Comic Books Hate You, George Washington
*As grave a threat as any of our dead leaders have faced.
LAST WEEK'S REVIEWS:
Golgo 13 Vol. 13 (of 13): Flagburner
Plus!
Fantastic Comics #24 (The Next Issue Project #1)
The Punisher: Force of Nature and Punisher War Journal #16
Reich #1
All at The Savage Critics! Where I posted a lot this week!
*Federal holiday? Fuck that noise; General Washington surrenders to FUNNIES on Wednesday.
THIS WEEK IN COMICS!
(and in case anyone's wondering: no, the new format debut of The Comics Journal is not on Diamond's list for this week... I even checked through the whole Merchandise section, where Chip Kidd's recent novel The Learners cavorts in ecstasy with replica Iron Man helmets and an official The Spiderwick Chronicles board game - I shall never again know such sheer occasion)
Golgo 13 Vol. 13 (of 13): Flagburner: The end of days, friends. Review here. As often happens, VIZ has a ton of stuff coming out at once, like The Drifting Classroom Vol. 10 (of 11), Naoki Urasawa's Monster Vol. 13 (of 18), and the reprinted Uzumaki Vol. 3 (of 3).
Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway: Once upon a time, there was a man named Steve Purcell who made comics about a dog (in a suit) and a rabbit(ish thing) that had comedic adventures as 'freelance police.' A bunch of different publishers (Comico, Epic, LucasArts, etc.) released those comics in various forms (specials, miniseries, catalog strips), and then Marlowe & Company collected them into a 1995 book titled The Collected Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway, because Internet puns were really funny in 1995. Then: the book went out of print, the comics trickled away to nothing, and Sam & Max built up a substantial cult following via their computer game and television cartoon appearances. Then: used copies of the collection started going for $100+ a pop. Now: party's over, since Telltale Games (of the current Sam & Max computer game series) has issued this spanking new $19.99 softcover edition, minus two words in the title, and plus 25 pages of heretofore uncollected stuff. Preview here, to the right. Production info here. Order direct from Telltale this month and they'll throw in Episode 201 of the game, featuring the writing of Jeff Lester, contributor to noted webpage The Savage Critics, OMG. A signed, limited hardcover will be out later. Signed by Steve Purcell, not Jeff Lester.
Paul Goes Fishing: The newest of Michel Rabagliati's wistful, well-regarded semi-autobiographical comics, this time a 208-page hardcover, published by Drawn and Quarterly at $19.95. Pregnancy, family and adulthood are the topics, and it'll probably be worth your time. Nine pages are here.
Maakies with the Wrinkled Knees: Ah, who can resist another 120-page landscape-format hardcover collection of Tony Millionaire's famous fun? More pages here. It's $19.95, from Fantagraphics.
Walt Disney Treasures Vol. 2: Uncle Scrooge: A Little Something Special: Being a 160-page sampler of the beloved Carl Barks creation's life in comics, with stories & art by Barks, Don Rosa, William Van Horn, Marco Rota, Romano Scarpa and, doubtlessly, others. A Gemstone softcover; $16.99.
Aliens Omnibus Vol. 3: And if that's not enough reprints for ya, how about another 376 color pages of Dark Horse's US and UK licensed comics from 1993-94? Note that this one's loaded with interesting folk, as it contains the Jim Woodring/Kilian Plunkett opus Labyrinth, the Dave Gibbons/Mike Mignola/Kevin Nowlan one-shot Salvation, the Peter Milligan/Paul Johnson story Sacrifice, and the Ian Edginton/Will Simpson storyline Rogue. That's $24.95 less to carry around.
The Programme #8 (of 12): This comic also involves Peter Milligan, but does not involve Aliens, in the licensed creatures sense.
More Old Jewish Comedians: Another 10" x 10" 'storybook' from Blab! and Fantagraphics, another 36 pages of Drew Friedman's portraits (see Tom's example). This week also sees a similar artbook from 'Shag' (Josh Agle), Shag: A to Z, following the letters of the alphabet.
Cherubs! Paradise Lost: Huh. It's a new Bryan Talbot project, albeit only written and laid out by him; Mark Stafford is the artist. It's an antic comedy/adventure (initially conceived as an animation project) about murder in Heaven, and lil' anjils teaming up with a stripper and vampires and the like. I think it was first announced last year by publisher Desperado as a miniseries, but now it's a $14.99 graphic novel.
Zorro #1: I've heard nice things about Dynamite Entertainment's The Lone Ranger, and I guess it's done well enough for them to prompt a similar revival, this time written by Matt Wagner, with the art of Francesco Francavilla. Preview here.
The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite #6 (of 6): And that's all for that, for now. Dare you look?
Gødland #21: Who can resist more from Joe Casey and Tom Scioli? Casey's also got Youngblood #2 from Image this week.
The Spirit #14: Introducing the new regular creative team of writers Sergio Aragonés & Mark Evanier, and artist Mike Ploog; who knows how it'll turn out, but I suspect curiosity will be high.
Loveless #22: Ooh, featuring the return of Danijel Zezelj to art duties on this Brian Azzarello-written Vertigo western. That's worth a flip.
The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death: As one Mr. Frank Castle demonstrated last week, there's no need anymore to wait for an Annual when there's funnies that need air. Hence, another one-shot Iron Fist flashback collection, with art by the likes of Lewis Larosa and Russ Heath. Marvel's also got The Order #8 ready for the Fraction fans prepared to start counting down (up?), as well as the now-limited series' first trade collection.
