Brody’s Ghost v. 1
Written & Illustrated by Mark Crilley
Published by Dark Horse

Mark Crilley’s already created one of my all-time favorite series, the upbeat, hilarious and relentless imaginative Akiko, and his follow-up, Miki Falls, reinvented his art style and added emotional heft, yet retained the creative world-building of its predecessor.  Crilley returned a few months ago with a new series, Brody’s Ghost, a six-book serial about a young man who is approached by a ghost. This ghost, a young woman named Talia, needs Brody’s help to accomplish a task so she can get into heaven – except callously indifferent Brody’s trapped in a funk after a bad break-up.

So Brody’s Ghost is a supernatural adventure, with emotional overtones and redemption themes.  The art’s terrific – detailed and nuanced, with strong designs and a compelling world design; the mysteries of Talia’s death and afterworld travails hang over the entire book like a massive eclipse, yet Brody’s struggle to rediscover his own worth remains the emotional core through the first book.

Of course, it’s a six book cycle, so Brody’s Ghost v. 1 feels somewhat slight, concerned more with laying groundwork for Brody and Talia’s partnership, and establishing the baseline high concept for the series. As a result, the first book isn’t entirely satisfying, but it is intriguing, leaving plenty of room for readers’ imaginations to run amok with possibilities for the remaining five books. Mark Crilley’s previous work suggests he’ll keep me guessing through the series’ run, and despite a slightly slow start, I’m hopeful that the foundation laid in Brody’s Ghost v. 1 will lead to greater things in the future.

Grendel: Behold the Devil
Written & Illustrated by Matt Wagner
Lettered by Tom Orzechowski
Published by Dark Horse Comics

The latest book in Matt Wagner’s Grendel series is something of a homecoming. Wagner has revisited the series’ original protagonist Hunter Rose several times, notably in the Black, White and Red miniseries (and the Red, White and Black sequel), but in those instances, Wagner collaborated with other illustrators on short stories, each illuminating a tiny corner of Hunter Rose’s world and the Grendel milieu.

In Behold the Devil, Wagner takes up the art chores himself, drawing Hunter for the first time in a long while.  He’s also telling a long-form story – this book first serialized in eight chapters – that promises to give readers a meatier look into Hunter Rose’s character.

On one hand, the book is smartly written and very well drawn.  Wagner’s a master comic artist, witnessed in his iconic character designs and startling layouts. His ability to capture chaos or the balletic ebb and flow of a beautifully choreographed fight sequence is nearly unparalleled. Few artists can capture a dramatic beat as powerfully as Wagner, and fewer still can add strong character acting to the mix.

As for the story – taken on its own, Behold the Devil is compelling, a layered mystery, with plenty to keep readers guessing and strong character beats.  On the other hand, few of the character beats haven’t been covered in previous Grendel stories.  Behold the Devil is for hardcore Grendel fans (like me) who enjoy seeing Wagner’s talents on display or for neophyte Grendel readers.  For casual Grendel readers, there’s not necessarily much new here.  Behold the Devil’s still a good story, but I think I’d like to see Wagner creating something from whole cloth rather than revisiting Hunter at this point.

Nexus Archives v.11
Written by Mike Baron
Pencilled by Mark Heike, John K. Snyder III, Luke McDonnell & Hugh Haynes
Inked by Heike, Jay Geldhof, Jeff Albrecht, Tom Baxa, John Robinson & Arne Starr
Colored by Les Dorscheid
Lettered by Clem Robins & Kevin Cunningham
Original covers by Heike; Snyder III & Geldhof; Angel Medina, Bob Dvorak & Ian Tetrault; Dorscheid; Haynes & Baxa; and Paul Sonju & Steven Butler
Published by Dark Horse

The intolerance of the Elvonic religious order reaches fever pitch in the eleventh volume of the Nexus Archives, which collects issues sixty-six through seventy-three of Baron and Rude’s Nexus.  Even back in 1990, devotional zealotry fascinated Baron, and the issues of how such an order can fit into a peace-minded, democratic society are at the forefront in this selection of stories.

Stan’s slide into insanity, prodded by the persecutions of the Elvonics and his own considerable ego, reaches the greased-up, ninety-degree slope portion of the ride, and even in collected form, the cliffhanger at the end of v.11 should leave regular Nexus readers breathless.

