Tuesday, July 28, 2015

ALL STAR RECOMMENDS FOR JULY 28TH



Konban Wa! Hisashiburi desu ne?

Who reads comics and has an obsessively detailed G1 Climax 25 spreadsheet printed out to handily tally points? This dork!

No time for talk. It’s night four as I type this.


COMIC OF THE WEEK : BORB
By Jason Little
Published by Uncivilized Books

So as you may know, All Star co-owner Mitch is overseas being an Eisner-winning big shot and posting pics of himself with Mike Allred and Ed Piskor on Twitter. I know, I know, I want to hate him too. The thing is he’s just way too nice to even get so much as annoyed at. Here’s proof in the form of a slice from one of his emails to me, upon arriving in San Francisco:

“…the way the homeless have to live is terrible. There is like a horrible, unspoken understanding between them and everyone else, where for the most part neither party acknowledges each other's existence. It's a horrible sense of making them invisible, I can't imagine how it must make them feel.”

We’ve all likely felt this way at some point. The conflicting unease, sympathy, mistrust, disgust and heartbreaking sadness of the plight and appearance of the much less fortunate can take some digesting, particularly if you experience all of these reactions simultaneously which can happen. This unease is even heightened when visiting foreign countries where the circumstances of the homeless are frequently far worse and way more in your face than they are here. And maybe you look a round, see a guy with a cardboard sign and a fresh pack of cigarettes and sometimes think do they really even have it that bad? With some shame I must admit that in my lowest moments I’ve actually had a slight pang of envy at the homeless in Japan, many of whom live a seemingly peaceful existence in tight little social clusters in blue-tarp covered domiciles that quite often look really cosy.

Even here in Melbourne, things can’t be that bad, right? I see Bianca, Shane and Boof at least several times a week. That beautiful dog is virtually a celebrity at this point. They’ve tapped into electricity and can “lock out intruders,” so how bad can their lives be?

This envisioning of homelessness as some sort of romantic, off-the-grid, vagabond lifestyle is remarkably insensitive, offensive, completely absurd and likely makes me sound like a total asshole. I’m just trying to be honest here though, because Borb, by two-time Ignatz-winning and Eisner- nominated creator Jason Little, will make you have a good hard look at yourself, your level of empathetic capability, your aloofness and the degree to which you’ll completely separate your reality from that of those around you.

Formatted as a four-panel newspaper strip, Borb tells the tale of a homeless man whose train wreck of a life spirals ever downward in humorous gag-strip fashion. Humiliated, debased and mistreated at virtually every turn, poor Borb highlights the problem of the homeless and our reactions to this problem and simultaneously, mercilessly makes fun of both.

Resembling something like a Captain Haddock gone completely to seed and off the rails, Borb perfectly embodies the horror of not being able to either afford or have access to the things we can and frequently do take for granted. Suffering broken limbs, destroyed teeth, lack of hygiene, zero affection and never being treated by anyone at any time with anything resembling common decency, poor Borb is of a class so far below us he’s, as Mitch noted, virtually invisible. Even when he is cared for, his treatment is frequently superficial, little more than a Band-Aid on the problem. The “temporary housing” he’s granted at one point is little better than some flophouse that should be earmarked for demolition. Its broken windows make it impossible to heat and once Borb cuddles up to his dodgy space heater, he accidentally burns the place to the ground.

This is one example of many “Oh Borb, you goof…whatever mischief will you get up to next?” moments as Borb splits his pants, shits in bags, accidentally drinks perfume and takes tumbles down subway staircases. Alcoholic, dyslexic and broke, Borb is frequently the object of both ridicule and mistrust. He embodies all the stereotypes of the homeless – including their unfortunate, yet understandable tendencies toward self-destruction – to reveal just how cruel our opinions, ignorance and ambivalence toward their plight actually is. He’s the “bum” as total caricature, but as you chuckle along, ever-sad as you do so, the joke slowly turns as Borb’s gags and pratfalls increase in severity and hopelessness and the despair ramps up.

What’s truly special about Borb, which is created partly in homage to Depression-era newspaper strips, is how the “comedy vagabond” archetype of such material slips away to reveal the horror and complete futility at the very heart of this character’s existence. He’s “Just some homes guy,” says an EMT tending to him says at one point and this is a refrain that echoes all the way through the work right up until its conclusion, when you realise there never is or has been humour in any of this.

Ultimately, Borb must himself bear some responsibility for his existence just as we all do. Jason Little squeezes in enough of his backstory to make this apparent. How you, as both human and reader (the best kind of human), react to this is perhaps the core of Little’s book. How big is your heart? When comes the point where you write a person off? Or damn them for their errors? Well, prepare to find out if you read this brilliant, relevant and utterly necessary piece of comics.


