New This Week: March 2, 2005

Based on the NCRL list for this week's comics shipping from Diamond, here are a few things to look for at the local comic shop tomorrow:


The Pick of the Week is the fourth paperback collection of Alan Moore & J. H. Williams III's Promethea, which finishes off Promethea's mind- and soul-bending tour of the various spirit realms. It allows Moore to opine on various belief systems and Williams to wow us with page after page of gorgeous art. Even though I already own all of the individual comics, I'm getting the Promethea collections because it makes them easy to reference and to loan out to others.

In other comics:

Antarctic has a new issue of Gold Digger (#61).

Dark Horse has volumes 2 and 5 of the Sin City reissues. I have the other three that are out so far, and I must say that they make for handsome packages. If only they hadn't slapped a stupid 'Now a Major Motion Picture' sticker on the front cover.

DC has a new Fables collection (vol. 5: The Mean Seasons); the return (briefly) of Fallen Angels (#19); and new issues of Detective Comics (#804), Firestorm (#11), and The Intimates (#5).

Fantagraphics has the long-awaited fifth and final issue of Jessica Abel's La Perdida.

Gigantic has a collection of Teenagers from Mars.

Image has the long-awaited final issue of Rising Stars (#24), and a trade collection of Ministry of Space.

Kenzer & Company's Knights of the Dinner Table celebrated issue #100 with a super-sized tome of poorly-drawn but funny comics about gamers.

Marvel has the penultimate issues of Captain America and The Falcon (#13) and Doctor Spectrum (#5), new issues of Marvel Team-Up (#6) and Ultimate Spider-Man (#73), as well as the debut of the much-despised Orson Scott Card's Ultimate Iron Man.

Oni has the second volume of Love as a Foreign Language.

Penny Farthing has the final issue of The Victorian (#25).

Shanda Fantasy Arts releases this year's Giant Shanda Animal (#9).

Both TokyoPop & Viz have a bucket-load of releases; too many to list, really. Hey guys, try spreading things out a bit, huh?

And finally, Marvel has a Marvel Universe Kitty Pryde Bust for just $50, and I'll let you write your own snarky comments about that...

Best of February

In this post I'm reprinting reviews of items for which I gave a rating of 4 or better in the month of February:

Vimanarama #1
by Grant Morrison & Philip Bond.
First off, Vimanarama gets props for being the only comic I've read, well, ever, that opens with a big production dance number. And it gets better from there. Young Ali is all nervous about meeting his arranged bride, but they get sucked into a mysterious underworld of Indian legend and a 60-centuries-old battle of good vs. evil. It's full of danger, awe, and humor, all pulled off wonderfully by Bond and colorist Brian Miller. If the next two issues are as good as this first, Morrison will have another in a string of great 21st century comics to his credit.
Rating: 4 (of 5)


Teratoid Heights
by Mat Brinkman
Mostly wordless, these short tales consist of odd creatures moving and existing in surreal landscapes. They are oddly both comforting and disturbng, and in their own inhuman way speak to the human condition through the lens of the cutely grotesque. The cartoons remind me somewhat of the Jim Woodring's Frank, though Brinkman's beings are less identifyable than Woodring's cartoon characters, and thus more of a blank slate upon which we the readers can project our own fears and yearnings. Published by the now-sadly-defunct Highwater Books, Teratoid Heights is a prime example of why that publisher will be missed.
Rating: 4 (of 5)



In addition, several comics got a rating of 3.5: Batgirl: Year One; Geraniums and Bacon #1-2; DreamWalker: The Winter Tree #1; Seven Soldiers #0; and Goodbye, Chunky Rice.

Quick Clamp Reviews

Tsubasa, vol. 1
by Clamp
Imagine if one of the very first comics you ever read was Crisis on Infinite Earths or some other multi-title company-wide super-hero crossover. That may be a similar experience to what I had reading Clamp's Tsubasa a series that seems to incorporate alternate reality versions of characters from Clamp's other comics into a big multi-dimensional crossover. Heck, the back cover copy of this volume even exclaims: "Tusbasa volume 1 crosses over with xxxHOLiC volume 1! Don't miss it!"--which sounds exactly like the sort of cover copy from a super-hero crossover book. The plot, near as I can figure, seems to involve several of these alter-reality characters hopping through dimensions (which are probably analogues of other manga & anime worlds) looking to recover one of the character's lost memories. I suppose that were I well-versed in manga and anime in general and the works of Clamp in particular I might find this interesting, or at least be able to follow what's going on. Alas I'm not, at least in the types of manga that Tsubasa seems to be referencing, and I'm hopelessly lost.
Rating: 2 (of 5)


xxxHOLiC, vol. 1
by Clamp
And speaking of xxxHOLiC: Watanuki has a problem: he can see and is haunted by spirits (gee, that sounds familiar...). He one days finds himself drawn to a magic shop presided over by Yuko, a witch who says that she grants wishes, provided that the wisher is willing to pay the price, and that she can rid Watanuki of his spirit condition if he wishes. Watanuki foolishly agrees before discovering the price however, and finds himself now 'employed' by Yuko at the magic shop, where he must labor to pay the cost of his wish before it is granted. While xxxHOLiC also seems to draw somewhat on other Clamp properties, it's not nearly as insidery as Tusbasa and it is fairly simple to follow the story even without knowing all of the references. After the set-up story, Yuko and Watanaki help (or attempt to help--the resolutions tend to not be clean-cut) a woman who is a compulsive liar, and another who is addicted to the Internet. (The threatened crossover with Tsubasa doesn't horn in until the very end of the volume.) The art is also strong--much stronger than one usually sees from Clamp--and is filled with bold lines and heavy dark spaces. It all makes for a good reading experience.
Rating: 3 (of 5)