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Here are the September titles from what could be considered “mainstream” publishers and distributors.
Check here for previous Coming Attractions (is that an oxymoron?)
Everything’s subject to change, check your local listings, void where prohibited, and all that jazz.
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The Vicar Woman
A lonely vicar investigates the dark secrets of one remote island community in a strange and haunting graphic novel
A female vicar arrives on a small island to take up a new post. It is a strange opportunity: the parish is brand new, and set up by the community itself, who have built themselves a church modeled on St. Peter’s Basilica. The vicar is surprised and delighted by the enthusiastic welcome she receives. The church is full day after day, and the parishioners compete for her attention. Not many are interested in discussing spiritual matters however, and as she gets to know them, the vicar becomes aware of a split in the community: a terrible secret that is not spoken of, but which plagues the island, pitting neighbor against neighbor. She hears whispers of a missing young girl whose parents died in a mysterious blaze, of secret abortions, and of a fearsome ghost. What the villagers most want is absolution, but can the Vicar Woman provide it for them? This strange and discomforting story is rendered in extraordinarily intricate and atmospheric artwork.
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Vignettes of Ystov
A poetic and poignant graphic novel, where the washed-out and lonely urban landscape of the fictional city of Ystov provides the setting for a series of remarkable stories
Welcome to Ystov, a bleak but whimsical city. Readers are invited to zoom in and out, through panoramas of industry and market squares, to witness the varied lives of its curious inhabitants-lives of absurdities, restraints, and small triumphs. Meet the poet Eugene Tusk, stumbling upon the old haunts of the Strombold Collective, his defunct poetry society. Or the property agent Yosef Kavar-clearing the apartment of a recently deceased janitor, and discovering a homemade museum dedicated to a lifetime’s collection of dustpan detritus. What about this pair of scientists-fed up with astrophysics and out to disprove coincidences as a phenomenon? And here are two men meeting to discuss the fate of an old schoolfriend, piecing together their memories of him, searching for clues that might have led to his sudden arrest for “nose-crimes.” Beautifully drawn, and written with a Chekhovian clarity and concision, this series of miniature masterpieces marks the arrival of one of the most inventive new talents in comics.
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The Clockwork Sky, Volume One
MADELEINE ROSCA debuted as a manga creator in 2007 with her three-volume series Hollow Fields, which won an award from Japan’s foreign ministry for best international manga and was nominated for best graphic novel in the Aurealis Awards for Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy. Rosca was nominated for a best new talent award by Friends of Lulu. She lives and works in Hobart, Tasmania, with her husband and cat.
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The Hole of Tank Girl
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The Crackle of the Frost
When confronted with his girlfriend’s request that they have a child together, Samuel fled that relationship. But now, a year later, when he receives a letter from Alice announcing she is expecting a baby, old emotions flare up and he embarks on a long journey to see Alice again — to re-open, or perhaps close forever, that important chapter of his life. The Crackle of the Frostis the story of what he sees, hears, experiences, and learns during that journey.Last year, Fantagraphics presented the extraordinary Stigmata, a stunning display of Mattotti’s whirling, emotional, black and white linework put in the service of a devastating story — as well as his painted illustrations for Lou Reed’s The Raven. The Crackle of the Frost ups the visual ante even on those masterpieces, combining the narrative drive of the former with the lush color illustrations of the latter to create a graphic-novel masterpiece with panel after panel of sumptuous full-color paintings, as if Edward Hopper had suddenly decided to jump into comics.
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Aya: Life in Yop City
Ivory Coast, 1978. It’s a golden time, and the nation, too—an oasis of affluence and stability in West Africa—seems fueled by something wondrous. Aya is loosely based upon Marguerite Abouet’s youth in Yop City. It is the story of the studious and clear-sighted nineteen-year-old Aya, her easygoing friends Adjoua and Bintou, and their meddling relatives and neighbors. It’s a wryly funny, breezy account of the simple pleasures and private troubles of everyday life in Yop City.
