Story by: Tim Seeley
Art By: Diego Bernard & Diego Bernard
Cover By: John Tyler Christopher
Variant Cover by: Diego Bernard

“ABSOLUTE CORRUPTION,” Part One
The bitter, former Witchblade bearer Katarina has transcended the Faerie realm, travelling to Chicago to intercept the fugitive murderer Toio Mulranny. And she’s going to get the Witchblade’s help to catch him, whether Sara Pezinni wants to or not.

Fantagraphics co-publisher Kim Thompson died at 6:30 this morning, June 19. “He was my partner and close friend for 36 years,” said Gary Groth.

Thompson was born in Denmark in 1956. He grew up in Europe, a lifelong comics fan, reading both European and American comics in Denmark, France, and Germany. He was an active fan in his teen years, writing to comics — his letters appeared in Marvel’s letter columns circa early 1970s — and contributing to fanzines from his various European perches. At the age of 21, he set foot, for the first time, on American soil, in late 1977. One “fanzine” he had not contributed to was The Comics Journal, which Groth and Michael Catron began publishing in July of 1976. That was soon to change.

“Within a few weeks of his arrival,” said Groth, “he came over to our ‘office,’ which was the spare bedroom of my apartment, and was introduced by a mutual friend — it was a fan visit. We were operating out of College Park, Maryland and Kim’s parents had moved to Fairfax, Virginia, both Washington DC suburbs. Kim loved the energy around the Journal and the whole idea of a magazine devoted to writing about comics, and asked if he could help. We needed all the help we could get, of course, so we gladly accepted his offer. He started to come over every day and was soon camping out on the floor. The three of us were living and breathing The Comics Journal 24 hours a day.”

Thompson became an owner when Catron took a job at DC Comics in 1978. As he became more familiar with the editorial process, Thompson became more and more integral to the magazine, assembling and writing news and conducting interviews with professionals. Thompson’s career in comics began here.

In 1981, Fantagraphics began publishing comics (such as Jack Jackson’s Los Tejanos, Don Rosa’s Comics and Stories, and, in 1982, Love and Rockets). Thompson was always evangelical about bandes dessinées and wanted to bring the best of European comics to America; in 1981, Thompson selected and translated the first of many European graphic novels for American publication — Herman Huppen’s The Survivors: Talons of Blood (followed by a 2nd volume in 1983). Thompson’s involvement in The Comics Journal diminished in 1982 when he took over the editorship of Amazing Heroes, a bi-weekly magazine devoted to more mainstream comics (with occasional forays into alternative and even foreign comics). Thompson helmed Amazing Heroes through 204 issues until 1992.

Among Thompson’s signature achievements in comics were Critters, a funny-animal anthology that ran from 50 issues between 1985 to 1990 and is perhaps best known for introducing the world to Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo; and Zero Zero, an alternative comics anthology that also ran for 50 issues over five years — between 1995 and 2000 — and featured work by, among others, Kim Deitch, Dave Cooper, Al Columbia, Spain Rodriguez, Joe Sacco, David Mazzuchelli, and Joyce Farmer. His most recent enthusiasm was spearheading a line of European graphic novel translations, including two major series of volumes by two of the most significant living European artists — Jacques Tardi (It Was the War of the Trenches, Like a Sniper Lining up His Shot, The Astonishing Exploits of Lucien Brindavoine) and Jason (Hey, Wait…, I Killed Adolf Hitler, Low Moon, The Left Bank Gang) — and such respected work as Ulli Lust’s Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life, Lorenzo Mattotti’s The Crackle of the Frost, Gabriella Giandelli’s Interiorae, and what may be his crowning achievement as an editor/translator, Guy Peelaert’s The Adventures of Jodelle.

Throughout his career at Fantagraphics, Thompson was active in every aspect of the company, selecting books, working closely with authors, guiding books through the editorial and production process. “Kim leaves an enormous legacy behind him,” said Groth, “not just all the European graphic novels that would never have been published here if not or his devotion, knowledge, and skills, but for all the American cartoonists he edited, ranging from Stan Sakai to Joe Sacco to Chris Ware, and his too infrequent critical writing about the medium. His love and devotion to comics was unmatched. I can’t truly convey how crushing this is for all of us who’ve known and loved and worked with him over he years.”

Thompson was diagnosed with lung cancer in late February. He is survived by his wife, Lynn Emmert, his mother and father, Aase and John, and his brother Mark.

By: Ted McKeever
Price: $3.99

Chomsky, our recovering alcoholic, is about to find out that the constant barrage of screaming voices in his head are not ALL imaginary. Meanwhile, Jesus is facing an array of obstacles the average person walks over, but to him, being eight inches tall, they’re monoliths!

Story by: Jim McCann
Art By: Sami Basri
Cover By: Rodin Esquejo
Variant Cover by: Michael Gaydos
Price: $2.99

Reading through Richard Corben’s Edgar Allan Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher felt like a literary analysis of Poe’s story writ for the comic enthusiast; bye-bye to lectures on thematic and symbolic elements of “The Fall of the House of Usher,” hello to this wonderful comic worthy of its own interpretation and analysis and just plain pretty (in an eerie sort of way). Corben combines the plot for this comic with another of Poe’s works, “The Oval Portrait,” which is somewhat akin to Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray. In addition, the narrator in this comic is Mag the Hag, introduced in Corben’s adaptation of Poe’s poem “The Conqueror Worm” (comic has the same name) which came out last November (2012), and Corben features Poe himself, as ‘Allan,’ as Poe’s original unnamed narrator.

As an adaptation, Corben does a great job capturing Poe’s major themes: the creepy life-like quality of the House of Usher, Roderick Usher’s madness (though Corben’s Roderick is more psychopathic and less derranged than Poe’s man), and the incestuous relationship between Roderick and his sister Madeline. Corben took great liberties with their relationship, making Madeline a central figure to whom Allan becomes attached. Allan is quite talkative, not the quite, concerned narrator that he is in the original—this doesn’t detract from the story, but Corben’s script for Allan seems out of place with the 19th century setting.

Corben’s unique twists to the story modernize it; I’m sure many reader’s would find Poe’s original somewhat bleak. But where Poe uses pages full of eloquent narration to express in literature the dense oppression of the atmosphere of the House of Usher and the hair-standing-on-your neck vibe, Corben instead has his masterful artwork to accomplish this task in an equally effective manner.  His style is well suited to this type of Gothic work, as he’s worked with Mike Mignola a number of times, and got his start submitting to Creepy and Eerie, among plenty of other successes.

Corben’s panel ecology in The Fall of the House of Usher is complex, with edges rumbly and mottled except where human characters are concerned, giving the whole book a feeling of being visually unsettled in the same way that Poe’s original story leaves the reader with a somber, heavily laden fog of depression milling about his narrator’s environment. The best example is the longshots of the House of Usher, the edges of which are so busy as to make the house seem—quite literally—alive, much as it has been suggested Poe meant, alive and overgrown with sentient fungus!

And the ‘death’ of the House of Usher is even more spectacular under the penmanship of Corben than in the original (though, admittedly, readers in 1839 probably hadn’t read too many stories in which a house crumbles when its owners die), where it almost seems a final anecdote which the read is left contemplating. Then again, forced reflection is sometimes the key to brilliant writing.

Creepy. That truly is the best way to describe Corben’s eerie adaptation on the whole, both story and art, all of it seeps through the pages and into the mind like an unforgettable horror story populated with too eccentric madmen and unnerving twists. And while the dialogue is at times awkward, at least for someone who greatly enjoyed the original, I would contend that Richard Corben’s Fall of the House of Usher will be remembered for some time, and if ever I get the chance to teach Poe, my students will surely also be reading this adaptation.

Story and Art: Richard Corben
Story: 8.5 Art: 9 Overall: 8.75 Recommendation: Buy

Dark Horse provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Story by: Brian Wood
Art By: Ming Doyle & Jordie Bellaire
Cover By: Ming Doyle
Price: $2.99

Everything’s on the table as far as the military’s position on Mara, but who’s the one with the nuclear option? How much power can one woman hold before the world says “enough”?

Story by: Jamie S. Rich
Art By: Natalie Nourigat
Cover By: Michael Allred & Laura Allred
Price: $2.99

“TWEENAGE FBI” Part Two
The conclusion of a special two-parter brings It Girl face-to-face with an ancient evil, one now wielding unlimited power thanks to the technological secret stolen from Atomics HQ. It Girl’s got the Kid Commandoes on her side, but will they be enough? Featuring art by BETWEEN GEARS creator NATALIE NOURIGAT!

Story by: Robert Kirkman
Art By: Ryan Ottley & John Rauch
Price: $2.99

Angstrom Levy returns.

A very cool geeky comic home screen for Android devices. Too neat not to share!