Wednesday, October 25, 2017

NCBD October 25, 2017 aka my Comics Pull List


Hi and welcome to me look at the books I’m picking up for sure this week. I usually try to keep my list to around Twenty dollars and this week I’m doomed to break my budget. Using a new blog platform so please forgive any formatting gaffs. I’ll fix them as I go.





Kim & Kim Love is a Battlefield 4 $3.99

Magdalene Visaggio, Eva Cabrera, Claudia Aguirre and - ‘s second storyline for the Kims comes to an end this week. Kim and Kim became one of my favorite books int the first few pages of the first issue and this second series delivered that same feeling again. Magdalene writes characters that embody lives that extend before and after the current tale and were just getting an intimate snapshot of a moment in their lives. Love is a Battlefield exposed tensions between the girls and allows us to see them both as capable vilnerable and human.  Eva Cabrera and Claudia Aguirre’s artwork has a cute, animated feel that captures feeling and expression for the character moments and is so well suited to the action oriented aspects of a bounty hunting story. Going to stop gushing now. 






Black Crown Quartley 1 5.99
Going from my enjoyment of I’d Lobotomy, the flagship book for Black Crown, I have great hopes for this quartly anthology edited by Shelly Bond.  About a week ago I listened to the interview that Shelly Bond gave about the new imprint, it’s flagship title Kid Lobotomy and the upcoming Quarterly title. I’d encourage anyone interested to listen to the interview with the one time Vertigo editor about the exiteing things she has planned for the imprint. This title will be looking at the background and supporting characters from the Black Crown shared setting and the art in the preview pages is pretty amazing. The magazine will include previews for the other titles like Assassinistas and Kid Lobotomy and if memory serves me articles about modern media and music. Kind of like a comics anthology magazine with cool backmatter and more. I’m almost as exited to get this as I am to get Kim and Kim 4.























Mother Panic 12 $3.99
And here we are at the final issue of Mother Panic before the titles hiatus told by the team of Jody Houser, Shawn Crystal, Jean Francois Beaulieu and John Workman. Shawn Crystal may not be to everyone’s tasates but it was his first arc that solidified my love of Violet Page and Mother Panic. Don’t get me wrong I like Tommy Lee Edwards and John Paul Lyon’s takes on the characters but there is so much energy and flair in the storytelling style Crystal delivers that I’m happy he’s bringing the title to its hopefully temporary finish line. I like these damaged characters and will miss them in the several month interim till they return in the Milk Wars Story . 






















Southern Cross 13 $3.99
It’s fitting that as Halloween approaches that the science fiction horror romp that is Southern Cross has returned for its final arc. Becky Cloonan Andy Belanger and Lee Loughridge deliver a horror book that is really like few others at the moment for me; it’s reminiscent of the chills that the original Alien and The Thing left in me. The scenes in issue twelve where the Southern Cross landed on the moon Titan, the return of Alex Braith and the Ship that dissapeared with nearly all hands leaves me with more trepidation  about the future then relief. So far the team have given us a haunted ship, a murder mystery, gang wars and corporate intrigue a talking decapitatied head in a bag and a tough as nails old Lady detective. Where this story is finally heading is anyone’s guess but for sure it’s going to have some pages of amazingly laid out storytelling and more surprises are for sure in store.
















Hack/Slash Resurrection 1 $3.99
I never picked up the earlier Hack/Slash stories by Tim Seeley so this appearing on my list is kind of starnage. Tini Howard, who’s written a Cold War psychics and Con Men Story called Skeptics and the most recent run of Magdalena, is one of the new writers who’s proven to be worth following. Her approach to storytelling is certainly all her own and her books have not been what I have expected in a good way. This book like Southern Cross fits with the season and this one even better with it’s Halloween and Friday the Thrirteent angle on the whole slasher horror thing. I’m there to support one of my new favorite writers and if you find her work to be your kind of thing ask your FLCS for Assassinistas that she’s writing for Black Crown with Gilber Hernandez (yes, that Gilbert )





