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Batten down the hatches

December 5, 2006 by

At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of interest in this week’s ComicList, but it does have its pleasures.

I think my initial lack of enthusiasm comes from the fact that I hardly ever buy floppies any more, but there are two this week that I’m eager to read. I’ve been enjoying Hero Squared (Boom! Studios), and the fourth issue arrives tomorrow.

I’m also looking forward to a comic by Gail Simone that isn’t in the thick of DC’s mainstream super-hero titles. Welcome to Tranquility sounds like fun, and I like both revisionist super-hero stories and murder mysteries.

For whatever reason, the paperback version of The Case of Madeline Smith from the Rick Geary’s A Treasury of Victorian Murder series showed up at my shop last week, but soft and hardcover versions seem to be arriving everywhere tomorrow.

Viz’s releases function more as a reminder that I’ve fallen behind in my reading list. How did Aishiteruze Baby get to its fifth volume when I wasn’t looking? And Crimson Hero is at volume four? The reason this sort of thing happens is that I keep getting distracted by charming new series like Beauty Pop, which is at volume two.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what’s going to dominate Bookscan graphic novel sales for the next couple of weeks, I’ll give you one guess.

Filed under: Boom! Studios, ComicList, NBM, Viz, Wildstorm Leave a Comment

February debuts

December 3, 2006 by

Here are the manga, manhwa, and global manga debuts from the latest Previews, covering titles shipping in February. Whenever possible, I’ve linked directly to title information. As always, if I’ve missed something, let me know.

ALC

Works, by Eriko Tadeno

CMX

The Time Guardian, written by Daimuro Kishi and illustrated by Tamao Ichinose
Go Go Heaven!!, by Keiko Yamada

Dark Horse

Appleseed Book 1: The Promethean Challenge, by Shirow Masamune

Del Rey

Mamotte Lollipop, by Michiyo Kikuta

Digital Manga Publishing/Juné

The Moon and the Sandals, by Fumi Yoshinaga
Wagamama Kitchen, by Kaori Monchi

Drmaster

Chinese Hero, by Wing Shing Ma

Icarus Publishing

Taboo District

Ice Kunion

You’re So Cool, by Young Hee Lee

Kitty Press

Thunderbolt Boys Excite

NBM

Unholy Kinship, by Naomi Nowak

Netcomics

In the Starlight, by Kyungok Kang

Tokyopop

Divalicious, written by T. Campbell and illustrated by Amy Mebberson
Kedamono Damono, by Haruka Fukushima
Metamo Kiss, by Sora Omote
The Twelve Kingdoms, by Fuyumi Ono

Tokyopop Blu

Innocent Bird by Hirotaka Kisaragi

Viz Shojo Beat

Backstage Prince, by Kanoko Sakurakoji
Gentlemen’s Alliance, by Arina Tanemura

Yaoi Press

Yaoi Volume 1: Anthology of Boy’s Love, by Izanaki, Wilson, and Studio Kosaru
Desire of the Gods, by Insanity Team

Filed under: ALC, CMX, Dark Horse, Del Rey, DMP, Drmaster, Icarus, IceKunion, NBM, Netcomics, Previews, Tokyopop, Viz, Yaoi Press Leave a Comment

The suspense is killing me!

November 30, 2006 by

Well that was a pleasant surprise. I thought NBM was only shipping a new printing of Rick Geary’s The Borden Tragedy, but a copy of the paperback version of The Case of Madeleine Smith showed up in my reserves yesterday. New installments of A Treasury of Victorian Murder are always gratefully accepted.

Speaking of the accused Glaswegian, she’s made her way onto the list of nominees for the American Library Association’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens. (Yes, I’m still obsessively tracking those. Thanks for asking.) Nominations are now closed with a projected drop date for the final list in mid-winter of 2007.

It’s a little hard to tell what joined the list when, but accounting for my shaky memory, recent additions include:

  • Action Philosophers: Giant-Sized Thing #1 (Evil Twin)
  • American Born Chinese (First Second)
  • Brownsville (NBBComics Lit)
  • Chocalat (Ice Kunion)
  • Crossroad (Go! Comi)
  • Fables: 1,001 Nights of Snowfall (Vertigo)
  • Infinite Crisis (DC)
  • Inverloch (Seven Seas)
  • The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Dark Horse)
  • Livewires: Clockwork Thugs, Yo! (Marvel)
  • Pride of Baghdad (Vertigo)
  • Same Cell Organism (DMP)
  • To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel (Simon and Schuster)
  • Young Avengers Vol. 2: Family Matters (Marvel)

I hope the nomination list is still available after the final roster is chosen, because there are some great books on it. But barring some bizarre failure of decision-making, it’s hard to see how the final list could be anything but excellent.

