possibly the finest-ever cliffhanger in comicbook history.
“RUN!! FRANCINE! RUN!!”
SLH
Buy Strangers In Paradise vol 1 Pocket Edition and read the Page 45 review here
Rebels #1 (£2-99, Dark Horse) by Brian Wood & Andrea Mutti…
“Hold still, or I’ll shoot.”
“My father told you about crossing our fields, you spook the cows and the milk comes spoilt.”
“Come off it, Mercy Tucker. That’s just famers’ superstition.”
“So, what? We’re famers, ain’t we? We’d know, wouldn’t we? You two just gonna stand there like a pair of jackanapes?”
“Mercy, your Pa knows what’s at stake. He knows the militia is what’s keeping this farm out of the hands of the thieves down in Albany. Your Pa would let us pass freely. Your Pa wouldn’t point a musket in our faces.”
“Redcoats came up the big house three days ago, Ezekiel. Pa signed the grant papers over to the Sheriff. Made us tenants, didn’t they? I’ve been out in these fields since, ashamed to see my Pa, knowing he’d be ashamed to by seen by me.”
“Mercy… tell your Pa, we’ll be back with those papers.”
Young Seth Abbott has a lot to learn about the different ways war can be waged. He might be a member of the local militia sworn to achieve independence from the British and their hated occupying armies of Redcoats, but not all battles are fought with a gun.
I suspect this is going to be a fascinating series for anyone interested in history, and particularly this period, which I will fully admit is not one I know much about, probably partly because given the British ultimately got booted out, it doesn’t get taught much in UK schools!
I do however clearly remember inadvertently instigating a full-on cowboy style barroom brawl in Alabama one 4th of July, when asked by a smartarse local what we called Independence Day in the UK. My somewhat alcohol-aided throwaway riposte of it being known as the Good Riddance To Bad Rubbish Day provoked a wild swing from my outraged non-compadre which I fortunately dodged.
Unfortunately for him, it smashed the orneriest nutter in the bar squarely on the back of the head, whom, delightedly taking offense with the idiot in question, after eyeing the pair of us up and deciding my best “it wasn’t me, honest guvnor” face was clearly one to be trusted, went at the haymaker like an out-of-control combine harvester. Suffice to say, before you could utter “Four score and seven years ago…” there were Stetsons being knocked jauntily askew left, right and centre as a group of about thirty locals started going at it en masse, settling old scores. I just inched my way through to the edge of the melee somehow unscathed, picked up my Heineken which was perched on the bar and propped myself up to enjoy the scene. Good times.
Anyway… digression done with, Brian Wood has commented he intends this to be a NORTHLANDERS-style title. By which he means that each arc will be self-contained thus allowing him to tell various different colonists’ stories, not just the famous figures of the time. For let’s not forget that ultimately, that is what all the non-indigenous inhabitants of North America were at that time really, not natives, but relatively recently arrived pioneers, who for the most part, actually didn’t wanted to secede from British rule until the British government caused such dissent and consternation with their taxation policies. Then their rather heavy-handed attempts to crush any dissent didn’t help.
I can see how this everyman concept – which I think worked extremely well in NORTHLANDERS in allowing him to explore the very diverse elements and traditions, plus the varied political and social structures of the Viking world, in addition to some major events of course – could translate very nicely to this milieu, even though it was of course considerably briefer and more geographically condensed. Because actually, that’s what I’m interested in: what was life like for the settlers during this incredible period of upheaval? Inevitably sides had to be chosen, stands taken, and many a heavy price paid. Just not tea taxes…
This first arc then deals with young militia man Seth and his bride-to-be Mercy Tucker, and their trials and tribulations in trying to protect what was rightfully theirs. Well, obviously it was stolen from natives probably not too long before that, but you get my point.
Lovely delicate art from Andrea Mutti, he does like his line shading. Not sure if he is on for the duration of the run, or just this arc. Also, I wish Vertigo would hurry up and recollect NORTHLANDERS into chunkier trades like they have been doing with other material. I do hope they are going to. I know Brian did moot continuing that elsewhere when it came to an end at Vertigo, but I haven’t heard any more about that.
JR
Buy Rebels #1 and read the Page 45 review here
Jupiter’s Legacy vol 1 s/c (£7-50, Image) by Mark Millar & Frank Quitely.
