Review: Periphery #1-2

Periphery #1-2
O-P-P
$3.50 each

Anthologies are notoriously hard to pull off, especially if there's no overriding subject or theme. But with Periphery, publisher/writer/artist Omaha Perez has put togther a winner. Ranging from horror to humor to mythology, over the course of two issues the stories in these two 48-page anthologies never fail to entertain.

Prerz provides the art on about half of the entries; other creators involved are Steve Niles, Brian Horton, Mark Fearing, Eli S. Stone, Richard Raleigh, and Matthew Smith.

Niles is best known for his supernatural horror work for IDW & Dark Horse, but his story in issue #1, "Carsickness," drawn ably by Brian Horton, is a thrilling Tarantino-esque story about a convenience store robbery that goes in unexpected directions, with nary a vampire or werewolf in sight. Issue #1 also includes "The Handsomest Man in the World," A tongue-in-cheek spoof by Stone & Perez; "Closed Case," a two-page solo effort by Horton about a police interrogation with a shock twist ending; "In Deep," by Niles & Perez, about two guys who really can't stand each other who get stranded in outter space; and "The Story of Ganesha" by Raleigh & Perez, which I believe is a retelling of a Hindu myth and is probably the best story of the lot.

Both issues include a "Jerry: Caveman Inventor" story by Mark Fearing; both are quite funny with a wry sense of humor that builds to the end.

Iuees #2 also includes "The Novice" by Matthew Smith & Brian Horton, a mostly-silent tale about an unusual encounter between two warriors in the desert; and "Holmes," a solo effort by Perez (and featured as a flip-book), which reimagines Sherlock Holmes as a drugged-out maniac and Dr. Watson as his supplier-enabler. Of all the stories over the two issues, it is this last that didn't quite work for me, although that may be because I'm not much of a Sherlock Holmes fan so perhaps some of the jokes were lost on me.

Overall though this is a quality anthology, providing plenty of entertainment for your comic dollar, and shows that there's still plenty of life in the comic-sized anthology.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

(Review copies were provided by the publisher. A copy of Cenozoic #1 was also sent, although I reviewed that previously.)

New Library Comics: Week of August 1, 2005

Here are the comics we got in for our library collection last week:


Jarry, Grégory. L'os du gigot : photobiographie /Angoulême, France : ego comme x, 2004.

Kerkoš, Saša. An art of normal, everyday conversation : Harlem story /Celje : Samozal, 2001.

Micol, Hugues. 3 /Paris : Éditiosn Cornélius, 2001.

Peña, Nancy. Le cabinet chinois /Antony France : La boîte à bulles, 2003.

¡Que suerte! : zen mecánico. [Madrid] : [s.n.], [2003?]

Salazar, Souther. Fervler & Razzle /[Los Angeles] : No Questions Asked Publishing ; Crashlander Comix, 2004.

Sury, Caroline. Féroce agenda de Mars /Marseille : Le Dernier Cri, 2004.

Quick Alan Moore GN Reviews

A Small Killing
by Alan Moore & Oscar Zarate
Adman Timothy Hole has just landed a major Russian account. On his way to Russia he stops off in his home country, England, and the past comes back to haunt him; not just in the remembering of his mistakes and failures, but also in the preseance of the vision of a demonic child that only Tim can see, and who seems to be trying to kill him. In the end it's not much of a mystery, but it is cleverly constructed and does manage to evoke a solid emotional response. As Tim devolves into paranoia, we are brought right along with him through the pacing and the art.
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)



Top Ten: The Forty-Niners
by Alan Moore & Gene Ha
Journey with us now back to 1949, when Neopolis was still young and being populated by science heroes, now that the world had no real use for them after the war. Moore tells several interweaving narratives about the early days of the city, from the struggles of a young police department against organized vampire crime to the struggles of the new immigrants trying to adjust to life after war. The art by Ha and colorist Art Lyon is wonderful, fully evoking the feel of the past butting up against a gleeming future. Each page is packed not only with mood but also with small details that really make this book come alive. It's a story both epic in scope and human in its details, and along with the art is well worth the deluxe hardcover treatment.
Rating: 4 (of 5)

Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

Today's cover is Forbidden Worlds #132, from November 1965. The cover by Kurt Schaffenberger (as Pete Costanza) features Magicman going into battle against The Ancient Ape, who apparently has a penchant for armored car robberies.

