Scholastic has premiered a new trailer for Bone: Quest for the Spark, by Tom Sniegoski and Jeff Smith, ahead of the release of the second volume on Feb. 1.

The prose trilogy, which includes illustrations by Smith, follows a new generation of Bone characters into the Valley. Here’s the description of Vol. 2:

The Nacht, the evil dragon that threatens to destroy both the Dreaming and the Waking World, is growing stronger, and twelve-year-old Tom Elm is the champion the Dreaming has chosen to defeat it. Along with Roderick the raccoon, Percival Bone and his nephew and niece, Randolf, Lorimar, and the two stupid Rat Creatures, Tom must race to find the missing pieces of the Spark. This leg of the journey introduces him to a trio of scheming bears and takes him into the depths of a dangerous beehive. And, on top of everything else, a traitor might be among them.

In related news, comiXology is offering the entire Bone series — individual issues and collections alike — at half the download price through Thursday. You can even get the first issue for free.

Susie Cagle

Legal | Susie Cagle, the cartoonist covering Occupy Oakland who was tear-gassed last month, was arrested early Thursday morning during the protests in Oakland. According to her father, cartoonist Daryl Cagle, Susie was being held at Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County, Calif. and was charged with unlawful assembly, even though she was there covering the event and had a press badge. Update: According to her Twitter account, Susie Cagle is out of jail and was charged with a misdemeanor, “present at raid.” [Fishbowl LA]

Legal | Tom Spurgeon offers more details on comic artist Steve Rude’s Halloween altercation, which led to the Nexus creator’s arrest that same night. According to Rude’s wife by way of Spurgeon, Rude was in costume handing out Halloween candy to kids trick-or-treating when his neighbors’ dogs began barking. Rude threw rocks at the neighbors’ fence, which led to a confrontation with them. Rude tore the neighbor’s shirt and pushed him, leading to the assault charges. Rude suffered physical abuse during the arrest and in jail before posting bail. [The Comics Reporter]

Rex Ogle

Publishing | DC Comics Assistant Editor Rex Ogle has reportedly left the publisher for a position at Scholastic. Ogle, who joined DC in 2008, worked on such titles as Blue Beetle, Justice League International and Justice League Dark, and wrote the recent Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint miniseries. His departure follows that of Associate Editor Janelle Asselin, who left DC in late September for a job at Disney’s magazine division. [Bleeding Cool]

Digital | Jhonen Vasquez is preparing Johnny the Homicidal Maniac for its debut in digital form in January and notes that some fans have complained he’s making minor corrections to his original work: “I get what they’re saying, but it seems too weird to me to think that fixing typos, mistakes that were made not creatively, but simply on a grammatical level, changes the overall vibe or message of the book (be kind to others or stab them). Like I said, I get it, but I think the reaction is a bit…reactionary. I even made a joke about it in the announcement in the form of a George Lucas joke, but it went over some heads and those heads be upset about me adding Yodas into scenes where there weren’t Yodas before.” [Mindspill]

Uncanny X-Men #1

Creators | Kieron Gillen discusses working on the recently relaunched Uncanny X-Men, as well as his career as a video game journalist: “As a working creator there’s a limitation… You don’t want to pick fights, but there’s stuff where if you start doing critical theory, it becomes picking fights. So that’s what I kind of miss. I still do bits of games criticism. I do little bits of music journalism. Give me another 12 hours in the day and I’d still be doing it. I’m very into to the contextualization of culture. I talk to my own critics not to say, “You’ve got my view wrong!” but to generally say thank you. I’m always very pleased when I see someone hammer out 10,000 words on something I wrote… Being a journalist for as long as I was — you write a review, post it, and within hours you have 800 people calling you a c*nt just for having an opinion and giving something an 8/10 rather than a 9/10. And that makes you tough.” [ComicsAlliance]

Creators | Writer Joe Keatinge talks abut his other comic series announced at the New York Comic Con, Hell Yeah “I know where it will eventually end, but my hope is to not get there for a very, very long time. The way I look at is I know where the series will begin and where it will end. I have this all mapped out, but I’m giving Andre and I the freedom to go where we want. Maybe we’ll take short detours. Maybe we’ll go on entirely different path. That said, Hell Yeah is the direct result of almost thirty years of comics passion put into one book. I could write it for just about forever. A big goal of the book was to start something in the superhero genre, a genre in which I believe all others can exist, and go as far away from that as possible as well as exploring what other potential it has.” [iFanboy]

Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is Andrew Foley, the author of the new vampire graphic novel from IDW, Done to Death.

To find out what Andrew and the rest of the Robot 6 crew are reading this week, click below …

Tim O’Shea: Wonder Woman 1: There is very little I can say about Cliff Chiang’s art except stunning. As for the writing? I guess I want to see where the next issue takes me before giving a solid verdict. But in general, I am impressed (though I also see some merit to J. Caleb Mozzocco’s recent analysis of the issue). On a small aside, much has been made of the horse beheading scene. I just wonder if I am the only one who thought the horse looked like Mr. Ed.

Captain America 3: I love Steve McNiven’s art in this issue. Extra points to Brubaker and McNiven for creating one of the most hilarious scenes with Cap’s shield ever.

Birds of Prey 1: I entered this book not wanting to like it, to be honest. Birds of Prey without Gail Simone just seems hamstrung. And yet I was wrong, Duane Swierczynski delivers an interesting script, and Jesus Saiz’s art is as exquisite as ever. I am a simpleton, but the character design (and that car!) for Starling has me interested. That being said, look forward to Todd Klein’s analysis of the new 52 logos. For me, Birds of Prey’s logo is quite lacking.

The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror 17: Jim Woodring, Zander Cannon, Gene Ha, Tom Hodges and Jane Wiedlin (yes Jane Wiedlin) all in one comic. But for my money, the issue opens strongest Cannon and Ha’s Nosferatu: A Simpsony of Horror. I do not think I will ever see another comic story that so perfectly matches the look and vibe of that silent film classic—through the Simpsons prism of course.

Hulk 41: Of all of Jeff Parker’s non-creator-owned work, this issue of Hulk is the finest thing he has ever written. I beg of you Parker, start doing an Untold Childhood Adventures of Thundy Ross as a back-up feature. Looking forward to whatever plans Parker has for Henry. Aspiring artists should study the subtle nuanced storytelling that
Gabriel Hardman delivers in this (and every) issue.

Heroes for Hire 12: I am so going to miss this ongoing series (which ends with this issue), which allowed writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning to feature Marvel’s B characters in a pseudo-team setting. The bolstering of Paladin as a character worth caring about is something that has a lasting effect in the Marvel current continuity.

Batman and Robin 1: Peter Tomasi’s solid script (particularly Bruce’s lecture to Damian) is undermined by the rushed style of Patrick Gleason’s art. I normally like Gleason’s art, but in this issue there were actual panels I had to read three or four times just to figure out what I was seeing.

