Down The Line - Previews review for February 2004 - Part Two by Randy Lander & Dave Farabee Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned off the seatbelt sign, so you should feel free to move about part two of the December edition of Down The Line, with Randy and co-host Dave Farabee. This time out, we're covering the back half of the Previews catalog, which is where a lot of the really interesting (and often very weird) stuff happens. The high concept of these Previews reviews and part one can all be found HERE. As with the first part, my comments will be the normal type, and Dave's will be in yellow. Pre-ordering is your friend. If there's stuff you want in February, letting your retailer know before the end of December is the best way to make sure you get it. INDY PICKS OF THE MONTH: Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind Volume 1 - Second Edition TP (Viz Comics) - DAVE: It's hard for me to write about Nausicaa without descending into crazy "best ever!" hyperbole, but it is without a doubt one of those graphic novels I'd take with me on a desert island. Well, actually the full story runs four graphic novels, being manga, but there's no fat at all. Nausicaa is the only full length manga produced by Hayao Miyazaki, the beloved animation guru responsible for Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke. In tone, it's closest to Mononoke, but the setting takes place in a wildly imaginative post-apocalyptic future dominated by poisonous fungal forests and giant insects. It's truly epic sci-fi and fantasy, comcicdom's answer to Dune and Lord of the Rings in one story. This is a new printing of volume, presumably at Viz's new standard size, and so an ideal time to get onboard. RANDY: I'm very picky about manga, but you've been hyping this one since I've known you, and I do love the size (and price point) of Viz's new format. I guess it might be time to check this one out, and I haven't really heard anything bad about this one ever. Deep Sleeper #1 (Oni Press) - RANDY: The last time Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston worked together, they gave us the haunting and beautiful The Coffin. This time out, they're working on Deep Sleeper, about a writer whose dreams and fiction begin to invade his waking world It sounds very intriguing, and Oni is putting out the first issue with 32 pages and no ads. Deep Sleeper has been in the works for a while, and I'm pretty sure it's going to be worth the wait. Last Minute #1 (Aces & Eights Publications) - RANDY: This is either going to be a really fun genre piece or a complete mess. It's got a good high concept, a normal man given a watch that can stop time, and then the creators throw demons, angels and police detectives into the mix. There doesn't seem to be any more information (or art) online, but there's certainly promise here. Evenfall Vol. 1: Lay Me Down TP (Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics) - RANDY: Evenfall had a bit of a rough start, transitioning from self-published to Slave Labor and changing titles from The Fallen to Evenfall. But it's a good project, so I'm glad to see it getting a trade paperback collection. Pete Stathis tells an interesting story of a young woman who has had something of a break with reality, a good mix of real characterization and fantasy elements. Pirate Club #1 (Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics) - DAVE: Scurvy Dogs, El Cazador, and now Pirate Club! Yar, the more pirate comics the better, says I! This one looks to target a younger audience with its tale of elementary school kids setting out to become pirates, and the preview art suggests the Humberto Ramos tradition. Could be fun. RANDY: Slave Labor has a tendency to produce a lot of cult hit comics that I love, like Halo & Sprocket, Dork! and My Monkey's Name is Jennifer. Given that there are already two really good pirate comics on the market, this younger readers take may not be to my taste, but like you, I'm all for more pirate comics, and I expect this will be well done. The Alamo (Antaractic Press) - DAVE: Can a complex historical military stand-off receive justice in a 48-page comic? I guess it depends on what writer/artist Rod Espinosa chooses to focus on, but I do know that Rod's art will look fantastic. His work on The Courageous Princess and Neotopia always impresses, and based on the previews, the coloring looks sharp too (think 1602) RANDY: Espinosa's artwork is always gorgeous, but like you, I wonder if he'll really have space to explore the story in 48 pages. The Alamo is in the public eye thanks to competing movie projects, and given that Antarctic is San Antonio based, their role as publisher makes plenty of sense. Cloverleaf #1 (Baboon Books) - RANDY: Another shot in the dark, without any info to be found online, but this looks and sounds like another potentially interesting comic. A Native American and his wife, presumably from a time before America was colonized, wake up in modern times and find themselves confronted with a very strange culture. There are a lot of ways this could go, and any number of tones it could take, so who knows whether it'll work out or not, but it's an intriguing premise. DAVE: And this is a perfect example of one of those books that might grab my attention if the Previews had featured any interior art, but as it is...like you say, a shot in the dark. I know the small press guys can rarely afford to post extra interior art, but I can't help but think it's worth the expense sometimes. 