New Comics For Wednesday 12th of August

August week two is here and it's a winner! Let's get to it!

Cliffhangers and tensions continue in Marvel's SECRET WARS #5. Aside from a line up of Bombshell themed DC themed covers, there is also the premiere of DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS #1 this week. The Elseworlds cartoon gets it main event title in JLA GODS AND MONSTERS #1. Good looks are a disease and turn you into a human time bomb in Image's new, BEAUTY #1. Digging on The Wicked + The Divine? Then you should head back to the start of the Gillen/ McKelvie talent affair with the next installment of their PHONOGRAM series THE IMMATERIAL GIRL #1. Things only get worse for Remender's team of Sliders on Crack with BLACK SCIENCE TP VOL 03 VANISHING POINT. Check out Hellboy's first mission as a paranormal detective in the retroactive HELLBOY AND THE BPRD 1952 TP. Still digging on the cinematic Ant-man and are looking for further sub-microscopic adventures, STRING DIVERS #1 from IDW has what you need. A stunning art book for the beautiful world and characters in ART OF MOUSE GUARD 2005 - 2015 HC. More eating of digusting things in the next chapter of CHEW TP VOL 10 BLOOD PUDDIN. Perfectly timed with the "Straight out of" meme and before the ongoing series starts, get up to speed with the history of street beats from Eisner Award winning, Ed Piskor's HIP HOP FAMILY TREE GN VOL 03. A little more lewd 1950's TV and detective work in Fraction's SATELLITE SAM TP VOL 03 LIMESTONE CAVES OF FIRE. Comic adventures of early Shield agent, we most likely will never see on our small screens in OPERATION SIN TP AGENT CARTER. And the pretty as heck BATMAN BLACK & WHITE STATUE BATGIRL BY BABS TARR finally shows up in store.

Spot something here you just got to have, just let us know and we'll get you sorted!

MARVEL

A-FORCE #3 SWA

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #20.1

GHOST RACERS #3 SWA

HOWARD THE DUCK #5

INHUMANS ATTILAN RISING #4 SWA

KORVAC SAGA #3 SWA

MARVEL UNIVERSE ULT SPIDER-MAN WEB WARRIORS #9

MASTER OF KUNG FU #4 (OF 4) SWA

MAX RIDE FIRST FLIGHT #5 (OF 5)

MRS DEADPOOL AND HOWLING COMMANDOS #3 SWA

PLANET HULK #4 SWA

SECRET WARS #5 (OF 8) SWA

SECRET WARS 2099 #4 (OF 5) SWA

SECRET WARS BATTLEWORLD #4 (OF 4) SWA

STAR WARS LANDO #2 (OF 5)

STAR-LORD AND KITTY PRYDE #2 SWA

UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #8

YEARS OF FUTURE PAST #4 SWA

DC COMICS

ACTION COMICS #43 BOMBSHELLS VAR ED

ALL STAR SECTION 8 #3 (OF 6)

ARROW SEASON 2.5 #11

BATMAN #43 BOMBSHELLS VAR ED

BATMAN SUPERMAN #23 BOMBSHELLS VAR ED

CATWOMAN #43 BOMBSHELLS VAR ED

CONSTANTINE THE HELLBLAZER #3

DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS #1

EARTH 2 SOCIETY #3

GOTHAM ACADEMY #9

GREEN ARROW #43 BOMBSHELLS VAR ED

JLA GODS AND MONSTERS #1 (OF 3)

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNITED #12

MORTAL KOMBAT X #9

NEW SUICIDE SQUAD #11 BOMBSHELLS VAR ED

RED HOOD ARSENAL #3

STARFIRE #3

VERTIGO

FABLES THE WOLF AMONG US #8

BOOM

AMERICATOWN #1

ARCADIA #4

BILL & TED MOST TRIUMPHANT RETURN #6 (OF 6)

BRAVEST WARRIORS #35

LANTERN CITY #4 (OF 12)

SLEEPY HOLLOW PROVIDENCE #1 (OF 4)