“I’ve trapped
you in a psychic construct, darling. My favourite little trick… You’ve been busy fighting optical illusions while the kids were out there hammering away at your physical body. Care to see the damage?”
“Oh my god…”
“Aneurysm.”
The full-page panel between the assailant’s self-congratulatory gloat and his victim’s moment of traumatised realisation is more brutal than you can possibly imagine, even from the artist of WE3. “Aneurysm” is then uttered right in her face and eye to eye with the most malevolent triumphalism I’ve ever seen in comics.
The entire bloodbath, however, is preceded with such a shockingly abrupt instance of eye-popping kinetic energy – when a daughter is ripped from her mother’s tender, conciliatory embrace in the hall of their home – that you will physically jolt or recoil.
The gored dénouement is all the more horrifying and incongruous because the mother has her hair tied up in a bun, wearing an old-fashioned nurse-blue smock with a white, domestic apron.
I mention all this not to impress upon you how brutal the book is – there are also many tender moments and much mirth to be gained from following a twelve-year-old boy trying to maintain a secret identity at school when he’s on the power level of Superman – but to impress upon you the thought behind its creation. There are lightning-fast changes of pace throughout.
From the creative team of THE AUTHORITY VOL 2 comes a truly great graphic novel reprising ideas from THE AUTHORITY VOL 1 as well, in which those with the capacity to do so – those with meta-human abilities – seek to make the world a better place whether we like it or not. In this instance the protagonists’ original intention was to tackle not tyrannies but the crises which have crippled our global economies both in the past during the Great Depression after the Wall Street Crash and during the more recent banking collapse and Euro-zone implosion whose knife-edge teetering endures to this day.
If you want a searing, non-fictional account of that fiasco in comic form, we commend to you Darryl Cunningham’s SUPERCRASH which we made Page 45 Comicbook Of The Month and whose sales have taken us by storm. It’s gratifying that such swathes of readers care.
Although it merely acts as the backdrop, please don’t think that this treats the subject any less seriously, however, for Millar masterfully links the two eras of austerity using language so carefully chosen to shame our the present need for food banks with the lessons we should have learned from the past.
At the time of the Great Depression a young man called Sheldon Sampson was determined to do something for his country. An unchartered island appeared in his dreams and called to him. His wife Grace and brother Walter believed in him unquestioningly and travelled in search of the island along with a small group of friends. Much to their local guide’s astonishment they found it, exactly as it appeared in Sheldon’s dream. It turned them into superheroes, giving America something to believe in when its people needed it the most…
Eighty-one years later and the next generation appears to have other priorities in life. Grace and Sheldon’s daughter and son, Chloe and Brandon, often fail to answer emergencies. Instead the chic social celebrity and media darling Chloe is building up a portfolio of advertising endorsements which Brandon sneers at even those some are for charitable institutions. True, Chloe does love her cocaine kicks, but bitter young Brandon’s a binge-drinker like nobody’s business. Of course, maybe there’s a reason he’s bitter.
Meanwhile Sheldon’s brother Walter is as committed to the good fight as ever, using the power of his mind to manipulate perception, but he wants to do more: he wants to take on the failing economy.
“America’s collapsing, the Euro-Zone’s bleeding to death, the global economy’s hanging by a thread. And we’re still just out there wrestling like children. Don’t you think we could help more directly? Doesn’t this give you a horrific sense of impotence?”
“You’re not an economist, Walter. What are you going to do? Just because you can fly doesn’t mean you know how to balance a budget. You need to accept that we’re public servants and have a little faith in the government we’ve elected.”
Walter’s argument goes on: it was the politicians who let the banks run riot and started wars we couldn’t afford so that now America is back where it started in 1929 with food lines! He’s not wrong. But Sheldon is adamant, Sheldon is used to being obeyed, Sheldon is used to having the last word and he might have, as usual. But however righteous and right-minded Sheldon may be, he isn’t half holier-than-thou: lofty, didactic, dismissive and dictatorial. The worst reason ever…?
“Because I said so.”
“And you wonder why your children are a disenfranchised mess?”
Ah yes, the children…
Many of the elements may put you in mind of KINGDOM COME in which a subsequent generation of superheroes is fair less altruistic and so things go horribly wrong, but the relationships here are all far more acutely balanced as are the arguments and you may start ticking recognition boxes on all sides.
