After a couple of weeks off due to a variety of outside world events and Supanova, we're back with some more recommendations for your consideration. All books below are available in store at All Star Comics Melbourne from tomorrow.
Remember that if you mention you read about one of these here or in our archive we'll give you a 10% discount off the listed price.
Scalped
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: RM Guera
Recommended by: Luke
It takes a superb team to inspire a sense of creative jealousy. With
Scalped it approaches with speed and stealth, as in your compulsion to
flip through each arc you submit and fail to properly notice how layered
and dense the world Aaron and Guera have in 7 trades made almost
historic. That is until the usually crushing revelations in the final
pages grind you down in weary acceptance alongside the characters
trapped within.
All good crime and noir tinged epics need to
convey a setting that the audience can sense, be it through smell or
taste that seeps from the landscape. A world populated by denizens with a
multitude of human flaws and aspects that allow access to a bleak
mirror of our own. In Rez Blues we are taken to a remote place outside
of the usual inner Rez hum of the Crazy Horse Casino to watch an aged
couple struggle on the edge of town as winter closes in. We are also
given a glimpse into the past of yet another character who, having
chanced the horrors of Vietnam, has to return to face his foretold
future in an equally dire place: home. Finally, there is Shunka, one of
the great blank slates of the series thus far, who is revealed to have a
secret as devastating as those he seeks to exploit and punish for Chief
Red Crow.
Aaron and Guera’s South Dakota “Rez” has become a
world unto itself with legacies of greed and misfortune, and the latest
in the series deals with the more egregiously cursed folk among them.
The book’s closest cousin is perhaps TV’s
The Shield. Where from issue
one/episode one, the characters the creators are asking you to follow
and ingratiate yourself toward are made demonic and challenging to
accept; and as the series continues those mistakes/choices linger in the
back of your mind as they haunt those on the page/screen.
Scalped is currently up to volume 8 and prices on the trades vary, volume 1 though is available at All Star Comics Melbourne now with a shelf price of $19.95.
Forgetless
Writer: Nick Spencer
Artist: Various
Recommended by: Dom
Thanks to series like
Morning Glories,
Iron Man 2.0 and those Jimmy Olsen back ups in
Action Comics (recently collected in the Jimmy Olsen one shot), writer Nick Spencer has been getting a good amount of buzz. It is generally interesting to go back to a writers earlier to work to see what brought them to the place in which they currently sit.
Forgetless is one of those earlier works which shows Spencer's potential and highlights some of the key aspects common to his work like clever dialogue and themes of Gen Y boredom.
Set around a New York nightclub party,
Forgetless briefly examines the lives of four individuals who are stuck in bizzare consequences. A late night host whose life is about to come undone, a youtube sensation famous for rather crass antics and two models moolighting as hit girls. There is a key point their lives hit and the story goes backwards and forwards examining the crazy and often rather funny circustances that brought them all to this one event. The art backs up the constant perspective shifts with a sort of hyperglow beautiful reality looking through the model's eyes and a gritty, angular and often ugly world through the men's viewpoint.
It is an examination of boredom for the switched on generation, how reality just isn't enough. On a surface level though, it is just a lot of fun, a story that will have you turning each page to find out how much crazier things can get. The collection also includes a back up story again focusing on a group of underagers trying to get into the same party. Again, similar themes at work and Spencer's sharp ear for funny dialogue goes a long way to carry both stories.
Forgetless is a stand alone collection and is available at All Star Comics Melbourne now with a shelf price of $19.95.
Fear Itself #1
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Stuart Immonen
Recommended by: Eddie
Jörmungandr. This word may not mean a lot to you. It may be a word
you’ve heard many times. But I have rarely seen it used in Marvel
Comics. And correct me if I’m wrong not used in this issue at all.
This
issue is called “the serpent”. It tells the story of the avengers
interacting with the Agasgardians. While in the back ground two things
are happening, first every day folk are getting more fearful in everyday
life and second Sin, daughter of Red Skull, is dealing with her fathers note
books tracking down a weapon called to midgard by the Nazis.
This probably doesn't sound like much of an event, but as said the title of this
issue is “the serpent” , and this issue does have easter eggs to one
serpent in particular, Jörmungandr. Jörmungandr is in classic norse
myths the arch enemy of Thor. He is a sea serpent son of Loki that
holds his own tail in his mouth. When he releases said tail it is to
mean the end of the world.
Surely the heroes will save the day,
but hey that’s why we love comics. However if we are going to get
another “end of the world event” we should be glad it's this smartly written.
Fear Itself issue one is available at All Star Comics Melbourne now with a shelf price of $6.00.
Astonishing X-Men
Writer: Joss Whedon
Artist: John Cassaday
Recommended by: Luke
Late to the
party? Perhaps, but there is also no better time than now, in the lead
up to 2012’s
Avengers, than to look back at Joss Whedon’s most prolific
comics work; Namely, his team up with artist John Cassaday on another of
Marvel’s mainstays, The X-Men.
Given its own
descriptive and a new number one within the X-canon proves a windfall as while Whedon’s run could be considered brief, and though he didn’t
shy away from continuity, his 24 issues certainly feel every part his
own self contained fling with mutantkind.
Like creators Geoff
Johns and Grant Morrison, Whedon has a knack, within long standing
franchises, for striking his readers with the obvious (!) and in an
emotional moment between Kitty Pride and the recently resurrected
Colossus you realise, in spite of its execution seeming plain and
recognizable, it’s never been done before, not like that anyway. His
sharp sense of humour also finds traction with the reversals of
‘instinct’ forced upon Beast and Wolverine that are also inspired and
original in their execution. Cassaday’s artistic expression seeming a
perfect fit for Whedon’s lighter moments.
The series is filled
with these sparks of ingenuity as what the team endures seems new and
yet comfortable, second nature while still fresh. Even with the
integration of concepts burdened by continuity (Genosha and The Hellfire
Club), Whedon makes nice and shows the reader the depth of the world he
is giving an accessible glimpse into. This effect makes one want to
peek back into the X past for something equally as mindful, compelling
and yes, astonishing. There really is no other word.
We have a whole bunch of formats for Astonishing X-Men here at All Star Comics and a lot of different price points. If you're interested come on in and take a look. If you would like to start cheaply though, the first trade has a shelf price of just $19.95.
All Star Recommends Archive
