9/24/2007

Sleepytime Posting

*Zzzzzzzzzzz...

LAST WEEK'S REVIEWS:

The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite #1 (of 6)

Exit Wounds (a Rutu Modan graphic novel from a few months ago, well worth looking for)

And don't forget my encore presentation of an essay on superhero updates circa 2006... a Comics Journal classique.

Plus!

Short Reviews #1 (starring Gutsville #2 and Streets of Glory #1)

Short Reviews #2 (featuring the talents of 30 Days of Night: Beyond Barrow #1 and Batman/Lobo: Deadly Serious #2)

Short? Reviews #3 (with the recent film Eastern Promises, The Programme #3, and of course, Lassie)

Hosanna to The Savage Critics!

*Just to quickly move our focus onto the big sleep - Gene Ha says that his and Grant Morrison's run on The Authority is dead dead dead. In case you needed it spelled out. Ha leaves open the chance that some other artist might illustrate future Morrison scripts, should they exist, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

*Alright, back to work. Zzzzzzzzzz...

THIS WEEK IN COMICS!

Alan Moore's Yuggoth Cultures: You might recall that back in the foggy age of 2003, Avatar put out a three-issue miniseries compiling some odd Alan Moore material, ranging from the first chapter of an abandoned Warrior serial with Bryan Talbot (Nightjar), to several contributions to anthologies like It's Dark in London (I Keep Coming Back, an autobiographical From Hell coda drawn by Oscar Zarate), and even some essays and notes. There were also few new sequential adaptations of prose and song, with various Avatar house artists like Jacen Burrows (currently drawing Moore's top-secret new horror miniseries), Juan Jose Ryp and Mike Wolfer, and much of the raw material culled from a lost novel of Moore's, also titled Yuggoth Cultures. After that, the publisher put out a second three-issue miniseries titled Yuggoth Creatures, an all-new Lovecraft-flavored multi-segment thingy written by Antony Johnston with art by the whole Avatar stable. Now it's 2007, and here's a $29.99 trade collecting both miniseries, with an extra 50+ pages stuffed in (total: 312 pages), some of them containing a Moore interview conducted by Alan David Doane. Some interesting stuff in there.

Elfworld Vol. 1: This was released by publisher Family Style a while back, but now it's distributed by Top Shelf, so your store is more likely to have it. It's a 128-page fantasy anthology compiled by Jeffrey Brown and edited by François Vigneault, with contributions from the likes of Ron Regé, Jr. & Souther Salazar, K. Thor Jensen, Kazimir Strzepek, Martin Cendera, Matt Wiegle & Sean T. Collins, and more.

Speak of the Devil #2 (of 6): I have a feeling this Gilbert Hernandez series, another movie within the Love and Rockets universe, is going to pick up here. Call it a hunch. And if I'm wrong, at least Beto's wide style will be on display.

Madman Vol. 1: Just in case you didn't want to shell out for that gigantic hardcover omnibus, here's a 300-page softcover collecting the whole of Madman: The Oddity Odyssey and Madman Adventures, along with some other stuff, for $24.99. Thrill to the days when eyeball-eating was in, and future defiler-of-classrooms Dan Clowes would stop by to guest ink a panel. Just for the hell of it.

The Punisher MAX Annual #1: Soooo... I totally cursed this series when I praised its frequency of release last issue, didn't I? To tide us over until the regular book starts up again in two weeks (as of now), here's a special issue written by one Mike Benson of television's Entourage; if Rich Johnston is to be believed (and it's a yellow light entry), Garth Ennis may be preparing to conclude his run on the main series, and Benson is one of the names on the short list of successors. He's already set to take over Moon Knight from Charlie Huston after a stint as co-writer. Here, he'll be joined by artist Laurence Campbell, and this is what it'll look like. Meanwhile, The Punisher Presents: Barracuda MAX gets a trade; fans of Ennis' sillier covert ops side will be happy.

Remembrance of Things Past, Part One: Combray: Moving onto Ennis' next project... oh wait, no, I got confused. This is a new edition of the first album in Stéphane Heuet's extended comics adaptation of Proust, in the ligne claire, no less! From NBM, which will be putting out a new volume of this in a little while.

The Immortal Iron Fist #9 & The Immortal Iron Fist Annual #1: Two doses of flaming strikes this week. The former sees the Mortal Kombat/Shōnen Jump tourney o' champs begin, while the latter delves further into the secret history of the Iron Fists, with guest artists Howard Chaykin & Dan Brereton (see it here). If you want more of co-writer Ed Brubaker, this week also has Criminal #9. For the Matt Fraction folk, there's The Order #3. All bases are covered.

Batman #669: The grand finale of the Morrison/J.H. Williams III mystery storyline, featuring -- oh yes god yes -- the return of Williams' patented panel border superhero icons. I love it. Full preview here, along with some pages from another Bat-epic waiting for your warm arms...

All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder #7: So, if what penciller Jim Lee has been saying is true, the present creative team is planning to stick around until issue #22 or so? Man, that's gonna be pushing the limits of outrage to thrilling levels. Oh, and just to get back to Wildstorm for a moment, Lee also expresses hope at the same link that he and Grant Morrison can still get together for at least six total issues of Wildcats, and maybe as many as twelve. I would like to see that happen. That's all I can say.

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