Switch: Alive List

I read Switch, Vol. 6

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin.  Follow me on Twitter or at Grumble.  Support me on Patreon.

2015 Eisner Award Winners - Complete List; "Lumberjanes" and "Little Nemo" Big Winners

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, also simply know as the “Eisner Awards,” are awards annually given for creative achievement in American comic books.  The awards are named for pioneering comic book writer, artist, and publisher, Will Eisner.  Some consider the Eisner Awards to be the preeminent awards that honor American comic books, even referring to the awards as “the Oscars of comic books.”

The Eisner Awards also include the Comic Industry's Hall of Fame.  The Eisner Awards are associated with the annual Comic-Con International convention held in San Diego, California, in July.  The Eisner Awards have been given annually since 1988, with the exception of 1990.

The 2015 Eisner Award winners were announced Friday, July 10, 2015 at a gala ceremony held during San Diego Comic-Con International (2015).

The 2015 Eisner Awards judging panel:
Carr D’Angelo – comics retailer: Earth-2 Comics, Los Angeles
Richard Graham – librarian at University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Sean Howe – author Marvel Comics: The Untold Story
Susan Kirtley – academic/scholar at Portland State University)
Ron McFee – a Comic-Con International volunteer
Maggie Thompson – writer/editor, best known for her work on the Comics Buyers Guide

2015 EISNER AWARDS Winners:

Best Short Story
“When the Darkness Presses,” by Emily Carroll, http://emcarroll.com/comics/darkness/ (link is external)

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
Beasts of Burden: Hunters and Gatherers, by Evan Dorkin & Jill Thompson (Dark Horse)

Best Continuing Series
Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples (Image)

Best Limited Series
Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland, by Eric Shanower & Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)

Best New Series
Lumberjanes, by Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson, & Brooke A. Allen (BOOM! Box)

Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 7)
The Zoo Box, by Ariel Cohn & Aron Nels Steinke (First Second)

Best Publication for Kids (ages 8-12)
El Deafo, by Cece Bell (Amulet/Abrams)

Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17)
Lumberjanes, by Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson, & Brooke A. Allen (BOOM! Box)

Best Humor Publication
The Complete Cul de Sac, by Richard Thompson (Andrews McMeel)

Best Digital/Web Comic
The Private Eye by Brian Vaughan & Marcos Martin http://panelsyndicate.com/ (link is external)

Best Anthology
Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream, edited by Josh O’Neill, Andrew Carl, & Chris Stevens (Locust Moon)

Best Reality-Based Work
Hip Hop Family Tree, vol. 2, by Ed Piskor (Fantagraphics)

Best Graphic Album—New
This One Summer, by Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki (First Second)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint
Through the Woods, by Emily Carroll (McElderry Books)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips (at least 20 years old)
Winsor McCay’s Complete Little Nemo, edited by Alexander Braun (TASCHEN)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books (at least 20 Years Old)
Steranko Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist’s Edition, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material
Blacksad: Amarillo, by Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido (Dark Horse)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia
Showa 1939–1943 and Showa 1944–1953: A History of Japan, by Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Writer
Gene Luen Yang, Avatar: The Last Airbender (Dark Horse); The Shadow Hero (First Second)

Best Writer/Artist
Raina Telgemeier, Sisters (Graphix/Scholastic)

Best Penciller/Inker
Fiona Staples, Saga (Image)

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)
J. H. Williams III, The Sandman: Overture (Vertigo/DC)

Best Cover Artist
Darwyn Cooke, "DC Comics Darwyn Cooke Month Variant Covers" (DC)

Best Coloring
Dave Stewart, Hellboy in Hell, BPRD, Abe Sapien, Baltimore, Lobster Johnson, Witchfinder, Shaolin Cowboy, Aliens: Fire and Stone, DHP (Dark Horse)

Best Lettering
Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo: Senso, Usagi Yojimbo Color Special: The Artist (Dark Horse)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
Comics Alliance, edited by Andy Khouri, Caleb Goellner, Andrew Wheeler, & Joe Hughes, www.comicsalliance.com (link is external)

Best Comics-Related Book
Genius Animated: The Cartoon Art of Alex Toth, vol. 3, by Dean Mullaney & Bruce Canwell (IDW/LOAC)

Best Scholarly/Academic Work
Graphic Details: Jewish Women’s Confessional Comics in Essays and Interviews, edited by Sarah Lightman (McFarland)

Best Publication Design
Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream, designed by Jim Rugg (Locust Moon)


The Eisner Awards judges previously selected two individuals to automatically be inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame for 2015. Those inductees were Marjorie ”Marge” Henderson Buell (creator of Little Lulu) and Bill Woggon (creator of Katy Keene).

