Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors on November 23 2011

DARK HORSE COMICS

AUG110024 ALIENS FAST TRACK TO HEAVEN HC $10.99

JUN110051 BETTIE PAGE CHERRY RED KEYCHAIN $12.00

JUN110060 BETTIE PAGE GOLDEN LEOPARD KEYCHAIN $12.00

SEP110017 BPRD HELL ON EARTH RUSSIA #3 $3.50

AUG110050 BRAIN BOY ARCHIVES HC $49.99

SEP110035 DARK HORSE PRESENTS #6 LOVE VAR CVR $7.99

SEP110034 DARK HORSE PRESENTS #6 MOON CVR $7.99

JUL110088 DISNEYS COMICS & STORIES CHARACTERS #3 GOOFY $49.95

AUG110051 LITTLE LULU TP VOL 29 THE CRANKY GIANT AND OTHER STORIES $14.99

AUG110049 MILK & CHEESE DAIRY PRODUCTS GONE BAD HC $19.99

SEP110026 STAR WARS KNIGHT ERRANT DELUGE #4 (OF 5) $3.50

AUG110023 STAR WARS OMNIBUS TP VOL 02 AT WAR WITH THE EMPIRE $24.99

SEP110040 USAGI YOJIMBO #142 $3.50

Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for November 23 2011

IMAGE COMICS

SEP110447 27 SECOND SET #3 (OF 4) $3.99

SEP110467 INFINITE #4 $2.99

SEP110468 INFINITE #4 DELUXE ED $5.99

JUN110546 INVINCIBLE #85 $2.99

JUL110472 SAVAGE DRAGON KIDS ARE ALRIGHT TP $16.99

SEP110433 SUPER DINOSAUR TP VOL 01 $9.99

SEP110485 TEEN WOLF BITE ME #3 (OF 3) $3.99

SEP110486 VESCELL #4 (MR) $2.99

SEP110491 WALKING DEAD WEEKLY #47 (MR) $2.99

Comics and Magazines from Diamond Distributors for November 23 2011

COMICS

SEP111151 ADV TINTIN HC VOL 01 CIGARS OF THE PHAROAH (O/A) $24.95

SEP111062 ADVENTURES OF HERGE HC $19.95

AUG110793 ALL FALL DOWN GN (RES) $19.95

OCT110947 ART OF LADY DEATH SGN HC VOL 01 WIZARD WORLD CHICAGO $49.99

SEP110844 BART SIMPSON COMICS #65 $2.99

OCT111063 BERLIN #17 (O/A) (MR) $4.95

SEP110740 BILLY TUCCI A CHILD IS BORN ONE SHOT $5.99

JUL110806 BLADE OF KUMORI GN $14.95

AUG110853 CALIGULA #5 (OF 6) (MR) $3.99

AUG110854 CALIGULA #5 (OF 6) WRAP CVR (MR) $3.99

AUG110759 CAVEWOMAN COVER GALLERY #4 (MR) $3.75

SEP110712 CAVEWOMAN COVER GALLERY #4 SP ED (MR) PI

SEP111134 CODENAME SAILOR V TP VOL 02 $10.99

MAY111075 COMIC BOOK COMICS #6 (OF 6) $3.99

OCT110846 CROSSED PSYCHOPATH #4 (OF 7) WIZARD CHICAGO CVR (MR) $5.99

SEP110914 DARKWING DUCK DUCKTALES DANGEROUS CURRENCY TP $14.99

JUL111138 DEAD WALKER GN $8.99

SEP110904 DECISION 2012 RON PAUL #1 $3.99

JUL111072 DF JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 WILLIAMS SGN ED $29.99

JUN111088 DF LIVING CORPSE EXHUMED #1 AUTHENTIX W/ SKETCH $49.99

JUN111090 DF LIVING CORPSE EXHUMED #1 HAESER/HASSON SGN CVR $19.99

JUN111087 DF X-MEN #1 W/ WOLVERINE REMARK ED $49.99

SEP110921 DISNEY TREASURY DONALD DUCK TP VOL 01 $14.99

JUN110789 ELF #5 (OF 6) $3.99

AUG110796 EVERY WAKING MOMENT GN (RES) $19.95

AUG111017 EVERYTHING COMICS FROM 1978-1981 HC $24.95

SEP110789 EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT IRIS VOL 2 #5 CVR A FRANCISCO $3.50

SEP110790 EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT IRIS VOL 2 #5 CVR B PARKER $3.50

FEB110759 FLASH GORDON INVASION O/T RED SWORD #6 $3.99

JUL110858 FLASH GORDON SECRET HISTORY OF MONGO SC $4.99

AUG111257 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST BOX SET $219.99

SEP111182 GETTING CLOSE (O/A) (A) $11.99

AUG111290 GFT PRESENTS NEVERLAND HOOK #2 A CVR GARZA $2.99

AUG111291 GFT PRESENTS NEVERLAND HOOK #2 B CVR MYCHAELS $2.99

SEP111293 GOSSIP GIRL MANGA GN VOL 03 FOR YOUR EYES ONLY $12.99

SEP111172 GREY GN (MR) $14.99

SEP110863 HELLRAISER MASTERPIECES #2 (MR) $3.99

SEP111292 HIGH SCHOOL O/T DEAD COLOR OMNIBUS HC (MR) $49.99

JUN111130 HIS DREAM O/T SKYLAND (MR) $32.95

SEP110866 INCORRUPTIBLE #24 $3.99

SEP111294 INNOCENT GN $11.99

JUN111258 JESUS HATES ZOMBIES JURASSIC KINDA LIFE GN VOL 02 (MR) $5.99

OCT110944 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #7 WIZARD WORLD CHICAGO (MR) $9.99

OCT110943 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #8 AUXILIARY (MR) $3.99

OCT110945 LADY DEATH ORIGINS ANNUAL #1 TEASE (MR) $9.99

MAR111058 LAST PHANTOM #10 $3.99

SEP110763 LIFE WITH ARCHIE #15 $3.99

SEP111295 MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA GN VOL 10 $11.99

