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Things To Come June for comics shipping August 2005
August, in theory, is one of the quietest months in comics. The big summer conventions are all over and now publishers are just trying to catch their breath, especially with most of their staff (editorial and creative alike) having lost valuable time walking the floors of badly-padded convention hall floors, paying twenty-seven dollars for a stale pretzel, and wondering how so many people hadn't read Tom Spurgeon's invaluable guide to all things San Diego. I'd tend to believe this theory, if only because I felt calm and relaxed and almost refreshed the morning after this column was due. Oh, wait, that's right. It's because I forgot about the deadline entirely and had no idea I'd missed it until I checked my e-mail after breakfast. (What can I say? A three-day weekend means that I spend all of Sunday thinking that, somehow, it's still Saturday.) So, anyway, as your wallet whimpers from having spent lots of money at TCAF last month, or preparing to get hit by MoCCA, Wizard World Philadelphia, and Comic Con International in the next month and a half, just remind yourself that August will be cheaper. Yeah. That's it. TOP SHELF TRICKED GN by Alex Robinson A friend of mine once admitted that they'd never read Alex Robinson's BOX OFFICE POISON because the size of the book daunted them. "It's just over 600 pages," the friend whimpered. "If I drop it, I might break my foot when it lands on top of it!" Well, your excuses are now over, because Robinson's brand-new graphic novel is done, and it's only clocking in at 320 pages. More importantly, it sounds like Robinson's playing to his strengths; I was always impressed with BOX OFFICE POISON in how well he was able to juggle a large cast of characters and have me interested in them all, even the ones who barely showed up. With TRICKED, the book is about six characters, intersecting with a single event that pushes them together. Robinson's the sort of creator who can not only juggle six main characters simultaneously, he'll show once again that he can really write realistic and interesting people that you want to read more about. This is one of those books that will definitely turn out to be worth the wait. SPIRAL-BOUND GN by Aaron Renier Aaron Renier's biographical story of the true story behind NANCY DREW author 'Carolyn Keene' was the high point of the SPX 2002 anthology, grabbing my attention in a matter of seconds and never letting go until I'd read the entire thing. His new graphic novel is something I know almost nothing about, other than it's got animal characters and it looks absolutely gorgeous based on the preview pages in the advertisement. I may not have much to go on, but I'm going to head on a limb here and say that this is not only something that you should get, but that SPIRAL-BOUND will be one of the books that people are talking about later this year. Now's your chance to build up your hipster street cred, people. It's like a hot stock tip that I'm giving you, dear readers, only in comics coolness instead of the NASDAQ. Buy now! NBM DUNGEON: THE EARLY YEARS VOL. 1: THE NIGHT SHIRT by Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Christophe Blain Regular readers of Things To Come have probably figured out that I think Joann Sfar and Lewis Trondheim's DUNGEON series is a hysterically fun group of books. Now NBM is translating the DUNGEON prequel series (DONJON POTRON-MINET) into English, and I'm thrilled. First, it's more DUNGEON, and that alone is something to cheer about. Better yet, though, it's drawn by Christophe Blain, whose work on ISAAC THE PIRATE is one of the most stylish imports from Europe I've seen in a while. The DUNGEON series reminds me a lot of Phil Foglio's work on books like WHAT'S NEW WITH PHIL AND DIXIE and BUCK GODOT; really clever, funny, and surprising, and using the genre's trappings in ways you never really thought possible. Highly recommended. (And if that's not enough, might I recommend, just four pages later, Joann Sfar's THE RABBI'S CAT? A book about a cat that swallows a parakeet, learns to talk, and studies the Kabbalah while helping out the rabbi's daughter, who has fallen in love. Well, I mean, how can you beat that?) MARVEL MARVEL 1602: NEW WORLD #1 & 2 by Greg Pak and Greg Tocchini Now maybe it's just me, but this just seems like a bad idea. The original 1602 mini-series sold well because, in no small part, people wanted to see what Neil Gaiman would do with