Books To Read: Best Graphic Novels:

July 2015

Poetry Is Useless and Pain Is Really Strange! Those are the titles of two of this July’s upcoming comics for your consideration on this Free Comic Book Day! Spain makes a flourish this month too with intriguing books by Joan Cornellà, Santiago Garcia and Max de Radigues, as does Israel with the Hanuka twins and Boaz Lavie on their ravishing graphic novel The Divine. Lots more to explore here, so here’s hoping you find some titles special to you which you can look forward to. To pick one this month, I’ve plumped for Island, the bold project of Brandon Graham and Emma Rios at Image, a ‘comic magazine for comics’ offering 112 oversized original colour pages for the insane price of only $7.99. I have a soft spot for creator-driven/friendly anthologies and Island comes with that tingle, a bit like it’s 1974 all over again when the first Métal Hurlant was about to turn French comics upside down. As these latest PG Tips show, that revolution has not slowed down since and shows no signs of doing so soon…



An Entity Observes All Things

by Box Brown

Big Planet / Retrofit Comics

$12.00

The publisher says:

Stories of science fiction and mental exploration from Box Brown, New York Times-bestselling author of Andre the Giant: Life and Legend. Lizard aliens! New Physics! Electromages! Wastelands! Star Warrior robots! Social media cults! Pizza! 152pgs colour paperback. Box Brown has posted some snaps of the interiors and a flick-thru video here…

Babes In Arms: Women In Comics During The Second World War

by Trina Robbins

Hermes Press

$14.99

The publisher says:

During the Golden Age of comics, publishers offered titles supporting the war effort - presenting fighting men and their feminine counterparts - babes in arms! Comic books during this period featured US service-women fighting all of the axis bad guys and gave several of the most noteworthy women artists of the era opportunities to create action-packed, adventure-filled, four-color stories. Now for the first time renowned pop-culture historian Trina Robbins assembles comic book stories by artists Barbara Hall, Jill Elgin, Lilly Renée, and Fran Hopper together with insightful commentary and loads of documentary extras to create the definitive book chronicling the work of these important Golden Age artists. This magnificent art book offers page-after-page of good girl action. 304pgs colour hardcover. As a taster, you can download Trina Robbins’ complete book The Golden Age Comics of Lily Renée from her website here…

Behind Story Vol 1 (of 3)

by Narae Ahn

NetComics

$11.99

The publisher says:

Lively Taehee and unsociable Yohan go to the same highschool but do not know each other well. Their fateful meeting happens in a motorcycle accident. Their relationship slowly grows from then on. However, there’s Jinsuk, the teacher who’s obsessed with Yohan. 212pgs B&W paperback. This Korean boys’ love series is being serialised online by NetComics here…

Diary Comics

by Dustin Harbin

Koyama Press

$15.00

The publisher says:

Since 2010, Dustin Harbin has been sporadically documenting the ups and downs and sideways of his life in comic form. From their humble beginnings as a sketchbook exercise documenting the quotidian, oftentimes with hilarious results, Harbin’s Diary Comics have grown into quirky existential examinations of life and living. Dustin Harbin is a cartoonist and illustrator who lives and works in North Carolina. He’s best known for his autobiographical comics, as well as many, many illustrations of people and animals, often mixed and matched. 236pgs B&W paperback. Check out some of Harbin’s printed works here… ans well as on Koyama’s website here…



Fantasy Sports

by Sam Brosma

Nobrow Press

$24.00

The publisher says:

In Sam Bosma’s debut graphic novel, a young explorer and her musclebound friend go treasure hunting in a mummy’s tomb—but if they want to get rich, they’re going to have to best the mummy in a game of hoops! Can they trust their bandaged adversary to play by the rules? Or will they be stuck in the tomb . . . forever? A fast-paced sports adventure graphic novel in the vein of 1960’s manga, Mike Mignola, and Raiders of the Lost Ark, Fantasy Sports is poised to be Nobrow’s first breakout adventure comic for the indie and YA scene. 56pgs colour hardcover. Take a peek inside at Nobrow here…

Fante Bukowski

by Noah Van Sciver

Fantagraphics

$12.99

The publisher says:

This is a graphic novella about a talentless literary aspirant, told with Van Sciver’s trademark compassion.

