Comixology submit: spooky and mythical

In the second of our posts prompted by March's Comixology submit sale we focus on books that have mythical elements, that are sometimes a bit fairy tale and sometimes a bit horror.

Supernatural
Who Needs the Moon - there's a vampire in Kingsford and the townsfolk don't know anything about it.  Enter a werewolf, who can do something about it.  The art in this is intelligent - something I rarely say.  The colour palette and panel layout tell the story more than the words.  In fact, many panels have no words, but there is never a problem in understanding what you are seeing.  This is a great and challenging (in the best way) comic that really does deserve your attention.
Art and writing: Todd McCullough
Publisher: Self published

Ink and Thunder - three supernatural short stories written and drawn by Becky Cloonan.  These are beautiful and inspiring and sumptuous.  All three have a feeling of immense sadness and yearning about them.  Cloonan is a professional storyteller and these have to be three of her best.
Writing and art: Becky Cloonan
Publisher: Self published 

Fairy tales
The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts - I haven't read much of this but it looks impressive. Paraphrased from the comixology description:
This is a classic collection of martial arts parables.  The stories feature demons, insects, birds, cats and more.  They may seem whimiscal but they contain essential teachings that offer insight into the fundamental principles of martial arts.  This graphic novel is based on Issai Chozanshi's eighteenth century text.
It's in black and white and has a classic Japanese art style.
Adaptation: Sean Michael Wilson
Translation: William Scott Wilson
Art: Michiru Morikawa
Original writer: Issai Chozanshi
Publisher: Shambhala publications

Twas the Night Before Krampus - This is a black and white book about the Christmas Eve fight between St Nicholas and the evil Krampus.  This is a rather unique and creepy Christmas story.  Not suitable for kids.
Writer: Ben Avery
Art: Tim Baron
Publisher: Lifesize Monster Ghost

The Order of Dagonet - this is written by Jeremy Whitley (he who wrote the amazing Princeless).  Mythological creatures of ancient Britain return and knights have to be found.  Although created by Americans, it's got a really British voice and a really good handle on British folklore. N.B: this wasn't part of the sale but I've included it because it is an independent comic.
Writer: Jeremy Whitley
Art: Jason Strutz
Publisher: Action Lab Comics

I've tagged all of these as age mature as although older teens would probably like them, they have a bit too much to them be considered age: general.

The Last Tape In Hell

Normally at New Readers... we review trade paperback editions of comics.  This works well with comics from the big publishers, but doesn't work so well for independent or self published comics. Back at the start of December I did a quick post about Thought Bubble 2012, a UK comics convention happening in Leeds.  A lot of  comics on sale at Thought Bubble are of the self published, single issue type, and I didn't want my readers to miss out on the fantastic stuff in the UK independent comics scene.  So, I will be spending a little while going over the very best of the ones that I bought.

These words will be culled from/inspired by short reviews I did on my other blog, Pai.  Depending on the sense of the original blog, they are likely to be edited to make more sense to new readers of comics.

Onwards...

The Last Tape in Hell

Writer and artist: Sarah Gordon

What's it about?
This is a short, glossy comic with few words but the most amazing colours.

It's set in Hell.  Satan is hard at work doing administrative, hellish type things.  His old cassette player is spewing out the sounds of hell (which turn out to be Dooom....Dooom...Dooom).  The cassette player suddenly breaks, and the tape becomes chewed up.

Anya's Ghost

Welcome to another guest reviewer, Becky Hawkins.  Becky dew her first minicomic in 2007, right before landing a job as a cruise ship musician. Since then, she has kept a travel-journal online,  self-published eight more minicomics, and contributed to The Zinester’s Guide to NYC. She especially loves drawing food, old buildings and quirky bodies. If she had a spouse or a cat, she would mention them here.  Becky is the creator of French Toast Comix (which we reviewed here).  You can follow her on twitter using @hawkins_becky.
On to the review..

Art and Words by Vera Brosgol
Publisher: First Second

Sinfest

written and drawn by Tatsuya Ishida

What's It About?Sinfest is a daily online comic strip. Originally intended for newspaper publication author Tatsuya Ishida was unable to find a paper willing to publish his product so he turned to the internet. Reading Sinfest it isn't difficult to see why it wasn't taken up and why that's a damn shame.

