Comics and More

DVD Releases (Tues, 2/27) Conversations With God Filmation's Ghostbusters: The Animated Series (Volume One) A Good Year The Return Stranger Than Fiction Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny Previous Week: IMDb Top DVD Rental: The Departed Billboard Top DVD Sales: Cinderella III: A Twist In Time My Barnes & Noble #1: The Secret Music Releases (Tues, 2/27) Hanson - Walk John Denver - The Essential John Denver Matt Wertz - Everything In Between Otis Taylor - Definition of a Circle Previous Week: Billboard Top 200 #1: Norah Jones - Not Too Late Comic Releases (Wed, 2/28) Comics Journal #281 Essential Peter Parker: Spectacular Spider-Man (Volume 3) Exiles (Volume 14): New Exiles Firestorm the Nuclear Man: Reborn TP Jack of Fables (Volume 1): The Nearly Great Escape Love Roma (Volume 5) New Avengers (Volume 5): Civil War Premiere HC Showcase Presents: Green Lantern (Volume 2) Spider-Woman: Origin TP Theatrical Releases (Fri, 3/2) Black Snake Moan Wild Hogs Zodiac Previous Week #1: Gho...

Sorry - Manga Monday will be postponed again since I'm only halfway through Until the Full Moon . It's much harder to keep up with this while holding down a full-time job than I'd imagined. Anyway, here are this week's entertainment release highlights... DVD Releases (Tues, 2/20) Babel Family Ties: Season One Flushed Away Man of the Year The Prestige Shut Up & Sing Previous Week: IMDb Top DVD Rental: Flags of Our Fathers Billboard Top DVD Sales: Open Season My Barnes & Noble #1: The Secret Music Releases (Tues, 2/20) The Ataris - Welcome the Night Erasure - One the Road To Nashville Kidz Bop 11 Previous Week: Billboard Top 200 #1: Fall Out Boy - Infinity On High My Barnes & Noble #1: Norah Jones - Not Too Late Comic Releases (Wed, 2/21) Annihilation (Book 1) HC Birds of Prey: Perfect Pitch TP Catwoman: The Replacements TP Checkmate (Volume 1): A King's Game Drifting Classroom (Volume 4) Justice (Volume 2) HC Kamandi Archives (Volume 2) HC Legion of Mons...

Lily Allen Coming out of nowhere with a fresh sound and a killer British accent is Lily Allen, whose debut CD came out a few weeks back with impressive results. It's hard to describe what kind of music Lily Allen does - maybe that's why when I uploaded the CD onto I-Tunes for my I-Pod, it contained the first tracks I'd seen labeled as "Undefinable" for its classification. But if I had to describe it, I would say that it seems to be a blend of R&B, rock and techno. I feel like it's what Gwen Stefani's been trying to reach with her solo efforts, but hasn't quite found. Lily Allen is a true pioneer with her sound. Some of the sounds may be a bit obnoxious and in-your-face upon first hearing the tracks (particularly with Knock 'Em Out ), but I'll be damned if they don't worm their way into your skull until they become some of the funnest, contagious sounds you'll ever experience. The first single off of Alright, Still is Smile , ...

Here are this week's entertainment release highlights... DVD Releases (Tues, 2/13) Beauty & the Beast: Season 1 The Departed Golden Girls: Season 7 Half Nelson Marie Antoinette School For Scoundrels The U.S. vs. John Lennon Zoom Previous Week: IMDb Top DVD Rental: The Marine Billboard Top DVD Sales: Saw III My Barnes & Noble #1: The Secret Music Releases (Tues, 2/13) Bridge To Terabithia O.S.T. Music & Lyric O.S.T. Van Morrison - Van Morrison At the Movies Lucinda Williams - West Previous Week: Billboard Top 200 #1: Norah Jones - Not Too Late My Barnes & Noble #1: Norah Jones - Not Too Late Comic Releases (Wed, 2/14) Excalibur Classic (Volume 3): Crosstime Caper Book One Franklin Richards Lab Brat Digest TP Krazy & Ignatz 1939-1940: Brick Stuffed With Moombins Little Lulu (Volume 14): Queen Lulu Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. (Volume 1): This Is What They Want TP Showcase Presents Aquaman (Volume 1) Spider-Man: Death of the Stacys Premiere HC Theatrical Releases (...

