Just as we’re fans of vintage comics, we’re fans of vintage cartoons.
We thought it would be cool to begin featuring a throwback superhero cartoon each and every day (or until we run out of vids to share). And really, why not start with an awesome piece like this, the first episode – Klaws – of the 1967 Fantastic Four series?
Check it out below, for some this will be “new”, for others, a flashback to a finer time!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyUv8SMy_64
Old Man Logan offers readers a look at a Wolverine that we’re not all too familiar with. See, Logan wakes to one day realize the world seems to be nothing as he knows it. He’s a stranger in a strange land, until the memories come flooding in and he’s forced to accept a future he would have once balked at.
The villains of the world finally got their act together, formed a massive alliance and not only obliterated superheroes, but just about anything in their path. What remains of those who were once gifted, fighting the good fight, is slim to say the least.
But the reality of it all is burrowing deep in Logan’s mind, and that’s never a good thing Logan dwells. He always has. And this time, he’ll dwell with a chance to change the future, as he’s somehow seen the clock rewound to a time just before the menaces of the world would take place as the alphas of the world. And only one remains: Can Logan change a dreadful future before it becomes a nightmarish present?
Jeff Lamire fires big, right out of the gate. And he does a stellar job of making Logan, a man once feared by anyone on the wrong side of his own stance, the law or the well-being of decent mutants, all but helpless. Domesticated and fragile, Logan will have his hands full if he hopes to get to the bottom of things and right a ship already losing course.
Artist Andrea Sorrentino does a great job of giving us something of a guerilla-style visual. Image details often masked by shadows, villains blending into one another, wide and expansive backgrounds, the perfect setup for focus on our heroes and villains. And Sorrentino doesn’t accomplish the look alone, colorist Marcelo Maiolo adds a great deal of depth to the book.
As a longtime fan of Wolverine, I’m always on the hunt for a new spin. A place Logan hasn’t yet ventured. A villain Logan has yet to collide with. Old Man Logan offers up a lot of the very things I search for.
Grade-A work, right here!
Order issue #1 right here.
Rating: 5/5
Dark Horse continues to push the envelope, releasing game-changing books and monumental tales on a regular basis. The next Dark Horse release that’s going to turn heads is Aleister & Adolf, a compelling piece that will be available later this calendar year.
Dig on a little bit of addition info from the Press Release:
This fall, Dark Horse Books is set to publish a perception-altering narrative from media maverick Douglas Rushkoff: Aleister & Adolf!
In Aleister & Adolf, media theorist and documentarian Douglas Rushkoff weaves a mind-bending tale of iconography and mysticism, set against the backdrop of a battle-torn Europe.
This all-new original graphic novel, beautifully rendered by Michael Avon Oeming (The Victories, Powers), views real-world history through a psychedelic occult lens.
In a story spanning generations and featuring some of the most notable and notorious idealists of the twentieth century, legendary occultist Aleister Crowley develops a powerful and dangerous new weapon to defend the world against Adolf Hitler’s own war machine—spawning an unconventional new form of warfare that is fought not with steel but with symbols and ideas. But these intangible arsenals are much more insidious—and perhaps much more dangerous—than their creators could have ever conceived.
Warren Ellis, author of Gun Machine, Red, Trees, and Transmetropolitan, says Rushkoff is “a cultural treasure and an eccentric author of big, strange ideas, never less than fascinating and always entertaining.”
Aleister & Adolf (978-1-50670-104-2) is in stores November 2, 2016. Preorder your copy today at your local comic shop or through these fine retailers:
My knowledge of 3 Floyds, or Alpha King, for that matter, is next to nonexistent. But one look at the press release that just came trickling down the pipeline and I’m mighty curious. This book sounds wicked good, so we had to share the news that Alpha King #1 will be headed our way in just a few brief months!
Here’s some info from the official press release:
One thing that legendary cult microbrewery 3 Floyds is consistently is “not normal,” and in celebration of this originality, pub-crawling creators Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets, Dark Knight III: The Master Race) and Simon Bisley (Hellblazer, Lobo) have teamed up with 3 Floyds founder and brewmaster Nick Floyd along with colorist Ryan Brown and letterer Jared K. Fletcher to delve into the twisted mythos behind the brand in ALPHA KING. Issue #1 will be on tap this May.
“This book is what happens when beer and comics conceive on a barstool,” said Azzarello. “I’m a proud poppa.”
ALPHA KING is set a long time ago in a metropolis far, far away (Hammond, Indiana), where Brewer and CiCi are producing a home-brew so distinct that it attracts the attention of a monstrous king and his horrid minions from another dimension. Swords are unsheathed, lines are crossed and sieges are laid for the rise of the Alpha King.
Featuring the insanity created by 3 Floyds—from their bottle washers to head brewers—this all-new series is a heavy metal mad mash-up through a futuristic medieval apocalypse. Zombies? Check. Barbarian hordes? Check. An Arctic Panzer Wolf? Sure, why not?
