Ozma on the stands, Wonderful on the app

Yesterday, Marvel’s Ozma of Oz hit comicbook shops. This is the third title in a series of L. Frank Baum adaptations Eisner Award winner Eric Shaonwer and Skottie Young have done for the publisher. In a sea of Oz spin-offs and re-imaginings, the pair have managed to distinguish their work with a cohesive brand of storytelling that is true to Baum’s plots and social allegorizing but rich with its own dynamism. Earlier this week, the team’s first run, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was released on the Marvel Comics app. The story is a delight for fans of Oz or the perfect detour for fans of capes. Revisiting the series was a great refresher and has got me excited for what is shaping up to be an excellent series in Ozma of Oz.

All Hallow’s Reads: Check out some of these cryptic comics for the iPhone and iPad today

Who doesn’t love a good scary story, especially this time of year? Just in time to make this Halloween even more frighting comiXology is delivering a magnificent menagerie of the macabre with some of the greatest horror comics of all time ready to go on the iPhone, iPad and even the iPod touch.

For a full list of all comiXology’s haunted offerings this year check out the online store. In the meantime check out a few worth while stand outs and long time fan favorites from the list below:

Batman The Long Halloween #1: Obliviously the holiday can hardly be complete without an appearance by The Dark Knight himself and what better way to celebrate Halloween than with this caped crusader classic. The Long Halloween follows the early trials of Batman as he stalks a killer who strikes according to the days on the calendar, worst yet, this same killer seems to have ties to some of the eeriest Batman villains of all time, but just who is ‘Holiday,’ download issue #1 and find out.

High Moon #1-#11: Werewolf’s and Cowboys, two of the halloween costumes that may never go out of style and neither hopefully will this award winning digital comic that celebrates 3rd year on the web this month as a comic tailor made for halloween. It’s a little tough to pick out a single issue from a series so ripe with horrors and twists so go ahead and download all 11 issues right now…if you dare!

The Walking Dead #71: Ever wonder what would happen to trick’ r’ treating if the world was actually plummeted into the Zombie Apocalypse? Read The Walking Dead #71 and find out. Be warned though, celebrating this frightful holiday during the day may not seem like such a bad idea after you’re though with this issue.

Night Owls #3: It may seem like every night is halloween night when The Night Owls are on the case, but when the Vampire criminals of 1920′s New York go after head night owl Ernest Baxter it’s up to the stalwart do-gooder to fiend for himself as partners Mindy Markus and Roscoe the Gargoyle have some issues of their own to deal with. The least may involve a pair of silver knuckles. Be sure to check out all the zany adventures of The Night Owls and don’t forget issue #1 is available for Free!

Trick ‘R’ Treat #1-#4: Remember the critically acclaimed halloween horror flick that proved nearly impossible to find in theaters last year? well there are no tricks to this treat as the entire graphic novel adaptation is ready to go on comiXology. Celebrate the feast of Samhain as it was meant to be celebrated

Vincent Price Presents #9: It really wouldn’t be halloween without a little Vincent Price. Throw in a tale inspired by The Grandfather of American Gothic Horror Edgar Allen Poe and a few frightful teenagers in the mix and the result is a gruesome tale with all the hallmarks of Halloween out in Full Force. The entire Vincent Price Presents series from  actually caters to many a sinister sensibility but issue #9 deserves special mention here. Read it to find out why…

Swamp Thing #76 & Hellblazer #9: A frightful crossover from two of the top titles in horror comics, be prepared for shocks, spooks and even a little bedside manner as only these early issues can deliver. Both titles pack plenty of spine-tingling chills and both titles are available for download right now!

Sandman #18: Why are Black Cats never a sign of good luck? perhaps it’s because of the demented dream reality from which they all come from. Witness the final tale of a dying Siamese cat as told in the eerie light of a graveyard after midnight. A rare issue of the Sandman series that fits nicely between it’s early horror roots and it’s more fantastical later runs. The Dream of a Thousand Cats is both visually creepy and conceptually cool, and ready for download along with the first nineteen issues of Neil Gaiman’s ground breaking series.

