Monthly Archives: October 2018

I&N Store 10/31

31 Wednesday Oct 2018

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Happy Halloween, I&Nmates!

  • Ice Cream Man #8 (Image): I&N Demand Re: Ice Cream Man #7: “But that’s why we have stories.”  And we’re lucky to have stories like this one–one where innocence draws from imagination to fill an empty swing.  This story hit me in the same way Tom King’s recently completed Batman arc “Beasts of Burden” hit me.  I’m talking tears welling up and falling down.  The cleansing breaths.  The rush.  As revealed in an earlier post, I’m a sucker for father-son stories; and King spun one that had me feeling empty but not alone–one that made me long for a Batdad and made me want to be a Batdad with all my might.  Here, W. Maxwell Prince got me on the father-daughter level (my God, what would I do if my daughters had to endure a loss like this?  I hope I’d be a Goddamned Batdad!) and on another level: when I was fifteen, a classmate of mine took her own life.  Before school that day, I found out that she had killed herself.  No, not just before school that day: on the way to school that day.  While on the bus.  Cop cars outside of her house.  The bus driver slowed down.  In front of her house.  Cops in the driveway–standing over her.  In the driveway.  Curled up in the driveway.  Cops standing over her.  The bus driver pulled away.  I saw her face in the window.  It was the color of the trees and the houses we passed.  She was alive in the window.  A reflection of a reflection.  Alive.  Dead didn’t make sense.  In English class, I was the only one in the room who knew that she wouldn’t show up to class.  That her seat would stay empty for the rest of the period.  And tomorrow.  And the day after.  I stared at her seat.  Everyone else did what they usually did.  I stared at her seat.  And I couldn’t picture her in it.  I could only see her in her driveway.  Curled in her driveway.  I still pass that driveway.  Every fucking day.  That last page, tenderly and innocently rendered by the brilliant Martín Morazzo, with colors by Chris O’Halloran, has made the ride–that bus ride to school thirty-two years ago and my daily drive home from work–a little easier.  Yeah.  That’s why we have stories.  And now I’ll always have this one.  Obviously, #8 is very much I&N Demand–a Halloween treat, indeed!

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  • Man-Eaters #2 (Image)
  • Batman: Secret Files #1 (DC)
  • Heroes In Crisis #2 (DC): I&N Demand Tom King’s storytelling is impossible to pass up.  Impossibly, Clay Mann and Tomeu Morey have made it even more so.

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  • Hex Wives #1 (DC/Vertigo)
  • The Wild Storm #18 (DC)
  • Daredevil #610 (Marvel)
  • Bone Parish #4 (BOOM!)
  • Britannia: Lost Eagles of Rome #4 (Valiant)
  • Crossed + One Hundred: Mimic #6 (Avatar)
  • Edgar Allen Poe: Snifter of Terror #1 (AHOY): I&N Demand AHOY is 3-or-3 with The Wrong Earth, High Heaven, and Captain Ginger.  I’m sure it’s gonna be 4-for-4 after this one.  Everything about it screams Halloween!  Quite possibly the finest use of the word snifter–ever.  Man, I took an entire semester of Poe during a summer session way, way back.  I fell in love with Poe’s prose, with his voices, and with his vision.  He saw something inside of me, ripped it out, showed it to me, and thrilled me with it–and did so from the fucking grave with 150-year-old words on a page.  That’s bad ass.  This–well, this might not be that; but it sure as hell looks like a lot of fun.

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  • Über: Invasion #17 (Avatar): I&N Demand Kieron Gillen and Daniel Gete’s Über: Invasion has been really fucking good.  (In fact, the Über franchise has been otherworldly from the get-go!)   If it’s not on your radar, you better get a better radar.  Re: #16 (including the always insightful backmatter): Oh man, that Maria: “She’s a darling! She’s a demon! She’s a lamb!”  Stalin couldn’t solve that particular problem, and ended up red faced–and pretty much red everything else.  That Gillen–he’s the bomb!  And he’s about to go off again.

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What are you looking forward to this week?

