Batman: Death By Design

Batman: Death By Design is a new hardcover graphic novel (with its release being tomorrow, Wednesday, May 31st) written by award winning graphics designer, Chip Kidd and illustrated by Dave Taylor. There's another new hardcover Batman graphic novel coming out in July (Batman: Earth One by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank), but I'm glad that DC released Batman: Death By Design before that book because Batman: Death By Design definitely should not be overlooked!

Just look at this lush interior page from Batman: Death By Design as drawn by Dave Taylor, doesn't it evoke the artistic beauty of Moebius!? Well this entire graphic novel is a visual delight, with a story by Chip Kidd that features Batman in a 1930s setting that some may call an Elseworlds narrative (meaning it doesn't take place in "regular" DC Universe continuity). This is a very different kind of Batman story with the Gotham architecture factoring in heavily in the plot, but no less thrilling and a couple of Batman's rogue's gallery show up to great effect. Batman: Death By Design is an over-sized 105 page beautiful graphic novel with very interesting color work (also done by artist, Dave Taylor) for a mere $24.99!

Are You My Mother?; Alison Bechdel

The most anticipated graphic novel of the year has arrived! Said graphic novel is Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel, her first new long form sequential art memoir since her highly acclaimed Fun Home (which is mostly about her father, who was a closeted homosexual, and how it was growing up within a family that owned a funeral home) back in 2006. Having finished reading Are You My Mother? this past Sunday, I'm here to tell you that Alison Bechdel's new graphic novel memoir, which is mostly about her relationship with her mother, is every bit as excellent as Fun Home.

One of the reasons for the long interim between Fun Home and Are You My Mother? is, if I could be permitted to speculate, Alison Bechdel's wrestling with her relationship with her mother and how to best convey their divisions in a graphic novel memoir (additionally, while Bechdel's cartooning art style is very appealing to the eye, drawing is something that is a VERY long process for her). Another large aspect of Are You My Mother? is Alison Bechdel's sessions with therapists she's gone to and an examination of psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott.

Are You My Mother? does have odd traces of humor throughout, but ultimately, Are You My Mother? is Alison Bechdel's highly personal account of the difficulty her and her mother have relating to each other. While reading and upon finishing Are You My Mother?, you'll think about your own relationship with your mother, and while reflecting upon this isn't always as rewarding as you'd like, Are You My Mother? may very well help you better process your relationship with your mother as well as being a rich, engrossing look into Alison Bechdel and her mother's relationship. I give Are You My Mother? Ich Liebe Comics! highest recommendation (and I'll have more copies of Fun Home in next week)!

FCBD 2012: WOW pt.3!

Having artists sketching for people is always a fun time, so I was glad that (from left to right) my friends, Rick Tucker (all the way from Florida for the second year in a row!), Warren Wucinich (who is coloring the Courtney Crumin comics and graphic novels that just started coming out!), Sam Gorrie (she's also Warren's art studio mate and works as a caricaturist down on Fremont Street), and Brice Gilgens (he's going to be one of the featured artists at the next RAW Event at the Royal House on Thursday, May 24th - check out his facebook page for more info) could be part of the day. At the far right in the Thor costume, is Kit Kendall (Brice's gal!).

Sam and Warren!

A FUN Wonder Woman illo by Sam Gorrie!

Here's Tigra holding a cool Tigra sketch that Brice Gilgens did for her!

Julian Shimp (on the right), with a friend of his, holding their finely rendered drawings that Rick Tucker did for them! I'd like to give another HUGE thanks to the artists, Rick, Warren, Brice, and Sam for staying beyond their scheduled time and making so many people happy, to Zena aka Olive Oyl and my wife Kate and Christie for their tremendous greeting and raffle help, and to my other friends / worker bees, Paul, Jim, and Michelle, for their outstanding efforts keeping the rest of the store run as smoothly as it did last Saturday!! FCBD 2012 wouldn't have been possible without all of the creators and production people of the FCBD titles, the Diamond Comic Distributors staff who made sure the trains ran on time, and the grandmaster of Free Comic Book Day himself, Joe Field (of Flying Color Comics in Concord, California), who invented this day eleven years ago (!!), so a HUGE tip of my hat in thanks to all of you! And none of these aforementioned thank yous would be possible were it not for the awesome friends / patrons that Alternate Reality Comics has that came out last Saturday and again, I'd like to thank you all for making my store part of your FCBD 2012 celebration!

FCBD 2012: WOW pt. 2!

Kit Kendall (here in costume as a lovely Thor) has been part of Alternate Reality Comics' FCBD celebrations for the last two years now and has been at many of our events as Harley Quinn. This year Kit debuted her new Thor costume and it was a BIG crowd pleaser! My friend Jason (and friend to all of the greater Las Vegas comic book community) also dressed as another alternate reality Thor (grin), so along with Kit's Thor, there was a lot of power at Alternate Reality Comics for FCBD 2012!

Dave Jurvelin's always awesome daughters! Dave is growing his daughters up right (grin!), in addition to being a high school teacher (and swim coach) in his spare time when he's not the big Las Vegas comic book fan he is (grin)!

Another photo of my friend Zena, rocking her Olive Oyl, alongside Sam Gorrie as Wonder Woman! Sam was also one of the local artists that drew for people last Saturday!

Great local artist, Damien Drake, seen here as a Skrull Wolverine, with Regina, and her daughter, Tigra! When Skrull Wolvie came into my store last Saturday, I had no idea that he was Damien (sorry to blow your secret identity, Damien!)! Besides the three of them coming in such fantastic costumes, Damien gifted me one of his paintings that was part of the Artist Spotlight section of Alternate Reality Comics a few months ago (I'll be hanging this here at the store to share with everyone)! Two other friends of Kate and I, Tony and Theresa, came by for FCBD 2012 with their Arizona artist friend, David Rabbitte, who gifted me and Kate with two beautiful Star Wars prints (I have an awesome color drawing he did of Epstein as Captain America he did for me a couple of years ago here at the store also)! I am very fortunate indeed to have so many great friends who share my passion for comics!

Here we have a couple of two of the BEST Captain America's you'll see anywhere! Heath Randall is one half of Vegas' uber fans / comic power couple (his lovely wife, Brieanna Brock Randall, who is also the queen of cosplay in Las Vegas, was very disappointed that she couldn't make it this past Saturday, so you'll have to see her debut her Batwoman costume in two weeks at the Phoenix Con!)! I've got a LOT more photos from FCBD 2012 on my Alternate Reality Comics, Las Vegas! facebook page, so I hope you'll check those out if you haven't already seen them! Please check out the entry below for part three of my FCBD 2012 entries (and part one is, of course, above) in which you'll see some art from the artists I had out. Ugh, well the order isn't as described it above and I'd like to apologize for the lack of paragraph breaks as blogger isn't working as it has previously.

FCBD 2012: BIG WOW pt. 1!

Free Comic Book Day gets bigger every year and this years' 11th annual one was no exception, other than that the increase from last year was even bigger than any year to year increase previously! The first Saturday is always such a busy day in Vegas, with so many other events going on, so I'm especially grateful to EVERYONE who came out to Alternate Reality Comics FCBD celebrations (especially as Vegas has so many great comic book stores!)! I had soooo many great friends / worker bees helping me out here last Saturday, including Kate and our friend, Christie (seen here in her lovely Star Trek uniform)!

SO many peoples came in all day to get some great FREE comics, sketches from local artists (and a visiting Florida artist / friend), and just bask in the fun that FCBD is!

The real Fantastic Four! Huge thanks to the Very Awesome Girls Into Nerdy Activities for helping make the fun atmosphere at Alternate Reality Comics even funner (?)!

As I said above, I have great friends, who are also great worker bees, such as Jim and Michelle, who took care of people on the main deck of the store, and Paul, who helped people with their FREE comic selections all day!

My good friends, Rick and Zena, who sadly for me live all the way in Florida, were in town for a few days and graciously helped out. Zena, along with Kate and Christie, took it upon herself to greet people as they entered Alternate Reality Comics and made sure they got raffle tickets for tickets we had to give away for the upcoming Las Vegas Comic Expo and Batman Live! I was happily surprised when Zena told me she was going to be Olive Oyl (Popeye's gal, of course!)! We also had the Sausagefest Food Truck out for a few hours and I'd like to say that their veggie sausage with roasted pineapples and onions was uber delicious! Part two and three of my FCBD 2012 entries continues below, with more photos of people who came in costume and an entry on the artists that were sketching for many happy people (the blog template I use here only allows five photos per entry, that's why this is in three parts). Again, sorry that these three entries aren't in the right order, blogger is being weird - thanks for reading Ich Liebe Comics!

Free Comic Book Day 2012, tomorrow!!

Just in case any of my beloved Ich Liebe Comics! readers have been asleep or off the grid for the last month or so and don't already know the following, here's the lowdown: The 11th Annual Free Comic Book Day is just around the corner! Free Comic Book Day is exactly what it sounds like, a day the comic book industry has done for the past eleven years to promote how amazing comics are to the public at large! Some of this years Free Comics are: DC's The New 52!, Marvel's Avengers: Ultron, Spongebob, Adventure Time, Dinosaurs Vs. Aliens (written by Grant Morrison!), A Star Wars / Serenity flipbook, Image 20 (celebrating 20 years of Image Comics), The Guild, actually too many to list here, but the MUST HAVE one this year will be Archaia's Mouse Guard / Labyrinth FREE HARDCOVER!! At Alternate Reality Comics, the FREE comics will flow until 6pm, but from 10am-2pm we'll have local artists Warren Wucinich, Brice Gilgens, Sam Gorrie (she'll be sporting her Wonder Woman costume), and my friend, Rick Tucker (all the way from Florida!), doing sketches for people, the Sausagefest Food Truck will also be here from 10am-2pm (and I'm told they have some vegetarian options), and there will be costumed helper bees such as Thor Girl (Kit Kendall) and others (like the Very Awesome Girls Into Nerdy Activities) helping to make sure that your 2012 FCBD experience is the best one yet! So come on by for a guaranteed fun time and then head out to the theater to see the FANTASTIC Avengers movie!

Darth Vader and son; Jeffrey Brown

Darth Vadar and son is a new hardcover one panel per page cartoon book by Jeffrey Brown (The Incredible Change-Bots, Cats Are Weird, and Unlikely). The premise is totally gonzo, because Darth Vader wouldn't be Darth Vader if he did the father and son stuff Jeffrey Brown shows here, but this book will put you in a happy place regardless. That's all I have to say here, because you'll either look at the cover and interior page I've shared here and you'll know right away if this book is for you. I feel like I should have ordered a million copies!