[Zacharie]

Title: Thin Black Line Perspectives on Vince Colletta (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Robert L. Bryant, Jr. (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Tim Lasiuta (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" I highly recommend this book for an insightful discussion on the mysterious Vince Colletta. "
Review:

You either loved his inking, or hated it. There really was no inbetween. If you loved Sinnott over Kirby, you disliked Colletta. If you liked Royer, you were dispassionate about Colletta. It was always about perspective.
For Mr Colletta, it was more than that. Depending on whom you spoke to, he was a consummate artist or a guy just pushing out page after page of art for the paycheque. Looking back now, he was truly a product of his time. Many critically acclaimed artists put out pages of art with little regard for artistic integrity just to keep a family afloat. Gil Kane in his later years worked whenever he could, and while in comic book form, he was spectacular, his original art (some done with Sharpies) was not and shows his lack of regard for the art, but rather the money. There are only so many Al Williamsons, who throughout the 50's, produced as little as 250 pages of art. On the other end of the scale, there are many artists who pumped out pages of little more than minimal artwork for publishers (just like Colletta).
Why was he so controversial anyway?
Is it because he was paired with Jack Kirby on Thor and later some Fantastic Four and Fourth World books that he was singled out? Is it because artistic snobs decided that Kirby was Kirby, and no-one should erase, or retouch the King? Jack himself was highly prolific for decades for the same reasons that Colletta was despised, and while stylistic, his art was by no means perfect. But, he was the King, and Colletta became the jester to some.
Joe Sinnott, in the same role as inker for many artists came out of the mix of the 50's to 80's with a sterling reputation, while Colletta did not so much. It is this debate which formed the basis of this book by Robert L Byrant. Personally, I like both mens work, and realize that each has/had a skill set unlike the other. One salient point that arises from the book is that Vince was always on time. For editors, that skill is worth more than perfection in art. His look was consistent and universal no matter what book or artist he inked. That, as well, created a uniform look for any book/company. Again, that was money in the bank. Imagine Archie, in the 50's with the `modern' art that is the rage now, do you really think that Archie would have been so successful?
This book is copiously illustrated with good examples of Vinnies' inking on his collaborators. I enjoyed the chapters on Rivets and Trees, and Guy on the Assembly Line. Bryant writes well and elaborates on his points almost to excess, but the comments from his fellow artists are invaluable. For an industry populated with hundreds of working artists at the time, few men rose to the top of the heap and had as much impact as Mr Colletta did. He did not create a character, he did not leave any records behind, just good will and good art that was either ruined or improved (depending on your POV).
Who was this Vinnie Colletta anyway?
We get glimpses of the man behind the pen and brush, but that is all. I would guess, with all of his art activity (and photography), he was far more than inker. He was father, friend, and socialite besides his professional activities. I think we can safely assume that if he had lived longer, and he had embraced the convention circuit the reputation of Colletta would be far different.
I highly recommend this book for an insightful discussion on the mysterious Vince Colletta.


More info:

by Robert L. Bryant, Jr.

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: The Guild: Clara (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Felicia Day and Kim Evey (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Michael Wirth (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" Though I can’t say whether The Guild: Clara has turned me into a fan of the series, I will say that it’s gotten me interested enough to check out a couple of episodes."
Review:

Back in 2007, Felicia Day, actress and geek goddess, began a small web show based on the lives of gamers, both in the game world and IRL (that’s “In Real Life” for you non-internet savvy readers). Titled The Guild, show’s popularity exploded and was praised by critics, winning numerous awards including the 2007 YouTube Video Award for Best Series and the Yahoo! Video Award for Best Series in 2008 to name a few. Given the series’ quick rise in popularity, it would only be natural that The Guild would be translated into comic book form. Enter Dark Horse Comics to fulfill this need.

The Guild's mage steals he spotlight in this one-shot from Dark HorseDark Horse first published a comic book based on The Guild back in 2010, which acted as a prequel to the web series. This year, their aim was to release five one-shots, each spotlighting a main character of the series.

The Guild: Clara , written by Felicia Day and The Guild castmate Kim Evey, focuses on the life of Clara, the guild’s resident mage. Clara is obsessed with her MMORPG game and, despite numerous pleas from her husband, neglects her duties as a mother and wife, opting instead to immerse herself in the online world of raiding. The character’s personality in the comic is based on that of the series, and I liked the fact that they chose a woman as the flighty, video-game obsessed geek, a stereotype that has usually been applied to men. The writers go deep into the character’s life, delving into her life as an ex-cheerleader and her time growing up in France, revealing Clara’s humorous, and dysfunctional, past. The dialogue in the book is equally funny, revealing both a dim-witted intelligence alongside a smart-alecky cleverness.


Like the writing, the art is also playful. Ron Chan’s stylized art works well with the humor of the book. His character’s expressions are so goofy and off the wall that they, alone, would bring a smile to the reader’s faces. His figures become more caricatures than anything else. But, given the nature of the comic book and the source material, this meshes well.

While I’ve never watched the web series, I found myself giggling at the over-the-top ridiculousness of The Guild: Clara. Though I had no expectations when I received the book, I was no where near prepared for what I got. Probably the best part about the book is that anyone can pick it up and enjoy it, even without being familiar with the show at all. The characters are easily relatable, in their own ways, and the story doesn’t get bogged down in necessary back story. With something that could have gone completely off-base, Day and Evey manage to keep the story on-track and deliver a highly entertaining issue. Though I can’t say whether The Guild: Clara has turned me into a fan of the series, I will say that it’s gotten me interested enough to check out a couple of episodes. Or at the very least, check out the other one-shots.

