October 2009

Writer/Artist: Arvid Nelson, Will Conrad, Jose Villarrubia

Publisher: Dark Horse, $18.95

I’ve been on a barbarians and blood & guts run of reading lately, so the new Dark Horse collection of Kull was just what I was in the mood for. For those unfamiliar, Kull is an Atlantean barbarian that has become the King of Valusia. Unsure of his ability to rule and untrusting of those around him, Kull has to contend with politics, assassination attempts, hidden enemies, surprising alliances, and horrible horrible snake monsters. And lots and lots and lots of bloodshed. Which is good.

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Writer/Artist: Kurt Busiek, Greg Ruth

Publisher: Dark Horse, $24.95 HC

Innovative in it’s planning and beautifully illustrated, Conan vol 0 collects the series of issues Dark Horse published in-between the larger story arcs of the Busiek run. Meant to give the main series artist Cary Nord a break between arcs and to allow fleshing out of Conan’s earlier years, this volume can act as a perfect introduction to the character for new readers or simply as an extension of the current series for regular Conan fans.

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Writer/Artist: Kieron Gillen, Kano, Dan Brereton

Publisher: Marvel, $14.99

Beta Ray Bill is one of my favorite Marvel characters so I'm going to be a little biased towards anything starring him. The great thing is the bulk of comics in the past five years that have starred or guest-starred Bill have been nothing but great fun, and this volume is no exception. Following Beta Ray Bill after his torture during the Secret Invasion, this volume tells of his exploits with religious Skrull zealots who believe him to be their new god. The next story after that follows Bill as he decides to destroy the threat of Galactus once and for all as retribution for the destruction of his race.

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Writer/Artist: Jonathan Hickman, Sean Chen, Adi Granov

Publisher: Marvel, $16.99

In the aftermath of the Secret Invasion storyline, Reed Richards constructs a bridge through space, time, and the multiverse to answer one important answer: what the hell went wrong to lead everything to this point? As Reed explores different Earths that have experienced similar Civil Wars and Secret Invasions, the rest of the team gets lost in space and time fighting dinosaurs, Nazis, and more. Meanwhile back at the Baxter building, Franklin and Val Richards have to stall Norman Osborn as he comes evict the Fantastic Four.

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Pretty fun webcomic about Joe, Monkey, and the evil Kleptobot as they pretty much just screw around and get into trouble. Check out more @ Joe and Monkey

Check out more @ Deviantart & Chamba's Blogspot

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Writer/Artist: Benito Cereno, Nate Bellegarde

Publisher: Image, $5.99

First of all, you probably should check out any previous issues of Hector Plasm you can find because they are all worth it. If you can't or just want a decent example to check out though, Totentanz is a great jump on point with beautiful art and some very innovative storytelling. Also, it has some good booze recipes in it so that’s an additional win.

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Writer/Artist: Sarah E. Byam, Tim Sale

Publisher: Dark Horse, $14.95

Written in 1991, the story is set during 1999 in a post WWIII America where corruption and the class gap have torn the country apart. Billi is the daughter of Ray Chadam, the last honest industrialist in the city who was just recently murdered. What the public doesn’t know is that Chadam was a masked vigilante named the Sword of Toleado, the only source of hope for the oppressed. Following in her father’s footsteps, Billi finds herself hunted by those she thought were her allies as she seeks the truth about her fathers death and justice.

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Check out more at AAAPop

Dresden Codak is a blend of sci-fi, philosophy, and really messed up humor. It's worth it just to see Nikola Tesla in a science hero costume. Also, dragons.

Writer/Artist: Bryan Talbot

Publisher: Dark Horse, $17.95 HC

Why You Should Know It: Grandville is an anthropomorphic alternate history steampunk romance mystery thriller, and if that doesn’t touch at least one genre you’re interested in then really, nothing will make you happy in life. The story follows Detective Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard, a brilliant badger who gets sucked into a giant conspiracy. As he investigates with the aid of his companion Roderick, Lebrock keeps digging himself deeper as the case implicates high ranking government officials and the stakes get higher and higher.