Don’t think the arguments are going to be restricted to those between Sheldon and Walter about economics and democracy, either.
Millar arranges his pieces on the chessboard meticulously before going for check. Some move in most unexpected directions because individuals are neither as white nor as black and therefore as predictable as some other writers make out. The family dynamics are going to grow a lot more complicated than they are now following three key moments, some manipulative mind-games and a life-changing revelation for one.
More years than you expect will have passed by the time this first book is over, and children have the power to surprise you.
Also, for another startling abrupt moment – this time hilarious – wait until someone you’ve yet to meet murmurs:
“Shark-infested waters.”
SLH
Buy Jupiter’s Legacy vol 1 s/c and read the Page 45 review here
Jupiter’s Circle #1 (£2-75, Image) by Mark Millar & Wilfredo Torres.
“How do you know Danny?”
“We used to be in the marines together. He’s hooked me up with a few tricks before, but none of them were as handsome as you. Did you know he hooks up all the movie stars at that gas station? I saw Tyrone Stars out there and Walter Pigeon gave me twenty bucks just to give him a hand-job.”
“Oh yeah?”
“So what line of work are you in?”
The look on Richard’s face, post-coital cigarette in hand, wondering what would happen if anyone found out that one of America’s greatest heroes was into men…
This is 1959 and cinema’s greatest heroes were all in the closet – because, umm, box office…? But also: illegal…?
Yes, it was illegal to love if you were a bloke and your loved one happened to shave too. Love, illegal: bonkers.
Imagine the power that gives others over you – strangers, employers, employees and so many other parties: if they found out it was blackmail for life or trial, public humiliation, ostracism, disgrace then prison. There are movies about it.1961’s ‘Victim’ starring Dirk Bogarde for a start.
Here’s Kathryn Hepburn giving Richard her take at a very private party:
“I have to say I find the whole thing ridiculous, Richard… Sure, half of Hollywood’s in lavender marriages, but at least we’re handsomely paid to be hypocrites. You’re out there saving lives every day. Why should you have to lie about who you’re snuggling up with every night?”
“It’s like politicians and preachers, Katie. The public just hold us to a higher standard. People want their superheroes to be whiter than white.”
Quite literally back then.
“Well, I’m just worried what it does to your health, darling. I’ve seen what living a lie can do. We’re a queer town selling the world a heterosexual ideal. Haven’t you ever wondered why we’re all on pills and booze? A double life is a terrible strain and you’re living a triple life. The stress must be unbearable.”
The other secret, of course, is Richard’s secret identity, but he seems to be holding up rather well. Torres can capture a perfect likeness, which will come in very handy on the final page!
From the writer of SECRET SERVICE: KINGSMAN KICK-ASS, CHRONONAUTS, SUPERIOR, NEMESIS, Marvel’s CIVIL WAR and WOLVERINE: OLD MAN LOGAN, all of them recommended, comes the prequel to JUPITER’S LEGACY.
So far it is a very different beast, but equally deserves your attention.
The art for a start is far more innocently, clean-lined and evokes the period perfectly. There are a lot of clean smiles and big, broad grins.
The colours are softer, plus the monsters are mental: giant cephalopods, just like those in the comics back then. Of course, there weren’t any gay superheroes, were there? Probably not the publishers’ fault: those heroes were all in the closet.
In JUPITER’S LEGACY, following the Wall Street Crash, Sheldon Sampson set about giving America something to believe in, people to give them hope: superheroes. So far they have done their job admirably and seem much respected by all.
Sheldon’s brother Walter thinks they should make the role more official by allying themselves with the FBI who’ve reached out with an offer. Sheldon’s dead against it on principal’s sake – they need to remain above politics, autonomous. It’s George Hutchence who elaborates:
“Hoover’s an asshole. Don’t you get it? He’s got dirt on everyone from coast to coast and now he’s trying to get you too. He can’t control us and it’s driving him crazy. He’d bug these headquarters given half a chance.”
Of course it is Walter wanting ties to the government – that’s what he wants to do later. But evidently others are going to change their spots at one point or another.
Bravo for Mark Millar and the post-coital bed scene: if you’re going to do this, do it properly with no shying away or emasculation. Bravo for later scenes too, [redacted]. You’ve never seen that in a superhero comic before, even in his AUTHORITY!
