Category: Other Publishers

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Freewheel Volume 1

By Liz Baillie
96 pages, black and white
Published by Punchbuggy Press

When handled properly, a story that quietly shifts genres can be a real delight. That’s definitely the case with Liz Baillie’s Freewheel, which on the surface looks strictly to be a human drama, about a girl who runs away from her foster mother to try and find her missing brother and in the process discovers an underground network of homeless people. One of the many things that’s great about Freewheel, though, is how halfway through the first volume it quietly switches up on your expectations and adds a whole new dimension to its story.

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Yotsuba&! Vol. 7

By Kiyohiko Azuma
208 pages, black and white
Published by Yen Press

There are some series where the publication schedule can try its fans’ patience. One of them is, easily, Yotsuba&! if you’re reading it in English. Its original publisher released the first three collections in fast succession, then there was a 20-month gap before volumes 4 and 5 showed up. Then, the company decided to get out of the book publishing game, and it was another two years before Yotsuba&! wriggled its way free to Yen Press. With volumes 6 and 7 now out, and an eighth one scheduled for later this spring, it looks like for now the drought is over. The reason why I mention all of this is that there are few series that I think would hold my attention so much over the course of this many delays, but Yotsuba&! manages quite nicely.

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Nightschool: The Weirn Books Vol. 1-2

By Svetlana Chmakova
192 pages, black and white
Published by Yen Press

A little over a year ago, I read the fifth Flight anthology and was enthralled by Svetlana Chmakova’s short story, "On the Importance of Space Travel." I’d promised myself since then that I’d give some of her other comics a try, and recently picked up and read the first two volumes of Nightschool. And while the idea of a school for the supernatural is something we’ve all seen before, it’s Chmakova’s style of how she tells the story that makes this series stand out and become memorable.

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Lenore vol. 2 #1

By Roman Dirge
32 pages, color
Published by Titan Books

Back in the day, if Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (and its spin-off Squee!) was title that SLG Publishing was best known for, Lenore was certainly right behind it. Roman Dirge’s stories of a cute little undead girl mixed sick humor with mind-crushing puns as punch lines; it was sort of like sitting next to two people each trying to out-gross the other, but in this case Dirge was the only one playing. Now, after several years of silence, Lenore is back and from Titan Books, and it’s nice to see that some things haven’t changed.

Dirge still follows the old pattern that I remembered in the past; Lenore moves through life in a slightly oblivious fashion, runs into an unexpected (and most likely deadly) obstacle, and ends up defeating it without really trying. All, of course, to the frustration of whomever she’s up against. That’s what we get here, as Lenore has an encounter with the man who originally attempt to embalm her. It’s funny and I chuckled in all the right (or should that be wrong?) places, although at the end of the day Lenore was exactly like I remembered its old run of stories. I think it actually works better as individual comics than a collected edition; the chances of the joke getting old are far less in short doses. Lenore may not set the world on fire, but it makes me laugh and at the end of the day that’s a good thing.

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Tom Corbett, Space Cadet #1-2

Written by Bill Spangler
Art by John DaCosta
32 pages, color
Published by Bluewater Comics

I have to given Bluewater Comics credit where it’s due: I ended up reading the first two issues of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet entirely because of their title. It harkens back to old time, golden age science-fiction pulps, and the cover image of the three main characters standing heroically while a spaceship flies by pushes even more of those buttons. Once I read the comics, I can’t help but feel that in some ways it’s actually drawing on those old pulps and serials a little too much in spots.

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Papercutter #11

Written by Amy Adoyzie, Dustin Harbin, and Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg
Art by Jon Sukarangsan, Dustin Harbin, and Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg
32 pages, black and white
Published by Tugboat Press

If I haven’t said it before, let me do so now. The best anthology series right now, in my book, is Papercutter from Tugboat Press. Published several times a year, each new issue contains several short stories from a wide range of comics talents, from up-and-coming creators to those who have already broken out and made a name for themselves. And while there are always some stories that work better than others, I do think it is safe to say that there’s never been a "dud" story. For an anthology that’s hit eleven issues, that’s a pretty amazing achievement.

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Akira Vol. 1

By Katsuhiro Otomo
368 pages, black and white
Published by Kodansha Comics

Reading Akira makes me feel a little old. It probably has to do with first encountering Akira 20 years ago, early on in Marvel’s colored reprints of Katsuhiro Otomo’s epic. From there, Dark Horse eventually reprinted the series as six "phone book" sized paperbacks around the turn of the century. Now, Japanese mega-publisher Kodansha is kicking off its own official North American publishing imprint, Kodansha Comics, and they’re using Akira as one of their first two books. While the content is still sound, in terms of actual production it’s a little surprising in places.

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Monsters

By Ken Dahl
208 pages, black and white
Published by Secret Acres

What do you know about herpes? Some readers might know that it’s a disease that almost three-quarters of Americans have, and it’s incurable. Except, of course, there’s more to it than just that. If you finish reading Ken Dahl’s Monsters with nothing more than a better understanding of what herpes really is and how it can effect you, that’s a good start. With his semi-autobiographical graphic novel, though, Dahl does more than just simply educate about the herpes simplex virus. Instead, it’s a harrowing—and in places extremely uncomplimentary—journey into his own psyche.

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Neptune

By Aron Nels Steinke
160 pages, black and white
Published by Sparkplug Comic Books and Tugboat Press

Sometimes all it takes to attract a reader is an attractive cover. Aron Nels Steinke’s Neptune is the sort of book whose cover promises exactly what it delivers on the inside. It’s a simple illustration style with a surprising amount of detail the more you look at it, and with the promise of fun. There’s an innocence about the cover too, and I think that’s the best way to describe the experience of reading Neptune. I’ve enjoyed Steinke’s short stories in Papercutter up until now, but now that I’ve read an extended story by him I want to see more.

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Modesty Blaise: The Lady Killers

Written by Peter O’Donnell
Art by Neville Colvin
104 pages, black and white
Published by Titan Books

It’s been well over a decade since a friend of mine lent me some dog-eared, beaten up Modesty Blaise reprints. I’d never heard of Peter O’Donnell’s femme fatale at the time, but they were a fun, pulpy group of adventures that let a woman kick butt as well (and better) than her male counterparts. What I didn’t know until just recently, though, was that Titan Books started a definitive Modesty Blaise collected series just a few years ago, and it’s already up to fifteen volumes. Reading Modesty Blaise: The Lady Killers now not only lets me flash back to the fun experience of reading some similar stories all those years ago, but I now also have a greater appreciation for O’Donnell’s writing.

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