WEBCOMIC OF THE WEEK : HAUNTER
By Sam Alden

Sam Alden drops readers right into Haunter, a beautiful and exciting two-part webcomic published at the always top notch Study Group Comics site, giving us what ultimately amounts to little more than extended chase scene. But what a chase scene it is. A raggedly-clad female survivor of some disaster or other (one presumes) is on the hunt for a boar with nothing more than a simple bow and arrow, but ends up being stalked through the landscape by something seemingly ancient and supernatural.

Completely silent, Haunter is all about the landscapes – bizarre forests, odd temples, underwater caverns – the ever-versatile Alden’s remarkable linework and lush palate and the chase itself which reads like some uncommonly lovely backwoods survivalist horror movie gone quite surreal. Haunter is brisk, constantly moving and full of visual surprises. Devoid of backstory, much plot or any dialogue, Haunter is all about forward motion. Thrillingly climactic, it’s remarkable how much Alden will make you care for a protagonist you know little or nothing about other than the fact that she’s clearly quite the survivor.

While you’re there at Study Group Comics, have a virtual rummage around the place. The site is a complete embarrassment of riches.


COUNTDOWN TO MOZ METAL: HEAVY METAL, MAY 1977

Did you know that not every man can handle Metaxa? I didn’t, but considering I had no idea what Metaxa is that’s probably to be expected. Clearly I am not man enough to imbibe this liquid, advertised in the second ever issue of Heavy Metal with a full pager featuring a spiked, gauntleted fist clutching a bottle of the stuff and thrusting it our faces, but a quick Google search reveals that Metaxa is a honey-flavoured Greek “amber spirit” (now drunk not by warriors but by handsome stubbly men, clearly not tested in battle, and their blonde sun-drenched women according to the website). Still, the fine print of this amazing ad tells me that it’s “84 proof Greek Specialty Liqueur,” so perhaps I’m writing it off to quickly. “Drunk by Gods and Warriors. And men who can handle it.” I’m up for the test…

Metaxa! The official hooch of Heavy Metal May ’77!


It’s quite the ad, but far from the most remarkable thing about this issue, which opens with my hero Jacques Tardi’s “MEAOBbBIN MECRU” (that is not a typo), a tale of sexy Russian cosmonauts that almost resembles a team-up between Gilbert Hernandez at his most absurdist and Guy Peellaert of Adventures of Jodelle fame. Remarkable.

Philippe Druillet’s astonishing “Agorn” follows, a stunningly weird slice of black and white dark fantasy in which the titular character, plagued by nightmares, has the love of his life cast to “the demons of the dark” by his family and their magician so he slaughters them all ruthlessly, in the process becoming damned “for thousands and thousands of years” by his actions, forever woken from sleep and forced to relive it all over again. Beautifully circular in structure and complex in layout, “Agorn” should be read several times in a loop to best appreciate the hell its doomed protagonist is trapped in.

“Den” and “Conquering Armies” continue masterfully, along with “Harzach” (Arzach) by Moebius, but it’s “Roger,” a Fumetti by Locquet and Souchu, that will likely turn the most heads for the new reader with its male action figure protagonist raging against Roger, the god-like being who plays with them as though they were “mass-produced dolls”.  Strikingly quirky and odd, “Roger” thankfully continues in several months time. Roll on August ’77!

As the intro to the issue says, “Other tales complete their time/space existence here before yr [yes, it says “yr”] very eyes,” but I’m out of room so let’s just say that the hallucinatory “Virgo” by Philippe "Caza" Cazamayou, featuring a naked woman partaking of the…um…seed…of a reptilian fruit that looks more like the head of Killer Croc’s appendage than something from the Garden of Eden and subsequently ends up pregnant with some sort of Godly planetoid, is worthy not for just its strangeness and stunning detail, but also as it could potentially be read as Lilith’s sexual encounter with Samael…

Heavy Metal! Not just stoner T&A but theology lessons as well!



COMICS VIDEO OF THE WEEK : A CONTRACT WITH GOD: WILL EISNER

A million miles away from Borb in tone, style and intent are Will Eisner’s tenement stories, yet their depiction of the lower class packed into these classically New York buildings is no less striking. Incidentally, I’ve always felt that Eisner’s more “personal” works cast him in the role of something like comics’ Dickens, which upon reading the below once more is fairly fitting.

Anyway, here’s a really nicely made video of “A Contract With God”, one of Eisner’s most famous pieces. This 1978 story of a how the death of a loved one changes a once kindly Jewish man is perhaps a little heavy on the melodrama, but Eisner’s characters exhibit all the wonderful facial expression and body language that made him a master and just look at his architecture…*swoon.*



See you next week. Love your comics.


