NCBD March 27, 3018 Wanred Dispatch

Hello, welcomes to my weekly look at the books that I’ll be picking up come Wednesday.  I try to keep these lists to about twenty books and look at books that are a bit firther afield then the usual.  Beyound the usual suspects on Pull lists this week Dark Nights Metal 6, Saga 50,  and The Terrifics 2 which my end up in my buying pile.

Abbott #3 ($3.99) Since discovering Saladin Ahmed’s amazing short fiction a couple years ago, I’m honestly there to support whatever he writes and he has yet to disappoint me. Abbott mixes a solid personal drama story about an investigative reporter in seventies Detroit with occult style urban fantasy. It’s realistically illustrated by Sami Kivela’s vision of seventies Detroit with some wonderful quiet intesopective scenes . The tale has real hints of David Milch’s The Wire in its presentation of character, place and story. It’s as complex and conflicted as it’s strong protagonists writing voice.

Highest House #2 ($4.99) Mike Carey and Peter Gross’s “Highest House” is one of those books that I totally missed in looking through previews. It is although one that fully grabbed my attention in my local comic shop and because of its creative team and a brief flip through got added to my pile on a whim. As a fan of epic fantasy the story of the consumptive child sold into slavery by his desperate mother hooked me pretty hard after the opening pages. Carey and Gross crafted a compelling fantasy world that seems to be steeped in mystery and secrets.  Highest House has a real Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast, gothic dark  fantasy sort of sensibility to it and I quite like that. 

Kid Lobotomy #6 ($3.99) Tess Fowler is one of my favorite visual storytellers and pairing her with the literary psychological horror drama writer peter Milligan was genius. Shelly Bond has created an interesting shared universe in the Black Crown Imprint and its a worthy inheritor of the Vertigo legacy she brings with her.  Kid Lobotomy lans somewhere between psychological body horror, rock and roll/art documentary  and twisted romantic mystery. There us simply too much going on to really pigeonhole. Issue six brings the first arc to an end so perhaps if you have missed it thus far it’s time to hop on this crazy train mashup of literary references and body horror drama. 

Mother Panic Gotham AD #1 ($3.99) In the wake of the ‘Milk Wars’ crossover Violet Page finds herself in an unfamiliar Gotham City ten years on, a Gotham without a Batman. Jody Houser won me over with her writing on the initial Mother Panic series, one which I was initially unsure of. The violent punk sensibilities of Violet Page appeal to me, she’s a take no s#it kind of hero. I’m exited to see how she faces this new challenge and hames the city her own. Ibrahim Moustafa joins Houser as the artist for this new series. He’s got a history with crime and noir storytelling and his style seems to fit the legacy of Tommy Lee Edwards, Shawn Crystal and John Paul Leon.

Motherlands #3 ($3.99) Ever since reading the murder mystery love story “Spire” I’ve been willing to give pretty much anything by Si Spurrier a shot and “Motherlands” has been a hit so far. Rachel Stott has done a brilliant job of creating the bizarre multiversal vistas and technologies that abound in the comic. There is a lot to visually peruse in the panels. The story is rich with world-building details, the amount of thought behind the mini-series is much deeper then you’d expect for a one off short story.  The dysfunction relationship between former media sexpot darling mother and workday bounty hunting daughter is what drives the hear of this storytokd through both script and visual expressions, the fantastical multidimensional setting is just icing on a good storytelling cake.  Likely to click with fans of the marvelously fun similarly dimensional hopping friendship drama  Kim & Kim. 

Hack/Slash Resurrection #6 ($3.99) Tini Howard is another name of my ever growing list of creators I’ll pretty much buy anything from. Hack/Slash is just conscious enough of its exploitative grind house fiction nature that it overcomes the salacious impression the art alone might give. Slasher horror and comedy have a good storytelling synergy and Tini to my taste writes it near as well as Alex De Campi. (The art in this series by Celor and K. Michael Russel is nothing to scoff at either. )

In addition I’m likley picking up Hungry Ghosts 3(depending on artists) and Cyberforce 1( I do love Bryan Edward Hills writing)....and I nearly missed mentioning Goosebumps Download and Die 1 that I’ll at least look at. 

