Digital Comics: Digital new releases available from your local comic book shop are marked below. [DIG] = Digital version available. [DIG/P+] = Print-Plus digital/print combo pack available. For more information, go to www.digitalcomicsreader.com.
COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS
SEP130875 JOYNERS IN 3D HC (MR) $29.95
OCT130852 10TH MUSE TP VOL 04 CROSSOVERS [DIG/P+] $14.95
DEC130999 ADVENTURE TIME #25 MAIN CVRS $4.99
DEC138150 AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #3 2ND PTG FRANCAVILLA CVR $2.99
DEC131096 ASH & THE ARMY OF DARKNESS #4 [DIG] $3.99
DEC131110 BAD ASS #2 (MR) [DIG] $3.99
DEC131108 BATTLESTAR GALACTICA STARBUCK #4 [DIG] $3.99
DEC131356 BLOOD LAD OMNIBUS GN VOL 04 $20.00
DEC131322 BLOODSHOT & HARD CORPS #19 ORDERALL SEARS [DIG] $3.99
DEC131321 BLOODSHOT & HARD CORPS #19 REG CRAIN [DIG] $3.99
DEC131357 BTOOOM GN VOL 05 (MR) $11.99
DEC131205 CAGE OF EDEN GN VOL 13 $10.99
OCT130814 CAVEWOMAN KILLING DINOS 101 [DIG] $3.75
NOV130754 CAVEWOMAN KILLING DINOS 101 BUD ROOT SP ED [DIG] PI
OCT130815 CAVEWOMAN KILLING DINOS 101 SP ED [DIG] PI
DEC130956 CONNECTICUT YANKEE KING ARTHURS COURT GN $22.00
DEC130976 CURSE #2 [DIG/P+] $3.99
MAY121119 DF SPIDER-MEN #1 LEE SGN $196.20
JUL131105 DF WARLORD OF MARS #33 RISQUE CVR $19.99
OCT131255 DIESEL SWEETIES GN VOL 02 BACON VEGETABLE [DIG] $19.99
DEC131358 DISAPPEARANCE OF NAGATO YUKI CHAN GN VOL 05 $13.00
OCT131259 DOWN SET FIGHT GN [DIG] $19.99
OCT130941 EXTINCTION PARADE #5 (MR) [DIG] $3.99
OCT130943 EXTINCTION PARADE #5 END OF SPECIES CVR (MR) [DIG] $3.99
OCT130942 EXTINCTION PARADE #5 WRAP CVR (MR) [DIG] $3.99
DEC131377 GFT GRIMM FAIRY TALES #94 A CVR REI (AOFD) [DIG] $2.99
DEC131378 GFT GRIMM FAIRY TALES #94 B CVR CUMMINGS (AOFD) [DIG] $2.99
DEC131379 GFT GRIMM FAIRY TALES #94 C CVR CUCCA (AOFD) [DIG] $2.99
DEC131394 GFT TALES FROM OZ #2 COWARDLY LION A CVR MYCHAELS [DIG] $3.99
DEC131395 GFT TALES FROM OZ #2 COWARDLY LION B CVR SEJIC [DIG] $3.99
DEC131396 GFT TALES FROM OZ #2 COWARDLY LION C CVR TOLIBAO [DIG] $3.99
DEC131384 GFT WONDERLAND ASYLUM #2 A CVR CALDWELL (MR) [DIG] $3.99
DEC131385 GFT WONDERLAND ASYLUM #2 B CVR LILLY (MR) [DIG] $3.99
DEC131386 GFT WONDERLAND ASYLUM #2 C CVR GARZA (MR) [DIG] $3.99
DEC131401 GFT WONDERLAND THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS TP [DIG] $15.99
DEC130899 GOD IS DEAD #7 (MR) [DIG] $3.99
DEC130900 GOD IS DEAD #7 CARNAGE WRAP CVR (MR) [DIG] $3.99
DEC130901 GOD IS DEAD #7 END OF DAYS CVR (MR) [DIG] $3.99
DEC130902 GOD IS DEAD #7 ICONIC CVR (MR) [DIG] $3.99
NOV131315 IM NOT POPULAR GN VOL 02 $11.99
DEC131359 IS THIS A ZOMBIE GN VOL 07 (MR) $13.00
DEC131360 JACK FROST TP VOL 09 $13.00
DEC131361 JUDGE GN VOL 03 $12.99
OCT131075 KINGS WATCH #4 [DIG] $3.99
DEC131022 LADY S GN VOL 04 MOLE IN DC $11.95
DEC130966 LOKI RAGNAROK & ROLL #1 [DIG/P+] $3.99
DEC131023 LONG JOHN SILVER GN VOL 04 GUIANA CAPAC $15.95
DEC131024 LUCKY LUKE TP VOL 44 LUCKY LUKE VS PAT POKER $11.95
NOV131077 MAGIC WIND GN VOL 03 [DIG] $12.99
NOV138232 MIDAS FLESH #1 (2ND PTG) $3.99
DEC130990 MIDAS FLESH #3 MAIN CVRS [DIG/P+] $3.99
DEC130818 NANCY DRAGON IN HELL ONE SHOT (MR) $3.99
DEC131207 NO 6 GN VOL 05 $10.99
NOV131049 ON LOVING WOMEN GN (MR) $16.95
DEC131362 PANDORA HEARTS GN VOL 20 $13.00