Naturally these are only a brief sampling of the many fright filled digital comics available from comiXology. Check them all out today and keep reading long after the sun’s gone down; even if it means sleeping with the lights on till Christmas.

OMG WOLVERINE YOU GUYS…Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Read Mainstream Comics

Marvel’s update of its 1950s – ‘60s sci-fi series Strange Tales, relaunched under Marvel’s oft-macabre Max label, enters its second season with an impressive new lineup of indie imports. Strange Tales II #1 includes returning successes Dash Shaw and Jhonen Vasquez, as well as art commix standbys  Jillian Tamaki, Frank Santoro, and Kevin Huizenga, among others. These names, big and small, MIGHT be sufficient to draw art nerds out of the lit comics lounges and into the weird world of Wednesday warriors. The question remains: what will convince the diehard fanboys to pick up a pamphlet full of avant-garde Avengers interpretations?

Answer: the same thing that convinces them to do most everything – Wolverine. This season’s opener “Dear Logan” reminds us that Wolverine is the best there is at what he does, and speculates that what he does is pretty gross. Within the confines of Logan’s own gym, containing a bare-knuckle boxing ring where superheroes and villains with healing factors can fight to the un-death, the proprietor reads a “Dear John” letter the likes of which even alienate an Al Goldstein. One might wonder why it is that, in the realm of high fantasy, a 5’3” hirsute centenarian hooks up more than any idealized Adonis in the Marvel universe. Or perhaps one does not. In any case, Mesmo Delivery Service’s Rafael Grampa produces some theories as to what goes on between Patch’s heavily populated sheets that creates such an incredibly high turnover rate. Um, at least the author of the “Dear Logan” letter isn’t Jubilee, right…?

The faint of heart and weak of stomach need not worry, however; Jhonen Vasquez, of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac fame, provides a chaser of much-needed levity by the issues-end. A wiener-addicted Wolverine disappoints a pair of starstruck second graders when he reveals (between mouthfuls of street meat) that his healing factor doesn’t work on heartbreak – oh yeah, and also he needs a couch to stay on for a little bit. Hijinx ensue.

The verdict, unsurprisingly, is that Strange Tales continues to be a terrific read for all stripes of geek and nerd on either side of the fine art fence. Another timelessly appealing subject – hot ladies, rendered by an art comics living legend – is promised to be on deck for the next issue, so stay tuned…

HellBlazer: Original Sins! The original John Constantine comes to comiXology

A man goes hungry on the streets of New York City while across The Atlantic John Constantine returns to his cozy London flat to find it riddled with flies and an old friend waiting for him. Thus begins one of the darkest tales of the DC Universe as the wildly popular Hellblazer series debuted hot off the heels of Alan Moore’s Watchmen back in 1988 to continue the much darker adventures of the supernatural detective Moore himself introduced while working on Swamp Thing a year earlier. Originally a ground breaking title for the main DC comics imprint it wouldn’t be till years later that Hellblazer would become the Vertigo staple that it is today as One of the few titles that often features a much darker take on the mainstream DC Universe.

Since it’ s humble beginnings Hellblazer has become a long time fan favorite as a series combines noir style horror with old fashioned ghost storytelling and a hint of british slang thrown in for good measure and these early issues capture the character of John Constantine at his dreary eyed best.The first nine issues of the Hellblazer series are available for download collecting the American debuts of Writer Jamie Delano and Artist John Ridgeway with it’s first story arc “Original Sins” noted for it’s strong political undercurrent as well as laying out the geography of the DC universe through Constantine’s travels where he faces off against psychopathic murderers, a group of eccentric evangelists, London gangs, demonic hoards and even the horrors of the Vietnam War. Taking readers from the plains of Sudan to the backstreets of Gotham City.

This is one arc that has continues to elude serious collectors to this day but is now available for download. Daring to go where even angels themselves fear to tread Delano and Ridgeway along with superstar covers by Dean McKean set a high standard for the series debut that would later be followed by other industry greats like Mike Cary and Mark Buckingham and continued to this day by Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Stefano Landini.

Hellblazer is a series that takes readers to hell and back by way of dark and dirty back alleyways, posh nightclubs, and of course demonic kingdoms of despair; blurring the lines along the way and always leaving readers hungry for more. John Constantine is a man with a haunted past, a troubled mind and a supreme gift, a hero for a world ruled by the damned and populated with mystery.

Get started with Hellblazer #1 for only $.99 cents then pick up the rest of the series after all it would be a sin not too.

A New Life for “The Secret of Kells”

The “Secret of Kells” is one of the most distinguished animated films of recent memory. It offers the aesthetic bliss and deft storytelling of a Miyazaki or the best of Pixar but is unique in its love of text and textures. The story, at its heart, is an allegory for the power of art and culture. Brendan is an apprentice illuminator torn between devotions to master artist Aidan and his uncle Abbot Cellach, the head abbey of Kells. Aidan teaches Brendan the imaginative force of art and hopes that Brendan will help him to complete an illuminated manuscript– what will become the Book of Kells. Abbot Cellach is more concerned with fortifying the walls of Kells to protect his people from marauding vikings.

When we received “The Secret of Kells” for the Comics app, I was curious to see how such a a vivid moving experience would translate to a panel by panel experience. Smartly, creator Tomm Moore and his creative team have reconfigured the stylings of the film while maintaining the use of illuminated manuscripts as an artistic base. Each page of the comic has its own ornate design, finding clever framing devices that are true to the story and each dramatic moment.

Here is how one of my favorite moments from the film takes on a new life in the comic.

The sinuous tree trunks here mimic a framing device seen in the film. But since we have a sequence rather than one shot, the frames form a larger grouping and create their own discrete pattern. Layouts such as these add further depth to the mood and meaning of the film.

“The Secret of Kells” comic is a rare work that supplements the original while truly standing alone as its own read.

Watch this space: Hack/Slash gets a new image

Ross Campbell's variant cover for Hack/Slash #6

Tim Seeley’s horror movie homage Hack/Slash (read over 40 Hack/Slash digital comics online, or on your iPhone/iPad) has grown rapidly, since its debut in 2004, from curiosity to cult hit to contender, with its move from Devil’s Due to Image, a stage play, and film in the works with Megan Fox reportedly covetous of the lead role. But with horror comics’ heyday so deep in the distance, what makes this title special enough to succeed on this level? The story centers on suburban high school nobody Cassandra Hack, whose life goes from bad to worse when her overprotective mother serial kills Cassie’s bullying classmates – and after death, her murderous maternal instincts bring her back from the grave to finish the job. Being your basic good girl, Cassie puts her mom back in the grave, and goes on the lam stalking a series of slasher film-worthy bad guys from state to state. Cassie’s world is a carefully engineered conglomeration of clichés native to the horror films Seeley obviously loves; fatness and ugliness are invariably sings of inner evil, every living female under 50 walks around nearly naked regardless of city and season, and the stringent social mores of the small towns are violently reinforced by the teen-eating demons that haunt them. It is all fairly familiar territory, despite the geysers of gore and the exuberantly elaborate kills, lovingly rendered by Seeley himself.

Read over 40 Hack/Slash digital comics online, or on your iPhone/iPad

Cassie Hack in a Betty Page moment.

Among the most obvious hallmarks of horror filmdom here is the selection of a heroine rather than a hero. Horror is one of the few male-targeted genres that routinely favors a female survivor – usually a sole survivor, the so-called “final girl”. This girl usually lives to see the light of day, as in the case of HALLOWEEN’s Jamie Lee Curtis, by virtue of, er, her virtue, while her vivacious, self-possessed, sex-conscious friends die screaming. This is the one unworn path that Hack/Slash travels, and this is possibly the key to its appeal; that Cassie Hack is a brainy, bespectacled badass is unremarkable. It’s that she’s a sexually provocative, heavily made-up, fishnet-clad teenage girl — a Suicide Girl even — whose transgressions go unpunished. That alone is somewhat revolutionary, without even mentioning the fact that she triumphs over evil with a talent for murder that routinely outstrips the killers she hunts. True, Cassie is also a declared virgin, so she has a ways to go before achieving full-on liberation, but she’s still a step ahead of deliberately dowdy Jamie Lee and company. In the case that the reader’s curiosity is peaked, it’s time for a little shameless self-promotion. Hack/Slash’s adoption by Image has necessitated a jumping-on point for new followers, and Cassie’s first adventure has been reprinted in the miniseries My First Maniac. If you are one of the unlucky folks who missed these issues in print, watch the ComiXology app for My First Maniac’s digital edition, coming soon to your mobile device.

Read over 40 Hack/Slash digital comics online, or on your iPhone/iPad)

Vive Hetalia!

I think I did enough head scratching when I worked on “Hetalia: Axis Powers” to bore a hole in my skull. No capsule review is going to do justice to the utter weirdness of this TOKYOPOP manga. The title, a blending of the words “coward” (hetare) and “Italy,” gives you a taste of what creator Hidekaz Himaruya is angling for. The series chronicles personified forms of nations as they live out sulky melodramas set in the period of, and between, the World Wars (with intermittent references that cover everything from ancient history to modernity). Rather than heady political allegory, “Hetalia” offers two-fisted historical comedy that’s more Bishonen slapstick than “Animal Farm.” I’ve seen some critics call out “Hetalia” for its lunacy and lack of historical rigor but its that free play of historical reference and the manic possibilities of manga that delight me. The series never bends to expectations of one mode or style. The first issue will give you a good sense of this versatility. We’ve got allusions to the Congress of Vienna and a story with Italy trying to disguise itself as a “tomato crate fairy.” While these examples speak to the scope and silliness of “Hetalia,” there is a disarming sincerity in its quieter moments; perhaps a reason why “Hetalia” has built up such a devoted fan base.

History buffs, maniacs, soap opera fans. Have I got a series for you.

Treehouse of Horror #16 roasts halloweenies in hell

The Simpsons comic Halloween annual, Treehouse of Horror, is a welcome emission from the ever-expanding Matt Groening empire, considering that the creator was himself an indie darling cartoonist long before he was “that guy that did the Simpsons”, with his acerbic funny animal strip Life In Hell. Gazillionaire Groening returns to his roots for a moment to provide the beautiful painted cover for #16, in which Marge (in her “Marge Attacks!” manifestation) sports a brainy bouffant and flash-fries a skillet of eggs with a ray gun whose magazine is also full of brains, in an appealingly absurd post-Raw flourish. Much in line with Groening’s erstwhile indie sensibilities, Treehouse’s artistic lineup is eminently capable of this blend of humor and horror.

Evan Dorkin, whose ultraviolent cult hit Milk & Cheese (1991-1997, Slave Labor Graphics) and evil-looking Dork comics make him a shoe-in for the Treehouse of Horror series. The former “Dairy Products Gone Bad” book was often repellently violent even for indies — so memorably so that the pair recently appeared in Devil’s Due’s horrific Hack/Slash #12. Though no longer a young punk, Dorkin does not disappoint with his tale of Treehouse terror in which Dr. Frink’s Jerry Lewis-inflected babble accidentally unleashes a hideous space monster, swathed in Jack Kirby power dots, on an unsuspecting Springfield. If you’ve ever wanted to see nearly every single Simpsons character pop like a grape in quick succession, Dorkin’s river of gore will satisfy.

Kelvin Mao and Kelley Jones’ second chapter is just as strong and plausibly grosser, with Flanders trapping Homer in an automated coffin that delivers him to the grave, drowning in donuts and dying from a bacon dripfeed. Making sense of it here would suck all the fun out of the story; it’s much easier to remark on Jones’ inky handiwork, which presents a serviceable EC Comics impression that shouldn’t surprise any readers of his particularly gothy work on Batman.

The latter entries are just as much fun if a bit harder to explain in the case of arch politico Peter Kuper’s psychotic Poe mash-up, the Telltale Bart, which somehow manages to leave not a single story out; the final chapter, penned by Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister with the aid of Tom Peyer, involves Homer going to Hell in the company of Hitler, Kaiser Wilhelm and others…which is too awkward to discuss in light of Lemmy’s hobbies. You’ll see. Go and pick up a copy from your local Comic Book Guy before they all sell out for the Marge Attacks! trading cards.

Recommended Digital Comics: Thor

I was treated to a timely surprise when I worked on the first few issues of the Dan Jurgens/ John Romita Jr. “Thor” that came out on the Marvel Comics application earlier this week. The late 1990’s series, from Marvel’s Heroes Reborn era, is a great contemporary forerunner for two of the books I’ve got on my pull list for the weeks to come: Robert Rodi’s “Thor: For Asgard” and Bryan Glass’s “Thor: The Last Son.”

The Jurgens/Romita Thor story delights with magnetic Kirby-esque art but remains grounded in the twin lives of the almighty Thor and Jake Olson, his modern host. In both this tale and Glass’s (which follows former Thor host, Donald Blake) we see the essential duality any and all Thor books should contain. We have entwined characters, a shared godliness and humanity at once. But don’t be mistaken. The Jurgens book is jam packed with the celestial, too.  It plumbs the cosmic politics of Asgard that we get a taste of in Rodi’s current book and taps into the classic sibling rivalry of Loki and Thor.

If that wasn’t enchanting enough, the first two issues have Thor teaming up with Captain America and Iron Man, giving us a companion to the dynamic John Romita Jr. art we’ve got on the stands right now in “Avengers.” The Jurgens/Romita “Thor” does it all. With Marvel’s Thor movie on the horizon is great to see such strength and variety in Thor books new and old.

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors issue 2 – A man throws up snakes that then eat eyeballs

This week Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors issue 2 was released and I was pleased with what it contained. The cover is a little misleading, anime death angel Bleez only shows up at the end, but nonetheless the contents were definitely strong enough to merit a purchase. The series focuses on Guy Gardner, who’s a great character, but succeeds generally in it’s closer focus approach to the Green Lantern Corps and its mythos. Whereas Green Lantern is the superhero book and Corps is the team book, this book is about the space cop and his troubles. This theme is explored through the main character, who contemplates his legacy at the start, as well as other characters like Arisia and Kilowog, whose analyses of their stations in life were sorely needed. It even looks like we’ll get a greater focus on members of the other corps, something many fans have been calling for since their introduction.

I’d read some reservations about the book when it was announced and with the release of its first issue, but if things continue this way I can say confidently they were without merit. Green Lantern charges along, too quickly, adding to the mythology and GLC’s scope is too large to give us important face time with the characters. This book bridges that gap and in so doing pumps up the Green Lantern mythos and makes it come alive.

On a side note, this issue pointed me to a success of Johns’ restoration of the GL franchise I had never seen before. As referenced in the blog post’s title, this issue introduces a psychic villain who vomits up snakes that somehow by eating eyeballs allow him to take control of other psychics and form a psychic network with the aims of revenge on the Guardians for some previous wrongdoing. That’s just kooky comic villainy in its most delicious form. What I realized was that in creating (or putting a greater focus on) the concept of the mistakes of the guardians of the universe throughout time, Johns has given the Green Lantern a rich new well from which many villains can be born. Batman villains are all about mental illness. Now Green Lantern villains can be about sins of the past. This idea– that a policing or governing system can make mistakes and that these mistakes will come to haunt it– is iconic and fits perfectly with everything that the corps is about. One more reason why the Lantern’s dominance may be here to stay.

Add Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors issue 2 to your pull list

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