Ich Liebe Comics !

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Shade #12; James Robinson & Gene Ha

The Shade is a twelve issue series, published by DC Comics, that just concluded with an issue written by the series' writer, James Robinson and drawn by Gene Ha. anyone who has read James Robinson's epic Starman comic, now collected in six omnibus editions by DC, were very much looking forward to this Shade maxi-series, as Shade was one of the central characters of that series. As with Starman, with the main artistry of Tony Harris and Peter Snejbjerg, this Shade series also had excellent art by some of the mediums best, such as Darywn Cooke, Jill Thompson, Jarvier Pulido, and Frazer Irving. Shade #12, featured the art of Gene Ha and as you can tell from this title page above, he was the perfect choice to conclude this series with James Robinson. If you're not already familiar with Starman or the Shade, I'm just going to say that James Robinson and his stellar artist collaborators, comics with said characters, is the very definition of EPIC, beautiful sequential art storytelling.

Do yourself a favor and get the Starman collections, the Shade maxi-series, and or the Shade collection when it arrives! And Las Vegas has two treats in store for them relating to this comic, specifically Shade #12, with artist Gene Ha being the top billed guest of honor at this year's Vegas Valley Comic Festival at the Clark County Library, Saturday, November 3rd, and writer James Robinson, will be one of Alternate Reality Comics' special guests Sunday, October 21st (more details on this last tidbit very soon)!!

Friday, September 7, 2012

Fashion Beast #1; And now for something completely different...

This week, the first issue of Avatar's ten issue adaptation of Alan Moore and Malcolm McClaren's screenplay for a movie that never happened, Fashion Beast, arrived, illustrated by Facundo Percio. Moore and McClaren (manager of the Sex Pistols) wrote Fashion Beast in the early / mid 1980s, but as Antony Johnson's adaptation shows, even with just this first issue, Fashion Beast looks to be one of Alan Moore's finest creations.

In the solicitations and of Fashion Beast, this series is being described as a dark version of Beauty and the Beast, and that works as far as sound-bite descriptions go. Basically, the first issue introduces us to Doll Seguin, a transgender person, who works as a hat-check clerk at an upscale club as well as other characters who are sure to become more intertwined to the larger story as Fashion Beast unfolds. And there's definitely other things on a beneath the surface level going on within this first issue that will make readers want to see how this all comes together. Fashion Beast is truly a comic unlike any other comic being published today.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Wizzywig; Ed Piskor

Another great graphic novel that was released a few months ago that I finally got around to reading (working on lots of behind the scenes things for upcoming events here in the Las Vegas comic commmunity and the store) is Ed Piskor's Wizzywig, published by Top Shelf. Wizzywig is based on nine real real-life computer hackers, with the central character, Kevin "Boingthump" Phenicle, being a conglomerate of "adventures" those nine hackers actually had.

Ed Piskor's Wizzywig, is a thoroughly engrossing, entertaining graphic novel (300 pages, only $19.95, for another beautifully designed Top Shelf production) that will have you alternating between cheering on the protaginist as he gets away with his hacking schemes and cheering on the law as they catch up to him (depending on how you feel about free acess to information and or how annoyed you become when you end up with a computer virus). You may even learn a thing or twelve, such as the latter section of Wizzywig, in which Kevin, the hacker, now in prison, tells you how you can wash your clothes in the toliet (line the toliet with a trash liner and fill it with sink water) or how you can cook ramen noodles and light your cigarettes with an electrical wire (gplugging it in, but avoid touching the exposed end part of the wire).

Monday, August 27, 2012

Trinity A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb

I finally got around to reading Trinity A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb (it arrived about two months ago) and it was even better than I'd hoped it would be! Trinity is written and drawn by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm and as the title suggests, it is a graphic novel exploration of the people and science behind the first atomic bomb.

