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Shipping March 28th, 2007

Alice in SunderlandHi there folks. These are the comics that are scheduled to ship to The Beguiling Books & Art in Toronto, Canada this week. These books may not show up at all retailers at the same time, but if you see a title here it’s probably at least worth asking your local retailer about… 

Kind of a small week this week, overall, but there are some really solid books on the list. This looks to be the week that DramaQueen finally starts shipping their manga through Diamond, though due to Canadian customs issues I have no idea if any of their titles besides Audition are going to ship. But as far as graphic novels go, there are a couple of solid, high-profile releases worth noting.

OCT060027 ALICE IN SUNDERLAND GN (C: 0-1-2) 29.95
This is the new graphic novel by Bryan Talbot, but between the digitally painted cover art and the solicitation text that doesn’t actually say anything at all, I have no idea what this is actually going to be. It sounds completely outside of Talbot’s ouevre, at least so far as I’m familiar with it, and at least the solicit text is helpful enough to say that it’s “like no graphic novel before it”, so perhaps I’m not alone in feeling lost. The Beguiling is set to be doing an even with Mr. Talbot in April, which admittedly makes me even more anxious about this one, as we have an awful lot of fans of One Bad Rat looking forward to this new book and I’ve no idea whatsoever if it will appeal…

FEB078049 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER VAR CVR NEW PTG #1 (PP #7 2.99
JAN078263 CAPTAIN AMERICA 2ND PTG EPTING VAR #25 CW 3.99

Just a heads-up, the second printings on these titles are in fact shipping this week. We’re now out of our reorder of Buffy first prints, and probably a day or two away from sold-out on the Captain America #25s.

Houdini GN coverJAN073666 HOUDINI HANDCUFF KING CENTER OF CARTOON STUDIES HC 16.99
The first ‘work for hire’ from The Centre for Cartoon Studies makes it’s debut this week, a graphic novella on the life of Harry Houdini. Call it ‘confluence’ if you like, but this morning there was a feature on the news about the mysterious death of Houdini, and a new examination of it. Coupled with the popularity of modern day illusionists like David Blaine and Criss Angel, not to mention films like The Illusionist and The Prestige, and I think there might just be a groundswell of interest in this material, so good on Hyperion for being just at the top of the curve there.

The work is illustrated by Nick Bertozzi over layouts from Jason Lutes, and Lutes’ early graphic novel Jar Of Fools features themes of illusion and Houdini, making for a nice companion-piece to this new work. Bertozzi also has a controversial graphic novel named The Salon coming out later this year; my employer has read it and says it’s outstanding. So, confluence being what it is, it looks like a heck of a lot of factors are going to go into making this one a success. Let’s see if I call it correctly or not…

You can see a preview of the Houdini: Handcuff King as Nick Bertozzi’s website, http://www.nickbertozzi.com/comics/houdini/houdini.htm.

NOV063528 OH SKINNAY HC 24.95
I’ve had a chance to see this and it’s a lovely book; a new edition of the original lovingly restored by Drawn & Quarterly. I’ve read about 20 pages and it’s just sort of… lovely. A gentle, affectionate celebration of youth. Also, in the vein of D&Q’s lovely Gasoline Alley reprints, this edition features an excellent afterword on cartoonist Claire Briggs that will be of note to classic cartooning fans. Actually, I may as well just steal the photo from the Drawn & Quarterly blog:

Oh, Skinnay! With Bonus Tom Devlin hand.

Pictured: Tom Devlin’s hand, Claire Briggs’ book. Photo by Tom Devlin.

FEB070001 PREVIEWS VOL XVII #4 (NET) 4.50
It’s Previews time again… I think I’m going to do a Previews Review on this if it kills me. Hopefully it won’t. As for the covers? Fear Agent and Sinestro Corps. At least one of them is creator-owned…

JAN073851 TACTICS VOL 1 GN (OF 8) 9.99
Giving hope to manga fans, TACTICS is one of the many manga started by ADV and then abandoned after a volume or two, when ADV figured out they didn’t know what the hell they were doing, and now it’s back! From Tokyopop! Rejoice! Maybe ADV will finally drop the license for Yotsuba, and a publisher who actually, you know, publishes, will put out volumes 4 through 6. And maybe a new printing of 1-3… that certainly wouldn’t hurt…

The rest of this week’s shipping list is behind the cut:

Continue reading “Shipping March 28th, 2007”

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Friday Morning

“My second thought is that I choose not to read free downloads because it seems in almost every case to be against the wishes of the creators or the people to whom they’ve ceded those decision-making rights. I’m not sure when that stopped mattering. I’m also pretty certain that second-guessing this, deciding you know what’s better for someone else’s creation, is kind of arrogant.”

