Five titles for new readers

The ever excellent DCWomenKickingAss tumblr has done a post titled 'Five titles to get a dude into comics'.

Don't be swayed by the tongue in cheek title, these are series for all readers!

She has suggested books for fans of the Arrow TV series, the Avengers and Dark Knight Rises films, the Syfy channel, and readers of Stephen King.

If you want more inspiration you can read our posts on Green Arrow (digital comics here, Smallville inspired comics here), the Avengers and the Dark Knight Rises, but do check out the DCWKA tumblr too.

Coming up will be reviews of the best comics I found at the Thought Bubble comic convention a couple of weeks ago.

Free comics!

I've just moved house and am clearing out my bookshelves, so have put up a few listings of CDs, books, and comics that I need to get rid of over on my other blog.  I thought the comics might be of interest to readers here, so take a look and if you want any of them email me on paicomics at yahoo dot co dot uk.

I'll just ask you to pay postage and donate some money towards one of the following charities:
ASN
The RSPB's Albatross campaign
Leeway Women's refuge

I don't want payment for the books: I just need shelf space, and I really do not want to go through the hassle of listing them all on ebay.
 
So here's the list.  Where we've done reviews of the books I've included a link.

You Don't Look Forty, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz (Paperback, 1990) (complete Peanuts series reviewed here)
I''ll Be Your Slave (Yaoi)
Antique Bakery Volume (Yaoi)
The Moon and Sandals Volume 2 (Yaoi)
The Moon and the Sandals: Volume 1 (Yaoi)
Iono-Sama Fanatics: Volume 1 (Yuri)
Shinobu Kokoro (Yaoi)
Dragonslippers: This Is What An Abusive Relationship Looks Like
Spiderman Annual: 2003 by Egmont Childrens Books (Hardback, 2002)  (good for kids)
Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel by Scott Beatty (Hardback, 2002) (good for kids)
Freddie & Me: A Coming of Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody

The Yaoi and Yuri ones are for adults, not children

Ame-Comi girls

Writers: Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti
Art credits:
Ame-Comi Girls issues 1-6: Eduardo Francisco (art), Ikari Studio and Santi Casas (colours)
Ame-Comi Girls issues 7-8: Santi Casas (art), Randy Mayor (colours)
Ame-Comi Girls Wonder Woman: Amanda Connor (art), Paul Mounts (colours)
Ame-Comi Girls Batgirl: Sanford Greene (art), Randy Mayor (colours)
Ame-Comi Girls Duela Dent: Ted Naifah (art), Randy Mayor (colours)
Ame-Comi Girls Power Girl: Michael Bowden (art), Randy Mayor (colours)
Ame-Comi Girls Supergirl: Santi Casas (art) , Randy Mayor (colours)
Publisher: DC Comics

What's it about?
It's a weekly comic series from DC. The basic premise is that this is an earth where only women are heroes.  It's based on the Ame-Comi line of statues, which are basically manga/anime inspired sexy versions of DC's heroines.  You can see some of them on Amazon here.  Some are horrific, like this Wonder Woman one (why is she not wearing anything??), others are pretty good.  There was not really a story behind the action figures, so one has been created.

From Ame-Comi Girls 6, I think

The series started with 3 issue spotlights on 5 characters - Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Duela Dent, Power Girl, and Supergirl.  Wonder Woman looks at how Diana comes to America and forms a pact with the American government.  Batgirl and Duela Dent go hand in hand, introducing each character and setting up for the full series.  Duela's origin is really creepy.  These issues also introduce us to other key players such as Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Steel, and Brainiac.  Power Girl has Kara saving the day in metropolis then fighting Lex Luthor.  At the end, another visitor from Krypton arrives, and we segue into Supergirl.  Supergirl crashes to earth with Brainiac's army close behind.  Both Karas try to stop them, but Brainiac has other plans.

From the Duela Dent issues

Then the Ame-Comi series starts proper.  Issues 1 to 6 have all the heroes, led by Wonder Woman (because she says that's what's going to happen),  band together to fight Brainiac and save the earth.  Brainiac is an amazingly advanced robot from the far off reaches of space who consumes the knowledge of all the worlds she visits, then destroys them.  Issues 7 and 8 introduce Jade as this sector's Green Lantern.

From Ame-Comi Girls 7

The Lengths

Writer and Art: Howard Hardiman
Publisher: Self published

What's it about?

What lengths do we go to in our lives? To make money? To meet boyfriends? To keep boyfriends? To survive?

From the website:
"It’s hard being someone’s Mister Right when for a hundred pounds an hour, you’re anyone’s Mister Right Now.  Young ex-art student Eddie has abandoned his course, his family, his lover and his friends to follow a male escort into a world of sex, drugs and unrequited love. Now, he is beginning a tentative romance with an old friend and having to face up to the challenge of being honest in a relationship about what he’s doing in the weird hours he works and the lengths he’s willing to go to to try to please everyone around him."

There's no rainbows in this, no whimsical camp paraphernalia.  It's a seedy, gritty story about a male prostitute coming to a crossroads in his life.  It's sometimes sordid, sometimes touching.  The juxtaposition between the lead's life as Ford, sex worker, and his life as Eddie, drop out art student, is the main message of the story.  Exploring this, we see Eddie with past boyfriends, how he got into sex work, and his blossoming relationship with Dan, who has no idea about Eddie's job.

Comics now available on the Kindle

This news is a little bit late, but today is the first time I've had a chance to write something.

A recently released  update now means that comics can be read comfortably on the Amazon Kindle. Previously, the e-reader supported pdf files and could easily display images, but you couldn't zoom in to particular panels or places on the page.  This meant that the text and detail of the images could be difficult to read.

This has all changed.  The updated software that Kindle have installed on all users' devices now displays your comics one page at a time, then panel by panel for that page.   This makes them a lot easier to read as the images are big enough that squinting is unnecessary.  There are now hundreds and hundreds of comics for sale on the Kindle website.

The downside is that most comics weren't created to be read in a panel by panel format, so you could potentially lose some of the impact of the page.  When artists/letterers/colourists/inkers create a page they have, up to now at least, done so with the knowledge that readers will look at the whole page first, then read it panel by panel.  There are a few comics out there written for e-readers (DC's Ame-Comi Girls and Smallville are two examples), and you can see how they are put together and laid out differently.  Also, the Kindle (not the Kindle Fire) can only display black and white images.

However for people like me who have a Kindle, don't want to carry lots of comics around, and are willing to sacrifice the colour or page impact, comics on the Kindle is a bloody great thing.  Go forth and buy!

The Peckham House for Invalids

Story & Script: Howard Hardiman
Script, Line Art & Colour: Sarah Gordon
Cover art: Julia Scheele
Publisher: Self published

This will not be a full review as we're looking at only 1 issue here, but it's that good I just want to gush about it!

From the website:
In 1906, as Britain surges on a tide of industrialisation driven by the brave innovations of the boldest and the best, Ms York has opened the doors of her modest home in Peckham. A group of poor, young, ill-educated, disabled and abandoned girls found their way to her and under her auspices are learning about the power they have feared the most in the world of oppression and stark inequality: their own. The Peckham Invalids is a comic about disabled teenage superheroines in 1906 Peckham from Howard Hardiman, Julia Scheele, Sarah Gordon and friends.

Spider-Girl (MC2 universe)

 "No one dies on my watch"

Writer: Tom DeFalco

Pencils: Pat Oliffe

Inks: Various

Colours: Various

Letters: Various

Publisher: Marvel Comics

What's it about?

Spider-Girl is May Parker, the daughter of Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and Mary-Jane Watson.  This series is set in the Marvel Comics 2 (MC2) universe, a sort of What If? parallel reality where creators can explore alternative ideas.  In the main continuity May Parker was snatched from her parents shortly after birth, and is presumed dead.  In this MC2 universe she was snatched but then given back, and is now about 15 years old.  She's a regular schoolgirl - reasonable student, loves basketball and plays for the school team.  As the series starts she is just starting to exhibit her inherited spider powers, more or less the same as her Dad's.

Image on the right is from issue 56.

This series is about her life - how she dons the Spider-Girl mantle, how she deals with new villains and old heroes, how she manages school life and superheroics, and how her parents support her in her new activities.  It's a basic premise, delivered with a sense of fun and love.