This week, we’ve looked at upcoming titles from Image, DC, Marvel, and manga publishers. Now, it’s time to look at everything else. It’s the best of the rest for October 2022.
1. Into Darkness
The late Tim Sale’s work echoed across comics. While maybe never as cited or spotlit as much as contemporaries like Frank Miller or Alan Moore or Dave Gibbons, his dark images of wiry, frantic lines, his explosions of blank space, and his designs abstracted to the point of Cubism have influenced, as it always is in these cases for better or worse, generations of superhero titles. “The Amazon” is an early work, a collaboration with Steven T. Seagal. It’s a “Heart of Darkness” story, a descent into the unknown. Dark Horse pulls out all the stops for their reprint, including new colors by Matt Hollingsworth and a signature of special features, all to make a fitting tribute to Sale.
The Amazon
Written by Steven T. Seagal
Illustrated by Tim Sale
Published by Dark HorseOne of the earliest projects from acclaimed writer Steven T. Seagle and superstar artist Tim Sale returns in a gorgeous hardcover edition!
The Amazon jungle is among the most ancient and biologically diverse places on earth, but it’s being plundered for its resources and destroyed at a rate of thousands of acres a day. Reporter Malcolm Hilliard travels to this remote land of mystery to investigate the disappearance of an American worker and the subsequent sabotage of a timber company. Once there, Malcolm learns about the local cultures and myths, experiences the dark underside of industrial progress, gets drugged and left to fend for himself in the jungle, and is confronted by the Spirit of the Amazon itself in Seagle and Sale’s South American Heart of Darkness.
2. The Collective
Although he already created nearly a dozen comics, “Moms” was the first book by Korean cartoonist Yeong-shin Ma to be translated to English. Now, Drawn & Quarterly presents this enormous (636 pages!) epic about three artists, all of them older, all of them struggling to distinguish themselves against younger generations, and their attempts to make it big. It’s a competition of reality show proportions for these characters, delivered with humor and despair.
Artist
Written and Illustrated by Yeong-shin Ma
Published by Drawn & QuarterlyIn Artist three artists are on the outer limits of relevancy in an arts culture that celebrates youth. They’re caught in circular arguments about what makes real art and concerned about the vapid interests of their younger contemporaries, none of them are reaping the benefits of success. But there’s always another chance to make it. When it comes time, out of the three, who will emerge as an acclaimed artist? More important, when one artist’s star rises, will he leave the rest behind?
3. Catty Spells, Man
Look, we know that in all renditions of “Sabrina,” Salem is the absolute best. Therefore, it’s fitting he gets his own one-shot adventure just in time for the Halloween season. The work I’ve seen by Dan Schoening has been heavy on action and spectacle, so I’d be interested to see how he pulls off something more horrific.
Chilling Adventures of Salem
Written by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Dan Schoening
Published by Archie ComicsSalem the Cat has always been known as Sabrina’s familiar, but what happens when Sabrina’s not around to protect him (or, as is more the case, when he doesn’t have to protect her)? This special one-shot explores a different side of Salem’s life, one in which he acts as an anti-hero enacting vigilante justice on those who hurt others like him… animals, in a horror story that’s equal parts Pet Sematary and Hereditary.
4. Over Time, Over Sea, You Came
Mothra, oh Mothra
If we were to call for help
Over time, over sea, like a wave you’d come
Our guardian angel
Mothra, oh Mothra
Of forgotten kindness and ruined spirits
Continued below
We pray for the people’s spirit as we sing
This song of love
Mothra, oh Mothra
If we were to call for help
Over time, over sea, like a wave you’d come
Our guardian angel.
Godzilla: Best of Mothra
Published by IDW ComicsMothra! Second only to the King of Monsters, the goddess of peace graces the pages of this special one-shot reprint, showcasing some of the greatest Mothra stories that have ever fluttered through IDW’s comics. One hundred beautiful pages written and rendered by a variety of superstar scribes and artists are sure to show kaiju fans everywhere why Mothra is one of the best of the best!
5. Forty Years On
Forty years on, “Love & Rockets” remains a comic juggernaut. Over the years, Fantagraphics have released several editions of Los Bros Hernandez’s seminal comics, including in volumes that group the work by story, by cartoonist, and by arc. There’s standalone adventures printed oversized. There’re sporadically appearing floppy magazines. In this box set, though, we’re given exact replications of the first fifty issues of “Love & Rockets,” the first volume of the series. (I think the newest stuff is vol. IV.) Although pricey, it’s the best way to experience the magazine as it originally appeared, to see how the stories played off each other, stacked together and crammed in in that way only underground comix dared to attempt.
Love & Rockets: The First Fifty
Written and Illustrated by Los Bros Hernandez
Published by FantagraphicsFantagraphics celebrates the 40th anniversary of Love and Rockets and the debut of the Hernandezes’ first published comics with an impressive eight-volume slipcase collecting the series’ first 50 issues. Painstakingly compiled in issue by- issue facsimile – including every cover, comics page, letter column, and even ads! – the comic books are presented just as they appeared between 1982 and 1996, recreating not only the reading experience of tens of thousands of fans, but of a particularly fecund period in comics history when a new generation of cartoonists was exploding the idea of what comics could be. An eighth volume contains numerous other essays, reviews, and profiles written concurrently, a virtual history of the growth of Love and Rockets and the simultaneous rise of the literary comics movement of which they were exemplars and trailblazers.
6. Super Stars
A superstar team through and through. I’m excited to see how Snyder and Francavilla’s collaboration works away from the confines of the big superhero power houses.
Night of the Ghoul
Written by Scott Snyder
Illustrated by Francesco Francavilla
Published by Dark HorseShot in 1936, Night of the Ghoul by writer/director T.F. Merritt was meant to sit beside Frankenstein and Dracula as an instant classic . . . But the legendary film never made it to the silver screen. Just before editing was finished, a mysterious studio fire destroyed the footage and killed the cast and crew celebrating at the wrap party. Forest Inman is a horror film obsessive who digitizes old films for the famed Aurora movie studio. When Forest stumbles across a seemingly forgotten canister of footage, he just might have discovered the remnants of the lost classic Night of the Ghoul. This discovery sends Forest on a dark odyssey, where he’s warned by a mysterious old man that the film’s ghoul is far more than a work of fiction: it’s a very real monster who plans to kill him.
7. Early Work from a Master
Before he was Miyazaki, Hayao Miyazaki filled his time between animation projects making manga, like “The People of the Desert” and “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,” which he adapted to film in 1984. One of those early mangas was “Shuna’s Journey” (in Japanese: “Shuna no Tabi”), a single volume adventure rendered in Miyazaki’s exquisite watercolors. Originally published in 1983, First Second has acquired the official English translation of the work, though I’m sure fan translations have bounced around since the advent of the internet. With a name this big, expect First Second to put out a gorgeous presentation of an enthralling narrative.
Continued belowShuna’s Journey
Written and Illustrated by Hayao Miyazaki
Translated by Alex Dudok De Wit
Published by First SecondFrom legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki comes a new manga classic about a prince on a quest for a golden grain that would save his land, never before published in English! Shuna, the prince of a poor land, watches in despair as his people work themselves to death harvesting the little grain that grows there. And so, when a traveler presents him with a sample of seeds from a mysterious western land, he sets out to find the source of the golden grain, dreaming of a better life for his subjects. It is not long before he meets a proud girl named Thea. After freeing her from captivity, he is pursued by her enemies, and while Thea escapes north, Shuna continues toward the west, finally reaching the Land of the God-Folk. Will Shuna ever see Thea again? And will he make it back home from his quest for the golden grain?
8. Retro Love
A love letter to bad video games and old friends, Edgar Camacho’s “Super Trash Clash” is a spectacle of action, heart, and vintage battles. Camacho’s presence has been growing in English-speaking corners since his award-winning “Onion Skin” was published by Top Shelf, and “Super Trash Clash” looks like it will only cement his reputation further. His art is exciting, tactile, and fluid, his imagination boundless.
Super Trash Clash
Written and Illustrated by Edgar Camacho
Published by Top Shelf ProductionsIt’s an age-old story: for her birthday, Dul wanted the hottest new video game, but her mom accidentally bought her Super Trash Clash-one of the worst games ever made. But years later, when an older Dul finds a cartridge in a vintage store, memories come flooding back: simpler times when she could disappear into electronic worlds or spend hours battling with friends and enemies, and the love and sacrifices that bound her family together. This vivid and action-packed graphic novel from Mexican rising star Edgar Camacho is a heartwarming reflection on what gaming means to kids, crammed full of Easter eggs and tributes to the games that shaped our culture.
9. Like Us
Ella and Madeline try to piece together one chaotic night that resulted in them acquiring a great many things that did not previously belong to them. Lucie Bryon has this old school Japanese style, with rounded heads and expressive limbs. This is already a book that resonates, and it’s great it’s reaching more audiences in this English translation.
Thieves
Written and Illustrated by Lucie Bryon
Published by NobrowElla and Madeleine don’t know it yet, but they’re about to embark on the strangest romantic adventure of their lives! What happened last night? Ella can’t seem to remember a single thing from the party the night before at a mysterious stranger’s mansion, and she sure as heck doesn’t know why she’s woken up in her bed surrounded by a magpie’s nest of objects that aren’t her own. And she can’t stop thinking about her huge crush on Madeleine, who she definitely can’t tell about her sudden penchant for kleptomania… But does Maddy have secrets of her own? Can they piece together that night between them and fix the mess of their chaotic personal lives in time to form a normal, teenage relationship? That would be nice.
10. Daydreams and Yellow Kings
Like many Tor books, “Where Black Stars Rise” takes a genre classic, in this case, Roberts Chambers’s “The King in Yellow,” and reexamines it with a modern lens. (Think “The Ballad of Black Tom” or “The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe.) It’s horror stacked on horror stacked on horror, and completely set to settle into your bones.
Where Black Stars Rise
Written by Nadia Shammas
Illustrated by Marie Enger
Published by TOR NightfireDr. Amal Robardin, a newly-licensed therapist who recently immigrated to Brooklyn from Beirut, is treating her first patient: Yasmin, who is schizophrenic. The two get off to a rocky start, and as Yasmin’s night terrors increase and the looming figure at the foot of her bed creeps closer every night, Amal begins to worry that she’s out of her depth. Convinced that what she is experiencing is not a delusion, Yasmin becomes obsessed with Robert Chambers’ The King in Yellow. Messages she finds in the book lead Yasmin to flee her home, seeking answers she can’t find in therapy. Distraught over Yasmim’s sudden disappearance, Amal attempts to retrace her patient’s last steps-and accidentally slips through dimensions, ending up in Carcosa, the King in Yellow’s realm. Trapped and determined to find her way out, Amal enlists the help of a mysterious guide, but is he a friend … or her tormentor?
That’s all from me. Let me know what you’re excited about in the comments.
