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Garage Band

By Gipi
128 pages, color
Published by First Second Books

Up until now, the only works by Gipi that I’d seen in English were Wish You Were Here and They Found The Car, stories of people with dubious morals in noir settings. The idea of a book by Gipi not only being in full color but involving young adults starting a band seemed rather alien to me. Was this really the same Gipi? And would I be able to get the same level of enjoyment out of Garage Band? Well, as it turned out, the answer was yes and no.

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Mail Vol. 1

By Housui Yamazaki
208 pages, black and white
Published by Dark Horse

When I first encountered Housui Yamazaki’s art in The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, I remember being impressed with not only Yamazaki’s art, but how well he worked with writer Eiji Otsuka. What I hadn’t realized was that Yamazaki is a writer as well, and that Dark Horse was also set to publish Yamazaki’s series Mail. Now that I’ve seen it as well, I’m glad I viewed them in this order, because as enjoyable Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service was, Mail is the book that’s truly entranced me.

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Welcome to Tranquility #1-4

Written by Gail Simone
Art by Neil Googe
32 pages, color
Published by Wildstorm/DC Comics

When DC Comics announced the revamp of the Wildstorm comics line last year, most of the books from the new line-up were retooled concepts that were already published. The one exception was Gail Simone and Neil Googe’s Welcome to Tranquility, an ongoing series about a retirement village for super-powered individuals. Now that the series is four issues in, Welcome to Tranquility is simultaneously one of the more interesting and frustrating books I’ve read in a while.

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Mushishi Vol. 1

By Yuki Urushibara
240 pages, black and white
Published by Del Rey

There’s nothing quite like the discovery of something that was both an unknown and something you were looking for. It’s rather apt that Mushishi is just that on two different levels. The lead character of Ginko is forever searching for the mysterious mushi, even if he doesn’t know exactly what he’s trying to find at times. And as a reader, Mushishi‘s strange mix of cryptozoology, horror novel, thriller, and crazy biology is in many ways just what the doctor ordered.

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Korgi Vol. 1

By Christian Slade
80 pages, black and white
Published by Top Shelf Productions

So often, books that are marketed as all-ages are really meant just for children. It’s a fine line between the two, finding something that will appeal to adults while still being appropriate and interesting for younger readers as well. Christian Slade’s Korgi is the sort of book that falls squarely into all-ages but considering his past as a Disney animator that probably shouldn’t be surprising. In many ways, Korgi is a prime example of how to handle an all-ages book. With just the right level of surprise and adventure, it’s determined to hook older readers just as quickly as children.

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Tanpenshu Vol. 1

By Hiroki Endo
232 pages, black and white
Published by Dark Horse

It’s always interesting for a creator best known for one specific work to suddenly have something else published. Hiroki Endo’s main creation that’s been officially released in English is the epic Eden, a science-fiction dystopia set in the near future. Based on the book’s mix of thoughtfulness and extreme violence, the idea of getting a two-volume release of Endo’s other (primarily non science-fiction) stories is an appealing one indeed. And in the end? It’s a strange combination of everything and nothing that I expected.

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New Tales of Old Palomar #1

By Gilbert Hernandez
32 pages, black and white
Published by Fantagraphics Books

A “fill-in” in the comics world usually refers to a series where guest creators step in to work on an issue to keep the production schedule moving forward. In other industries, though, “fill-in” has a very different meaning. For example, a “fill-in” in a transit system has to do with adding in a station to the middle of an existing line, such as a train or subway system. It’s with that in mind that I think of Gilbert Hernandez’s New Tales of Old Palomar as being a fill-in; not because it’s a different creator working on the book, but because Hernandez is stepping back to an earlier point in his long-running series of stories and inserting these new adventures into the middle.

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Project: Romantic

Edited by Chris Pitzer
256 pages, color
Published by AdHouse Books

Themed anthologies are a tricky proposition. First, you’ve got to have a theme that readers will find interesting enough to want to read. Next, it needs to inspire creators without constricting them so much as to make it unworkable. Last but not least, it needs to avoid being one-note, with the same basic idea getting retreaded by every story in the collection. I think all of that is why AdHouse Books’s Project: Romantic is one of my favorite anthologies to come out in a long while; it avoids all of the pitfalls associated with themed anthologies while hitting numerous highs.

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Pizzeria Kamikaze

Written by Etgar Keret
Art by Asaf Hanuka
104 pages, two-color
Published by Alternative Comics

Some books you read and are glad you took the time to experience, and can’t wait to tell others about. Others you might read and then run out to warn people away from. But then there’s that rare sort of book like Etgar Keret and Asaf Hanuka’s Pizzeria Kamikaze, where you’ll put down the book and appreciate the experience that went through courtesy its creators. But if someone asked you if they should read it? Well, you’re not sure. And that’s ultimately the crux of this book.

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Fate of the Artist

By Eddie Campbell
96 pages, color
Published by First Second Books

Eddie Campbell is probably best known in comics as the artist for From Hell (written by Alan Moore), or as the creator of his ten-volume Bacchus series. His most personal creations, though, are his autobiographical Alec graphic novels that show Campbell’s life in an unflinching and honest manner. The Fate of the Artist, then, is an almost metafictional response to Alec. Detailing Campbell’s disappearance, this strange documentary journey into Campbell’s life is truly like nothing else in comics to date.

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