ArtisticallyChill

It was quite busy this past weekend through late Tuesday night as myself, Serena and several friends of Keith’s Komix helped out Keith and his family with the expansion of his store. Boxes upon boxes of cards, trades, and toys that could survive the humidity were loaded into a truck as comic books and statues were tucked safely into the corners of the store. The racks came off the walls and were power-washed and the slat walls were taken down. The thin wall that separated Keith’s Komix from what used to be a beading store came down. As the dust settled, the counters were moved and arranged in the center. The comics were all set up for New Comic Book Day and after the truck was unloaded, Keith’s Komix still looks bigger and better. With so much more room, the store will be able to display more merchandise and take gaming nights to a whole new level! Serena and I were happy to help out our favorite local comic shop, Keith’s Komix!

• BATGIRL #23
• BATMAN & ROBIN #25
• BATMAN INC. #7
• BIRDS OF PREY #14
• CHARISMAGIC #2
• DETECTIVE COMICS #878-879
• EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT IRIS: THE HIT LIST AGENDA #1
• EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT ORCHID: THE HIT LIST AGENDA #1
• GOTHAM CENTRAL, BOOK FOUR: CORRIGAN
• LADY MECHANIKA #2
• OZMA OF OZ #8
• RED ROBIN #25
• TEEN TITANS #97
• THE UNWRITTEN #24

PICKS OF THE WEEK:
BATMAN & ROBIN #25

Written by JUDD WINICK; Art by GREG TOCCHINI; Cover by GUILLEM MARCH; Variant cover by J.G. JONES

The most unlikely team-up ever comes to an end. It’s the crashing finish to the brief alliance of Batman, Robin and Jason Todd, a.k.a. The Red Hood, against a common foe. After all, the three “sons of Wayne” can put their differences aside for just so long. And when one fight ends, another will begin…

DETECTIVE COMICS #879

Written by SCOTT SNYDER; Art by JOCK and FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA; Cover by FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA

For years, Jim Gordon has been tormented by the possibility that his son, James Jr., might be a killer. Tonight, he’ll get the answers he’s been after. But is the truth about James even darker than the Commissioner, or even Batman, could have guessed?

SERENA’S PICK OF THE WEEK: LADY MECHANIKA #2

THERE’S A NEW LADY IN TOWN!

From the imaginative mind of Joe Benitez with colors by the incomparable Peter Steigerwald, comes this all-new supernatural action-adventure series!

The tabloids dubbed her “LADY MECHANIKA”, the sole survivor of a psychotic serial killer’s three-year rampage through London. Found locked in an abandoned laboratory amidst countless corpses and body parts, with her own limbs amputated and replaced with mechanical components, her life began anew. With no memory of her captivity or her former life, LADY MECHANIKA eventually built a new life for herself as a private detective, using her unique abilities to solve cases the police couldn’t or wouldn’t handle. But, she has never stopped searching for answers…

Now, disturbed by haunting memories from her past, LADY MECHANIKA is consumed by a need for answers and focuses all her efforts on investigating the mystery of the Mechanical Girl. The trail leads her to a traveling show run by a band of gypsies, where help might not come as easily as anticipated. But even with the aid of the Gypsy Queen, can LADY MECHANIKA discover who created the Mechanical Girl and why? And will the answers bring her one step closer to uncovering the truth about herself? 

Joe B’s good friend Ale Garza has turned in one of his best covers yet, and with the addition of Peter Steigerwald’s colors, now it is a masterpiece.

HARDCOVER PICK OF THE WEEK: GOTHAM CENTRAL, BOOK FOUR: CORRIGAN

Written by GREG RUCKA and ED BRUBAKER ; Art by STEVE LIEBER, KANO and STEFANO GAUDIANO; Cover by JOSHUA MIDDLETON

Witness the gritty side of the Gotham City Police Department from their perspective, as teens dressed as Robin the Boy Wonder start turning up dead. In this final hardcover collection of GOTHAM CENTRAL, collecting issues #32-40, the dead body of Robin the Boy Wonder is found on the streets. Now the detectives of Gotham Central must try to solve the mystery of his death while dealing with Batman and the Teen Titans.

HAPPY READING!

~LoneWolf

This past week’s visit to Keith’s Komix has us catching up with DEADPOOL. I still behind on a few of the titles I normally pick up but I think this whole idea of only allowing myself to spend $20 on our weekly visits has definitely been a good thing. There will always be one week out of the month where there will be only a few releases and that’s an opportunity to just catch up on stuff I have sitting in my pull box rather than buying extra books I don’t necessarily need right away and just waiting for the collected hardcover to come out. i.e. UNCANNY X-FORCE, FLASHPOINT etc.

• BOOSTER GOLD #44
• BRIGHTEST DAY AFTERMATH: THE SEARCH FOR SWAMP THING #1
• DEADPOOL #35-39
• FLIGHT Vol. 1
• JUSTICE LEAGUE of AMERICA #58
• PLANET OF THE APES #1

MY PICK OF THE WEEK: JUSTICE LEAGUE of AMERICA #58

Written by JAMES ROBINSON; Art and cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND; Variant cover by AARON LOPRESTI

After last issue’s devastating battle with the Spectre, Eclipso now has the power to split the moon in two, an omen that the end of days has begun. With life on Earth at stake, Batman much hatch a desperate plan involving Shade, Starman and the Atom. At the same time, another member of the team steps forward, not knowing how vital she is to mankind’s survival. Prepare for “Eclipso vs. Donna Troy” – with an ending that will shock you!

