There are so many good indie publishers that fly under the radar. Slave Labor Graphics, or SLG to their friends, have been around since 1986 and I can count the number of comics I have from them on one hand. However, something about their new Captain Blood series caught my eye. I’m vaguely familiar with the name. Apparently it was a 1922 book written by Rafael Sabatini, but more people may know it as the title of the 1935 movie starring Tasmania’s greatest swashbuckler, Errol Flyyn. (BTW – it’s the centenary of his birth). This is the first comic adaptation however, and upon opening the first page I was impressed. Firstly, it almost presents itself as an artefact from the days of pirates and men with big hats. It’s printed on less than crisp white paper, and with a texture far from the glossy stuff from The Big Two. The art by Michael Shoyket is also pencils only. This is the kind of approach we’re used to seeing restricted to variant covers. However, it all works really well in this context, especially because he’s a very talented artist.
Written by Matthew Shephard (who has an interesting one page summary of the history of the book and how he altered it and why, and how he stayed faithful to it and why) it’s quite the rousing adventure. There’s slaves, and cruel masters and crueller decrepit judges and a smattering of action in the form of fist fights, and ship fights. Peter Blood is a kind doctor surrounded by intolerance and pride as he tends to his fellow slaves and tries to inspire those around him with noble speeches. He soon seizes an opportunity not only at freedom, but also at teaching his crusty captors a thing or two, and becomes the adventurer Captain Blood.
It reminded me somewhat of The Count of Monte Cristo, with its themes of courage in the face of adversity and of a man daring to forge a new identity. Shephard paces things very well and Shoyket’s art may take some getting used to for certain readers, but I found it a refreshing change. This is a well crafted intro issue to what will hopefully be an intriguing series.
There’s actually quite a few indie publishers on the constant look out for fresh, new creators. New company Outlaw Entertainment is one of those publishers. 
Top Cow Productions, Inc. revealed today the names of the participating retailers in their “Let Us Win YOU Over” initiative for June and the next free issue in the program – Berserker #1.
“We’re incredibly proud of the work Rick and Jeremy have done on Berserker #1 and excited that Top Cow believes in the series enough to give out free copies to retailers and fans,” said Milo Ventimiglia, star of NBC’s Heroes and co-founder of DiVide Pictures.
Marvel Comics is proud to announce the release of Strange Tales MAX #1 (of 3) in September 2009, featuring the most acclaimed creators in independent comics today! This landmark three issue limited series, overflowing with 48 pages of all new stories, features your favorite Marvel heroes—from Spider-Man to the Hulk—like you’ve never seem them before! Paul Pope, Peter Bagge, Molly Crabapple & John Leavitt, Junko Mizuno, Dash Shaw, James Kochalka, Johnny Ryan, Michael Kupperman, Nick Bertozzi, Nicholas Gurewich, Jason and more unite for the all-new Strange Tales MAX!
His name may be familiar to some, thanks to all the Star Wars novels he has written, but he’s also written his own works, plus novels set in the world of Dune, and even a few comics. I recently finished his book, The Last Days of Krypton, which is about , well, the last days of Krypton. I was pretty impressed by it. There’s a few things that puzzled me, such as a few grammatical errors and the use of other characters names instead of Non and Ursa. You may remember those characters primarily from the first two Superman films starring Christopher Reeve. Perhaps due to copyright reasons, their names are changed, but their personalities are clearly those of the fesity woman and brute mute. No-one but hardcore Superman fans will notice however, and the replacement names Aethyr and Nam-Ek belong to a pair of characters from earlier episodes of Smallville, taken from the comics from decades ago. However, it’s not a biggie really. General Zod is a manipulating genius who uses fear tactics to get what he wants after Braniac shows up and takes the whole city of Kandor away. The budding romance between respected (for the most part) scientist Jor-El and artist Lara is handled beautifully. The age difference between the pair and the fact that they’re newlyweds before shuttling their baby Kal-El off to Earth seemed somewhat unusual, but only because I’ve never seen them portrayed that way before. 
This is a book for Superman fans, or at least those vaguely aware of the character’s origins. Anderson is a good writer, and I felt at times like I wanted to wring the necks of the stuffy Council for ignoring Jor-El’s pleas and ultimately giving rise to Zod’s megalomania. Most of the characters are fully developed, though Anderson has the uncanny need to describe everyones hairstyles. He does take this vague knowledge of Superman’s distant origins and throw in nice cameos such as the Phantom Zone, and Martian Manhunter, and even hints at the Green Lantern Corps. Comics scribe Geoff Johns has taken these concepts and run with them with his Last Son arc and the more recent New World of Krypton maxi-series that has most of these characters appear once more. Plus the cover by Fables cover artist James Jean is grand. If Warner Bros. ever wise up and give writer Mark Millar his dream job of creating a Superman film trilogy, this book would be an awesome opener. There’s no Superman in sight, yet it is a surprising and often riveting sci-fi tale.
Dark Horse’s Rapture #1 tells the story of two lovers going through a time out in the middle of an ongoing superhero/villain war. This war has devastated America and the government has had enough. In this set up issue (with 5 more to come) the superpowered individuals are mere background characters. Their effect on the world at large is the pivot point. There’s no specific event alluded to that tipped the scales and made the costumed adventurers flee the planet, but it seems like one of those huge summer x-overs that Marvel and DC give us every year. We’ll probably never know anymore of the heroes than that in this series, but the lovers, namely Evelyn and forlorn muso Gil steal the show. The absence of spandex will not be missed as the shambles of a world that humanity now resides in is intriguing enough, with cannibalistic mobs and Spectre-like hero The Word’s mission to the weary Evelyn. Created by Mike Avon Oeming and his wife Taki Soma the fluidity of the script and visuals is daring. With newspaper clippings and handwritten notes between the separated lovers, it’s slightly different from Oeming’s usual work, but it works splendidly. It’s like Kingdom Come with hints of Civil War, in its use of themes if not superheroes, and the human element behind the superhuman reality makes for an intriguing tale. On the 
Image’s Chew is likewise a nifty concept. Created by John Layman and Rob Guillory it takes a few pages to realise why this cop tale is off-centre, and it’s this; due to bird flu chicken has been outlawed. Tony Chu is a cop who is also cibopathic. That means he gets impressions off everything he eats. One bite of an apple and he can tell where it was harvested and what pesticides were used on it, etc. He also is able to take that skill and apply it to human flesh. He uses this when he hunts down a serial killer at a “chicken speakeasy” and is rewarded with a job at the now powerful FDA (Food and Drug Administration). This 5 part series is off to a good start with it’s combination of whacky premise, great humour and violence. Layman and Guillory mention in the afterword how they were inspired by The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman’s video manifesto last year that urged artists and writers to risk producing more of their own creator owned ideas. Its good to see Kirkman’s sincere plea bearing such good fruit. Dare I say that Chew is a tasty morsel? Yes, indeed. That’s exactly what it is.
There’s a lot riding on this series, but I don’t think anyone would expect it to not be a success. Famed Scottish scribe Grant Morrison killed Bruce Wayne/Batman in Final Crisis #6 a few months ago, but as we all know the term “comic book death” exists for a reason. Bruce Wayne isn’t really dead though, just unseen, trapped in the past. He’ll come back at some point, but it seems DC aren’t in a hurry to do so. June brings a slew of new titles focused on the new Batman and Robin and how that affects Gotham and its unusual citizens. If you don’t know who that new crime fighting duo are, here it is; former Robin Dick Grayson has now replaced his mentor as the new Batman, while Bruce Wayne’s son Damian is the new Robin. Apart from the slightly improved costumes for both this is also a fresh start for the costumed pair. Really, Batman and Robin haven’t appeared together that frequently over the decades, especially in the last few years. This is due to the fact that both characters have had their own separate series, so it’s great to see them together in a regular monthly series. Not that Dick as Batman and Damian as Robin have ever teamed up as such, however. As Dick says, ‘This is it. Batman and Robin. Together again for the first time.”
I have two new interviews up at Broken Frontier. One is with Perth writer Shane McCarthy. He’s a nice fella and goes to the same LCS as me. He has some interesting things to say about the ‘biz’ and how he got into it, while writing Batman and the current and popular All Hail Megatron series for IDW. Read the interview 
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