SEP111296 MELANCHOLY OF SUZUMIYA HARUHI CHAN GN VOL 04 $11.99

SEP111226 MI BARRIO GN $14.95

SEP111297 NABARI NO OU TP VOL 08 $11.99

SEP110708 NIGHTMARES & FAIRY TALES TP VOL 02 BEAUTIFUL BEASTS (O/A) $14.95

SEP110709 NIGHTMARES & FAIRY TALES TP VOL 03 1140 RUE ROYALE (O/A) $14.95

SEP110710 NIGHTMARES & FAIRY TALES TP VOL 04 (O/A) $14.95

SEP111139 NINJA GIRLS GN VOL 08 (MR) $10.99

JUN111094 OIL AND WATER HC $19.99

SEP111299 OMAMORI HIMARI GN VOL 05 $11.99

JUL111086 POGO COMP SYNDICATED STRIPS HC VOL 01 WILD WONDER $39.99

AUG110748 PRINCELESS #1 $3.99

OCT110752 RACHEL RISING #1 2ND PTG $3.99

AUG110948 RASL #12 (MR) $3.50

JAN111147 RED SONJA #59 $3.99

JUN111236 RICHELLE MEAD DARK SWAN #4 (OF 4) STORM BORN (MR) $3.99

JUL111040 ROBERT JORDAN WHEEL OF TIME EYE O/T WORLD #17 $3.99

AUG110799 ROVERS GN $14.95

JUL110784 ROYAL HISTORIAN OF OZ TP $14.95

SEP111140 SAILOR MOON TP KODANSHA ED VOL 02 $10.99

SEP111193 SIXTH GUN #17 $3.99

SEP111187 SMURFS GN VOL 09 GARGAMEL AND SMURFS $5.99

SEP111188 SMURFS HC VOL 09 GARGAMEL AND SMURFS $10.99

SEP110767 SONIC UNIVERSE #34 $2.99

SEP111298 SUMOMOMO MOMOMO TP VOL 10 $11.99

AUG111201 TANK GIRL CARIOCA #2 (OF 3) (MR) $5.99

AUG111256 TESORO TP $12.99

JUL110811 ULTRADUCK GN $14.95

SEP110942 UNCLE SCROOGE THE HUNT FOR OLD NUMBER ONE SC $9.99

AUG111043 WALT DISNEY DONALD DUCK HC VOL 01 LOST I/T ANDES $24.99

OCT110946 WAR GODDESS #2 AUXILIARY (MR) $3.99

AUG110964 WARLORD OF MARS DEJAH THORIS #8 $3.99

SEP110945 WIZARDS OF MICKEY SC VOL 01 MOUSE MAGIC $9.99

SEP110948 WIZARDS OF MICKEY SC VOL 03 BATTLE FOR THE CROWN TPB $9.99

SEP110771 WORLD OF ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #12 $3.99

MAGAZINES
AUG111360 FREAKY MONSTERS MAGAZINE #6 $9.95
AUG111400 HOBBY JAPAN NOV 2011 #95 PI
JUL111339 LEES TOY REVIEW #219 FALL ISSUE $6.95
SEP110694 TERRY MOORE HOW TO DRAW #2 EXPRESSIONS $4.99
MAY111336 TRIPWIRE MAGAZINE #55 $9.99
AUG112096 WHITE DWARF #382 PI
SEP111242 WORLD WAR 3 ILLUSTRATED #42 (MR) $7.00

Review: GINGERBREAD GIRL (OGN)

GINGERBREAD GIRL
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS

WRITER: Paul Tobin
ARTIST: Colleen Coover
ISBN: 978-1-60309-080-3; paperback
112pp, B&W, $12.95 U.S.

Colleen Coover is a Portland, Oregon-based comic book artist, perhaps best known for her erotic comic book, Small Favors (Fantagraphics Books). She has also drawn many titles for Marvel Comics, including various comic books related to X-Men: First Class, Spider-Man, and Power Pack.

Paul Tobin is the author of the comic book, Banana Sunday (Oni Press). He is also a frequent writer for Marvel Comics’ Marvel Adventures imprint. Tobin is married to Colleen Coover.

Gingerbread Girl is an original graphic novel from writer Paul Tobin and artist Colleen Coover. It is a mystery story (of sorts) about a captivating, 20-something who has a missing twin sister… or not.

Annah Billips is a 27-year-old single girl who likes vintage fashions, piglets, massages, extra spicy food, farting and puddles (among other things). Cute and charismatic, Annah is, however, totally exasperating for the guys and (yes) girls who want to date her. Annah believes that when she was nine-years-old, her scientist father extracted a part of her brain (the Penfield Homunculus) and grew it into a twin sister. Annah called this version of herself the “Gingerbread Girl” or Ginger.

Does Annah really have such a twin sister? Or is she just insane? A host of co-narrators and commentators, including a pigeon, a bulldog, a magician, neighborhood types, a boyfriend, and girlfriend, try their best to unlock the mystery called Annah. And her best friend, Chili Brandals, also wants to date her.

While reading Gingerbread Girl, I started to wonder if Ginger was just an excuse Annah made so that she didn’t have to ever enter a long-term committed relationship. Listening to the afro-ed Chili, you might even get the idea that Annah could be the doppelganger. Sometimes, writer Paul Tobin’s story is a bit too oblique and coy for the story’s own good, but for the most part, Tobin offers an interesting character in Annah. Much of what is interesting about this story comes from the fact that readers have to seriously engage the dilemma that is Annah without the reward of easy conclusions.

Artist Colleen Coover’s storytelling is like a blend of Seth and New Yorker cartoonists with the pastoral melancholy of Charles Schulz. The art is pretty, and Coover’s clean line discloses the story in an open way that makes the frequent interjection of different narrators not be jarring, but illuminating, in a small way. Gingerbread Girl is not a great work, but it is something good for comics. It’s something delightfully different.

B

http://www.paultobin.net/
http://www.colleencoover.net/
http://www.topshelfcomix.com/

The New 52 Review: JUSTICE LEAGUE #2

"Superman-handled"

JUSTICE LEAGUE #2
DC COMICS

WRITER: Geoff Johns
PENCILS: Jim Lee
INKS: Scott Williams
COLORS: Alex Sinclair
LETTERS: Patrick Brosseau
COVER: Jim Lee, Scott Williams, and Alex Sinclair
VARIANT COVER: Ivan Reis, Andy Lanning, and Rod Reis
40pp, Color, $3.99 U.S.

DC Comics re-launched its superhero comic book line with 52 #1 issues – “The New 52,” back in September. The first new #1 was Justice League #1, written by Geoff Johns, penciled by Jim Lee, and inked by Scott Williams. Now that the introductions to the new JL have been made, it is time for the long haul. Is this series good?

Justice League #2 (“Part Two”) brings together the first members of what will become the world’s greatest super team, but this is an inauspicious beginning. Batman and Green Lantern made a mistake in the way they approached Superman in order to question him. Now, Superman is stomping their asses into the ground, and Flash comes to the rescue, but will he fare better? Meanwhile, S.T.A.R. Labs scientist, Silas Stone, and his son, Victor, find their family feud interrupted by an invasion.

I didn’t expect much of Justice League #1, but was pleasantly surprised. Suddenly, I had bigger expectations for #2, which I am happy to say were exceeded. Up to this point, I have been unimpressed with Geoff Johns, but he writes a Justice League that is funny, lively, energetic and fast paced. The characters work purely as superheroes; John’s focus seems to be to make them heroes – men of action rather than men of psychoanalysis. [Oh, I’m so dark and moody because my parents were shot right in front of me, I got a Jheri curl, and went to the Far East to learn magical kung fu.]

As for the art, I think this is the best work that Jim Lee has done, both in terms of being eye-candy and storytelling, since the 1990s. Scott William’s precision inking and Alex Sinclair’s gleaming colors make it even better. For me, at least, The New 52 is about superhero comic books that are fun to read, and Justice League exemplifies that.

A

D.Gray-man: The Awakening of Alma Karma

I read D. Gray-Man, Vol. 21

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has comics).

I Reads You Review: BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #43

BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #43
DC COMICS

WRITER/ARTIST: Sam Keith
COLORIST: Jose Villarrubia and Sam Keith
LETTERS: Sam Cipriano
32pp, Color, $2.99 U.S.

Batman Confidential was a comic book series published by DC Comics from 2006 to 2011. Like Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Batman Confidential featured rotating creative teams, but while I read LotDK for many years, I only read a few issues of Batman Confidential.

A few months ago, I was visiting a favorite comic book haunt and the owner gave me a freebie, Batman Confidential #43. It was the final issue of a five-issue story arc from Sam Keith (Batman Confidential #40-43), and although I hadn’t read the other issues, I was able to follow the story (“Ghosts: The Conclusion”).

The story involves a young woman named Callie who is being stalked by some kind of ghost or monster or monstrous ghost. Batman is trying to protect her, but there is the added complication that Batman has feelings for Callie. Why? It is because her tragedy is like the childhood tragedy that set Bruce Wayne’s life as Batman in motion or is it just love?

Once upon a time, I was a huge Sam Keith fan. I think that I stopped following Keith’s work after his work in Marvel Comics Presents and after the first few issues of The Maxx, which debuted in 1993 from Image Comics. My favorite work of Keith’s remains I Before E, a collection of Keith’s early work, which Fantagraphics Books published in two issues back in the 1980s.

Although known for his quirky storytelling and still quirkier drawing style, Keith is capable of evocative and poignant work. Ghosts is a Batman story, but at its heart, it is about people who are like lost souls, which both Batman and Callie are, trying to find safe harbor. This is one of those last issues that makes me want to go back to the beginning of the story.