More info:

Writer: Felicia Day and Kim Evey
Artist: Ron Chan
Cover Artist: Greg Aronowitz
Genre: Fantasy, Humor

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: Warcraft: Legends (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): R. A. Knaack and others (Click to see other books from these writers released on this site)
Review source: Leroy Douresseaux (Review 1) and Zach Yonzon (Review 2) (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" Warcraft Legends are a fun ride for all"
Review: Warcraft:

Review 1 - Legends: Volume 1 - Warcraft: Legends, Vol. 1 is the first of 14 volumes of Warcraft manga that TOKYOPOP plans to publish over a three-year period with Warcraft’s owner, Blizzard Entertainment. TOKYOPOP has already published the well-received, three-volume, Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy. The Warcraft manga are based on Blizzard Entertainment’s series of real-time strategy games which began with Warcraft: Orcs & Humans 1994.

Warcraft: Legends is an anthology book, and this first volume contains four stories that center on some combination of regret, revenge, and redemption. The opening story, “Fallen,” is from Richard A. Knaack and Jae-Hwan Kim, the creative force behind The Sunwell Trilogy. This tale is a follow up on the character Trag Highmountain, who finds that his rebirth has left him cursed to live the life of the undead. It’s a poignant, engrossing story that highlights why Knaack and Kim did so well on The Sunwell Trilogy.

“The Journey” focuses on a young farmer and father who joins a band of warriors in hopes that he will earn money to move up from being a dirt poor farmer (sort of a riff on the film, 3:10 to Yuma). “How to Win Friends” is a comic fantasy about a gnome trying to fit in with a community of dwarves who are suspicious of him. “An Honest Trade” follows a vengeful weaponsmith who finally realizes the error of providing his powerful bladed weapons to just anyone.

These stories work because the creators are able to make the reader feel whatever they’re trying to convey. Whether it is the instant chaos of battle engaged, the blood-freezing surprise of an ambush, the loneliness of an outcast, or the desperate need to be accepted, the writers and artists of Warcraft sell everything from drama and comedy to defeat and ultimate victory.


Review 2 - Although Free Comic Book Day is supposed to be on the first Saturday of May each year, our local book store chain Fully Booked held it last May 23 with a 20% discount off graphic novels and select manga. I thought it was a good opportunity to pick up Tokyopop's Warcraft Legends series, a manga-style take on the Warcraft universe. I'd had my eye on these books for a while, so last weekend was a good opportunity to get them.

Each book contains three self-contained stories and one ongoing tale featuring the Tauren Trag Highmountain from the Sunwell Trilogy manga written by Richard Knaak and drawn by Kim Jae-Hwan. Trag's story in Warcraft Legends picks up where the Sunwell Trilogy left off, and although the story is rather interesting, the best thing about the manga are the short stories which breathe a little more life into the Warcraft world. These stories are what make the books truly shine. My take on the first three books in the series after the jump.

Although I have Wildstorm's World of Warcraft comics, I'm not a huge fan of Varian Wrynn. I was also getting my comic fix through Hong Kong manhua, so I was hoping to see the Warcraft world done manhua-style. Spoiled by the line-rich action sequences of Hong Kong comics, I was hoping to see it applied to my favorite game world. Tokyopop didn't quite deliver on that end, as the art was something of a cross between traditional Western comics and manga, such as Carlos Olivares' art, but nonetheless the tales were quite topnotch.

If you don't mind not completing Trag's story, picking up one out of the three available books is still a pretty good deal. If you're like Lesley, though, you'll get hooked on Knaak's tale of a Death Knight's struggle to free himself of the Lich King's grasp. Personally, I find that Knaak's writing suffers just a tiny bit from 'telling, not showing' which likely stems from his experience writing novels. I feel that there needs to be a little more trust in the artist to show the story rather than tell the story with accompanying illustrations. Fortunately, Kim's finely detailed art enriches the story's somber tone incredibly well. A minor quibble is that sometimes some of the writers tend to forget that the Warcraft Legends book format is small, so when the writing runs long they become harder to read.

To a degree even the stories by series editor Troy Lewter, whom Lesley interviewed some time back, suffer from the small format, although Lewter has a better grasp of the comic medium and runs long on dialogue rather than narration. He wrote three stories which appear in Volumes One and Three, and are among my favorite ones. Lewter's The Journey (helped by Mike Wellman on the story) in the first volume tells the heartwrenching tale of a simple farmer from the Plaguelands and gives readers an insight to the horror and tragedy of the Scourge invasion. His Thrill of the Hunt, which appears in the third volume of the series, reveals an awesome backstory about the greatest Hunter in all of Azeroth. Both Mi-Young No and Quing Ping Mui's art also complement the stories respectively with their rich detail.

Perhaps my favorite story of all is Dan Jolley's Crusader's Blood, which appears in the third volume of the series. Jolley, whom Lesley also interviewed for WoW.com, has an excellent grasp of the comic format as well as a deep love for the game, giving his stories that little extra kick for players and fanboys. Fernando Heinz Furukawa, who did the pencils for the story (inked by Rocio Zucchi), also referenced in-game armor models, architecture, and even hairstyles! This takes the story a notch higher in terms of familiarity with readers who also play the game. Wait until you get to the big reveal, and Horde players will relish in a bit of nostalgia as Jolley even references an in-game quest.

But the true triumph of the series thus far is that the stories are just plain enjoyable, whether or not you play the game. Although you'll certainly have a deeper appreciation for the stories if you play World of Warcraft, the stories are short and entertaining. In particular, the stories with Olivares' art are light-hearted and well-paced, from the Jolley penned How to Win Friends in the first volume to Christie Golden's I Got What Yule Need. Olivares' art lends itself extremely well to humor, gnomes, and goblins. It's a winning combination. Golden shows a remarkable understanding of the comic format, handing Olivares the storytelling reins, guiding only with a few words here and there. Fewer panels, splash pages, and tight dialogue make Golden's seasonal story extremely entertaining and you'll come away with a newfound love for Goblins (if you don't already love them).

