Comics and More

Now that I'm more in the know with new releases in DVDs and music, being a music manager at the local B&N, I thought I'd go a little more multi-media and expand the "In Stores" feature to those releases as well. This is Comics and More after all. The highlights... DVD Releases (Tuesday, 11/21) Alias: Season 5 The Double Life of Veronique (Criterion Collection) How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Deluxe Edition) Ice Age: The Meltdown An Inconvenient Truth Scoop Seinfeld: Season 7 So NoTORIous: Complete Series Star Trek: The Animated Series You, Me and Dupree Music Releases (Tuesday, 11/21) The Beatles - Love Il Divo - Siepre Jay-Z - Kingdom Come Loreena McKennitt - An Ancient Muse Tom Waits: Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards U2 - U218 Singles Comic Releases (Wednesday, 11/22) Comics Journal Library (Volume 7): Harvey Kurtzman TP Essential Captain America (Volume 3) TP Moomin Complete Tove Jannson Comic Strip (Volume 1) HC New X-Men Omnibus HC Showcase Presents...

It's another Manga Monday! This week I'll be looking at two books illustrated by the amazing Takeshi Obata! Death Note (Volume 8) Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata This is the worst volume of Death Note to date. But that being said, it's still one hell of a book, and at its worst, it's still one step ahead of most of its competition. Obata, of course, masterfully illustrates this suspenseful tale that picks up from where volume seven left off, leading Light to make some hard decisions about his power and the people in his life. Also, a new Shinigami is thrown into the mix, shaking things up and turning some people's plans upside-down. With a certain prominent antagonist out of the mix, this title seemed to take a dip in quality, but the new antagonists create a new sort of tension that may prove, in time, to be more effective than the original (though that does seem unlikely at this point - the successors have a lot to live up to). We'll just have to wait and se...

Tamora Pierce, Timothy Liebe & Phil Briones Angela Del Toro, the new White Tiger, leaps from the pages of Daredevil to her own limited series, courtesy of popular fantasy novelist Tamora Pierce. Our tale begins preceding the Civil War events and flows right on past them as Angela picks up her uncle's mantle and gains a name for herself with the help of magical amulets, and decides to become a masked hero despite current events. This is a very typical origin story. And I mean very typical. No new ground is tread in the creation of this character's identity to separate herself from other heroes. It's not particularly creative, insightful or interesting. It feels like thirty-two pages of going through the motions. The protagonist also seems rather uninspired, spouting some of the dullest dialogue I've ever had the misfortune of reading in comics. A lot of talk, not enough action and a really, really lame villain make this is yawner of a tale. I actually struggled to...

This week in floppies... Civil War #5 (of 7) Mark Millar & Steve McNiven Spoilers! The latest Civil War wasn't as shocking as previous issues, but introduced a few new elements while moving the plot along at a brisk clip. The Punisher joining the Resistance was kind of strange, as they're kind of "the good guys" of the story and Frank Castle isn't exactly a peacekeeper. Then there's the traitor, which had to happen (and it already did on the other side of the fence with Jennifer Carpenter in Ms. Marvel ). Could have been someone a little more high profile than Tigra though. I thought that using the Negative Zone as a prison for the superhumans was a good idea, even if it is just ripping off DC's Phantom Zone... Something else I did like was that the pro-registration side was a little more sympathetic than they have been. A brief scene between She-Hulk and Mister Fantastic illustrates why this was their only choice and why it was important for them t...

Joss Whedon & John Cassaday MAJOR SPOILERS! What a fantastic end for the "Torn" story arc! Let's break it down, shall we? Scott has recovered from Emma's attack and shoots the White Queen he finds in the basement with Kitty and Peter. He then proceeds to shoot the rest of the Hellfire Club, explaining "I'm an X-Man. I don't shoot people. I'm just trying to make a point." What point exactly? That the Hellfire Club isn't really there. Meanwhile, Hank confronts Blindfold, who's protecting them from Cassandra Nova's mental attacks. The blind girl pulls a box out from behind her back and says she has something that Hank and Scott talked about in case he should degress in this manner, "Something you two talked about. What you might want, might have to do, just in case. He said." This is of course, a psyche out. You're meant to recall the conversation between Scott and Hank from the first storyarc and suspect the mutant cur...

Manga Monday returns after a week off with new reviews of the shoujo title La Corda d'Oro and the ever popular Shonen Jump title Hikaru No Go . La Corda d'Oro (Volume 1) Yuki Kure I picked this little number up after a pretty riveting preview in a recent issue of Shojo Beat . Yuki Kure's La Corda d'Oro follows the prestigious Seisou Academy, which is divided into two parts: the music school and the general education school. There isn't much crossover between the two, and indeed when a student from the other department stumbles into the music academy, like our talentless protagonist Kahoko, the students treat her like an alien, wondering what a "gened-er" is doing there. And things only get worse for Kahoko as she is approached by a fairy that no one else seems able to see and selected to enter a music competition that has seen its previous winners go on to be famous musicians...without ever having played an instrument in her life! If she felt out of pl...

Batman #658 Grant Morrison & Andy Kubert Grant Morrison's first arc on Batman - Batman & Son - concluded with this issue, offering a satisfying conclusion to what was an overall underwhelming read. Issue two was the only real standout in this very straight forward run, but the creative team managed to make the annoying character introduced to the universe seem, well, at least not so unappealing in the end. C Eternals #5 (of 6) Neil Gaiman & John Romita Jr. Gaiman and Romita continue to weave an intriguing story featuring the Eternals. With this issue, the pieces are all laid out for the final issue and the battle waiting in the wings. Of all the issues released, this is the one that feels most like it's setting things up and not really a satisfying read in itself, though the build-up is plenty fun to watch. B Fables #55 Bill Willingham & Mark Buckingham The conference taking place in the Homelands concludes as Pinnochio relates what Fabletown's retaliatio...

Paul Cornell & Trevor Hairsine Bad boy secret ops agent Pete Wisdom gets his own MAX mini-series, the debut issue of which hit stores this past Wednesday. This mature readers adventure pits Wisdom against a swarm of faerie who have been massacring humans unprovoked. A group of secret ops agents back Wisdom up as he travels to the Otherworld to put an end to the madness. Among those along for the ride are fiery faerie Tink and a clairsentient who senses something worse than faerie coming to wreak havoc. This story reminds me a tad bit of Excalibur because it's very British and has a sort of goofy edge. But this is certainly not Excalibur by any means and if that was the intention of this mini-series, it has failed utterly. It has also failed to be very entertaining. Plenty of characters are introduced in this issue that moves along at an extremely fast clip with little direction and cheesy pages of characters posing saying things meant to be funny that aren't like "Mo...

Bill Willingham & various The new original graphic novel spun out of Vertigo's Fables universe boasts the talent of such artists as James Jean, Charles Vess and Jill Thompson collaborating with series creator Bill Willingham. With such talent on the roster, you'd think there would be some real standout art within this book, but the result is rather average across the board, save for series co-creator Mark Buckingham's lovely contribution that takes a surprising detour from his usual work on the title. Tara McPherson also deserves a nod for her fantastic style that was showcased in a Vertigo title from a few years back, The Witching , but has done nothing but improved since. Acclaimed series cover artist James Jean provided a dazzling cover for the novel, but his story didn't stand out as per usual, but rather pales in comparison with the designs of every cover he's done for the series to date. The overarching story follows Snow White as she tries to persuade th...

It was a light week for comics, but that's fine with me since I seemed to barely have time to read four floppies... Uncanny X-Men #480 Ed Brubaker & Clayton Henry Henry fills in for Billy Tan for an issue in the most exciting chapter of Brubaker's run to date. This issue focuses on Vulcan and pits him against the Shi'ar's Imperial Guard, with an interesting player thrown into the fray by the conclusion of the book. Great battle sequences. A Criminal #2 Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips Another great Brubaker title this week, this one following a criminal as he gets his team ready to pull off a heist for millions of dollars in diamonds. The tension is palpable as things get under way, proving this book to be another winner. A The Irredeemable Ant-Man #2 Robert Kirkman & Phil Hester The fun superhero book from two great creators remains just as entertaining on its second time out. The origin of the new Ant-Man is pretty interesting: fun and goofy and complicated, bu...

