Dave's Dozen: Indy Comics

Continuing my look through the March Previews (for comics supposedly shipping in May), here are a dozen indy comics that I feel are worth your attention:


Aya #1
Jalila #1
Rakan #1
Zein #1
(AK Entertainment, $2.95 ea., p. 213)

These are those Arab super-hero comics you've probably heard about. I have no idea if any of them will be any good, but at the very least they should be interesting.


Rex Libris #4
(Slave Labor, $2.95, p. 218)

Yes, James Turner uses a lot of words in this comic. But he uses so many that he ends up being very funny sometimes. Do any of you non-librarians enjoy this comic?


Wonderland #1
(Slave Labor, $3.50, p. 218)

This is yet another of those 'what happened after Alice in Wonderland' stories, but since this grows out of Slave Labor's odd Disney license it is based on the Disney version, not the original. Also, it has art by Sonny Liew, which makes it worth picking up right there.


Gold Digger #75
(Antarctic Press, $2.99, p. 222)

Celebrating 15 years of Gold Digger with a special 75th issue--which is actually #129 if you count all three series, making it the longest currently-running creator-owned & operated comic. There's actually lots of Gold Digger this month, with a new mini-series, Throne of Shadows; a new Pocket Manga collection; a Swimsuit Special; and, if you want to catch up on everything Gold Digger, a 2-disc DVD-ROM set that contains every single Fred Perry-produced Gold Digger story to date.


Tinn Man #1
(Atlantis Studios, $2.95, p. 226)

Any comic that stars a smart African-American teen girl programmer and her AI robot is worth a look in my book.


Supermarket #3
(IDW, $3.99, p. 299)

Man, but wasn't the first issue the bomb? Best thing that Brian Wood has written, I think. And the art by Kristian Donaldson was supper spiffy and well-served by the high production values. Worth the $4, I should think.


Borrowed Time #1
(Oni, $6.95, p. 311)

Guy comes back from a trip to the Bermuda Triangle to a worls that is subtlely different from the one he left. I really like these sorts of stories, so here's hoping that Neal Shaffer & Joe Infurnari do a good job.


Queen & Country #30
(Oni, $2.99, p. 314)

Tara Chase is back in comics after the two novels where her life was put through a complete wringer. Rucka's mainstream work pales in camparison to Q&C, but I guess a guy has to pay the bills.


Thrud the Barbarian #1
(Thrud Comics, $2.95, p. 321)

Brit Carl Critchlow's barbarian spoof comes to the new world. Think Groo by way of Keith Giffen (in his Trencher days) and you'll get an idea of what this is like.



That wraps up my look at indy comics. (Sorry it took so long, but work and life have been kicking my ass these past couple of weeks.) A few days ago I highlighted mainstream comics, and in a few days I'll put up my Collections/GNs picks.

New This Week: March 15, 2006

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 Puffin's adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula by Gary Reed and Becky Cloonan, in a kid-friendly manga-sized black & white volume.


In other comics:


Antarctic have a new issue of Ninja High School (#136), the Oz the Manga Epilogue, and the 7th Gold Digger Pocket Manga volume.

Archie have the latest issue of Sabrina (#74).

Boom! have the second issue of Planetary Brigade.

Dark Horse have the 9th Samurai Executioner volume, collections of Chronicle of Conan (vol. 10) and Concrete (vol. 4), the debut of Conan: Book of Thoth, and the latest issue of the regular Conan (#26).

DC make silver age Superman fans happy with Showcase Presents Superman Family & Superman: Daily Planet collections, along with the OYL Superman #650. The rest of y'all will just have to make do with new issues of 100 Bullets (#70), DMZ (#5), JLA Classified (#18), Majestic (#15), Seven Soldiers: Bulleteer (#4), Infinite Crisis Secret Files 2006; and the OYL titles Birds of Prey (#92) & Green Arrow (#60).

DR Masters have the 17th(!) volume of Iron Wok Jan.

IDW have the penultimate issue of Angel: Old Friends (#4) and the debut issue of Spike vs. Dracula.

Image have new issues of Beyond Avalon (#3), Girls (#11), and The Walking Dead (#26).

Marvel have a collection of the better-than-you-thought-it-would-be Drax the Destroyer: Earth Fall; an Essential Godzilla collection; and new issues of Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (#6), Fury: Peacemaker (#2), and Runaways (#14).

Oni have Hope Larson's Gray Horses.

