Hello and welcome to Multiversity’s look at the “Best of the Rest” of what’s coming your way in the now-available January 2016 Previews catalog. Having already taken a look at what Marvel, Dark Horse, DC, and Image have lined up for us, it’s now time to check out the other 75% of the catalog. Before we jump into the things you should keep an eye out for, a quick reminder:
And second, as one-half of the Robots From Tomorrow podcast, I go through the whole Previews catalog each and every month with co-host Mike Romeo, talking about things that catch our eye and quicken our pulse. If you listen to those episodes, you should still read this column because there will not be a 100% overlap, and if you don’t listen to those episodes, they are a great way to hear Mike & I go into further detail about some of the things I’ve spotlighted here.
That said, let’s dive in!
10. I SAY THEE… YAY!
It’s a safe bet that if there’s an Artist Edition solicited in a given month, it’ll end up on this list somewhere, probably at the top or near to it. So given that, why is a Kirby AE leading off the list rather than anchoring it? Well, there are three reasons:
1) Even though this list has numbers attached, those numbers aren’t to be seen as definitive markers of quality vis a vis any of the list items against the other items. The numbering is a necessary evil and one I try and be consistent about, but it ain’t an exact science, folks.
2) It still made it onto the list, so it’s not like I’m outright dissing it.
3) Two words for you: Vinnie Colletta. Any chance to see Kirby pages in a form as close to how they came out from Jack’s pencils is a chance you shouldn’t miss, but after years of seeing original Kirby pencil scans from Twomorrows, I can’t help but look at these pages and see missed opportunities rather than bombastic grandeur. So for that, it gets the 10 spot.
JACK KIRBY’S THOR: ARTIST EDITION
Written by Stan Lee
Illustrated by Jack Kirby
Published by IDW PublishingIDW Publishing is pleased to present the first Marvel Artist’s Edition featuring the King of Comics — JACK KIRBY!
Jack Kirby was the most important and influential artist in comics history. He co-created most of the Marvel Universe, including Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, Ant-Man, Iron Man, The Silver Surfer, and so many others — as writer, artist, innovator, his legacy is unparalleled. This very special Artist’s Edition features The Mighty Thor, one of the key characters from the fabled Marvel Age of Comics — all the grandeur and energy that infused Kirby’s work is evident here. Classic complete stories are included from Journey Into Mystery #111, #117, #118, and more, plus a beautiful gallery section!
9. JUST YOUR AVERAGE BUDDY STORY PAIRING A 7,000-YEAR-OLD HEDONISTIC IMMORTAL WITH A TEENAGED MARTIAL ART MONK
This may be a first issue, but A+A as a property has been around a while, even within the context of the Valiant relaunch. Originally the brainchild of Barry Windsor-Smith back in the Shooter/Valiant-era, this buddy roadtrip premise always seems to click with me whenever I see it. Of course, having it executed by BWS or later by Fred van Lente & company probably doesn’t hurt its appeal one bit. Rafer Roberts teams up with David LaFuente on this latest journey, which looks like one for the history books!
Continued belowA+A: ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #1
Written by Rafer Roberts
Illustrated by David LaFuente
Published by Valiant EntertainmentGET SMASHED…OR BE SMASHED! Valiant’s (somewhat) dynamic duo are going “IN THE BAG” for AN ALL-NEW ONGOING SERIES from rising star Rafer Roberts and comic book superstar David Lafuente!
Meet Armstrong: Since the ancient city of Ur, this immortal adventurer has spent the last 7,000 years drinking and carousing his way through history alongside some of the greatest merrymakers the world has ever known.
Meet Archer: A sheltered teenage martial arts master and expert marksman that was raised for a single purpose – to kill the devil incarnate. Little did he know that this undying evil was actually Armstrong (he’s actually a pretty good guy…once you get to know him) and, since hitting the road together, the two have become great friends and even better partners.
Now: Archer is about to set off on his most dangerous mission yet – a quest into the mystic reaches of Armstrong’s bottomless satchel to liberate his friend and comrade from the clutches of the mad god Bacchus! (Okay, so, Armstrong went into the satchel himself to get a bottle of whiskey that he kinda misplaced and got stuck. It’s like the Amazon warehouse of arcane treasures in there…and he doesn’t exactly have a maid service.)
Imprisoned in Armstrong’s satchel for centuries, Bacchus now commands a legion of monsters, goblins and golems bent on escaping back into the world of man and enacting revenge on their captor… Can Archer single-handedly combat the godly embodiment of intoxication himself – and rescue his best buddy – without becoming lost amongst Armstrong’s endless repository of bizarre artifacts and historical oddities in the process?
