IMAGE COMICS:
JUL200190 ASCENDER #13 (MR) $3.99
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JUL200072 TARTARUS TP VOL 01 $16.99
JUL200235 THAT TEXAS BLOOD #4 (MR) $3.99
Monday, September 28, 2020
Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for September 30, 2020
Marvel Comics from Diamond Distributors for September 30, 2020
MARVEL COMICS
JUL200672 AVENGERS #36 $3.99
JUL200673 AVENGERS #36 ALEX ROSS GHOST RIDER TIMELESS VAR $3.99
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JUL208872 AVENGERS #36 PICHELLI FORTNITE VAR $3.99
MAR201112 CONAN CHRONICLES EPIC COLLECTION TP HORRORS BENEATH STONES $44.99
JUL200695 DAREDEVIL BY CHIP ZDARSKY TP VOL 04 END OF HELL $15.99
DEC190976 DITKO IS STRANGE KING-SIZE HC $100.00
FEB200968 FALCON & WINTER SOLDIER #3 (OF 5) $3.99
JUL200668 FANTASTIC FOUR #24 ALEX ROSS HUMAN TORCH TIMELESS VAR EMP $3.99
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APR200837 SHANG-CHI #1 (OF 5) $3.99
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Comics, Magazines and Books from Diamond Distributors for September 30, 2020
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JUL201719 ACCA 13 TERRITORY INSPECTION DEPT PS GN VOL 01 $15.00
MAR201999 AGGRETSUKO HC VOL 01 METAL TO THE MAX $11.99
JUL201390 ANGELA DELLA MORTE VOL 2 #1 (RES) $3.95
AUG201881 AO HARU RIDE MANGA GN VOL 13 $9.99
JUL200996 ARTEMIS & ASSASSIN #5 $3.99
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APR208412 BATVARK XXXXX ONE SHOT $4.00
JUL201059 BEST OF ARCHIE CHRISTMAS CLASSICS TP $9.99
APR201534 BIG NATE STAYS CLASSY TP $14.99
JUL201102 BIGS AND TINY #3 (MR) $3.99
JUL201623 BLOOD ON TRACKS GN VOL 02 (RES) (MR) $12.95
APR201979 BRINA THE CAT GN VOL 02 CITY CAT $9.99
APR201980 BRINA THE CAT HC GN VOL 02 CITY CAT $14.99
JUL209247 BRONX HEROES IN TRUMPLAND GN $11.95
JUL201174 CARMEN SANDIEGO GN VOL 03 CHASING PAPER CAPER $10.99
JUL201175 CARMEN SANDIEGO HC GN VOL 03 CHASING PAPER CAPER $21.99
JUL201633 CASTE HEAVEN GN VOL 03 (MR) $12.99
AUG201364 CASTLE IN THE STARS HC GN VOL 04 FRENCHMAN ON MARS $19.99
AUG201873 CHAINSAW MAN GN VOL 01 $9.99
SEP191549 CINEMA PURGATORIO COMP STORY BOX SET $39.99
JUN201184 COMPLETE PENULTIMATE QUEST GN $25.00
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JUL201314 INVADER ZIM BEST OF WORLD DOMINATION TP (RES) $9.99
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AUG201728 CREEPS ANNUAL #3 2021 SPOOKTACULAR (MR) $9.95
JUL201288 SCARY MONSTERS MAGAZINE #118 (RES) $9.95
JUN201383 STAR WARS MANDALORIAN ART COLL ED HC VOL 01 (RES) $19.99
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APR201730 ARCHIE ANDREWS WHERE ARE YOU SEEK AND FIND BOOK $4.99
JUL201181 BAD GIRLS ART OF MARCELO TROM SC (MR) $19.95
AUG201288 DISNEY VILLAINS ESSENTIAL GUIDE REVISED ED HC $12.99
AUG201532 ELF POP CLASSIC ILLUS STORYBOOK HC $18.99
JUL201751 LAST CRUSADE RISE NEW WORLD LIGHT NOVEL SC VOL 04 $15.00
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DC Comics from Lunar/UCS Distributors for September 29, 2020
DC COMICS:
Batman Detective Comics Volume 3 Greetings From Gotham TP, $17.99
Batman Knight Out HC, $39.99
Batman Superman Annual #1, $4.99
Batman The Joker War Zone #1 (Cover A Ben Oliver), $5.99
Batman The Joker War Zone #1 (Cover B Derrick Chew Card Stock Variant), AR
Batman Three Jokers #2 (Of 3) Playing Cards, AR
Batman Three Jokers #2 (Of 3)(Cover A Jason Fabok), $6.99
Batman Three Jokers #2 (Of 3)(Cover B Jason Fabok Batgirl Variant), $6.99
Batman Three Jokers #2 (Of 3)(Cover C Jason Fabok Yellow Variant), AR
Batman Three Jokers #2 (Of 3)(Cover D Jason Fabok Black & White Variant), AR
Batman Three Jokers #2 (Of 3)(Cover E Jason Fabok Joker Behind Bars Variant), AR
Batman Three Jokers #2 (Of 3)(Cover F Jason Fabok Death In The Family Top Hat And Monocle Variant), AR
