By Scott Morse
32 pages, color
Published by Red Window; distributed by AdHouse Books
I have a horrible confession to make; despite having seen a lot of and appreciating classic animation, I know very little about the people behind the scenes that created the works in the first place. That’s why Scott Morse’s Noble Boy seemed like such a dream made true, with his biography of animation great Maurice Noble hopefully illuminating people like myself into his life.
By Rachel Nabors
48 pages, black and white
Published by MangaPunk
Self-publishing is a leap of faith; instead of another company taking a chance on your creation, you’re putting your own money where your mouth is. Doing so with a manga-influenced modern fairy tale that can double as an educational story on crows? Now that’s one heck of a leap indeed.
Written by Antony Johnston
Art by Christopher Mitten
48 pages, black and white
Published by Oni Press
It’s easy to pre-judge a comic based on the way it looks. “Oh look, it’s a new post-apocalyptic series,” you might say. “It’s the same sort of thing we’ve seen over and over again. Surely there’s nothing new or different about this one.” But while it’s easy to pre-judge, it’s often harder to actually be right all of the time.
By Ueda Hajime
208 pages, black and white
Published by Del Rey
What grabbed me immediately about Q-Ko-Chan wasn’t that it was another story about a boy discovering an alien in his backyard. Rather, it was that Q-Ko-Chan is anything but “another story” about a boy and an alien. Reading this book is a perfect reminder that you can take the most standard story idea in the world and still make it exciting and different in the art of the telling.
Written by Phil and Kaja Foglio
Art by Phil Foglio
112 pages, color
Published by Airship Entertainment
When Phil and Kaja Foglio announced that they were shifting the publication of their comic Girl Genius from single issues to web-serialization halfway through what was book four, I’m sure there were many that thought they’d never succeed and that the promised book collections would never appear. With the fifth volume now hitting stores and the comic still going strong online, I think most naysayers have learned their lesson.
Continue reading “Girl Genius Vol. 5: Agatha Heterodyne and the Clockwork Princess”
By Gipi
32 pages, two-color
Published by Fantagraphics Books and Coconino Press
A good title can get you, just like that. They Found The Car is such a nebulous, mysterious statement that it leads the reader to start guessing before they’ve even opened the book. Was the car deliberately or accidentally lost? Is the discovery a good thing? And what will this car’s finding set in motion? It’s a whole set of questions created by the reader, and what makes it even better is that in Gipi’s new comic his goal seems to keep the reader continually questioning just what’s going to happen next.
By Jeremy Tinder
88 pages, black and white
Published by Top Shelf Productions
Some books sound like a punch line the second you begin to describe them. An aspiring novelist, a rabbit, and a robot seems like a strange combination from the very first second, but at no point does it seem like a set-up for a bad pun. Instead, we’re getting a strange little story about jobs and storytelling and souls and building nests. (That’s a not a set-up either.)
Written by Mike Mignola
Based on a synopsis by Robert E. Howard
Art by Cary Nord
32 pages, color
Published by Dark Horse
If you’d told me three years ago that Conan was not only returning as a comic book but would be one of Dark Horse’s biggest comics, I may have laughed in response. It’s Dark Horse who is no doubt laughing now, having proven to understand how to make Conan a hit. Their secret? Top creators working on exciting stories. (Simple, isn’t it?)
By Masaki Segawa
Based on a story by Futaro Yamada
208 pages, black and white
Published by Del Rey
Sometimes you hear about how great a series is and all the hype was true; it really is as sharp and interesting as everyone talked it up to be. And then, other times, it not only can’t live up to the hype, it just doesn’t work. Of course, you never really seem to know until it’s almost too late. That, I suppose, is half of the fun.
Written by Jeff Amano
Penciled by Craig Rousseau
Inked by Wayne Faucher
128 pages, color
Published by Image Comics
The retelling of classic stories is something practiced in different sorts of media. Sometimes it’s a sequel, other times an adaptation, or perhaps inspired by something else. In the case of The Cobbler’s Monster, what we’re getting is two different stories merged together, and it’s a combination that I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of in the past.