DARK HORSE

ABE SAPIEN #25

ADAM.3 #1

ELTINGVILLE CLUB #2 (OF 2)

HARROW COUNTY #4

KING TIGER #1

REBELS #5

DYNAMITE

JUSTICE INC AVENGER #3

KING MANDRAKE MAGICIAN #3 (OF 4)

SWORDS OF SORROW #4 (OF 6)

VAMPIRELLA ARMY OF DARKNESS #2 (OF 4)

IDW

BOY-1 #1 (OF 4)

EMPIRE UPRISING #4

GARBAGE PAIL KIDS GO HOLLYWOOD (ONE SHOT)

ORPHAN BLACK #5

SHRINKING MAN #2 (OF 4)

STAR TREK GREEN LANTERN #2 (OF 6)

STRING DIVERS #1 (OF 5)

UNCLE SCROOGE #5

X-FILES SEASON 11 #1

IMAGE

APOLLO IX ONE SHOT

ARTEMIS IX ONE SHOT

ASTRONAUTS IN TROUBLE #3

BEAUTY #1

DESCENDER #6

DREAM POLICE #7

DRIFTER #7

FADE OUT #8

FUSE #13

INJECTION #4

MYTHIC #3

ODYC #6

PHONOGRAM THE IMMATERIAL GIRL #1 (OF 6)

REYN #7

SAVIOR #5

SHUTTER #14

SKULLKICKERS #100

STARVE #3

VELVET #11

WALKING DEAD #145

MISC

21ST CENTURY TANK GIRL #3 (OF 3)

BLOODSHOT REBORN #5

CROSSED PLUS 100 #7

DOCTOR WHO 10TH #14

DOCTOR WHO 11TH #15

DOCTOR WHO 2015 FOUR DOCTORS #1 (OF 5)

GRANT MORRISONS 18 DAYS #2

HERO CATS #7

IMPERIUM #7

INK FOR BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GETTING TATTOOED

IT WILL ALL HURT #3

KING #1 (OF 5)

LETTER 44 #19

MERCURY HEAT #2

PROVIDENCE #3 (OF 12)

SPONGEBOB COMICS #47

STUMPTOWN V3 #7

UBER #27

UNITY #21

X-O MANOWAR #39

TRADES

ALEX + ADA TP VOL 03

ANGEL AND FAITH SEASON 9 LIBRARY ED HC VOL 02

ART OF MOUSE GUARD 2005 - 2015 HC

AVATAR LAST AIRBENDER TP POSTER COLLECTION

BIGHEAD GN (NEW PTG)