(standard disclaimer about apes not really being monkeys applies)

Image courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.

Yet Another Music Blog

Announcing a new addition to the Yet Another Blog Family: Yet Another Music Blog.

Just as YACB focuses on comics, YAMB will focus on music. My tastes in music are nearly as eclectic as my tastes in comics, so it should make for interesting blogging. There's not much there yet--just a welcome announcement--but look for content to grow in the days ahead.

There's also a new companion online radio station: Yet Another Music Radio.

Don't worry, I'll continue to blog about comics right here on YACB--Monkey Covers and all!

The new blog is just the start of the celebration of our one year Blogiversary. Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks for more exciting happenings, including our big giveaway event that will be announced next weekend and run through the week of August 15th. Stay tuned!

Quick GN Reviews

Sleeper, book 3: A Crooked Line
by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips

Reprinting the first half of the second 'season,' this collection finds the title character Holden Carver caught between the machinations of his boss, the international criminal TAO, and his former boss, the newly revived John Lynch. Realizing that he's but a pawn in whatever twisted machinations these two are pulling, Holden is looking to make sense of his place in this grey world, and somehow to find his way out. Brubaker has specialized of late in writing about the gritty side of super-powered worlds, and Sleeper ranks up there with Gotham Central in playing to his strengths as a writer. Phillips is the perfect artist for this type of book. His inky, hard-edged realism fits the main thrust of the story to a tee, but when a banana-headed alien needs to make an appearance, he can handle that just as well. Book four is due out in September, and I'm looking forward to reading the endgame of this highly entertaining series.
Rating: 4 (of 5)



Batman: Death and the Maidens
by Greg Rucka & Klaus Janson

Let's talk about the art first, because according to the front- and endnotes that's where the genesis of this comic lies: in the desire of Klaus Janson to do a Batman story. Janson is best known as an inker, particularly for his work over Frank Miller on Daredevil and The Dark Knight Returns. But he's also an accomplished penciller, as his work here illustrates. The layouts are exciting and dynamic, without being overly flashy. This is a good looking Batman comic--helped by the effective colors of Steve Buccellato--and that alone would probably be enough to recommend it. But in addition, Janson's writer of choice, Greg Rucka, turns in a fine story as well. The notes also make clear that the genesis of the story wasn't easy--this book went through several format changes, from a hardcover OGN to a four-issue prestige series to its final configuration as a nine-part mini-series--but the end result is a well-told self-contained Batman story that also manages to fit into the larger Batman myth. Rucka takes the opportunity to push forward the long-stagnating saga of Ra's al Ghul, introducing a previously unknown immortal daughter of Ra's and putting Batman in the crossfire of their ongoing conflict. Rucka also allows batman to explore his own psychology, examining why exactly after all these years Bruce Wayne sees it as his mission to be a vigilante instead of having undertaken a more productive role in mainstream society. For fans of Ra's al Ghul this is a must-read addition to the saga; for everyone else it will serve as a good looking, well-written chunk of Batman comics.
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

Like Printing Money

Via BookSlut's SDCC coverage, Raina Telgemeier is doing graphic novel adaptations of The Baby-sitters Club for Scholastic. This seems like the perfect storm for audience and content. It will also probably not sell in most comic shops, although I'm sure it'll make a killing in bookstores, and sell well to libraries too. And don't Scholastic do one of those buy-books-through-the-school things? I'd think that a smart comic store would have a couple of these on hand, prominently displayed near the front of the store, for browsing by little sis when she gets dragged along with big brother.

