Batwoman #2

Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy at our local comic shop based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a “Splurge” item.

Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.

Chris Arrant

If I had $15, I’d first grab hold of my favorite of DC’s New 52, Batwoman #2 (DC, $2.99). J.H. Williams III has successfully kept up to the immense expectations he accumulated following his run with Greg Rucka, and the artwork seems to benefit even more by J.H.’s input into the story as co-writer. Next I’d dig down for two of my regular pulls, Northlanders #45 (DC/Vertigo, $2.99) and Uncanny X-Force #16 (Marvel, $3.99). For my final pick, I’d have to miss a bunch of other titles for the chance to get the CBLDF Liberty Annual 2011 #4 (Image, $4.99). I love the anthology format, and having that plus the good cause plus the a-list talent makes it a must get; seriously, can you imagine one comic book containing new work by Frank Quitely, Williams, Mark Waid, J. Michael Straczynski, Matt Wagner AND Craig Thompson? BELIEVE IT!

If I had $30, I’d return to my LCS for the one-two Jonathan Hickman punch of SHIELD #3 (Marvel, $2.99) and FF #10 ($2.99). After that, I’d get the coda to Schism, X-Men: Regenesis #1 (Marvel, $3.99) and top it off with Who Is Jake Ellis? #5 (Marvel, $2.99). This book is like a great cult movie; impeccable craftsmanship, but in a genre that the entire mainstream couldn’t get behind. Regardless, I’m looking forward to what Tonci and Nathan do next.

For my splurge, I’d lay it all on the line for Black Metal Vol. 2 graphic novel (Oni, $11.99). I’ve always thought metal meets sorcery is an ideal combination (so much so I did a comic about it once), and this Rick Spears/Chuck BB joint does it for me. I have high hopes for this book, and also to see Rick Spears do more work in comics.

Graeme McMillan

X-Men: Regenesis #1

If I had $15 this week and a compulsion to spend it on comics, I’d be thankful for the existence of The Shade #1 (DC, $2.99), which I’ve been looking forward to since it was first announced a long, long time ago; I missed out on James Robinson’s Starman the first time around–I picked it up through the highly-recommended Omnibus collections–but this slight return promises to be worth reading. I’m also curious about X-Men: Regenesis #1 (Marvel, $3.99); I thought that Schism‘s ending was very flat, and I’m wondering if Kieron Gillen can sell the new status quo in a more convincing fashion. Rounding out the haul, some second issues of New 52 books that I enjoyed the first time around: Superboy #2 and Batwoman #2 (Both DC, $2.99).

If I had $30, I’d pick up a few more second issues of New 52 books: I enjoyed both Demon Knights and Batman and Robin‘s first issues, and was on the fence about Mister Terrific, but find myself curious enough to want to see what happens next in all of them (All DC, $2.99). I’m also curious enough to pick up the first issue of Dark Horse’s Orchid; I’m not a Rage Against The Machine fan at all, but for $1, how much could it hurt? Finally, the CBLDF’s Liberty Annual 2011 is released this week (Image, $4.99), and that’s always worth supporting.

In terms of splurging, there’s a strong nostalgic pull from IDW’s Transformers Classics UK Vol. 1 collection ($29.99), but I think I’ll go back to another old favorite, and pick up the 17th volume (!) of 20th Century Boys (Viz, $12.99), instead.

Chris Mautner

Pope Hats #2

If I had $15: There’s a new issue of Glamourpuss, so that’s a must buy — can’t miss out on Sim’s continued tenuous attempts to explain how Margaret Mitchell led to Alex Raymond’s death. There’s also the second issue of Pope Hats by Ethan Riley, an amazing looking comic that could well up on a number of “best of” lists come the end of the year, methinks.

If I had $30: There’s a lot of great stuff out this week, so with $30 I’d have to put those two comics away for now and get one of two new books from Fantagraphics — either Gahan Wilson’s Nuts or The Cabbie by Italian cartoonist Marti. I’ve raved about Nuts before–it’s a piercingly accurate look at the pain and perils involved in growing up. Cabbie, on the other hand, is a uber-violent Dick Tracy homage by way of Taxi Driver.

Also out this week is Drawn and Quarterly’s new hardcover edition of Dan Clowes’ Death Ray, easily one of the finest comics of the past 10 years. I already own a copy, but if you haven’t read this story yet then it should be your immediate pick for the week, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Splurge: Oh jeez, so many books I want. Since I’m splurging I’ll grab the fifth volume of the Complete Bloom County, the 12th volume of the Complete Dick Tracy, the third volume of John Stanley’s Nancy, and Seth’s latest book, The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists, which looks simply swell. I’d also pick up Alan Moore: Conversations from University of Mississippi, a collection of interviews with the great bearded one, including one I did with him back in 2006 when Lost Girls came out.

Brigid Alverson

20th Century Boys

If I had just $15, that would be OK because vol. 17 of 20th Century Boys, which is my must-buy comic of the month, is only $12.99. This series is long, but Naoki Urasawa’s unforgettable characters and twisted-yet-logical plot keep it from sagging. Then I’d beg, borrow, or steal one more dollar (or shop somewhere that gives discounts) so I can pick up Veronica #209 ($2.99), from Archie Comics, because despite the title it is actually the third issue of Kevin Keller’s miniseries.

If I had $30, I would add in Jimmy Gownley’s latest Amelia Rules graphic novel, The Meaning of Life and Other Stuff ($10.99). Amelia Rules is a children’s comic, but Gownley’s sophisticated storytelling makes it a joy to read at any age. That leaves enough for one more comic; I’ll make it issue #5 of Who is Jake Ellis?, which wraps up this stylish spy series.

Splurge: That’s easy: the third volume of Dark Horse’s Archie Archives ($49.99), pricy but filled with fascinating comics from the World War II era that would otherwise never see the light of day.

Michael May

Shade #1

With only $15, I’d start with a couple of favorites: Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE #2 ($2.99) and Alpha Flight #5 ($2.99). Frankenstein’s still new (even counting the Flashpoint issues, which I do), but it’s a solid book with a fantastic concept. And I especially can’t wait for Alpha Flight after the last-page reveal of #4. I only predicted that about two seconds before turning the page with hands that were literally shaking from giddiness. It’s hard to say that I’m enjoying Van Lente, Pak and Eaglesham’s run more than Byrne’s because they’re building on his foundation, but yeah … I’m enjoying it more. Next I’d add Shade #1 ($2.99). I didn’t stick with Robinson’s Starman long enough and lived to regret it, so I don’t want to make that mistake again. And the artist rotation sounds too good to be true. I’m also into Mike Carey’s X-Men, partly because, so far, I haven’t had to buy a bunch of other comics to enjoy it. X-Men Legacy #257 ($2.99) also goes to the register. I’d top off the tank with All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold #12 ($2.99), because I love a Batman/Zatanna team-up.

If I had $30, I’d add a couple more single-issues to the stack. Marvel’s too-expensive, but fun-sounding Legion of Monsters #1 ($3.99) and the extremely cool, but in-reality-I’m-trade-waiting-it Super Dinosaur #5 ($2.99). And finally, I’d grab Little Jackie Lantern ($7.99), a Halloween board book published by IDW and illustrated by my friend Jessica Hickman who has a knack for combining cute and spooky in just the right amount.

I’m tempted to declare Clive Barker’s Abarat: Absolute Midnight hardcover ($24.99) as my splurge item, simply because I’ve been waiting so very, very long for it. But even though it’s being released through Diamond this week, it’s not comics, so my real pick is Archaia’s Immortals: Gods and Heroes anthology ($19.95). It’s tied into a movie that I don’t particularly care about, but I love mythology and the talent on this — Jock, Brian Clevinger, Francesco Francavilla, Ben McCool, Ron Marz, Jimmy Palmiotti/Justin Gray, etc. — is awesome.

Amazing Spider-Man #666

Today our special guest is the recently married Akira the Don, a musician and artist whose latest album, The Life Equation, can be heard on his website.

To see what Akira the Don and the Robot 6 crew are reading, click below.

*****

Michael May

Alpha Flight #2

I finally caught up with Alpha Flight #2 this week with the return of Puck. I like the way he’s a little unhinged after his time in Hell with Wolverine. He should be unhinged after that. But he’s also still very much Puck, and I appreciate that even more. In the Unity Party, Van Lente and Pak have created a group of villains that I’m learning to hate with relish. They’re not as overtly cool as, say, the Master, but they hit where it hurts most,and I’m looking forward to their comeuppance.

I also read Mystery Men #3 and though I’m not souring on the project, I’m not as excited as I was after the first issue. It keeps introducing new characters to join the team and while they’re interesting, there are already so many of them that no one’s getting the attention they deserve. Hopefully we’re done adding members now and the next couple of issues will let us get to know them better and tie everything together.

As I read The Vault #1, it felt very much like an adaptation of a movie that hasn’t been made yet. There’s a diverse cast of characters in a tense setting and a cool reveal of the high concept on the last page, but the story that ties it all together feels clipped. Like it’s just hitting the high points from a movie script without taking the time to get me invested in any of the characters. Now that I know that it’s already being developed as a movie, that all makes sense. It very much reads like a comic that was created specifically to pitch a film, even if it’s not. I think I’ll wait to see the rest of it in that format.

Ending the week on a high note though, I read Cole Haddon and MS Corley’s The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde #1. It’s like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen except I don’t need annotations to feel like I’m getting the whole story. Haddon includes some cool cameos in the script (Hello, Dr. Moreau!)  and Corley’s artwork is even sort of reminiscent of Kevin O’Neill. A different way to sum it up – Hollywood style – is Silence of the Lambs meets From Hell with Jack the Ripper as Buffalo Bill and Mr. Hyde’s taking the place of Hannibal Lector. That description captures none of the charm and action of the finished comic though. Inspector Thomas Adye is a serious young man, but there’s some very subdued humor in his weariness and that makes him likable. Haddon and Corley also know how to present a creepy Ripper and lay out a mean Underground chase sequence. I’m very excited to catch up on the rest of the series this week.

Brigid Alverson

Black Jack

Vertical puts out a new volume of Black Jack every two months, so you can count on that being on my stack every two months as well. Volume 15 is a little odd. The first story mixes violence and sentimentality in almost equal measures as thugs torture Black Jack to find out where his money is stashed, and it turns out that (spoiler alert!) he spent it on an island tomb for a dear friend. Another story sermonizes about the evils of plastic surgery. Still, the stories are entertaining and you can’t beat Black Jack for some good summer pulp.

Still in the manga realm, I got an advance look at one of Kodansha’s new series debuting in August: Cage of Eden is a sort of cross between Lord of the Flies and Jurassic Park; a planeload of teenagers crashes on a remote island filled with prehistoric creatures—some large and bloodthirsty, some small and cute. Ordinary guy Akira, his brainy friend Mariya (whose laptop, thankfully, survives the crash—it’s the manga equivalent of Piggy’s spectacles), and perpetually bewildered but well-endowed flight attendant Kanako are somehow ejected from the plane, and they learn of their companions’ fate from a video left in a video camera. With prehistoric-animal violence, a weird mystery, and plenty of fanservice, it’s manga doing what manga does best.

In complete contrast to this, Allen Say’s Drawing from Memory is a lovely, quiet, beautifully drawn memoir of a boy who wanted to draw manga. It’s a picture book for older readers, filled with sketches, photographs, and illustrations of the people in Say’s life. This is not a shonen manga—there is no noble struggle, no shaking of fists and vows to be the best manga-ka ever—just the story of a lonely boy who was more or less abandoned by his parents and taken in as a student by a kindly older man who just happened to be drawing one of the most popular manga in Japan at the time (1950). It’s an unusual book and presents a very different view of the manga industry than what we are accustomed to seeing.

