First Second has announced its releases for spring 2012, and as usual it’s an exciting, eclectic lineup. Here’s a quick rundown:

• Graeme talked about Arne Bellstorf’s Beatles comic, Baby’s in Black yesterday.
• Humayoun Ibrahim has adapted Jack Vance’s classic science fiction story The Moon Moth with “lots of masks, lots of aliens, and an interstellar mystery to round it out.”
• Marathon by Boaz Yakin and Joe Infurnari tells the story of the first marathon, when Eucles ran 153 miles from Sparta to Athens to help save Greece from the Persian Empire.
• Bloody Chester is a noir Western horror story by JT Petty and Hilary Florido.
• Victory finishes up Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis’ excellent Resistance trilogy about the French Resistance in World War II.
• And finally, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden offer a “201-level” companion volume to Drawing Words and Writing Pictures called Mastering Comics.

Which are you looking forward to?

The Hugo Awards for excellence in science fiction were presented Saturday night in a ceremony in Reno, Nevada, during the sci-fi convention Renovation, and the winner in the Best Graphic Story category was Phil and Kaja Foglio’s Girl Genius, Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse. This is the third year that comics have been included in the Hugo categories, and it is also the third year in a row that Girl Genius has won the award, volumes 8 and 9 having taken the honors in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

The Foglios weren’t the only sequential artists to win an award, however; Shaun Tan, creator of The Arrival and The Lost Thing, won the award for Best Artist. Tan’s mantelpiece must be getting crowded; earlier this year he won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for excellence in children’s literature, and the film version of The Lost Thing, which he directed, won an Oscar.

Our Love Is Real

As we noted a week ago, Sam Humphries and Steven Sanders self-published a science fiction comic called Our Love Is Real, which subsequently sold out in print in nine hours. A second print is on the way (that’s the cover you see to the right) and it’s still available digitally through their website or comiXology.

Humphries, a former Robot 6 guest contributor and my fellow panel member in San Diego next week, agreed to share a list of what he considers to be some of the great science fiction comics. Note that he chose not to use the words “best” or “favorite” to describe the list. “‘Favorite’ or ‘best’ implies more commitment than I’m ready to give,” he said.

So without further ado …

Six great science fiction comics, by Sam Humphries

1. AKIRA by Katsuhiro Otomo
A giant of science fiction, often imitated, never surpassed. At its heart is a tale of a bromance gone wrong, two best friends who carve their years of brotherhood and resentment across Tokyo, Japan, and the Moon. The anime adaptation is superlative, but the manga, sprawled across six thick volumes of meticulously drawn, hi-octane pages, is a true monumental achievement. I’ll be gunning for this No. 1 spot ’til I die. G.O.A.T.

The Filth, by Grant Morrison and Chris Weston

2. The Filth by Grant Morrison and Chris Weston
If you’re not sure you’re ready for The Filth, then you aren’t. It’s dirty, it’s beautiful, and once I pick it up I can’t look away. Weston’s artwork is spectacular. Protagonist Greg Feely travels through the trash and filth of human existence with a depraved organization called the Hand, and eventually finds redemption. All for the love of a cat. This is a grim tale, Morrison’s most twisted, most rewarding, and frankly, most hilarious.

3. Freakangels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield
Twelve Freakangels, embodied with supernormal abilities, struggle to protect a small neighborhood in post-apocalyptic London. Unfortunately, they can’t even decide what to do with themselves. The futurevision is compelling, but it’s the characters that keep me coming back…smart, benevolent, cranky, sexy, crazy, gloomy and murderous. Some prefer Transmetropolitan, but to me, this is the best of Ellis’ sci-fi jams.

4. Give Me Liberty by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons
This book is criminally under-appreciated. Martha Washington is a hero of the powerless in a country where power is just another devalued currency. Miller’s dark humor and wild ideas are perfectly paired with Gibbon’s sleek imagination and razor-sharp storytelling. It is a gold mine of world-building; nothing escapes their satirical scorn. As I’ve said elsewhere, I steal from Give Me Liberty relentlessly.

from "The Long Tomorrow" by Dan O'Bannon and Moebius

5. The Long Tomorrow by Dan O’Bannon and Moebius
The short story that started it all. The undisputed master Moebius illustrates the hell out of this tale, a mash-up of American noir and French science fiction, cramming in a futureshock metropolis, rocket ships, robocops, kidnapped brains and weird sex into a handful of pages. This is the one that influenced everything from Blade Runner to George Lucas…to Our Love Is Real.

6. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka by Naoki Urasawa
This is Urasawa’s reinterpretation of a classic Astro Boy tale by Osama “Godfather of Manga” Tezuka. It should have been a disaster, but it’s brilliant. Pluto is a gripping thriller and an atmospheric mystery, where the rain falls on human and robot alike. But it’s also a warm, emotional sci-fi story, where the elements of the future are pushed to the side, and the human drama of being alive takes center stage.

Our Love is Real

As Tim mentioned in What Are You Reading? this weekend, Fraggle Rock/CBGB writer (not to mention friend and past contributor to this here blog) Sam Humphries has teamed up with SWORD and Five Fists of Science artist Steven Sanders for a new science fiction comic called Our Love is Real.

Here’s the description of the comic: “FIVE YEARS AFTER THE AIDS VACCINE…Plantsexuals riot in the streets for equal rights. Humans fall in love with dogs. And crystals are more than just jewelry. A chance encounter on the job changes a riot cop’s life forever as he finds himself caught in a bizarre love triangle that blurs romance, crime and lust beyond recognition.”

The self-published one-shot is due tomorrow from “a select group of retailers,” as well as via mail order and digitally. Check out the website tomorrow for more information.

Update: After the jump you’ll find the list of retailers carrying the book.

LOS ANGELES – HOLLYWOOD
Meltdown Comics & Collectables
7522 West Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 851-7223
meltcomics.com
Map: http://bit.ly/lLBk35

LOS ANGELES – SANTA CLARITA
Brave New World Comics
22722 Lyons Avenue #6
Newhall, CA 91321
(661) 259-4745
bravenewworldcomics.com
Map: http://bit.ly/kDdekS

LOS ANGELES – SILVER LAKE
Secret Headquarters
3817 West Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(323) 666-2228
thesecretheadquarters.com
Map: http://bit.ly/khuA4S

NEW YORK CITY
Desert Island
540 Metropolitan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(718) 388-5087
desertislandbrooklyn.com
Map: http://bit.ly/jB8GgE

PORTLAND
Floating World Comics
20 NW 5th Ave #101
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 241-0227
floatingworldcomics.com
Map: http://bit.ly/mG2A5Z

SAN FRANCISCO
Isotope Comics
326 Fell Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 621-6543
isotopecomics.com
Map: http://bit.ly/kyDPZK

TORONTO
The Beguiling
601 Markham Street
Toronto, ON M6G 2L7, Canada
(416) 533-9168
beguiling.com
Map: http://bit.ly/mdQG71

Strange Adventures #1

Vertigo has released the cover and more details on Strange Adventures, the science fiction anthology they plan to publish in May.

The cover, above, is by Paul Pope, and as previously reported, the first issue will include a chapter of Spaceman by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso, which will get its own series from Vertigo in the fall. Other contributors include Jeff Lemire, Ross Campbell, Kevin Colden, Peter Milligan, Paul Cornell, Denys Cowan and many others. You can find the complete table of contents after the jump.

Table of Contents:

“All The Pretty Ponies”
Writer Lauren Beukes
Artist Inaki Miranda

“The White Room”
Writer Talia Hershewe
Artist Juan Bobillo

“Case 21”
Writer Selwyn Hinds
Artist Denys Cowan

“Postmodern Prometheus”
Writer and Artist Kevin Colden

“Ultra The Multi-Alien”
Writer and Artist Jeff Lemire

“Refuse”
Writer and Artist Ross Campbell

“Partners”
Writer Peter Milligan
Artist Sylvain Savoia

“A ‘True Tale’ From Saucer Country”
Writer Paul Cornell
Artist Goran Sudzuka

“Spaceman”
Writer Brian Azzarello
Artist Eduardo Risso

from Twelve Gems by Lane Milburn

It’s ’80s-indie black-and-white space-opera action as you like it! Presenting Twelve Gems, a graphic novel in the making by cartoonist Lane Milburn of Baltimore’s Closed Caption Comics collective. Milburn, a recipient of the Xeric Grant for his self-published action-horror collection Death Trap. calls it “a comedic sci-fi space epic starring three heroic characters enlisted to travel the galaxy in search of twelve magical gems.” Judging from the very impressive preview pages — filled with Heavy Metal hotness and crosshatched and black-spotted to within an inch of their lives — Milburn’s really going for the gusto here. Closed Caption Comics is best known for genre-influenced artcomics in the Fort Thunder/Paper Rodeo mode, but Twelve Gems seems to me to have more in common with the giddy throwback style of Benjamin Marra. I can’t wait to see more.

The Martian Confederacy

Coming this holiday season is the “worlds first child slave labor comedy” — The Martian Confederacy Volume 2: From Mars With Love by Jason McNamara (First Moon) and Paige Braddock (Jane’s World)

It’s the sequel to their 2008 graphic novel about a ragtag group of heroes on Mars in the year 3535. Here’s the description of the sequel: “Hearts will be broken, moons will be destroyed and hooch will flow in zero gravity in this sci-fi romantic action comedy set in the year 3535. When someone, or something, starts kidnapping the children of Mars, the planet’s most notorious outlaws band together to rescue them. Off world, out numbered and falling apart from within can the Martian Confederates discover the secret of Phobos before they destroy each other? And does what ‘happen in space, stay in space?’”

You can find it in Previews under order code 101040; the 150-page graphic novel costs $15. Check out a huge 25-page preview of it after the jump.

*****

Seems like just last week that Christian Beranek and Tony DiGerolamo were talking to CBR’s Steve Sunu about The Webcomics Factory, the multi-comic site they launched back in April. Already they have a sports comic, a stripper comic, a schoolgirl manga, and a post-apocalyptic gag comic, and today they are launching The Horror of Colony 6, a sci-fi comic, which will update every Tuesday. The comic is written by Beranek and DiGerolamo and illustrated by Tommy Phillips, and the trailer looks like a good intro to the series.

Meg Murry from A Wrinkle in Time by Hope Larson

If you’re one of those people who know that there is such a thing as a tesseract, then you’re in for a treat: Above is cartoonist Hope Larson’s take on Meg Murry, one of the young heroes of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved science-fiction classic A Wrinkle in Time. Larson’s adaptation of the book for Farrar, Strauss and Giroux is slated to debut in Fall 2012, clocking in at a whopping 392 pages. Visit Larson’s blog for more on the book and this piece, from the bruise on Meg’s face to the reason you won’t be seeing her in this outfit in the book itself.

Warlord of Io

I have a confession to make. It’s nothing I’m proud of, but I’ve learned to live with it. I don’t like Sci-Fi.

Sure I love Star Wars and Star Trek and Guardians of the Galaxy and I especially love James Turner’s Warlord of Io, which is the inspiration for this post, but I can’t get through an Isaac Asimov anthology to save my life. Not even when all the stories are about robots. I like a lot of Warren Ellis’ creator-owned stuff, but the only one I truly love is Anna Mercury.

When I first discovered this, I was a bit disappointed in myself. I’d grown up thinking of myself as a Sci-Fi fan. I loved John Carter of Mars. Killraven was one of my favorite Marvel characters. I didn’t realize that there was anything wrong with me just because no amount of Jack Kirby could get me interested in 2001: A Space Odyssey. (I was nine; I expect I’d have a different reaction today, but that would be all Kirby’s doing and none of the concept’s.)

Of course, it’s the hardcore Sci-Fi fans who are telling me that I don’t like their genre. Star Wars isn’t real science fiction. It’s fantasy. There’s no actual science to it. It’s just Lord of the Rings with spaceships and blasters instead of dragons and magic wands. But you know what? I’m okay with that now. Let the hardcore Sci-Fi folks have their label. I’ve found another one I like better anyway.

What it is and what’s the difference after the break.

Is this Science Fiction?

In genre-naming circles, the stuff I dig is usually called Space Opera, but I don’t like that name either. It reminds me of singing valkyries and Days of Our Lives, not that there’s anything wrong with either of those things. They’re just not what I’m looking for in an outer space story. And what Space Opera really refers to is the huge scale of the story, not the level of awesomeness in it. What I’m looking for is awesomeness. What Grant Gould once described to me as Sexy Sci Fi. Weird planets, cool ships, laser guns, wildly imaginative aliens; bubble helmets and jet packs. The term that describes all that, I think, is Space Pulp.

But the Space Pulp label also comes with some problems. It makes no claim to any kind of literary quality and that’s a weakness. There’s no reason why a fun and exciting story shouldn’t also be a meaningful one. I have no patience for stories that are all plot with no character development and no point. In fact, I have much less tolerance for those than I do for weighty, important stories that aren’t all that exciting.

But given my choice, I’d rather have both. I’d rather have a book like Warlord of Io. It’s got Zing, whose primary responsibility as Prince of Io was playing video games, but now has to figure out how to rule the empire since his father is retiring for an orgy-filled life in the Pleasure Domes of Zur. His idealistic best friend Moxy Comet is willing to help, but first they have to escape the assassination attempts of Io’s would-be usurpers, led by the Demonic (meaning that he looks a lot like Kirby’s Demon) General Grymak.

Zing and Moxy on the run

The plot’s fairly simple, but it overflows with awesome. Turner has a boisterous imagination and it spills all over every page, making everything better. The villains are an eclectic group of crocodile-men, warbots, mud monsters, asteroid ants, jello people, and others too nuts to describe. Zing is helped by a miniature robot named Urk who makes R2-D2 look like C-3PO. There are also talking ray guns, a philosophizing sapling, a cybernetic death-rat, and of course Tiki Space Pirates.

It has heart too though, mostly thanks to Moxy Comet, the only person – including Zing – who seems to believe that the new emperor is capable of ruling well. Turner’s not heavy-handed with this, but it permeates the book and adds a different element to the concept of Wrong vs. Right. If – as Moxy believes – it’s Right for Zing to rule Io, then his slacking is just as much an obstacle to it as General Grymak is, which makes it just as Wrong.

I know there are lots of other great space stories like this, whether we call them Sci-Fi or Space Pulp or whatever. They may not teach a lot of science, but they teach us something about ourselves and let us have a great time in the process. So, the Questions for the Week are: What are they? What are your favorite comics set in space and why? And which bona fide Science Fiction comics are also good at human stories? Because in spite of what I said earlier, I’d really like to read them and see if I can start calling myself a Sci-Fi fan again.

Not from Warlord, but Kate Beaton uses Verne and Wells to explain the difference between Science Fiction and Awesome. Click the image to read the whole thing.

Cleopatra In Spaaace!, one of the finds at Spacedock 7

Webcomics collectives come and go, and some are more coherent than others, but the new sci-fi webcomics collective Spacedock 7 is pretty close to the ideal.

The interface is nice and clean. The seven comics in the group are all similar not only in subject matter but also in tone and style—not that they all look alike, but all have a fairly cartoony look. All are pretty good—I looked through them briefly and there’s no weakest link. Some are brand new, and others have been around for a while. Each comic updates once a week, so there’s always something to come back for (although Red’s Planet is already on hiatus, but hey—new baby, Reuben Awards, those are good excuses, and the creator has promised a definite return date). And these are the sort of comics that are easily accessible to new readers—you don’t have to know a complicated backstory or be able to decipher convoluted art to follow them. These comics are light reading at its best.

A simple home page leads not only to the seven comics (each of which is hosted on its own, separate site) but also to other features, without overwhelming the reader with clutter. This shouldn’t be remarkable, but understanding how to present information clearly and in some sort of hierarchy is often a challenge for web designers. Spacedock 7 gets it right, with separate, easy-to-find pages presenting short descriptions of each comic, author bios, and a list of everyone’s Twitter, Facebook, and Ustream info. And there’s a forum.

It’s worth a look for fans of light sci-fi, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea for anyone thinking about starting a group site to swing by for a look as well.

Frank Frazetta in his Florida studio

Renowned fantasy and comic-book artist Frank Frazetta passed away today as the result of a stroke. He was 82.

Heidi MacDonald has confirmation from his agent Robert Pistella that Frazetta died in a hospital near his home in Boca Grande, Florida.

Born on February 9, 1928, in Brooklyn, Frazetta began illustrating comic books at age 16, later working on titles like Barnyard Comics, Thrilling Comics and Happy Comics for Standard Publishing Co. By the early 1950s, he was drawing the Shining Knight stories for DC’s Adventure Comics, New Heroic Comics for Eastern Color and Durango Kid for Magazine Enterprises. In 1953, he started working as an assistant for Al Capp on Li’l Abner.

Frazetta left Capp in 1961 and started illustrating for men’s magazines, eventually teaming with Harvey Kurtzman on the bawdy “Little Annie Fanny” strip that appeared in Playboy. It was during this period that Frazetta began painting movie posters, and covers for paperback editions of action-adventure and Warren magazines like Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella. Frazetta’s work from the mid-1960s to the early ’70s became the primary influence for science fiction and fantasy art for decades.

Frazetta’s work and legacy were at the center of a bitter family feud that seemed to erupt in July 2009 after the death of his wife Eleanor “Ellie” Frazetta, who had long run her husband’s business. The dispute played out in public, with criminal charges, a lawsuit and angry allegations. Luckily, though, the family seemed to resolve its differences just last month.

Frazetta is survived by four children: Alfonso Frank Frazetta (Frank Jr.), William Frazetta, Holly Frazetta and Heidi Grabin.

Welcome once again to Shelf Porn, our weekly look at one fan’s shelves. Would you like to show off your shelves? Drop me an email and let’s see what we can do.

Today’s edition of Shelf Porn comes from book reviewer Joshua Hill. While he has a small-but-growing comic shelf, he more than makes up for it with his collection of science fiction books. So let’s turn it over to Josh …

*****

My name is Joshua S Hill, and I’m currently in the process of editing my first novel whilst simultaneously writing environmental news at Planetsave.com and fantasy book reviews at, funnily enough, FantasyBookReview.co.uk.

A good portion of the fantasy books you’ll see on my shelves have been sent to me by publishers to review, and I’m doin pretty well in terms of read-and-reviewed compared to simply shelved-and-unread. Though you’ll see that Anathem by Neal Stephegnson has a nice big bookmark in it (but so does Ulysses by James Joyce, so I shouldn’t be too upset about it).

These are my shelves.

The four here are the main shelves I will be looking at, though there are four more out of shot that house various religious texts, biographies, classics and miscellaneous. I moved a chair out of the way to take the shot, as the carpet marks show in that corner … there.

And of course the dusty top of two shelves which house seasons 1-8 of Stargate SG-1, and the complete collections of Buffy and Angel.

I’m actually rather proud of my library, as I think I’m allowed to call it at this point. Three bookshelves almost totally dedicated to fantasy. A bookshelf almost totally dedicated to Star Wars, two shelves to TPB’s and three to Star Wars.

This is probably my favourite shelf, as it contains a large collection of books written by (or in a couple of cases on) J.R.R. Tolkien. There’s the original trilogy, Hobbit, Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and several other smaller collections. Moving across into the History of Middle Earth stuff, into another copy of the Silmarillion and then the reference books, before another two copies of the Hobbit and an Alan Lee illustrated Two Towers.

Another of my top 5 authors is Terry Pratchett, and owning 18 hardcovers is a nice thing, let me tell you. Completely re-readable.

And there’s the Star Wars collection. Top row contains books BBY up until the X-Wing series, which continues the ABY books and into almost all of the New Jedi Order books.

You really can’t have enough large fantasy series, and some of my favourite authors claim shelves to themselves; including Steven Erikson, Robin Hobb and Robert Jordan.

Next is the TPB’s, and this is my “Big Two” shelf. The Omnibi are my prides and joy, though the deluxe Gotham Central’s aren’t half bad either.

And the “Everyone Else” shelf, which includes some of my favourite writing from the pen of Greg Rucka and Brian Wood.

I’d have more comics but I can’t justify buying them because I can’t review them. Not yet at least. I’m working on it. I promise.

And that’s all that you care about. There’s a shelf of books that get sent to me that I just don’t want to read, and another shelf of books that get sent to me that I want to read, but are further down the list than the publishers would like them to be. I’d show you the books signed by James Barclay, Michael A Stackpole, Trudi Canavan and Isobelle Carmody, my Star Trek figurines and the multiple copies of the Lord of the Rings movies I have, but you’d get bored. So I’ll leave it at that.

Twin Spica

When Vertical marketing director Ed Chavez first announced that they had licensed the sci-fi manga Twin Spica, the news was drowned out by better-known titles like the cute cat manga Chi’s Sweet Home and Felipe Smith’s in-your-face Peepo Choo. Also, frankly, the cover of this manga is the least attractive thing about it.

When I got my advance copy, though, I was sold. Twin Spica is an interesting story that interweaves a girl’s training to be an astronaut — classic shonen manga fodder, but approached more thoughtfully — with stories of her personal life and coming of age. Vertical has just posted a 30-page preview at their site, and the piece of the story they chose focuses on the main character, Asumi, coming to terms with her mother’s death. Asumi’s spirit really comes through in this story, but I actually liked the space training part even better. Anyway, go take a look, and watch out for the first volume next month. (I know the preview has an awful moire, but I don’t recall that being in the printed book.)

"The Periodic Table of Imaginary Elements," by Russell Walks

For those science nerds among us, illustrator Russell Walks has created this cool poster collecting fictional chemical elements from comics, literature, television, film and games, categorized by medium and origin (e.g. “Magically Occurring on Earth”).

A quick glance shows such comic book-based substances as Amazonium (Wonder Woman), Dilustel (Captain Atom), Inertron (Legion of Super-Heroes), Marvelium (Captain Marvel/Shazam), Uru (Thor), Kairoseki (One Piece) and, of course, Kryptonite (Superman).

You can order “The Periodic Table of Imaginary Elements” for $25 through Walks’ website.

(via Kotaku)

Dune art by Paul Pope

Cartoonist and Heroes Con creative director Dustin Harbin is obviously a comics guy. But even for sequential-art partisans, every once in a while the literary spice must flow. Thus Harbin has created the Dune book club, a weekly discussion of the original science-fiction classic by author Frank Herbert, hosted on Harbin’s blog. In addition to thought-provoking posts and comment-thread chats about the book, which Harbin calls “probably my favorite novel ever,” the book club is also something of an art club, with Harbin, Paul Pope, Patrick Keck, Peter Lazarski, Pen Ward, Thomas “Smo” Smolenski, and Evan Dahm all providing luscious comics and stand-alone illustrations based on the book. (Pope, another big-time Dune devotee, had already drawn a scene from the book in the style of a Wednesday Comics page.) Personally, I’m waiting for someone to take a crack at a sandworm.

Science Fiction Classics

Science Fiction Classics (Graphic Classics, Volume 17)
Written by Hans Christian Andersen, Ben Avery, Antonella Caputo, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Dunsany, Hunt Emerson, EM Forster. Rod Lott, Tom Pomplun, Rich Rainey, Jules Verne, Stanley G Weinbaum, and HG Wells

Illustrated by Hunt Emerson, Micah Farritor, Roger Langridge, Ellen L Lindner, Johnny Ryan, George Sellas, and Brad Teare

Edited by Tom Pomplun
Eureka Productions; $17.95

You might think that a book full of classic science fiction would be a natural subject to talk about in a column concerning adventure fiction, but I actually reconsidered it a couple of times. While I love robots, aliens, spaceships, and laser guns, I’m not someone that real science fiction fans would want to let into their club. Gimme Star Wars and Flash Gordon; you can keep your Asimov and Clarke over there. An anthology of the “classics” of scifi is likely going to need some serious spicing up to keep me interested. Fortunately, Science Fiction Classics has a full rack.

There are a couple of reasons that the anthology is appropriate for this space. First, it’s Volume 17 in Eureka’s Graphic Classics series. That means that there’s no way it’s going to be anything less than excellent in terms of how stories are selected and presented. Editor Tom Pomplun’s got the selection formula figured out and he’s great at executing it. He always has at least one, hugely popular story that everyone knows (War of the Worlds, for instance), but then he fills the rest of the book with lesser known material by a mixture of authors. The result is always surprising. Hans Christian Andersen and EM Forster aren’t exactly renowned for their scifi work, for example. And even writers who are – like Jules Verne – are represented by interesting picks (Verne’s “In the Year 2889,” for instance, instead of, say, From the Earth to the Moon).

In the Year 2889

The second reason that Science Fiction Classics rules is the way in which the stories are adapted. Pomplun’s always had an eye for interesting artists and the ability to marry them to the right story.

Take Verne’s “In the Year 2889” again. I’m not a big fan of Jules Verne at all. He always has great ideas, but a serious problem crafting proper stories out of them. “2889” is no exception. As with all the Verne stories I’ve read, there’s no plot to it; Verne’s just stringing together various scenes to create a day in the life of Fritz Napolean Smith, the wealthiest, most powerful man in the twenty-ninth century. But what Pomplun does is he turns it into a script that emphasizes the action and then hires Johnny Ryan to make it funny and charming. Smith looks like a really smart version of George Jetson and his world is full of awesome robots and flying cars and little machines that go bleep bloop beep! I’d normally have to struggle through a Verne essay on – well, on anything really. Pomplun and Ryan make it not just bearable, but fun.

Stanley G Weinbaum’s “A Martian Odyssey” is another story that’s done an immeasurable service by the art. I’ve never read anything else by Weinbaum, but “Martian Odyssey” is an episodic tale about an astronaut who’s separated from the rest of his Martian expedition and crash lands. As he makes his way back across the planet to his team he encounters a variety of odd creatures with even stranger cultures. Weinbaum’s bio in the back of the book lets us know that it was a highly influential story (Asimov apparently listed it as one of the top three), but like Verne’s work, there’s no real plot stringing the events together. Enter Ben Avery with some modern slang and George Sellas with his animated, pulp-inspired visuals. The adaptation looks and sounds like a Flash Gordon cartoon and it’s just as exciting, pulling you through the astronaut’s adventures in constant wonder about what kind of awesomely absurd creature you’re going to meet next.

A Martian Odyssey

Another example of Pomplun’s match-making skills is putting Micah Farritor on War of the Worlds. Farritor’s got an expressive style and a lively imagination that have served him well on the nostalgic scifi series White Picket Fences. They’re perfect for Wells’ story too: emphasizing the human drama while creating some fantastically unique visuals for the Martians and their machines. Rich Rainey’s script does a great job of picking out the best, most exciting bits of the tale. It’s unfortunate that Wells’ allegory about imperialism is somewhat lost in the translation (I guess I do like some meaningful scifi), but it’s a great, moving adventure story and has some fairly profound things to say about how people handle each other in a crisis.

My favorite story of the book though is Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Disintegration Machine.” Outside of other volumes of Graphic Classics I’ve only ever read Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stuff, but I’ve seen enough movie and TV adaptations of The Lost World to know who Professor Challenger is. I had no idea that Doyle used the half-insane adventurer outside of his dinosaur novel though, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him and newspaper reporter Edward Malone matching wits with a mad scientist. Rod Lott adapted the story and if you’re a reader of his book review site, Bookgasm, you know he’s got great taste in big adventure stories. Match that with The Muppet Show’s Roger Langridge and you’ve got a thrilling tale that’ll make you wish Doyle had spent as much time on Challenger and Malone as he did Holmes and Watson. As it is, I’ve now got to track down the two other Challenger novels and a second short story that I’ve only just now discovered the existence of.

I’m not sure what to say about Lord Dunsany’s “The Bureau d’Echange de Maux” except that I liked it very much. I’m not exactly sure how it’s a science fiction story since it involves more magic than technology, but it’s a great, spooky story that’s atmospherically illustrated by Brad Teare.

The Bureau d'Echange de Maux

The most surprising entry though is EM Forster’s “The Machine Stops.” I’m a huge fan of movies based on Forster’s novels, but I had no idea that he’d written a science fiction story, not to mention such a prophetic one. He talks about a world in which people’s lives are so served (and possibly controlled) by an omnipresent Machine that they no longer have to leave their rooms. They communicate with each other and experience the world solely through their monitor screens.

It’s gotten to the point that on the rare occasions that they need to leave their quarters, they find looking directly at things distasteful and touching each other is rude. In this world, we meet a mother who is reluctantly forced to travel and visit her son who’s begged her for a face-to-face meeting about something vitally important. Forster knew how to include a plot with his world-building.

Add in a humorously illustrated essay by Hans Christian Andersen and Hunt Emerson about life “In a Thousand Years,” and as with all the Graphic Classics volumes, Science Fiction Classics is as entertaining as it is enlightening. My only frustration with it is that I now know what I’m missing in a world without an ongoing Professor Challenger series by Rod Lott and Roger Langridge.

Four out of five cranky, probably nuts professors.

Professor Challenger

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

BOOM! sent out five preview pages from their forthcoming comic book version of writer Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Androids, of course, was the 1968 novel that was the basis for the film Blade Runner.

Per BOOM!, this isn’t an adaptation, but the full novel — every word — in comics form (which explains why the series will be 24 issues). They’ve even got the “he said/she said” text in it. BOOM! co-founder Ross Richie is doing panel descriptions for artist Tony Parker, and the first issue will have four different covers by Denis Calero, Bill Sienkiewicz, Scott Keating and Moritat (which is a retailer incentive cover). Ultimate Fantastic Four‘s Blond is coloring it, Richard Starkings’ Comicraft is lettering it and Ian Brill is editing it.

But wait, there’s more — BOOM! has recruited a few people you may have heard of to provide “back matter” for the comic. Issue one will have back matter by Warren Ellis, Matt Fraction provides it for issue two, Ed Brubaker’s on tap for issue three and Farscape creator Rockne S. O’Bannon is doing issue four.

All the covers and the first five pages from the first issue can be found after the jump.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

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Page 5

Anna Mercury, Volume 1: The Cutter

Anna Mercury: The Cutter
Written by Warren Ellis; Illustrated by Facundo Percio
Avatar; $19.99

I’m a late adapter about most things, but it seems especially true about Warren Ellis. I mean, I think he’s one of the smartest people in the room when talking about the future of comics, but I can count on one hand the number of stories I’ve actually read by him. Fell, Ocean, and Orbiter are the only ones that immediately come to mind. I know I should at least read NextWave; I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

I could easily derail this article by trying to analyze why I haven’t read more of Ellis’ stuff when I really do love what I’ve read so far. I’ll skip that bit, but I think it has something to do with how smart he is and how I normally don’t equate “smart” with “exciting.”

I know I’m gonna get in trouble for that last statement, so let me explain. I don’t think that intelligent writing equals boring, but so much of what I read from Ellis – in his newsletter; on his messageboard – is him talking about ideas. Where things are going and how best to capitalize on that. It’s fascinating stuff, but I’m finding that as I consider picking up his fiction I have this expectation that it’s going to be more of that. I mean, he’s a science fiction writer. Science fiction is all about predicting the future and commenting about it through stories. And honestly? I’m not a fan of hard science fiction. Give me Flash Gordon and John Carter over 2001 and the Foundation Trilogy any day (you can see how up-to-date I am on the latest sci-fi).

Anna

When Anna Mercury came out, I was excited right away. The character looks awesome with her dramatic red-and-black costume and improbably long, auburn hair. It didn’t hurt either that all the art showed her leaping out over futuristic cityscapes with gun drawn. This was a far cry from the thoughtful mystery of Orbiter or the building suspense of Ocean. It promised adventure and excitement. It promised kicking and punching and shooting and jumping and more kicking. And oh baby it delivers.

The thing is, it doesn’t sacrifice smart ideas to give all that. Ellis has created a world in which the Philadelphia Experiment caused a much bigger problem than an unexplained phenomenon and some dead soldiers. The Eldridge went through space and time and appeared on the streets of a parallel Earth, one of nine in invisible orbit around our Earth. That event not only revealed our presence to the inhabitants of the city (called New Ataraxia) in which the destroyer appeared, it significantly affected the development of their culture. It made them believe that God had shown up and revealed to them the path that they should follow. They developed a religion around trying to create war machinery of their own and went into battle with the other major city on their planet. Our Earth – feeling responsible for this and guilty to boot – has taken to sending special agents to the other one, trying to control the damage and protect New Ataraxia’s neighbor, the city of Sheol. Anna Mercury is the most recent – and best – of those agents.

Ellis does all the exposition and world-building in the form of a briefing between the new Prime Minister of England and the head of the UK branch of the Constellation project (the Constellation being our Earth’s nickname for the arrangement of the ten parallel worlds in close proximity to each other). That might’ve been boring but Ellis keeps things moving by having the briefing take place during one of Anna’s missions: taking out a new weapon that New Ataraxia has developed, a giant, moon-mounted laser called the Cutter. As we cut back and forth between multiple scenes (the mission and the briefing both keep getting interupted and take place over the course of a couple of days) we learn about the world while watching Anna plummet from rooftops, land on bullet trains, ride rockets, shoot bad guys, and gleefully knock out teeth.

Come on ride the train.

The briefing scenes are also livened by the personality of the Constellation project’s director. He’s a charming old dude who obviously cares about Anna and places an appropriate  amount of importance on the work they’re all doing, but doesn’t seem wearied by it. He’s refreshingly optimistic and that sets the tone for the entire book.

Anna’s also a cheerful character, which understandably leads some of her co-workers to question her sanity. That’s what I love about the story. Ellis and artist Facundo Percio give it brightness, but balance it with serious, realistic concerns. Even Anna’s outlandish appearance turns out to be deliberate and manufactured. Ellis and Percio go out of their way to humanize her. Not to the point of destroying the glitter, but to enhance it and make it that much more real and exciting. She’s tough, but not invulnerable. It’s a thrilling book, but not cartoonishly so.

Five out of five super-agents surfing on shot-up gangster cars.

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