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Things To Come: Previews January 2005 for comics shipping March 2005
"Ho ho ho!" I looked up, surprised, to see not one but three red-suited figures emerging from my fireplace. This was pretty impressive because not only did I think that people couldn't really fit down chimneys, but to the best of my knowledge I didn't actually have a chimney in my apartment. "We're the ghosts of Things To Come," the first figure intoned. "Past..." "Present..." "And Future," the last one concluded. "And we're here to..." I sighed. "Andrew? Antony? Alasdair? You can't fool me. I know it's you, and if you were going to do this little stunt why did you all dress up like Santa Claus?" Alasdair shrugged. "We figured the chances of getting arrested for breaking and entering were less if we came in fancy dress." "You have no idea how hard it was to put in that chimney," Antony added. "We're really here for your new column," Andrew interrupted. "Where is it?" Now the truth was, I hadn't written it. I figured that if Christmas fell on the weekend it was due, that gave me an automatic week's extension, right? Well, apparently not. So I did the only thing I could do. I lied. "Um, yeah, here it is!" I said, handing Andrew a CD-ROM. "I burned it onto this disk. Cover graphics and everything. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!" Now the reality was that the CD-ROM really contained almost 200 MP3s of Prince's greatest songs ever, but with trans-Atlantic flights what they are (sleigh or no sleigh), this gave me about five hours to write my column and e-mail it to them before they get home and discover my pathetic stalling technique. So without further adieu, I give you a look at just what to expect to hit stores in March 2005. PROCESS RECESS: THE ART OF JAMES JEAN HC by James Jean
One of the best cover artists in comics these days has to be James Jean, whose work currently graces FABLES, BATGIRL, and now GREEN ARROW for DC Comics. His paintings have an attractive slickness to them, with characters almost sliding across the cover in an eye-popping manner. Everything from basic layout composition to the color palette that Jean chooses is near-perfect, so a 224-page full color art book? Oh, I am so very much there. (And if you're wondering what his non-cover art looks like, head on over to www.jamesjean.com and you'll probably get just about as excited about PROCESS RECESS as I am.) AMAZE INK/SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS FILLER BUNNY #3 by Jhonen Vasquez
Yay! New FILLER BUNNY! It's a book starring a character who is forced to "fill" up pages, usually by dying over and over again in more brutal and hysterically funny ways. It's just wrong how much you'll laugh as poor Filler Bunny dies, even as he continues to beg to just die and not have to come back to life in order to die yet again. Since his purpose in life is to amuse us with his deaths, though, it's a plea that will never be answered. So wrong, yet so right. BASEMENT COMICS/AMRYL ENTERTAINMENT CAVEWOMAN: HORNY MERIEM PRINT by Budd Root
It's a print of the bikini-wearing Cavewoman, only... get this... it's called "Horny Meriem" because Meriem is riding on top of... man, this is funny, isn't it?... a HORNED DINOSAUR! Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha ha! And what's that? She's a little top-heavy so hopefully she won't tip the dinosaur over? Ha ha ha ha ha! (That wasn't convincing in the slightest, was it? I didn't think I could pull that one off even for an instant.) THE X-FILES VOLUME 1 TP by Stefan Petrucha, John Rozum, and Charles Adlard
I'll admit it, I bought the X-FILES comic book back when John Rozum took over the helm as the writer; Rozum's comic XOMBI (and since then, MIDNIGHT MASS) was strong enough that I wanted to see what he'd do with X-FILES, and he did a great job of telling creepy little stories starring Mulder and Scully. The thing is, the show went off the air years ago and while I could be completely off-base, I'm under the impression that X-FILES fandom is dead in the water these days. I hope Checker didn't pay too much for the rights to reprint these comics because, while they were good, I just can't see them selling too many copies. TONY MILLIONAIRE'S SOCK MONKEY: THAT DARN YARN HC by Tony Millionaire
I adore Tony Millionaire's SOCK MONKEY stories; they're a strange combination of whimsy and darkness that isn't quite like anything else out there. His stories of a Victorian house's toys (Uncle Gabby the Sock Monkey, Drinky Crow, and assorted other belongings) and their loquacious vocabulary are nothing short of charming, with their slightly unpredictable nature always helping keep the reader's attention. Millionaire's art is gorgeous as well, carefully drawing each individual line in the wood paneling and every last curve on the staircase banister. His last color album, UNCLE GABBY, was in many ways one of the best books of 2004, and if THAT DARN YARN is even half as good it'll end up being a must-buy. THE MILKMAN MURDERS TPB by Joe Casey and Steve Parkhouse
Dark Horse's line of horror comics has been quietly building steam over the past year or two, with pleasant surprises like THE MILKMAN MURDERS just waiting for those willing to pick them up. Joe Casey's script is a descent into urban horror and madness as a housewife with a truly repugnant family finally snaps under the assault of her life and tries to "make things better". With creepy and unsettling art by Steve Parkhouse, THE MILKMAN MURDERS is scary in many ways because it's so easy to see this happening on your own street. There's a sense of dread that just hangs over every page, the tension growing perfectly until the brutal climax of the book. A true example of a "love-it-or-hate-it" book, I absolutely loved THE MILKMAN MURDERS and hopefully it'll find a larger audience now that it's in collected form. HIPIRA: THE LITTLE VAMPIRE HC by Katsuhiro Otomo and Shinji Kimura
I know almost nothing about this book, but I'm already eagerly awaiting it. It's written by Katsuhiro Otomo, whose AKIRA is easily one of the best-known comic imports from Japan. Otomo's other works, DOMU and THE LEGEND OF MOTHER SARAH, both get a thumbs up from me as well, so a new book written by him sounds like it's got to be a good thing. The cover art by Shinji Kimura looks fantastic as well, a mix of creepy goth and children's book styles mixed into one. If marketed properly, this could very well be a genuine breakout hit. BATMAN: COVER TO COVER HC
This is actually a little frustrating to write about, because I'm typing this all up a mere two days before Christmas, and all I can think is "what a wonderful gift this could have been if it was out now". A spotlight of 250 of the best BATMAN covers? There have been an awful lot of great artists on the book, and knowing that some of the covers will be by Neal Adams, Brian Bolland, John Cassaday, Darwyn Cooke, Alan Davis, Dick Giordano, Michael Golden, Carmine Infantino, Dave Johnson, JG Jones, Michael Wm Kaluta, Bob Kane, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert, Jim Lee, David Mazzucchelli, Scott McDaniel, Ed McGuinness, Mike Mignola, Frank Miller, Jerry Robinson, Alex Ross, Tim Sale, and Walter Simonson... well, this is going to be a gorgeous book. Oh well, even if this coffee-table book runs late it'll still be out in time for next Christmas. LEX LUTHOR: MAN OF STEEL #1 by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo
I can't think of a better person to write a mini-series focusing on Lex Luthor than Brian Azzarello; his writing on 100 BULLETS has proven to me that he can write about some of the slimiest, most corrupt characters out there and still make them fascinating and intriguing to read about. Bermejo's slick art looked great illustrating Azzarello's script for BATMAN/DEATHBLOW and I can't help but think that this collaboration will look even better. Definitely checking this out. DC COUNTDOWN #1 by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Judd Winick, Rags Morales, Ed Benes, Phil Jimenez, Ivan Reis, and Jesus Saiz
You know, this is a writing and pencilling powerhouse book, and I just can't muster up any enthusiasm whatsoever. I'm sure it's going to be well done; I've liked books by every single creator on this list. But at the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, 'event' books just don't do anything for me anymore. I'm just not excited. At all. I wish everyone here the best of luck and I'm sure that the target audience is going to go gaga over this new murder mystery that's supposed to set up other big events later on in the 2005, but I'm going to pass. JLA: PAIN OF THE GODS TP by Chuck Austen and Ron Garney
Just in case anyone was unaware, a better title for this book is JLA: PAIN OF THE READERS. Six issues of the JLA crying... no, really, that's more or less it. This is the ultimate example of something to be filed under "for completists only"; this is your official warning to walk on by. 100% TP by Paul Pope
Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Buy this book. Yes, it's that good. PAUL MOVES OUT HC by Michel Rabagliati
Michel Rabagliati's semi-autobiographical PAUL comics are a real pleasure to read; his alter-ego Paul is a bit of a bumbling idiot at times, and he manages to get himself into some really cringe-worthy situations, but he means well and you can't help but cheer him on. The idea of Paul moving out of his parents' house and into an apartment with his girlfriend is immensely entertaining for anyone who's read the previous stories, because you can just see it all going wrong in a funny yet realistic manner. Rabagliati's art is nice too, a simple and stripped down style that does a good job of bringing across characters' emotions and tells the story in an effective manner. There's something for everyone in Rabagliati's books, and add in the fact that Drawn & Quarterly's books are some of the nicest-looking ones on the market thanks to a strong design sense, and you've got a real winner. LITTLE BOOK OF HORROR: FRANKENSTEIN HC by Steve Niles & Scott Morse