Clément Oubrerie’s warm colors and energetic, playful line connect expressively with Marguerite Abouet’s vibrant writing. This reworked edition offers readers the chance to immerse themselves in Abouet’s Yop City, bringing together the first three volumes of the series in Book One. Drawn & Quarterly will release volumes four through six of the original French series (as yet unpublished in English) in Book Two. Aya is the winner of the Best First Album award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, the Children’s Africana Book Award, and the Glyph Award; was nominated for the Quill Award, the YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels list, and the Eisner Award; and was included on “best of” lists from The Washington Post, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal.
Judge Dredd: Cry of the Werewolf
John Wagner is, to many fans, the very heart of 2000 AD. Involved from the earliest days of the “Galaxy’s Greatest Comic”, he co-created Judge Dredd, as well as a host of other series, including the critically-acclaimed Button Man. Incredibly prolific throughout his career, and writing under a diversity of pen names — often in concert with Alan Grant, with whom he devised and developed 2000 AD’s sister comic, the Judge Dredd Megazine — Wagner has worked extensively beyond 2000 AD, originating, writing many American standards, including Batman, The Punisher, Lobo and Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett. His graphic novel A History of Violence was made into a hit film.
With over 300 2000 AD stories to his name Alan Grant’s prolific creative record speaks for itself. Grant is well-known to Batman fans following a lengthy run on various incarnations of the title. More recently he has adapted Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novels Kidnapped and his television work includes scripts for the BBC.
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Alien – The Illustrated Story
Alien – The Illustrated Story (Facsimile Cover Regular Edition)
[Caveat emptor!] Shipping in October 2012!
- ISBN: 9781781161302
- Dimensions: 430 x 329 mm [17 x 13 in]
- Hardback: 96pp
- Publication date: 26 October 2012
- Illustration detail: B/w comic strip, with colour annotations
- It collects Alien: The Illustrated Story b/w comic strip, scanned from from the artist’s original art boards, plus an in-depth interview with Simonson, the original script pages, colour tryouts and sketches.
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A Chinese Life
A Chinese Life is an astonishing graphic novel set against the backdrop of the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. This distinctively drawn work chronicles the rise and reign of Chairman Mao Zedong, and his sweeping, often cataclysmic vision for the most populated country on the planet.
Though the storyline is epic, the storytelling is intimate, reflecting the real life of the book’s artist. Li Kunwu spent more than 30 years as a state artist for the Communist Party. He saw firsthand what was happening to his family, his neighbors, and his homeland during this extraordinary time. Working with Philippe Ôtié, the artist has created a memoir of self and state, a rich, very human account of a major historical moment with contemporary consequences. Mao said, “The masses are the real heroes,” but A Chinese Life shows those masses as real people.
Li Kunwu has had more than 30 of his comics published in the three decades he’s worked as a state artist. He lives in Kunming, Yunnan, China. Philippe Ôtié is a French diplomat who lives in Wuhan, China.
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Amazing Agent Jennifer Omnibus Collection
Seven Seas is pleased to present Amazing Agent Jennifer, a two-volume spin-off of its most popular original manga series, Amazing Agent Luna. Written by Luna writing team Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, Amazing Agent Jennifer features interior artwork by Kriss Sison (Bakugan Battle Brawlers: The Evo Tournament), with covers by Luna artist Shiei.
Before Luna’s hard-as-nails boss known simply as “Control” ever became a control agent, Jennifer Kajiwara was once a rookie herself. From Jennifer’s freshman year in the Agency as a late teen, through her struggles with her parents and her grueling training, to her first dangerous mission as a field agent (and first big romance!), being a young secret agent is never easy.
Jennifer must learn the hard way how to play the deadly spy games that make her such a competent control agent years hence, as she becomes embroiled in a secret war full of intrigue, betrayal and deadly consequences. This is the first volume of a two-volume spin-off that will tie directly into events in future volumes of Amazing Agent Luna.