the Marvel characters. Is there really a need to see what Greg Pak and Greg Tocchini would do with the characters in the year 1602 after Gaiman was done with them? Like the upcoming TOP 10 mini-series at DC (keep reading for details), I think this is completely and utterly missing the point. STRANGE: BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS TPB by J Michael Straczynski, Sara "Samm" Barnes, and Brandon Peterson Why is it that everyone and their uncle seems to be desperate to write comics about Doctor Strange, but they're all so deadly boring that real doctors should be handing out the comics instead of writing prescriptions for sleep aids? I just don't get it. After seeing Brandon Peterson's gorgeous computer-painted art on CHIMERA, I was really excited for STRANGE, but not even his best work could keep my eyes open. I can't help but think that the subtitle for this collection is more apt than one knows. After this beginning, I think Doctor Strange's comic career is once more ending. IMAGE COMICS DUSTY STAR #1 by Joe Pruett and Andrew Robinson Hey, wow. I never thought we'd see DUSTY STAR again, the short-lived cyberpunk western story about the toughest cowgirl in the west, who can beat any train robber, bandit, or robot that you throw at her. This was one of those "don't blink, you'll miss it" series in the past, but despite only having two issues, it made a real impression on me. Maybe it was Andrew Robinson's angular, unique art style, maybe it was the world that he and Joe Pruett created for her, but I do remember that I liked it a lot. This definitely goes on the buying list. GIRLS #4 by Joshua Luna and Jonathan Luna No offense meant to the Luna Brothers, but every time I see a solicitation for this book it makes me sing the song "Girls" by the Beastie Boys for the next five minutes. Because, you know, I really needed that flashback to junior high. Thanks guys. (I will admit that based on the covers, the Luna Brothers do indeed seem to really like girls.) IDW THE COMPLETE MARS TPB by Marc Hempel and Mark Wheatley This is one of those books that I know almost nothing about save its reputation. By all accounts, it's very good, a book really ahead of its time. Then again, that seems to be true of a lot of the books that IDW rescued from the legal limbo that was First Publishing (like GRIMJACK and JON SABLE, FREELANCE). So long as this isn't leading up to IDW releasing THE COMPLETE META-4, though, I think we're all good. GRAPHIX QUEEN BEE by Chynna Clugston Man oh man does this look good. Chynna Clugston proved in both BLUE MONDAY and SCOOTER GIRL that she knows how to write teenagers: sharp, sarcastic, and driven with competition towards each other in the social ladder. The idea of a new Clugston graphic novel, with two telekinetic girls duking it out for supremacy of the junior high? Gold. Pure gold. Scholastic's Graphix imprint has proven that it knows what younger readers want in comics (Jeff Smith's BONE, Raina Telgemeier's adaptation of THE BABY-SITTER'S CLUB) and this is no exception. The idea of hordes of children reading QUEEN BEE and then moving onto BLUE MONDAY and SCOOTER GIRL makes me a very happy person indeed. FANTAGRAPHICS PRESS HEE, by Ivan Brunetti In 2001, Fantagraphics published HAW, a little book of single-page gag cartoons by Ivan Brunetti. HAW was, without a doubt, one of the most repulsive comics I'd ever read. Every page was thoroughly filthy, with absolutely disgusting jokes that made most readers cringe and twitch, a book that if you read in public, you'd have to make sure no one glanced at over your shoulder. This is, incidentally, a complement. Then and now, reading HAW makes me laugh until my stomach hurts and tears are rolling down my face. It's sick, morally wrong, and fantastic. If HEE holds up the same quality (although I'm sure there are many people who would object to me using the word "quality" to describe HAW) then I will be one very happy camper indeed. Yes, I'm a very bad person. Now shut up while I re-read my copy of HAW and rub my hands together in anticipation of more disgusting stuff to come. EXHIBIT A PRESS TALES OF SUPERNATURAL LAW TP by Batton Lash It's always nice to see long-running series stay in print, so I've got to give out a big "hurrah" to the return of the first eight issues of SUPERNATURAL LAW (the comic formerly known as WOLFF & BYRD, COUNSELORS OF THE MACABRE) into trade paperback format. Batton Lash's parody skills are surprisingly uncanny, although I really think it's the characters