Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors for May 2 2012

DARK HORSE COMICS

MAR120032 SKELETON KEY COLOR SPECIAL ONE SHOT $3.50

Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for May 2 2012

IMAGE COMICS

DEC110545 AVENGELYNE #8 CVR A LIEFELD $2.99
FEB120497 BLUE ESTATE #11 (MR) $2.99
FEB120498 BULLETPROOF COFFIN DISINTERRED #4 (OF 6) (MR) $3.99
FEB128147 DANGER CLUB #1 VAR CVR 2ND PTG $2.99
MAR120425 DOGS OF MARS TP (MR) $15.99
MAR120415 EPIC KILL #1 $2.99
FEB120504 HACK SLASH #15 CVR A SEELEY & ROSENBERG (MR) $3.50
FEB120505 HACK SLASH #15 CVR B EID (MR) $3.50
FEB128148 HELL YEAH #2 VAR CVR 2ND PTG $2.99
JAN120525 MARKSMEN TP VOL 01 $15.99
MAR120401 MIND THE GAP #1 CVR A $2.99
MAR120402 MIND THE GAP #1 CVR B $2.99
FEB128254 MIND THE GAP #1 SHARED EXC CVR $2.99
JAN120600 PIGS #7 (MR) $2.99
MAR120504 SPAWN #219 $2.99
FEB128150 SUPREME #63 VAR CVR 2ND PTG $2.99
MAR120505 SUPREME #64 $2.99
FEB120526 VESCELL #7 (MR) $2.99
FEB120530 WITCHBLADE #150 TOP COW STORE EX VAR CVR $20.00

Comics and Magazines from Diamond Distributors for May 2 2012

COMICS

FEB120752 B & V FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #224 $3.99

FEB120816 BART SIMPSONS PAL MILHOUSE #1 $2.99

JAN121179 BELA LUGOSI TALES FROM GRAVE #2 (RES) $4.99

NOV111101 BLANKETS GN (NEW PTG) (STAR19060) $29.95

MAR120936 BOYS #66 (MR) $3.99

MAR121158 CONNIE TP UNSEEN AVENGER (RES) $14.95

FEB121021 DF AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #1 HAESER REMARK ED $49.99