– Tom Spurgeon, ComicsReporter.com

Thanks for summing that up for me Tom, I’d been meaning to get to that for a little while.

I have to say though, I’m a bit of a hypocrite in this regard. I’m not morally or ethically opposed to reading stuff that simply isn’t available for me to buy, the grey-area material like Scanlations and Legally Contentious Material That Is Unlikely To Be Published. But yeah, this week’s She-Hulk? When the dude asks you to actually spend money on it, if you like it? That’s a pretty easy choice for me. I know too many creative people for whom even a few hundred dollars of lost sales is a rent cheque for them, a rent cheque that they desperately need.

– Christopher

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Drawn & Quarterly Solicitations: June 2007

The following books appear in the April 2007 PREVIEWS catalogue, and will begin shipping in in June 2007 to better comic book stores everywhere. 

Spent HCSpent
By Joe Matt
Hardcover book, 6.5 x 9.25 inches, 132 two-color pages.
$19.95
978-1-897299-11-1 

Meet the original antihero Joe Matt: a master of a domain that includes over twenty-three self-edited eight-hour-long videotapes of bootlegged pornography; a penny-pincher who never fails to make a dime off his friends; a chronic masturbator who doesn’t understand why he never has a girlfriend; an obsessive collector frantically searching for the toys of his childhood; a callous son who throws out every gift his adoring mother gives him; a man so lazy that he urinates in a bottle rather than walk to the bathroom. SPENT is Joe Matt’s first new trade hardcover in years, and it collects in a re-edited and re-colored form his best storyline from the past 4 issues of Peepshow. Also offered here are other Joe Matt classics, Fair Weather and The Poor Bastard.

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Look for “Offered Again” Titles Behind the cut.

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Continue reading “Drawn & Quarterly Solicitations: June 2007”

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Drawn & Quarterly Solicitations: May 2007

The following books appear in the March 2007 PREVIEWS catalogue, and will begin shipping in in May 2007 to better comic book stores everywhere. 

exit_wounds.jpgExit Wounds
By Rutu Modan
Mature Readers
Hardcover book, 6.5 x 9 inches, 176 FULL COLOR pages.
$19.95
978-1-897299-06-7

In modern-day Tel Aviv, a young man, Koby Franco, receives an urgent phone call from a female soldier. Learning that his estranged father may have been a victim of a suicide bombing in Hadera, Koby reluctantly joins the soldier in searching for clues. His father’s death would certainly explain the empty apartment and disconnected phone line. As Koby tries to unravel the mystery of his father’s death, he finds himself not only piecing together the last few months of his father’s life, but his entire identity. With thin, precise lines and luscious watercolors, Modan creates a portrait of modern Israel, a place where sudden death mingles with the slow dissolution of family ties. Exit Wounds is the North American graphic novel debut from one of Israel’s best-known cartoonists, Rutu Modan. She has received several awards in Israel and abroad, including the Best Illustrated Children’s Book Award from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (four times) and the Young Artist of the Year by the Israel Ministry of Culture. She is a chosen artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation.

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james_sturm_america.jpgJames Sturm’s America
By James Sturm
Mature readers
Hardcover book, 7.5 x 10 inches, 192 pages, partial color.
$ 24.95 USD
978-1-897299-05-0

Focusing on less sensational times in U.S. history (non-war and pre-Depression) James Sturm’s America draws a portrait of the people and their dreams that make up this country. Comprised of three chapters—“The Revival,” “Hundreds of Feet Below Daylight,” and “The Golem’s Mighty Swing”—the story grows as the country grows; from pioneers searching for a place to call home, to ghost towns gutted by greed and racism, to the distractions and fantasies of popular entertainment. James Sturm is one of the most important figures to have emerged in comics in recent years, both as a cartoonist and as the founder and director of the Center For Cartoon Studies. The work collected in this book has been praised by numerous cultural luminaries, from novelists Jonathan Lethem and Russell Banks to Doonesbury’s Gary Trudeau. Sturm won an Eisner Award for his Fantastic Four graphic novel, Unstable Molecules.

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Look for Offered Again titles behind the cut.

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Continue reading “Drawn & Quarterly Solicitations: May 2007”

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Favourite Internet Pastime #4: Catch Rich Johnston with his Pants Down

Fake Captain Marvel PromoIf you head to Rich Johnston’s column at Comic Book Resources (I’ll spare the link for now), you’ll see a story on a new Captain Marvel Animated Series, entitled SHAZAM! He even has a leaked piece of promo art (shown right)!

“With the successful release of “300” and the upcoming release of “TMNT” later this month, there is no doubt that Warner Bros. is enthused about comic book adaptations -just not DC’s for 2007.
“So how about next year?
“This is an image from the upcoming Captain Marvel cartoon for WB.”
– Rich Johnston, Comic Book Resources

Except of course, for the fact that it isn’t. It’s actually an illustration my buddy Jim Zubkavich put up on his Live Journal last week, with his signature photoshopped out and a logo dropped on. What does buddy Jim have to say about this?

“Some crazy fanboy Photoshopped out my sig and made up a mock promo pic as if it was a real WB animation piece! That’s hilarious. I’m flattered and confused at the same time. The rumor is marked as ‘green’, meaning it’s apparently been confirmed. So strange.”
– Jim Zubkavich

Yeah, a ‘green’ rumour that’s totally untrue, that is strange isn’t it? I bet that’s the first time THAT’S ever happened. Oh that Rich.

Jim Zubkavich, in addition to being one of the dudes in charge of Udon (his official title is “whip cracker”), also just collected his webcomic The Makeshift Miracle into a very handsome graphic novel available in better stores everywhere. Or, you know, at The Beguiling too. Actually, if you’ve got nothing better to do this evening, Jim’s Blog is full of great stuff to read, including “The Most Unprofessional Letter Ever Sent To A Publisher” and “The Worst Things I’ve Ever Seen In Art Portfolios”, both of which are awesome and I’ve been meaning to link to for a little while now…

Now I’m gonna go run and get a screen capture before they change the story, it’s just too good.

– Christopher

References: The Makeshift Miracle

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A Great Spinner Rack, or The Greatest Spinner Rack?

greatspinnerrack.jpgAs part of a little mini photo shoot for the site’s new header (didn’t notice it had changed, didja?) I thought I’d take a picture of my favourite fixture in the store: The Indie Comics Spinner Rack. Although there’s nothing particularly independent about the Ignatz international publishing initiative, I think you take my meaning. 

When it came in, I knew this is what I wanted it for. A chance to display the new wave of books without a spine, or with thinner spines, or that just deserved some ‘face time’. We’ve loaded it with just tons of great material, both high-profile (Optic Nerve issues) and ultra-small-press (those Commune and Dolltopia comics are both great), making it a fun thing to browse, and juxtaposing books that might not normally get thought of as appealing to the same audience.

I thought you might enjoy the picture. It’s no substitute for visiting the store in person of course… Now, back to work!

– Christopher

References:
Ignatz, Optic Nerve, Commune, Dolltopia.

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NotComics: Hurray! I’m Not Getting Dumber.

Chris' IQ ScoreLast night Canada got together and we collectively took an IQ test. The CBC (and Quaker Oats) presents: Test The Nation! A televised (and online) I.Q. test designed to figure out where all the smart people are in Canada. Blah blah blah, I.Q. tests are effectively useless at tracking your I.Q., but hey, it’s fun and it’s always nice to be validated. I scored a very respectable 130, so at least I’m as smart as I was when I was like… eight. In other complimentary news, Peter says my taste is much better since I’ve started working here :). So, it’s a good day for compliments.

You can take the test yourself at http://www.cbc.ca/testthenation/. Post your scores in the comments section if you like. 🙂

– Christopher

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NotComics: You Gotta Believe!

It’s the opening animation to the Parappa The Rapper anime from 2001, courtesy of gaming blog Kotaku. It’s so, so good. It’s like a more Japanese Jamiroquai or something. Yay!

Love, Love, Love together baby!

– Chris

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Reviews: A brief insight.

The nice thing about being assigned books to review is that you get to experience titles you might normally have never picked up, or even actively avoided. The nicer thing about this is the feeling of confidence you get in your own taste and aesthetic, knowing that you avoided a title for looking like crap and then it turning out to be far worse than you imagined. It’s kind of amazing.

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Meanwhile, in the ‘books I am sadly not being paid to review’ dept., King City is exactly as good as I was hoping it would be, and possibly moreso. It’s totally worth running out and picking up. I got asked 5 or 6 times if it was any good this week at work, and now that I’ve read it I can answer with an enthusiastic ‘Yes!’. Maybe if I finish the reviews I’m working on, I’ll do one of this too.

– Christopher

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Shipping March 21st, 2007

Hi there folks. These are the comics that are scheduled to ship to The Beguiling Books & Art in Toronto, Canada this week. These books may not show up at all retailers at the same time, but if you see a title here it’s probably at least worth asking your local retailer about… 

…no time right now to do much in the way of commentary on these books, though there are some good ones in there. If things get a little lighter later in the day, I’ll come back and edit this space to include actual recommendations. The full list is after the cut, so click on the link:
Continue reading “Shipping March 21st, 2007”