Batman Three Jokers #2 (Of 3)(Cover G Jason Fabok Joker Applying Makeup Variant), AR
Dark Nights Death Metal Multiverse’s End #1 (Cover A Michael Golden), $5.99
Dark Nights Death Metal Multiverse’s End #1 (Cover B Arthur Adams), AR
DC Connect Checklist Poster #4, AR
Harley Quinn And The Birds Of Prey #3 (Of 4)(Cover A Amanda Conner), $5.99
Harley Quinn And The Birds Of Prey #3 (Of 4)(Cover B Ian MacDonald), AR
John Constantine Hellblazer #10, $3.99
John Constantine Hellblazer Volume 1 Marks Of Woe TP, $19.99
Justice League Annual #2, $4.99
Legion Of Super-Heroes #9 (Cover A Ryan Sook), $3.99
Legion Of Super-Heroes #9 (Cover B Andre Araujo), AR
Low Low Woods HC, $24.99
Red Hood Outlaw #49 (Cover A Dan Mora), $3.99
Red Hood Outlaw #49 (Cover B Philip Tan), AR
Wonder Woman #763 (Cover A David Marquez), $4.99
Wonder Woman #763 (Cover B Joshua Middleton Card Stock Variant), AR
Wonder Woman 1984 #1 (Cover A Nicola Scott), $3.99
Wonder Woman 1984 #1 (Cover B Robin Eisenberg Rooster Teeth Variant), AR
Sunday, September 27, 2020
Book Review: ELEVATOR PITCH
HARPERCOLLINS/William Morrow
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
AUTHOR: Linwood Barclay
ISBN: 978-0-06-267828-7; hardcover; 6 in x 9 in; (September 17, 2019)
464pp, B&W, $26.99 U.S.
Elevator Pitch is a 2019 novel written by Linwood Barclay, the author of such bestselling novels as No Time for Goodbye and Trust Your Eyes. In Elevator Pitch, two veteran New York police detectives are trying to unravel the mystery of a strange and brutal murder, while a straight-shooting journalist attempts to discover why elevators in New York City are killing people, both of which may be the work of a notorious American terrorist group.
Elevator Pitch opens in New York City on a Monday when it all begins. At the Lansing Tower on Third between Fifty-Ninth and Sixtieth, four people board an elevator in the Manhattan office tower, each pressing a button for their floor. The elevator, however, is contrary and proceeds straight to the top floor... before plummeting non-stop right to the bottom of the elevator shaft. Three of the passengers are killed and a fourth is mortally wounded.
One of the victims is a young woman named Paula Chatsworth. Three years earlier, Paula had been an intern for the online publication, Manhattan Today, where Barbara Matheson reigns as the top columnist who has a reputation as a straight-shooter. At first, Barbara's focus is on the tragic death of Paula and on her grieving parents, but then, Paula discovers that mysterious men in black SUVs don't want Paula's parents talking to the press.
Still, the elevator accident at Lansing seems like nothing more than a random tragedy, horrific though it is. Then, on Tuesday, at the Sycamores Residences, below Sixty-Third, there is another elevator-related fatality. This time, the incident seems to have a ghastly and macabre sense of humor about it. When Wednesday brings more elevator death, this time at the Gormley Building on Seventh Avenue between Sixteenth and Seventeenth, New York City, America's capital of finance, entertainment, and media, falls into a state of fear and chaos. NYC is a vertical city; it cannot function without elevators. If this is an attempt to terrorize the city, who is behind it?
Meanwhile, Detective Jerry Bourque and his partner, Detective Lois Delgado, are investigating the homicide of a man whose body was found on the “High Line.” His face was beaten in until it was unrecognizable, and his fingertips have all been removed. A lucky break leads Bourque and Delgado to believe that their victim might be connected to the elevator sabotage, and the victim could somehow be connected to a domestic terrorist group, “the Flyovers,” that has been targeting cities along the coasts of America.