Turning pages,

Scott

I&N Store 10/24

24 Wednesday Oct 2018

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OK, so a Halloween Ball, an apple festival, and a working Sunday kicked. my. weekend. ass.  I barely put a dent in my ever-growing stack of books, and then there’s the list.  You do the math; I’ll write the ups.

Despite being short on time, I’ve found an angle.  Check it:

  • Days of Hate #9 (Image)
  • Redneck #16 (Image)
  • Lodger #1 (IDW/Black Crown): I&N Demand Look: I don’t get preview copies of books; so any time I I&N Demand a #1, I’m going on gut–unless, of course, I’ve got a history with the character(s) or if I’m familiar with the creator(s).  In this case, Lodger couldn’t be any more I&N Demand: it’s the comic-child–a bouncing flopping baby book–of the royal Laphams, for Christ’s sake!  Any fan of Stray Bullets, of David Lapham, of exquisitely-crafted crime noir, of black and white comics, of the fu-cking me-di-um, should, as he or she picks Lodger off of the shelf, expect a cleaver clever, kill-her killer comic–because, you know, you Stray Bullets, David Lapham, exquisitely-crafted crime noir, black and white comics, fu-cking me-di-um fan, you: that’s what you’re gonna get.  Now go do your fan-ly duty and buy Lodger.  Hell, buy two–and spread the love of Lapham.

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  • Action Comics #1004 (DC)
  • Books of Magic #1 (DC/Vertigo): I&N Demand Look: I don’t get preview copies of books; so any time I I&N Demand a #1, I’m going on gut–unless, of course, I’ve got a history with the character(s) or if I’m familiar with the creator(s).  In this case, Tim Hunter couldn’t be any more I&N Demand: he’s the comic-child–a bouncing maturing teenage magician–of the royal Neil Gaiman, for Christ’s sake!  Any fan of The Books of Magic, the mini; of The Books of Magic, the ongoing; of Neil Gaiman; of magic; of bespectacled boy wizards (because there are, you know, other bespectacled boy wizards, who, like, magically appeared over the years); of Bildungsromans; of magical Bildungsromans; I just like typing Bildungsromans; of new Tim Hunter handlers Kat Howard and Tom Fowler; of the ma-gi-cal me-di-um, should, as he or she picks Books of Magic off of the shelf, expect an evil-calling enthralling, tragic magic comic–because, you know, you The Books of Magic, The Books of Magic, Neil Gaiman, bespectacled boy wizard, magic, Bildungsroman, magical Bildungsroman, new Tim Hunter handler, ma-gi-cal me-di-um fan, you: that’s what you’re gonna get.  Now go and do your fan-ly duty and buy Books of Magic.  Heck, buy two–and spread the love of magic.

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  • Detective Comics #991 (DC)
  • Scarlet #3 (DC/Jinxworld)
  • The Amazing Spider-Man #8 (Marvel)
  • The Sentry #5 (Marvel)
  • Babyteeth #13 (AfterShock)
  • Dead Kings #1 (AfterShock)
  • High Heaven #2 (AHOY)
  • X-O Manowar #20 (Valiant)

What are you looking forward to this week?

Turning pages,

Scott

I&N Store 10/17

17 Wednesday Oct 2018

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No time to waste!  Let’s go!

  • Cemetery Beach #2 (Image)
  • East of West #39 (Image)
  • Evolution #11 (Image)
  • Gideon Falls #7 (Image): I&N Demand Re: #6: Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino have opened the dark doorway to phantasmal madness!  The latter’s layouts are mind-bending, sending the narrative deep into the id of a fractured Father Fred, into the bowels of the still abstruse Black Barn.  I love the insistence at the very end: Norton insists, “The Black Barn…we’re going to build it.  And you’re going to help me…”  See: “we,” “you”–that’s me: a boy with a farming pedigree.  Let’s do it!  Let’s build it!  I’m ready.

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  • The New World #4 (Image): I&N Demand I’ve loved the way Aleš Kot has manipulated time ever since Zero #1; so you know I loved #3.  But there was plenty more love to go around–mostly for the Moores: the he’s Tradd-ass lines and layouts and the she’s face-melting colors; and kinda for the kitty–specifically the sneaky “SSSNNNIKT” and the cat-fu that follows.  It’s a new world, indeed–full of politics and impulsivity, violence and–wait.  OK, well, it’s a world.  It’s the world.  It’s our world.  It sure as fuck is.