8. ALL WE NEED IS JUST A LITTLE PATIENCE…
When I think of Daniel Clowes and the type of comics he puts out, the phrase ‘psychadelic science-fiction love story’ is honestly not one that first comes to mind. It is, however, a phrase that piques my interest immensely. So seeing that wording used to describe the new full-color Clowes OGN means I’ve gone from not knowing about this book to having to exercise more than a little patience to wait and see what the cartoonist has been cooking up over the last five years since his last book.
PATIENCE HC
Written & Illustrated by Daniel Clowes
Published by Fantagraphics BooksPatience is a psychedelic science-fiction love story that swings from violent destruction to deep personal tenderness. It is also the first all new graphic novel from master cartoonist Daniel Clowes (Ghost World, Eightball) in over a half-decade! This full-color story is the biggest book of his career and affords Clowes the opportunity to draw some of the most exuberantly breathtaking pages of his life, and to tell his most suspenseful, surprising and affecting story yet. This is the graphic novel of 2016.
7. A LOVABLE WHIRLWIND
At least once a month I run into a book or project that I end up recommending completely on faith. Obviously a lot of the material in this column is stuff I’ve never seen before, but usually each project has some known quantity that I latch onto (creator, publisher, etc.). The ones with less of a pre-existing draw are the ones I feel more trepidation in recommending…but also more satisfaction when they turn out to be good. That’s why I take that leap for you, Kind Reader. This book is one of those leaps. I’ve never heard of either creator and the publisher is a complete mystery to me. I also have seen absolutely zero interior pages, so this could be the worst bio comic this side of a Bluewater reject. And yet, I grew up with Belushi movies and SNL reruns as a child of the 80’s. Calling him an icon is no hyperbole, so if someone is looking to tell his story and try to capture some of his essence onto the page, I’m willing to take that leap with them. But I must admit, catching that Belushi lighting in the bottle of the printed page (even with the help of visuals) is a tall order indeed. Let’s hope Schiavone and Manera have the same kind of understanding with the Lord that Jake and Elwood had on their mission from God.
BELUSHI: ON A MISSION FROM GOD
Written by Alberto Schiavone
Illustrated by Matteo Manera
Published by One Peace BooksAnimal House. Blues Brothers. Saturday Night Live. A gift for comedy practically unmatched in the history of cinema―John Belushi is one of America’s greatest icons. Belushi died of an overdose at the age of thirty-three, defined by fame, success, and an insatiable hunger for life. This graphic novel offers readers a new perspective on one of the most prominent figures in American comedy, chronicling Belushi’s rise and fall and showing how wild success can turn into sudden tragedy. Through a story rich in tenderness and passion, it brings to life the irreverent, excessive, crazy, profane, unpredictable spirit of an actor considered to be the ultimate testament to free thought and nonconformity.
6. YOU GOT THE TOUCH! YOU GOT THE POWER! YEAH!!!
IDW is doing a series of “What If?” one-offs with most of their licensed books called “Deviations”, and while I can take or leave most of the other books, the “Transformers” one hits me right between the eyes. Like I said earlier, I’m an 80’s kid, which puts me at the perfect age to have a nostalgic sweet spot for the point where this issue deviates from. Specifically, about 25 minutes into Transformers: The Movie (aka the ONLY movie worthy of being called a Transformers movie).
Optimus Prime is essentially the John Wayne of the TF universe, right down to the occasional speech cadence voice actor Peter Cullen gives him and the rifle he always carries around. The way that earlier generations knew everything would be OK once The Duke showed up, kids knew everything was going to work out fine once Optimus rolled into action. And never is this more evident than in TF:TM. The Autobots are exhausted and spent after having the Decepticons lay siege to their base for an entire day. Megatron and his forces JUST start breaking through the defenses when Prime finally shows up and takes out a swath of Decepticons in a manner so badass you don’t even have time to wonder why he never kicked this much ass in the cartoons before. (Probably had something to do with the writers wanting to make up for the fact he’d be dead less than 10 minutes later.)
Continued belowThe rest of the Autobots would spend the rest of the movie going up against a planet-sized planet-eating robot called Unicron (aka Galactus), his herald Galvatron (aka The Purple Surfer), and a whole mess of other weirdness without their stalwart leader. I’m sure this was intended to make Optimus’s successor Hot Rod look better by having bigger obstacles to overcome, but it really just made us wish Optimus was still around instead of the punk fanboy who got him shot in the first place.