New This Week: August 3, 2005

Based on the NCRL list for this week's comics shipping from Diamond, here are a few things to look for at the local comic shop tomorrow:


The Pick of the Week is Top Ten: The Forty-Niners from DC/WildStorm/ABC. Yes, it's an expensive hardcover OGN, but it's Alan Moore telling the history of the Top Ten universe, and with art by Gene Ha you just know that's it's going to look fabulous in this upscale production.


In other comics:

Abstract have the seventy-fifth issue of Strangers in Paradise.

Active Images have the new Hip Flask: Mystery City one-shot.

Alias debut the second volume of the fun Opposite Forces, at just 75 cents.

Dark Horse have the second issue of Serenity (I'll be getting the Jo Chen cover.)

DC bring on the Alan Moore love, as in addition to the Top Ten OGN they also have a collection of The Ballad of Halo Jones, with art by Ian Gibson. Other trades include a collection of The Sandman Presents: Thessaly, Witch for Hire and DC's Greatest Imaginary Stories. New comics include the debut of Alex Ross's Super Friends-inspired Justice, as well as new issues of The Return of Donna Troy (#3), Gotham Central (#34), The Intimates (#10), JSA (#76), Swamp Thing (#18), and Y, the Last Man (#36).

Digital Manga have the debuts of Antique Bakery for the yaoi fans, and Bambi & Her Pink Gun for the cute-punk/goth-chicks-with-firearms fans.

IDW have the third Legend of Grimjack collection.

Kenzer & Co. have the latest issue of Knights of the Dinner Table (#105).

Marvel have the debut of the Gaiman-less Marvel 1602: New World, plus a new issue of Ultimate Spider-Man (#81).


And that's it. Not a great number of items, but there's several expensive trades and GNs, so you should have no trouble spending your money this week!

New Library Comics: Week of July 25, 2005

Here are the comics we got in for our library collection last week:


Kobayashi, Makoto, 1958- What's Michael? /Milwaukie, Ore. : Dark Horse Comics, 1997-1998. v. 6-9

Millionaire, Tony. Sock Monkey /Milwaukie, OR : Dark Horse Comics, c1998- v. 3/4

Miyazaki, Hayao, 1941- Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind /San Francisco, CA : VIZ, LLC, c2004- v. 7

Best of July

In this post I'm reprinting reviews of items for which I gave a rating of 4 or better in the month of July:


The Surrogates #1
by Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele

Top Shelf are mostly known for publishing indy comic anthologies and B&W OGNs, so what are they doing publishing a scifi noir as a glossy color limited series? I don't know, but since the results are so good, I don't really care about the reasons. Fifty years in the future, a couple on their way home from a bar are attacked and electrocuted in an alley. But it turns out that these aren't people who have died, but rather their surrogates. In this future world, 'surrogates' are artificial bodies employed by people to interact with the real world while they sit around all day in their crummy little apartments. Yeah yeah, it's a metaphor, but it serves to put a twist on the murder mystery. I don't recall ever encountering work by either of the creators before, but what I see here impresses me. The art by Weldele is a simple pen-and ink style that echoes somewhat Bill Sienkiewicz or Ben Templesmith, colored in a moody Vertigoesque palatte. Author/creator Venditti & Weldele create a world and give us the parameters of its functioning within the confines of the story; they never stop to explain something but rather let the explainations come about naturally and as needed. (Although a text piece posing as a faux-academic article at the end fills in some of the background, it is not necessary reading for the story.) All in all this is a promising start to the series; I just wish it was being published more frequently than quarterly.
Rating: 4 (of 5)



Gotham Central #33
by Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker, Kano & Stefano Gaudiano

A kid in a Robin costume shows up dead in an alley, apparently haven fallen from the rooftops above. We know it's not the 'real' Robin, and to their credit most of the GCPD think that it probably isn't either, but they have to go through the motions anyway, treating this as a redball case and working around the unwanted participation/interference of a certain caped vigilante. This is Brubaker's swansong before he goes off to waste his talents in an exclusive at Marvel, and he and Rucka have chosen a doosy of a premise to run with. They make lemonade out of lemons, using the stupid post-War Games status quo between Batman and the police to come up with a plot that could only work if they're not talking to each other. This is also the debut of the 'new' art team as Kano & Gaudiano switch duties; it works well: Kano provides clean layouts, good figurework and strong storytelling while Gaudiano's inks give it all a gritty edge. This continues to be one of the best comics published monthly by DC.
Rating: 4 (of 5)



Sweaterweather
by Sara Varon

Sweaterweather is a collection of mostly wordless short stories about a bunch of little anthropomorphic animals (and a snowman) going about life in the city. Most of the stories take place during the cold months of late autumn to early spring, hence the title. It may not sound exciting, but the stories have a certain sweetness and Varon is an excellent storyteller. It many ways this comic reminds me of Andy Runton's Owly, although the stories in Sweaterweather have a bit more of an edge. Most of the book is in black and white (well, actually black and navy blue) but in the back there's a color section with cleaver paper dolls, stamps and postcards. This is a fun book that can be enjoyed by comic readers of all ages.
Rating: 4 (of 5)



Freaks of the Heartland
by Steve Niles and Greg Ruth

Several years ago in the small farming community of Gristlewood Valley, several gave birth to severly deformed--some would say unnatural--children. Some were killed, while others were locked away, living all of the existance in cellars or barns. Young Trevor knows that his younger brother Will is different, but he also knows that Will has a good heart and its not fair for Will to be locked away, never able to play in the sun. But this secret is eating away at the people of the valley, and when events build towards a violent head Trevor decides to break Will out and they make a run to escape the valley. Although there are monsters in the story (and not all of them are the deformed children) this isn't exactly a horror story; it falls into a traditio nof stories that I've always refered to as 'American Gothic'--tales of secrets and evil and things not quite right in small towns and rural communities. There is violence in Freaks of the Heartland, but it mostly occurs just off panel. Niles isn't going for shocks here, but rather trying to disturb. What really makes this work is the art of Ruth; detailed pen and ink drawings combine with the earthy computer color pallate to create an environment that evokes the warm heartland in which this disturbing tale is set. If you like your horror stories to be about events and characters and mood rather than blood and guts, you'll find Freaks of the Heartland quite to your liking.
Rating: 4 (of 5)



Banana Sunday #1
by Root Nibot & Colleen Coover

Kirby Steinberg is the new girl at Forest Edge High School, but she's not just any new girl. Kirby comes with three talking monkeys in tow: Chuck, the super-intelligent orangutan ego; Go-Go, the always hungry gorilla id; and Knobby, the sensitive babe-magnet monkey superego. Kirby claims that her three talking monkey companions are the results of her scientist father's experiments with accellerated leaning abilities, but Nickels, Kirby's new best friend and reporter for the school paper, suspects that may not be the whole truth. Add in Martin, the cute boy photographer who comes to Kirby's aid when her clutziness gets the better of her, and you have the makings of a fun series. There's a general atmosphere of fun and the humor is often gentle and subtle, except for Go-Go whose antics at times are downright laugh-out-loud funny. The big attraction for this book of course is the wonderful art from Colleen Coover, stepping out from the erotic-comix ghetto to prove that she can do high school situational and physical comedy for an all-ages audience. It's all there: figures, backgrounds, storytelling, and a sureness of line; Coover makes it look easy, and gets to draw plenty of cute girls and talking monkeys. I'm sure you'll be tempted to wait for the trade, but there's plenty enough story and fun here to justify spending $3 on each individual issue; then you can get the inevitable trade when it comes out and share it with all your friends.
Rating: 4 (of 5)



Desolation Jones #2
by Warren Ellis & J. H. Williams III

While the first issue led us to believe that this was yet another take on the usualy Ellis archetypal main character, this second issue explores Jones further and proves him to have greater depth than we might have previously realized. Namely, this protagonist has something that other Ellis types do not: empathy. He also has a sense of compassion, all expertly realized in the extended scene between Joens & Emily Crowe, the woman whose body has been modified to produce fear and revulsion in every person (except for Jones). It's downright touching, something I wasn't expecting. If Ellis can keep playing against expectations, combined with the superb art by Williams (which I could go on about, but I don't have to since Jog does such a good job of praising the art on his blog) we might have another winner on our hands.
Rating: 4 (of 5)

Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

Today's cover is Tarzan #206, from February 1972. The cover painting by George Wilson features Tarzan battling "English speaking gorillas with minds and desires of ferocious beasts!"

