Closing out the week... Zartan and company get the origin treatment in DREADNOKS DECLASSIFIED...

Make up!

/Mason

Werewolves and Roanoke collide in FIRST MOON.

Things get a bit hairy...

/Mason

It's a mid-week indy stop for Josh Kemble's NUMB...

Love, lost, inspiration.

/Mason

Two more from Image today, but much better efforts than what we saw last week. First, MIKE CAREY'S ONE-SIDED BARGAINS, an excellent collection of the writer's creator-owned work. Plus, SILENCERS, which is sort of the Canadian equivalent of QUEEN AND COUNTRY.

Check 'em out.

/Mason

The new week is underway, and leading off is, of course, Manga Monday. Today's look is at the adaptation of ONEGAI TWINS...

Teen love triangle, no waiting...

/Mason

Closing out the week... another nifty Euro reprint from Archaia, OKKO...

Go see.

/Mason

Looking for a fine all-ages book? Look no further than ED'S TERRESTRIALS, the charming tale of a boy whose treehouse is invaded by aliens...

Beam coordinates here.

/Mason

Two new anthologies from Image at the mid-week break... LOW ORBIT (okay) and WONDERLOST (umm... not so ok).

Here, por favor.

/Mason

Two more reviews today, as BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and the CLASSIC version each see their storylines move forward...

Look! A rag-tag fleet!

/Mason

Doiuble your fun on this Monday... manga madness with a review of GENSHIKEN vol.6-7 and a brand new Aisle Seat. The Japanese blockbuster TRAIN MAN hits DVD in the U.S.!

Let love rule!

/Mason

Closing the week... Cassie and Vlad return in HACK/SLASH: SLICE HARD, an entry that ups the action quotient of the franchise.

Read all about it.

/Mason

A fresh page of indy reviews opens with SOUNDS OF YOUR NAME, a collection of alt-cartoonist Nate Powell's work.

Check it out.

How American comics lost the culture war: the Louvre is producing graphic novels, and the first one has been translated and hit our shores. GLACIAL PERIOD, today at the main site...

/Mason

The macabre horror of THE GRAVE ROBBER'S DAUGHTER... today at the main site.

/Mason

Manga Monday! REAL/FAKE PRINCESS delivers the shojo... but unfortunately, it isn't the top-notch stuff you'd hope for...

Go See.

/Mason

CWR WEEKEND BLOG EXTRA

First, a brief note of explanation: the Blog Extra will be a semi-weekly feature for a while, as I have a number of other commitments that will force me to take a few weekends off for other purposes. After all: it’s far more important to get the weekday updates ready than anything else.

This latest edition covers two new books from Viper Comics. So let’s see what’s making its way out of Texas these days, shall we?

THE LOST BOOKS OF EVE #1 is written and drawn by Josh Howard. Most will know Howard from his DEAD @17 franchise, so EVE will certainly offer some surprises. Pretty much the only two things the books have in common is a female protagonist. EVE is about the woman created from Adam’s rib, and Howard positions the book as a “lost” book of the Bible (perhaps a piece of the Apocrypha). As the story begins, Adam has gone missing, thrown overboard from the duo’s raft during a storm. After a confrontation with God about the nature of free will, Eve decides to leave the garden and try and discover what has happened to her mate. This plays as a relatively intriguing and interesting idea to build a series upon, and it’s certainly a brave direction to take. I have only two qualms, neither religion-based; one, Eve is nude throughout the majority of the book, but Howard takes great pains to obscure her bits. As an indy book, I think the book would have been better served by acknowledging and showing, rather than forcing odd camera angles and such. My second qualm is the lack of story pages. I made note of this in Howard’s last issue of DEAD, and it applies here: there are less than twenty actual pages of story/art here. Good book, but needing a bit more in the way of value.

Jason Burns writes, and Ron Chan draws, A DUMMY’S GUIDE TO DANGER #4, the conclusion to what has been an excellent miniseries. When last we left Alan Sirois and his ventriloquist dummy companion Bloomberg, they had arrived at the love of Alan’s life Teri’s apartment to find her lying in a bathtub full of blood. Fortunately, she turns out to be breathing, but getting her to the hospital isn’t going to be easy. Boyd, the cop who has it in for Alan, stands in the way, and the killer hasn’t left the premises yet. Without giving too much away, I’ll note that Burns’ story delivers a fair and satisfying ending. Alan continues to take beating after beating, you still don’t find him to be completely sane, and there’s no cop out or supernatural twist involving Bloomberg. DUMMY is the kind of book that is best served by an indy publisher like Viper, as Marvel or DC would likely try and impose false or stupid ideas (such as a supernatural twist for Bloomberg) rather than let the author’s story play out organically as it does here. Solid work, and a trade edition I would expect to sell well.

See you throughout the week for site updates!

/Mason

Closing out the week, Kirby-esque monsters stomp the Earth in DORIS DANGER, and mad science gets squished by DR. DEBUNKO.

Indy books, no waiting...

/Mason

Joe Linsner is a very talented artist... very talented. But his horror comics are kinda freaky, and not always in the good way. Read all about ANGRY CHRIST COMIX (in which the big guy actually doesn't appear) today at the main site.

/Mason

Straddling the middle... a new volume of the terrific webcomic YOU'LL HAVE THAT hits shelves...

Fun for a girl or a boy.

/Mason

The world of licensed comics gets a bit better with the addition of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: ZAREK...

It's fraktastic!

/Mason