Dark Horse’s ambitious reprint program for the Marvel Comics’ books based on the works of Robert E. Howard has been one of my favorite things about living in the Golden Age of Reprints. The Chronicles of Conan (19 volumes to date) have proven that nobody wrote a better Conan comic than Roy Thomas. The last five volumes of the Chronicles series have not featured any Thomas scripts, and they’ve been purchased because I’m a completist and for the John Buscema art, and certainly not for any reading pleasure. I’m gonna be brutally honest: J.M. DeMatteis’ stories are terrible, and Bruce Jones and Michael Fleischer have no understanding of what makes Conan an epic character, nor do they have any grasp of the Hyborean world. I actually gritted my teeth buying volume 19, and two months later I still haven’t finished reading the eight stories (about 200 pages) within. By comparison, I read those 500 page Savage Sword of Conan reprints in one sitting, or eight beers.

This week’s release of The Chronicles of King Volume 1 didn’t even last two beers, and I couldn’t be happier. Roy Thomas script + John Buscema/Ernie Chan art = Conan brilliance. REH only wrote one story in which Conan was a king, and it does not appear in this book. That frees Roy from re-telling a story the hardcore fans already know and love, and allows him and Big John to flex their own creative muscles. OK, this early in the run (issues 1 through 5), Roy was adapting pastiche novels written by L. Sprague De Camp, Lin Carter and Bjorn Nyberg, who each have their problems as storytellers but are all essentially conversant in the pulp format (strangely, the solicitation for this volume on Dark Horse’s website claims “King Conan is based on a series of five short stories by Robert E. Howard, originally published in Weird Tales,” despite the credits obviously proving otherwise.) They were all students of REH, which means no Cimmerian Olympics or medieval English towns doubling as Cimmeria, a la Bruce Jones.

Instead we get a 50-something Conan, father of three and faithful husband, crossing half the world with his oldest son, Conn, to slay the evil wizard Thoth-Amon. Not having a King Conan comic available for the past 20 years, I had forgotten how enjoyable the father/son dynamic was between Conan and Conn. Conn’s eagerness to impress his father (and his hero), his stubbornness and his naiveté (both of which echo that of the younger Conan we all know and love from the first two years of the book) are balanced by Conan’s grim experience, his lovable hard-headedness and his unabashed pride in his son. The image of a bloodied Conan armed only with a cudgel walking into Hyperboria to save Conn is not something REH wrote, but it’s something he could have written. The same goes for the ending of that particular story, in which Conan loudly corrects his vassal, Prospero, that the Hyperboreans were not just fighting him, they were “fighting me and my son, Prospero. AND MY SON!” There’s the defiant, battle-mad barbarian and proud father I know and love.

All of this has me very excited for the impending creative switch on Dark Horse’s Conan title. Roy Thomas is slated to take over scripting the book, which will jump forward in Conan’s career; Hopefully, we get a Conan book that’s not re-doing REH’s stories, but features Roy writing new tales in the style of REH. I’ve enjoyed Timothy Truman’s work on the title, but I don’t want to see another version of “Queen of the Black Coast,” not by anybody. In fact, if it was up to me, I’d have Thomas writing and Truman doing the art for this new Conan; Truman, more than anyone since Big John Buscema, has captured the primal essence of everyone’s favorite Cimmerian. His art on Conan: Songs of the Dead is my favorite “modern” depiction of the character, and I’d love to see Truman take over the monthly art chores. Especially with Roy Thomas scripting.

-Paul

This particular week was arguably the finest haul I’ve pulled in months, not because everything is so great, but because so many of them teetered back and forth on the precipice of greatness. I think that’s a realistic goal for comics; they’re not all going to be New Gods, or whatever it is you feel is the pinnacle of the art form. But to have a sizable pile of weekly titles be just a shade under brilliant, well, that’s a healthy development.

Having said that, both the second installment of Marvel Masterworks’ Silver Surfer series and Dark Horse’s first volume of King Conan reprints (originally Marvel) came out this week, and those two books are so far on the other side of brilliant that they’re exempted from this exercise and will most likely be dealt with in separate posts — that King Conan is the way and the light as far as Dark Horse’s current Conan series goes.