(standard disclaimer about gorillas not really being monkeys applies)

Image courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.

SNAP!

Apparently there's going to be a new Small Press Comix Expo-type event right here in Southeast Michigan on October 29: SNAP!

Very Cool. I've already marked it on my calendar.

(link via Rampage)

Quick Spider-Man GN Reviews

Spectacular Spider-Man, vol. 5: Sins Remembered
by Sara Barnes, Scot Eaton & Cam Smith

One of the most talked about super-hero stories of last year was "Sins Past," the Spider-Man story by JMS that revealed that Gwen Stacy had been seduced by Norman "Green Goblin" Osborn and had twins shortly before her death. Those twins were lightly super-powered with advanced strangth and agility and were rapidly aging, and had a mad-on for Peter Parker. At the end, Gabe was seemingly dead and Sarah--who was the spitting image of her mother--went back to France. This wholly unnecessary sequel picks up a few months later, as Peter parker is called to France after Sarah reportedly attempts suicide by pills. Peter soon discoveres that Sarah is in trouble with a local drug lord due to debts incurred by her brother, and that Sarah also has a crush on him. It may not sound like it by my description, but for the plot to continually move forward it's required that the main participants act stupid most of the time. In Sarah's case this can be forgiven, since despite that fact that she looks like a hot twenty-something babe she is actually just ten-years-old, but Peter and Mary Jane should know better. Clichés abound, including that old chestnut of a person's siginificant other walking in the room just as he/she is being kissed by Object of Jealousy even though the attraction is unrequited. Eaton's art is competent enough in the light T&A style that's so popular these days, and he draws Sarah wearing plenty of tight sweaters--though at least she's not prancing around for three pages in her underwear.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Spider-Man: India
by Jeevan J. Kang & Gotham Studios Asia

For some reason Indian comics producers Gotham Studios Asia wanted to produce a homegrown version of Spider-Man--so they did. The result is Spider-Man: India, which sees Spidey's origin reframed as mystical rather than technological, and the names of the characters Indianized (e.g. Peter Parker becomes Pavitr Prabhakar and Mary Jane becomes Meera Jain). Of course Pavitr is still the school outcast (he's a scholarship student from the country), Meera Jain is still hot and nice, Flash is still a jerk, and Uncle Bihm still has to die. Spidey fights versions of the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus and learns that with great power comes great responsibility. Except for the surface changes tehre's really nothing much new here. The art is by Kang and the studio, and it has that weird quality of sameness yet slight inconsistancy that can only arise from studio work.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Marvel Knights Spider-Man, vol. 3: The Last Stand
by Mark Millar, Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson

Let's see, where were we: oh yes, Aunt May has been kidnapped (again!) and Norman Osborne is behind it. He wants Spdier-Man to break him out of prison in exchange for her life, and Peter shuts his brain completely off and goes along with the plan. Meanwhile, The Scorpion becomes the new Venom and the secret history of super-villains is uncovered; and Mary Jane gets jealous, though at least she does the one smart thing in this comic before she gets kidnapped (again!) by the Green Goblin and dangled off a bridge--just like Gwen Stacy! Sigh. The art by the Dodsons is okay, though it's far from their best work. The most amazing thing about Millar's MK Spidey run is that he managed to stretch his whole four-issue story out into twelve issues.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)

New This Week: July 27, 2005

Based on the NCRL list for this week's comics shipping from Diamond, here are a few things to look for at the local comic shop tomorrow:


The Pick of the Week is the collected edition of the lighthearted adventure comic Cryptozoo Crew by Allan Gross & Jerry Carr from NBM. The trade paperback reprints the first two issues and also includes 3 new stories--which should place it at around 50% or so new material (if I'm doing the math correctly...) Plus: monkeys!


In other comics:

Alias debut two more 75 cent first issues: Gimoles & Imperial Dragons, and they have the trade collection of Lions, Tigers & Bears.

Kolchalka fans will probably be happy to see that Alternative Comics are releasing his Cute Manifesto.

Amaze Ink have a second collection of Evan Dorkin's Bill & Ted's Most Excellent Adventures.

Dark Hose have the second and final issue of Hellboy: The Island and a new Usagi Yojimbo collection: vol. 19: Fathers & Sons.

DC have a collection of Kinetic, the fifth and final Promethea hardcover, the start of Warren Ellis's six-issue JLA: Classified arc (#10), and new issues of Albion (#2), Astro City: The Dark Age (#2), City of Tomorrow (#4), Hellblazer (#210), Legion of Super-Heroes (#8), The Losers (#26), The OMAC Project (#4), and Otherworld (#5).

Del Rey have the second volumes of Genshiken and Nodame Cantiabile.

Disney have the Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas Manga GN.

IDW have the final issue of Grimjack: Killer Instinct.

Image have the debut of the Kirby-esque Gødland.

Marvel have the digest-sized collection of Spider-Man/Human Torch: I'm with Stupid; the thirteenth Ultimate Spider-Man collection: Hobgoblin; the debut of Peter David's Hulk: Destruction; and new issues of Black Panther (#6), Machine Teen (#3), The Pulse (#10), Runaways (#6), and Spellbinders (#5).

Oni have the first issue of Ted Naifeh's new quarterly (?) Courtney Crumrin Tales.

Seven Seas' Amazing Agent Luna vol. 2 actually came in my comics shipment last week, but Diamond has it listed for this week, so your store may be getting it tomorrow.

TokyoPop have a bazillion volume sof manga, including the fifth Rising Stars of Manga contest collection.

Viper Comics have the final issue of Oddly Normal (#4).

Viz have the second issue of Shojo Beat (which also arrived for me last week...)



And finally, Avatar are release seven comics with twenty-seven different covers. No, really. That's at least $285 dollars worth of comics if you were to buy them all, which is about the same as it would cost you to buy the entire run of Lone Wolf & Cub. Guess in which way your money would be better spent?

New Library Comics: Week of July 18 2005

Here are the comics we got in for our library collection last week:


Bravo, Émile. Boucle d'or et les sept ours nains /[Paris?] : Éditions du Seuil, c2004.

Dorkin, Evan. Hectic planet /San Jose, CA : Slave Labor Graphics, 1998- v. 1-3

Martin, Pauline. La meilleure du monde /Angoulême : ego comme x, c2001.

Mead, Stu. The immortal man bag journal of art /Marseille : Le Dernier Cri, 1999.

Miyazaki, Hayao, 1941- Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind /San Francisco, CA : VIZ, LLC, c2004- v. 1-6

Scheibner, Reinhard. Holy shit /Marseille : Le Dernier Cri, [2002?]

Shelton, Gilbert. The complete fabulous furry Freak Brothers /London : Knockabout Comics, c2001- v. 1

Spiegelman, Art. Maus : a survivor's tale /New York : Pantheon Books, [1997]

Stripburek : comics from the other Europe. Ljubljana, Slovenia : Strip Core : Forum Ljubljana, 2001.

Quick GN Reviews

Doctor Cyborg, vol. 1: Outpatient
by Allan Gross & Mike Oeming

Inventor Malcolm Syberg has spent the past several years in a mental health facility, suffering from traumatic amnesia. And though he hasn't fully recovered his lost memoreis, he is still deemed fit to be released. Once he returns to his old home, he begins to suspect that he is not an ordinary man; that he has nanites running around in his bloodstream which make him a cyborg! Thus begins as odyssey that takes Malcolm from stopping a hostage situation to the future to the heart of an anti-technology cult. The plot progresses at a furious pace, with one adventure rolling right into the next. Despire all the action though, Gross still finds time to work in character development. Oeming's art is reined in somewhat by the adventure strip format that this comic originally appeared in online, but he proves that he can work just as well within a restrictive grid as he can on a full comic book page. If you're looking for a fun, exciting comic that's a modern take on the adventure strips of yore and relief from today's slow-paced multi-part 'epics,' then Doctor Cyborg may be just the thing.
Rating: 3.5 (of 5)



X-Treme X-Men, vol. 5: God Loves, Man Kills
by Chris Claremont, Igor Kordey & Scott Hanna

Boy, that Chris Claremont never met a comic panel that he doesn't think can't be improved by adding in several dialogue balloons or narrative boxes. Never content to let a scene speak for itself, he fills each page with so much description that the book nearly suffocates under his purple prose. The plot, which sees Rev. William Stryker--the X-Men's old anti-mutant enemy from the original God Loves, Man Kills graphic novel (which is reprinted here as well)--escape from prison and discovering a secret mutant haven in the Colorado Rockies, makes little sense as it goes along and falls apart completely when you think about it too hard. Logical leaps abound and characters act according to the dictates of the plot rather than on their established personalities. Kordey was in his 'rushed' phaze during the period these comics were produced, and it definitely shows. His storytelling is solid enough (Claremont could and should have disposed of about half of his narrative captions), the quality of the character work varies around in several places and not even the skilled brush of Hanna can always save it. I'm sure that it must have been tempting to doa sequel to one of the stories that was an inspiration for the X-Men movies, but this is one project that should have been thought through more before proceeding.
Rating: 2 (of 5)

Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

In honor of Jim Aparo, who passed away last week, today's cover is Adventure Comics #438, the March 1975 cover by Aparo that features the Spectre and a bunch of gorillas with what appears to be murderous intent.

(standard disclaimer about gorillas not really being monkeys applies)

This cover was suggested by YACB reader Nuadha. Image is courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.

James Turner interview

comicreaders.com have an interview with James Turner, creator of the upcoming Slave Labor series Ex Libris:

...Librarians have been subtly guiding human civilization for almost two thousand years. By emphasizing, or de-emphasizing, strains of knowledge, they are able to influence the development of our societies. They approach human knowledge as if it was a great Bonsai tree, and they cull and encourage it into the desired shape.

Turner goes on to lay out an entire secret history of librarianship, which is rather fun to read. I was already looking forward to this comic, and after the interview I'm even more excited.

Remember, as TangognaT says: "librarians really are the next zombies/monkeys/pirates/ninjas."

Also New This Week

Not mentioned in my New This Week for this week, because it wasn't on the NCRL, but showing up in my DCBS shipment nevertheless, was the second volume of Seven Seas' Amazing Agent Luna by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, and Carmela "Shiei" Doneza. This definitely would have been my Pick of the Week had I known about it beforehand.

Also in the box but not on the NCRL were the second issue of Shojo Beat from Viz; and the debut issue of the second volume of Craig A. Taillefer's Wahoo Morris from Too Hip Gotta Go Graphics.

The Pack is Back, Again

According to an interview on Newsarama, Marc Sumerak & GuriHiru will return to chronicle the adventures of everyone's favorite pre-teen super-heroes in a four issue X-Men/Power Pack mini. While I'd rather see Power Pack on their own sans X-Men, I enjoyed the first series by this team so much that I'll be happy to see them return to Power Pack in any form.

In the same interview, I also learned that GuriHiru is not some guy, but rather a pair of female artists from Japan who work as a team. They do some cool other stuff too.

For those of you poor souls who missed out on the first Power Pack mini, you'll want to check out the digest sized-collection coming out soon, as well as the Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius comic that collects the back-up stories.