Cameron Ashley spends a lot of time writing comics and other things you’ll likely never read. He’s the chief editor and co-publisher of Crime Factory (www.thecrimefactory.com). You can reach him @cjamesashley on Twitter.

Monday, July 27, 2015

New Comics For Wednesday 29th of July




It's a fifth week shipping list which means it's a light one but still filled with great reads! Let's see what is up for grabs.

Sorry to see this series wrap up but it's nice to be able to pick up the last of Fraction and Aja's tremendous run with HAWKEYE TP VOL 04 RIO BRAVO. Ales Kot continues to twist our minds with his existensenual assassin tale in ZERO TP VOL 04 WHO BY FIRE. Being a fifth week that means we get treated to a series of DC Annuals, the pick of which is seeing Babs and Grayson working together in BATGIRL ANNUAL #3. Revisit some happy 80's TV memories with PUNKY BREWSTER TP VOL 01.
Like we said it's a small shipment but still a bunch for great titles to get buzzed about. Anything else you need just let us know.


MARVEL
1602 WITCH HUNTER ANGELA #2 SWA
AGE OF ULTRON VS MARVEL ZOMBIES #2 SWA
BLACK WIDOW #20 SWA
DAREDEVIL #17
DEADPOOLS SECRET SECRET WARS #3 (OF 4) SWA
DEATHLOK #10
GUARDIANS TEAM-UP #8
MARVEL UNIVERSE ULT SPIDER-MAN WEB WARRIORS #9
MODOK ASSASSIN #3 (OF 5) SWA
POWERS #4
SHIELD #8
STAR WARS #7
THORS #2 SWA
X-MEN 92 #2 SWA


DC COMICS
BATGIRL #42
BATGIRL ANNUAL #3
DEATHSTROKE ANNUAL #1
FLASH ANNUAL #4
GOTHAM BY MIDNIGHT ANNUAL #1
HE MAN THE ETERNITY WAR #8
JLA GODS AND MONSTERS SUPERMAN #1
LOBO ANNUAL #1
SUPERMAN #42 TEEN TITANS GO VAR ED

VERTIGO
SANDMAN OVERTURE #5 SPECIAL EDITION

BOOM
ADVENTURE TIME #42
DEEP STATE #8
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK #8
HACKTIVIST VOL 2 #1 (OF 6)
HELP US GREAT WARRIOR #6 (OF 6)
MUNCHKIN #7


DARK HORSE
CONAN THE AVENGER #16
GRINDHOUSE DRIVE IN BLEED OUT #7 (A)
HALO ESCALATION #20
LOBSTER JOHNSON A CHAIN FORGED IN LIFE ONE SHOT
MULAN REVELATIONS #2 (OF 4)
PASTAWAYS #5
RESIDENT ALIEN SAM HAIN MYSTERY #3 (OF 3)
TOMB RAIDER #18


DYNAMITE
JUNGLE GIRL SEASON 3 #4 (OF 4)
RED SONJA #17

IDW
DONALD DUCK #3
GHOSTBUSTERS GET REAL #2 (OF 4)
JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS #5
SHRINKING MAN #1 (OF 4)
SKYLANDERS #11 LIGHT IN THE DARK
TMNT ONGOING #48
TRANSFORMERS COMBINER HUNTERS SPEC (ONE SHOT)
TRANSFORMERS MORE THAN MEETS EYE #43
TRANSFORMERS VS GI JOE #8
TRANSFORMERS WINDBLADE #5
WEIRD LOVE #8
X-FILES ANNUAL 2015

IMAGE
CASANOVA ACEDIA #3
COPPERHEAD #9
GOD HATES ASTRONAUTS #10
INVISIBLE REPUBLIC #5
LAZARUS #18
LOW #8
MANHATTAN PROJECTS SUN BEYOND THE STARS #2
MATERIAL #3
MYTHIC #3
RASPUTIN #7
SEX CRIMINALS #11 BRYAN LEE OMALLY XXX VAR
SOUTHERN BASTARDS #10
SPARKS NEVADA MARSHAL ON MARS #4 (OF 4)
SPAWN #254
TITHE #4
WAYWARD #10

MISC
AUTEUR SISTER BAMBI #3
CAPTAIN CANUCK 2015 ONGOING #3
DOCTOR WHO 10TH #13
DOCTOR WHO 12TH #10
DOCTOR WHO 9TH #3 (OF 5)
MEANWHILE #3
NINJAK #5 (NEXT)
PRINCELESS BE YOURSELF #2 (OF 4)
RICK & MORTY #4
SABRINA #4
SCARLETT COUTURE #4 (OF 4)
SQUARRIORS #3 (OF 4)