Tim O’Shea

Team Cul de Sac

Favorites: The Team Cul de Sac Fanzine/benefit book is an impressive collection (edited by my pal, blogger/scholar Craig Fischer [http://thepanelists.org/]). Don’t ask me to pick my favorite essay, the fanboy in me digs Ben Towle’s dissection of Archie Goodwin/Walt Simonson’s Manhunter; the critic in me was shocked to discover that both Noah Berlatsky and I share an appreciation for Jim Aparo; and there’s a tie (between Ana Merino and Sean Kleefeld) for the most engaging personal essays about people impacted by reading comics. It’s a hell of a 40-page read for a damn fine cause. As detailed at the website: “The cost is $5.00 plus $1.25 shipping and handling. (All the money that isn’t spent on envelopes and postage will go to Team Cul de Sac, and research into a cure for Parkinson’s disease.)” And any Richard Thompson fan will love the cover.

Superman #714: Sigh. As much as Chris Roberson salvaged a crappy JMS storyline and made it a delightful read, I hate hate hate that this storyline was the sendoff to the current incarnation of Superman. I would have enjoyed seeing what Roberson might explore with the whole “Supermen of America” network (which included several superwomen, despite the name). I have to say the plot resolution for Grounded had a Silver Age vibe to it–not sure if that is thanks to Roberson or JMS, but I did get a slight pleasure from that. Sadly I do not think Grounded will be looked back with fondness in the way many of us view 1986′s Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

Hulk #38: Jeff Parker is one sneaky bastard as he actually has figured out a way to write a new improved M.O.D.O.K. that wields as much wit as he has power–and possibly (God help us, introduce an opportunity for a love life. I’m not really digging this whole Fear Itself event, but I do appreciate the ability of some creators (like Parker) to build engaging tales out of the ruins of this event. Fellow Hulk fans, has Annie always called Red Hulk “Thad” or is this an acknowledgment of increasing affection on the LMD’s part?

Snarked #0: Roger Langridge is the best creator producing All Ages comics. This special issue is a bargain at $1.00. Rather than sound like a stuck record, go back and read the intro to my Langridge interview to see how highly I regard this new creator-owned project.

Akira the Don

Wide World of Marvel

Mighty World Of Marvel

I was pulled back into the Marvel Universe after a multi-year post -Civil War hiatus by one of these ill-ass Panini collections us Britishers can pick up in newsagents. I’d woken up on the floor of a strange house in Brixton the day after my bachelor party and had a 70 minute bus ride back to Olympic East London with the Godfather of all hangovers and a borked back (I had inexplicably decided I had superpowers and thrown myself down a flight of stairs on the way out of whatever club we’d ended up at the previous night), so I needed something engrossing to take my mind of the almighty pain and shame that clung to my personage like bricks. I fell into a newsagent, pulled myself up on my elbows and was faced with the leering face of Norman Osborne in an Iron Man suit clutching A COSMIC CUBE with shapeshifting asshole Hank Pym in it.

“Woah,” I said, softly. I apologised to the newsagent, bought the comic, and hauled my sorry carcass onto the top of a double decker, where my world of pain became a world of joy, as I fell back into a familiar world of espionage and lunacy told across 76 beautiful pages of ridiculous fights involving seventeen weirdoes in tights swapping bad jokes and punching the crap out of each other.

Stuff was much as I remembered it, except the bad guys seem to be running the world which seems to me to be at once a way more realistic and way more fun state for a superhero universe to be in. And that was it. I thought I was out, but they’d pulled me back in again…

Amazing Spider-Man #666

Now, a few months later, I am reading flipping Spider-Man for the first time in a decade, and it seems to be in better shape than its been since JM DeMatteis and Sal Buscema were killing off the Vulture and I was waiting for my balls to sprout hair. It is SO FLIPPING FUN. Peter Parker is young again, spending seemingly 24 hours a day swinging around Manhattan being flipping Spider-Man, rather than mooning about over his wife or whatever it was that bored me to the point of not reading it anymore a decade or so ago. He’s in the Fantastic Four. He’s in the Avengers (who sit around being seedy and playing cards). He says things like, “But first things first. A quick adjustment to my unstable molecule suit”, and does actual science.

Spider-world is a great big maniacal smorgasbord of action and intrigue. Some unspeakable supervillianous fakery means that bedbugs are giving people spider powers, and Manhattan is crawling with souped-up web spinners. Meanwhile sometime spider-boo Betty Brant is a self proclaimed “one woman newsblog” blogging from hospital much to the chagrin of her boyfriend FLASH FLIPPING THOMPSON who protests, “Betts! You were targeted by the Crime meter! Strapped to a bomb! And the recent victim of a violent assault!” FLASH FLIPPING THOMPSON meanwhile is flipping VENOM, doing sneaky superviolent CIA type shit for the government. Sweet baby jesus on a hoverboard, it is nuts in Spiderland! Beautifully drawn, deceptively simple but cleverly interwoven nuts that never feels cluttered, or confusing, or anything other than delirious FUN. Damn! I thought I was out…

Cerebus: Guys

Cerebus passed me by in the, um, past, apart from when he turned up in Spawn that one time, but last year one of my reader listeners started sending me the phone books every few months, and I got hooked instantly, and am now over half way through the thing.

What a ride it’s been! From Conan parody to the meaning of life and the birth of the universe, via some of the most gripping character envelopment and the greatest speech bubbles in comics history. It even stopped being a comic a few phone books back and turned into a great big angry patience-testing lady-lambasting wah-fest presumably inspired by the writer’s divorce, or something, but in Guys it is back on track, and a comic once more, exploring with documentary-detail and almost clinical attentiveness the nature of the Male in one of his natural habitats: the pub. Indeed, 407 pages of dudes sat around in a pub drinking and thinking and occasionally falling of bar stools might not sound like the most riveting thing in the world, yet somehow it is. It is sad, sweet, ugly, beautiful and unflinchingly raw meditation on the triumph and tragedy of the conditioned human male. With some jaw-droppingly amazing speech bubbles.

Batman and Robin Must Die

Batman and Robin Must Die

I just got back off of honeymoon, which myself and my new wife spent on a tiny Greek island, frolicking in the surf and reading Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin run in its glorious entirety in the hotel pool on a lilo. I’d been Waiting For The Trade on the thing since the third issue… the month plus wait for a new issue was was proving too painful and distracting, so I hung a poster of the first issue’s cover on the wall above my twin monitors as a sort of inspirational sigil and left it alone for a year, in which time I made five mixtapes and completed my second album, knowing my reward was imminent.

And what a reward. It looks better than any superhero comics in recent memory, From Frank Quitely’s scratch scratchy all action carnie-ballet at the start to Frazer Irving’s Warhol-With-Photoshop Korean horror movie climax. And it reads like some all consuming Hitchcockian revenge fantasy, the story deepening and spiraling further with every page turn, a thrashing multi-layered abyss-dream with so many OH FUCK moments I had jaw ache by the end of the thing. I read it three times over in a week and if I were still out there on that fucking paradise island I would probably still be reading it, and still finding new things to go OH FUCK at.

My only complaint is the brevity of Tim and Damian’s tenure before Pappa Bruce swashbuckles back into the picture. I could have had years of those two finding their way, but never mind. By the time I’ve finished another fistful of mixtures and my third album, the Multiversity will have explained away the DC Universe Reboot, or whatever they’re calling it, and there’ll be three trades worth of Batman Inc stories for me to enjoy on a lilo on some tropical island I’ve bought with the proceeds of my second album. I better switch the poster above my desk…

Cerebus

But the main impediment to Dave Sim’s literary reputation is Dave Sim himself. His regressive social and political views and obnoxious rhetoric have created a public persona that’s eclipsed his artistic achievement in the comics world much more completely than it would have in the larger, less insular artistic world — where, for example, plenty of people call John Updike a chauvinist but not even his bitterest detractors question his mastery as a prose stylist, where Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ill-advised statement about 9/11 being a work of art didn’t get him ejected from the first rank of postwar composers, and artists like Wagner and Pound are still secure in their respective pantheons despite having endorsed ideas that are, to put it charitably, pretty well discredited.

But Sim’s controversial ideas are not peripheral to his work; he ultimately makes them its central message and purpose. Wagner never actually wrote any operas about the villainy of the Jews, nor Pound cantos praising the wise and just rule of Franco, but Sim incorporated his screeds about women and the tenets of his one-man religion into the text of his novel, so that even a reader determined to ignore all the apocryphal gossipy bullshit accumulated around the artist and concentrate on the work itself is finally forced to confront the fact that the man has some bizarre ideas and an abrasive way of expressing them.

–Tim Kreider, in his must-read introduction to a longer essay on Dave Sim’s seminal (in more ways than one) independent comic Cerebus from The Comics Journal #301. (I made this exact point, complete with the Wagner example, a few years back.) It’s one thing to be an artist with odious ideas unrelated or tangential to your art; it’s quite another to make them your art’s main attraction. Kudos to Kreider for drawing the distinction so clearly.

That said, Kreider’s piece also contains the single best explanation I’ve seen for why you would want to read Cerebus: Its authors resolute determination to follow his bliss, and to better himself as an artist in order to keep up with it.

In the early, sword-and-sorcery issues of Cerebus, Dave Sim drew about as well as the second- or third-best artist in your high school, the guy you’d ask to do the cover for your heavy metal band’s album or airbrush the side of your van. After drawing about a hundred issues, by the time he’d finished Volume II of Church & State — around the same time he hired a brilliant and apparently indefatigable draftsman named Gerhard as his background artist, freeing himself to concentrate exclusively on his characters — Dave Sim had become one of the best cartoonists in North America. And not just in the excellence of his technical skill — he was relentlessly inventive and virtuosic. His exuberant formal experimentation extended from his lettering and paneling to the design of whole issues: Readers puzzled and wowed over the issues in which each page’s background was a fragment of one large picture of Cerebus, or the spinning of an ascending tower was reflected by the page layout rotating several degrees on each page, so that you had to slowly turn the whole book 360º in your hands in the course of reading it. “Thou shalt break every law in the book,” was his injunction to himself.

Sim was also a smart and voracious autodidact (he dropped out of high school after grade 11), and, as he matured, his intellectual passions grew beyond comics, and his artistic ambitions far beyond parody. The single-issue stories expanded into longer and longer story arcs, gradually growing into full-length, 500-page novels. As he continued drawing Cerebus, Sim incorporated everything that captured his interest into the book: He became interested in the mechanics of electoral politics, and Cerebus ran for Prime Minister; he got interested in the history of religion, and Cerebus became the Pope; as Sim’s literary tastes became more sophisticated, Cerebus encountered incarnations of Oscar Wilde, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. He insatiably appropriated not only literary, historic and political figures, but fictional characters and screen personae, the likenesses of friends and colleagues, other authors’ prose styles, even another cartoonist’s dialogue in a manner that would’ve been called postmodern if he’d had an MFA. He wrote books within books, invented intricate political ideologies, created whole cosmologies. Throughout all of which the book’s central character remained the same anthropomorphized aardvark.

Kreider essentially argues that Cerebus was always about Dave Sim; this is what made the comic so fascinating for so long, and what undid it in the end.

Infestation #1

Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy on Wednesday based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on what we call our “Splurge” item.

Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList if you’d like to play along in our comments section.

Graeme McMillan

If I had $15 to spend at the comic store this week, the first thing I’d grab would be Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly’s New York Five #1 (DC/Vertigo, $2.99), the follow-up to New York Four (obviously), their contribution to the much-loved-by-me-at-least Minx imprint. Really, almost everything else pales into comparison, but I’ll also go for IDW’s Infestation #1 ($3.99, which I was convinced came out last week), the fun opener for the zombie crossover that’s about to go across their licensed line for the next few months. My superhero fix for the week comes from Paul Cornell and Pete Woods’ always-entertaining Action Comics (#897, DC Comics, $2.99), which pits Lex and the Joker against each other, and Age of X: Alpha #1 (Marvel Comics, $3.99), which starts off another reality-altering timequake or something for the X-Men. I’m not expecting much from this, to be honest, but Mike Carey has proven me wrong before…

If I had $30, I’d put Age of X back on the shelf, and pick up the reissue of Sean Murphy’s Off-Road from IDW ($17.99). Murphy’s turned into one of those artists who I’ll happily follow anywhere, and I completely missed this early work when it first came out (from Oni, I think? Maybe?) a few years back, so it’ll be nice to make up for past mistakes.