In some ways the world of Sinfest is a pretty normal place. The two main characters, Slick and Nique, have their on-off friendship/flirtation, they have their friends, both have their romantic troubles (mainly self-inflicted) and their dreams of fame and fortune. On the other hand it’s a damn surreal place: the Devil runs a stall (“Anything you want! Price: Your Soul”) complete with succubus booth-babes and his own personal fanboy, the characters regularly converse with God Himself and Slick's best friend Squigley is a pig on drugs. Sinfest is by turns a touching, surreal, political and thought provoking four panels once a day, every day.

iZOMBIE Vol. 1: Dead to the World

Writer: Chris Roberson
Artist: Michael Allred
Colors: Brian Buccellato
Publisher: Vertigo Comics

"Combine the two most horrible tastes you can imagine... like motor oil and someone else's vomit... and you won't even come close to this level of nasty. Yeah, I eat brains."

What’s it about?

iZombie is a a sort of fantasy story taking place in an urban environment.
It takes places in our modern times and updates old movie monster archetypes.

The story is told from the point of view of Gwen, Gwendolyn Dylan, who works as a gravedigger.
She's in her 20s and is actually a living dead! A zombie if you will.
Her best friends are also other undead creatures. Ellie is a genuine ghost, she seems to come from the 60s and can't leave the places she visited. Scott, aka Spot, is a were-terrier.

Gwen as no recollection of her death and her memories of her past are slowly fading from her mind.
To stay alive, or rather undead, she needs to eat brains.

This comic isn't actually an horror story, but plays a lot with elements and tropes from the genre.
It is more of a detective series, mixed with some drama and romantic clues.

Halloween month: We Kill Monsters

To kick off our now annual Halloween month we bring you a guest post, from the land down under: 

Michelle is an Australian-based writer and all-around geekified girl. she loves comics, sci-fi, and talking or writing about either of those two things. She'll pay good money without question for any comics written by Gail Simone, Ethan Van Sciver, Ed Brubaker, or any books written by Connie Willis. One day her name will be on the front of a comic book, right underneath the words "Written By". One day....

You can find Michelle at one of these domains:

Wordpress: Runaway Writings

Tumblr: The Geekified Girl

Twitter: @mishla

 

Writer: Christopher Leone

Artist: Brian Churilla

Inker: Hilary Barta, Brian Churilla, Richard Ellis

Colourist: Ronda Pattison

Letterer: Jeff Powell

Publisher: Red 5 Comics

What’s it about?

Jake and Drew are mechanically inclined brothers who stumble across a genetically enhanced secret. When Jake is attacked by a monster that appears out of nowhere and injures his arm, he soon finds himself with more trouble than he can handle. His arm heals itself almost instantly but by the next day his arm has transformed into that of the creature he was attacked by – complete with super strength.

Halloween month is upon again!

It's October and that means all things spooky and creepy out to play, which means that we do a horror themed month!  So, expect some scary books dotted amongst the usual clutch :)

Characters of Colour in superhero comics - the men (part five)

This is the more independent edition, where we look at a few of the male characters of colour who sit outside of the mainstream superhero comics published by Marvel and DC.

LGBT History Month presents The Sandman: A Game Of You

written by Neil Gaiman
pencils and inks by Shawn McManus
additional art by Colleen Doran and Bryan Talbot
additional inks by George Pratt, Stan Woch and Dick Giordano
colours by Danny Vozzo

What's It About?
Recently divorced, Barbie has moved to New York and now lives in a small, rundown apartment building. There she is part of a Tales Of The City-esque community of fellow renters: her best friend Wanda, secretive Thessaly, troubled couple Hazel and Foxglove and the downright creepy George. Broke and single, Barbie drifts with no particular direction in life. Its a simple life, if a trifle dull.

As a child she had a series of recurring dreams, a story that unfolded night after night. The dreams ended years ago but now they're back: the characters of her dreams have come to New York to find her. She has a world to save and there are forces out to stop her, even kill her. But is this other world real? And can you die in your dreams?

The Fallen Angel Omnibus volume 0

written by Peter David
pencils by David Lopez
inks Fernando Blanco
colours by Nathan Eyring
Publisher: IDW

What's It About?
In the dark and terrible city of Bete Noire, in a booth at the back of Dolf's bar sits a woman dressed all in red, a woman people call the Fallen Angel. People come to the bar to talk to her, to tell her their problems. Sometimes she helps them, sometimes she tells them to go to hell and sometimes they wish she hadn't agreed to help them. Surrounded by a city of criminals and moral corruption the Fallen Angel is still finding her place in the world.

