Comics, Magazines and Books from Diamond Distributors for July 10, 2019

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

MAY191838    13 ASTONISHING LIVES OF THE NEUROMANTICS GN (MR)    $19.99
MAY191699    ADVENTURE ZONE HC GN VOL 02 MURDER ON ROCKPORT LIMITED    $26.99
MAY191430    ARCHIE AND ME JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #19    $6.99
MAY191797    BALLAD OF YAYA GN VOL 02 PRISONERS    $9.99
MAY192050    BELLE OATH OF THORNS #1 CVR A VITORINO    $3.99
MAY192051    BELLE OATH OF THORNS #1 CVR B TOLIBAO    $3.99
MAY192052    BELLE OATH OF THORNS #1 CVR C SANTACRUZ    $3.99
MAY192053    BELLE OATH OF THORNS #1 CVR D COCCOLO    $3.99
MAY192054    BELLE OATH OF THORNS #1 CVR E COLAPIETRO    $3.99
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MAY192056    BELLE OATH OF THORNS #1 CVR G BLANK SKETCH    $10.00
APR191721    BLUBBER #5 (RES) (MR)    $4.99
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APR191950    CARPENTER TALES SCI FI NUCLEAR ATTACK #2 (MR)    $3.99
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APR191680    DF ACTION COMICS #1000 SWAN VAR GOLD SGN TOMASI    $80.00
MAY191659    DF BATMAN #50 CSA EXC SILVER SGN BROOKS & KING    $80.00
MAY191660    DF DAREDEVIL #600 CSA EXC SGN MILLER & GRANOV    $299.99
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MAY181638    DF INJUSTICE VS HE MAN #1 SGN TIM SEELY    $19.80
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MAR192254    DINING WITH EMIYA FAMILY GN VOL 02 (OF 3)    $12.95
APR192315    DREAMIN SUN GN VOL 09 (RES)    $12.99
MAR191899    EMILINE KNIGHT IN TRAINING HC    $12.99
MAY192016    FALLEN WORLD #3 (OF 5) CVR A BOOTH    $3.99
MAY192017    FALLEN WORLD #3 (OF 5) CVR B DAGNINO    $3.99
MAY192018    FALLEN WORLD #3 (OF 5) CVR C WIJNGAARD    $3.99
MAY191930    FARLAINE GOBLIN TP VOL 02    $17.00
FEB192148    FUTARIBEYA MANGA GN VOL 05 ROOM FOR TWO    $12.99
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MAY191703    GRIMOIRE NOIR HC GN    $24.99
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JAN192139    LENORE PINK BELLIES HC (MR)    $17.99
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APR191843    LOVE A DISCOVERY IN COMICS HC    $18.99
APR191638    MERCY SPARX #13 (MR)    $4.99
MAR192015    MINIONS COLLECTION TP    $12.99
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APR191980    SHADES OF MAGIC #7 CVR A HERVAS    $3.99
APR191981    SHADES OF MAGIC #7 CVR B OLIMPIERI    $3.99
MAY191750    SHANGHAI DREAM TP (MR)    $17.95
APR192327    SORCEROUS STABBER ORPHEN GN VOL 02 HEED MY CALL PT2    $12.99
MAR191985    SOURCE #4 CVR A (RES)    $3.99
MAY191798    STILETTO TP VOL 01    $14.99
MAY191746    STRANGELANDS #1 CVR A MCKONE    $3.99
APR191399    STRONG BOX BIG BAD BOOK OF BOON #1 (OF 8)    $3.99
MAR191543    UNHOLY ARGENT VS ONYX #1 (MR)    $5.99
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MAY191996    UPTON SINCLAIR THE JUNGLE GN    $24.99
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MAR191351    VAMPBLADE SEASON 4 #2 CVR E MARTIN (MR)    $4.99
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MAY191937    WATCH DOGS #1 CVR A DAGNINO ART    $5.99
MAY191938    WATCH DOGS #1 CVR B HORNE    $5.99
APR191368    ZORRO MASTERS ALEX TOTH #1 LTD ED CVR TOTH    $9.99
APR191367    ZORRO MASTERS ALEX TOTH #1 MAIN CVR TOTH    $3.99