Are the incidents of elevator-sabotage, the High Line murder, and the Flyovers connected? Working separately, Barbara Matheson and the team of Bourque and Delgado will have to answer all those questions... and son. NYC's latest “big event” is a ribbon-cutting, on Thursday, for the city's newest, and tallest, residential tower, “Top of the Park.” Practically, everyone who is anyone will be there. So, it's the perfect time and place for terror, mayhem, and elevator mass murder.
THE LOWDOWN: Inside the front cover flap of the book jacket, the cover copy declares that Elevator Pitch is “...an edge-of-your-seat thriller that does for elevators what Psycho did for showers and Jaws did for the beach...” This is a bit of expected salesmanship on the part of William Morrow's marketing division, but I would not call it an overstatement.
Psycho and Jaws are movies, and they were, relative to the time of their respective releases, big hits at the movie theater box office. Both films were based on books – Psycho a 1959 novel of the same name and Jaws a 1974 novel of the same name – and both films have overshadowed, outlived, and out-shined the books that were their source material.
Elevator Pitch is only a novel, but if it were also a movie, a lot of people would be scared shitless of elevators after seeing it. Yeah, they would still get on elevators, but some of them would start to think that being in an elevator is like being in a shower with a knife-wielding great white shark. If a studio could make an Elevator Pitch movie that is as chilling as Elevator Pitch the novel is, movie audiences would have a brand new thrill ride to terrorize them into the summer.
Seriously, though, Elevator Pitch, which was released in hardcover in 2019 and in paperback earlier this year, is such a stone-cold killer of a novel because its author, Linwood Barclay, is an especially effective writer of suspense fiction and of thrillers. When Barclay starts killing his characters on elevators, there comes a point when readers will believe that any part of the story that takes place even in the vicinity of an elevator will soon turn from character drama to character butchery. I know that I started to feel a sense of dread every time the story moved into a building with an elevator.
Elevator Pitch even has a quote from Stephen King on the front of its book jacket, which says, “One hell of a suspense novel.” That is certainly true, and Elevator Pitch is one of those suspense novels that won't let you stop turning the pages. You can't stop, and you “can't hardly wait,” to get to the next page and to the next chapter.
A synopsis of Elevator Pitch really doesn't do justice to the entirety of the narrative. There are a lot more characters than I mentioned above, and there are a few back stories and several sub-plots. They all serve the story, and a few act as effective red herrings to keep the readers' imaginations on overdrive. The only fault that I find with the novel is that I wish it had focused a little more on the personalities of a few of the characters, for instance, Detectives Bourque and Delgado.
That aside, Elevator Pitch is the perfect pot-boiler novel for any book season. As long as there are elevators and other vertical transportation machines like that, Elevator Pitch will have a spot in our imaginations, in the places we like to be scared. Elevator Pitch will be waiting for us... it's sliding doors always open.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of Linwood Barclay and of suspense thrillers will want to read Elevator Pitch.
8 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
https://www.linwoodbarclay.com/
https://twitter.com/WmMorrowBooks
https://www.facebook.com/WilliamMorrowBooks
https://twitter.com/HarperCollins
https://www.harpercollins.com/
The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.
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Saturday, September 26, 2020
#IReadsYou Review: KILLADELPHIA #4
KILLADELPHIA #4
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
STORY: Rodney Barnes
ART: Jason Shawn Alexander
COLORS: Luis Nct
LETTERS: Marshal1 Dillon
LOGO/GRAPHIC DESIGN: Brent Ashe
EDITOR: Greg Tumbarello
COVER: Jason Shawn Alexander
VARIANT COVER ARTIST: Eric Canete
28pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S.(February 2020)
Rated “M/ Mature”
“Sins of the Father” Part IV: “...Cry Out for Revolution!”
Killadelphia is a new comic book series from writer Rodney Barnes and artist Jason Shawn Alexander (Empty Zone). The series focuses on a police officer who is clued onto a lurid secret by his dead father; the corrupt, but historical city of Philadelphia is vampire-ridden. Colorist Luis Nct and letterer Marshall Dillon complete Killadelphia's creative team.
James “Jim” Sangster, Jr. is a Baltimore Police Department beat cop who comes home to deal with the final affairs of his recently murdered father, revered Philadelphia homicide detective, James Sangster, Sr. Jimmy hated his father, who is not dead, but is of the undead. Now, son, vampire dad, and the chief medical examiner are working to stop a vampire apocalypse initiated by... the second President of the United States!
Killadelphia #4 (“...Cry Out for Revolution!”) opens on the night of revolution. John Adams, President turned vampire overlord, sends him vampire horde into the city of Philadelphia – to terrify it, to destroy it, and to drain it of its lifeblood. This is Adams' revolution to free mankind and to save humanity. Meanwhile, one of Adams' lieutenants has apparently turned counter-revolutionary, and he wants to meet Jim, Sr.
