Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for September 24, 2014

IMAGE COMICS
JUL140458     A VOICE IN THE DARK GET YOUR GUN #1 CVR A TAYLOR & TA     $3.99
JUL140459     A VOICE IN THE DARK GET YOUR GUN #1 CVR B TEMPLESMITH     $3.99
JUN140542     CHEW #43 (MR)     $2.99
JUL140464     CHRONICLES OF HATE HC (MR)     $29.99
JUL140538     COWL #5 (MR)     $3.50
JUL140543     DRUMHELLAR #9 (MR)     $3.50
JUL148170     FADE OUT #1 2ND PTG (MR)     $3.50
JUL140483     FATALE TP VOL 05 CURSE THE DEMON (MR)     $14.99
JUL148415     LOW #2 2ND PTG (MR)     $3.50
JUL140555     LOW #3 (MR)     $3.50
JUL140566     OUTCAST BY KIRKMAN & AZACETA #4 (MR)     $2.99
JUL140512     REVIVAL TP VOL 04 ESCAPE TO WISCONSIN     $16.99
JUL140435     ROCHE LIMIT #1     $3.50
JUL140571     SAGA #23 (MR)     $2.99
JUL140572     SEX #16 (MR)     $2.99
JUL140585     UMBRAL #9 (MR)     $3.50
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JUL140588     WAYWARD #2 CVR A CUMMING & CAMPBELL (MR)     $3.50
JUL140589     WAYWARD #2 CVR B ROSSMO (MR)     $3.50

Comics, Magazines and Books from Diamond Distributors for September 24, 2014

PREVIEWS PUBLICATIONS
AUG140001     PREVIEWS #313 OCTOBER 2014     $4.50
AUG140002     MARVEL PREVIEWS OCTOBER 2014     $1.25
AUG140004     PREVIEWS #313 OCT 2014 CUSTOMER ORDER FORM     PI
AUG142789     GAME TRADE MAGAZINE #176     $3.99

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

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JUL141395     ANGIE BONGIOLATTI GN (MR)     $20.00
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JUL141574     SOUL EATER TP VOL 22 (MR)     $13.00
JUL141575     SPICE AND WOLF GN VOL 09 (MR)     $13.00
MAY141248     STAN DRAKE HEART JULIET JONES TP VOL 01 NEW PTG     $24.95
MAY141247     STAN DRAKE HEART JULIET JONES TP VOL 04 SUNDAYS 1954-58     $24.95
JUL141148     STEAMPUNK BSG 1880 #2     $3.99
JUL140976     STEED & MRS PEEL NEEDED #3     $3.99
JUL140958     TAG DLX ED TP     $14.99
JUN141155     TALES OF MR RHEE KARMAGEDDON #1 (MR)     $1.99
JUN141014     TAROT CUP OF TEA BUNDLE (MR)     $24.99
JUL141036     TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #88 (MR)     $2.95
JUL141295     THE INCAL HC NEW PTG (MR)     $44.95
AUG141561     TICK SPECIALS COMPLETE WORKS TP     $35.00
JUL141152     TOM CLANCY SPLINTER CELL ECHOES #4     $3.99
JUL141318     TOWN CALLED DRAGON #1     $3.99
JUL141179     TWITTERING BIRDS NEVER FLY GN VOL 01 (MR)     $12.95
AUG141119     UBER SPECIAL #1 EXPERIMENTAL (MR)     $9.99
JUL141576     UNTIL DEATH DO US PART GN VOL 07     $18.99
JUL141577     VOIDS ENIGMATIC MANSION GN VOL 01     $18.00
JUL141219     WALT DISNEY DONALD DUCK GN VOL 01 GHOST GROTTO     $12.99
JUL140753     WARREN COMMISSION REPORT HC     $29.95
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MAY140992     WOMEN OF GOLD DIGGER SUMMER VACATION SPL ONE SHOT     $3.99
JUN141410     WORLD WAR BLUE GN VOL 07     $12.99
JUL141492     X-O MANOWAR #29 REG CAFU (AH)     $3.99
JUL141312     XXXHOLIC OMNIBUS TP VOL 03     $19.99
JUL141683     ZOMBIES ON FILM DEFINITIVE STORY OF UNDEAD CINEMA HC     $40.00

MAGAZINES
JUN141393     2000 AD PACK AUG 2014     PI
JUN141694     BACK ISSUE #76     $8.95
JUL141723     COMIC SHOP NEWS #1423     PI
JUL141726     DOCTOR WHO SPECIAL #38     $11.99
JUN141394     JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #351     PI
JUL141744     LOCUS #644     $7.50
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BOOKS
JUL141639     ALFRED E NEUMAN MINI BOBBLEHEAD KIT     $9.95
MAY141628     AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES HC 1970S     $41.95
JUN141620     ART OF GREG SPALENKA HC     $34.95
AUG141858     DARK RISING ART OF ALY FELL SC (MR)     $14.95
AUG141864     DIVAS DAMES & DAREDEVILS LOST HEROINES OF GOLDEN AGE TP (O/A     $16.95
JUL141658     DOCTOR WHO K-9 LIGHT & SOUND FIGURINE & BOOK KIT     $12.95
JUL141643     GI JOE COBRA HISS TANK WITH BOOK KIT     $12.95
AUG141860     GRAPHIC NOVEL CLASSROOM SC     $14.95
JUL141694     HOW STAR WARS CONQUERED UNIVERSE HC     $28.99
AUG141646     IN THE SHADOWS HC     $21.99
JUL141673     LEGO NINJAGO VISUAL DICTIONARY HC     $21.99
AUG141859     POSTCARD GIRLS SC (MR)     $14.95
JUL141692     SHADOW DOUBLE NOVEL VOL 87 POOLTEX TANGLE     $14.95
JUL141681     SIMPSONS FAMILY HISTORY HC     $35.00
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FEB142526     WARHAMMER 40K GREATER GOOD MMPB     $9.99
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Arata: The Legend - Betrayal

I read Arata: The Legend, Vol. 19

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter.

I Reads You Review: GRENDEL VS. THE SHADOW #1

GRENDEL VS. THE SHADOW #1 (OF 3)
DARK HORSE COMICS with DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT – @DarkHorseComics and @dynamitecomics

WRITER/ARTIST: Matt Wagner
COLORS: Brennan Wagner
LETTERS: Michael Heisler
COVER:  Matt Wagner with Brennan Wagner
VARIANT COVER: Matt Wagner
48pp, Color, $5.99 U.S. (September 2014)

Acclaimed comic book writer, artist, and creator Matt Wagner has been producing work that is unique and inventive for just over three decades.  His signature creation is Grendel, which Wagner debuted back in 1982 in the black and white comic book, Primer #2, published by COMICO The Comic Company (or simply Comico).  The most popular iteration of the character is the novelist, assassin, and crime lord, Hunter Rose, the original Grendel.

Recently, Wagner has been writing The Shadow: Year One (Dynamite Entertainment), a miniseries that depicts the beginnings of The Shadow and his war on crime in New York City.  Now, Wagner brings Grendel-Hunter Rose and The Shadow together in Grendel vs. The Shadow, a three-issue miniseries from Dark Horse Comics.

Early in Grendel vs. The Shadow #1, Hunter Rose obtains a mystic artifact, an urn of Chinese origins.  Inside, he finds a scroll, upon which is written the “Eternity Codex.”  Reading the codex somehow causes Rose to be transported to 1930s New York City, and he almost immediately decides that this is a new world to conquer.

Meanwhile, in a crime war brews with news of the impending demise of Don Carlo Luppino.  The “Five Families,” which rule NYC crime are trying to decide who will take over Luppino's operations, and crime boss Lorenzo Valenti sees this as an opportunity to become more powerful.  Meanwhile, The Shadow is trying his best to stop a crime war from happening after Luppino dies.  Into this power keg steps Grendel, a grim reaper slashing his way through mob foot soldiers and lieutenants.  He is sending a message, and The Shadows knows he must stop this mysterious new killer before his actions start a gang war more vicious than any imagined.