NCBD December 13, 2017 aka my Comics Pull List

Hi, welcome to mi weekly rundown of the books I’m planning on supporting with my hard earned cash this week..
Kid Lobotomy 3 $3.99

Peter Milligan has ever been capeable of writing the weird, surreal, and unsettling and he’s lost none of his ability in the years since Shade the Changing Man. Shelly Bond found him a brilliant storytelling dancing partner in Tess Fowler, yes I love her art and was going to like this anyway but her work on this book comes up to and matches the imaginative beauty of the weird Milligan delivers. She manages to make things pretty and terrible at the sometime. I’d had hopes that this title would be a winner and oh boy is it. 
Coyotes 2 $3.99

Sean Lewis and Caitlin Yarsky’s first issue was a bit of a dreamlike deftly introducing so many aspects of its real world inspirations, it’s characters and parts it’s mythology in 20 some odd pages. The art handled entirely by Yarsky is layered rich and textured in her line work, her unusual and beautifully executed color palet and her command of expression. Coyotes 1 hit the right noted of horror and heroism to not simply glorify the terrible violence it portrayed. For my they fully delivered on promises made.

Giants 1 $3,99

I’ve been drifting back to my love of Japanese manga of late and it’s cool to see creators here are drifting that way too. Giants is the US debute work for Carlos and Miguel Valderrama about a pair of orphans who’s ambition may just be more dangerous then the Kaiju that have come to dominate the surface of the earth and drove humanity underground. There’s nothing f. Better then gonzo sf stories that dig into the foibles of humanity. Though I’m still leaning back into manga books like this and Mech Cadet Yu are making me pretty happy to be back into comics. 

New Su-man 18 $3.99

Gene Yuen Yang’s New Superman/JLA China is a Title I have very much wanted to support and with the suspension and hopeful firing of Eddie Berganza I feel free to mention this fresh look at superhero mythology.  Through a Net Galley and Hoopla I’ve gotten to enjoy the journey of personal growth and discovery Kong Kenan has been on but feel like I’ve missed out on really supporting this book. Issue 17 I did in fact buy and it was well worth reading for it’s stark look at the racism rampant in early DC Comics. 

Rumble 1(2017) $3.99

I’m exited to see John Arcudi return to the Scarecrow god warrior Rathraq with the art assists of David Rubin even if I miss James Harren a bit. This book had just the right mix of weird Conan like myth making and modern day pathos to make it something that is new and all it’s own. Wherever it’s going I’m willing to follow. 
Mister Miracle 5 $3.99

I will keep this short as this book really stands out all on its own. Since I’m reading Kirby’s original I can say there are some very compelling parallels. If you have Jack Kirby’s original check them out too.

NCBD November 29, 2017 aka my Comics Pull list

Hi. Welcome to my weekly look at the comics I’m planning to pick up this week and hope are in my box at my friendly local comic shop. I try to spotlight the books The I think might not be actively on people’s radar and keep myself to around twenty dollars a week. Pretty often I don’t manage it well because 1 of low self control and 2 my desire to support creators that I really like and respect.

Lazarus X+66 #5 $3.99

Though I read and enjoyed the first Lazarus collection I didn’t keep up with the book for some dumb reason. What it took to get me to pick it up, well this miniseries and particularly this issue. I happen to love Bilquis Eveley’s artwork so seeing she was one of the great selection of talent on this side project I decided to pick it up from issue one and hope to dig this one as much as issues 1-4. To me there is a lot of MD Bright in her artwork and I fondly remember a lot of his books from the eighties and nineties. This is an excellent action driven social science fiction. Drama; even though I don’t have a grasp on all the side players spotlighted in this book I have enjoyed and connected with all the stories thus far. 

