Last week I ranked my interest in all fifty-two of the upcoming DC relaunch titles (aka DCnU). Seven of those I rated as 'Definitely No.' What titles would I like to have seen instead? Here are some possibilities:
Lois Lane, Ace Reporter
by Paul Tobin & Colleen Coover
Lois Lane is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the Daily Planet's number one reporter. So why does that country bumpkin Clark Kent always get those scoops on Superman? In between investigating corruption in Metropolis City Hall and bringing down criminal conspiracies, Lois is going to use all her journalism skills to uncover Kent's secret!
Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld
by Tania del Rio
Fifteen-year-old high school student Amy Winston learns that she's really a warrior princess from the magical realm of Gemworld. Now she divides her time between defending Gemworld from the evil forces of Dark Opal and trying to pass American History and avoid the wrath of the queen bees in school. But which world will prove more treacherous? (Hint: it's probably high school).
Spoilers
by Bryan Q. Miller & Nicola Scott
Stephanie Brown has been Robin and Batgirl, but she still can't get the super-hero community to take her seriously! Now she's forming her own team of teenage girl super-heroes–including former Batgirl Cassandra Cain–and they're intent on making their mark in the world!
G.I. Robot
by Matt Kindt
SFC Jake Kanigher discovers a WWII-era robot in the basement of a secret military research facility. But what is Jake's hidden connection to the 70-year-old robotics program? He'd better find out soon, because now an unknown conspiracy is trying to capture the robot, and have Jake killed!
Challengers of the Unknown
by Kathryn Immonen & Tonci Zonjic
Trapped in suspended animation for fifty years, Ace, Red, Rocky, Prof and June awaken to find 2012 a bewildering world, but one that still has plenty of unknowns to challenge!
Stargirl
by Nick Spencer & Dean Trippe
On her fourteenth birthday, star athlete-in-the-making Courtney Whitmore inherits her late grandfather's Gravity Rod, which gives its user the power to control gravity and channel a mysterious Cosmic Energy. Now Courtney must choose between becoming a super-hero and training for the swim team; but with what she learns about her grandfather's connection to a mysterious Society of Justice, the choice may already be made for her!
Angel and the Ape
by Andrew Pepoy & Amy Mebberson
Angel O'Day is a can't-catch-a-break private investigator; Sam Simeon, Angel's new office-mate, is a comic book artist—and a gorilla! Together they make up the DCU's oddest of odd couples, exploring the wacky and hilarious side of the new DCU!
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Awesome Comics You Should Read: The Video
Oh hey, here's my Ignite Ann Arbor 5 talk from back in February, "Awesome Comics You Should Read":
Presentation notes are here.
Presentation notes are here.
Monday, 27 June 2011
Turf #1-5
CBR | English | 5 Issues | 133 MB
New York, 1929. The height of prohibition. The cops turn a blind eye while the mobs run the city, dealing in guns, girls and illegal liquor. But the arrival of the mysterious Dragonmir Family from Eastern Europe with more of a taste for blood then booze co-incides with a series of brutal attacks on the gangsters themselves. As the gangs fall before the fangs, only handful of mobsters survive. But an unlikely alliance formed between tough guy Eddie Falco and a character from a LONG way from New York City – a long way from Earth in fact - offers the humans a glimmer of hope. As the strong willed young reporter Susie Dale from the Gotham Herald tries to survive in the middle of the maelstrom, and an ancient prophecy unfolds, no one can guess who’s going to win the battle for this particular slice of Turf.
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Blue Bolt TPB
English | 92 pages | CBR | 79.9 MB
By Jack Kirby and Joe Simon. This edition reprints the Golden Age Blue Bolt stories for the first time ever! All nine stories are in full color and mark the first time Jack Kirby and Joe Simon collaborated. Forget how much the originals cost, just try finding them on the market. Includes all of the Green Lady's never-ending efforts to seduce the Blue Bolt in this out-of-this world intergalactic adventure.
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Evil's Return #4
CBR | English | 100 MB | 162 pages
Genre: Action, Ecchi, Horror, Romance, Supernatural, Tragedy; Author: Lee Jong-kyu; Artist: Hwan Shin
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Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever #1-5
CBR | English | 5 Issues | 141 MB
Horror comes to the Wild West as nineteenth century occult investigator Sir Edward Grey is on the hunt for a member of the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra.
Lost and Gone Forever marks the second volume of the Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder series, a continuation from In The Service of Angels. and when put in sequential order with the previous mini series this five issue mini would be issues #6-10 per the indicia.
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Babe Vol.1 #1-4 & Vol.2 #1-2
CBR | English | 6 Issues | 207 MB
Babe was a four-issue comic book mini-series published by Dark Horse Comics under their Legend imprint from July 1994 - October 1994. It was written by John Byrne, with pencils and inks by Byrne, and covers by Gary Cody.
A 2-issue mini-series titled Babe 2 followed in 1995. Babe 2 finds Babe battling the Shrewmanoid, and also features a guest appearance by Abe Sapien.
Babe was set in the same universe as Hellboy, The Torch of Liberty, and Danger Unlimited.
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Taboo Vol.8
CBR | English | 36 pages | 108 MB
Taboo was voted the best ongoing anthology in 1993. It started off as a Horror anthology, with titles like From Hell and the incomplete Neil Gaiman Sweeney Todd. Other genres of stories also came out from Taboo, such as Alan Moore's Lost Girls started as well in the pages of Taboo with its brother From Hell. Steve R. Bissette would be the editor of the anthology, since it was his vision that created the limited ran anthology. Many of the stories in Taboo remain uncollected today.
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Evil's Return #3
CBR | English | 98 MB | 162 pages
Genre: Action, Ecchi, Horror, Romance, Supernatural, Tragedy; Author: Lee Jong-kyu; Artist: Hwan Shin
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Daisy Kutter: The Last Train #1-4
CBR | English | 4 Issues | 50.8 MB
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Fangs Of The Widow (Vol.1): Flesh & Blood #1-3
London Night Studios | CBR | Sept. - Oct. 1995 | B&W | 3 Issues | 111 MB
writer, artist: Mike Wolfer; artist: Everette Hartsoe
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Love and Capes Ever After #1-5
CBR/RAR | English | 5 Issues/Complete | 71.2 MB
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Evil's Return #2
Japanese Manga | CBR | English | 168 pages | 100 MB
Genre: Action, Ecchi, Horror, Romance, Supernatural, Tragedy; Author: Lee Jong-kyu; Artist: Hwan Shin
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The Tomb Raider Compendium Volume 1
English | 1246 pages | CBR | 929MB
There's nothing like going back to the beginning and reading it all over again. For the first time ever, get Tomb Raider issues #1-50 in one giant soft cover! See the video game come to life as some of the industries biggest names bring the adventures of Lara Croft to comics!
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Evil's Return #1
| CBR | English | 170 pages | 95.6 MB
Genre: Action, Ecchi, Horror, Romance, Supernatural, Tragedy; Author: Lee Jong-kyu; Artist: Hwan Shin
Yumi, a seemingly average high school girl, is destined to become the wife of and child bearer for Evil. As soon as her first menstrual episodes begin, all sorts of villainous cretins show up in the hopes of providing the seed for wickedness itself. In response, the forces of Good, a Buddhist priest, the Catholic church, and their attendant holy warriors rush to provide protection for the now-pregnable Yumi. But she reaches out to another warrior, a young punk freshman heartthrob who literally beats off the female population of the school with a stick. But when he sees Yumi in a vision, this cool-as-ice thug melts ... and the adventure begins ...
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Flashpoint - Kid Flash Lost #1
English | 22 pages | CBR | 18.3MB
FLASH FACT! Where is he? Or should we say when?
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The Guild - Bladezz
English | 35 pages | CBZ | 32.1 MB
The Guild creator and star Felicia Day is joined by series director Sean Becker for a new one-shot starring the Knights of Good's brash young rogue, Bladezz! In this issue, it's the secret origin of Bladezz's alter ego, the supernaturally gifted model Finn Smulders! When all he wants is a place to play the Game, and faced with a controlling mother, know-it-all sister, and obnoxious potential stepfather, can Bladezz use Smulders's 'powers' to save the day? Can he keep his new identity secret? And can any good possibly come of fatherly advice from Vork?
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Flashpoint - Lois Lane and the Resistance #1 (of 03)
English | 21 pages | CBR | 18.9MB
FLASH FACT! She is ready to reveal the Amazons' secret!
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Rage #1 (of 03)
English | 27 pages | CBZ | 25.2 MB
The groundbreaking new game from the developers of Doom and Quake is almost here, but first Dark Horse presents an essential introduction to the world of Rage! The Earth has been devastated by collision with an asteroid, with a tiny fraction of the population surviving in life-sustaining arks, only to awaken in a wasteland controlled by a global military dictatorship called the Authority. But a rescued scientist learns that the Authority has lied to her and the other survivors about how this new world came to be.
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Superman #712
English | 24 pages | CBR | 17.8 MB
Meet Los Angeles's newest super hero in the latest Chapter of "Grounded": Sharif! But Sharif discovers that in today's current cultural climate, some people don't want his help - they just want him gone. Can Superman aid Sharif and quell a prejudiced public, or are there some problems too big even for the Man of Steel to solve?
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All Nighter #1 (of 05)
English | 34 pages | CBR | 17.2MB
STEALING COINS,' Part One. Kit Bradley is a 20 year-old art student and petty criminal who knows it's time to leave her delinquent past behind, but isn't ready for the responsibilities of adulthood. Her social headquarters is an all night diner, and while trying to put the 'off' on an on-again-off-again boyfriend, she runs into an old flame, and an enigmatic loner named Martha, who alters Kit's life forever. Created by Eisner and Ignatz Award nominee DAVID HAHN.
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Elsinore #1-5
Alias 2005-2006 | CBR | English | 5 Issues | 122 MB
Elsinore tells the tale of Murchison, a disgraced doctor who was recruited by the titular asylum in order to help prevent the apocalypse.
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The Outsiders #40
English | 30 pages | CBR | 17 MB
Batman arrives in an attempt to unite Black Lightning's team with Geo-Force's for the final battle against Veritas. But as one teammate is lost and others leave, Batman must determine if it's time to disband The Outsiders forever
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Flashpoint - The Outsider #1
CBR | English | 19 pages | 17 MB
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The Stand: No Man's Land #1-5
CBR | English | 5 Issues | 121 MB
While Frannie and Stu struggle to find a balance between their personal lives and their public personas, an unholy, unspeakable alliance is born between Harold Lauder and Nadine Cross. It's a date with destiny, orchestrated by the Dark Man, and it could very well mean doom for the Boulder Free Zone. It's time to commune with the spirits of the dead, True Believers, and their message is clear: "You cannot miss what's coming next!"
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Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume
English | 1337 pages | CBR | 295MB
After being run out of Boneville, the three Bone cousins, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone are separated and lost in a vast uncharted desert. One by one they find their way into a deep forested valley filled with wonderful and terrifying creatures. It will be the longest - but funniest - year of their lives. Winner of 11 Harvey Awards and 10 Eisner Awards including Best Cartoonist and Best Humor Publication, as well as being named Best Comic Book by the National Cartoonists Society. BONE has also won multiple international awards in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Finland and Norway.
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Jem Vol.1 No.1
Vintage Magazine | JPG/ZIP | English | 52.6 MB | 62 pages
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Siren #1-4 & Infinity & Special
Malibu, 1995-1996 | CBR/RAR | English | 5 Issues | 110 MB
Writer: Hank Kanalz; Artist: Kevin West
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Mantra Vol.1 #1-24 & Vol.2 #1-7 & Necromantra #1-4 & Spear of Destiny #1-2 & Infinity & Giant Size
Malibu Comics | CBR/CBZ | English | 39 Issues | 327 MB
Mantra was an American comic book series written by Mike Barr, mainly penciled by Terry Dodson and published by Malibu Comics in the mid 1990s, until it was purchased by Marvel Comics, leading to the cancellation of the title after 24 issues. Adam Hughes is credited for the character designs.
Mantra was the name of the lead character, an Ultra (superhero) within Malibu's Ultraverse line of comics. An eternal warrior named Lukasz and his compatriots had been fighting the villain Boneyard for centuries: whenever an individual soldier dies, his soul would be placed in a new body, and take up the fight once more. In the 1990s, Lukasz' leader Archmage was betrayed and captured, leading to the permanent death of most of the warriors and a final reincarnation for one, Lukasz himself: to his shock, Lukasz was put into the body of a woman, Eden Blake.
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Sunday, 26 June 2011
Monkey Covers
Boo Cook draws multiple Maddrox monkeys on the monkey variant cover for X-Factor #38 (2008).
Image courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.
Friday, 24 June 2011
Gene Colan
Back in 2008 when Steve Gerber passed away I posted about one of my favorite Gerber stories, the four-issue Phantom Zone mini-series he did with artist Gene Colan. With Colan's passing yesterday, it seems appropriate to once again highlight that awesome head-trip of a story, for which Colan's art was perfectly suited:
I was too young to encounter Colan's seminal work for Marvel on the likes of Tomb of Dracula or Howard the Duck, but I was right in the prime spot for his 80s DC work on this and on Night Force (soon to be collected in hardcover). The energy in his unconventional layouts and fluid drawing was obvious even to the novice eye of my twelve-year-old self. Thanks, Gene, for all the great comics you drew.
I was too young to encounter Colan's seminal work for Marvel on the likes of Tomb of Dracula or Howard the Duck, but I was right in the prime spot for his 80s DC work on this and on Night Force (soon to be collected in hardcover). The energy in his unconventional layouts and fluid drawing was obvious even to the novice eye of my twelve-year-old self. Thanks, Gene, for all the great comics you drew.
Amazon Top 50
1 (+2). The Walking Dead Volume 14: No Way Out *
2 (-). Dork Diaries 3 (Kindle edition)
3 (-1). Dork Diaries 3: Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star
4 (-3). Cabin Fever (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 6) *
5 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5: The Ugly Truth
6 (-). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 8: Last Gleaming
7 (N). Hark! A Vagrant *
8 (+5). Dork Diaries (Kindle edition)
9 (-). The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book (revised and expanded edition)
10 (-3). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
11 (-). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
12 (-2). Dork Diaries 2 (Kindle edition)
13 (-1). Batman: Year One
14 (+15). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
15 (-1). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
16 (-8). 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth
17 (+19). Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 2 *
18 (+1). Big Nate Out Loud
19 (+28). Green Lantern: Brightest Day
20 (+3). Diary of a Wimpy Kid Box of Books
21 (+4). Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Boxset
22 (-6). Dork Diaries 2: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl
23 (+4). Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, Vol. 2 - The Little Sister of Eluria
24 (+6). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
25 (+1). Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life
26 (-5). Batman: The Killing Joke
27 (+6). Walking Dead Volume 13
28 (-). Watchmen
29 (+11). Green Lantern: Rebirth
30 (+4). V for Vendetta
31 (R). The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes
32 (-12). Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
33 (-18). Batman & Robin Vol. 3: Batman Must Die!
34 (N). Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Lost Adventures
35 (R). Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War, Vol. 2
36 (R). Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale
37 (-5). Big Nate Boredom Buster: Super Scribbles, Cool Comix, and Lots of Laughs
38 (R). X-Men: Second Coming
39 (R). Batman: The Long Halloween
40 (+8). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 7: Twilight
41 (N). Castle Waiting
42 (R). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
43 (R). 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (Kindle edition)
44 (N). Congress of the Animals
45 (R). Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War, Vol. 1
46 (-29). Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book
47 (R). Daytripper
48 (R). The Walking Dead, Vol. 10: What We Become
49 (R). The Walking Dead, Book 6
50 (-12). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
Items with asterisks (*) are pre-order items.
N = New listing appearing on list for first time
R = Item returning to the list after having been off for 1 or more weeks
Commentary:
* For the third week in a row we have a new number one, as the imminent release of the next Walking Dead collection climbs up to the top spot.
* Debuting in the top slot is the collection of Kate Beaton's Webcomic Hark! A Vagrant. Other debuts are Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Lost Adventures; Jim Woodring's Congress of the Animals; and Linda Medley's first Castle Waiting collection.
* There's a bit of splash up for Green Lantern titles which may be due to the movie, though the release of a new collection (in this case, Green Lantern: Brightest Day) often has the same effect on the backlist without a movie.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
A Short Report (and a Few Pics) from Kids Read Comics
On Saturday I took my nephew (age 11) to the Kids Read Comics festival in Chelsea, MI. Based at the Chelsea District Library and running down Main Street at various locations, it was pretty much everything you could want from a comic festival aimed at kids and teens.
We started the day at a workshop run by Dave Roman on creating characters:
We then hit the kids artist alley and bought a few things (I picked up some minis for our library's nascent mini-comics collection), and then stopped by the Green Brain table where Dave Roman & Raina Telgemeier were signing. My nephew bought a copy of Dave's new Astronaut Academy graphic novel, and was thrilled to get his copy of SMILE autographed by Raina (he says it's his second favorite graphic novel, right after Bone.)
We then walked down Main Street (past the Jiffy factory) to the pizza place which was having an all-you-can-eat buffet for the attendees. There we met up with my friend E~ and his family (K~, who buys adult comics for one of the local public libraries, and their kids ages 5 and 1).
After lunch we stopped over at the teen artist alley, where I got to tell Thom Zahler, John Ostrander, Bill Loebs, Barbara Slate, and Gary Cohn how awesome they all are; Barbara was impressed and a bit surprised that I fondly remembered her old Marvel series Sweet XVI!
Walking back up the street, we caught the tail end of one of the quick draw sessions, where artists would do large sketches based on whatever passersby suggested. With my nephew's help we suggested that Raina Telgemeier draw a monkey throwing banana pulp at the headless horseman. Here she is in progress:
while Dave Roman & Jerzy Drozd looked on:
Then we went across the street to look at the Comic Jam! exhibition at the Chelsea River Gallery. Then we swung back up to the kids artist alley for one more run through before heading back home:
It was a great day for a comics festival, and my many thanks to all the organizers for their hard work. I assume there will be another Kids Love Comics festival next year, so I strongly recommend that you find a kid and take them!
We started the day at a workshop run by Dave Roman on creating characters:
We then hit the kids artist alley and bought a few things (I picked up some minis for our library's nascent mini-comics collection), and then stopped by the Green Brain table where Dave Roman & Raina Telgemeier were signing. My nephew bought a copy of Dave's new Astronaut Academy graphic novel, and was thrilled to get his copy of SMILE autographed by Raina (he says it's his second favorite graphic novel, right after Bone.)
We then walked down Main Street (past the Jiffy factory) to the pizza place which was having an all-you-can-eat buffet for the attendees. There we met up with my friend E~ and his family (K~, who buys adult comics for one of the local public libraries, and their kids ages 5 and 1).
After lunch we stopped over at the teen artist alley, where I got to tell Thom Zahler, John Ostrander, Bill Loebs, Barbara Slate, and Gary Cohn how awesome they all are; Barbara was impressed and a bit surprised that I fondly remembered her old Marvel series Sweet XVI!
Walking back up the street, we caught the tail end of one of the quick draw sessions, where artists would do large sketches based on whatever passersby suggested. With my nephew's help we suggested that Raina Telgemeier draw a monkey throwing banana pulp at the headless horseman. Here she is in progress:
while Dave Roman & Jerzy Drozd looked on:
Then we went across the street to look at the Comic Jam! exhibition at the Chelsea River Gallery. Then we swung back up to the kids artist alley for one more run through before heading back home:
It was a great day for a comics festival, and my many thanks to all the organizers for their hard work. I assume there will be another Kids Love Comics festival next year, so I strongly recommend that you find a kid and take them!
Amazon: Steel Of A Soldier's Heart
Graphic Novel | CBR | B/W | 110 pages | 138 MB
Author: Bill Williams; Artists: Robb Phipps, Bill Williams, Martin Thomas
Princess Faith also known as Amazon crashes to the Earth and meets an archaeologist in the high lonely deserts of New Mexico. After she unwittingly releases a monster on the small town of Buena Suerte, she has to beat an awful remnant of her homeworld.
The Amazon feature by Bill Williams and Robb Phipps anchored the Lone Star Press series HEROIC TALES. Robb (MANTRA) Phipps illustrated the story of a Princess from far, far away and her adventures on the brave new world called Earth in this re-examination of a popular super myth. This trade collects pages from Heroic Tales #1, #2 and #3 and adds 30 new pages. Plus an introduction by comics legend Mike W. Barr.
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Lady Rawhide Vol.1 #1-5 & Vol.2 #1-5
CBZ/CBR | English | 10 Issues | 209 MB
Published by Topps that started in July 1995
Lady Rawhide is a scantily clad masked vigilante who defends the people from their oppression against tyrannical officials and other villains.
Anita Santiago (super name - Lady Rawhide ) was driven to create her own costumed identity to seek revenge against the Commandante of Los Angeles, Captain Enrique Monasterio who inflected terrible injures on her brother, Roman Santiago.
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Super Dinosaur - Origin Special #1
2011 | 27 pages | CBZ | 23MB
Super Dinosaur is finally here! In this stand-alone origin special, you will learn everything there is to know about Derek Dynamo's best friend, Super Dinosaur! Where did he come from? How did he avoid extinction? What is Inner-Earth? And what the heck is DynOre and why is it so dangerous?! All this and more will be revealed - don't miss out!
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Se7en #1-7
CBR/ZIP | English | 7 Issues | 132 MB
Se7en deadly sins. Se7en horrific murders. John Doe wants to teach the world a lesson and he’s using the sinners among us as the palette for his work. Take a look inside the twisted and methodical mind of the notorious serial killer... Zenescope Entertainment presents Se7en. Based on the hit movie, Se7en, from New Line Cinema.
