For Broken Frontier I was able to interview both creators of Oni Press’ recent release, Labor Days, which is a fun, mature, crazy OGN (original graphic novel). It follows Londoner “Bags” Bagwell and his worldwide trek for a mysterious videotape. Hilarity, and action, ensues. My interviews with writer Philip Gelatt can be found here and with artist Rick Lacy here. You can also check out a huge preview here.
Radical Publishing have done it again. The company’s Freedom Formula had me drooling over the pages and now we have a new contender. City of Dust by Steve Niles, the writer most known for his horror work (30 Days of Night) shows that he can cross genre boundaries with ease. The second issue reads a lot quicker than the first one, after last month’s set up of the premise and characters, and the premise is this: a sci-fi city where the words dystopia, totalitarian and Big Brother seem appropriate descriptions. Yes, it may remind you of 1984 and the under-rated 2002 film Equilibrium (starring Christian Bale) with the government stamping down on works of fiction and seeking to control its citizens through strict laws. However, City of Dust is shaping up to be a series that shakes off such simple comparisons. It has a look that will appeal to fans of Blade Runner and Minority Report – all gloss and sheen, but with a hidden dark side, and Niles brings in elements often unfamiliar to such tales to give it a new edge. Mainly those elements involve something Niles is very familiar with; nasty beasties and gore. Melding sci-fi and horror is a wise move, and this series needs it to lift it above the obvious comparisons mentioned.
Protagonist Philip Khrome is a detective who, as a child, dobbed in his father for reading him a bed-time story; an act which is illegal in his city as such fantasies can warp minds and lead to all sorts of weird behaviour. Fanboys will be familiar with this theory. Last issue Khrome was discovered reading a children’s book red-handed (under a corpse no less) and in issue #2 is investigated by the doubting GBI for his actions. More is revealed about Khrome’s relationship with his father as he discovers that the corpse and his imprisoned Dad are somehow connected. Plot points are also set up here that will surely lead to Khrome questioning who he can really trust around him, including his fellow cop, Sonja. There are also more obvious horror themes here than last issue, with the various creepies beginning to reveal themselves (as the GBI discover the hard way) and presumably make their way into the real world to show that they can not be so easily forgotten. A showdown between jet pack, ray gun wielding police and drooling inhuman creatures ought to be fun to witness, if that’s where Niles is going with this.
The book looks great, as many have come to expect from Radical. Choosing Imaginary Friends Studios, the Singaporean based art studio was a real find. It may be hard to discover extraordinary, new talent in this industry and Radical have looked where perhaps no other company has- outside the obvious fan base and disovered some real gems. Zid, this series artist continues to give the book a CGI look that’s a touch shy of Adi Granov, with just as much depth and texture. The motion and action are less than the first issue, but we have scary looking monsters and gruesome deaths to make up for it, and there are two double page spreads that are very impressive indeed. Radical needs to lock Zid into an exclusive contract, and quick. The variant covers that each title receives is also a nice touch and this has got to be the best of the bunch. You’ll be hard pressed to decide which of the four you want to take home.
There are only three issues left of this series, so hopefully Khrome wakes up, monsters show up and the city changes its view on what’s acceptable reading material after all is said and done.
Below is a five page preview of the new Jim Butcher series, from Dabel Brothers Publishing, Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files: Storm Front. The comic is written by Mark Powers and drawn by Dresden veteran, Ardian Syaf. The first issue is released on November 12.
This is based on Butcher’s first Dresden novel and centres on wizard Harry as he looks into a double murder. Some more good news for Dabel is this: The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle hard cover was listed as 4th in Amazon’s Customer Choice Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2008 and reached the third spot in October on Book Scan.
DC’s Wildstorm inprint know their way around a good game licence, especially with Gears of War and World of Warcraft under their belt. Comics based on games usually fare a lot better than films based on games, so it’s a good thing we’re seeing a lot of adaptations lately. Mirror’s Edge is developed from the November 13 released game based on a sci-fi version of parkour. If you’ve seen the opening of Casino Royale or the excellent French film, District B-13, you’ll know what that is – a unique style of constant motion and acrobatic movement. Basing a game on the concept seems crazy enough that it just might work, especially considering the popularity of every Spider-Man game. Hopefully the game will be about more than just running and diving and rolling though, as that novelty would soon wear out its welcome. Hopefully there’s some FPS stuff in there too.
Back to the comic – it’s not bad. There’s no set-up or introduction of the main characters, but there’s only a few so that’s not a problem. Artist Matthew Dow Smith will be unfamiliar to most, but his body of work is quite impressive, outside of the superhero realm for the most part. I was expecting something with more flowing, organic lines to compliment the story, such as Bart Sears’ or Kyle Hotz’ style, but Smith’s hard edges, and Jim Charalampidis’ colour palette works well in the dystopian city context. Rhianna Pratchett’s script is bare but gives us the necessary details – runner/messenger Faith is learning the ropes from the older Merc in an underground resistance movement when she soon realises that her father is somehow involved. Pratchett wrote the script for the game (and is the daughter of Discworld writer, Terry Pratchett) and lays an intriguing foundation for this world, with further details to come in future issues of this mini-series I’d gather.
The game looks great and has many fans already. The comic so far appears to be a nice intro with a similar visual style and simplicity. Plus, who could resist that cover?
Top Cow obviously believe in this vampire project from writer William Harms and artist Matt Timson. So much so that they’ve given the series its own dedicated website, where you can read the entire first issue on-line for free. Woo hoo! Free! The series lasted three issues at Image before it finished, but now the entire story, with the three never-before-seen last issues, is now available as a TPB from Top Cow. Plus a new ongoing series kicks off in December.
Sure, there have been many vampire stories over the years, or even, centuries. However Impaler has a nice twist. It centres on the original vamp (and historical figure) – Vlad Tepes AKA Vlad the Impaler, as an anti-hero killing vamps as they overrun modern day New York, and the world. Expects lots of blood and action. Take a peek at a few moody Jae-Lee-like random pages below.
So, Magneto goes mad and vows revenge. It’s a tune he’s been playing for decades, but this time, its in the Ultimate universe (Marvel’s alternate line of more accessible books). Ultimatum is out now and is a 5 part mini-series focused on the helmeted bad guy’s swathe of destruction across the Ultimate U, involving earthquakes and tidal waves and such. The tagline is from Mags’ mouth – “For what they’ve done, they will have to pay the Ultimate price.” I have no idea what they did, as I’m only a casual Ultimate reader, but I’m sure all will be revealed. It echoes of DC’s similar use of Lex Luthor’s line in an early Superman/Batman issue – “There will be a crisis…a reckoning,” which eventually came to pass with Infinite Crisis. A preview of Ultimatum’s premiere ish is below. The series is written by Jeph Loeb (Hulk) with great art by David Finch (Avengers: Disassembled).
It’s a shame that Terrence Howard won’t be back in Iron Man 2 as Tony Stark’s buddy, pilot Jim Rhodes, despite his apparent desire to be.You can still get your War Machine fix though in the comics, particularly the upcoming Iron Man #35. The issue goes on sale November 19 and features War Machine AKA Rhodes, deep in enemy territory in this Secret Invasion tie-in. It’s written by Christos. N. Gage (Civil War: House of M) with art by Sean Chen (X-Men: The End) and a cover by the always awesome Adi Granov. Writer Greg Pak and artist Leonardo Manco are also launching a War Machine series, spinning out of the current Iron Man arc, and you can get an exclusive look at the first issue here at Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited service. Rhodey’s solo series kicks off on December 17.
Last weekend 24 Hour Comics Days were held all over the globe. I was in Fremantle, Western Australia. Here’s how it looked. There were some very impressive creations knocked up, and you can buy copies of them at the Northbridge Festival which is on November 1 and 2. In the meantime, you can cast your peepers on some of the groovy finished goods at deviantART here and here.
Well, at least the covers are attention grabbing – all 3 of them. Mixing elements of Alias (pretty young female spy and her male handler) and X-Man Psylocke (blades of psychic energy) on the surface this seems like yet another seen-it-all-before concept in comics. However, this series was successful enough with the right voters last year in Top Cow’s smart Pilot Season program, enabling its current ongoing series. By the summary page that sets all the newbies up with enough info, its obvious that this book has hints of enough unique twists to distance itself from the concepts mentioned above. In this new storyline (set before her joining superhero team, Cyberforce) that twist involves Cyblade’s orders to kill her handler.
Cyblade is teenager Dominique Thiebaut, an expert sneaky operative working for the Cyberdata Corporation, and is implanted (as are many others) with a Brain Box device that keeps her in, and her awkward teen/professional thief personalities separate, even from herself. Joshua Hale Fialkov may seem an odd choice for writer, considering his odd writing style on the odd Punks series, but he adapts to more standard fare remarkably well. He, along with artist Rick Mays is one of the creators who worked on the original book, so they know what they’re doing with this title. The titular character doesn’t appear much, apart from primarily a shower scene with appropriately placed steam covering all the naughty bits. Mainly it involves her handler, Steven Rashell trying desperately to free the agent (whom I assume he’ll become romantically entangled with eventually) and escaping from all the wrong people. Rick Mays’ art is fine and his pacing works well enough to give the feeling of Rashell’s increasing desperation, and like you’d expect, all the characters look like supermodels. Dominique wigs out in said shower, and her last line is something from Wolverine’s mouth of recent years, ie, “I remember everything.” This, plus the penultimate scene where Rashell is approached by the inventor of the Brain Box to help him destroy it may take this series in an intriguing direction. So far, its not Top Cow’s best effort, but one thing they know how to do is slowly build characters and concepts from seemingly simple concepts centered on powerful pretty ladies.
Hare’s a slew of Marvel art. First up is Clint Langley’s funky cover for Ghost Rider #29 and a few interior pages from Tan Eng Huat (DC’s Doom Patrol). After that are covers for Secret Invasion #7 and Wolverine: Manifest Destiny #1, which are also on sale this week. Finally, the poster for the new Super Hero Squad: Hero Up! One-Shot. Both the poster (which is a combo of last week’s two teaser posters) and the comic itself go on sale on January 7. The one-shot will be written by Paul Tobin (Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes) with art from Marcello DiChiara and Chris Sotomayor.
Hexed is a new, December debuting mini-series from BOOM! Studios that follows 19 year old Brazilian thief of the supernatural, Luci Neves. It’s written by Michael Alan Nelson with art by Emma Rios, and you can check out one of the two covers, and two preview pages from the 4 ish series below.
Thanks to the fine folks at Dabel Bros. Publishing, here’s a sneak peek at December’s Take A Chance #1, plus the cover of issue 2. Written by novelist C.E. Murphy (Urban Shaman) with art by Ardian Shyaf (The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle) the five issue mini-series focuses on single mother Frankie Kemp who becomes a butt kicking vigilante after losing her son in the crossfire of a gang war. She strikes out with justice as an ordinary woman trying to make a difference, but must re-evaluate her role once a virus escapes from North Korea, killing some and creating super powered beings worldwide.
Sounds like an interesting take and from the pics below it looks fairly action packed. It might just fill the niche left by DC’s recently finished Catwoman series.
More pretty pictures. This time from Invincible Iron Man, Tony Stark’s second title. It’s a great time to be a goateed gazillionaire inventor. Written by Matt Fraction with art by Salvador Larocca issue 7 (released on November 5) has Iron Man teaming up with Peter Parker AKA Spider-Man. Two cinematic heroes in one book. Cool.
As many people will discover with next year’s film, Logan, otherwise known as the most popular X-Man, Wolverine has a mysterious past. However, it’s slowly unraveling these days with his Origins series and now the 3 ish Weapon X: First Class mini-series. Written by Marc Sumerak (Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius) with art by Mark Robinson & Tim Seeley the series takes a closer look at the military minded Weapon X program which gave Wolvie those fancy adamantium bones and claws. Old foe Sabretooth guest stars, to get the fur flying and every issue features a 10 page back-up tale spotlighting past and present Weapon X “graduates.” The first ish goes on sale on November 5.
Below are a few random pages, after the Michael Ryan cover.
comicbookjesus 