Angry Birds: Super Angry Birds # 4 (of 4)
Jeff Parker (w) • Ron Randall (a & c)
Hey Stella! When Stella’s dreams of a career as a singer are crushed because all the night clubs in New Yolk City are run by King Pig, it’s up to the Super Angry Birds to make her dreams come true.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Angry Birds: Super Angry Birds # 3 (of 4)
Jeff Parker (w) • Ron Randall (a & c)
Enter the BIRD BUSTER! When the Super Angry Birds prove too much for King Pig’s regular henchmen he decides to turn up the heat and bring in some help of a mechanical nature…a GIANT mechanical nature!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Angry Birds: Super Angry Birds # 2 (of 4)
Jeff Parker (w) • Ron Randall (a) • Ron Randall (c)
When New Yolk City is in peril, only one team is brave enough… bold enough… mad enough to stand up and fight for the rights of its citizens. They are – the Super Angry Birds!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Angry Birds: Super Angry Birds # 1 (of 4)
Jeff Parker (w) • Ron Randall (a & c)
It’s everyone’s favorite furious fowl as you’ve never seen them before! A new group of would-be heroes, with powers beyond mortal birds, fight a covert war against King Pig and his minions. They are the Super Angry Birds!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Taking place in April and May 2015, Convergence is a massive two month publishing move for DC Comics that takes advantage of their multiverse to bring what hopefully is interesting stories. The company has revealed plans for their first ten releases, and have given some more insight into what we can expect for the next ten.
SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL
(Writer: Louise Simonson; Artist: June Brigman and Roy Richardson, with color by John Rauch)
Metropolis was taken when Superman was missing, so it’s up to Steel to guard the city from the heroes of GEN13 in his absence.
BATMAN: SHADOW OF THE BAT
(Writer: Larry Hama; Artist: Philip Tan and Jason Paz, with color by Elmer Santos)
A year ago, Batman got trapped in Metropolis when hunting down Azrael. Now he must team with the man that replaced him, and see how differently they operate as Batmans.
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL
(Writer: Ron Marz; Artist: Mike Manley, with color by Sotocolor)
The levity of the JLI team collides with the severity of the world of Kingdom Come.
CATWOMAN
(Writer: Justin Gray; Artist: Ron Randall, with color by Gabe Eltaeb)
A year under the dome can change anyone, even Catwoman. She’s set aside her life of crime to become the protector of Suicide Slum, but when the dome falls she will face her greatest challenge—Kingdom Come Batman.
SUPERGIRL: MATRIX
(Writer: Keith Giffen; Artist: Ramon Bachs, with color by Hi-Fi)
What do Supergirl, Lady Quark, and Ambush Bug have in common? Well… nothing really. But that didn’t stop us from sticking them in a story together. You are SO welcome.
SUPERBOY
(Writer: Fabian Nicieza; Artist: Karl Moline and Jose Marzan Jr, with color by Hi-Fi)
Has Kon-El earned the right to be the man of steel? Kon will have to prove his mettle in battle against the Superman of Kingdom Come! But what if the only way to save Metropolis is to lose the fight?
AQUAMAN
(Writer: Tony Bedard; Artist: Cliff Richards, with color by John Rauch)
Trapped in the domed city, Aquaman struggles with the loss of his hand as he confronts a deadly adversary—Deathblow.
SUICIDE SQUAD
(Writer: Frank Tieri; Artist: Tom Mandrake, with color by Sian Mandrake)
When Kingdom Come’s floating fortress of New Oa threatens Metropolis, it’s up to Amanda Waller to put together a team of the city’s deadliest villains to stop it.
GREEN LANTERN/PARALLAX
(Writer: Tony Bedard; Artist: Ron Wagner and Bill Reinhold, with color by Paul Mounts)
Rookie Green Lantern Kyle Rayner gears up to battle invaders, but is he ready to fight Hal Jordan, also known as Parallax?
