Monday 10 July 2017

Diamond Preview Picks: July 2017

Tim here, filling in again for a poorly Travis Pelkie, with a selection of picks from the latest Diamond Previews catalog for the discerning Cerebus reader (or basically all the comics I would buy if I had an unlimited budget). Travis obviously would have done a much better job, so lets all wish him a speedy recovery for next time! Visit Travis at Atomic Junk Shop for a wider (and probably much better) selection of reading recommendations. To see your comics featured here or at the Atomic Junk Shop feel free to send an email to Travis at: atomicjunkshoptravis [at] outlook [dot] com.


Aardvark Comics #1
by Dave Sim & Sandeep Atwal
Aardvark-Vanaheim, $4.00
In Stores: 27 September 2017
Diamond Order Code: JUL171242

The publisher says:
Comparing "Origin of Origin" stories; real-world historical figure in Action #1 (plus "stripped-cover returns"); "Whatever Happened to Tex Thompson, Pep Morgan, Chuck Dawson and Scoop Scanlon?" plus the earliest Super-Cerebus online strips from July 2016, Lucifer repents?!? Goldman Sachs, get it? Super-Cerebus versus Batvark the Movie; British Petroleum executives; dirty sea shanties; Atari 2600 ET;  Superhero Derangement Syndrome; Composite Batvark and more!  


Chris Ware Monograph
by Chris Ware & Ira Glass
Rizzoli, $60.00
In Stores: 11 October 2017
Diamond Order Code: APR178211

The publisher says:
A flabbergasting experiment in publishing hubris, Monograph charts the art and literary world's increasing tolerance for the language of the empathetic doodle directly through the work of one of its most esthetically constipated practitioners. Arranged chronologically with all thoughtful critical and contemporary discussion common to the art book genre jettisoned in favor of Mr. Ware's unchecked anecdotes and unscrupulous personal asides, the author-as-subject has nonetheless tried as clearly and convivially as possible to provide a contrite, companionable guide to an otherwise unnavigable jumble of product spanning his days as a pale magnet for athletic upperclassmen's' ire up to his contemporary life as a stay-at-home dad and agoraphobic graphic novelist.


Chris Ware Conversations
by Chris Ware & Jean Braithwaite
University Press Of Mississippi, $25.00
In Stores: 27 September 2017
Diamond Order Code: JUL172411

The publisher says:
Displaying both Ware's erudition and his quirky self-deprecation, these collected interviews span his career from 1993 to 2015, creating a time-lapse portrait of the artist as he matures.

Dave Sim said:
(from Following Cerebus #6, November 2005)
...later in the interview, Craig [Thompson] asked, "Are you going to interview Chris Ware [for Following Cerebus #5]?" My mind boggles at these points. I told him I had a number for Chris Ware -- he had been one of a number of participants in a Overstreet Fan jam cover I had coordinated back around 1993 -- but I was pretty sure it was out of date. So Craig volunteers to give me the Chris Ware number that he has that Chris Ware evidently gave him. As I say, my mind boggles in these situations. So I phoned the number and got an answering machine and left a message explaining what I was doing and asking him to give me a call back if he was interested in participating. And, of course, I never heard a word. So at least I know I'm not the crazy one around here...

Fred The Clown: The Iron Duchess
by Roger Langridge
Fantagraphics, $19.99
In Stores: 27 September 2017
Diamond Order Code: JUL171896

The publisher says:
This nearly wordless romp from master cartoonist Roger Langridge is the author's paean to the silent, heartbreaking slapstick comedies or the teens and '20s, spun for a contemporary audience. Though Langridge has garnered considerable acclaim the past few years for his brilliant takes on The Muppet Show, Popeye, Betty Boop, and Marvel Monsters, he is at heart a cartooning auteur, earning multiple Eisner, Harvey, Reuben, and Ignatz Awards nominations.

Roger Langridge said:
...I expect I would not have got into self-publishing as deeply as I did (i.e. regular comic-book format, distributed-by-Diamond deep; I always made mini-comics) if Cerebus hadn't been around as an example. By the time I began self-publishing there were a few other success stories, like Bone and Strangers in Paradise, to hang my hopes on, but I think all of us knew that Cerebus was the Daddy. The Cerebus Guide to Self-Publishing got a lot of my attention in 2000/2001 while I was gearing up to publish Fred the Clown...


The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell & Others
Harper Collins, $20.00
In Stores: 20 September 2017
Diamond Order Code: JUL171944

The publisher says:
The two volumes of the graphic novel adaptation of The Graveyard Book are now bound into one stunning paperback edition. Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except he lives in a sprawling graveyard and has been raised since infancy by ghosts and a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead. There are adventures in a graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, and the strange and terrible Sleer. There are dangers though, too, and if Bod leaves the graveyard, he may fall prey to the man Jack, who has already murdered Bod's entire family. Effortlessly inventive, chilling, and magical, Neil Gaiman's Newbery winning and bestselling Graveyard Book is a classic in the making. 


Alter Ego #149
by Roy Thomas
TwoMorrows, $9.95
In Stores: 18 October 2017
Diamond Order Code: JUL172226

The publisher says:
Showcasing Gil Kane, one of the Silver Age's greatest artists-with gleaming Golden Age roots in the Simon & Kirby shop! Incisive and free-wheeling Kane interview conducted in the 1990s by Daniel Herman for his 2001 book Gil Kane: The Art of the Comics-plus Gil's incisive article from the Spring 1974 issue of the Harvard Journal of Pictorial Fiction, and other surprise features centered around the artistic co-creator of the Silver Age Green Lantern and The Atom! And beginning the autobiography of Golden/Silver Age Flash/GL scripter John Broome!