You know what else is brilliant? Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four #582. We’ve got future Franklin and future Val helping Nathaniel Richards (Reed calls him daddy) kill off the last of all the other time-jumping Nathaniel Richardses (SPOILER ALERT: College-age Victor von Doom totally kills a guy with a mace, and that is like catnip to this comic kitty) and some table-setting for the impending death of The Thing. Oh, it’s not definite that Ben Grimm is the one getting whacked, but I’ve begun mentally preparing for the worst. Ben has been portrayed as nothing more than borderline useless comic relief for the past six months, and I’ve formulated a whole list of reasons why he’s the minus one in Fantastic Three (bottom line: he’s the only non-blood relation in the FF family, and Jonathan Hickman wants to make me cry). There’s a subtle hint dropped that it may be Johnny, but I don’t believe it. I can’t believe it, because I’m a pessimist. If you’re not reading FF right now, I highly recommend you pick up this month’s issue so you’re hooked before the “big run” begins next month; that way you can say you were there when Jonathan Hickman killed a part of my childhood. OK, that sounded much more negative than I intended, but hey — pessimism. This is the best superhero book going right now, but it’s going to tear my guts out in three months, and I’m still excited by it.

Green Arrow #3 is surprisingly good this month. I like the whole “Ollie Queen is a radical liberal who wants to help common people” thing that’s been a hallmark of the character since the O’Neill/Adams run in the late 60s, but in the past decade that’s been nothing more than window dressing. He’s a billionaire! He’s a bad father! He’s a better father! He’s a leader of some sort of weird arrow team! He’s the mayor! Well, now he’s nothing but a Robin Hood dude in this mystical forest that erupted in Star City that’s really a bad metaphor for Hurricane Katrina/New Orleans, and after two bland issues, we’re seeing actual forward progress in the area of plot. I could do without the aforementioned metaphor, but if J.T. Krul and Diogenes Neves are really serious about Ollie teaming up with Sir Galahad (yes, really!), well, I’m officially intrigued to see where this is going. There’s still some exceptionally stock character and plot points going on (there’s a shadow version of Ollie that he fights in a hallucination — or is it? *mouth fart*), but I’ll allow it in the interest of curiosity.

Speaking of stock characters, Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden’s Baltimore: The Plague Ships gives us a hard-bitten, burly guy who fights supernatural creatures of Germanic origin with his fists, some guns and moxie — let’s save the suspense and just say “We’ve seen it.” Artist Ben Stenbeck is no Mike Mignola (or Guy Davis, for that matter), and I firmly believe Mignola’s stories stand or fall on the basis of the art; if it ain’t Mignola doing the art, it’s gonna be uphill. However, I am not immune to the lure of a pulp story told well, and Mignola has a feel for pulp. There’s some excitement, some mystery and electrified vampires in a Zeppelin — I liked just writing that sentence, imagine how much I enjoyed seeing it depicted. For a first issue, pretty good.

Garth Ennis wraps up this cycle of Battlefields: Motherland with this week’s issue, and I was surprised by both the hopeful tenor of the ending and one particular page of dialogue. Russian fighter pilot Anna Kharkova is up against the Nazi invasion of her homeland, the machinations of the Secret Police and her own tentative emotional awakening for her commanding officer. Complex, right? Comic books are awesome in the right hands. But anyway — in one page, Colonel Golovyachev lays out the insanity of war, the unquenchable hope of desperation, humanity’s need to find love no matter how bad things look, the compelling power of patriotism and the price of sacrifice. “If we survive (the war), our hearts will break. But I believe we’ll win,” he tells Anna.

Alan Vega, the singer for the band Suicide once said, “We wanted to call the band ‘Life’ but nobody would come see us.” I think Garth Ennis had the same suspicion about this book, and so he named it Battlefields just to confuse the simple-minded, because this book is more about the value and glory of life than it is about the glory of war.

