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Books To Read: Best Graphic Novels:

November 2014

For my latest advance monthly recommendations, the creators and their styles and subjects come not only from the USA and UK but also from as far afield as New Zealand, Lebanon, Korea, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Japan and France. I’m singling out for special mention that rarest of sightings, a new graphic novel from Dylan Horrocks, his exuberant and philosophical gem Sam Zabel And The Magic Pen. Here’s what Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home and Are You My Mother?, has to say about it:

Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen is a tour de force. There’s something very pure about Dylan Horrocks’ comics. That’s perhaps an odd word to describe this book which is so much about desire. But Horrocks’ line and his imagination both seem to flow freely and directly from some primal source. If you’ve ever wished that Hergé had written comics for grown-ups—gorgeously drawn and playful adventures that explore the serious anxieties of midlife—your wish has come true, and then some.”

Which title will be your pick of the litter this time? There’s plenty to look forward to here from around the globe and on your doorstep, so enjoy investigating these upcoming titles and stretching your comfort zone! And see you next month…



Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga Book 1
by Jiro Kuwata
DC Comics
$14.99

The publisher says:
At the height the 1960’s Batman television shows popularity, a shonen manga magazine in Japan serialized fifty-three chapters, starring The Dark Knight, which were all written by Jiro Kuwata. These rare Batman tales were known by relatively few outside of Japan, until award-winning designer Chip Kidd’s 2008 book, Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan (Pantheon Books), introduced them to a whole new generation of Batman fans. In Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga Book 1, see The Dark Knight and his sidekick Robin fight against some of his strangest villains, including Dr. Faceless and the Human Ball. DC Comics is proud to publish the complete Jiro Kuwata penned Batman Manga adventures in three painstakingly restored and translated volumes. This collection is not to be missed by both Batman and Manga fans alike. Book 1 collects the first twenty chapters and begins when the Dynamic Duo faces the insidious threat of Lord Death Man.



Citrus Vol. 1
by Saburouta
Seven Seas Entertainment LLC
$13.99

The publisher says:
Citrus is an all-new your manga series that offers a bittersweet love story coupled with gorgeous artwork. Fans of Morinaga Milk’s Girl Friends will find themselves enthralled with Citrus’s unique blend of comedy, melodrama, and secret desire between girls. Yuzuko Aihara, a high school girl whose main interests are fashion, friends and having fun, is about to get a reality check. Due to her mum’s remarriage, Yuzu has transferred to a new, all-girls school that is extremely strict. Her real education is about to begin. From Day One, happy-go-lucky Yuzu makes enemies, namely the beautiful yet stern Student Council President Mei. So what happens when a dejected Yuzu returns home and discovers the shock of her life: that Mei is actually her new step-sister who has come to live with her? Even more surprising, when Mei catches Yuzu offguard and kisses her out of the blue, what does it all mean? 180pgs B&W paperback.



Earthling
by Aisha Franz
Drawn & Quarterly
$19.95

The publisher says:
A finely wrought account of aliens and alienation in the suburb. The German cartoonist Aisha Franz’s debut graphic novel details a few short days in the life of two sisters and their single mother. Set in a soulless suburb populated by block after block of identical row houses bordered by empty fields and an industrial no-man’s-land, Earthling explores the loneliness of everyday life through these women’s struggle to come to terms with what the world expects of them. Earthling unveils a narrative rich with surrealist twists and turns, where the peas on the dinner plate and the ads on television can both literally and figuratively speak to the most private strife and deepest hopes in a person’s life. As the sisters begin to come to terms with their sexuality, they are confronted by harsh realities and a world that has few escape routes for young women. Drawn in deep grey pencil, the claustrophobia of Franz’s crosshatching and smudging matches the tone of the book perfectly. Earthling is an atmospheric and haunting account of the inevitability of losing the dream worlds of childhood. 208pgs B&W softcover Read an 8-page pdf extract here…



Eel Mansions
by Derek Van Gieson
Uncivilized Books
$19.95

The publisher says:
Eel Mansions, Derek Van Gieson’s first full-length graphic novel, is a supernatural soap opera noir. Set in Mill City: a grimy place inhabited by new wave satanists, secret agents, booze-hounds, record-store clerks, conspiracy theorists, murderers, and cartoonists. Derek Van Gieson skilfully unweaves a knotted sweater of intrigue, suspense, and dark humour. Van Gieson is a Minneapolis-based artist, writer, and musician. His work appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the Stranger. 240pgs B&W paperback. Check out the Eel Mansions blog here…



Fertility
by Gosia Herba and Mikołaj Pasiński
Centrala Books
£12.99

The publisher says:
Fertility is a beautifully drawn, dark parable about cruelty and vengeance. About instincts, desires, and secret beliefs. It is believed that the rennet of a hare, taken with food, promotes the conception of male offspring. A few days before their big wedding, four village girls set out on an expedition to trap a wild hare. Little do they know about severe consequences their actions will have. For mature readers only. 36pgs colour hardcover. Gosia and Mikołaj both live and create in Wrocław. Gosia Herba is an illustrator and art historian. On a daily basis she works drawing illustrations for journals, magazines, music publications, and various institutions. She also paints and makes comics. In her works, she often refers to motifs found in myths and fairy tales, and uses figures of human-animal hybrids, degenerated creatures, and deformed bodies. Mikołaj works as a graphic designer. Together, they make children’s stories and comic book scripts, as well as work on the TARTARUS – GifArt project. Gosia has posted some artwork on her site here… and Centrala Books preview some pages here…



Funnybooks: The Improbable Glories of the Best American Comic Books
by Michael Barrier
University of California Press
$60.00 / $34.95

The publisher says:
Funnybooks is the story of the most popular American comic books of the 1940s and 1950s, those published under the Dell label. For a time, “Dell Comics Are Good Comics” was more than a slogan—it was a simple statement of fact. Many of the stories written and drawn by people like Carl Barks (Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge), John Stanley (Little Lulu), and Walt Kelly (Pogo) repay reading and rereading by educated adults even today, decades after they were published as disposable entertainment for children. Such triumphs were improbable, to say the least, because midcentury comics were so widely dismissed as trash by angry parents, indignant librarians, and even many of the people who published them. It was all but miraculous that a few great cartoonists were able to look past that nearly universal scorn and grasp the artistic potential of their medium. With clarity and enthusiasm, Barrier explains what made the best stories in the Dell comic books so special. He deftly turns a complex and detailed history into an expressive narrative sure to appeal to an audience beyond scholars and historians. 423pgs hardcover/paperback.

Art Spiegelman, comix artist and author of Maus, says:
Way back when the idea of a ‘comics scholar’ sounded like the punch line to a bad joke, Michael Barrier was a serious historian, a discriminating aesthetician, a trustworthy guide, and an impassioned lover of… funnybooks. His keen and analytic championing of Carl Barks’s Donald Duck, Walt Kelly’s Pogo, and John Stanley’s Little Lulu is revelatory proof not only that comic books are worthy of adult attention but that the most rewarding have often been those aimed at the very youngest readers.



Henni
by Miss Lasko-Gross
Z2 Comics
$19.99

The publisher says:
In a fantastical world where old traditions and religion dominate every aspect of life, lives a girl named Henni. Unlike most in her village, Henni questions and wonders what the world is like as she comes of age. Striking out on her own, Henni goes out in search of truth, adventure, and more! Written and drawn my Miss Lasko Gross (A Mess of Everything and Escape From Special), Henni is a commentary on religion, coming of age and being yourself. 168pgs B&W paperback.



Hit Vol.1: 1955
by Bryce Carlson & Vanesa R. Del Rey
Boom! Studios
$14.99

The publisher says:
The pulpy, noir ‘50s Los Angeles sleeper hit is finally collected in one volume. Los Angeles. It’s 1955. It’s dark; it’s sexy; it’s dangerous. Everyone has an angle. And while infamous gangster Mickey Cohen rots in a prison cell, Los Angeles ignores the blackest parts of the city’s heart…where clandestine groups of LAPD detectives moonlight as sanctioned hitmen knows as “Hit Squads.” Hit is a dark crime drama filled with murderers, rapists, and drug lords…and the men who will stop at nothing to bring them to justice. Based on true events. Some of the details of this story and certainly the names have been changed. 112pgs colour paperback. Enjoy some of Vanesa’s sample pages here…


Ichiro
by Ryan Inzana
Houghton Mifflin
$12.99

The publisher says:
Ichiro lives in New York City with his Japanese mother. His father, an American soldier, was killed in Iraq. Now, Ichi’s mom has decided they should move back to Japan to live with Ichi’s grandfather. Grandfather becomes Ichi’s tour guide, taking him to temples as well as the Hiroshima Peace Park, where Ichi starts to question the nature of war. After a supernatural encounter with the gods and creatures of Japanese mythology, Ichi must face his fears if he is to get back home. In doing so, he learns about the nature of man, of gods, and of war. He also learns there are no easy answers - for gods or men. New paperback edition of the 2012 hardcover. 288pgs colour paperback. Lots of cool interiors online here…



Insider Histories of Cartooning
by R.C. Harvey
University Press of Mississippi
$85.00 / $35.00

The publisher says:
Many fans and insiders alike have never heard of Bill Hume, Bailin’ Wire Bill, Abe Martin, AWOL Wally, the Texas History Movies, or the Weatherbird at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. And many insiders do not know why we call comic books “comics” even though lots of them are not at all funny. Robert C. Harvey, cartoonist and a veteran comics critic, author of several histories of comics and biographies of cartoonists, tells forgotten stories of a dozen now obscure but once famous cartoonists and their creations. He also includes accounts of the cartooning careers of a ground-breaking African American and a woman who broke into an industry once dominated by white men. Many of the better known stories in some of the book’s fourteen chapters are wrapped around fugitive scraps of information that are almost unknown. Which of Bill Mauldin’s famous duo is Willie? Which is Joe? What was the big secret about E. Simms Campbell? Who was Funnyman? And why? And some of the pictures are rare, too. Hugh Hefner’s cartoons, Kin Hubbard’s illustrations for Short Furrows, Betty Swords’ pictures for the Male Chauvinist Pig Calendar of 1974, the Far East pin-up cartoon character Babysan, illustrations for Popo and Fifina, and Red Ryder’s last bow. 224pgs colo paperback.



Intersect #1
by Ray Fawkes
Image
$3.50

The publisher says:
Bestselling cartoonist Ray Fawkes(Batman: Eternal, Constantine, One Soul, The People Inside) will cast a pall over November with this dark new series. Bodies shift and merge, warring with themselves. Blood rains from the skies. A child’s song is translated into toxic, thought-destroying whispers. Everything is changing. Everything is wrong. This is the world of Intersect. Fawkes explains, “Intersect is designed to work like a nightmare puzzle, transmitting information to the reader through symbols that reach behind the rational mind, into something deeper,” said Fawkes. “It’s a journey, beginning with four people in two bodies, chased through a rusting city by a relentless hunter. Where it leads is worlds stranger and more surprising…” 32pgs colour comic book. Image offer sneak peeks at some pages here…



I Remember Beirut
by Zeina Abirached
Lerner Publishing Group
$9.95

The publisher says:
Zeina Abirached, author of the award-winning graphic novel A Game for Swallows, returns with a powerful collection of wartime memories. Abirached was born in Lebanon in 1981. She grew up in Beirut as fighting between Christians and Muslims divided the city streets. Follow her past cars riddled with bullet holes, into taxi cabs that travel where buses refuse to go, and n outings to collect shrapnel from the sidewalk. With striking black-and-white artwork, Abirached recalls the details of ordinary life inside a war zone. 192pgs B&W paperback. Take a little look at inside pages here…



Milkyway Hitchhiking
by Sirial
Yen Press
$16.95

The publisher says:
There are as many people on Earth as there are stars in the sky. Milkyway, a peculiar cat with a pattern of the Milky Way splashed across her back, travels across time and space; sometimes to observe, other times to interact with an unfolding story. From Sirial, the creator of One Fine Day, comes the full-colour tale of Milkyway hitchhiking across the bright stars of people’s lives, loves, tears, and laughter. 350pgs colour paperback.



Mouse Guard: Baldwin The Brave And Other Tales
by David Petersen
Archaia
$14.99

The publisher says:
Mouse Guard is the much-celebrated series of 8″ x 8″ comics created by Petersen and first published by Archaia in early 2006. Since then, the series has earned several Eisner Award and Harvey Award nominations and wins, and three of the collected Mouse Guard collections placed on The New York Times best-sellers list for hardcover graphic books. In Mouse Guard, mice struggle to live safely and prosper among all of the world’s harsh conditions and predators. Thus the Mouse Guard was formed. They are not simply soldiers that fight off intruders; rather, they are guides for commonmice looking to journey without confrontation from one hidden mouse village to another. The Guard patrol borders, find safeways and paths through dangerous territories and treacherous terrain, watch weather patterns, and keep the mouse territories free of predatory infestation. They do so with fearless dedication so that they might not just exist, but truly live. Mouse Guard: Baldwin The Brave And Other Tales collects the four Free Comic Book Day Mouse Guard short stories that have been published thus far (2011-2014), plus two new stories. 72pgs colour hardcover. Watch a video of his 2012 Baldwin story here…



ODY-C #1
by Matt Fraction & Christian Ward
Image
$3.99

The publisher says:
An epic 26 centuries in the making: In the aftermath of a galactic war a hundred years long, Odyssia the Clever Champion and her compatriots begin their longest, strangest trip yet: the one home. A gender-bent eye-popping psychedelic science fiction odyssey begins here, by Matt Fraction (Casanova, Sex Criminals, Satellite Sam) and Christian Ward (Infinite Vacation, Olympus). 40pgs colour comic book including 8-page foldout.



One Year In America
by Elisabeth Belliveau
Conundrum Press
$17.00

The publisher says:
Belliveau’s story begins with a loss of innocence over ice skater Katarina Witt’s fall from grace by posing in Playboy. It is told through both drawings and email text between friends. The story jumps between Canada and the United States and travels abroad navigating life after art school, marriage and divorce. It is a year in a life, but one that is pregnant with memory, meaning and desire. It is a post-modern coming of age story which quite literally crosses boundaries. 112pgs B&W paperback.



Penny Blackfeather
by Francesca Dare
Sloth Publishing
£6.99

The publisher says:
Penelope Blake is an atypical young woman who would rather search for ghosts in a haunted house than try to find her prince charming at a ball. Desperately trying to escape her dull suitors and encouraged by the sarcastic ghost of her late pirate grandfather, Nathaniel Blackdeather, Penny is on the constant lookout for adventure! Anything but yet another boring aristocrat! In a world of magical critters and accompanied by her new found friend and his parrot, Penny finally finds the adventure she’s been looking for, and this magical experience will colour her life, quite literally. 148pgs colour paperback. Go read pages for yourself online here…



Prophecy Vol. 1
by Tetsuya Tsutsui
Vertical Inc.
$12.95

The publisher says:
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has developed a Cyber Crime Division to take on the increasing threat of high-tech crime. One day, on the video site YouTube, a man wearing a bag over his head releases a video notice of a crime that will be committed. The crime occurs and the pattern is repeated. And repeated, again and again. Now the TMPD must investigate this serious threat before like many things on the internet it is replicated and exploited. 208pgs B&W paperback. Read a feature on Tsutsui here…



Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City
by Pierre Christin & Olivier Balez
Nobrow Press
$24.95 / £15.99

The publisher says:
From the subway to the skyscraper, from Manhattan’s financial district to the Long Island suburbs, every inch of New York tells the story of one man’s mind: Robert Moses, the architect who designed it all. Now, in Pierre Christin and Olivier Balez’s new graphic biography, the rest of Robert’s story will be told. 104pgs colour hardcover. BDZoom have some previews and a Christin interview about it (in French)...



Sam Zabel And The Magic Pen
by Dylan Horrocks
Fantagraphics / Knockabout
$29.99 / £14.99

The publisher says:
A burned-out superhero comic artist goes on an adventure that spans time and space - with two female companions. Acclaimed cartoonist Dylan Horrocks returns with a long-awaited new graphic novel, the first since his perennial classic, 1998’s Hicksville. Cartoonist Sam Zabel hasn’t drawn a comic in years. Stuck in a nightmare of creative block and despair, Sam spends his days writing superhero stories for a large American comics publisher and staring at a blank piece of paper, unable to draw a single line. Then one day he finds a mysterious old comic book set on Mars and is suddenly thrown headlong into a wild, fantastic journey through centuries of comics, stories, and imaginary worlds. Accompanied by a young webcomic creator named Alice and an enigmatic schoolgirl with rocket boots and a bag full of comics, Sam goes in search of the Magic Pen, encountering sex-crazed aliens, medieval monks, pirates, pixies and, of course, cartoonists. Funny, erotic, and thoughtful, Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen explores the pleasures, dangers and moral consequences of fantasy. 210pgs colour hardcover. Explore its original online version here…



Steam Hammer
by Charles Cutting
Sloth Publishing
£9.99

The publisher says:
Following the mission of a Scottish squad to rid the country of a USA invasion having occurred after the War of Independence, this extremely violent adventure is modelled on a world where steam is the main power source and Britain has become a colony of the newly-formed United States. The violent Lt. Malcolm McLaine has little time to get rid of the invaders before the Scots unleash The Anvil on London, assuring Scotland’s safety but at the cost of millions of lives. The Lt. assembles a squad that follows him through thick in thin against the Americans. 124pgs B&W paperback. Sloth offer a downloadable episode here…



Storm
by Tim Minchin with DC Turner & Tracy King
Orion
£20.00 / £12.99

The publisher says:
A storm is brewing in the confines of a London dinner party. Small talk quickly descends into a verbal and intellectual battle between science and belief, as comedian Tim goes head to head with the mysterious fifth guest at the table - a hippy named Storm. With stunning original artwork, Tim’s sublime ranty beat-poem weaves through the world we live in, where alternative medicine is given credence and public funding, psychics have primetime TV exposure and people are happy with mystery rather than answers. While Storm herself may not be converted, audiences from London to Sydney have been won over by Tim’s lyrical wonders and the timely message of the piece in a society where science is attacked as the enemy of belief. Storm is the illustrated book born from the acclaimed internet sensation - the animation that has become an anthem for critical thinking worldwide, attracting over three million views. Now fully reimagined, Storm is a masterpiece that sparkles with beauty, wit, reason and rationality. Limited edition: only 2000 copies available in deluxe hardback, with exclusive extra content and signed by Tim Minchin. 112 / 96pgs colour hardcover/paperback. Enjoy the cartoon video version here…



Syllabus: Notes From Accidental Professor
by Lynda Barry
Drawn & Quarterly
$19.95

The publisher says:
Award-winning author Lynda Barry is the creative force behind the genre-defying and bestselling work What It Is. She believes that anyone can be a writer and she has set out to prove it. For the past decade, Lynda has run a highly popular writing workshop for non-writers called ‘Writing the Unthinkable’ - the workshop was featured in the New York Times magazine. Syllabus: Notes from an accidental professor is the first book that will make her innovative lesson plans and writing exercises available to the public for home or classroom use. Barry’s course has been embraced by people of all walks of life - prison inmates, postal workers, university students, teachers, and hairdressers - for opening paths to creativity. Syllabus takes the course plan for Lynda Barry’s workshop and runs wild with it in Barry’s signature densely detailed style. Collaged texts, ballpoint pen doodles, and watercolour washes adorn Syllabus’ yellow lined pages, which offer advice on finding a creative voice and using memories to inspire the writing process. Throughout it all, Lynda Barry’s voice (as author and teacher-mentor) rings clear, inspiring, and honest. 200pgs colour paperback. Drawn & Quarterly share a free extract here…



The Complete Zap Comix
by R. Crumb, Rick Griffin, Paul Mavrides, Victor Moscoso, Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, Robert Williams and S. Clay Wilson
Fantagraphics
$500.00

The publisher says:
This is a more-than-complete collection (it includes the unpublished 17th issue!) of the quintessential underground comic book. There scarcely was an underground comics world before Robert Crumb’s classic solo first issue of Zap. By Zap #2, he had begun assembling a Seven Samurai of the best, the fiercest, and the most stylistically diversified cartoonists to come out of the countercultural kiln. All of them were extremists of one sort or another, from biker-gang member Rodriguez to Christian surfer Griffin, but somehow they produced a decades-long collaboration: a mind-blowing anthology of abstract hallucination, throat-slashing social satire, and shocking sexual excess, that made possible the ongoing wave of alternative cartoonists like Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, and Charles Burns. The Complete Zap Comix collects every issue of Zap — every cover and every story, and even the Zam mini comic jam among the Zap artists — in a five-volume, slipcased hardcover set. It will also include the 17th unpublished issue with work by Crumb, Moscoco, Wilson, Rodriguez, Shelton, Mavrides, and Williams. Plus, an introduction by founder R. Crumb and an oral history of Zap by Patrick Rosenkranz. Zap is the most historically and aesthetically important comics series ever published. Also included exclusively in this boxed set is a portfolio of Zap covers by the eight artists, replicated from high resolution scans and proofs, and specially printed for this edition on acid-free, 100% cotton fine-art paper utilising archival pigment inks. 1,100pgs partial colour five-volume hardcover boxed set.



The Graphic Canon Of Children’s Literature
by various artists, edited by Russ Kick
Seven Stories Press
$38.95

The publisher says:
The original three-volume anthology The Graphic Canon presented the world’s classic literature from ancient times to the late twentieth century as eye-popping comics, illustrations, and other visual forms. In this follow-up volume, young people’s literature through the ages is given new life by the best comics artists and illustrators. Fairy tales, fables, fantastical adventures, young adult novels, swashbuckling yarns, your favorite stories from childhood and your teenage years . . . they’re all here, in all their original complexity and strangeness, before they were censored or sanitised. 448pgs colour paperback.



The Late Child And Other Animals
by Marguerite Van Cook & James Romberger
Fantagraphics
$29.99

The publisher says:
In this graphic memoir, a World War II survivor/single mother has a child out of wedlock, and the law threatens to take her children away from her. Hetty survives the bombing of Portsmouth by the Nazis in World War II, only to learn that her soldier husband has been killed on the way back home from North Africa. She must then complete the adoption of her young daughter June alone. A decade later, she gives birth to a bastard daughter, Marguerite. Now Hetty must go before a tribunal to prove that she will be a fit mother. What follows is the story of little Marguerite’s childhood in the recovering British naval port and the rural beauty of the Isle of Wight and in Normandy, France. The journeys and struggles over decades of this mother and daughter are linked in five episodes that veer between lyricism, wry wit, and harrowing suspense. The Late Child and Other Animals is an original graphic novel, a generational autobiography written by legendary punk diva and award-winning poet Marguerite Van Cook, adapted by artist James Romberger, the creator of the Eisner-nominated Post York. The team of Romberger and Van Cook is also responsible for the adaptation and art of 7 Miles a Second, their critically acclaimed graphic memoir collaboration with the late multimedia artist and AIDS activist, David Wojnarowicz. 180pgs colour hardcover. Read Calvin Reid’s preview feature for Publishers Weekly and read a sample page here…



The Leg
by Van Jensen & José Pimienta
Top Shelf Productions
$19.95

The publisher says:
Writer Van Jensen (Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer, The Flash and artist Jose Pimienta bring you the strangest hero that comics have ever seen! The disembodied leg of Santa Anna has returned from the grave—and with Mexico once again in peril, it’s up to the Leg to save the country in this rollicking, surreal adventure story that blends Spaghetti Westerns with Mexican history and folktales. Join the Leg on his unforgettable journey. 196pgs colour paperback. Catch the book’s trailer video here… and Comics Alliance have an interview here…



The Train
by Hung Hung & Chihoi
Conundrum
$15.00

The publisher says:
Already published in Chinese and Italian, The Train is the follow up to Chihoi’s successful book of stories The Library. In it Hong Kong artist Chihoi adapts a short story by Taiwanese writer Hung Hung about a surreal train ride. With dream-like logic one of the characters asks, “Have you ever imagined the world outside the train?” The protagonist waits for someone, a woman perhaps, and observes with trepidation each time a new car is coupled to the train and the occupants spill out. Chihoi has done it again in this beautifully rendered pencilscape of a dream. 144pgs B&W paperback.



Tooth & Claw #1
by Kurt Busiek & Ben Dewey
Image
$2.99

The publisher says:
This highly anticipated fantasy epic can best be described as Conan meets Kamandi with a Game of Thrones-style storytelling experience. In Tooth & Claw, a secret conclave of wizards brings a legendary champion forward through time from the forgotten past to save the world—with disastrous consequences. Featuring swords, sorcery, beast-wizards, gods, sprawling animal empires, golems of radioactive decay, crystalline badlands, con women, ancient armouries, young love, mystery, blood and death and treachery and destiny… Tooth & Claw is the sprawling, world-building fantasy series readers have been waiting for. And while the emphasis is on adventure, exploration and a simmering conflict that will set the world’s most revered hero against the gods themselves, the adventurers won’t be the only ones breaking new ground. Tooth & Claw is Busiek’s first Mature Readers series, and he’s looking forward to the freedom it offers. 48pgs colour comic book. Image serve up some tasters here…



Wisher Vol.1: Nigel
by Sebastien Latour & Giulio De Vita
Cinebook
$11.95 / £6.99

The publisher says:
The struggle of the last surviving magical creatures against the government agency that wants them dead. Nigel Grant has a gift: he’s very, very good at finding whatever people want for them. Thanks to that almost supernatural skill, he lives a comfortable, carefree life in London. But one day, a client and friend of his throws himself under an underground train. Shocked by the unexpected death, Nigel is soon swept into a web of intrigue, deception and death as he realises that suicide and the subsequent incidents all revolve around one person: him. 48pgs colour paperback. Izneo lets you read six translated pages on their site here…

Posted: August 31, 2014

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1001 Comics  You Must Read Before You Die edited by Paul Gravett