But now, IDW will show us what would have happened if Optimus had lived through that final battle with Megatron. My money is on him just shooting Megatron, preferably through Hot Rod while Megatron is using him as a shield. Two bots with one stone…
DEVIATIONS: TRANSFORMERS #1
Written by Brandon Easton
Illustrated by Priscilla Tramontano
Published by IDW PublishingIn a World… Where OPTIMUS PRIME Never Died! One would stand and one would fall… and we all know OPTIMUS PRIME fell. But how would history have played out if he hadn’t? Would the AUTOBOTS have still stood triumphant in their darkest hour… or would UNICRON have reigned supreme?!
5. SHIPPING OUT ON THE U.S.S. STEVENS ONCE AGAIN!
It’s one thing to be a cartoonist today telling stories set in WWII; there are tons and tons of reference books and material available to help you try and recreate that world but there’s nothing like drawing (figuratively and literally) from first-hand experience to really do those stories justice. The problem is to have that kind of knowledge means you’re at least 90 years old, and how many of those cartoonists are still around, let alone producing new material? According to this month’s Previews, at least one: Sam Glanzman. His “U.S.S. Stevens” stories, done in fits and spurts over the last few decades, have finally been collected by Dover Publications, who last year also collected his mid-80’s “A Sailor’s Story” graphic novels put out on Marvel’s graphic novel line. And Glanzman contributed a new “U.S.S. Stevens” story to this collection, 45 years after he wrote and drew the first one!
U.S.S. STEVENS: THE COLLECTED STORIES TPB
Written & Illustrated by Sam Glanzman
Published by Dover PublicationsThe legendary Sam Glanzman set many of his tales on the USS Stevens, the World War II destroyer on which he served. This full-color, hardcover treasury collects more than 60 short Stevens adventures from Our Army at War, G. I. Combat, and other ’70s DC war comics. It also includes longer pieces from Marvel’s 1986 revival of Savage Tales magazine, the cover of 1967’s Combat, Sam’s very first illustration of the ship, letters to Sam from Presidents Barack Obama and George H.W. Bush, and much more. This collection also boasts a newly created, four page USS Stevens story, written and drawn by Sam Glanzman himself!
4. ANOTHER EURO-WINNER FROM EURO COMICS
We’re living in the Golden Age of comic reprints, and have been for some time. One of this age’s main instigators is Dean Mullaney, who found a second act in his comics career at IDW after the rise & fall of his earlier comics publishing endeavor, Eclipse Comics. Mullaney has been running IDW’s Library of American Comics imprint for nearly a decade at this point, bringing such newspaper strips as “Terry & The Pirates” and “Little Orphan Annie” back into the public eye with gorgeous hardcover volumes. But Dean set his sights wider than just the US, and last year saw the first release of translated “Corto Maltese” material from his Euro Comics imprint. With that series now up & running, Mullaney is bringing another Euro classic to American readers. I have no prior knowledge of this book other than what you read below, but unlike the Belushi book, there’s enough of a track record with Mullaney and the awards racked up to make this an easy recommendation.
Continued belowPARACUELLOS TP VOLUME 1
Written & Illustrated by Carlos Giménez
Published by IDW PublishingParacuellos is a work of great courage, created at a time when telling the truth about Spain’s political past could get one killed. It is arguably the most important graphic memoir ever created in comics. Carlos Giménez’s autobiographical account of the plight of children in post-World War II Fascist Spain has won virtually every comics award in Europe, including “Best Album” at the 1981 Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême, and the “Heritage Award” at Angoulême in 2010.
In the late 1930s when Spanish fascists led by Franco, and aided by Hitler and Mussolini, overthrew the elected government, almost 200,000 men and women fell in battle, were executed, or died in prison. Their orphaned children-and others ripped from the homes of the defeated-were shuttled from Church-run “home” to “home” and fed a steady diet of torture and disinformation by a totalitarian state bent on making them “productive” citizens. Carlos Giménez was one of those children. In 1975, after Franco’s death, Carlos began to tell his story. Breaking the code of silence proved to be a milestone, both for the comics medium and for a country coming to terms with its past.
An illustrated essay by Carmen Moreno-Nuño, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Kentucky, places the comics in historical perspective.
3. THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH IS A DEEP ONE INDEED!
Not to take anything away from Lovecraft, but the scariest thing about this book is that Culbard is so good at making each of his HPL adaptations a must-read that my bank account breaks into cold sweats whenever a new one is solicited. Seriously — this is his fifth standalone adaptation by my count; so between that familiarity with Lovecraft and making his stories work in comics form, PLUS his general craft-building on work like “Brass Sun” and “Wild’s End”, Culbard knows how to do Lovecraft in sequential art. You’d have a better chance surviving a face-to-face with Cthulhu armed with chopsticks and some wasabe than resisting the appeal of Culbard bringing another Lovecraft tale to horrific, shambling life.