MAGAZINES
MAY191607    COMIC SHOP NEWS [90CT BUNDLE] #1673    $PI
MAY191707    FILMFAX #154    $9.95
DEC181914    HORRORHOUND HALLOWEEN SPECIAL    $5.00

BOOKS
MAY191720    AVENGERS BATTLE ON MOON LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK    $4.99
MAY191890    CHILLING ADV OF SABRINA NOVEL SC VOL 01 SEASON OF WITCH    $9.99
MAY191877    DC SUPER FRIENDS BE BRAVE LIKE AQUAMAN SC    $5.99
MAY191721    DISNEY FROZEN LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK LIBRARY    $24.95
MAY191722    DISNEY LION KING BIG GOLDEN BOOK    $10.99
MAY191723    DISNEY LION KING I AM SIMBA LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK    $4.99
MAY191724    DISNEY PIXAR TOY STORY LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK FAVORITES    $7.99
MAY192005    DON HECK WORK OF ART HC NEW ED    $14.99
MAY198009    DONALD DRAINS THE SWAMP HC    $19.99
MAY191815    FIRST DAY OF GROOT YR PICTURE BOOK    $12.99
MAY191725    FLUTTERSHYS FEROCIOUS FRIEND MLP LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK    $4.99
MAY191726    I AM HE-MAN LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK    $4.99
MAY191727    I AM SHE-RA LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK    $4.99
APR192254    JK HARU IS SEX WORKER IN ANOTHER WORLD LIGHT NOVEL (MR)    $14.99
APR192255    LAST AND FIRST IDOL LIGHT NOVEL (MR)    $14.99
MAY191623    MAKING OF LION KING HC    $50.00
MAY191728    MINIONS LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK    $4.99
APR192322    NEW GAME GN VOL 06    $13.99
MAY192046    POP MANGA DRAWIN 30 STEP BY STEP LESSONS SC    $16.99
MAR191977    SHADOW DOUBLE NOVEL VOL 142 5 IVORY BOXES QUARTER OF 8    $14.95
MAR192284    SHIROBAKO ARTWORKS SC    $57.00
MAY191729    STAR TREK TOO MANY TRIBBLES LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK    $4.99
MAY191730    STAR WARS STARSHIPS SPEEDERS LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK    $4.99
MAY191624    STAR WARS WHOS WHO CHARACTER STORYBOOK HC    $12.99
MAR191808    STNG USS ENTERPRISE NCC 1701D ILLUS HANDBOOK W COLLECTIBLE (    $49.95
MAY191625    TALES FROM HAUNTED MANSION HC MEMENTO MORI    $14.99
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DEC181844    WILD ADV OF ERB HC TARZAN & REVOLUTION    $34.95
DEC181843    WILD ADV OF ERB SC TARZAN & REVOLUTION    $19.95
MAY192004    WILL EISNER SPIRITED LIFE HC NEW PTG    $19.99

IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for July 18, 2018

IDW PUBLISHING

APR180373    DUNGEONS & DRAGONS EVIL AT BALDURS GATE #3 CVR A DUNBAR    $3.99
APR180374    DUNGEONS & DRAGONS EVIL AT BALDURS GATE #3 CVR B TOLIBAO    $3.99
MAR180568    EDGAR ALLAN POE MASQUE OF RED DEATH GAME    $59.99
MAY180743    JOE HILL THE CAPE FALLEN #2 CVR A HOWARD    $3.99
MAY180744    JOE HILL THE CAPE FALLEN #2 CVR B DANIEL    $3.99
MAY180717    JUDGE DREDD UNDER SIEGE #3 (OF 4) CVR A DUNBAR    $3.99
MAY180718    JUDGE DREDD UNDER SIEGE #3 (OF 4) CVR B QUAH    $3.99
MAY180671    MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #68 CVR A PRICE    $3.99
MAY180672    MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #68 CVR B RICHARD    $3.99
MAY180730    PUNKS NOT DEAD #6 CVR A SIMMONDS    $3.99
MAY180731    PUNKS NOT DEAD #6 CVR B DASSAI    $3.99
MAY180650    REAL SCIENCE ADVENTURES NICODEMUS JOB #1 CVR A MCCLAREN    $3.99
MAY180651    REAL SCIENCE ADVENTURES NICODEMUS JOB #1 CVR B WIEDLE    $3.99
MAY180678    SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #7 CVR B THOMAS    $3.99
MAY180677    SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #7 FOIL CVR A GATES    $3.99
MAY180704    STAR TREK NEW VISIONS TP VOL 07    $17.99
MAY180652    STAR WARS ADVENTURES #12 CVR A CHARRETIER    $3.99
MAY180653    STAR WARS ADVENTURES #12 CVR B MAURICET    $3.99
JAN180566    SUPER PATRIOTIC HEROES HC    $34.99
MAY180683    TMNT ONGOING #84 CVR A WACHTER    $3.99
MAY180684    TMNT ONGOING #84 CVR B EASTMAN    $3.99
MAY180637    TRANSFORMERS BUMBLEBEE MOVIE PREQUEL #2 CVR A GRIFFITH    $3.99
MAY180638    TRANSFORMERS BUMBLEBEE MOVIE PREQUEL #2 CVR B OSSIO    $3.99
MAY180631    TRANSFORMERS LOST LIGHT #21 CVR A LAWRENCE    $3.99
MAY180632    TRANSFORMERS LOST LIGHT #21 CVR B SENIOR    $3.99
MAY180621    TRANSFORMERS UNICRON #2 (OF 6) CVR A MILNE    $4.99
MAY180622    TRANSFORMERS UNICRON #2 (OF 6) CVR B RAIZ    $4.99
MAY180640    TRANSFORMERS VS VISIONARIES TP    $17.99
FEB180371    UNCLE SCROOGE #37 CVR A ALVAREZ    $3.99
FEB180372    UNCLE SCROOGE #37 CVR B MIGHELI    $3.99
FEB180368    WALT DISNEY SHOWCASE #4 GOOFY CVR A FRECCERO    $3.99
FEB180369    WALT DISNEY SHOWCASE #4 GOOFY CVR B MASTANTUONO    $3.99

Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors for May 30, 2018

DARK HORSE COMICS

MAR180038    BLACKWOOD #1 (OF 4) MAIN CVR    $3.99
MAR180039    BLACKWOOD #1 (OF 4) VAR CLOONAN CVR    $3.99
MAR180098    HARROW COUNTY #31    $3.99
JAN180128    LEGACY HOUSE OF NIGHT GN    $14.99
JAN180136    ROCKET ROBINSON & PHAROAHS FORTUNE GN VOL 01    $14.99
JAN180137    TENTACLE KITTY COLORING BOOK SC    $14.99
NOV170026    WILL EISNER CONTRACT WITH GOD CURATORS COLL HC    $195.00
NOV170027    WILL EISNER CONTRACT WITH GOD CURATORS COLL HC LTD ED    $295.00

Review: A CONTRACT WITH GOD - Centennial Edition

A CONTRACT WITH GOD And Other Tenement Stories
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY – @wwnorton

[This review was originally posted by Patreon.]

CARTOONIST: Will Eisner
ISBN: 978-0-393-60918-9; hardcover (March 7, 2017)
224pp, B&W, $25.95 U.S., $34.95 CAN

Introduction by Scott McCloud; December 2004 Preface by Will Eisner

A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories is an original graphic novel written and drawn by legendary comic book creator, Will Eisner (1917 to 2005).  It was first published in 1978 and is composed of four comic book short stories that revolve around several poor Jewish characters who live in a tenement apartment building in New York City, apparently sometime between World War I and World War II.