If Battlefields is the bright center of the comic universe this week, Tank Girl: Hairy Heroes is the planet that it’s farthest from. Crass, stuffed with firearms and senseless violence, not above cheap jokes and general depravity — yes indeed, writer Alan C. Martin and the impeccably-named Rufus Dayglo have not just revived Tank Girl, they’ve restored her to glory. Dayglo packs each page with sight-gags and in-jokes, Martin continues to spin absolutely ridiculous stories about hundreds of Tank Girl clones overrunning a tropical island, and TG and her mutant kangaroo pal Booga escaping a tight situation thanks to the tiny bazooka in Booga’s pants. This is pure, unadulterated anarchy writ large, and there’s never enough of that in comics, or in the world for that matter. Sure, I want deeply-textured character development and sweeping plots from my comics, but I also want to laugh. Maybe it’s just the tail end of a tough couple weeks in the real world, but nothing delighted me as much as Tank Girl. Easily the best thing I read this week, and the fact that the title of the story only makes sense when you see the art on the title page (stashed at the back of the book, of course), well, this is exactly the sort of perverse (*wink*) trick at which Martin and Dayglo excel.

I think I’m in love.

-Paul

As I write this, during the aftermath of the massive sale we had this weekend, I realize that I haven’t really had time to process anything big in the pop culture universe that Star Clipper is apart of. What, with all the preparation for the Japanese Festival and the awesome sale, I just haven’t had the time. But as I sit here, typing…stalling… It finally hits me for what I want to talk about. And what I want to talk about is Junji Ito!

Now, some of you, who frequent our manga section, might recognize that name from the books that have weird covers on them. You might also have noticed that it’s hard for us to keep his work in stock. The man’s work goes out of print like clockwork. But that didn’t stop me from picking up some of his anthology sets. In particular, I picked up the Museum of Horror Volumes 1 & 2. These are the entirety of Ito’s “Tomie” stories. You’ve heard of Tomie right? It’s the one about the girl who drives dudes crazy, then they hack her to pieces, only for her to come back from death… Again and again and again… You’d think that the stories would get old after the first few, but no. They don’t. And as you work your way from the older stories to the newer ones, the imagery just gets creepier and creepier. At one point in one of the stories, there was a clusterfudge of a situation in this old guy’s house. You see, the original owner had been locked away in a cage or something, while this other dude pretended to be the old guy. The “fake” old guy was running experiments on young women with Tomie’s cells, which mostly resulted in the girls turning into another Tomie. However, the “real” old guy’s daughter was experimented on and I guess she died… Kinda… The girl became an onryo (like the ghosts in The Ring or The Grudge) but her body became a massive mess of various Tomie bodies merged together and I guess, a giant worm. So… yeah, the house had an angry ghost, a mindless beast, a couple of hostages, an insane guy, and Tomie. It was awesome.

I think it’s safe to say, that I am now officially a fan of Junji Ito. However, it would appear that I’ve waited way too long to become his fan. Like I mentioned before, a lot of his work tends to go out of print. I recall a buddy of mine, Raymond, was telling me to read Uzumaki for like… I don’t know, ten years… I just couldn’t imagine what was so scary about spirals. But, after reading the Tomie stories, I’m sure the guy figured out how to make them scary. But I also long to read Gyo. I saw a toy that was based off of what was probably a major spoiler in the book, but it looked so freakin’ cool. So, I’m on a quest now. I WILL hunt down Ito’s translated work, and I WILL read it. I’m also waiting on a box set of movies based off of his work as well. Apparently, playing the role of Tomie is a coveted role for Japanese actresses, so… There’s gotta be something about his work that’s appealing for everyone, right? That’s it for now, see ya next time.

-Fleet

Hoo-boy. The Marauders were kind of a breath of fresh air when they appeared way back in Uncanny X-Men 211. Here were all-new villains with new powers and unknown capabilities, and hey, is that an Eskimo throwing harpoons?

It is.

Yeah, that air didn’t stay so fresh. These guys were essentially an update of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, with a perhaps too-generous helping of racial insensitivity.
But still, Scalphunter, the unfortunately-named Native American of the bunch, actually had a rather cool innovation: His outfit was covered with the components to make any sort of firearm from a dinky little handgun up to a sizable cannon. His mutant power allowed him to whip up the right gun for the job lickety-split, which he then used with ruthless efficiency. Well, he killed some Morlocks at any rate.