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Nexus Archives v.10
Written by Mike Baron
Illustrated by Steve Rude, Steve Huston, Greg Guler, Mark McKenna, Tom Baxa, Tony Akins & Hilary Barta
Colored by Les Dorscheid
Lettered by Clem Robins
Published by Dark Horse

Judah the Hammer backups
Written by Roger Salick, Ian Carney & Peter David
Illustrated by Steve Epting, Phil Hester, Mark McKenna, Paul Fricke, ChuckWojtkiewicz, Tom Baxa, Brandon Peterson & Steve Huston
Colored by Les Dorscheid
Lettered by Jim Massara, David C. Weiss, Diane Valentino & Huston

Just three issues of Steve Rude artwork in this Archive, as Greg Guler and Tony Akins handle the other five chapters.  Graphically, it’s a clear step backwards; neither of the replacement artists provides the quirky background details or stylized action that fleshes out and defines the world of Nexus.  Granted, at least Rude’s still present.  The ensuing Archive won’t have that going for it.

Fortunately, even without Steve Rude’s illustrative prowess, Mike Baron’s scripts keep this series compelling. Let’s establish a little background first though: in the future, Horatio Hellpop is Nexus, the cosmic executioner, tasked by the alien Merk to assassinate humanity’s worst mass murderers.  After Horatio quit, disgusted by the Merk’s whims and the consequences of his assignments, Professor Stan Korivitsky approached the Merk to become the new Nexus.

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Usagi Yojimbo v.24: Return of the Black Soul
Written & Illustrated by Stan Sakai
Published by Dark Horse Comics

Whenever I buy a new comic, that book is automatically added to the bottom of my towering to-read pile and must wait its turn until it finally reaches the light of day and finds itself exposed to my withering glare.  (This method does not apply to review copies sent to me, as I try to finish those in something somewhat resembling a timely manner.)  Thus, the recurrence of stupendously late reviews by me: you’re witnessing the book that I bought six months after it dropped and didn’t read for another eight months after that finally digging its way to the surface.  One comic book series, however, is always excepted to this arduous months-long waiting process, because honestly, I just can’t wait to read it.  And that series is Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo.

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Well, this is odd: according to a sentence in Dark Horse Comics senior managing editor Scott Allie’s comments in the “Horsepower” column in the back of this week’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Riley one-shot, Angel comics are returning to the publisher in 2011. IDW has had the rights to Angel since 2005.

Here’s exactly what was written in the note:

“What’s next for the Whedon clan and Dark Horse? How about a Dollhouse comic written by Jed and Maurissa, who wrote key episode of the show, and the return of the Angel series to Dark Horse in late 2011, in tandem with our Buffy Season 9 relaunch?”

That’s pretty big news to announce within the text of an in-house promotional page at the back of a comic, something pretty easy for a reader to skip over. On IDW’s official forums, chief creative officer and editor-in-chief Chris Ryall wrote, “We’ll be addressing this soon, so please bear with us. Thanks, for your patience and your support. Back soon.”

Picture of the column and potential Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 spoilers after the jump.

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Not everyone can go to Comic-Con International in San Diego — it sells out earlier and earlier each year, after all. As first hinted at last week, Dark Horse Comics is making life a little brighter for the unlucky masses not attending the massive pop culture conglomeration.

Today, Dark Horse gave fans the scoop behind their #NotAtComicCon promotion (named so after the Twitter hashtag used by folks, you guessed it, not at Comic-Con) — they’re working with 55 comic book stores across the country to bring a little bit of the Comic-Con flavor to those stuck at home.

Taking place on Saturday, July 24 (Saturday traditionally being the biggest day at Comic-Con), stores will offer “free drinks” (soft, we’re guessing), and more than $200 worth of Dark Horse-provided prizes. They’re also making an announcement through the stores sometime between noon and 2 p.m. Pacific time that day, before it becomes public information at Comic-Con — one could guess that might have something to do with The Guild panel taking place at 2 p.m. at Comic-Con that day.

Five stores — Atomic Comics in Mesa, Arizona; Graham Crackers in Naperville, Illinois; Midtown Comics Time Square in New York City; Lone Star Comics in Arlington, Texas and Comics Dungeon in Seattle, Washington — are “premiere locations,” a list of remaining 50 participating stores after the jump, full lowdown from Dark Horse here. (more…)

(Apologies right up front for using the term “blogosphere.”)