Batman 1: Greg Capullo (inked by Jonathan Glapion) made this issue sing visually. Capullo’s understanding of body language in certain scenes really sold the story that writer Scott Snyder constructs. I really appreciate Snyder’s use of technology (in some Bruce Wayne scenes) to help give readers non-Batman moments (and yet still advance
the action.

Chris Mautner: Amulet Book 4: The Lost Council by Kazu Kibuishi — More solid all-ages fantasy comics from >r Kibuishi. As I’ve said before, Kibuishi wears his influences on his sleeve here, it’s more than a bit derivative, and I could see the “surprise traitor” coming a mile away, though to be fair, it’s not like Kibuishi wasn’t deliberately telegraphing it from a mile away. All that being said, the book remains an entertaining jaunt; Kibuishi is a very talented cartoonist and storyteller, and his work has grown appreciably in the years since the first volume was released. There’s a reason this series is selling so well. If DC were smart, they’d be looking more to works like these for their big reboot, instead of … well, wherever it is they are looking.

Drawing Power: A Compendium of Cartoon Advertising by Rick Marschall and Warren Bernard — Like the title says, this is a look at how popular comic strip characters and comics in general were used to help sell products. The best thing about the book is the art, which shows classic characters like Little Nemo and the Yellow Kid hawking all manner of suspect gee-gaws. Even cartoonists like Peter Arno and Percy Crosby got in the act, proudly pitching tomato juice and beer. Most of the text is rather perfunctory, though it does get interesting when it talks about advertising firms like Jonstone and Cushing, which dealt exclusively in comic strip ads. Plus, there’s a nice selection of Mr. Coffee Nerves strips at the back, and I’m always a sucker for that guy. I’d love a top hat like his.

Brigid Alverson: Usually I prefer graphic novels to monthly comics, but I have been picking up a few single issues here and there. I liked B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth Russia #1 because it started  a new story arc with just enough exposition to let me know where things stand. People in Russia are… melting into blobs? Hard to say, but whatever it is, it’s nasty. The B.P.R.D. is in disarray — Hellboy has quit, Liz Sherman is in hiding after causing a giant conflagration, and Abe Sapien is in a coma, having been shot by the psychic Fenix. That leaves Kate Corrigan and Johann Kraus to travel to Moscow and get dissed by the local officials before knuckling down to solve their problem. The comic opens strong with a pretty scary supernatural incident, then cuts to Kate and Johann on their way to Russia. Unfortunately, all the exposition gets in the way of the story a bit. I’d like to know more about what is happening, but I guess that’s a reason to read issue 2.

I was a bit more dubious about Conan Road of Kings #8 — can I really come in at issue 8 of a story arc and follow it? Yes, I can, because there’s a nice little block of  text at the beginning that explains what has happened so far, and despite all the elaborate names and places (“Prince Arpello of the province of Pellia”) that mean nothing to me right now, the story is pretty straightforward: Conan got mixed up with some sort of a resistance group, they were betrayed, and everyone did a bunk, leaving him with the young daughter of one member of the group. So what we have is an adventure story with a big hunky guy and spunky little girl eluding the guards, fighting giant insects, etc. The art is nice and clear, not overly complicated, and the bright coloring makes it feel like a 1950s adventure movie.

Red Hood & the Outlaws #1

Andrew Foley: Well, they got me. I succumbed to the car crash fascination of it all and went out and read Catwoman #1 and Red Hood and The Outlaws #1. I am so weak. First up, I’ve got to say that, without the online uproar, the books’ immediate draw for me would be their artwork, and on that score neither disappoints. It’s some of the things the artists have been called upon to draw that makes me uncomfortable.

Maybe it’s time for me to simply admit I’m a crotchety old prude who’s out of touch with the youth of today, but I’ve got issues with these issues. I’m not saying DC shouldn’t publish mature interpretations of what started out as children’s comic characters (and in at least one of these cases is aimed at readers as young as 12 years old). I will, however, suggest that maybe a little more thought should have gone into whether making these interpretations the characters’ official versions was the best strategy to go with. Why risk alienating a substantial portion of your potential audience during a line-wide relaunch intended to bring new and lapsed readers to your books? Maybe they ran the numbers and concluded that it’s a risk worth taking, that the dollars brought in from the Lady Death crowd will be worth the inevitable ill will from more politically correct quarters.

I’d be surprised if those involved with Catwoman #1 hadn’t made some calculations along those lines, actually, as the entire book seems practically tailor-made to provoke a response. Many comics folk these days seem to care little what the response actually is, so long as it’s loud and passionate. “We want people to talk about the books” is an oft-heard refrain. If you’re worried people won’t talk about the high quality of a book’s writing, crass titillation ought to do the trick–it worked for Frank Miller, right? Well yes it did, but there was a palpable sense of childlike glee in the Miller-written scene Catwoman #1’s title is a reference to. In contrast, Catwoman #1’s conclusion seems a hollow affair, an exercise in cynical manipulation with the sole purpose of cashing in on the barriers broken by All-Star Batman and Robin. I wasn’t happy when ASBARTBW plowed headlong into this territory, either, but at least I got the sense that its writer, if no one else, was having fun.

Though it wasn’t what I’m looking for from the character, on a meta and craft level, Catwoman #1 hits exactly the target its makers are aiming for. Red Hood and The Outlaws #1 feels more scattershot to me. It doesn’t seem to be aiming for any particular bullseye, yet still manages to miss. I’d have problems with the New DC’s version of Starfire even if she was an entirely new character. I just don’t see what good can come from having an oversexed bimbo so dumb she can barely tell the guys she’s sleeping with apart presented as the lead female character in a superhero book for teens. That sends a terrible message to kids and parents DC presumably wants to attract. That it’s a previously existing character who previously wasn’t portrayed as a sex-starved blow-up doll sends a terrible message to nearly everyone. Yes, Koriand’r’s sensuality was always a big part of her character. And yes, she was for a time a naïve innocent unaccustomed to the ways of the world–at least the world she was on. But for as long as I read the Teen Titans, she wasn’t anything close to…that. Though the impression I got from the issue overall is that the writer’s looking to create a straight superhero adventure romp, the insertion of frat boy fantasies of casual sex absent any responsibility was so baffling to me that I’d almost convinced myself there was a point to it beyond the obvious. “Maybe Scott Lobdell’s setting the stage for a story about sexually transmitted infections, where Arsenal has to deal with Tamaranian genital warts or something,” I thought.

Then I heard about the semi-transparent bikini and I decided to think about something else.

My favourite thing about Wonder Woman #1 was the way Cliff Chiang presented the character visually. Without someone next to her, Diana looks much the way she always has. But when you compare her to other people, you realize she’s huge, an imposing physical presence who towers over those around her. That’s how a confident, powerful superhero of Wonder Woman’s stature ought to be drawn. I hope other artists who’ll be working with the character are taking notes.

