TONY’S TIPS #185

Maybe it’s the approaching holiday season, but I’m in such a great mood this week that I’m writing about not one, not two, but three picks of the week. Do you hear that, Santa? Is that worth another check in the “nice” column?

Mark Crilley’s Brody’s Ghost Collected Edition [Dark Horse Books; $24.99] gathers all six volumes of the supernatural thriller by the creator of Akiko and Miki Falls. The former is one of my all-time favorite comic-book series, one I used to read to my children when they were young enough to let me do that sort of thing. The latter is a love story with the heroine being a high school senior and the hero a young man with a secret. Crilley has also written books on drawing comics and manga. Simply put, he is one of the most skilled creators of our time.

Brody’s Ghost is a 600-page epic combining the search for a serial killer with a love story and supernatural action. Brody is having a bad life, losing his girlfriend, his job and even his home. But his world gets turned even more upside down when he sees a ghostly girl, gets recruited into her quest to bring the serial killer to justice and discovers he has hidden powers. The girl isn’t telling him everything, the killer is as mysterious and scary as any you’ve seen on shows like Criminal Minds and the powers, well, they might be pushing his former life even further away.

Manga is a big influence on Crilley’s work; he’s taught English in Fukushima, Japan, and Taiwan. But his mastery of the comic art form is evident in his instructional books and videos. Just as this epic adventure combines elements of several genres, Crilley brings all his diverse influences and skills to bear in this story. He creates characters that remain with you and puts them into situations that keep you on the edge of your seat.

As the holidays draw ever closer, I’m always considering whether or not the items I review here would make good gifts and for whom they would make good gifts. Brody’s Ghost strikes me as something that would appeal to manga fans and mystery fans alike. It’s not unlike a C.S.I. procedural if you switch the science for the supernatural. There are clues and they must be followed. Stick with this story. I assure you it will satisfy you and then some.

ISBN 978-1-61655-901-4

******************************

tarzan

Tarzan is a classic character whose long existence has become more than a little problematic in today’s world. The “white jungle god” notion is often offensive. That Thomas Yates’ Tarzan: the Beckoning [Dark Horse Books; $19.99] avoids that pitfall is a credit to the writer/artist’s talents and sensibilities.

This is a Tarzan who is not the white jungle god of all Africa. He is a confident, powerful man who is more at home in Africa than he is anywhere else in the world. He is a man who moves through Africa with obvious respect for its people, its creatures and its wonders. He does not project himself as any kind of ruler, but as a man who follows the dictates of his conscience and would be a friend to all those of good character.

Yeates is no stranger to classic heroes, having worked on Zorro and Prince Valiant. In this collection of his seven-issue Tarzan series from 1992-93, the immortal hero and his equally immortal wife have been living in America and battling the illegal trade in ivory. Tarzan and the elephants of his African home have long shared an astonishing bond of friendship and, when he discovers the harvested tusks of his brothers, his rage is scarcely controllable. Thus we get an adventure with one foot planted firmly in the modern world of corporate greed and individual malice.

There’s more to the story. We learn how Tarzan and Jane came to be immortal. We see the machinations of a trickster god facing death. We enter a lost civilization. Yeates delivers action, romance and suspense. It’s a thrilling tale.

Tarzan: the Beckoning should be a pleasing gift to fans of Tarzan and his creator Edgar Rice Burroughs. It should also be a terrific gift for fans of Yeates, of which I am definitely one. That’s why it’s the second of this week’s three picks of the week.

ISBN 978-1-61655-981-6

******************************

misty

Misty by Pat Mills and others [Rebellion; $19.99] gives us a look at the influential girls horror comic published in the U.K. shortly after the launch of 2000 AD. As Mills relates in his foreword, the girls comics always sold better than the boys comics. As for me, I have always been intrigued by and enjoyed the weekly format of such titles and still hope that, one day, I will get the opportunity to write for one of them.

The Shirley Bellwood cover is a alluring portrait of Misty herself, the host of the weekly. To be the best of my limited knowledge, Misty didn’t star in her own feature but introduced features within the title. The weekly ran for 101 issues from February 4, 1978 to January 12, 1980 before being incorporated into the longer-running Tammy. This sort of merger was common in British weeklies.

This trade paperback collects two serials. “Moonchild” by Mills and John Armstrong tells of Rosemary Black, a girl with strange powers and being raised by a mother driven by her own more earthly demons. Mills says it was inspired by Stephen King’s Carrie, but, compared to that classic work, it’s fairly tame. Still, Mills always comes through with a riveting story and this is no exception.

