From director David Ayer (“Fury,” “End of Watch”) comes SUICIDE SQUAD starring Oscar nominee Will Smith (“Ali,” “The Pursuit of Happyness”), Oscar winner Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”), Margot Robbie (“The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Focus”), Joel Kinnaman (“Run All Night,” “The Killing”) and Oscar nominee Viola Davis (“The Help,” “Doubt”).
It feels good to be bad… Assemble a team of the world’s most dangerous, incarcerated Super Villains, provide them with the most powerful arsenal at the government’s disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat an enigmatic, insuperable entity. U.S. intelligence officer Amanda Waller has determined only a secretly convened group of disparate, despicable individuals with next to nothing to lose will do. However, once they realize they weren’t picked to succeed but chosen for their patent culpability when they inevitably fail, will the Suicide Squad resolve to die trying, or decide it’s every man for himself?
Thanks to those lovable rogues at Roadshow Films and the release of Suicide Squad in cinemas August 4th, we are giving you the chance to win one of five double in season passes to see the film!
To go into the draw for your chance to win all you need to do is tell us, "If you could pick any 5 fictional villain characters to make your perfect line up of baddies, who would you pick?" .
Terms and Conditions:
-Only entries made via the comments on the Facebook post will be included in the draw.
-All entries will go into the All Star Barrel and winners will be drawn at random.
-Entries close 6pm Tuesday the 2nd of August and winners will be announced Wednesday the 3rd .
-Tickets will only be available to pick up from the store and winners must produce photo ID upon pick up.
-Tickets MUST be picked up no later than a week after the draw. Any remaining tickets after this date will be given away at our discretion to make sure they don't go to waste.
.
Thanks again to Roadshow Films and Suicide Squad in cinemas August 4th
Let’s be honest, we probably have too many of them.
If you are anything like me, your shelves are teetering, disorganised things, stocked with a “That’ll do!” attitude that prioritises what fits where over any real organisational effort. Librarians and professional cataloguers would blush at the sight of my shelves, I’m ashamed to say.
It seems I have two options – either get rid of some stuff (not going to happen) or take it all with me back to Japan, where with an aptitude forspace-conservation typical of the national mindset, all manner of practical comics space savers have been created. Here’s but a sample:
All are undoubtedly useful (that cupboard that opens up to reveal shelves galore is kinda genius), but there is a problem, however. I look at these things and go, “Oooh! How clever! And look how many comics they hold!” Mrs. Ashley, however, simply dismisses them outright on the basis that they are terribly, hopelessly ugly pieces of home furniture. It’s a point that’s difficult to argue...
And so, piles of comics continue to wobble and teeter, threatening to fall with the mere blow of a dog toy tossed errantlyin their direction. If you have your collection practically but handsomely displayed or have engineered some sort of Japanese miracle shelf, do get in touch. My comics and I would thank you.
Anyway. Another week, another transgressive and frightening take on the children's picture book, perfect for freaking yourself out on a cold winter's evening. I'll feature something fun next week, I promise, but doing these two books back-to-back was too much to resist.
COMIC OF THE WEEK : WORRY DOLL
By Matt Coyle
Published By Dover
"You're a worrier. Your mother's a worrier, you're a worrier and you'll always be a worrier."
Originally published in 2007, Australian artist Matt Coyle's particularly unsettling Worry Doll has found a new home over at Dover, an outfit that is rather quickly making a case for being one of the most important comics publishers in the world.
Like Brecht Evens' Panther, discussed in this space just last week, Worry Doll is a landscape-formatted, decidedly grown-up take on the picture book. However, where Evens' story focussed primarily on the notion of (possibly) imaginary friends and takes that to its innocence-shattering end, Coyle uses (creepy) children's dolls as his primary characters, digging around in our own feel-good memories of childhood play in an altogether different but even more disturbing manner. Where Evens kept to a kind-of-sort-of traditional comics storytelling mode, with speech balloons and panel flow, Coyle adheres to mimicking the primary format of his chosen medium, with text on the left-facing page, images on the right, and his stunning illustrations are often split into separate "panels" to further disrupt any notion of linear, clear time and narrative and further disorient the reader. Where Evens saturated his pages with lush and vibrant colour, Coyle strips it all back, allowing his almost impossibly detailed black and white pages to both take on an almost-reality and yet also look like vintage crime scene photographs with each increasingly nightmarish moment captured and frozen for readers to pore over. Finally, like Panther, Worry Doll is difficult to discuss without spoiling. Let's see what I can do...
The plot is this: a group of dolls discover their owners horrifically murdered and make a break for it through the still-open front door to their large, sprawling home. Off they go, out into the world, an oddly still realm of run down motels, abandoned playgrounds and leafy bush roads, with Coyle's anxiety-ridden accompanying prose likely to spike similar feelings in sensitive, imaginative readers. This is the real world. This can't be the real world. It's too surreal to be real; it's too realistic to be unreal. "Reality" is fractured and disrupted. Here is the source of reader discomfort. Mine anyway...