There’s nothing more “new journalism” or “Web 2.0″ than a blog post about a blog, so here’s one: Dark Horse Comics now has an official company blog, posting official news from the publisher, à la DC’s The Source. The blog actually started a month ago, somewhat quietly, but it looks like they’re now looking to really give it a push. A recently distributed announcement from the publisher says that the blog will “slowly replace” their traditional e-mail press release list.

Highlights thus far on the blog, sporadically updated at this point, include an interview with Patton Oswalt about his recently released Serenity: Float Out one-shot, comments on the upcoming Doctor Solar #1 series and a personal tribute to Usagi Yojimbo by Dark Horse production artist Ryan Hill.

Dark Horse made news here on Newsarama earlier today, in Chris Arrant’s interview with editor Scott Allie on Dark Horse Presents leaving MySpace, and what the future holds for the enduring anthology title.

Will Eisner’s The Spirit: The New Adventures Archive

Written & Illustrated by Will Eisner, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Angus McKie, Neil Gaiman, Eddie Campbell, Steve Oliff, Tracey H. Munsey, Chris Shadoian, Jim Vance, Dan Burr, Ray Fehrenbach, John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra, Tracey Anderson, Daniel Torres, Mark Kneece, Bo Hampton, Ashley Underwood, Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, Will Blyberg, Alex Sinclair, John Roschell, Moebius, Michael Allred, Matt Brundage, Michael Avon Oeming, Laura Allred, Mark Schultz, David Lloyd, Paul Chadwick, John Nyberg, Bill Spicer, John Ostrander, Tom Mandrake, Dave Lanphear, Scott Hampton, Dennis P. Eichhorn, Gene Fama, Rick Altergott, Marcus Moore, Pete Mullins, Mick Evans, Jay Stephens, Paul Pope, Joe R. Landale, John Lucas, Lee Loughridge, Brian Bolland, William Stout, Tim Bradstreet, Grant Goleash, Peter Poplaski, Tom Martin

Published by Dark Horse

Okay, I’m not entirely clear why it is that DC publishes the current Spirit series and the twenty-six volume Archive editions of Will Eisner’s seminal Spirit strips, but Dark Horse publishes the Archive edition of Kitchen Sink Publishing’s 8-issue 1998 series Will Eisner’s The Spirit: The New Adventures.  And frankly, I’m still of the opinion that the world doesn’t really need a non-Eisner Spirit, as the character was never more than a cipher for Eisner’s astonishing creative whims.

But the book exists, and it’s a good one.  Dark Horse did a nice job designing the book to match DC’s editions, making an effective companion piece (and props to DC for allow Dark Horse to copy their design work). In case you’re unaware of The Spirit, in 1940, cartoonist Will Eisner was contracted to create a comic book supplement to run with Sunday newspapers.  Pressured by the syndicate to create a masked hero, Eisner gave readers an eight-page adventure of a presumed-killed police officer who returns wearing a fedora, domino mask and gloves to protect his beloved Central City from criminals and Axis spies.  The Spirit himself was rarely developed, often serving as tool for Eisner to explore the creative possibilities of the comic book form.  Noir and slapstick, science-fiction and the humdrum, Eisner crossed any boundary in his pursuit of a great story, and his design-intensive splash pages and creative page layouts remain among the most influential illustrations in comic book history.

After Eisner folded The Spirit section in 1952 to focus on other business ventures (including using comics as training and educational tools for the U.S. military), the character continued as a fan favorite among discerning fans.  Many reprint projects were begun over the years, climaxing in DC Comics’ recently concluded twenty-six volume Archive series that compiled the entire twelve year Eisner run, in addition to the brief daily strip (the only Archive I don’t have) and Eisner’s handful of post-1952 shorts and covers.  However, it wasn’t until the mid-1990s when Eisner (by this point back in the comics field as the author of many rightly acclaimed graphic novels dealing with themes of family, immigration and city living, among other subjects) agreed to let other creators have a turn at spinning tales featuring his famed hero.

