Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors for February 20 2013

DARK HORSE COMICS

OCT120033 AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER PROMISE LIBRARY ED HC $39.99

DEC120075 BALTIMORE WIDOW & THE TANK ONE SHOT $3.50

DEC120064 BLACK BEETLE #2 NO WAY OUT $3.99

DEC120074 BPRD 1948 #5 $3.50

DEC120085 CONAN THE BARBARIAN #13 $3.50

DEC120056 DARK HORSE PRESENTS #21 (MR) $7.99

SEP120076 GAME OF THRONES SHIELD PIN GREYJOY $14.99

SEP120083 GAME OF THRONES TYRION STATUE $199.99

OCT120040 GHOST OMNIBUS TP VOL 04 $24.99

OCT120016 GOON TP VOL 12 THEM THAT RAISED US LAMENT $16.99

MAR120056 HELMETGIRLS ART OF CAMILLA DERRICO HC $24.99

DEC120058 MIND MGMT #8 $3.99

OCT120063 NEON GENESIS EVANGELION COMIC TRIBUTE TP $10.99

DEC120065 NUMBER 13 #3 $3.99

OCT120046 RESIDENT ALIEN WELCOME TO EARTH TP VOL 01 $14.99

Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for February 20 2013

IMAGE COMICS

OCT120468 HAPPY #4 (MR) [DIG] $2.99

DEC120573 IT GIRL & THE ATOMICS #7 [DIG] $2.99

DEC120584 REVIVAL #7 [DIG] $2.99

DEC120585 SAGA #10 (MR) [DIG] $2.99

DEC128158 SAGA #8 2ND PTG (MR) $2.99

DEC120586 SPAWN #228 $2.99

DEC120530 SUPER DINOSAUR TP VOL 03 $12.99

NOV128100 TALES FROM BEYOND SCIENCE LTD ED HC $34.99

SEP120446 TALES FROM BEYOND SCIENCE TP (RES) [DIG] $16.99

NOV120583 THIEF OF THIEVES #12 (MR) [DIG] $2.99

DEC128159 TODD THE UGLIEST KID ON EARTH #1 2ND PTG $2.99

IMAGE COMICS/MCFARLANE TOYS

NOV120619 HALO XBOX LIVE AVATAR BMB SER 2 DIS PI

Comics, Magazines and Books from Diamond Distributors for February 20 2013

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

DEC120942 ADVENTURE TIME #13 [DIG] $3.99

DEC121243 BENJAMIN BEAR IN FUZZY THINKING TP $4.99

DEC121244 BENNY AND PENNY TOY BREAKER TP $4.99

DEC120818 BETTY & VERONICA #264 REG CVR [DIG/P+] $2.99

SEP121037 BIONIC WOMAN #8 $3.99

DEC121245 CHICK AND CHICKIE IN PLAY ALL DAY TP $4.99

OCT121109 CREEPY KOFY MOVIE TIME COMIC $3.99

DEC120854 CROSSED ANNUAL 2013 #1 (MR) $5.99

DEC120856 CROSSED ANNUAL 2013 #1 TORTURE CVR (MR) $5.99

DEC120855 CROSSED ANNUAL 2013 #1 WRAP CVR (MR) $5.99

NOV121293 DANCE I/T VAMPIRE BUND OMNIBUS VOL 02 $19.99

DEC121013 DEJAH THORIS & GREEN MEN OF MARS #1 (MR) $3.99

DEC121014 DEJAH THORIS & GREEN MEN OF MARS #1 EXC SUBSCRIPTION $3.99

SEP121072 DF JUDGE DREDD SWIERCZYNSKI SGN ED PI

SEP121065 DF UNCANNY AVENGERS #1 CGC 9.8 $89.99

NOV121164 DF VAMPIRELLA #26 RISQUE RED CVR (MR) $19.99

DEC120925 DIE HARD YEAR ONE TP VOL 01 (NOTE PRICE) $9.99

DEC120931 FANBOYS VS ZOMBIES #11 MAIN CVRS [DIG] $3.99

DEC121263 HARBINGER (ONGOING) #9 REG SUAYAN CVR $3.99