Noah Van Sciver’s latest graphic novella drops in on the life of the self-styled, aspiring young writer, Fante Bukowski, as he delusively makes his way to literary fame and fortune, one drink at a time. Living in a cheap hotel, consorting with the debased and downtrodden, searching for that golden idea that will rocket him to the success he yearns for as the great American novelist, and to get respect from his father once and for all. But, there’s just one problem: Fante Bukowski has no talent for writing. 80pgs colour paperback. Noah’s posted pages like this on his Tumblr here…



Free Country: A Tale Of The Children’s Crusade

by Neil Gaiman, Alisa Kwitney, Jamie Delano, Toby Litt & various artists

DC Vertigo

$24.99

The publisher says:

In this never-before-collected Vertigo event, children are mysteriously disappearing all over England. It’s up to a group of young heroes to find out how they ended up in the mystical land called The Free Country - and to figure out how to bring them home again. The original two-issue miniseries from 1997 follows the Dead Boy Detectives who are on the case when several children go missing in a small English town. A series of strange and unexpected twists take them to Free Country, a place that dates back a millennia, where children never grow old and are free from the abuse and tyranny of adults. But Free Country is failing, and what it needs is the strength of five innately powerful children, including the young sorcerer Timothy Hunter, to restore their uncanny world to what it once was. In addition to the original stories, the collection will include a new chapter completing this compelling tale of ancient history, stolen dreams and lost children, in the way Gaiman originally envisioned. The new chapter will be written by Toby Litt (Dead Boy Detectives) and drawn by Peter Gross (The Books of Magic). This epic adventure features bookend chapters written by #1 New York Times-bestselling author Neil Gaiman, and stars the young heroes from Vertigo titles, including Timothy Hunter (The Books of Magic), The Dead Boy Detectives (The Sandman), Maxine Baker (Animal Man), Tefe (Swamp Thing), and Dorothy Spinner (Doom Patrol). Collects The Children’s Crusade #1-2, Animal Man Annual #1, Black Orchid Annual #1, Swamp Thing Annual #7, Arcana Annual #1, and Doom Patrol Annual #2. 200pgs colour hardcover.

Neil Gaiman says:

A long time ago, I wrote the first part of a story, and waited to find out how it middled, then worked with Jamie Delano and Alisa Kwitney on the end. For years people have asked how and when they could read all the story of the Children’s Crusade. “I’m glad to say that it’s now been retooled and refinished, and is something both old and new — a forgotten jewel and a new delight.”





Grant Morrison’s 18 Days #1

by Grant Morrison & Jeevan Kang

Graphic India

$1.00

The publisher says:

From legendary creator Grant Morrison (All-Star Superman, Batman & Robin, The Invisibles), comes the first chapter in his newest creation. 18 Days is the story of three generations of super-warriors, meeting for the final battle of their age, a climactic war that concludes the age of the gods and begins the age of man. “This is not a Lord of the Rings or a Star Wars, where the good guys win because they are right. The good guys in 18 Days are forced to cheat and lie and break rules to win. Although it has fantastic, mythic trappings, this is a very modern story of realpolitik and the failure of ideals in the face of harsh truth. “A genre mash of superhero action and mythology grounded in the all too human passions of its warriors, villains and monsters, 18 Days will rewrite the rules of epic fantasy.” - Grant Morrison. Main covers by Jeevan Kang and Mukesh Singh. Also available with Cosmic Krishna and Oracle variant covers, each limited to 1,000 copies. 32pgs colour comic book. Graphic India offer an animated digital series of 18 Days here…



Haven’t You Heard…? I’m Sakamoto Vol 1

by Nami Sano

Seven Seas Entertainment LLC

$12.99

The publisher says:

First year high school student Sakamoto isn’t just cool, he’s the coolest! Almost immediately after starting school, he began attracting everyone’s attention. The girls love him, and most of the boys resent him. There’s even a boy in the class who works as a model, but who is constantly upstaged by Sakamoto! No matter what tricks the other boys try to play on him, Sakamoto always manages to foil them with ease and grace. Though Sakamoto may seem cool and aloof, he helps others when asked, such as in the case of the boy in his class who was being constantly bullied. No matter what difficulties Sakamoto encounters, he moves through his high school life with confidence and class. 164pgs B&W paperback.