Splurgewise, I’m probably going to splurge small, and grab Greg Rucka and Cully Hamner’s The Question: Pipeline collection (DC Comics, $14.99), collecting the “second features” from the back of Rucka’s run on Detective. I admit to dropping the title before the series finished — once Batwoman was gone, so was I, I admit — and so I’m curious how the story ends.

Chris Arrant

If I had $15 dollars in my pocket and a couple minutes at a comic store this week, I’d mainly stick to the Marvel shelves. First up would be getting a bagged copy of Fantastic Four #587 ($3.99); who knows -– knowing Brevoort, he might throw in a blood-soaked, chromium cover beneath these plastic walls. Seriously, I’ve been appreciative of Hickman’s run on the title and the addition of Epting recently brought it to a new level. I didn’t need the death to get me to buy the comic, and I’m a bit worried the sales part of it all might ruin it for me.

Age of X Alpha

Getting back on topic, the other books I’d get is Age of X Alpha #1 ($3.99) – I’ve tried to get into Mike Carey’s X-Men books for awhile but keep being non-plussed by it, but love his other work The Unwritten. But the pitch and the art for this book has me wanting to like this. The third book would be Uncanny X-Force #4 ($3.99). Remender and Opena are doing some amazing work; to date I’ve thought Remender’s creator-owned work outshone his work for hire stuff, but this new work has me rescinding that remark. Opena is a real star of this –- he’s really shown an amazing improvement trajectory that I hope keeps up.

On the DC front, I’d pick up Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly’s New York Five #1 ($2.99). I was a big fan of the original New York Four OGN, and this one shouldn’t disappoint.

If I had $30, I’d go back and pick up something I haven’t bought in ages -– Wizard Magazine #235 ($5.99) The last of its kind, and probably the first issue I’ve bought in some time. I want to see this for historical record, to know what the Wizard was at the end. I have the first issue somewhere, so it’ll be interesting to compare it all. With The $9.05 left in my pocket I’d go after American Vampire #11 ($2.99), Action Comics #897 ($2.99) and…. Detective Comics #873. I might have been apt to throw another Marvel book in the lot, but times are tough – and DC’s $2.99 price point won out for this reader.

And if Jonah Weiland gave me a nice bonus in this month’s paycheck, I’d call my comic store and tell them to hold me a copy of Sean Murphy’s Off Road OGN ($17.99). I already have a copy of the original Oni edition from years back –- and even a piece of original art from the book -– but I’d be interested to get the new edition to look for any updates. If not, I’d pass it off to my best friend Jason who needs more good comics in his life.

Brigid Alverson

Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #715

If I had $15…

I’d have plenty of things to spend it on this week! First off, Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #715 ($3.99), which is a 40-page special 70th anniversary issue from BOOM! Studios. BOOM! is switching over to mostly classic stories in this line, but this issue features a special 70th anniversary story by Daan Jippe that brings in a whole slew of classic Disney characters, as well as two older stories. Add Archaia’s Fraggle Rock #2 ($3.95) to the pile; this is the second Fraggle Rock comic in two weeks, but what the heck, I could use a little more silliness in my life. Then I’d pick up The Sixth Gun #8 ($3.99), because I’m addicted to this series. That leaves just enough money for Jughead #205 ($2.99), in which Jughead teams up with Podman, a Jamaican DJ, to catch a gang of thieves. Hold my calls, I’m reading comics today!

If I had $30…

I’d add on vol. 4 of Deadman Wonderland ($10.99), Tokyopop’s spectacularly violent yet also kind of fun manga about a prison that’s also a theme park. Then I’ll check out Infestation #1 ($3.99), because who wouldn’t want to see a Star Trek/Transformers/Ghostbusters/G.I. Joe crossover? Just thinking about it opens up fissures in my brain.

Splurge

No big, expensive hardback is calling to me from this week’s list, but if I had a few extra bucks to throw around I’d take a chance on The New York Five #1 ($2.99), just because I like the premise, and I’d pick up vol. 7 of Bride of the Water God ($9.99) because the art is just so darn pretty.

Michael May

Secret Avengers #9

If I had $15:

I’d start off with Secret Avengers #9 ($3.99) and see what’s going on with the best super-team line-up since the Champions. Then I’d add the second issue of Josh Fialkov’s Echoes ($3.99) and check out what’s going on with the Sub-Mariner in Namor: The First Mutant #6 ($2.99). Now that Namor’s not crossing over with X-Men and vampires any more, I’m curious to see Marvel’s latest take on the undersea hero.

If I had $30:

I’d trade-wait for Echoes and pick up David McAdoo’s Red Moon ($19.99) instead. Beasts of Burden has left me craving more animals-as-occult-investigators and I’m really digging the art I’ve seen on this so far.

Splurge:

With some extra money I’d pick up The Killer, Volume 3: Modus Vivendi ($24.95). I’m behind by one volume, but I loved the first one and am eager to catch up.

Chris Mautner

If I had $15:

The Boys: Highland Laddie

I’d spend it on booze. If the local liquor store were closed, however, I’d spend it on comics. Specifically the sixth and final issue of The Boys: Highland Laddie mini-series ($3.99). I’ll be honest, I’ve been kind of disappointed in this off-shot, particularly in John McCrea’s less-than-stellar art, but as I said last week, I’m determined to see this series through, for reasons that at times seem inexplicable to me.

I’d also pick up the #17th issue of Glamourpuss ($3), Dave Sim’s examination of the comic strip photorealist style and the foolishness of fashion magazines. As the series continues to progress, I find it’s themes starting to cohere and it becomes more and more of a fascinating — if decidedly flawed — work.

If I had $30:

Fantagraphics has a lot of interesting books out this week, but Stigmata ($19.99) would have to be first on my list as I’ve loved the work of Lorenzo Mattotti ever since I got my hands on a worn copy of Murmur oh so many years ago. I’m happy to see Fantagraphics start to try to get more of his work released in the U.S. and hope this book — about a lug of a guy whose hands start to bleed in Christ-like fashion — encourages that.

Splurge:

If I had enough cash, I’d probably try to get my hands on some of the other books Fanta has out this week, including the fourth and final volume of Johnny Ryan’s Blecky Yuckarella strips, the charmingly titled F*** You A******, and the second volume of Pirus and Mezzo’s King of the Flies, a hip crime noir piece heavily influenced by Charles Burns. Pantheon also has a $16 paperback version of Dan Clowes’ Ice Haven out, and as I haven’t read that story since it first came out in his Eightball series, I might purchase that as well.

JK Parkin

The New York Five #1

I read an advanced copy of The New York Five #1 ($2.99) last night, so put me down for that one for sure. I enjoyed the first volume from Minx, but what I really loved about this one was just how great Ryan Kelly’s artwork looks in the bigger format. Kelly spoke with Comic Should be Good!’s Kelly Thompson about the differences between working on a manga-sized book and a more traditional comic-sized one, and for me this made a huge difference. The art feels bigger, more New York-like, I guess. Also I love the small touches, like the “fast facts” about various New York locales and the “stats” provided for each character (like what clothes they wear and what music they like).

I’d also pick up Fantastic Four #587 ($3.99); as of 2:21 p.m. Pacific time, I do not yet know which character died, despite the internet’s best efforts to tell me. I really don’t expect to be able to avoid it forever, but I’m having fun trying. (As an aside, I remember avoiding the big reveal that Spider-Man would unmask in Civil War for much of that Wednesday, until about an hour before I hit the comic store and Yahoo had it as their top headline. So note to self: avoid Yahoo today and tomorrow).

Finally, I’d round out this first tier with some of my usual suspects — The Sixth Gun #8 ($3.99) and Skullkickers #5 ($2.99).

If I had $30, I’d also grab a couple more Vertigo titles — American Vampire #11 ($2.99) and Fables #101 ($2.99). I’m also really curious about Age of X ($3.99), so that would likely make it into my shopping cart, leaving me $3 to spend on Scott Snyder’s awesome Detective Comics#873.

Splurge

Ohhh, lots of good stuff this week. I’d probably go for Stigmata ($19.99) based on Graeme’s review from a few weeks back. But also for consideration would be Batman vs. the Undead (just for the title alone), the Artifacts trade from Top Cow, the second Cowboy Ninja Viking trade from Image, the Avengers Academy hardcover and the Hawkeye & Mockingbird trade.

Uncanny X-Force #1

Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Robot 6 crew has been enjoying on the comics front. Today our special guest is our friend Ron Richards, one of the co-founders of the popular comics website iFanboy.com. To see what Ron and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.

*****

Brigid Alverson

Scrooge and Santa

I got into the Christmas spirit a bit with Scrooge and Santa, by Matthew Wilson and Josh Kenfield. It’s a cute update of A Christmas Carol, with a cynical modern-day Scrooge who loves shiny gadgets almost as much as he hates Santa Claus. This is a kids’ comic with lots of humor and plenty of action. Scrooge kidnaps Santa and tries to take over Christmas, but the FBI and his sweetheart of an assistant thwart him at every turn. There are lots of goofy chase scenes, some magic, and plenty of in-jokes for fans of the original book as well as some other holiday classics. Kenfield’s art is expressive and dynamic — sometimes a bit too dynamic, as it was hard to follow what was going on in some of the action sequences — but overall it’s a fun holiday story.

In Doug TenNapel’s mind, the afterlife is sort of like Yugoslavia — seven different kingdoms, all set against one another and then reunited by a single conniving ruler. It’s a dreary place, filled with danger, and the ghosts keep escaping into the world of the living to get away from it. In Ghostopolis, the story is set in motion when a talented but washed-up ghost wrangler accidentally sends a young boy, Garth, into the afterlife before his time (Garth is dying but at the moment is very much alive). Of course it turns out that Garth has special powers, and soon a number of different parties are after him, each for their own reasons. The bare outline of the story — boy strays into forbidden kingdom and must get back home — is as old as the human race, but the world that TenNapel conjures up is original enough that it feels fresh anyway.

Chris Mautner

This week I read the first hardcover volume of Brightest Day which … well, to be honest, it left no impression on me whatsoever. It wasn’t awful enough to make me want to slag it, nor was it decent enough to make me want to admire it, even begrudgingly. Actually, I found myself rather bored by it, despite the presence of giant zombie sharks, dead baby birds and psychotic Martians that flay families alive while they’re playing Rock Band. The whole thing seems so concerned with set-up and continuity that the pace is rather slack, and I didn’t find enough reason to care about Boston Brand or any other of the cast’s plights I’ve talked before about my dislike for Ivan Reis’ over-rendered art before and that dislike continues here. Maybe everything picks up in Vol. 2, but at this point I’m not terribly inclined to find out. I didn’t hate the book — I couldn’t work up enough emotion to do that. All I felt was a bout of extreme indifference.

Tim O’Shea

Knight and Squire #3

I don’t know if Paul Cornell has enough material drive or interest to do a Knight & Squire ongoing, but three issues into this six-part miniseries and it is fast becoming one of my favorite monthly reads. Comics rarely make me genuinely laugh, this issue did. One-part comedy exploring Shakespeare’s take on King Richard III/one-part social commentary on the borderline absurdity that social media has the potential to be (in Knight & Squire’s world,Twitter is called Twunter [with a slogan of "Let Your Fingers Do the Talking"]). The story involves historical clones, including Richard III, who artist Jimmy Broxton has handle a gun, like a modern day posturing criminal in one scene, to great effect.

Some comics talk me to death in an effort to show the reader seemingly how smart the writer is. I am relieved to find that while Nick Spencer pours a great amount of story and details into every page, it’s not heavy handed. Quite the opposite in fact, the details draw me into THUNDER Agents #2 even more. As much as I enjoy Cafu’s pencils on this series, Chriscross handles many pages in this issue in a style that is a poor match for Cafu. After several pages of Chriscross almost cartoonish characterizations of face, it was jarring to go back to Cafu toward the end of this issue. It was so jarring I did not recognize the main character (compared to how he looked on Chriscross’ pages) until someone actually said the character’s name.

Paul Tobin’s all ages work on Marvel Adventures continues to captivate me. He’s written the best version of the Vision that I have read since Kurt Busiek last handled him. My only complaint? I wish Scott Koblish had been given enough time to draw the whole issue, as again I was distracted when the latter pages of the issue shifted to the different art style of Peter Nguyen. Fortunately, however, all the characters were still easily recognizable.

Ron Richards

The Thin Black Line

The Thin Black Line (TwoMorrows Publishing) – While not a comic book per se’, this is a book about a comic book creator. After reading the first two Fantastic Four Omnibuses and hearing about the work of Vinnie Colletta, I’ve been fascinated by the man and his work, so when TwoMorrows Publishing put out this book about Colletta, a retrospective of his career and investigation into his legacy as one of the most controversial inkers in the industry, I had to read it. I seriously couldn’t put this book down and read it cover to cover over 3 nights. I can’t say I can definitively say that Colletta is as bad, or deserving of the comments people have made about him, but now I definitely have greater insight to the man, his work and the controversy. I’m not saying it was okay to erase Kirby art so that he could inker faster, but now I get it. Any fan of the silver age and/or the craft of making comics has to read this.

Uncanny X-Force (Marvel Comics) – The standout for my vote for best new series of 2010 is the one I was most worried about once it was announced. The creative team of Remender and Opena are one of my favorites (if you haven’t read Fear Agent, stop reading this and go buy it now!) and the idea of them on an X-Book, as an X-Fan, got me super excited. But the fact that it was picking up the much maligned X-Force as black ops/death squad and was adding Deadpool and Fantomex, two of my most hated characters, to the team had me worried. But after just a few issues, I have to say, Remender and Opena pulled it off. This is easily the best book in the X-Universe right now and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

Cowboy Ninja Viking #2

Cowboy Ninja Viking (Image Comics) – One of the most imaginative and creative ideas in a comic book that I’ve seen in a very long time, this espionage/action/thriller from AJ Lieberman and Riley Rossmo (of Proof fame) gets better and better. The idea of an assassin with 3 distinct personalities that take the form of a common archetype is brilliant, and the number of combinations and archetypes used has kept me engaged from issue #1. The inventive use of word balloons in the lettering is just an added bonus to the look of this book, which along with it’s unique use of color, makes this unlike any comic on the stands right now.

Glamourpuss (Aardvark-Vanaheim) – I don’t know if anyone else is still reading this besides me and 2 of my friends, but I never miss an issue of Glamourpuss by Dave Sim. Now to be honest, I could do without half the book, as Sim practices his photorealism art by replicating fashion photography and does wacky magazine/pop culture send ups. But the meat of Glamourpuss lies in the historical exploration and telling of some of the greats of comics and cartooning, like Alex Raymond and Stan Drake. Through his research in the photorealistic style of cartooning, Sim has uncovered and is telling an amazing behind the scenes story of comics in the 1940s and 1950s from both a process standpoint, as well as a historical view of the industry. Every issue is absolutely enthralling.

Hulk (Marvel Comics) – I have often gone on the record that I am not a Hulk fan. Despite growing up a Marvel Zombie, Hulk never really connected with me. I read Peter David’s run here and there, the Bruce Jones run as well as tried to pick it up here and there. But after getting caught up in Loeb’s Red Hulk run, I decided to give Jeff Parker and Gabe Hardman’s start on Hulk with issue #25, and I couldn’t have made a better decision. Easily one of the best, classic Marvel-esque comics being published right now. Hardman’s art is dynamic with a touch of retro to it, and Parker is telling some great stories, complete with dramatic cliffhanger at the end of every issue. This is how super hero comics should be done.

Justice League Generation Lost #10

Justice League: Generation Lost (DC Comics) – Speaking of super hero comics, we’ve been saying over at iFanboy.com that one of the best books DC puts out these days is Justice League: Generation Lost. Judd Winick has been telling issue after issue of what is some of the best Justice League stories in a while. Taking the remains of the old Justice League International characters, along with some new blood in the form of the modern takes on legacy characters like Blue Beetle, Winick has just delivered quality every 2 weeks. I could read Max Lord stories for hours and thanks to this book, I’m getting that along with some humor and most recently some awesome Cliff Chiang covers.

Return of the Dapper Men (Archaia) – As we get to the holidays, my go-to present in giving the gift of comics has been Return of the Dapper Men by Jim McCann and Janet Lee. This book is unlike any other graphic novel you’ve ever read or seen. Truly a modern fairy tale, McCann has written a story that is totally all ages, that could be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. If you haven’t seen the art yet, are you in for a treat. Janet Lee’s first visual story telling work is amazing, and you have to read the bonus material to read about her process and how she went about making each page, each of which is an individual piece of art. This is the must read Graphic Novel of the 2010 Holiday Season if you ask me.

Artifacts (Top Cow) – There’s been a lot of hype about Artifacts recently and all of it is deserved. One of the challenges of Top Cow has been it’s accessibility of the characters and stories. Many people have a negative opinion based on past depictions and images of characters like Witchblade or the fact that they’ve been around for so long, it’s hard to pick up with the story. But with Artifacts, Ron Marz has been able to create an event book that is completely accessible to new readers, as well as enjoyable to anyone who’s been up on the Top Cow Universe. Every issue has read like an action flick and it has the promise to be one of the best contained series once it’s all said and done.

Wuvable Oaf (Goteblud Comics) – A local indie comic fave here in San Francisco, Wuvable Oaf is the excellent series written and drawn by SF native Ed Luce. Touching on all things that are cute and adorable, like kitties, and the fierce world of dating withing the gay scene, to the realities of music from Morrissey to Slayer, Wuvable Oaf has it all. Every issue is an event, and as evidenced by Ed Luce’s recent interview in legendary punk zine, Maximum Rocknroll, is on it’s way to becoming a cult classic. Do yourself a favor, if you have a good sense of humor and are open to something different, then seek out Wuvable Oaf, you’ll never be the same

The Sanctuary

Nate Neal‘s first graphic novel, The Sanctuary, is a considerably quirky work on multiple levels. It’s a silent graphic novel, it sports an introduction by Dave Sim, and as I found out in this interview, Neal initially wanted the book to have an wordless title. Publisher Fantagraphics describes the book as exploring “the primal mysteries and sordid inner workings of a Paleolithic cave-dwelling tribe, creating an original ‘silent’ reading experience by using symbols instead of words.” The publisher offers folks a 15-page preview in order for consumers to get a small taste of the story. Neal also offers some unique marketing videos as well as other samples at his blog.

Tim O’Shea: Whether one agrees with him or not, Dave Sim typically elicits a strong reaction whatever he does these days. With that in mind, I am curious what motivated you to have him write the intro to Sanctuary?

Nate Neal: Gary Groth (publisher of Fantagraphics Books) and I were trying to come up with someone to write an introduction to kind of ease people into the comic–to explain to the reader that they were in for something different and to prepare themselves. Gary suggested a journalist who writes for The Comics Journal. I mentioned that I knew Dave Sim and thought he might write an intro for the book. Gary perked up. He seemed interested by this, even though he and Dave are kind of nemeses–he told me to give it a shot. He warned me that Dave was making people sign a “Sim is not a misogynist” petition before he’d talk to anyone. I first met Dave in 2005 at a comic con in Ohio. At that time, a couple other artists and myself had been self-publishing a comic book anthology called Hoax. Dave was a big supporter of Hoax–although I think he kind of disinterestedly loathed most of my artwork in that anthology–the style of the art, the ideology behind it, everything! Although when he thought something had merit, he’d tell you. He would write little reviews of Hoax and send them to us. Very detailed, scathing reviews. He butchered a comic I did for Hoax #4. It just destroyed me. Embarrassed the hell out of me because I knew he was right. Later after I got a Xeric grant and printed the first half of The Sanctuary as pamphlet comic books, Dave wrote me a letter telling me he thought it was great. He basically told me I was going in the right direction. So he kind of broke me down and built me up again. His work had astounded me since I first read Minds. Even though he’s been railroaded out of the alt. comics canon (along with other modern greats like David Lapham), he’s still one of the greatest cartoonists alive–a visionary. Of course I’d want him to write an introduction to my book. I’m not an apologist for Dave, but I’ve read every Cerebus book in detail and I believe that he doesn’t hate women. Sometimes I think what he really is is a Confucianist!

O’Shea: Advance marketing on the book describes it as: “An original, wordless graphic novel debut.” I would challenge the use of “wordless”, given that there are a form of words, albeit employing a phonetic language you yourself developed. Why did you choose to go that route in terms of dialogue (or lack thereof)–and how long did it take you to get a grasp of the language you wanted to deploy for the story.

Neal: Even in the conceptual stage, I knew The Sanctuary didn’t need any words to get the story across. With a made up language the words would take on a symbolic stance that they otherwise wouldn’t have. That helps get across one of the important ideas of the book: how things get fucked up when a society thinks too symbolically. Or at least thinks too symbolically without being aware that that’s what they’re doing. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the world we live in now! The book uses symbols to convey a somewhat anti-symbolic sentiment. Kind of like how anti-war films are violent and bloody. The language in the book is not that complicated. I’m sure if somebody had a lot of time to waste, they could figure it all out. I put the language together with the idea that I would just use 200 or so words with some simple conjugations. I lived in Mexico for awhile and my method for speaking Spanish was like that. I knew 200 or so important words and some conjugations and I could function on a rudimentary basis. However, I couldn’t have a conversation about socialism or abortion or anything that complicated. That’s probably the level those early people were on. They weren’t verbal philosophers. Don’t get me wrong, I think that they were more complex people than we are generally. More complex and more capable. But who the hell really knows? Nobody, that’s who.

O’Shea: Speaking again of marketing, I found it interesting that you developed two promotional videos for the book that were quite comedic in nature. I enjoyed them both (and would love to know if you really got in trouble for the drawing you did in video 1), but am curious why you went for a comedic tone for a book that’s fairly serious?

Neal: Well, I kind of see the videos working like some of the trailers Alfred Hitchcock would make for his movies. He did one for Psycho–a very serious movie–and Hitchcock himself actually appears in the trailer, talking about the movie and he’s joking around, being very silly about the whole thing. Humor to me is a better way to draw people into something. Seriousness can scare people away. I like the idea of drawing people in with a playful kind of manner and when they get where you want them, you kind of clobber them. I think it’s fun to have that done to you as a viewer/reader. Although, The Sanctuary is a serious book, it’s got plenty of purposely silly, ridiculous moments. The book is kind of like a person–it’s got many levels to it. Some of my favorite people are dead serious about life, but playful and silly with their behavior much of the time. And yeah, we had to shoot that first video on the run as not to get arrested!

O’Shea: In a book like this where the characters do not have a voice for you (as the creator) to find in the traditional sense, how challenging was it for you to get a grasp of the characters?

Neal: Without words, you can really get to the core of who people are–or at least their true intentions. If you’re watching two people have a conversation on the street and they’re speaking Chinese and you don’t understand Chinese, sometimes you can intuitively figure things out about those people–who they are to each other and what they want–things that you otherwise wouldn’t realize if you knew the language, because the language isn’t getting in the way. Speech can be a cover-up for what people are really feeling and thinking. So no, it wasn’t challenging getting a grip on the characters. It was natural. Maybe more natural than if I used words. But a strange thing happened halfway through making the book. I realized some of the characters were, in a vague way, somehow people from my life. An old teacher or girlfriend or relatives. Not only that, but everything about me and who I am is in the book somehow. I can’t put my finger on it all exactly, but it seems to be the story of my life in a way.