DEC120913 HELLRAISER DARK WATCH #1 (MR) [DIG] $3.99

DEC121246 JEFF SMITH LITTLE MOUSE GETS READY TP $4.99

DEC121143 KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #195 $5.99

DEC120822 LIFE WITH ARCHIE #27 RUIZ CVR [DIG/P+] $3.99

NOV121295 LIZZIE NEWTON VICTORIAN MYSTERIES GN VOL 02 $11.99

OCT121040 LORD OF THE JUNGLE #13 (MR) $3.99

OCT121154 MERMIN HC VOL 01 $19.99

DEC121065 MOOMIN BUILDS A HOUSE GN $9.95

DEC121066 MOOMIN FALLS IN LOVE GN $9.95

DEC121062 PLUME #2 $3.99

OCT120973 SCAM #3 (MR) $3.99

DEC120984 SHADOW YEAR ONE #1 CVR A WAGNER $3.99

DEC120985 SHADOW YEAR ONE #1 CVR B ROSS $3.99

DEC120986 SHADOW YEAR ONE #1 CVR C SAMNEE $3.99

DEC120987 SHADOW YEAR ONE #1 CVR D CHAYKIN $3.99

NOV121106 SHERLOCK HOLMES LIVERPOOL DEMON #2 $3.99

DEC120897 SIMPSONS COMICS #199 $2.99

DEC121187 SIXTH GUN #29 $3.99

DEC121183 SIXTH GUN SONS O/T GUN #1 $3.99

DEC121176 SMURFS GN VOL 14 BABY SMURF $5.99

DEC121177 SMURFS HC VOL 14 BABY SMURF $10.99

DEC120830 SONIC SUPER DIGEST #2 [P+] $3.99

DEC120827 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG ARCHIVES TP VOL 20 $7.99

DEC120828 SONIC UNIVERSE #49 [P+] $2.99

NOV121020 TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #78 DLX ED (MR) $19.99

DEC121279 TEZUKA AYAKO TP (MR) $24.95

DEC121049 THE SPIDER #9 $3.99

DEC121165 WALLFLOWER GN VOL 30 (MR) $10.99

DEC121315 WONDERLAND #8 A CVR REYES (MR) $2.99

DEC121316 WONDERLAND #8 B CVR CAFARO (MR) $2.99

DEC120831 WORLD OF ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #26 [DIG/P+] $3.99

DEC121266 X-O MANOWAR (ONGOING) #10 REG HAIRSINE CVR $3.99

MAGAZINES

NOV121432 ALTER EGO #115 SPECIAL 3D ISSUE $8.95

NOV120740 CARS MAGAZINE #12 $4.99

DEC121352 COMIC SHOP NEWS #1340 PI

DEC121355 COMICS REVUE PRESENTS FEB 2013 $19.95

NOV121429 DC BATMAN AUTOMOBILIA FIG COLL MAG #2 1966 BATMAN TV SERIES $20.00

NOV121472 FANGORIA #321 $9.99

DEC121392 GEEK MAGAZINE #5 $6.99

DEC121394 LOCUS #625 $7.50

NOV122051 WHITE DWARF #397 FEB 2013 $10.00

BOOKS

DEC120967 ETERNAL ZACHARYS STORY GN $19.99

NOV121469 UNDER THE MOONS OF MARS NEW ADV ON BARSOOM SC $9.99

NOV122030 WARHAMMER GOTREK & FELIX FIRST OMNIBUS SC $17.50

NOV122031 WARHAMMER GOTREK & FELIX SECOND OMNIBUS SC $17.50

Kamisama Kiss: Himemiko Wants to Marry Kotaro, but...

I read Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 12

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

Albert Avilla Reviews: Savage Wolverine #1

Savage Wolverine #1
Marvel Comics

Reviewed by Albert Avilla

Writer/Artist: Frank Cho
(Spoilers!)

Savage Wolverine in the Savage Land, how else would you start a series? Let’s get savage in this piece.