The judges also chosen 13 nominees from which voters were to select 4 to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer. The 4 selected are John Byrne, Chris Claremont, Denis Kitchen, Frank Miller.

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Review: TWIN STAR EXORCISTS Volume 1

TWIN STAR EXORCISTS, VOL. 1
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

MANGAKA: Yoshiaki Sukeno
TRANSLATION: Tetsuichiro Miyaki
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Bryant Turnage
LETTERS: Stephen Dutro
EDITOR: Annette Roman
ISBN: 978-1-4215-8174-3; paperback (July 2015); Rated “T” for “Teen”
208pp, B&W, $9.99 US, $12.99 CAN, £6.99 U.K.

Created by Yoshiaki Sukeno, Twin Star Exorcists is a new supernatural action manga series about rivals who may have to become lovers.  VIZ Media is publishing the series in English under its “Shonen Jump” imprint.  The series is currently ongoing in Japan, and VIZ will release Twin Star Exorcists English-language graphic novels twice a year, both in print and in digital editions.

Twin Star Exorcists focuses on a pair of mystical warriors with intertwined destinies.  Rokuro Enmado wants to be anything but an exorcist.  Then, he meets a mysterious girl named Benio Adashino, a 14-year-old who is serious about being an exorcist.

Twin Star Exorcists, Vol. 1 (Entitled Exorcisms; Chapters 1 to 3) opens with an exorcism.  We learn that an evil realm known as “Magano,” is a place where monsters called “Kegare” dwell.  The Kegare come to this world to kill and to kidnap humans, so exorcists must purify them.

Talented exorcist, Rokuro, is currently trying to be a teen idol, a pursuit destined to end in failure.  However, a trauma that Rokuro experienced in the recent past has turned him against being an exorcist.  Then, Benio falls out of the sky...

[This volume contains the bonus story “Benio in Kyoto” and also some “Extra Manga.”]

The Twin Star Exorcists manga is like most action-fantasy manga published under the “Shonen Jump” and “Shonen Jump Advanced” imprints.  It is filled with a complex back story and an internal mythology riddled with terminology, techniques, processes, etc., that is all built around the supernatural.  But it is a good read.

Twin Star Exorcists Volume 1 is hugely engaging.  I think readers will be drawn into its world.  The monsters are awesome and scary, and the stakes for the heroes are high and definitely involve life and death.  Rokuro and Benio's predicament is funny, and is along the lines of that found in the manga, Nisekoi: False Love.  Like Nisekoi, Twin Star Exorcists is funny and edgy, and sometimes the comedy is quite edgy.

Right now, I find the supporting characters to be soft and not well-developed.  Of course, I'm a sucker for the battles, fights, and explosive magic, so I think Twin Star Exorcists has potential.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux (Support Leroy on Patreon.)


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Review: SILVER #5 - "Night of the Duvaliers"

SILVER #5 – NIGHT OF THE DUVALIERS
DARK PLANET COMICS – @fromdarkplanet

CARTOONIST/CREATOR: Stephan Franck – @Stephan_Franck
COVER: Stephan Franck with Sean Eckols
32pp, B&W, $4.50 U.S. (July 2015)

This week sees the release of the fifth issue of Silver by Dark Planet Comics.  Silver is a black and white, 12-issue comic book miniseries written and drawn by Stephan Franck, a writer and director of animated films.  Silver extends the fictional world of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula, into the 1930s.  The series stars con man James “Finn” Finnigan, a thief extraordinaire who plans to steal silver from the living-dead.