OCT131191 PERFECT NONSENSE GEORGE CARLSON HC $49.99
DEC131363 PUELLA MAGI KAZUMI MAGICA GN VOL 04 INNOCENT MALICE $11.99
DEC131337 QUANTUM & WOODY #8 ORDERALL DOYLE [DIG] $3.99
DEC131336 QUANTUM & WOODY #8 REG FOWLER [DIG] $3.99
NOV130952 RED SONJA #7 FRISON CVR [DIG] $3.99
NOV130953 RED SONJA #7 REEDER CVR [DIG] $3.99
DEC131052 RED SONJA TP VOL 01 QUEEN OF PLAGUES $19.99
DEC130973 ROBOCOP MEMENTO MORI ONE SHOT [DIG/P+] $3.99
DEC131025 SCORPION GN VOL 05 IN NAME OF FATHER (MR) $11.95
DEC131078 SHADOW MASTER SERIES TP VOL 01 (MR) $24.99
DEC130961 SIMPSONS COMICS #209 [DIG] $2.99
NOV131229 STRIKE WITCHES MAIDENS I/T SKY GN VOL 01 (MR) $12.99
NOV131230 TORADORA GN VOL 06 $11.99
DEC131324 UNITY #4 ORDERALL ROSSMO [DIG] $3.99
DEC131323 UNITY #4 REG CRAIN [DIG] $3.99
DEC131095 VAMPIRELLA THE ESSENTIAL WARREN YEARS TP (MR) $24.99
OCT130821 VICTORIAN SECRET WINTER WONDER CATALOG ONE SHOT [DIG/P+] $3.99
DEC131115 WARLORD OF MARS DEJAH THORIS #36 (MR) [DIG] $3.99
NOV131231 WORLD WAR BLUE GN VOL 04 $12.99
MAGAZINES
NOV138210 (KINGS CORP LTD) DST 2014 BEST OF CATALOG[DIG] PI
NOV138211 (MAN OF ACTION) DST 2014 BEST OF CATALOG ( [DIG] PI
NOV138212 (MPD ENT) DST 2014 BEST OF CATALOG 25CT BUNDLE PI
NOV138213 (PLAYGROUND CORP) DST 2014 BEST OF CATALOG[DIG] PI
NOV138214 (PUZZLE MANIA) DST 2014 BEST OF CATALOG PI
NOV131213 2000 AD PACK JAN 2014 [DIG] $26.25
NOV131439 ALTER EGO #123 $8.95
SEP131551 AMAZING FIGURE MODELER #56 $8.00
DEC131457 COMIC SHOP NEWS #1392 [DIG] PI
DEC131459 COMICS REVUE PRESENTS FEB 2014 $19.95
JAN141920 DST 2014 BEST OF ALL WORLDS CATALOG PI
OCT131537 HOBBY JAPAN JAN 2014 $16.60
NOV131214 JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #344 [DIG] $12.25
DEC131453 JUXTAPOZ #158 MAR 2014 $5.99
DEC131290 MONSTER HIGH MAGAZINE #6 [DIG] $4.99
NOV131453 SCI FI & FANTASY MODELLER VOL 32 $27.99
NOV131452 SCREAM MAGAZINE #22 (MR) $8.99
OCT131509 STAR TREK STARSHIPS FIG COLL MAG SPECIAL #1 DS9 SPACE STATIO [DIG] $38.00
BOOKS
NOV131140 HONEY WEST & T.H.E. CAT SIGNED HC NOVEL A GIRL AND HER CAT [DIG] $26.95
NOV131363 JUXTAPOZ PSYCHEDELIC HC $29.95
AUG138332 NO ONE NOTICED THE CAT $10.00
NOV132508 WARHAMMER 40K HORUS RISING TP $16.00
NOV132511 WARHAMMER 40K UNREMEMBERED EMPIRE TP $16.00
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
I Reads You Review: Marvel's MIRACLEMAN #1
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel
STORY: The Original Writer (Alan Moore)
ART: Garry Leach
COLOR: Steve Oliff
LETTERS: Chris Eliopoulos
COVER: Joe Quesada with Richard Isanove
64pp, Color, $5.99 U.S. (March 2014)
Miracleman Book One: A Dream of Flying
Prologue by Mick Anglo (plot) and Don Lawrence (art)
Essay “Kimota! The Secret Origin of Mick Anglo’s Marvelman” by Mike Conroy
In March 1982, Warrior, a British monthly, black-and-white anthology comics magazine, was launched by editor and publisher Dez Skinn, who decided to revive Marvelman. Warrior published the new and darker version of Marvelman, written by Alan Moore and initially illustrated by Garry Leach and later by Alan Davis. In August 1985, Eclipse Comics began reprinting the Marvelman stories from Warrior (in color) in a comic book entitled, “Miracleman” (to avoid legal problems with Marvel Comics).