Wayward 24 $3.99
The last issue of Wayward wa really my kind of thing. It featured Ohara, the girl who can adopt aspects of inanimate objects, and Shirai, the ghosteater and mister fighter, and played with old Japanese folklore in the way that this series by Jim Zub, Steve Cummings and Tamara Bonvillain do so well. The storytelling by Cummings and Bonvillain seems to much bigger then the size of the page and the issue seemed to be a much longer story then a usual twenty some odd page issue. This issue takes us back to Ireland where my favorite character Ayane died and I’ve yet to come to terms with that. I know, I know it’s not Rori and her fae fathers fault but I’m still coming to terms with her loss. We’re back with the fae and the formoi and well I do still want to see the whole story.







Image +3 $1.99
I’m an old Marvel Age reader and I’ve said it before but Image plus has filled that void that I didn’t know I was feeling. The magazine has a couple of strips that are running in it, Atomahawk is the Ken that hooks me but I know there are Wytches fans that are loving the new short piece by Snyder and Jock. If your into the behind the scenes interview sort of thing you’ll dig this too.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

NCBD October 18, 2017 aka my Comics Pull List

Hi and welcome to my look at this weeks new comics releases and what I'm for sure going to be picking up or have on my pull list. This is a brilliant week of books and there are a few that I have been looking forward to to since before their actual solicitation. I try to keep this list to around twenty dollars but this week I'm pretty sure that will not be happening very easily.

 

Kill Lobotomy 1 $3.99

Thought the name's Peter Milligan, who's Shade was one of favorite books in the ninties or Shelly Bond, who edited many of the books I loved, may have made me notice Kid Lobotomy Tess Fowlers art made it a must have months before the solicitation appeared. Tess is someone I had been following on social media before her abbreviated run on Rat Quens. Her art style and design esthetics really click with me, she's got just the right amount to weird and twisted humor to balance out a horror story like this. Kid Lobotomy's elevator pitch says it's Kafka meets King Lear hut knowing it's Milligan I'm pretty sure it's will the just the right amount of messed up strange to really hit me in my storytelling sweet spot with Tess providing the storytelling art. If I could may get one book this week this would doubtlessly be the one.

 

The Realm 2 $3.99

I blame the podcast That Girl With the Curls and her conversation with colorist Nick Filardi fo me getting interested in this book. Yes it's right in my wheelhouse storywise being post apocalypse where the apocalypse was magic rising in earth. It's Mad Max Fury Road meets Thunder the Barbarian with a witty dark sense of humor if issue one s any indication. Loved the hell out of issue one and as my FLCS ran out I asked Books with Pictures in Portland OR to send me one and it was well worth the price of the book with postage. Jeremy Haun's art colored by Nick Filardi is really worth a look if sword and sorcery adventure fiction is at all your thing. It's vusualy Lazarus meets D&D in all the best ways, also I can't pass up a book with an enigmatic masked character in it.


Jem the Misfits Infinite 3 $3.99

If anything I've enjoyed Kelly Thompson and Jenn St Ogne's Misfits book more then I have enjoyed Jem and the Holograms and I'm going to kiss their interpretation of the girls. Kelly Thompson has done a wonderful job of of making all the women in these books fully realized characters with lives problems and stakes all their own. I'm sad to see the end of her and Jenn St. Onge's run come to an end even if there is the promise of an anthology books still on the menu. Thank you everyone who's worked on this amazing lovely book.

 

Bitch Planet Triple Feature 5 $3.99

The Bitch Planet anthology that has shown us other corners of this dark satiric dystopia story comes to an end this week as another trio of creative teams tell they teases of woe. Though this signals that soon we will have the main series from Kelly Sue Deconnick, Valentine De Landro, Kelly Fitzpatrick and Clayton Cowles back soon these other takes on the evil patriarchy, that the real world resembles all to uncomfortably now, are really not to be missed. This issue features Matt Fraction, Elsa Charretier, Jon Tsuei, Saskia Gutekunst, Nyambi Nyambi, Bassey Nyambi and Chris Visions. Triple Feature comes with all the amazing backmatter features that makes Bitch Planet such a deeply valuable title.

 

 

Maestros 1 $3.99

I'm going to blame listening to the Geek Out podcast for making sure I'll be taking a look at Steve Skroce's project from Image. Go ahead and listen to the interview here if your thinking about thei book but be warned you'll likely be hooked into it too as the interview is pretty entertaining. Reading about the book it looks like it will appeal to fans of novels like the The Magicians, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and Harry Potter might just be the perfect audience. BKV is endorsing the book as a "masterpiece" and knowing his art I'm sure it's going to look absolutely brilliant.

In addition to these Descender 25, The Wildstorm 8, SuperSons 9 and Sherlock Frankenstein 1 will be in my pile of books....and I neatly forgot the Frankenstein police procedural...Made Men 2 comes out this week too.

 

 

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

NCBD October 11, 2017 aka my Comics Pull List

Hi and welcome to my weekly look at the place I'm spending my comic book money this week. I do try to keep these things to twenty dollars and well this time I'll be breaking the budget. I will note that in addition to these Dark Nights Metal 3 will also be in my pile because it's been so bonkers.

 

Mech Cadet Yu 3 $3.99

I managed to get the first two issues of this Boom series at RCCC and thoroughly enjoyed Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa's take on the teen mecha pilot/friend genre. The books comes off totally heartfelt and genuine as does it one time teenjanitor come mecha pilot hero Sanford Park. There are several stories already brewing in Greg Pak's world including a human plan to build their own mecha somehow, the possibility of another alien invasion and the story of a protective mother trying to protect her only child. As I said the book has a lot of heart and I'm hoping my local shop can stilll get copies of this issue.

Redlands 3 $3.99

Jordie Bellaire and Venessa Del Rey have delivered on the promise of a book that pushes boundaries and people's buttons in this book. They have given up a witch lead coup that took Colton of the town of Redlands Florida from the corrupt cops that were running it. In issue two they come up against a serial killer who knows good and well what they are and are pushing their buttons. It's a beautifully dark book both in style and in story and I'm looking forward to where it's heading. It's giving much more the. What I had expected and I had high expectations.

Family Trade 1 $3.99

Justin Jordan has written a couple books that I've dug and the combination of steampunk, alchemy and a family drama involving thieves and assassins make me pretty intrigued. The art by Morgan Beem has a feel to it that is all itself and it's pretty damn appealing to me. It's a book that stars a female protagonist and it's visually storytold by a woman so I'm in for a few issues to see if it's my kind of thing.

Mister Miracle 3 $3.99

Ok I must ask did anyone expect that the new Mister Miracle would be a book about mental breakdowns and PTSD and be in current continuity. It's got all the crazy creative spirit of Jack Kirby and is somehow equally grounded and palpably real in that at its heart is not about being a god or a superbeing. Mitch Gerards is turning in some gorgeous and mind bending storytelling pages behind those pretty Nick Darringtion covers. It's totally my thing in the same way the Young Animal books and the upcoming Magdalene Visaggio and Sonny Liu book announced at NYCC are my kind of thing.

Michael Cray 1 $3.99

Didn't think I'd be picking up a Michael Cray (Deathblow) book but I am and I blame you Warren Ellis. This spin off of his Wild Storm series is being written by Bryan Edward Hill who does action adventure in a way that it's always worth the $3.99 cover price. The one time IO operative, read assassin, has gone independent to run his own operation with the backing of another mysterious organization, the cover by Dennis Cowan and Bill Seinkiewicz doesn't hurt. The other thing mentioned in the solicitation ofOliver Queen...and no so much the current DC Green Arrow but a Oliver created by Ellis as this is all from his creative pen. Curiosier and curiouser.