SERENA’S PICK OF THE WEEK: PLANET OF THE APES #1

Writer(s): Daryl Gregory, Artist(s): Carlos Magno
Get your hands on these damn dirty Apes! Beginning an all-new series that takes place before the original 1968 Planet of the Apes movie in the continuity of the first five films! Ape society has reached a new golden age. But there are ripples of dissent in both the ape and human ranks. Tensions will rise and soon all will be caught in chaos! And amidst all this uncertainty, what is the fate of…The Lawgiver? Written by award-winning novelist Daryl Gregory!

SERENA’S GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE WEEK: FLIGHT Vol. 1

Originally published by Image Comics in 2004, Flight, Volume One launched this graphic novel series with a resounding bang. Since then the Flight series has steadily increased in popularity–and now all of the Flight backlist will be coming to Villard!

Flight, Volume One received a great boost when graphic novel hero Scott McCloud praised the quality and artistry of the book in an afterward entitled THE YEAR COMICS TOOK FLIGHT. Little could readers know at the time how prophetic McCloud’s words would prove to be.

“Regardless of where it’s shelved, this book belongs in every library.” — Library Journal on Flight, Volume One

Authors included in Flight, Volume One are: Bengal, Bill Mudron, Catia Chien, Chris Appelhans, Clio Chiang, Derek Kirk Kim, Dylan Meconis, Enrico Casarosa, Erika Moen, Hope Larson, Jacob Magraw-Mickelson, Jake Parker, Jen Wang, Joel Carroll, Kazu Kibuishi, Khang Le, Neil Babra, Philip Craven, Rad Sechrist, and Vera Brosgol.

I’m still on the fence about DC’s RELAUNCH and I will make all the effort to heed the advice of Keith and be sure to visit the DC Nation panels at SDCC 2011 before deciding on whether or not to drop most of my DC Titles and wait for the graphic novels or just stick with a few of the titles that look somewhat worth picking up.

HAPPY READING!

~ LoneWolf

I’ll be catching up on a lot of the Batman family titles this week. After hearing about all the reboots going on in 2 months from Keith at Keith’s Komix, I must decide whether or not to even buy comic books from DC these next 2 months and then further contemplate whether or not to even pick up the new reboots. Maybe I’ll just cut DC out all together and go indie. Decisions like these tend to keep me up all night. It’s a good thing I have a lot of comic books to read.

• ASTONISHING X-MEN #39
• BATGIRL #22
• BATMAN #711
• BATMAN AND ROBIN #24
• BATMAN BEYOND #6
• BATMAN INCORPORATED #6
• BIRDS OF PREY #13
• DETECTIVE COMICS #877
• GREEN LANTERN MOVIE: KILOWOG
• JUSTICE LEAGUE #56-57
• JUSTICE SOCIETY #50-51
• MARK SCHULTZ – VARIOUS DRAWING VOL.5
• POWER GIRL #25
• RED ROBIN #24
• THE SCOURGE #4
• SOULFIRE #1
• TEEN TITANS #96
• UNWRITTEN #25
• WONDER WOMAN #611

MY PICKS OF THE WEEK:
BATMAN AND ROBIN #24

Written by JUDD WINICK; Art and cover by GUILLEM MARCH

The Red Hood is out! But the bigger mystery is who broke him out of prison – and why? His liberators seem to have plans for him. Plans that Jason wants no part of. It’s a street brawl, and unlikely allies come together! Batman, Robin and The Red Hood must fight alongside one another in a knockdown, drag-out battle, taking on the people who sprung Jason Todd.

BATMAN #711

Written by TONY DANIEL; Art by STEVE SCOTT and RYAN WINN; Cover by TONY DANIEL

Batman acts on his suspicions of a newly elected political figure in Gotham City and finds himself in deep water. With piranhas. Meanwhile, Two-Face fights his way back from the brink of death to find an unlikely ally who will show him that there are two sides to every story.

SERENA’S PICK OF THE WEEK: MARK SCHULTZ – VARIOUS DRAWINGS VOL.5

This fifth volume of Various Drawings showcases a generous selection of private art and commissions, along with a smattering of previously published pieces, all created by Mark Schultz over the past two years. A wealth of sketches, preliminaries, studies and finished art, this new installment will appeal to longtime fans of Mark’s work, as well as those discerning souls who seek only the best examples of modern imaginative illustration to add to their personal collections. Despite being an acknowledged modern master of pencil and brush and ink, Schultz has never stopped expanding his visual vocabulary, never shied away from experimenting, never slowed in his relentless pursuit of graphic Nirvana. Nor has he forgotten his first loves and obsessions: pulp and noir-fueled dames, otherworldly SF and fantasy pinups, slavering dinosaurs and fearsome women, gleaming spaceships and alluring cosmic femmes. Schultz brings all of them-even entire worlds-to pulsing life with his pencil or brush, the slightest nimbus of tint, a revelatory breath of dry brushstroke upon the page. Herein reside Hannah Dundee of the Xenozoic age, the bravos featured in the forthcoming Storms at Sea, a glorious 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea centerfold, and stranger vistas still.

Mark Schultz has been cartooning, illustrating, and writing for over twenty years. He is best known as the creator of the award-winning speculative adventure comic book Xenozoic Tales, which has been adapted to television as the animated series Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. Schultz is the recipient of five Harvey Awards, two Eisners, an Inkpot, a Spectrum, and three Haxturs (the last from the Salon Del Internacional Comic del Princapado de Asturias). Currently, he writes the Prince Valiant newspaper comic strip. In addition, Schultz is working on his new book, Storms at Sea.

Formerly a teacher of composition and Renaissance literature, he currently writes and edits technical documentation for a large software company and has edited numerous volumes of theory and conversation about comics illustration. He wrote Modern Masters Volume 15: Mark Schultz from TwoMorrows Publishing and is working on a novel, The Night’s Tale.

HAPPY READING!

~ LoneWolf