Fallen Angel was a series launched by DC Comics as part of an initiative to create new comics with female leads. The series was praised as inventive, creative and unpredictable... by the critics. Sadly the readers at the time weren't as willing to try something new as DC hoped and after twenty issues the series was cancelled. Years later Peter David was invited to continue the series with a new company, IDW, who have now published the full DC run for the first time ever in a handsome omnibus edition.

About Formats. The Telephone Book Collection

Christmas is coming up and you may be looking for presents for the comic fans of your acquaintance or maybe you might want to take this opportunity to try some comics. If so, that’s what this blog is for: comic recommendations for the new reader. Of course, graphic novels are quite an expensive medium, probably more than most of us will want to spend on anything less than the closest of relatives. So today we at New readers…start here turn the spotlight on a format that emphasises quantity and economy: the telephone book collection.

Sandman: Dream Country

written by Neil Gaiman
“Calliope” and “A Dream of a Thousand Cats” pencils by Kelley Jones, inks by Malcolm Jones III, colours by Robbie Rusch
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” pencils and inks by Charles Vess, colours by Steve Oliff with additional material by William Shakespeare
“Facade” pencils by Colleen Doran, inks by Malcolm Jones III, colours by Steve Oliff

What’s It About?

The Sandman, Oneiros, Morpheus, Lord Shaper, Dream of the Endless, he has had many names. He is the concept of human imagination personified, the well from which all stories spring. In his landmark series The Sandman Neil Gaiman created and used this central character to explore the very idea of stories.

This is a collection of shorter stories from the Sandman series. We have the Sandman commission a play from William Shakespeare, a cat who has become a preacher, a modern author who has imprisoned one of the legendary muses Calliope and an immortal who not only longs for Death but gets to have a conversation with her.

Museum of Terror: Tomie Vol 1

Writer and artist: Junji Ito
Publisher: Dark Horse

What's it about?
We meet Tomie as a beautiful teenage schoolgirl, she has a boyfriend and many other admirers.   She is brutally murdered, cut up, and her body parts redistribute around the town.

Then Tomie returns.  Like she'd never been away.  Driven to a frenzy, her killer attacks again.  Then more Tomies show up.  You see, every time she is killed, she is cut up and her pieces scattered.  Each piece regenerates into a fresh Tomie.  She provokes bloodlust in others, she teases and aggravates those she meets until all around her are haunted and driven mad.  You cannot get away from her.

Blackest Night

Blackest Night
Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Ivan Reis
Inkers: Oclair Albert, Julio Ferreira, Robert Hunter, Joe Prado
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Cover Artists: Rodolfo Migliari, Ivan Reis
Letters: Nick J. Napolitano
Publisher: DC Comics

What's It About?
Zombies, or, more specifically, "Black Lanterns," risen dead who have come back to fight the entire pantheon of DC's superheroes.  Blackest Night was DC's summer 2009 crossover (a story spanning several comic book titles).  Most exciting for long-time fans was the chance to see dead superheroes and villians brought back to "life," which lead to speculation about which ones would remain in the living.  This crossover was unique among crossoevers in that it centered around the Green Lantern Corps.  This trade collects the "main" story relating to Blackest Night, collecting Blackest Night issues 1-8, plus a special issue, Blackest Night: Director's Cut.

Runaways: Rock Zombies (vol 10)

Rock Zombies                                       Mollifest Destiny
Writer: Terry Moore                              Writer: Chris Yost
Penciller: Takeshi Miyazawa                   Artist: Sara Pichelli
Colourist: Christina Strain                     Colourist: Christina Strain
Inker: Takeshi Miyazawa,                      Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna
Norman Lee and Craig Yeung
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna

Truth or Dare
Writer: James Asmus
Artist: Emma Rios
Colourist: Christina Strain
Letterer: VC's Joe Caramagna

Publisher: Marvel

What's it about?
Rock Zombies is the main story here, and as you may have guessed, zombies are the predominant theme.  However, these poor souls are neither undead for hungry for brains, instead they are ordinary people cursed by a local radio station DJ to become swollen, misshapen, lumbering creatures.  Enter the Runaways who decide it's their job to fix this mess.

Mollifest Destiny is about Molly Hayes, the youngest of the team, meeting the X-Men and being invited to join their ranks.  It turns out they were not quite prepared for the full on Molly experience.  Truth Or Dare has the Runaways playing a simple game that gets a little out of control.

THE AMAZING SCREW-ON HEAD And Other Curious Objects

Writers: Mike Mignola, Katie Mignola

Art: Mike Mignola

Colors: Dave Stewart

Letters: Clem Robins and Pat Brosseau

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Today's review is a guest post brought to you by Mothee.  Mothee is a comics fan, about to graduate from film school and would like to be a writer.  You can find Mothee at the following places:

Twitter: @Mothee

Blogspot: http://mothee.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mothee

On with the review!