BLACK PANTHER BY PRIEST TP VOL 01 COMPLETE COLLECTION

BLACK SCIENCE TP VOL 03 VANISHING POINT

CHEW TP VOL 10 BLOOD PUDDIN

CREEPS GN VOL 01 NIGHT OF FRANKENFROGS

DAREDEVIL TYPHOIDS KISS TP

DARK GODS TP VOL 01

DICKS TP VOL 03 END OF TIME

DISNEY PIXAR TREASURY VOL 01

DRAGONLANCE CHRONICLES TP VOL 02 NIGHT DRAGONS OF WINTER

FRAGGLE ROCK JOURNEY TO THE EVERSPRING HC

G.I. JOE SNAKE EYES AGENT OF COBRA TP

GREEN ARROW ARCHERS QUEST DELUXE ED HC

HELLBLAZER TP VOL 11 LAST MAN STANDING

HELLBOY AND THE BPRD 1952 TP

HIP HOP FAMILY TREE GN VOL 03

INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET GN

JUDGE DREDD AMERICA TP

LOBO TP VOL 01 TARGETS

LITTLE NEMO BIG NEW DREAMS HC

MILLENNIUM TP

MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDS FOREVER TP VOL 04

NOT FUNNY HA HA HC

OPERATION SIN TP AGENT CARTER

QUANTUM & WOODY TP VOL 04 QUANTUM & WOODY MUST DIE

ROBERT HEINLEINS CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY TP

SATELLITE SAM TP VOL 03 LIMESTONE CAVES OF FIRE

SECRET ORIGINS TP VOL 02

SECRET WARRIORS COMPLETE COLLECTION TP VOL 02

STAR TREK PLANET OF THE APES TP PRIMATE DIRECTIVE

STAR WARS EPISODE V HC EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

SUPERMAN KRYPTON RETURNS TP

SWAMP THING THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL TP

TRANSFORMERS COMBINER WARS TP

UNITY TP VOL 05 HOMEFRONT

MERCH

BATMAN BLACK & WHITE STATUE BATGIRL BY BABS TARR

DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS LOIS LANE STATUE

FLASH TV STATUE

BACK IN STOCK

AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE #8 2ND PTG

MEGAHEX HC

PRO ONE SHOT

DRAGONBALL Z RESURRECTION F PASS GIVEAWAY!

Hot on the heels of last year's summer blockbuster, Battle of Gods, Dragon Ball Z is back in theaters. Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection "F" is the second film personally supervised by the series creator himself, Akira Toriyama. The new movie showcases the return of Frieza - one of the most iconic villains of all time.

Even the complete obliteration of his physical form can't stop the galaxy's most evil overlord. After years in spiritual purgatory, Frieza has been resurrected and plans to take his revenge on the Z-Fighters of Earth. Facing off against Frieza's powerful new form, and his army of 1,000 soldiers, Goku and Vegeta must reach new levels of strength in order to protect Earth from their vengeful nemesis.

Thanks to those Power level 150,000,000 guys from Madman and Dragonball Z Resurrection F, in cinemas from August 6th, we have six single passes to the film to give away.

SPECIAL NOTE: This is a limited cinema release. Cinemas playing and screening times for this film can be found HERE.

To go into the draw for your chance to win all you need to do is tell us, "What would your special fighting move be called and how would you say it when using it in battle?"

Terms and Conditions:
Only entries made via the 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 5pm Sunday the 9th of August and winners will be announced Monday the 10th.
Tickets will only be available to pick up from the store and winner must produce photo ID upon pick up. Tickets MUST be picked up no later than a two days 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.

A huge thanks again to Madman and Dragonball Z Resurrection F, in cinemas from August 6th

ALL STAR RECOMMENDS FOR AUGUST 4TH

Hi there, readers of my inane waffle…

Due to international houseguests, encroaching illness, the death of my beloved Samsung Q330 laptop and his hastily purchased replacement turning out to be a lump of useless plastic and circuitry, this week’s column is a bit of a roughly cobbled together effort. Sorry, I’ll be back in full swing next week.

COMIC OF THE WEEK : QUEUE

By Dilraj Mann

Self-published

Well, phew. If there’s one thing it’s nice to not have to worry about anymore, it’s a lack of fashion in comics. This might sound incredibly superficial and not at all important, but I would disagree – for far too long, comics (specifically mainstream comics) have suffered a drought of artists who actually drew people (specifically teenaged people) who looked cool, relevant, and up-to-the-minute with their couture instead of pleated-pants wearing weirdos who tend to emulate the fashions of their talented but not particularly worldly middle-aged artists.

A bit harsh, perhaps, but open up Ultimate Spider-Man #1, as Exhibit A. No, this was not the product of 1985, it was actually the year 2000 not that you’d know it from Mark Bagley’s costuming of all his characters, most egregiously Harry Osborne. Poor Harry looked, even on the day of publication, like he just came off a stint as an extra in Less Than Zero.

This welcome turn-around in comics fashion largely has to do with the influx of younger and notably female creators to the medium, like the Lumberjanes crew and Babs Tarr and Jillian Tamaki and so many others. Not to be outdone, guys like Jamie McKelvie, Simon Gane and again many more have demonstrated a serious level of care and attention to what their characters actually wear and how they style themselves. And here’s another male artist to watch, England’s Dilraj Mann.

Mann’s zine, Queue arrived in my mail this week and it is a wonder of both style and substance wrapped up in sexy risographed printing. Four characters wait in line outside to meet a club. They are strangers. However, each of them is connected in some way to Delilah, a fleshy, sexy but very confused girl burying the pain of a break-up through all manner of partying and their accoutrements.

It’s worth noting that Mann clearly celebrates the female form the way Crumb does – he’s all curves and asses and flesh; these are seriously embodied chicks, not the waifish stick-figures of the catwalk world. Full figured, even fuller-lipped, gap-toothed and cat-eyed, Mann’s characters are yet packed with a bizarre sensuousness.

Although resembling something like Brandon Graham and Dave Cooper drawing Nightclubbing kids, Queue is more than just cute characters and their marvelous wardrobes – structurally ambitious, it constantly cuts between Friday night at the club and earlier in the week to show us a glimpse of each character’s interactions with Delilah. Mann’s page layouts are superb, confident and ambitious. Of particular note are three club-set pages where Delilah pops some pills and dances. Mann slows things down and speeds them up amazingly, chopping his panels up like coke lines, forcing his readers to scan through as if viewing the sequence through a strobe light, while at the same time moving events of the night around like chess pieces.

Here’s but one of them:

You can pick Queue up at Mann’s site and while you’re there, take a look at some of his prints and original art – it’s gorgeous, striking stuff.

WEBCOMIC OF THE WEEK : WARREN ELLIS: “READ COMICS. ALL THE COMICS. THEN CUT THEM OPEN…”

No webcomic this week, see poor-me intro, but I might just have something better. Thanks to Tom Spurgeon’s The Comics Reporter, I stumbled upon this excerpt from a recent Orbital Operations newsletter from Warren Ellis and posted at Down the Tubes. I read Operations religiously, like it’s a personal letter just to me which I know is ridiculous but I’m not feeling well so go away.

Here’s Ellis describing the importance of conducting your own creative autopsy on comics. All comics. Not just the ones on your pull list.

http://downthetubes.net/?p=24080

COUNTDOWN TO MOZ METAL: HEAVY METAL, JUNE 1977

“They were made of metal and hate. On the gigantic planet Gail they raised their arrogant architecture toward heaven and their eyes, as brilliant as those of wild beasts, towards the night.”

All hail Philippe Druillet, who kicks of this third issue of Heavy Metal with part one of “Gail,” a tale about an off-world prison colony called Saint Mary of The Angels,” where criminals and political prisoners alike find themselves shipped daily. Druillet’s ridiculously spiky space ships and generally bleak industrial-gothic SF designs are on full display here as a prisoner named Christmas the Stranger is transported to “the prison in the stars.” Magnificent stuff.

“Conquering Armies” by Jean-Pierre Dionnet and Jean-Claude Gal continues yet again with what is, for my money, its strongest chapter yet, with its sentry protagonist eating cockroaches amidst the field of the slaughtered dead. “Rockblitz” by Sergio Macedo brings us a super cool grey toned airbrush effect, future gangs, robots, rock and roll and a majestic three-horned saxophone. The mighty Richard Corben pulls double duty as first, Den rescues a damsel, then he and Frank Frazetta provide splash illustrations to accompany several pages of Robert E. Howard verse. Amazing. Tardi is back again with his cracking post-colonial SF short, “Fear of The Blue-Eyed Sloane!” (Seriously will somebody please collect Tardi’s shorts?) and Moebius’ “Arzack” (Arzach) continues in all its wordless majesty. Two noteworthy additions are “Vengeance” by Dominique Vallet, an elegantly-illustrated piece about a man carrying out his justly-sought revenge against a sorcerous, somewhat sentient wall and “Shells” by Francois and Luc Schuiten, a pretty sensuous and striking piece with an almost EC-like twist about an armoured man and woman deciding to cast off their exoskeletons to satiate their fleshy desires.

Another killer issue.