Silver opens in New York City, 1931.  The story opens at the Harker Foundation, which was created by the recently deceased Jonathan Harker and his late wife, Wilhelmina “Mina” (Murray) Harker.  While crashing an auction, Finnigan accidentally stumbles into a crypt where he finds an ancient bar of silver.  This begins his quest to pull of the biggest heist of the last ten centuries.  Beginning with his partners, Ed Mullins and Brantley, Finnigan begins to build a team to pull of this heist.  He adds Rosalynd Van Helsing (a.k.a Rosalynd Sledge); the actor, Hamilton “Ham” Morley; the forger, Mister Moineaux; and the boy who sees the future, Tao.

Silver #5 (entitled “Night of the Duvaliers”) opens in April 1931, aboard the Orient Express.  Finn and company managed to get Hamilton invited to a very exclusive vampire event, using Hamilton's skills as an actor and the art of the pickpocket.  As the team catches its collective breath, the story moves into the secret world of the vampires.  It seems that members of the vampire elite are positioning themselves to pick a bride for a king, but Lillian has something to say about that.

Reviews of the Silver comic book series can make a reviewer repetitive.  Every issue, thus far, has been exceptional, and Silver #5 is no exception to that.  This fast moving, old-fashioned tale has the spirit of movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark and the 1999 version of The Mummy, but steeped in the Gothic atmosphere of Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula.

Although Franck works in animation, he is proving to be a master of the art of comic book storytelling.  He is a genuine inheritor of the glorious black and white comic art of Alex Toth, and his work recalls the 1950s horror comics of Steve Ditko.  If you are turned off by vampires, are you also turned off by great comic books?  There may not be a better original vampire comic book in America than Silver, and it is also one of the best comic books currently being published in America.

A+

[Silver #5 contains another “Under the Hood” essay, in which Franck shows the process of creating Silver's first full-bleed, double-page spread.]

http://darkplanetcomics.com/
facebook/darkplanetcomics

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux (Support Leroy on Patreon.)


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: LBX Volume 6

LBX, VOL. 6
VIZ MEDIA/Perfect Square – @VIZMedia

MANGAKA: Hideaki Fujii
ORIGINAL STORY: Level 5
TRANSLATION: Tetsuichiro Miyaki
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Aubrey Sitterson
LETTERS: Annaliese Christman
EDITOR: Joel Enos
ISBN: 978-1-4215-7700-5; paperback (July 2015); Rated “A” for “All Ages”
152pp, B&W, $9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN, £6.99 UK

The video game, LBX (Little Battlers eXperience), is a series of role-playing action games created by Level-5 for the Sony PSP.  Hideaki Fujii created an “all ages” manga based on LBX, which VIZ Media has published in English as a bi-monthly graphic novel series under its “Perfect Square” imprint.

In the world of Fujii's manga, the LBX is the hottest toy in the year 2050.  The LBX (Little Battlers eXperience) is a miniaturized robot made of a new super-strong industrial cardboard.  Van Yamano is a rising LBX player, but he doesn't just play with these battle-robots for fun.  In order to save his father, Professor Yamano, he has to keep the LBX, named “Achilles,” out of the hands of evil at all costs.

As LBX, Vol. 6 (Chapters 23 to 25 to Final Chapter, entitled World Battle) opens, the “Duck Shuttle” arrives at the powerful new military satellite Eden, which orbits the Earth.  Aboard the shuttle are Van and his partner and LBX rival, Hiro Hughes, with Cobra piloting.

Van has LBX Icarus Zero, and Hiro has LBX Icarus Force.  The duo plans to use their LBX to stop a plot by Alfred Gordon, Vice-President of the American Union and also leader of “The Directors,” a terrorist group.  Gordon wants to bring peace to the world by taking control of the world, and he has the powerful and perhaps unstoppable LBX Zeus to enforce his will.  Van, Hiro, and Gordon are in for a big surprise.

[This volume includes bonus comics.]

I am still surprised that I enjoyed the LBX manga, which proved to be quite entertaining.  The series is really directed at elementary-age readers and also fans of the LBX, an actual, real-life media and merchandising franchise.  Alas, LBX Volume 6 is the end of the series... for now at least.  Still, this short, six-volume graphic novel series is perfect for readers who are enjoying or have enjoyed the Yu-Gi-Oh manga.  Those readers may even want to have an LBX toy.