TRADES
AEIOU GN (NEW PTG)
ALONE FOREVER GN
CATWOMAN TP VOL 06 KEEPER OF THE CASTLE
CONAN RED SONJA HC
CONDITIONS ON THE GROUND HC
DENGUE HC
DEVLIN WAUGH RED TIDE TP
EVIL ERNIE TP VOL 02 RISE OF EVIL
FAIRY QUEST TP VOL 02
GEORGE PEREZS SIRENS PEN & INK #1
GOODBYE CHUNKY RICE PANTHEON ED NEW PTG
GRINDHOUSE MIDNIGHT TP VOL 03 SLAY RIDE & BLOOD LAGOON
HAWKEYE TP VOL 04 RIO BRAVO
IMPERIUM TP VOL 01 COLLECTING MONSTERS
INHUMAN TP VOL 03 LINEAGE
JASON SSHHHH GN
LAST ONES HC
LEVEL UP GN NEW PTG
MAGNETO TP VOL 03 SHADOW GAMES
MAXX MAXXIMIZED HC VOL 04
MILES MORALES ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ULTIMATE COLL TP BOOK 01
PHOEBE GLOECKNER DIARY OF TEENAGE GIRL GN REVISED
PUNKY BREWSTER TP VOL 01
RED LANTERNS TP VOL 06 FORGED IN BLOOD
STAR WARS LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
STAR WARS LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK NEW HOPE
STAR WARS LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK RETURN OF JEDI
SWAMP THING THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL TP
TMNT ANIMATED TP VOL 06 VENGEANCE IS MINE
UNCANNY AVENGERS TP VOL 05 AXIS PRELUDE
WASTELAND TP VOL 11 FLOODLAND
ZERO TP VOL 04 WHO BY FIRE


BACK IN STOCK
MAD MAX FURY ROAD FURIOSA #1 2ND PTG

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

ALL STAR RECOMMENDS FOR JULY 21ST



Good day you, fine reader. I hope you’re escaping from the cold by snuggling up with loved ones and reading a few funny books. There were a number of truly excellent comics published last week, so there’s really no excuse.

Did you know there’s a launch on in-store this week? Well there is! Comicsmas in July is this Saturday, July 25th with Frank Candiloro, Ashley Ronning, David Blumenstein and Alisha Jade all launching new books. With Frank and Ashley both having appeared in this column before, you bet I’ll be there at some point. Should be fun. 



COMIC OF THE WEEK : THE DIVINE
By Asuf Hanuka, Tomer Hanuka and Boaz Lavie
Published by First Second

Although inspired by the true story of Johnny and Luther Htoo, twin boys who led a collective of refugees named God’s Army, The Divine is far from a real world slice of war-torn drama. Instead this 150 page book is a surreal slice of the fantastic that grows ever more nightmarish as its pages turn, morphing into something like Akira meets Apocalypse Now. It’s a strange but compelling beast, with simply gorgeous artwork bursting out from its white-bordered pages.

Created by illustrators and comics artists Asuf and Tomer Hanuka and writer Boaz Lavie, The Divine is set in the fictional Southeast Asian country of Quanlom. Exploited by the West for its rich mining potential, the land is being torn apart and its peoples displaced. Explosives expert Mark is freshly-married, has a baby on the way and is denied a big promotion. When an old friend, a military contractor named Jason, comes calling with a big, quick, high-paying job “lava tube denuding” (or “blowing up mountains” as Mark puts it), he reluctantly agrees, not knowing that both the spirts of this ancient land and a particularly brave, young  and violent section of its people will stand in his way.

It’s The Divine’s slow descent into weirdness, darkness and the supernatural that, narratively, makes this thing work. There’s some great foreshadowing in the form of a simple shaving nick that signals the ominousness ahead and some wonderfully oddball dreams, normally a real peeve of mine, are included and are just too well realised to dismiss as simple filler.

It’s not perfect, unfortunately.  Jason is far too obvious and one-note as the Ugly American, spouting lines like, “Maybe you didn’t notice but the job is done. We’re not getting paid to babysit locals.” However once The Divine, gifted sibling child soldiers who lead the resistance against the destruction, deforestation and displacement happening in their country, enters the picture you’ll forget all about this caricature of a villain.

And the art. Oh, the art. From its sweaty nightmare-born techno-womb to the mountainous Quanlom terrain, to its boy soldiers, to its dragons (yes, dragons), to its frozen moments of explosive violence, The Divine is simply a gorgeous piece of work. Again I wish First Second would reconsider their formatting as Tomer and Asuf Hanuka’s work is screaming out for a larger presentation. It’s a testament to just how good the Hanukas are that I was able to get lost in their sumptuously coloured pages given how reduced they are in finished presentation.

If you’re curious, my advice is don’t even flip through The Divine. Just get it home, read it and get sucked right in to the magenta overload of its pages. You’ll likely have some story quibbles, but that’s alright – you can’t argue with its art or its heart or the coolness of its mythology.