I liked the prologue set in the future. That’s interesting given events in JUPITER’S LEGACY. As for George Hutchence, I will be following him closely for the very same reasons!
SLH
Buy Jupiter’s Circle #1 and read the Page 45 review here
Zenith: Phase Three h/c (£20-00, Rebellion) by Grant Morrison & Steve Yeowell.
Socio-political
pop satire with superpowers from 1989 of which we are so very fond.
“Zenith! Zenith! We still haven’t had a chance to talk…”
“I know. Isn’t it brilliant?”
Zenith’s back!
(As they once proudly proclaimed on the back of 2000AD, above a picture of… Zenith’s actual back!)
Yes, Zenith is back and his ego and quiff are bigger than ever. One of Britain’s slickest black and white artists, Steve Yeowell, has now reached his apogee and he’ll stay there for a very long time. Zenith’s individual hair strands whooshing away in the wind now have a life of their own, often dangling down, segmented like fine crab’s legs with two or three points of articulation.
Yeowell’s deploying his shadows with increasingly instinctive confidence to maximum expressionistic effect. On the very third page there’s a shot of speedster Jimmy Quick from the back, breaking the sound barrier and positively bursting the black background in his wake, shouting, “Go!” The exhortation is mirrored by a second “GO!” this time much, much larger, printed on the front of Jimmy’s t-shirt as he charges towards us and almost out of the page. The two panels are divided by a third slim shot of two silhouetted miscreants hovering above him: “Oh, look. Let’s kill it.”
They’re determined to stop the speedster dead in his tracks and prevent a message from Alternative Earth 666, devastated by conquest, from reaching another. We first see one of the possessed on the opening page, and dang if she doesn’t look like a young Siouxsie Sioux.
Previously in ZENITH: Britain came under attack from the many-angled ones, the dark gods called the Lloigor, bent on possessing all and eradicating choice. They were prevented by the only active metahuman: an egomaniacal, perpetually preening pop star called Zenith. A rather reluctant hero, he thankfully found back-up in the form of the few surviving superheroes from the previous generation who’d been keeping their still-glowing lights hidden under their bushels. Also: Richard Branson tried to bomb London.
This time Zenith seems a little more keen on making an effort but only to avoid having to lip-synch on kids’ TV.
“Miming in front of a crowd of brainless pre-school brats… Is this what my career’s come to?”
“Well, get them while they’re young.”
“My last two singles have been total disasters, Eddie. I mean, what’s it going to be next? Singing carols with the Blue Peter dog? Opening the new branch of Tesco in Hartlepool?”
Zenith stairs into the existential abyss…
“Blankety Blank?”
That’s when Archie, the “mad mental crazy” anarchist robot bursts through Zenith’s front door screaming “ACCIIEEEEEED!” and you can almost hear the soundtrack.
Before we continue, there’s another element of Steve Yeowell’s art which shines through here (the reproduction on glossy, bleed-free paper is infinitely better than then last attempt at a reprint over twenty years ago): the erosion of form by light. Subtle things like only the shadows under Spring-Heeled Jack’s boot laces showing, their tops remaining lineless. Oh, and Zenith’s studded, black leather jacket.
Archie, Mantra, DJ Chill and Domino from Alternative Earth 68’s Black Flag have been dispatched by Maximan to fetch as many superheroes from Earths not yet enslaved by the Lliogor to a base of operations on Alternative 23 called the Axis Mundi, a tower Maximan has created by the power of his will. This is not the Maximan you may have encountered before, but a hermit-like sage in a robe, his eyes blindfolded by cloth. His speech flutters, qualified with synonyms and “thank you”s. He declares that The Alignment is imminent: a precise arrangement of alternate worlds to form The Omnihedron. What will happen then he doesn’t claim to know but the Lliogor seem keen so it’s bound to be catastrophic. To prevent this the hundred or so heroes must destroy two Earths crucial to this Alignment which have already been conquered by the Lliogor. Their singularly powerful superheroes have been possessed, blasting the world into post-war ruins, leaving corpses cluttering up the streets and creating people farms – concentration camps. One of those two is Alternative 666, which is where we came in.
I don’t want to take you much further, but Morrison lays the groundwork for so many of the twists very early on, then hides them under distractions, often comedic like Zenith encountering his own much more considerate counterpart, Vector (the only visual difference is the V rather than Z on his black t-shirt) and taking and instant, dismissive dislike to the poor chap’s kindness.