Tanpenshu (Volume 1) Hiroki Endo Tanpenshu is the first of two books from the very talented Hiroki Endo, who's best known for his sci-fi epic Eden: It's An Endless World! This a collection of short stories that occur in the real world, and as such, Endo proves his mastery over the medium with the diversity of his storytelling skills in this fantastic first volume. I was blown away by the depth and characterization that Endo was able to establish in such short numbers while maintaining that level of quality art that any fan of Eden has become familiar with. The first story contained within examines a blooming friendship between a disfigured girl and a yazuka outcast, and though it was my least favorite of the stories, it served as a great introduction to the volume. The other two stories, Because You're Definitely a Cute Girl (about a very disturbed high schooler) and For Those of Us Who Don't Believe In God (about the relationships of a theater troupe) were pret...

Paul Daly & Steve Bryant Before Athena Voltaire: Flight of the Falcon , Athena Voltaire starred in her own comic strip on-line that appeared more or less weekly at www.athenavoltaire.com . Garnering plenty of critical acclaim and nominated for an Eisner Award, the strip eventually caught the attention of publishers excited to print new material from the creators (Speakeasy, followed by Ape Entertainment) and the rest is history. Athena Voltaire emulates a 1930's adventure strip, and stars an aviatrix who has a knack for finding trouble. The two stories included in this collection, The Terror in Tibet and The Wrath From the Tomb , are the earliest adventures of the title character, introducing readers to Athena's world and vast cast of supporting characters. As her earliest adventures, the art from Steve Bryant isn't up to the standards of the gorgeous work that appears in Flight of the Falcon , but there are glimmers of greatness here and there amid artwork that'...

Here are this week's entertainment release highlights... DVD Releases (Tues, 2/06) Baywatch: Season 3 Charmed: Season 7 Cinderella III: A Twist In Time Flags of Our Fathers Flicka The Grudge 2 Hellboy: Sword of Storms Hollywoodland Mad About You: Season 3 Running With Scissors The Science of Sleep Previous Week: IMDb Top DVD Rental: Saw III Billboard Top DVD Sales: Gridiron Gang Music Releases (Tues, 2/06) Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked Ladies Are Men Bloc Party - A Weekend In the City Belinda Carlisle - Voila Fallout Boy - Infinity On High Patty Griffin - Children Running Through Rickie Lee Jones - The Sermon On Exposition Boulevard Sondre Lerche - Phantom Punch Jordan Pruitt - No Ordinary Girl Ashley Tinsdale - Headstrong Previous Week: Billboard Top 200 #1: Pretty Ricky - Late Night Special Comic Releases (Wed, 2/07) Absolute Boyfriend (Volume 3) Batman: Year One Deluxe SC Claymore (Volume 6) Dark Tower: Gunslinger Born #1 (of 7) DMZ (Volume 2): Body of a Journalist Eden: It'...

Mushishi (Volume 1) Yuki Urushibara Mushishi is a book that seems to have a few people excited in the manga realm. This series comes from a new young cartoonist and has garnered quite a bit of acclaim, at the same time that it's branching out into other multimedia areas like anime. The first volume of this manga has just been released by Del Ray to American audiences in a pretty little package. The story follows a mysterious young man, a mushishi named Ginko, who travels to expand his knowledge and help people with problems that involve magical creatures called mushi. He's kind of like a shaman of sorts. Now, I went into this book without having any prior knowledge of the premise and was a little out-of-sorts, as I didn't realize where the focus of the story would lie, let alone what the heck was going on. As a series of short stories, Mushishi opens with a young man (Shinra) who has the ability to draw anything he wishes into being with his left hand, no matter how fant...

David Petersen Archaia Studios Press' first mini-series of David Petersen's Mouse Guard concluded a few weeks ago, with a hardcover collection entitled Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 scheduled for release in a few months' time, with the sequel mini-series Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 not far behind. The title has garnered quite a bit of praise, if not a faithful following, and deservedly so. This is a really good mini-series. And it features cute little mice with cute little swords! But truly, David Petersen does a stellar job of transferring his world to the page with vivid colors, beautiful drawings and great character designs. I've said this before, but Petersen also demonstrates a mastery of cartooning via the expressions of his characters, whose eyes are pretty much the sole vehicle at conveying emotion. The characters aren't exactly flushed out in this straight-forward story, but you can't help but getting attached nonetheless as the story progresses. In thi...

And I'm now caught up on last week's floppies... Fables #57 Bill Willingham & Michael Allred . The latest Fables sees Bigby and Snow going on a visit to see Bigby's father, The North Wind, with their troop of wolf cubs. Nothing particularly interesting occurs, but this issue does contain guest pencils from the hand of Mike Allred, who does a stellar job of it. B . X-Factor #15 Peter David & Pablo Raimondi . While Jamie Madrox is captured/brainwashed by Hydra, Siryn and Monet have a little incident in Paris, that latter story of which was more exciting. Jamie's quest to reclaim his dupes is an interesting one, but I hope something occurs in this book to bring it back to the glory of its early issues. The storylines lately have been a tad dull. C+ . Eternals #6 (of 7) Neil Gaiman & John Romita Jr. . The Eternals come together to try and stop the sleeping Celestial from...well, awakening. This is a pretty odd series, but it's fun in a way with some really ...