What makes him interesting — aside from the fact that the Marvel database claims he’s 6′6″ and 175 pounds, which are scarecrow-type proportions — is that his clothing is the gun, or the raw materials for the guns if we’re being picky. It makes me wonder why he didn’t maximize his clothing potential, with a hat and scarf — the more he wears, the more heavily armed he becomes. Look at those boots he’s wearing — it’s not like he’s a slave to fashion.

Also, Scalphunter represents the leading edge of the “firearms appearing in the X-Men, and comics in general, with regularity” trend. Sure, the Hellfire Club’s minions were all armed, but they were cannon fodder — this held true throughout comics for a long time. Nobody who wanted to be taken as a seriously threatening super villain grabbed a gun and went after a superhero; you needed a superpower to challenge them. Scalphunter kinda-sorta changes the game a little bit. There was an element of superpower to him, but when it came right down to it, he was willing to face off against Cyclops not with superspeed or invulnerability, but with a regular old hail of lead. We’re so very close to Cable and all those other gun-swinging mofos when we get to Scalphunter.

And just like at every other point in American history, the Native American — the original — gets bumped to the shadows while a white man takes center stage.
Go ahead, Scalphunter — shoot Cable in the ass next time you see him.

-Paul

I think we can all agree that Wednesday is one of the happiest days of the week. But when you walk into the comic shop at the end of a very long day at work and see that your favorite ongoing title is back on the shelves a mere two weeks after the last issue, that, my friends, is a very happy moment.

Northlanders #31 is the sort of comic that justifies my love for comics as a storytelling medium. I stopped watching TV years ago because most shows are watered down by necessity — you can’t attract a huge audience and the attendant huge advertising revenue unless you appeal to the broadest possible swath of America. That means anything controversial or risqué is removed by several levels of middle management, corporate oversight and network censors. There are notable exceptions (South Park, I’m looking at you fondly), but most of TV is safe, boring and highly profitable because of it. So the fact that a comic book — a medium still considered childish by that meaty mainstream — would feature a character who is high all the time, vengeful with a magnificent bloodlust and waging a one-man war on Christianity as our nominal hero, well, that’s proof that comic creators have a freedom to express their vision that is unrivaled in any other format. I make no bones about being an absolute sucker for Brian Woods’ viking adventures, and there is definitely a personal element to that affection; your religious beliefs are yours, and mine are mine, and because this is America we’re both OK. But because nobody in America can talk about the opposing viewpoint right now without someone shouting them down, I’m amazed that the opposing viewpoint — my viewpoint — is being presented at all, anywhere, let alone in a comic book. We live in fascinating times, and comics have never been more liberated. That’s worth celebrating. If I’m being honest, I can no longer be rational about Northlanders. I love this book with a passion that has no name, and I’m going to bury my copies in the earth and raise a mound over the hoard to honor it.

But if it weren’t for Northlanders, what would I talk about? Well, despite my aversion to the multi-title, cash-grab crossover series, I bought Daredevil #509: SHADOWLAND because I loved the book 20-something years ago, and because Power Man and Iron Fist were on this month’s cover. (It is one of my fervent wishes that Marvel revive Power Man and Iron Fist, the Defiant Ones of the 80s.) Look, if you’re not trying out new titles regularly, you’ll never know what you’re missing.
I was … not missing much in the world of Daredevil. I’m willing to accept Matt Murdock as some sort of ninja warlord, but just barely. I’m not gonna go along with the illogical choice of someone “holding a bridge” by standing dead center and cutting the bridge down and thereby falling to their death when they could just as easily have stood ten feet closer to the end and cut it down and lived.

The ultra-hardboiled attitude of the book, coupled with Murdock’s recent murder of Bullseye, just doesn’t jibe with the Daredevil I know. Years ago, Frank Miller drew a cover that showed DD doing his best Dirty Harry with the tagline, “No More Mister Nice Guy.”

