5. CEREBUS ARCHIVE #1By Dave Sim
Aaardvark-Vanaheim
$3.00
This isn't what you might expect from the title. It's not some sort of omnibus repackaging of Dave Sim's 300-issue classic story of a barbarian aardvark turned papal aardvark. You'll have to stick to the phonebook sized volumes that already exist for that. This is a new bi-monthly, floppy format series where Dave Sim looks back over the work he put into this series and shares some sketches, unpublished stories and even rejection letters from publishers. So obviously this is for the already initiated - fans of not only Cerebus itself but those willing to read Sim's verbose and eccentric offerings like Glamourpuss.
4. FIN FANG FOUR RETURN #1Written by Roger Langridge and Scott Gray; art by Roger Langridge
Marvel
$3.99 | 48 pgs
Roger Langridge and Scott Gray return to playing around with Marvel's forgotten, pre-Silver Age monsters in this one-shot featuring the gargantuan creatues Fin Fang Foom, Elektro, Googam and Gorgilla. These four fearsome monsters have been reduced to human size and now have to assimilate into society. Langridge, as we've all seen recently in his new Muppet Show series, is a master of the slapstick comic book and this one does not shy away from craziness of any sort. It's great for kids too, as well as fans that might actually remember a time when these characters were actually considered scary.
3. THE ETERNAL SMILEBy Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim
First Second
$16.95 | 176 pgs
Gene Luen Yang became the unofficial star of First Second books when his American Born Chinese became the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award. Meanwhile, Derek Kirk Kim is the highly acclaimed creator of the award winning Same Difference and Other Stories as well as the artist for the DC Minx graphic novel Good As Lilly. So, needless to say, a new book containing three short stories by these two men is kind of a big deal.
The three stories collected here range from a fantasy adventure with princes and frogs to a Scrooge McDuck/Pogo style comedy to an office drama involving Nigerian internet scams.
2. POWER GIRL #1Written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti; art by Amanda Connor
DC Comics
$3.99 | 32 pgs
I've always thought of Power Girl as the girl you'd like to cheat on Supergirl with. But the thing is, Power Girl deserves a shot at happiness too. Even though she's a DC Comics mainstay, I think this is the first ongoing series she's ever had. They've definitely found the perfect people to give her that chance. Husband and wife team Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Connor - joined by writer Justin Gray - previously brought some empathy and cuteness to the character that she's never really had before in a 3 issue JSA Classified story a few years ago. Now they try it on a regular basis starting with a storyline that has Power Girl creating a new secret identity for herself while saving Manhattan from alien invaders.
But don't worry, we all know what you're really looking for so don't miss the boob-alicious Adam Hughes variant cover, shown here.
1. LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN VOL. III: CENTURY #1 (of 3)By Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neil
Top Shelf
$7.95 | 80 pgs
After the text-heavy (and 3-D-heavy) taster, The Black Dossier, Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neil return with a proper 3-volume adventure. This time Mina Murray and Allan Quartermaine have entered the 20th century where must face a shadowy occult order and a serial killer called Jack The Ripper. Lots of new characters join the cast this time around like Mac The Knife, Pirate Jenny and Orlando (who we saw join the League in the Black Dossier). It's going to be a wild ride into the 1900s full of references to The Threepenny Opera, Aleister Crowley, Somerset Maugham and more.
WOW THERE'S A LOT OF STUFF THIS WEEK...
WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM TP VOL 01
If you enjoy zombies and/or dark survivalist dramas like Cormac McCarthy's The Road then don't ask any questions and just pick up this hefty volume that contains the first 48 issues of this excellent series.
TANK GIRL REMASTERED EDITION VOL. 1 and 2
A new collection of the classic Martin/Hewlett Tank Girl stories with some recolored stories.
SUPERMAN ESCAPE FROM BIZARRO WORLD TP
Eric Powell drawing Bizarro? Nuff said.
PHERONE HC
A graphic novel from Viktor Kalvachev about a female spy that may be having a mental breakdown. Reprinted from an issue of Heavy Metal magazine.
ALIAS ULTIMATE COLLECTION VOL. 1
Collecting the first half of Brian Michael Bendis' early and groundbreaking Marvel series about a former superheroine turned down and out private eye.
MONOLOGUES FOR CALCULATING THE DENSITY OF BLACK HOLES
A new collection of experimental, stream-of-conscious art comics from Anders Nilsen.
POINT BLANK TP
A new edition of Ed Brubaker's precursor to his now famous and influential supervillain spy drama, Sleeper.
3 comments:
I'm very excited about the new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I'm almost with the Black Dossier, having put if off for a a while. It's a solid read, but nowhere near the quality of the first two volumes.
Yeah I found Black Dossier to be a bit of a chore to get through. Looking forward to something a little more along the lines of the first two volumes (though I'm probably going to hold out for the collected version of this).
Reading Black Dossier was like reading an encyclopedia with a few pages of sequential art every once in a while. It was incredibly interesting if you were able to finish the thing, and there were some neat, trippy effects done with the 3D section. But I agree it doesn't really match its predecessors.
I read Century: 1910 today and loved every page of it. I can't wait to see what sort of modern day literary/media references find their way into book 3 (although I'll probably have to wait a LONG time for it).
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