DC in January: Complete solicitations

beat-default

What the heck, everyone else does it.

A XOMBI collection with all five issues of the John Rozum/Frazer Irving romp and GONE TO AMERIKAY, the Derek McCulloch/Colleen Doran GN about the Irish immigration would top our wish list.

Lots o’ fill-ins in the New 52 creatives as deadlines take their toll. But it was all in the plan.

PREVIEW: Diane Duane’s The Misadventures of Prince Ivan

beat-default

Back when the deeds of Kyrax2 were making the rounds, we’d tagged a post we never got around to spotlighting by author Diane Duane, who lists her bio as “30+ years in print, 50+ novels, assorted TV and movie work, the NYT Bestseller List a few times, blah blah blah. Also: the Young Wizards series, 1983-2010 and beyond”–the kind of long-lasting, multi-media resume that superior writers build up. In a post on her blog about DC’s women troubles, Duane talked about being a comics reader and creator over the years:

BOOM! suggests you reserve and read SNARKED

beat-default

Via BOOM!’s mailing list, Chip Mosher has a pretty clear suggestion that shows just how publishers are living on a copy here and a copy there. With DC’s massive relaunch coming up a lot of retailer dollars are going to be tied up elsewhere so a book like Roger Langridge’s SNARKED needs every little boost:

FLASHPOINT is DC's latest game changer

beat-default

DC has released am image (click for larger) to mark the release of FLASHPOINT #1 today. You need to be a bit more versed in DC lore to know how entirely shocking this image is, but there is a monkey, and that’s always good. There are also different versions of Batman, Wonder Woman, and so on. Alternate universe, ho!

What we do know: FLASHPOINT, written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Andy Kubert, kicks off tomorrow, featuring the Flash and ushers in a slightly …”Different” world for DC. Which we’ve seen before but you know…it always works for a new generation.

Retailer Larry Doherty of Larry’s Comics in Lowell, Mass, himself no stranger to attention, went on yesterday’s “#comicmarket” retailing discussion to say that FLASHPOINT will be the book of the summer. Selected tweets:

Preview: Jim Woodring's Congress of the Animals

beat-default

NOT inked with a giant pen but incredible nonetheless, 10 pages of Jim Woodring’s first ever Frank graphic novel, CONGRESS OF THE ANIMALS.

For those unfamiliar with Woodring’s work, it is set in a strange world of hope and cruelty, where strange creatures enact tales as deep as time, not even needing words. Few artists of any kind have ever limned the subconscious with such terrifying accuracy and beauty.

Preview: Colin Upton's DIABETES FUNNIES

beat-default

Vancouver-based Colin Upton is something of a Canadian comics legend. He’s been producing rough-hewn, Rabelaisian mini comics since the 80s that deal in equal parts with autobiography and history.

A few years ago he was diagnosed with diabates, which prompted a massive lifestyle change, resulting is so much weight loss that when I saw a picture of the new Colin I didn’t even recognize him.

Preview: Colin Upton's DIABETES FUNNIES

beat-default

Vancouver-based Colin Upton is something of a Canadian comics legend. He’s been producing rough-hewn, Rabelaisian mini comics since the 80s that deal in equal parts with autobiography and history.

A few years ago he was diagnosed with diabates, which prompted a massive lifestyle change, resulting is so much weight loss that when I saw a picture of the new Colin I didn’t even recognize him.

Preview: AN ELEGY FOR AMELIA JOHNSON

beat-default

While comics dealing with cancer have usually been true life tales — Mom’s Cancer or Our Cancer Year — AN ELEGY FOR AMELIA JOHNSON takes a more unusual tack, following the two best friends of a dying woman — a slightly egotistical documentary director and a self-absorbed journalist — as they journey to bring her last words to the people she cares about. But if you think this is going to be a weepy about a saintly sick person…you are wrong.

Nice art: Toby Cypress and RODD RACER

beat-default

Longtime readers of The Beat will know we are big fans of Toby Cypress’s strange but beautiful art, seen on things like Killing Girl and The Schizophrenic. It turns out he’s launching his own small press company, Punkrock*Jazz to publish his own work, starting with the long -awaited RODD RACER a Fritz Lang/Frank Robbins/Milton Caniif story about fast cars, crizy cities and a young racer who gets more than he bargained for. Back in the day, they would have called it “Widescreen” but then the screens got too small.

Preview: The Arctic Marauder by Jacques Tardi — wow!

beat-default

An astonishing icepunk adventure by the great French cartoonist Jacques Tardi is coming in March from Fantagraphics. It looks incredible.

Preview: DENIS KITCHEN'S CHIPBOARD SKETCHBOOK

beat-default

TweetHere’s a small preview of DENIS KITCHEN’S CHIPBOARD SKETCHBOOK, which presents some of his distinctive work from another medium — cardboard! The book, published by BOOM!, goes on sale tomorrow. Following on the heels of THE ODDLY COMPELLING ART OF DENIS KITCHEN, an overview of the pioneering underground cartoonist published this summer by Dark Horse [...]

EXCLUSIVE First looks at Nevermore and The Warriors

beat-default

TweetDynamite has provided first looks at several of their March covers. DEAN KOONTZ’S NEVERMORE #1 (of 6) Written by DEAN KOONTZ w/ KEITH CHAMPAGNE Art by LENO CARVALHO Covers by DARICK ROBERTSON (50%), TYLER WALPOLE (25%) & LENO CARVALHO (25%) From the moment they first met, Bobby Godric and Nora Watson were meant only for [...]

A month of Previews: Dungeon Monstres by Killoffer

beat-default

It’s one of the more notable aspects of the Franco-Belgian comics scene that there’s no stigma either way for comics experimentalists to create genre work. Thus the trailblazing cartoonists of L’Association have variously worked on children’s comics and most light-hearted fare with great success. Such a work is Lewis Trondheim’s DONJON, which NBM has been publishing in the US. DONJON is a sprawling satirical fantasy about anthropomorphic warriors in a magical, ludicrous kingdom. It’s a darkly whimsical epic that’s a mash-up of D&D, CEREBUS, GROO, and any number of works by headliners Trondheim and Joann Sfar.

A month of Previews: Grandville Mon Amour

beat-default

Back to the previews, we’re proud to present a peek at Bryan Talbot’s Grandville Mon Amour, a steampunk talking animal mystery mash-up, or as Talbot puts it:

Grandville Mon Amour pits Detective Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard against an old adversary and ruthless urban guerrilla, Edward “Mad Dog” Mastock. It’s a fast-paced, Hitchcockian steampunk thriller.


If you’ve been following Talbot’s career at all you know he’s one of the most eclectic storytellers in the medium, producing a string of amazing graphic novels that show a range of emotion and imagination few can match — from Grandville to The Tale of One Bad Rat to Alice In Sunderland and the previous Grandville.

This is no exception.

EXCLUSIVE: A month of Previews: Lucky in Love

beat-default

On the occasion of Veterans day, what better book to preview than the extraordinary LUCKY IN LOVE by George L. Chieffet and Stephen DeStefano. The story follows Lucky Testatuda, a young man from New Jersey who discovers a lot about life and love in World War II. Stationed in the Air Force in the Pacific Theater, life for Lucky is a mix of worrying about death, inflicting fiery death upon others, and confronting the differences between fantasy and reality.

EXCLUSIVE: A month of Previews: Wolverine #4

beat-default

Tweet Continuing our month of previews, here’s a peek at WOLVERINE #4, the continuation of the “Wolverine Goes to Hell” storyline by Jason Aaron and Renato Guedes. In this issue “Hellverine” tussles with Colossus and an even…lower authority. The issue goes on sale December 1.