A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories (often referred to only as A Contract with God) was not the first graphic novel published in North America, but it was a seminal graphic novel because of its influence on other comic book creators to produce work that was more ambitious than standard superhero fare and children's comics, both in terms of content and format.

2017 marks the centennial of Will Eisner's birth.  In celebration of what would have been Eisner's 100th birthday, W.W. Norton & Company is publishing what is essentially a “Will Eisner Centennial Edition” of A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories.  This new edition is a hardcover book and contains the four stories from A Contract with God reproduced in high-resolution from Eisner's original art boards.  This book also includes “Introduction to the Centennial Edition” by Scott McCloud (a comic book creator and friend of Eisner); the essay “A Brief History of A Contract with God;” and Will Eisner's “Preface,” written in 2004 for a 2005 edition of the book published by Norton.

The narrative of A Contract with God is a short story cycle of four stories.  The stories are mostly set in a tenement at 55 Dropsie Avenue, the Bronx, New York.  Tenements were apartment buildings built to accommodate the flood of immigrants that flowed into New York after World War I.

The title story, “A Contract with God,” opens the book.  It focuses on Frimme Hersh, a devout Hebrew man who grieves the loss of his adopted daughter, Rachele.  Hersh believes Rachele's death is a violation of his “contract with God,” violated by the Almighty himself.  Hersh rebels against his previous life, but years later decides he needs another contract with God.

Eisner's creation of the entirety of A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories was driven by his grief over the loss of his own daughter, Alice, but especially the story, “A Contract with God.”  I think the central message of this story is about man's foolish belief that he can actually not only initiate a contract with God or eternity, but also dictate terms and conditions.  I cannot tell if Eisner wishes to convey acceptance or resignation to fate and God, but the sense of futility is obvious here, while also being wearily hopeful.  Life goes on...

The second story, “The Street Singer,” is set in the 1930s and focuses on Marta Maria (not her birth name), an opera singer who long ago abandoned her career, and a street singer named Eddie.  Their chance meeting gives birth to hopes of a career revival for one and a debut for the other, but a simple error on both their parts endangers their bold plans.

Other than the 10 pages that depict Marta and Eddie's meeting and their sexual and professional consummation, I am not crazy about this story, although I like it.  However, those ten pages contain some of Eisner's best page and individual panel design of his late career as a graphic novelist, especially that two-panel page in which Eddie walks into Marta apartment and then, enters her boudoir.

The third story is “The Super,” which is about Mr. Scruggs, the mean superintendent of the tenement at 55 Dropsie Avenue and his fateful encounter with Rosie, a poppet who might be one of the youngest femme fatales ever in comic books.  I am not a big fan of this story either, but it has some of Eisner's best cartooning of the human figure an exemplified in Mr. Scruggs.

In his post World War II work on his foundational comic book, The Spirit, Eisner frequently showed off his dexterity in cartooning the human figure in motion.  He matches that with the “The Super.”  This story opens with two masterful full-page illustrations, one suggesting Scruggs walking and the other a magnificent pose showing off Mr. Scrugg's physicality and his ability to intimidate using the threat of his physical prowess.

The final of the four stories is “Cookalein.”  The term refers to a kind of resort farm in the Catskill Mountains; 150 miles north of New York City.  City residents went to such places for summer vacations, and in this story, a wife and her two sons travel to a “cookalein” one summer.  However, marital stress lines between the wife and her husband, who will follow his family to the “cookalein” sometime later, grow wider, while the older of their two sons, Willie, has a life altering experience one hot summer night.

I have lost track of how many times I have re-read and perused all four of these stories in whole and in part, especially “Cookalein,” which is one of my all-time favorite Eisner works.  I had long hoped that Eisner would expand on this story, making it a larger, self-contained work or perhaps as a long-running serial featuring all the main characters from the story.