DEC111062 DF WARLORD OF MARS DEJAH THORIS #11 EXC RISQUE RED CVR $14.99

JAN121093 FALLEN WORDS GN (MR) $19.95

MAR120843 FANBOYS VS ZOMBIES #2 MAIN CVRS $3.99

MAR120887 GARFIELD #1 $3.99

FEB121214 GFT MYTHS & LEGENDS #16 A CVR SEJIC (MR) $2.99

FEB121215 GFT MYTHS & LEGENDS #16 B CVR ATKINS (MR) $2.99

MAR121314 GIRLS ON TOP PIN UP ART OF MATT DIXON TP (O/A) (MR) $14.95

JAN121332 GRIMM FAIRY TALES TP VOL 11 (MR) $15.99

JAN120821 GWAII SC (O/A) $14.95

JAN120814 HOWARD LOVECRAFT & UNDERSEA KINGDOM GN $12.95

AUG111212 ICE #4 (OF 4) $3.99

JAN120944 INCORRUPTIBLE TP VOL 06 $16.99

MAR121268 INFLUENCING MACHINE SC $16.95

JAN121254 KIKI DE MONTPARNASSE GN (MR) $24.95

JAN121063 KIRBY GENESIS SILVER STAR #5 $3.99

AUG110785 KUNG FU PANDA DIGEST GN VOL 02 ELEMENTAL $6.95

FEB120758 LIFE WITH ARCHIE #19 $3.99

MAR121115 LOU GN VOL 02 SUMMERTIME BLUES $8.95

JAN121173 LOVE HINA OMNIBUS TP KODANSHA ED VOL 03 $19.99

MAR121160 MAN OF GOD #1 (OF 6) $3.50

JAN120815 MARLOW GN (MR) $14.95

FEB121153 MUCH THE MILLERS SON HC VOL 03 $20.00

FEB121078 NEGIMA GN VOL 34 (MR) $10.99

JAN120816 NETHER WORLD GN $19.95

JAN120817 NETWORK GN $14.95

MAR121138 NINJAGO GN VOL 01 CHALLENGE OF SAMUKAI (O/A) $6.99

OCT111127 ONE TP (GG STUDIO) VOL 01 $18.99

FEB120839 PLANET OF THE APES TP VOL 02 $14.99

FEB120738 RED LIGHT GN (MR) $14.95

NOV110945 RED SONJA #66 $3.99

FEB120981 RED SONJA WITCHBLADE #3 $3.99

FEB120806 REX ZOMBIE KILLER ONE SHOT $3.50

FEB120845 RICH JOHNSTONS THE AVENGEFULS #1 $3.99

JUL110801 RICHIE RICH TP VOL 01 WELCOME TO RICH RESCUE $14.99

FEB120711 ROBERT WELLS TRILOGY GN VOL 01 SACRIFICE $24.95

FEB120875 ROGER LANGRIDGES SNARKED TP VOL 01 $14.99

FEB120820 SIMPSONS ILLUSTRATED #2 $3.99

FEB120761 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #236 $2.99

FEB120853 STAN LEE STARBORN TP VOL 03 $14.99

FEB121322 STAR WARS SCOURGE MMPB $7.99

MAR121117 SUMMER CAMP SCIENCE MYSTERIES VOL 02 NIGHTMARE CABIN THIEF $6.95

MAR121118 SUMMER CAMP SCIENCE MYSTERIES VOL 03 HUNT FOR HIDDEN TREASURE $6.95

MAR120878 SUPURBIA #3 (OF 4) $3.99

MAR121185 TANGLES STORY ABOUT ALZHEIMERS MY MOTHER & ME GN $14.95

JAN120963 TANPOPO COLLECTION HC VOL 01 $24.99

FEB120895 TEEN BOAT HC GN $14.99

MAR120987 THE LONE RANGER #5 $3.99

MAR120920 THE SPIDER #1 $3.99

JAN121207 THREE STOOGES GN VOL 01 BED BUGGED $6.99

JAN121208 THREE STOOGES HC VOL 01 BED BUGGED $10.99

FEB121081 TOKYO MEW MEW OMNIBUS TP VOL 03 $19.99

MAR120976 VOLTRON YEAR ONE #2 $3.99

MAR121222 X-O MANOWAR (ONGOING) #1 PULLBOX NORD CVR $3.99

MAR121221 X-O MANOWAR (ONGOING) #1 REG RIBIC CVR $3.99

FEB121073 YOUNG LOVECRAFT GN VOL 01 NEW PTG $19.95

FEB121074 YOUNG LOVECRAFT GN VOL 02 $19.95

MAGAZINES
FEB121251 COMICS REVUE PRESENTS APR 2012 $19.95
MAR121399 DOC SAVAGE DOUBLE NOVEL VOL 58 $14.95
FEB121259 DR WHO MAGAZINE #446 $8.99
JAN121148 HEAVY METAL MAY 2012 (MR) (NOTE PRICE) $7.95
MAR121374 LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS #28 (NOTE PRICE) $9.95
DEC111332 MONSTERS FROM THE VAULT #30 $9.98
MAR121401 SHADOW DOUBLE NOVEL VOL 60 $14.95
MAR121410 STAR WARS INSIDER #133 SPECIAL NEWSSTAND ED $6.99
MAR121411 STAR WARS INSIDER #133 SPECIAL PX ED $6.99

May I Reads You Inform You?

It's the first day of May 2012.  Welcome to I Reads You, my blog about the things I read: mostly comic books, comics, and related books. Sometimes, I’ll write about or link to other topics: typically books, politics, and entertainment.

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

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

Naruto: The 411 on Volumes 1 to 43

I read Naruto: The Official Character Data Book

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

Leroy Douresseaux Reviews: RED SPIKE VOLUME 1

RED SPIKE VOLUME 1
IMAGE COMICS/BENAROYA PUBLISHING

CREATORS: Michael Benaroya and Jeff Cahn
STORY: Jeff Cahn with Dave Elliot
SCRIPT: Jeff Cahn
ARTISTS: Salvador Navarro and Mark Texeira
COLORS: Ifansyah Noor of Imaginary Friends Studios
LETTERS: John Aitken
COVER: Mark Texeira
ISBN: 978-1-60706-487-9, paperback
144pp, Color, $14.99 U.S.

From Benaroya Publishing, Red Spike is a comic book miniseries created by Michael Benaroya and Jeff Cahn. Written by Cahn and drawn by Salvador Navarro and Mark Texeira, the series is set in a secretive black operations program called Project Red Spike. The entire five issues of the miniseries were recently collected in the trade paperback, Red Spike Volume 1.

Project Red Spike, like many over a 70-year period, was started as a program to create the first super-soldier. Using a process that manipulates and regulates the adrenal gland in human males, Project Red Spike actually succeeded in creating a super-soldier, and they did it twice. Now, Colonel Moyer, the hard-nosed prick who controls Red Spike, is testing the limits of his two new super-human toys, Gregory “Greg” Dane and Matt Cutler. But there are complications, of course.

Greg is having an affair that turns into a full romance with Dr. Margaret Downey, the woman who is supposed to be monitoring his (and Matt’s) mental health. Dane isn’t exactly the obedient solider, and as his behavior grows more insubordinate, he clashes with the straight-arrow Matt Cutler, who obediently follows orders and instructions. Colonel Moyer, who now sees Dane and Cutler as his property, seeks to further experiment with the limits of how much Red Spike can alter these two young men. Meanwhile, Henry Coughlin, formerly directly involved with Project Red Spike, plots to wrest control of the program from Moyer.

My first encounter with Red Spike was the third issue. I noted that it had the “rock solid plotting found in tightly-written, big-budget action movies.” I also mentioned that it had “elements of Captain America and the Jason Bourne films,” and that “it most reminds me of Universal Soldier, the 1992 Van Damme film.” I wrote, “Like the Van Damme films from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, Red Spike is violent and testosterone-filled, but with a humanist lead character who fights because he must.”