2 To The Chest #1/Rogues #1 (Dark Planet Productions) - RANDY: James Hudnall is a name that's been around the industry for a while, and Dark Planet Productions is his new company. He's writing 2 to the Chest (great name), a crime book with a supernatural twist, and this month also sees the release of Rogues, which is described as fantasy in the spirit of Robert E. Howard and has art by JJ Ryp, who I believe is the same artist who has done some super-detailed work over at Avatar. The fantasy and crime genres are getting more crowded, but they're still hardly stuffed to the gills, and I like the sound of both of these. DAVE: No real interest for 2 To The Chest from me, but Rogues appeals to my fantasy sensibilities. Avatar-style art scares me, though, so we'll just have to wait and see... RANDY: Seems worth noting that you can find previews for 2 to the Chest HERE and Rogues HERE. Devil May Cry #1 (Dreamwave Productions) - RANDY: I've never played the video game, although one of my friends is a huge fan of it. I have seen the visuals, though, and this does look like the kind of video game that could translate into a fun comic. Certainly it's got vampires, guns and trenchcoats, and Pat Lee's artwork is going to be a great match for the style of the game. Ghostbusters: Legion #1 (88 MPH Studios Inc.) - DAVE: As a kid, I'd have killed for a Ghostbusters comic with slick production values (as this looks to have). Nowadays? We'll see. The writer's unknown to me, and the artist is Steve Kurth, whose work on G.I. Joe was only solid at best. RANDY: I have a certain fondness for Ghostbusters as well. Hell, I even played the role-playing game a couple of times! Despite a well-earned anti-nostalgia bias these days, I'm mildly intrigued by this, thanks in no small part to the slick production values that 88 MPH seems likely to offer and in larger part thanks to the presence of writer Andrew Dabb, whose Happydale: Devils in the Desert and Slices were great reads. Dark reads, though, which makes me curious to see how Dabb's sensibilities will translate to the goofy comedy feel of Ghostbusters. Tron: Derezzed #1 (88 MPH Studios Inc.) - DAVE: Same deal as Ghostbusters, but with both writer and artist being an unknown. RANDY: Well, it's Dabb again, so the writer isn't unknown to me. I've got about the same curiosity about Tron as I do Ghostbusters, which is to say a mild level. While the production values and talent seems solid, though, I must confess that I'm a little wary to see the words "variant chromium cover" appearing in the ads... horrible '90s flashbacks. Doing Time/ En La Prison GN (Fanfare/Ponent Mon) - DAVE: Shawshank Redemption by way of manga? Maybe. Doing Time is the work of an underground manga artist, focusing on five middle-aged cellmates, and looks to give readers a taste of the grueling and monotonous realities of prison life. Oz fans take note. RANDY: This sounds like the product of the hardest kind of research (the author was actually in prison), and it has some impressive credits, like being made into a "celebrated film" in Japan. The solicitation also makes note of the "wicked humor" of the manga underground, which assuages my concern that the story could be boring. Honestly, I'm intrigued, and you have to give credit where it's due: this is a project unlike anything else out there. Amelia Rules: What Makes You Happy GN (IBooks) - RANDY: Given that I've been reading Amelia Rules! in trades, I'm glad to see this second collection, which contains an original story not in the comics series before as well as the last few issues that were published. Amelia Rules is a comic that's good for younger readers, but it's notable for being about less than a nuclear family, dealing with issues like divorce and single-parenting along with the really funny interaction between Amelia and her friends. Silent Hill: Dying Inside #1 (IDW Publishing) - DAVE: Ah, this one pains me a bit. I was a huuuuuge fan of the video game that inspired this comic, but I find IDW's horror books to be very overrated and Ben Templesmith's art gives me headaches. Oh, to have manga horror master Junji Ito on the license! Ah well. Underworld: Red in Tooh and Claw #1 (IDW Publishing) - RANDY: When Underworld was first being advertised, I was kind of interested in it, but bad reviews and a sense that it didn't really get past the cliches kept me away. However, I still think there's potential in the concept, especially in terms of showing how the war between vampires and werewolves got started, which is what this miniseries is about. Table for One GN (Mainspring Comics) - RANDY: Table For One has a full page ad on page 236 of Previews, and it grabbed my attention. The art style is sharp, like combining Peter Gross's realistic work on Lucifer with the more stylized look of Scott Morse, and it's an original graphic novel, which is the format that I like. I'll definitely keep an eye out for this one. DAVE: Hard to pick up much about the plot - something about a bizarre night at an underground restaurant in