COMICS VIDEO OF THE WEEK : HEROESCON: MILKFED CRIMINAL MASTERMINDS PANEL

Got two hours free? Love DeConnick, Fraction and their assembled crew? Boy, do I have the video for you. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olt_bcIH3qM&feature=youtu.be

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.

New Comics For Wednesday 5th of August

First week of August and it's a looking to be a good one! Let's take a peek over some of this week's reads.

Another week of Secret Wars event books with plenty to choose from. THIS DAMNED BAND #1 from Dark Horse and billed as Spinal Tap meets Ghostbusters almost sounds too good to pass up. Keen to sink your teeth into some new crime series? Image has you covered with DARK CORRIDOR #1. POWER MAN AND IRON FIST EPIC COLLECTION TP HEROES FOR HIRE because Iron Fist...well and Luke Cage is cool too. Are you a fans of Ellis' never completed Desolation Jones might enjoy the new Private Eye series from BOOM, JOHN FLOOD #1. Not getting enough Tom Sciolo madness in your life with Transformers VS GIJOE? You should definitely take a look at the new collection of his older series, AMERICAN BARBARIAN COMP SERIES HC in that case! Follow that up with another oddball in the latest JOJOS BIZARRE ADV PHANTOM BLOOD HC VOL 03. Valiant's latest mini is collected with the deep space, existential thoughts of Matt Kindt in DIVINITY TP.

Need our help putting something aside for you, just let us know!

MARVEL

AGE OF APOCALYPSE #2 SWA

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN RENEW YOUR VOWS #3 SWA

BIG THUNDER MOUNTAIN RAILROAD #5 (OF 5)

BUCKY BARNES WINTER SOLDIER #10

CIVIL WAR #2 SWA

DARTH VADER #8

FUTURE IMPERFECT #4 SWA

GIANT SIZE LITTLE MARVEL AVX #3 SWA

GROOT #3

GUARDIANS OF KNOWHERE #2 SWA

GUARDIANS TEAM-UP #9

INFINITY GAUNTLET #3 SWA

MARVEL UNIVERSE AVENGERS ASSEMBLE SEASON TWO #10

MS MARVEL #17 SWA

RED SKULL #2 (OF 3) SWA

SIEGE #2 SWA

SPIDER-ISLAND #2 (OF 5) SWA

ULTIMATE END #4 (OF 5) SWA

DC COMICS

BAT MITE #3 (OF 6)

BATMAN BEYOND #3

DETECTIVE COMICS #43 BOMBSHELLS VAR ED

FLASH SEASON ZERO #11

GREEN LANTERN #43 BOMBSHELLS VAR ED

INJUSTICE GODS AMONG US YEAR FOUR #7

JLA GODS AND MONSTERS WONDER WOMAN #1

LOBO #9

MIDNIGHTER #3

OMEGA MEN #3

VERTIGO

AMERICAN VAMPIRE SECOND CYCLE #9

FBP FEDERAL BUREAU OF PHYSICS #23

MAD MAX FURY ROAD MAX #2

BOOM

ADVENTURE TIME #42

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA #14

BROKEN WORLD #3 (OF 4)

CLUSTER #6

JOHN FLOOD #1

SPIRE #2 (OF 8)

WOODS #15

DARK HORSE

AGE OF REPTILES ANCIENT EGYPTIANS #3 (OF 4)

ANGEL AND FAITH SEASON 10 #17

BALTIMORE CULT OF THE RED KING #4 (OF 5)

BARB WIRE #2

NEVERBOY #6 (OF 6)

THIS DAMNED BAND #1 (OF 6)

WITCHER FOX CHILDREN #5 (OF 5)

DYNAMITE

BOBS BURGERS ONGOING #2

PATHFINDER ORIGINS #6 (OF 6)

PS BLACKCROSS #5 (OF 6)

RED SONJA CONAN #1 (OF 4)

SHADOW VOL 2 #1

SWORDS OF SORROW THORIS ADLER #3 (OF 3)

WILL EISNER SPIRIT #2

IDW

DRONES #5 (OF 5)

FLY OUTBREAK #5 (OF 5)

INSUFFERABLE #4

LONG DISTANCE #3 (OF 4)

MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDS FOREVER #19

STAR TREK ONGOING #48

TRANSFORMERS #44

ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS #8

IMAGE

8HOUSE ARCLIGHT #2

AIRBOY #3 (OF 4)

DARK CORRIDOR #1

DEADLY CLASS #15

HUMANS #7

JUPITERS CIRCLE #5

KAPTARA #4

MORNING GLORIES #47

NAILBITER #15

OUTCAST BY KIRKMAN & AZACETA #11

SEX #23

WE STAND ON GUARD #2

WICKED & DIVINE #13

MISC

BUNKER #13

FOX (DARK CIRCLE) #5

LADY MECHANIKA TABLET OF DESTINIES #4 (OF 6)

STUDY GROUP MAGAZINE 3D

WAR STORIES #11

TRADES

AMAZING FANTASTIC INCREDIBLE MARVELOUS MEMOIR BLAD

AMERICAN BARBARIAN COMP SERIES HC

ANGELA ASGARDS ASSASSIN TP VOL 01 PRICELESS

BABA YAGAS ASSISTANT YR GN

BOWERY BOYS OUR FATHERS HC

CONAN TP VOL 17 SHADOWS OVER KUSH

DEADPOOL PAWS PROSE NOVEL HC

DIVINITY TP

DRAGONLANCE CHRONICLES TP VOL 02 NIGHT DRAGONS OF WINTER

EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES GN

FRANK MILLERS DAREDEVIL ARTIFACT ED HC

GANTZ TP VOL 36

GIRL GENIUS SECOND JOURNEY TP VOL 01 BEAST OF THE

INFINITE CRISIS FIGHT FOR THE MULTIVERSE TP

JAMES PATTERSON ZOO TP

JOJOS BIZARRE ADV PHANTOM BLOOD HC VOL 03

LION OF RORA GN

MIGHTY SKULLBOY ARMY 2ND ED TP VOL 01

POWER MAN AND IRON FIST EPIC COLLECTION TP HEROES FOR HIRE

SUPERMAN TP VOL 05 UNDER FIRE

TEEN TITANS TP VOL 01 BLINDED BY THE LIGHT

THE INCAL HC NEW PTG

VEDA ASSEMBLY REQUIRED TP

VENOM BY REMENDER COMPLETE COLLECTION TP VOL 02

BACK IN STOCK

HAWKEYE #22

ISLAND #1

ALL STAR RECOMMENDS FOR JULY 28TH

Konban Wa! Hisashiburi desu ne?

Who reads comics and has an obsessively detailed G1 Climax 25 spreadsheet printed out to handily tally points? This dork!

No time for talk. It’s night four as I type this.

COMIC OF THE WEEK : BORB

By Jason Little

Published by Uncivilized Books

So as you may know, All Star co-owner Mitch is overseas being an Eisner-winning big shot and posting pics of himself with Mike Allred and Ed Piskor on Twitter. I know, I know, I want to hate him too. The thing is he’s just way too nice to even get so much as annoyed at. Here’s proof in the form of a slice from one of his emails to me, upon arriving in San Francisco:

“…the way the homeless have to live is terrible. There is like a horrible, unspoken understanding between them and everyone else, where for the most part neither party acknowledges each other's existence. It's a horrible sense of making them invisible, I can't imagine how it must make them feel.”

We’ve all likely felt this way at some point. The conflicting unease, sympathy, mistrust, disgust and heartbreaking sadness of the plight and appearance of the much less fortunate can take some digesting, particularly if you experience all of these reactions simultaneously which can happen. This unease is even heightened when visiting foreign countries where the circumstances of the homeless are frequently far worse and way more in your face than they are here. And maybe you look a round, see a guy with a cardboard sign and a fresh pack of cigarettes and sometimes think do they really even have it that bad? With some shame I must admit that in my lowest moments I’ve actually had a slight pang of envy at the homeless in Japan, many of whom live a seemingly peaceful existence in tight little social clusters in blue-tarp covered domiciles that quite often look really cosy.

