>Happy Halloween everyone! Stop by the store for free Halloween ashcans from a variety of publishers and maybe we’ll even put out some candy for trick or treaters!

Definitely stop by and see Jon dressed up as a Tanuki. I think Jim will be joining in the fun as Clark Kent.

Have a safe and fun Halloween!!

-b

>I’m not the biggest fan of manga. Don’t get me wrong, I have quite a few that I like a lot, but that’s because not every manga is for everyone. My only complaint about manga is that the visual design style looks most times that the same artist does 60% of the books available. This is certainly not always the case, there are some very exceptional exceptions to the rule.

One such title that grabs my interest is Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue. This is a series that is collected in 30 volumes, or 5 big omnibus editions (so far) that follows a legendary sword-wielding samurai named Miyamoto Musashi. Musashi is a pretty big deal in Japan, sort of a Johnny Appleseed, but instead of planting apple trees and wearing a cooking pot on his head, Musashi was constantly being challenged to duels, and carried a freakin’ sword. It is said that Musashi was a real person who perfected the art of kendo, and could never be defeated, at one point defeating his opponents with little more than a wooden sword, known as a bokken. He has been immortalized in a best-selling novel by Eiji Yoshikawa, as well as being portrayed in film by the incomparable Toshiro Mifune. The manga series Vagabond takes the legend of Miyamoto Musashi and turns it into a visual epic. I would venture to say that it’s one of my favorite mangas. Then again, I’m partial to fuedal Japanese samurai stories, and Musashi is perhaps the most important figure in samurai history.

If you’re a fan of some good old fashioned sword swingin’ action, Vagabond ranks up there as the best not just as a manga, but a graphic novel series.

-Jim

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Come March 2010, there will be a second coming, but it’s probably not what you would expect. A messiah will return to the current timeline. However, this young lady is a mutant messiah. X-Men fans should know what I’m talking about. Since the 2007 X-crossover event Messiah Complex the X-universe has centered around a mutant infant, now an attractive late-teenager named Hope, who is the prophesied messiah or destroyer of mutant-kind. Cable was given the role of protecting the young child after Messiah Complex and time-leaped into the future to hide her from renegade X-Man Bishop. In 2009, black-ops team X-Force time-jumped into the future to aid Cable with the burden of protecting Hope from Bishop, which resulted in the mini-event Messiah War. Second Coming will have Hope’s journey come full circle when she returns to the present and must materialize in her role as an uncertain messiah.

Second Coming will cross into four X-titles, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men: Legacy, X-Force, and New Mutants. Like its predecessor Messiah Complex, each issue will be schedule to ship in weekly installments. With Messiah Complex, this well organized scheduling was perhaps the series greatest strength. If Second Coming can be equally coordinated, it should be a fantastic conclusion for the Messiah trilogy.

Writing duties will fall on Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost (X-Force), Matt Fraction (Uncanny X-Men), Mike Carey (X-Men: Legacy), and Zeb Wells (New Mutants). A full lineup of artist hasn’t been entirely announced, but David Finch is scheduled to illustrate the Second Coming one-shot that will kick off the series. Second Coming will also see the departure of dream-team (and two of my personal favorite writers) Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost from their mighty relaunched X-Force. However, the writing team will go out with quite the bang, not only delivering Second Coming but also X-event Necrosha this fall.

The major players in Second Coming are looking to be the obvious Hope and Cable, X-Force, villain Bastion, and a newly confident Rouge. Though the big question remains whether or not Hope will be a reincarnation of Jean Grey or not. Hope’s mutant ability hasn’t manifested yet, but, aside from appearance, she is closer to a guerrilla fighter than Jean Grey. If it turns out to be Jean, it will throw in an interesting wrench into Scott Summers and Emma Frost’s romantic relationship.

I’m looking forward to this event probably more than anything else in mainstream comics. It’s remarkable impressive how well Messiah Complex was planned since the beginning. It launch a very distinctive and rewarding line of X-books. Second Coming is long-awaited and should be a fitting conclusion. It will be X-citing to see how it launches the next chapter in X-history as well.

-Jon

>Remember when Blackest Night #1 came out and we had those awesome black rings? A lot of people were asking if we were ever going to get in rings from the various Lantern Corps anytime. There weren’t any available at that time, and no plans had been announced by DC to give with the goods… until now.

In what is no doubt an effort to increase interest in some select titles, DC is expanding the Blackest Night tie-in’s and offering a ring from a different Lantern Corps. Here’s how it breaks down:
-Doom Patrol #4 will make you quiver in fear for a yellow Sinestro Corps ring.
-Booster Gold #26 comes with the orange ring, for all you greedy types.
-JLA #39 provides you with the rage of the red ring.
-Blackest Night #5 is yours with a Green Lantern ring, if you have enough willpower to buy it.
-Adventure Comics #4 gets you a blue ring…hopefully.
-REBELS #10 comes with an indigo ring, because we feel your pain.
-Outsiders #24 will fill you with love for the violet ring of the Star Sapphires.

You can get the rings individually by just buying the comic associated with it, or you can sign up for all of the comics and get all of the rings and entered into a drawing to win an awesome Green Lantern neon sign. It’s easy to do, just stop by and tell us, “I want the rings!” I suspect that quantities may be limited, so the sooner you sign up, the better.

-Jim

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One of the most pleasant surprises this week was Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon’s Sugarshock. The comic originally appeared on MySpace – Dark Horse Presents in three installments. The single issue collects all three space-rocking stories, as well as a sketchbook with concept designs and promotional art.

Whedon’s signature humorous dialogue is a staple throughout Sugarshock, and is vibrantly illustrated by the brilliant Fabio Moon. The story follows hyperactive singer Dandelion Nazien, and her semi-decent band L’Lihdra, Wade and Robot Phil (an actually robot bass player) as they get caught up in an intergalactic battle of the bands. Ultimately, the plot is nonsensical, but it is too fun to put down. As long as Dandelion keeps hating vikings (don’t ask why) and the voluptuous Wade keeps falling in love with groupies (though see can’t remember any of their names) that’s all that matters. The revelatory rendition of “The saddest song in the world,” a mish-mash of “Adagio for Strings,” Leonard Cohen, and the unreturned call of the last dolphin on earth, is the absurdist dada show-stopper that wins Dandelion the battle. Does the victory really matter. Not really. Sugarshock is a victory in-and-of-its self.

In 2007, Whedon fell in love with his idea for Sugarshock so much that he postponed other engagements until the script for the issue was complete. It became one of the first Dark Horse Presents stories, and eventually won the Eisner award for best web comic in 2008. Not bad for one issue so check it out.

Kissy Th’ Face!

-Jon

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Finally! After months of delays, Darkstalkers Tribute, from Udon Entertainment, has arrived on our shelves. Now, for those of you who are going, “What the Hell is ‘Darkstalkers’, and why does it have a tribute book?” Well, look no further, I’m here to let you know just what the big deal is about. Although, I have to say, even though it was originally supposed to come out in August, I think that October is a much more fitting month for its release, considering that the majority of the Darkstalkers are monsters and whatnot. So yeah, this is why you should care about this art book.

The Darkstalkers originate as a series of fighting games created by Capcom (The creators of Megaman, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, etc…) in the mid 90s featuring characters that are mostly of the monster variety. Vampires, Succubi, Zombies, Demons, Ghosts, and Monster Hunters… Not to mention the Robot, the Sun Entity, the Cat Girl, the Merman, the Werewolf, the Sasquatch, and the Bee Queen… These are characters of the Darkstalkers series. The most popular of which seems to be the Green Haired Succubus, Morrigan, (pictured below) which I can for the life of me understand why. lol. That aside, the game was really popular in arcades in the mid 90s and contributed to the final boom of the arcade scene. One could essentially say that it played like Street Fighter, but with with monsters, and as the Street Fighter series evolved it borrowed a lot from its sister series, Darkstalkers. So, while everyone may not have heard of the game or remember its name, if you’re a fan of fighting games, Darkstalkers is responsible for some of the now-standard features in most modern fighting games.

Now, as for the actual book, Darkstalkers Tribute features artwork from over 300 artists from around the world, ranging from Professionals to fans. The book features all sorts of great works, and to be honest, there are a few really well done pictures that happen to be very similar to each other, which become repetitive really quickly… Granted, they all happen to feature the same character, Lord Raptor (The British Rock Star Zombie). There’s also a particular picture that comes across as really lazy to me, but I’m willing to bet that it made it in, because of a lack of pictures submitted for that character. But I’m not all gripes here, overall, the majority of the artwork in here is fantastic. I’m particularly found of the ones that feature out-of-character situations, such as the main vampire, Demitri Maximov, sitting in a blanket covered armchair while sipping on coffee while typing something in on a laptop in what appears to be a cramped apartment building. I wont begin to go into why that’s so out-of-character, but to fans of the character, it’s worth a good laugh.

So, how did Darkstalkers get a tribute book? Well, that question is answered by looking no further than the Street Fighter Tribute book. It all began as a contest for artists to submit a picture of their favorite Street Fighter character(s) to be put in a collection to be sold to the masses. The book was a massive success on both the contest side and the sales side. Feedback from the book was tremendous and as I understand it, the thing fans wanted most, was another chance to get their work printed in another book, and so, instead of double dipping the Street Fighter well, Darkstalkers was chosen for the next project. Over 2000 entries were submitted and out of those, just under 300 were chosen to be put into the book. I personally know 2 folks who submitted work, unfortunately for them, their entries didn’t make the final count. But, that’s just how it goes sometimes…

So that’s Darkstalkers Tribute in a few paragraphs. My not-so-secret hope from this is that Capcom might find themselves in a position to release a new entry to the game series. But that’s really wishful thinking… Another thing I hope comes from this is more contests to submit fan art for more Capcom properties. Maybe I’ll enter the next one… But yeah, come by the store and check it out. Even if you’re not a fan of the game, there’s still a lot of high quality art in the book. Until next time.

-Fleet

>There are a lot of nuanced situations when it comes to recommending a book or series to someone. Everyone has different tastes and there are so many genres that it’s hard to pin one down that everyone will like. That being said, I’m focusing on my favorite genre for reading; Hard-boiled noir.

Noir is a certain kind of fiction flavor that got it’s start in the pulp novels and movies of the 1930’s. Thank Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, and so many other masters of the style for making the morally ambiguous detective archetype such a staple in American mythos. Hard-boiled noir is nothing new to the comic book world, but it seems that lately it’s been really good. Here’s a breakdown of some of my fav hard-boiled crime stories:

100 Bullets- Brian Azzerello have just recently concluded a crime story of operatic proportions. This has all the sex, violence, booze, drugs, and conspiracy you could ask for. The artwork of Eduardo Risso combined with the story within a story narrative makes this a fun and smart read.

Criminal- When it comes to modern noir comic writers, no one does it better than Ed Brubaker. Each chapter seemingly tops the last, while each standing as a masterpiece by itself. I can’t tell you about what happens in the newest installment titled Sinners, because this is a series that I primarily read in trade paper form. I’ll be eagerly awaiting.

Richard Stark’s- Parker, the Hunter- I would bet that by the end of the year, this book will be #1 on my best-of list for 2009. Darwyn Cooke has created what I consider the best noir graphic novel I’ve ever seen. This was originally a novel by mystery fiction master Donald Westlake, who wrote under the pseudonym of Richard Stark for the Parker series back in the 60’s. There are more Darwyn Cook interpreted Parker books on their way.

Sin City- This is of course the original mold for modern noir in comics. This is primarily a work of hard-boiled noir, but has become more widely accepted by folks who may never have been into pulp-y noir. I was one of those folks. Sin City is what got me fascinated with all things noir, especially the story a Dame To Kill For.

Scalped- Probably my favorite still-ongoing series, Jason Aaron’s tale of crime and desperation set on a modern day Indian rez is pure noir with the flavor of modern Native American history and current affairs, giving it a hint of .a western. The main character’s name is Dashiell Bad Horse, which I suspect is an homage to pulp master Dashiell Hammett.

Well, there you have it: My top five favorite noir comics. Since I was limiting myself to only five, I left off some great Daredevil and Batman stories, and I’m sure there are plenty more books out there that someone needs to recommend to me, but for my money, the above five are the best.

-Jim

>A couple of months ago I had posted a blog about my excitement for the release of Masterpiece comics, and now here we are with it occupying shelf space in the store finally, and occupying my collection at home so I can finally give a proper review.

Here’s the premise: mixing classic literature with classic comics to create such hybrids as Mephistofield (Faustus meets Garfield.) or the Crypt of Bronte, which takes Wuthering Heights and crams it together with EC’s Tales from the Crypt. You get the picture. This collection is a work 20 years in the making from writer/ artist
with the various strips appearing in such publications as Raw, Snake Eyes, New York Press, Monkeysuit, Reveal, Hotwire, and Drawn and Quarterly over the years. This is a brilliant satire of classic literature and old school comic art that pokes fun at both mediums while at the same time paying homage. The tales are abridged, mostly verboten interpretations of the novels they are derived from, with the visual and dialogue quirks of the comics they are amalgamated with. I could definitely see English professors getting some good yuks out of this.

Probably my favorite story among these is Little Dori in Pictureland, a mash up of Little Nemo and Oscar Wilde’s the Picture of Dorian Gray, it’s just enough blood and opium references for one page. Although Masterpiece comics won’t make you laugh out loud with a big hearty guffaw, they will make those familiar with classic literature snicker, and put a knowing smirk on their faces.

-Jim

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As for as seasons go, the Simpsons are now the legal age to drink. On September 27 the 21st season of The Simpsons began, establishing the animated family as the longest running scripted American primetime show since Gunsmoke. The season kicked off with an episode titled “Homer The Whopper,” and was themed around the recent string of successful comic movie adaptations. In the premiere, Comic Book Guy creates a comic character named The Everyman who almost instantly gets picked up as for a movie adaptation. Homer is casted as The Everyman and struggles to lose weight for the role after his celebrity fitness trainer Lyle McCarthy quits and his movie bombs. The episode guest stars Simpsons creator Matt Groening and Simpsons writer and actor Seth Rogen.

In another odd celebration of the Simpsons historic record, Marge Simpson will appear semi-nude on the cover of the November 2009 issue of Playboy. When I saw the cover my reaction was it had to be a joke, but it didn’t say Playdude (Simpsons universe version of Playboy). It is the real gentlemen’s magazine. The cover has even caused some controversy with Christian groups protesting against a number of retailers who are selling it. I wonder, would anyone be interested in Marge’s Playboy debut if we carried it at Star Clipper?

The Simpsons just seem to keep going and going, and are constantly breaking new grounds. With the ever-present rumor of a Simpsons movie sequel on the way, it looks like there is no end in sight for the Simpsons’ juggernaut.

-Jon

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Over at the Fantagraphics blog last week, Eric Reynolds announced that FOX has a development deal for an animated series called The Bradleys, based on Peter Bagge’s pre-Hate era Buddy Bradley. The Bradleys originally appeared in Bagge’s Neat Stuff in the 1980s and followed Buddy as a teenager living at home with his parents in the suburbs of New Jersey. The show will focus on the misadventures of Buddy, older sister Babs, little brother Butch and Mom and Pops Bradley, and will hopefully be scheduled along side the longest running show in television history The Simpsons, as well as Seth McFarlane-mania Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show.

Though there is only a pilot script deal with FOX at the moment, this is still some really exciting news. One of my all-time favorite Buddy stories was from the Bradley era. The story “Hippie House”, from the issue pictured above, centers around Buddy begging in vain to work a part-time job at a used record store (something I did in high school), causing a near riot by switching the music and breaking a window at high school party (also something I unfortunately did in high school) and finally listening to 60s records all night with Jay “The Junkie” and metalhead “Monster Brains” (all too familiar). The early Bradley comics are arguably the definitive comic about the American dysfunctional family.

However, the definitive animated dysfunctional family is by and large the Simpsons, followed by Family Guy or King of the Hill depending on your taste. Will The Bradleys be able to find a home on FOX? I’m not really sure. I have hopes that if the series does last that it will take the direction the Hate took and follow Buddy in his early twenties instead of being a family sitcom. If they mimic the short-lived and well-done animated series Mission Hill, which basically ripped of Bagge’s Hate and Dan Clowes’s Eightball, I think the series could sustain at least a second season. Lets just hope The Bradleys makes it past the pilot!

-Jon