WEBCOMIC OF THE WEEK : STRANGE TRIP: A BOOMER ODYSSEY
By Paul Kirchner

How timely! Heavy Metal vet, sober psychedelic artist and advertising industry survivor, Paul Kirchner takes us through his entire life and artistic career in just four pages in Strange Trip: A Boomer Odyssey for The Boston Globe.

A reminder that it’s not just in the current comics economic market that talented creators struggle, Kirchner’s resignation to a career in advertising to make ends meet even after giving the world the Kafkaesque commuter journeys of The Bus for Heavy Metal and Dope Rider for High Times is sad indeed. Fret not though, for art wins in the end. As it always should.

Strange Trip is a brisk, witty and compact read, perfectly paced and full of nice little period details as Kirchner rips through the decades to arrive right back where he started, drawing his two most famous creations once more.  Vintage episodes of The Bus are also linked to in the Globe article and come highly recommended also. The Bus is superbly dreamy and may make you feel slightly better about your own journeys across the slowly-choking PT system of wherever it is you actually are. Check it out.




COUNTDOWN TO MOZ METAL : HEAVY METAL, APRIL 1977

“From the people who bring you National Lampoon,” says the top left corner of the cover to Heavy Metal’s debut issue from April of 1977, a publishing arrangement which would not last anywhere near as long as the brand’s influence or legacy. The cover of this first issue of “the adult illustrated fantasy magazine” featured a painting by Jean-Michel Nicolette in which an enraged, big-boobed, stiletto wearing robot of death beats an asexual droid into scrap metal with a gigantic wrench.  A fine summation of this periodical’s glory days indeed.

In the editorial, the good folk from National Lampoon say of France’s Metal Hurlant, or Screaming Metal, the source material for much of their product: “The magazine appears to be the work of an alien intelligence, as indeed it is. It is French.”

Um. Okay, then.

Still as strange as that is you can’t fault the early US editors of the magazine for their taste. They recognised the potency of the European material they had on their hands and also the opportunity cut the product with liberal doses of comics by off-kilter American creators, diluting the Euro-madness somewhat and adding perhaps a slightly more comprehensible, palatable strain of American fantasy to their pages.

It’s a heady brew, this debut issue, chock full of now-legendary creators and profoundly influential comics. There’s literally too much good, eclectic stuff for me to cover in this space – including an excerpt from Terry Brooks’ The Sword of Shannara and the incredibly strange collaging at play in Age of Ages by Norman Rubington, but special mention must be made of two features.

Den by Richard Corben, a psychedelic examination of male power fantasies and sexy riff on John Carter, opens the proceedings, as the titular character, giant and nude, makes his way across a strangely alien desert landscape and encounters a crocodile beast and a typically stacked Corben bombshell of a woman who has the power to stir “phantasmic forces” in his head and “erotic ones” in his body. Corben’s colours are acid-soaked; lurid pinks clashing against greens and yellows, and it’s frankly astonishing to me that the artist remains as prolific and sharp almost forty years later.

Arzach by Moebius also makes its English-language publication debut here, not that language is an issue as the comic itself is silent.  Arzach the warrior soundlessly sails through the landscape of the subconscious on a giant albino pterodactyl-type creature and, in the process, blew more comic book reading minds than likely anything preceding him. Profoundly important and influential, Arzach is still glorious.

There’s so much more to love here, Conquering Armies, Space Punks and even Sunpot by Vaughn Bode (whose work I’m forever ambivalent about, to be honest) raise the underground comix cred considerably.  An all-time classic debut.



COMICS VIDEO OF THE WEEK : THE ART OF HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE

Yep, to celebrate me insanely writing about as many issues of Heavy Metal as possible until the Grant Morrison era begins, here’s a cool little video sampling what you’re in for.  Man, I hope Morrison gets Corben back. That would blow my puny little mind.


See you next week. Love your comics.


Cameron Ashley spends a lot of time writing comics and other things you’ll likely never read. He’s the chief editor and co-publisher of Crime Factory (www.thecrimefactory.com). You can reach him @cjamesashley on Twitter.

Monday, July 20, 2015

New Comics For Wednesday 22nd of July





Comicmas in July! It's definitely a Winter Wonderland outside at the moment, so what would be more fitting and a great way to warm this weekend up than coming along to the Comicsmas In July comic launch this Saturday. Four amazing creators with equally amazing books on hand to sell to you directly! For all the details on head HERE. But before then, what's out this week?