Viz have the 6th volume of Tezuka's Phoenix.


And that wraps things up for this week. Enjoy your new comics!

New Library Comics: Week of March 6, 2006

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


Abnett, Dan. Inquisitor ascendant. Book 1, The taint of Nicodemus / [Nottingham] : Black Library, 2002.

Boy trouble : gay boy comics with a new attitude /Seattle, WA : Boy Trouble Books, c2004.

Campbell, Eddie, 1955- Graffiti kitchen /Paddington Q, Aus. : Eddie Campbell Comics, c1998.

Eisner, Will. The contract with God trilogy : life on Dropsie Avenue /New York : W.W. Norton, c2006.

Monkey Covers

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

From 1975, it's the cover to The Jungle Twins #14, as Tono & Kono fight to save a damsel in distress from mutant gorillas. Mutant Gorillas! I love comic books!

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

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

Yet Another Music Moment

Albums I've purchased recently:

Chaotic Resolve, the new album by Plumb. Plumb is basically singer/songwriter Tiffany Arbuckle and whomever she gets to play along with her ona particular album. It's 'inspirational' music (i.e. Christian) for folks who don't normally like inspirational music. Nearly on par with her excellent 1999 album candycoatedwaterdrops.


Todd Snider's East Nashville Skyline actualyl came out back in 2004, but I somehow missed it; because, well, I'm an idiot I guess. Anyway, it is easily his best studio album, stripped down and reminiscent of his live shows. Funny, poingant, and clever. (His best album is, of course, Near Truths and Hotel Rooms Live, which combines two of his live performances, one of which I was at.)


Neko Case's new album, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, is alas her weakest album to date. She's found a sound, and she's sticking to it, god bless her. But it makes for an album that isn't bad, but just too much of the same sound, and there isn't a track that grabs the listener. For a much better Neko Case experience, seek out her live album, The Tigers Have Spoken.



Completely unrelated, but still music-related: in my dream last night, a room full of people suddenly burst out into song, singing "Sing"; amazingly, everybody in my dream knew the lyrics. And when I woke up I went online to check the lyrics, and lo and behold I rememebred them correctly in my dream. It's this kind of stuff that's taking up space in my brain (along with things like how each color of Kryptonite affected pre-Crisis Superman...) that keeps me from remembring to do important stuff...

Help

Not too long ago, I stumbled across a nifty Website that was basically an index for nearly all comic trade collections; it told which collections were availble for which titles, and which issues those collections contained.

Alas, I seem to have neglected to bookmark the site, and my librarian super-powers are failing me in finding it again.

Does anyone know which site this is, and what its URL is?

Update: Never mind, I found it; it's at http://tplist.millarworld.net/index.html. (And reader/commenter Canton found it under an alternate URL.) I'll stick it in my del.icio.us links so I'll never lose it again!

Review: Ganges #1

Ganges #1
by Kevin Huizenga
Fantagraphics, $7.95

Let's get one thing out of the way: This is the fifth volume in Fantagraphics' Ignatz line and, as such, it's printed oversized with two-color ink and on high quality paper, with a dust jacket no less. Yes, it's nearly $8, but it's an excellent package and well worth the cost--provided you like the material.

So, is the material any good? Yes, it is indeed. Huizenga gives us several short stories illustrating his oft-used protagonist Glenn Ganges and his internal life. If you've enjoyed Huizenga's other Glenn Ganges stories, you'll find much to admire here.

I tend to enjoy novel uses of structure and storytelling in my comics, and at this point in my comic-reading experience I appreciate coming across a comic that plays with the form in new and intersting ways. Huizenga is becoming a master and playing with conventions and using the comics page to explore the relationships between objects, space, time, and thought.

Take for instance the first story, "Time Traveling." It's a quick five-pager that finds Glenn walking to the library on a Saturday afternoon, feeling a sense of deja vu, and pondering the existance of parallel universes. Not a very exciting description perhaps, but Huizenga presents it in a novel way with a touch of humor.

Detractors may claim that the internal life of Ganges that Huizenga is presenting is not terribly original and, perhaps, a bit boring. That misses the point, I think. Glenn Ganges' thoughts and ruminations are of the same kind that most of us have. It is in exploring the common through novel illustration and storytelling that Huizenga's work is strengthened.

As a reader, experiencing these stories illustrates the reach of possibilities of the comics form. The stories that Huizenga tells here are not only effective as comics, but are more effective because they are comics.

Rating: 4.5 (of 5)