Manhattan - but the positive quotes from Denis Kitchen and Alex Toth definitely caught my eye. Library of Opera: The Godfather's Code #1 (NBM Publishing) - DAVE: P. Craig Russell can do no wrong where I'm concerned, so I'm all over this new entry in his series of opera adaptations. I'm not familiar with the opera being adapted - "Cavalleria Rusticana" - but I know the cover depicts a Mike Tyson-esque ear-biting. Mamma mia! Tales of Ordinary Madness TP (Oni Press) - RANDY: Hey, look! It's Mike Allred material that most of us probably haven't seen! This is cool for me in many ways, since I'm a relative latecomer to the talents of Allred, and I expect that there are plenty of fans of X-Statix who can say the same thing. It's written by Malcolm Bourne, whose name is familiar but I just can't place, but who is identified in the solicits as "writer and psychologist." Which means he's probably got a pretty good insight into this story of insanity and a doctor who begins to identify with his patients too closely. It's got people going crazy and Mike Allred art... what more could you want? Spooked GN (Oni Press) - RANDY: I've been waiting for this one since it was announced as one of Antony Johnston's projects, but after seeing the art of Ross Campbell on Too Much Hopeless Savages, I've been awaiting it even more anxiously. This is a project about an artist with ghosts being created by a couple of bright shining new stars, and I expect that it will be reprinted ten or so years hence as "classic early work from Johnston and Campbell." Get in on it now and you can have all kinds of hipster credit when that happens. Hysteria TP (Oni Press) - RANDY: Speaking of early work, Hysteria is self-published material by Mike Hawthorne, who has made a splash on Beckett's Terminator and Ruule and Oni's Queen & Country. I read some of this a while back, and I honestly can't remember the specifics of it (seriously, folks, I read a lot of comics), but I do recall liking it. And I love Hawthorne's work now, so I'm looking forward to revisiting this early work. Tepid (Tepid Comics) - DAVE: From the solicit: "...a self-contained story about s boy's last day of little league baseball. Poised uncertainly on the threshold of adolescence, the boy takes refuge in a dreamlike world of imaginary companions." That the writer/artist is a Xeric Grant winner means you might wanna check it out. Modesty Blaise Volume 1: Gabriel Set-Up GN (Titan Publishing) - DAVE: I've tried to keep a somewhat broad knowledge of international comics over the years, but somehow the adventures of lady spy, Modesty Blaise, have always eluded me. A $16.95 trade to see what I've been missing? Mebbe. Sgt. Frog Volume 1 GN (Tokyopop Comics) - DAVE: I don't have much interest in Tokyopop's output, but every month there's at least one series whose premise is so mind-bogglingly outrageous that I have to give it a look. This time it's Sgt. Frog, the tale of a frog-like alien spy whose cover gets blown, forcing him to live on earth...for some reason with the boy who exposed his identity. Oh yeah, and the boy has an eccentric mother. Okay, maybe it doesn't sound too outrageous, but the visual on the frog alien cracks me up. Be A Man #1 (Top Shelf Productions) - RANDY: Jeffrey Brown's previous works, Clumsy and Unlikely, have been affecting, almost mopey stories of finding and losing love, and despite (or perhaps partly because of) the somewhat crude and yet very expressive art style, I found them impossible to put down. Be A Man is a much smaller offering, a 32 page book, and it seems worth noting that the solicitations are for a completely different book. Instead, this is a willful puncturing of Brown's somewhat weepy, sensitive guy style, and looks instead like a parody of the macho mindset. Should be hilarious. James Kochalka's Sketchbook Diaries Vol. 4 (Top Shelf Productions) - RANDY: James Kochalka has strange mind powers. Once you've read a couple of his books, you find his weird worldview impossible to resist, and you find yourself scooping up all manner of his work, from Peanutbutter & Jeremy to Monkey Vs. Robot to the numerous anthologies he contributes to. But the best of his work are these strips about daily life, produced on his website every day and entertaining in both that format and in this collected format. It's like a weird combination of autobiography and fantasy, and it's completely compelling and often very, very funny. DAVE: I only know Kochalka through Monkey Vs. Robot and Peanut Butter and Jeremy, but I've been meaning to look into these things... Gyo Volume 2 TP (Viz Comics) - DAVE: Ah, now here's the horror volume to buy this month! The first Gyo collection was a genuinely unnerving tale of monstrous, legged fish rising up from the seas of Okinawa to terrify the populace. This second volume reveals the mystery behind them and brings the story to what's certain to be a disturbing conclusion. God bless the twisted mind of Junji Ito. He's easily, easily the modern king of horror comics. RANDY: Although I didn't love Gyo Volume 1 as much as I did Uzumaki, this was definitely fantastic and bizarre horror stuff, and I'm hard-pressed to disagree with your proclamation that Ito is the modern king of horror comics. Email Randy Lander comments about this review.