Monday, April 16, 2012

Courtney Crumin V.1 The Night Things

Courtney Crumin, written and drawn by Ted Naifeh, has its roots as a twelve issue black and white comic that spanned two mini series that were then collected into four black and white trade paperbacks that are out of print. Well fret not, because now the new publisher of Courtney Crumin, Oni Press, is bringing these graphic novels back into print, in color for the first time, as well as launching a new ongoing Courtney Crumin comic!

Here's something that may shock some of you: I've never read Courtney Crumin before! Don't ask me why I haven't because I loved the art and other comics by Ted Naifeh! So when I heard that a good friend and local Vegas artist, Warren Wucinich was going to be coloring both the graphic novels and the ongoing comic, I knew this was my chance to finally read this comic and bring more great art into my life (and store - grin!)!

The colors by Warren Wucinich are simply gorgeous as anyone can see from the cover and interior page seen here (and please stop by Alternate Reality Comics and flip through a copy for yourself if you need further proof)! Courtney Crumin looked perfectly fine in black and white, but Warren's colors really do put this book on a higher platform. Is the story good and what's it about!? The story is great and in a nutshell, Courtney is a schoolgirl whose parents move the whole family to live with their eccentric, rich uncle. Courtney has to go to a different school and she's not the kind of kid who adapts well with other kids. Instead she comes across some magic tomes in her uncle's library, starts reading them, and goes about practicing some of the spells within.

If you'd like an inexpensive introduction to the world of Courtney Crumin, you just need to pick up the first issue of the ongoing series (both this and the first new color graphic novel came out last Wednesday) and you'll get a sense of the tone of this comic book. It does take place after the fourth graphic novel, but you won't be lost not having read those first four graphic novels yet, you'll just get an impression that there's other backstory that has taken place. Courtney Crumin is an all ages title that doesn't speak down to younger readers and will engage older readers as well.

Warren Wucinich, the color artist of Courtney Crumin, is a fine artist in his own right and you can see this for yourself by coming to the 11th Annual Free Comic Book Day at Alternate Reality Comics, Saturday, May 5th, as Warren will be one of the local artists doing sketches (so you can get some FREE comics, a cool sketch, and give Warren some ego strokes about his coloring!) on that day - do not miss this!

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