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Check out more @ Deviant Art

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Beautifully rendered series about cat bootleggers running a speakeasy during the Prohibition era. Check out more @ Lackadaisy

Writer/Artist: Aron Eli Coleite, Chuck Kim, Joe Pokaski, Oliver Grigsby, Pierluigi Cothran, Andrew Chambliss, Harrison Wilcox, Jesse Alexander, Christopher Zatta, Mark Warshaw and others, Phil Jimenez, Michael Turner, Koi Turnbull, Marcus To, Peter Steigerwald, David Moran, Micah Gunnell, Travis Kotzebue, Jordan Kotzebue, Jason Badower, Staz Johnson, Steve Lejeune, Adam Archer, Mark Roslan, & more

Publisher: DC, SC $19.99, HC $29.99

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Great webcomic series done in the Twisted Mego/Robot Chicken style featuring alien roomates as they try to survive in New York

Writer/Artist: Grant Morrison, J.H. Williams III, Simone Bianchi, Ryan Sook, Frazer Irving, Pasqual Ferry, Yanick Paquette, Doug Mahnke

Publisher: DC, 4 volumes, $14.99

Told over the course of seven different comic series, the Seven Soldiers of Victory followed seven seperate individuals who all have a part in a larger battle against evil. The evil force in question knows that  a team of seven is fated to destroy it and as such has pre-emptivly started to destroy gatherings of seven. Fate has taken it upon itself to seperate the heroes so that they never actually meet, and each different series focused on an individual character's struggles as they each attacked from different vantage points or played some other role in the grand scheme.

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Check out more @ Deviant Art

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja is pretty much just about a doctor who happens to be a ninja. And it it awesome. Check out more here

Writer/Artist: Scott McCloud

Publisher: Harper Collins, $24.99

Why You Should Know It: Zot! follows the adventures of a young sci-fi hero as he travels from his futuristic Earth (the far-flung future of 1965) to our normal and mostly depressing Earth, meeting a girl named Jenny who's tired of the dissapoint our Earth offers. The two of them continue a series of adventures on both Earths, a mixture of silly lighthearted fun and a darker and sometimes very brutal confrontation with reality.

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Great animation spot by Jamie Hewlett, the co-creator of Tank Girl and the Gorillaz

Octopus Pie follows two young women living in Brooklyn as they deal with the tons fo crap that keeps happening to them. Really funny series with a great expressive art style. Check out more here

Check out Dr. Steel's website for more

Check out a bigger high-res version of the picture and a complete list of characters over at Geekologie

 My Stupid Life is a funny and sometimes wrong (but in a good way) series following the not so exciting adventures of Mitch and Amanda

Interesting article via the A.V. Club about the most memorable newspaper comic strip deaths.

Great update over at Comics Alliance by Chris Sims featuring superhero Facebook status updates gone wrong.

Great how to guide for making an inexpensive Boba Fett helmet

Writer/Artist: Chuck Dixon, Scott Beatty, Javier Pulido, Marcos Martin

Publisher: DC, $14.99

Why You Should Know It: Following the start of Robin’s career as Batman’s sidekick, Robin Year One is a solid, self-contained, and easy to jump onto starting point for any reader. This is a great addition to Batman Year One and Batgirl Year One, and the set combined with perhaps Batman Long Halloween would make a great introduction package to young adult readers just getting interested in Batman.

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You can check out the entire first issue of Garth Ennis' post-apocalyptic action/dark humor mini-series Just A Pilgrim over at Newsarama.

INTRODUCTION

The comic book industry usually seems to be in some state of economic turmoil. Many critics and analysts who would offer their opinions of its current issues and possible future tend to offer portents of it’s coming collapse or possible evolution. Sometimes you get some advice and good observations, and sometimes you pretty much just get a lot of bitching and moaning. At the same time you have the head honchos over at both Marvel Comics (Joe Quesada) and DC Comics (Dan Didio) attempting communication with their fan base, and while I’ve read comments from both men that offer insight or at least some measure of similar concern over the problems we all seem to be seeing, I also usually read enough to leave me more frustrated.

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Check more out here, here, and here

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Welcome To Wayne Manor is a funny and pretty damn cute interpretation of the Batman family where Bruce Wayne is a single father raising all the different Robins (and his baby son Terry).