Heart In A Box

by Kelly Thompson & Meredith McClaren

Dark Horse

$14.99

The publisher says:

When the Man with No Name breaks Emma’s heart, she wants to die. But you never die from these things; you just want to. In a moment of weakness, she wishes her broken heart away and a mysterious stranger—who may or may not be totally evil—obliges. But emptiness is even worse than grief, and Emma sets out to collect the seven pieces of her heart spread across the country, a journey that forces her to face her own history and the cost of recapturing it, and leads inevitably to a confrontation with the Man with No Name himself. 144pgs colour paperback. Previews has an interview with Kelly Thompson here…



In Search Of Lost Time: Swann’s Way

by Marcel Proust & Stéphane Heuet, translated by Arthur Goldhammer

Liveright / Gallic Books (Feb 2016)

$26.95 / £19.99

The publisher says:

Famous for its daunting difficulty, Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time remains a thrilling yet endlessly challenging literary experience. Now, in what might be likened to a piano reduction of an orchestral score, Stephane Heuet re-presents Proust for the reader who has always dreamed of reading him but was put off by the sheer magnitude of the undertaking. Newly translated by Arthur Goldhammer, this adaptation reveals the fundamental architecture of Proust s work while displaying a remarkable fidelity to his language as well as the novel’s circular rhythm and themes of time, art, and the elusiveness of memory. In this first volume, Swann’s Way, the narrator Marcel, an aspiring writer, recalls his childhood when—in a now immortal moment in literature—the taste of a madeleine cake dipped in tea unleashes a torrent of memories about his family’s country home in the town of Combray. Here, Heuet and Goldhammer use Proust’s own famously rich and labyrinthine sentences and discerning observations to render Combray like never before. From the water lillies of the Vivonne to the steeple and stained glass of the town church, Proust’s language provides the blueprint for Heuet’s illustrations. Heuet and Goldhammer also capture Proust’s humor, wit, and sometimes scathing portrayals of Combray’s many memorable inhabitants, like the lovelorn Charles Swann and the object of his affection and torment, Odette de Crécy; Swann’s daughter Gilberte; local aristocrat the Duchesse de Guermantes; the narrator’s uncle Adolphe; and the hypochondriac Aunt Léonie. Whether you are looking to brush up or sample for the first time, this graphic adaptation of In Search of Lost Time is the perfect introduction to Proust’s masterpiece. 240pgs colour hardcover. Here’s a mini-profile of Heuet on YouTube…

Arthur Goldhammer, renowned translator, says in his introduction:

The reader new to Proust must attend closely, even in this compressed rendering, to the novel’s circling rhythms and abrupt cross-cuts between different places and times. But this necessary attentiveness is abetted and facilitated by the compactness of the graphic format.





Island #1

by Brandon Graham & Emma Rios

Image

$7.99

The publisher says:

Pretty Deadly artist Emma Rios and King City, Prophet and Multiple Warheads writer/artist Brandon Graham bring you a new ongoing comics magazine. Each issue holds three issue-length chapters of new work from various creators around the globe, including Brandon Graham’s return to Multiple Warheads and Emma Rios’s solo project I.D.. The first issue also features a text piece by Kelly Sue DeConnick, writer of Bitch Planet and Pretty Deadly. Printed oversize with no adverts. 112ps colour comic book. Brandon and Emma talk to Comic Book Resources about Island here…





Le Train de Michel

by Jed Falby

Halsgrove Publishing

£9.99

The publisher says:

One week after the D-Day landings on Tuesday, 13 June 1944, Hitler launched his first “Vengeance Weapon” against London, planning to finally destroy the city that would not give in. Jed Falby, a ten-year old boy, lived in London then - a most unwilling observer of this new Blitz. At the same time, in occupied France, a forty-year old Frenchman worked to save both young Jed and the old City of London. Yet very few French or English know his name: Michel Hollard. Jed and Michel. This is the story of both of them. Halsgrove’s first entry into the hugely popular world of the graphic novel comes in the form of this true story of French Resistance hero, Michel Hollard, who was almost single-handedly responsible for revealing the Nazi plan for their ‘Vengeance’ rocket attacks on Britain; risking life and limb to get blueprints and photographs of the V1 and V2 sites into the hands of the Allies. Superb illustrations reminiscent of Hergé’s famous hero Tintin bring this little known story to vivid life, and place Michel Hollard among one of the true unsung heroes of the Second World War. Before being twice evacuated from London to Devon during the Second World War, creator Jed Falby was given a ringside seat as witness to the bombing of London and the arrival of Hitler’s V1 and V2 rockets, the Nazi’s last throw of the dice in their battle to conquer Britain. Later, as an aerial photographer in the RAF, working on animation in Canada, and working in commercial film production both in the US and France, Jed honed his observational and drawing skills which even today sees him recording everyday incidents in one of hundreds of his ‘diary sketchbooks’. 112pgs colour paperback.





Long Walk To Valhalla

by Adam Smith & Matthew Fox

Archaia

$24.99

The publisher says:

Can you see the Pretty Things? There are many things that Rory would like to forget about his childhood growing up in rural Arkansas. He’d like to forget his alcoholic father or absent mother. He’d like to forget about his ex-girlfriend, now married to his ex-best friend. Sometimes, he’d even like to forget about his older brother Joe. Joe saw the world differently than other people—sometimes in beautiful ways, seeing what he always called “the Pretty Things.” But sometimes the Pretty Things turned ugly and bad things happened. Those are the things Rory wishes he could forget most of all. When his car breaks down on the side of the road just out of town, a young girl named Sylvia appears from the corn fields. Sylvia is a Valkyrie sent by the Norse god Odin to deliver Rory to Valhalla. Because today is the day he’s going to die. Together, Rory and Sylvia walk back through the memories of Rory’s childhood, this time seeing them the way Joe saw them. Rory must face the Pretty Things, the Ugly Things, and all the real life in between before it’s time to say goodbye. 144pgs colour hafrdcover. Matthew Fox has posted lots of pages in progress to the Valhalla Tumblr here…





Moose

by Max de Radigues

Conundrum Press

$17.00

The publisher says:

Already a success in French (published by Delcourt), the English version was serialised in small mini comic chapters through Oily Comics in the US. Moose is the highly anticipated collected volume. Joe is a shy high school student who is relentlessly bullied and must find comfort in the natural world. Soon however, his story twists into a tale of power and fear complete with visual symbolism and beautiful cartooning. The morally ambiguous ending will keep you thinking long after you close the covers. 160pgs B&W paperback.





Mowgli’s Mirror

by Olivier Schrauwen

Big Planet / Retrofit Comics

$8.00

The publisher says:

In this wordless tale, the young human boy Mowgli lives alone in the jungle. When he befriends an orangutan, Mowgli thinks he has found his lifemate. But Mowgli still wonders if there any other creatures that look like him. Mowgli sets out on a journey through the jungle, encountering all types of creatures and having numerous adventures. A fantastic use of layout and design by critically-acclaimed Olivier “Ollie” Schrauwen, printed in only orange and blue spot colors. 44pgs colour paperback. RetroFit have some preview pages to show you here…





Mox Nox

by Joan Cornellà

Fantagraphics

$14.99

The publisher says:

This book collects the Spanish cartoonist’s twisted comics, which are popular on Facebook. Spanish cartoonist Joan Cornella’s viciously funny Mox Nox single-page strips are wordless, full-colour, hand-painted marvels of the form. That his visually inviting artwork is in the service of Cornella’s graphic sense of humor/horror only heightens the appeal. Mox Nox is populated almost exclusively by smiling psychopaths who invariably turn even the most mundane situation into a side-splitting and cringe-inducing farce. 56pgs colour hardcover. Joan Cornellà offers plenty of sample strips on his blog here…s





On The Graphic Novel

by Santiago Garcia, translated by Bruce Campbell

University Press of Mississippi

$60.00

The publisher says:

A noted comics artist himself, Santiago García follows the history of the graphic novel from early nineteenth-century European sequential art, through the development of newspaper strips in the United States, to the development of the twentieth-century comic book and its subsequent crisis. He considers the aesthetic and entrepreneurial innovations that established the conditions for the rise of the graphic novel all over the world. García not only treats the formal components of the art, but also examines the cultural position of comics in various formats as a popular medium. Typically associated with children, often viewed as unedifying and even at times as a threat to moral character, comics art has come a long way. With such examples from around the world as Spain, France, Germany, and Japan, García illustrates how the graphic novel, with its increasingly global and aesthetically sophisticated profile, represents a new model for graphic narrative production that empowers authors and challenges longstanding social prejudices against comics and what they can achieve. 375pgs B&W hardcover.





Pain Is Really Strange

by Steve Haines & Sophie Standing

Singing Dragon, an imprint of Jessica Kingsley Publishers

£7.99

The publisher says:

Answering questions such as ‘how can I change my pain experience?’, ‘what is pain?’, and ‘how do nerves work?’, this short research-based graphic book reveals just how strange pain is and explains how understanding it is often the key to relieving its effects. Studies have shown that understanding how pain is created and maintained by the nervous system can significantly lessen the pain you experience. This highly original, gently humorous book explains pain in an easy-to-understand, engaging graphic format and reveals how you can change your mind’s habits to relieve your pain. 36pgs colour paperback. Take a look at some advance interior pages here…





Poetry Is Useless

by Anders Nilsen

Drawn & Quarterly

$29.95

The publisher says:

In Poetry is Useless, Anders Nilsen redefines the sketchbook format, intermingling elegant, densely detailed renderings of mythical animals, short comics drawn in ink, meditations on religion, and abstract shapes and patterns. Page after page gives way under Nilsen’s deft hatching and perfectly placed pen strokes, revealing his intellectual curiosity and wry outlook on life’s many surprises. Stick people debate the dubious merits of economics. Immaculately stippled circles become looser and looser, as craters appear on their surface. A series of portraits capture the backs of friends’ heads. For ten or twenty pages at a time, Poetry is Useless becomes a travel diary, in which Nilsen shares anecdotes about his voyages in Europe and North America. A trip to Colombia for a comics festival is recounted in carefully drawn city streets and sketches made in cafes. Poetry is Useless reveals seven years of Nilsen’s life and musings: beginning in 2007, it covers a substantial period of his comics career to date, and includes visual reference to his books, such as Dogs & Water, Rage of Poseidon, and the New York Times Notable Book Big Questions. This expansive sketchbook-as-graphic-novel is exquisitely packaged with appendices and a foreword from Anders Nilsen himself. 224pgs colour hardcover.





Secrets Of The Ninja: The Shinobi Teachings Of Hattori Hanzo

by Sean Michael Wilson & Akiko Shimojima

Blue Snake Books

$15.95

The publisher says:

This historically grounded manga follows the ninja Nagata Saburo as he teaches his son, Hisaaki, the weapons, secret tactics, and values of the ninja. Based on the real-life writings of the famous ninja Hattori Hanzo, Secrets of the Ninja combines a familiar coming-of-age story with a historically accurate background of political intrigue and Sengoku-period Japanese culture. As Hisaaki grows from boy to man, Wilson skillfully interweaves real lessons, weapons, and skills used by ninja in feudal Japan, depicted with detail by artist Akiko Shimojima. All of the tactics Saburo teaches to his son are drawn from the Shinobi Hiden, the most famous of the “ninja scrolls” written by Hattori Hanzo, general to the warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu and one of the most famous warriors in Japan. These scrolls provided practical instruction for professional ninja, but they also provide insightful theories of social relationships and human interaction, studying the nature of deception, falsehood, and self-protection. An extensive supplementary section written by Antony Cummins provides fascinating details on these scrolls and their practical lessons. Accessible, insightful, and exciting, Secrets of the Ninja is the perfect introduction to the world of samurai and shinobi warfare. 128pgs B&W paperback





Stroppy

by Marc Bell

Drawn & Quarterly

$21.95

The publisher says:

The first full-length graphic novel from the author of Shrimpy and Paul. Who will win the All-Star Schnauzer Band song contest? Enter the strange and wordplay-loving world of the cartoonist and fine artist Marc Bell (Shrimpy and Paul, Hot Potatoe), where the All-Star Schnauzer Band runs things and tiny beings hold signs saying “It’s under control.” Our hapless hero, Stroppy, is minding his business, working a menial job in one of Monsieur Moustache’s factories, when a muscular fellah named Sean blocks up the assembly line. Sean’s there to promote an All-Star Schnauzer Band-organized songwriting contest, which he does enthusiastically and at the expense of Stroppy’s livelihood, home, and face. Hoping for a cash prize, Stroppy submits a work by his friend Clancy the Poet. Mishaps and hilarity ensue, and Stroppy is forced to go deep into the heart of Schnauzer territory to rescue his poet friend. Stroppy is Bell’s triumphant return to comics; it’s also his first full-length graphic novella, one that thrums with jokes, hashtags, and made-up song lyrics. Densely detailed not-so-secret underground societies, little robots, and heavyweight humdingers leap off the page in full color. With Stroppy, Bell continues to explode the divide between fine art, doodling, and comics. 64pgs colour hardcover.





The Bizarre Adventures Of Gilbert & Sullivan

by Laura Howell

Soaring Penguin Press

$9.99

The publisher says:

“Things are seldom what they seem, skim milk masquerades as cream.” - W.S. Gilbert, HMS Pinafore. Think you know comics? Think you know history? Think you know Gilbert & Sullivan? Think again. The Bizarre Adventures of Gilbert & Sullivan mixes fact with fiction and the sublime with the ridiculous to outrageous effect. Did you know that Queen Victoria’s rat catcher was called Jack Black? You do now! High-energy manga-style art collides head-on (then bows politely in apology) with historical facts and faces to produce topsy-turvy tales the like of which you’ve never before seen. Winner of the International Manga and Anime Festival “Best Comic” category, it’s the comical pamphlet of choice for ladies, gentlemen and urchins alike! 72pgs B&W paperback. Richard Bruton reviews the second self-published collection here…



The Blacker The Ink: Constructions Of Black Identity In Comics And Sequental Art

edited by Frances Gateward & John Jennings

Rutgers University Press

$29.95

The publisher says:

When many think of comic books, the first thing that comes to mind are caped crusaders and spandex-wearing super-heroes. Perhaps, inevitably, these images are of white men (and more rarely, women). It was not until the 1970s that African American superheroes such as Luke Cage, Blade, and others emerged. But as this exciting new collection reveals, these superhero comics are only one small component in a wealth of representations of black characters within comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels over the past century. The Blacker the Ink is the first book to explore not only the diverse range of black characters in comics, but also the multitude of ways that black artists, writers, and publishers have made a mark on the industry. Organized thematically into “panels” in tribute to sequential art published in the funny pages of newspapers, the fifteen original essays take us on a journey that reaches from the African American newspaper comics of the 1930s to the Francophone graphic novels of the 2000s. Even as it demonstrates the wide spectrum of images of African Americans in comics and sequential art, the collection also identifies common character types and themes running through everything from the strip The Boondocks to the graphic novel Nat Turner. Though it does not shy away from examining the legacy of racial stereotypes in comics and racial biases in the industry, The Blacker the Ink also offers inspiring stories of trailblazing African American artists and writers. Whether you are a diehard comic book fan or a casual reader of the funny pages, these essays will give you a new appreciation for how black characters and creators have brought a vibrant splash of color to the world of comics. 336pgs B&W paperback. Co-editor Jennings is interviewed here…





The Divine

by Boaz Lavie, Asaf Hanuka & Tomer Hanuka

First Second

$19.99

The publisher says:

Mark’s out of the military, these days, with his boring, safe civilian job doing explosives consulting. But you never really get away from war. So it feels inevitable when his old army buddy Jason comes calling, with a lucrative military contract for a mining job in an obscure South-East Asian country called Quanlom. They’ll have to operate under the radar—Quanlom is being torn apart by civil war, and the US military isn’t strictly supposed to be there. With no career prospects and a baby on the way, Mark finds himself making the worst mistake of his life and signing on with Jason. What awaits him in Quanlom is going to change everything. What awaits him in Quanlom is weirdness of the highest order: a civil war led by ten-year-old twins wielding something that looks a lot like magic, leading an army of warriors who look a lot like gods. What awaits him in Quanlom is an actual goddamn dragon. From world-renowned artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka (twins, whose magic powers are strictly confined to pen and paper) and Boaz Lavie, The Divine is a fast-paced, brutal, and breathlessly beautiful portrait of a world where ancient powers vie with modern warfare and nobody escapes unscathed. 160pgs colour paperback. Read the first eight pages here…





The New Deal

by Jonathan Case

Dark Horse

$16.99

The publisher says:

The Waldorf Astoria is the classiest hotel along the Manhattan skyline in 1930s New York City. When a charming woman named Nina checks in with a high-society entourage, young Frank, a bellhop, and Theresa, a maid, get caught up in a series of mysterious thefts. The stakes quickly grow perilous, and the pair must rely on each other to discover the truth while navigating delicate class politics. Eisner Award-winning artist Jonathan Case (Green River Killer, Dear Creature) writes and draws this brilliant graphic novel of petty crime, comic predicaments, and vast heart in a story that speaks to class, race, and gender barriers. 96pgs colour hardcover. Case talks to Comic Book Resources here…



The Pillbox

by David Hughes

Jonathan Cape

£16.99

The publisher says:

On holiday in Suffolk, a boy and his dog discover a World War II pillbox half buried on a deserted beach. When he returns the next day with his parents, the pillbox has disappeared. They learn a pillbox had been there and a boy had once been found in it, dead… 1945, another boy, another dog, the same pillbox … and an American serviceman from the local base. Murder, treachery, a terrible secret… David Hughes’ second graphic novel is a haunting ghost story – dark, disturbing and – as always with Hughes – stunningly drawn. 144pgs colour hardcover.





Tim Ginger

by Julian Hanshaw

Top Shelf Productions, an IDW Company

$19.99

The publisher says:

Prize-winning British cartoonist Julian Hanshaw makes his American debut with the rich and meditative story of Tim Ginger. Once a government test pilot, now a widow, Tim enjoys a quiet retirement in New Mexico… until a conspiracy theorist starts asking uncomfortable questions, and the haunting reappearance of an old friend provokes some hard choices about when to let go and when to hold on. 160pgs colour paperback. Julian’s posted some pages before colouring on his blog here…

Dave McKean says:

It’s wonderful and inspiring to see a generation of authors with no preconceptions about what comics should be, and what sort of stories they should tell, flourish in this new golden age. Tim Ginger is an understated, wryly observed, and welcome addition to this gathering of new voices.





Zagor: Terror From The Sea

by Mauro Boselli & Stefano Andreucci

Epicenter Comics

$15.99

The publisher says:

Epicenter Comics proudly brings you legendary hero Zagor for the very first time in English language, since he was created in Italy in 1961 by Guido Nolitta – alias Sergio Bonelli – and Gallieno Ferri. Responding to a friend’s desperate call for help, Zagor comes face to face with a threat of colossal proportions: Dagon, an ancient God of Abyss and his army of transformed followers have taken over the coast. In this epic battle and race against time, help will have to come from unexpected places! 320pgs colour paperback with new cover by Michele Rubini. Below is the Gallieno Ferri artwork for the original cover of this story from issue #386, courtesy of Marco Miccione. For more watch a YouTube fan video of this Italian episode here… and Italian publishers Sergio Bonelli Editore offer details in English of Zagor’s continuing 2015 adventures here…

Posted: May 2, 2015