What’s it about?

A clever collection of short stories and art by comics auteur Mike Mignola. For those who may be unfamiliar with his work, Mignola is best known as the creator of Hellboy (you may have seen or heard about the film that was released in 2004). He’s a writer/artist with a flair for the fantastic with a twinge of horror and oddities thrown in for good measure.

Included in this collection:

Tales of the Vampires

Writers: Joss Whedon, Jane Espenson, Brett Matthews, Sam Loeb, Drew Goddard, Ben Edlund
Artists: Scott Morse, Jeff Parker, Vatchie Mavlian, Cameron Stewart, Tim Sale, Paul Lee, Sean Philips, Ben Stenbeck, Cliff Richards
Pencils: Alex Sanchez, J. Alexander, Ben Edlund
Colours: Michelle Madsen, Chip Zdarsky, David Nestelle
Inks: Derek Fridolfs
Letters: Annie Parkhouse, Richard Starkings, Comicraft
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Note: Credits are shown as listed in the book.  Some people describe themselves as artists, some describe themselves as pencillers, hence the variety of titles.
This book is made up of ten different stories.  Each story has one writer and an art team, i.e., there are not three different writers for one story and three different pencillers, although some artists and writers worked on more than one story.

What's it about?
Vampires, and vampires are scary. They are more powerful than us, more violent than us and more singleminded than us.  They can kill us slowly and painfully or quickly and stealthily.  Vampires are scary.  These ones are no different.

Maggie the Mechanic. A Love and Rockets book

written and drawn by Jaime Hernandez

What’s It About?
The thing about siblings is you love them but at the same time you need space from them. When Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez decided to start a comicbook together they neatly solved this problem by taking half the book each. In his half Gilbert created the village of Palomar (reviewed here) and in his half Jaime created Las Locas.

The Locas are a largely female, largely Mexican-American cast living around the early-80s LA punk scene. Jaime Hernandez tried to inject some reality into communities and peoples he had too often seen portrayed in the media only through stereotype and cliché: the punk scene, homosexual relationships, bisexuality and his own Mexican-American background. Added to this realism was a touch of science-fiction and so Maggie the Mechanic, Mexican-American bisexual punkette, also ends up travelling the world fixing up spaceships and armies of robots, riding a hover-scooter and teaming up with professional wrestler/revolutionary agitator Rena Titanon between adventures at home with a large, varied and endearing cast of friends.


Now Fantagraphics are publishing a series of collections bringing together the complete canon of Las Locas stories in strict chronological order of publication, starting with Maggie The Mechanic.

Heartbreak Soup. A Love and Rockets book

written and drawn by Gilbert Hernandez
Publisher: Titan Books

“Welcome my friends, to Palomar. Where the men are men,

and the women need a sense of humour.”
- Carmen

What’s it About?
Palomar is an isolated hamlet on the coast of Mexico mostly untroubled by the passage of time or the existence of the outside world. There are no phones, no televisions and only six cars running in the entire town, most anything anyone eats is grown or hunted locally. If you want a bath most likely you won’t have one in your house so you’ll have to go see the banadora and she’ll bath you.

Palomar was the creation of Mexican-American author Gilbert Hernandez who populated it with a wealth of interesting, diverse characters. Published over thirteen years the Palomar stories were a soap opera on a grand scale as it followed the town's ever-growing, ever-evolving population through love, death, marriage, childbirth and everything in between. Heartbreak Soup is the first in a series of books from Fantagraphics collecting the entire Palomar canon in strict order of publication.

Death: The Time Of Your Life

Written by Neil Gaiman
Pencils by Chris Bachalo with inks by Mark Buckingham (pgs 1-47)
Pencils by Mark Buckingham with inks by Mark Pennington (pgs 48-88)
Colours by Matt Hollingsworth
Publisher: Vertigo

What’s It About?

Foxglove and Hazel were once poor and in love. Now Foxglove is a pop star, her career taking her around the world and Hazel is a stay-at-home mother to their child Alvie. Out in the world no one knows that Foxglove’s secretary Hazel is in fact her lover ,or that Fox is a second mother to Hazel’s child. Somehow, she doesn’t know how, Fox ended up in the closet and Hazel ended up alone for months at a time.

One rainy night, Death comes for Hazel and now Foxglove is following a vision back to LA in the hope of rescuing her. But how do you rescue someone from the single inevitability of life?