I quite enjoyed everything else about the issue too, but once finished I couldn’t help feeling that I should have enjoyed it more. What was there was pretty great. Azzarello’s Diana is a half superhero, half 300 Spartan, no-nonsense warrior to be reckoned with. She’s a powerful character, defined in this issue by her actions rather than her relationship to male characters. Her traditional Greek god enemies have been given a patina of Vertigo grit, but it doesn’t read to me as the horror story Azzarello’s been billing it as. There’s some disturbing imagery, but overall this first issue is closer in tone to Game of Thrones than Hellblazer. My only problem with Wonder Woman #1, really, is that it felt a little thin. Maybe that’s because of the decreased page count DC creators have to work with these days, maybe it’s because so many other New 52 books have been fairly dense reads, but this book left me not just wanting more, but feeling like I should’ve gotten more.

And I’m running out of time to get these done, so a few quick hits:

Joss Whedon Conversations: I learned how to write stories from any number of places, but I learned how to write screenplays from Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series scripts. And there are many writers whose interviews I find more informative and entertaining than their work. So I probably had unreasonably high hopes for this collection of interviews. It’s not bad, but the interviews’ subject matter overlap, becoming somewhat repetitive, and most don’t pursue the subjects broached in the sort of depth I’d have preferred. I keep picking away at it mostly because Whedon’s obvious passion for his work is good for a morale boost.

The Bulletproof Coffin: I know I’ll love this book when I finish reading it, but that’s not going to be for awhile. I’ve read the first three issue/chapters in fits and starts, but this engrossing and weird story of forbidden comics is something I won’t be able to fully enjoy until I’m able to commit a solid chunk of time to read the thing in one or two sittings. Given the way my schedule’s looking these days, I’ve got something to look forward to on December 25.

JACK KIRBY’S FOURTH WORLD Featuring MISTER MIRACLE: I’ve been on a Jack Kirby kick for about six months now, ever since I read his insane and brilliant OMAC series in hardcover. I read his New Gods run years ago, but haven’t had much exposure to the rest of his Fourth World material. Unfortunately, everything of Kirby’s I read from now on will have the burden of high expectations to contend with. His Fourth World stuff is frequently presented as Kirby’s masterwork, and it’s great, BUT–! My “mind” is still 100% BLOWN by OMAC! I’m enjoying the “lines on paper” that is Mister Miracle, but OMAC… IT IS NOT!!! Perhaps–NOTHING ever CAN be!!

Batman & Robin #13

With the cost of comics seemingly always on the rise, we’ve revamped our old Can’t Wait for Wednesday columns around cover price. Hence, welcome to our second Food or Comics? column, as we look at comics that’ll be in shops tomorrow.

Every week we’ll tell you what comics we’d buy if we had $15 to spend, if we had $30 to spend and if we had some “mad money” (like a gift card) to blow on what we’re calling a “Splurge” item. This week Chris Mautner and Brigid Alverson join Kevin Melrose and myself in our trip to the hypothetical comic shop, following our trip to the imaginary ATM machine.

You can play along as well in our comments section; check out Diamond’s shipping list for tomorrow to see what will be in shops.

Chris Mautner

If I had $15, I’d buy …

Batman & Robin #13 ($2.99)
Starstruck #11 ($3.99)
Godland #32 ($3.99)
Boys #44 ($3.99)

These are just about all the comics I’m currently reading in floppy form, minus a title or two. In fact, I’m relatively certain my LCS will be holding copies of these for me when I stop by this weekend. Three involve superheroes. One is a knotty sci-fi saga. One will almost certainly involve someone’s blood being sprayed across a room. That, or a bathroom joke.

If I had $30, I’d also get …

Smurfs #1 Smurfnapper

Smurfs #1 Smurfnapper ($1)

I’m honestly really excited about NBM’s rerelease of Peyo’s great, classic Smurf comics — my memories of being enthralled by King Smurf at age 12 remain rather strong — so I’m happy to nab this little preview comic to whet my appetite. Besides, since it’s only a dollar, that let’s me stay well within my budget. (Papercutz)

Casanova #1 ($3.99)

I already own the two-color Image version of this, but I’ll probably pick up the new full-color, Icon version anyway. Why? Because, quite frankly, this is the best thing Matt Fraction has done and it deserves as much attention as it can get. Judging by some recent interviews with Fraction, the series wasn’t exactly a money-maker for him, so I’d like to support it as much as I can. (Marvel/Icon)

That puts me just shy of $20, which is where I’d have to stop, as everything else I’d like to purchase would put me way over budget.

Splurge item:

Originally I was looking at that nice Absolute Planetary Vol. 1 ($75) that’s being re-released this week, as friends tell me it’s a good series (at least in the beginning), but instead I think I’m going to go with Last Gasp’s re-release of Tintin in the Congo ($24.95). I have a color French version of Herge’s infamous second Tintin tale, rampant with imperialism, colonialism and just plain racism. But I don’t have this book from Last Gasp, which collects the original serialized, black and white version. If anything, it’s even more offensive and politically incorrect, but for Tintinologists like myself, it’s kind of a must own. Besides, it’s not like Little, Brown is going to release the official color version in English anytime soon.

Brigid Alverson

If I had $15, I’d buy…

Twin Spica, vol. 2

Twin Spica, vol. 2 ($10.95)

I loved the first volume of Kou Yaginuma’s story of a young girl who wants to be an astronaut, and now, with the back story taken care of and the heroine firmly established as sweet but independent-minded, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next. (Vertical)

Hellboy: The Storm #1 ($2.99)

I’m a recent convert to the Hellboy franchise, which is actually a good thing, as it means I have a lot of reading ahead of me. I read the previous arc of this series, Hellboy: The Wild Hunt, on the train on my way home from C2E2, and there’s no way I’m missing this. Plus the preview looks pretty sweet. (Dark Horse)

That’s $13.94, a little under budget, which is where I like to be.

If I had $30, I would add…

Ghostopolis ($12.99)

Doug TenNapel has put together an interesting cast and concept here: Frank Gallows, a ghost wrangler whose job is to catch ghosts and deport them back to the afterlife, accidentally send Garth, a dying boy, prematurely to the other side. That sets off a chain reaction that becomes more than just Garth trying to get back home. TenNapel’s style is unusually jagged and dark for an all-ages book, but it’s just right for this kind of story. Include me in! (Scholastic)

Kill Shakespeare

Kill Shakespeare #3 ($3.99)

Bloody but literate, this series brings Shakespeare’s characters to life in a different context than we are used to—it’s the bad guys (Iago, Richard III, Lady Macbeth) versus the good guys (Romeo and Juliet, Othello, even Puck) in a race to find the elusive wizard, William Shakespeare. (IDW)

So now I’m at $30.88, which means I have to check under the car seats for change.

But if it’s a binge week, I have one more on my list:

Troublemaker, $17.99

This is Janet Evanovich’s first graphic novel, written with her daughter Alex and illustrated by Joelle Jones, one of my favorite artists—she did the art for Token, one of the better Minx novels, and the flashback sequences in Spell Checkers. I love mysteries and I have enjoyed a couple of Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels, so although this is a different series, I think it’s well worth checking out. (Dark Horse)

… and that brings me to $48.87 for the week, not bad for an armload of books and comics.

JK Parkin

If I had $15 to spend …

Young Allies #2

As I went through the Diamond listings for this week deciding what to get, I think I hit $30 before getting past the DC section. But no one said this would be easy, so let’s get to it …

Batman and Robin #13 ($2.99)
Secret Six #23 ($2.99)
Demo #6 ($2.99)
King City #10 ($2.99)
Young Allies #2 ($2.99)

Since there’s a lot coming out this week that I wanted to buy, I decided to make things easy on myself in this first tier and just go with books that cost $3. That way I could maximize the number of books I take home. I also figured I’d go with known quantities, i.e. no first issues. So what I have here are four books I know I will enjoy reading, plus the second issue of a book whose first issue I really enjoyed; I’m hoping Young Allies turns out to be as cool as its spiritual predecessor, New Warriors, over the long haul.

I’m at $14.95. Nice.

If I had $30 to spend, I’d also get …

Irredeemable #15 ($3.99)
The Boys #44 ($3.99)
Sweet Tooth #11 ($2.99)

The Boys #44

These are three more “must buy” titles for me. I wavered a little bit on The Boys, since Darick Robertson isn’t drawing it, but ultimately I couldn’t put it back on the shelf. I still have about $4 left, so let’s grab something new …

Scarlet #1 ($3.95)

Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, together again on a brand new title. I was a big fan of their work on Daredevil, so I’m intrigued to see what this new title is about. (Marvel/Icon)

That means I’m spending $29.87, and I’m leaving several books on the shelf that I’d otherwise get, such as Avengers: Children’s Crusade and Steve Rogers Super-Soldier. But there’s always the eventual trade, right?

Splurge

Ghostopolis ($12.99 for the softcover or $24.99 for the hardcover)

I’m a big fan of Doug TenNapel’s previous books, with Creature Tech, Earthboy Jacobus and Monster Zoo being the standouts in my mind. As Brigid noted above, this one involves a ghostbuster of sorts who accidentally sends a kid across the veil before his time. Since this is my splurge item, I’ll take the hardcover, but in reality I’d probably be fine with the softcover. (Scholastic)

Kevin Melrose

If I had $15, I’d buy …

Hellboy: The Storm #1

Hellboy: The Storm #1 ($2.99)

Mike Mignola and Duncan Fegredo reunite for a three-issue miniseries that concludes the saga they began in 2007 with Hellboy: Darkness Calls and continued in 2008 with Hellboy: The Wild Hunt. Mignola has described The Storm as “an ending of everything we’ve read about Hellboy up until now.” It involves a terrible storm, bodies missing from tombs and a “final bloody showdown.” That’s more than enough to earn my three bucks. (Dark Horse)

Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #1 ($3.99)

After nearly four years, co-creators Allan Heinberg and Jimmy Cheung return to the Young Avengers for a nine-issue bimonthly miniseries detailing Wiccan’s quest to find his mother, the Scarlet Witch. (Marvel)

Scarlet #1 ($3.95)

It’s a week for creator reunions. This time it’s the reunion of the Daredevil and Spider-Woman team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, who debut their creator-owned series about a woman who fights back against a broken world and ends up sparking a revolution. I’m curious enough to at least check out the first issue. (Marvel/Icon)

Thor: The Mighty Avenger #1

Thor: The Mighty Avenger #1 ($2.99)

I’ve been looking forward to this title since it was announced in April at C2E2. I mean, how can you not get excited about an all-ages Thor title written by Roger Langridge and penciled by Chris Samnee? If I could buy only one comic this week, Thor: The Mighty Avenger #1 would be it. (Marvel)

The Smurfs #1: Smurfnapper ($1)

Despite my childhood love for the 1980s Smurfs animated series, I’ve never read any of Peyo’s popular comics on which it was based. Now here’s my chance, courtesy of a $1 teaser for Papercutz’s new line of graphic novels. “The Smurfnapper” marks the first appearance of the villainous, if somewhat inept, sorcerer Gargamel, who seeks to create the philosopher’s stone. Naturally, he discovers one of the ingredients is a Smurf. (Papercutz)

I squeak by at $14.92.

If I had $30 to spend, I’d also grab …

The Weird World of Jack Staff #3 ($3.50)

Paul Grist continues his untold origin of Jack Staff as Professor Fate seizes the Sword of Devastation. Meanwhile, in the present, John Smith discovers who wiped his memories of being a superhero. (Image)

Shadowland #1

Shadowland #1 ($3.99)

I don’t know how interested I am by “the battle for the soul of Daredevil” premise, but I like the focus on Marvel’s “street-level” heroes. Plus, writer Andy Diggle rarely disappoints. (Marvel)

Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier #1 ($3.99)

Speaking of writers who rarely disappoint: Ed Brubaker teaming with artist Dale Eaglesham for a Steve Rogers miniseries can’t be a bad thing. (Marvel)

Thor and the Warriors Four #4 ($2.99)

Huh. This turned out to be a Marvel-heavy week for me — one capped off my the final issue of the latest Power Pack miniseries, Thor and the Warriors Four. If you don’t think the li’l Asgardians in this preview are just about the cutest thing ever, then … your heart is made of stone and darkness. (Marvel)

I slipped in under the bar at $29.39. I’m getting good!

Splurge

B.P.R.D., Vol. 13: 1947 ($17.99)

I had to cut back on my comics budget last summer, so I didn’t buy this miniseries as it was released. Now’s my chance to get all five issues, plus a short story from MySpace Dark Horse Presents. By Mike Mignola, Joshua Dysart, Gabriel Bá, Fábio Moon and Dave Stewart, 1947 is a sequel (naturally enough) to 1946, and centers on Prof. Trevor Bruttenholm’s investigation into a trainload of Nazi soldiers drained of blood. (Dark Horse)

Hotwire Comics Vol. 3

Hotwire Comics Vol. 3
Edited by Glenn Head
Fantagraphics Books, 138 pages, $22.99

Once again, Hotwire returns to attempt to fill in that edgy alt-comix niche that was so prominent in the 80s and early 90s and has seemingly been eclipsed by the more literary, rarefied indie comics of today (sort of). If for no other reason, this anthology should be lauded for giving folks like Mary Fleener and Mack White the opportunity to showcase their work, since no one else seems to be interested in doing so these days. There is always the occasional dull or misguided piece (David Paleo and David Sandlin’s work continues to fail to interest me), but the stellar work by folks like Michael Kupperman, R. Sikoryak, Onsmith, Johnny Ryan, Tim Lane and Mats!? make this well worth your time.

Things Undone

Things Undone
by Shane White
NBM, 88 pages, $12.95.

A graphic artist stuck with a bad job and a dissatisfied (and soon to be ex) girlfriend starts literally falling apart at the seams, turning into a zombie to match the frustration and emotional deadness he feels inside.

As visual metaphors go it’s a pretty good one. it’s a shame then, that White doesn’t really explore it more. A good part of the problem is that we never really understand what exactly is the problem with the lead character, Rick, and his girlfriend (it doesn’t help that he jumps around in time a lot without any guideposts to help the reader figure out when, exactly, a particular incident is going on. He ends up coming off more as a petulant jerk than a sympathetic victim and it kind of sinks the book as a result.

Vatican Hustle
by Greg Houston
NBM, 132 pages, $11.95

Houston’s got an intriguing style — I really like the Ralph Steadman meets John Kricaluci look of his characters. And certainly, any story that offers a homage to 70s blacksploitation and features a alcohol-swilling, porn loving pope that plays craps with violent clowns can’t be all bad.

But if Hustle has style and flair to spare, it falls down in the storytelling department. Houston frequently loses track of the plot and lets the story meander into various alleyways, which is often more annoying than charming. It’s also way too wordy, to the point where it’s a detriment to his layouts and the flow of the story. Basically, he could have used a much tighter editing job here. If he gets that with his next book, I’m there.

Missile Mouse

Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher
by Jake Parker
Scholastic, 176 pages, $10.99 paperback

This is a pretty perfunctory space opera that hits all the cliches — sorry, I meant story beats –  you’d expect, right down to the hero having a chip on his shoulder because his dad was killed by the bad guys and the one seemingly sympathetic character turning out to be a turncoat and so on and so forth. I doubt most elementary school kids will mind too, since they haven’t been exposed to these tropes too much — unless they’ve been watching a lot of Cartoon Network.  Older readers, however, may find everything a bit too familiar. The characters themselves — from Missile Mouse on down — aren’t distinctive enough to provide any nuance or variation on such a well-worn theme. Parker’s a good artist — his layouts are nice, his art is clean and sharp, and his characters are visually distinctive — but those traits simply don’t carry over into the writing. Feel free to pass it on to your kids. But don’t expect it to linger too long in their imaginations.

Copper
by Kazu Kibuishi
Scholastic, 96 pages, $12.99 paperback

Copper is not actually the name of the dog, but the small boy. Fred is the dog’s name. Fred is a rather nervous and trepidatious sort. Copper meanwhile, is a bit of a go-getter, live for the day fellow, which sets up a nice dynamic between the two right from the get-go. Together they go on a series of one-page fanciful adventures, meeting strange and interesting creatures and seeing fanciful, candy-colored lands. This collection of mostly one-page strips by Kibuishi (originally done as a Webcomic) is certainly in frequent danger of falling on the “twee” side of the cute fence, and I don’t think that very many of Kibuishi’s insights are nearly as profound as I suspect he does, but Fred’s innate cynicism helps leaven some of the more precious parts of the comic 9it helps a lot that most of the stories here are shorter than short), while Kibuishi’s art, especially in the later strips, gives a real playful pop to the proceedings. It owes a lot to Calvin and Hobbes in some respects, but this is the first strip I’ve seen that bore that influence so strongly and yet was charming and clever enough in it’s own right to make me want to visit its world and characters again.

Smile

Smile
by Raina Telgemeier
Scholastic, 224 pages, $10.99

The thing that strikes me the most about Smile is how utterly and completely normal it all is. Telgemeier’s chronicle of her dental problems and general angst  during her junior high and high school years, though entertaining, and certainly fraught with melodrama, wouldn’t exactly fall under the realm of trauma, on the same level that, say, Stitches does. And while few of us have had our front teeth knocked out and spent our formative years in a variety of dentists offices, most of have had the other sort of problems Telgemeier narrates, like trouble in school, unrequited crushes, dysfunctional friendships, etc.

Perhaps the most striking thing is how Telgemeier handles these occurrences with relative intelligence and grace. Not that she doesn’t fret mind you, but rather that she so rarely trips herself up on the way to adulthood.  So congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Telgemeier. You raised your daughter right.

Of course, such a tale of everyday adolescence isn’t necessarily the stuff from which great, gripping graphic novels are born, and indeed, there are a number of points where the plot seems to slacken a bit. Whenever she’s specifically dealing with her dental woes, she’s spot on, mainly because a) like I said, it’s not a situation many of us are familiar with; and b) she fills these incidents with spot-on details, both visually and verbally, creating some excellent sequences like the part where she faints in the periodontist’s office.

Some of the other bits — the mean friends, the almost-boyfriend, falling in love with The Little Mermaid — suffer by comparison because they don’t have that sharp level of detail. Those sequences, though well-handled enough, lack the sort of insight to make them truly pop out. I kept wanting to know more about Raina’s family and friends. They seemed a bit too generic and ill-defined to make for a strong supporting cast.

Still, there’s no denying Telgemeier’s is rapidly becoming an adept artist and storyteller. Smile constitutes a big step up for her in comparison to her work on The Babysitters Club books,which (the few I read) seemed to all but drown in a sea of unspecificity.

More to the point, to an average teen-age girl, an unrequited crush or bad grade is a really, really big deal, and having to go through school looking “like a vampire” is about as high on the trauma scale as you can get. Telgemeier writes with a good deal of humor and empathy, and her unadorned, rounded, wavy line radiates enough warmth to invite readers seeking that sort of sympathy. In other words, I can imagine a lot of middle school girls who would treasure a book like Smile.

Bone: Tall Tales

The noted children’s book publisher Scholastic has had great success with their comics-oriented Graphix imprint, mainly thanks to their colorized volumes of Jeff Smith’s Bone. And it looks like they’re going to continue their publishing onslaught this year. Already we’ve seen the release of Copper by Kazu Kibuishi and Missile Mouse by Jake Parker. Want to find out what’s coming up next. Read on, read on …

February

The Bone Handbook by Jeff Smith. Everything you wanted to know about Fone Bone but were afraid to ask. Includes profiles of the cast, a timeline, interviews with Smith and colorist Steve Hamaker and more. 96 pages, $9.99.

Smile by Raina Telgemeier. Telgemeier relates her rough battle with braces and jr. high school angst in this all-ages memoir. This actually should be out any day now. $21.99 hardcover, $10.99 paperback.

July

Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel. From the author of Creature Tech comes this story about a guy who gets zapped to a spirit world, where he finds he obtains special powers that draw unwanted attention from nefarious forces. 288 pages, $24.99 hardcover, $14.99 paperback.

August

Bone: Tall Tales by Tom Sniegoski and Jeff Smith. As revealed at San Diego last year, here’s a sorta-new collection of Bone material, featuring the Stupid, Stupid Rat Creatures story (in color) as well as some other tales. $21.99 hardcover, $10.99 paperback.

Fall

Bone: Quest for the Spark Book One by Tom Sniegoski and Jeff Smith. The other big Bone book of the year. Details on this one are sparse at the moment. All we know is that it’s a prose book, illustrated by Smith and the first of a trilogy.

Here’s a rather cool ad for the new Missile Mouse book by Jake Parker and available through Scholastic’s Graphix imprint.

Beasts of Burden #3

Like the Sunday newspaper, it’s time once again for another round of What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is Ryan Sands, who can be found over at the Same Hat blog, recommending and even translating (Tokyo Zombie) some great, and occasionally bizarre manga (and I mean that in a good way).

To see what Ryan and the rest of us are reading this week, click on the link below. Then let us know what books you’re enjoying and want to recommend (or not) in the comments section.

Mouse Guard: Winter 1152

Michael May: I’m getting ready to read the second volume of Mouse Guard, so I just re-read the first one. What a classic. I continue to enjoy it as much in subsequent readings as I did the first time. More even, because I’m able to drink in more of the art when I’m already familiar with the story. I was also impressed this time with how non-cluttered Eric Petersen is able to keep the plot in spite of several twists and turns. I’m fully anxious to start the next part of the story now.

I did the same thing this week with Holly Black and Ted Naifeh’s Good Neighbors books. I re-familiarized myself with Book One (Kin) before reading the recently released second book (Kith). I’ll be doing a full review of Kith, so I don’t want to say too much about that, but I very much enjoyed reading Kin again. I love Naifeh’s work anyway, but – as much as I’m into Courtney Crumrin and Polly and the Pirates – he’s also well-suited for the darker material in Good Neighbors. And though I don’t know Black’s work outside of this, I love how she’s able to tell a threatening, grown-up story about betrayal and love that just so happens to have evil faeries and teenagers in it, with all the complications those elements bring. It’s about story first and appealing to the YA market second.

Booster Gold #27

Tim O’Shea: Some interesting reveals in the latest issue of Booster Gold, plus a team-up with Blue Beetle versus not Blue Beetle. There have been times I’ve almost bailed on this monthly, but then there are issues like this one that keep me wanting to stay on board.

Other titles that I continue enjoy reading include Jason Aaron and Roland Boschi’s Ghost Riders Heavens on Fire 5; Bryan Q. Miller and Lee Garbett’s Batgirl 5 (admittedly I mostly enjoy Babs Gordon’s role in the book); Gail Simone and Peter Nguyen’s Secret Six 16 (where Simone’s effective use of Black Alice gives readers the glimpse of a female Phantom Stranger among other borrowed magic personality twists…); David Tischman, Philip Bond with David Hahn on Red Herring 5 (no offense to Hahn, but I much preferred when Bond was on art and Hahn was inking…).

On the all ages front, what is almost as good as Muppet Show comic written and drawn by Roger Langridge? A Pigs in Space story (Muppet Show Comic Book 0) written by Langridge with art by Shelli Paroline. A really quirky moment that I enjoyed in this Pigs in Space (the Movie) standalone story — Fozzie taking his hat off in a few scenes. I never realized until that visual bit, but the art of the Muppet Show often allows for moments that could not be easily or frequently done with the physical muppet/puppets.

I never considered the Daily Bugle a major character per se in the Spider-Man universe, but the Amazing Spider-Man 614 changed my mind in that regard. An interesting wrap-up to the actual Electro storyline as well as larger elements of the Spider-Man current subplots.

On the charity front, I’ve never been a big fan of Wolverine’s solo adventures (his continuity is just too much of a convoluted clusterfleep for me to enjoy it), but I had to shell out the $12.99 for The Wolverine: Weapon X 100 Project with art from a variety of artists (go here for a sampling of some of the treats) including J. Scott Campbell, John Cassaday, Ken Lashley, Ron Garney, Dale Keown, and John Romita Sr. The originals were already auctioned off for charity (Hero Initiative), but Marvel collected them for folks to enjoy in this benefit book.

Swallowing the Earth

Chris Mautner: One of my birthday presents last week was a copy of Swallowing the Earth by osamu Tezuka. As any regular Robot 6 reader must know by now, I’m a really big Tezuka fan, so I was more than happy to pour through this, even if it is one of the master’s lesser — and considerably messier — stories. The plot concerns a group of beautiful sisters who live on a mysterious island and plot to destroy civilization because their mom got screwed over by their dad. On the side of good is this naive young drunkard who manages to resist their sexual wiles because he so enjoys getting drunk you see.

It’s an interesting book, marking the divide between Tezuka’s kiddie comics and his more adult-oriented material, though it suffers from the fact that Tezuka keeps getting constantly pulled away from the main plot to follow various side paths. He’s clearly more interested in some of the sci-fi concepts he dreams up than the main characters. Still, there’s a lot of great sequences here, and you can see the beginnings of the motifs that would later run through works like Buddha. If you like Tezuka, it’s worth checking out.

Last week Brigid recommended Night Head Genesis, a new manga from Del Rey about two psychic brothers who become embroiled in some sort of world-ending conspiracy with evil psychics and stuff like that. I’d like to say I found it equally enjoyable, but I didn’t. If anything, I found it to be rather trite and dull, with paper-thin characters and a plot that didn’t really seem to make much sense, at least from a motivational standpoint. I doubt I’ll be preordering the second volume anytime soon.

Dragon Prince #1

Brigid Alverson: I don’t read a lot of pamphlet comics, but Top Cow sent me their mini-series Dragon Prince and I really liked it. I can see where it would have a lot of teen appeal, because it’s one of those stories about a transformation that takes the hero by surprise and changes his life — just like puberty. In this case, though, it’s more dramatic—Aaron, a 14-year-old boy, suddenly has the power to become a dragon. It turns out that his father was also a dragon (but he could shape-shift into human form, so there’s no bestiality here—no way) and Aaron has inherited his powers. That’s the good news. The bad news is that there is now a badass tattooed guy and a whole team of ninjas after him and his mom. It’s a good story, nicely paced, and I liked the art, except that the mother looked like every woman in every superhero comic in the world. Same face, same gravity-defying boobs, same skin-tight clothing. Aaron was drawn with a lot of character, and it would have been nice to see the same creativity go into his mom.

I’m back on familiar territory with Happy Café, the first volume of a new shoujo manga series from Tokyopop. It’s a very familiar story: A 16-year-old girl, Uru, gets a job in a café where she is working
alongside two guys, one who is cold (but secretly nice underneath) and one who is goofy and constantly falling asleep. Oh, and the girl has left home because she felt like a fifth wheel after her mother remarried — the perfect shoujo heroine never wants to put anyone out, even if that means she has to go live on her own, although in this case it all turns out to be a misunderstanding. This is well-trodden territory, and so far, Happy Café hasn’t brought anything new to the mix. Somehow it manages to be wacky without being very funny. Uru is both clumsy and super-strong, so she keeps breaking dishes, but that’s as close as we get to a running gag. It’s more “Mildly Amusing Café” than “Laugh Out Loud Café.”

Finally, Starthrower in Haiti is a webcomic that is drawn to raise funds for a nonprofit in Haiti that pays for children to go to school. I was expecting something that was more well-intentioned than actually good, but the comic is lovely and at the same time unsparing in its depiction of life in the poorest country on earth. I used to teach English in a Haitian church in Brooklyn, so I learned a bit of the language and culture, but I never had much of a mental picture of Haiti before. Now I do.  And in browsing the comments, I ran across Dispatches from a Fragile Island, not a comic but a journal, in photos and words, of an expat’s life in Haiti. The two make perfect companion pieces.

Moyasimon Vol. 1

Ryan Sands: It’s been rainy and freezing in San Francisco this week, so I only made it to my local neighborhood shop, Missions: Comics & Art, and haven’t made my usual pilgrimage to Kinokuniya yet. I’ve been splitting my comics reading time between minicomics, a few monthly floppies, and manga.

On the minicomics side, I really enjoyed reading RAV #2, a 42-page comic by Mickey Zacchilli. RAV is a wild book, with a hand-screened color cover and kinetic page layouts. This issue follows a biker named Juice and his girlfriend Sally, who get abducted by a cult of amateur occultists and also have to battle a rival gang intent on stealing his bicycle. Mickey is doing really inventive stuff with her use of dot tones and comedic pacing, and the story is part of that rad trend of action/genre comics done by indie kids.

Finally, one of my most wanted manga titles has been released: The hilarious first volume of Moyasimon by Masayuki Ishikawa. It was worth the wait, and the best thing I’ve read all month. The story is an unlikely license on the surface, a educational and comedic serial following two rural friends as they begin studies at an agricultural college. The rub is that our protagonist can visually see different microorganisms (which are insanely cute), a skill that is used/abused by a weird cast of other students and faculty at the farm school. Can’t wait for volume 2.

I also read A Distant Neighborhood #1 & #2 by Jiro Taniguchi, which was a solid and well-constructed story but ended up sorta boring for me as a reader. Taniguchi uses this tale of a salaryman who wakes up back as a junior high school student to talk about fate and nostalgia. But something about the pacing and story was emotionally constipated and milquetoast for me.

I’ve also been reading the newest manga by guro/formalist genius Shintaro Kago, called Fraction. Fraction is an odd book, following a group of manga artists friends (Kago himself is a character). I’m reading it slowly in Japanese, but so far it’s full of unsolved dismemberments, manga plotlines coming to life, and weird floating torsos with guts hanging out. For fans of the odd and extreme, Shintaro Kago has begun selling his original art and comic pages to overseas fans via his site, along with his manga and toys.

As for proper “comics books”, two creepy books (about animals!) have had my attention, Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin & Jill Thompson and Jeff Lumiere’s post-apocalyptic fable/road movie comic Sweet Tooth. Beasts of Burden features a rowdy gang of talking dogs (and one cat!) that fight paranormal baddies.There is something really right about the way Jill Thompson’s elegantly-painted panels, Evan Dorkin’s biting but cute dialogue and the episodic Encyclopedia Brown-meets-X Files cases all interact. I’ll be sad to see this mini-series run end at issue #4.

As a final note, does anyone read Thai and wanna give me a hand? I received a box of incredible, radical Thai comics this month from an artist who goes by PUCK. From what Google Translate has showed me, he’s published by a big Thai publisher but I’m stuck marveling at his layouts and cute characters without making sense of the words. PUCK’s tankoban-sized action comics look to me like the love child of Scott Pilgrim and Felipe Smith’s MBQ, with a dash of Katamari Damacy whimsy tossed in. His art blog is here, for interested folks.

Nancy Vol. 1

Nancy Vol. One
by John Stanley
Drawn and Quarterly, 128 pages, $24.95.

When faced with the challenge of adapting Ernie Bushmiller’s classic comic strip to longer comic book format, John Stanley’s response was simple and economical: Turn her into Little Lulu.

That’s the only conclusion I can come to after reading this collection of stories in D&Q’s ongoing “John Stanley Library” project. Nancy is pretty much Lulu with frizzier hair, Sluggo is a thinner and slightly more benign Tubby. There’s even a snotty rich kid and bratty little boy similar to Wilbur and Alvin. Stanley even repeats one of his Tubby stories involving a burglar almost note for note.

That doesn’t make Nancy a bad book by any stretch of the imagination. Mediocre Stanley is still miles above most people’s best work. The best stories here though are the ones involving Oona Goosepimple, an odd, Wednesday Addams-type girl who supernatural antics cause no end of anxiety for poor Nancy. It’s those stories where Stanley — freed of the Bushmiller formula — really gets inventive and inspired. If the ratio of Oona stories increases as the volumes do, then I’ll keep buying these books as long as D&Q are able to get them out.

Reviews of Moomin, Amulet and more can be found after the jump …

The Book About Moomin

The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My
by Tove Jansson
Drawn and Quarterly, 20 pages, $16.95.

I’m a sucker for die-cut books — anything that plays upon the whole “Oh, it looks like it’s part of the page, but look closely and you’ll see it’s a window into the next one” thing gets extra points from me. And D&Q has already won me over on Jansson with the wonderful job they’ve done reprinting her Moomin strips, so it’s not like I had to be won over with the company’s first entry in their new kids Enfant line. The only real surprise here is Jansson’s lovely use of limited color and composition on these expansive two-page spreads. So yeah, it’s a great book that will be sure to please the young and old at heart. Buy it, read it, enjoy it.

Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood
by Tony Lee, Sam Hart and Artur Fujita
Candlewick Press, 21.95.

This is a rather odd and needlessly dark and depressing retelling of the Robin Hood tale. Honestly I’m really not quite sure what to make of it. Are kids really clamoring for some sort of gritty, psychological portrait version of this story? Isn’t the whole point of Robin that he’s carefree and dashing and not burdened by guilt? Shouldn’t the art be featherlight, colorful and fun, with detailed, intricate backgrounds that convey a sense of place instead of having everyone constantly drawn in half-shadow or worse and clumsy coloring that seems splotched on by a computer? Maybe it’s my own nostalgia talking, but I can’t imagine young readers preferring for an instant this version of the character over one of the countless other variations that already exist, both in and out of comics.

Amulet, Vol. 2

Amulet Book Two: The Stonekeeper’s Curse
by Kazu Kibuishi
Scholastic, $21.99.

There’s nothing particularily surprising or original in Kibuishi’s ongoing fantasy series. It follows the plot and themes of countless other young adult books — there’s an evil dictator , a bad guy who’s conflicted about the side he’s working for, a talisman that grants its user fabulous powers, assorted wise men, amusing sidekicks and two plucky kids who find themselves tested by an inheritance they’d rather not have.

But if Amulet treads upon familiar ground, it nevertheless remains a captivating and enchanting read, largely due to Kibuishi’s skills as an artist and storyteller. He paces the tale exceedingly well, gives his characters just enough detail and back story to make them seem more than cardboard cut-outs and never gets so bogged down in the mythology of the world he’s created that the reader becomes bored or disinterested. Really, Amulet is an excellent lesson in how to deliver a satisfying genre exercise that both stands apart and with the crowd. If I were interested in creating something similar I’d be studying the hell out of this book.

Vermonia Vol. 1: Quest for the Silver Tiger
by YoYo
Candlewick Press, $9.99.

As if to underscore my point about how the importance of execution comes this dull, confusing, ill-thought-out manga about a group of skateboarding teens who turn out to have the necessary power or inheritance or what-have-you needed to save a lost world. The whole thing is a muddled, inane mess, and really only serves to show just how much effort and skill went into Amulet.