LAST WEEK'S REVIEWS:
Golgo 13 Vol. 13 (of 13): Flagburner
Plus!
Fantastic Comics #24 (The Next Issue Project #1)
The Punisher: Force of Nature and Punisher War Journal #16
Reich #1
All at The Savage Critics! Where I posted a lot this week!
*Federal holiday? Fuck that noise; General Washington surrenders to FUNNIES on Wednesday.
THIS WEEK IN COMICS!
(and in case anyone's wondering: no, the new format debut of The Comics Journal is not on Diamond's list for this week... I even checked through the whole Merchandise section, where Chip Kidd's recent novel The Learners cavorts in ecstasy with replica Iron Man helmets and an official The Spiderwick Chronicles board game - I shall never again know such sheer occasion)
Golgo 13 Vol. 13 (of 13): Flagburner: The end of days, friends. Review here. As often happens, VIZ has a ton of stuff coming out at once, like The Drifting Classroom Vol. 10 (of 11), Naoki Urasawa's Monster Vol. 13 (of 18), and the reprinted Uzumaki Vol. 3 (of 3).
Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway: Once upon a time, there was a man named Steve Purcell who made comics about a dog (in a suit) and a rabbit(ish thing) that had comedic adventures as 'freelance police.' A bunch of different publishers (Comico, Epic, LucasArts, etc.) released those comics in various forms (specials, miniseries, catalog strips), and then Marlowe & Company collected them into a 1995 book titled The Collected Sam & Max: Surfin' the Highway, because Internet puns were really funny in 1995. Then: the book went out of print, the comics trickled away to nothing, and Sam & Max built up a substantial cult following via their computer game and television cartoon appearances. Then: used copies of the collection started going for $100+ a pop. Now: party's over, since Telltale Games (of the current Sam & Max computer game series) has issued this spanking new $19.99 softcover edition, minus two words in the title, and plus 25 pages of heretofore uncollected stuff. Preview here, to the right. Production info here. Order direct from Telltale this month and they'll throw in Episode 201 of the game, featuring the writing of Jeff Lester, contributor to noted webpage The Savage Critics, OMG. A signed, limited hardcover will be out later. Signed by Steve Purcell, not Jeff Lester.
Paul Goes Fishing: The newest of Michel Rabagliati's wistful, well-regarded semi-autobiographical comics, this time a 208-page hardcover, published by Drawn and Quarterly at $19.95. Pregnancy, family and adulthood are the topics, and it'll probably be worth your time. Nine pages are here.
Maakies with the Wrinkled Knees: Ah, who can resist another 120-page landscape-format hardcover collection of Tony Millionaire's famous fun? More pages here. It's $19.95, from Fantagraphics.
Walt Disney Treasures Vol. 2: Uncle Scrooge: A Little Something Special: Being a 160-page sampler of the beloved Carl Barks creation's life in comics, with stories & art by Barks, Don Rosa, William Van Horn, Marco Rota, Romano Scarpa and, doubtlessly, others. A Gemstone softcover; $16.99.
Aliens Omnibus Vol. 3: And if that's not enough reprints for ya, how about another 376 color pages of Dark Horse's US and UK licensed comics from 1993-94? Note that this one's loaded with interesting folk, as it contains the Jim Woodring/Kilian Plunkett opus Labyrinth, the Dave Gibbons/Mike Mignola/Kevin Nowlan one-shot Salvation, the Peter Milligan/Paul Johnson story Sacrifice, and the Ian Edginton/Will Simpson storyline Rogue. That's $24.95 less to carry around.
The Programme #8 (of 12): This comic also involves Peter Milligan, but does not involve Aliens, in the licensed creatures sense.
More Old Jewish Comedians: Another 10" x 10" 'storybook' from Blab! and Fantagraphics, another 36 pages of Drew Friedman's portraits (see Tom's example). This week also sees a similar artbook from 'Shag' (Josh Agle), Shag: A to Z, following the letters of the alphabet.
Cherubs! Paradise Lost: Huh. It's a new Bryan Talbot project, albeit only written and laid out by him; Mark Stafford is the artist. It's an antic comedy/adventure (initially conceived as an animation project) about murder in Heaven, and lil' anjils teaming up with a stripper and vampires and the like. I think it was first announced last year by publisher Desperado as a miniseries, but now it's a $14.99 graphic novel.
Zorro #1: I've heard nice things about Dynamite Entertainment's The Lone Ranger, and I guess it's done well enough for them to prompt a similar revival, this time written by Matt Wagner, with the art of Francesco Francavilla. Preview here.
The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite #6 (of 6): And that's all for that, for now. Dare you look?
Gødland #21: Who can resist more from Joe Casey and Tom Scioli? Casey's also got Youngblood #2 from Image this week.
The Spirit #14: Introducing the new regular creative team of writers Sergio Aragonés & Mark Evanier, and artist Mike Ploog; who knows how it'll turn out, but I suspect curiosity will be high.
Loveless #22: Ooh, featuring the return of Danijel Zezelj to art duties on this Brian Azzarello-written Vertigo western. That's worth a flip.
The Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death: As one Mr. Frank Castle demonstrated last week, there's no need anymore to wait for an Annual when there's funnies that need air. Hence, another one-shot Iron Fist flashback collection, with art by the likes of Lewis Larosa and Russ Heath. Marvel's also got The Order #8 ready for the Fraction fans prepared to start counting down (up?), as well as the now-limited series' first trade collection.
Labels: this week in comics
posted by Jog at 11:59 PM
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