(Edited to note: If I missed anything new to the nominations, let me know, and I’ll add it to the list.)

Filed under: ComicList, Comics in libraries, DC, DMP, Evil Twin, First Second, Go! Comi, IceKunion, Marvel, NBM, Seven Seas, Vertigo 3 Comments

Short list

November 29, 2006 by

Once again, ComicList courteously offers regular and manga versions of the week’s offerings, which feature a focus on new printings of good books.

Evil Twin provides a second printing of Action Philosophers: Giant-Sized Thing #1. NBM rolls out a revised version of the soft-cover of A Treasury of Victorian Murder: The Borden Tragedy, promising “a whole new section of newspaper clippings of the day!” And while I’m not familiar with the book, having been deep in spandex country during its initial printing, people are sufficiently excited about the new collection of Ragmop from Big Bang to make it their pick of the week.

But there’s plenty of brand-new material too.

A new issue of Linda Medley’s Castle Waiting (#3, in this case, from Fantagraphics) is always welcome.

I’ll throw in my lot with MangaCast’s Jarred on the manga front, singling out volume three of Fuyumi Soryo’s ES: Eternal Sabbath (Del Rey) as the pick of the week. It’s intriguing, character-driven science fiction.

Antique Bakery (DMP) has left me incapable of ignoring anything by Fumi Yoshinaga, even if I wasn’t crazy about some of the story elements of the first volume of Gerard & Jacques. But it’s Yoshinaga, so volume two is on the shopping list.

Filed under: ComicList, Del Rey, Evil Twin, Fantagraphics, NBM Leave a Comment

I want a bean feast

September 30, 2006 by

The latest Previews catalog has me in a Veruca Salt kind of head space.

David Petersen’s splendid Mouse Guard (Archaia) concludes with issue #6, but the solicitation text describes it as “the first Mouse Guard series,” all but promising there will be more.

I hadn’t noticed that Housui Yamazaki, who provides illustrations for the excellent Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, has his own book, Mail, also coming out from Dark Horse. This demands further investigation, particularly since the protagonist from Mail will apparently cross over into KCDS. (I don’t like typing “cross over” when discussing manga, but I’ll reserve judgment.)

As I like Hiroki Endo’s Eden: It’s an Endless World!, and I’m also a fan of collections of shorts, chances seem good I’ll also like Endo’s Tanpeshu, also from Dark Horse.

DC – Wildstorm gives me the opportunity to enjoy a comic written by Gail Simone without having to try and wade through seventy-three different crossovers with the debut of Tranquility.

DC – Vertigo revives a book I enjoyed a lot, Sandman Mystery Theatre, with a five-issue mini-series, Sleep of Reason. Based on the pages shown in Previews, I’m not entirely sold on the art by Eric Nguyen, but I love the protagonists in this series.

Do you like Masaki Segawa’s Basilisk? Del Rey gives you the opportunity to read the novel that inspired it, The Kouga Ninja Scrolls.

Evil Twin Comics unleases another Giant-Sized Thing on the comics-reading public with the second collection of Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey’s excellent Action Philosophers!

Dave Carter notes that the singles of the second volume of Linda Medley’s marvelous Castle Waiting (Fantagraphics) series aren’t doing that well, despite strong sales of the beautiful collection of the first. Fantagraphics gives you the opportunity to correct this sorry state of affairs with the December release of the fourth issue.

Go! Comi rolls out its seventh title, Train + Train by Hideyuki Kurata and Tomomasa Takuma. (In the future, all manga publishers will have a book with “train” in the title.)

I’ve heard a lot of good things about SoHee Park’s Goong (Ice Kunion), a look at what Korea would be like if the monarchy was still in place.

Last Gasp, publisher of Barefoot Gen, offers another look at life in Hiroshima after the bomb with Fumiyo Kouno’s Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms.

If Marvel’s current efforts at politically observant super-heroics make you roll your eyes, you might find respite in Essential Defenders Vol. 2, which includes mosst of Steve Gerber’s mind-bending Headmen arc. It strikes me as idiotic not to include the entire arc in one place, which this book just misses. It has Defenders 15-39 and Giant-Size Defenders 1-5, but not #40 and Annual #1, the conclusion of Steve Gerber’s deranged masterpiece of deformed craniums, clown cults, and women in prison.

NBM offers two books that go onto my must-buy list. The first is the paperback edition of the eighth installment of Rick Geary’s superb Treasury of Victorian Murder series, Madeleine Smith. The second is Nicolas De Crécy’s Glacial Period. De Crécy contributed a marvelous short to Fanfare/Ponent Mon’s Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators, and I’ve been hoping to see more of his work in English.

Oni Press rolls out Maintenance, a new ongoing series from Jim Massey and Robbi Rodriguez. I reviewed a preview copy earlier this week; the book looks like it will be a lot of fun.

Seven Seas unveils another licensed title, Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl, a gender-bending comedy by Satoru Akahori and Yukimaru Katsura. If you’ve been waiting for some shôjo-ai to come your way, now’s your chance.

Tokyopop – Blu promises that Tarako Kotobuki’s Love Pistols is “too crazy to be believed.” Human evolution isn’t just for monkeys any more, people.

Filed under: Blu, Dark Horse, Del Rey, Evil Twin, Fantagraphics, Go! Comi, IceKunion, Last Gasp, Marvel, NBM, Oni, Previews, Seven Seas, Wildstorm 6 Comments

Not-so-quick comic comments

November 29, 2005 by

Rick Geary’s latest entry in the Treasury of Victorian Murder series (NBM Comics Lit), The Murder of Abraham Lincoln, might be the best I’ve read so far. In spite of the familiarity of this particular chapter of history, it’s still very engrossing reading. By translating these events into a graphic novel using his specific gifts as a storyteller, Geary demonstrates that any material can seem fresh in a new medium.

“Part III: Good Friday” is a particularly strong illustration of this. Geary ticks off the events of the day, alternating between domesticity with the Lincolns and conspiracy with John Wilkes Booth. Against all likelihood, the sequence ends up being wonderfully suspenseful, quickly cutting between concurrent events. The combination of inventiveness and detail in these books always impresses me, and this is no exception, but The Murder of Abraham Lincoln achieves an even higher level of pathos than usual.

To find out more about the Treasury series, you can visit NBM’s site, check out Johanna Draper Carlson’s overview at Comics Worth Reading, or look at a couple of my old reviews.

***

Part of the fun of the Seven Soldiers books (DC) has been seeing my expectations overturned. It seems like there’s an inverse relationship between my familiarity with DC’s version of a character and reading enjoyment. That isn’t to say that I didn’t like the Zatanna series, but my clear favorite so far has been the relatively obscure Klarion the Witch Boy and now, based on a very entertaining first issue, Frankenstein.

Putting aside whatever it might owe to a certain episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I love the juxtapositions between teen revenge fantasy and noble monster action. I think this is the best art I’ve ever seen from Doug Mahnke, and the coloring by John Kalisz is just superb.

I’m glad I stuck with the floppies on the Seven Soldiers books. I’ve enjoyed them all to varying degrees, even if Zatanna’s occasional lapses into lectures on magical narrative theory made my eyes droop. And the suspicion that the left hand isn’t precisely sure what the right is doing and vice versa gave The Bulleteer an interesting kick.

***

Top Shelf sent me a preview copy of Coffee and Donuts by Max Estes. It’s a mostly sweet, often odd, and rather slight all-ages tale of homeless cats who briefly and disastrously contemplate a life of crime to get them out of the dumpster.

Bespectacled Dwight and silent Jules are friends who have stuck together through thick and thin, and it doesn’t get much thinner than setting up housekeeping in a trash bin. A mysterious benefactor brings them coffee and donuts each morning, which is pretty much the only bright spot in their tentative existence. They see the opportunity to change that in the form of a carelessly guarded armored truck.

Dwight isn’t really criminally inclined, and they botch the hold-up badly. In the process, they run afoul of eye-patched Myles and silent, hulking Moose, actual criminals who had their own plans for the truck. Myles tries to strong-arm Dwight and Jules into helping with another crime, feeling they owe him for lost income. Chases, scraps, and twists ensue, creating an odd fusion I can only call kiddie noir.

Estes’s cartoons are appealingly off-kilter, and there are some funny bits. But after a couple of readings, my reaction is “That’s all?” Estes limits his panel count to one or two per page, with ample white space. While the layout draws focus to the illustrations, it also tends to highlight the slightness of the story. Themes of friendship and loyalty and plot elements like crime and homelessness end up seeming kind of perfunctory.

Despite its length (128 pages) and some strong elements, Coffee and Donuts ends up seeming like a very good mini-comic rather than a $10 graphic novel.

Filed under: From the stack, NBM 2 Comments
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