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Final Crisis: Legion Of 3 Worlds #1-5
CBR/ZIP | English | 5 Issues | 151 MB
The Time Trapper, after many unsuccessful attempts to remove Superman from history, retrieves a time-lost Superboy-Prime and sends him to 31st century Smallville. Superboy-Prime is enraged to learn of his minimal impact on history, while Superman remained a highly influential figure 1000 years later. He breaks all of the Legion's villains out of Takron-Galtos and leads them as a massive Legion of Super-Villains in a bid to destroy everything Superman inspired, including the Legion of Super-Heroes and the United Planets. The villains travel to Sorcerers' World to recruit Mordru before continuing to Earth, killing Rond Vidar (former Legionnaire and the last Green Lantern) in the process. Meanwhile, the Time Trapper observes the assassination of Legion financier RJ Brande.
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Lazarus Churchyard: The Final Cut
Jan 1, 2001 | CBR | English | 118 pages | 51.9 MB
Warren Ellis (Author), D'Israeli (Illustrator)
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Xena vs Army Of Darkness What...? Again? #1-4
CBR/ZIP | English | 4 Issues | 54.8 MB
No, really, we're not kidding... we thought that the last time we put all these characters together, you guys would tell us where to stick our series, but you didn't and now we think you want more!
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Monday, 20 June 2011
About Project IITS - Part 1: Gordo's Island
Hello IITS Readers,
A reader named FifthFanZac commented on my last post and speculated a bit about the design of the game and while responding, I decided I should just write a whole post about some aspects of the Project IITS game design...so here it is:
As a game element, Gordo's Island acts as a hub area for adventures. It's a place for the player to engage in some secondary forms of gameplay (as opposed to the primary gameplay of combat and exploration). In the original design, the hub was supposed to be chosen by the player from any of the procedurally generated islands that they might come across. I decided that was a bit ambitious so, instead...the hub areas are prefabricated. However, that doesn't mean that they're completely static...Gordo's Island can be upgraded in several different ways and what you see in the concepts and the 3D island crafted so far probably represents and island that is halfway upgraded. Each of the different upgrades provide a different gameplay bonus, whether it be storage, or crafting, cooking, etc.
All that's pretty standard for an action RPG type game, what I wanted to do to set Project IITS apart from similar game paradigms is that unlike your usual hub world, where there are linear paths that lead to other game areas, in Project IITS...the adventure comes to you. That probably makes no sense...so let me take a moment to explain that the world of IITS is in a constant state of change...the islands swirl around in an invisible ocean of wind...making everyone in the world a nomad. Imagine this: Kayli comes back from a long hard day of hunting popees and after cooking a few up for dinner, takes a nice long bath in the hot springs (what's an IITS product without a little naked Kayli?), she heads up to the treehouse and goes to sleep...in other words, the player exits out of the game. The next time the player logs into the game, Kayli wakes up and the game has simulated the passage of time and distance traveled and when Kayli steps out onto the front porch of the island abode, she might find herself in a completed different environment. Calm, blue skies are replaced with reddish tinged clouds and lightning storms. Popees are replaced by ravenous birds of prey looking for a juicy bit of Kayli to snack on and...at the docks, a beat up old airship is tethered...its lazily swinging lantern beckoning the player to approach...
All of that should be gameplay of course...the hunting of popees is part of the primary combat and exploration gameplay, cooking up the popees uses the cooking crafting system, taking a bath ABSOLUTELY should be interactive (I'm shameless, I know)...even the airship that suddenly appears is interactive. Using a dynamic questing system, the game generated the appearance of the airship and its owner. It may be a traveling salesman offering rare precursor artifacts for sale, it may be a craftsman offering upgrades to weapons or armor or glider parts...it may be a dude in distress (Kayli rescues the MEN) with a dynamically generated quest for Kayli to undertake.
In the original game, the project known as IITS Ultimate, the idea was to allow players to create their own character in an instanced, procedurally generated MMO style experience. Being a bit more realistic, I pared the project down to a be single-player adventure featuring Kayli as the main character but all the tech and experience we get from the first game will be built upon till everyone can participate in the world of IITS as a character/persona of their own creation. Game development is about iteration and while the idea of IITS Ultimate excites me, a smaller, tighter experience and testing out gameplay and ideas with Project IITS will, well...ultimately benefit IITS Ultimate.
I hope this gives those interested an idea of what to expect for Project IITS. I wish I had some gameplay to show but the game is always in a state of flux and I've got to make some big decisions about the direction of the project before I can state or show anything more solid.