It’s all Cho all the time. I am not familiar with him as a writer, but I do know that the man can draw a fine ass woman. His first guest star is Shanna, the jungle girl who runs around in a leopard print bikini. I thank you editors at Marvel for not being P.C. and giving this girl another costume that respects her as a strong intelligent woman. That girl has all the important B’s: boobs, booty, and bikini, and Mr. Cho is doing a great job of displaying them all. There is more good news: there is no Kazar or Zabu in sight to take up valuable panel space. I don’t know who else is in a scene when they try to share panel space with Shanna.

The story has good elements. There is foreshadowing beating us across the head. Mystery is keeping us interested in the outcome. Let’s not forget the reason we pick up this mag, Wolvie action. Good-old, vicious, animal attacks and human body parts flying all over the place is what I’m talking about. Even your-friends-stab-you-in-the-gut Wolverine action is in high gear. All of Wolvie’s mutant abilities are on display.

The plot is basic. Shanna and some S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents crash land on a mysterious island. They are unable to escape the island, because nature itself seems to be fighting them. The local tribe kills everyone except Shanna. Wolvie gets dropped into the situation by some mysterious force. Shanna and Oh, Uh, lost my train of thought the boobs are on my mind like crack on a crack head’s mind. Oh, yeah Shanna and Wolverine team up to try and find a way off the island.

I think that I covered the art enough for everyone to get the idea that Cho is the man. His stuff is just appealing to the eye.

I rate Savage Wolverine #1 Buy Your Own Copy. #2 (of 5) on Al-O-Meter Ranking

Albert Avilla Reviews: New Avengers #1

New Avengers #1
Marvel Comics

Reviewed by Albert Avilla

Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Pencils: Steve Epting
Inks: Rick D’armate & Steve Epting

“Memento Mori” (Spoilers!)

The Illuminati are coming together as a team of Avengers, minus Xavier plus Cap. Does Captain America have to be on every Avenger’s team?

This is a team of big time heavy hitters. Every member is a leader of great significance in the Marvel Universe. Reed Richards and Tony Stark are two of the greatest scientists; Dr. Strange is the greatest mystic. Blackbolt and Namor are kings of two great nations. Captain America is the symbol of his nation. T’Challa is all of these things in one hero, the Black Panther. Just the brainwaves emanating from the group should be able to knock out a few villains.

Oh, let’s not forget the greatest lack of personality, Blackbolt. I tend to forget that he’s in a story with the I-don’t-talk-because-my-voice-is-so-powerful. Learn sign language or something; whistle. With Richards, Stark, Strange, and T’Challa, there will be so much talking and contemplating; Blackbolt should be able to take good, long naps. Let’s hope that the loose cannon, Namor, can get them into some situations that they have to fight their way out of. There are some awesome fighters on the team.

Hickman delivers an emotional story. Three of Wakanda’s brightest stars are viciously killed by visitors from another mission to destroy an earth. If you’re trying to make people hate a villain, then, have them kill good, intelligent children who have a future – not like those little blessings that have been knocking down my garbage cans. The villains destroy the Earth with little effort – setting up the villains as a great challenge for Black Panther. T’Challa with such overwhelming odds facing him calls, in the Illuminati.

Epting’s art is an improvement over his past work. His style is the same, but it seems to be more pleasing to the eye.

I rate New Avengers #1 Buy Your Own Copy. #2 (of 5) on the Al-O-Meter

REVIEW: The New Deadwardians

THE NEW DEADWARDIANS
DC COMICS/VERTIGO – @vertigo_comics

CREATORS: Dan Abnett and I.N.J. Culbard
WRITER: Dan Abnett
ARTIST/COVER: I.N.J. Culbard
COLORS: Patricia Mulvihill
LETTERS: Travis Lanham
MISC. ART: Cliff Chiang
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3763-9; paperback (February 2013)
176pp, Color, $14.99 U.S., $17.99 CAN

Vertigo, the DC Comics imprint, has just published The New Deadwardians. It is a trade paperback collection of the 2012 eight-issue miniseries of the same title created by writer Dan Abnett and artist I.N.J. Culbard. The series is set at the end of the Edwardian era, a period in the United Kingdom, from 1901 to 1910, that marked the reign of King Edward VII. The New Deadwardians is set in a world of vampires and zombies and follows a lonely detective’s quest to solve a murder that should not be.