Over my many years of reading articles about A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories, I have come to understand that some comic historians and aficionados consider this work to be the pinnacle of Eisner's career.  I don't.  I consider Eisner's post-WWII work on The Spirit, his comic book published as a newspaper insert during the 1940s and early 1950s, to be his best work.  I do think that A Contract with God is the height of Eisner's comics that are his personal expressions, both as a storyteller and as an artist working in the comics medium.  This graphic novel may also be the best blending of Eisner's expression of pre-World War II Jewish American culture in New York City with his own history as a boy and then as a young man before WWII.

I can say that I love A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories even with my mixed feelings about some of the stories.  In the times that I have read or looked over A Contract with God since Will Eisner's passing, I find myself missing him something fierce... although I never met him.  Anyone who reads graphic novels has not really read graphic novels until he has read A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories.

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 syndication rights and fees.

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Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors for March 15, 2017

DARK HORSE COMICS

JAN170118    ANGEL SEASON 11 #3 MAIN FISCHER CVR    $3.99
JAN170119    ANGEL SEASON 11 #3 VAR DEKAL CVR    $3.99
OCT160055    BOUNTY TP VOL 01    $14.99
NOV160098    CHRONICLES OF CONAN TP VOL 34 BETRAYAL IN ZAMORA    $19.99
JAN170132    DARK HORSE PRESENTS #32    $4.99
JAN170116    DEAD INSIDE #4 (OF 5)    $3.99
JAN170135    ETHER #5    $3.99
JAN170096    NEIL GAIMAN AMERICAN GODS SHADOWS #1 (MR)    $3.99
JAN170097    NEIL GAIMAN AMERICAN GODS SHADOWS #1 MACK VAR CVR (MR)    $3.99
JAN170098    NEIL GAIMAN AMERICAN GODS SHADOWS #1 MCKEAN VAR CVR (MR)    $3.99
NOV160063    WILL EISNER CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 1917-2017 HC    $49.99
NOV160064    WILL EISNER CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 1917-2017 LTD ED HC    $99.99
SEP160136    WITCHER 3 WILD HUNT BUST GERALT GWENT    $129.99
NOV160049    WORLD OF WARCRAFT CHRONICLE HC VOL 02    $39.99

Dark Horse Comics from Diamond Distributors for February 10, 2016

DARK HORSE COMICS

DEC150072     ABE SAPIEN #31 MAIN CVR     $3.50
DEC150081     ALABASTER THE GOOD THE BAD & THE BIRD #3     $3.99
OCT150077     ARCHIE ARCHIVES HC VOL 12     $59.99
OCT150067     BTVS SEASON 10 TP VOL 04 OLD DEMONS     $18.99
OCT150048     ELTINGVILLE CLUB HC     $19.99
OCT150080     GIGANTO MAXIA TP     $13.99
DEC150078     HARROW COUNTY #9     $3.99
DEC150103     KINGS ROAD #1     $3.99
DEC150106     LEAVING MEGALOPOLIS SURVIVING MEGALOPOLIS #2     $3.99
DEC150110     MASSIVE NINTH WAVE #3     $3.99
DEC150053     MIRRORS EDGE EXORDIUM #6     $3.99
OCT150078     WILL EISNERS SPIRIT NEW ADVENTURES HC 2ND ED     $24.99
SEP150067     ZODIAC STARFORCE #4     $3.99

Review: THE SPIRIT: The New Adventures #1

THE SPIRIT: THE NEW ADVENTURES No. 1
KITCHEN SINK PRESS

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Alan Moore
ART/LETTERS: Dave Gibbons
COLOR: Angus McKie
COVER: Dave Gibbons
MISC. ART: Will Eisner with Charles Shadoian
32pp, Color, $3.50 U.S., $4.90 CAN (March 1998)

The Spirit is a comic book character created by cartoonist Will Eisner (who died in January 2005).  The Spirit first appeared on June 2, 1940 in what readers called “The Spirit Section.”  This was a 16-page, Sunday newspaper supplement or insert that was carried in various newspapers from the 1940s and into the early 1950s.  Once known as Detective Denny Colt (believed by some to be dead), The Spirit is a masked vigilante who fights crime in Central City.

