"The Vault" TPB Due Jan. 18th 2012

THE VAULT TRADE OPENS IN JANUARY

Collecting the sold out 3-issue miniseries

Debuting in the Summer of 2011, THE VAULT miniseries received critical acclaim and quickly sold out of each issue within days of their release. Fans, looking to catch up on THE VAULT, won’t have to wait much longer. Image Comics announces that THE VAULT VOL. 1 TP,written by Sam Sarkar (Caliber: First Canon of Justice), illustrated by Garrie Gastonny (Warren Ellis’ Supergod) and edited by Dave Elliott will be on sale January 18th, 2012.

THE VAULT, recently optioned for a feature film adaptation from Johnny Depp’s Infinitum Nihil and Graham King’s GK Films, is about a small team of treasure hunters, struggling to excavate a dangerous and legendary treasure pit before a massive storm hits Sable Island, the "Graveyard of the North Atlantic." Equipped with all the latest technology, the scientists believe they are prepared against all of nature's fury, but nothing can prepare them for what they are about to unleash.

THE VAULT has garnered rave attention from retailers, reviewers and fans:

“THE VAULT lays the groundwork for an exciting heist gone horribly wrong. You don’t want to miss out on this deep-sea adventure!” - Fangoria

“Sam Sarkar and Garrie Gastonny are giving us something very genuine and very scary with this book, and it’s an event I personally haven’t seen the likes of in a long time.” - Comic Attack

“The comic delivers the goods in terms of horror.” - Famous Monsters of Filmland

“I enjoyed this enough that I know I am all in for a follow-up series. If you like slasher flicks or science fiction horror then this is the series for you.” - Comic List

“The Vault is a must read on my list so make it a part of yours… NOW!” – Decapitated Dan Royer (decapitateddan.com)

“What a gem of a book! I can totally recommend The Vault. Get it now.” - Weekly Comic Book Review

“You can judge a book by its cover, because The Vault is a hell of a read, promising even more hell to come.” – Comic Book Bin (Leroy Douresseaux)

THE VAULT VOL. 1 TP, a 96-page full-color paperback, will be on sale in stores January 18, 2012 for $9.99 and is available to order in the November 2011 edition of Diamond Previews (NOV110420, ISBN: 978-1-60706-485-5). For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/thevaultcomic or www.twitter.com/thevaultcomic.


ABOUT SAM SARKAR
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Sam Sarkar is a 23-year veteran of the entertainment industry. He began his career as an actor and was one of the leads on the long-running, syndicated television series Neon Rider. Following the series, Sam decided to pursue writing and worked for the hit television series Beverly Hills 90210. Stemming from his work on the show, he also co-wrote a television pilot for Spelling Entertainment under the direct guidance of TV legend Aaron Spelling. Deciding then to embark on feature films, Sam took some chances, following a varied path of writing screenplays and working as a sound technician. In 2004, after working on several films with actor Johnny Depp, Sam was asked to help run Depp's production company, Infinitum Nihil, headed by Christi Dembrowski. As Senior VP at the company, he continues to serve the varied needs of Hollywood as an executive, producer and writer.

ABOUT GARRIE GASTONNY
Having worked as a comic book artist and illustration lecturer, Garrie Gastonny now mainly focuses on illustration to avoid getting beaten up. Garrie also serves as Senior Artist at Imaginary Friends Studios. His credits include Warren Ellis' Supergod, Caliber: First Canon of Justice and Lady Death. For more information about the artist, please visit http://thegerjoos.deviantart.com/.

Tony Millionaire Book Signing Jan. 7th in Seattle

Tony Millionaire: Portraits Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery January 7th

Provocative cartoonist Tony Millionaire will appear in Seattle at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, January 7 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM for a book signing and art show. He'll be exhibiting brilliantly austere work from his new book 500 Portraits, recently released by Fantagraphics Books.