B

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux (Support Leroy on Patreon.)


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Review: Advice to the Young Writers of Parkview Elementary

FRAGMENTA 6: ADVICE TO THE YOUNG WRITERS OF PARKVIEW ELEMENTARY
CANDLE LIGHT PRESS – @candlelightpres

WRITER: John Ira Thomas
ARTISTS: Will Grant, John Ira Thomas
24pp, B&W, $3.00 U.S.

Hey, kids! (A book about writing) Comics! (by a comic book writer)!

Advice to the Young Writers of Parkview Elementary is the sixth entry in Candle Light Press' Fragmenta series.  Written by John Ira Thomas with pictures and illustrations by Thomas and artist Will Grant, Advice to the Young Writers of Parkview Elementary is a 5.5 x 7 pamphlet that collects Thomas' advice to the 3rd-5th graders of Parkview Elementary in Lamar, Colorado.

Thomas did his first writing, as a child, at Parkview Elementary.  The comic book writer and publisher got a chance to speak to the school's kids and teachers.  Thomas says that one of the thank-you notes he received after his visit asked, “Will you make a comic about your visit to Parkview?”  The answer is yes, and the result is an illustrated book, Advice to the Young Writers of Parkview Elementary.

This sixth Fragmenta publication encourages writers young and old to write the biggest thing they’ve ever tried, be it a paragraph, a page, or a book.  Word balloons and captions added to the illustrations and drawings give this pamphlet a comic book touch.

I think Advice to the Young Writers of Parkview Elementary is a combination children's picture book and comic book.  Many young readers who aspire to be writers will embrace this book's encouragements.  Of course, anything with Will Grant's pencil drawings, with their Wally Wood-like quality, is worth having.  Comic book readers, especially young readers, will want Advice to the Young Writers of Parkview Elementary.

To get more information about and/or to purchase Advice to the Young Writers of Parkview Elementary, visit the following links:

www.candlelightpress.com
http://www.candlelightpress.com/ordering.htm
candlelightpress.tumblr.com

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux (Support Leroy on Patreon.)


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

DC Comics from Diamond Distributors for July 8, 2015

DC COMICS

MAY150173     ALL STAR SECTION 8 #2     $2.99
APR150284     AQUAMAN SUB DIEGO TP     $16.99
MAY150153     ARROW SEASON 2.5 #10     $2.99
MAY150192     BATMAN #42     $3.99
FEB150258     BATMAN ARKHAM KNIGHT HC VOL 01     $19.99
APR150286     BATMAN ETERNAL TP VOL 02     $39.99
MAY150190     BATMAN SUPERMAN #22     $3.99
APR150260     BATMAN THE JIRO KUWATA BATMANGA TP VOL 02     $12.99
MAY150199     CATWOMAN #42     $2.99
MAY150263     COFFIN HILL #20 (MR)     $3.99
MAY150138     CONSTANTINE THE HELLBLAZER #2     $2.99
MAY150145     EARTH 2 SOCIETY #2     $2.99
MAY150267     FABLES THE WOLF AMONG US #7 (MR)     $3.99
MAY150210     GOTHAM ACADEMY #8     $2.99
MAR150308     HINTERKIND TP VOL 03 THE HOT ZONE (MR)     $14.99
MAY150154     INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US YEAR FOUR #5     $2.99
APR158686     JUSTICE LEAGUE #41 2ND PTG (NOTE PRICE)     $4.99
MAR150273     JUSTICE LEAGUE HC VOL 06 INJUSTICE LEAGUE (N52)     $24.99
MAY150124     JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #2     $3.99
MAY150129     JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED #11     $3.99
MAY150270     MAD MAX FURY ROAD MAX #1 Of(2) (MR)     $4.99
MAY150164     NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #10     $2.99
MAY150171     RED HOOD ARSENAL #2     $2.99
MAY150230     SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU #59     $2.99
APR150300     SINESTRO TP VOL 02 SACRIFICE     $16.99
MAY150174     STARFIRE #2     $2.99
APR150305     WILL EISNERS THE SPIRIT A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS HC     $49.99