Beginning in the early 1980s, Kitchen Sink Press did a complete reprinting of the post-World War II Spirit, which many readers and fans consider to be Will Eisner’s best and most influential work.  After the end of The Spirit’s newspaper run, there was very little new Spirit material…

That was until Kitchen Sink Press started publishing The Spirit: New Adventures in 1998.  This was an anthology title wherein a number of noted comic book creators and cartoonists chronicled new, post-Eisner Spirit adventures.  Over the course of the series run of eight issues, readers got new Spirit tales from Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell, Neil Gaiman, Dave Gibbons, Paul Pope, and James Vance & Dan Burr, to name a few.

The Spirit: New Adventures #1 features three interconnected tales written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons.  In “The Most Important Meal,” Doctor Cobra has his last meal, a solid breakfast, before his execution for double-murder.  Cobra shares his breakfast with a young cellmate, whom he regales with a tale of how Denny Colt, a promising young criminologist became The Spirit.

In “Force of Arms,” Homer Creap has complaints about The Spirit and shares them with a young lad.  Homer knows the truth about Doctor Cobra, and that tale returns to a time when Homer was the fiancé of one Ellen Dollan, daughter of Police Commissioner Dolan.  That was before The Spirit interfered.  The final story, “Gossip and Gertrude Granch,” finds widow, Gertrude Granch, entertaining a series of young men who seem to get younger with each new date… or so it seems to her gossipy neighbors.

Among the back matter in The Spirit: New Adventures #1 is a short feature article, “The Many Origins of the Spirit,” written by Catherine Garnier.  Until I read it, I did not know that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ trio of tales were a retelling of The Spirit’s origin.  In fact, it turns out that The Spirit’s creator, Will Eisner, told his character’s origin in his very first Spirit section (June 2, 1940) and then, retold it twice more.  With the debut of The Spirit: New Adventures, Moore and Gibbons were merely telling the origin story again, retelling, re-imagining, and adding to the canon.

Moore and Gibbons, using just a few of the elements they employed so fantastically in Watchmen, offer a few nods to the graphic and stylistic hallmarks that were Will Eisner’s Spirit.  As usual, Moore is clever and imaginative, here, more of the former than the latter.  Gibbons’ stoic and mercurial surrealism manages to capture the spirit of… The Spirit.  This issue’s closing tale, “Gossip and Gertrude Granch,” is pure Eisner and typical Moore.  In fact, the story reveals how much Eisner obviously influenced Moore.

I read The Spirit: New Adventures when the series was originally published.  Something made me think of it again, so I’m going to go back and re-read it.  I strongly recommend to you, dear reader, that you discover this comic book.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


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: KILL MY MOTHER: A Graphic Novel

KILL MY MOTHER: A Graphic Novel
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY/Liveright – @wwnorton and @LiverightPub

CARTOONIST:  Jules Feiffer
ISBN: 978-0-87140-314-8; hardcover (August 25, 2014)
160pp, Color/2-Color, $27.95 U.S., $32.95 CAN

Born in 1929, Jules Feiffer won a 1961 Academy Award for his animated short film, Munro.  In 1969 and 1970, his plays, Little Murders and The White House Murder Case, each won Obie and Outer Circle Critics Awards.  Feiffer won the Pulitzer Prize for political cartoons in 1986.

Jules Feiffer is American author, playwright, screenwriter, and comics creator.  He is also a syndicated cartoonist and may be best known for his long-running comic strip, Feiffer, which ran for 42 years in The Village Voice.

