Drink and Draw
Our next D&D will be on November 14th at the same bat-time (8:00) same bat-channel (Goodsons on Beaver.) Pretty simple concept, grab a drink and then sit and draw. No, you don’t have to be an artist to attend. Everyone is welcome.
Unity Release Party
On Wednesday November 13th, we will be having a release party for Valiant’s new team book Unity. We will be having sales, specials and prizes. …oh, and free beer too!
We have some great ordering incentives on this book and we are going to do as we’ve done with some of the Marvel or Dark Horse release parties of the past. I figure, if you have a big book and you send me cool stuff to try and promote it …and give me an excuse to drink at work… yeah, I’ll throw a release party for you.
So, what is Unity? It is the most ambitious release for Valiant since their restart a few years ago. The book will be written by Matt Kindt and drawn by Doug Braithwaite. I’ll have more on the event next week, but here is what Valiant has to say about the book:
On November 13th, find out why Valiant is the must-read publisher of 2013 when UNITY #1 launches the most dangerous, most ruthless, most volatile team of heroes ever united against a foe unlike any other – X-O Manowar!
To kill a king…he has created an army. The world’s most dangerous man, Toyo Harada, has been struck by the one thing he never thought possible – fear. Halfway across the globe, a new power threatens to topple modern civilization and, to preempt the cataclysm that is to come. Harada will unite the most unforgiving team the world has ever known – UNITY. Their mission: defeat the threat responsible for the destruction of MI-6, the decimation of an alien world, and the occupation of Eastern Europe… Unseat the warrior king armed with the universe’s most powerful weapon… Kill X-O Manowar!
Previews
There are new Previews catalogs in this week. I’ll have books planning to be released in January and I, as I have for over ten years, encourage everyone to take a look at it. It is amazing what you can find in there and simply by looking through it can be less surprised when “that big book I just have to have” comes out and those that look know about it, have it on their list and are get it with no hassles. Then there are those who didn’t and don’t have clue… just saying.
What I can offer is another way to get the Catalog. If you have a hold list in good standing, I will send you a code for a digital PDF download. I want you to order out of this catalog. I want you to look through it. It benefits my business when you do. So, let me know if this is something you would like.
Daredevil is Ending!?!
It appears that way and it appears that it will be soon too. Issue #36 – as was twetted by artist Chris Samnee last week – looks like it’ll be the end. Or is it the end?
There was a great deal of uncertainty when Marvel Now’s line wide branding (and not a reboot) happened across the company a year plus ago as to what it would mean for the books that had been launched/started/restarted before that. With so many titles getting new number one issues, would that mean a book that had only been out for a little while be in line to be restarted, just to get the new number one and Now brand?
Well, the uncertainty may have finally come home to roust. Though no one at Marvel is confirming or denying that it is going to be part of the next Marvel Now relaunch wave; that is certainly what it sounds like.
Daredevil is one of our best selling superhero titles and has been built and grown to those levels through word of mouth. Nation wide it sells pretty well – about mid card X-men title well. That of course makes several wonder if it could mean a whole new crew. I think no matter what new writer or artist you put on the book and no matter what numbering you slap on it, Mark Waid is the reason for this books success. All the parties are quiet right now, so.. as with most comic news we wait and see.
VELVET #1
If you didn’t pick up the new Spy book from Ed Brubaker and Mike Epting last week, you missed out. Luckily, I have plenty in stock and it is currently one of our no risk return it if you hate it promotion.
Ed Brubaker is probably best known for his excellent run on Captain America starting right around ten years ago. This is the same run where Steve Epting worked with Brubaker and the two of them brought Cap’s old partner Bucky Barnes back from the dead molding him into a great character whose essence was in the espionage/super spy genre. So the fact Brubaker is now doing a full form spy book shouldn’t really surprise anyone.
Brubaker is also known for his Image/Icon work on Criminal (Crime), Incognito (Sci-fi/adventure) and Fatale (occult) series that have all paid homage to the old pulp and dime novels and magazines of days gone by. There are an awful lot of old spy novels and movies that you see pretty quick in Velvet tucked nicely in the gutters. (Also included in the back of the issue is a great scholarly write up on old spy novels similar to the others written by Jess Nevins in Brubaker’s other genre comic series.)