Even here in Melbourne, things can’t be that bad, right? I see Bianca, Shane and Boof at least several times a week. That beautiful dog is virtually a celebrity at this point. They’ve tapped into electricity and can “lock out intruders,” so how bad can their lives be?

This envisioning of homelessness as some sort of romantic, off-the-grid, vagabond lifestyle is remarkably insensitive, offensive, completely absurd and likely makes me sound like a total asshole. I’m just trying to be honest here though, because Borb, by two-time Ignatz-winning and Eisner- nominated creator Jason Little, will make you have a good hard look at yourself, your level of empathetic capability, your aloofness and the degree to which you’ll completely separate your reality from that of those around you.

Formatted as a four-panel newspaper strip, Borb tells the tale of a homeless man whose train wreck of a life spirals ever downward in humorous gag-strip fashion. Humiliated, debased and mistreated at virtually every turn, poor Borb highlights the problem of the homeless and our reactions to this problem and simultaneously, mercilessly makes fun of both.

Resembling something like a Captain Haddock gone completely to seed and off the rails, Borb perfectly embodies the horror of not being able to either afford or have access to the things we can and frequently do take for granted. Suffering broken limbs, destroyed teeth, lack of hygiene, zero affection and never being treated by anyone at any time with anything resembling common decency, poor Borb is of a class so far below us he’s, as Mitch noted, virtually invisible. Even when he is cared for, his treatment is frequently superficial, little more than a Band-Aid on the problem. The “temporary housing” he’s granted at one point is little better than some flophouse that should be earmarked for demolition. Its broken windows make it impossible to heat and once Borb cuddles up to his dodgy space heater, he accidentally burns the place to the ground.

This is one example of many “Oh Borb, you goof…whatever mischief will you get up to next?” moments as Borb splits his pants, shits in bags, accidentally drinks perfume and takes tumbles down subway staircases. Alcoholic, dyslexic and broke, Borb is frequently the object of both ridicule and mistrust. He embodies all the stereotypes of the homeless – including their unfortunate, yet understandable tendencies toward self-destruction – to reveal just how cruel our opinions, ignorance and ambivalence toward their plight actually is. He’s the “bum” as total caricature, but as you chuckle along, ever-sad as you do so, the joke slowly turns as Borb’s gags and pratfalls increase in severity and hopelessness and the despair ramps up.

What’s truly special about Borb, which is created partly in homage to Depression-era newspaper strips, is how the “comedy vagabond” archetype of such material slips away to reveal the horror and complete futility at the very heart of this character’s existence. He’s “Just some homes guy,” says an EMT tending to him says at one point and this is a refrain that echoes all the way through the work right up until its conclusion, when you realise there never is or has been humour in any of this.

Ultimately, Borb must himself bear some responsibility for his existence just as we all do. Jason Little squeezes in enough of his backstory to make this apparent. How you, as both human and reader (the best kind of human), react to this is perhaps the core of Little’s book. How big is your heart? When comes the point where you write a person off? Or damn them for their errors? Well, prepare to find out if you read this brilliant, relevant and utterly necessary piece of comics.

WEBCOMIC OF THE WEEK : HAUNTER

By Sam Alden

Sam Alden drops readers right into Haunter, a beautiful and exciting two-part webcomic published at the always top notch Study Group Comics site, giving us what ultimately amounts to little more than extended chase scene. But what a chase scene it is. A raggedly-clad female survivor of some disaster or other (one presumes) is on the hunt for a boar with nothing more than a simple bow and arrow, but ends up being stalked through the landscape by something seemingly ancient and supernatural.

Completely silent, Haunter is all about the landscapes – bizarre forests, odd temples, underwater caverns – the ever-versatile Alden’s remarkable linework and lush palate and the chase itself which reads like some uncommonly lovely backwoods survivalist horror movie gone quite surreal. Haunter is brisk, constantly moving and full of visual surprises. Devoid of backstory, much plot or any dialogue, Haunter is all about forward motion. Thrillingly climactic, it’s remarkable how much Alden will make you care for a protagonist you know little or nothing about other than the fact that she’s clearly quite the survivor.

While you’re there at Study Group Comics, have a virtual rummage around the place. The site is a complete embarrassment of riches.

http://studygroupcomics.com/main/haunter-part-1-by-sam-alden/

COUNTDOWN TO MOZ METAL: HEAVY METAL, MAY 1977

Did you know that not every man can handle Metaxa? I didn’t, but considering I had no idea what Metaxa is that’s probably to be expected. Clearly I am not man enough to imbibe this liquid, advertised in the second ever issue of Heavy Metal with a full pager featuring a spiked, gauntleted fist clutching a bottle of the stuff and thrusting it our faces, but a quick Google search reveals that Metaxa is a honey-flavoured Greek “amber spirit” (now drunk not by warriors but by handsome stubbly men, clearly not tested in battle, and their blonde sun-drenched women according to the website). Still, the fine print of this amazing ad tells me that it’s “84 proof Greek Specialty Liqueur,” so perhaps I’m writing it off to quickly. “Drunk by Gods and Warriors. And men who can handle it.” I’m up for the test…

Metaxa! The official hooch of Heavy Metal May ’77!

It’s quite the ad, but far from the most remarkable thing about this issue, which opens with my hero Jacques Tardi’s “MEAOBbBIN MECRU” (that is not a typo), a tale of sexy Russian cosmonauts that almost resembles a team-up between Gilbert Hernandez at his most absurdist and Guy Peellaert of Adventures of Jodelle fame. Remarkable.

Philippe Druillet’s astonishing “Agorn” follows, a stunningly weird slice of black and white dark fantasy in which the titular character, plagued by nightmares, has the love of his life cast to “the demons of the dark” by his family and their magician so he slaughters them all ruthlessly, in the process becoming damned “for thousands and thousands of years” by his actions, forever woken from sleep and forced to relive it all over again. Beautifully circular in structure and complex in layout, “Agorn” should be read several times in a loop to best appreciate the hell its doomed protagonist is trapped in.

“Den” and “Conquering Armies” continue masterfully, along with “Harzach” (Arzach) by Moebius, but it’s “Roger,” a Fumetti by Locquet and Souchu, that will likely turn the most heads for the new reader with its male action figure protagonist raging against Roger, the god-like being who plays with them as though they were “mass-produced dolls”.  Strikingly quirky and odd, “Roger” thankfully continues in several months time. Roll on August ’77!

As the intro to the issue says, “Other tales complete their time/space existence here before yr [yes, it says “yr”] very eyes,” but I’m out of room so let’s just say that the hallucinatory “Virgo” by Philippe "Caza" Cazamayou, featuring a naked woman partaking of the…um…seed…of a reptilian fruit that looks more like the head of Killer Croc’s appendage than something from the Garden of Eden and subsequently ends up pregnant with some sort of Godly planetoid, is worthy not for just its strangeness and stunning detail, but also as it could potentially be read as Lilith’s sexual encounter with Samael…

Heavy Metal! Not just stoner T&A but theology lessons as well!

COMICS VIDEO OF THE WEEK : A CONTRACT WITH GOD: WILL EISNER

A million miles away from Borb in tone, style and intent are Will Eisner’s tenement stories, yet their depiction of the lower class packed into these classically New York buildings is no less striking. Incidentally, I’ve always felt that Eisner’s more “personal” works cast him in the role of something like comics’ Dickens, which upon reading the below once more is fairly fitting.

Anyway, here’s a really nicely made video of “A Contract With God”, one of Eisner’s most famous pieces. This 1978 story of a how the death of a loved one changes a once kindly Jewish man is perhaps a little heavy on the melodrama, but Eisner’s characters exhibit all the wonderful facial expression and body language that made him a master and just look at his architecture…*swoon.*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P_WaV30TGc

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.