Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors for September 13, 2017

DARK HORSE COMICS

MAY170020    ART OF OVER THE GARDEN WALL HC    $39.99
MAY170021    ART OF OVER THE GARDEN WALL LTD ED HC    $49.99
MAY170019    ART OF RICK & MORTY HC    $39.99
JUL170111    BRIGGS LAND LONE WOLVES #4 MAIN    $3.99
JUL170112    BRIGGS LAND LONE WOLVES #4 VAR SAMMELIN CVR    $3.99
MAY170072    BUFFY VAMPIRE SLAYER OMNIBUS SEASON 8 TP VOL 01    $24.99
MAY170041    DARK HORSE DC COMICS MASK TP    $24.99
JUL170191    DRAGON AGE KNIGHT ERRANT #5    $3.99
MAY170039    EMPOWERED DELUXE ED HC VOL 03 (MR)    $59.99
JUL170172    GROO PLAY OF GODS #3    $3.99
MAY170012    HARD BOILED HC 2ND EDITION    $19.99
JUN170035    HARROW COUNTY #25    $3.99
JUL170096    HELLBOY & BPRD 1955 OCCULT INTELLIGENCE #1    $3.99
MAY170045    LIFEFORMED TP CLEO MAKES CONTACT    $12.99
JUL170106    NEIL GAIMAN AMERICAN GODS SHADOWS #7 MACK CVR (MR)    $3.99
JUL170105    NEIL GAIMAN AMERICAN GODS SHADOWS #7 MAIN (MR)    $3.99
APR178675    PSYCHO PASS INSPECTOR SHINYA KOGAMI TP VOL 03    $11.99
JUL170157    SHADOWS ON THE GRAVE #8 (OF 8)    $3.99

Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for September 13, 2017

IMAGE COMICS

JUL170777    BIRTHRIGHT #26 (MR)    $3.99
JUN178585    BIRTHRIGHT #26 CVR B LORENZO DE FELICI VAR (MR)    $3.99
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JUL170841    KILL OR BE KILLED #12 (MR)    $3.99
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JUL170966    YOUNGBLOOD #5 CVR A TOWE    $3.99
JUL170967    YOUNGBLOOD #5 CVR B LIEFELD    $3.99

Comics, Magazines and Books from Diamond Distributors for September 13, 2017

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

JUL171531    ADVENTURE TIME REGULAR SHOW #2    $3.99
JUL171532    ADVENTURE TIME REGULAR SHOW #2 SUBSCRIPTION JASON HO VAR    $3.99
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JUL171927    RED DOG #6 (OF 6)    $3.99
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MAGAZINES
JUL172509    FILMFAX #149    $9.95

BOOKS
JUL172356    ACCEL WORLD NOVEL SC VOL 11 CARBIDE WOLF    $14.00
JUL172443    ART OF COLORING JOURNEY TO STAR WARS LAST JEDI KEEPSAKE SC (    $15.99
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JUL172453    FUTURE NOIR MAKING OF BLADE RUNNER REVISED UPDATED ED    $16.99
JUL172461    HEROES AND VILLAINS PHOTOGRAPHIC WORLD OF COSPLAY HC    $19.95
JUL172430    INK & PAINT HC    $60.00
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Review: QUEEN'S QUALITY Volume 1

QUEEN'S QUALITY, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

MANGAKA: Kyousuke Motomi
TRANSLATION: JN Productions
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane
LETTERS: Mark McMurray
EDITOR: Amy Yu
ISBN: 978-1-4215-9244-2; paperback (September 2017); Rated “T” for “Teen”
200pp, B&W, $9.99 US, $12.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K.

Queen's Quality is a paranormal romantic adventure shojo manga from manga creator Kyousuke Motomi, the creator of such series as Dengeki Daisy and Beast Master.  Queen's Quality is also a sequel to Motomi's QQ Sweeper, a series about Soul Cleaners.

One day, Kyutaro Horikita, the cleaning expert of Kurokado Private High School, finds a maiden sleeping in an old room on campus.  She is transfer student Fumi Nishioka, and like Kyutaro, she has a talent for cleaning.  However, the tall, dark, and handsome Kyutaro is also a “Sweeper,” someone who cleans away negative energy from people's heart, and Fumi becomes his apprentice.  Now, comes the second part of their story.

As Queen's Quality, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 5) begins, Fumi is now part of the Horikita family, living with them in the Horikita mansion.  The family is also part of the Genbu-Kita Clan of “Sweepers,” and she works with them.  Now, a peculiar and odd new man enters her life.  He is Takaya Kitahara, a psychiatrist and an expert in suggestive therapy.

Kitahara is there to guide Fumi who turns out to be a “Queen.”  Queens are women born with an extremely rare power and can control people's minds.  A Queen can force anyone and everyone to do what she wants.  Fumi may become a “Black Queen,” and there are a group of people seeking to turn her into just such a malevolent creature.

QQ Sweeper was offbeat, but did not show the darker side of its narrative until the second half of what was a three-volume series.  Queen's Quality Volume 1 is less offbeat and plays more like a high school shojo romance.  It does not fully show the dark side of its narrative until the fourth and fifth chapters of this five-chapter opening graphic novel.  The dark elements are a thrill to read, and I was disappointed that I had reached the end of the first volume, especially if it was going to give me more darkness.

The parts of the story that deal with romance and with cleaning/sweeping are a mixed bag – sometimes interesting, sometimes not.  Creator Kyousuke Motomi is at her best when she shows her characters facing and fighting darkness, but she seems (at least to me) determined to offer shojo romance.  Well, the fighting-evil parts of the story make it worth putting up with the lovey-dovey parts.

A-
7.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: Dark Nights: METAL #1

DARK NIGHTS: METAL No. 1
DC COMICS – @DCComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Scott Snyder
PENCILS: Greg Capullo
INKS: Jonathan Glapion
COLORS: FCO Plascencia
LETTERS: Steve Wands
COVER: Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion with FCO Plascencia
VARIANT COVERS: Jim Lee and Scott Williams with Alex Sinclair; Andy Kubert with Brad Anderson; John Romita, Jr. and Danny Miki with Dean White
40pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (October 2017)

Rated “T+” for “Teen Plus”

“Metal”

Dark Nights: Metal is the new comic book event miniseries from DC Comics.  The series will run for six issues, and will include at least 19 individual tie-in issues.  Some tie-ins will be original one-shots and others will be issues of currently ongoing comic book series (such as Teen Titans and Suicide Squad, to name two).  Two of the tie-ins have already been published, Dark Days: The Forge and Dark Days: The Casting.  The first “Metal” title was published on June 14, 2017 (The Forge) and the final comic book (Dark Nights: Metal #6) is scheduled to be published February 14, 2017.

Dark Nights: Metal introduces the “Dark Multiverse,” and this miniseries is written by Scott Snyder and drawn (pencil art) by Greg Capullo, the creative team behind The New 52 relaunch of the Batman ongoing title.  The rest of the creative team includes inker Jonathan Glapion; colorist FCO Plascencia; and letterer Steve Wands.

Dark Nights: Metal #1 finds the Justice League – Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Flash, and Cyborg – prisoners of Mongul.  He controls the superheroes via special armor and forces the Justice League to entertain him and a stadium full of Braalians by fighting as gladiators.  Thus far, the League has defeated its opponents, but Mongul is about to introduce newer and more powerful creatures.  The team needs to escape because there is trouble on Earth:  an attack on Gotham City and an ages-old secret on Blackhawk Island – a secret that will shake the foundations of the Multiverse now and forever.

Of course, dear readers, you remember the 2012 film, The Dark Knight Rises, the third film in Christopher Nolan's THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY.  [I think Warner Bros. requires that it be written all in caps.]  Every scene and sequence in that film seemed to build to some crescendo – a crescendo that never happened.  Hans Zimmer's score kept pounding and director Chris Nolan kept building his self-important cinematic “masterpiece” until its contrived ending arrives without ever delivering that crescendo.  That movie was like one long, massive, elaborate chicken-choking session without the explosive payoff.

Luckily, Scott Snyder knows how to build his Bat-crescendo, but he does not build towards one big climax.  Dark Nights: Metal is a mystery, thriller, and horror story that uses scenes and sequences to create anticipation – some are loud and big and others are simply tense.  Snyder offers clues and secrets; and the prize is not necessarily a crescendo.  Maybe, Metal finishes with a series of big reveals, and/or maybe, in the end, it adds something new to the DC Comics Universe.

As for artist Greg Capullo, well, we finally get our Capullo-drawn Justice League comic book.  I like that Metal is more like a Justice League comic book than it is like Crisis on Infinite Earths-style event.  Capullo's storytelling feels immediate, tense, and tight like a particularly good Justice League comic book and, once again, less like one of those loud, bloated, out of control company-wide event comic books (say, Marvel's Secret Empire.)

So let's say that Dark Nights: Metal #1 gets it right by creating anticipation rather than exploding in our hands after only three strokes... I mean, three pages.

A
8 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: NARUTO: Chibi Sasuke's Sharingan Legend Volume 1

NARUTO: CHIBI SASUKE'S SHARINGAN LEGEND, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

CARTOONIST: Kenji Taira
TRANSLATION: Amanda Haley
LETTERS: Thea Willis, Snir Aharon
EDITOR: Alexis Kirsch
ISBN: 978-1-4215-9710-2; paperback (September 2017); Rated “T” for “Teen”
192pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K.

Once there was a young shinobi (ninja) named Uzumaki Naruto, and he had an incorrigible knack for mischief.  He had a teammate, Uchiha Sasuke, a brooding loner who eventually left the Ninja Academy in the shinobi Village of Konohagakure.  Sasuke set off to find and kill his brother, Uchiha Itachi, who had slaughtered the Uchiha clan.  This is the story of Sasuke's mission of revenge... but now, with a humorous chibi twist.

As Naruto: Chibi Sasuke's Sharingan Legend, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 5; entitled Uchiha Sasuke) opens, Sasuke leaves Konohagakure to find and kill his brother, Itachi.  He gathers three shinobi:  Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo, and the four of them become “Team Taka.”  They travel the land, looking for a brother to kill, and they also have wacky adventures.

[This volume includes five “mini manga chapter” bonus short stories – Mini Manga 1: “Sasuke vs. the Vending Machine!!” 2: “Sasuke vs. the Massage Chair!!” 3:  “Let's Go to the Naruto Art Exhibit” 4: “Let's Go to the Naruto Art Exhibit” Part 2; 5: “Jump Festa 2015 Rules and Guidelines.”]

Wow.  The Naruto: Chibi Sasuke's Sharingan Legend manga.  Wow.  In the “real” Naruto manga, Sasuke's actions were involved in his brother's death, but after Itachi told his younger sibling the reason why he slaughtered the Uchiha clan.  That led Sasuke to take up with some pretty despicable and evil characters and then, lead a deadly invasion of Konohagakure.

Well, Naruto: Chibi Sasuke's Sharingan Legend Volume 1 offers a massively altered version of Sasuke's dark quest.  It's all sh*ts and giggles.  I don't know how to feel about this.  It's cute.  I like Naruto.  Although Naruto creator, Masashi Kishimoto, is not the writer or artist here, this manga is expertly produced by Kenji Taira (Kishimoto's assistant) ... in a chibi mangaka sort of way.  I guess every Naruto fan should try it, if for no other reason than to be shocked, amused, or bemused.

B
6 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: MISSISSIPPI BLOOD

MISSISSIPPI BLOOD
HARPERCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins @WmMorrowBks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Greg Iles
ISBN: 978-0-06-231115-3; hardcover (March 21, 2017)
704pp, B&W, $28.99 U.S., $35.99 CAN

Mississippi Blood is a 2017 novel written by author Greg Iles.  It is the third novel in Iles' Natchez Burning trilogy, following Natchez Burning (2014) and The Bone Tree (2015).  In this final novel, Penn Cage must bear witness to the trial of the century, as far as the people in and around Natchez, Mississippi, are concerned – the trial of his father, Dr. Tom Cage, for murder.

As Mississippi Blood opens, Penn is still mourning the death of his bride-to-be, Caitlin Masters, but he will have to put his grief on hold.  His father's trial for the recent murder or “mercy killing” of Viola Turner is about to begin.  Viola was the African-American woman who was once one of Dr. Cage's nurses; she was also his lover in the 1960s and bore him a love child.  That child is now an adult, the vengeful Lincoln.  On one side of the trial is Shadrach K. Johnson, the Natchez district attorney who is determined to get a conviction against Dr. Tom Cage in order to settle old score.  On the other side is one of the most famous defense attorneys in Mississippi, the legendary African-American lawyer and courtroom magician, Quentin Avery.

Right from the start, however, Penn realizes that Quentin and his father have concocted some kind of cock-eyed plan in which they seem to let Shadrach score every point he wants with the jury and with the no-nonsense Judge Joe Elder.  Could his father want to be convicted, Penn wonders and worries?  Meanwhile, the last vestiges of the vicious Ku Klux Klan offshoot, the Double Eagles, continue to hover at the edges of this trial.

Penn believes that longtime Double Eagle, Snake Knox, is really behind Viola's murder.  Snake also has a score to settle, as Penn recently killed his nephew, Forrest Knox, the son of the Eagles' founder (the late Frank Knox) and a high-ranking, but corrupt officer in the Louisiana State Police.  Now, the secret histories of two families will be revealed as Penn and Lincoln race towards a final showdown with Snake and his crew.  And even that may not save Dr. Tom Cage from prison.

I wrote in my review of Natchez Burning that it was probably the best 862-page novel that I had ever read.  The Bone Tree is one of the best almost-900-pages-long novel that I have ever read.  So Mississippi Blood is one of the best novels of 700+ pages that I have ever read.

Natchez Burning is a Southern Gothic novel:  violence, racism, sex, blood, family scandal, corrupt cops, and Jim Crow.  The Bone Tree is a Southern-fried crime novel and Deep South historical, complete with drug dealers, corrupt cops, the FBI, the JFK assassination, the mafia, dirty lawyers, dishonest politicians, a hunting lodge, a Texas Ranger, jailbreaks, shocking murders, and a hidden legend in a labyrinthine swamp.

Mississippi Blood is a courtroom drama and a denouement.  Most of the narrative is taken up by Tom Cage's murder trial and the secrets (some decades old) that trial forces into the open.  Greg Iles pulls off something that is difficult in any medium – turn a criminal trial into a thrill-machine that constantly delivers jolts.  Only the television series, “Perry Mason,” of the 1950s and 60s, could make just about every minute of a murder trial hard to ignore.

Seriously, Greg Iles makes the murder trial the centerpiece and bulk of Mississippi Blood.  After the end of the trial, dealing with the leftover racists, particularly Snake Knox, seems like a mere formality.  That is sad because, as long as this novel is (and as long as it took me to read it), I did not want it to end.  You'd think after almost 2500 pages that I would have enough of the Cage family, the Knox family, and Viola Turner (the woman who connects them), but I don't.

Greg Iles is a great American novelist, and with the Natchez Burning trilogy, he has delivered three great American novels set in the great American cauldron that is the part of eastern Louisiana and the part of western Mississippi that is connected by the mighty Mississippi River.  There, stories might end, but they are chapters in a never-ending epic.  Iles' Natchez Burning trilogy is that epic that casts a mighty shadow, and if anyone else attempts an epic set in this region, it will live in that shadow.

If you need another reason to read this fine finale, here it is.  Read Mississippi Blood before the Natchez Burning television series begins.

A
9 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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