of Wolff, Byrd, and World's Greatest Secretary Mavis who are the big draw here. Great fun, plain and simple. DEL REY Dear Del Rey, DC COMICS ADAM STRANGE: PLANET HEIST TP by Andy Diggle and Pascal Ferry First, the bad news. Yes, ADAM STRANGE: PLANET HEIST does lead directly into the currently-running RANN/THANAGAR WAR mini-series that's part of DC Comics's big INFINITE CRISIS event. Now, the good news: that doesn't matter. Andy Diggle and Pascal Ferry made the impossible happen for me, in that I cared about Adam Strange as a character. This mini-series should be held up for years to come as an example of how a minor and not terribly successful character can still be made intriguing to a brand-new audience that had written him or her off in the past. Diggle treated all of DC's outer-space characters like they were new for all of the incoming audience, but still kept all of their histories and characterisation intact for the existing readers. As someone who was never really into all of the supporting cast of ADAM STRANGE, I'd say he pulled it off perfectly. Having Ferry's gorgeous pencils gracing the page certainly helped a great deal, giving us one of the most beautiful books published in the past year. If Diggle and Ferry want to work on a monthly ADAM STRANGE comic, I know I'll buy it. It was just that good. JUSTICE #1 by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, and Doug Braithwaite I hate to say it, but someone has to. This just sounds dull. I don't really care one way or the other if people want to make a grimmer, more adult version of characters that people fell in love with as children; that as a gimmick doesn't bother me. But the solicitation? My eyes are glazing over. Villains working together... ho hum. That's the big twist? It certainly doesn't help matters that Alex Ross is going to be painting over Doug Braithwaite's pencils, since I think that Ross is the perfect example of an artist who became popular very early in his career (with MARVELS) and hasn't grown since. Working with Braithwaite, based on the sample pages shown, hasn't loosened up Ross's art one bit. Everyone still looks posed and stiff, something that worked when he was illustrating a book of photographs, but since then has come to show up Ross's over-reliance on photographed models. This sounds like a must-miss to me. No doubt DC will sell a gazillion copies. WATCHMEN: THE ABSOLUTE EDITION HC by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons You know, for me the attraction isn't so much the oversized hardcover format of the book, or the fact that Dave Gibbons is working with colourist John Higgins to make sure that the colours come out as Gibbons and Higgins had always envisioned. No, it's the fact that the 48 pages from the original Graphitti Editions hardcover are being included here. A friend of mine had that hardcover, and the script excerpts, conceptual art, story proposal, and so forth were all nothing short of engrossing. It may sound silly, but for me, $75 isn't that bad a price at all to pay in order to have my own copy of those pages. Well, all right, having it wrapped up in a gorgeous oversized hardcover on nice paper helps. TOP 10: BEYOND THE FARTHEST PRECINCT #1 by Paul DiFilippo and Jerry Ordway You know, the attraction for me with TOP 10 wasn't, "Oh wow, what a neat group of characters." It was always, "Wow, what great stories Alan Moore is writing, and Gene Ha and Zander Cannon working on the art is a true visual treat". What I'm trying to say here is that I don't have high hopes, or any real hopes at all, for Paul DiFilippo and Jerry Ordway working on a new TOP 10 mini-series. Now who knows, they could prove me wrong, and this could be a really exciting, beautiful mini-series that captures the same spark of genius that Moore, Ha, and Cannon brought to TOP 10. But based entirely on the fact that it's a writer I've never experienced before and an artist whose work has just been all right in the past, I honestly don't think I'll pick it up. I'll stick with my two TOP 10 collections, throw in the SMAX collection and THE '49ERS graphic novel and just call it a day. DARK HORSE CONAN: THE GOD IN THE BOWL AND OTHER STORIES HC by Kurt Busiek, Cary Nord, and Thomas Yeates If you'd told me two years ago that CONAN would be a viable, popular comic again, I'd have laughed my head off. Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord certainly proved me wrong, though. If I had to sum up why the book is so successful, I'd probably say it's because they show great respect for their audience. It doesn't talk down to them by using a pretentious voice (a trap far too many fantasy comics do), or treat them like idiots by trotting out the same old tired twists and tropes of fantasy. In their hands, CONAN is a fast, clever book that has almost a relaxed and conversational atmosphere about it. Anyone can create a fantasy book, but Busiek and Nord know how to do it right. CONCRETE VOL 2: HEIGHTS TP by Paul Chadwick You might be thinking, "Hasn't Greg already pushed the first CONCRETE collection? Why's he bringing it up again?" The reason is simple: it's just that good. Before Paul Chadwick took some time off from the comic, CONCRETE was one of the big independent books, the sort of title that people who had only read Marvel and DC books would search out, and it helped put Dark Horse on the map. Why? It's that rarest of rare books, one that has real heart and integrity towards every subject it tackles, full of genuinely thoughtful stories and still finding a way to mix in a little action to boot. It might be a bit of selfishness on my part but I desperately want to see all of CONCRETE collected into these new volumes, and for that to happen they need to sell well. I really do think that if you buy these, you won't be disappointed. LADY SNOWBLOOD VOL 1 TP by Kazuo Koike and Kazuo Kamimura I admit it, I know very little about LADY SNOWBLOOD. I do know that there were movies about the characters, and those movies inspired (to some degree) Quentin Tarantino's KILL BILL movies. Just as important is that it's Kazuo Koike who's writing LADY SNOWBLOOD, and his work on both LONE WOLF AND CUB and SAMURAI EXECUTIONER managed to enthral me for over 30-odd volumes between the two series. If it's even half as good as either of those series, I'll definitely be happy with the end result. CRYPTIC PRESS QUICKEN FORBIDDEN #13 by Dave Roman and John Green One of my favourite all-ages books is QUICKEN FORBIDDEN, which could best be summed up as, "What would have happened if Alice went to Wonderland, stole everything she could get her hands on, and brought it back through the rabbit hole?" The answer, of course, is that all sorts of craziness would be unleashed on our world as ancient dimensional travel laws are broken, letting all sorts of things creep through. The first ten issues are already collected into two volumes from AiT/PlanetLar, and so there's really no excuse to not check out this inventively fun series. ADHOUSE BOOKS SALAMANDER DREAM by Hope Larson What little I've seen of Hope Larson's comics in the past has been beautiful; she's got such a delicate art style, and a real lightness to her writing. A full graphic novel by Larson? This is a must-buy, people. If you liked books like the FLIGHT anthologies from Image Comics, then you need SALAMANDER DREAM. AAAAHH COMICS Ms PMS #1 by Chris Swafford Now people often ask me, "Greg, what's it like to write Things To Come for Ninth Art every month?" (Well all right, they don't. But we'll pretend that they do.) Here's my answer, for anyone who might have been wondering. At first you're excited about tackling the latest Previews catalog and seeing what amazing comics are going to be unleashed into the marketplace two months from now. Then you find it, a solicitation that goes something like this:
It's right around that point that you wonder which is the best option: drinking heavily before continuing, making fun of the solicitation, or all of the above. I do have to give Chris Swafford credit for not saying that the amulet transformed the young girl into a "raging bitch" like I thought it was going to, but instead I'm getting the giggles at the idea of what would've happened if King Solomon had put on the amulet himself and turned into... what, Mr PMS? That doesn't really work. Maybe Mr Blue Balls? Remember, kids, this is the very first comic listed once you get out of the "preferred publishers" section. Aaaahh Comics, I take my hat off to you, because your name as a publisher truly is my reaction to your comic. (And this is why I'm glad I only owe Ninth Art one column a month. If I had to do this twice a month I'd have snapped halfway through 2004.) Greg McElhatton writes reviews for iComics.com, and has also written for anthologies, magazines, web sites, and technical manuals. Ninth Art endorses the principle of Ideological Freeware. The author permits distribution of this article by private individuals, on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice. Back. |