GREEN ARROW
(Writer: Christy Marx; Artist: Rags Morales and Claude St-Aubin, with color by Nei Ruffino)
Oliver Queen meets Connor Hawke for the first time, but is he ready to hand over the Green Arrow mantle to his son?
Baltimore Comic-Con‘s premiere inaugural three-day event, September 5-7, 2014, at the Baltimore Convention Center is going to be a blast, and keeps adding new names to the convention.
Adding to already vast variety of guests for the show are Amy Chu, Jeremy Dale, Gerhard, and Ron Randall!
Amy Chu has recently written for DC Comics’ Vertigo Quarterly: Cyan #1. She is also the creator of the Alpha Girl Comics anthology series, Girls Night Out, and the horror mystery The VIP Room. A frequent speaker at conventions, she was a member of our “Self Publishing Panel” along with Jimmy Palmiotti, George O’Connor, Danielle Corsetto, and Carolyn Belefski at last year’s Baltimore Comic-Con.
Jeremy Dale is best known for his artwork on G.I. Joe comics for Hasbro and IDW as well as the Harvey Award-winning Popgun v.1 from Image Comics and Miserable Dastards from Dial C for Comics (recently optioned as a feature film). He is currently working on several projects, including the creator-owned Skyward series through Action Lab Entertainment.
Gerhard is renowned for his fantastic background artwork and environmental design on the indie comics masterpiece Cerberus the Aardvark. Working with creator Dave Sim, Gerhard was responsible for creating the lush landscapes in which the storyline took place, starting in issue #65 and working for 20 years on nearly 5,000 pages.
Ron Randall started his professional career at DC Comics with a two page back-up story in Unknown Soldier, which was followed by stories in Sgt. Rock, The Warlord, Arak, Son of Thunder, and Swamp Thing. He is well-known for having created Trekker at Dark Horse Comics back in 1987 for Dark Horse Presents, and he published the character again in a new serialized version of the same title starting in 2013.
This year’s previously confirmed guests for the show include: Marty Baumann (Pixar artist); Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl); Mark Buckingham (Fables); Dave Bullock (Batman Black and White); Greg Capullo (Batman); John Cassaday (Doc Savage); Bernard Chang (Green Lantern Corps); Sean Chen (Amazing Spider-Man); Jimmy Cheung (Infinity); Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman); Frank Cho (X-Men: Battle of the Atom); Richard Clark (House of Gold & Bones); Steve Conley (Bloop); Alan Davis (Wolverine); Rachel Deering (In the Dark); Todd Dezago (Tellos); Tommy Lee Edwards (Star Wars); Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys); Ray Fawkes (Constantine); David Finch (Forever Evil); Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (All-Star Western); Dave Gibbons (Watchmen); Keith Giffen (The New 52: Future’s End); Bryan JL Glass (Mice Templar); Michael Golden (The Ravagers); Cully Hamner (Animal Man); Dean Haspiel (The Fox); Fred Hembeck (Garfield); Adam Hughes (Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan); Justin Jordan (Luther Strode, Green Lantern: New Guardians); Dan Jurgens (The New 52: Future’s End); Barry Kitson (Empire); Aaron Kuder (Action Comics); David Mack (Shadowman); Kevin Maguire (Guardians of the Galaxy); Alex Maleev (Moon Knight); Billy Martin (Vitriol, The Hunter); Ron Marz (Witchblade); Bob McLeod (X-Men: Gold); Tradd Moore (Deadpool Annual); Mark Morales (New Avengers); Dan Parent (Archie, Veronica, Kevin Keller); David Peterson (Mouse Guard); Joe Prado (Justice League); Brian Pulido (Lady Death); Tom Raney (Incredible Hulk); Ivan Reis (Aquaman and The Others); Budd Root (Cavewoman); Don Rosa (Donald Duck); Craig Rousseau (Perhapanauts); Joe Rubinstein (The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe); Andy Runton (Owly); Alex Saviuk (Web of Spider-Man); Louise Simonson (Power Pack); Walter Simonson (Thor); Andy Smith (Superman #23.1: Bizarro); Allison Sohn (sketch card artist); Charles Soule (Thunderbolts); Jim Starlin (Thanos: The Infinity Revelation); Ben Templesmith (The Memory Collectors); Peter Tomasi (Batman and Two-Face); John Totleben (Swamp Thing); Herb Trimpe (GI Joe: A Real American Hero); Billy Tucci (Shi); Rick Veitch (Saga of the Swamp Thing); Mike Vosburg (Lori Lovecraft); Mark Waid (Daredevil); Lee Weeks (Daredevil); Bill Willingham (Fables); Renee Witterstaetter (Joe Jusko: Maelstrom); Thom Zahler (My Little Pony); and Mike Zeck (Secret Wars).