I tried waiting extended periods of time between reading issues of Killadelphia. It was my way of putting some distance between each issue and my mad love for this thrilling, modern vampire comic book. But forget that. Image Comics recently made a PDF review copy of Killadelphia #4 available to reviewers and that was vampire crack to a vampire crackhead reader. That would be me.
Artist Jason Shawn Alexander and colorist Luis Nct, who are starting to seem like the dream team of apocalyptic comic books, present the fall of a city in kinetic compositions and in spurts and splashes of end-times colors. Meanwhile, Marshall Dillon quietly letters and notes the last, dying hours of a city that was living on borrowed time anyway.
In 2004, Marvel Comics published a small trade paperback, Blade: Black & White, to coincide with the release of the film, Blade: Trinity. Among the stories reprinted in the collection were two Blade stories written by Chris Claremont (best known for his work on X-Men/Uncanny X-Men) and two by Marv Wolfman (best known for writing The New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths). The four stories were magnificent tales of urban horror and dark fantasy that mixed blaxploitation cinema with the edginess of the urban dramas and the horror movies of 1960s and 1970s.
Killadelphia's killa scribe, Rodney Barnes, is bringing da funk and da noise of edgy, urban, Black/African-American horror fantasy. This series offers some of the best vampire fiction in recent memory, and Barnes also seems to be dancing around dropping some major family dysfunction on his readers pretty soon. So... I'm still giving this my highest recommendation to encourage you to read Killadelphia, dear readers.
[This issue contains bonus art.]
10 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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Friday, September 25, 2020
#IReadsYou Review: PSYCHODRAMA ILLUSTRATED #1
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS – @fantagraphics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
CARTOONIST: Gilbert Hernandez
EDITOR: Eric Reynolds
COVER: Gilbert Hernandez with Paul Baresh
24pp, B&W, $4.99 U.S. (February 2020)
Gilbert “'Beto” Hernandez is the prolific half of the comic book creating duo, Los Bros. (the other half being his brother, Jaime Hernandez). Gilbert and Jaime are the creators of Love and Rockets (Fantagraphics Books), the greatest American comic book series of all time.
Gilbert has produced a number of solo projects including (the infamous) Blubber, Yeah! (with writer Peter Bagge), and Twilight Children (with the late Darwyn Cooke). Gilbert's latest solo comic book project is the recently launched series, Psychodrama Illustrated. According to publisher Fantagraphics Books, Psychodrama Illustrated is a new Love and Rockets spin-off focusing on the classic character, Rosalba Martinez, best known as “Fritz,” and on her extended family. The series will feature stories about Fritz’s film career “that bend Fritz’s reality.”
Psychodrama Illustrated #1 opens with a frontispiece (inside front cover) one-page comic in which Dr. Valus Droog breaks the fourth wall and informs the reader about Fritz. [He also appear on the inside back cover.] In the opening story, “False Modesty,” Fritz bumps into an old friend of her half-sister, Luba de los Santos, the classic L&R character known simply as “Luba.”
Fritz finds the gentleman starring at a one-sheet poster advertising the debut album from “Killer,” who is Fritz's grand-niece, Dora Rivera. It seems that Killer is also a young actress, and she has replaced Fritz in “Hypnotwist 2.0,” a remake/reboot of one of Fritz's film, “Hypnotwist” (the tale of which was chronicled in Love and Rockets Vol. 2 #3). When Fritz joins the production of the new film, will she really be able to fit in with Killer? And what does Luba's friend want from Fritz...?
THE LOWDOWN: I was a huge fan of Beto's Blubber comic book series. I found it to be in the tradition (or at least the spirit) of Underground Comix with its brave and bold depictions of raunchy sex and surreal sexuality.
After only one issue, I don't quite know what to make of Psychodrama Illustrated, but I have to admit to you, dear readers, or at least the ones that already don't know, that I always love the work of Gilbert Hernandez. [I feel the same way about Jaime Hernandez.] I can say that Psychodrama Illustrated feels like the usual Love and Rockets comics starring Fritz, by which I mean that Beto gives us the breath and width of Fritz's character. Fritz is always acting, in front of, behind, and on the side of the camera. And she's always gonna f**k somebody (male, female, or otherwise), and here, one guy gets it and one (currently in prison) might get f****d.
“Inscrutable” is the word I most use to describe the late cartoonist Charles Schulz's Peanuts characters. I will say the same thing about Fritz, and in Psychodrama Illustrated, I hope that Beto does not decide to illuminate to many of the mysteries of Fritz.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of Gilbert Hernandez's Love and Rockets comics will have to have Psychodrama Illustrated.
8 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
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