O’Shea: How long have you been experimenting with “pantomime storytelling” and how would you define it?

Neal: But essentially the story is told in pantomime.

It is pantomime basically. I was always drawn to that kind of stuff in comic books. Like the Jim Woodring Frank comic books or Milt Gross‘ stuff. Those really spoke to me, without using words. And since I was a kid, Sergio Aragones‘ Mad Magazine cartoons affected me strongly too. He didn’t use words to tell his stories either. Before and during working on The Sanctuary, I was actually working for Mad Magazine, coming up with ideas for pantomime comic strips for their kids mag. One was called Spy vs. Spy Junior and the other one was called The Adventures of Willy Nilly. I churned out dozens of strips for them. Mad would generally only buy 1 or 2 strips out of every 10 I submitted. Later, I did the same kind of pantomime strips for Nickelodeon Magazine. I used to rent silent slapstick films from the library to steal ideas to use in these comic strips. I must have ended up seeing every Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton film. I watched the Chaplin films too, but didn’t get a lot out of them in particular.

O’Shea: What attracted you to tackling such a challenging and nuanced work for your first graphic novel?

Neal: I don’t exactly remember where the actual idea for the book came from. I do remember figuring out that there weren’t many quality stories out there about paleolithic men. Not in film or literature–certainly not in comic books. There are some well drawn comics loosely about cavemen, but conceptually most were pretty silly. I wrote the 2-page outline for The Sanctuary when I was 22 or 23 years old. That was in 2002. That original outline holds up. The story in the finished book matches that outline very closely. The challenging thing isn’t coming up with the ideas or the nuances–it’s sitting down and drawing the book, day after day for years, knowing that most people might not understand it, or care too much about it. Drawing it, knowing that you’re not earning a dime from it, knowing that all the time you have bills and rent to pay, knowing you could just go out or have some drinks or sleep instead. That’s the challenge–fending off all of life’s bullshit and just working on the book for really no other reason than just to do it. Few people can pull that off and do it well. The ideas and nuances are just a part of you, they come from of who you are and what you’ve absorbed. Your technique determines how well you’re going to communicate those things.

O’Shea: While this is your first graphic novel, you have also created a half-dozen stories for Fantagraphics’ art comics anthology Mome. Would you say that any of those stories were partially fueled/born by story challenges you encountered while at work on Sanctuary?

Neal: I’d say the comics I did for Mome influenced my work on The Sanctuary more than the other way around. I drew the first half of The Sanctuary between 2005 and 2006. I stopped work on it to do other things for almost 2 years. I didn’t get back to it really until 2009. I made 5 stories for Mome between 2007 and 2009. Half of those Mome stories were realistic stories about modern people. I became a better drawer working on those stories–especially of people. When I started on The Sanctuary again in 2009, I had been drawing those cave people for awhile and had figured out how to draw them better–partially due to drawing all those Mome stories. This prompted me to go back and redraw most of the faces of the characters in the first 90-pages of The Sanctuary. If you track down the Xeric pamphlets of The Sanctuary and compare them to the big book, you can see what I’m talking about. With my next book, I’ve made sure to draw all the characters over and over again to make sure they’re more solid before even starting page one of the novel.

O’Shea: In a book which does not employ language in the traditional sense, was there any temptation on your part to give it a phonetic title of some kind, rather than The Sanctuary?

Neal: Well, the book wasn’t even supposed to have a title you could read. The title was supposed to be a drawing of a bison symbol. The publisher told me they couldn’t sell the book like that. That was all the cover of the book was supposed to be–that bison symbol. I thought it would really pop on bookstore shelves. The publisher told me that wasn’t going to work. I needed a real title and a cover with some more imagery. That’s the only compromise I made from the original vision of the book, but I must say, I now think the front and back covers of the finished book work better than the bison symbol alone. Under the dust jacket, the cover of the book still has the lone bison symbol on it anyway. And as a title, I think The Sanctuary is pretty apt. That’s what the anthropologists called those caves with the paintings in them–sanctuaries. Like a church. It means more than that to me though. Working on the book was like a sanctuary to me–from life!

O’Shea: What kind of feedback did you get from folks at the recent book launch at Desert Island?

Neal: I don’t know about feedback. I always wonder if people who say they like the book have actually read it and not just flipped through it. If I can tell they’ve actually read it, I wonder if they’ve understood it at all. But as far as the launch itself–it was great. Gabe Fowler, who owns the store Desert Island (in my opinion, the best comic book store in New York City, if not elsewhere) is this extremely generous, easy going person. I want to do more store appearances for the book, throughout the country, but sparing the money to travel around is the tricky part.

O’Shea: After answering my questions, an opportunity to ask one of your own. Is there any question you’d like readers of this interview and/or of the book to answer?

Neal: It would be nice to know if people were inspired by the book. As an artist, that’s pretty much all you can expect a book to do, if it’s good.

Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science #1

Welcome to another installment of “Food or Comics?” Every week we set certain hypothetical spending limits on ourselves and go through the agony of trying to determine what comes home and what stays on the shelves. So join us as we run down what comics we’d buy if we only had $15 and $30 to spend, as well as what we’d get if we had some “mad money” to splurge with.

Check out Diamond’s full release list if you’d like to play along in our comments section.

Michael May

If I had $15:

As usual, I’d spend it on single issues. Starting with Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science #1 ($3.50), then picking up a couple of Moonstone books: Zeroids #2 ($3.99) and Return of the Originals: From the Vault – The Pulp Files ($1.99). I enjoyed the first issue of the genre-mashing Zeroids and have been looking forward to the next part of the story; From the Vault is sort of Moonstone’s version of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe or DC’s Who’s Who. I don’t know nearly as much about the classic pulp characters as I’d like, so I’m looking forward to the education. Next I’d check out IDW’s Dungeons & Dragons #1 ($3.99) to see if they’ve figured out how to do a good D&D comic. That brings me to $13.47.

If I had $30:

I’d put back The Pulp Files and D&D and grab the Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard hardcover ($19.95) instead. With Atomic Robo and Zeroids, that’s a total of $27.44.

Splurge:

My top choice of a splurge item is Fantagraphics first volume of The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc Sec ($24.99). I’ve been itching to read these stories since Luc Besson’s movie adaptation was first announced. I can’t resist a French, turn-of-the-century pterodactyl hunter. And as long as I’m splurging, I’d also add Bryan Talbot’s Grandville: Mon Amour ($19.99). I haven’t read the first volume yet, but it looks like exactly the kind of thing I’d enjoy.

Chris Mautner

If I had $15:

The Return Of Bruce Wayne #6

Dave Sim’s Glamourpuss remains a fascinating, if extremely uneven, read for me, so I’ll be picking up issue #16 ($3). I’ll also grab the sixth and final issue of Batman: The Return Of Bruce Wayne ($3.99), even though it hasn’t been one of my favorite Grant Morrison or Batman series. My final must nab will be the NBM’s new edition of Smurf King, one of the finest comics about little blue creatures that like to wear white caps and stockings ever made. That brings me to a total of $12.98

If I had $30:

I’m extremely curious about Fantagraphics’ new kids eurocomic line, which kicks off this week with the release of Stephane Blanquet’s Toys in the Basement ($14.99). I’m especially curious in this case as Blanquet isn’t up till this point an author known for his all-ages friendly material. In fact, it’s quite the opposite; his work is usually typified by ugly, sweaty people doing horrible, disturbing things. So, yeah, I want to see how he dials it down (if at all) for the kiddies.

Splurge:

Oh, I shall splurge a bit this week. Michael has already noted the release of Grandville Mon Amour and the Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc Sec, two books I’ve been anticipating for awhile now. I’d also like to point out the arrival of Inkstuds ($20), a hefty collection of Robin McConnell’s radio interviews with notable cartoonists, fully transcribed onto paper for your reading pleasure. Lots of quality insights abound in there, no doubt.

Brigid Alverson

Twin Spica

If I had $15…

I’d start with volume 4 of Twin Spica ($10.95), Vertical’s space-opera manga about a spunky girl in astronaut school. Like any good series, this manga has pulled me in with good storytelling, a convincing world, and characters that seem grounded and real but don’t quite fit the standard stereotypes.

Then maybe I’ll keep the science fiction theme with Atomic Robo: Deadly Art of Science #1 ($3.50), as that kicks off a new arc and looks like a nice read.

If I had $30…

I’d add Toys in the Basement, although at $14.99 for 32 pages, even in hardcover, it seems a bit skimpy. Still, I like the idea of a kid-friendly comic that isn’t afraid to be creepy, and this one—in which a boy dressed in a pink bunny suit stumbles into some weird French version of the Island of Misfit Toys—looks like a challenging read.

Splurge items

Being a complete pushover for Archie and for classic comics, I’m the natural target for Dark Horse’s Archie Firsts collection ($24.99), which groups together the stories in which each character makes his or her first appearance, plus the first stories from each comic in the line. How could I resist? And I’d also love to read Will Eisner: A Dreamer’s Life in Comics (Bloomsbury, $28.00); a hardcover biography certainly feels like a splurge to me.

Batman and Robin #14

Welcome once again to our weekly round of “What would you buy if your budget was limited?” — or, as we call it, Food or Comics? Every week we set certain hypothetical spending limits on ourselves and go through the agony of trying to determine what comes home and what stays on the shelves. So join Brigid Alverson, Chris Mautner, Kevin Melrose and me as we run down what comics we’d buy if we only had $15 and $30 to spend, as well as what we’d get if we had some “mad” money to splurge with.

This week we’re coming to you a day late, as comics won’t arrive in shops in the United States until tomorrow due to this past Monday’s big holiday. And check out Diamond’s full release list if you’d like to play along in our comments section.

Chris Mautner

If I had $15 …

Batman and Robin #14 ($2.99)
Glamourpuss #15 ($3)
Starstruck #13 ($3.99)

My three main purchases for the week. The one of note is the final issue of Elaine May and Michael Kaluta’s Starstruck. I have no idea if IDW plans on collecting the series or not, or if there are other Starstruck mini-series in the works (I’m guessing not; my Spidey-sense tells me that the series wasn’t a solid seller for the company), but if this is the end (at least for now), I’m grateful to IDW for taking a chance and introducing me to what can only be described as an utterly dense and utterly unique comics-reading experience.

If I had $30:

Dean Haspiel‘s and Inverna Lockpez’s Cuba: My Revolution (Vertigo, $24.99), about Lockpez’s early life in Havana during the rise of Castro and the abuse she suffered under that regime, looks interesting, though not necessarily interesting enough for me to chuck all my other purchases for the week. On the other hand, I don’t have (believe it or not) the collected version of Chester Brown’s Louis Riel ($17.95) yet, and there’s a new printing available this week from Drawn & Quarterly. I loved Brown’s idiosyncratic take on Canadian folk hero/revolutionary Riel back when I read the individual, serialized issues and have been thinking about getting the collected version for my bookshelf for some time now. Hmmm, decisions, decisions …

Splurge:

Easy choice this week. From Shadow to Light: The Life and Art of Mort Meskin ($39.99) is a swell-looking history of a little-examined and little-known Golden Age artist who is only just now getting his due. Author Steve Brower and Fantagraphics provide the education.

