Ich Liebe Comics !

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!

Monday, July 30, 2012

Not The Israel My Parents Promised Me; Harvey Pekar & J. T. Waldman

Not The Israel My Parents Promised Me is Harvey Pekar's last graphic novel and it seems to me to be a good bookend to the auto / biographical comics (American Splendor) and graphic novels he's written since the early 1970s. I certainly wish this wasn't Pekar's last graphic novel, but this book like his Cleveland, which was released a couple of months ago, were two works I heard him talk about when he and Alison Bechdel (Fun Home, Are You My Mother?) spoke at a presentation at the Clark County Library back in April of 2010 and when he died just three months later (July of 2010), I thought we'd not see these books, so I'm glad these two Harvey Pekar graphic novels were completed before his death.

Not The Israel My Parents Promised Me is Harvey Pekar's examination of the Jewish people's continuing struggle with their occupation of Israel as their state, expecially their continuing conflicts with their neighbors, Palestine. Harvey Pekar was raised in a Jewish family, but he fairly early on in his life, didn't see the Jewish state of Israel to be their land claim right as all (or a majority) of Jewish people do. Throughout Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me, Harvey Pekar and artist J. T. Waldman present a historical lineage of the Jewish people and the conflicts between Israel and Palestine, as well as a record of Pekar's personal history growing up Jewish and how he developed his differences. Not The Israel My Parents Promised Me presents different sides of the Israel and Palestine and Jewish perspectives that I've not been exposed to previously and I'd guess even a lot of Jewish people aren't aware of the history outlined in this graphic novel.

Friday, July 20, 2012

The Song of Roland; Michel Rabagliati

The 2009 multiple award-winning graphic novel, Paul a Quebec, has finally been released in the U.S., newly titled, The Song of Roland (which I think is a better title). The Song of Roland is written and drawn by Michel Rabagliati and is a beautiful sequential art narrative about Roland's life and death, that is sad, but at the same time shows a great life lived of a person (Roland) who gave a lot to his family in many ways and was given much in return. The Song of Roland isn't sappy or emotionally manipulative in any way, rather it just resonates as an honest portrait of a close-knit family.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Wild Children

Last week, a pleasant surprise of a comic came out from Image called, Wild Children, by Ales Kot, Riley Rossmo, Gregory Wright, and Clayton Cowles. This is one of those comics that is better to just experience for yourself rather than being told what it is about, the only thing I'm going to say about it is it is a kind of call to action. I'd also like to share the following quote that starts off Wild Children: "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." Mark Twain - And a line one of the characters says within Wild Children: "Did you ever think how the comics in your house are just like ecosystems at different ocean depths?"

Wild Children, a one shot 58 page comic for only $7.99, ask for it by name!