Dave Sim said in Swords Of Cerebus Vol 2:
"It was the Gil Kane interview in Comics Journal No 38 that had started me re-thinking the whole approach I was taking to doing my own comic book..."


Berlin #21
by Jason Lutes
Drawn & Quarterly, $5.95
In Stores: 20 September 2017
Diamond Order Code: JUL171839

The publisher says:
The penultimate issue of the long-running series finds Silvia Braun and David Schwartz joining forces to sabotage a neighborhood National Socialist outpost, while Marthe Müller says her final farewells to the city where she has come of age. And as darkness manifests in the alleyways of the underclass and estates of the elite, Kurt Severing glimpses the worst of all possible futures.


NOW #1
by various
Fantagraphics, $9.99
In Stores: 27 September 2017
Diamond Order Code: JUL171883

The publisher says:
Fantagraphics is proud to launch a new, ongoing comics anthology of short stories by a mix of established and up-and-coming talent. This three times per year series features all-new, done-in-one stories for comics fans of all stripes. The first issue includes new work from acclaimed authors such as Eleanor Davis, Noah Van Sciver, Gabrielle Bell, Dash Shaw, Sammy Harkham, and Malachi Ward, as well as international authors such as J.C. Menu, Conxita Herrerro, Tommi Parrish, Tobias Schalken, and Antoine Cossé. Plus other surprises, and a gorgeous painted cover by Chicago artist Rebecca Morgan. 


Poppies Of Iraq
by Brigitte Findakly & Lewis Trondheim
Drawn & Quarterly, $21.95
In Stores: 6 September 2017
Diamond Order Code: JUL171842

The publisher says:
Poppies of Iraq is Brigitte Findakly's nuanced chronicle of her relationship with her homeland Iraq, co-written and drawn by her husband, the acclaimed cartoonist Lewis Trondheim. In spare and elegant detail, they share memories of her middle class childhood touching on cultural practices, the education system, Saddam Hussein's state control, and her family's history as Orthodox Christians in the arab world. Poppies of Iraq is intimate and wide-ranging; the story of how one can become separated from one's homeland and still feel intimately connected yet ultimately estranged. 


Streak Of Chalk
by Miguelanxo Prado
NBM, $19.99
In Stores: 27 September 2017
Diamond Order Code: JUL172010

The publisher says:
On the occasion of NBM's 40th anniversary, a classic returns to print! A small streak of an island in the Atlantic. On no map. In heavy summer heat. One general store with a woman and her taciturn boy. A lighthouse with no light. Memories and messages graffitied on the pier wall. A chance encounter with a beautiful elusive woman. A Murder. Or was it? Nothing seems completely real. Only the graffitied memories are constant. A mysterious multifaceted novel steeped in magical realism that can be read a number of ways, Streak of Chalk is one of Spain's best comics authors' magnum opus, and one of the greatest most pioneering graphic novels NBM ever published.


More (and probably better) Diamond Previews picks at Atomic Junk Shop's regular Flippin' Through Previews column.

6 comments:

Dave Kopperman said...

I'm fairly amazed that Jason Lutes is still working on Berlin - he's been working on that since the late 90's. Which means he's been averaging about 24 pages a year on it. THAT'S diligence.

A Moment Of Cerebus said...

Dave,
There's a good profile of Jason Lutes here, which gives a nice bit of context:
http://lithub.com/the-american-artist-whos-been-drawing-interwar-berlin-for-23-years/
Tim

Dave Kopperman said...

I actually was a couple of years behind Jason at RISD (and one year ahead of Seth MacFarlane) - haven't seen him in about a quarter century, though! I did a contribution to a comics anthology that he did while a student there. The anthology was middling, my contribution was outright dogshit. In my defense, I was 18. But, still.

Tony Dunlop said...

Lutes puts out an issue of "Berlin" about as often as I visit comic shops these days...I think I'm up to #16 or so, so I've fallen behind a bit.

Travis Pelkie said...

Well, I was going to take a look through the book tonight to send you any things I thought you should highlight, but from what I recall, I think you've covered almost anything I would have included. I'll take a look later anyway and let everyone know if there was anything else that might appeal to the Cerebus fan in particular.

I'm doing better now (fingers crossed), so next month should be back to my foolishness here!

Travis Pelkie said...

I would point out the trade of Kirby's Demon, from DC.

Also, there a trade from IDW of the Ultimate Collection of TMNT, which includes everything before the Cerebus issue.

There's also from IDW a Treasury Edition of Doc Macabre, written by Steve Niles with art by Bernie Wrightson.

Also from IDW is an artist portfolio of Alex Toth's The Case of the Curious Classic, 16 plates of a car story he wrote and drew.

Marvel's got 3 horror trades that may interest y'all, with a collection of Werewolf by Night, another collecting Marvel Horror Magazines, and a third collecting the run of Tomb of Dracula, another long-running writer/artist creative team.

Some of you may be fans of the long-running superhero E-Man, and he appears in a new book from AC Comics called The Charlton Arrow 1.

And that should cover it.