Kevin Melrose

If I had $15 to spend, I’d grab …

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth — New World #2 ($3.50)

It’s the team of Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, Guy Davis and Dave Stewart which, honestly, is all I need to know to fork over my not-so-hard-earned money. (Dark Horse)

Weird War Tales #1 ($3.99)

The second in DC Comics’ series of classic war one-shots features stories by Darwyn Cooke, Ivan Brandon and Nic Klein, and Jan Strnad and Gabriel Hardman. Sold! (DC Comics)

Thor: The Mighty Avenger #4 ($2.99)

The latest issue in the stellar all-ages series by Roger Langridge and Chis Samnee finds the god of thunder and the Warriors Three stranded in Oxford, England, much to the displeasure of Captain Britain. (Marvel)

The Sixth Gun #4 ($3.99)

The breakout title of Free Comic Book Day, Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s supernatural Western rides hell-bent for leather as Drake Sinclair springs a trap for General Hume and his gang involving a temperamental Thunderbird spirit. (Oni Press)

Total: $14.47.

If I had $30, I’d also pick up …

Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities and the Ghastly Fiend of London #1 ($3.99)

Eric Powell and Kyle Hotz follow up their 2005 miniseries with a four-issue tale that finds Billy the Kid and Fineas Sproule’s Biological Curiosities in London, where they become entangled in the Whitechapel murders. (Dark Horse)

American Vampire #6 ($3.99)

This marks the first issue without Stephen King, leaving Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque to kick off a story starring Skinner Sweet and Pearl in 1930s Las Vegas. (Vertigo)

Batman and Robin #14 ($2.99)

The “Batman Must Die!” arc continues. (DC Comics)

Punisher MAX: Hot Rods of Death #1 ($4.99)

I’m not a fan of Frank Castle, but the partnership of Charlie Huston, Shawn Martinbrough and Lee Loughridge holds enough promise to justify shelling out five bucks. I think. (Marvel)

That brings the total to $30.43, which is close enough.

Splurge:

X-9: Secret Agent Corrigan, Vol. 1 ($49.99)

Part of IDW Publishing’s Library of American Comics imprint, this 296-page trade paperback collects Al Williamson and Archie Goodwin’s 1967-1980 run on the adventure strip created in 1934 by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond. (IDW Publishing)

Brigid Alverson

Twin Spica

If I had $15, I’d keep it light for back-to-school with two books that are kid-friendly but offer some substance for older readers as well. First up is the third volume of Twin Spica ($10.95), so I can continue to follow Asumi’s struggle to make it through astronaut training while dealing with the emotional tugs of friends and family. It’s kidlit at its best, with a solid story that provides a framework for exploring different types of relationships. And I’m also planning on picking up the first issue of Scratch9, a dynamic, entertaining, and slyly funny story of a cat who, thanks to a mad scientist, gets to meet all his previous eight lives.

With $30, I’d add a handful of floppies. Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities and the Ghastly Fiend of London #1 ($3.95) looks pretty entertaining, and I’ll add Kill Shakespeare #5 ($3.99) and The Sixth Gun #4 ($3.99), two solid series that I’m enjoying a great deal. That only leaves me three bucks, so I’ll throw in Scooby Doo Where Are You #1 ($2.99) to read with my nephew and nieces, who are big fans.

My splurge item this week is the two volumes of Alison Dare, Heart of the Maiden and Little Miss Adventures, reissued by Tundra. I’m a big J. Torres fan and I enjoyed these comics greatly in galleys; I just wish there were more of them. And then I’ll indulge my Archie jones with the second issue of the Life with Archie magazine, just to see what those crazy kids are up to.

JK Parkin

If I had $15 …

Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities and the Ghastly Fiend of London #1 ($3.95)
American Vampire #6 ($3.99)
Sixth Gun #4 ($3.99)
Batman and Robin #14 ($2.99)

By the time I get around to writing up my picks for the week, there’s a good chance my colleagues will have already talked about my selections in their own sections. So I really don’t have anything to add about the titles I’ve listed above, beyond calling attention to the fact that Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities also has a back-up story running in Dark Horse’s Buzzard mini-series that has been quite good.

If I had $30 …

Weird War Tales #1 ($3.99)
Justice League Generation Lost #9 ($2.99)
Thanos Imperative #4 ($3.99)
Irredeemable #17 ($3.99)

While I’m probably more curious than excited about DC’s series of war one-shots, it’s hard not to be enthused by an issue that features Darwyn Cooke, Ivan Brandon and Jan Strnad, among others. Justice League Generation Lost #9 continues the story of Booster Gold and co.’s attempt to find the resurrected Maxwell Lord. I’ve been downloading these on my iPad versus buying physical copies, and Keith Giffen and Judd Winick are doing wonderful stuff here. I plan to get the trades when they come out.

Add to that some big-time space opera by Abnett and Lanning, and some superhero-gone-mad madness from Mark Waid, and I think I’m looking pretty good for the week … and under budget.

Splurge:

I already own them, but I thought it was worth pointing out that Brendan McCarthy’s recent Spider-Man: Fever mini-series and a new printing of Berlin Book 1 both arrive in comic shops this week. My splurge item would be Cuba My Revolution. As Chris noted above, it’s about writer Inverna Lockpez’s early life in Havana during the rise of Castro. Although the story sounds compelling, it’s the art team that sold me on it, Dean Haspiel of ACT-I-VATE, Bored to Death and Street Code fame, and José Villarrubia — whose work you may remember from Dark Horse’s Conan titles and Promethea, among others.

Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is blogger and critic David Uzumeri, who can be frequently found at Funnybook Babylon, Savage Critics or Comics Alliance. Guy gets around.

And now we have him here as our special WAYR guest! To find out what David and everyone else at the mighty Robot 6 is reading this week, simply click on the link below.

Twin Spica

Brigid Alverson: For some reason, Twin Spica looks much older than it is—the cover has a yellowish cast, and the images of shooting stars have a Sputink-era feel to me. It actually came out in 2000 in Japan, and it has a really timeless, very classic manga feel to it. It’s the story of a young girl, Asumi, who is training to be an astronaut. This first volume is partly a story of the kids making it through the first round of rigorous tests and partly the backstory of Asumi, her family, and the mysterious lion-headed man that only she can see, all of whom have associations with space. It’s a very good read, with plenty of challenges for a  nice assortment of likeable characters, so I’m looking forward to following the whole thing.

Nathan Edmondson gave me an advance peek at the first two issues of The Light, which he is writing and Brett Weldele is illustrating. The story is classic horror—incandescent lights have suddenly developed the power to kill anyone who looks into them. I love the art in this story—in keeping with the theme, the art is very luminous, and Weldele does a nice job of capturing different types of light, such as streetlights against a sky at daybreak, incandescent light on a gray afternoon, or a plane silhouetted against its own lights. The story looks like typical horror: A Terrible Peril has occurred and the hero must flee. Like many horror stories, this seems to assume that the danger is geographically limited—if incandescent lights are emitting a strange virus in one town, wouldn’t that be true everywhere? However, Edmondson quickly sketches out a few strong characters, including an interestingly flawed hero and his obnoxious teenage daughter, which grabbed me right from the start.

The webcomic Cleopatra in Spaaace! flagrantly fails the Zuda Test: Cleopatra and her cat have spent the first 15 pages battling robots, but I have no idea who they are or why they are doing this. Doesn’t matter. Mike Maihack’s lively cartoony art makes this comic a delight to read, and the fact that Cleopatra is now escaping in a space bicycle shaped like The Sphinx gives me hope that there will be much zaniness to come. I liked it so much that I went and checked out Maihack’s earlier comic, Cow and Buffalo, in which the eponymous animals are barnyard superheroes. It’s goofy and funny, and reading the archives should keep me going until the next Cleopatra update.

Artesia Vol. 1

Michael May: I’m going through Mark Smylie’s Artesia series again and just finished the first book. I remember being struck with the beauty of his art the first time around as well as the depth of the world he created. It’s almost too deep a world with all the names of gods, kingdoms, and a huge cast of characters being overwhelming at times. But it’s impossible to let that put you off reading it. The art and characterization pull you through. Artesia herself is a fascinating, seductive character and you can’t not want to spend time with her. And of course, the proper names and plot not only get easier to manage in subsequent readings, but becoming familiar with them also lets you discover nuances that you missed the first time around. If anything, I love it more now than I did when I originally discovered it.

I also read the first issue of Saint James Comics’ Indigo Blue. It’s a dystopian-future story about people who are genetically spliced with animals and end up being hunted. The main character is a half-man/half-dog named Blue who’s an agent in an underground organization trying to fight back against their oppressors. It’s a clever way of doing an anthropomorphic animal comic. When I say that, it reminds me a bit of Elephantmen, but there’s such a different tone to Indigo Blue that comparison is unfair. Unlike the dark, luxuriously paced Elephantmen, Blue is a fast-moving adventure comic. What the two do have in common though is that I like them both quite a bit.

Muppet Show #3

Tim O’Shea: It’s Schrödinger’s cat week for comics apparently. Why? Well, when I opened the latest issue of Roger Langridge’s Muppet Show comic (issue 3 of the ongoing series), I was bewildered and surprised to see the Muppets Lab sketch use the Schrödinger’s cat reference involving Beaker and a number of ties. I saw one of Langridge’s bits involving Fozzie coming from a mile away (as he probably intended). But the writer/artist gave a depth to Fozzie that: A) I never thought was a phrase I would say in reference to a Muppet B) Allowed the issue to end on an incredibly sweet note, which is not one might expect from a bear that personifies vaudeville

Jeff Parker’s approach toward the Avengers (in Avengers vs. Atlas 3) demonstrates yet again his strong grasp of Marvel’s history and character dynamics. I was rolling along enjoying the time travel-based tale, more so because the writer used the characters’ confusion about being displaced in time to clarify the story for readers (for me, time travel stories too often fail because the narrative gets too jumbled to simply follow and enjoy). Then I was slightly bemused when Bob (The Uranian) started explaining Schrödinger’s paradox to Ken (Gorilla Man), but only thought of the Schrödinger coincidence for a second–given that I was enjoying the story. Two other nuances to Parker’s writing to enjoy. At one point in the battle Namora returns Cap’s shield to him (by throwing it in a rampaging Hulk’s face). This prompts Cap to say: “Thanks for getting her back.” I didn’t ever recall it being referred to as having female characteristics before so I asked Parker on Twitter if this something he’d come up with doing. Parker’s response was “Yeah, I’d like that one to catch on!” Secondly I enjoy the manner in which Parker shows what a tight-knit team they are, given that the Atlas team members do not call each other code names in the heat of battle, but rather call each other by their first names.

Imagine my surprise in the midst of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s Nova 35 (with Mahmud A. Asrar and Scott Hanna on art), when Reed Richards started lecturing his fellow heroes about the principle of (wait for it, wait for it…) Schrödinger’s cat. That is right, I pulled the Schrödinger hat trick of comics reading. Or maybe I should call it the Schrödinger turkey. I might have suffered the Schrödinger coincidence in this instance a smidge better, if the quality of art and pacing in this installment had not seemed rushed and somewhat forced.  I’m all for a monthly comic meeting its deadline, but I would be willing to wait a few weeks if it meant the art team could bring a stronger story.

Hercules: Fall of an Avenger 1 (of 2) reminds me of the kind of Marvel comics I read in the 1970s and 1980s (in a good way). I cannot recall the last time I read a Marvel comic that actually referenced previous adventures, complete with footnote references of what issue was being referenced. It was a nuance that warmed the heart of this silly fanboy.

I’m no fan of the X-Men Forever series, given that writer Chris Claremont has an affinity for convoluted continuity. But I was overjoyed when I found out that Louise Simonson was coming back to do an X-Factor Forever five-part miniseries, taking off from when she left the original X-Factor series back in the early 1990s. I like how Simonson views the core X-Factor characters, as evidenced in this late 2009 December CBR interview: “Writing them again is a lot of fun – like visiting with old friends. These characters are ‘retro,’ in that they’re heroic. Sure they’re tortured and flawed, but they try to use the powers they’ve been given to protect the weak and make the world a better place. Even though, sometimes, it’s hard to know what’s right and what’s wrong in an imperfect world.” It’s a series where Hank McCoy has never considered using a litter box, he’s actually happy–he smiles. Sure it’s retro, but it’s the closest that Hank has been to his old Stars-and-Garters self than he has in years. (Speaking of Stars and Garters–you must visit Bully’s Beast/Stars and Garters celebration that he hosted this week — bonus points to Bully for his hilarious Amazon bargain banner)

Befriend and Betray

Matt Maxwell: BEFRIEND AND BETRAY – Alex Caine
How does someone go from blue-collar Montreal to Special Forces to working undercover against drug triads, the KKK and not one but two infamous motorcycle clubs (Los Bandidos and the Hell’s Angels)? If you ever wanted to know, then this is the book to read. As much as I’d like to say this was pleasure reading this was…you guessed it…research. But at least research allows you to read interesting things sometimes.

