12/17/2007

These Books

*The end of the year rush is on for my life...

LAST WEEK'S REVIEWS:

Octopus Girl Vols. 1-2

Popeye Vol. 2: Well Blow Me Down! and Glacial Period (that's two reviews)

Plus!

B.P.R.D.: Killing Ground #5 and Chronicles of Wormwood: The Last Enemy (that's also two reviews)

at The Savage Critics!

*It won't take long for me to work through -

THIS WEEK IN COMICS!

365 Days: A Diary: Oh, I forgot this was coming out. A decade ago, Julie Doucet was one of those names that might spring readily to most alternative comics reader's lips, if asked to name the bright lights of the form. She's since mostly stopped making comics to focus on other artistic pursuits (as have other favorites, like Jim Woodring and Dave Cooper), although when eight pages of her personal 'visual journal' were published in that Chris Ware issue of McSweeney's, a lot of the autobio comics flavor remained. Now Drawn & Quarterly has a full-scale, 360-page book of that stuff out for $29.95, for those itching after unseen material. Preview here.

Golgo 13 Vol. 12 (of 13): Shadow of Death: I note that VIZ's Direct Market releases for this week haven't invaded chain bookstores just yet, so here's a heads up. This installment has two stories from the '70s, including the one where Duke goes undercover in Mississippi disguised as a black man. As usual, also look for The Drifting Classroom Vol. 9 (of 11), and Naoki Urasawa's Monster Vol. 12 (of 18). I don't know what's harder to believe - that The Drifting Classroom is almost done, or that Monster is just now hitting the 2/3 mark.

Uzumaki Vol. 2 (of 3): And in case you missed it the first time, here's more of VIZ's new right-to-left, $9.95 digest edition of Junji Ito's name-making (in the West) horror manga.

Special Forces #2 (of 6): Yeah, I'm really interested in how this Kyle Baker war comic turns out. As this issue's solicitation reads: "We meet all the characters and they earn their nicknames. Who will be nicknamed 'Hummer' and why? Characters die in gruesome ways, and it’s just the basic training issue!" Look for the Abu Ghraib cover at your local store! And a preview here if you scroll down!

Thicker Than Blood #1 (of 3): This is a werewolf comic from Full Circle, notable for the presence of Mike Ploog on interior art, with painted color by Simon Bisley. Simon Reed writes. A whole lot of Ploog's original art for the series can be viewed here.

The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite #4 (of 6): More of this.

Foolkiller MAX #3 (of 5): And this.

The Order #6: Also this.

The Immortal Iron Fist #11: This.

Army@Love #10: That.

The Programme #6 (of 12): As you can tell, most of this week for me is made up of continuations of ongoing projects I happen to be following, with little in the way of self-contained works or catchy debuts or conclusions. Doesn't make for a verbose list. Isn’t brevity the soul of wit? I guess the body of wit is 'being witty' though...

Classic Dan Dare Vols. 1, 3-7: I've seen a grand total of one of these album-format, $19.95-$24.95 Titan Books hardcovers in the US - one of the later installments (vol. 8), in a chain bookstore. But now maybe your very own comics store might stock these deluxe presentations of vintage '50s Dan Dare stories by Frank Hampson and his studio crew, extending from 1950-55, although it looks like the second half of the original storyline (in vol. 2) isn't being offered again this week for some reason, so you're shit out of luck on that front.

Labels: