New This Week: January 12, 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 Jason Lutes's Berlin, book 1 trade collection from Drawn & Quarterly. This is actually a reissue, but it's definitely worth picking up if you haven't yet encountered it. Lutes's drafting and drawing is exquisite, deceptively simple but actually dense and detailed. The art would be enough for me to recommend Berlin, but there's also a fascinating story of love and politics set in the Weimar Republic-era.



In other comics:



Atomeka has Hero Squared Xtra Sized Special #1, from the crew that brought us Formerly Known as the Justice League.



Avatar has the final two of Warren Ellis's Apparat books, Angel Stomp Future & Simon Spector.



Beckett has the seventh issue of Ruule: Kiss and Tell.



DC has the collection of Gail Simone's first Birds of Prey stories in the Sensei & Student collection, as well as Rucka & Johnson's Wonder Woman in the Bitter Rivals collection. The start of Dixon, Beatty & McDaniel's "Nightwing: Year One" is in Nightwing #101, and Mr. Majestic returns to the WildStorm universe in yet another Majestic #1. Also from DC are new issues of Fables (#33), Gotham Central (#27), JLA (#110) & JSA (#69).



Image has the first issue of Darkness/Superman, and something called Two Bits, which I couldn't tell you anything about, but it's only a quarter.



Marvel has the first Araña digest and the first District X trade, a second Marvel Knights 4 trade, the first issue of Stormbreaker: The Saga of Beta Ray Bill, and new issues of Captain America & The Falcon (#11), New Thunderbolts (#4), Pulse (#7), She-Hulk (#11), The Punisher (#16), and Ultimates 2 (#2).



Oni has the second Love Fights collection.





Finally, if for some reason you were considering buying the Youngblood Imperial Premium Signed Edition for $24.99, please for the love of all that's right and good take that money and instead donate it to a worthy cause. You have too much damn money.

Quick GN Reviews

She-Hulk, vol. 1; Single Green Female

by Dan Slott, Juan Bobillo, Paul Pellitier, Marcelo Sosa, Roland Paris, Tom Simmons & Don Hillsman

Sometimes you can believe the hype. She-Hulk turns out to be one of the most interesting and fun titles that Marvel has put out recently, and this trade colelcts the first six issues. After She-Hulk's partying lifestyle causes her to get kicked out of Avengers Mansion and her super-hero doings cause her to lose her job as a prosecuting attorney, she finds heself approached to work for the prestigious law firm of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway. The catch is that the firm wants Jennifer Walters, not her alter ego She-Hulk, so Jen has to spend her time in court de-powered, a state that she is not used to living in. Thus begins the fun as Jen adjusts to her new life and takes on cases with a non-traditional bent, such as a ghost testifying at his own murder, or Spider-Man suing J. Jonah Jameson for libel. The art in the first four chapters is by Bobillo, whose clean line and slightly cartoony style and really shines in the many non-action scenes. The final two-part story is more of a traditional super-hero story, and Pellitier's more action-oriented art serves it well. If depressing super-hero mega-events are getting you down, try She-Hulk for a dose of old fashioned fun with a modern twist.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)




Human Target, book 2: Living in America

by Peter Milligan & Cliff Chiang

In this second collection of the regular Vertigo series, Milligan continues to explore the concepts of identity and American nationality in ways both interesting and thought-provoking. The opening chapter is a story of Christopher Chance taking on the identity of a priest who has been targeted by an assassin, and while you won't be surprised by where the plot goes, it does offer an intriguing look at the nature of faith and forgiveness. The longest story in the collection is the three-part "Which Way the Wind Blows," which finds Chance entangled in a web of violence and deceit involving ex-60's radicals, modern-day anarchists, and the Feds, and interoduces what may be a long-term antagonist for Chance. The book closes with another one-shot, in which Chance takes on the identity of an escaped convict who wants the chance to live free for just five days so he can live life to the fullest. Throughout the book Milligan's writing skills are at the top of their form, and the art by Chiang looks great and moves the stories forward with seeming effortlessness (though as we can see by Chiang's bonus materials, it does require a good deal of effort!) Anyone looking for intelligent action comics should give Human Target a look.

Rating: 4 (of 5)

Very Quick What If... Reviews

I don't feel like doing even my normal quick reviews for these, so here are some very quick reviews:



The best of the lot was the Fantastic Four (What If Doctor Doom Had Become The Thing?), but then I've always liked Karl Kesel's FF, and it's always a treat to see art by Paul Smith. Peter David & Pat Olliffe's Hulk (What If General Ross Had Become The Hulk?) was good too. The Spider-Man one (What If Aunt May Had Died Instead of Uncle Ben?) was okay, even if it took a few jumps in logic.