Spent four solid days on Google for the following keywords:
Maya civilization, Maya priesthood, Tezcatlipoca (who is Aztec, not Maya), Tohil (who is Maya, not Aztec), Maya sacrifice, Maya ritual practice, maya ritual object, modern mayans, life in a Yucatec village, maya cosmology. More often than not, I was doing image searches and then finding related text sites. Google is a truly awesome for breadth of research. I mean, awesome. Depth? Well, not so much, really. Not unless you have membership on various academic sites.

Various translations of the Popul Vuh. Some more interesting than others (yawwwwwn).

Someone needs to do some awesome Mayan comics. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be me.

Oh, started reading SWALLOW ME WHOLE, but I’m going to have to reserve comment until I get through the whole thing. Which should be around Christmas at this rate.

Prison Pit Book One

David Uzumeri: Aside from the standard bevy of weekly comics I buy – which is a lot, usually between 15 and 25 – I’ve been doing a lot of external reading and related watching.

My main reading project, which I’m taking a short break from, is Dave Sim’s infamous Cerebus – an insanely fascinating thing to be coming at from a first-time reader’s angle. I’ve got a longer post coming up this week on Comics Alliance about my experience reading the first two phonebooks, but in short, I’m continually bowled over by the book’s intelligence and creativity. By the time you hit High Society, it’s abundantly clear why the book has the creative legacy it does. It’s a shame about where it’s all going to go, but balancing act between genius and madness and all that.

Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit is something I keep coming back to – and not just because it’s the only comic book I’ve ever seen that can actively liven up a party. It’s a hilarious, visceral and quick read – if you’ve been reading for fifteen minutes, you’re studying it too hard – and while it’s not something I’d recommend to everybody, it’s still over a hundred glorious pages of Jack Kirby via… shit, I can’t even think of anything as extreme as this. The Postal videogame, maybe. But for really dumb fun, this is pretty much unbeatable. I’ve considered that maybe the fun isn’t as dumb – that maybe Cannibal Fuckface’s journey through the wastes of the prison pit are a Bunyan-style metaphor for, I don’t know, man coming to terms with the restrictions of modern life, but then I remember it’s a comic that features the term “burnt jizz,” and I stop thinking and laugh.

I’m still habitually rereading Grant Morrison’s clockwork-precise Batman run, as well, largely because every new issue seems to reveal new layers in all that’s come before. This book is still a puzzlesolver’s dream, riddled with clues and hints and revealing metaphors. Meanwhile, at Marvel, Jonathan Hickman’s work – especially the excellent Secret Warriors – is doing the same, providing real reread value through careful teasing of the central mystery. Not that this is all of the appeal of these titles – they both feature good character work, excellent pacing, etc. etc. – but the way these titles are almost reader-participatory in the way they disseminate clues is insanely fun.

Finally, I’ve been watching (not comics, but related) the entire Doctor Who/Torchwood sequence, in order because I’m the sort of continuity nut who wants to properly follow plot threads between the two parallel narratives. Until about a month ago I’d never seen an episode in my life, but starting with Eccleston’s first episode I was almost immediately able to interpret aspects of Who continuity as they were introduced by finding incredibly similar comics-related concepts. The “time war” that separates the old production of the show and the new, for instance, is a pretty direct analogue to Crisis on Infinite Earths, filling an almost identical narrative function – to reboot the universe, keeping what the writers liked and dumping what they didn’t. On top of that, though, it’s just clever, rollicking sci-fi action, at its worst entertaining and at its best, like when Steven Moffat or Paul Cornell are writing, thought-provoking and affecting.

The W Files

Digital comics | A free digital comic starring Wallace & Gromit, the popular animated UK duo, has been downloaded more than 500,000 times since Nov. 7, leading one eBook blogger to wonder whether The W Files is the “FIRST eBook best-seller.” (If it’s free, can it still be considered a bestseller?) Released by Titan Publishing, the free iPhone app marks the 20th anniversary of Wallace & Gromit. Subsequent issues cost 99 cents each. [GalleyCat]

Digital comics | Marvel is giving away 1,000 one-year subscriptions for its Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited online service to enlisted military personnel through Jan. 7. [Air Force Times]

Naruto, Vol. 1: The Boy Ninja

Publishing | Reed Stevenson looks at the growth of manga in Europe, where the market is expanding at a pace of 10 percent to 15 percent each year: “Sales of printed manga books have fallen in Japan in recent years but grown elsewhere, particularly among European young people who are consuming such titles as Naruto, Fruits Basket and Death Note with the same appetite as an earlier generation showed for The Adventures of Tin Tin and The Adventures of Asterix. [Reuters]

Publishing | Retailer Christopher Butcher considers Dave Sim’s recent move to print on demand for back issues of Cerebus Archives. [Comics212]

Publishing | Suresh Seetharaman, president of Liquid Comics, briefly discusses the successor to Virgin Comics: “Comic books incubate ideas that create opportunities for other revenue streams in the entertainment industry, which is what we are focused on at this moment.” [The Financial Express]

Death Note

Manga | It’s been a while since there’s been a Death Note scare, so I guess we were due: An Oklahoma City newspaper reports that two students at Andrew Johnson Elementary are being disciplined for possessing a notebook that contained references to the violent deaths of two fellow students who had angered them: “Kill (student’s name) by gun shotgunshell in her hand” and “(student’s name) shot by a sniper.” Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s hit manga centers on a high school student who sets out to rid the world of evil using a supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it. [Oklahoma City Friday, via Anime News Network]

Manga | David Welsh suggests several manga for Eisner Awards consideration, including Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka and 20th Century Boys, Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life and Kiyohiko Azuma’s Yotsuba&!. [Precocious Curmudgeon]

Creators | The lengthy conversation between writers Denny O’Neil and Matt Fraction from The Comics Journal #300 makes its way online. [TCJ.com]

Aya: The Secrets Come Out

Creators | Evelyne Aka profiles Marguerite Abouet, author of the popular Aya series of graphic novels. [AFP]

Creators | Joe Sacco gets the spotlight in a piece that includes criticism of his Footnotes in Gaza from an Israeli military historian and a professor of comparative literature. [The Associated Press]

Creators | Dash Shaw discusses The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D., his earlier work, and some creators he admires. [Big Shiny Robot!]

Creators | Evan Miller profiles Becky Cloonan, who discusses, among other things, her earliest exposure to manga: “The slapstick of Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikkoku resonated with me much like the Sunday comics did. Then I discovered that it was drawn by a woman, which was pretty rare in the early 90s. When I discovered that there was a country of women drawing comics, it really opened my eyes.” [Anime News Network]

Comics | Esther Inglis-Arkell considers the tendency of comics books to throw “random crap together until it works,” from giant Nazi robots to superhero face-offs. [io9.com]

Stuck in the Middle

Libraries | There’s still more follow-up to the removal this week of Stuck in the Middle: Seventeen Comics from an Unpleasant Age from two middle-school libraries in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Teachers still have access to the anthology — it depicts language and sexual reference that at least one parent found objectionable — and may use it in class.

An editorial in the Argus Leader calls the school board’s decision “a reasonable approach that balances the need to provide suitable guidance for kids when dealing with sensitive topics without falling prey to censorship.” CBS affiliate KELO, meanwhile, continues its coverage of the story with a look at how books are selected for libraries. Tom Spurgeon also has reaction from two of the anthology’s contributors. [Argus Leader, KELOLAND.com]

Creators | Jeet Heer digs up writings by a young Dave Sim expressing, in no uncertain terms, his disdain for the work of Jack Kirby. [Comics Comics]

Creators | Cartoonist Jeff Keane discusses the evolution of The Family Circus, IDW Publishing’s new archival collection, and the future of newspapers. [ICv2.com]

Batman and Robin, by Frank Quitely

Creators | Thought Bubble interviews artists Frank Quitely and Charlie Adlard. “When you work on a title or character that everyone knows loads of people say ‘I hate his Wolverine’ or ‘I hate his Superman’ or whatever,” Quitely says, “because it jars with their own favourite versions of the characters — no one ever says ‘I hate his We3 animals’ because they didn’t start reading it with any preconceptions or prejudices. From that point of view it’s always easier to work on new stuff, or your own stuff, but I enjoy the challenge of getting to do well-known characters and I generally don’t really care if some folk don’t like what I do, it’s personal taste, and I’ve got a pretty thick skin.” [via ArtPatient]

Creators | Collaborators Martin Conaghan and Will Pickering talk at length about their historical graphic novel Burke and Hare. [Forbidden Planet International]

Creators | Warren Ellis offers for download his scripts for issues of Fell, Desolation Jones and Ministry of Space. [Warren Ellis]

Webcomics | El Santo spotlights a handful of politically conservative webcomics. [The Webcomic Overlook]

Comics | The Son of Satan is back, baby! [The Cool Kids Table]

Stitches: A Memoir

Publishing | Publishers Weekly teases its forthcoming lists of the best books of the year with a Top 10 that includes David Small’s National Book Award-nominated memoir Stitches. [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | UK newspaper The Times rolls out a package marking the 70th anniversary of Marvel Comics with profiles of Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr., 70 facts “you didn’t know” about the company, and a gallery. [Times Online]

Publishing | Back issues of Cerebus Archives, Dave Sim’s bimonthly DVD extras-style collection of letters, stories and artwork, are now available through print-on-demand publisher ComiXpress. [ComiXpress]

Blogosphere | Mike Nebeker, co-host of the Geek Tragedy Podcast, passed away Oct. 27 from an apparent stroke. He was 41. According to this blog entry, his co-hosts plan on Tuesday to post a new episode that will contain their farewells and Nebeker’s unaired interviews from the Alternative Press Expo. After that, they’ll take some time off from the podcast. [Geek Tragedy Podnotes]

Comic strips | Amazon has announced the 10 finalists for its Comic Strip Superstar contest. [Digital Strips]

The Absolute Death

Sales charts | R. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated is the top hardcover for the second week on The New York Times Graphic Books bestseller list, followed by The Absolute Death, which debuts at No. 2. The sixth collection of Jack of Fables bows as the No. 2 paperback, behind The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks, while the 46th volume of Naruto continues to lead the manga chart. [The New York Times]

Creators | Jeff Kinney, author of the bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, discusses, among other things, response to the books’ hybrid diary-comic format: “The mix of a handwritten font and lots of illustrations makes the books feel accessible to kids. I haven’t gotten a lot of backlash for not having written ‘real’ literature, but I wouldn’t mind it. My books are just for fun, and I think they’re a gateway to more legitimate reading. I’ve gotten thousands of emails from parents and teachers saying my books turned have their kids into readers. I can’t say that’s what I set out to do, but I’m proud that it’s happening.” [School Library Journal]

Creators | Ben Towle and Chris Pitzer cover an appearance earlier this week in Richmond, Virginia, by R. Crumb and Françoise Mouly. Also, art critic Kenneth Baker provides your Crumb interview of the day. [Comics Worth Reading, AdHouse Books Blog, San Francisco Chronicle]

This Modern World

Creators | This Modern World cartoonist Tom Tomorrow (aka Dan Perkins) chats briefly about politics, inspiration and hate mail: “Hate mail seems to be cyclical. The immediate post-9/11 era was the worst I’ve ever been through. Every bloodthirsty moron who ever disagreed with me about anything suddenly felt empowered and angry. I was living in New York City at the time, and the threat of terrorism was constant and pervasive, but these people frightened me almost as much, at least on a personal level. That all faded away as the Glorious Victories they kept predicting failed to materialize; you could almost chart the disenchantment with George W. Bush by the decline in hate mail I was getting. These days, they’re starting up again, but I can’t say I pay a lot of attention anymore. The problem is, e-mail flattens everything. In the old days, people had to care enough about whatever they wanted to send you to find a stamp and an envelope and track down an address. With e-mail, you’re subject to any random brain fart someone might feel like sending. I tend to filter a lot, just to not let it eat up too much of my time.” [Campus Progress]

Comics | An auction will be held Sunday and Monday for a stash of more than 30,000 Silver Age comics discovered in the basement of a home in St. Louis County, Missouri. The collection is expected to bring in more than $500,000. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Donna Barr

Donna Barr is a creator with a rich history in the comics industry. As noted in her Wikipedia profile (which Barr directs people to): “Common elements in her work are fantastic human/animal hybrids and German culture. She is best known for two of her series. One is Stinz (about a society of centaur-like people in a setting reminiscent of pre-industrial Germany). Originally published in 1986 as a short story in a hand-bound book, it was then serialized in the Eclipse Comics series ‘The Dreamery,’ edited by Lex Nakashima. It was picked up by Albedo creator Steve Gallacci under his Thoughts & Images label, moving on to MU Press and its imprint Aeon Press. It was then self-published under A Fine Line Press.