I have been a fan of The Shadow for longer than I can remember, probably as long as I've been in love with the Hunter Rose Grendel (and I loved me some Hunter Rose).  Matt Wagner does not disappoint.  I really like this comic book.  Strangely, it seems more like a Shadow comic book than a Grendel comic book or even a Shadow-Grendel comic book.  It is as if Grendel is a guest star in The Shadow's world of pulp-noir violence.

I had planned on reading the first issue and likely not reading the other two issues.  Now, the Shadow knows I plan on reading this entire three-issue, prestige-format series.  Besides my love of the title characters,  Grendel vs. The Shadow is simply a fun comic book to read.  As a kid, I probably would have “creamed my pants” to see this on the table of the little comic book store where I once shopped.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Hayate the Combat Butler: Proof

I read Hayate the Combat Butler, Vol. 24

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin, which is seeking donations.  Follow me on Twitter.

Review: THE VISITORS by Sally Beauman

THE VISITORS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS/Harper – @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: Sally Beauman
ISBN: 978-0-06-230268-7; hardcovcer (July 8, 2014)
544pp, B&W, $27.99 U.S.

The Visitors is a 2014 historical novel from New York Times bestselling author, Sally Beauman (Rebecca's Tale).  The novel is a re-creation of Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter's hunt in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, which eventually led them to Tutankhamun's tomb.  The search is seen through the eyes of a preteen English girl who is visiting the Valley of the Kings.

The Visitors opens in January 1922.  Eleven-year-old Lucy Payne has been in a Cairo for a week with her guardian, Miss Myrtle Mackenzie aka “Miss Mack.”  Lucy is recovering from typhoid, which killed her mother, and Miss Mack hopes that seeing the wonders of Ancient Egypt will stimulate Lucy and help her reengage with the world.

Through her friendship with Frances Winlock, the daughter of an American archaeologist, Lucy enters the inner circle of George Edward Stanhope Molyneaux Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, aka Lord Carnarvon, and Howard Carter, the English archaeologist in charge of Carnarvon's excavations in the Valley of the Kings.  She also meets and befriends Rose and her younger brother, Peter, the children of the beautiful divorcée, Poppy d'Erlanger.  Through these friendships, Lucy becomes a first-hand witness to the intrigue, politics, and passions surrounding Carnarvon and Carter's quest.  Lucy also forms the intimate bonds that will help her survive childhood and later, adult heartbreak.

The selling point of The Visitors in its recreation of the hunt and discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb and the aftermath, and much of the novel is about that.  Beauman's account of the hunt for King Tut is, of course, based on history, but some of it is fictional.  Some of the characters are actual people, such as Carter, Carnarvon, Carnarvon's daughter (Lady Evelyn Herbert aka “Eve”), and Frances Winlock and her family.  Other characters are entirely fictional, and these include Lucy, Miss Mack, Rose and Peter, among others.

Still, both the fictional and nonfictional characters are wonderfully drawn.  When book lovers and critics use the term “rich characters,” they are talking about the kind of characters that fill The Visitors.

In a way, The Visitors is also like a girl's adventure novel, with Lucy as the curious and adventurous girl who meets all those wonderful people.  We follow her into Egypt and into the Valley of the Kings, a journey that is atmospheric and offers moments that are intensely spellbinding.

The rest of the novel is set in different time periods.  Some of it is set in 2002 in Lucy's home in Highgate, as the 90-year-old Lucy recalls her Egyptian adventures for an American Egyptologist working on a television documentary about Carnarvon and Carter's search.  The last section (or chapter) of the book, “Part 6: The Book of the Dead,” runs for just over 100 pages.  Here, Lucy of 2002 recalls her life from 1931 to the early 1940s.  In this period of Lucy's life, Beauman creates this book's most poignant storytelling and profound drama.  The rich characters offer the richest character drama in this last part of the book

Sometimes when I read The Visitors, I felt like I was reading three books.  This book is one of those novels in which there are layers of drama and subtext between the lines.  Beauman engages her readers and demands that they see past the surface text.  It is as if she offers us the chance to imagine the story beyond the one we are reading.  The highest recommendation that I can offer for The Visitors is that I did not want it to end.