What makes the book so good is its setting and characters. The book takes place in 1973. I love a good time piece and in this case you need a strong and terrible enemy of internationally to drive any spy story. The seventies were perfect for this being at the building height of the cold war and not to mention the ever growing movements for strong women (I’ll get to this) helps in make a great time setting for this book.
The characters are not super flushed out in this first issue, but then they can’t be as the action gets started pretty fast. Brubaker does character development over many issues and here is probably going to be no different. The main character will be Velvet Templeton, the secretary for the head of the agency and though we only find some real peripheral information about her, the two big things is that she is an extremely strong female and very much not what she seems. Ah, but who is in a good spy book, right?
Most good Spy novels/movies/comics use shadow and mystery, intrigue and suspense with a nice dose of sexy mixed into your double crosses and confusion over who is really who and who is working for whom. I have full faith in anything Ed Brubaker does and even more in something so close to what he did so well. His Captain America run is one of my favorite superhero comic runs I’ve ever read. He need not deviate too much from the successful formula he has already mixed before to make a great must read spy comic this time around. And since really, uh… there are so many spy books on the shelf right now, it is nice to see a genre that doesn’t get that much paper time explored so well.
This is a highest recommendation.
Sara’s Reviews
Pretty Deadly #1
I may be a sucker for westerns, but this issue made it into a rare list of comics that I read EVERY word of, cover to cover. I read the “letters pages” even though they weren’t letters (seeing as this is issue #1) but are more like short bits on how this story came to be – and so very very worth reading.
Great story telling from Kelly Sue DeConnick (who’s work I was previously unfamiliar with) and art that is simultaneously gruesome and beautiful from Emma Rios (yay awesome comic ladies!). The story appears to be narrated by a rabbit and a butterfly (???) and tells the story of two travelers who are… being pursued by Death???
It is a first issue with a LOT of set up and mystery and I’m already excited to find out what happens next – AND find out whatever the hell has been going on leading up to their current time and place. Want to start a new series that’s interesting and different from your standard super hero crap? READ THIS.
Rat Queens #2
Admittedly, I don’t know that this comic is for “everyone” but if you like the idea of medieval ladies adventuring while inebriated then holy sh!t do I recommend this one. There’s candy, references to doing mushrooms in the woods, troll fights, sex jokes, assassination attempts and swearing that I’m sure didn’t exist in medieval times (no way they just said “f#%kwit”… yes, yes they did).
It is the most hilarious and fun comic I’ve read in A LONG TIME. World of Warcraft meets the best of D&D, and SO much less obnoxious than actually playing World of Warcraft. So yeah, if you like the things listed above (the writer puts it best herself – “you lovely fans of booze and blood”) AND would like a recipe for how to make a “Blood Clot”, pick up issue 1 and 2 of Rat Queens in the shop! I am in love with this series already!
Dan’s Reviews
Here are some great reviews and thoughts on comics in neat numbered fashion:
1. A “retro review” of one of the first so-called graphic novels, “Savage,” by Gil Kane.
http://newsmanone.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/comic-book-report-his-name-is-savage-1968/
2. One-paragraph reviews of “Afterlife with Archie,” “Hawkeye,” “Sex Criminals,” “Trillium” and “Regular Show.” http://newsmanone.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/comic-book-report-4-thoughts-on-4-comics/
3. Twelve thoughts on 12 comics, including “Star Wars,” “The X-Files,” “The Mysterious Strangers,” “Marvel Knights Spider-Man,” “The Shaolin Cowboy,” “Rocket Girl,” “FBP,” “Coffin Hill,” “Batman ’66,” “Wonder Woman,” “Hawkeye” and “Superman and Wonder Woman.”
http://newsmanone.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/comic-book-report-11-thoughts-on-11-comics/
4. There are also reviews of the first two “Deadpool” trade paperbacks from Marvel Now and the first four “Daredevil” trade paperbacks, as well as reviews of every episode of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and sundry comics-related Web comics:
http://newsmanone.wordpress.com/category/popular-culture/comic-books/