Hack/Slash Resurrection 2 $3,99

Ok, this comic that looks on the surface pretty much a Vampirella expolitiation fest is new to me and it is so not what it appears at least this story. Tini Howard taking the writers seat for this is what hooked me into picking it up and I think that the whole team behind this really killed it in issues one.  The art had a cheese factor but somehow didn’t get to total cheesecake and the story about Cassie Hack, monster hunter, getting out of the biz had a tone that was just came off so Evil Dead kind of funny that, well, it’s got me. Tini Howard is a writer to follow in my opinion but i guess that might be obvious.

Heavy Vinyl 4 $3,99

This book used to be called Hi-Fi Fight Club and though it’s a cool title I guess they didn’t want confusion with the other fight clubs.  Carly Usdin, Irene Flores, Nina Vakueya and Rebecca Nalty have a storytelling style that’s dna is most definitely Japanese manga and manage to make it its own thing outside of that. This story about a group of young women record store workers involved is solving a mystery has that feel of magical girl comics without all the mysticism but keeping all the mutual supportive friendship and relationship vibes in tact. Here’s hoping this 4 of 4 issue is not the end. 

Image Vol 2 4. $ 1.99

I would be getting this even if it did not have the Wytches and Atomahawk strips in it. I was one of those people that loved Marvel Age in the way back. Image Plus is built on the dame in house add via interviews and extras model but like the old Marvel mag it delivers content worth reading . 

Motor Crush 8 $3.99

Lastly but by no means least this love letter to Speed Racer (Mach Go Go Go) by Brendan Fletcher, Cameron Stewart and Babs Tarr. At RCCC I learned how this trio create this book and it’s pretty interesting mix of skill sets coming together to deliver this story to us. I happen to love Domino and her supporting cast but I’m getting more and more into knowing the nuts and bolts of how the books I love are made. Vroom vroom, screech. .

In addition to these this week a couple of collections arrive I may just have to have. Both from Fantagraphics these are Zegas by Michael Fiffe and I am not Okay with this by Charles Forsman. There are also some tempting books from DC but I’ll leave it at theses. 

NCBD November 22, 2017

Hello, welcome to my weekly look at the books that I’ll be picking up in my pile of comics come Wednesday (and this week it will actually be Wednesday rather then my usual Friday). I try to keep this list to twenty dollars a week. I have not said it in a while but I try to choose books that I think might get overlooked in the ever growing pile of excellent sequential storytelling projects. 

Bankshot 4 $3.99

Alex de Campi and Chriscross’s take on the action adventure comic powered by vengeance and nanotechnology. I don’t hear many people talking about either Alex De Campi or Chriscross which is a shame because skipping projects by either of them separately comics fans are missing out. Like Christopher Priest Alex never takes the easy options with a story or she iterpreting a character; her books are textured and rich with detail and grit presenting what she has to say warts and all.  Chriscross creates dymanic pages like few other artists out there. This book has been a  tantalizing introduction to a world that is well conceived.

MadeMen 3 $3.99

Gorgeously illustrated by Arjuna Susini and Gonzalo Duarte Made Men is a crime police procedural married to the world of Marry Shelly’s Frankenstein.  Issues one and two introduced us to the brutally violent world and the various complex characters of Paul Tobin, Susini and Duarte in a story layered with gallows humor and as I said some pretty amazing art. I’m hoping that like Colder the horror genre mashup gets a couple of story lines. It’s also a cool companion piece to Victor LaValle’s Destroyer in taking a page out of Mary Shelley’s creations.

Wayward 25

It’s the wrap up on this current story arc and I’m hoping we’re coming back to Japan fro this part (Diamond shorted my local shop so I just got 24 last week and have not had a chance to read it yet). Jim Zub Steven Cummings and Tamara Bonvillain are delivering a comic that both fills my desire to read more manga. And makes me want to get some comic s direct from Japan again even though I’d have to pay shipping since there is no Kinokuniya books in my area. Cummings and Bonvillain deliver on the promises this decompressed comic makes. (Damn you Jim I’m still hurt and missing Ayane)...and the reminder we’re all in this together.

Doom Patrol 9 $3.99

Gerald Way and Nick Darrington’s take on the Doom Patrol has been delivering the werird in ways that make this a true followup to Morrison and Pollaock not to forget all the weird that came before and after. We may get to find out what the hell is going on with Terry None and Casey or there again maybe not. With all the non-explained parts of this book, it’s amazing just how much it feels normal and familiar for a comics to be this crazy. It’s a gorgeous book and it’s also colored by Tamara Bonvillain like Wayward so it’s going to be a very pretty week to be reading comics. 

Giant Days 2017 Holiday Special $7.99

It’s been a while but I enjoyed the twelve or so issues I picked up for Giant Day’s . This book even at $7.99 I’ll pick this up simply because Jen St. Ohge is drawing the book. Yeah, I do like her art that much that I’ll pick this up if my FLCS has copies.  I happen to think I have been missing out having stoped reading this a long while back. 

Void Trip 1 $3.99

Ryan O’Sullivan and Plaid Kraus who did Turncoat together enjoyed the collaboration so much that they decided to do a kind of stoners in outer space comic that sounds to be a great bit of fun. It opens with our Chech and Chong pair conning a trucker our of some of his fuel shipment be pretending to have chased of the people trying to steal from him, ie temselves. I’ ll give it a try to balance out all the dark ScienceFiction I’ve been reading . 

I’ll be going over budget since I’ll be getting Sherlock Frankenstein 2 also....

NCBD November 15, 2017 aka my Comics Pull List

Hi there and welcome to another week of my list of books that are likely to break my comics budget. I often try to keep this ever growing list to a manageable twenty dollars. Some weeks I come close others well it’s a real list cause. On with the show…

The Realm 3 $3.99

Seth M Peck Jeremy Haun and Nick Filardi’s bang up fusion of Post Apocalypse(read Mad Max Fury Road by way of Thundarr the Barbarian) and adventure gaming tropes.  This is one of those times where the creators behind a full on crazybook that is a frappe of so many things I love have produced a story that delivered above my expectations. It’s the kind of book that makes me want to role play again as it toys with the tropes and stories that remind me of when I had a regular gaming group. The interactions between the characters reminds me of the feeling that your companions are possibly more dangerous then the monsters around you.  It’s a added bonus that the art by Jeremy Haun is and Nick Filardi is so damned nice to look at.

Fence 1 $3.99p

Sports manga has seldom been my thing but there is the occasion that it is and Fence is just such a comic. I enjoyed the years I spent fencing in colleg even if it was only fencing classes and I like the look of this book.C S Pascat is an internationally published Australian YA author  who has plans to tell a story akin to Yuri On Ice  and the Canadian Comic Check Please that have queer characters but it’s not about or lampooning being queer. The  art and character designs by Johanna the Mad is all  really rather appealing to me so I’m in for this Boom title.

Wildstorm 9 $3.99

It just occurred to me that Jim Lee is pretty much lettign Warren Ellis do the same kind of thing reimagining the Wildstorm setting that Rob Leifeild has done with Glory, Prophet and most recently Youngblood. In this book Ellis is taking a very decompressed approach to…he’s re-building the mythology of Wildstorm taking what was there in a very different and non-spandex hero direction. Like Brandon Graham his approach is something other then the usual suspects of American comics. The art by Jon Davis Hunt also happens to be pretty in a kind of approach to realism kindof way. It’s Wildstorm by way of 2000AD and Japanese manga(in terms of decompression)

East of West 35 $3.99

I have drifted into and out of picking up East of West by Hickman, Dragotta  and Martin to them get drawn back into t when I read the collected editions via hoopla.  I realized that like Wildstorm that East of West is a much more decompressed story them most and in actuality I really enjoy this book.  Hickman’s take on the end times clicks well with me and the storytelling team of Nick Dragota and Laura Martin deliver some brilliant pages. Dragota’s approach to their pages seem inspired by his appreciation of manga and his character designs are a treat.

It’s possible I might keep to my budget but it’s also likely get Super Sons 10, Batman who Laughs, Retcon 3 and Dark Fang 1 …. any love the look of this week. 