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  • Skyward #7 (Image): I&N Demand Re: #6: See, now: it’s the look–that look: Willa’s face in the last panel of the second-to-last page.  Her face shows everything she’s learned, everything she knows to be true about herself and the Low-G world.  She’s not going to let a little girl–a lot like a little Willa–lose her dad; so, despite the big-ass bugs, she’s going out the train door, into a forest full of freakishly large dragonflies, like a goddamned superhero.  Cue page turn.  Beautiful work from Lee Garbett with striking colors from Antonio Fabela.  Well played, Mr. Henderson.  Well played.

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  • Stray Bullets: Sunshine and Roses #39 (Image): I&N Demand Re: #38:  What a fucking trip!  It hit me so hard that I had to write a 22 I&N 22 like right away–and here it is: Stray, stray, gang’s all here–in sub-space! Ay mi! Mother of a race to the top, learning: to get ahead, let (e)go.  God, I soooo wanted to shout Love Yourself! to the fucking moon, but, ugh, I didn’t want to spoil it for all of my fellow Love Yourself fans; I wanted them–and they’re out there, man–to experience the euphoria I felt when that dredlocked son-of-a-bitch was there on the last page turn, standing next to hospital bed-bound Beth.  That’s a good dude right there; and I can’t wait to see him kill some more bad folks.

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  • Black Hammer: Age of Doom #6 (Dark Horse): I&N Demand Re: #5: Well, spit in my eye and call me Spit Eye Guy!  Everything is revealed and it all adds up to nothing.  Say what?  Oh, but never before has nothing been so Anti-Goddamned satisfying.  Isn’t that something?  Certainly expecting Rich Tommaso to do his thing–be it any, some, every, no?  Oh, yes: Jeff Lemire–I&N Double Demand this week–has detonated a nostalgia bomb, leaving our displaced heroes–wallowing in the weird fallout of fate–in some super-secret, heart-crushing crisis.  And I’m Spit Eye Guy!  Collaterally damaged–and loving it!

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  • Batman #57 (DC): I&N Demand Re: #56: Like most guys, I’m a sucker for father-son stories, particularly those that recount dysfunctional relationships that remind of my own effed-up relationship with my father–a really interesting fella who’s lived an enviable life, if I’m being fair–and a total shit as a dad. Yup: I’m a “Cat’s in the Cradle” kid, tears and all. But KGBeast and his dad? Why would I give a dump about that? Why did I? Why do I still? Characterization? Motivation? Juxtaposition? Sure, there’s that.  (C’mon: one father who’ll do anything (take on ninjas and the cooky Kanto, the craziest baddy I ever saw), go anywhere (Volgograd–go Dad!) vs. a father who sits–yeah: a total sit as a dad!) But it’s more: it’s how Tom King tells a story–any story, really.  But this one: It’s his honesty. His humanity. His fearlessness. His taking shots. A father and son taking shots. Shots to forget. Shots to remember. Add Tony S. Daniel’s best Bat-work to date, and ta da!–I&N Demand.

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  • Cover #2 (DC/Jinxworld): I&N Demand Cover 2–my favorite defense, particularly because my team’s got two solid safeties.  Throw in some top-notch corners and a hungry d-line and what’s it all mean? I’ll tell you what it means: don’t pass on Cover 2. No, really: the concept is terrific, the execution makes it matter.  Bendis! is at his clever best; and David Mack is back making magic.  A Con artist with a cover: artist?  Fun, fun!  In fact, when I met Mr. Mack at NYCC, I fancied myself in the comic as I handed him a blank sketch cover of Cover #1 and asked for a sketch to complete the cover and I got lost in the layers and loved every minute of it.  I tried to explain the fantasy to my wife–about my being a part of some secret spy scheme that’ll change the course of the world–and she was like, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”  Well played, honey.  Well played.

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  • Pearl #3 (DC/Jinxworld)
  • Daredevil #609 (Marvel)
  • Black Badge #3 (BOOM!): I&N Demand Re: #2: Matt Kindt, Tyler Jenkins, and Hilary Jenkins’ Black Badge is the perfect escape.  It’s engaging; it’s gorgeous.  It simmers and explodes, simmers and explodes–yeah, it’s quite a ride; you know, like being on a train with your fellow Black Badges and then Young Canadian Mounties show up and you’re not sure what’s going to happen and then the plans go KABOOMY! and then Bond-ing over snow mobiles and a tiger, some storytelling inside the story, and an end that’s a right riot, right?  That’s one Badge-ass comic, y’all.

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  • Captain Ginger #1 (Ahoy!)
  • Strangers in Paradise XXV #7 (Abstract Studio)
  • PATIENCE! CONVICTION! REVENGE! #2 (AfterShock)

What are you looking forward to this week?

Turning pages,

Scott

I&N Store 10/10

15 Monday Oct 2018

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New York Comic Con 2018 was certainly one to remember!

The busybusybusy of the bustling Con–we did two days this year!–kept me from fleshing out previews for this week’s list of books.  (Shame, too: I really wanted to write about some of ’em.) Yeah, yeah: your world’s been shattered; I get it.  Figured, however, that I’d give you the bare list and highlight what’s I&N Demand so, you know, you can pick up the pieces and go on with your life.

Update: I’ve gone with reviews of the books I’ve read so far!  Yay!

See: I care.

  • Infinite Dark #1 (Image)
  • Murder Falcon #1 (Image)
  • Oblivion Song #8 (Image)
  • Unnatural #4 (Image)
  • The Quantum Age #3 (Dark Horse): I&N Demand

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  • She Could Fly #4 (Dark Horse/Berger Books): I&N Demand I just had to write a little something about this bloody beauty–and I did so in a 22 I&N 22.  Sad to see it come to an end; but, happy to echo, it’s not an end end.  Thank the Lord–and the Cantwell, the Marazzo, the Mrva, the Robins, and the Berger.

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  • Catwoman #4 (DC)
  • Detective Comics #990 (DC)
  • Superman #4 (DC)
  • The Amazing Spider-Man #7 (Marvel)
  • Captain America #4 (Marvel)
  • The Immortal Hulk #7 (Marvel)
  • Venom #7 (Marvel)
  • Hot Lunch Special #3 (AfterShock): I&N Demand

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  • Last Space Race #1 (AfterShock)
  • Survival Fetish #4 (Black Mask): I&N Demand Survival Fetish continues to be a top-of-the-pile book–and #4 is no exception: while things do slow down a bit (I mean, they had to, hey?  Just enough to catch our collective breath), Kindlon and Fuso still push the pace and Saheer from one tower-power player to the next, driving the high stakes even higher.  If this is, in fact, Saheer’s final run, I’ll be standing at the window cheering him on.  With Surival Fetish, the aforementioned creators–terrific storytellers, both–have, ironically, cemented themselves as must-buys going forward–ever forward.

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  • The Wilds #5 (Black Mask)
  • The Wrong Earth #2 (Ahoy!): I&N Demand

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What are you looking forward to this week?

Turning pages,

Scott

22 I&N 22: She Could Fly #4

11 Thursday Oct 2018

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Here’s my 22 I&N 22* for She Could Fly #4 (Dark Horse/Berger Books) by Christopher Cantwell (writer), Martin Morazzo (artist), Miroslav Mrva (colorist), and Clem Robins (letterer):

 

What’s Donne’s done: violent crescendo (Woo-ing Tarantino): gun barrels and grounded angels reciting mad poetry, claiming power to fly, to be–undone.

 

Let us know what you think–about She Could Fly #4 and about 22 I&N 22!

Turning pages,

Scott

*22 I&N 22 is a 22-word review of a comic book–which is typically 22 pages long–done up I&N style, naturally.

And, yes: She Could Fly #4 is 32 pages long; but I can’t go mucking about with the branding of the feature, now can I?

22 I&N 22: She Could Fly #3

10 Wednesday Oct 2018

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Here’s my 22 I&N 22* for She Could Fly #3 (Dark Horse/Berger Books) by Christopher Cantwell (writer), Martin Morazzo (artist), Miroslav Mrva (colorist), and Clem Robins (letterer):

 

Open up! See inside: secrets—weigh, way down; but the answers, there: up in the air! A toast! I can’t get enough.