Now, that I’ve read the entire miniseries in Red Spike Volume 1, I have to reassess. As a whole, personally, I find the series lacking in action scenes, considering that this book is about a super-soldier program. Artist Salvador Navarro and Mark Texeira offer a few nicely composed fight scenes that left me really wanting more.

This is not to say that Red Spike is overall lacking in pleasures. Despite what the covers for the miniseries suggest, Red Spike is a science fiction/military drama mixed with the elements of a workplace drama and a political soap opera, and it is fun. I enjoyed the backbiting and squabbling. Writer Jeff Cahn sometimes cut back and forth between two scenes, each scene featuring a character doing something to defeat the other character. This reminds me of the best inter-office politics moments of the 1995 film version of Clear and Present Danger.

In my earlier review, I describe the art by Navarro and Texeira as “uninspired” and wrote that it “put a damper on my enjoyment” of the series. Now, that art seems perfect for what Red Spike really is, which is a thriller more than it is an action comic book.

http://www.benaroyapublishing.com/

Leroy Douresseaux Reviews: KING CONAN: The Phoenix on the Sword #1

"Old Man Conan"
KING CONAN: THE PHOENIX ON THE SWORD #1 (OF 4)
DARK HORSE COMICS

WRITER: Timothy Truman
ART: Tomás Giorello
COLORS: José Villarrubia
LETTERS: Richard Stakings & Comicraft
VARIANT COVER: Gerald Parel (Andrew Robinson-regular cover)
28pp, Colors, $3.50 U.S.

During his three-decade career in comic books, did the industry or the public ever consider Tim Truman A-list talent? By the breath and scope of his talent and his work, he certainly was/is, if it is even appropriate to categorize him with what are the usual and the standard in comic books. The terms “eclectic” and “diverse” seem a tad bit understated when describing Truman’s body of work.

Even as Lonesome Dove, Dances with Wolves, and Unforgiven made the Western cool again, Truman was looking at the past, present, and future of the Western and frontier storytelling (Jonah Hex, The Kents, Scout, Wilderness, etc.). Before Christopher Nolan and Guillermo del Toro, among others, were surprising people with their re-imaginations and interpretations of superheroes and classic fantasy characters, Tim Truman was bold and visionary on Hawkworld, JLA: Gatekeeper, and The Spider, among many.

In his comics, Truman, as a writer, artist, and writer/artist, offers muscular storytelling presented with surprising grace in beautiful graphics. So Truman is one of those rare creators who are actually ideal to create Conan the Barbarian comic books. Many are good, but few can capture both the splendor of Howard’s prose and the darkness and brutality of which this prose tells.

When it appeared in the cover-dated December 1932 issue of the famed pulp fiction magazine, Weird Tales, “The Phoenix on the Sword” became the first published story featuring the character, Conan the Barbarian. Tim Truman as writer and Tomás Giorello as artist have adapted that story in King Conan: The Phoenix on the Sword, a four-issue comic book miniseries from Dark Horse Comics. The fourth and final issue recently arrived in comic book shops shortly.

King Conan: The Phoenix on the Sword #1 introduces us to a gray-haired Conan, King of Aquilonia, and to Pramis, a scribe who is chronicling the story of King Conan’s rule. Conan tells Pramis of a time early in his reign – a time of unrest – and the story travels back to that time.

Although Conan freed Aquilonia from a despotic king, he is now despised by Aquilonians, from the common man to the elite. Rinaldo, the poet and bard, who once sang his praises, now stirs unrest against Conan and is part of a plot to unseat Conan and replace him on the throne with a pure blood Aquilonian, Baron Dion. The mysterious Ascalante is the ringleader, but even more mysterious is Ascalante’s companion, a long-time enemy of Conan, the wizard Thoth-Amon.

I find King Conan: The Phoenix on the Sword to be an unusual Conan story. It is not as if I haven’t read a Conan story like this – one that is a conspiratorial drama, but this is not the Conan comic book norm. There is more dark drama here than there is edgy drama; in fact, the only fight scene is Conan’s palace workout at the beginning of the story.

That is not at all a bad thing. Tim Truman fashions a story filled with political machinations and intrigue, but at its heart, it examines what happens when you get what you thought you wanted and then find it to be a prison. As a monarch, Conan is trapped, and the interesting twist that Truman gives this story is that his enemies may be about to get what they wanted, but in the worst way.

Truman has a wonderful collaborator in Tomás Giorello, who takes Truman’s script and transforms it into comic book art that is a tapestry of exotic backdrops, a striking cityscape, strange costumes, and shadowy backrooms (includes a fine double page spread). This art is not only perfect for Conan, but for just about any Robert E. Howard story. Giorello could probably deliver a stunning comic book vision of Tolkien.

This comic book also includes a 4-page preview of Conan the Barbarian #1 by Brian Wood, Becky Cloonan, Dave Stewart, and Richard Starkings & Comicraft, with cover art by Massimo Carnevale.

http://www.ttruman.com/