The two by Bendis (What If Jessica Jones Had Joined The Avengers? & What If Karen Page Had Lived?) were pretty bad. The worst offense they both made was to spend half of the issue recapping what happened in the 'real' Marvel Universe, which only left a few pages for the actual story, which was told in summary fashion rather than as an actual story. The worst of the lot was the Daredevil (...Karen Page...), wherein Matt Murdock's actions really made no sense at all, and weren't compelled by the change in history, just DD deciding to do something different.

Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

In honor of Will Eisner, here's his cover from 1990's The Spirit #70, as The Spirit gets tangled up with a freaked-out gorilla in a cargo net.

(Standard disclaimer about gorillas not really being monkeys applies.)

Image is courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.

Quick Post

Not much to say today, as I'm trying to finish Tim Powers' Declare in time for a discussion group on Tuesday; I"m only halfway through and I tend to be a rather slow reader of prose at times, especially when it's dense like this book is.



I picked up the Comic Zone issue of Disney Adventures at the grocery store today--there's a two page strip by Matt Feazell. Yes, that Matt Feazell! In a Disney comic.



Yesterday I stopped by Jim O's office in between meetings and he showed me the 'rough' cover art by Mark Schultz for his next GN, the one with cowboys and dinosaurs (I forget the exact name) (and yes, it's non-fiction) (Zander Cannon is doing the interior art). I put 'rough' in quotes because it really wasn't rough at all, it's tight pencils and very cool. I also learned what Steve Lieber's next project is going to be, but I'm not sure if it's supposed to be public knowledge or not so I shan't say anything, other than it'll be a creator-owned thing.

No Previews-o-Rama This Month

Around this time each month I would normally post my lengthy two-part Previews-o-Rama, wherein I would hilite things of interest in the current Previews. Alas there will be no Previews-o-Rama this month because I do not have a copy of Previews.



You see, my Local Comic Shop (LCS) came under new management a few months ago--they're now part of a chain of some sort--and one of the many changes they've instituted in that they're no longer giving away Previews to customers.



This is just the latest in a number of unfortuante changes that the new management has made to the LCS. Others include:



Much less shelf space devoted to graphic novels. Formerly there were 8 ranges of manga, which has now been lowered to 3. Those 3 ranges of manga have taken the place of 3 ranges of the independent GNs, which are now down to 4 (from 7). Shelf space devoted to DC, Marvel, Image & Dark Horse GNs has also decreased.



Less shelf space devoted to independent comics, down from 4 racks to 3.



New comics each week are now racked all together (instead of interspersed with the rest of the comics) and shelved way in the back of the store, in a place with very little room to stand--basically causes a big traffic jam on Wednesday.



Elimination of the subscriber discount (as of February), from 20% to 0%.



No more female employees. The store has always had at least a couple of female employees; there is always a turnover rate at a store like this, but those that have left have been replaced with white males. This may be just a coincidence, and I have nothing against white males (being one myself), but it does make one wonder.



There has also been a general decrease in the level of customer service over the past few months. I might be able to live with some of the changes (after all, with the Internet, I don't need a free copy of Previews) but taken all together it's just too much. It seems that the new management is intent on de-emphasizing comics at the store--it's also a gaming store; they used to be big on manga and anime too, although that aspect of the business has curiously decreased down to almost nil at this point*. And instead of a diverse store that handled 'mainstream', manga and indy comics with equal emphasis, it's moving towards being one of those 'front-of-the-catalog' stores.



Fortunately for me, I saw the writing on the wall last month and decided to switch all of my comic buying over to DCBS, starting with comics scheduled to ship in February. It won't be the same as going to the shop every Wednesday for the new comics, but with weekly shipping from DCBS I'll get my comics on the following Monday or Tuesday anyway. Plus, the discount will be much greater. The downside is that I have to pre-order a couple of months in advance (and pay in advance as well).



(BTW, the only reason I know that the subscriber discount is going away is because I overheard another customer ask one of the employees about a rumor he had heard that the discount was going away, and I subsequently asked about it myself and it was confirmed--so far there has been no notification or announcement of any kind.)



I've been a loyal, weekly customer at LCS for over ten years, spending over $200 per month, but no longer. I was willing to support a local business that was dedicated to being a quality comic store, but now that they're part of a chain and seem to no longer want to be a good store they've lost me as a customer.



It's really all kind of sad.



(Oh, if you're looking for a good Previews round up, I'd suggest Tegan's Flipping Through Previews over at Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog.)





* There is an entire store in town devoted to manga & anime though, as well as a B&N and 2 Borders with huge manga sections

Annoying Post About the Sidebar

I spent some time this morning on the links in the sidebar. I've added in several that I've been reading lately, removed a couple of dead blogs, and organized them somewhat. They're now divided into three categories: Comics Blogs, Creator Blogs, and Publisher Blogs, and within each category they're now organized by an obscure system I learned back in library school called 'The Alphabet.'