Leila Marzocchi This is a great comic. I haven't heard much about this new Ignatz title from Fantagraphics. It comes from the mind of acclaimed Italian creator Leila Marzocchi and is translated by Kim Thompson. The entire story is told in a woodcut style that reminded me vaguely of Hippolyte's scratchboard illustrations in Dracula , although there's a huge difference, as Hippolyte is very moody and dark, aiming to frighten through a sharp gothic atmosphere, wherea Niger is dark in color, but is a lighthearted children's tale. With a cast of cute cuddly forest creatures, including a barn owl who's constantly turning her head upside down, and a strange animal with man-made wings, the animals (mostly birds) take a strange new creature under their wings and protect it from predators as it grows, communing with a yew tree for guidance in the matter. Marzocchi incorporates red into her black and white illustrations, giving a really beautiful effect of blood-red sunsets a...

William Harms, Nick Postic & Nick Marinkovich This is a nice dark and moody book for Halloween. Most of the art is bathed in shadow with gothic images like wolves howling at the full moon and living shadows. Very effective art by Postic and Marinkovich for this type of story. Also very effective are the slithery, oily monsters glimpsed across the pages of this bloody chiller. Impaler is a vampire tale. Beginning in Wallachia in 1460, this book is mostly set in modern day New York City where a cop is retiring in wake of his wife's death at the same time that a ship has been discovered with its entire crew brutally murdered. Like Bram Stoker's Dracula , a diary relates how the crew slowly met its demise via a sickness as equipment was strangely sabatoged. While the book is set full of stock characters and warm bodies to be picked off, the atmosphere and great art, particularly when it comes to the villain designs and death scenes, more than make up for any lack of imaginat...

For Halloween, I've decided to take on two of the goriest manga titles out there... Octopus Girl and Hino Horror ! Octopus Girl (Volume 3) Toru Yamazaki Octopus Girl remains one of the best dark humor titles in manga. In this, its third volume, it shows little sign of slowing down. Like the previous volume of the series, this book includes some short stories from Yamazaki that aren't part of the Octopus Girl series (nearly a third of the book this time), but are in the same vain of storytelling: blood, gore, screaming, sarcasm (although Super Ladies delves more into the spy genre and is still just plain great). Aside from that hideous cover which has nothing to do with any of the content within, this is another great addition to any manga collection. A real treasure included among the short stories: The Slit-Mouthed Neighbor . Check it out! A- The Bug Boy: Hino Horror #2 Hideshi Hino There is a reason Hideshi Hino is dubbed the Master of Japanese Horror Manga. I've been ...

Grant Morrison & J.H. Williams III Everything the Seven Soldiers mini-series have been respectively leading toward merge and come to a head in this oversized comic book, where the seven soldiers who will never meet all play a role in stopping the harrowing of Earth at the hands of the corrupt Sheeda. Unfortunately, I don't think this comic turned out the way Morrison wanted it to. So much is going on, the action never lets up for a moment, and the characters that we've spent so much time with don't get all of the attention they deserve in the conclusions to their tales. Two of my favorites in particular, Frankenstein and the Bulleteer, make pretty brief appearances. No, I think for this to have worked out as Morrison had envisioned, a concluding mini-series would have been the best course of action. That's my first impression, at least. Also, one of the soldiers, the Manhatten Guardian, didn't seem to contribute in the destruction of the Sheeda Queen whatsoever...

Snakewoman #4 Zeb Wells & Michael Gaydos The latest issue of Snakewoman finally explains just what all of the vague concepts like "the sixty-eight" mean. Through a series of flashbacks that look like they fell out of an issue of Fell , Gaydos illustrates the history behind all of the new players in town and how they came to be. It's all pretty interesting and could lead to some good stuff. B+ Jack of Fables #4 Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges This book is really shaping up to be something. In this issue, Jack puts his escape plan into action and we are treated to a real edge-of-your-seat thrill ride as the caged fables make a break for freedom. One of the best offerings of the week. A Zombie #2 (of 4) Mike Raicht & Kyle Hotz Raicht continues to keep readers off-balance with the twists and turns he offers in his zombie tale. The explanations and scares are all pretty by-the-numbers, but the way he's been handling the characters involved in the tragedy has...