Now, the former teenage assistant to comics legend, Will Eisner, has produced the first graphic novel of his long and distinguished career, entitled Kill My Mother: A Graphic Novel.  This Film-Noir inspired comic book pays loving homage to the pulp-inspired films and comic strips that Feiffer loved as a youth, according to press material included with this original hardcover graphic novel's release.  Kill My Mother centers on five formidable women who are fatefully linked to a has-been, alcoholic, and lecherous private detective.

Kill My Mother opens in Bay City in the year 1933.  The story introduces Elsie Hannigan and her estranged teenaged daughter, Annie, who hates her mother.  Elsie is a widower, following the murder of her husband, Sam, a policeman.  Elsie's life is hectic and complicated.  Her boss is Neil Hammond, a hard-drinking, has-been private detective who takes shady jobs.

Hammond's most recent case arrives when a mystery woman, who identifies herself as Ruby Taylor, walks into the office, and asks Hammond to find Patricia Hughes.  This woman is a missing high school drama teacher with whom Ms. Taylor once had a close relationship.  Hammond knows that Taylor is lying about much (if not all) of what she tells him, but he takes the case anyway.  And he ends up murdered.

Ten years later, in 1943, Elsie is living in Hollywood.  She is the Executive Vice President of the Department of Image Security and Maintenance at Pinnacle Studios.  Basically, Elsie does damage control for the studio's movie stars.

Meanwhile, her daughter is now Ann Hannigan, and she is the single-mother of a young son, Sammy Hannigan.  Ann is also the creator and writer of the popular radio show, “Shut up, Artie.”  Of course, the series is based on her ex-boyfriend, Artie, but there is a problem with the wildly popular series.  America is at war, and Annie's former teen punching bag in no longer known as “Artie.”  He is now Captain Arthur Fulsom of the United States Marines, and he is a decorated World War II hero who is still fighting in the Pacific theater and who does not like the show.

Both mother and daughter discover that their pasts and their current jobs are about to clash in unexpected ways.  People from their respective and shared pasts either reemerge with new identities or with their true identities revealed.  Also, Elsie may be finally able to uncover a murderer.  This is all headed for an explosive conclusion that begins on the island of Tarawa, where war rages.

To be honest, the first time I tried to read Kill My Mother, I stopped after a few pages.  I avoided the galley/review copy that the publisher (Liveright, an imprint of W.W. Norton & Company) sent me.  I finally forced myself to read Kill My Mother, although I did not think that it would amount to very much.

Dear readers, you humble and favorite comic book reviewer was so wrong.  In the fourth chapter of this comic book, the first femme fatale enters the story, and Kill My Mother explodes.  From that point on, I tore through the story.  I didn't want it to end.  I am attracted to this comic book because of its Film-Noir and detective fiction influences.  At the beginning the book, Feiffer dedicates Kill My Mother to detective and crime fiction legends, including Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.  He acknowledges Film-Noir and crime film masters, such as John Huston and Howard Hawks, among others.  One might even call Kill My Mother the first Turner Classic Movies (TCM) graphic novel.

I think the biggest influence on Kill My Mother is the late Will Eisner, for whom Feiffer once worked.  In the way the story is executed and the way that the narrative unfolds, Kill My Mother is like a Will Eisner graphic novel.  The characters:  their personalities, the way they act, and their motivations make me think of the kind of characters found in Will Eisner's melodramas like A Contract with God and A Life Force, among others.

Feiffer makes this work distinctly his own through his dazzling graphical storytelling.  His compositions give life to static images.  The cartooning of the human figure makes emotion and motion a tangible thing; motivation and conflict are genuine.  Reading the storytelling that Feiffer tells though drawings and word balloons is also an adventure in plot twists.  You will likely not see some of what is coming, but you will want to see it.

Kill My Mother cannot quite be called “beginner's luck,” as this is not Feiffer's first experience with the comics medium.  However, his first graphic novel makes me want more from him.  Readers looking for comic books worth reading will want Kill My Mother: A Graphic Novel.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


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