Quick Monkey Comic Reviews

Banana Sunday #1
by Root Nibot & Colleen Coover

Kirby Steinberg is the new girl at Forest Edge High School, but she's not just any new girl. Kirby comes with three talking monkeys in tow: Chuck, the super-intelligent orangutan ego; Go-Go, the always hungry gorilla id; and Knobby, the sensitive babe-magnet monkey superego. Kirby claims that her three talking monkey companions are the results of her scientist father's experiments with accellerated leaning abilities, but Nickels, Kirby's new best friend and reporter for the school paper, suspects that may not be the whole truth. Add in Martin, the cute boy photographer who comes to Kirby's aid when her clutziness gets the better of her, and you have the makings of a fun series. There's a general atmosphere of fun and the humor is often gentle and subtle, except for Go-Go whose antics at times are downright laugh-out-loud funny. The big attraction for this book of course is the wonderful art from Colleen Coover, stepping out from the erotic-comix ghetto to prove that she can do high school situational and physical comedy for an all-ages audience. It's all there: figures, backgrounds, storytelling, and a sureness of line; Coover makes it look easy, and gets to draw plenty of cute girls and talking monkeys. I'm sure you'll be tempted to wait for the trade, but there's plenty enough story and fun here to justify spending $3 on each individual issue; then you can get the inevitable trade when it comes out and share it with all your friends.
Rating: 4 (of 5)


Go-Go Gorilla and the Jungle Crew Summer Fun Special
by Mike Hall, Dustin Evans, and David Hedgecock

In Jungle City, humans live side-by-side with a variety of anthropomorphs, wherfe they're just as comfortable swinging to work on vines as they are driving in their wooden cars. Protecting the citizens of Jungle City are the super-heroic Go-Go Gorilla and the other heroes of the Jungle Crew. The first story in this comic tells the origin of Go-Go Gorilla (yes, another gorilla named Go-Go--must be something in the water!), a shy museum custodian named Simeon Sapien who is transformed by a radioactive meteor to fight crime with super powers. The second story introduces us to the rest of the Jungle Crew: the speedster, the aquatic character, the Egyptian queen, etc. There's a very old-school feel here, with a style of story that seems to be deliberately patterned on DC super-hero comics of the 50s & 60s; heck, both stories even have a male character who is too shy to ask out the obviously interested female character on a date. At the same time the comic also seems to be targeted towards kids, with extras in the back including a word puzzle, a maze, and a connect-the-dots picture. The art has a nice cartoonish feel, and they do a good job at visualizing the exotic Jungle City.
Rating: 3 (of 5)

JimO in the Freep

Today's Detroit Free Press has a very nice little feature article about GN writer and friend-of-YACB Jim Ottaviani (who I believe is presently out at SDCC, so if you're heading out there stop by and visit with him in the Cold Cut Indy Island).

"The Science of Comic Books"

If there's one thing Ottaviani doesn't want to be, it's pretentious or off-putting. He loves to learn about science, and he wants to share that experience with as many people as he can.

Hockey Returns

In honor of the imminent return of professional hockey, here are a couple of hockey-related comic covers:



I'm sensing a theme here... Both covers are by Nick Cardy.

(Images courtesy of the GCD. Click on the images for larger-sized versions.)

Previews-o-Rama part 1: The Front

It's time once again to go through the latest Previews to discover the good, the bad, and the strange:


Dark Horse

Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan, & Dracula reunite with The Curse of Dracula graphic novella.

If you haven't read any of Eric Powell's The Goon, you may wish to look into The Goon: Fancy Pants Edition, which reprints early Goon stories in chronological (rather than publication) order.

Rick Geary has a new hardcover novella, Craven, a historical bio-comic about a pre-WWI scoundrel/renaisance man.

Mark Millar & Peter Gross's Chosen is collected, for those of you who like your retelling of The Book of Revelations with extra sodomy.

The second Busiek/Nord Conan volume, The God in the Bowl and Other Stories, is now available in softcover.

Bob Fingerman brings his brand of comix to Dark Horse with the novella You Deserved It.

CrossGen fans may want to check out the collection of Samurai: Heaven and Earth by ex-CG'res Ron Marz & Luke Ross.

Little Lulu: Letters to Santa would appear to have some christmas-related content.

Oh My Goddess! gets what I think is its third edition, this time reading backwards like all good manga do, and there's an eighth volume of Koike & Kojima's Samurai Executioner.


DC

Josh Middleton draws Shazam/Superman: First Thunder, so at least we know it'll look good.