As usual, Dark Horse provides tales of intrigue, terror, fear, fun, and excitement in the latest edition of the everything-and-anything anthology Dark Horse Presents #26. This series is a keystone in Dark Horse’s publishing career, as it draws together all of the elements that have made Dark Horse a fantastic company highly deserving of its spot as the third largest comic book seller in America. More so, it was Dark Horse’s main title starting in 1986, cancelled in 2000, and then revived on MySpace (of all places) between 2007 and 2010, with the current volume restarting in print in April 2011.
This month’s issue features eleven stories, some of them in on-going series that have been featured previously in DHP (e.g. the Trekker, Underground, Nexus, Alabaster), some that are debuts for new DHP series (Nosferatu Wars, Juice Squeezers), others that are one-shots, and a Buffy tie-in by television series writer Espenson. Plus, it continues the “Crime Does not Pay” series, which was the title of a famous 1950s comics series.
There’s just too much to review, so I’m only going to focus on my two favorite picks from Dark Horse Presents #26, “Nosferatu Wars” and “Steggy Wilmot and Spimps,” though my rating reflects the book as a whole. And don’t let my selections deter you from thinking there’s other incredible stories in this volume, because believe me, there are.
“Nosferatu Wars” was my favorite of the stories, a tale of vampires during the Black Plague which had my mind turning to Boccaccio’s Decameron (sorry, obscure), and which has a rather limited narrative. It’s written by Steve Niles, a horror master and current writer of Dark Horse’s Breath of Bones: A Tale of the Golem (not a horror story), and I was surprised to find that “Nosferatu Wars” reads like a hastily put together, cheesy tale of haute societe vampires, despite its definite narrative hook.
The highly realistic art of mMnton3 reminds one of the trompe-l’oeil style popularized in comics by Neal Adams in the 1960s, and has the ring of the fantastic work by Philip S. Tan on the early Savage Hawkman New 52 books (before that run got pretty bad and waned into nonexistence). But comparisons of Menton3’s art to others don’t do Menton3 any justice, as “Nosferatu Wars” has a nature all its own, unique and complex and lively and dead all at the same time.
Just as appealing, but much weirder…significantly so, is Patrick Alexander’s “Steggy Wilmot and Spimps,” which is a pointlessly hilarious and absurd day in the life of an extremely rich billionaire with a sad pig, an ugly butler, and a desire to write a newspaper. In just four pages, Alexander manages to astound and confuse with his out-of-this-world potato-head cast. I really don’t have a clue what’s going on with this story, and I imagine it’s like a rich British man on LSD, but I certainly hope we get more of Alexander’s “Steggy Wilmot and Spimps” weirdness. It’s just gotta happen, right?
Despite being an anthology—and one might fear that some bad eggs could slip in—editor Mike Richardson has ensured a batch of high-quality comics, which run the gamut of realistic horror to funny strip to classic sci-fi. While Dark Horse Presents #26 isn’t for everyone, I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in sampling the diverse possibilities of graphic narratives, as well as those who are fans of the genres or writers/artists featured in this issue. DHP certainly delivers.