Sorry, but I've been busy moving to my home in New Berlin, WI, so I haven't been updating, which means no Manga Monday until next week. I should resume my normal posting patterns shortly this week. But in the meantime, here are this week's entertainment release highlights... DVD Releases (Tues, 1/30) The Big Valley: Season Two, Volume 1 Catch a Fire Dallas: Season 6 Farce of the Penguins Flyboys I Dream of Jeannie: Season 3 Lucky Louie: Season 1 Open Season Previous Week: IMDb Top DVD Rental: Employee of the Month Billboard Top DVD Sales: Crank Music Releases (Tues, 1/30) Celtic Woman - A New Journey Harry Connick Jr. - Oh, My Nola Katharine McPhee - Katharine McPhee Madonna - The Confessions Tour Norah Jones - Not Too Late Previous Week: Billboard Top 200 #1: Daughtry - Daughtry Comic Releases (Wed, 1/31) Astonishing X-Men (Volume 3): Torn Beasts HC Defenders: Indefensible TP Doom Patrol (Volume 5): Magic Bus Essential Ghost Rider (Volume 2) Ion (Volume 1): The Torchbea...

The week's entertainment release highlights... DVD Releases (Tues, 1/23) Avatar: Book Two, Volume One The Guardian The Invincible Iron Man Jesus Camp Monsters and Madmen: Criterion Collection The Puffy Chair Sanjuro: Criterion Collection Saw 3 Sherrybaby This Film Is Not Yet Rated Yojimbo: Criterion Collection Previous Week: IMDb Top DVD Rental: Crank Billboard Top DVD Sales: Snakes On a Plane Music Releases (Tues, 1/23) 2007 Grammy Nominees Gipsy Kings - Pasajero John Mellancamp - Freedom's Road Kenny Wayne Shepherd - 10 Days Out (Blues From the Backroads) The Shins - Wincing the Night Away Previous Week: Billboard Top 200 #1: Dreamgirls O.S.T. Comic Releases (Wed, 1/24) Civil War: The Return Claws: Wolverine and Black Cat HC Drips Lucifer (Volume 11): Evensong Marvel Masterworks: Warlock (Volume 1) Showcase Presents: The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-Ups (Vol. 1) Silent War #1 (of 6) Tanpenshu (Volume 1) X-Factor: Life and Death Matters HC Theatrical Releases (Fri, 1/26) Blo...

Mail (Volume 1) Housui Yamazaki Mail is a new manga series from Dark Horse, one that sports the original Japanese cover in all its Nintendo-ish glory. It's strange how the Japanese sometimes put English on their covers to make them seem hip, when we, in turn, try to emulate the Japanese designs much of the time. But anyways, this book is packaged in an eye-catching recycled paper cover, which is why I picked this baby up in the first place. A brief flip-through and I was sold. The art by Yamazaki is really very nice, something the cover doesn't really give any indication of, though it is a great design. This title is basically a series of short stories, all that eventually involve mysterious private detective Reiji Akiba, who has a unique device to aid him in putting troubled spirits to rest, a sanctified gun named Kagutsuchi. This is a horror manga title and as such, it really does succeed in containing chilling little moments, though the overall concept is really silly and su...

Steve Horton & David Ahn This is an advance review for Strongarm #1 from Image Comics, which hits comic stores in late February. Strongarm is obviously a heavily manga-influenced title about twin brothers and the different paths they've taken in life. One brother works with a resistance movement while the other is a delivery boy who's going nowhere. This story takes place in a future where flying cars are the norm and all of the typical manga conventions are in place to make an already bland story that much more uninteresting. The book immediately opens with an action sequence where our loser brother is battling a hulking man with cybernetic arms. When the underdog gets lucky and kills his assailant, the arms begin to move and graft onto him, and unfortunately, he's unable to control the power he now wields. It seems that his position in life has now been inadvertently altered, for better or worse. If there was something, anything, to like about this issue, I co...

I'm finally caught up on my comics from the last two weeks, so I've got a bit of ground to cover today... All-Star Superman #6 Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely This series is, quite honestly, hit or miss for me. I do appreciate how Morrison and Quitely are able to consistently put out self-contained issues, and the art is always great, but I find some of the issues just plain bland. This issue was a cool idea, but I certainly wasn't blown away by the concept or the interaction of the characters or anything. It was just kind of there. But no matter what with Morrison's stories, there are always cool moments. In this issue, Superman and Krypto playing together with a tree was a great sequence. C Civil War #6 (of 7) Mark Millar & Steve McNiven A few neat ideas are thrown into this issue of Marvel's huge crossover event as Cap's team attempts to level the playing field. Nothing particularly shocking occurs here like seems to have happened with every other issu...