I think worrying about things gives you a pretty good memory.
How's that then? he asks.
it's like nothing goes unnoticed.
Indeed, nothing goes unnoticed in Coyle's meticulous, near-obsessively detailed artwork that marries the finest gothic of best of Bernie Wrightson with the intricate photo-realism of Arthur Ranson, yet with a verisimilitude neither has ever matched. Shaun Tan, in a beautifully-written foreword, notes the "clinically precise black marks, hand-rendered...with...common artline pen." Tan also informs us that there is no digital trickery to Coyle's work - not only that, but there is not even a drop of corrective wite-out. It's remarkable work, made even more so considering this.
As Worry Doll's mystery unspools and its images grow ever more terrifying, the refrain of ENJOY IT! ENJOY IT! ENJOY IT! that Coyle peppers through the narrator's recounting of events becomes a kind of anti-mantra. Like Rick Grimes in The Walking Dead, I was the Worry Doll by the end of the book. Mrs Ashley, after the briefest of perusals, looked at her husband with same expression she wore after seeing a decapitated mouse during a walk with our dog, and said, "Where did you get this from? Why are you such a creep?" She refuses to look at it again. Such is the immediate and potent disquiet aroused by Coyle's work. If I have any critical quibble at all, it's that landscape books are difficult to read in softcover editions as they flop about so much and a hardcover version would have been appreciated.
I wouldn't blame you at all if this sounds like the last thing you would ever want to read. However, if you are a reader who seeks a disruption of the everyday world and a slap in their face from their art, it seriously might be hard to top Worry Doll. Coyle opens the book with a quote from that modernist doyen of disquiet, Franz Kafka, a writer whose focus on the impossibility of escape from any number of nightmares is a more than fitting inclusion:
"A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us."
Prepare to have your frozen sea smashed in. ENJOY IT! ENJOY IT! ENJOY IT!
WEBCOMIC OF THE WEEK : LITTLE NEMO ON 23RD STREET
By James Harvey
From the nightmarish to the dreamy this week as we stare into "Little Nemo on 23rd Street," the amazing James Harvey's effort for the award-winning tribute to Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland, Nemo: Dream Another Dream.
Harvey, with uncanny acumen for working the physical limitations of his page space (as McCay had also), creates an immersive, sumptuous, and gorgeous Nemo strip, moving the eyes of his readers all over the page in unorthodox but perfectly clear ways. Best viewed with the entire page visible to fully appreciate the layout, "Little Nemo on 23rd Street" is beautiful stuff and the perfect visual sedative to bring those Worry Doll-fried nerves back from the edge.
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.
Firstly this week there is local author and comic writer, Adam Ford joining us Thursday the 28th from 6:30pm to celebrate the sci-fi grandness of the original ROM The Spaceknight series in the form of poems. Amazing! Next up is the All Star Back Issue and Toy Fair on Saturday the 30th, 11am-5pm. A chance to grab a bargain from us or one of the many comic and toy sellers we'll be hosting upstairs on the day. Then finally, there is a massive list of comics to work through, so lets get to it!
The fall out from the events of issue #3 are still fresh in our minds and it's hard to say for sure where exactly CIVIL WAR II #4will go next.
PREDATOR VS JUDGE DREDD VS ALIENS #1. It's hard to imagine we live in a world where this story hasn't happened yet but finally Dark Horse are giving the fans what they want with this meeting of sci-fi comic heavyweights.
Almost as if we timed it, the return of the greatest Spaceknight of them all is happening through IDW with ROM #1.
If you had the chance to turn back the clock to your teenage year AND be a superhero, would you take it? CAPTAIN KID #1 from Mark Waid looks at this question with interesting results. Still on that teenage angst kick, Image reprints the slightly more mature Archie-like series, BLUE MONDAY TP VOL 01 KIDS ARE ALRIGHT. Speaking of Archie, something a little closer in characters but much darker in story is the trade collection, SABRINA CHILLING ADVENTURES TP VOL 01.
Still can't let it go? Well the time is now, all that waiting paid off for the release of DISNEY FROZEN #1. First new Bone from Jeff Smith in years, while celebrating the 25 years since release, the BONE CODA 25TH ANNIVERSARY TP will most likely be a must for Bone fans.
ALL THIS and PREVIEWS for AUGUST 2016 arrives, so look for the next Previews Album coming too.
Any number of things to get excited about this week. If you need any help adding anything to your list this week, just let us know before Wednesday morning!
And in a weird coincidence, this week’s featured comic features childhood monsters of an entirely different and far more sinister sort, in a book where the established roles of captive and captor threaten to flip...