Garth Ennis & Jeevan Kang Seven men are brought together by a mysterious woman, each of whom has a special power, whether it be teleportation or super-sight. Well, all except one guy who is a pimp and our hostess Miss Rachel Kai doesn't really understand how he fits into things herself. All she knows is that this particular group of men will band together to save the world. Overall, this is a very generic superhero story. It was decent as far as set-ups go, but there's nothing particularly unique in what's been seen thus far. An interesting introduction at the beginning of the issue told of some secret Chinese history, and some cave explorers are about to wake what appears to be the devil, but until those elements come into play, there's nothing about the story to compel me to urge anyone to track this comic down. However, I will admit that Garth Ennis' dialogue is pretty sharp and witty at times, to the point of making me laugh out loud at one moment. On the ot...

Alexander Irvine & Russ Braun This is how more horror comics should be. Marvel's Max imprint allows for truly gruesome, unsettling imagery and unabashed violence, which is perfect for some titles to thrive under. It's not for every title, of course, but if you're going to write a Hellstorm mini-series, you shouldn't have to hold back on the gore and brutality. It should be genuinely frightening. That being said, the first issue of this mini wasn't exactly frightening. It was gory and violent, and a bit disturbing, but it felt more like an R-rated superhero book, or a Sandman adventure (or more specifically, an adventure from Lucifer , the spin-off book from Sandman ). Not that it wasn't good, because it was a pretty good read. It just didn't drive the scares. The opening scene is a great demonstration for why this is a Max title: demons chase a man through dark alleys until they overtake him, whereupon they tear him apart, bloody limb from bloody limb...

There are plenty more comics about witches than there are werewolves , so I've had to pick and choose a bit here. Now, there are characters like The Scarlet Witch (a mutant, not a witch) who are not mentioned in this list, for this list leans more toward comics featuring traditional witchcraft practitioners to weed out the hundreds of books that could make a case for using magic. Bear with me as I highlight a few titles you may find of interest in your quest for scares this Halloween. Spellbinders: Signs and Wonders - This is how books in that "girl witch" genre should read. The opening scene: two boys are looking through a book on magic, one reading mockingly until, with a look of horror and a mispronounced word, he falls to the floor and shatters into thousands to tiny green lizards that spill out of his clothes. From there, this series doesn't miss a beat, but just keeps on thrilling. We follow a new girl in town, Kate, as she transfers to a school in Massachusett...

In Guilty Pleasures #1 (of 12) Laurell K. Hamilton, Stacie M. Ritchie & Brett Booth The debut issue of this comic has already sold out, but Marvel has announced a second printing, so you still have a chance to get your hands on the comic adaptation of Laurell K. Hamilton's best-selling Anita Blake book. Guilty Pleasures was the novel that introduced millions of readers to the sassy, headstrong Anita Blake, who is an animator, and raises the dead for a living, but gets herself in deep with warring vampires and the like. She doesn't like vampires much, has some trust issues with them, and has already killed fourteen of them, thus she has been dubbed the "Executioner" by their kind. Guilty Pleasures really lent itself to comics nicely. Its world is pretty superhero-ish. The world is aware of monsters, and has put into motion laws that protect them as citizens, etc. Plus, Hamilton's style is very visual, so the transition isn't very jarring here under the ...

I've finally gotten a chance to get in some reading for this past week, now that next week's comics are nearly upon us... Runaways #21 Brian K. Vaughan & Mike Norton This was a really great conclusion to the "Dead Means Dead" storyarc. I wasn't too impressed up until this issue. But Chase gets another little nudge toward darkness in wake of Gertrude's unexpected death, while the other runaways come up with a strategy to cut the humongous rampaging monster down to size. And the guest artist kinda grew on me now that it's back to Alphona with the next iss. A X-Factor #12 Peter David, Renato Arlem & Roy Allen Martinez Another great finale to a storyarc sees X-Factor's invasion of Singularity come to a head, giving the team a glimpse of things to come as they confront the villains. Some cool character moments revitalize the series after it's chugged along on fumes for a little while. A- Ms. Marvel #8 Brian Reed & Roberto De La Torre T...