OK, this sounds pretty cool. The idea is that Steve Niles is taking prose excerpts from Mary Shelley's original novel and presenting them opposite full-page art from superstar Scott Morse. It's sort of like a cross between Little Golden Books and Classics Illustrated, and I already know some younger readers who are getting this for their birthdays. Plus, quite frankly, new Scott Morse art means that I'll be buying a copy for myself too. I don't really need an abridged version of FRANKENSTEIN for myself (I'm already familiar enough with the original), but the art is a lure that I just can't pass up. DEADWORLD #1 by Gary Reed and Vince Locke
I'll admit that I never did read the original DEADWORLD comics published by Caliber back in the day, but enough friends of mine held them in high regard that I always knew of the title's presence. Zombies certainly seem to be one of the "in" things these days (in movies like 28 DAYS LATER and SHAUN OF THE DEAD, or comics like THE WALKING DEAD) so heck, this is as good a time as any to revive DEADWORLD. Vince Locke coming on board to draw the book is an added bonus; he can draw creepy, gothic art really well, so I'm definitely going to take a look. FLIGHT VOLUME TWO GN
In case you were living under a rock in 2004, FLIGHT was one of the big graphic novels of the year; animation artists and their associates all coming together to form a cohesive anthology centring around flight in all shapes, forms, and ideas. It was a real joy to read, with some absolutely lovely art as well as good writing. It's tough to find an anthology for which you like the majority of entries, but FLIGHT Vol 1 certainly hit that mark for me. Hopefully their second outing will be just as strong; Becky Cloonan, Doug TenNapel, Enrico Casarosa, Hope Larson, Jeff Smith, Michel Gagne, and Sonny Liew are listed as some of the contributors, which gives me great hope that it will succeed. INHUMANS VOL. 1: CULTURE SHOCK DIGEST by Sean McKeever and Matthew Clark
When Marvel launched a dozen or so books over the space of two months under the heading of 'Tsunami', most of the books ended up getting ignored thanks to the sheer numbers of new titles for retailers and readers alike to contemplate. One of the better ones that got overlooked was Sean McKeever and Matthew Clark's take on INHUMANS, taking a handful of teenage Inhumans and sending them to school in rural America. McKeever proved that he can write rural teenagers on THE WAITING PLACE, and he followed that through really nicely with INHUMANS. Matthew Clark's art, likewise, was strong and followed up what Jae Lee had done with the characters a couple of years earlier. I'm delighted that Marvel's giving the series a new life as two inexpensive collected volumes; hopefully they'll sell well enough that we could even get more. I'm not holding my breath, but in the meanwhile I'll take these as a good first step. MADROX: MULTIPLE CHOICE TPB by Peter David and Pablo Raimondi
I'll admit it: I haven't been buying this book. I forgot all about it and all of the sudden the mini-series was halfway over, but critics whom I trust have been raving up and down about what a fun book it is. So with that in mind, I hereby promise to pick up the collection. Peter David did a great job dealing with Jamie Madrox the Multiple Man back when he wrote X-FACTOR a decade ago, and the idea of exploring Madrox's multiple selves as he runs a detective agency sounds really promising. There's really no excuse for me not having bought this up until now, so I'm going to fix that with an advance order for the MADROX TPB. Maybe everyone else who isn't buying the issues can do the same? SPELLBINDERS #1 by Mike Carey and Mike Perkins
If this book was written by anyone other than Mike Carey I might have passed it on by. Witches in a school up in Salem, Massachusetts at war with each other, and one student trapped in the middle, just sounds a little too "been there, done that"... but on the other hand, Mike Carey's writing on both LUCIFER and MY FAITH IN FRANKIE is pretty darn good, so I'll give this six-issue mini-series a shot. ORDINARY VICTORIES GN by Manu Larcenet
My only real exposure to Manu Larcenet's comics is his illustrations for Lewis Trondheim's ASTRONAUTS OF THE FUTURE, but I liked what I saw; his loose pencils and inks can almost be described as carefree, squiggling characters into being while providing beautiful backgrounds at the same time. This is the first work written by Larcenet that I'm aware of being translated into English, but the solicitation text sounds promising: "This is the story of Marc, a photographer who's tired, of a very patient chick he meets, of banal horrors and of his pain-in-the-neck cat. It's the story of his art thrown against heavy anxiety attacks; of a really cute woman in his small town who seems to take to him against all odds; of the old neighbor, a peaceful likable fellah until you get to know his disturbing role in the war..." Larcenet's graphic novel won the top prize at Angouleme in early 2004, and in many ways that's all I need to know in order to pick it up. Anyone of whom Trondheim is a big fan of is automatically all right in my book, but this sounds like it's a lot of fun to boot. HOPELESS SAVAGES: B-SIDES ALL FLASHBACK SPECIAL ONE-SHOT by Jen Van Meter, Becky Cloonan, Vera Brosgol, & Mike Norton
Jen Van Meter's HOPELESS SAVAGES comics, telling the exploits of punk singers' children growing up in today's society, are always a laugh and a half. Her characters are a real riot while never descending into caricature. A one-shot telling the "secret origin" of Zero Hopeless-Savage's band the Dusted Bunnies, then, sounds great to me... especially with Becky Cloonan, Vera Brosgol, and Mike Norton tackling the art chores. Contrary to the title of the last mini-series, there's no such thing as too much HOPELESS SAVAGES. SIRIUS ENTERTAINMENT DOGWITCH #16 by Daniel Schaffer
The description of this book is so amazing that I have to reprint it and let you decide: best book ever, or worst book ever? Quite honestly, I have absolutely no idea, but I simply must know. "She's wet, she's hungry, she's ankle deep in dead meat, and she's missed her own coming-out party. So why is she smiling? Rising from the toxic pool of illumination only to discover that her Goblin birth party has been gate crashed by the Sex Doll Cheerleaders, the newly painted Dogwitch once again comes face to face with Elastic Head. But, before Violet can tackle her nemesis in the final showdown, she's going to have to confront her other worst enemy; herself! Again!" YOSHITAKA AMANO'S HERO VOLUME 1 GN by Jessie Horsting & Yoshitaka Amano
The only books by Yoshitaka Amano that I've read weren't comics at all, but rather illustrated prose novels that he'd provided the art for: Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN: THE DREAM HUNTERS and Greg Rucka's ELEKTRA/WOLVERINE: THE REDEEMER. In both of those books, Amano's art was exquisitely detailed and lushly painted, a swarm of color and line that unfolded before your eyes. I've got no idea how he is at illustrating an actual comic book, though, or if he was able to spend the amount of time on HERO that he was on the other books. But the cover painting sure does look gorgeous. The idea of someone having to search the world for their true love with the help of "an assassinated Napoleonic truth-teller" named Victor Noir sounds like fun, though, and if this turns out to be as good as the ideas I have in my head, this will be a winner. CLAMP NO KISEKI: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION VOLUME 1 by CLAMP
When I first heard about this, I was pretty intrigued; it's a 12-issue collection of exclusive art, short stories, and sketches by the Japanese comic collective known as CLAMP. Each issue is 32 pages long, in full colour, and comes with three chess pieces modelled after characters from CLAMP's books; the idea is that once you've bought all 12 instalments, you'll have a complete chess set. (This first issue, by way of example, has Tomoyo from CARDCAPTOR SAKURA as a Queen, Watanuke from XXXHOLIC as a Bishop, and Mokona-Modoki from TSUBASA as a Pawn.) Then I saw the price: $29.99. Wow. Sure, you are getting three chess pieces, but that's still an awful lot of money. In the end, I think this is a "for diehard fans" collectable; it's just too expensive for a casual fan like myself. NARUTO VOLUME 6 TP by Masashi Kishimoto
Have you ever read a story where the hapless sidekick was more interesting than the official hero of the book? NARUTO is the book for you, then, as it cleverly reverses the roles by making the protagonist a character that in any other book would be secondary, and the perfect guy is in fact someone you're not supposed to like at all. Naruto is determined to be the best ninja ever, but his goofy and over-the-top personality coupled with his inability to really concentrate on anything may keep that from ever happening. Kishimoto's art is beautifully energetic as it races across the page, and the little twists and turns that fill the story are a delight to discover. One of the best titles to come out of Viz's SHONEN JUMP, I honestly can't get enough NARUTO. More, please, more! I'S VOLUME 1 GN by Masakazu Katsura
Now to be honest, I'm probably not the target audience for I'S; the description reminds me a little too much of slightly sleazy books like NEGIMA and LOVE HINA, and the less said about those (admittedly quite popular) titles, the better. There is one thing that I have to give full credit to, though, and that's the fact that Masakazu Katsura has proven in books like VIDEO GIRL AI and the hysterically funny SHADOW LADY that he can draw drop-dead gorgeous female characters. People who are looking for really well drawn women running around in towels, this is absolutely the book for you. 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. |