Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for September 19 2012

IMAGE COMICS

JUN120537 ARTIFACTS #21 [DIG] $3.99

MAY120605 ELEPHANTMEN #43 (MR) [DIG] $3.99

JUL128128 HARVEST #1 2ND PTG (MR) $3.50

MAR120489 LIL DEPRESSED BOY #13 [DIG] $3.99

JUL120389 PETER PANZERFAUST #6 [DIG] $3.50

JUL120406 REBEL BLOOD TP (MR) [DIG] $14.99

JUL128088 REVIVAL #1 3RD PTG $2.99

JUL128006 REVIVAL #2 2ND PTG $2.99

JUL120515 REVIVAL #3 [DIG] $2.99

JUL120522 WALKING DEAD #102 (MR) [DIG] $2.99

JUL120438 WALKING DEAD HC VOL 08 (MR) $34.99

Comics, Magazines and Books from Diamond Distributors for September 19 2012

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

JUN121254 2000 AD #1797 $5.25

JUL121086 ADVENTURES IN CARTOONING CHRISTMAS SPECIAL $9.99

JUN121260 ATOMIC ROBO FLYING SHE DEVILS O/T PACIFIC #3 $3.50

JUL121206 ATOMIC ROBO REAL SCIENCE ADV #6 $2.75

JUN121182 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 02 $10.99

JUL128159 BLUE GN (MR) $14.95

JUN121375 CALL OF WONDERLAND #4 A CVR MYCHAELS (MR) $3.99

JUN121376 CALL OF WONDERLAND #4 B CVR QUALANO (MR) $3.99

JUL121154 CLASSICS ILLUS DLX SC VOL 09 CHRISTMAS CAROL & MUGBY $11.99

JUL121194 DARK COUNTRY HC $24.99

JAN120864 DEAD MANS RUN #3 CVR A PARKER $3.50

JAN120865 DEAD MANS RUN #3 CVR B FABOK $3.50

MAR121028 DF SPIDER #1 CGC GRADED $89.99

MAY121109 DF VAMPIRELLA #20 RED RISQUE CVR $14.99

JUN121106 DF WALKING DEAD #100 ADLARD SGN ED $20.03

MAY121114 DF WARLORD OF MARS #21 RISQUE RED CVR $14.99

JUL120883 EXTERMINATION #4 MAIN CVRS [DIG] $3.99

FEB128277 GALAXY MAN #2 $3.99

MAY121054 GARTH ENNIS JENNIFER BLOOD #17 (MR) $3.99

JUN121377 GFT BAD GIRLS #2 A CVR QUALANO (MR) $2.99

JUN121378 GFT BAD GIRLS #2 B CVR TYNDALL (MR) $2.99

MAY121279 HAVOC BRIGADE TP $12.99

JUN128171 HIGHER EARTH #1-#3 BOOM BUILDER PACK $2.99

JUN121350 HOUSE OF FIVE LEAVES TP VOL 08 $12.99

JUN121383 IRRESISTIBLE #3 A CVR GILL (MR) $3.99

JUN121384 IRRESISTIBLE #3 B CVR FRANCHESCO (MR) $3.99

JUN121208 JEWISH IN AMERICA GN SET VOL 1-2 $24.99

JUL121143 JINN WARRIORS GN VOL 01 DEVILS WAR $19.99

JUL121119 KODT BUNDLE OF TROUBLE TP VOL 38 $14.99

MAY121086 MERCILESS RISE OF MING #4 $3.99

JUN121333 MR BIG TALE OF POND LIFE GN $12.95

MAY121342 NAOKI URASAWA 20TH CENTURY BOYS GN VOL 22 $12.99

JUN120766 NEXT EXIT VOL 1 TP $12.95

JUL120707 NIGHTMARES & FAIRY TALES TP VOL 01 (MR) $14.95

JUL120709 NIGHTMARES & FAIRY TALES TP VOL 03 1140 RUE ROYALE $14.95

JUL120710 NIGHTMARES & FAIRY TALES TP VOL 04 $14.95

JUL120911 PEANUTS VOL 2 #2 [DIG] $3.99

JUL120997 RED SONJA ATLANTIS RISES #2 $3.99

JUL120711 REX LIBRIS TP VOL 01 $14.95

JUL120712 REX LIBRIS TP VOL 02 BOOK OF MONSTERS $17.95

JUN120928 RICH JOHNSTONS THE AVENGEFULS TP $14.99

JUL120902 ROGER LANGRIDGES SNARKED #12 [DIG] $3.99

JUN121186 SAILOR MOON TP KODANSHA ED VOL 07 $10.99

JUL121231 SECRET OF THE STONE FROG HC $14.95

JUN121017 SHADOW #5 $3.99

JUL120856 SIMPSONS COMICS #194 $2.99

JUL121406 SODDIT OR LETS CASH IN AGAIN HC $12.99

JUL120775 SONIC UNIVERSE #44 [DIG/D+] $2.99

MAR120961 VAMPIRELLA RED ROOM #3 $3.99

JUN121051 VAMPIRELLA VS DRACULA TP $19.99

MAR120948 WARLORD OF MARS DEJAH THORIS #15 (MR) $3.99

MAGAZINES
JUL121361 COMIC SHOP NEWS #1318 PI
JUL121428 DOC SAVAGE DOUBLE NOVEL VOL 61 $14.95
JUN121421 DOCTOR WHO SPECIAL #32 $12.99
JUN121443 FANGORIA #317 $9.99
JUL121427 LOCUS #620 $6.95
APR121414 NEWTYPE JUL 2012 $16.00
JUL120600 PRINCESS MAGAZINE 8 $4.99
JUL121429 SHADOW DOUBLE NOVEL VOL 64 $14.95

BOOKS
JUN121237 ASTERIX WHERES ASTERIX SC $9.95
JUN121393 COMICS SKETCHBOOKS PRIVATE WORLDS TODAYS CREATIVE TALENTS SC $44.95
JUL121402 COMP GT FIGURE DRAWING FOR COMICS & GN SC $24.99