- Joseph
A reader named FifthFanZac commented on my last post and speculated a bit about the design of the game and while responding, I decided I should just write a whole post about some aspects of the Project IITS game design...so here it is:
As a game element, Gordo's Island acts as a hub area for adventures. It's a place for the player to engage in some secondary forms of gameplay (as opposed to the primary gameplay of combat and exploration). In the original design, the hub was supposed to be chosen by the player from any of the procedurally generated islands that they might come across. I decided that was a bit ambitious so, instead...the hub areas are prefabricated. However, that doesn't mean that they're completely static...Gordo's Island can be upgraded in several different ways and what you see in the concepts and the 3D island crafted so far probably represents and island that is halfway upgraded. Each of the different upgrades provide a different gameplay bonus, whether it be storage, or crafting, cooking, etc.
All that's pretty standard for an action RPG type game, what I wanted to do to set Project IITS apart from similar game paradigms is that unlike your usual hub world, where there are linear paths that lead to other game areas, in Project IITS...the adventure comes to you. That probably makes no sense...so let me take a moment to explain that the world of IITS is in a constant state of change...the islands swirl around in an invisible ocean of wind...making everyone in the world a nomad. Imagine this: Kayli comes back from a long hard day of hunting popees and after cooking a few up for dinner, takes a nice long bath in the hot springs (what's an IITS product without a little naked Kayli?), she heads up to the treehouse and goes to sleep...in other words, the player exits out of the game. The next time the player logs into the game, Kayli wakes up and the game has simulated the passage of time and distance traveled and when Kayli steps out onto the front porch of the island abode, she might find herself in a completed different environment. Calm, blue skies are replaced with reddish tinged clouds and lightning storms. Popees are replaced by ravenous birds of prey looking for a juicy bit of Kayli to snack on and...at the docks, a beat up old airship is tethered...its lazily swinging lantern beckoning the player to approach...
All of that should be gameplay of course...the hunting of popees is part of the primary combat and exploration gameplay, cooking up the popees uses the cooking crafting system, taking a bath ABSOLUTELY should be interactive (I'm shameless, I know)...even the airship that suddenly appears is interactive. Using a dynamic questing system, the game generated the appearance of the airship and its owner. It may be a traveling salesman offering rare precursor artifacts for sale, it may be a craftsman offering upgrades to weapons or armor or glider parts...it may be a dude in distress (Kayli rescues the MEN) with a dynamically generated quest for Kayli to undertake.
In the original game, the project known as IITS Ultimate, the idea was to allow players to create their own character in an instanced, procedurally generated MMO style experience. Being a bit more realistic, I pared the project down to a be single-player adventure featuring Kayli as the main character but all the tech and experience we get from the first game will be built upon till everyone can participate in the world of IITS as a character/persona of their own creation. Game development is about iteration and while the idea of IITS Ultimate excites me, a smaller, tighter experience and testing out gameplay and ideas with Project IITS will, well...ultimately benefit IITS Ultimate.
I hope this gives those interested an idea of what to expect for Project IITS. I wish I had some gameplay to show but the game is always in a state of flux and I've got to make some big decisions about the direction of the project before I can state or show anything more solid.
- Joseph
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Monkey Covers
The monkey and the bear are really watering down the lemonade on the cover of The Monkey and the Bear #2 (1953) by Howie Post.
Image courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.
Friday, 17 June 2011
Amazon Top 50
1 (N). Cabin Fever (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 6) *
2 (-1). Dork Diaries 3 (Kindle edition)
3 (-). The Walking Dead Volume 14: No Way Out *
4 (-2). Dork Diaries 3: Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star
5 (-1). Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5: The Ugly Truth
6 (-1). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 8: Last Gleaming
7 (-1). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
8 (-1). 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (And Other Useful Guides)
9 (-2). The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book (revised and expanded edition)
10 (-2). Dork Diaries 2 (Kindle edition)
11 (+1). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
12 (-1). Batman: Year One
13 (+1). Dork Diaries (Kindle edition)
14 (+6). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
15 (+3). Batman & Robin Vol. 3: Batman Must Die!