The result was 1998’s Will Eisner’s The Spirit: The New Adventures from Kitchen Sink Publishing.  Eight issues later, Kitchen Sink collapsed in the midst of the industry’s late-90s struggles, cutting the experiment short.  The eight issues published featured two issue-length epics (Paul Chadwick in #5, and Joe Lansdale and Mark Nelson’s #8) and six issues of tales mirroring Eisner’s eight-pagers.  The debut issue featured three short stories by the Watchmen creative tandem, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

Qualitatively, New Adventures likely made Eisner proud.  Nearly every story has a strong hook and good art, a crackling script.  On some level, as I suggested above, The New Adventures is far from required reading.  As good as Darwyn Cooke et. al.’s more recent Spirit series at DC Comics was, the Spirit is not a character who needs further development or offers up unexplored avenues.  Eisner treated him as tabula rasa, pursuing flights of absolute whimsy about a man who can fly one week, then perhaps following with a terse parable about the dangers of blind patriotism the next.  It wasn’t even uncommon for the Spirit himself to make only a cameo in his own strip!  On that level, creators don’t need the Spirit; they need simply pursue their creative impulses in a manner that would make Eisner proud.

But since they did use the Spirit, at least most of them used him effectively.  Moore and Gibbons, in their trio of interconnected tales, suggest two possible origins for Eisner’s ultimate antagonist, The Octopus, both dovetailed neatly into the Spirit’s own origin, before wrapping up with a humorous lark that echoes Eisner’s own flights of fancy.  Paul Chadwick dives deep into Eisner’s oft-maligned sidekick Ebony and his connection to his racial community.  Neil Gaiman and Eddie Campbell are among those who use the character as a cipher in an Eisnerian sense.  Even the least of the New Adventures revisit classic Spirit femme fatales effectively if not always memorably, and that’s not really a bad thing.

Will Eisner’s The Spirit is a must-read comic book.  Will Eisner’s The Spirit: The New Adventures is an entertaining nod to the master.  If you’ve read the former and want to see impressive creators pay homage to the masterly work done, read the New Adventures.  If you haven’t read the original, please do so right away.

In those halcyon days of the early ’90s, in Brooklyn’s hipsterdom of Williamsburg, amid the Doctor Seuss hats and pierced nipples, there once stood a towering figure of a man ever ready for a stiff drink and a chance to see his art take yet undreamt of form. In that era, Millionaire came across as one of those guys with a streak of mad genius who could draw you anything for a little beer money. I knew a guy like that. You did too. But these guys never saw their ships come in. Millionaire did. And, no, he wasn’t just a lucky bastard. He made his ship come in by creating it himself, drawing every intricate detail of that vessel from stem to stern. And it would be populated by the most glorious creatures: Uncle Gabby, a deranged ape patterned after a dear alcoholic genius; the navy of alligators, suggested by a violent friend in New Orleans; and Drinky Crow, standing in for all of humanity, drunkard or otherwise.

“The Art of Tony Millionaire,” published by Dark Horse, is a serious, yet irreverent, mid-career retrospective of one of the best known and beloved cartoonists around. Read his comic strip, “Maakies,” in your local alt weekly and feel the rush of anarchy take hold. Read this book, full of honest recollections from the artist, and feel like you know the man. “Maakies,” by the way, goes back to when Millionaire drew a comic strip called, “Batty,” for a sports zine. The guy who put it together, Spike Vrusho, loved to yell out, “Maakies!” whenever he caught sight of the tugboats with the big M’s on their stacks coming into New York harbor.

Like any good coffee table book, along with a marvelous selection of comics and illustrations, this book is full of wonderful anecdotes you can enjoy flipping to in order or at random. There’s stories, for instance, about bumming around Europe as a young man. In Rome, he created one really good drawing of the Roman Forum, made a hundred prints, and proceeded to sell each of them to tourists who thought they’d just caught him as he was drawing the original. For good measure, full of youthful rage, he pissed in every famous Roman fountain he could find. With security tight for the two Vatican fountains, he had to piss in a cup and discretely pour it in during the day. Then there’s Berlin, where he may have stirred an international incident.

Before any of this, there was Gloucester, Massachusetts. Unsuited for college, and even less for a job as a dishwasher, young Tony hit upon selling drawings of his rich neighbor’s houses. “I always knew it was my bread and butter,” he writes. We can imagine him reassuring himself of this with each sale. “I always knew it was my bread and butter.” He also had his family for moral support. His father was an illustrator and his mother and grandparents were painters. When you learn that, to round out his income, he would go down to the wharves to draw schooners just as beautiful as the ones his grandfather drew, it might bring a tear to your eye.