Stone Rabbit: Deep-Space Disco
by Erik Craddock
Random House, $5.99

This, on the other hand, I liked quite a bit. It’s got a nice, manic energy and Craddock has a clean, crisp style that suggests many years spent in the animation trenches. It’s basically about a put-upon rabbit who constantly gets ridiculous capers. In this particular case that means getting mistaken by space aliens for a dangerous interplanetary killer while the real killer assumes his identity on planet Earth.  It’s replete with the type of one-liners and non-sequitar jokes you find in most children’s cartoon TV programs these days, but thankfully it doesn’t feel the least bit pandering or smarmy. Plus, the jokes are actually kinda funny.

Little Mouse Gets Ready
by Jeff Smith
Toon Books, 32 pages, $12.95.

Children’s comics don’t get more basic than this. Little Mouse wants to go play in the barn with his brothers and sisters, but first he has to get dressed. He does so step by step showing readers important things like how to button your shirt (and illustrating a narrative sequence of events). Then there’s a punchline and rimshot, the end.

Smith’s art is lush and spry here. I especially liked Little Mouse’s Warner Brothers-style reaction at the end. There’s no denying it’s a cute book, made by an extremely talented guy. But this is really a book for preschoolers and those just learning to read. If you know someone like that, then Little Mouse will make a great gift. But older Bone fan, even those still in elementary school, aren’t going to get too much out of this, beyond a chuckle or two at the end.

Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute
Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians
by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Knopf, 96 pages each, $5.99 each.

This is another superhero/super-spy parody, along the lines of Word Girl, but with a whole K-12 cafeteria theme. For example, our hero has a spatula that doubles as a helicopter blade, she throws chicken nugget bombs, she wields fish stick nunchucks, and so on and so forth.

Even by kid standards, it all feels a little shallow. The jokes basically stay on that lunch-derived level and never build on each other in a satisfying way. The characters are all rather generic and Krosoczka’s art work is rather bare-bones as well. I think kids will like it — it’s certainly not offensive or dull — but I don’t think it’s going to hang around in their imaginations the way good children’s literature is supposed to. Even by second grade, they’ve seen this kind of thing before.

Knights of the Lunch Table: The Dragon Players
by Frank Cammuso
Scholastic, 128 pages, $9.99.

Combining King Arthur mythology with middle school angst is a recipe for disaster (witness, or better yet don’t, Tokyopop’s Avalon High) but Cammuso manages to make the whole enterprise work. Part of the reason is he isn’t a slave to the source material but just takes what he needs and mushes it into a school setting until it fits. It doesn’t hurt that he has a fun, rubbery, big-nose art style that plays up the comedy.

This time, Artie and his friends somewhat unwittingly enter into a robot joust contest, a feat which finds them double-dealing with basement-dwelling nerds, infiltrating junkyards and trying to avoid bullies and detention. There’s no real surprises here, and the whole “don’t cheat” moral comes out of a thousand ABC Afterschool specials, but Knights has nevertheless proven to be an engaging, witty series that’s growing on me with every new volume.

Bone: Tall Tales

Next to Marvel’s big news today, the best revelation coming out of SDCC for me so far is the announcement that Jeff Smith is going to do more Bone books. And, in case you were wondering what these new series will look like, Smith has the cover art up for Tall Tales and a rough for Quest for the Spark over at his Web site.

Comic-Con

After a bevy of announcements earlier in the week about movie deals and video-game adaptations, Comic-Con International officially kicked off Thursday with news of the hiring of an industry veteran, and three significant book acquisitions.

IDW Publishing revealed that Bob Schreck, a longtime senior group editor at DC Comics, will join the company as senior editor in October. He’ll focus on developing new projects and new talent.

An editor at Comico and Dark Horse, Schreck co-founded Oni Press with Joe Nozemack in 1996. Three years later he joined DC Comics, where he oversaw the Batman line and, eventually, edited the All-Star titles and developed new projects for Vertigo. He was laid off in January during a wave of major cutbacks by Warner Bros.

Day One’s major publishing news came from Scholastic, Drawn & Quarterly and Dark Horse.

Scholastic announced that Jeff Smith will release new Bone titles with co-writer Tom Sniegoski, beginning in summer 2010 with Bone: Tall Tales. The fall will see the expansion of the Bone world with the first book in the Quest for the Spark trilogy, overseen and illustrated by Smith and written by Sniegoski.

Drawn & Quarterly acquired the rights to Daniel Clowes’ new graphic novel Wilson, the cartoonist’s first book not to be originally serialized in Eightball. The title, described as a “portrait of the modern egoist,” will debut in May 2010.

Dark Horse, meanwhile, rolled out an overview of its convention announcements, which include plans to release all three volumes of the popular European noir series Blacksad.

In other Thursday highlights:

JSA All Stars #1

• DC Comics unveiled a second Justice Society of America series, JSA All Stars, by Matthew Sturges and Freddie E. Williams III. The title will focus on some of the franchise’s younger members taking “a more proactive approach” to superheroics.

• The Vertigo/Vertigo Crime panel featured several new titles, including word from Max Allan Collins of the final chapter in his Perdition saga, Return to Perdition. Other books announced were crime author Jason Starr’s The Chill, Peter Milligan and James Romberger’s Bronx Kill, Chris Gage and Chris Samnee’s Area 10, John Evans’ The Executor, Anderson Gabrich’s Fogtown, and Gary Phillips and Brian Hurt’s Cowboys.

• IDW officially announced Vitriol the Hunter, a new horror series drawn and co-written by Good Charlotte guitarist Billy Martin with Brent Allen. The publisher also revealed it’s partnering with Weekly World News for an offbeat comic featuring some of the tabloid’s bizarre characters, like Bat Boy, PhD Ape and Manigator.

The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion

• Gerard Way confirmed he and Gabriel Ba are working on a third Umbrella Academy series, Hotel Oblivion, which will feature the Murder Magician from the Free Comic Book Day story. On Saturday he’ll announce another new project.

• Archie Comics debuted its Archie Digital Comics initiative, which allows access to archival and current stories. The titles will be available via iTunes.

• Warner Premiere and Warner Digital Distribution launched the next wave of Warner Premiere Motion Comics for iTunes: Superman: Red Son, Batgirl: Year One, and Batman: Black and White Collection 2.

• Geoff Johns confirmed DC will release an Absolute Edition of Green Lantern: Rebirth next year.

• Dark Horse will follow its Dethklok vs. The Goon one-shot with a series based on the Adult Swim cartoon Metalocalypse.

What to watch for today: The 2 p.m. “Cup O’ Joe” panel will feature a “big, secret Marvel announcement” that Executive Editor Tom Brevoort promises will “blow the doors off” the convention center.

For complete Comic-Con coverage, keep following Comic Book Resources, Robot 6 and our sibling blogs CBR Live! and Comics Should Be Good. You can also get breaking news and convention tidbits from the CBR and Robot 6 Twitter feeds.