Library Wars: LFT vs. MBC

I read Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 11

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

Book Review: MANDALLUMINS

MANDALLUMINS
CANDLE LIGHT PRESS – @candlelightpres

ARTIST: Will Grant
Hardcover (2014)
28pp, Color $15.00 U.S.

Of course, this is a joke:  If you had to kidnap a comic book artist and imprison him (or her) in your dungeon in order to force him to draw your original-vision, horror graphic novel, Will Grant would make an excellent collaborator-artist-prisoner.  But Will Grant is no joke.

Seriously folks, I like Will Grant’s comic book work and his art.  This exceptionally talented artist has been drawing comics for a number of years, but his best effort to date is Lost in the Wash with prolific author comic book writer, John Ira Thomas.  Lost in the Wash, a horror graphic novel and ghost story, is one of Foreword Magazine’s BOTYA 2013 Finalists in Horror (Adult Fiction).

Back in 2009, Candle Light Press first published Manifestations: The Art of Will Grant, a short magazine/book hybrid (the “mook”) that offered a glimpse into the visuals and imagination of Will Grant.  Now comes Mandallumins, a new hardcover art book featuring several color illustrations executed by Grant over the past six years.

Will Grant’s drawing style and graphic design methods and techniques have similarities to the work of a number of classic dark fantasy and horror comic book artists.  I can think of such artists as Berni Wrightson, Sam Keith, S. Clay Wilson, and (Ghastly) Graham Ingels and also, illustrators like Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, H.R. Giger, and Rob’t Williams.  However, Grant has his own unique voice, and his work is unsettling in a way that many American horror comic book artists can no longer pull off without depicting violence.

I described Manifestations: The Art of Will Grant as being like an inexpensive “Whitman’s Sampler.”  Mandallumins is its own box of razor-blade impregnated chocolates.  I only wish the box were bigger, but it is still a visual feast.  Fans of Will Grant and also fans of art books focusing on horror illustrations will want Mandallumins.

A-

Mandallumins ($15) is available at the following link:
http://candlelightpress.tumblr.com/mandallumins.htm

www.candlelightpress.com
candlelightpress.tumblr.com
willgrant.net

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


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

One Piece: Enter Doflamingo

I read One Piece, Vol. 70

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.

Review - CARTER ALLEN: Monster Maker

CARTER ALLEN: MONSTER MAKER
CANDLE LIGHT PRESS/Warning Comics – @candlelightpres

WRITER/ARTIST: Carter Allen
Paperback – 8.2” x 11.7” (2014)
28pp, Color, $10.00 U.S.

Carter Allen previously released two art books:  All These Worlds: The Artwork of Carter Allen and Galaxy Girls and Hell Hounds: All These Worlds, The Artwork of Carter Allen.  Allen is a comic book artist and a prolific producer of graphic novels (including the Dub Trub series).  Allen is also the creator of the comic book series, Nikki Harris the Cybermation Witch.

Now, Carter Allen offers another soft cover album of drawings and illustrations, and it is entitled Carter Allen: Monster Maker.  Allen even draws admiration from comic book artist Phil Hester, whose praise is used as a quote on the back cover of Monster Maker.

Subtitled “An Illustrated Creature Feature,” Carter Allen: Monster Maker has as a dominant theme giant monsters.  The favored giant monsters in Monster Maker are the kaiju, known for their roles in Japanese monster movies and for being the Earth-stomping, Armageddon-bringing baddies in Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 monster mash, Pacific Rim.  Monster Maker also offers gods, zombies, mecha and other giant robots.  Most of the art here is recent work, with several pieces apparently produced this year.  Even Nikki Harris, that outer space kicker of monster butt, makes an appearance.

There are even mock movie posters, and reading this book, it is easy to see that Allen is summoning up the ghosts of Saturday matinees past – both at the local theatre and on local television.  The film industry might not make monster movies like they used to, but someone apparently still has the kind of imagination that once dreamed up big monsters.  That’s Carter Allen, and Carter Allen: Monster Maker wants to make you stretch your vision and imagination to see the biggest and the baddest monsters.

A-

Carter Allen: Monster Maker ($10) is available at this link:
http://candlelightpress.tumblr.com/monstermaker.htm

www.candlelightpress.com
candlelightpress.tumblr.com
www.nikkithewitch.com
www.warningcomics.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

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

Vagabond: The Weight of Water

I read Vagabond, Vol. 35

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.