“… That was horrible…”
With 25 chapters first published over a half-year period in 2000AD, it’s longer than you might imagine and some of those chapters climax with such breath-taking timing you’d be left mind-blown for the whole seven days, desperate to know whether what you had seen was as final as it looked.
SLH
Buy Zenith: Phase Three h/c and read the Page 45 review here
Arrived, Online & Ready To Buy!
Reviews already up if they’re new formats of previous graphic novels. The best of the rest will be reviewed next week while others will retain their Diamond previews as reviews. Neat, huh?
Street Dawgz (£5-00, Lame Duck) by Lizz Lunney
Street Dawgz Sticker Pack (£3-00, Lame Duck) by Lizz Lunney
Cerebus: High Society Signed Gold Foil Edition (£22-50, Aardvark-Vanaheim) by Dave Sim
Cerebus: High Society – The Digital Audio/Visual Experience DVD Set (£34-99, IDW) by Dave Sim, Gerhard
Girl In Dior h/c (£19-99, NBM) by Annie Goetzinger
100 Bullets Book 2 (£18-99, Vertigo) by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso, Dave Johnson
Bee And Puppycat vol 1 s/c (£10-99, kaboom) by Natasha Allegri
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 10 vol 2: I Wish (£13-99, Dark Horse) by Christos N. Gage & Rebekah Isaacs, Cliff Richards, Karl Moline, Richard Corben
Gunnerkrigg Court vol 1: Orientation s/c (£12-99, Archaia) by Tom Siddell
Last Of Sandwalkers (£11-99, FirstSecond) by Jay Hosler
Men Of Wrath s/c (£10-99, Icon) by Jason Aaron & Ron Garney
Prometheus: Fire & Stone s/c (£10-99, Dark Horse) by Paul Tobin & Juan Ferreyra, David Palumbo
Queen & Country Definitive Edition vol 4 (£14-99, Oni) by Greg Rucka, Antony Johnston & Christopher Mitten, Rick Burchett, Brian Hurtt
Stumptown vol 3 h/c (£22-50, Oni) by Greg Rucka & Justin Greenwood
Top 10 s/c (£18-99, Vertigo) by Alan Moore & Zander Cannon, Gene Ha
Translucid s/c (£14-99, Boom) by Claudio Sanchez, Chondra Echert & Daniel Bayliss
Vacancy (£6-50, Nobrow) by Jen Lee
Astro City: Dark Age Book 1 s/c (£14-99, Vertigo) by Kurt Busiek & Brent Eric Anderson
Batman: Gotham By Gaslight s/c (£9-99, DC) by Brian Augustyn & Mike Mignola, Eduardo Barreto
Fear Itself (UK Edition) s/c (£15-99, Marvel) by Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker & Stuart Immonen, Scot George Eaton
Marvel Universe All-New Avengers Assemble Digest vol 1 s/c (£7-50, Marvel) by Joe Caramagna & various
Moon Knight vol 2: Dead Will Rise s/c (£13-50, Marvel) by Brian Wood & Greg Smallwood
Claymore vol 26 (£6-99, Viz) by Norihiro Yagi
Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire vol 3 (£8-99, Viz) by Naoki Serizawa
Vagabond vol 12 VIZBIG (£12-99, Viz) by Takehiko Inoue
News!
ITEM! Oh yes, please! By Brandon Graham (MULTIPLE WARHEADS) and Marian Churchland (BEAST), these preview pages of 8HOUSE: ARCLIGHT look startling different to anything in comics right now! Please add to your standing orders here as soon as possible or pre-order 8HOUSE: ARCLIGHT #1 from Page 45 online now! We ship worldwide!
ITEM! AGE OF REPTILES is back with AGE OF REPTILES: ANCIENT EGYPTIANS #1. Never saw that coming – it’s been ever so long! Read why Page 45 loves Richardo Delgado’s dinosaur driven AGE OF REPTILES OMNIBUS EDITION! The colours and choreography are astounding.
ITEM! China at war with Japan. NANJING: THE BURNING CITY preview pages! If you could voice your interest early that would as always be awesome!
ITEM! Brilliant, one-page, seasonal, Spring-time garden comic by Joe Decie!
– Stephen