The rest of the stories are pretty good, too, ranging from tales of an Outland Orc dealing with his savage nature, a blacksmith's tale of loss and redemption, a young Tauren herbalist/alchemist's journey with a Gnome (assisting Magatha Grimtotem herself), an Knaak's detour with Thrall which show exactly why he's a cut above the rest... all of them resonate for players, Warcraft fans, and comic lovers alike. The self-contained stories allow readers to get right into the series without missing a beat. While the first story arc, which concludes in the upcoming fourth volume, has Knaak's multi-part story about a Death Knight, Lewter has promised that each class will also receive a story arc treatment. I personally enjoyed the Warcraft Legends series more than Wrynn's tale from Wildstorm, and I don't think I'll wait for another Free Comic Book Day to pick up the next installment in June.

More info:

Writer(s): Troy Lewter, Richard A. Knaack, Dan Jolley, Mike Wellman
Penciller(s): Various
Inker(s): Various
Letterer(s): Michael Paolilli, Lucas Rivera
Cover Artist(s): UDON with Saejin Oh

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: Neige Fondation (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Didier Convard and Eric Adam (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Nicolas Gary (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" Highly recommended!"
Review: (Translated)

In a world of ice, the enemies do not come simply from the hostile environment in which it survives. Boris, head of the clan of the Eastern Townships-Flight is faced with death every day: no food, the people perish. But the urgency today is the eminent delivery of his wife.

They must find shelter, and Chartres-l'hospitalierie is the nearest city. They have to cross the Rampants, a degenerated race, infected with the leprosy of Orion, which makes the creatures hungry for human flesh, and especially ferocious cannibals. But especially contagious. A bite is fatal. Even by cutting the member devoured, there is no guarantee of survival. Quite the contrary.

But then, the Hospitallers have no more room. There remains the Stadium clan. But again, the path is uncertain: the Croque-mitaine lurk, almost more inhuman compared to the Rampants. For the clan of Boris, the night will be long. Yet the journey must go fast ...

Once past page 11, you know what you are dealing in this comic post-apocalyptic. Threats arise from anywhere, in a world of ice and snow. Savagery, barbarism and massacre, nothing is spared. Back to the primitive stage, where survival depends on cunning, strength. And rage, especially rabies.

The design is fairly conventional, fairly realistic, but sticks to a script explosive and oppressive. If nothing scares you, the design and pace of this comic you engage in a challenging world, but especially a good build adventure. Highly recommended!

More info:

Written by Didier Convard and Eric Adam
Art by Didier Poli and Jean-baptiste Hostache

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: The Goon: Nothin' But Misery (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Eric Powell (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: H. Bala (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" All I can say is... knife to the eye!"
Review:

Eric Powell sure is one deranged em-effer, but in a good way, and THE GOON is one weird, subversive, crazy wonderful comic book. THE GOON isn't that easy to pin down in terms of genre. It's definitely horror, and there's even a Lovecraftian whiff at times, but it's also pulp adventure and crime noir and slapstick and parody. As Eric Powell's mentioned in The Daily Cross Hatch website, "It's a dark comedy about a street thug, in a world of monsters." But, really, it's basically whatever notion Eric Powell reels in, on any given day.

We seem to overlook the fact that the Goon himself is a shady character, because he battles and murderizes zombies and monster squids and other wicked supernatural whatnot. The brawny, face scarred, blind in one eye Goon passes himself off as mere muscle for the Labrazio crime family, but constant readers will know that the Goon had a while ago killed Labrazio and had taken over his criminal operations, but that he's kept the hostile takeover on the hush hush. So dude's not a good guy. Except that, in a world crawling with nightmarish otherworldly creatures, well, he's actually perceived as a hero.

You won't break your brain trying to keep up with the Goon's exploits. The story arcs basically boil down to: Hey, a monster! And then the Goon clobbers the monster with a pipe wrench or with something else equally handy. So Eric Powell keeps the narrative pretty easy to follow. This particular trade, THE GOON Vol. 1: NOTHIN' BUT MISERY, has the Goon and his cartoony-rendered sidekick Franky polishing off some more of the Zombie Priest's undead minions (these cats just keep wandering off Lonely Street). The Buzzard makes his debut, that tortured ex-sheriff cursed into a dark creature and who survives by devouring the undead (which is all kinds of ironic). The Buzzard has come to town harboring a long-held mad-on against the Zombie Priest, and off he goes to Lonely Street, with the Goon's blessing.

Then, intended as a nod to Christmas (but it feels more like a stab in the eye), Powell introduces a semi-sadistic Santa Claus whose little helpers had been consuming people during the holidays. There's also a hillbilly werewolf, and we learn why Franky had never ever received presents from Santa. Next, the Goon goes up against a magician and his harpies. And, finally, the Goon saves the world from alien invasion, and he does this in only three pages.


THE GOON Vol. 1: NOTHIN' BUT MISERY collects Powell's self-published issues #1-4 of THE GOON and THE GOON COLOR SPECIAL, as well as THE GOON short story featured in the final issue of DARK HORSE PRESENTS. You'd think, just because this is volume one, that it holds the Goon's earliest published issues. But, no, sir. For the Goon's earliest published stuff, you'd have to get THE GOON Vol. 0: ROUGH STUFF, which collects the first three Goon issues originally published by Avatar Press back in 1999. Good luck with that; Volume 0 costs a lot of bones.

To keep things even more interesting Eric Powell occasionally interrupts the story by injecting offbeat, dark humored advertisements, and I'm now really, really jonesing for that Billy Lobotomy Kit (with its totally convincing guarantee: "All heads taken from convicts and soulless heathens!"). The Depression-era backdrop adds to that pulp adventure feel and somehow lends itself well to a protagonist who's no-nonsense and less than loquacious. The very cool thing is that you never know exactly where Eric Powell is taking you. There are out-of-left-field twists, and the creepy crawly elements are offset with moments of sheer absurdity. The Goon and Franky are who they are, intractably, and the monsters are friggin' monsters, and what I mean by this is that you can pretty much forget about steady growth and development in their character arcs. But it's okay, I'd rather not have the Goon suddenly quoting Jane Austen or Baudelaire or Aesop.

Eric Powell can draw, did you know? Guy incorporates the signature touches of several comic book legends into his own wicked style: Jack Kirby's blocky dynamism; a whiff of Steve Rude's simple yet evocative lines; the old school magic and grit of Will Eisner; the twitchy weirdness of Richard Corben. Taking these influences and continuing to evolve, Eric Powell has established himself as an artist to be seriously reckoned. His painted covers are awesome stuff, and I wish there was a blow up of that one iconic panel featuring the Goon driving his red gas guzzler while firing slugs into a monster squid.

Actually, if one short sentence could encapsulate this comic book's in-your-face attitude, it may be Franky's no frills declaration as he and the Goon confront several fishy mobsters on the dock. To quote the ever feisty Franky: "All I can say is... knife to the eye!"

(By the way, I'm still waiting for new word on the supposedly upcoming CG-animated film about THE GOON. What's up with that?)

More info:

Creators: Eric Powell
Artist: more
Cover Artist: Eric Powell
Genre: Humor, Horror, Action/Adventure

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: Child of the Storm (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Manuel Bichebois (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Nerhu (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" We are plunged into a heavy adventure, full of action and ... interest, that's all!"
Review: Child of the Storm 1

Moskip found the child in the arms of his dead mother. Beside him, a bag containing several rocks, red like covered with blood. Friendly, the hunter will place them on the grave of the woman and bring the child to his family. He calls him Laith and he become his son.
Faster, more agile, more cunning than his playmates, nothing seemed to scare Laith, nothing but the roar of the storm ... It was during their apprenticeship he then reveals his latent powers by reviving one of his comrades. The news of the resurrection will lay the excitement among the members of the clan and on the advice of the wise Fahuw, Moskip then decide to reveal the truth about Laith its roots by taking her adopted son at the grave of his mother.

The child of the storm is in a fairly traditional vein of the heroic-fantasy: an orphan atypical, with mysterious powers, will be driven from his clan for adoption and will then be in search of its origins ...

Despite this apparent weakness, this comic, however, that deserves some attention here. We welcome indeed the visual quality of this first volume. The coloring makes perfect justice to the diversity of the places visited. Better yet, the computer processing of the images doesn't disturb in any way and emphasizes, however, with great subtlety, the details of the faces of the protagonists. The general drawing of the characters is also very detailed and some features remind the hand of Guarnido (Blacksad) or Barbucci (Skydoll). In short, it's a real visual success.

The characters, despite the well-known archetypes, are sufficiently credible and varied to erase the impression of déjà vu, a feeling that fades more offered by fast-paced narrative. Bichebois - the writer, far from simply plant the (gorgeous) setting for his first book, chooses to develop the plot in depth, giving readers a rare diversity of places and scenes.

The child of the storm not only revels in the facilities of its kind, and we are plunged into a heavy adventure, full of action and ... interest, that's all!

More info:

Written by Bichebois, Manuel
Art by Poli, Didier
Colors by Bellaoui, Tarik

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: Blankets (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Craig Thompson (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Jamie S. Rich (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" It's emotional and expressive and engrossing, and possibly the best thing you'll read this year-in any medium."
Review:

Much has been made in recent years of how the graphic novel-and as a result, the comic book-has matured and come into its own. This is indeed, true, as subject matter and approach in the comics industry has become much more fluid. Yet, most stories were still serialized before they were printed in book form, and the ones that struck out on their own and did it in one-go (including some by my own company, Oni Press), were significant, but not yet reaching the full breadth that the word "novel" implied.

Enter Craig Thompson. Nearly five years ago, he released his first major work, GOODBYE CHUNKY RICE. It was an excellent piece of sequential fiction, but much like, say, the first album by Nirvana or Andi Watson's SKELETON KEY (or even THE COMPLETE GEISHA) or Todd Haynes' POISON, it was only a glimmer of what was to come. Since that time, Thompson has locked himself away and honed his first masterpiece-an ambitious narrative clocking in at nearly 600 pages. Sure, you can write it off as a coming of age story (a coming of age story in an art form that still is coming up with its standards for most literary genres, and thus still coming of age itself), but that would be to say THE BELL JAR is merely the story of a depressed poet or GOODFELLAS about a guy who gets an interesting job. BLANKETS is the story of an artist in a state of becoming, a boy walking down a road where people in the houses on either side are attempting to get him to stop and play in their yard. It's the tale of said boy figuring out how to stick to the middle, and stay true to himself.


Semi-autobiographical, BLANKETS outstrips the standard coming-of-age novel by giving it a perspective that only the comic book would allow him. Not even in movies could the story of an artist have that artist's vision so expertly rendered (think of how, in CRUMB, Zwigoff had to look over Crumb's shoulder to see what the illustrator saw). While the narrative thread of BLANKETS is straightforward, Thompson uses his pen to bend the world he portrays. Thus, you can step into an abstract world in the short span of a panel, see it as Thompson sees it himself. And there you get what makes the difference. The story of a boy discovering who he will be is also a book where an artist discovers a new form of expression.