I Reads You Review: COLORS IN BLACK #1

COLORS IN BLACK #1
DARK HORSE COMICS – @DarkHorseComics

SCRIPT: J.R. Lamb, Scott Tolson
ART: Scott Tolson, Christopher Schenck
COLORS: Scott Tolson, Greg Simanson, Christopher Schenck
LETTERS: Erik Bell, Greg Simanson
COVER: Scott Tolson
32pp, Color, $2.95 U.S., $4.15 CAN (March 1995)

Colors in Black was a four-issue comic book miniseries published by Dark Horse Comics in 1995.  The series’ covers bore a “Comics by Spike” logo because Colors in Black was published “in cooperation” with Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks, the production company started by the Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Spike Lee.

In an afterword to the first issue, the goal of Colors in Black is described as “to promote dialogue between the various ingredients of American’s melting pot, which we hope will result in a better understanding of each other in the long run.”  I don’t know if the series reached that goal (especially in light of the Jena Six, Troy Davis, Trayvon Martin, etc).  I don’t know anyone else who read it, although I knew people who were aware of the series, so I can’t ask that “better understanding” question.

Colors in Black #1 offers four short comics stories, with writer and artist Scott Tolson being the guiding force behind most of the material in this first issue.  The opening piece is “The Introduction (an’ Shit) or The Bad Rap Song,” written by J.R. Lamb and drawn by Scott Tolson.  Four characters break the fourth wall and speak directly to the reader about the black experience.

It is a fun read because all four characters have such distinctive points of view about being black, African-American, or a person of color, but it can also be jarring.  I don’t know if this is the best way to open the series, as this introduction does not necessarily reflect the other stories.  On the other hand, “The Introduction (an’ Shit)” does let the reader know that this comic book has little to do with a typical “black experience” or with presenting a monolithic viewpoint.

There are two stories in this first issue that deserve to be called powerful.  The first is “The Life That Jack Built” (by Scott Tolson with Greg Simanson), which personifies how material wealth and the quest for a highly-materialistic version of the American dream have a dark side.  The words and pictures work in tandem and separately; this makes the story’s themes and, of course, message, work in a way that that isn’t so much aggressive as it is victorious.

Tolson offers another powerful story, “Passion Play.”  This story juxtaposes an “angry” young black man with a white scholar’s interpretation of an angry young black man and his explanation of why they are angry.  The story impressively pits theory against reality, and the art and graphical storytelling is expressionistic in a way that leaves everything up to the interpretation of the reader.

I think Colors in Black #1 is not about preaching to the reader, but rather allowing the reader to think and to engage.  That isn’t the usual in American comic books, which generally feed readers material they digest as entertainment, sometimes merely for the sake of escapism.

Colors in Black #1 can also be seen as being essentially an alternative comic book similar to the kind that Fantagraphics Books or Drawn & Quarterly would have published at the time Colors in Black was first released.  Of course, the exception is that North American alt-comix publishers were not publishing black alt-comix.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


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

DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for March 26 2014

DC COMICS

JAN140327 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #11 $3.99
JAN140319 ALL STAR WESTERN #29 $3.99
NOV130263 AMERICAN VAMPIRE HC VOL 06 (MR) $22.99
JAN140262 AQUAMAN #29 $2.99
JAN140300 BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #29 $2.99
JAN140362 BEWARE THE BATMAN #6 $2.99
JAN140296 CATWOMAN #29 $2.99
NOV130222 DC UNIVERSE VS MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE #6 $2.99
JAN140373 DEAD BOY DETECTIVES #4 $2.99
JAN140377 FABLES #139 (MR) $2.99
JAN140264 FLASH #29 $2.99
JAN140249 FOREVER EVIL ARGUS #6 $2.99
JAN140253 FOREVER EVIL ROGUES REBELLION #6 $2.99
JAN148230 HARLEY QUINN #0 2ND PTG $2.99
DEC130287 HE MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE #11 $2.99
JAN140333 INJUSTICE YEAR TWO #3 $2.99
JAN140258 JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #29 (EVIL) $3.99
JAN140318 LARFLEEZE #9 $2.99
JAN140316 RED LANTERNS #29 $2.99
DEC130334 SANDMAN OVERTURE #2 COMBO PACK (MR) $4.99
DEC130330 SANDMAN OVERTURE #2 CVR A (MR) $3.99
DEC130331 SANDMAN OVERTURE #2 CVR B (MR) $3.99
JAN140261 SUICIDE SQUAD AMANDA WALLER #1 $4.99
JAN140286 SUPERMAN #29 $2.99
JAN140310 TALON #17 $2.99
JAN140323 TEEN TITANS #29 $2.99
JAN140387 WAKE #7 (MR) $2.99
JAN140273 WORLDS FINEST #21 $2.99