The Week In Awesome! Star Trek and More

Here are five things that excited me over the past week!

1. Star Trek on DVD - The latest Star Trek movie, rebooting the franchise after breathing new life into the characters and its universe, came to DVD and Blu-Ray this week.  J.J. Abrams' science fiction film was largely successful and critically-acclaimed, with great casting and wonderful action effects.

2. The Twilight Saga: New Moon in theaters - It's getting pretty abysmal reviews, but the latest movie in the highly successful supernatural films adapted from the teen novels hit theaters at midnight last night, featuring the stars we've seen plastered all over magazines without a moment's breath for the past year (well, perhaps a pause when Michael Jackson died).  Featuring a buffed-up Taylor Lautner and the villianous Volturi, this was my least favorite book, but you can't deny the eye candy.

3. Mr. Marvel canceled - Not that I'm excited about this, because I really, really enjoyed this Marvel superhero series, but Ms. Marvel will be ending with issue #50, according to the issue's solicitations through Previews Catalogue, with a "double-sized final issue."  Hopefully it will be reborn in another form somewhere down the line, without the constant interuptions of company-wide crossovers, but it will be hard to replace Brian Reed as writer.  Oh, and Oprah's show is ending too or something.

4. "Keeping Secrets" by Skye - Boasting a powerful voice and some pretty haunting, interesting sounds, "Keeping Secrets" looks to be a real breakthrough album for Skye.  Check out "Exhale" on I-Tunes.

5. Neon Genesis Evangelion Movie 1.01: You Are (Not) Alone - The first of four movies that "rebuild" the anime television series came to DVD this week after a successful run in Japan.

In Stores 11/18

Here are the highlights of books available in comic shops tomorrow!

Pick of the Week

Christmas Graphic Novels - HarperCollins is putting out adaptations of classic Christmas prose stories, adapted by some very exciting and talented creators, as graphic novels.  There will be three in all, two of which are available this week.  My most anticipated of the bunch is Lilli Carre's adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Fir Tree.  The Lagoon was one of my favorite graphic novels of last year, and with her beautiful pencils, I'm sure this will look just amazing.  Also available this week is Joel Priddy's adaptation of O. Henry's Gift of the Magi.  Still forthcoming from HaperCollins is another one that I'll probably have to own, Alex Robinson adapting L. Frank Baum's A Kidnapped Santa Claus.

Other Noteworthy Releases

Alien Legion Omnibus (Volume 1) TP

Batman: Battle For the Cowl HC

Black Jack (Volume 8)

Black Knight #1

Black Lightning: Year One TP

Case Closed (Volume 32)

Casper the Friendly Ghost 60th Anniversary HC

Daredevil Noir HC

Dark Reign: The List - Amazing Spider-Man

Dr. Horrible One-Shot

Driven By Lemons HC

Gentlemen's Alliance: Arina Tanemura Illustrations

Geronimo Stilton (Volume 3): Coliseum Con GN

Green Lantern Corps: Emerald Eclipse HC

Hercules: Full Circle HC

Kookaburra K #1

The Nam (Volume 1) TP

Oishinbo (Volume 6): Joy of Rice

Pluto (Volume 6)

Powers Encyclopedia (Volume 1)

Realm of Kings One-Shot

Realm of Kings: Inhumans #1 (of 5)

Runaways: Homeschooling HC

Showcase Presents: DC Comics Presents (Volume 1) TP

The Spirit (Volume 4) TP

Tarzan: The Jesse Marsh Years (Volume 4) HC

TMNT #1 Full Color One-Shot

Victorian Undead #1 (of 6)

Walt Disney's Christmas Classics (Volume 1) HC

War of Kings HC

Manga Monday Is Taking a Rest This Week!

See you next Monday!

The Squirrel Machine

Hans Rickheit
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This is a quirky, beautiful, sometimes frightening graphic novel. The Squirrel Machine is definitely not for everyone, but I really had a great experience reading it. The book is about two shunned brothers living in a small town and the grotesque art that they create that the townsfolk don't understand. The book has a really eerie vibe all throughout, with some disturbing images that could have easily stumbled right out of a David Lynch film, culminating in some pretty shocking scenes. But the story is oddly sort of touching, despite the overt oddness of the brothers. There are some panels of the book that I'm still not sure what to make of, or how I feel about them, like one of my favorites of one of the brothers dressed in nothing but a boar's head covering his own, and some sort of a musical device with a crank covering his privates, with a proper young woman reaching out to touch it. It feels wrong, but is still very striking, and the whole book raises a range of emotions in me that often contradict one another. But one thing can very easily be said about this graphic novel, and that is that Rickheit's art is phenomenal. From the arrangement of panels, to the elaborate designs of the brothers' creations and the secret rooms of the mansion they live in, to the execution of the characters as they move through environments full of atmosphere and often, a certain amount of tension. Overall, The Squirrel Machine is a haunting story that won't soon leave readers, with many images left burned in this reader's mind.