“I love the smell of hops in the morning…” added Floyd. “It smells like victory.”
As any Beer Geek can tell you, 3 Floyds brews some of the best and instantaneously memorable beers going today. Azzarello and Bisley bring their vision to the strange and wild characters created by 3 Floyds… guaranteed to be a hardcore epic that is “not normal” from the first page to the blood-and-beer-soaked conclusion. Cheers!
ALPHA KING #1 (Diamond Code MAR160510) will hit comic book stores on Wednesday, May 4th. The final order cutoff deadline for comic book retailers is Monday, April 11th.
The second volume of Postal differs greatly from its predecessor. While the focus of volume 1 is the connection of key players, a reunion between a violent man – thought long dead – and his son, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome. It’s also about the town of Eden and its slow shift in trajectory. Eden isn’t going to look quite as peaceful as initially perceived, but from the looks of things it’s going to take some time to reach an outright unravelling point, or, for that matter even a simple changing of the guard.
In Volume 2 writers Matt Hawkins and Bryan Hill create a slew of new subplots, but, unfortunately, push Mark’s problems a bit further into the background than I’d personally care to see. Where Volume 1 was focused on Mark first and foremost, Volume 2 is stretched to focus on a series of other personalities and budding struggles.
There’s a slight tonal change between each volume, and though our characters still feel like they felt in the first volume, the plans, and steps required to see those plans through, are beginning to feel markedly different.
Ultimately we’re left with more questions than ever before. The first volume produced some compelling answers while keeping secrets alive. Volume 2 spreads inquiries across a number of differing ideas. In this book we take a lengthy examination at a child killer, new tactics from the FBI and a plan to commit cold-blooded murder. These are but a few of the mysteries. Many more are thriving within these pages.
While I can’t claim to be as engrossed in Volume 2 as I was in Volume 1, there are still some fine qualities to admire. And again, Matt Hawkins and Bryan Hill keep our characters on the human side, illuminating qualities and flaws. Isaac Goodhart is also still living up to his end of the arrangement, giving us more beautiful artwork to gawk at.
I enjoyed Volume 2 quite a bit, but I’ve also got hopes that we bring Mark, his mother, Eden’s mysterious patriarch and the lovely waitress Maggie, back into more contained plots – truly together again, if you will. Postal is beginning to feel extremely broad, which comes across as a bit odd, as the first book kept the narrative very tightly spun, and that made our characters and their own conflicts and demons considerably more hypnotic.
We’ll see where this trio take the story next!
Order Volume 2 right here.
Rating: 4/5
Welcome to Eden, Wyoming. It’s a quiet community of just over 2,000. It looks comfortable. It looks welcoming. It looks safe. Looks can be deceiving.
Mark is the local mailman, afflicted with Asperger’s Syndrome, in love with a waitress named Maggie, and curious. Too curious. See, Mark is determined to learn the secrets of his town, and when a strange young lady surfaces, dead as John Denver (God rest the man’s soul), Mark’s life takes a sudden and terrifying turn.
The identity of the deceased is eventually learned, as Mark, as dedicated as he’s ever been, follows the breadcrumbs until he’s standing at the door to another existence. It’s an existence that will change his every perception of life, and an existence that will bring his unknown past to the surface.
But does Mark truly want to learn of who is? Of who his mother, the shady Mayor, is? Or how about his father, mysteriously absent from his life, does he really want to know the fate of his father, and what will it do to his already fragile mind, learning the truth?
I’m working hard to avoid spoilers, as this is such a magnetic and engrossing read that spoiling the details of the story feels criminal. I can’t bring myself to do it, but I can tell you this: From the moment Mark solemnly speaks the words “I’m used to the way you hurt me, mom,” you realize that Matt Hawkins and Bryan Hill are brilliant talents, capable of turning a graphic novel into an emotional experience.
There are few books as impressive as Postal on the market today. Isaac Goodhart is another piece of this awe inspiring puzzle, as his artwork is a refreshing and enlightening element of the book that deserves a wealth of respect. He gives us the kind of visuals that empower a narrative, and this particular narrative is already so powerful that it needs no assistance. Needless to say, with Goodhart involved, Postal ascends from the ranks of an excellent book to the ranks of a beautiful masterpiece.
This mysterious thriller will have you tearing through the pages (figuratively speaking, of course), frantic to uncover answers. Fortunately for fans of darker, mystery driven comics, Matt Hawkins and Bryan Hill are nurturing this story with the utmost care. We’ll have our answers, but we’ll be guided through much more chaos before we reach our destination. This is a ride I’d like to take forever.
Order Postal Volume 1 right here.
Rating: 5/5
If you’re not keeping up with Humble Bundle, you’re missing some stupefying deals (I’ve made a few purchases myself, and to say that I’ve been pleased with my purchases is a huge understatement). These guys are practically giving away hundreds of comics, and there are some absolutely amazing titles in their bundles.
Dig books like The Shadow, Splinter Cell, Justice Inc., Shaft, Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin or The Twilight Zone? Then you should head over to the official Humble Bundle page and drop a few bucks in exchange for a few thousand pages of brilliance!
Here’s a little more information from the press release:
Dynamite Entertainment again partners with Humble Bundle for one of the most jam-packed collections of comics and prose yet! This latest offering features some of the biggest authors in the publisher’s catalog, giving readers approximately $250 in content for a fraction of the cover price for fans to PAY WHAT THEY WANT for each bundle, and introduce themselves to Dynamite’s library of literary titles!
“It’s always a lot of fun to work with our good friends over at Dynamite,” says Kelley Allen, Director of Books at Humble Bundle. “This promotion is chock-filled with mega star authors, artists and creators to the hilt!”
“Dynamite has been incredibly fortunate to work with some of the greatest names in fiction,” says Dynamite CEO/Publisher Nick Barrucci. “This year marks the fifth anniversary of New York Times Bestseller Charlaine Harris’ first-ever graphic novel adaptation of her series, Grave Sight, as well as the anniversary of Dean Koontz’s incredibly suspenseful graphic novel adaptation of Fear Nothing. We wanted to mark the occasion by gathering together the work of numerous phenomenal writers into one great bundle, titles like Shaft: A Complicated Man (the 2015 Glyph Award winner by writer David Walker) and Legends of Red Sonja (a celebration of so many sensational authors, spearheaded by the talented Gail Simone). This will give fiction fans a low-cost way to check out Dynamite’s wide catalog of literary all-stars, and all in support of three charitable organizations: the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and Doctors Without Borders.”
If you got a kick out of the insane Grizzly Shark (many obviously did, as the book sold out), you’re going to want to keep an eye on Image’s new releases. Why, you ask? Because Grizzly Shark is returning… in color!
Yeah, we know – that’s awesome news!
Dig on the press release for more info on the return of Ryan Ottley and Ivan Plascencia’s slick new release:
Fan-favorite creators Ryan Ottley (INVINCIBLE) and Ivan Plascencia (RASPUTIN) return to the cult hit GRIZZLY SHARK, out for fresh blood this April.
“I am afraid of sharks so I figured the only way to overcome my fear is to make a miniseries about them,” said Ottley. “It didn’t work at all. I’m never going camping again. I am really excited about this trilogy, so much fun to go in totally unfiltered and unleashed and do whatever I wanted. And all in color, so glad Ivan Plascencia could join me in this comic making adventure! The last time we saw Grizzly Shark was 2010 with a sold out one-shot, so glad fans got a kick out of that, and if you loved my issue back then, you’ll love these new issues dripping with insanity.”
The sold out, black-and-white GRIZZLY SHARK issues will return, but this time in full color, and will kick off all-new issues to the series.
“My first time coloring Ryan Ottley’s work and big fan of the first Grizzly Shark B/W one-shot 2010,” added Plascencia. “Two things that I admire a lot about Ryan’s work are his dynamic storytelling and the way he manages to draw facial and corporal expressions. I laughed a lot on every page we worked together on this book! Definitely some of the best projects I’ve worked in all my career as colorist. So glad and lucky I got the chance to be part of this bloody series.”
The bloody adventures of GRIZZLY SHARK continue and invite new readers into the story of the world’s most feared animal, the Grizzly Shark.
GRIZZLY SHARK #1 (Diamond Code FEB160496) will hit comic book stores on Wednesday, April 6th. The final order cutoff deadline for comic book retailers is Monday, March 14th.
Ethan Young is one of those true talents out there, capable of doing just about everything in the comic world. We stand behind the man, 100-percent. We also stand by Dark Horse Comics, one of the greatest publishers in existence today. Dark Horse has gone out of their way to thrill us with insane horror and science fiction books, and it looks like that trend isn’t going to change any time soon!
Check out some very, very good news from the official press release:
This fall, Ethan Young, the acclaimed writer and artist of Nanjing: The Burning City, brings his immense talent to a sci-fi epic full of heart, humor, and heroism in The Battles of Bridget Lee!
The Battles of Bridget Lee will take readers on a multivolume journey through space as it follows the world’s next heroine to great heights.
There is no longer a generation that remembers a time before the Marauders invaded Earth. The remaining human outposts have been quiet since they fought back the alien aggressors, but there are stirrings of another attack. Bridget Lee, an ex–combat medic now residing at the outpost Farfall, may be the world’s last hope. But Bridget will need to overcome her own fears before she can save her people. Her legend begins here.
Ethan Young won a 2007 Independent Publisher Book Award for Best Graphic Novel for Tails.
The Battles of Bridget Lee Volume 1: Invasion of Farfall (978-1-50670-012-0) is in stores September 21, 2016. Preorder your copy today at your local comic shop or through these fine retailers:
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