It is the curse and blessing of the young turk to push and pull against society and hope to live to see another day. That was the Millionaire way of life. By the time he was forty, he decided it was time to cut back a bit on the rage. A bunch of his friends had hailed a cab. There were five of them and the driver would only take four. Tony crawled on the top of the cab, screaming through the windshield. The cab took off with him on top and he was forced to jump. Luckily, there were no broken bones. He could afford to bring things down a notch. He was now a featured artist in the “New York Press” and his life as an artist was tangible. He could probably sense the upswing in his life. “I always knew it was my bread and butter.”

The success that followed would flow from “Maakies” and evolve to full length works of exquisite complexity like “Sock Monkey” and “Billy Hazelnuts.” Like Crumb, he followed his own muse from a bygone era and imbued his art with a timeless grace.

You can’t rush anything worthwhile. That certainly holds true for comics. You can’t rush creating anything of lasting value and you can’t rush reading it either. That’s the tradition comics come from. It is what makes “Maakies” so darn good. The eye is teased to linger on some nautical detail or some arcane turn of phrase or some unusual use of body parts. It is a modern day miracle of comics is what it is.

“The Art Of Tony Millionaire,” 200 pages, hardcover, 9″x12″, $39.95, published by Dark Horse Comics

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, has announced their 21st annual Media Award nominees — and a bunch of solid comics are in close competition for the prize!

The best comic book nominees are perhaps no surprise, as they all had strong, three-dimensional takes on gay and lesbian characters:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Jane Espenson, Steven S. DeKnight, Drew Z. Greenberg, Jim Krueger, Doug Petrie, Joss Whedon (Dark Horse Comics)

Detective Comics by Greg Rucka (DC Comics)

Madame Xanadu by Matt Wagner (Vertigo/DC Comics)

Secret Six by Gail Simone (DC Comics)

X-Factor by Peter David (Marvel Comics

To be honest, it’s hard to pick a particular book — although my personal pick would have to be Detective Comics, after Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III took such a strong stand against the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule. What say you, Rama readers? Which book would you pick to win?

Ready for violence, death, and aliens? Well, you’ll have to wait a little bit on that, as the new teaser trailer for Gantz is just that — a tease, instead examining the book’s titular ebony sphere…

The Shinsuke Sato-directed film is due out sometime in 2011 in Japan — no word yet on when it’ll hit the States.

Kull the Conquerer has been many things over the years: mercenary, pirate, gladiator, king. And now, he might just be… a movie star once more.

Fantasy.fr has posted a link saying that the Robert E. Howard character may get another lease on cinematic life, after the tepid reception of the 1997 Kevin Sorbo adaptation.

Paradox Entertainment’s Frederik Malmberg told the site that a new Kull film was indeed in the works. Ironically, Paradox is also working on Howard’s arguably better known sword-swinger, Conan the Barbarian.

More info to come as it arrives!

[Hat tip to Blair for the link]

For those of you still smarting over the news of Dollhouse’s cancellation, this may be a (slight) silver lining for you.

Sci Fi Wire has posted a casting call for what seems to be an online Buffy the Vampire Slayer Motion Comic, produced by MAXX INITIATIVE, and based on the Season Eight comic by Dark Horse. Here’s just a snippet:

[ FAITH (V.O.) ]
Co-Star / Female / Caucasian / 20 – 25 years
Description: MAXX INITIATIVE is now casting voice over talent for the Buffy the Vampire Motion Comic, upcoming web series. Seeking the role of FAITH – female, early 20′s, a slayer, displays a much darker, dangerously, fun-seeking, approach to both slaying and murder, she is the dark side of a slayer’s personality. Voice to match Eliza Dushku. Send voiceover links/ reels (if possible). Pay provided. Nonunion.

There’s no sign of Buffy anywhere in this casting call — although that may mean she’s already been cast. Interesting note, however, is there is a call for someone to match the voice of actor Daniel Craig. I don’t know what kind of role he might have, but that’s kinda cool.

Even as his new comic on singing supervillain Dr. Horrible comes out this week, Zack Whedon is showing that he has a lot of range — even up to the horrors of 2029.

Indeed, the brother of Joss Whedon announced on Techland last night that he would be taking on a Terminator comic for Dark Horse.