 

Let us know what you think–about She Could Fly #3 and about 22 I&N 22!

Turning pages,

Scott

*22 I&N 22 is a 22-word review of a comic book–which is typically 22 pages long–done up I&N style, naturally.

I&N Store 10/3

03 Wednesday Oct 2018

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New York Comic Con is coming–and I’m going!  I’ve picked panels; I’ve artist alley-ooh-ed and ah-ed–and I’ve mapped it all out like a cross-eyed pirate.  I’ve emptied out the ol’ backpack and have filled it back up again with enough Pro Bars to fuel a contingent of hardcore cosplayers.  I am convinced that this’ll be the best Con ever!

My optimism is not unfounded: I’ve conspired with some art reps for some pre-Con commissions from a few talented fellas: Ian Bertram (Allen Ginsberg circa the acid-fueled “Wales Visitation”), Leandro Fernandez (Adrian Chase/Vigilante), and Martin Morazzo (The Ice Cream Man serving up ice cream cones to my Goosebumps-loving daughters).  Can’t wait to see what they come up with!

Before the Con, however, we’ve got a notable NCBD.  So here’s my weekly FYI:

  • Dead Rabbit #1 (Image)
  • Die! Die! Die! #3 (Image)
  • Paper Girls #25 (Image)
  • Redlands #7 (Image): I&N Demand NYCC memory: Back in 2013, I had the pleasure of meeting Vanesa Del Rey, mostly by accident.  See: I was on the hunt for some Six-Gun Gorilla OA from Jeff Stokely–which I scored, by the way–and VDR just so happened to be seated at an adjacent table.  At the time, I knew her only from Hit, which was, at the time, a hit in its own right, and I told her as much.  VDR was very friendly; in fact, she asked about my I&N shirt–even asked for a card, which I, regrettably, did not have.  (I’ll be cardless this time around, too.  ScottNerd–where lessons go to die.)  She was kind enough to allow me to take a picture, which we featured in our NYCC 2013 follow-up.  And, wouldn’t you know, I’ve been a fan ever since!  I enjoyed the hell out of the first arc of Redlands–featuring strong women born of strong writing (a real breath of [Jordie] Bellaire, the otherwise ubiquitous colorist) and beautiful, lush, exceedingly sexy art from VDR–and am very much looking forward to this one.

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  • Euthanauts #3 (IDW/Black Crown)
  • House Amok #2 (IDW/Black Crown)
  • Batman #56 (DC): I&N Demand Re: #55: It’s all fun and games until [fill in the blank].  It’s Tom King’s formula–and it’s spectacular.  And, of course, the chemistry with Tony S. Daniel, who absolutely killed him it.  Re: 56: The perfect foil:

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  • Border Town #2 (DC/Vertigo): I&N Demand Well, I had no idea I’d like #1 as much as I did.  Had to shout it out in a 22 I&N 22, which I’ll share here because it says a lot: Bloody moving—a monster of racial relevance; tears down walls, cranks up the stereotypes to once upon a helluva good time. Arriba!  You know what that means: expectations for #2 are muy alto–muy, muy alto.

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  • The Dreaming #2 (DC/Vertigo)
  • United States vs. Murder Inc. #2 (DC/Jinxworld)
  • X-Men Black: Magneto #1 (Marvel): I&N Demand Chris Mother-effing Claremont writing Magneto.  I can feel the tug, the iron in my blood nudging me westward toward my LCS.

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  • Lollipop Kids #1 (AfterShock)
  • Oblivi8n #2 (Scout)
  • Uber: Invasion #16 (Avatar)
  • A Walk Through Hell #5 (AfterShock): I&N Demand Re: the cover: An Hello to Arms–obviously a Prequel to Hemingway’s classic to-hell-and-back wartime love novel.  Or maybe it’s just a disarming cover for another horrifying stretch of Ennis and Sudzuka’s A Walk Through Hell.  I’m going with the latter ladder–of fucking arms.  (Apologies available on a first-come, first-served basis.)

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What are you looking forward to this week?

Turning pages,

Scott