COMIC OF THE WEEK : PANTHER
By Brecht Evens
Published By Drawn & Quarterly
Disguised as a children's picture book, Belgian artist Brecht Evens' Panther is anything but innocent. Loaded with as much unease and discomfort as anything you'll likely encounter this year, the book's gorgeous art, bright colours and landscape-formatted pages lure the reader in with both visual and tactile reminders of childhood reading and then shreds it all, cleverly subverting the joy of the children's picture book, and with it the joy of childhood itself, through high tension, genuine cerebral horror and moments of creeping perversity.
Little Christine's beloved cat has died and her father is unable to comfort her. Retreating to her room, Christine is suddenly visited by a massive, anthropomorphic "big cat" that emerges from her dresser drawer. The cat calls himself Panther and proclaims himself to be the king of Pantherland, a magical realm populated with all manner of fantastic creatures. Consoling Christine over her loss, Panther begins to tell her stories of his homeland, but something's off almost immediately as inconsistencies and horrors are hastily retold and eliminated based on Christine's reaction to the tales. It's clear that Panther is contriving these stories on the spot. Panther, chameleon-like, shifts form constantly during his storytelling - he can appear sphinx-like, cartoonishly adorable, austere and noble, fierce and deadly, and Evans shifts his vibrant painted colours to match. Panther soon becomes Christine’s best friend and she begins to retreat into her room more and more frequently, ever closer to the Pantherland awaiting her on the other side of her dresser drawers. Christine’s father, unaware of this new visitor, leaves his daughter to her grief, giving her the space she needs to heal. Christine's interactions with her single dad add real warmth to the book and further heighten the ever-increasing inappropriateness of Panther's secret friendship with this charming, imaginative little girl. It does, however, raise some questions -- if, IF, Panther is an imaginary "friend," Christine has been through some trauma...
The book grows ever darker as the pages turn and I refuse to reveal any more plot as so much of the story is carried by the interactions of the two main characters. Suffice it to say that as the increasingly nightmarish intensity is built up to near nail-biting levels you will genuinely worry for Christine - her state of mind and her physical safety both -- and it's a testament to Even's storytelling skills that he's able to create so much dread and unease on the page with such subtlety. The lack of true resolution and explanation may frustrate some readers but to others (like me), who feel the impact of the book on them once the covers are finally closed and dig through Panther's symbolic and narrative possibilities, will find will have plenty to ponder.
Fully painted, Panther is a visual knockout. From the near Escher-like qualities of the interior of Christine's house, to the shape-shifting Trickster that is Panther himself, to full double splashes of Christine's bedroom when the lights go out and the space is filled with all manner of otherworldly creatures, Evens is somehow is able to lace his dreamy, pretty art with absolute menace - a rare gift. Gridless pages are filled with both lush colour and masterful use of negative space - the crisp white of the paper making Evens' subsequent colour-bomb splashes all the more potent to your eyeballs:
Panther is thus far the year's most singular new work, a strange storybook horrorshow packed with a truly surprising amount of suspense. While I personally do not want to go where these particular wild things are there's no doubt in my mind that Brecht Evans' Panther is the year's most affecting and unlikely slice of mind-bending comics psycho-horror. An absolutely flawless piece of comics and a simply beautiful and stylish book from content to format to design, the fact I have to stop myself from continuing here should speak volumes about the height of its quality. Panther is an absolute triumph of the art form.
WEBCOMIC OF THE WEEK : THE MONSTER JAR
By Bernie Wrightson
Cyrus Fenby needs no stinkin' smart phone app to collect monsters - he's got the real thing pickling in a jar and selling in his curio shop. If you take him at his word that is. Two curious and intrepid kids believe Cyrus, purchase the jar at a steal and begin following the instructions to make their new pet monster grow. Meanwhile another customer comes to Fenby looking for the jar, offering top dollar, and Fenby decides to retrieve it from the kids and make a serious profit. However, as things so frequently do in short horror comics, things go more than just a little awry.
The Monster Jar (1970) comes to us via The Bristol Board, an amazing Tumblr site I regularly raid for content here, and is notable for not just being a Bernie Wrightson-illustrated story, but an unpublished one at that. It's typical Wrightson, that titan of horror comics - moody and dark, his slightly stretched-out, angular figures adding extra unease to proceedings, his setting suitably shadowy and gothic. Have a look and remember: never buy grotesque trinkets from strange men with moustaches.
COMICS VIDEO OF THE WEEK : WEREWOLF BY NIGHT PART ONE
And where would any good week of monsters be without an old-fashioned man-monster?
One of my personal favourite publishing highlights of this year was the arrival of the Werewolf By Night omnibus, collecting in entirety the classic '70s Marvel comic. Here, set to some slightly incongruous classical music, is the first appearance of Jack Russell (no kidding), Marvel's resident werewolf-hero. Classic Marvel horror of the '70s is always a good time - from the Gene Colon drawn Tomb of Dracula, to Mike Ploog's excellent lycanthrope, viewable here with but a click of a link, and if you've always been curious about this little pocket of Marvel history, this video is not a bad place to start.
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.
What does it take for a person to snap? How much despair for a mind to fracture? These are the twisted questions that The Joker has set out to answer, to show Gotham that even an ordinary man like Commissioner Gordon is only one bad day away from sheer insanity.
Based on the acclaimed DC Comics graphic novel, witness a journey into the dark psyche of the Clown Prince of Crime. Follow his humble beginnings as a struggling comic to his fateful encounter with the Dark Knight that changed everything.
Thanks to Roadshow Films and the one day cinematic release of BATMAN THE KILLING JOKE
in select cinemas JULY 24TH, we are giving you the chance to win one of five double passes to see the film!
To go into the draw for your chance to win all you need to do is tell us, "What's your best killer joke?" Of course make your entry PG to be included in the draw.
SPECIAL NOTE:
-As this prize is for a certain date and only playing at select cinemas, please only enter if you are sure you can make a screening. To check screening times and places please look check here: https://village.roadshow.com.au/cinemas-AU
Terms and Conditions:
-Only entries made via the comments on the Facebook post will be included in the draw.
-All entries will go into the All Star Barrel and winners will be drawn at random.
-Entries close 7pm Thursday the 21st of July and winners will be announced Friday the 22nd.
-Tickets will only be available to pick up from the store and winners must produce photo ID upon pick up.
-Tickets MUST be picked up in a timely fashion. Any remaining tickets left the morning of the 24th of July will be given away at our discretion to make sure they don't go to waste.
.
Thanks again to Roadshow Films and the one day cinematic release of BATMAN THE KILLING JOKE, playingselect cinemas JULY 24TH
Soooo...running a little behind we don't have our regular write up of the this week's releases. Still we know why you are really here...another great week of books perhaps? Yep and you'll find that list below.
MARVEL
A-FORCE #7
ALL NEW INHUMANS #9
ALL NEW WOLVERINE #10 CW2
ASTONISHING ANT-MAN #10
BLACK WIDOW #5
CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS #10
DARTH VADER #23
DEADPOOL AND MERCS FOR MONEY #1
GUARDIANS OF INFINITY #8
NIGHTHAWK #3
NOVA #9 CW2
PATSY WALKER AKA HELLCAT #8 CW2
SPIDER-MAN #6 CW2
SPIDER-MAN DEADPOOL #7
SQUADRON SUPREME #9 CW2
STAR WARS #21
THUNDERBOLTS #3
ULTIMATES #9 CW2
UNCANNY X-MEN #10 AW
DC COMICS
ADVENTURES OF SUPERGIRL #6
AQUAMAN #3 VAR ED
BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY REBIRTH #1 VAR ED
BATMAN #3 VAR ED
GREEN ARROW #3 VAR ED
GREEN LANTERNS #3 VAR ED
HELLBLAZER REBIRTH #1 VAR ED
INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US YEAR FIVE #14
JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 VAR ED
LEGENDS OF TOMORROW #5
NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #22
SCOOBY APOCALYPSE #3 VAR ED
SUPERMAN #3 VAR ED
VERTIGO
ASTRO CITY #37
CLEAN ROOM #10
LUCIFER #8
BOOM
ADVENTURE TIME #54
CLARENCE QUEST #1
JOYNERS #2
JOYRIDE #4 (OF 4)
LUCAS STAND #2
LUMBERJANES #28
MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS #5
SOMBRA #1 (OF 4)
DARK HORSE
BLACK HAMMER #1
BPRD HELL ON EARTH #143
BTVS SEASON 10 #29
DARK HORSE PRESENTS 2014 #24
DEPT H #4
GROO FRAY OF THE GODS #1
USAGI YOJIMBO #156
WEIRD DETECTIVE #2 (OF 5)
DYNAMITE
BRICKLEBERRY #1 (OF 4)
GARTH ENNIS RED TEAM DOUBLE TAP #1 (OF 9)
XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS #4
IDW
BACK TO THE FUTURE CITIZEN BROWN #3 (OF 5)
MICKEY MOUSE SHORTS SEASON 1 #1
POWERPUFF GIRLS (2016) #1
OCTOBER FACTION #18
TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE #2
IMAGE
BLACK ROAD #4
CASANOVA ACEDIA #6
CHEW #56
HUNT #1
I HATE FAIRYLAND #7
ISLAND #9
LAZARUS #23
MANIFEST DESTINY #21
PROPHET EARTH WAR #5 (OF 6)
RUMBLE #12
SHE WOLF #2
SNOTGIRL #1
THINK TANK CREATIVE DESTRUCTION #4
VELVET #15
WOLF #9
ONI
EXODUS LIFE AFTER #6
HEARTTHROB #4
INVADER ZIM #11
LETTER 44 #26
MERRY MEN #2 (OF 5)
RICK & MORTY LIL POOPY SUPERSTAR #1 (OF 5)
VALIANT
A&A #5
FAITH (ONGOING) #1
RAI #15 (4001 AD)
MISC
BETTY & VERONICA #1
BETTY & VERONICA COMICS DOUBLE DIGEST #245
GRANT MORRISONS AVATAREX #1
MIRACULOUS #3
OBLIVION #1 CVR A MORANELLI
ONCE OUR LAND #1 (OF 2)
SIMPSONS COMICS #231
STREET FIGHTER LEGENDS CAMMY #1 (OF 4)
STREET FIGHTER UNLIMITED #8 CVR B CRUZ ULTRA JAM
TRADES
A-FORCE PRESENTS TP VOL 05
ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 09
AGENTS OF SHIELD TP VOL 01 COULSON PROTOCOLS
AMERICAN VAMPIRE TP VOL 08
BATGIRL TP VOL 02 TO THE DEATH
CAPTAIN VICTORY & GALACTIC RANGERS TP
CAPTAIN MARVEL TP VOL 01 RISE OF ALPHA FLIGHT
CHRONICLES OF CONAN TP VOL 32 SECOND COMING SHUMA GORATH
CLOUD ORIGINAL GN HC
DOOM PATROL TP BOOK 02
EXPERTS GN
FOUR EYES TP VOL 02 HEARTS OF FIRE
GREEN ARROW BY KEVIN SMITH TP
HIP HOP FAMILY TREE GN VOL 04 1984-1985
HOWARD THE DUCK TP COMPLETE COLLECTION VOL 03
HUCK TP
INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US YEAR FOUR TP VOL 01
JOE GOLEM OCCULT DETECTIVE HC VOL 01 RAT CATCHER &
SUNKEN DE
LANTERN CITY HC VOL 02
LIFE AFTER TP VOL 03 EXODUS
LUKE CAGE AVENGER TP
MAN PLUS TP
MONSTER TP VOL 09 PERFECT ED
ONE PIECE 3IN1 TP VOL 16
OVERSTREET COMIC BK PG SC VOL 46 HARLEY QUINN
PANTHER HC
PLUTONA HC
PLUTONA TP
REPLICA TP VOL 01
ROCKET RACCOON AND GROOT TP VOL 01 TRICKS OF THE TRADE
SPIDER-MAN BRAND NEW DAY COMPLETE COLLECTION TP VOL 02
STAR WARS OBI-WAN AND ANAKIN TP
SUPERMAN ACTION COMICS HC VOL 08 TRUTH
SUPERMAN ACTION COMICS TP VOL 07 UNDER THE SKIN
UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL AND GREAT LAKES AVENGERS TP
Oh...hello...don't mind me...there's just...um...something in my eye.
I just finished The Gods Lie by Kaori Ozaki, published complete in a single volume earlier this year by Vertical. If you’re feeling a little sappy this week, you might want to think about picking it up too. Don’t be fooled by the bulging, oversized shoujo comics eyes of Ozaki’s young characters because The Gods Lie is classic, serious bildungsroman. Brought to vivid life by Ozaki’s deft cartooning, it’s the story of Natsuru Nanao, a young boy struggling with the loss of his father, and his budding relationship with Rio Suzumura, a tall, striking yet socially ostracised girl, who lives in her ramshackle family home with her younger brother, Yuuta. Rio's parents are mysteriously absent, money is scant and there’s a strange smell emanating from somewhere in the backyard...
I probably bog this column down with too much manga (sorry!) so I’ll just say that Rio is obviously hiding a dark and tragic secret and much drama arises amongst the budding romance and teenage handholding. It’s melancholy stuff, unfolding over Ozaki's expertly laid out pages, with the grown-ups (particularly a soccer coach) occasionally resembling the work of Master Keaton’s Naoki Urasawa. It’s also a great example of just how much can be done in comics, and cinematically at that, with a pair of really well-defined characters, a cluster of supporting cast and little else. I liked it a lot – even the occasional bits that drip with syrupy Japanese sentimentality.
The Gods Lie feels like it would be a box office smash in Japan if it were filmed, like Nobody Knows (another Japanese film, based on a true story, about four children living in similar circumstances to Rio) kind of mashed together with elements of My Girl and Stand by Me. A mix sure to have many reaching for their hankies.
In short: Kaori Ozaki. She’s one to watch.
COMIC OF THE WEEK : DARK CORRIDOR
By Rich Tommaso
Published By Image Comics
Judging by writer/artist Rich Tommaso’s tweet a few weeks back about how low the orders for the collection of his Dark Corridor were, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to suggest this might just be one of the most overlooked North American comics released this year.
If you’re not familiar with the name, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Tommaso was one of the new breed of indie cartoonists making small but striking waves in the comics world. You’d be wrong about that, however. Tommaso has been creating comics for decades – my first encounter with his work was the Fantagraphics release of his wonderful Clover Honey twenty-one years ago (!). To see him over at Image where, hopefully, a brighter spotlight will shine on his cleverly constructed, attractively illustrated genre comics is exciting, another reminder that Image is not merely a home for A-List mainstream creators to play with their own colourful toys, but a place where "true" indie creators can continue to ply their offbeat trade.