Another new DC #1 for this current round of new releases is CYBORG #1. Also with DC the first of the tie ins to the latest (and most violent) DC animated film hits with JLA GODS AND MONSTERS BATMAN #1. WOLF #1 gives us the latest in paranormal detectives, this time from the mind of Ales Kot. To big for a final single issue, the epic finale of the much loved FABLES will be released as TP VOL 22! Matt Kindt's mind bender, riddle filled hit continues with MIND MGMT HC VOL 05 THE ERASER.The perfect match of character and setting with Harley Quinn making her first appearence in the '66-verse in BATMAN 66 #25. POWER UP #1 showcases more new talent from BOOM, starring a superpowered goldfish? AWESOME! TMNT, KISS, The Punisher, Predator, Zombies and now sharks shot out of tornadoes, yep it's ARCHIE VS SHARKNADO ONE SHOT. Finally the return of that early 2000's, classic cartoon DOOM, with INVADER ZIM #1! A new supernatural western adventure from Cullen Bunn with SIXTH GUN TP VOL 08 HELL AND HIGH WATER. Then there's the new PREVIEWS for AUGUST for books shipping in October.

Anything else you are needing just let us know!


MARVEL
ALL NEW HAWKEYE #4
E IS FOR EXTINCTION #2 SWA
FUTURE IMPERFECT #3 SWA
KANAN #4
LOKI AGENT OF ASGARD #16 SWA
MAGNETO #20 SWA
MARVEL ZOMBIES #2 SWA
OLD MAN LOGAN #3 SWA
PUNISHER #20 SWA
SPIDER-WOMAN #9
STAR-LORD AND KITTY PRYDE #1 SWA
UNCANNY X-MEN #35
WEIRDWORLD #2 SWA

DC COMICS
AQUAMAN #42 TEEN TITANS GO VAR ED
BATMAN 66 #25
CYBORG #1
DEATHSTROKE #8 TEEN TITANS GO VAR ED
FLASH #42 TEEN TITANS GO VAR ED
GOTHAM BY MIDNIGHT #7 TEEN TITANS GO VAR ED
GRAYSON #10 TEEN TITANS GO VAR ED
HARLEY QUINN & POWER GIRL #2 (OF 6)
INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US YEAR FOUR #6
JLA GODS AND MONSTERS BATMAN #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001 #2
PREZ #2 (OF 12)
SENSATION COMICS FEATURING WONDER WOMAN #12
SINESTRO #13 TEEN TITANS GO VAR ED
TEEN TITANS #10 TEEN TITANS GO VAR ED
WE ARE ROBIN #2
WONDER WOMAN #42 TEEN TITANS GO VAR ED

VERTIGO
EFFIGY #7
FABLES TP VOL 22

BOOM
ADVENTURE TIME FIONNA & CAKE CARD WARS #1 (OF 6)
BURNING FIELDS #6 (OF 8)
POWER UP #1 (OF 6)
SONS OF ANARCHY #23

DARK HORSE
ARCHIE VS PREDATOR #4 (OF 4)
BTVS SEASON 10 #17
ELFQUEST FINAL QUEST #10
FIGHT CLUB 2 #3
FRANKENSTEIN UNDERGROUND #5 (OF 5)
MIND MGMT #35

IDW
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS #10 WHOLE AGAIN
FLY OUTBREAK #4 (OF 5)
INFINITE LOOP #4 (OF 6)
INSUFFERABLE #3
MICKEY MOUSE #2
MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #32
STAR TREK ONGOING #47
TMNT CASEY & APRIL #2 (OF 4)
TRANSFORMERS #43
TRANSFORMERS ROBOTS IN DISGUISE ANIMATED #1
UNCLE SCROOGE #4
WALT DISNEY COMICS & STORIES #721
WINTERWORLD FROZEN FLEET #3 (OF 3)

IMAGE
BIRTHRIGHT #9
COWL #11
EGOS #8
FIVE GHOSTS #17
IXTH GENERATION #4
RUNLOVEKILL #4
SIDEKICK #11
SONS OF THE DEVIL #3
STRAY BULLETS SUNSHINE & ROSES #6
VALHALLA MAD #3
WOLF #1

MISC
ARCHIE VS SHARKNADO ONE SHOT
BART SIMPSON COMICS #97
BLACKLIST #1
BOOK OF DEATH FALL OF BLOODSHOT #1
DISCIPLES #2
GFT GRIMM FAIRY TALES #112
HELLBREAK #5
INVADER ZIM #1
IT WILL ALL HURT #2
IVAR TIMEWALKER #7