Kriss Sison is the artist for Last Hope and Bakugan Battle Brawlers: The Evo Tournament. Kriss lives in the Philippines.
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Dal Tokyo
Why Texan and Japanese? Panter says, “Because they are trapped in Texas, Texans are self-mythologizing. Because I was trapped in Texas at the time, I needed to believe that the broken tractor out back was a car of the future. Japanese, I’ll say, because of the exotic far-awayness of Japan from Texas, and because of the Japanese monster movies and woodblock prints that reached out to me in Texas. Japanese monster movies are part of the fabric of Texas.”
In 1983, Panter finally got a chance to fully explore this world, and share it with an audience, when the L.A. Reader published the first 63 strips. A few years later, the Japanese reggae magazine Riddim picked up the strip, and Panter continued the saga of Dal Tokyo in monthly installments for over a decade.
But none of these conceptual descriptions will prepare the reader for the confounding visual and verbal richness of Dal Tokyo, as Panter’s famous “ratty line” collides and colludes with near-Joycean wordplay, veering from more or less intelligible jokes to dizzying non-sequiturs to surreal eruptions that can engulf the entire panel in scribbles. One doesn’t read Dal Tokyo; one is absorbed into it and spit out the other side.
Genshiken: Second Season 1
Rise of the Zelphire: Of Bark and Sap
Comics for Film, Games, and Animation: Using Comics to Construct Your Transmedia Storyworld
Writers, directors, and producers- reach a wider audience by embracing comics to supplement your own ideas, and offer more options for audience engagement.
Comics are a key element in today’s convergence culture. From their use in video games, like Batman: Arkham City and the Halo series to their use in films like Star Trek and The Incredibles, comics have proven an invaluable method for creators to expand their storyworld and provide audiences with irresistible gateways into the story.
Tyler Weaver teaches you how to integrate comic storytelling into your own transmedia work by exploring their past, present, and future. He discusses the creation of the unique mythologies in comic stories and digs into the details of comic construction, from pacing to scripting to collaboration.
* Chapters on convergence and mythology building: Comics have endured because of their expansive and exciting mythologies. How can you apply that to your own work? * Interviews with key practitioners and artists in the field, bringing a personal look into how professionals do their work * The companion website features a blog with new projects and advancements in digital comics, expanded interviews, script templates, and listings of independent artists
- Reach a wider audience by embracing comics to supplement your own ideas, and offer more options for audience engagement
- Features chapters on convergence and mythology building. Comics have endured because of their expansive and exciting mythologies. How can you apply that to your own work?
- Every section (writing, art, etc.) contains interviews with key practitioners and artists in the field, deepening the value of the material presented, and bringing a personal look into how creatives do their work
- The companion website features video interviews, blog about new projects and advancements in digital comics, as well as updated and expanded interviews. Script templates will be made available. In addition, a listing of independent artists (websites/Twitter handles)
Flash Gordon: On the Planet Mongo: The Complete Flash Gordon Library (Vol. 1)
Beginning the complete library of the greatest science fiction hero of all time.
Volume One will spotlight the work of Alex Raymond, legendary for some of the finest storytelling of the 20th century. Raymond illustrated the Sunday strips until 1944; with his clear and much-imitated style forming the original aesthetic of the most popular and easily recognised science fiction hero for decades to come.
Introducing Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, Dr. Hans Zarkov, and Ming the Merciless, this volume will catapult readers to the deadly planet Mongo.
These are the strips that influenced George Lucas to create Star Wars, and which illustrator Al Williamson said were “the reason I became an artist.”
Art of Marvel Studios
From comic-book legends to silver-screen super heroes! Marvel presents an insider’s look into the making of its cinematic universe – assembling three Avengers in one stylish slipcase. Featuring exclusive production artwork, behind-the-scenes photography, and in-depth cast-and-crew interviews, this four-book collection is a must-have for any fan of Mighty Marvel movies!
COLLECTING: Art of Marvel Studios: The Art of Captain America – The First Avenger, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor
