THE LITTLE TOURTEL ESPRESSO SHOT 2

DAILY GRAPHITE

BRENDAN McCARTHY

COMMISSION

STRANGE DAYS

ECLIPSE COMICS

"Star Wars meets A Game of Thrones"

"Star Wars for perverts."

so says Writer Brian K Vaughn on his and her (artist Fiona Staples)

 Hugo award nominated series Saga 

 SAGA VOL 2 OUT THIS WEDNESDAY!

Collects issues 7 through 12 /£11
Vol 1 also available /£7.50

The smash-hit ongoing epic continues! Thanks to her star-crossed parents Marko and Alana, newborn baby Hazel has already survived lethal assassins, rampaging armies, and alien monstrosities, but in the cold vastness of outer space, the little girl encounters something truly frightening: her grandparents!

I realized that making comics and making babies were kind of the same thing and if I could combine the two, it would be less boring if I set it in a crazy sci-fi fantasy universe and not just have anecdotes about diaper bags ... I didn’t want to tell a Star Wars adventure with these noble heroes fighting an empire. These are people on the outskirts of the story who want out of this never-ending galactic war ... I’m part of the generation that all we do is complain about the prequels and how they let us down ... And if every one of us who complained about how the prequels didn’t live up to our expectations just would make our own sci-fi fantasy, then it would be a much better use of our time.

 Brian K Vaughn

What am I working on for the next eternity (hopefully)? An epic new fantasy/sci-fi series with Brian K. Vaughan! It’s entirely creator-owned and will be out from Image in early 2012. This is one I can sink my teeth into.

                                                                    Fiona Staples 2011

Oh and Brian's REALLY busy right now!

Brian K Vaughn and Stephen King Under the Dome!

Oh and don't forget Brian and Marcos Martin's(More about him later this week)

'Can't buy from your local retailer because it's digital only but we are not bitter because we love it'

PAPER PLEASURES FOR WEDNESDAY 19TH JUNE

100 BULLETS BROTHER LONO #1 (OF 8) 

X-FILES SEASON 10 #1   

AVENGERS #14 INFINITY PRELUDE

                                                         BALTIMORE THE INQUISITOR ONE SHOT

&

AGE OF ULTRON #10 (OF 10)
ANIMAL MAN #21
BATWOMAN #21
BPRD HELL ON EARTH #108 WASTELAND #2 (OF 3)
EXTINCTION PARADE #1 
EXTINCTION PARADE #1 END OF SPECIES 
MARA #5 (OF 6) 
MINIATURE JESUS #3 (OF 5) 
NEW AVENGERS #7 NOW
OCCUPY COMICS #2
REVIVAL #11
SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #12 NOW
UNCANNY AVENGERS #9 NOW
WONDER WOMAN #21

For the complete list of titles shipping this Wednesday 

please check out the our shipping list link at the top of the blog.

SEE YOU WEDNESDAY!

THE LITTLE TOURTEL ESPRESSO SHOT 1

DAILY GRAPHITE

 BRIAN BOLLAND

WHO'S WHO IN THE DC UNIVERSE

PRELIMINARY 

DC COMICS

A Matter of life and Darth! (You are laughing with me right?)

Mr Jeffrey Brown is known to an astonishing amount of readers as the auteur behind Darth Vader and Son and Princess and postcards and notebook and calendar and spin off young readers book coming in September.

But to us older admirers of said Browns autobiographical oeuvre, this week is a cause for unabashed celebrations as this creator turns from the Dark Side Space Opera to the solipsistic soap opera of parental shenanigans!

"[A] characteristically heartfelt memoir." -- Booklist

In A Matter of Life, Jeffrey Brown draws upon memories of three generations of Brown men: himself, his minister father, and his preschooler son Oscar. Weaving through time, passing through the quiet suburbs and colorful cities of the midwest, their stories slowly assemble into a kaleidoscopic answer to the big questions: matters of life and death, family and faith, and the search for something beyond oneself. – A 96-page full-color hardcover graphic novel

Life and Death as filtered through Jeffrey sounds like a fairly safe bet for £11.

So 'Save the Date'-this Wednesday upon the front table!

SOMETHING NEW

BIOGRAFIKTION 

by Edition Biografiktion – 

A deluxe compendium of comics from the cult Berlin “Biografiktion” collective, this book is a riot of colourful illustration, wacky, deranged stories and celebrity escapades.

IN STOCK IN ALL ITS GLORY TODAY

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK:BATGIRL AND ROBIN YEAR ONE

494 PAGES!

MARCOS MARTIN

 &

 JAVIER PULIDO

£19!

THIS WEDNESDAY!

And this is REALLY good superheroics!

Publisher: DC COMICS

(W) Chuck Dixon, Scott Beatty (A) Marcos Martin & Various (CA) Marcos Martin, Alvaro Lopez

For the first time in one trade paperback, it's the year one tales of both Robin and Batgirl, from BATGIRL YEAR ONE #1-9 and ROBIN YEAR ONE #1-4. See what happens when Robin dons his costume for the first time, then learn how Barbara Gordon transformed from ordinary citizen to costumed super heroine.

FREE NEIL GAIMAN IN EVERY POLYBAGGED AGE OF ULTRON #10

I don't know why its in a bag.

(AGE OF ULTRON ISSUE 10

OUT 11AM THIS WEDNESDAY)

BUT I'M EVER SO CURIOUS...

Last time Marvel did this we lost the Human Torch.

It can't JUST be for Ex-Spawn Leggy Lovely Angela (Miss Karen Gillan age 25) 

Marvel Comics debut  as written by Mr Gaiman

CAN IT?

If life be a game of Scrabble as opposed to a combination of Risk, Operation and Buckaroo

I'd venture there be a K in that bag

along with an I

 and a M 

and a O 

and a T 

and an A

?

8th of April 2013

Newsarama: Axel, not sure how much you can speak to this right now, but given the recent Angela news, fans are naturally wondering about another character in a seemingly similar situation, Marvelman — is there any progress involving that character?

Axel Alonso: There has been progress. Considerable progress. And we’ll be making an announcement soon.

I’m a huge fan of Marvelman. I’m very excited about seeing him being published by Marvel.

                                                                                                   Worth a peek

Weekly Treats The First:DC!

                       

Sorry 
 for scarcity of recent postings your usual corespondent upon all thangs sequential has been conscripted into the land of poorlyville and we all wish his circuits a speedy recovery.

Unfortunately my ego forbids me to not sermonise from this mount or at least the little pitchers mound form Peanuts.
So for the next few weeks expect news and opinion.
 THIS WEEKS STUFF!

                           SCOTT SNYDER WEEK!

Batman, Superman and American Vampire! a bonifide Bendis for DC.
Wow though that is a serious amount of cash being generated by one creator in one week for one company, a combined dollar value of $17!
Still he seems like a lovely bloke and ever so warm in interviews and he also looks a little like the bloke playing Zod in the Man of Steel.

Continuing the cross platforming of media DC Comics tethers its SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #1 to the tent pole Man of Steel movie released this week.
Are you going to see it?
Henry looks the part and I suppose if Brainiac was attacking Sydney Street I'd be more than please to be carried away by him,but do I actually want to pay money to see ANOTHER SUPERMAN film?

Now you can apply that questioning toward the SUPERMAN UNCHAINED release because lets face it since the New 52 launch Superman hasn't fared that well.
 A parce the parcel of creators all trying to find an original angle, Grants Springsteen-ism (surely Guthrie-ism?) wore out its blue jean welcome quick and enough said of George Perez paleolithic run.

So I've had a peak at it and it looks fine in that Jim Lee polished product sort of way, and you get a fold out poster/BIG panel for FREE stuck inside and I do mean stuck! Use extreme caution upon extraction.

                BATMAN begins his YEAR ZERO this week!
 A risky move editorially I would say to move your best selling title out of current continuity for a whole year still in Scott we Trust(well apart from the non ending of Death of The Family)

Cover is a wee disappointing with light embossing but the interior art from Greg Capullo is lovely now that the inking is a little lighter.
Oh and as announced by DC in the week this Year Zero idea is spreading into some of the other Batbooks come October, to turn it into a little EVENT!
YEAH?



 

Weekly Treats! In The Kitchen With Alain Passard & Godzilla!

Christophe Blain

Here's a wonderful hybrid of a book that utilises the potential of the medium in the vein of The Photographer by Emmanuel Guilbert (which told the real-life biography of a photographer mixing sequential art storytelling with the original photographs). In The Kitchen With Alain Passard (Chronicle) explores the world of the highly-regarded French chef, written and illustrated by another French master; Christophe Blain. This isn't really a biography; what it does is to convey the essence of the man and of his life at the moment by infusing actual recipes and 'how-to' illustrations with conversations with Passard, observations in the kitchen, tours of Passard's gardens and anecdotes from a junior chef colleague. Blain brings it all together by writing himself into the book - on one level it is almost a book about writing a book about a chef. This means that he is not only our gushing tour guide but also the method to communicate, in a slightly self-deprecatingly over-the-top way, the taste and aroma of the food. This is all done with Blain's usual economic but wonderfully expressive line-work. 

Taken from the French edition

Just as child-like Christophe Blain's love and enthusiasm for food drips off every page within In The Kitchen... with our second featured book there's also a sense that the creator was just itching to get their hands on the project. Looking at Godzilla: Half Century War (IDW) it feels as if writer/artist James Stokoe (previously of Orc Stain) is the proverbial kid in a sweet shop. There's fabulous energy to the artwork - any double page spread could be an old movie poster - but also a glorious attention to detail capturing both the scale and devastation of the destruction. The story takes us back to 1954 when Godzilla first hits Japan...

For the weeklies, there's a significant moment in Green Lantern #20 (DC) history with Geoff Johns' last bumper issue on his almost decade-spanning run of the series and a great cover on the impossibly hip Young Avengers #5 (Marvel). A new Tank Girl series is always welcome, this one - Solid State Tank Girl #1 (Titan) of 4 - showcases the nicely quirky artwork of Warwick Johnson-Cadwell and Occupy Comics #1 brings together comic legends such as Alan Moore and Art Spiegelman to pontificate on the themes, ideals and goals of the Occupy movement whilst raising money for the cause.

Full list of releases, as ever, under the tab at the top of the page...

I Can Do That! The Jonathan Cape/Observer/Comica Graphic Short Story Award 2013

Sequential illustrators hear me! It's time again to show the world what you're made of because the Jonathan Cape/Observer/Comica graphic short story competition up and running again for 2013; surely the biggest competition of its type in the UK. If you need any incentive, just look to the new release table in the shop which features previous winner Stephen Collins' The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil (Jonathan Cape - see here for our blog post). Or 2009 competition runner-up Joff Winterheart's Costa book award nominated Days of Bangold Summer (Jonathan Cape). Or the excellent work of 2008 winner Julian Hanshaw (see here).

Drawing process by Jessica Abel - see here

Stephen Collins will be on the panel assessing the entries but for a list of all the judges and examples of past entries flick over to TheGuardian website (see here) and for entry details see here.

Weekly Treats! Regular Show, Ponies, Authority, Aquaman

Let's inject some colour and bare-faced jauntiness into the week by sticking Regular Show #1 (Kaboom) and My Little Pony vol 1 (IDW) at the top of the Weekly Treats post. Regular Show's subversiveness makes it an uncomfortable bedfellow for the "uncomplicated" sunniness of My Little Pony but I call them different sides of the same animated coin. Let's see if Regular Show can emulate anywhere near the sames success as the all-conquering Adventure Time (#1 is currently on its 4th print). As for My Little Pony, it's got a sparkly cover for crying out loud!!

Sticking with the colour theme Scott Pilgrim vol 3 (Oni) continues the colourised re-prints of Bryan Lee O'Mally's series and once again includes sketches and deleted scenes. These editions really do add a new dimension to the original (I'm sorry, I'm sorry if you've already got the original) and have thoroughly justified the venture into plush hardcover. 

On its original publication Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch's Authority was what is referred to as a 'game changer' - big, wide screen, violent action featuring mass destruction, huge armies and world-weary superheroes, barely holding themselves together and it was all done with a sense of sci-fi intelligence. Even now it's clear to see the influence it had on superhero comics. Authority vol. 1 (DC) collects #1-12 of the now out-of-print series that, in later volumes, saw a then little-known Mark Millar take over writing duties. Cracking stuff.









And finally for the books, Aquaman vol 2 The Others (DC) arrives in hardcover along with the first volume in paperback and Crossed: Wish You Were Here vol 2 (Avatar) which is the next volume printing the web-comic series, slightly tamer than the regular comic series.

Marvel recently confirmed the appearance of Neil Gaiman's Angela in the final issue (see here for a look-see) but for now we have the reality-warped Age of Ultron #8 of 10 and Captain Marvel appears to be unravelling in Avengers: The Enemy Within #1. Also out: a young man hunted for dreaming about a forgotten past in Dream Merchant #1 of 6 (Image) and the man himself has dropped in more mad-dog English-ness in Professor Elemental Comics #2.

The full list of this weeks releases can be found under the tab at the top of the page...

Swoon Now! The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil

"Beneath the skin of everything, is something nobody can know. The job of the skin is to keep it all in and never let anything show."

Smart, clear, playful but carefully designed pencil-work from Observer/Jonathan Cape short story winner Stephen Collins (see here for his website) in his rather enormous new graphic novel out now entitled The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil (Jonathan Cape); an hypnotic book that explores the nature of neat, knowable order and unpredictable, "evil" chaos lurking just beneath the surface (of the skin). UPDATE: See here for TheGuardian's glowing review.

Weekly Treats! Batman, Thieves & Detectives

Remember the old farmers saying: Bank Holiday fun, wait an extra couple of hours for your comics! Should all be done by lunchtime but keep an eye on Twitter updates for the real time progress.

So, this week sees Matt Kindt make more hay whilst the sun shines. Hot on the heels of Mind MGMT comes Red Handed Fine Art Strange Crimes (First second), a crime story that promises to be as fractured as the title. Detective Gould is a super-sleuth who gets into difficulty trying to solve crimes that appear too odd and random to conform to regular profiling. Also, Zombie king Robert Kirkman lends some writing time to Thief of Thieves vol 2: Help Me (Image), co-written by James Asmus and illustrated by Shawn Martinbrough.

There's also Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 vol 3: Guarded (Dark Horse) and one of the most famous of the early Constantine story lines in the slow chronological reprinting of the series - Hellblazer vol 5 Dangerous Habit (Vertigo) finds the Johnny dying from his nicotine addiction.

Two Batman books dominate the superhero releases: First is  Batman Incorporated vol. 1 Demon Star(DC). Grant Morrison's take on Batman will be wrapping up soon leaving behind a huge body of work and carving his name on a large chunk of Batman history for years to come. This volume is the beginning of the end marking a healthy collaboration with illustrator Chris Burnham. Also out is the paper back edition of original graphic novel Batman: Death By Design (DC) written by legendary designer Chip Kidd with striking pencil illustrations by Dave Taylor. 

Batman makes himself space on the comic shelves as well this week with both the Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo regular series and Batman Incorporated, both on #20 (DC). From Marvel it's a very Avengers-centric week (and if you picked up a copy of the Infinity prelude on FCBD then you'll be keeping an eye on Jonathan Hickman's titles) but I'll spotlight Thor: God of Thunder #8 because I think Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic have been working some magic there. After one of those sneaky #0's last month the first issue proper of Kieron Gillen and Caanan White's Uber #1 (Avatar) arrives - just your usual regular tale of very nasty Nazi super soldiers and a woman at the heart of it all trying to get her secret out to the allied forces. And finally, based on the tv show Grimm #1 (Dynamite).

Full list of releases under the tab at the top of the page...