MAGAZINES
HI FRUCTOSE MAGAZINE QUARTERLY #36
MARVEL PREVIEWS AUGUST 2015
PREVIEWS #323 AUGUST 2015

TRADES
ADV OF DR MCNINJA TP VOL 03 KING RADICAL
AMERICA VS THE JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA TP
ARKHAM MANOR TP VOL 01
BATMAN GOTHIC DELUXE EDITION HC
BATWOMAN TP VOL 06 THE UNKNOWNS
DAREDEVIL TP VOL 03 DAREDEVIL YOU KNOW
DEAD AT 17 TP VOL 07 BLASPHEMY THRONE
DEADPOOL CLASSIC TP VOL 12 DEADPOOL CORPS
DIVINE GN
DOCTOR WHO 10TH HC VOL 02 WEEPING ANGELS
DREAM MERCHANT TP
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS LEGEND OF DRIZZT TP VOL 02 EXILE
ERIC POWELLS THE GOON CHINATOWN ARTIST ED HC
FABLES TP VOL 22
FANTE BUKOWSKI GN
GALAXY QUEST JOURNEY CONTINUES TP
GI JOE (2014) FALL OF GI JOE TP VOL 02
GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS NEST HC
GUARDIANS OF GALAXY TP VOL 03 GUARDIANS DISASSEMBLED
HULK TP VOL 03 OMEGA HULK BOOK 02
LEGENDARY STAR-LORD TP VOL 02 RISE OF BLACK VORTEX
LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT NORM BREYFOGLE HC
LIL DEPRESSED BOY TP VOL 05
MIND MGMT HC VOL 05 THE ERASER
MOTORCYCLE SAMURAI TP VOL 01
OCTOBER FACTION TP VOL 01
ROBERT HEINLEINS CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY TP
ROCKET RACCOON PREM HC VOL 02 STORYTAILER
SAVAGE DRAGON CHANGES TP
SAVAGE WOLVERINE TP VOL 04 BEST THERE IS
SIXTH GUN TP VOL 08 HELL AND HIGH WATER
SOMETHING AT WINDOW IS SCRATCHING GN
SPIDER-MAN AND X-MEN TP
SPIDER-MAN BIG TIME TP VOL 04 COMPLETE COLLECTION
STEVEN UNIVERSE TP VOL 01
TIM GINGER TP
TRINITY OF SIN TP VOL 01 THE WAGES OF SIN
VERTIGO CMYK TP
WALLY WOOD EC COMICS ARTISAN ED TP
ZENITH HC PHASE FOUR
ZOMBIE TRAMP ONGOING TP VOL 03 BREAKING BATH

MERCH
BATMAN BLACK & WHITE STATUE BY MIKE MIGNOLA
DC COMICS COVER GIRLS WONDER WOMAN STATUE
DC COMICS NEW 52 THE JOKER AF
TRANSFORMERS SOUNDWAVE VINYL FIGURE

BACK IN STOCK

A-FORCE #2 SWA
AIRBOY #1 (OF 4)
BATMAN BEYOND #2
BIZARRO #1 (OF 6)
BIZARRO #2 (OF 6)
GHOST RACERS #1 SWA
GIANT SIZE LITTLE MARVEL AVX #2 SWA
GROOT #1
GROOT #2
JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS #1 PLUGGED IN ED 3RD PTG
JUSTICE LEAGUE #41 2ND PTG
LEGACY OF LUTHER STRODE #1
MAD MAX FURY ROAD NUX & IMMORTAN JOE #1 2ND PTG
PRINCESS LEIA #5 (OF 5)
RICK & MORTY #2 2ND PTG
RICK & MORTY #3
SECRET WARS #4 (OF 8)
YEARS OF FUTURE PAST #1 SWA
YEARS OF FUTURE PAST #2 SWA

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

ALL STAR RECOMMENDS FOR JULY 14TH


Hi. It’s Tuesday, which means me and my brain and comics. Here’s a whole bunch of questions wine-plaguing me:

Are anthologies the next big thing? Probably not, but stay with me! With the Brandon Graham-curated Island arriving this week from Image and Grant Morrison in charge of the seminal, if currently deflated, Heavy Metal as of next February, it seems as though big, chunky, high concept anthologies could be pseudo-mainstream comics’ hippest format sooner rather than later. Me? I expose my Yes Button and say, please push it. I for one welcome our Euro-formatted comic invaders.

If my unlikely hunch proves right, would it really be that surprising? We not only want more bang for our buck, but reasonably priced comics magazines chock full of content, both serialised and stand-alone, are also a rather sly way to get a certain group of readers (including...ummmmm...me) to buy things monthly again. Both Island and Heavy Metal’s “rebirth” are also logical extensions of the current trend in classic European SF comics-inspired fare and, who knows, possibly the last stage of its life cycle, yet again. Comics are an ouroboros, man, let’s face it.

Hopefully if my speculative near future antho madness comes to pass, it also gives a boost to Dark Horse Presents, which I used to consume voraciously way back when it was black and white and monthly and risky (does anyone remember The Aerialist? 1992’s most 2015 comic. Yes, I am old) and, of course, 2000 AD. Also, imagine a 100-page monthly Marvel Comics Presents resurrection, with the best of the best free to do whatever they want in any MU they want. Oooh.