Jonathan Fetter-Vorm, in Trinity's 152 pages, manages to give readers a history lesson of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, gives a good overview of the science involved with splitting atoms, and does this without making Trinity a chore to read, like history books often can be. Fetter-Vorm also details the period of time during which the atomic bomb was being developed (the latter part of World War II) and shows that the U.S. felt dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the only way that Japan would surrender (more Japanese people had died in incendiary bombing missions on Tokyo before the Trinity test than from both atomic bombs combined, which I hadn't known, but those bombings happened over a period of time). If you don't already have an understanding of the devastating power of this bomb, Trinity will drive this home to you and you'll also marvel at how much work and ingenuity it took to make the Manhattan Project "successful". Another HUGE recommendation from Alternate Reality Comics and Ich Liebe Comics!

Monday, August 20, 2012

The Red Diary / The Re(a)d Diary; Teddy Kristiansen & Steven T. Seagle

The Red Diary / The Re(a)d Diary is a new graphic novel originally published in Europe in French and Dutch written and drawn by Teddy Kristiansen. Last week, Image released a new version written by Steven T. Seagle (Seagle has collaborated with Kristiansen in the past including on one of my all time favorite graphic novels, It's A Bird). This graphic novel wasn't re-written by Steven T. Seagle as a means of "fixing" the original work, it's really a long story (that's interestingly detailed within in the liner notes). Actually what Seagle has done is rather unique: he's taken Kristiansen's story and art and made a flip book graphic novel (the first of its kind, I believe) that's also two new stories using Kristiansen's art twice. This sounds like it would be an interesting sequential art experiement even if there wasn't any real content weight to the stories, but here we have a the best of both worlds, as The Red Diary / The Re(a)d Diary is one of the VERY BEST graphic novels I've read all year, with beautiful art, so actually this is a triple treat!

If you're looking for a couple of stories with existential themes set in Europe in the early 1900's (mostly during World War I), you need look no further, The Red Diary / The Re(a)d Diary is a rich graphic novel on so many levels (and only $29.99 for 140 over-sized full color painted pages). HUGE, HUGE, Alternate Reality Comics money back guarantee!

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Joe Kubert, thanks for your long artist legacy

This afternoon, I read the sad news that sequential art legend, Joe Kubert, has died at the age of 85 after being hospitalized from a brief illness. Joe Kubert had been drawing comics since the early 1940's and is most associated with drawing characters such as SGT. Rock, Haunted Tank, Enemy Ace, Tarzan, Viking Prince, and Hawkman, but even in his 70s and 80 years of age he was working on comics / graphic novels such as Fax from Sarajevo (which he won an Eisner for in 1997), Tor, Yossel: April 19, 1943, and Jew Gangster.

In 1976, Joe Kubert founded his Joe Kubert Art School in Dover, New Jersey (of which such art giants such as John Totleben, Steve Bissette, and Tom Yeates attended) and he taught there alongside his sons Adam and Andy. Joe Kubert has left an artistic legacy that is only matched by Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, and Steve Ditko, and while it is sad that we won't see any new art from his pencils (other than his excellent inks over his son, Andy Kubert's pencils on Before Watchmen Nite Owl), we are left with an enormous body of work from his over seventy (!!) years of artistic contributions to the comic book medium that will continue to inspire and influence people today and tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Before Watchmen Ozymandias #2; No sophmore slump here!

Gaze upon this cover - surely this is one of the most striking images / covers of the year! Those of you who have gotten Before Watchmen Ozymadias #1 already know that this is one of the most beautifully drawn comics currently being produced. Artist Jae Lee is going to be hard pressed to top the art he's doing on this series and the coloring by June Chung beautifuly complements the clean line work on display here. In Ozymandias #2, as with the first issue, Jae Lee draws deftly designed pages that simultaneously works as great eye candy while also showing that you don't have to just employ square or rectangular panels to show a great sequence of visual events.

The Before Watchmen Ozymandias writer, Len Wein, with the second issue (of six), continues to show the progression of Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias) as he embraces his second life as a costumed crime fighter and this comic is a joy to read and look at. Before Watchmen Ozymandias #2 will be at finer comic stores (including Alternate Reality Comics - grin!), tomorrow, Wednesday, August 8th!