Author: Greg McElhatton

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Manhunter #1

Written by Marc Andreyko
Penciled by Jesus Saiz
Inked by Jimmy Palmiotti
32 pages, color
Published by DC Comics

I have a confession to make. A couple of months ago, I saw the solicitation for Manhunter while writing Things to Come for Ninth Art and I almost completely wrote the series off. Then I took a look at the creative team and I had to reconsider. Marc Andreyko’s writing on Case Files: Sam & Twitch and The Lost is rated high with me, and the Jesus Saiz and Jimmy Palmiotti art team was strong on Midnight, Mass and 21 Down. So I promised to take a look at the series and see if these three could make me a believer.

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Ojo #1

Written by Sam Kieth
Art by Sam Kieth with Alex Pardee
32 pages, black and white
Published by Oni Press

Sam Kieth is probably best known for his comic The Maxx (or perhaps being the penciler for the first five issues of The Sandman), but he’s done his share of other comic books in recent days. Books like Zero Girl, Four Women, and Scratch are just a few of his recent projects—but out of all of his books in the past couple of years, I think my favorite based just on the first issue has got to be Ojo.

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Monkey & Spoon

By Simone Lia
112 pages, blue and white
Published by AdHouse Books

“Can a MONKEY love a SPOON? …and visa versa?” That’s the back cover text to Simone Lia’s Monkey & Spoon, her graphic novel from AdHouse Books. It’s a question that really begs another one, though: how on Earth can anyone resist buying something with that tagline?

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Ursula

By Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba
72 pages, black and white
Published by AiT/PlanetLar

Everyone’s familiar with the genre commonly known as the love story. Books, movies, comics, music… there isn’t a form of art that doesn’t have the love story. What that means, though, is that as a creator you’ve got to keep a love story fresh and original or you risk losing a jaded audience. I think that’s what grabbed my attention the most about Ursula—it takes the traditional love story and really tries to do something very different with it.

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Family Reunion

Written by Sean Stewart
Art by Steve Lieber
8 pages, black and white
Distributed by Small Beer Press

I’d heard of Sean Stewart’s novels before Family Reunion came across my desk, but I must admit that I’ve never actually read them. I’d heard rave reviews for Mockingbird and Galveston, but like so many other books they were in a little mental file I like to call “I really should get around to this one of these days.” But then Stewart wrote Family Reunion, an 8-page comic illustrated by Steve Lieber that ties into Stewart’s new novel Perfect Circle. And the result? Well, let’s just say that two weeks later I had a copy of Perfect Circle in my hot little hands.

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Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life

By Bryan Lee O’Malley
168 pages, black and white
Published by Oni Press

Last December, I read Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Lost at Sea and was blown away by what I found. Up until then I’d only encountered O’Malley as an artist for other people’s stories, not as a writer/artist in his own right. By the time I was done reading Lost at Sea I already knew that it would be on my “Best of 2003” list, easily. This actually made me a little nervous to read the first volume of Scott Pilgrim, O’Malley’s new series. Would it be able to hold up to the high expectations that Lost at Sea had placed on any future works of O’Malley’s? Or was I doomed for an inevitable disappointment?

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Birth of a Nation

Written by Aaron McGruder and Reginald Hudlin
Art by Kyle Baker
144 pages, color
Published by Crown Publishers

I absolutely love Aaron McGruder’s comic strip The Boondocks. When I heard that McGruder was co-writing a graphic novel with Reginald Hudlin (screenwriter for the movie House Party), I was excited. When I heard that Kyle Baker (Why I Hate Saturn, The Cowboy Wally Show) was illustrating it, I was ecstatic. And when I got my hands on the book, well… good times were definitely here. It’s tough for something to live up to high expectations, but it’s even harder for it to exceed them. And that is exactly what Birth of a Nation did.

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Bleach Vol. 1

By Tite Kubo
200 pages, black and white
Published by Viz

Sometimes it takes the silliest things to get me to pick up a comic. Take Bleach Vol. 1, by Tite Kubo. In this case, it was a combination of the sharp figure drawing on the front surrounded by pure white and… the title. It just sounded cool to me. What can I say? Sometimes a book really can get sold on the cover and the title. Of course, what’s inside, that’s an entirely different story.

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Shi: Ju-Nen #1

By Billy Tucci
32 pages, color
Published by Dark Horse Comics

It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since Shi first appeared in comic stores. Debuting in a time period when warrior women comics seemed to be appearing left and right, Shi was an instant success… which meant that I was never able to find a copy unless I was willing to pay a small fortune. (I wasn’t willing to do so, I might add.) I was certainly curious about the book, though, and now that Billy Tucci has returned with Shi: Ju-Nen from Dark Horse, I figured this would be a good a chance as any to see what all the fuss was about.

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Tupelo #1

Written by Matt DeGennaro
Art by Phil Elliott
32 pages, black and white
Published by Slave Labor Graphics

Every now and then, strange comics show up in my mailbox. There’s something great about it, to be honest. You open up an envelope, find a book you’ve never heard of before, sit down to read it, and discover that it’s absolutely fantastic. In the case of Tupelo from Slave Labor Graphics, that’s exactly what happened.

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