Zatanna guest stars in Adventures of Superman #644, but alas it's the mind-wiping Z from Identity Crisis and not the cool Ryan Sook-drawn Z from Seven Soldiers.

The unnecessary Waid/Yu Superman origin retelling Superman: Birthright gets collected in a trade. You'd be better off spending your $20 on the far superior Superman: Secret Identity trade by Busiek & Immonen, conveniently offered as a Star of the Month right next to it in Previews.

You know, with the 45% discount from DCBS, I'm almost tempted to get the Crisis on Infinite Earths Absolute Edition deluxe oversized hardcover slipcase set. Almost.

Geof Johns & Dave Gibbons co-write the Green Lantern Corps: Recharge mini.

Green Lantern: Rebirth gets a hardcover collection.

Kamandi Archives? So Kamandi gets the deluxe archives treatment, while New Gods got a cheap black & white reprint? Okay...

Busiek & Garney's entertaining JLA: Syndicate Rules story gets a trade collection.

Plastic Man is still being published. Vootie!

DC finally decide to make use of their huge backfile of comics in inexpensive collections: Sgt. Rock and Swamp Thing get full-color digest-size collections, while silver age Superman & Green Lantern are offered up in Essentials B&W style. (Although I wonder how well Green Lantern will work without the color...)

Seven Soldiers: Guardian comes to an end, and Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle begins, with sure-to-be-nice art by Pasqual Ferry.

After the way Bruce Jones's Hulk just petered out and went nowhere, I find it hard to work up much excitement for his Vigilante mini.

A third collection of George Perez's classic Wonder Woman stories sees the light of day with Beauty and the Beasts.

DC jump on the Cinemanga bandwagon with Justice League Unlimited: Jam-Packed Action, adapting episodes of the tv series.

There are two new CMX titles, Chikyu Misaki and Pieces of a Spiral, but it all looks hopelessly generic.

Robbie Morrison, fresh off of driving The Authority into the ground, takes on Wildcats in Wildcats: Nemesis.

Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra give us more mayhem with a new Kev mini: The Authority: The Magnificent Kev.

Speaking of Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra, their old Helix Bloody Mary series get collected.

Wait-for-the-traders will be happy to see new collections of Ex Machina & Sleeper.

The Winter Men continues with a second issue--remember folks, if you don't buy it, there may not even be a trade...

A History of Violence gets a new edition, just in time for the Hollywood movie.

Michael Wm. Kaluta is the guest artist for Lucifer #66. When you're going to have fill-in art, this is the way to go!

Harvey Pekar surprisingly brings his newest project to DC with The Quitter, drawn by Dean Haspiel.

Otherworld comes to a premature end with an Act 1 as Phil Jimenez goes off to draw a little indy book called Infitite Crisis.

the craptacular Bat-story of the 90's comes to toyland with the Batman Knightfall line of action figures. IIRC didn't Joey Q design that Az-Bat costume? So will Marvel's EiC be getting royalties?


Image

Warren Ellis & Ben Templesmith's Fell is a new ongoing, so it'll be hard fo rhte final issue to be delayed for 6 months...

Beckett comics come under the Image banner with the Ronin Hood of the 47 Samurai GN.

Hey look, it's another Invincible collection: The Facts of Life. Cool.

It's unclear if the Saint Germaine: Shadows Fall trade is new material or a reprint of the old Caliber series.


Marvel

Hey look at all the Mouse of Him crossovers, freeing up your regular buys so you can try out some nice indy comics this month--thanks Marvel!

Garth Ennis & Clayton Crain have a wait-for-the-trade ready Ghost Rider mini. When's the Nic Cage movie coming out?

Richard Morgan returns with a new Black Widow mini, and the Sean Phillips inked by Bill Sienkiewicz art could make for an interesting combination.

Wovlerine #32 features sure-to-be-good art by Kaare Andrews, but I question whether Mark Millar is capable of the degree of sensitivity required to write a story about Logan in a WWII concentration camp.

Paul Jenkins & John Romita, Jr. have a new Sentry mini, which will probably be worth reading when it gets collected a few months from now.

Mike Avon Oeming & Scott Kolins save the trademark with the Thor: Blood Oath mini.

The Giffen/Dematteis/Maguire Defenders continues with a third issue.

Supreme Power takes a hiatus, but is replaced by two minis: Hyperion and Nighthawk.

Reginald Hudlin & John Romita, Jr.'s Black Panther gets a hardcover collection with Who Is the Black Panther.

The Marvel Digests are where the action is, as Runaways, Mary Jane and Spider-Girl all get new affordable small-size trades.

