Month: November 2006

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StormWatch: Post Human Division #1

Written by Christos Gage
Art by Doug Mahnke
32 pages, color
Published by WildStorm/DC Comics

WildStorm’s StormWatch has in some ways always been a troubled title. Early on the series’s history it released an issue #25 almost eighteen months early to let readers play the “how would they get there?” game. Later the book got heavily revamped by Warren Ellis and Tom Raney, then restarted with a new #1 before being cancelled to lead into The Authority. A new book called StormWatch: Team Achilles survived for two years before getting cancelled amid low sales and creative team scandals. Now the book is back again under the new moniker StormWatch: Post Human Division. And while the subtitle may not be the most riveting, Christos Gage and Doug Mahnke’s stab at the book might just have a chance of surviving.

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Lost Colony Vol. 1: The Snodgrass Conspiracy

By Grady Klein
128 pages, color
Published by First Second Books

With most books, you can tell pretty quickly if it’s the sort of thing you’re going to love or hate. Be it the plot, or the style of storytelling, the author’s work just falls into place in such a way that you quickly grasp where you stand. I think that’s ultimately what’s so intriguing for me with Grady Klein’s The Lost Colony Vol. 1: The Snodgrass Conspiracy; by the time I was done with the book I still wasn’t entirely sure what I thought of it.

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Pirates of Coney Island #1

Written by Rick Spears
Art by Vasilis Lolos
32 pages, color
Published by Image Comics

There are some titles that just grab me the second I hear them. The Pirates of Coney Island was definitely one of them; the mixing of a familiar genre phrase (“The Pirates of…”) with the part of Brooklyn known for its boardwalks, beaches, and amusement parks. I actually laughed out loud when I first saw the title and figured I knew exactly what I was getting in for, with such a funny, silly name. And boy, was I wrong on all counts.

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Drifting Classroom Vol. 1-2

By Kazuo Umezu
192 pages, black and white
Published by Viz

When Viz released Kazuo Umezu’s Orochi: Blood back in 2002, I’d hoped it was the start of a long line of releases by the noted Japanese master of horror. It’s taken a few years, but Umezu’s works are now appearing in English again, both in Dark Horse’s Scary Book series of Umezu short works, and Viz’s The Drifting Classroom. With The Drifting Classroom two of its eleven volumes are now translated, and I can’t help but wonder if publishing the other nine books could somehow result in a worldwide shortage of exclamation points thanks to its relentless intensity.

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