In the actual story, DD just winged Punisher to stop him, but the thought engendered by that cover — that Matt Murdock was fed up and going to cross a line — was thrilling in its suggestiveness. Frank Miller created this hardboiled ninja theater version of the character, and even he knew that being a hero means that you don’t just gun down the bad guys — well, Punisher does, hence DD’s extreme measure to stop him — but Daredevil believes in justice and the law (hence the whole lawyer career choice), and the idea of redemption. This Shadowland stuff is a far cry from that and yes, I know that nobody is really dead in the Marvel Universe — they’re merely waiting in the wings for someone to redesign their costume and Rastafy their origin story by ten percent — so Murdock didn’t really “kill” Bullseye. Heck, Elektra’s appearance in the book is proof of that, she’s been dead before. But still — Daredevil doesn’t kill. That hipster Iron Fist is also a bitter pill to swallow; I may be a little reluctant to change.

Or am I? At about the same time in the distant past that I last enjoyed Daredevil, Hank Pym was revealing himself as a wifebeating, insecure loser. I’ve lived with that characterization ever since. Roger Langridge undoes it in one issue of Thor the Mighty Avenger, and I couldn’t be happier. Hank is shown in flashback as a struggling young scientist and in his modern role as Ant-Man, teamed up once again with the winsome Wasp. Pym is a little unsure of his role as a superhero, more brainy scientist than brawny skullcracker, but he’s also gloriously in love with Janet Van Dyne and, more importantly, respects her as a person. She’s clearly the common-sense brains of the pair, and they’re FUN. In Landgridge’s hands, these two are the Nick and Nora of superheroes. I demand a spin-off title with Langridge writing and Chris Samnee penciling the crime-fighting adventures of Pym and Van Dyne, Superhero P.I.s. Samnee’s rendition of one of Wasp’s early, goofy costumes is a delight, by the way; she looks like she escaped from the Moon. Oh, yeah, Thor’s in the book, too, engaged in a classic “I’m not your friend, buddy” fight with Ant-Man in his Giant Man form, and we also get the first appearances of Loki, Odin and the Warriors Three, with a teaser for next issue strongly implying some sweaty Volstagg loving coming Thor’s way.

We’re three issues deep into this title’s run and it’s quickly becoming a favorite, updated origins and non-official continuity be damned. And it’s all ages, to boot; I love an all-ages book because I can give them to my nephews when the trade comes out. Cue up Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman,” because I’m hooking a new generation on comics.
All right, so Northlanders is a totally awesome book you should all be reading so that Brian Wood recognizes my adulation and creates a character based on me in gratitude — that’s a given. I’m clearly around the bend. But this week, Thor the Mighty Avenger was the best thing I read, because it’s modern, clever, fun and suitable for everyone you know. Now buy a copy and give it to the neighbor kid.

-Paul

These books will aid you in defeating evil ex’s…or something. Let’s do this. Fight!

5. Phonogram – The Singles Club

Bryan Lee O’Malley does a fantastic job of incorporating an interest in indie music into the volumes of Scott Pilgrim. In fact, the starring character takes his name from the title of a Plumtree song. The short-lived Image series Phonogram one ups Scott Pilgrim in music cred. The second, all-color series The Singles Club is presented as a 45′ club where every issue is an individual story of music and romance. Plus, if you don’t get the references the series comes complete with an expansive musical glossary.

4. Strugglers

The popular coming of age story Strugglers from leading gay cartoonist Tim Fish is set right here in St. Louis, MO. The story’s trio of lead characters eat Imo’s Pizza, read the RFT best of issue, and hang out at the Way Out Club, all while complaining about the struggles of young adulthood. This is perfect for fans of Scott Pilgrim’s cool gay roommate Wallace Wells.

3. Solanin

What’s reassuring about Solanin is that Scott Pilgrim’s twenty-something blues is a universal struggle. Meiko’s post-graduate life isn’t everything she thought it would be, but instead of keeping her boring desk job she quits and starts from scratch. Though she doesn’t battle evil ex’s like a Street Fighter tournament, Meiko could easily be mistaken for Scott Pilgrim’s high school girlfriend Knives Chau.