The book’s second and even better serial is “The Four Faces of Eve” by Malcolm Shaw with art by Brian Delaney. Eve Marshall is a girl with no memory of her past, a past deliberately hidden from her by her parents…and that’s all you’re getting from me because I don’t want to spoil even the slightest of the great twists and turns that await you in this story.

Who would be a good recipient of the gift of Misty? Besides me, who already has his copy? Comics historians curious about the British weeklies leap to mind as do devotees of romance comics, even though neither of these two serials includes a romantic element. It just seems to me like something romance fans would enjoy.

Here’s hoping Rebellion continues to mine the comics libraries they have acquired for more books like this one.

ISBN 978-1-78108-452-6

I’ll be back next week with more reviews.

© 2016 Tony Isabella

TONY’S TIPS #184

My pick of the week will come as no surprise to readers aware of my manic love for the seriously weird. Craig Yoe’s Super Weird Heroes: Outrageous But Real! [IDW; $39.99] collects over two-dozen comics tales of the 1940s and 1950s starring some of the strangest super-heroes of all time. Where do I begin?

There’s the Hand, who is just that and nothing more, a disembodied hand that can increase its size in its wart against crime. There’s Captain Hadacol, the spokeshero for a muscle-building drink which was at least 12% alcohol. No wonder kids loved it!

Religious heroes are well represented by Kismet, the Man of Fate, who was likely the first Muslim super-hero in comic books, and the Deacon, who wore a priest’s outfit and had a young male sidekick. The famous Madam Fatal was a guy who dressed up like an old lady to beat the bejabbers out of bad guys. Rainbow Boy left a rainbow in his wake as he flew across the sky and could also mold his rainbows into objects. Jerry Siegel’s Nature Boy could request (not really command) the forces of nature to assist him against criminals and usually man-made menaces.

Yoe, who designed and edited this 328-page treasure, kicks things off with a fun, informative introduction. He also write intros for each of his super-hero assemblage. Captain Truth, who looked like a half-naked musketeer. Fantomah, the super-powered goddess whose head turned into a scary skull when he was really ticked off at the evil men she confronted. Kangaroo Man with his kangaroo sidekick. Yellowjacket, who fought crime with bees because he didn’t realize yellowjackets were wasps. Miss Liberty, who never appeared inside a comic book, just as a floating head shot in the logo of Miss Liberty Comics #1 and only.

Super Weird Heroes: Outrageous But Real is enormous fun and would make a suitable gift for anyone who loves comics history, super-heroes or weird stuff in general. I recommend you read two or three stories a day, savoring the insanity without plunging full on into madness.

More goodness. Super Weird Heroes: Preposterous But True! [$39.99], a sequel to this wonderful tome, has already been scheduled for a March 2017 release. I am deliriously happy.

Super Weird Heroes: Outrageous But Real:

ISBN 978-1631407451

Super Weird Heroes: Preposterous But True:

ISBN 978-1631408588

******************************

love-addict

My “skip” of the week is Love Addict: Confessions of a Serial Dater by Koren Shadmi [Top Shelf Productions; $24.99]. I don’t have any major complaints with the art or the dialogue. In service of a much better story, I would be fine with them. It’s the story itself that manages to bore and repulse me simultaneously. I think we need to throw up a warning here… 

SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD

Whiney animator “K” breaks up with his girlfriend. He turns into a sad sack until his man-slut friend turns him on to hookup service “Lovebug.” The animator starts going on many dates and sleeps with many women. This behavior makes him feel good about himself, except not really. He quickly becomes the sort of person I would avoid at all costs. Because he’s a jerk who thinks with his penis.

“K” sleeps around. He actually meets a terrific woman and dates her exclusively for a couple of months before he breaks up with her on account of he’s not through having random and indiscriminate sex. So indiscriminate that, after a drunken night of unprotected sex, he fears he may have contracted a STD. I would say it would serve him right, but he would have probably spread it with the same lack of maturity he shows throughout this graphic novel.

How bad does “K” become? Bad enough that he comes damn close to forcing himself on an unwilling and vulnerable date. I would have said he crossed the line into criminal behavior, but he suffers no consequences as a result of his behavior. I guess the author’s bar for criminal behavior is set higher than mine.

The final insult? Remember that terrific woman? Though pretty much sheer dumb luck he doesn’t deserve, “K” gets back together with her and the author wants us to believe they live happily ever after or some such. Although with this jerk, I figure his commitment-deficit syndrome will kick in within six months.

SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER

The protagonist of Love Addict: Confessions of a Serial Dater is an unlikeable toad. His closest friend is even worse. The women who he dates are a mixed bag, but lose points for using “Lovebug” to hook up with unlikeable toads like the protagonist. Realistic or not – and I suspect there’s more realism to this story than I would want to believe – this is the kind of graphic novel that makes me feel unclean after reading it. In short…not recommended.

Love Addict: Confessions of a Serial Dater:

ISBN 978-1-60309-393-4

******************************

legend-of-wonder-woman-1

Writer/artist Renae De Liz’s The Legend of Wonder Woman [DC; $3.99 per issue] is an impressive nine-issue re-telling of the Amazon’s origin, restored to its original World War II setting. It’s filled with human drama and otherworldly mythology with enough action to satisfy super-hero fans. But where De Liz shines is with the most human parts of the story.

When Amazon Princess Diana encounters downed pilot Steve Trevor, it is a life-changing moment. Her world suddenly becomes much bigger than the island of Themyscira and her sister warriors. Her entrance into the far more complicated outside world and her somewhat shaky attempts to find her place and meaning in that world are riveting. When Etta Candy comes on the stage, the drama is enlivened with a touch of humor and good old-fashion moxie.

I have no idea if this series fits into the old DC or the New 52 or Rebirth on any other existing take on DC’s super-heroes and I don’t particularly care if it does or not. These nine issues are a most satisfying story on their own. I’ll leave the continuity concerns to others.

De Liz’s writing and art are first-rate. Ray Dillon does everything else – inks, colors, lettering – and does it well. This is a great series that looks great, too. Check it out.

If you prefer to read comics in collected editions, you will have but a short wait for this one. The Legend of Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Origins [$29.99] will be released in hardcover any day now. I think it would be a swell holiday gift for the Wonder Woman in your life.

The Legend of Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Origins:

ISBN 978-1401267285

That’s all for now. I’ll be back next week with more reviews.

© 2016 Tony Isabella

TONY’S TIPS #183

The MLJ Companion [TwoMorrows; $34.95] is a magnificently hefty softcover book by Rik Offenberger, Paul Castiglia and Jon B. Cooke, a 288-page tome which cover-promises “The Complete History of the Archie Comics Super-Heroes!” Given that history commenced with the 1940s and continues to this day, that’s quite the goal the writers set for themselves. That they achieves so much of that goal is why I’m making their volume my pick of the week.

Let’s start with sixty pages of classic Golden Age adventures that will be brand new to most readers, including myself. These stories present a pivotal adventures of the Black Hood, the origin tales of Steel Sterling and the Hangman, and thrillers starring the Shield and the Web. From that great start, The MLJ Companion reports on every incarnation of the company’s super-heroes, including a bunch that never saw the light of day.

From the 1930s and 1940s, we get a history of the heroes by noted comics expert Ron Goulart, the Black Hood’s adventures on radio and his own pulp magazine, an interview with key MLJ artist Irv Novick, the mercurial Super-Duck, and a wild photo article on MLJ’s super-heroes that ran in a racy magazine by the name of Close-Up. The  magazine was published by MLJ prior to the company’s transition to Archie Comics.

The 1950s and the 1960s kick off with the rather staid Adventures of the Fly and Adventures of the Jaguar before moving into the wild “high camp” exploits of Fly-Man, the Mighty Crusaders, and Mighty Comics Presents. There’s a quick look at the original Fly Man, who appeared in two 1941 issues of another publisher’s Spitfire Comics; a discussion of Archie’s absurd adaptation of The Shadow, and some thoughtful commentary on whether Jerry Siegel’s “high camp” writing was satirical or just plain awful. The section also covers Archie Andrews becoming Pureheart the Powerful, an honestly entertaining merger of super-heroes with teen humor; and the surprising amount of Mighty Crusaders merchandising of the era.

The chapters concerning the 1970s through today deal mostly with a number of ultimately false starts to reviving the Archie heroes by Archie and (twice) by DC Comics. Even those false starts make for intriguing reading. There are interviews with Kelley Jones, Brian Augustyn and others. There are six pages of the Fly script written by Steve Englehart in 1989. There’s an article on the Fly movie that was being pitched in the late 1990s and early 2000s. So much of this was new to me that I’m sure even more of it will be new to most readers…and that they will find it utterly fascinating. I might quibble about whether it’s a “complete” history, but it is, without question, an astonishing history of characters and concepts that intrigue readers to this day.

I recommend The MLJ Companion to all super-hero fans and students of that genre. If you’re looking for a holiday gift for that super-hero fan in your life, this book would be a good choice.

ISBN 978-1-60549-067-0

******************************

troll-bridge

Neil Gaiman’s Troll Bridge with art by Colleen Doran [Dark Horse; $14.99] is a comics adaptation of a short story by one of our best writers. The back cover blurb describes Gaiman’s tale as a “tragic coming-of-age fantasy masterpiece” and while “masterpiece” might be a wee bit excessive, there is no doubt in my mind that this is one of those cracking good stories that sticks to that place in one’s heart where sighs originate.

Jack, the protagonist of the story, is neither a terribly good man nor a terribly bad man. In a childhood filled with imaginary beasts and ghosts, Jack, as a young man, means an actual troll who lives under a bridge in an area that will soon succumb to the “progress” of changing times. He strikes a bargain with the troll and, in some ways, that shapes the rest of his life.

Doran’s art is emotional and expressive as it tells the story with nary a misstep. Almost any of the pages would look magnificent on one’s wall. Todd Klein’s lettering enhances both the story and the art. This hardcover book would make a wonderful gift for those who love fantasy and great comics. I find it suitable for all ages, but your mileage might vary on that score.

ISBN 978-1-50670-008-3

******************************

cage-1

I was excited by the prospect of a Luke Cage comic book written and drawn by Genndy Tartakovsky, whose work on TV shows and movies like Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack and Hotel Transylvania have given me great enjoyment. His notion of doing Cage in a short of animated black action movie of the 1970s sounded like fun. For me, however, something went wrong between the talented creator’s amusing concept and the actual comic book.

SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILERS AHEAD

Cage! #1 [$3.99] is a too-thin super-hero plot wrapped around some frantic-looking art. Cage runs around walking into scenes that make him look kinda sorta dumb. He finds out all the super-heroes have disappeared, except for the X-Men who show up looking for a missing Jean Grey. By the end of the issue, he’s found several old enemies have teamed up to take him down. Then he gets punched by a mystery man or monster.

SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER
SPOILERS OVER

Cage! #1 fails because there’s no real substance to the issue. We get some delightful artwork and a few moderately funny gags. That’s all. It took me less than five minutes to read the issue. Which is lousy bang for your four bucks.

I’m not giving up on this limited series, but I’m not recommending it either. Try to borrow a friend’s copy and see if the comic book is too your liking. You may enjoy it more than I did.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back next week with more reviews.

© 2016 Tony Isabella

TONY’S TIPS #182

Len, A Lawyer in History: A Graphic Biography of Radical Attorney Leonard Weinglass [AK Press; $19] is exactly what its exceedingly long title says it is. It’s a riveting account of the life of one of the most selfless lawyers of them all, a lawyer who tirelessly devoted himself to the defense of liberal and radical clients, men and women who rarely had the means to pay him the kind of fees he could have gotten working for establishment law firms. Simply put, Weinglass was a hero.

This graphic biography is written and illustrated by Seth Tobocman, who has often devoted his talents to the same kinds of causes that Weinglass championed. Among his other accomplishments, Tobocman is a founder and regular contributor to World War 3 Illustrated. The magazine regularly address vital social issues in comics art form. It’s a favorite magazine of mine, one which demands my concentrated attention and thoughtful reflection.

Getting back to Weinglass, he was a constitutional law advocate who served as a captain judge advocate in the Air Force. Successfully defending a black soldier in a court martial trial did not win him accolades from his superior officers. I’m sure they were even more horrified by the clients he served when he return to civilian life and private practice. They included the Chicago 7, Pentagon Papers whistler blower Daniel Ellsberg, Angela Davis, Kathy Boudin, Abbie Hoffman, Mumia Abu-Jamal and, at the time of his death, the Cuban Five. I’m guessing few of my younger readers recognize any of those names…and that only a few more of my older readers recognize most of them. Their stories are worth studying.

Tobocman makes Weinglass come alive in this graphic biography. The book is divided into easy-to-digest chapters that allow the reader to consider and perhaps do their own research into these matters. “Their Second Chance,” Weinglass’ defense of and interactions with native American convict Jimi Simmons and activist Karen Rudolph, is the kind of story that should be on the big screen. It’s moving and unforgettable.

Len, A Lawyer in History is my pick of the week. It’s not going to be of interest to all comics readers, but I think it’s a terrific example of how our art form can bring a clarity and power to real events. I recommend it to readers who like to be challenged and, of course, to public and school libraries.

ISBN 978-1849352406

******************************

avengers-fan-fiction

It may be too in-joke-oriented for comics readers who don’t explore every corner of online comics fandom, but I got a kick out of All-New, All-Different Avengers Annual #1 [$4.99] featuring “The Fan-Fiction World of Ms. Marvel.” That’s right. Ms. Marvel reads and even writes fan fiction about the heroes she works with on a nigh-daily basis. Ulp!

Many years ago, I loved the fan fiction stories of my dear friend Dwight Decker. His fiction featured fans of his creation. I loved it so much I wrote a prose tale set in his universe and with myself in a lead role. It is one of the very few things I’ve written that embarrasses me. I’ve written things that weren’t very good – it’s part of the learning process – but that story, unlike the others, still makes me cringe.

Ms. Marvel’s fan fiction is about the Marvel Universe in which she lives and battles for good. This annual reveals that fan fiction in a framing sequence by G. Willow Wilson and Mahmud Asrar and five short stories by Mark Waid and Chip Zdarsky, Natasha Allegri, Zac Gorman and Jay Fosgitt, Faith Erin Hicks and Scott Kurtz. It’s an interesting collection of tales.

Because I don’t read fan fiction for a variety of reasons, I can’t speak to the accuracy of these stories. However, I was especially taken aback by Waid and Zdarsky’s “The Once and Future Marvel,” an anti-feminist adventure which sadly reflects the often-misogynist attitudes of those who rail against creators and stories supporting social equality and justice. Darkly humorous, the story must have been a difficult one for Waid and Zdarsky to do.

The annual also has a cartoony She-Hulk tale, an anthropomorphic take on Marvel heroes, a wild “Squirrel Girl Vs. Ms, Marvel” match and a kind of sappy romance. I like this stuff because it stretches the super-hero envelope in a way that does not impact the ongoing universe. The clever conclusion of Wilson’s framing sequence made me laugh out loud. Points for that.

This All-New, All-Different Avengers Annual is an intriguing change of pace. It’s worth checking out if you’re a Marvel hero devotee or a creator/reader of fan fiction about those heroes.

******************************

betty-boop

I know I saw Betty Boop as a child growing up in Cleveland, Ohio. The morning and afternoon kid shows with hosts like the friendly, wise Captain Penny and the otherworldly Barnaby bought and showed cartoons by the bucket. I didn’t realized the squeaky-voiced Betty was supposed to be a Jazz Age flapper, but, in those days of black-and-white television and but three channels to choose from, a kid could be entertained by anything that moved across the screen in a lively gait. It was my introduction to animation, viewing cartoons created ten and even twenty years before my birth.

Dynamite’s Betty Boop #1 [$3.99] captures the spirit of those old cartoons and improves them. Roger Langridge’s “Enter the Lizard” is a sprightly and mildly subversive take on the Max Fleischer Studios toons wherein the devil himself seeks the soul of innocent Betty. The script includes spiffy musical numbers that make me wish the comic came with a soundtrack. They look like so much fun.

The images and storytelling of artist Gisele Lagace are wonderful. Her drawings are animated. Her panel-to-panel flow is spot on and lively. Without distracting from the story, her work is so good it lingers in my mind from page to page.

Betty Boop #1 is a great start to this new series. I don’t plan on missing an issue. It could just be the little kid in me, but I may be falling in love.

I’ll be back next week with more reviews.

© 2016 Tony Isabella

TONY’S TIPS #181

Sam Glanzman’s U.S.S. Stevens: The Collected Stories, published by Dover Graphic Novels [Dover; $39.95] is a landmark gathering of one of the greatest comics series of all time. These shorts, sometimes as little as four pages, rank among the very best war comics that the comics industry has ever seen. I’d put them right up there with Harvey Kurtzman’s Frontline Combat, Archie Goodwin’s Blazing Combat and the best of the DC war titles by Robert Kanigher, Joe Kubert, Russ Heath and others.

Some background: Artist and writer Glanzman, who served on the USS Stevens during World War II, created these autobiographical slices of history. Though some of the details were changed for dramatic effect and some of the episodes are Glanzman telling of events we experienced second-hand, they are among the most true to life war stories ever seen in comic books.

The USS Stevens stories appeared in DC war titles Our Army at War, Our Fighting Forces, G.I. Combat and Star Spangled War Stories. The legendary artist and editor Joe Kubert thought so highly of them, and of Glanzman’s genius, that he gave the artist great freedom to tell the stories Glanzman wanted to tell. Glanzman gave us tales of war’s horror and tedium. He gave us looks at the Japanese enemy of his war. He gave us stories of heroes and of fighting men damaged by their wartime experiences. In the justly-praised “Toro,” though the times demanded Glanzman be circumspect, he related the story of a gay sailor. This was perhaps a first for mainstream comic books.

This Dover collection is a dream come true for Glanzman fans like me. Whenever I compiled lists of collections I’d like to see, the USS Stevens stories were high on my list. There are over 60 short stories in this hardcover volume, as well as stories from Marvel’s Savage Tales and DC’s Joe Kubert Presents. I read them at a rate of two or three a day so that I could savor and study them. This was time well spent.

In addition to these groundbreaking stories, the volume includes a foreword by writer Ivan Brandon, an introduction by Jon B. Cooke, letters to Glanzman from Presidents Barack Obama and George H.W. Bush, an informative afterword by former DC Comics assistant editor Allan Asherman, Glanzman’s War Diary spreads, extensive footnotes and story annotations by Cooke and a new four-page story of the USS Stevens. It took over 400 pages to present all this great material.

U.S.S. Stevens: The Collected Stories is my pick of the week. The book would make a great gift for comics fans and non-comics readers interested in the history of the Pacific War. It belongs in every public and school library in the country and should hold a place of honor in your home library.

ISBN 978-0-486-80158-6

******************************

journey-into-fear

Avid “Tony’s Tips” readers know I’ve an interest in pre-code horror comic books, even when the stories and art aren’t exactly classic. But no pre-code horror comics has fascinated me in quite the same way that Superior’s Journey into Fear fascinates me.

PS Artbooks out of the U.K. has collected the first seven issues of this odd title in Pre-Code Classic: Journey into Fear Volume One [$59.99]. These comic books were originally published from May 1951 to May 1952. Here’s what I can tell you about the title.

Superior Publishers Limited was a Canadian publisher who published mostly American reprints, but which also published original comic books that were distributed in the United States. From maybe 1946 to 1954, Superior published just over 200 different titles and just under a thousand issues.

Journey into Fear ran 21 issues from May 1951 to September 1954. We have virtually no credits for any of these issues, save that they were written and drawn by the Jerry Iger Shop. Some of the earliest stories might have art by Matt Baker, but, since he was the best of the Iger bunch, he was also the most copied. The art has an uniform house style look to it.

The writing is where my fascination lies. It’s not really very good writing, but you can see where the unknown authors are striving for good writing. The stories are in a league of their own with quirky plots that often reveal non-supernatural causes for the seemingly supernatural events of the tales.

My favorite story to date – I’m currently reading the second volume in the series – is “A Debt to the Devil” where the title character pushes a down-on-her-luck young woman to take a job with a handsome man whose wife is both evil and insanely jealous. The devil wants to claim the wife’s soul and eventually does so. In the process, he actually brings the young woman and her boss together romantically. He’s like a 1950s horror comic version of that creepy white-haired eHarmony spokesman. That’s just one of very strange stories in this volume. Small wonder I want them all.

ISBN 978-1-84863-955-2

******************************

x-o-manowar

Congratulations to Valiant Entertainment on the publication of X-O Manowar #50 [$4.99], a milestone celebration. The wrap-around cover is a 50-artist jam featuring X-O figures by such legendary artists as Neal Adams, Butch Guice, Phil Jimenez, Bob Layton and 46 other creators. The extra-length “Long Live the King” by Robert Venditti with penciler Joe Bennett and several others is a most satisfying conclusion to this chapter in the life of Aric of Dacia. The issue also presents short comics stories written by Fred Van Lente, Jody Houser and Matt Kindt. It’s a heck of a celebration.

Valiant has constructed an entertaining, intrigue and viable comics universe. If the DC and Marvel universe have gotten too large for you but you still love the idea of a shared universe, I think the Valiant comics titles might be a good fit for you. The writers and editors do a good job recapping enough of what has gone before to allow easy entry into their world. Most of their earlier issues are also available in trade paperbacks. I recommend starting with Faith and Bloodshot – my favorite Valiant titles – and going from there. I think you’ll enjoy the journey.

I’ll be back next week with more reviews.

© 2016 Tony Isabella