Miracleman issues #1-6 reprinted all the Warrior content, and then, Eclipse began publishing new Miracleman stories written by Alan Moore and drawn initially by artist Chuck Beckum and later by Rick Veitch and then John Totleben. Moore wrote the series until issue #16; Neil Gaiman took over with issue #17. Gaiman continued to write the series, but Miracleman ceased publication with issue #24 when Eclipse closed due to financial difficulties.
Now, Marvel Comics is bringing Eclipse Comics’ Miracleman series back into print, but in a special edition with extras. This reprint also means that Neil Gaiman will get to finally finish his Miracleman story arc, more than two decades after it began.
Miracleman #1 begins with a reprint of an old Mick Anglo story, entitled for this story as “Prologue: 1956 – The Invaders from the Future.” The main body of the story, “…A Dream of Flying.” opens in Great Britain in 1982. It introduces Michael Moran, a 41-year-old freelance journalist, who has been having a bad time lately. The strange dreams that have plagued him for years are worse, and he suffers from migraine headaches. If only he could remember “the damn word” that is at the edge of his dreams/nightmares.
Moran travels to Larksmere for the opening of a nuclear power plant, and that’s where it all changes. Later, Mike Moran will have a great story to tell his wife of 16 years, Liz Sullivan, but will she believe it? Can Mike believe it?
It has been so many years (so so so many) since I first read the Miracleman #1 published by Eclipse Comics that I don’t remember exactly what I thought about it. I know that I really liked it, but my memory is telling me (or lying to me) that I liked this series even more as it progressed. Reading this #1 issue again, now, I enjoyed it, but I’m not overly impressed with Alan Moore’s story, although I do like it. I get the feeling that once upon a time, I was more in awe of Miracleman #1. After all, it was like nothing I had read up to that point. Like I said, I think I liked Miracleman more in the later issues.
What impresses me now is the fantastic art by Garry Leach. A delicate line is meshed into intricate line work. Supple forms and advanced draftsmanship yield impressive compositions. Did Leach know that he was just drawing a comic book? I gotta find more Garry Leach.
Extras in this new Miracleman include an essay and an interview. Mike Conroy’s two-page essay, “Kimota! The Secret Origin of Mick Anglo’s Marvelman,” is a quickie piece on Marvelman’s origins. “Mick on Mick,” Joe Quesada’s interview of Marvelman creator, Mick Anglo, is short, but gives a nice look at Anglo as a bit of a rascal.
There are also reprints of three black and white stories taken from Marvelman #25 (February 3, 1954) and #32 (March 24, 1954). The best of the extras is a six-page section that offers examples of Garry Leach’s original art, sketches, and developmental art for Marvelman, including his logo for Miracleman. Once again, Leach makes Miracleman #1 worth having.
A-
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
A Devil and Her Love Song: Closing Numbers
I read Devil and Her Love Song, Vol. 13 (A Devil and Her Love Song)
I posted a review at the ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics).
I posted a review at the ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics).
Saturday, February 15, 2014
I Reads You Review: BLACK PANTHER (1998) #1
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel
WRITER: Christopher Priest with Joe Quesada
ARTIST: Mark Texeira with Alitha Martinez
COLORS: Brian Haberlin
LETTERS: RS, Comicraft’s Siobhan Hanna
COVER: Mark Texeira
EDITORS: Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti
EiC: Bob Harras
32pp, Color, $2.50 US, $3.50 CAN (November 1998)
The Black Panther, also known as T’Challa, is a Marvel Comics character and was the first black superhero in mainstream American comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the Black Panther first appeared in Fantastic Four #52 (cover dated July 1966).
The Black Panther received his first starring feature in the comic book series, Jungle Action, beginning with #5 (cover dated July 1973). The character would eventually star in an eponymous series, Black Panther, which ran for 15 issues in the late 1970s. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there were two Black Panther miniseries and a feature in the anthology series, Marvel Comics Presents.
Changes at Marvel Comics brought on by the company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy gave Black Panther new life and his longest running series to date. In 1998, Marvel Comics asked Joe Quesada to work for Marvel in an exclusive capacity. Marvel contracted Quesada and his partners at Event Comics, including inker, Jimmy Palmiotti, to produce a line of Marvel comic books dubbed “Marvel Knights.” Quesada edited the Marvel Knights line and worked on a number of low-profile characters, which included Black Panther.
Writer Christopher Priest and penciller Mark Texeira helped launch Marvel Knight’s Black Panther Vol. 2. Priest used characters from the 1990-91 miniseries, Black Panther: Panther’s Rage, and introduced new characters, in particularly Everett K. Ross, an attorney in the Office of the Chief of Protocol at the U.S. State Department.
Black Panther Vol. 2 #1 opens with Ross, dressed only in his underwear and holding a pistol, perched atop a toilet. How did he get there? It’s a long story, and we get to read about it as he explains how he ended up in that predicament to his boss.
Ross is assigned by the State Department to keep an eye on T’Challa a/k/a The Black Panther, the king of the African nation of Wakanda. The Black Panther is also an Avenger, and he is in the United States to investigate The Tomorrow Fund. This is a program funded with money from Wakanda to help inner city American youth, but now the fund is tied to the death of a child.
For Ross, it is a misadventure that begins in the Leslie N. Hill Housing Project where he is to meet a king. It hits a high low point when Ross meets the devil.
Writer Christopher Priest stated that he used the character Everett K. Ross to bridge a gap between the African culture in which much of the Black Panther mythos is based and Marvel Comics’ predominantly white readership. I can’t speak to that. I think comic books have maintained a “predominantly white readership” for a number of reasons. That includes substandard marketing, advertising, and public relations, to say nothing of the publishing and editorial policies regarding who is hired and assigned to create comics.
I think that Black Panther Vol. 2 #1 is a good comic book because Priest simply delivers some exceptional character writing with Everett K. Ross. He uses Ross both as the point of view and as the character through which Black Panther’s background and activities are seen and filtered. It is a fresh and novel way of conveying the weird fiction that is superhero adventure comics.
I am currently rereading Priest’s Black Panther from the beginning. I don’t know how long he maintains Ross as a storytelling vehicle, nor do I remember if this story maintains the level quality with which it begins. But Black Panther Vol. 2 #1 remains one of the more unique re-launches that I have ever read.
A
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Book Review: THE PAGAN LORD
HARPERCOLLINS/Harper – @HarperCollins
AUTHOR: Bernard Cornwell
ISBN: 978-0-06-196970-6; hardcover (January 7, 2013)
320pp, B&W, $27.99 U.S.
The Pagan Lord: A Novel is a 2014 British novel from New York Times bestselling author, Bernard Cornwell, a popular British writer of historical novels. This is the seventh book in Cornwell’s “Saxon Tales” series and continues the story of Saxon warlord, Uhtred of Bebbanburg. The Pagan Lord takes place 10 years after the events of The Death of Kings and is largely set in Anglo-Saxon Mercia and Northumbria. Uhtred fights against yet another new Danish conquest plot to bring down the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex.
The Pagan Lord opens early in the 10th century and finds England in turmoil. Alfred the Great is dead, and his son, Edward, reigns as King of Wessex. Edward seems determined to hold onto Wessex without making waves, but while peace survives, it cannot hold forever. The Danes in the north, led by Viking Cnut Longsword, stand ready to invade and will never rest until all of Saxon Britain is under Danish control.
