Dynamite Entertainment from Diamond Distributors for July 11, 2018

D. E.

MAY181067    DEJAH THORIS #6 CVR A MCKONE    $3.99
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MAY188239    ELVIRA MISTRESS OF DARK #1 ROBERTO CASTRO CVR    $3.99
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APR180967    KISS AOD #5 (OF 5) CVR A STRAHM    $3.99
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IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for July 11, 2018

IDW PUBLISHING

MAR180563    COME AGAIN HC    $24.99
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APR180441    HAUNTED HORROR #34    $4.99
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MAR180567    JOE JUSKO MARVEL MASTERPIECES HC    $59.99
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Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for July 11, 2018

IMAGE COMICS

MAY180103    BLACK SCIENCE #37 CVR A SCALERA & DINISIO (MR)    $3.99
MAY180104    BLACK SCIENCE #37 CVR B SHALVEY (MR)    $3.99
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APR180538    GEAR OGN (NEW EDITION)    $14.99
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MAY180071    MEMOIRS OF A VERY STABLE GENIUS TP (MR)    $19.99
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APR180632    SAVAGE DRAGON #235 (MR)    $3.99

Marvel Comics from Diamond Distributors for July 11, 2018

MARVEL COMICS

APR180871    ALL NEW WOLVERINE TP VOL 06 OLD WOMAN LAURA    $15.99
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MAY180869    TRUE BELIEVERS FANTASTIC FOUR HULK VS THING #1    $1.00
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APR180870    WOLVERINE OLD MAN LOGAN TP VOL 07 SCARLET SAMURAI    $15.99
MAY180808    X-23 #1    $4.99
MAY180914    X-MEN BLUE #31    $3.99

Comics, Magazines and Books from Diamond Distributors for July 11, 2018

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS

MAY182102    A&A ADV OF ARCHER & ARMSTRONG HC DLX ED    $49.99
MAY181715    AGENCY GN    $25.00
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MAR181938    ATLAS AND AXIS TP    $19.99
MAY181321    BETROTHED #5    $3.99
MAY181397    BETTY AND VERONICA FRIENDS FOREVER TRAVEL TALES #2    $2.99
MAR181146    BLACK HOPS USA GI #1 BUNS OF THE PATRIOTS PART 1    $3.99
MAY182096    BLOODSHOT SALVATION #11 CVR A ROCAFORT    $3.99
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DEC171069    CASPER AND HOT STUFF #1 GALVAN MAIN CVR    $3.99
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MAY181849    CATALYST PRIME ACCELL #12    $3.99
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MAR181793    MADE MEN TP VOL 01 GETTING GANG BACK TOGETHER    $19.99
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MAY181366    NINJAS VS ROBOTS TP    $14.99
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APR181250    WICKED RIGHTEOUS #6 (OF 6) (MR)    $1.50
MAY181400    WORLD OF ARCHIE JUMBO COMICS DIGEST #80    $6.99
MAY182147    WORLDS GREATEST FIRST LOVE GN VOL 10 (MR)    $12.99
MAY181971    ZINNOBER #2    $3.99

MAGAZINES
MAY181590    COMIC SHOP NEWS #1621    $PI
MAR188048    COMICS REVUE PRESENTS JUN 2018    $19.95
MAY182047    STAR WARS INSIDER #182 NEWSSTAND ED    $7.99
MAY182048    STAR WARS INSIDER #182 PX ED    $7.99

BOOKS
MAY182180    AMIGURUMI SAN-X CROCHET PATTERNS SC    $14.99
MAY182237    ATTACK ON TITAN CHARACTER ENCYCLOPEDIA SC (MR)    $10.99
MAY181935    CON ARTIST SC MYSTERY    $14.99
MAY181603    DUCKTALES SOLVING MYSTERIES & REWRITING HISTORY HC    $12.99
MAY182193    DURARARA LIGHT NOVEL SC VOL 10    $14.00
MAY181767    LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK AVENGERS THREAT OF THANOS YR HC    $4.99
MAY182194    MAGICAL GIRL RAISING PROJECT LIGHT NOVEL SC VOL 04    $14.00
MAY182115    POP MANGA MERMAIDS OTHER SEA CREEATURES COLORING BOOK    $15.99
MAY181597    STAR WARS ARE YOU SCARED DARTH VADER YR HC    $17.99
MAY181771    STAR WARS LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK LAST JEDI (RES)    $4.99
MAY182907    WARHAMMER 40K ASSAULT BLACK REACH PROSE NOVEL SC    $5.00
MAY182908    WARHAMMER 40K BLACK LEGION PROSE NOVEL SC    $16.00
MAY182910    WARHAMMER 40K CRUSADE PROSE NOVEL SC    $5.00
MAY182912    WARHAMMER 40K HORUSIAN WARS RESSURECTION PROSE NOVEL SC    $16.00
MAY182913    WARHAMMER 40K SIN DAMNATION PROSE NOVEL SC    $5.00
MAY182901    WARHAMMER CITY OF SECRETS PROSE NOVEL SC    $5.00
MAY182902    WARHAMMER HAMMERHAL PROSE NOVEL SC    $5.00
MAY182904    WARHAMMER SOUL WARS PROSE NOVEL HC    $27.00
MAY182906    WARHAMMER ULRIKA VAMPIRE PROSE NOVEL SC    $21.00
MAY182905    WARHAMMER WOLF KING PROSE NOVEL SC    $5.00
MAY188209    WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE JEDI THE LAST HC    $14.95