Atomahawk 1 $5.99

Danny Coates is a name I been seeing and hearing as a writer to check the hell out and after reading Godland issue 1 he seems pretty worth a look or two. This story originally ran in Heavy Metal and is now running as a strip in Image+ and the first was rather brilliant and twisted. The story is wild weird sword and sorcery and based on the few pages in Image+ it's full on something up my alley. It's somewhere between Elric and Conan and that is cool with me. Might be a good companion piece to Godland.

 

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

NCBD October 4 2017... aka my Comics Pull List

Hi and welcome to my weekly look at the books I'll be putting my hard earned money behind and supporting the amazing creators that made them. I try to keep these lists to around twenty dollars and somehow I'm really close this time around unless I succumb to the temptation to buy the Batman White Knight book among other tempting pretty things on the shelf.

 

 

Kim and Kim Love is a Battlefield 3 $3.99

Kim &a Kim Love is a Battlefield has fully lived up to and exceeded my expectations for the team of Magdalene Visaggio, Eva Cabrera, Claudia Aguirre, Saam and Rex. The plight of the forever broke hard-luck friends on a bountyhunting mission has taken a new turn as the stresses of their life cause a huge fight between the Kim's. This is the kind of comic I adore the ones where the meat of the story is the relationships and that take a good long time to read and digest. Mag's and her crew gave the girls time to develope and change between the series and though they are older and more experiences wisdom is still outside their grasp. I'll follow their stories as long as the girls will tell them and the book will always top my list where it comes out.

 

Motor Crush 7 $3.99

The last issue of Motor Crush illustrated by Cameron Stewart and colored by Babs Tarr was an intertesting look back into Domino's past and is promised to affect the story going forward. We now skip back to the story two years after Dom's disappearance and the world that developed without her. I'm really unsure of what Brendan Fletcher Babs Tarr and Cameron Stewart are doing but it still tickles that Speed Racer and manga fan in me.

Paper Girls 16 $2.99

There are many things I love about Paper Girls but I think even if I wasn't getting it, this Gundam/Votoms looking cover would have made me take a peek at it. Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chang and colorist Lee Loughbridge have been telling the stories of this handful of PaperGirls since before Eighties nostalgia wasn't cool and have thrown them across time in a world destined to be broken by timetravel. This book is gorgeous and heartbreaking in a way that only these creators can manage. To all that you add the fact it's one of the few titles coming in at $2.99 still it's a must bloody have book.

 

Extremity 7 $3.99

Daniel Warren Johnson actually overloaded my tolerance for violence (and I was a fan of Fist of the NorthStar in the original Japanese) for a minute and I missed two issues of Extremity, I now I really regret it having gone back and read the entire Artist arc in trade format. It's a marvelous look at the fallout of the thirst for revenge and unmoderated violence. I loved the portrayal of Shilo, Thea and Rolo across the fullness of the arc and wound up being equally terrified of their father as I am of the opposing family. Reading this reminds me of reading the Naussica manga collections. The art it rich deep and deceptively beautiful without glorifying violence.

Elsewhere 3

Elsewhere 1 was an exiteing and pretty compelling read and I have no excuse as to why I have yet to read issue 2 a month into owning it. I can say I'm still very curious about this portal fantasy that Jay Faerber is telling and I'm pretty sure that this will be in my buying pile come Friday. I'll update when I have read issue 2 which I'm planning to do tonight.

 

 

Rocket Girl 10 $3.99

This is the issue where Amy Reeder and Brandon Montclare bring it all home with this story arc and tie up some of the storylines that have been brewing since issue one' s plunge into the 1980's with Dayoung and her attempt to prevent some of the screwed up things in her pretty bright and happy future compared to our bleake and depressing reality here in the ugly 2017 of the real world.