And there we are, back to the beginning. This is a comic book that understands what a novel is, and a novel that has figured out how to be a comic book. There is going to be a lot of hype about this one, and the sorts of people who read and talk about "comix," needing the crooked letter to make them feel cooler, will likely come down on BLANKETS for not being cool enough, but ignore all that and trust yourself and trust the book. It's emotional and expressive and engrossing, and possibly the best thing you'll read this year-in any medium.

More info:

Written and drawn by Craig Thompson

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: Habibi (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Craig Thompson (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Michel Faber (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" Gaze upon its beauty and despair."
Review:

There's an odd prejudice in the world of serious comics against lavish displays of skill. The neo-pre-Raphaelite craftsmanship of Barry Windsor-Smith and other fantasy mongers is all very well for superheroes and vampires (so goes the sneer), but God forbid we should admire, much less produce, that sort of kitsch. True graphic art is understated, unflashy, minimalist. Marian Satrapi's Persepolis, Joe Matt's Peepshow, Daniel Clowes's Ghost World – these are typical offerings for the discerning adult: cartoony simplifications that owe nothing to life drawing. Distillation is subtraction. Better to emulate Charles M Schulz than Daumier or Delacroix.

This pared-down aesthetic can lead to superb results, but sometimes I get tired of stories full of smart caricatures with not a line wasted. That's why I'm glad there are a few obsessive sketchers out there, such as Joe Sacco and Craig Thompson. Sacco's laborious cross-hatching is a form of documentary journalism: the stubble, knitwear and wrinkled features of war victims are scrupulously rendered to convince us we're seeing real people, not figments of Sacco's imagination. Craig Thompson, by contrast, is a novelist. His massive new book, Habibi, is an orgy of art for its own sake.

Thompson's epic tale – set in a timeless Middle East that fuses exotic legend with grim modernity – follows the fortunes of Dodola, an Arab girl sold into child marriage by her illiterate parents. Taught to read and write by her well-meaning husband, Dodola hones a love of numbers and narrative which helps her survive her subsequent adventures. "Adventures" is the operative word: Dodola is catapulted from one melodramatic trial to the next, including kidnap, whoring for desert nomads, breakneck escapes from a slave market and an execution squad (some of the most thrilling action sequences I've seen in comics for years), a spell in a sultan's harem, brutal torments in a dungeon, and so on. At heart, however, Habibi is a love story between Dodola and Zam, a black slave she adopts as an infant and to whom she is mother, sister and inamorata.

Visually, the book is a feast. It has the cinematic brio of Will Eisner, a feverish, symbolic vision reminiscent of David B's Epileptic, and a keen traveller's eye worthy of Sacco (who's thanked in the acknowledgments for having "guided this book to completion"). Huge Miltonic angels, fearsome djinn, boisterously crowded towns and rivers teeming with garbage are woven together in a grand tapestry of brushwork, interlaced with recurring motifs of vapour, blood, rain and the fluid morphings of Semitic script. Thompson clearly adores the beauty of Arabic calligraphy and is enthralled by the landscape and people of the Arab world. (His previous publication, a little-known stopgap between Habibi and 2003's Blankets, was Carnet de Voyage, an annotated sketchbook of his travels in Morocco.) Thompson has obviously devoted rather more than 1,001 nights to this project, punctiliously elaborating ornamental archways, tapestries and brocade. Images worthy of gallery display abound.


Ideologically, Habibi has several fervent agendas. Thompson, raised in the American heartlands where anti-Arab sentiment is endemic, uses this book to emphasise the shared heritage of Islam and Christianity. Biblical stories are gorgeously depicted in their Koranic versions. The book also serves as an anti-capitalist cri de coeur. Its contemporary reality is God-forsaken, ruled instead by supply and demand. Everything is a transaction. When Zam hawks water in a town choked by sewage, a dying man protests: "You can't sell water. It is from God." Zam points at the muck swilling around the man's shoes and retorts "THAT water is from God. If you want some that's drinkable, it comes from me." Later, Zam finds work at a water bottling plant, enriching multinationals while dispossessed villagers are literally "drowning in shit".

And yet, despite its visual splendours and sincere message, Habibi is ultimately wearisome. Part of the problem is its sheer length; conciseness has never been Thompson's forte. His debut, Goodbye, Chunky Rice, was conceived as a pamphlet but expanded to fill 120 pages. Blankets was supposed to be 250 pages but ended up at 580. Habibi's 672-page bulk may be justifiable aesthetically – Thompson's brush never falters and the images are good to the last drop – but the story keeps folding in on itself and there's a mounting sense of perseveration. Dodola must constantly re-learn the lesson that men have the power to buy, abuse, foul and destroy anything they want. By page 575, when a dam manager boasts "She was a slender river, but we plugged her up good!", my tolerance for sexualised pollution metaphors was strained.

Indeed, Thompson's handling of sex in general is problematic. He quotes Muhammad's concept of the Greater Jihad, "the struggle against oneself" – a struggle he understands perhaps too well. Zam, like the autobiographical hero of Blankets, is haunted by shame, his aspiration to be a purely spiritual creature undermined by lust. Early scenes where Zam's puberty spoils the innocent bathtime intimacy between him and Dodola are handled with wry affection, but later scenes of self-loathing, castration and post-traumatic angst, piled on top of Dodola's frequent relapses into sex slavery and starvation, raise the suspicion that the author is compelled to be crueller than his narrative demands. Habibi, which the eye perceives as a celebration of life force, settles in the mind as a campaign of punishment. Gaze upon its beauty and despair.