Read on for the goods:

I am currently working on a six issue Terminator series for Dark Horse. I just turned in the first script and I’m very excited about it. I love Terminator. I think that movie is so good. Holy Toledo is it good. Now I get to play in that universe and make up Terminator stories of my own that people will get to read. I am not a big-time, famous dude and yet now I am choreographing action sequences set in a post-apocalyptic future overrun by evil cybernetic organisms hell bent on destroying the human race. How is that possible?! I’ll answer your question, Made-Up Person. It’s possible because in comics it doesn’t cost 150 million dollars to tell that story. They can put an idiot like me in charge!

No word yet over whether or not it’s set in the future, the present, or the past — or how John Connor, his mother Sarah, and his Resistance will play into this. What do you think, Rama readers?

Editor’s Note: Stay tuned to the mothership for our EXCLUSIVE Interview with Zack on the new series, later today!

Ready to have the Apocalypse Suite in your very own iPhone? Heck yes!

Dark Horse has announced that the first arcs of Umbrella Academy and Hellboy are available on iTunes.

For Hellboy, the first four issues — the “Seed of Destruction” arc — will be available either as individual sets (99 cents each) or for a bundled set ($3.99), while Umbrella Academy will have the first six-issue miniseries ready for download either as 99-cent single issues or a $4.99 packaged set.

Matt Kindt’s 2007 Super Spy, a book that devoted each of its many chapters to the life of a different World War II spy in occasionally crisscrossing stories, featured a very complex narrative, made more complex by Kindt’s relentless, almost delirious shifts in layout and style.

His latest work, 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man (Dark Horse Comics), is similar to Super Spy in a lot of ways. It’s impeccably well designed, so that every aspect of the book as an object—covers, title pages, etc.—serves the story. Kindt shifts from standard comics panel-grids to incorporate information in the form of other media, like a newspaper articles and pages from books about his characters. His artwork remains bold and showy. His characters still seem assembled from brushstrokes, like calligraphy people that suggest greater detail and radiate a third dimension.

But where 3 Story differs from Super Spy, it differs for the better. The story is more straightforward, but also a little more serious and sophisticated, Kindt’s use willingness to push the limits of the form in different directions here never coming between the reader and the story as it sometimes did in Super Spy (At times Super Spy seemed like a book that was first and foremost about the way in which it was being told).

The title refers both to the structure of the book, which consists of three stories distinct but continuing stories, and the one-time height of its main character Craig Pressgang, the Giant Man of the title. Each story is told from the point of view of a woman important in Craig’s life—his mother, his wife and his daughter—with his wife’s section making up the bulk of the book, and his mother and daughters’ stories serving as a prologue and epilogue.

Craig reaches the height of nine-feet-tall by the time he starts college, and keeps growing the rest of his life. It’s a fairly normal life too, including college, a girlfriend who becomes his wife, work, family and attendant difficulties with each, although the normalcy of Craig’s real problems are slightly obscured by the fantastical nature of his condition.

None of us are giant people, but most of us face some or all of the emotional problems Craig does, his gigantism functioning simultaneously as an in-plot conflict and a metaphor. In other words, everyone grows apart from their loved ones at some point, but when Craig does so, it’s in large part because he himself is literally growing constantly.

That the emotional content works so well is a credit to Kindt’s ability to write, draw and, most importantly, write with drawings, although the fact that he focuses on a single fantastic element to write as naturally as possible around certainly doesn’t hurt. Other than Craig’s mysterious growth, every element of the story is considered and presented as realistically as possible. Rather than the sort of wish-fulfillment attendant in growing superheroes, like Marvel’s Giant Man, Craig’s growth brings with it as many problems as it does benefits—his nerve reactions are super-slow so he hurts himself easily, he suffers from leg problems, and, in a world without Pym particles, all of his clothes need to be custom-made, until he grows so large the only clothing that will fit him are bolts of cloth stitched together and, finally, he’s too big for clothing at all.

His increasing alienation is manifested physically, as he gets so big that he can communicate with his tiny family, and Kindt keeps the character remote even from the audience, as we aren’t show or told what’s going on inside his head directly, but instead see him from within the heads of the women in his life.

It’s a pretty powerful work from a cartoonist whose skill, like his protagonist’s size, seems to be continuously increasing.