The New Deadwardians opens on October 10, 1910. In post-Victorian England, most of the people in the upper classes have voluntarily become vampires, by taking “the Cure.” The cure for what, you ask? It’s called “the Restless Curse,” and it has turned legions of the lower classes into ravenous zombies. Zombies want to eat living flesh, which vampires don’t have, so the hordes of the mindless undead ignore the vampire undead – called “the Young.” The lower classes that are neither vampire nor zombie – the normal humans – are called “the Bright.”

The New Deadwardians’ central character is Chief Inspector George Suttle of Scotland Yard. Suttle has got the slowest beat in London; he’s on the “Murder Squad,” investigating murders in a society where practically everyone is already dead. Of course, you know what’s going to happen. A body has been found on the embankment by the Houses of Parliament. It’s an actual murder, and the victim is a vampire – something that can be killed by one of three ways. The corpse of the victim, Lord Hinchcliffe, shows no signs of those killing methods having been used.

Suddenly, Suttle is thrust into a world of privilege, protests, class unrest, and riots. With his acerbic driver, Constable Bowes (a normal human), at his side, Suttle interviews and investigates. His investigation attracts such colorful characters as Sapphire, a prostitute who can raise the dead (wink, wink), a missing artist (Pretendleby), and even a secret society (the Sons of Adam). As he searches to find who killed Hinchcliffe (and why and how), Suttle finds his own life and past being drawn into a snare.

The easy thing to do would be to say that The New Deadwardians is like a blend of two hot cable television series, “The Walking Dead” and “Downton Abbey.” I think of this comic book as being similar to and/or sharing aesthetic qualities with the Guy Ritchie-Robert Downey, Jr. Sherlock Holmes films. The New Deadwardians also reminds me of two indie comic books that I wish more people read: The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde (Dark Horse Comics) and Moriarty (Image Comics).

This narrative’s connection to the Edwardian period isn’t superficial, and the extent to how essential this time period is to the story can be determined by the reader. I think the story is more relatable to the Victorian era, because many of the characters, especially the lead, George Suttle, are frozen in the past in which they became immortal or undead. Perhaps, the Edwardian period is a bridge that marks the desire to stay in the past (the Victorian era), as exemplified by the Young, and the struggle to move forward (as represented by the Bright) to the future, that being the World War I and Interwar periods.

The New Deadwardians is a detective novel, and class and clues are the things through which Inspector Suttle digs to solve the mystery of a murder that should not have happened. Also, I agree with novelists George R.R. Martin and Bernard Cornwell that fantasy and historical fiction are twins, so The New Deadwardians is the comic book as both fantasy detective and historical fiction.

Whatever it is, The New Deadwardians is a surprisingly fantastic read. When I first heard of the series, I scoffed at it. Now, I’m demanding more. Dan Abnett’s script is clever and is filled with both humor and satire. The characters are nice, but are mostly types: the sarcastic cop, the well-meaning whore, the stiff-upper-lipped rich, etc. George Suttle is by far the most developed and richest character here. Still it’s the basic plot that drives this story, ever pushing the reader to end, and the final two issues/chapters are actually quite chilling. I really felt scared as I raced to the shocking conclusion.

I.N.J. Culbard’s succinct and crisp drawing style makes for clean visual prose that concisely conveys the story and script. His elegant graphic storytelling transports the reader into a world that Culbard makes wholly and completely believable. I didn’t believe in this world at first, but I wasn’t far into the story when I started believing that The New Deadwardians took place in our real historical past. That’s some convincing art on Culbard’s part.

Vertigo strikes again. The New Deadwardians is one of the best and most imaginative comic books of 2012. The trade paperback collection brings it back to life for us to enjoy in 2013 and forever, because it deserves eternal life.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux