Written by Tony Bedard
Penciled by Mike Perkins
Inked by Andrew Hennessy
32 pages, color
Published by CrossGen
In terms of successful film franchises, James Bond is certainly near the top of the list. Spawning twenty movies with no sign of stopping, their influence is almost too high to count. Adding to that list, now, is CrossGen’s new series Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Named after the Japanese title for James Bond, will Kiss Kiss Bang Bang be able to capture more than just the name?
Written by Moebius
Art by Jiro Taniguchi
160 pages, black and white
Published by iBooks, Inc.
If you asked people what superpower they’d want to have, I think flight would be one of the top choices. There’s something liberating about the idea of being able to fly—that you can somehow escape the grasp of the world around you and instantly go wherever you want. French comics legend Moebius certainly understood that when he wrote Icaro, a two-volume collaboration with Japanese artist Jiro Taniguchi where a child is born with the power of flight… but without the power of liberation.
Written by Juan Díaz Canales
Art by Guarnido
56 pages, color
Published by iBooks
A couple of years ago, a friend returned from a trip to Spain with several graphic albums he’d picked up, and there was one in particular that stood out: Blacksad. With its amazing art and noir sensibilities, I knew that I absolutely had to own this graphic album. The only stumbling block for me to really enjoy it? I don’t speak Spanish. Thankfully, with an English language edition of Blacksad now available, I don’t have to invest in that new foreign language class after all.
Continue reading “Blacksad Vol. 1: Somewhere Within the Shadows”
By Sonny Liew
24 pages, black and white
Published by Red Robot Productions
What the heck is a Malinky Robot? I’ve got no idea. Reading Malinky Robot: Stinky Fish Blues didn’t help. I’ve heard three or four (contradictory) theories as to just what a Malinky Robot might be. All I know for certain is that whatever the answer is, you don’t need it to enjoy Sonny Liew’s Xeric Grant-winning comic.
Edited by Jim Higgins
100 pages, black and white
Published by new suit
In his opening essay for New Thing Vol. 2: Secrets, editor Jim Higgins talks about a lack of strong stories in comics. It’s a brave opening gambit, because doing so then asks the reader to decide for themselves: is the writing in Secrets as strong as Higgins claims it will be?
Written by Patrick Neighly
Art by Jorge Heufemann
136 pages, color
Published by Mad Yak Press
A couple of years ago, the contents of Subatomic might have seemed a bit more far-fetched. But in the year 2003, where we have a part of the government officially named the Department of Homeland Security, anything seems possible. And that’s exactly the wave that writer Patrick Neighly has decided to ride.
Written by Ivan Brandon
Penciled by Mike Hawthorne
Inked by Rick Remender
48 pages, color
Published by Beckett Comics
It’s tough in this market to launch a new comics company and make an instant impression. Beckett Comics is certainly giving it the old college try, so to speak. Their first releases, licensed Terminator 3 comics, brought to mind some of Dark Horse’s earliest licensed books that helped push the company into the spotlight. Now Beckett’s releasing Ruule, a five-issue prestige format full-color mini-series… at $2.99 an issue. Now that’s bound to get some people’s attention.
By S. Kwon
72 pages, black and white
Published by Bong’s Quality Meats
A title and a cover is all it can take, sometimes. I’m not sure which grabbed me first: the title of the book being Blanche the Baby Killer, or the image of Blanche in a factory-worker’s outfit splattered in a black substance. Now I know, you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover; that way often leads disaster. But what can I say? Sometimes, that’s all the lure you need.
Written by Alan Moore
Penciled by Chris Sprouse and Rick Veitch, with Gil Kane, Jim Starlin, Matt Smith, Jim Baikie, Ian Churchill, and Rob Liefeld
Inked by Al Gordon and Rick Veitch, with Jim Starlin, Rob Liefeld, Matt Smith, and Norm Rapmund
260 pages, color
Published by Checker Book Publishing Group
The sales of one of your comic books—a thinly disguised incarnation of Superman—are lackluster. General interest in the book is down pretty low. What do you do? In the case of Rob Liefeld and the comic book Supreme, the answer was to hire Alan Moore to come on board as writer and completely revamp the series. No one seemed to really believe that Alan Moore was going to write Supreme, but it worked. In many ways a precursor to Moore’s various America’s Best Comics titles, his run on Supreme is now collected into two volumes for those wondering just what they missed the first time around…
By Batton Lash
176 pages, black and white
Published by Exhibit A Press
Who doesn’t know a couple of lawyer jokes? As long as there have been people to argue the law, there’s been humor about the profession. The secret, then, is to make sure that your lawyer jokes are better than anyone else’s. With Batton Lash’s latest collection of his comic Supernatural Law, he proves that he doesn’t know just a couple of lawyer jokes, but a whole case file full… and fortunately for you, they’re well worth hearing.
Continue reading “Mister Negativity, and Other Tales of Supernatural Law”