The week's entertainment release highlights... DVD Releases (Tues, 1/16) Doctor Who: Season 2 Employee of the Month Gridiron Gang King of Queens: Season 7 The Protector Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning Previous Week: IMDb Top DVD Rental: Little Miss Sunshine Billboard Top DVD Sales: Jackass: Number Two Music Releases (Tues, 1/16) America - Here & Now Diana Ross - I Love You Roxette - A Collection of Roxette Hits: Their Twenty Greatest Songs Stacie Orrico - Beautiful Awakening Previous Week: Billboard Top 200 #1: Dreamgirls O.S.T. Comic Releases (Wed, 1/17) Batman Year One Hundred TP Bone (Volume 5): Rock Jaw, Master of the Eastern Border Color Edition Essential X-Factor (Volume 2) Marvel Visionaries: John Buscema Mike Carey's One-Sided Bargains Storm Premiere HC Superman: Emperor Joker TP Testament (Volume 2): West of Eden Tezuka's Buddha (Volume 5): Deer Park SC Last Month: Diamond Top 300 Comics #1: Justice League of America #4 Diamond Top 100 Graphic Nove...

It's Manga Monday and today I have three mini-reviews for your viewing enjoyment! Dragon Head (Volume 5) Minetaro Mochizuki This is the best installment of Mochizuki's Dragon Head since its debut. I was getting a tad bored with the series to be honest, so I was really delighted to see it turn that corner and really get me excited again. This is really great survivalist horror that shows the madness left in wake of a disaster of unknown origins. Although this issue does show what occurred above surface through someone's perspective, which was really neat to behold, it didn't go too far into the realm of revealing too much . It's all still very vague and open as to the cause of the world's present state, and the hows and whys of how it got that way. And this is the first time you get those two words whispered: Dragon Head . It was really chilling when those words finally appeared in the book and I'm on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what's ahead....

Warren Ellis & Mike Deodato Jr. Spinning out of Marvel's huge Civil War crossover event comes the much-anticipated relaunch of the Thunderbolts . The Thunderbolts, of course, originally appeared as "yet another superhero team," but shocked readers when, by the end of the first issue, the team was revealed to be made up entirely of villains. There were a lot of C-rate villains involved, like Songbird who used to be known as The Screaming Mimi. This new team of Thunderbolts consists of more A-List villains. Kind of the supervillain version of the New Avengers , if you will. We have Venom, Bullseye, Songbird, Moonstone, Green Goblin and a few obscure names: Penance and Swordsman. An ecclectic group that's sure to play off of each other marvelously under Ellis' pen. I never really read Thunderbolts before this to be honest, so I don't know much of the history of the group, but all of that's thrown out the window here for the most part with Civil W...

2006 was a pretty lackluster year in terms of music, with few big releases and little innovation. There were some little nuggets of greatness in there however. I plan to get more into music in 2007, listening to new releases as they come into the music/DVD department I work in, since I feel sort of obligated to expand my knowledge anyway. But the following are the best CDs of 2006 in my little world. 1 . Sunlight Searchparty - Val Emmich Following up his major label debut Slow Down Kid , Val Emmich returns to a small indy label for his ambitious Sunlight Searchparty , where he takes his particular philosophy on music and realizes it. Emmich believes that anything can be done with studio magic, but music should hold mistakes and feel vaguely unpolished. An interesting idea. So before he went into the studio with his band this past summer, they practiced like crazy to create something quite extraordinary. With every song done in one take, the finished product is surprisingly professional...

I'm back from my mini-vacation with this week's new release highlights... DVD Releases (Tues, 1/09) Extras: Season One The Illusionist The Night Listener Spongebob Squarepants: Season Four, Volume Two Previous Week: IMDb Top DVD Rental: The Devil Wears Prada Billboard Top DVD Sales: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Music Releases (Tues, 1/09) Ty Herndon - Right About Now Mario - Go! Yo-Yo Ma - Appasionato Previous Week: Billboard Top 200 #1: Omarion - 21 Comic Releases (Wed, 1/10) Champions Classic (Volume 2) New Mutants Classic (Volume 2) Showcase Presents: Justice League of America (Volume 2) Superman/Batman vs. Aliens/Predators #1 (of 2) Thunderbolts #110 Theatrical Releases (Fri, 1/12) Alpha Dog Arthur and the Invisibles Notes on a Scandal The Painted Veil Pan's Labyrinth Primeval Stomp the Yard Previous Week #1: Night At the Museum