16 (+7). Dork Diaries 2: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl
17 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book
18 (N). Behind the Masque - A Megatokyo Endgames short story (Kindle)
19 (-9). Big Nate Out Loud
20 (R). Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
21 (+10). Batman: The Killing Joke
22 (N). Hellboy Library Volume 4 *
23 (-4). Diary of a Wimpy Kid Box of Books
24 (N). Uncanny X-Force: Deathlok Nation *
25 (-12). Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Boxset
26 (+14). Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life
27 (+7). Dark Tower: The Gunslinger, Vol. 2 - The Little Sister of Eluria *
28 (-1). Watchmen
29 (+1). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
30 (-15). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
31 (-10). Naruto, Vol. 51
32 (-6). Big Nate Boredom Buster: Super Scribbles, Cool Comix, and Lots of Laughs
33 (+9). Walking Dead Volume 13
34 (+14). V for Vendetta
35 (R). Batman & Robin Vol. 1: Batman Reborn
36 (N). Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 2 *
37 (N). Be Good, Little Puppy: A Penny Arcade Book *
38 (-5). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
39 (-10). Fables Vol. 15: Rose Red
40 (-12). Green Lantern: Rebirth
41 (-5). Big Nate: From the Top
42 (-18). Astonishing X-Men Omnibus
43 (N). Ten Little Zombies: A Love Story
44 (-19). American Vampire Vol. 2
45 (-10). Brightest Day, Vol. 2
46 (R). Green Lantern: Blackest Night
47 (N). Green Lantern: Brightest Day *
48 (R). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 7: Twilight
49 (R). Uncanny X-Force: The Apocalypse Solution
50 (-9). Paying for It
Items with asterisks (*) are pre-order items.
N = New listing appearing on list for first time
R = Item returning to the list after having been off for 1 or more weeks
Commentary:
* Dork Diaries' tenure on the top of the chart was short lived, as a new Wimpy Kid book is announced and preorders shoot it up to a #1 debut.
* The rest of the top of the chart is pretty much a yawner, as thing mostly just slide down to make room for Cabin Fever.
* Plenty of other new items on the list this week, led off by a Megatokyo short story on the Kindle; and new volumes of Hellboy Library, Uncanny X-Force, Twilight, Penny Arcade, and Green Lantern.
* Movies have not been so good to their comic counterparts so far this summer; X-Men made barely a blip, and Green Lantern titles so far just occupy the 40s. Meanwhile Batman—whose next movie is just now in the casting phase–continues to show strength.
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Lillith: Demon Princess #0-3
CBZ/ZIP | English | 4 Issues | 64.9 MB
Download MIRROR #1
Download MIRROR #2
Atlantis Rising #1-5
CBR/RAR | English | 5 Issues | 145 MB Total
Authors: Scott Brown & Tim Irwin
After more than a thousand years of peaceful co-existence, Atlantis and the surface world are on the brink of war, with the fate of both civilizations hanging in the balance. This issue begins the war that will decide the fate of all humanity and Atlanteans.
Download MIRROR #1
Download MIRROR #2
Ant Vol.1 #1-4
CBR/RAR | English | 4 Issues | 82.4 MB Total
Ant (Hannah Washington) is a comic book superhero. She first appeared in Ant #1 (March 2004), published by Arcana Studios.
The creator and artist, Mario Gully, has stated that the concept of Ant was created while he was incarcerated in 1996 for attempted armed robbery. Gully says that one day he was looking through a barred cell window and a tiny ant crawled in from the outside. He later vowed to change his life and make something out of himself. He then created Ant.
Download MIRROR #1
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Crux #1-33
CBR/ZIP | English | 33 Issues | 273 mb Total
The main story arc centered on Capricia and the other Atlanteans efforts to revive the remaining Atlanteans still in stasis and to find out what happened to the human race, and perhaps to a latter extent how to go through 'transition' themselves. The group go through a series of battles with Negation forces who eventually attempt a full-scale invasion of Earth.
During this time the group come across Australia hidden from the outside world due to a gigantic tachyon supercollider and find a 'transition' portal with humans getting ready to go through. They are attacked by a Negation squad leaving Tug blind for a time. Tug and Verityn then come across a 100,000 year old Atlantean named Aristophanes, a legend they had heard stories about as children. The group also feels the loss of Gammid to the Negation Universe via 'transition' portal which was meant to lead him and the remaining humans found in Australia to a "higher plane of existence" but instead takes them to the Negation Universe.
Download MIRROR #1
Download MIRROR #2
Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1-94
CBR/ZIP | English | 101 Issues | 771 MB
Batman: Shadow of the Bat was a comic book series featuring Batman, published by DC Comics. The series ran for 96 issues, from 1992 to 2000. The stories took place in Batman's then-current continuity along with Detective Comics and Batman, in contrast to Legends of the Dark Knight, which focused on Batman's early years. Shadow of the Bat looked into the psyche of the various cast members of the Batman comics.
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