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Written and drawn by Craig Thompson

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: The Surrogates (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Robert Venditti (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Hugo Bravo (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" One of the year's best books shows how to live life from the safety of your couch."
Review:

The Surrogates is not simply a disturbing look into the future. It's a powerful commentary on the world we live in today. First time writer Robert Venditti has a gift for being able to touch on poignant subjects such as gender roles, technology, American consumer culture and advertising, while never losing focus on telling an exciting science fiction crime tale, similar to films like Blade Runner and Total Recall, but with an identity of its own. Combined with some great artwork and creative extras, Top Shelf has given us one of the best graphic novels in quite some time.

Less than 50 years from today, Surrogates are as common as televisions and home computers. An owner of one of these life-like androids can live a daily existence from the comfort of home, and the world seems to function better for it. Every sensation imaginable can be experienced through a Surrogate, without worrying about aging or the consequences of stepping outdoors. Crime is virtually non-existent, since every Surrogate unit can be traced to its owner. Smoking a cigarette no longer causes bodily damage, and random hook-ups between strangers are now safer than ever (even if you might not exactly know with whom it is you're hooking up). So when a masked being starts destroying random surrogates, the police department knows that this threat to civilization's way of life could cause public pandemonium. Lieutenant Harvey Greer is assigned on the case, and links the surrogate assaults to Zaire Powell III, a religious radical who many years ago, led a violent but unsuccessful rebellion against the blasphemy of people trading their humanity for machines. All the while, Greer's own surrogate is destroyed, but instead of a replacement, he tackles the case 'in the flesh', and begins to appreciate the wonders of experiencing life once again, much to his wife's discontent.


It's rare to find a book where the artwork conveys such emotion as in The Surrogates. Close ups of character's faces and expressions reveal pain and inner sadness, whether in human or surrogate form. Each scene changes tint and color tones to give it a sense of impending anger and hopelessness, which works incredibly well with the theme of the story. Between each chapter, supplemental material is included to draw you deeper into the world of The Surrogates, with scholastic journal articles, newspaper clippings (complete with classified ads), and even Greer's brochure about new features in Surrogate technology, which he acquires in the story. The detail given to the presentation of this volume is astounding, and warrants a second look.

It's admirable how the author presents each concept in The Surrogates. Though it would be easy to label certain parties in the book as bad guys, Venditti is too smart for that. Instead, both sides of the arguments on the usage of Surrogates are presented, and they both offer a compelling case that allows readers to pass their own judgment on the notion of living such an existence. Surely no one could live a complete life in this Matrix of sorts, no matter how willingly you choose to participate. Yet at the same time, because of the surrogates, society has eliminated most of its dangers and casualties, and given a life to those who may not have the ability to experience it. Or is the true danger, like with any other human vice, only present when full dependency on the technology arises?

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Written by: Robert Venditti
Art by: Brett Weldele
Genre: Sci-fi

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: The Homeland Directive (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Robert Venditti (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Joey Esposito (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" If you're a fan of political thrillers, conspiracy action, or even crime capers, there's something in this book for you. "
Review:

The latest graphic novel from Top Shelf Productions opens with a quote from Benjamin Franklin: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." The story that follows takes that statement to heart, exploring the themes of what a country will do to protect its citizens and what happens when those citizens fight against it. How far is too far? Sacrifice a few to save the whole? Robert Venditti offers up somewhat of a bird's eye view of a situation that challenges the current American climate from all sides.

The book follows Dr. Laura Regan, a brilliant mind at the CDC who is setup by the United States Homeland Security Secretary in a master scheme to increase the ease of monitoring purchases of things like fertilizer and diesel fuel, leading the government to efficiently identify potential threats.

Dealing with an issue like homeland security, and thus our safety as a people in the modern world, is dangerous. Like anything involving political policy, the creators run the risk of immediately alienating anyone that doesn't fit into a specific train of thought. Here, Venditti avoids that in a masterstroke of objectivity. All sides of the tale are represented – whether good or bad – and the writer doesn't inject any real sense of opinion into the work. He's clearly got viewpoints, but overall The Homeland Directive is more concerned with its narrative as fiction rather than a heavy-handed commentary on the real world.


Luckily, just as Venditti has shown in his work on The Surrogates, The Homeland Directive is a success in painting the themes in broader strokes while focusing on the smaller pieces that make up the collective whole. The cast in this book is vast, even off-putting at first. But as Venditti digs into the characters and gives them each their moments to shine, the bigger picture is slowly formed. The pacing of the book is strange because of its pinpoint accuracy on the reveal of essential story beats, yet the characters grow at a slow burn with Venditti choosing to peel back their layers a little at a time. There are certainly a lot of ideas laced throughout the comic, but Venditti has once again proven his talent for making it digestible. Perhaps more importantly, making it enjoyable.

It's interesting to look at Venditti's creator-owned work, as both Homeland Directive and Surrogates are unapologetically surgical in their precision yet are accompanied by artists that champion the abstract. It's a testament to both the writer and the artists that he's worked with that their styles mesh so wonderfully. Mike Huddleston's work on The Homeland Directive isn't defined by his panel composition, inking, or even his layouts. For all intents and purposes, those aspects of the art remain somewhat cut and dried, though as the action ramps up in the climax, I enjoyed watching Huddleston move from his rather rigid layouts to a series of expressive two-page spreads.

Where Huddleston shines is in his coloring, which is much in the same style that we've seen from his work on Image's Butcher Baker, the Righteous Maker. While I'm hardly fond of that series, Huddleston's work is commendable and he brings the same great panache here. Most impressively, Huddleston employs a wide variety of coloring techniques, textures and palettes to the book, helping to differentiate the various groups of characters, themes, and action on the page. Flipping through the book at random gives the impression that the coloring is sporadic, even random. But much like Venditti's story, it takes a solid read-through to appreciate the subtleties in a book that, on its surface, seems to offer too much.