Story: Ron Randall, Steve Niles, Andrew Vachss, Mike Richardson, David Lapham, Mike Baron, Patrick Alexander, Jane Espenson, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Frank Bariere, Dara Naraghi Art: Ron Randall, Menton3, Dominic Reardon, David Lapham, Steve Rude, Patrick Alexander, Patric Reynolds, Karl Moline, Andy Owens, Steve Lieber, Micah Kaneshiro, Tom Williams
Story: 8 Art: 8 Overall: 8 Recommendation: Read
We praised the graphic novel Silence & Co. and now they’ve released a trailer to wet your appetite.
And, if that isn’t enough for you to pick this up, here’s a 19 page preview.
Disillusioned hitman Alexander Maranzano feels trapped by the criminal life and family obligations he has always known. When he is contacted by the shadowy Silence & Co. to fulfill a contract, what starts out as just another job quickly turns into a deadly race for answers. From the dusty streets of Marrakesh to the lush jungles of Colombia and back to NYC, Alex’s search for revenge and the truth behind Silence & Co. triggers a series of events that alter everything he has ever known. And change the nature of organized crime forever.
I first saw the description of this original graphic novel, and knew it was right up my way as the type of story I’m entertained by. I was nervous going in, hoping it’d live up to the hype and expectations I was building in my head and it did. Silence & Co. is a fun and entertaining graphic novel, for fans of James Bond and 80s testosterone driven action movies.
Written by Gur Benshemesh with art by Ron Randall, the graphic novel is a fun read with enough twist and turns and double crosses to satisfy anyone into action comics. With this type of story I want a few things; 1) cool action sequences, 2) a nice femme fatale, 3) some over the top plan, 4) lots of double crosses with close calls. The story has it all.
The story is supposed to be like the action stories we enjoy, where we can turn off our brains a bit and enjoy the bullets whizzing around. This is about a hitman who is hired by a shady organization to pull off an over the top mission which then leads to all kinds of double crosses and twists and turns. It delivers on all of that.
There’s a solid balance of action, machismo, violence all in the name of entertainment that lets the reader not think and just enjoy. That’s a solid thing and I enjoy it. It reminds me of a dime crime/pulp novel which is more about the action than the characters. They’re cookie cutter in those and there’s not much depth here, but these types of stories don’t need that. We need a tough main character going up against a shadowy bad guy. In this case one that’d fit perfectly in a Bond movie.
This is an action movie in graphic novel form. A fun, entertaining read you’ll be able to sit down in the afternoon and enjoy, perfect for sitting outside during the spring or summer and enjoy hot action on those hot days.
Story: Gur Benshemesh Art: Ron Randall
Story: 7.75 Art: 7.75 Overall: 7.75 Recommendation: Buy
Crystal Productions BVI provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
It’s no secret that Dark Horse Presents continues to be comics’ greatest anthology, boasting eighty pages with no ads and new stories every month. Heading into its third year of publication, the Eisner and Harvey Award–winning anthology is bringing in the big guns with the landmark twenty-fifth issue!
After training with Buffy, Billy the vampire slayer heads back to his hometown to deal with the zompire epidemic! Delve into a time-travel story from Eisner Award–winning writer Matt Fraction! Publisher Mike Richardson adapts Andrew Vachss’s vision of violence in the big city in Underground!
Read a chapter of The Chapel Chronicles by fifteen-year-old Emma T Capps. Plus, new installments of Ron Randall’s Trekker, Frank Barbiere’s Blackout, Mike Baron and Steve Rude’s Nexus, Phil Stanford’s Crime Does Not Pay, Fred Van Lente’s Brain Boy, Peter Hogan’s King’s Road, and Dan Jolley’s Bloodhound!
Dark Horse Presents #25 is on sale June 19, 2013, and is available for preorder through Diamond APR130017.