Related: For more info on the book, including a seven-page preview, visit the publisher’s website here. For more on Kindt, check out the artist’s website here (And make sure you visit the portfolio and blog section, if you’re curious as to what a Kindt image of, say, The Thing fighting MODOK might look like).

Exurbia

Written by Scott Allie

Art by Kevin McGovern

Published by Dark Horse

Scott Allie is a busy man. He’s an editor at Dark Horse for such titles as “Hellboy,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “The Umbrella Academy” and “The Goon.” But there’s always time for a pet project, especially one as wacky and thought-provoking as, “Exurbia.” Coming out in October from Dark Horse, Allie teams up with artist Kevin McGovern to serve up a truly ditzy distopian farce.

Judging by the current mini comic version, “Exurbia” is quite a stylish little rant. We all have these sort of venting sessions when we can clearly see the network of lies fed to us. We can put our finger on all the government and corporate corruption and cry foul. That’s why we have comics like “Exurbia” to give voice to our cries.

Happily, all the bitterness is contained primarily in the character of Gage Wallace for our entertainment and edification. He’s a layabout twenty-something who is so glued to his TV that it’s sort of painful to watch. He lives in an apartment building with circular windows that, from outside, looks like every other building in the city, a vast collection of blocks of cheese. No wonder a mysterious rat revolutionary emerges to galvanize protest against the system.

Gage has a girlfriend, Brenda, who regularly comes in and cleans up after him. She is beginning to wonder why. On the heels of a lovers’ quarrel, Gage must try to take stock of himself. His only saving grace appears to be his youth and he sort of realizes he’s been pissing that away. Maybe the TV can provide some answers.

The art is a wonderful match for the zany humor. Gage Wallace reminds you of that obnoxious housemate who, despite himself, always had something clever to say. Kevin McGovern is in tune with how to bring that sort of angst to life. His art style is very sharp and animated. The characters have the perfect proportions of big heads and little bodies. It’s like The Flintstones if Fred dabbled heavily in conspiracy theories.

The trade paperback is 6″ x 9″, 112 pages, $9.95 and available for pre-order.

It should be a surprise to absolutely no one that I am a huge fan of Jill Thompson’s art. I had somehow missed out on the previous incarnations of Beasts of Burden, but was happy to pick up a new number one issue on little more recommendation than Thompson’s name on the cover.

Beasts of Burden looks like it could be a kids’ comic from the cover–talking dogs and cats? It could be too cute for words, especially with such bright and luscious painted art. Except the same amount of loving detail goes into some truly creepy gore and disturbing moments. A horror comic disguised as cute stuff? I’m in.

The dogs have unique and compelling enough personalities that when one is chained up in a backyard it’s oddly disturbing, like seeing a person on the end of a chain. The hints at underlying mythology–”Witch cats” and “wise dogs”–are tempting, and the humor works without breaking the tension of the story. This issue works as a one-shot, but it also sucks you in and leaves you waiting for more.

So here’s to more comics that sneak up on you, right?

As a comics critic, I hate Chris Onstad’s Achewood. As a comics reader, I love it—it’s by far my favorite web comic, and one of my favorite comic strips or comics of any kind…hell, maybe one of my favorite pieces of current fiction of any medium.

The reason part of me hates it and part of me loves it is the same. It’s such a unique strip, there’s nothing really even remotely like it, which, obviously, can make it really hard to explain to others, or talk about at all.

There are a lot of conceptual hurdles that can make entry into the world of Achewood kind of hard, hurdles I struggled with the first few times I tried reading it, until someone eventually advised to just pick a story arc from the archives and start reading—within a dozen or so strips, you should start to not only get it, but dig it. And Onstad is so accomplished at world building that the longer the strip goes on, the more you read of it, the more you get to know the surprisingly dynamic and versatile characters, the better it gets.

Those hurdles? Who are all these crazy anthropomorphic animals, and what species are they exactly? Are they anthropomorphic animals living in an animal-scaled world, or a human-scaled world? Why don’t squirrels have pupils? How is it that four such divergent characters as Mr. Cornelius Bear, Lyle, Teodor and Phillipe are roommates?

Achewood Vol. 2: Worst Song, Played on Ugliest Guitar (Dark Horse Comics) is the book that the Caleb who once struggled with such things could have used to answer such questions.

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