By Troy Little
24 pages, black and white
Published by Meanwhile Studios
Some people wear their influences on their sleeves. Early work by Bryan Hitch, for instance, showed off a lot of influence from Alan Davis. The big question ultimately becomes, will the creator find their own voice? It’s a question I found myself wondering when I first encountered Troy Little’s work on Chiaroscuro; as the series progressed, would the book move beyond an extremely skillful Dave Sim pastiche?
By Rhode Montijo
black and white
Published by Abismo
Years ago, I explained to a friend that all writers have an Aztec story just lurking inside of them, waiting to get out. It’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the heart of the matter is that the Aztec culture was a rich and intriguing one, full of story possibilities. Maybe that’s why I was so instantly captivated by Rhode Montijo’s Pablo’s Inferno, his self-published mini-series where we get to see a much more interesting version of the afterlife than what most popular media presents to us.
By Tony Millionaire
24 pages, black and white
Published by Dark Horse Comics
Some friends of mine talk about a certain story structure being “a Simpsons story”. It’s when you have a story that starts going in one direction, then radically shifts into something completely different within the first few minutes. I don’t know exactly what that’s called, but Tony Millionaire knows exactly how to make it work when he creates a new issue of Sock Monkey.
By P. Craig Russell
Based on the opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
144 pages, color
Published by NBM
Over a decade ago, Eclipse published The Magic Flute, P. Craig Russell’s adaptation of the opera by the same name. At the time, it must have seemed like an odd choice of comic book material to the casual observer. Now, of course, Russell is probably best known for his recent adaptation of The Ring Cycle into comics, so it makes perfect sense for NBM to bring Russell’s earlier opera adaptations back into print. Looking at this work, though, it illustrates how ahead of his times Russell was in 1990… and how some people have been consistently good for years.
Written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir
Penciled by Keron Grant
Inked by Rob Stull
32 pages, color
Published by Marvel Comics
It’s hard to believe that it was just over 20 years ago that Marvel first decided to create an X-Men spin-off in the form of The New Mutants. Starring five younger characters to be a second wave of mutants, the book originally starring Cannonball, Psyche, Karma, Sunspot, and Wolfsbane lasted for 100 issues (plus a handful of annuals and specials) before ending to make room for X-Force. With X-Force ending recently to make room for X-Statix, it’s almost fitting that we once more have a New Mutants ongoing series.
Written by Jai Sen
Art by Seijuro Mizu, Umeka Asayuki, and Shino Yotsumoto
304 pages, color
Published by Shoto Press
Last year, Jai Sen and Rizky Wasisto Edi’s Garlands of Moonlight was a genuine breakout hit, earning an Eisner nomination and great amounts of critical praise. Now, not only do Sen and Edi have a sequel hitting stores this summer, but Sen is also responsible for a brand new book, The Golden Vine… and history might just be about to repeat itself.
By Chynna Clugston-Major
32 pages, black and white
Published by Oni Press
There’s no doubt about it—scooters are cool. They’re little, sporty, and people in Italy are probably laughing their heads off at America for just recently rediscovering the allure at their everyday vehicles. In a nutshell, though, that’s Chynna Clugston-Major’s Scooter Girl; a book with a main character who at a glance seems to be the coolest thing since sliced bread, but once you find out the truth, is worth a couple of snickers.
By Ezra Claytan Daniels
96 pages, black and white
Published by Dream Chocolate
One of the things I love the most about comic book publishing is the wild diversity. I’m not talking just about content, but presentation. Once you get away from most of the books published by the “big” publishers, you end up with a wide array of shapes, sizes, and even paper stock. Take, for instance, The Changers. Printed in digest format using green ink and looking like a training manual, its look alone will stay with you.
By Junko Mizuno
144 pages, color
Published by Viz
If you think about it, the original story of “Hansel & Gretel” isn’t terribly logical. Parents, unable to feed their children, decide that abandoning them in the middle of the forest is the answer to all their problems. (And if at first they come trapsing home, abandon them even further into the forest.) Only once they’ve avoided near-death at a witch’s hands do they come home, and all is well with their family life because now they can eat the witch’s edible candy house and not have to try and write each other off. Either these are the most-trusting, or the stupidest children in the world. Possibly both. In any event, this probably explains why in Junko Mizuno’s Hansel & Gretel, Mizuno only took a couple of specific elements she liked from the original story and threw out the rest.
By Marjane Satrapi
160 pages, black and white
Published by Pantheon Books
It’s hard to be compared to a legend. Advance word on the translation of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, the story of her childhood growing up in Iran, was pretty positive. So positive, in fact, that the comparison of Persepolis to the Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus was one I kept hearing get thrown around. The problem with being compared to something that powerful is that if the comparison isn’t completely accurate, it’s going to make the new work look poor in comparison. Now, I don’t know if this is the new Maus… but this sure is an awfully powerful book in its own right.