As the novel begins, Uhtred Ragnarson, a pagan who worships Thor, arrives in a small village to stop his eldest son, Uhtred, son of Uhtred, from becoming a Christian. During the struggle, Uhtred accidentally kills Abbot Wihtred, a bishop. Uhtred was once Alfred’s great warrior, but now he is out of favor with the new king. Combine that with his rash actions regarding his son, and suddenly, Uhtred is marked for death by every devout Christian and finds himself expelled from Mercia.
Uhtred decides this is the best time to recapture his father’s fortress Bebbanburg, which is held by his treacherous uncle Ælfric of Bebbanburg. With a small band of warriors left to him, Uthred heads North to reclaim what is rightfully his. It is during that journey that he gradually realizes another great Danish scheme to crush the Saxon kingdoms of Britain is being planned or maybe even already launched.
Early last year, 1356: A Novel popped my Bernard Cornwell / British historical fiction cherry, so I’m partial to it. I have to be honest and say that I did not enjoy The Pagan Lord as much as I did 1356. Let me be clear, however, The Pagan Lord, is an excellent read. People who enjoy watching films like Braveheart and The Eagle and television series like “Game of Thrones” would do well to fend off illiteracy by reading The Pagan Lord or any Cornwell, for that matter.
How much the reader likes The Pagan Lord will depend on how much he (or even she) likes Lord Uhtred, the pagan lord of the title. I found his blood-thirstiness, viciousness, and brutality off-putting; sometimes, he kills so mechanically that it is boring. On the other side, he is surprisingly thoughtful and imaginative. I found myself lulled by this tendency towards killing, so I was always delighted that, like a master strategist, Uhtred was discovering, unraveling, and sorting through the details of various plots, schemes, and conspiracies. Uhtred is a thinking man’s hack-and-slash dude.
The Pagan Lord focuses so much on Lord Uhtred that other characters mostly remain ciphers, and what is known is only knowable by what Uhtred says about them. Still, The Pagan Lord: A Novel is an enthralling tale about the birth pangs of Great Britain, and although it is fiction, it ain’t no fiction that Bernard Cornwell is the Man.
A-
www.bernardcornwell.net
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Manga Review: DEADMAN WONDERLAND Volume 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia
STORY: Jinsei Kataoka
ARTIST: Kazuma Kondou
TRANSLATION: Joe Yamazaki
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Stan!
LETTERS: Annaliese Christman
ISBN: 978-1-4215-5548-5; paperback (February 2014); Rated “T+” for Older Teen
216pp, B&W, $9.99 US, $12.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K.
Several years ago, TOKYOPOP sent me a copy of Deadman Wonderland Volume 1 for review. Now, VIZ Media has the license to publish Deadman Wonderland in North America, and they sent me a copy of Vol. 1 for review. VIZ Media announced in a press release that they plan to publish Deadman Wonderland as a 13-volume graphic novel series, scheduled to be released bi-monthly.
Deadman Wonderland is a manga from the team of writer Jinsei Kataoka and artist Kazuma Kondou. A science fiction comic, the series takes place in a near-future world version of Japan. The story opens ten years after the Great Tokyo Earthquake put 70% of Japan underwater.
The action occurs in Deadman Wonderland, a privately run, carnival-like penitentiary that has risen from the ruins of Tokyo. It is a bizarre and fatal theme park, where the prison bosses force the inmates to perform in notorious gladiatorial fights to the death. While the inmates are the performers, the tourists who watch them pay the money that helps to finance the Tokyo reconstruction.
Deadman Wonderland, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 4) introduces 14-year-old Ganta Igarashi, a student at Nagano Prefectural Middle School No. 4. On the day of a class trip to Deadman Wonderland, Ganta’s 21 classmates are slaughtered before his very eyes. Ganta is charged with the murders, convicted at trial, and sentenced to death for a crime that he did not commit.
Now, Ganta is Prisoner #5580 at Deadman Wonderland. The other inmates are strange, and the guards are brutal. And the real killer of his classmates, the mysterious “Red Man,” has also found his way to Deadman Wonderland.
Just the fact that Deadman Wonderland was set in a prison was enough to give me the chills back when I first read it. I liked it, then, and I may like it even more, now. The characters were what really interested me the first time I read the series. Now, I find myself intrigued by the setting.
Deadman Wonderland is like a co-lead character with Ganta Igarashi, and it is good that the authors make Ganta both a prisoner and an explorer of his new home. I think this prison drives the characters to act the way they do. If they were someplace else, they might still be bad guys, but they would likely do things differently. Readers who like the venerable future-prison science fiction subgenre will want to try Deadman Wonderland.
A
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
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