Her other long-running series, The Desert Peach is about Pfirsich Rommel, the fictional homosexual younger brother of Erwin “The Desert Fox” Rommel. Beginning in 1987, it was set in North Africa during World War 2). The first three issues were published by Thoughts & Images. Additional issues were published by Fantagraphics Books, Aeon Press, and then self-published. Other works include Hader and the Colonel, The Barr Girls, and Bosom Enemies.

Barr has also recently published a number of novels, including Permanent Party, An Insupportable Light, and Bread and Swans. The last two of these feature Stinz and The Desert Peach, respectively. Some of her later books take advantage of the new print-on-demand technologies.”

Barr and I initially started this email interview to discuss Afterdead, her project currently running at Webcomics Nation. My thanks to Barr for her time and to Joey Manley for helping to facilitate this interview.

Tim O’Shea: While some veteran creators are new to webcomics, you are not–as you’ve been running your work with Joey Manley’s various sites since 2003, I believe. How did you jump into webcomics well before some of your contemporaries and what attracted you to the medium?

Donna Barr: Joey asked me to. It’s a good decision; he’s one of those GOOD publishers that make me feel I haven’t gone to the dark side.

O’Shea: What motivated you to donate your work, dating back to 1963, to San Diego State University –and have you ever visited your collection?

Barr: One of my life goals was to have my work recognized by a university collection. Yes, I’ve visited the collection. One of my readers, Daniel Hager, put the connection between the university and me into motion.

The collection was opened with a talk in the collection during the 2004 San Diego Comicon. The lights went out when we went to tour the collection and we had a lot of fun viewing it with flashlights; it was like touring a funhouse. My name is on a glass plaque in the Love Library entryway as a contributor, and I am a heritage member of the university.

Special Collections insisted I be put up at the Hyatt hotel on the highway in recognition that comics authors are as important as prose authors. I would have been happy with a couch, but they were promoting our work.

The Comicon gave them a booth that year, and I translated and defined terms between our industry and academia. I also toured the floor with Daniel, convincing authors to add their books to the collections.

O’Shea: Since you are still quite an active storyteller, why did you choose to donate the bulk of your work in 2005, rather than say further down the road in your career?

Barr: This stuff piles up! And it’s not the bulk of my work – just a portion. When I was younger I of course had the artist’s bonfire (“This stuff is such crap!”). Artists and authors die in harness (or the trenches). I’ve willed everything artistic I’ve got to them. Are they ever going to get a surprise after my ashes are scattered. I expect staff hernias when the boxes of art show up.

O’Shea: Would I be correct in thinking that Afterdead (a work which features characters from both of your past works, Desert Peach and Stinz) was partially fueled by the atmosphere generated by the Bush administration? If so, are you finding the early days of President Obama are still giving you enough fodder for your storytelling?

Barr: You noticed that, huh? It was mostly because I was tired of publishing a bunch of series, so I happily opened the doors and let everybody party together.

Actually, the Bush administration so closely resembled the build-up in Germany under the National Socialists that it was too easy to write. As for fodder – there is ALWAYS fodder. I find Obama’s administration less – exciting – but I WANT my politics boring. We have a choice; politics or war. Nobody wants to live in Interesting Times. Those who think they do spend their lives – if they survive – with PTSD.

I do have hopes the empire may be finally over after 500 years of terrorism. I just posted an article about that here.

Another happy little income stream. It doesn’t look like much, but $10.00 + $68.00 + $33.00 from different sites add up.

[Note: After the initial round of answers, Barr considered this question further and added the following] Udo and Leutnant Winzig show up again.  There are roller derby queens, hair-raising stalks and hunts, and finally a raucous transfer of power between Fuehrers — based on what a long-time Southern friend of mine said (usually through her Pictish teeth):  “The new President and First Lady should be made to enter the White House over the blood of the last couple — who were beheaded.”

Then again, she wants to buy her home town, raze it to the ground, and plant scrub oaks.  The American people are only furious right now because we have an administration that is TELLING them everything — and not threatening us every time we turn around.  Obama has announced that anything submitted to the White House must be in writing — and will be posted to the internet.  HA!

Here’s an idea:  anybody is getting ANY government money, it all has to be posted on the internet.  Anybody gets caught doing a backroom deal, or even suggesting one at lunch, without a stenographer or YouTube-postable film being made, goes to jail.

And anybody has a $!#!! wolf hunt to protect their own hunting rights (Read:  want to kill humans so go after deer instead) is behind bars with ‘em.

(What is it John Adams said?  “Oh, Abby, I have such an URGE to knock heads together!”)

As for AFTERDEAD being specifically about the Bush administration, it’s really about all the dishonorable things our country has done to betray so-called original values.

It’s kind of hard to ignore what we did as a country when you live so near to it: http://wolffood.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/what-bia-really-means/

O’Shea: In your blog bio, you list Crazy Weather as a favorite book. Is this referring to Charles L. McNichols’ 1944 book–or another book? And would you say Crazy Weather is a work that influenced you as a storyteller?

Barr: That’s the one. No, it didn’t influence me. My own nutty life influenced me. I know all those people and all that dialogue – I just change the costumes and times and places. Scratching head again about this “influence” question. I mean, isn’t the way we learn to write just WRITING and DRAWING for hour after hour for years? Do people actually copy other people’s stories or pay attention to their styles? I can’t get my head around that. I must be an alien.

O’Shea: Do you think you increased exposure to your work by offering free downloads at Lulu from March 1 to 15?

Barr: Dunno. Might have. Just did it for the fun of it and to thank fans and reviewers. I don’t keep track of numbers – never have. I just draw and write and publish and post. Let’s go look (stops to go to site; I loves me some interwebs). Hm, let’s see.. Might have helped. Then again, posting all over Facebook and the Facebook Comicon and my table there might have been most of it.

O’Shea: Back in 2007, you did a piece that was supposed to be part of a larger roast of Dave Sim-can you tell folks the backstory of how you came to create your La Zorra piece ?

Barr: It was part of an anthology or something somebody (forget who) was doing, but fell through (all of it is posted, by the way). Friend of Dave’s, I think. So I threw it up at Webcomicsnation. I don’t know why I did it as Zorro – maybe because I’d been watching the movie, and I thought his fans would laugh at it. I was poking him for his nuttiness about women, but in a cute way. I hope he laughed. Dave’s fun to drink with (well, back when I drank in public before the tequila-monster post) and he’s actually very supportive of women authors. I think that stuff might just be PR to rake in some of the fans.

O’Shea: Not to mince words, but as enlightened and/or open-minded world as we may think we live in, not everyone is open to a story about “Pfirsich Rommel, the fictional homosexual younger brother of Erwin ‘The Desert Fox’ Rommel“.

Barr: Eh? What little rural high school do you people live in? Or maybe I run with a smarter crowd (my readers seem to be smarter than most people, with better educations). Doesn’t scare any of them.

Then again, not everybody reads the same thing. There are many markets. My readers don’t herd; as I josh, I have to hunt them down one at a time. I’ve been called “an experienced predator.”

O’Shea: You first started Desert Peach back in 1987–and I’m curious to know if, as homosexuality has become more widely accepted in mainstream society, have you seen negative correspondence increase or decrease over the years?

Barr: What negative correspondence? My fans run from the laughing, weeping and giggling to the profound. My Jewish readers tell me that somebody FINALLY told the story about how this stuff actually happens, not the final result. One of the younger ones said, “We were never told HOW it happened, so we were like abused children – we grew up asking what we’d down wrong.” My German fans say they know people like that, or even served with them in the army. We have lots of fun!

I don’t consider the American Nazi Party’s declaration of me as the Anti-Christ to be negative. I’m… so… proud….

O’Shea: Given your affinity for German culture, how often have you been able to go visit Germany–or is your interest in its history and culture satiated through research?

Barr: Just once. SOMEBODY INVITE ME BACK (plane tickets?). After about an hour, my German warms up and I can blather away to about anybody (in high German, anyway). Except the numbers. I always get the numbers mixed up.

O’Shea: How many of your stories are currently available at Webcomics Nation?

Barr: [Discussing the series, Afterdead] Stinz has been chosen for a supreme honor – to initiate the breeding of his people at the Reichisch farms. He’s Catholic and while he sees it as his duty, he really doesn’t want to do it. Pfirsich has gone along to try to help him get out of it. Rosen will be showing up soon.

O’Shea: Creatively what else is on the horizon for 2009 and beyond?

Barr: Dave Baxter of  is working with me on a new webcomics project, featuring the entire first issues of the Desert Peach. We may be possibly – if I can only get around to lettering it – be featuring it for phone download with Robot Comics.

I need to have arms like Kali. And hydra heads.

O’Shea: What would you like to discuss that I neglected to ask you about?

Barr: People usually ask where I live. At the far end of the pictured cape.

Oh, and my website link … my book sales site …  and the bookstore at www.donnabarr.com

Cereblog

Talk about ambition. Leigh Walton and Laura Hudson have created a new comics site, titled Cereblog, devoted to (as you may have already guessed) Dave Sim’s seminal (and just a wee bit controversial) series Cerebus. Their goal? To dual critique all 300 issues, one each week.

Cerebus: A Diablog (or sometimes Cereblog) is an ongoing close reading in two-part harmony. Neither of us was born yet when Cerebus was launched, and neither of us has previously read very much of the series. We’re curious to see what Dave Sim’s work, in all its twisted glory, has to say to a new generation of readers. Grab your own copy and read along with us!

All kidding aside, so far they seem to be off to a strong star. Here, for example, is Leigh on issue one:

What’s interesting about the “Cerebus is an aardvark” juxtaposition — seemingly the point of the comic — is that the comic largely doesn’t notice. The opening few pages of this issue, when the human characters are shocked to see a warrior aardvark riding a horse and entering a bar, comprise pretty much the only time in the series (I think) when the comic draws attention to the conceit. “Thought later he would be called the finest warrior to enter our gates, at the time, he was but a curiosity…” “I can’t serve YOU here… YOU’RE A…” etc. But then he’s hired by two thieves to join their heist, with a minimum of hesitation, and that establishes the treatment for the rest of the book: Cerebus is funny-looking, and he’s recognized as an unnaturally skilled warrior, but he’s not a dog walking on its hind legs or anything.

Please join me in wishing them the best of luck. By the time they get to Reads, they’ll need it.