Dark Corridor is set in the city of Red Circle, a more colourful, upbeat, neo-noir Sin City where there may be less grimacing than in Frank Miller's world and the stark black shadows are replaced with pastel-coloured buildings, but the violent crime is equally pervasive. If Sin City is Mickey Spillane and U.S.film noir on a diet of super-vigilante comics, growth hormone and bath salts, Dark Corridor is Jean-Patrick Manchette by way of Herge, Dan Clowes and John Boorman’s 1967 film Point Blank. Red Circle is a far more Euro comics crime city than Frank Miller’s American grotesquery, but the mob wars still rage and assassins, girl gangs, killer dogs, corrupt cops and unrepentant ex-cons all make themselves equally at home.
Powered by two storylines, "The Red Circle" and "7 Deadly Daughters," Tommaso cleverly intertwines his parallel tales. He introducing a large cast of characters in the process and unfolds a complex yet coherent plot that moves back and forth in time, shifting multiple perspectives along the way, that ties together beautifully in a manner not unlike that admittedly tired, but very relevant cinematic reference point, Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.
A freelance hitman named Pete finds an injured dog that leads him back to his assumed owner's home, the scene of a violent double murder. Pete calls in some crooked friends, a thief and a corrupt cop fresh from a jail stint, and together they loot the joint. Meanwhile, a gang of female vigilantes is slowly bumping off Red Circle's organised crime figures. It's not long before these plot threads come together amidst a flurry of fights, car chases, gun fights and murders, all stylishly, impeccably drawn by Tommaso. His characters, in all their broken-nosed, chunky-thighed, turtleneck wearing glory, grimace their way through their retro, slightly kitsch, neon-lit city. Tommaso's set pieces are another highlight - from mid-century mansions, to seedy strip clubs, winding coastal roads and log cabin retreats, Tommaso makes Red Circle a very real piece of geography for its inhabitants, right down to the choice of his restaurant carpeting. His excellent, vibrant colouring also deserves a mention and will likely rate as example in future columns of just how to keep colours flat and unobtrusive yet still pop off the page. Aspiring colourists take serious note.
Dark Corridor occupies an interesting place in the crime comics landscape. Sin City is noir and hardboiled by way of over the top, ridiculous, but awesome superheroics. The work of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is the stark noir of David Goodis with a post-modern self-awareness. Darwyn Cooke's classic adaptations of Donald Westlake's Parker novels are highly stylised neo-noir capers gorgeously fetishizing early '60s sleek coolness. Where then does Tommaso's work slot in?
Sadly not running until the end of time is Sarah Horrocks’ and Katie Skelly’s Agent 73, discussed here in this space just a fortnight back and unfortunately ending this very week. Still, at least we all managed to live long enough to read this concluding chapter to the creators’ colour-saturated espionage/romance/revenge comic, so perhaps let’s just look on the bright side for once. Things do get saucy here in this conclusion, so consider this your official NSFW warning about various exposed lady parts doing sexy things with other exposed lady parts.
Storming toward its inevitable end, Agent 73 remains a beautifully weird and really clever comic, blending campy ‘60s spy genre fare with the dreamy oddness of high-end Euro comics art-smut. Vengeance! Tragedy! Amazing costuming! Crepax inspired layouts! Lady Parts! Agent 73, you had it all. Horrocks and Skelly, by the way, run their own podcast, The Trash Twins, so fans of transgressive art, comics and film might want to climb on board that particular audio tribute to all things art-sleaze. I just listened to the most recent episode, focussing on Frank Miller’s Sin City, and it’s given me reason to re-evaluate those comics after years of personal fatigue with that project and its representation of what I like to call Super-Noir (where the noir meets the super, not the other way around as in, say, Sleeper or Incognito, if that makes any sense). Interesting stuff. Anyway...Trash Twins yay!
COMICS VIDEO OF THE WEEK : RICH TOMMASO: DRAW ME PARIS
Dark Corridor's Rich Tommaso first visited Paris in 2011 and here he is, near giddy at the sight of beret-wearing women and old architecture. Armed with a pad and a fine liner pen, Tommaso sits down on a cold winter's day and draws. His love of French comics is discussed as he sketches away, pigeons flying past, his breath exhaling in clouds. It's just as charming as it sounds, with the resulting drawing something I'd personally love to hang, even if Tommaso's hands were just too cold to finish it to his complete satisfaction.
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.
"Star Trek Beyond," the highly anticipated next
installment in the globally popular Star Trek franchise, created by Gene Roddenberry and reintroduced by J.J. Abrams in 2009, returns
with director Justin Lin (“The Fast and the Furious” franchise) at the helm of this epic voyage of the U.S.S. Enterprise and her
intrepid crew. In “Beyond," the Enterprise crew explores the furthest
reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a mysterious new enemy
who puts them and everything the Federation stands for to the test.
Thanks to the folks from Paramount Pictures and STAR TREK BEYOND in cinemas JULY 21, we are giving you the chance to win one of five in-season double passes to see the film!
To go into the draw for your chance to win all you need to do is tell us, "in tribute of Star Trek's adventuring spirit, if you could go anywhere, where would you boldly go?"
Terms and Conditions:
-Only entries made via the comments on the Facebook post will be included in the draw.
-All entries will go into the All Star Barrel and winners will be drawn at random.
-Entries close 6pm Monday the 18th of July and winners will be announced Tuesday the 19th.
-Tickets will only be available to pick up from the store and winners must produce photo ID upon pick up.
-Tickets MUST be picked up no later than a week after the draw. Any remaining tickets after this date will be given away at our discretion to make sure they don't go to waste.
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Thanks again to Paramount Pictures and STAR TREK BEYOND in cinemas JULY 21
Before we get to another week of great reads a quick reminder about the All Star Women's Comic Book Club July Meet Up! This month's meet has come around a little earlier than usual and will be this Saturday, July 16th from 5pm. This month the group is discussing Princess Jellyfish, among many other comic relate subjects, crafts and comic swaps! Of course like each month, even if you haven't read this month's book or it's your first time coming along, you are more than welcome because all you need is a keen interest in talking or just listening in about comics.
Also coming up soon at the end of the month is our next All Star Comics & Toy Fair, so keep an eye out for details!
Back before he made his trip to the States, Kong ruled his very own island. Go deeper into the history of the 8th Wonder of the World in BOOM's, KONG OF SKULL ISLAND #1. King, Conqueror, now Conan gets a title to truly describe what he is good at in the new series, CONAN THE SLAYER #1.
While governments and media play on fears of invasion from foreign lands in reality, Image's works this real world social unease and reflects on it with visitors from another planet coming to earth in the new sci-fi series, HORIZON #1. On the tail of Millarworld Day (?!) there is the MILLARWORLD ANNUAL 2016 #1, showcasing a number of short stories from a number of Millar's properties from a line up of exciting talent.
Some of the odder Justice League tales ever told are collected for the first time in years with DC ELSEWORLDS JUSTICE LEAGUE TP VOL 01. The pressure of expectation can be earth shattering. When your parents are forcing you into a life of medical school and all you want to do is play video games your reality can become wrapped as we find out in the new graphic novel, LEVEL UP SQUARE FISH ED GN.
Double Lumberjanes attack with the latest trade, LUMBERJANES TP VOL 04 and the next issue LUMBERJANES GOTHAM ACADEMY #2 landing in the same week. Bringing the line up of Spider-Women heroes together for the collected cross over event, inspiringly named, SPIDER-WOMEN TP.
Not look after the release of his work on Vision getting collected and the debut of his new Batman Rebirth title, Tom King delivers another series, this time from Vertigo that made critics sit up and take notice with SHERIFF OF BABYLON TP VOL 01 BANG BANG BANG. More Morrison magazine madness from the the new editor in chief of HEAVY METAL #281.
It might have been a loooong wait between collections but Aaron and Latour's killer hit about small town crime is back with SOUTHERN BASTARDS TP VOL 03 HOMECOMING.
WONDER WOMAN BY GREG RUCKA TP VOL 01 presents us with some of the greatest Wonder Woman tales of the modern era. Long out of print, if you are enjoying the new WW Rebirth issues, you should definitely find out how good this Rucka run is!
What a winner! Again, like usual if there is anything else we can help with for this week just let us know before Wednesday morning and we do our very best!