HP LOVECRAFT’S THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH TPB
Written by HP Lovecraft (Adapted by INJ Culbard)
Illustrated by INJ Culbard
Published by SelfMadeHeroInnsmouth: a crumbling Massachusetts seaport shadowed in rumor and suspicion. A town inhabited by sullen and hostile people with disturbing, amphibian looks. It’s no place for a sightseer. Passing through Innsmouth on a genealogical tour of New England, a young man makes an ill-advised attempt to unravel the town’s long-veiled history. What unfolds is a terrifying tale of a town transformed by its interaction with a monstrous aquatic civilization. As Innsmouth’s murky history is brought to light, the narrator learns that the town’s mysterious past is tied to his own family history. It is a revelation that has chilling consequences for the present—and for the future.
2. A BLAST FROM THE PAST!
I’m as shocked as you to find something by Rebellion/2000AD here and not have it involve one of Tharg’s usual suspects, but I could not pass up the opportunity to plug the publisher’s republishing of the lost “GOLDTIGER” strip by Antonio Barreti & Louis Shaeffer that out-blazed Modesty Blaise and broke the ground James Bond feared to tread. Modern creators and project shepherds Guy Adams and Jimmie Broxton originally went to Kickstarter to get their dream project realized before Rebellion stepped in and picked up the tab, and since Guy has a better way with words about this subject than I, I direct you to their page for a better idea of what “GOLDTIGER” brought to the table back in the 60’s and brings to modern audiences in 2016. But rest assured, it was groovy, baby.
GOLDTIGER: THE POSEIDON COMPLEX HC
Written by Antonio Barreti
Illustrated by Louis Shaeffer
Published by Rebellion/2000ADAntonio Barreti and Louis Shaeffer’s GOLDTIGER, the iconic 60s comic strip that never was… until now! An obscure Italian artist and a down-to-earth British writer, worlds apart in both taste and ideology, came together to create a rival to Modesty Blaise that has lived in infamy. The duo’s adventures of Lily Gold and Jack Tiger were ultimately deemed too sensational for the nation’s newspaper pages and the strip was cancelled before it even ran. This enthralling book presents ‘The Poseidon Complex’, the complete serial, lifting the lid on comics’ most unsung creation and includes letters, scripts, interviews and sketches – all documenting the creation of the strip and the outlandish lives of its creators. It also presents ‘Goldtiger 2000’, offered to (but refused by) 2000 AD for its launch in 1977 and details Barreti’s continued refusal to let his groundbreaking ideas die, even if nobody wanted to publish them.
1. MILHOUSE!!!!
“Bartkira”, the brainchild of editor James Harvey, is exactly what it sounds like: a mashup of Katushiro Otomo’s “Akira” story with the characters from Matt Groening’s “Simpsons” world. And boy does it work, in part because Harvey cast his artistic net wide to get so many varied creators doing their own take on this bizarrely obvious concept. There’s a website set up for the curious to check the completed pages, but getting them from digital to print is a tricky proposition. Since neither Harvey nor Floating World Comics own the rights to “Akira” or “Simpsons” as far as I can tell, they can’t just print collections at will without incurring the legal equivalent of a laser strike from an orbiting satellite. But since Floating World Comics has donated the proceeds from the one compilation already released (in tandem with an exhibition of some of the original art at their Portland store) to charity, Otomo and Groening have given their unofficial blessings. So with another exhibition planned for April, it’s time for another book. Which means you can have this slice of awesomeness on your shelves, in hardcover, AND help out two worthy charities at the same time.
Continued below(FYI – This collection is listed in Previews under distributor Alternative Comics, not Floating World Comics)
BARTKIRA: NUCLEAR EDITION HC
Written by Katsuhiro Otomo
Illustrated by Various
Published by Floating World ComicsA benefit edition of Bartkira that collects a narrative sequence of massive destruction from Akira re-interpreted through the bug-eyed lens of The Simpsons. Proceeds from this book are being split between two charities, OISCA Coastal Forest Restoration Project in Miyagi Prefecture and Save the Children. A Floating World production.
Well, that was fun! Be sure to check out the Robots From Tomorrow January Previews episode this week and hear us talk about these books and a whole lot more. And let me know what books YOU’RE excited for in the comments section.
