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Monday, November 15, 2021
IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for November 17, 2021
Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for November 17, 2021
Marvel Comics from Diamond Distributors for November 17, 2021
Comics, Magazines and Books from Diamond Distributors for November 17, 2021
DC Comics from Lunar Distributors for November 16, 2021
Aquaman The Becoming #3 (Of 6)(Cover A David Talaski), $3.99
Aquaman The Becoming #3 (Of 6)(Cover B Khary Randolph Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Batman #117 (Cover A Jorge Jimenez)(Fear State), $4.99
Batman #117 (Cover B Jorge Molina Card Stock Variant)(Fear State), $5.99
Batman #117 (Cover C Rose Besch Retro Gamer Card Stock Variant)(Fear State), AR
Batman Secret Files The Gardener #1 (One Shot)(Cover A Christian Ward)(Fear State), $4.99
Batman Secret Files The Gardener #1 (One Shot)(Cover B Ejikure Card Stock Variant)(Fear State), $5.99
Batman Secret Files The Gardener #1 (One Shot)(Cover C Christian Ward Card Stock Variant)(Fear State), AR
Batman Vs Bigby A Wolf In Gotham #3 (Of 6)(Cover A Yanick Paquette), $3.99
Batman Vs Bigby A Wolf In Gotham #3 (Of 6)(Cover B Brian Level & Jay Leisten Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Blue And Gold #4 (Of 8)(Cover A Ryan Sook), $3.99
Catwoman Volume 5 Valley Of The Shadow Of Death TP, $16.99
DC Horror Presents Soul Plumber #1 (Of 6)(2nd Printing John McCrea Cover), $3.99
Dreaming Waking Hours TP, $29.99
Green Lantern #8 (Cover A Bernard Chang), $4.99
Green Lantern #8 (Cover B Juliet Nneka Card Stock Variant), $5.99
Justice League #69 (Cover A Jorge Fornes), $4.99
Justice League #69 (Cover B Alexander Lozano Card Stock Variant), $5.99
Justice League Endless Winter HC, $29.99
Legends Of The Dark Knight #7 (Cover A Karl Mostert), $3.99
Legends Of The Dark Knight #7 (Cover B Daniel Warren Johnson & Mike Spicer Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Legends Of The Dark Knight #7 (Cover C Jorge Fornes Card Stock Variant), AR
Looney Tunes #263 (Cover A Derek Fridolfs & Dave Alvarez), $2.99
Nice House On The Lake #6 (Of 12)(Cover A Alvaro Martinez Bueno), $3.99
Nice House On The Lake #6 (Of 12)(Cover B Javier Rodriguez Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Nightwing #86 (Cover A Bruno Redondo)(Fear State), $3.99
Nightwing #86 (Cover B Jamal Campbell Card Stock Variant)(Fear State), $4.99
Nightwing #86 (Cover C Bruno Redondo Card Stock Variant)(Fear State), AR
Nubia And The Amazons #2 (Of 6)(Cover A Alitha Martinez), $3.99
Nubia And The Amazons #2 (Of 6)(Cover B Maika Sozo Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Other History Of The DC Universe HC, $29.99
Plunge TP, $17.99
Refrigerator Full Of Heads #2 (Of 6)(Cover A Sam Wolfe Connelly), $3.99
Refrigerator Full Of Heads #2 (Of 6)(Cover B Tiffany Turrill Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Robins #1 (Of 6)(Cover A Baldemar Rivas), $3.99
Robins #1 (Of 6)(Cover B Babs Tarr Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Suicide Squad #9 (Cover A Eduardo Pansica), $3.99
Suicide Squad #9 (Cover B Dexter Soy Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Suicide Squad King Shark #3 (Of 6)(Cover A Trevor Hairsine), $3.99
Suicide Squad King Shark #3 (Of 6)(Cover B Francesco Mattina Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Supergirl Woman Of Tomorrow #5 (Of 8)(Cover A Bilquis Evely), $4.99
Supergirl Woman Of Tomorrow #5 (Of 8)(Cover B Amy Reeder), $4.99
Superman Son Of Kal-El #5 (Cover A John Timms), $3.99
Superman Son Of Kal-El #5 (Cover B InHyuk Lee Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Superman Son Of Kal-El #5 (Cover C Travis Moore Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Wonder Woman Evolution #1 (Of 8)(Cover A Mike Hawthorne), $3.99
Wonder Woman Evolution #1 (Of 8)(Cover B Riley Rossmo Card Stock Variant), $4.99
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Friday, November 12, 2021
#IReadsYou Review: SURFACING #9
SURFACING #9
APPROBATION COMICS
STORY: B. Alex Thompson – @ApproBAT
ART: Nato Magalhães
COLORS: Santtos
LETTERS: Krugos with Jahch & J< Yellodragon
EDITORS: Denise Thompson and John Ward
MISC. ART: Cesar Grego with Alivon Ortiz
COVER: Cesar Grego with Alivon Ortiz
24pp, Color, $4.99 U.S.
Rated: “M” for Mature
“Psychic Touch”
Surfacing is a comic book franchise created by B. Alex Thompson and published by Approbation Comics. The four-issue miniseries, Surfacing: Depth Perceptions, focuses on a series of encounters, sometimes violent, between humans and mermaid-like creatures. The eponymous Surfacing is an anthology series in which each issue offers a story in which a mermaid finds herself trapped in or confronting the world of humans.
One of the more recent standalone Surfacing stories is “Psychic Touch.” It is written by Thompson, drawn by Nato Magalhães; colored by Santtos; and lettered by Krugos with Jahch & J< Yellodragon.
Surfacing #9 (“Psychic Touch”) opens in an unnamed city. An unnamed young man sits on his bed while using his laptop to search the job listings at a website named “KruJobs.” He doesn't find anything of interest until he comes across a listing for “Local Paid Clinical Trial.” The next morning, he is at a medical building where a bizarre surgery is performed upon him. A few hours later, he has the ability to sense the feelings and emotions of others. That leads to good things, bad things, and strange things when he meets some creatures of fantasy and myth.
THE LOWDOWN: I enjoyed the miniseries, Surfacing: Depth Perceptions, very much. However, I prefer the ongoing Surfacing series, not only because it is an anthology, but also because it really showcases B. Alex Thompson's imaginative storytelling.
On occasion, Thompson has written stories that go right over my head, which “Psychic Touch” does, to an extent. “Psychic Touch” does not have any dialogue, but it is not a pantomime comic because it does have caption boxes and lettering effects. Thompson offers an interesting concept, but the mermaid elements seem not thrown in so much as out of place. Still, I think this premise does merit further exploration.
The art team of illustrator Nato Magalhães and colorist Santtos are good for this story, partly because their art is similar to Surfacing's regular art team of Ricardo Mendez and Alivon Ortiz. Magalhães' compositions capture the vague but menacing atmosphere of this premise while Santtos' colors capture the shifting emotional states of the characters and also how jarring the changes in settings and environments in this story can be. In conveying how overwhelming emotions and feelings can be for a psychic, Krugos and company successful pull that off in an interesting style.
I recommend Surfacing #9 to regular readers of this series, and I think readers looking for something offbeat will also like it.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of fantasy comic books published by DC Comics' late imprint, Vertigo, will want to read Surfacing.
B+
7 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
https://twitter.com/ApproBAT
www.ApprobationComics.com
www.AlexThompsonWriter.com
The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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Tuesday, November 9, 2021
#IReadsYou Review: RED ROOM: The Antisocial Network #1
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
CARTOONIST: Ed Piskor
EDITOR: Eric Reynolds
COVER: Ed Piskor
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Jim Rugg; Peach Momoko
64pp, B&W2-color, $6.99 U.S. (May 2021)
Red Room is a new comic book series from cartoonist Ed Piskor. Piskor is best known for Hip Hop Family Tree, a comic book that chronicles the early history of Hip-hop culture and has been published in graphic novel and serial comic book form. Piskor also produced the highly unusual history of Marvel Comics' X-Men in X-Men Grand Design, a set of three two-issue miniseries: X-Men: Grand Design (2018), X-Men: Grand Design – Second Genesis (2018), and X-Men: Grand Design – X-Tinction (2019).
Published by Fantagraphics Books, Red Room is a 12-issue series. Described by the publisher as “a cyberpunk, outlaw, splatterpunk masterpiece,” Red Room focuses on a murderous, dark web subculture in which a secretive audience pays to view webcam murders with crypto-currency.
Red Room #1 opens in Steel Valley, specifically at the Steel Valley Municipal Courthouse. There, we meet longtime courthouse clerk, Davis Fairfield, who is about to get some terrible news. His wife, Delores, and one of his two daughters, Hayley, have been killed by a drunk driver. Now, Davis and his daughter, Brianna, a high school senior on the verge of graduating, must soldier on. Luckily, Brianna has her friend, Taylor (“Tay-Tay”), but what does dear old dad have? Where does he go for fun?
Davis Fairfield goes to a “Red Room.” Red Rooms are places on the Internet with encrypted I.P. addresses. Each Red Room is a webcam stream where viewers can watch a “torture star” murder another human being in the most brutal, savage, vile, and stomach-turning ways. With the help of untraceable crypto-currency, a subculture of criminals has emerged in which one side patronizes the webcam murders for entertainment and in which the other side gleefully kills to entertain in what seems like the evolution of the snuff films of folklore.
Soon, Davis will find himself caught up in the machinations of murder-torture-porn entrepreneur, Mistress Pentagram, who has bloody ambitions for her “Pentagram Pictures.” Who are these murderers, with names like “Poker Face” and “Sarah Jane Payne?” Who are these victims, who could be you? Who can stop this?!
THE LOWDOWN: Red Room #1 is a science fiction comic book, albeit a dark one. It has elements of dystopian sci-fi, speculative fiction, and contemporary drama. It would be easy to call this new series depraved, which it is not.
Red Room trades in the depravity of humanity. For all that it may be science fiction, Red Room, even with its exaggeration and inventiveness, is quite plausible, for the most part. Let's not kid ourselves. We don't have to go too far into cable and satellite television or online to find people during horrible things to their spouses, children, family, friends, co-workers, and strangers. Mass shootings have become so frequent in the United States that they hardly register anymore with some people.
Ed Piskor's inventive depictions of torture and murder almost have a Tex Avery or Looney Tunes-inspired madness to them. I find that this keeps me from loosing myself in the murders and then, forgetting the narrative. It would be a shame to forget the story, but I understand why the cartoonist would depict the violence the way he does. Piskor's Red Room has more in common with classic Underground Comics than the fantasy and horror comic books published by the defunct DC Comics label, Vertigo, or even Image Comics and BOOM! Studios. Some of those comic books are satirical, but they are meant for the “straights.”
Red Room is a rebel vision, and Piskor's satire is closer to R. Crumb's than to Kurt Vonnegut's. Like Gilbert Hernandez, Piskor is liberated in the way he can be scatological. Red Room trades in trash culture in the creation of a work that speculates on a possible future for and direction of a segment of mass culture and entertainment.
Actually, the best thing that I can say about Red Room #1 is that I find it so intriguing. From the first page on, I found myself drawn into its world. Every page made me want more, and I really wanted more by the time I reached the last page. And, dear readers, I have to recommend any comic book that gives its readers a first issue of 64 pages, especially when those 64 pages are all-new, all-different, all-good, and all-unapologetic.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of Ed Piskor's work and of alternative comics as science fiction will want to read Red Room.
A
9 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
Buy and/or subscribe to Red Room here: https://www.fantagraphics.com/collections/red-room
https://twitter.com/EdPiskor
https://twitter.com/cartoonkayfabe
https://www.youtube.com/c/cartoonistkayfabe
https://www.instagram.com/ed_piskor/
https://linktr.ee/edpiskor
https://www.fantagraphics.com/
https://twitter.com/fantagraphics
https://www.instagram.com/fantagraphics/
https://www.facebook.com/fantagraphics/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtLxEaspctVar287DtdsMww
The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint or syndication rights and fees.
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