The Homeland Directive is the same great quality that's become fittingly synonymous with the Top Shelf name. If you're a fan of political thrillers, conspiracy action, or even crime capers, there's something in this book for you.

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Written by Robert Venditti
Art by Mike Huddleston

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: Quarantined (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Michael Moreci (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: InfiniteSpeech (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" Cheers to Moreci for delivering what I think is another plus in the horror category and zombie genre!"
Review: Quarantined 01

When a contaminate enters the water supply in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and starts turning people into zombies, a random group of survivors are thrown together while looking for help. Though that would be a lot easier if the military hadn’t blocked all escape from the town and cut off communication with the outside world. This set up may sound a bit familiar to some who have immersed themselves in the zombie genre or even just dabbled in it. However, Michael Moreci does a fine job of giving you a decent cast of characters and a story that will entertain. This was helped by the fact that the dialog was just great and a lot of the character development seemed very natural. Sure there were characters we knew were there just to end up as zombie food, but no one was being pushed as trying to be the hero of the group.

Some of the artwork from Monty Borror was hit and miss with me, but I will say that he and colorist Lauren Anne Sharp effectively helped to establish and keep the mood of the book throughout its pages. I also liked that the look of the zombies was unconventional in the sense that most of them looked as if they put in some serious gym time. Which would reinforce the fact that at times some showed pretty quick reflexes and strength while going after their victims. So the trade off is the rotting flesh, the disfigured facial features, and the urge to eat your fellow man, but at least you’ll have that beach body. There were also various splash pages by Keith Burns used to separate the chapters, and they were just fantastic.

Moreci pulls off the horror theme of Quarantined quite well, and even throws several twists that ended up taking the story in an entirely different direction than the usual. Again, nothing forced or out of place, just the natural progression of the story that ended up with a pretty good pay off for the reader. Now, I did have an issue with how the book ended until I found out that there may be more to this story, which turned my entire viewpoint around. So cheers to Moreci for delivering what I think is another plus in the horror category and zombie genre!

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Writer: Michael Moreci
Artist: Monty Borror
Cover: Keith Burns

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: Daichouhen Doraemon Manga (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Fujiko F. Fujio (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: Amir Syafrudin (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" Within this fantasy world, we could easily forget our problems and possibly look at the world from another point of view."
Review:

Reading about mysteries, thrilling, horrific and sometimes depressing manga is not always my preference. There are times when I feel like reading something hilarious and fun or at the very least relaxing. This is where Daichouhen Doraemon comes.

Daichouhen Doraemon brings nostalgic feeling to when I was a kid. Those are the times when I have no worries over anything in this world, the times when I feel most relaxed in my entire life, even though I only read the regular Doraemon manga back then.

Daichouhen Doraemon shares the ideals of how the world should be and how us humans should behave. The author shares these ideals through the adventures of Nobita and his gang trying their best to save the world; either their world or any parallel world. Sometimes they go to the strangest place that might only exist in the head of the author.

Compared to the regular Doraemon manga, Daichouhen Doraemon offers (much) better storyline. This is obvious due to the fact that the regular Doraemon manga mostly focus on Doraemon (magical) tools. This is why I prefer reading Daichouhen Doraemon instead of the regular one. Although this was never an issue back when I was a kid.

Daichouhen Doraemon takes you on a journey to a fantasy world -a world where most grown ups fail to recognize. Within this fantasy world, we could easily forget our problems and possibly look at the world from another point of view.

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Author(s) Fujiko F. Fujio
Artist(s) Fujiko F. Fujio
Serialized in CoroCoro Comic

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: Earp: Saints For Sinners (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): M. Zachary Sherman and Matt Cirulnickesy (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: BILL SHERMAN (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" Earp: Saints for Sinners may not break any new ground, but it mixes things up with heaps of storytelling enthusiasm."
Review: Earp: Saints for Sinners #1

Taking a cast of fabled Wild West heroes and anti-heroes and depositing ‘em into a near future Nevada, Radical Comics’ five-ish “mature readers” mini-series Earp: Saints for Sinners is an agreeably foul-mouthed actioner set in an all-too-plausible Depression Era where Las Vegas is “the only boom town left” in America and the world has reverted to rough-hewn pistol-packin’ justice.

The comic follows former U.S. Marshall Wyatt Earp and his pal Doc Holliday as they come up against outlaws, thuggish Pinkerton agents (a.k.a. “Pinks”) and corrupt city politicians in this new/old frontier. Out title lead, Wyatt, has retired from law enforcement at the start of the story to run his own casino, the A-One Hotel and Saloon, when the reappearance of his headstrong brother Morgan Earp shoves him once more into the fray. Morgan has hooked up with celebrity bank robber Jesse James to get into the redistribution of wealth business — none too surprisingly, a full-blown market crash has heightened the disparity between haves and have-nots even more distinctly — and his presence in Las Vegas provides the Pinks an excuse to try strong-arming the ex-lawman. You just know this is gonna piss Wyatt off.

Writers M. Zachary Sherman and Matt Cirulnick take the familiars of basic Western conflict and add enough doses of modern cop drama (courtesy of a Doc Holliday flashback involving dirty fellow cops) plus dystopian s-f to keep things interesting. A trio of artists (Mack Chater, Martin Montiel, and Colin Lorimer) tackles the visuals, making boomtown Las Vegas look as grimly dark as the urban landscape in Blade Runner. If the first issue’s two big action scenes — a flashback train robbery and an assault on Wyatt’s home — come across more murkily chaotic than necessary, the aftermath of each is strong enough to keep us reading. Earp: Saints for Sinners may not break any new ground, but it mixes things up with heaps of storytelling enthusiasm.