2. Street Angel

There is no other comic that gets as close to Scott Pilgrim’s mash-up, pop culture freak-out as Jim Rugg’s Street Angel. The title character is a 12 year old homeless girl named Jesse Sanchez, or bettered described in the Stan Lee presents-esque introduction, “Orphaned by the world, raised by the streets… Jesse Sanchez is a dangerous martial artist and the world’s greatest homeless skateboarder. She fights ninjas, drugs, nepotism, and pre-Algebra as Street Angel.” The importance of her Skateboard resembles Evil Ex Lucas Lee’s Mithril Skateboard power-up.

1. Lost At Sea

There really is no better book to read after Scott Pilgrim than Bryan Lee O’Malley’s earlier graphic novel Lost At Sea. A similar coming of age story, Lost at Sea follows Raleigh as she searches for her lost soul she believes was stolen by a cat. Her quest takes her on a cross-country road-trip with complete strangers, something many kids find themselves doing after high school. Though not quite as surreal and outrageous as Scott Pilgrim, Lost At Sea is key to watching O’Malley develop his signature style.

Honorable Mention: Scud The Disposable Assassin.

If you read all of these you will gain 100 Exp. Points!

-Jon

With the final volume of Scott Pilgrim complete and the movie release right around the corner, I’m sure there are going to be some new comic readers looking for something like Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic/video game/indie rock mash-up. I’m not sure if any comic has ever been as masterful as Scott Pilgrim at exploiting a certain generation of geek culture, but a few have come close. Here are my Top 10 graphic novels to read after Scott Pilgrim.

10. Tekkon Kenkreet

This stylized manga follows Black and White, two homeless boys who protect the streets of Treasure Town from a deadly megacorporation. Like Scott Pilgrim, the protagonists have an almost video game-esque fighting style that leaps off the pages. The manga was also adapted into an animated film in 2006.

9. Hopeless Savages Greatest Hits

This Eisner Award-nominated series actually has illustrations from Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley. Another Oni Press collection, Hopeless Savages recounts the adventures of the first family of punk, Dirk Hopeless and Nikki Savage, and their relocation to the suburbs to raise their kids Rat, Arsenal, Twitch and Zero. The Greatest Hits collection will be released in October of 2010.

8. Buddy Does Seattle

Anytime I have an opportunity to recommend Peter Bagge’s ground-breaking comic “Hate” I’m keen on doing so. It is my favorite comic of all time. Here Buddy Bradley actually out-slackers Scott Pilgrim, but it is treated as a depressingly ironic allegory on twenty-something life (though it’s done in good humor), and not a celebration of pop culture nostalgia.

Laced in pop culture reference, the popular web-comic PVP is perfect for fans of the video game references in Scott Pilgrim. Riffing on everything from RPGs to tech humor, the comic is set in the fitting location of a fictional video game magazine office. Honorable Mention: fellow web-comic Penny Arcade.

6. Unlikely or How I Lost My Virginity

Really any of the Jeffrey Brown books from his girlfriend trilogy (Clumsy, Unlikely, Any Easy Intimacy) are perfect fits for fans of Scott Pilgrim’s agonizing relationship with Ramona Flowers. However, as the sub-title implies, the tale of how Jeffrey Brown lost his virginity is arguably the definitive statement on the naiveté of youthful relationships. Suggested for mature readers.

Come back tomorrow for the top 5!

-Jon

As a long-time comic book collector, I have a few hard and fast rules about what to buy. One of the oldest is, “If you see a 2000 AD collection, buy it.” So when I saw Judge Dredd: the Restricted Files 02 on the shelf this week I bought it, despite the somewhat high price tag — £19.99, or about $32 American. It was absolutely worth it — 320 pages of Judge Dredd stories from the various annuals and one-shots from 1985 to 1990, all written by John Wagner and Alan Grant, with art by Carlos Ezquerra, Cam Kennedy, Steve Dillon, Kev Hopgood and many others. Not that I was surprised by the quality, mind you. Britain’s long-running comic company produces some of the finest books you’ll read — the problem has always been finding them in America.

Back in the 80s, Quality comics published monthly versions of 2000 AD’s most popular books, and even the terrible print jobs couldn’t detract from the glory of having regular access to Rogue Trooper, A.B.C. Warriors, Bad Company and ol’ stone face Joe Dredd himself. Then it was Fleetway publishing the books, and then they disappeared until the mid-90s when DC worked out some sort of rights deal in America. DC had the nicest versions yet, but try to find one now.

And then out of the blue on Wednesday, there’s a new collection with the best printing I’ve ever seen for a 2000 AD product, with nice heavy paper and good color separation (although some of the stories are in black and white — sometimes changing right in the middle of a story from one to the other; that may be a printing mistake) and gutbustingly sardonic stories about Mega-City One’s greatest lawman. In addition to many fine examples of the classic Dredd storyline — a weird crime is committed, Dredd solves it through a piquant blend of smarts and judicious use of his Lawgiver –you get oddball stories like a full-on Judge Dredd musical, a group of Judges dressed as Father Christmas facing off against a gang of burglars dressed as Father Christmas while a sniper dressed as, you guessed it, Father Christmas, picks ‘em all off, a thoroughly entertaining Dracula story in Mega-City One’s vacation coast complete with an appearance by Judge Helsing, and a tale I’ve long wanted to read and own and pet on the head and call George: Dredd raiding a party of headbangers while the lyrics to Anthrax’s Judge Dredd-inspired song “I Am the Law” provide on-the-nose narration, and now I have it. I couldn’t be happier.

Or at least I thought I couldn’t, until I checked out www.2000ADonline.com and discovered that The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic has an American publishing deal in place to get their graphic novel reprints in my sweaty hands, and at a much lower price than the import versions. Specific release dates are vague, but some digging around in 2000 AD’s forums reveal that due this month are Mega-City Masters 1, a 240-page Dredd collection, and Alan Moore’s sci-fi bildungsroman The Ballad of Halo Jones. (The fact that a volume containing the entirety of Moore’s beyond cult-classic comedy D.R. and Quinch is already out and I don’t have it would cause me a great deal of psychic pain, except that it’s almost within my grasp. And also, Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill’s dark sci-fantasy epic Nemesis the Warlock is next on the schedule — I’m giddy with anticipation). All of these collections range in price from $16.99 to $19.99, and that’s a bargain considering I’ve waited more than 20 years to see how some of these stories end.

-Paul

You want to hear about a book I’m excited about? No? Well, that’s cool… But I’m gonna tell you anyway. Nancy in Hell, that’s what I’m excited it about. It looks like complete nonsense, and I think that’s the reason why I’m excited. Much like the release of last month’s “Officer Downe”, “Nancy in Hell” looks to be this month’s over the top violent comic. But, unlike Officer Downe, Nancy in Hell is a four part miniseries which will hopefully keep us entertained until October.

So what’s the comic all about? It’s about a cheerleader who is living in Hell. Apparently, she died at some point and went there for her afterlife. When we first meet Nancy, she’s been hardened by “life” in Hell. The majority of the previews that I’ve seen of this book show that she’s probably really good at killing things with a chainsaw. Also, there’s a lot of the color “red” in the book. Whether it’s from all the blood, the demon girls, or the fire, there’s a lot of red. Hell, there’s even a blood waterfall with a skull imprint in it. That’s cool. But then, that’s about all I know about the book. The creators, writer El Torres (The Veil) and artist Juan Jose Ryp (Black Summer), have stated that the book’s Hell is influenced by the standard idea set by Gustave Dore, plus the standard set by 80s horror movies. That’s a good mix, in my honest opinion.

Anyway, the art looks good while giving us both sexy and gruesome images to behold. I feel as if someone heard my plea for more extreme nonsense violence in comics. And lately, it seems like someone out there has been listening. So thank you, whoever is out there, for making this a good year for violent horror comics. Also, thank you for not making Nancy look like a Suicide Girl. We all know I love Hack/Slash (which the main character is officially a Suicide Girl), but that’s about all I can take. So yeah, quick blog this week. See you next time.

-Fleet