MARVEL
AGENTS OF SHIELD #7 CW2
ALL NEW X-MEN #11 AW
CIVIL WAR II #3 (OF 7)
CIVIL WAR II AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #2 (OF 4)
CIVIL WAR II CHOOSING SIDES #2 (OF 6)
CIVIL WAR II GODS OF WAR #2 (OF 4)
DAREDEVIL #9
DARK TOWER DRAWING OF THREE BITTER MEDICINE #4 (OF 5)
DEADPOOL #15 CW2
GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #10
GWENPOOL #4
MARVEL UNIVERSE GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #10
NEW AVENGERS #13 CW2
OLD MAN LOGAN #8
POWER MAN AND IRON FIST #6 CW2
ROCKET RACCOON AND GROOT #7
SILK #10
SPIDER-MAN DEADPOOL #6
VISION #9
WEB WARRIORS #9
DC COMICS
ACTION COMICS #959 VAR ED
DARK KNIGHT III MASTER RACE #5 (OF 8) COLLECTORS ED
DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS #15
DETECTIVE COMICS #936 VAR ED
EARTH 2 SOCIETY #14
FLASH #2 VAR ED
HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS REBIRTH #1 VAR ED
LEGEND OF WONDER WOMAN #8 (OF 9)
NEW SUPER MAN #1 VAR ED
NIGHTWING REBIRTH #1 VAR ED
WACKY RACELAND #2 VAR ED
WONDER WOMAN #2 VAR ED
VERTIGO
DARK AND BLOODY #6 (OF 6)
BOOM
GOLDIE VANCE #4 (OF 4)
KONG OF SKULL ISLAND #1 (OF 6)
LUMBERJANES GOTHAM ACADEMY #2
REGULAR SHOW #37
WEAVERS #3
DARK HORSE
ABE SAPIEN #35
CONAN THE SLAYER #1
HARROW COUNTY #14
HOUSE OF PENANCE #4 (OF 6)
PROMETHEUS LIFE AND DEATH #2
IDW
ARCHANGEL #2 (OF 5)
BACK TO THE FUTURE #10
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS (2016) #3
RAGNAROK #9
SATELLITE FALLING #3
STAR TREK ONGOING #59
TMNT AMAZING ADVENTURES #12
WALT DISNEY COMICS & STORIES #733
X-FILES (2016) #4
IMAGE
BIRTHRIGHT #17
DESCENDER #13
HORIZON #1
MILLARWORLD ANNUAL 2016 #1
MIRROR #5
MORNING GLORIES #50
VIOLENT #5
WICKED & DIVINE #21
ONI
BUNKER #18
MIGHTY ZODIAC #4 (OF 6)
SPACE BATTLE LUNCHTIME #3 (OF 8)
STUMPTOWN V3 #10
VALIANT
BLOODSHOT REBORN #14
BLOODSHOT REBORN #15
NINJAK #17
WRATH OF THE ETERNAL WARRIOR #9
MISC
ARCHIE FUNHOUSE SUMMER ANNUAL DIGEST #21
BOLTS #2
DISNEY PIXAR FINDING DORY #1
DREAMWORKS MADAGASCAR #4
HIP HOP FAMILY TREE #11
INSEXTS #6
MAGIC WHISTLE VOL 3 #2
MAYHEM AND MAGIC RELIQUARY SERIES #1 (OF 4)
MIRACULOUS #2
PAYBACKS #1
REVISIONIST #2
ROUGH RIDERS #4
SABRINA #6
SHERLOCK A STUDY IN PINK #2 (OF 6)
SPONGEBOB COMICS #58
STRAYER #5
TITAN #3
VOLTRON LEGENDARY DEFENDER #1 (OF 4)
WRAITHBORN #5 (OF 6)
MAGAZINES
HEAVY METAL #281
TRADES
AL WILLIAMSON STAR WARS EMPIRE STRIKES BACK ARTIST ED HC
AQUAMAN TP VOL 02 TO SERVE AND PROTECT
AYA LIFE IN YOP CITY GN
BLOODSHOT REBORN TP VOL 03 ANALOG MAN
BRAVEST WARRIORS TP VOL 07
BTVS SEASON 10 TP VOL 05 PIECES ON THE GROUND
BURNING FIELDS TP
CASE CLOSED GN VOL 59
DAREDEVIL EPIC COLLECTION MAN WITHOUT FEAR TP
DARING ADVENTURES OF SUPERGIRL TP VOL 01
DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS TP VOL 02
DC ELSEWORLDS JUSTICE LEAGUE TP VOL 01
DEAD LETTERS TP VOL 03
DEVIATIONS TP
DOCTOR WHO 10TH ARCHIVES OMNIBUS TP VOL 03
DRAGONLANCE LEGENDS TP VOL 01 TIME OF THE TWINS
EIGHTH SEAL TP
FAIRY TAIL GN VOL 54
GRUMPY CAT HC VOL 02 GRUMPY & POKEY
GUTTER MAGIC TP
HARLEYS QUINNS GREATEST HITS TP
JUDGE DREDD CURSED EARTH SAGA UNCENSORED HC
KABUKI LIBRARY HC VOL 03
LEVEL UP SQUARE FISH ED GN
LOVE ADDICT CONFESSIONS OF A SERIAL DATER TP
LUMBERJANES TP VOL 04
MARVEL FIRSTS 1990S TP VOL 02
MILO MANARAS GULLIVERA DLX HC
MONSTRESS TP VOL 01
OGRES AWAKE HC
ONLY LIVING BOY GN VOL 02 BEYOND SEA AND SKY
OSAMU TEZUKA STORY LIFE IN MANGA & ANIME SC
PALMIOTTI BRADYS BIG CON JOB TP
PRINCELESS TP VOL 05 MAKE YOURSELF PART 1
SCARLET TP BOOK 01
SHERIFF OF BABYLON TP VOL 01 BANG BANG BANG
SOUTHERN BASTARDS TP VOL 03 HOMECOMING
SPIDER-WOMEN TP
SUICIDE SQUAD TP VOL 04 THE JANUS DIRECTIVE
TALES OF THE BATMAN ALAN BRENNERT HC
TEEN TITANS GO TP VOL 02 WELCOME TO THE PIZZA DOME