500 Portraits collects over two decades of work by the beloved creator of Drinky Crow's Maakies, Sock Monkey and Billy Hazelnuts. Tony Millionaire's gorgeous fountain pen illustrations, which combine naturalistic detail with strong doses of the fanciful and grotesque, include the famous (Bob Dylan), the infamous (Abu Ghraib soldier/model Lynndie England), the fictional (Yoda), the animal kingdom (a cockroach), and everything in between. Literary figures (Hemingway), literary characters (Don Quixote & Sancho Panza), Hollywood legends (Steven Spielberg), comics icons (Hergé, Daniel Clowes, Hernandez Brothers, etc.) and historical figures (Hitler) also figure prominently.

Many of these 500 portraits were created for The Believer, the magazine founded by Dave Eggers that Millionaire helped define visually with images of interview subjects in every issue. The book also includes dozens of illustrations from various other publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Ephemera Press Historical Maps, The Wall Street Journal, and others.

The artist will be present to sign copies of his many Fantagraphics titles as well as the recent Encyclopedia of Hell and other works. The evening will also feature the premiere of the short live-action film "Everybody Loves Drinky Crow" by Fantagraphics Bookstore curator Larry Reid.

Listing information:

Tony Millionaire
PORTRAITS
Artist reception & book signing
Saturday, January 7, 6:00 to 9:00 PM
Exhibition continues through February 8, 2012

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.)
Seattle, WA 98108
206.658.0110
Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM

I Reads a New Year

Welcome to I Reads You.  We just finished the second full calendar year of the blog, and I'm ready for a third fullyear.  In this blog, I write about the things I read (mostly comic books, comics, and related books) and about the things I come across worth reading (mostly about comic books, politics, and entertainment). Sometimes I’ll comment on “real” books and the mass media.

I’m Leroy Douresseaux, and I have another blog: http://www.negromancer.com/. I also write for the Comic Book Bin (which has smart phones apps and comics).

All images and text appearing on this blog are copyright © and/or trademark their respective owners.

Oresama Teacher Has Secret

I read Oresama Teacher, Vol. 6

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

Psyren: Baby Universe

I read Psyren, Vol. 2

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

Leroy Douresseaux Reviews MISTER WONDERFUL: A Love Story

MISTER WONDERFUL: A LOVE STORY
PANTHEON BOOKS

CARTOONIST: Daniel Clowes
ISBN: 978-0-307-37813-2; hardcover
80pp, Color, $19.95 U.S., $22.95 CAN

The New York Times Magazine is a Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times. Beginning in September 2005, the magazine began a literary section called “The Funny Pages.” One part of “The Funny Pages” is “the Strip,” which is essentially a comics section. Here, some of the top names in alternative comics, like Jaime Hernandez, Megan Kelso, Seth, and Chris Ware, among others, would offer multi-part stories serialized over several months (thus far, from four to 7 months).

Mister Wonderful is a comics serial created by Daniel Clowes and published from September 2007 to February 2008. Dan Clowes modified and expanded Mister Wonderful, and earlier this year (April 2011), Pantheon Books published it as a hardcover color graphic novel entitled Mister Wonderful: A Love Story (at a size of 6” x 11.2” which is similar to books that reprint newspaper comic strips).

The title, Mister Wonderful, refers to the story’s central character, Marshall, a divorced, middle-aged man out on a blind date. Marshall is a loner and is also in financial distress, neither of which is helped by his occasional flaring temper. As the story opens, Marshall is waiting for his blind date, a 39-year-old woman named Natalie. As the minutes tick by, Marshall imagines himself as being on the date that will change his life. Will this date be the one that lets him be a dashing, heroic type, a “Mister Wonderful?” He may be more right than he imagines, but is this rather unconventional fellow up to the task?

Mister Wonderful is completely about Marshall. Clowes tells the story (except for a few odd moments) as a first-person narrative, so readers who cannot engage Marshall will likely dislike the story. Natalie is really a supporting player, and she isn’t so much a character as she is a caricature, cipher, or type.