A

www.harpercollins.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Review: TIME KILLERS - Short Story Collection

TIME KILLERS
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONIST: Kazue Kato
TRANSLATION & ENGLISH ADAPTATION: John Werry
LETTERS: John Hunt, Primary Graphix
ISBN: 978-1-4215-7167-6; paperback (September 2014); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
244pp, B&W, $14.99 U.S., $17.99 CAN, £9.99 U.K.

Born in Tokyo in 1980, Kazue Kato is a female manga creator, writer, and illustrator.  Time Killers is a single-volume, standalone, paperback collection of manga short stories that Kato produced in the first decade of her career.  Time Killers is published under VIZ Media's Shonen Jump Advanced imprint.  Time Killers contains 11 manga short stories, mostly in black and white, but there are 13 pages of color manga and art, as well as a fold-out, full-color gate-fold poster.

The stories are whimsical, fantastic, realistic, and genre-bending.  Some are like fairy tales, while others can best be described as “shonen manga.”  “The Rabbit and Me” (a shonen-type tale) introduces Shuri Todo, a teen hit man and assassin who wears a rabbit-eared cowl/mask.  He meets high school student Taira Futamura, a boy who becomes attached to Shuri.  Before long, that connection strengthens in the worst way.

“Tomato” features anthropomorphic animals.  Usakihii Usa, a rabbit guard, and his human partner, Sasuke Futamura, are hired on by Mrs. Oka-no-an, a stout, older female rabbit, to protect her precious tomato farm.  The arrival of thieves reveals connections between the guards and their employer in surprising ways.  In “Astronerd,” 16-year-old Yoshio Fujiko is an “astronerd,” a nerd who loves astronomy.  Now in high school, he has abandoned that in order to fit in with the other kids, but the new girl in school and also an alien invasion will force Yoshio to face the truth.

The story that closes out Time Killers is “The Miyama-Uguisu Mansion Incident.”  Knight No. 387, a demon hunter of the Knights of the Blue Cross, arrives at Miyama-Uguisu mansion to save Monaka Miyama-Uguisu, a young girl who has “the spittle of a demon on her.”  No. 387 is drawn to Monaka, so he tells her the story of a demon who became a demon hunter so that he could protect a young girl who helped and then, befriended him.

I have read a few manga short story collections from a variety of genres (including adult yaoi manga).  The Time Killers manga short story collection is one of the best that I have read, and it is not just because of the variety of genres this collection offers.

The most attractive thing about these stories is that they have heart.  Kazue Kato makes them mean something beyond mere escapism, fantasy, and fantasy-hues.  “Tomato” starts as if it is just going to be a “yojimbo” tale, but Kato takes the characters on a surprising journey of spiritual growth and healing.  There is enough material to turn it into a graphic novel.

“A Maiden's Prayer” is like a beautiful poem that is also a fairy tale.  “A Warrior Born of the Red Earth” could pass for American-produced Western fiction.  “Master and I” is a convincing and effective cautionary tale.

Some may mistake “The Miyama-Uguisu Mansion Incident” as a precursor to Kato's hit shonen manga, Blue Exorcist, but according to the “Author's Note” section at the end of the book, it was produced from unused material for the hit manga series.  In fact, Kato fills her author's note/afterword section with lots of interesting back story about these short stories.  She makes Time Killers a worthwhile, complete collection that has both excellent manga shorts and rewarding extra material.  By the way, the title is a reference to “killing time,” as these stories could be read as pass-times – enjoyable past-times


A-

www.VIZ.com.

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.