New This Week: August 10, 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 Paul Chadwick's Concrete, vol. 1: Depths from Dark Horse, the start of a complete reprinting of the entire Concrete saga (in story chronological order). Finding the original Conrete #1 in a quarter bin back in the 80s was one of the events that led me into the wonderful world of non-Marvel/DC back in the day, and it will be good to have all of this stuff back in print, including the scattered short stories.


In other comics:

Alias have the third issue of Penny & Aggie colorized reprints of the Webcomics.

Arcana have the delayed fifth issue of 100 Girls.

DC have the trade collection of the Adam Strange mini; the debut issues of Supergirl and The Winter Men (buy this--John Paul Leon on art!); and new issues of 100 Bullets (#63), Action Comics (#630), Fables (#40), Majestic (#8), Seven Soldiers: Zatanna (#3), and Villains United (#4).

Fantagraphics have Richard Sala's Peculia & The Groon Grove Vampires (which would have been the Pick of the Week if not for Concrete), and also the first volume of Mome.

Image have the debut of Ferro City and the third issue of Pigtale.

Lightspeed Press have the seventh Finder collection by Carla Speed McNeil: The Rescuers (also a potential contender for Pick of the Week--there's a lot of good GNs and collections this week!)

Lost in the Dark have the debut of Fragile Prophet.

Marvel have a collection of Peter David's return to Hulk: Tempest Fugit; new issues of Captain America (#8), Gravity (#3), Mouse of Him (#5), Incredible Hulk (#85), Kabuki: Reflections (#5), The Punisher (#24), and the first Ultimates Annual; plus a big ol' hardcover collection of the first 18 issues of Runaways.

Speakeasy have the debut issue of Hero at Large.

TokyoPop have the debut volume of the OEL manga Bizenghast by M. Alice LeGrow, which--artwise at least--looks pretty damn sweet.

Top Shelf have a trio of new OGNs: Tricked by Alex Robinson; King by Rich Koslowski; and Spiral Bound by Aaron Renier (which has been good some pretty good advance press). It's great that Top Shelf has several good books coming out, but maybe they could have spread them out a bit more?

Viz have the ninth volume of Banana Fish and the third issue of Shojo Beat.

Review: Periphery #1-2

Periphery #1-2
O-P-P
$3.50 each

Anthologies are notoriously hard to pull off, especially if there's no overriding subject or theme. But with Periphery, publisher/writer/artist Omaha Perez has put togther a winner. Ranging from horror to humor to mythology, over the course of two issues the stories in these two 48-page anthologies never fail to entertain.

Prerz provides the art on about half of the entries; other creators involved are Steve Niles, Brian Horton, Mark Fearing, Eli S. Stone, Richard Raleigh, and Matthew Smith.

Niles is best known for his supernatural horror work for IDW & Dark Horse, but his story in issue #1, "Carsickness," drawn ably by Brian Horton, is a thrilling Tarantino-esque story about a convenience store robbery that goes in unexpected directions, with nary a vampire or werewolf in sight. Issue #1 also includes "The Handsomest Man in the World," A tongue-in-cheek spoof by Stone & Perez; "Closed Case," a two-page solo effort by Horton about a police interrogation with a shock twist ending; "In Deep," by Niles & Perez, about two guys who really can't stand each other who get stranded in outter space; and "The Story of Ganesha" by Raleigh & Perez, which I believe is a retelling of a Hindu myth and is probably the best story of the lot.

Both issues include a "Jerry: Caveman Inventor" story by Mark Fearing; both are quite funny with a wry sense of humor that builds to the end.

Iuees #2 also includes "The Novice" by Matthew Smith & Brian Horton, a mostly-silent tale about an unusual encounter between two warriors in the desert; and "Holmes," a solo effort by Perez (and featured as a flip-book), which reimagines Sherlock Holmes as a drugged-out maniac and Dr. Watson as his supplier-enabler. Of all the stories over the two issues, it is this last that didn't quite work for me, although that may be because I'm not much of a Sherlock Holmes fan so perhaps some of the jokes were lost on me.

Overall though this is a quality anthology, providing plenty of entertainment for your comic dollar, and shows that there's still plenty of life in the comic-sized anthology.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

(Review copies were provided by the publisher. A copy of Cenozoic #1 was also sent, although I reviewed that previously.)

New Library Comics: Week of August 1, 2005

Here are the comics we got in for our library collection last week:


Jarry, Grégory. L'os du gigot : photobiographie /Angoulême, France : ego comme x, 2004.

Kerkoš, Saša. An art of normal, everyday conversation : Harlem story /Celje : Samozal, 2001.

Micol, Hugues. 3 /Paris : Éditiosn Cornélius, 2001.

Peña, Nancy. Le cabinet chinois /Antony France : La boîte à bulles, 2003.

¡Que suerte! : zen mecánico. [Madrid] : [s.n.], [2003?]

Salazar, Souther. Fervler & Razzle /[Los Angeles] : No Questions Asked Publishing ; Crashlander Comix, 2004.

Sury, Caroline. Féroce agenda de Mars /Marseille : Le Dernier Cri, 2004.

Quick Alan Moore GN Reviews

A Small Killing
by Alan Moore & Oscar Zarate
Adman Timothy Hole has just landed a major Russian account. On his way to Russia he stops off in his home country, England, and the past comes back to haunt him; not just in the remembering of his mistakes and failures, but also in the preseance of the vision of a demonic child that only Tim can see, and who seems to be trying to kill him. In the end it's not much of a mystery, but it is cleverly constructed and does manage to evoke a solid emotional response. As Tim devolves into paranoia, we are brought right along with him through the pacing and the art.
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)



Top Ten: The Forty-Niners
by Alan Moore & Gene Ha
Journey with us now back to 1949, when Neopolis was still young and being populated by science heroes, now that the world had no real use for them after the war. Moore tells several interweaving narratives about the early days of the city, from the struggles of a young police department against organized vampire crime to the struggles of the new immigrants trying to adjust to life after war. The art by Ha and colorist Art Lyon is wonderful, fully evoking the feel of the past butting up against a gleeming future. Each page is packed not only with mood but also with small details that really make this book come alive. It's a story both epic in scope and human in its details, and along with the art is well worth the deluxe hardcover treatment.
Rating: 4 (of 5)

Monkey Covers

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

Today's cover is Forbidden Worlds #132, from November 1965. The cover by Kurt Schaffenberger (as Pete Costanza) features Magicman going into battle against The Ancient Ape, who apparently has a penchant for armored car robberies.

(standard disclaimer about apes not really being monkeys applies)

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

Yet Another Music Blog

Announcing a new addition to the Yet Another Blog Family: Yet Another Music Blog.

Just as YACB focuses on comics, YAMB will focus on music. My tastes in music are nearly as eclectic as my tastes in comics, so it should make for interesting blogging. There's not much there yet--just a welcome announcement--but look for content to grow in the days ahead.

There's also a new companion online radio station: Yet Another Music Radio.

Don't worry, I'll continue to blog about comics right here on YACB--Monkey Covers and all!

The new blog is just the start of the celebration of our one year Blogiversary. Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks for more exciting happenings, including our big giveaway event that will be announced next weekend and run through the week of August 15th. Stay tuned!

Quick GN Reviews

Sleeper, book 3: A Crooked Line
by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips

Reprinting the first half of the second 'season,' this collection finds the title character Holden Carver caught between the machinations of his boss, the international criminal TAO, and his former boss, the newly revived John Lynch. Realizing that he's but a pawn in whatever twisted machinations these two are pulling, Holden is looking to make sense of his place in this grey world, and somehow to find his way out. Brubaker has specialized of late in writing about the gritty side of super-powered worlds, and Sleeper ranks up there with Gotham Central in playing to his strengths as a writer. Phillips is the perfect artist for this type of book. His inky, hard-edged realism fits the main thrust of the story to a tee, but when a banana-headed alien needs to make an appearance, he can handle that just as well. Book four is due out in September, and I'm looking forward to reading the endgame of this highly entertaining series.
Rating: 4 (of 5)



Batman: Death and the Maidens
by Greg Rucka & Klaus Janson

Let's talk about the art first, because according to the front- and endnotes that's where the genesis of this comic lies: in the desire of Klaus Janson to do a Batman story. Janson is best known as an inker, particularly for his work over Frank Miller on Daredevil and The Dark Knight Returns. But he's also an accomplished penciller, as his work here illustrates. The layouts are exciting and dynamic, without being overly flashy. This is a good looking Batman comic--helped by the effective colors of Steve Buccellato--and that alone would probably be enough to recommend it. But in addition, Janson's writer of choice, Greg Rucka, turns in a fine story as well. The notes also make clear that the genesis of the story wasn't easy--this book went through several format changes, from a hardcover OGN to a four-issue prestige series to its final configuration as a nine-part mini-series--but the end result is a well-told self-contained Batman story that also manages to fit into the larger Batman myth. Rucka takes the opportunity to push forward the long-stagnating saga of Ra's al Ghul, introducing a previously unknown immortal daughter of Ra's and putting Batman in the crossfire of their ongoing conflict. Rucka also allows batman to explore his own psychology, examining why exactly after all these years Bruce Wayne sees it as his mission to be a vigilante instead of having undertaken a more productive role in mainstream society. For fans of Ra's al Ghul this is a must-read addition to the saga; for everyone else it will serve as a good looking, well-written chunk of Batman comics.
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)