NCBD November 8, 2017

Hi, welcome to my weekly look at the books that I’ll be supporting this week. I try to keep this list to twenty dollars or there about and I just may be able to do that given that this week I have to rely on my Pull List as I can’t get by my FLCS till after next Wednesday. 

Kid Lobotomy 2 $3.99

Peter Milligan, Tess Fowler, Lee Loughridge and Bidkar full on deliveredon the promise of disturbing weird storytelling in issue one. Kid’s origin story was just the right combination of compelling and chilling touching on the edges of taboo reminding me of the Vertigo titles of old. Kid Lobotomy issue one shows all the makings of being a great weird ensemble horror having introduced an interesting pretty and strange background cast. As a flagship book it’s set the standard for the Black Crown Imprint pretty high. So yeah, tops my list for the week. 

Coyotes 1 $3.99

Sean Lewis (The Few, Saints) and Caitlin Yarsky’s real world and grind house revenge  horror lycanthrope tale grabbed my attention months ago when I saw the lovely art and the solicitation text. In the image+ interview Sean Lewis and Caitlin Yarsky talked about the inspiration for this story about women and violence coming from movies like Kill Bill, Near Dark, No Country for Old Men and The Howling while also building up a story linking the human smugglers called Coyotes to literal lycanthropes. Their planned story for their hero Red quest for vengeance touches on the real world stories of the mass dissapearacences of women in and around Juarez Mexico and the predatory nature of the human traffickers in the deserts along the border. 

Redlands 4 $3.99

This is a dark dark book and I don’t just mean it’s color pallet which I are and moody and draws you into the page. Jordie Bellaire and Vanessa Del Rey have created a dark sister book to Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott’s witchcraft police procedural Black Magick. Redlands is a book that is mad the the status quo and like Bitch Planet is unfaraid to be open about just how angry at the patriarchy it really is.  I love the different approach to storytelling and page layouts Vanessa Del Rey brings to the book. In some ways I think this book is more my kind of police procedural then Black Magick is.

Mister Miracle 4 $3.99

I may not be enjoying much of Tom Kings take on Batman but his homage to Jack Kirby here I’m really enjoying. I’m also taking the opportunity to reread th and four issues in on Kirby’s original issues I can see where King is coming from and the odd parallels he’s drawing. Speaking of dreaming the storytelling being delivered on Mitch Gerads part is top notch, his use of the none panel grid and panels layered with distortion make for a really unique reading experience. Mister Miracle is a book that in my opinion really asked for the readers active participation in reading it. I hear people praise Sheriff of Baghdad by this team and I think it’s got to be fully deserved is this book is any example .

Port of Earth 1 $3.99

Image has been my go to place for good science fiction comics for a couple years now...at least since I dictovered Prophet and I’ll usually give a new one a shot if my budget allows. Zack Kaplan (Eclipse) and Andrea Mutti (Star Wars, Prometheus) are the creative minds behind this book and I have heard great things about Eclipse which I missed out on initially. The set up for Port of Earth is a bit reminiscent of the 2000 AD title Grey Area with a bit of a  a spy story angle if I read the solicit correctly as they are calling it a sci-fi action thriller. (The Nick Dragotta cover looks amazing )

And yes I’m getting a copy of Batman the Lost because the main Metal Story has been bonkers and I’ve been digging it.

Sanford Greene and Chuck Brown’s 1000

Very recently possibly today November 7, 2017 the first episode of 1000 from Sanford Greene, Chuck Brown, Mike Chung and Rus Wootan arrived today. It’s a prologue introducing the setting, the premise and the cast wetting appetites for next weeks drop on Thursday on the beginning of the story. It’s got a very atmospheric soundtrack from Dose that brings to mind the best of animation and video game background music. It’s all set up so far and to me it rings of the old animation movie Harmageddon...a mixture of the occult, the mythic, techonogy and magic... Sanford Greene talked at length about this story idea on the Savage Land Podcast and I’m glad to see it finally in the wild