Review: JIMMY'S BASTARDS #1

JIMMY'S BASTARDS No. 1
AFTERSHOCK COMICS – @AfterShockComix

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Garth Ennis
ARTIST: Russ Braun
COLORS: John Kalisz
LETTERS: Rob Steen
COVERS: Dave Johnson (A); Russ Braun with John Kalisz (B)
VARIANT COVERS: Terry Dodson with Rachel Dodson; Cully Hamner; Andrew Robinson; Mike Booth with Elizabeth Torque
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (June 2017)

Mature Readers

Created by Garth Ennis and Russ Braun

“Get Daddy”

Jimmy's Bastards is a new comic book series from writer Garth Ennis and artist Russ Braun.  Ennis is known for the seminal DC Comics/Vertigo title, Preacher, and for his work on such titles as The Punisher and his controversial creator-owned title, The Boys.  Braun is known for his work on Vertigo titles like Fables, Fairest, and Jack of Fables.  On Jimmy's Bastards, John Kalisz is colorist and Rob Steen is letterer.

Jimmy's Bastards #1 (“Get Daddy”) introduces James “Jimmy” Regent, who is Great Britain's number one super-spy.  He has all the intrigue and adventure he can handle, and he has a license to shoot whomever he likes.  Jimmy can also perform whatever sexual acts he wishes on a veritable legion of beautiful and willing women.  His new partner, Nancy McEwan, isn't sold on his charms, though.  It turns out that she isn't the only one not so impressed with Jimmy.  Their is a new threat mounting against him and it is more personal than he can imagine.

I think that the central premise of Jimmy's Bastards is ripe with possibilities, but I don't like Jimmy Regent.  I think that he is supposed to be unlikable, but to me, he barely registers as a character.  Obviously, we will learn more about Jimmy in future issues (I hope).  I think that Nancy McEwan has more potential than Jimmy, but there will probably be some violence done to her in the end, ruining her full development.

I recommend Jimmy's Bastards to Garth Ennis fans, especially because I think the adversaries in this series will yield great fun.  Obviously, the second issue will reveal even more about this narrative than the first issue does.

[This comic book includes a six-page preview of Unholy Grail by Cullen Bunn and Miriko Colak.]

6.5 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.

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

Book Review: ET TU, BRUTE? The Deaths of the Roman Emperors

ET TU, BRUTE? THE DEATHS OF THE ROMAN EMPERORS
W.W. NORTON & COMPANY – @wwnorton

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR: Jason Novak
ISBN: 978-0-393-63573-7; hardcover – 5.6” x 7.3” (June 12, 2018)
208pp, Color, $16.95 U.S., $22.95 CAN

Et Tu, Brute? The Deaths of the Roman Emperors is a book of cartoons from cartoonist, Jason Novak, whose work has appeared in such periodicals and journals as Harper's, The New Yorker, and the Paris Review, to name a few.  Et Tu, Brute? is a work of history told via cartoons, and it compiles the deaths of all the Roman emperors, from the establishment of the Roman Empire (27 BC) to the fall of Rome and the end of the “Western Empire” (476 AD).

Did you know that Julius Caesar was not the first emperor of Rome.  Caesar had proclaimed himself provisional dictator, but he was murdered before the role of Roman emperor was codified.  Still, Caesar's brutal fate and his ghost seemed to have haunted the role of emperor, as the first emperor, Augustus, who was Caesar's adopted nephew, Octavian, would learn.  When the Roman Republic became an empire (27 BC), it got an emperor, and suddenly Rome, what it was – body and soul – became embodied in a single frail and imperfect human being.

And many of those emperors found their lives snuffed out, often murdered by colleagues and fellow citizens, the way Julius Caesar was.  See Nero stabbing himself in the throat.  Witness Tiberius smothered in his sleep by his successor.  Cartoon Caligula is killed by his own praetorian guard in a single cartoon illustration.

Et Tu, Brute? The Deaths of the Roman Emperors chronicles the death by murder, disease, mutiny, war, etc., and by unknown causes of every emperor.  It begins with Augustus being poisoned by his wife in 14 A.D. to the mysterious fate of Romulus Augustus after the fall of Rome in 476 A.D. and the end of the Rome's “Western Empire.”  Et Tu, Brute? carries readers on a bloody romp through the first five centuries of the Roman Empire, but it is a journey illustrated in over ninety 5.6” × 7.3” cartoons, each one with a wry and wicked sense of humor in depicting the demise of an emperor and occasionally a would-be-emperor.

I am a huge fan of the kind of humor and political cartoons found in magazines, newspapers, and other periodicals.  I especially love the singe-panel vignettes and single-page illustrations found in men's magazines such as Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, and the Humorama line.  If I had to pick a favorite periodical for cartoons it would be the venerable magazine, The New Yorker, and my favorite cartoonist is the late and eternally great Charles Addams, one of the grand old masters of The New Yorker.

In Et Tu, Brute? The Deaths of the Roman Emperors, James Novak's cartoons recall the work of a author and illustrator who plied his trade in a vein similar to Addams, the late master, Edward Gorey.  Novak's drawing and graphic style are more about sensibility rather than about composition, in this case a macabre sensibility.  Novak is at once mercurial and then, representational.  His compositions erratically balance sparse line work and brushstrokes that slap ink around as if by a drunken cartoonist's hand.  And that works for his subject matter, particularly in Et Tu, Brute?

This book is both witty and morbid, but there is power in the way Novak draws these cartoons, in what he presents to his readers.  He conveys that fate is fickle and life and existence – if they can be embodied or personified – have a twisted sense of humor.  Dear reader, you don't have to know much about the Roman Empire to like this book.  You can simply enjoy Et Tu, Brute? The Deaths of the Roman Emperors because cartoon history is a great way to learn a little history and because this cartoon history is a macabre blast to read.

8 out of 10

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


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