Quieting down a little.
*I punted on this yesterday (must maintain the purity of my Howard Chaykin essays) but nothing can hold it back for long:
LAST WEEK’S REVIEWS!
Full Moon Fever (you know the premise by now)
All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder #2 (if Miller's gonna laugh all the way to bank, might as well laugh along with him!)
Desolation Jones #3
You Ain't No Dancer #1 (new themed anthology, some good bits)
Time2, City of Tomorrow (Howard Chaykin, then and now)
My fix is in.
*It’s light, right? I’ve got little money, honey…
THIS WEEK IN COMICS:
Strangehaven Vol. 3: Conspiracies: Wait a minute - did issue #18 come out yet? I don’t think so; writer/artist Gary Spencer Millidge’s site seems to indicate that this new trade (the first in half a decade for this delay-prone title), collecting issues #13-18, was to be released simultaneously with the pamphlet format issue #18. But only the trade is on Diamond’s list for this week. Very odd. Well, I guess those of us intent on getting all of the Strangehaven trades (and really, you should be getting Strangehaven in some form or another, although if you haven’t read it yet I don’t see why you’d want to bother with the pamphlets since you pretty much have to start at the beginning to get any sort of impact out of it - regardless, the book is really quite an excellent pastoral mystery thingy, loaded with eccentric villagers and strange magic and secret societies and murder and a very English atmosphere) will have a little bonus for a week or two. The trade will also sport an intro by Dave Gibbons.
Acme Novelty Library: Not issue #16, but Pantheon’s collection of issues #7 and #15, now pressed to the loving bosom of the Direct Market. I actually dreamt about this book last night; it wasn’t all I dreamt of, but it was sort of a comics-themed interlude in the middle of a larger dream. I was at Barnes and Noble, and there was a whole rack devoted to new comics hardcovers and paperbacks, and I was horrified to discover that Pantheon had released the book in digest size. But then I saw a different book titled The Best of Newspaper Comics 1900-1918 and I was pretty happy, even though it was the same size and shape as Fantagraphics' Dennis the Menace series (old comics need to be big!). That book may not really exist, but luckily this Acme thing should be in the same unwieldy gargantuan format as the issues it collects, just as nature intended.
God the Dyslexic doG #4 (of 4, technically): Well, here’s what seems to be the last pamphlet-format issue of this neat miniseries from writers Brian and Phillip Phillipson and Alex Nino, though it now seems that an issue #5 can be expected, though only in the upcoming trade collection of the series, which will also sport full color (the pamphlets were all b&w). So keep that info in mind.
Wolverine #32: A very odd issue, especially as a capper to writer Mark Millar’s reportedly slam-bang over-the-top action run on the title (haven't read it myself); written with aid from the late Will Eisner, the one-off script finds Logan trapped in a WWII Nazi death camp. Well, not really; it’s apparently more of a Wolverine-like character we see here, and the story proceeds as more of a vintage horror comic than a superhero book. Marvel seems to feel pretty strongly about this issue, enough so that they’re putting out two separate versions, one with artist Kaare Andrews’ work colored by the inimitable Jose Villarrubia, and one with the visuals left in ultra high-contrast b&w. Sure, in a way it’s just another sales-goosing variant, and arguably it represents a dipping of the toe into the most infernal waters of the ‘variant interior,’ but it looks kind of interesting nonetheless. Andrews’ art is well-suited to this line of presentation, and process junkies might get a kick out of a little compare/contrast.
Gødland #3: Yeah, this is a pretty nice book, a fun book. I like it. Not gonna set the industry aflame, but decent stuff. Not doing too hot in sales, though. Give it a look, maybe?
The Goon #14: Awwww, Jesus Christ. Even this thing isn’t clearing 10,000 copies anymore, and it won like every Eisner this year, even Best Reprint of Foreign Language Material, I think. Oh comics, do our awards mean nothing?!
Top Ten: Beyond the Farthest Precinct #2 (of 5): On the other hand, I noticed that the new Alan Moore/Gene Ha The 49ers graphic novel launched in the Direct Market at what looks to me like pretty decent numbers, despite its $24.99 price tag. Nice. Anyway, this miniseries (from writer Paul DiFilippo and artist Jerry Ordway) is more antic than the Moore original, and lacking some of the polish and detail that Ha and Zander Cannon brought to the table, but it’s a pretty worthy follow-up series thus far, all things considered.
Seven Soldiers - Mister Miracle #1 (of 4): Get it while it’s hot - the only issue of this miniseries to feature interior art by Adam Strange’s Pasqual Ferry before his replacement by Billy Dallas Patton (reportedly over contract issues). DC’s solicitations keep using terms like ‘psychedelic’ and ‘hallucinatory’ to describe this book, so you’d better buckle up for some more advanced oddness than we’ve been seeing lately.