JUL121384 JANE WOMAN WHO LOVED TARZAN HC $25.99
JUL121345 ROUGH JUSTICE SC DC COMIC SKETCHES OF ALEX ROSS $24.95
JUL121066 SIREN BEWITCHING ART DAN BRERETON HC SGN ED $34.99
JUL121067 SIREN BEWITCHING ART DAN BRERETON HC SKETCH ED $99.99
JUN121204 WEREWOLVES OF NEW IDRIA SC (RES) $15.95

I Reads You Review: BAD MEDICINE #3

BAD MEDICINE #3
ONI PRESS

WRITERS: Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir
ART: Christopher Mitten
COLORS: Bill Crabtree
LETTERS: Douglas E. Sherwood
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S.

Bad Medicine is a new comic book series from the husband and wife writing team of Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir and artist Christopher Mitten (Wasteland). Weir described Bad Medicine (which is published by Oni Press) as “a sci-fi/horror medical procedural” that focuses on a team put together by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to “investigate strange diseases and outbreaks that science can't explain.”

Bad Medicine #3 (“Killing Moon” Part 1 of 3) opens after the first strange case, and Dr. Randal Horne gets his next one. Apparently, a police officer shot a rampaging werewolf-like creature in Portland, Maine. NYPD Detective Joely Huffman, glad to get away from the drama at work, tags along with Horne’s team. At the Portland Police Department, they find Officer Wilensky, who shot the werewolf, in distress over the shooting and the subsequent investigation. The team also discovers that the other possible eyewitness to the attack is uncooperative. The investigation takes the team to Deer Falls, a nearby small town where the citizens seem to love the place too much to ever leave.

I can happily say that the first story arc (the two-part “Unseen”) of Bad Medicine was not a fluke, and it seems that the series can remain consistent with the beginning of a second intriguing arc. Bad Medicine reads like a blending of elements of The X-Files, “Fringe,” and “CSI,” but the strongest element about the series is the cast.

However, with this third issue, I find myself having a problem with the series. Most of the first chapter of “Killing Moon” is a set up for the rest of the story. The real meat of this werewolf story comes later, so $3.99 (before tax) is simply too much to pay for the 22-pages of the set-up of a story. Of course, I realize that this is an industry-wide problem. Perhaps, the publisher wants Bad Medicine to be a monthly, but maybe publishing the story arcs as a series of one-shots would give better value for the readers’ money.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Oresama Teacher: The Audit

I read Oresama Teacher, Vol. 10

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics).

Happy Birthday, Scott Dunbier

He's the Special Projects Editor at IDW Publishing, in case you didn't know (and a former Wildstorm editor).

Happy Big-5-0!

Bleach: End of the Chrysalis Age

I read Bleach, Vol. 47

I posted a review at ComicBookBin (which is has free comics).

Review: Steven Heller's COMICS SKETCHBOOKS

COMICS SKETCHBOOKS: The Private Worlds of Today’s Most Creative Talents
THAMES & HUDSON, INC. – @thamesandhudson

AUTHOR: Steven Heller
DESIGNER: Ashley Olsson
ISBN: 978-0-500-28994-5; paperback
352pp, Color and Black and White; $44.95 U.S., $47.50 CAN

Steven Heller is co-chair of the MFA/Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program at New York’s School of Visual Arts. He is the author, editor, and co-editor of over one hundred books on design and popular culture. His works include Handwritten: Expressive Lettering in the Digital Age (with Mirko Ilic) and New Modernist Type (with Gail Anderson).

His latest book is Comics Sketchbooks: The Private Worlds of Today’s Most Creative Talents. A massive book (365 pages, 8.65 x 11.5), Comics Sketchbooks contains sketches, doodles, drawings, roughs, thumbnails, and even comics from some of the world’s most cutting edge and innovative artists and also some emerging talents. Over 80 artists open up their private sketchbooks and notebooks, from which Heller culled the hundreds drawings and samples that fill this fat (and phat) book. Even some artists who do not keep sketchbooks provided roughs and studies for this book.

Readers get a chance to see the thinking and planning and the experimentation, practice, and play behind the work and style of such artists as Charles Burns, Lilli Carré, Drew Friedman, David Mazzucchelli, Gary Panter, and Carol Tyler, to name a few. Readers can see into the sketchbooks of such legends as R. Crumb, Bill Griffith, Victor Moscoso, Bill Plympton, and Arnold Roth. Not every artist in this collection is specifically a comics artists, but according to Heller (in his introduction), all of them make comics as either their primary occupation or as part of their larger body of work.

Admirers, fans, and students of alternative comics and cartoonists will like Comics Sketchbooks. Still, some, like myself, may find this book missing things they wanted, which is a bit ungrateful. Why do I want more?

Obviously, Heller could not get every drawing that he wanted included in this book, for various reasons. One of the reasons is that some artists are self-conscious about opening their sketchbooks. Another reason is that some artists only actively sketch to prepare for upcoming projects, and may, in fact, discard such preliminary drawings and preparatory material once projects are completed.

So, the two pages of David Mazzucchelli just don’t seem like enough, although the sample of his typographical skills almost makes up for that. There are four pages of R. Crumb, but since Crumb has been publishing his sketchbooks and sketchbook material for four decades, the illustrations here won’t seem like anything new.

My minor quibbles aside, there is some spectacular material in Comics Sketchbooks from some major talents, known and little known. The six pages of sketches by Carol Tyler are a doorway into the wonderland that is the talent of this unheralded artist. The offerings from political cartoonist, Ann Telnaes, include several superb sketches of President Barack Obama caricatures. There is no way to prepare for the six pages of Joseph Lambert, which are crammed with drawings. I couldn’t help but return to his section several times.

It would be impractical for me to try to describe all the drawings in this book, all of it good, some of it even stunning, and even a few pieces that are (dare I say it) great. I will tempt some of you by saying that there are a few sketches in here that were proposals for covers for the magazine, The New Yorker, including one by the always fabulous Drew Friedman. This is a good book. Comics Sketchbooks: The Private Worlds of Today’s Most Creative Talents should be on comics fans’ wish lists. Steven Heller deserves some awards recognition, and certainly, at least, an Eisner nomination next year.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

www.thamesandhudsonusa.com

The artist and cartoonists included in Comics Sketchbooks: The Private Worlds of Today’s Most Creative Talents:

Sotos Anagnos, Chris Battle, Lou Beach, Kaye Blegvad, Peter Blegvad, Russ Braun, Steve Brodner, Charles Burns, Chris Capuozzo, Lilli Carré, Seymour Chwast, Colonel Moutarde, R. Crumb, John Cuneo, Vanessa Davis, Kim Deitch, Julie Delporte, Eric Drooker, Drew Friedman, Manuel Gomez Burns, Bill Griffith, Robert Grossman, Benoit Guillaume, Cyril Guru, David Heatley, Rian Hughes, Kevin Huizenga, Nathan Jurevicius, Ben Katchor, Denis Kitchen, Jakob Klemencic, Thomas Knowler, Matej Kocjan, Nora Krug, Olivier Kugler, Peter Kuper, Joseph Lambert, Brendan Leach, Etienne Lecroart, Matthias Lehmann, Martin Lemelman, David Libens, Sebastien Lumineau, Patrick McHale, Matt Madden, Javier Mariscal, David Mazzucchelli, Rutu Modan, Saxton Moore, Victor Moscoso, Joanna Neborsky, Josh Neufeld, Mark Newgarden, Vladan Nikolic, Gary Panter, Bill Plympton, Max De Radigues, Laren Redniss, Arnold Roth, Marcel Ruijters, Johnny Ryan, David Sandlin, Seth, Peter De Seve, Robert Sikoryak, Posy Simmonds, Mark Alan Stamaty, Jim Steranko, James Sturm, Joost Swarte, Takeshi Tadatsu, Ann Telnaes, Simon Tofield, Jeremy Traum, Carol Tyler, Andres Vera Martinez, Lauren Weinstein, Tracy White, Signe Wilkinson, Run Wrake, Derek Yaniger, and Danijel Zezelj