Anyway, I’m very excited about Island and I’m so excited about Heavy Metal that as of next column, I’m instituting a countdown by briefly looking at every single issue of the magazine, one issue a week, right up until the release of Moz Metal.

Yes, I am giving myself more work because I am silly like that.

Onward!



COMIC OF THE WEEK
MOOSE
Max De Radigues
Conundrum International

Occasionally something comes along that completely derails my plans for this column as I become unexpectedly and totally obsessed with it. This week that something is Moose, by Canadian creator Max De Radigues. Originally published in serialised mini-comics format by Charles Forsman’s Oily Comics, Moose has been collected in its entirety by Conundrum International.

Joe is a sensitive and unpopular high school student who escapes some truly abhorrent bullying by slipping off into his small town surroundings to enjoy the wide open, snowy expanse of the landscape as well as the animals that populate it. He spots a big bull of a moose on one of these outings and the two share a tense moment before the animal realises that Joe means him no harm and disappears amongst the snow and the trees. The moose reappears, seemingly only to Joe himself, and becomes an object of fascination for the boy. Jason is Joe’s bully, a cruel, incredibly sadistic kid, whose bullying constantly escalates in cruelty and violence.

Both boys lack parental figures – Joe is raised by his grandmother and single mother, Jason by his grandparents and have clearly experienced some trauma in their development. This, however, is where the similarities between them end and when Jason follows Joe out into the wilderness one day, their conflict inevitably comes to a head.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Moose is the contrast of the two worlds, the two “natures,” presented. We have the school itself, bound by its own pecking order of cruelty, where Joe (the small, weak prey) can only feel safe by hiding himself in nests and burrows like the janitor’s closet or the sick bay. Making this cleverly apparent is a picture above the sick bay bed of an unborn baby sleeping in the womb hanging directly above Joe as he curls into the foetal position and snatches some rest, safe for now in this otherwise hostile environment. Contrast this with the world outside the school, mountainous and ice cold, a seemingly inhospitable environment, filled with predators of its own, yet one in which Joe is at home and always safe, despite his elders telling him “the woods are dangerous.” Jason, however, is not as home here as you would imagine one so predatory to be and his punishment for this trespass is brilliantly executed.

It’s difficult to say too much more without spoiling the work, but outside of De Radigues’ simple yet strikingly effective cartooning, I would also like to make note of his excellent little technical trick of inverting the tail of off-speaking word balloons to indicate the speech coming from outside his chosen shot. It’s a neat and innovative trick, one I can’t recall if I’ve seen before off the top of my head.

Moose will undoubtedly land in my own personal top ten of the year -- and it’s already been a very good year so far. Pop in store and pick up this handsomely designed heartbreaker of a book.



WEBCOMIC OF THE WEEK:
SONGS ILLUSTRATED: NEKO CASE’S “WILD CREATURES” 
By Emily Carrol

So if you’re interested in playing the All Star Recommends drinking game, here is the single, simple rule: one shot for every mention of Frontier, Charles Forsman, or Emily Carroll.

Ready? Let’s play!

Go back and take a shot for the earlier Forsman reference and refill because Emily Carroll is back yet again!

Seriously though, what a great idea this Songs Illustrated feature is. I’d cut the tip of a pinky off Yakuza style with a butter knife if Paste would let me curate it. Here’s the incomparable Ms Carroll’s comics take on “Wild Creatures” by Neko Case. What I did (but do it however you want) was read the comic, then listen to the song and then read the comic again with the song playing.

It’s like wine and cheese, bacon and eggs, Pizzolatto and McConaughey, Morrison and Quietly.

Oh, it is good.

Here’s a link to the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxQ3NNE5Ug4

And here’s a link to this marvellous little comic:

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/06/songs-illustrated-emily-carroll-unleashes-neko-cas.html

Enjoy.

COMICS VIDEO OF THE WEEK
CHAOS MAGIC, THE OCCULT AND SHAMANIC SIGIL CREATION



Way back in 1999, when Grant Morrison was wrapping up The Invisibles, he appeared at DisinfoCon to give a loaded, rambling, occasionally obnoxious, but utterly fascinating presentation on time, space, reality, magic and alien abduction. It’s become somewhat notorious over the years and really does need to be seen at least once. Thankfully, it’s been uploaded to YouTube, so I don’t have to lend you my DVD. Here he is, the brand-new EIC of Heavy Metal in his most abrasively punkish, sweary incarnation.


See you next week. Love your comics.


Cameron Ashley spends a lot of time writing comics and other things you’ll likely never read. He’s the chief editor and co-publisher of Crime Factory (www.thecrimefactory.com). You can reach him @cjamesashley on Twitter.