Marshall, in a sense, is also a type – a Dan Clowes type. Marshall is the self-absorbed, loser-in-distress. He doesn’t think that he is better than anyone else; he simply thinks that getting to know other people, for the most part, doesn’t add value to the rest of his life. In one way, Marshall is largely an enigma, but Clowes is delving into Marshall’s soul; he’s focusing on the parts of Marshall’s personality that will come forward to address the nerve-racking experience – a date. And Marshall has been dateless for six years or so. I can’t help but think that if we knew if Marshall had engaged in sexual intercourse in the time since his marriage dissolved that it would tell us a lot more about him.

Truthfully, what I like about this book is what I like about Clowes work. It is his ability to take oddball contrarians and make them so interesting, engaging, and even alluring. After reading Mister Wonderful, I realized that I watched the story of a loser who transforms into a lovable loser as he finally won something, in spite of himself and in spite of what others may think of him. Even when it seems like life is beating him down, Marshall is going to win. It’s a wonderful life, indeed.

A

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DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for December 28 2011

DC COMICS

OCT110226 ALL STAR WESTERN #4 $3.99

OCT110281 AMERICAN VAMPIRE #22 (MR) $2.99

OCT110163 AQUAMAN #4 $2.99

OCT110189 BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #4 $2.99

OCT110224 BLACKHAWKS #4 $2.99

SEP110179 CHASE TP $29.99

APR110267 COVER GIRLS OF THE DCU STARFIRE STATUE $99.99

OCT110237 DC COMICS PRESENTS BATMAN BLAZE OF GLORY #1 $7.99

OCT110240 DC COMICS PRESENTS BATMAN URBAN LEGENDS #1 $7.99

SEP110174 DC COMICS PRESENTS ELSEWORLDS 80 PAGE GIANT #1 $7.99

OCT110235 DC COMICS PRESENTS LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #2 $7.99

OCT110174 DC UNIVERSE ONLINE LEGENDS #20 $2.99

OCT110283 DMZ #72 (MR) $2.99

OCT110166 FLASH #4 $2.99

OCT110170 FURY OF FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MEN #4 $2.99

OCT110277 GEARS OF WAR #21 (MR) $2.99

OCT110206 GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS #4 $2.99

SEP110218 HELLBLAZER TP VOL 02 THE DEVIL YOU KNOW NEW ED (MR) $19.99

SEP110224 HOUSE OF MYSTERY TP VOL 07 CONCEPTION (MR) $14.99

OCT110214 I VAMPIRE #4 $2.99

JAN110451 JLA TROPHY ROOM RED LANTERN BATTERY PROP REPLICA $350.00

OCT110210 JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #4 $2.99

OCT110234 LEGION SECRET ORIGIN #3 (OF 6) $2.99

SEP110184 LOBO UNBOUND TP (MR) $17.99

SEP110191 ROOTS OF THE SWAMP THING TP $29.99

OCT110175 SAVAGE HAWKMAN #4 $2.99

OCT110298 SPACEMAN #3 (OF 9) (MR) $2.99

OCT110181 SUPERMAN #4 $2.99

MAY110250 SUPERMANS GIRL FRIEND LOIS LANE ARCHIVES HC VOL 01 $59.99

OCT110228 TEEN TITANS #4 $2.99

OCT110279 UNCHARTED #2 (OF 6) $2.99

OCT110300 UNWRITTEN #32.5 (MR) $2.99

OCT110221 VOODOO #4 $2.99

APR110281 WOMEN OF THE DCU SER 3 ZATANNA BUST $60.00

OCT100360 WORLD OF WARCRAFT SER 8 BLACK KNIGHT AF PI

OCT100362 WORLD OF WARCRAFT SER 8 FORSAKEN PRIESTESS AF PI

OCT100361 WOW SER 8 GNOME ROGUE VS KOBOLD MINER AF PI