Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for May 16, 2018

IMAGE COMICS

MAR180574    BARRIER #3 (OF 5) (MR)    $3.99
MAR180642    BLACK MAGICK TP VOL 02 AWAKENING II (MR)    $16.99
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Marvel Comics from Diamond Distributors for May 16, 2018

MARVEL COMICS

MAR180936    ALL NEW WOLVERINE #35 LEG    $3.99
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Comics, Magazines and Books from Diamond Distributors for May 16, 2018

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

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Review: BUG! The Adventures of Forager #1

BUG! THE ADVENTURES OF FORAGER #1
DC COMICS/Young Animal – @DCComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Lee Allred
ART: Michael Allred
COLORS: Laura Allred
LETTERS: Nate Piekos of Blambot
COVER: Michael Allred with Laura Allred
VARIANT COVERS: James Harvey; Paul Pope with Paul Maybury
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (July 2017)

Mature Readers

The Bug and Fourth World characters created by Jack Kirby

“Domino Effect: Part 1 of 6 “Bughouse Crazy”

Forager is a DC Comics character that first appeared in New Gods #9 (cover dated:  August 1972).  Created by writer-artist Jack Kirby, Forager was a character in Kirby's “Fourth World” universe.  Forager's people were a society of humanoid bugs that thrived in colonies built beneath the surface of the planet, New Genesis.  Forager lived among these beings, but was apparently really not one of them.  The character was later killed in DC Comics' Cosmic Odyssey (1988) miniseries.

Forager returns in the new comic book, Bug! The Adventures of Forager, published under DC Comics' “Young Animal” imprint.  This imprint, curated by rock musician/comics creator, Gerard Way, reinvents, re-imagines, and modernizes eclectic, oddball, and cult characters (Doom Patrol and Cave Carson, among others) in new comic books series.  Bug! is written by Lee Allred; drawn by Mike Allred; colored by Laura Allred; and lettered by Nate Piekos.

Bug! The Adventures of Forager #1 (“Domino Effect”) opens with Forager finding himself alive again!  After he meets “Ghost Girl” and her teddy bear, Forager learns that he might be dreaming, but can a corpse dream?  Then, there are the weirdies and beasties and... The Sandman.

Bug! The Adventures of Forager is a family affair.  Lee Allred and Mike Allred are brothers, and Mike and Laura Allred are married.  I guess that is kind of neat, but even neater is this comic book.  Bug! The Adventures of Forager is a good-old-fashioned comic book – full of fun, adventure, and strangeness.  It is wild, weird, and wonderful.

I have had mixed feelings about Mike Allred's comics over two decades+ reading them, but I like Allred's touch with the more eccentric Jack Kirby characters, such as Allred recent run, with Dan Slott, on Marvel Comics' Silver Surfer, a classic Kirby character.  There is such delightful kookiness in Bug! The Adventures of Forager.  I liked it so much that I wanted to read the next issue right away, and that is one of the highest compliments I can give as a comics reviewer.  I am also going to do something I don't always do – give a grade to a first issue.

I implore you to try at least this first issue.

A

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.

--------------------------------

Review: CLUE (the Comic Book)

CLUE (TPB)
IDW PUBLISHING – @IDWPublishing

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Paul Allor
ART: Nelson Daniel
LETTERS: Neil Uyetake and Gilberto Lazcano
COVER: George Caltsoudas
SERIES COVERS: Nelson Daniel
MISC. ART: Nicoletta Baldari; George Caltsoudas; Derek Charm; Agnes Garbowska; Valentina Pinto; Sara Richard; Alan Robinson with Jay Fotos; Nick Roche with Nelson Daniel; Gabriel Rodriguez with Nelson Daniel; Brent Schoonover; Jon Sommariva; Charles Paul Wilson III;
EDITORS: Justin Eisinger and Alonzo Simon and Carlos Guzman
ISBN: 978-1-68405-118-2; paperback (March 2018)
144pp, Color, $19.99 U.S., $25.99 CAN (February 7, 2018)

Clue is a murder mystery board game that was created in England and was first manufactured in 1949.  It is currently the intellectual property of Hasbro, the American game and toy company.  The object of the game is to determine who killed “Mr. Boddy,” where the murder took place, and what the murder weapon was.  Game players assume the role of the six suspects.

IDW Publishing, which has the license to produce comic books based on many Hasbro properties, published a six-issue miniseries based on the game, entitled Clue (of course).  Clue #1 to 6 (June to November 2017) was written by Paul Allor; drawn and colored by Nelson Daniel; and lettered by Neil Uyetake and Gilberto Lazcano.  In February, IDW collected the miniseries in a full-color trade paperback that reprinted the entire story, with bonus pages and the series' regular and variant covers.

Clue is set on a dark and story night... in and around the isolated, stately manor of Mr. Boddy.  There, Boddy is throwing a special dinner party, and his butler, Upton, welcomes the guests, a prestigious and celebrated, if not conniving lot.  The male guests are Colonel Mustard, the war hero; Professor Plum, who is always the smartest and dumbest person in a room; Nicolae Martin “Mister” Green, hedge fund manager and “pharma bro;” and Detective Ochre, who is also a grandfather and a gardener.

The female guests are Senator White, who is a politician and a CEO; Dr. Orchid, the toxicologist; Miss Scarlet, the rapper from Australia; Mrs. Peacock, the widow and aristocrat; and Detective Amarillo, a jogger and a cellist.  One of them is going to kill Mr. Boddy, but when the lead suspect turns up dead and murdered shortly afterwards, everything is thrown into confusion.  Add a mysterious flower, “Surobi Zinnias,” and readers have a murder-conspiracy with enough twists and turns to leave more people dead and even more under suspicion.

IDW Publishing sent me a review copy of the Clue trade paperback.  I was not happy to get it, honestly, because I was not really interested in reading it.  I had thought about picking up an issue of the miniseries during its run last year, but passed on that.  Of course, when I did finally get around to reading Clue I enjoyed it.

I believe that Mel Brook's two most famous films, Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, are successful because they both look like and work as the film genres of which they are spoofing – “Universal Monster” movies for the former and Western films for the latter.  Clue works as a spoof of the murder mystery genre because it is indeed a murder mystery comic book.

I found myself racing through much of this trade paperback, trying to find out how many whodunits there actually were.  Writer Paul Allor pulls off a nice spoof of the cozy, murder-mystery genre.  It is witty and funny, but Allor also makes the readers interested in the mysteries, chasing the killers and their conspiracies across the narrative.

Artist Nelson Daniel draws an exciting story, and he makes each character visually unique, which is important in selling the idea that each character has his or her own story and/or something to hide.  I find that Daniel gives the characters an odd sense of constantly being annoyed, a sense of entitlement, that nothing should be in their way.  I guess that is what makes their motivations seem genuine.

By the time I finished reading Clue, I wanted more. There are a few sequences that seem unnecessary, but overall the comic book is strong.  I think that this is reason enough to recommend this to comic book readers looking for something offbeat.

7.5 out of 10

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


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: CAVE OF BONES

CAVE OF BONES
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

[This review was originally published on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Anne Hillerman
ISBN: 978-0-06-239192-6; hardcover (April 3, 2018)
320pp, B&W, $26.99 U.S., $34.99 CAN

Cave of Bones is a 2018 novel from author Anne Hillerman.  It is the fourth novel in the “Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito Series,” which began with Spider Woman's Daughter (2013).  This series is a continuation of the “Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee Series” written by Hillerman's late father, bestselling author, Tony Hillerman (1925-2008).  In the new novel, Navajo Tribal cops, Jim Chee and Bernadette “Bernie” Manuelito, investigate missing men, pilfered funds, and desecrated graves, and again call on the assistance of the now-retired Joe Leaphorn.

Cave of Bones finds Tribal Police Officer Bernie Manuelito paying off a favor by agreeing to speak to the young people who are participating in “Wing and Roots,” an outdoor character-building program for at-risk young people.  Bernie arrives at the site of the program in the Ramah Navajo district, and she finds chaos.  Annie Rainsong, a young participant, is missing.  When Bernie and Rose Cooper, the program's director, find Annie, the girl is clearly traumatized.

Although Annie has returned, Domingo “Dom” Cruz, a beloved instructor who went searching for Annie, is now missing in the wilderness that is the volcanic landscape known as El Malpais.  In addition, Annie tells Bernie that she found a cave with bones inside, and Bernie fears that Annie may have disturbed a Navajo burial site – a no-no in several ways.  Now, Bernie finds herself caught up in the search for Dom, ensnared in the politics surrounding Wings and Roots, and forced to confront the face of true human evil

Meanwhile her husband, Sergeant Jim Chee is in Sante Fe at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy for training, where he is forced to confront troubles from home.  Bernie's sister, Darleen (Jim's sister-in-law), is also in Sante Fe, attending the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) and taking part in the college's program for prospective art students.  Darleen is an especially gifted artist and illustrator, but her boyfriend, Clayton “CS” Secody, who is also attending the college, is working with Clyde Herbert, a vengeful man Chee sent to prison for domestic violence.  Chee also discovers something troubling about CS, and now the Navajo police sergeant must balance police work and family and use his medicine man training to discover the truth behind Darleen's latest troubles.

Previously, readers had to wait two years in between “Manuelito, Chee & Leaphorn” novels.  I was delighted to find that only a year after the release of the third book, Song of the Lion, the fourth book, Cave of Bones, was to arrive.

I have praised the previous novels to the high heavens because I loved reading them.  I sometimes stopped reading in the middle of the books just so that I wouldn't get to the end.  That's crazy, right?  When I get to the last page of each “Manuelito, Chee & Leaphorn” novel, I feel that I am unwillingly leaving my friends.

Anne Hillerman makes the characters seem so real.  They are frail, imperfect, and bittersweet – like us real folks.  Hillerman's fantastic stories of murder, mystery, family drama, and the Navajo could be just another genre house.  And as the late Luther Vandross said, a house is not a home.  However, Hillerman's complex and marvelous characters make her novels a welcoming home for readers.

Crawl in caves with Bernie.  Confront the reality of a reformed man.  Deal with a vociferous tribal councilman who is also a pushy mother.  Comfort a troubled teen.  I also found myself wanting to crawl into the lives of the new and supporting characters, from the troubled Merilee Cruz and Michael Franklin to the irascible Elsbeth Walker and the... sinister ones.

Kudos to Anne Hillerman for making it clear that Navajo fictional characters can be as interesting and as lovable as classic mystery novel characters.  And Cave of Bones... it is simply a pleasure to read.  It is Hillerman's best novel yet, and maybe the best is still to come.

10 out of 10

http://annehillerman.com

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


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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