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Writers: M. Zachary Sherman and Matt Cirulnickesy
Artists: Mack Chater, Martin Montiel and Colin Lorimer

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: I Vampire (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Joshua Hale Fialkov (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: David Harper (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" The surprise hit of the new DC universe is here, folks. Don't miss out on it."
Review: I, Vampire #1

For hundreds of years, vampire Andrew Stanton kept mankind safe from the horrors of the supernatural world, thanks to a truce he made with his ex-lover Mary, the Queen of the Damned. But now that truce has reached a bloody end and Andrew must do everything in his power to stop Mary and her dark forces from going on a killing spree – and she plans to start with the heroes of the DCU!

My sleeper pick of the month for the DCnU relaunch is here. How does it fare? Does Josh Fialkov bring his A game? Who is Andrea Sorrentino and is he good at this whole art thing? Can I get past the whole vampire thing?

Find out after the jump, and thanks to Josh for letting us look at this book early.

They say that DCnU is something that should bring new and lapsed readers to titles that they never thought that they'd read - or even just to comics for the first time. While I'm certainly not the latter, I can say this: I have never read a single page of the original I, Vampire series from J.M. DeMatteis. Not only that, but after the DCnU books were announced, I didn't even know it had previously existed at all within the DC universe, all I thought was "what the hell is I, Vampire?"

So really, I am an entirely fresh reader to this series, and given that I generally don't like vampires, it seemed pretty far fetched that I would enjoy a book about one (or many, as it may be). The only thing that sold me on this book before was writer Joshua Hale Fialkov, whose work previously on titles like Tumor or Echoes has turned me into a pretty big fan of his writing.

That faith turned out to be well-earned, as Fialkov delivers a very, very solid first issue, effectively hooking me onto the story and bringing me back as a reader for issue two and beyond.

This issue finds two different stories overlapping, both featuring lead Andrew Stanton. One takes place in the recent past, as Fialkov walks us through the true point of the disillusionment of his relationship and truce with Mary, Queen of the Damned, a woman he turned four centuries previous who has since become a little dark. The other finds Andrew dealing with the ramifications of the breaking of his bond with Mary, and thus the crux of the story is set up.


While some readers new to the art form may be off put by the narrative time jumps, I for one thought Fialkov does a stellar job in this issue using them not as a gimmick but as a way to build story tension and develop the story naturally together. The way he blends these two story segments together allows him to introduce the main thrust of the story while also introducing us to both the protagonist and antagonist in a very organic way. As the two stories play off each other, you start picking up exactly what is happening just as Andrew is, and by the end, you're invested and aware in a similar (but less bloody) way. It also ends up making this book a really quality reread (which I recommend doing).

I really dig the characters too, as Andrew sets himself off as almost a warden for the creatures of the night, looking at his longevity in this world as the impetus for a duty that only he can fulfill. Meanwhile, his once love Mary (Fialkov has the character toy with Andrew using this in a deliciously evil way) has went the diametrically opposite way, but even without that, you can still sense the simmering heat beneath the surface of these two characters.

One thing I really liked about the first issue as well is that Fialkov actually places this book in the DCnU using dialogue - we get a conversational piece from Andrew talking about Superman and a half-dozen Green Lanterns and Wonder Woman - as if Fialkov knew people would be wondering "how does this fit?" We don't know exactly yet, but you can tell that Fialkov and DC has big plans for it from the get go, and at the very least the self-contained story itself is extremely engaging.

This book also does an excellent job of being truly horrific and darkly romantic while still occasionally (and oddly) funny.

But it's not all writing. I have to say, with apologies to Fialkov, that the best part of this book is Andrea Sorrentino's art. I had never experienced his work before, but this guy is the second coming of Jae Lee. His work is moody, atmospheric and powerful, and it is absolute perfection for the title. There are some absolutely phenomenal two page spreads in this book, and I love the way he uses layouts on even fairly standard pages as innovative and clever storytelling devices (check out page 13 with the streaming vertical panel with horizontal panels crossing it throughout).

The heavy inks of the book give it a real edge visually, and color artist Marcelo Maiolo's evening blues and tans for dusk give the book an added feel for time and place.

The first issue of I, Vampire is the complete storytelling package, as Fialkov effectively and efficiently introduces these characters and their story to readers while Sorrentino sears the images of that tale into our minds. The surprise hit of the new DC universe is here, folks. Don't miss out on it.

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Written by Joshua Hale Fialkov
Illustrated by Andrea Sorrentino
Cover by JENNY FRISON

Publisher:

[Zacharie]

Title: Resident Evil: Code Veronica (Click to go to the release post)
Writer(s): Lee Chung Hing (Click to see other books from this writer released on this site)
Review source: A Customer (Review 1) and Sarcophagi (Review 2) (Don't click it, read the review here... )

" If you are looking to be engaged in a great zombie story you should look elsewhere."
Review:

Review 1 - This book gives details to the inside thoughts of the character while being true to the game found on dreamcast and playstation 2...You can understand what the characters are thinking, and what their plans are.


Review 2 - Being a fan of comic book art, video games, and zombies, I figured this graphic novel would be a unique treat... but I have mixed feelings. The art in this book is very nice and interesting, especially in the action sequences. It remains faithful to the game, in that the characters randomly find weapons, ammunition, puzzle keys, and herbs... although this adds to the choppy storytelling. Overall, the story is bland and uninteresting, much of it being told through Claire's non-stop self exposition. If you're a huge fan of the game and comic book art, you will probably enjoy this graphic novel. But, if you are looking to be engaged in a great zombie story you should look elsewhere.

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Written by Lee Chung Hing
Art by Hui Kim Sung

Publisher: