Tuesday, September 29, 2015

ALL STAR RECOMMENDS FOR SEPTEMBER 29TH


Hello! Oh, what a trip to Japan I had…I honestly don’t know where to start or even if I should start because I might not ever stop. I’ve returned with so much manga and so much up to date info about where to visit and shop for comics (quick tip: always go second hand, unless you’re in shops called Village Vanguard or Taco-Che) that I think maybe the best thing for me to do would be to take some time and put together a shop/place of interest listing. We’ll see. I have to admit that it was a little disheartening to see the ever-depleting piles of weekly manga shrinking even further from my last visit. However, there does appear to be a fair bit of digital manga – one guy on the train was reading some kind of motion comic version of Slam Dunk, which with its endless panning did not appeal at all to this particular gaijin reading over his shoulder. Although still viable and thriving, the market seems tougher than ever, I’ll say that much.

I’ll write about a few artistic discoveries I made as well as some newer works by amazing non-translated creators and older works by some now sadly no longer with us over the next few weeks, but as I battle the Being Home Blues right now I’ll just quickly point out that I Am A Hero by Kengo Hanazawa is coming next April from Dark Horse (don’t tell me I didn’t warn you in advance!) and it is not to be missed. I’ve “read” the first 500 or so pages of this Zombies-in-Japan epic (roughly the first Dark Horse omnibus edition I’m guessing) and while it is a slow burn, once the zombies show up they don’t stop coming. Hanazawa’s fond of playing out big shocks over sequences of stunning and numerous widescreen double-page spreads that only the expansiveness of manga can allow. His artwork is intricate and fluid and his zombies are utterly disgusting. Give it a shot.



COMIC OF THE WEEK : SACRED HEART
By Liz Suburbia
Published By Fantagraphics

What a year 2015 has been in terms of quality comics – at this point my Best Of “shortlist” is roughly the length of All Star’s weekly Diamond shipping invoice. Joining a crowded field of contenders is Liz Suburbia’s Sacred Heart, the first book in a projected four-volume series from the Virginia-based cartoonist and published by the fine folks at Fantagraphics.

Years ago, all the adults disappeared from the town of Alexandria, leaving the kids to carry on in their absence. On the whole, this cast of teenaged punks, nerds and jocks, navigating the minefields of their surging hormones, the complexity of their inter-personal relationships and the responsibility of raising younger siblings, does incredibly well without any grown-ups to guide them. It’s not all punk rock parties and young love, however. An apocalyptic vibe hangs over Alexandria, with the kids well aware of what’s happened to their parents, an odd religious undercurrent and, much more ominously, murders committed on their suburban streets.

Ben Schiller is one of Alexandria’s teens. She’s got a crush on a handsome football player with his own secrets, an increasingly complicated relationship with her best friend Otto and a sister named Empathy who she worries about constantly. Sacred Heart is seen predominantly through Ben’s eyes and Suburbia expertly dilutes the high concept nature of Sacred Heart’s premise with beautiful moments of both character interaction and the continuing banality of everyday existence. Even in this most unusual of circumstances, the young characters struggle to keep on keeping on as time marches onward and more of their peers are killed.

Suburbia’s cartooning is just lovely, with her punk rock kids, starkly contrasting black and white and even her lettering recalling Jaime Hernandez by way of Brandon Graham’s full-lipped, rounded figures of all sizes and shapes. Her layouts are superb and her manipulation of comics space-time is a highlight. Her montage pages are exceptional, widening out her “lens” to cover a large portion of her cast in single-panel, everyday moments, creating breadth and scope within her world and yet also intimacy. Each of her characters is distinctive and whole, with his or her mannerisms and psychological concerns and, although it does not affect the narrative at all, the social order of High School intriguingly remains very much intact even though classes are no longer in session.

Sacred Heart is difficult to discuss without spoiling. It’s a comic that cares more about its characters than pushing its plot (the major story reveal is literally on the very last page, so don’t flip to the end if you are perusing a copy) but with Suburbia’s teens talking and interacting like actual teens, the complete banishment of exposition is actually one of the book’s great strengths. Its surprising subtlety and ambiguity means that much is left unexplained or to the reader to decode and further mysteries are revealed as existing ones tie up. However, Sacred Heart is created with such a sure hand that there’s no doubt Suburbia knows where she’s headed and how she’s going to get there.

Sacred Heart is, at over 300 pages, a complex, thrilling and lovingly created graphic novel that deserves not only a massive teen audience but also one way beyond the confines of that demographic.

Bring on part two, please.



WEBCOMIC OF THE WEEK : MY DOG: THE PARADOX
By Matthew Inman

Dogs. You love them. I love them. I’m really short on time this week, so here’s another touching comic about them from The Oatmeal by Matthew Inman.



COUNTDOWN TO MOZ METAL: HEAVY METAL JANUARY 1978:

Rebounding from the last lacklustre issue like Rocky in pretty much all of the Rocky movies, Heavy Metal’s January 1978 issue is a smash. The editorial is again, tremendous, with our unnamed scribe reinforcing the magazine’s commitment to European material in the face of letters (one of which is printed in this issue) from “…American hewers of wood nymphs and water babies [who] feel our usual three to one ratio is downright unpatriotic.”

Great stuff. One can only imagine the submissions that HM received from American would-be Moebiuses and Druillettes of the time and indeed a rummage through the blind submissions pile would be on my comic book Time Machine To-Do list.

Corben’s “Den”continues ever on, as does Moebius’ “Airtight Garage” with Jerry Cornelius himself making his first (I believe) comic book appearance.“A Rose For Ecclesiastes,” a prose story by Roger Zelazny accompanied by illustrations by the legendary Gray Morrow proves much more satisfying than last issues hot mess by Len Wein accompanied by a game Howard Chaykin. Morrow’s full-colour drawings surround the text completely on each page (almost, I must confess, to the point of confusion on a couple of pages), dating the piece but wonderfully so, for nobody really draws like this anymore. Certainly nobody colours and shades with pencil like this anymore.

There’s more of Chantal Montellier’s savage deconstruction of male culture in “1996” (although the end to this two-parter is something of a disappointment after such an excellent set up), “Conquering Armies” concludes darkly and utterly gorgeously (I will be featuring the remastered Humanoids edition of this story, Armies, sometime soon. Hot tip: order and purchase this before it’s out of print) and “Talapalca” by Dominique He presents an SF twist on a real Incan legend, gorgeously drawn in a highly-detailed style that verges on pointillism at times.

The utter star of the show however, is the opening chapter of “Ulysses” by Jacques Lob and Georges Pichard. A psychedelic take on Homer’s epic (with the poet himself aboard Ulysses’ ship The Penelope), synchronicity rears its all-knowing head once again as your humble reviewer not long ago finished volume one of Fraction and Ward’s Ody-C but is also in the middle of David Gemmell’s trilogy of novels that tackle this very material but strip the myth from it, humanising it – great books all.

Lob you may know as the writer of Snowpiercer, but it’s Pichard’s art recalling the design-oriented, ‘60s stylings of Guy Peellaert with the bodacious curves of John Buscema’s sultry vixens that’s the stand out. In short: this is wonderful. I’ve read it in its entirety several times before and if I had more time on my hands, I’d write an essay on this and Ody-C and how myth and psychedelia intertwine so lovingly.

Maybe one day.




COMICS VIDEO OF THE WEEK : SEPTEMBER 2015 GN-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB MEETING

If I played it too safe for your tastes in my review of Sacred Heart, here’s the humble and charming Liz Suburbia herself, via the wonders of the interwebs, having a chat with readers at San Francisco’s Comics Experience store.

Extremely forthcoming about her process, the struggles of creating comics and working full-time, the editing of Sacred Heart, the re-creation of pages, the backstory of her planned epic and where it will lead, it’s a great chat even if the audio gets a touch swampy at times.

Be warned: here be SPOILERS. Lots and lots and lots of them, so if you don’t like that sort of thing, please do read the book first – your reading experience will be much richer for it.



Love your comics.


Cameron Ashley spends a lot of time writing comics and other things you’ll likely never read. He’s the chief editor and co-publisher of Crime Factory (www.thecrimefactory.com). You can reach him @cjamesashley on Twitter.

Monday, September 28, 2015

New Comics For Wednesday 30th of September


Fifth week of the month normally means a small week for comics but we refuse to slow down! With the help of our good friend and head of Pikitia Press, Matt Emery we'll be hosting a NEW ZEALAND COMICS SHOWCASE this Sunday the 4th of October. Along with Matt selling the best quality comics from New Zealand on the day, we'll also have Dharma Punks creator Ant Sang, Tom Garden from System Earth and Tim Molloy of Mr Unpronounceable fame dropping by to showcase their work! So join us Saturday and discover some of the great talent making our way from NZ! Of course until then...COMICS!

Need more tales of the team bad ass from Marvel's Agents Of Shield before the show returns? CAVALRY SHIELD 50TH ANNIVERSARY #1 should do the trick. Fifth week means Annuals and Special week for DC! Finally SANDMAN OVERTURE #6 (OF 6) ends this dreamy epic. New creator owned fantasy and sorcery with  FROM UNDER MOUNTAINS #1 from Image. The continuing saga of teen adventures never looked this good in the latest ARCHIE #3. Get up to date with the lovable space rascals in GUARDIANS OF GALAXY PREM HC VOL 05 THROUGH LOOKING GLASS. Cullen Bunn drives into a very supernatural take on MOON KNIGHT TP VOL 03 IN NIGHT. It takes a year for them to come out but the WALKING DEAD HC VOL 12 sure does look good on the shelf. ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 01, let's all hope this book is is nearly as good as it's title. Early Remender series gets the big collection treatment with STRANGE GIRL OMNIBUS TP. Always keen for new Farel Dalrymple work, PALEFIRE GN delivers on some heavy and costly teen angst.

Small but still solid week, with an event to boot! Did someone say something about a Grand Final? Comics are the main event! Anything else you see that you need, just let us know.


MARVEL
CAPTAIN AMERICA WHITE #2 (OF 5)
CAVALRY SHIELD 50TH ANNIVERSARY #1
E IS FOR EXTINCTION #4 SWA
GHOST RACERS #4 SWA
HAIL HYDRA #3 SWA
INFERNO #5 SWA
MODOK ASSASSIN #5 (OF 5) SWA
SHIELD #10
X-MEN 92 #4 SWA

DC COMICS
AQUAMAN #44 GREEN LANTERN 75 VAR ED
BATMAN ANNUAL #4
BATMAN ARKHAM KNIGHT ANNUAL #1
GRAYSON ANNUAL #2
GREEN LANTERN ANNUAL #4
JUSTICE LEAGUE #44 GREEN LANTERN 75 VAR ED
NEW SUICIDE SQUAD ANNUAL #1
ROBIN SON OF BATMAN #4
SUPERMAN #44 GREEN LANTERN 75 VAR ED
WONDER WOMAN 77 SPECIAL #2

VERTIGO
AMERICAN VAMPIRE SECOND CYCLE #10
SANDMAN OVERTURE #6 (OF 6)

BOOM
ADVENTURE TIME #44
BEE AND PUPPYCAT #9
MUNCHKIN #9
OVER THE GARDEN WALL #2

DARK HORSE
COLDER TOSS THE BONES #1 (OF 5)
CONAN THE AVENGER #18
ZODIAC STARFORCE #2

DYNAMITE
KING PRINCE VALIANT #4 (OF 4)

IDW
DIRK GENTLYS HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY #4 (OF 5)
GHOSTBUSTERS GET REAL #4 (OF 4)
GODZILLA IN HELL #3 (OF 5)
INFINITE LOOP #6 (OF 6)
JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS OUTRAGEOUS ANNUAL #1
TRANSFORMERS #45
TRANSFORMERS MORE THAN MEETS EYE #45
UNCLE SCROOGE #6
ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS #9

IMAGE
DRIFTER #8
FROM UNDER MOUNTAINS #1
MANTLE #5
MORNING GLORIES #48
POSTAL #7
RASPUTIN #9
REVIVAL #33
SEX #24
SONS OF THE DEVIL #5
SPAWN #256
SPREAD #10
STRAY BULLETS SUNSHINE & ROSES #8
THEYRE NOT LIKE US #8

MISC
ARCHIE #3
BOOK OF DEATH FALL OF HARBINGER #1
CROSSED PLUS 100 #9
DOCTOR WHO 10TH YEAR TWO #1
DOCTOR WHO 12TH #12
KAIJUMAX #6
LOSE #7
MERCURY HEAT #4
PROVIDENCE #5 (OF 12)
STRINGERS #2 (OF 5)

MAGAZINES
HEAVY METAL #276 CVR B KIRBY

TRADES
ADVENTURES OF AERO GIRL TP
AIRWOLF AIRSTRIKES TP VOL 01
ARROW SEASON 2.5 TP
AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER TP VOL 10 SMOKE & SHADOW 
BATMAN TP VOL 06 GRAVEYARD SHIFT (N52)
BEST AMERICAN COMICS HC 2015
BLACK RAT TP
CLIVE BARKERS NEXT TESTAMENT TP VOL 03
DRESSING GN
ELEPHANTMEN 2260 TP BOOK 03 LEARNING TO BE HUMAN
EMPTY MAN TP
EMPTY TP VOL 01
FRIENDS WITH BOYS TP
GREENBERG THE VAMPIRE TP
GUARDIANS OF GALAXY PREM HC VOL 05 THROUGH LOOKING GLASS
JUNIOR BRAVES OF THE APOCALYPSE HC VOL 01
LIFE AFTER TP VOL 02
MADS ORIGINAL IDIOTS COMPLETE COLLECTION
MADS ORIGINAL IDIOTS JACK DAVIS TP
MADS ORIGINAL IDIOTS WALLY WOOD TP
MADS ORIGINAL IDIOTS WILL ELDER TP
MATERIAL TP VOL 01
MERCY THOMPSON HOPCROSS JILLY HC
MERMIN HC VOL 04
MILES MORALES ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ULT COLL TP BOOK 02
MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN TP
MOON KNIGHT TP VOL 03 IN NIGHT
NINJAK TP VOL 01 WEAPONEER
ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 01
PALEFIRE GN
PRIEST & BRIGHTS QUANTUM & WOODY TP VOL 02 SWITCH
ROBOCOP DEAD OR ALIVE TP VOL 01
SCHMUCK GN
SECRET CODERS GN VOL 01
SELF-OBSESSED TP
SHIELD BY LEE AND KIRBY COMPLETE COLLECTION TP
SHOWA HISTORY OF JAPAN TP VOL 04 1953-1989
SMOKE HC
SOUTHERN BASTARDS HC VOL 01
STRANGE GIRL OMNIBUS TP
TMNT ADVENTURES TP VOL 10
UNIVERSAL WAR ONE GN
USAGI JANE AND THE SKULLBUNNIES GN VOL 01
WALKING DEAD HC VOL 12
WALT DISNEY DONALD DUCK GN VOL 03 GOLDEN HELMET
X-FILES SEASON 10 HC VOL 05

MERCH
BATMAN ANIMATED BAS PENGUIN AF
BATMAN ANIMATED NBA POISON IVY AF

BACK IN STOCK
ALL NEW HAWKEYE #5
JOURNEY STAR WARS FASE #1 (OF 4)
SPACE RIDERS #1 (OF 4) 3RD PTG
SPACE RIDERS #2 (OF 4) 2ND PTG
SPACE RIDERS #3 (OF 4) 2ND PTG

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

ALL STAR RECOMMENDS FOR SEPTEMBER 22ND


Am I back in the country yet? Hopefully I have just touched down with a satchel full of manga, a head full of hazy sake memories and a bank balance wiped out due to terrible conversion rates. Writing from the past is a terrible curse, where things that should have come to pass may well not have, thanks, largely I presume, to Jetstar and the sanity of my AirBNB hosts. We shall see. If I am hacked up in a tiny Tokyo bathtub, tell my dog Beatrix that I love her.

There’s a lot of totally bonkers comics in the column this week (not sure how that happened, I’m guessing sleep deprivation and subconscious fear of freakish death). So let’s go!



COMIC OF THE WEEK : ELEKTRA: ASSASSIN
Frank Miller & Bill Sienkiewicz
Epic Comics

I’m pretty sure I first bought a second printing of the collected Elektra: Assassin back in 1989. It was a time when trade paperbacks were largely undesirable objects, a sign that you’d somehow failed as a fan to pick the original, serialised, highly-fetishised issues. My, how comics culture has changed. I do remember that it felt somehow proper to teenage me, having this madness contained in a thick, single volume. It felt fitting somehow, grown up, and was, in many ways, an eye-opener for me in terms of not only accepting the TPB as somehow “legit” (which is weird on so many levels especially since my formative years were filled with European volumes) but also in terms of comics content. Anyway, enough about me.

Elektra: Assassin was and still is, I’m happy to report after re-reading it for the first time in probably fifteen years, one of my favourite Marvel comics ever. A bizarre, about-to-go-off-the-rails-at-any moment epic and an unashamedly loud (my edition has a bright pink back cover with no copy at all) piece of pure comics expressionism. It’s an early look at just how far you can nudge characters that are ostensibly superheroes into unknown territory when editorial bigwigs either trust their talent or simply can’t hold it back. 

Of course, it didn’t hurt that Elektra: Assassin’s talent was Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz and the editorial bigwigs were Archie Goodwin and Jo Duffy, who hung up her editorial pen after this particular gig as she felt it could never be topped.

Published by Marvel’s now sadly long-dead “mature readers” line, Epic Comics over eight issues in 1986, Elektra: Assassin still feels risky as of today when I closed its covers yet again. A campy ‘60s spy narrative soaked in equal quantities of bad trip visuals, cold war paranoia and pitch black satire, this comic is, even more than the rigid formalism (however ground-breaking) of Watchmen, perhaps the classic example of the mainstream comic being autopsied to reveal the insanity lying at the heart of your all favourite superheroes.

Like the plot from The Omen gone Marvel, The Beast (as in the devil, not the X-Man) stands poised to rise through politics and destroy the world. Daredevil’s long-time foes, the evil ninja clan, The Hand, seek to actively expedite annihilation. Having tussled with the mighty demonic powers of The Beast before, Elektra barely survived with her sanity but is determined to destroy The Beast once and for all even as he stands posed to attain the Presidency in the form of Senator Ken Wind.

Sienkiewicz is gleefully all over the shop, with wonky, angular perspectives and mixed media from pencil to water colour to God knows what to sticking literally doilies on his pages. He successfully pulls off more distinctive art styles in a single work than most comics artists manage in a career. His Elektra is a stringbean, a perfectly long-limbed and wiry death-dealer with rosy cheeks and piercing blue eyes. His villain, the demonic Ken Wind, has the same JFK-esque face copied and pasted onto his body over and over and over again – indicating the artifice of politics and demonstrating the blankness behind the manufactured charisma of those who work within it. He’s a shill, Ken Wind, a robot spouting party lines and pre-prepared speeches, a glorious caricature of a real politician who has become more and more prevalent over the years.

Miller has never been one for subtlety, for better or worse, and just bludgeons his readers with his cynicism here. But this is a Marvel Comic, remember? Since when does subtlety have much of a presence? The facile, straight-forward points he drives home make perfect sense here in this bombastic comic about Daredevil’s ex blowing things up and chopping off the heads of satanic dwarves.

Every character in Elektra: Assassin is awful, unlikable, disgusting, bigoted, evil and psychologically damaged. Its authority figures are cartoonish and cruel, plastic and brain-damaged, particularly its aforementioned politicians who are mercilessly lampooned versions of the fake electioneerers we are sadly all too desensitised to in 2015. Wind is the charismatic yet “faceless” Democratic Presidential Candidate, spouting hilariously pat, scripted soundbites. The Republican President is a visual cocktail of Reagan and Nixon by way of Hunter S Thompson’s artistic collaborator, Ralph Steadman; the embodiment of a power-hungry troll whose sense of being rests solely on the fact that he has not only the might to trigger Armageddon but also the madness to constantly hover his finger over that red button.

Elektra, the hero amongst this parade of psychopaths, killers and monsters enabled either by magic or technology, is a murdering, mind-controlling ninja who brainwashes Agent Garrett, an already repellent and criminally inclined agent of SHIELD with a hilarious toupee and cybernetic parts, into essentially being her sex slave. Again – this is not subtle, there’s a splash page evoking their relationship, as Garrett perceives it, with Elektra as dominatrix astride him, choking him as he yet begs for more. But this is all somehow done with such biting humour – a scene where Garrett tries to undo his brainwashing by trying not to think of Elektra bathing in the very next room but finding nothing but porn on the TV, the ridiculous “caper” feel to its assassination attempt, the hilarious yet still super-cool technology blasting the absurdity of comics yet looking pretty rad as it does so.

Groucho Marx masks are used as disguises, along with nun’s habits, clearly mocking the silliness of spy movie conventions. The mighty SHIELD, now a staple of American popular culture, is mocked for being a militaristic weapons factory, a nightmare of experimental weaponry. With Quasimodo-like dwarves acting as sanctioned torturers, it’s the military-industrial complex writ large and in watercolour. War hero Nick Fury at one point has an arrow pointing downwards to his genitals and tests guns of such massiveness that they somehow mock the work of Rob Liefeld a good five or six years before X-Force even existed.

To this very day, Elektra: Assassin remains a stunningly realised risk from Marvel. It’s massive in scope, madness, experimentation and density. It’s nasty, beautiful and oh so surreal and it certainly will not be fifteen years until I read it yet again.



WEBCOMIC OF THE WEEK : NEMESIS ENFORCER: BAD CITY
By Dennis Macheras & Casey Silver

Tonnes of energy and zero narrative sense populate Nemesis Enforcer: Bad City along with an early Image-meets-street art-meets Chris Bachalo-meets Joe Mad-meets combat video game aesthetic. If that sounds like a lot to absorb, you’d be totally right.

Dennis Macheras and Casey Silver blaze through their character introductions, throwing onto the page a menagerie of combatants that look as though they’d fit quite at home in a Mortal Kombat game whipped up in a frenzy by Rob Liefeld. Clearly, these two care not a whit about anything other than making things look as crazed and kinetic and, frankly, ludicrous as humanly possible.

Characters named 8 Bit Assassin, Slater and Radika rub spiked shoulders and fists with all manner of unnamed warriors in a manner that doesn’t care whether you can follow along as it skips through time like an severely ADD kid with a TV remote or Grant Morrison at his most indulgent (Sorry, I still love you, Grant!).

All this sounds rather negative, I know, but the thing is these guys are totally aware of what they’re doing. I think. They have to be, right? The aesthetic of this comic is just way too cultivated to be some random act of accidental osmosis. See, Nemesis Enforcer: Bad City is actually awesome. “Awesome” is a word I hate being used in reviews as it’s the laziest, most indistinct of superlatives. But there it is, I just popped it in there proudly because Bad City is a bit like Prison Pit for ageing gamers who still have copies of Brigade locked away in Mylar bags. You try and find a more fitting word than “awesome” to describe that.

So what the hell is happening here? Who cares. Is there going to be more of this? Who knows.

All I know is that something called the Nexus Lens is collapsing and the future, with its character dissections, crumbling realities and... uh...pierced dimensional membranes (or whatever the hell that is happening in that last panel), is likely worse than even a place called Bad City can possibly bear.

Hopefully, having created this piece of action comics chaos, the creators just drop their pens and walk away high-fiving, the clap of their unclean hands unleashing a cloud of residual amphetamine from their clammy palms into the air. That’s how it plays out in my head, anyway...



COUNTDOWN TO MOZ METAL: HEAVY METAL DECEMBER 1977

Sixty pages of Phillipe Druillet are contained with HM 12/77, a tantalising prospect, making it the first time that a complete “epic” was told start to finish in this magazine. That’s not the only titbit of trivia you can arm yourselves with from his issue, however, as an except from the novelisation of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind is also herein, written by some novice novelist named Steven Spielberg. Yes, Spielberg himself novelised his own film (well, allegedly) and I had no idea…did you? Oh, and Howard Chaykin is in this issue too. Based on that line up, you’d expect Christmas 1977 to be pretty merry indeed.

It was not. There are lumps of coal here, doled out in prettily patterned wrapping.

But before we move on, it’s worth noting that the editorial suggests that this particular issue was poised to reach 250,000 readers.  If that’s a serious figure, just take a moment to contemplate it:

250,000 readers.

Compare that figure for this monthly magazine which featured some incredibly strange, incredibly sophisticated, mainly European material and compare it to the highest selling comics of today. The mind boggles more so than it does when faced with the cosmic existentialism found so frequently within Heavy Metal’s finest pages.

So, anyway, just how are the prose chops of Mr Spielberg? Well, judging from Chapter Eleven of his novelisation, the only chapter included here, he’s a functional and polished enough writer, if given to the sort of clipped, muscular, straight-ahead writing of much of mainstream contemporary fiction, which likely means this book sold in the boatloads. A sample for you, fine reader:

“The tropical twilight was now night. Damp blackness had descended upon them all. And, even though they could no longer see their sadhu, the many thousands continued their chant, forcing it to grow to an almost unbearable intensity.”

Yeah. Not bad.

Chaykin’s work comes in the form of illustrations to accompany an SF-pirate poem told in rhyming couplets by none other than Wolverine’s dad himself, Len Wein. Chaykin’s full colour murals depict exploding spaceships, floating aliens and a grimacing, militaristic man named Ezekial Nash. It’s excellent, purely ‘70s, artwork and does a good job of salvaging Wein’s frankly rather silly poem:

“Aye, pay heed and I’ll tell ye a story,
Of a prize worth more than a jewel,
Of Ezekial Nash, mourned in glory,
And his ship, the poor, doomed…Fortune’s Fool!”

Hmm.

Druillet’s “Vuzz” is told in his looser, scratchier style, which I pretty much unkindly ripped into a few weeks back. Look, even here at his laziest he draws far better than I ever could and I’m not disputing his genius, but you don’t see Moebius slacking with his irreverent material, do you?

Even Richard Corben’s “Den” going all kung-fu and roundhouse kicking fools does little to raise my spirits about this issue and although there are some other glimmers of good stuff within, December 1977 ends the first calendar year of Heavy Metal in largely disappointing fashion when held up to the standards it has set up to this point.

Ah, well. Roll on January 1978, which we shall visit next week and, cheekily peering ahead to next issue’s contents page, I’m confident this psychedelic warship shall be righted once more before the inevitable downslide of the ‘80s arrives to capsize Heavy Metal’s quality for some time to come. Here’s hoping for your sake and mostly mine that Moz Metal arrives well before that.




COMICS VIDEOS(& MUSIC!) OF THE WEEK : BAMBI AND HER PINK GUN, GABA KING SONG NO.2& SHOT THE PINK GUN

Truly, it is a crime against the comics nation state that the work of Atsushi Kaneko is not available in English outside of dodgy scanlations or whatever they’re called.  Kaneko’s manga is widely available in French, so I’m a little unsure as to why an artist with such European leanings to his style has been ignored by American comics companies.  His work is fast-paced, quirky, violent and highly-detailed. Sure, some other know-it-all will point out that the first two volumes of his first long-form work Bambi were published, in English, by DMP but the project was cancelled after just those first two, never to be reprinted. His subsequent works Soil, Wet Moon and Deathco, remain Englishless in an era where any and all American comics companies with a chequebook have snapped up all manner of manga of much inferior visual qualities and pacing.

It was a guy named Nikolai, a fellow conversational English teacher from Sydney, who turned me on to Kaneko’s work at a 2004 Yeah Yeah Yeahs gig in Osaka. Nikolai dug Paul Pope and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, which shows pretty rad taste, so off I went on a book hunt.  The seven volumes of Bambi were the first things I made sure I packed when I left the country in 2006.


Anyway, here’s a video some guy made of those first two DMP volumes of Bambi and Her Pink Gun all cut up and spliced back together. As an added treat, I’ve also included two more videos, the first a Kaneko-approved song allegedly sung by Gaba King, the story’s main villain; a corpulent vampiric Elvis who unleashes a parade of grotesque assassins after Bambi in order to retrieve the brattish toddler she’s travelling with. It really does sound like a fat vampiric Elvis singing evilly in Japanese. 
Yes, it’s that good. 


The third is “Shot The Pink Gun,” a selection of songs inspired by the manga. With bands like Analers (best band name ever), 54 Nude Honeys, Kenzi and The Trips, and Bullshit (second best band name ever), you surely must have 35 minutes to spare to check this out.






Raishu o aishi, anata no manga ga daisuke….Oops, I should be home: See you next week. Love your 
comics.


Cameron Ashley spends a lot of time writing comics and other things you’ll likely never read. He’s the chief editor and co-publisher of Crime Factory (www.thecrimefactory.com). You can reach him @cjamesashley on Twitter.

Monday, September 21, 2015

New Comics For Wednesday 23rd of September


Special week this week because it's time to celebrate the official Batman Day! This Saturday the 26th of September, join in as we play host to fun and games to say thank for Batman! More details on the day, like FREE COMICSFREE SKETCHES and BAT-ACTIVITIES can be found at our BATMAN DAY event page. What we can let you know for sure right now is this! If you make it along on the day you can be among the first to pick up MELBOURNE QUARTERLY #3 as part of their Launch day! This will also be coupled with the next All Star Women's Comic Book Club Meet Up from 2pm-4pm at the exciting new location of The Bull & Bear just around the corner from the shop! Drop in and help make Melbourne truly BATMANIA for one day! Until then COMICS!


More super spying celebrating 50 years of Shield with FURY SHIELD 50TH ANNIVERSARY #1. Gotham Sirens, Harley and Ivy enlist the help of Mystery Inc to solve the puzzle of some haunted loot in SCOOBY DOO TEAM UP #12. The original Avatar adventures continue in the latest release of AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER TP VOL 10 SMOKE & SHADOW PART 1BLACK WIDOW TP VOL 03 LAST DAYS reminds us yet again the Natasha is the best at what she does but how she got that way was never a happy tale. The Mignola-verse moves ever closer to complete armageddon with BPRD HELL ON EARTH TP VOL 11 FLESH AND STONE. Chip Zdarsky reintroduces us to Marvel's favourite feathered friend in HOWARD THE DUCK TP VOL 00 WHAT THE DUCK. Following on from the main event release last week, JOKER ENDGAME HC collects all the other parts of this epic Batman tale. A stunning trip to 1930's New York, as Jonathon Case plays with class politics using the background of the Astoria Hotel in NEW DEAL HC. The much loved TV show gets it's first collection of the sold out series, ORPHAN BLACK TP VOL 01. Return to the tales of Wind in the Willows under attack from the War of the World with the second series of WILDS END ENEMY WITHIN #1FREE COUNTRY A TALE OF THE CHILDRENS CRUSADE HC gives us a deluxe collection of a Neil Gaiman Dead Boy Detective/Books Of Magic crossover, now with new material! Plus a new PREVIEWS for OCTOBER 2015 to look over, just ask to check one out at the counter.

Anything else that catches your eye, just let us know and we'll get it sorted!

MARVEL
1872 #3 SWA
CAPTAIN MARVEL AND CAROL CORPS #4 SWA
DEADPOOL VS THANOS #2 (OF 4)
FURY SHIELD 50TH ANNIVERSARY #1
GEORGE ROMEROS EMPIRE OF DEAD ACT THREE #5 (OF 5)
INHUMANS ATTILAN RISING #5 SWA
KANAN #6
MARVEL UNIVERSE ULT SPIDER-MAN WEB WARRIORS #11
RUNAWAYS #4 SWA
WEIRDWORLD #4 SWA
X-TINCTION AGENDA #4 SWA
YEARS OF FUTURE PAST #5 SWA

DC COMICS
BATGIRL #44
BATMAN 66 #27
DEATHSTROKE #10 GREEN LANTERN 75 VAR ED
FLASH #44 GREEN LANTERN 75 VAR ED
GOTHAM BY MIDNIGHT #9
GRAYSON #12 GREEN LANTERN 75 VAR ED
HARLEY QUINN & POWER GIRL #4 (OF 6)
HE MAN THE ETERNITY WAR #10
JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001 #4
SCOOBY DOO TEAM UP #12
SINESTRO #15 GREEN LANTERN 75 VAR ED
WE ARE ROBIN #4

VERTIGO
ASTRO CITY #27

BOOM
ADVENTURE TIME FIONNA & CAKE CARD WARS #3 (OF 6)
ARCADIA #5
BURNING FIELDS #8 (OF 8)
HACKTIVIST VOL 2 #3 (OF 6)
POWER UP #3 (OF 6)
REGULAR SHOW #27
SONS OF ANARCHY #25
SPIRE #3 (OF 8)
UFOLOGY #5 (OF 6)
WILDS END ENEMY WITHIN #1 (OF 4)

DARK HORSE
BTVS SEASON 10 #19
ELFQUEST FINAL QUEST #11
FIGHT CLUB 2 #5
HALO ESCALATION #22
HELLBOY IN HELL #8
NEGATIVE SPACE #2 (OF 4)
POWER CUBED #1 (OF 4)

DYNAMITE
RED SONJA #18

IDW
DONALD DUCK #5
SHRINKING MAN #3 (OF 4)
TMNT CASEY & APRIL #4 (OF 4)
TRANSFORMERS WINDBLADE #7

IMAGE
EMPTY ZONE #4
INVISIBLE REPUBLIC #6
IXTH GENERATION #5
MANHATTAN PROJECTS SUN BEYOND THE STARS #3
MYTHIC #4
NAMELESS #5
ODDLY NORMAL #10
REYN #8
RUMBLE #7
TECH JACKET #11
THIEF OF THIEVES #31
TITHE #5
WOLF #3

MISC
BART SIMPSON COMICS #98
BLACKLIST #3
BOOK OF DEATH #3 (OF 4)
CROSSED PLUS 100 #8
DEBBIES INFERNO (ONE SHOT)
DOCTOR WHO 2015 FOUR DOCTORS #5 (OF 5)
HOME #3 (OF 4)
INVADER ZIM #3
PRINCELESS BE YOURSELF #4 (OF 4)
PUBLIC RELATIONS #1 (OF 5)

MAGAZINES
MARVEL PREVIEWS OCTOBER 2015
PREVIEWS #325 OCTOBER 2015

TRADES
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN TP VOL 05 SPIRAL
AMELIA COLE & THE IMPOSSIBLE FATE TP
ASTRO CITY CONFESSION HC NEW ED
AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER TP VOL 10 SMOKE & SHADOW PART 1
BLACK MARKET TP
BLACK WIDOW TP VOL 03 LAST DAYS
BPRD HELL ON EARTH TP VOL 11 FLESH AND STONE
CIMARRONIN GN VOL 01
DEADPOOL CLASSIC TP VOL 13 DEADPOOL TEAM UP
DEATHLOK TP VOL 02 MAN VERSUS MACHINE
DONALD DUCK SHELLFISH MOTIVES TP
DOODLE JUMP HC
FABLES COMICS HC
FREE COUNTRY A TALE OF THE CHILDRENS CRUSADE HC
GOD IS DEAD TP VOL 06
HELLBOUND HC
HELLBOY 100 PROJECT TP
HEXED HARLOT & THIEF TP VOL 01
HOWARD THE DUCK TP VOL 00 WHAT THE DUCK
JOKER ENDGAME HC
LOKI AGENT OF ASGARD TP VOL 03 LAST DAYS
NEIL GAIMAN SLEEPER & THE SPINDLE HC
NEW DEAL HC
ORPHAN BLACK TP VOL 01
PUNISHER TP VOL 03 LAST DAYS
ROGUES TP VOL 01 CURSE OF THE CHICKEN AND OTHER ST
TMNT NEW ANIMATED ADVENTURES TP VOL 06
UPSIDE DOWN A VAMPIRE TALE GN
WESTWOOD WITCHES TP
Y THE LAST MAN TP BOOK 03

MERCH
ARROW TV JOHN DIGGLE AF
BATMAN BLACK & WHITE STATUE BY GREG CAPULLO 2ND ED
FLASH TV CAPTAIN COLD AF
SUPERMAN MAN OF STEEL STATUE BY DARWYN COOKE

BACK IN STOCK
ITTY BITTY BUNNIES BONG GENIE #1
RICK & MORTY #2 3RD PTG
SEX CRIMINALS #12 KATE LETH XXX VAR

STAR WARS LANDO #4 (OF 5)

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

THE ALL STAR PAY IT FORWARD PROGRAM


Sharing a Love of Comics!

Welcome to the All Star Pay It Forward Program.

Recently we've noticed two distinct trends in the Comic Book Market. With the recent relaunch of many beloved comic titles and the constant stream of movies based on comics, we often have folks new to comics interested in getting started reading but find themselves confused about where to begin. 

Coupled with the positive feedback we constantly hear from parents about comics being a great way to get kids reading, we wanted to come up with a way to introduce young and adults readers alike to the world of comic books as easily as possible.

And with that, the All Star Pay It Forward Program was born.

How does it work?

  • Simply purchase a comic or trade paperback for someone you know who is keen to try comics or someone you'd like to introduce comics too and we'll put it aside for them.

  • Provide us with the recipient's name and contact details (or guardians) and we’ll send a message letting them know someone has left them a "Pay It Forward" gift instore.

  • When the recipient comes in to collect their gift, they get to choose a further 3 FREE comics from a selection of over 50 titles!

  • At this point they'll find out who paid it forward for them and if they like, can choose to continue to Pay It Forward themselves!

  • As another option you can nominate your PAY IT FORWARD to go to a OPEN RECIPIENT. Just pick if you'd like your Pay It Forward to go to a Young or Adult reader and we will give these books out to folks at random we find either trying to get into comics for the first time or visiting the store for the first time. 

With your help we think this will be a great way to get a broad range of books in the hands of those unfamiliar with but interested in comic reading, thus further growing the comic book community! 

Time and time again we are amazed by the willingness of our customers to share their love of comics with friends, family and co-workers. It’s always fun to introduce comics to new readers. And let’s face it, it’s nice to know someone is thinking of you too!


Feel free to let friends and family know about this Program and ask at the counter to get started next time you are in. So share your love of comics with the All Star Pay It Forward Program today! 



Monday, September 14, 2015

New Comics For Wednesday 16th of September




The early days of Spring and all we want to just stay inside and read some sweet comics. Take a look at what's on offer this week.

Hit character from TV, get's some more well deserved comic time with AGENT CARTER SHIELD 50TH ANNIVERSARY #1. Followed nicely with another loving throwback to the Silver Age of Marvel with the loooooong awaited powerhouse team up of Loeb and Sale in CAPTAIN AMERICA WHITE #1. When you are a superhero it can't always be easy finding the funds to finance your vigilante work. Sadly if they don't make that final repayment the repo guys can be a little rough, as we find out in PAYBACKS #1. The follow up series about the wartime hero robot, now stuck in a deadend job making ends meet is back with D4VE2 #1. TOKYO GHOST #1 is Remender and Sean Murphy totally cutting loose in an over the top world of the highest stake thrills but value of life is dirty cheap. To match up nicely with last week's All Star Legend pick, Matt Kindt releases an great new follow up with his 2 SISTERS SUPER SPY HC. BATMAN HC VOL 07 ENDGAME sees the Joker put this biggest plan into motion that has Batman on the ropes. Image's family barbarian modern world fantasy mash up from the mind of Nailbiter's Williamson and featuring the breakout art of Andrei Bressan, BIRTHRIGHT TP VOL 02 is a must. Behind the screens of classic 1950's Hollywood has never looked so grimy but Brubaker and Phillips' FADE OUT TP VOL 02 makes it impossible to look away. STEP ASIDE POPS HARK A VAGRANT COLLECTION HC continues with getting big laughs at historical and literary expenses. 

Notice something you need us to stash? Just let us know and we'll get it sorted!


MARVEL
AGE OF APOCALYPSE #4 SWA
AGENT CARTER SHIELD 50TH ANNIVERSARY #1
ALL NEW HAWKEYE #5
ARMOR WARS #5 SWA
BUCKY BARNES WINTER SOLDIER #11
CAPTAIN AMERICA WHITE #1 (OF 5)
DARK TOWER DRAWING OF THREE LADY OF SHADOWS #1 (OF
FIGMENT 2 #1 (OF 5)
GUARDIANS OF KNOWHERE #4 SWA
HOUSE OF M #3 SWA
INFINITY GAUNTLET #4 SWA
MIRACLEMAN BY GAIMAN AND BUCKINGHAM #2
SECRET WARS JOURNAL #5 (OF 5) SWA
SPIDER-ISLAND #4 (OF 5) SWA
SPIDER-VERSE #5 SWA
STAR WARS #9
STAR WARS LANDO #4 (OF 5)

DC COMICS
BATMAN ARKHAM KNIGHT GENESIS #2 (OF 6)
BIZARRO #4 (OF 6)
BLACK CANARY #4 GREEN LANTERN 75 VAR ED
CONSTANTINE THE HELLBLAZER #4
DETECTIVE COMICS #44
DOCTOR FATE #4
DOOMED #4
GREEN LANTERN THE LOST ARMY #4
HARLEY QUINN #20 GREEN LANTERN 75 VAR ED
INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US YEAR FOUR #10
MARTIAN MANHUNTER #4
PREZ #4 (OF 6)
ROBIN SON OF BATMAN #4 GREEN LANTERN 75 VAR ED
SECRET SIX #6
SENSATION COMICS FEATURING WONDER WOMAN #14
SUPERMAN WONDER WOMAN #21 GREEN LANTERN 75 VAR ED
WONDER WOMAN #44 GREEN LANTERN 75 VAR ED

BOOM
BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA #16
CLARENCE #4
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK #10
FICTION #4 (OF 4)
LUMBERJANES #18

DARK HORSE
AGE OF REPTILES ANCIENT EGYPTIANS #4 (OF 4)
BPRD HELL ON EARTH #135
DARK HORSE PRESENTS 2014 #14
DEATH HEAD #3 (OF 6)
GROO FRIENDS AND FOES #9
MIDNIGHT SOCIETY THE BLACK LAKE #4 (OF 4)
PAYBACKS #1
PLANTS VS ZOMBIES ONGOING #4 GROWN SWEET HOME
USAGI YOJIMBO #148

DYNAMITE
VOLTRON FROM THE ASHES #1 (OF 6)
WILL EISNER SPIRIT #3

IDW
D4VE2 #1 (OF 4)
JEM & THE HOLOGRAMS #7
MICKEY MOUSE #4
MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC #34
STAR TREK ONGOING #49
STRING DIVERS #2 (OF 5)
TMNT AMAZING ADVENTURES #2

IMAGE
BEAUTY #2
CASANOVA ACEDIA #4
DARK CORRIDOR #2
DEATH VIGIL #8 (OF 8)
FADE OUT #9
INVINCIBLE #123
ISLAND #3
MANIFEST DESTINY #17
ODYC #7
RAT QUEENS #12
SECRET IDENTITIES #7
SEX CRIMINALS #12 
SHUTTER #15
SOUTHERN CROSS #5
TOKYO GHOST #1

MISC
AUTEUR SISTER BAMBI #4 (OF 5)
BLOODSHOT REBORN #6
DOCTOR WHO 10TH #15
IVAR TIMEWALKER #9
JIMBO JONES #1 (ONE SHOT)
KING #2 (OF 5)
LADY MECHANIKA TABLET OF DESTINIES #5 (OF 6)
PRINCELESS RAVEN PIRATE PRINCESS #3
RAI #10
SIMPSONS TREEHOUSE OF HORROR #21

MAGAZINES
HEAVY METAL #276 CVR B

TRADES
100 BULLETS TP BOOK 03
2 SISTERS SUPER SPY HC
A-FORCE PRESENTS TP VOL 01
ARCHER & ARMSTRONG TP VOL 07 ONE PERCENT & OTHER T
ASTRO BOY OMNIBUS TP VOL 01
BATMAN HC VOL 07 ENDGAME
BATMAN NOIR HUSH HC
BIRTHRIGHT TP VOL 02
BUTTERFLY HC
CREEPY COMICS TP VOL 04
FADE OUT TP VOL 02
FIRES ABOVE HYPERION GN
FLASH SEASON ZERO TP
GFT ROBYN HOOD TP VOL 02 WANTED
GI JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO TP VOL 12
GODZILLA RULERS OF EARTH TP VOL 06
HEART IN A BOX TP
HOW TO PASS AS HUMAN HC
MAGNUS ROBOT FIGHTER TP VOL 03 CRADLE & GRAVE
MASTER KEATON GN VOL 04
NEW TEEN TITANS TP VOL 03
NO MERCY TP VOL 01
STEP ASIDE POPS HARK A VAGRANT COLLECTION HC
SWAMP THING BY SCOTT SNYDER DLX ED HC
TERROR ASSAULTER OMWOT GN
THE MARVELS ILLUSTRATED NOVEL HC
X TP VOL 06 MARKED FOR DEATH ENTER THE MARK
Z WORD HC

BACK IN STOCK
DYING AND THE DEAD #3
SEX CRIMINALS #11 2ND PTG SKETCH CVR (MR)
WOLF #1 2ND PTG

Friday, September 11, 2015

ALL STAR RECOMMENDS FOR SEPTEMBER 15TH


Hi you dashing creatures,

I really have no idea what to write here, as I still did not find the time to finish those Diabolik comics, making me both an unreliable columnist and a terrible human being. I’ll be in Kyoto when this one drops for a few quiet days of temples before my liver has to man up and face the fact that we’re returning to Tokyo and he has work to do.


COMIC OF THE WEEK : THE MARQUIS OF ANAON: THE ISLE OF BRAC
By Fabien Vehlmann & Matthhieu Bonhomme
Published By Cinebook

“When gales buffet the seas surrounding the isle of Brac, it is said that one may hear the voices of the dead, that they speak to the living bewailing misfortunes that lie ahead.”

So begins “The Isle of Brac,” the first volume of The Marquis of Anaon. It’s an evocative start to a moody, suspenseful work of bande desinee.

Jean-Baptiste Poulain arrives by boat at the isle of Brac, wearing his newest and best finery in an effort to impress his new employer, Baron Gwenole, a man spoken of in whispers as “The Ogre.” The natives, immediately coming off as both impoverished and somewhat backward, fawn over him, remarking that in his tri-corner hat he looks well to do, like a “young Marquis.” For their attention, they are beaten and whipped by Yvon, one of the Baron’s servants, the first hint of many at mistreatment and cruelty on the isle.

Poulain has arrived in Brac to tutor Nolwen, Baron Gwenole’s son. However, when Nolwen is found beaten to death, the isle’s secrets, superstitions and possible supernatural connections begin to reveal themselves. Poulain, trapped on Brac, a place supposedly in touch with the realm of the after life, becomes something of a reluctant protagonist. Having suffered serious childhood traumas of his own, Nolwen’s death hits Poulain hard and, marked as an outsider on a isle full of outsiders cut off from the rest of the world, he finds himself in ever-increasing danger and is drawn closer and closer to the terrible secrets surrounding Nolwen’s death. “This isle is making me ill,” Poulain says, overwhelmed by death, dread and local myth, yet trapped on Brac, he has no other choice than to find the resolve to dig into the mystery surrounding the murder.

Velhmann’s other translated work includes the All Star Recommended Beautiful Darkness with illustrators Kearscoet (D&Q) and the (personally) disappointingly scripted 7 Psychopaths with Sean Phillips on art chores (Boom). Velhmann’s writing here is at once taut and expansive – a lot is packed into these 48 pages, yet the pacing is perfect – and with echoes of Dumas, Hugo and a dose of the gothic-mystery of Le Fanu, the story also packs some welcome sophistication.

Sumptuous pages, generously oversized in the European album format, not only showcase Bonhomme’s art in all its expressive favour but also creates a nostalgia-boost as it links back to Tintin, Asterix and Lucky Luke, the oversize paperback books that were so important to me personally as a kid. Bonhomme’s beautiful cartooning resembles something like Tonci Zonjic and Goran Sudzuka teaming up on an expansive period piece, and proves to be as lovely as that idea sounds. His characters are distinctive, expressive and beautifully realised and the sinister microcosm of Anoan feels expansive and real and from Brac’s knobbly brickwork to its skeletal trees, to its menacing waves, his work is absolutely superb. Brac’s woods are given a fittingly spooky atmosphere, especially during a particularly taut chase sequence. The fear on Poulain’s face is apparent as he faces death on multiple occasions as is the despair he feels as he fears the malevolent Isle is claiming his very sanity. Baron Gwenole in particular looks both cuddly and menacingly burly, his face moving from the peaceful to the glowering from panel to panel.

Come for the costuming and the visual world-building and stay for a clinic on scripting the (relatively) short-form mystery comic. Although this volume is completely self-contained for the new reader (and functioning also as something of an origin story for its hero), four volumes of The Marquis of Anaon were published in France and with Cinebook promising more in the English language, I anxiously await the release of volume two – The Black Virgin.


WEBCOMIC OF THE WEEK : A THOUSAND DAYS
By Zac Gorman

The clock’s ticking here. Zac Gorman promises that A Thousand Days, his new webcomic, will last exactly that – one thousand days. Updated sporadically (there appear to only be three strips so far), Gorman has promised that his lead character, possibly the most adorable little robot ever, will die on April 22, 2018.

The robot, awakening alone aboard a spaceship, tries to recount what’s brought him to this end point and, presumably from the latest strip as I type this, flashbacks will be involved as memories return. In this interview at Zainab Akhtar’s always-terrific Comics and Cola site, Gorman says that he’ll just pretty much pop in and out of his robot’s last days, depicting whatever it is he’s doing at that particular moment.

It hasn’t been updated in over a month, so hopefully Gorman gets back to the drawing board and we can all stop fretting about the little dude and find out just what’s going on pretty soon. “Each day is a gift,” Gorman says at the site and I have a feeling that, on April 22, 2018, we’ll be reminded of that fact rather poignantly.




COUNTDOWN TO MOZ METAL: HEAVY METAL NOVEMBER 1977

Chapter Four of Moebius’ “The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius” kicks this issue off, with Moebius’ panels at their scratchiest and tiniest – there are eighteen panels on three of the four pages herein – and it is a thing to behold. Those familiar with classic SF books but perhaps not “…Garage” might be wondering what Michael Moorcock’s Jerry Cornelius is doing in a Moebius strip. Moorcock, ever awesome, at one point decided that anyone who wanted to use Jerry Cornelius could just go ahead and do so, yet time and the murkiness of rights prevailed and Moebius’ series was later altered to reflect this (Wikipedia tells us that Moorcock did not withdraw permission himself). None of this really matters as the comic makes little sense at this point, as Major Grubert’s spy Samuel I Mohad travels to Grubert’s security base, feared invaded and “fallen into enemy hands”, inside the Star Billiard, a giant humanoid robot that wears a Phantom costume, compete with domino mask and striped undies.

But not only does Moebius turn in “…Garage” but also one of my favourite of his short works, “Ballade.” Set in a ridiculously intricate alien forest, a daytripper astride some odd, alien ostrich attracts the attention of a local wood nymph, bemused by the Rimbaud poetry the tourist quotes. The city-dweller convinces the nymph, Loona, to accompany him back to civilisation, where “giant ships…float and fly.” Once they reach the savannah, however, they are mown down by the bullets of soldiers on their way to find their “real” enemy. A million meanings could be made of this piece, but my favourite is that perhaps, subconsciously, it’s a statement about the real world constantly, incessantly, imposing itself on Moebius’ imaginative life, forcing him to watch clocks, pay bills and spend more and more time away from his drawing table. I admit I could totally be reaching with that one, but whatever its ultimate meaning (if indeed there is one), “Ballade” is six pages of full-colour Moebius and there are few finer things within the medium than that.

Picaret and Tardi’s “Polonius” comes to its inevitably downbeat and fatalistic finale, with carrion birds circling the corpse-strewn city of Ru which has succumbed to its own near-biblical hedonism. What a strange ride this strip has been. I guess it’s unsurprising given that Tardi’s work adapting Jean-Patrick Manchette’s uber-noir novels shows his tastes can run quite dark, but even considering that, “Polonius” has to be one of the bleakest comics of all time, gleefully subverting every heroic expectation or even glimmer of possible redemption at every turn. Polonius, the escaped slave, fails to save the city from itself, fails free his lover from prostitution, fails to become some benevolent king as the opening chapter of this narrative would suggest based purely on our own expectations of the hero’s journey. Not only that, but he is instead broken by the corruption and the vice, succumbing utterly to it. Even the poor soul that Polonius comes across as he gloomily leaves Ru, a criminal “condemned to dig this pit until the end” of his days, has more purpose than he does.

As plague rips through the city, Polonius feels drawn to return (he can’t even leave properly!) and we end as he sits alone amongst the feeding carrion birds, which pick the blight from the place far more thoroughly than he ever could. A truly decadent, disturbing and bleak read, I’m hoping we get a collected edition somewhere down the road for this true narrative oddity.

Also in this issue, Harlan Ellison (!) turns in a cracking bit of prose, “How’s the NightLife on Cissalda”, Bazolli and Caza turn in “Bird of Dust” a pretty fabulous stoner metaphor for the circle of life as fantasy, as a naked, sword-wielding warrior (no this isn’t “Den” which, oddly, this story immediately follows) rises from the cosmic mists anew, “to unravel knotted abstractions, forms and destinies. To fulfil stellar longings,” and plunges his mighty blade into the cranium of the cosmic phoenix which he stands atop, killing it and then curling up into the foetal position to await his next grand slaughter. Faaaarrrr Ouuuutttttt….

Chantal Montellier continues her scathing, sadly still totally relevant attack on stupid men in two chapters of her “1996.” The first is a single page featuring crippled, shattered shells of former soldiers as a televised President says behind them, “Ah bleeve yawul stanby the teem thaz winnin!” Potent stuff. The second, the first chapter in an extended piece about a former Caucasian boxing, unable to box anymore due to a law that forbids “citizens of the white race” from participating in “dangerous or professional sports.” Why this strip has not been collected and distributed widely in the last thirty years is beyond me. Like much of these early HM issues, “1996” sadly feels like a lost classic.

And finally, we must mention Jean-Michel Nicollet’s “Master, ” which like “Polonius,” also subverts expectation by having its sexy, leather-clad, last-girl-on-earth turn out to be trans-gendered, completely flummoxing the local male tyrant and shattering his dreams of forcing her into propagating the species. The full frontal shot of our trans-hero, revealing both breasts and penis with a smirk of steely-eyed satisfaction is absolutely priceless.



COMICS VIDEO OF THE WEEK : KATSUYA TERADA: HOT POT GIRL DRAWING!

As you read this, I’m likely on a manga hunt. On my list: more Katsuya Terada art books to join Terra’s Cover Girls and Katsuya Terada ZENBU on my groaning shelves. Cover Girls is particularly awesome, an IDW Artist’s Edition-sized volume published in 2000, complete with a sticker book (which I’ve never been able to bring myself to use) a cloth wall hanging, and over a hundred of Terra’s eye-poppingly designed oddball heroines. More please.

Here’s the man himself, bashing out one of his staples, a hot pot girl.



Raishu o aishi, anata no manga ga daisuke.



Cameron Ashley spends a lot of time writing comics and other things you’ll likely never read. He’s the chief editor and co-publisher of Crime Factory (www.thecrimefactory.com). You can reach him @cjamesashley on Twitter.