LAST WEEK’S REVIEWS!
Full Moon Fever (you know the premise by now)
All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder #2 (if Miller's gonna laugh all the way to bank, might as well laugh along with him!)
Desolation Jones #3
You Ain't No Dancer #1 (new themed anthology, some good bits)
Time2, City of Tomorrow (Howard Chaykin, then and now)
My fix is in.
*It’s light, right? I’ve got little money, honey…
THIS WEEK IN COMICS:
Strangehaven Vol. 3: Conspiracies: Wait a minute - did issue #18 come out yet? I don’t think so; writer/artist Gary Spencer Millidge’s site seems to indicate that this new trade (the first in half a decade for this delay-prone title), collecting issues #13-18, was to be released simultaneously with the pamphlet format issue #18. But only the trade is on Diamond’s list for this week. Very odd. Well, I guess those of us intent on getting all of the Strangehaven trades (and really, you should be getting Strangehaven in some form or another, although if you haven’t read it yet I don’t see why you’d want to bother with the pamphlets since you pretty much have to start at the beginning to get any sort of impact out of it - regardless, the book is really quite an excellent pastoral mystery thingy, loaded with eccentric villagers and strange magic and secret societies and murder and a very English atmosphere) will have a little bonus for a week or two. The trade will also sport an intro by Dave Gibbons.
Acme Novelty Library: Not issue #16, but Pantheon’s collection of issues #7 and #15, now pressed to the loving bosom of the Direct Market. I actually dreamt about this book last night; it wasn’t all I dreamt of, but it was sort of a comics-themed interlude in the middle of a larger dream. I was at Barnes and Noble, and there was a whole rack devoted to new comics hardcovers and paperbacks, and I was horrified to discover that Pantheon had released the book in digest size. But then I saw a different book titled The Best of Newspaper Comics 1900-1918 and I was pretty happy, even though it was the same size and shape as Fantagraphics' Dennis the Menace series (old comics need to be big!). That book may not really exist, but luckily this Acme thing should be in the same unwieldy gargantuan format as the issues it collects, just as nature intended.
God the Dyslexic doG #4 (of 4, technically): Well, here’s what seems to be the last pamphlet-format issue of this neat miniseries from writers Brian and Phillip Phillipson and Alex Nino, though it now seems that an issue #5 can be expected, though only in the upcoming trade collection of the series, which will also sport full color (the pamphlets were all b&w). So keep that info in mind.
Wolverine #32: A very odd issue, especially as a capper to writer Mark Millar’s reportedly slam-bang over-the-top action run on the title (haven't read it myself); written with aid from the late Will Eisner, the one-off script finds Logan trapped in a WWII Nazi death camp. Well, not really; it’s apparently more of a Wolverine-like character we see here, and the story proceeds as more of a vintage horror comic than a superhero book. Marvel seems to feel pretty strongly about this issue, enough so that they’re putting out two separate versions, one with artist Kaare Andrews’ work colored by the inimitable Jose Villarrubia, and one with the visuals left in ultra high-contrast b&w. Sure, in a way it’s just another sales-goosing variant, and arguably it represents a dipping of the toe into the most infernal waters of the ‘variant interior,’ but it looks kind of interesting nonetheless. Andrews’ art is well-suited to this line of presentation, and process junkies might get a kick out of a little compare/contrast.
Gødland #3: Yeah, this is a pretty nice book, a fun book. I like it. Not gonna set the industry aflame, but decent stuff. Not doing too hot in sales, though. Give it a look, maybe?
The Goon #14: Awwww, Jesus Christ. Even this thing isn’t clearing 10,000 copies anymore, and it won like every Eisner this year, even Best Reprint of Foreign Language Material, I think. Oh comics, do our awards mean nothing?!
Top Ten: Beyond the Farthest Precinct #2 (of 5): On the other hand, I noticed that the new Alan Moore/Gene Ha The 49ers graphic novel launched in the Direct Market at what looks to me like pretty decent numbers, despite its $24.99 price tag. Nice. Anyway, this miniseries (from writer Paul DiFilippo and artist Jerry Ordway) is more antic than the Moore original, and lacking some of the polish and detail that Ha and Zander Cannon brought to the table, but it’s a pretty worthy follow-up series thus far, all things considered.
Seven Soldiers - Mister Miracle #1 (of 4): Get it while it’s hot - the only issue of this miniseries to feature interior art by Adam Strange’s Pasqual Ferry before his replacement by Billy Dallas Patton (reportedly over contract issues). DC’s solicitations keep using terms like ‘psychedelic’ and ‘hallucinatory’ to describe this book, so you’d better buckle up for some more advanced oddness than we’ve been seeing lately.
posted by Jog at 10:07 PM
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