Just a few new things.

*Ok, hmm. Let's try it this way.

LAST WEEK'S REVIEWS:

--Désastre Hurlant: A Eurocomics Journey in Umpteen Parts--

I wrote:

Part 1 (introductions and Miss: Better Living Through Crime)

Part 4 (The Incal, and how they colored it)

While Tucker Stone wrote:

Part 2 (Fragile and The Horde)

Part 3 (Sanctum and Transgenesis 2025 Vol. 1: Ancestor)

Plus! (This is me again!)

The Boys #29 (putting the X-Men parody to bed after a bath of flame)

AND!!

Immortal (the 2004 Enki Bilal feature film, his third, loosely adapting The Nikopol Trilogy, of which more will be said in a week or so)

At comiXology.

*God. That actually looks productive.

THIS WEEK IN COMICS!

The Color of Earth: Being the initial entry in First Second's latest season of comics releases, and their first-ever translation of an Asian work. It's a Korean piece, composed in 2003 by girls' manhwa veteran Kim Dong Hwa, who adopts a wavy, calligraphic style to depict a young woman's coming of age, out in the country with her widowed mother. Note that its 320 b&w pages only form the first installment of a trilogy; the publisher will release The Color of Water and The Color of Heaven as the year progresses. It's $16.95; big preview here.

And There You Are: A new release from AdHouse Books is always a treat, and this one looks especially slick - it's a new work by Pixar artist and story supervisor Ronnie del Carmen, a sort of sketchbook diary, except some of the pieces are by del Carmen while others are authored by a fictional creation of his, "Nina" (from the self-published comic book series Paper Biscuit), who 'lives' in the same area. Expect gloss and sparkle. PDF preview here; it's 64 color pages for $15.00.

Harvey Comics Classics Vol. 5: Harvey Girls: Oh, awesome! I thought Milo Manara would never finish this... wait, no. That's Women of the X-Men. Sorry, I think this is a Golden Age of Reprints item par excellence, scooping up 480 pages of vintage Little Audrey, Little Dot and Little Lotta. I'd literally forgotten what Little Audrey's deal was until I read the solicitation, and I guess she's spunky? Er, big eyes? Mischief? Ma'am, Cadbury from Richie goddamned Rich got into 'mischief,' and he was the fucking butler. Give me dots any day. Sneak peek here; from Dark Horse, $19.95.

Popgun Vol. 3: More from the extra-large Image anthology (er, "mixtape"), edited by Mark Andrew Smith & D.J. Kirkbride, and featuring work by Erik Larsen, Paul Grist, Eric Stephenson, Tara McPherson and many, many, many more. Seriously, this is a fucking brick of color, 448 pages for $29.99. Samples here, with a crapload more (and a full list of participating artists) waiting at the official site.

Slam Dunk Vol. 3 (of 31): More from Takehiko Inoue's fame-making gigahit, featuring basketballs and teenagers and all the energy a sports manga needs. This is always a hoot, and only $7.99 for 200+ pages too.

Gantz Vol. 4: I know this is only the latest $12.95 volume in a Dark Horse manga about people in skintight costumes shooting things, but I think if you pretend this preview is the first three pages of the series as a whole, you'll agree that buying it seems compulsory all of a sudden.

B.P.R.D.: The Black Goddess #4 (of 5): Also hooting: Guy Davis.

Ignition City #1 (of 5): The latest of writer Warren Ellis' various and sundry projects with Avatar, this time reuniting him with Aetheric Mechanics cohort Gianluca Pagliarani for a Deadwood-type story set in the last spaceport on Earth. A woman is looking to collect her dead father's things; $3.99 will take you along. Slideshow here.

Shortcomings: The Adrian Tomine graphic novel, now in softcover. Join rib-tickling hero Ben as he grimaces his way through 112 pages of horny, pained culture crisis set off by his politically-active girlfriend's castigation of his eye for blonde girls, and maybe a hundred other things. There was a time not so long ago when you'd have to delve into Dave Sim territory to find an easier target than Tomine among certain audiences; he was seriously #3 or something on the You're Ruining Comics cognoscenti shit list for years running. Even today, he remains a (if maybe no longer the) poster child of right proper literary funnies, all curled-from-ice immaculate cartoon illustration and interpersonal self-destruction, stately as you want it and sensitive and doomed and designed to the hilt. I personally think this is his best work, a lot funnier-wiser-sharper than it maybe gets credit for in the conversation, which seems to die down with the Top Ten lists and such; then again, I enjoyed Optic Nerve more often than not. At $14.95, it's now easier than ever to find out for yourself. From Drawn and Quarterly; have a taste.