7/28/2008

Time Displacement

*Busy week coming up, but I'm ready.

LAST WEEK'S REVIEWS:

The Quest for the Missing Girl (Jiro Taniguchi, out on his own)

and a few thoughts on ye olde bad girl book Fatale

Plus!

Dan Dare #7 (of 7)

and a pair of manga (Takehiko Inoue's Real Vol. 1 and Osamu Tezuka's Dororo Vol. 2)

At The Savage Critics!

*Manga and reprints are the names of the children born -

THIS WEEK IN COMICS!

Tokyo Zombie: It's rare that a US edition of foreign language material becomes instantly noteworthy for the folk behind the English adaptation, but I think most people reading this site will understand this lil' hot potato best as the first above-ground translation project for Ryan Sands of the popular scanlation/random manga fun blog SAME HAT! SAME HAT! It's a Last Gasp production, a $9.95, 164-page collection of Yusaku Hanakuma's 1998-99 serial (from the pages of AX and the basis for the 2005 motion picture) about working-class killers taking on a city of the undead. Blood and laffs will flow, in the heta-uma (bad-good) style. Don't let it escape your grasp, even though it got stranded in Diamond's Merchandise section with a Hellboy magnet set and stuff.

Me and the Devil Blues Vol. 1: But that's not the only worthwhile manga out there this week - Del Rey has this 544-page collection of the first two volumes in Akira Hiramoto's fantasy biography of a blues guitarist you just might mistake for the famous Robert Johnson. Your $19.95 will get you an odd, compelling mix of folktale, horror, melodrama and suspense, and December's Vol. 2 will bring you right up to speed with the Japanese releases. Del Rey also has Vol. 4 (of 8) for Hitoshi Iwaaki's Parasyte this week.

Little Nemo in Slumberland: Many More Splendid Sundays: And I bet Sunday Press Books' upcoming Sunday will be splendid if enough people throw $125.00 at this 128-page, 16" x 21" sequel to the book that built its name. Prepare for many more restored samples from Winsor McCay's classic, with an exciting bonus Gertie the Dinosaur flipbook included for your troubles. Samples here. Meanwhile, for the completests among you, Checker has the comparatively frugal Little Nemo in Slumberland Vol. 2 (of 2), a $49.95, 348-page, 9" x 12.5" hardcover collecting McCay's later episodes, including the rarely-reprinted 1926 revival. More samples here.

Journey Vol. 1: But something tells me certain readers will be far more interested in this new IDW reprint project, a 424-page, $19.99 b&w omnibus softcover collecting issues #1-16 of William Messner-Loebs' 1983-86 historical adventure series, a fondly-remembered project for many present at the early days of 'alternative' comics in the Direct Market era. With an introduction by Sam Kieth, Messner-Loebs' cohort on Epicurus the Sage and early issues of The Maxx.

White Rapids: I've heard good things about this Pascal Blanchet book, a boldly visual history of a Quebec town founded in the middle of nowhere to provide a cocoon of modern comfort to workers at a nearby dam. Have a look, and read a critical review by Derik Badman; it's $27.95 for 156 pages. Note that Drawn and Quarterly actually put this out late last year, though Diamond doesn't label it as 'offered again' or anything; are they just releasing it to Direct Market stores now?!

The Completely MAD Don Martin: Ok, I could swear Diamond already released this thing back in 2007 when it was published, but here's another week for this $150.00, 1200-page slipcased hardcover boxed set to shine. Apropos of nothing, Jason Shiga's well-regarded Bookhunter actually is being offered again this week.

Popgun Vol. 2: Ooooh, looks like someone missed the anthology avalanche of last week (although a literal avalanche of those things is a scary thought - that Tori Amos book could totally kill someone). It's the second outing for Mark Andrew Smith's & Joe Keatinge's 'graphic mixtape,' a 460-page full-color blast of stuff for $29.99. Rich times we live in. Featuring the efforts of Jim Rugg (Afrodisiac!), Danny Hellman, James Kochalka, Dean Haspiel, Erik Larsen, Corey Lewis, Claudio Sanchez, Leah Moore & John Reppion, and many more.

Neverland: A cute, 32-page, $6.00 one-off by Dave Kiersh, a little yellow love poem about hanging around in a suburban strip and flying off in assorted ways. From Bodega.

Style School Vol. 2: The first installment of Dark Horse's $16.95 US edition of a Japanese anime/manga 'how to' magazine was a pretty polished affair, with high production values and some fairly detailed looks at how to manage certain visual techniques, with a focus on particular tools. This one looks to be about the same.

Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art and Will Eisner's Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative: But if you're in the mood for something a wee bit denser, here's a pair of Eisner-authored educational texts from 1985 and 1996, revised and expanded into $22.95 softcovers from W.W. Norton. Also in this week's word books, Diamond is again offering the hardcover edition of my sitemate Douglas Wolk's Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean, which recently won the Eisner for Best Kiss. No, wait - Best Comics-Related Book. Major Malcom Wheeler-Nicholson won for Best Kiss.

Comic Book Comics #2: More from Fred Van Lente's & Ryan Dunlavey's series of comics about the history of comics, this time covering events from WWII and soon after. Sample story here. It's $3.95 for 40 b&w pages.

Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft #2 (of 3): More from Richard Corben's collection of prose and verse adaptations, however he feels like it.

Narcopolis #4 (of 4): More (well, the rest of it) from Jamie Delano's & Jeremy Rock's tale of world-vision drugs and omnious tendrils.

Batman: Going Sane: More movie tie-in hijinx, this time packing up some Joker issues of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight into a 160-page, $14.99 softcover. Ah, but do note that one of those issues (#200) is written by Eddie Campbell & Daren White, a hospital-set thriller illustrated by Bart Sears. A nice one.

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