More classic Peter David Hulk stories come your way with a second Hulk Visionaries: Peter David volume.


That's it for the front of the catalog. Part 2, the middle, will be along shortly...

New This Week: July 13, 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 Banana Sunday from Oni Press. This all ages comic has talking monkeys and wonderful cartooning from Colleen Coover. How can you go wrong? You can't! Check out the online preview and see for yourself.

(Yeah yeah, I know, All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder. Yes it's the biggest release of the week, if not of the year so far. But you already know if you're going to be getting it or not--you don't need me to tell you about it. Besides, I don't care how good you think Jim Lee can draw Batman, it can't compare to Colleen Coover drawing cute girls and talking monkeys!)


In other comics:

Alias have the second issue of Penny & Aggie. Yeah it's color reprints of the online strips, but if you haven't read those then it's all new for you.

Archie have a new issue of Sabrina (#68).

Dark Horse have the debut of the Serenity preview mini, a Too Much Coffee Man collection (How to be Happy), and a new issue of The Escapist (#7).

DC, in addition to the aforementioned All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder #1, also have new issues of Action Comics (#829), Desolation Jones (#2), Fables (#39), JLA (#116), Majestic (#7), Rann/Thanagar War (#3), Seven Soldiers: Guardian (#3), and Wonder Woman (#218); plus a new Y, the Last Man collection (vol. 5: Ring of Truth.

Fantasgraphics have the special Shojo issue of The Comics Journal (#269).

Headless Shakespeare have the debut of the Xeric-winning The Brontes: Infernal Angria with art by Rick Geary.

IDW have the second issue of Angel: The Curse (didn't the first issue come out just a couple of weeks ago?)

Image have the debut of The Freshmen, a Small Gods Special, and new issues of Invincible (#24) and The Walking Dead (#20).

Marvel have new issues of Gravity (#2), New Thunderbolts (#10), and The Punisher (#23).

Too Hip Gotta Go have the debut issue of a new Wahoo Morris series.

Viper debut the Middleman mini.

W. W. Norton have Will Eisner's final graphic novel, The Plot.


As usual, comics for all tastes. And dude, don't forget: Talking Monkeys!

Cheap Manga Returns

DollarManga.com, the site which clearances out manga GNS from the company formerly known as ComicsOne, has returned (I previously blogged about them back in November). Most titles are available for $1, $2, or $3 (though some are higher). Crayon Shinchan for $1 each! Iron Wok Jan for $3 each! Crouching Tiger for $2 each! Shipping is $5 + $1/item, so for just one or two titles you won't save much, but if you order a lot you'll surely realize some substantial savings.

Quick GN Reviews

Sweaterweather
by Sara Varon

Sweaterweather is a collection of mostly wordless short stories about a bunch of little anthropomorphic animals (and a snowman) going about life in the city. Most of the stories take place during the cold months of late autumn to early spring, hence the title. It may not sound exciting, but the stories have a certain sweetness and Varon is an excellent storyteller. It many ways this comic reminds me of Andy Runton's Owly, although the stories in Sweaterweather have a bit more of an edge. Most of the book is in black and white (well, actually black and navy blue) but in the back there's a color section with cleaver paper dolls, stamps and postcards. This is a fun book that can be enjoyed by comic readers of all ages.
Rating: 4 (of 5)


Freaks of the Heartland
by Steve Niles and Greg Ruth

Several years ago in the small farming community of Gristlewood Valley, several gave birth to severly deformed--some would say unnatural--children. Some were killed, while others were locked away, living all of the existance in cellars or barns. Young Trevor knows that his younger brother Will is different, but he also knows that Will has a good heart and its not fair for Will to be locked away, never able to play in the sun. But this secret is eating away at the people of the valley, and when events build towards a violent head Trevor decides to break Will out and they make a run to escape the valley. Although there are monsters in the story (and not all of them are the deformed children) this isn't exactly a horror story; it falls into a traditio nof stories that I've always refered to as 'American Gothic'--tales of secrets and evil and things not quite right in small towns and rural communities. There is violence in Freaks of the Heartland, but it mostly occurs just off panel. Niles isn't going for shocks here, but rather trying to disturb. What really makes this work is the art of Ruth; detailed pen and ink drawings combine with the earthy computer color pallate to create an environment that evokes the warm heartland in which this disturbing tale is set. If you like your horror stories to be about events and characters and mood rather than blood and guts, you'll find Freaks of the Heartland quite to your liking.
Rating: 4 (of 5)