West Coast Blues

Jacques Tardi

Adapted from the novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette

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West Coast Blues is a graphic novel adapted by French cartoonist Jacques Tardi from the crime novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette. Fantagraphics is beginning to translate and publish these graphic novels by acclaimed artist Tardi, another of which was just recently released, You Are There. I'm really enjoying a lot of the European comics that are being translated as of late, like Archaia's The Killer (which is gritty crime fiction like this one) and the Soleil books through Marvel like Sky Doll, not to mention other talented European artists like Posy Simmonds and Joann Sfar. Jacques Tardi is one of the greats and I'm happy that Fantagraphics has undertaken the project of bringing his works to American audiences. West Coast Blues is a crime story, but it's quite different than what most people associate with the genre, especially when it comes to the gritty noir of comics. This is full of surprises both in terms of Manchette's plot, but also just the general pace of the story, pretty much subverting any ideas one may have in their head of where a story such as this is going to go. The novel starts out simple enough: George Gerfaut saves a man who's injured in his car on the side of the road, rushing him to the hospital just before his family takes a vacation at a beach house. Once at the beach house, Gerfaut is stalked by a pair of hitmen who wish to assassinate him for his actions. After this, readers are in for a wild ride in a plot that meanders quite a bit, but is utterly compelling through and through as Gerfaut, an ass of a protagonist, takes his life by the reigns and does whatever the hell he feels like. Meanwhile, action takes place not in alleyways of busy city streets by moonlight, but mid-day at the beach, at gas stations, and in isolated cabins in the countryside. Tardi's cartooning is fabulous. He brings the wide range of characters to life with ease, and depicts fast-pace action clearly while drawing out the suspense and the slow moments of life appropriately. I'm not a huge fan of the crime genre, but with books like this out there, I can definitely see why people are drawn to these types of stories, and as long as I read books executed as consistently as this one, I see no reason not to seek them out myself.

Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #1 (of 5)

Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning & Kevin Walker
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I've always enjoyed whenever the Imperial Guard would appear in superhero comics, which was usually in the random cosmic adventure the Uncanny X-Men would go on when I was growing up. Lately, they've been involved in quite a few conflicts involving the Shi'ar, like War of Kings, but they haven't lost their lustre for me. There are enough characters, of varying powers and alien races, with a cyborg or two thrown in for good measure, that any story could really focus on any one of them, or a choice few. Of course with Gladiator taking on the role of majestor of the Shi'ar empire, the heavyhitting leader of the Imperial Guard has other duties, duties which his advisors insist do not involve getting his hands dirty with fighting, and so he must sit back and watch his former comrades battle his foes for him, which is frustrating for a warrior. Featured in this mini-series are several of my favorite Imperial Guard members, particularly Manta and Warstar, who are both visually cool with great character designs. Under the guiding hands of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, who have done some phenomenal work in the outskirts of the Marvel Universe lately with such galactic titles as Annihilation and Guardians of the Galaxy, the Imperial Guard has never looked better. I don't think I've ever really read a comic from the Guard's perspective, but it's nice to see the team work together, and of course, the little squabbles and disagreements they have make things that much more interesting. Throw in a pair of Starjammers by the end of this issue and I'm hooked the remainder of the series.

The Week In Awesome! Up and More

Here are five things that got me excited over the past week.
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1. Fantastic Mr. Fox in theaters - While it's only going to be in select theaters this weekend (and none around me) I'm still excited to see this Wes Anderson-directed claymation film, and it's getting some pretty amazing reviews already. Trailer here.
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2. Precious in theaters - Speaking of movies getting amazing reviews, Precious: Based On the Novel Push by Sapphire is getting a lot of Oscar buzz, and has a pretty amazing trailer. Watch it here. Oprah loves it.
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3. Up on DVD - Pixar's latest animation masterpiece comes to DVD. 'Nuff said.
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4. Under the Dome by Stephen King - The latest novel by horror writer Stephen King is supposedly a "return to form" for the writer. Clocking in at 1088 pages, it had better be.
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5. Project Runway finale - Part 1 of the season finale of Project Runway aired this week, featuring three female designers this time around. This may have been a pretty lacklustre season, but I'm still looking forward to Season Seven, when they go back to New York. Heidi's still got it. And Tim. And Nina. And Michael.