Sunday 13 October 2024

2024 (another ) Avengers Annual 1

 

Let's be brief.

No. Thanos does NOT fight alongside the Avengers.  

The only Avengers in this book are Thor and Captain Marvel who are literally there for filling and making this an 'Avengers' title.  

The rest of the Avengers are all stuck on their "easier to get to world emergencies space city" because transporters are out.  Yes, the only Avengers in the entire Marvel Universe (in which every hero or anti hero is a standby or active roster Avengers) are stuck in space until they tell Thor in the last panel "We can beam down now". It is that lame.

This is, as it becomes very obvious and at warp speed, an Infinity Watch Preview. WTF are the Infinity Watch? I could not give a toss. Every single member of, no doubt, "Marvels latest sensation", were so badly characterised and acting like petty teenagers with dialogue that at times made the 1960s MLJ Mighty Crusaders comics look like Shakespeare writing at his best (no, William Shakespeare did not write for MLJ -Archie Comics- in the 1960s). 

 All I could think was that these were badly written throw-away characters for the plot and when they were being killed off I uttered the words "best move to date" but, of course, they all came back in the end.

I did use the word "plot" back there.  That made it seem that someone had sat down and written a good story.  They had not. No characterisation, no real action that was worthwhile and no Avengers (well, just two).  I even started asking myself whether the writer had ever seen or read anything with Thanos in before.

In recent years Avengers annuals have mostly all been number 1s (well of course they have because Marvel assumes that everyone buying comics is so dumb they cannot count beyond 1).

I have all the Avengers Silver and Bronze ages annuals as well as King Size and do you know what is in them?   Avengers (it sort of went with the title). Also, characterisation, plot and good dialogue. And they had fun and action in them.  Okay, modern writers (as we shall call them) get their literary education through TV, You Tube and movies. They obviously do not read books or anything that teaches them the basics.  The old writers got inspiration from movies but their major influences were literature. They read the classics, they read mythology and they were highly literate and good at what they did. Kirby was massively influenced by mythology and as he pointed out several times, Lee was a classics guy and the Thing joking about the words Reed Richards used was basically an in-joke (Lee being Richards and Kirby being Ben Grimm).

What we have with the 2024 Avengers annual is something with no merit or value. And this is what Marvel has done to its once proud flag ship title (with Fantastic Four fairing a little better).

The actual monthly Avengers title goes from fairly readable to piss poor and ....Marvel doesn't care. They are all getting pay cheques so can sit back and be lazy. This current book, as an annual, would never have even gotten through as a rough draft in the good days of creative Marvel.

Those days are gone.

Cinebook Ltd: Amazonia 1 - Episode 1 and 2

 


Authors: LEO & Rodolphe; illustrated by Bertrand Marchal
Age: 15 years and up
Size: 18.4 x 25.7 cm
Number of pages: 48 colour pages
Publication: April 2024

£7.99 inc VAT

 ISBN: 9781800441316
 

Brazil, 1949. A photographer crawls into a mission deep in the Amazonian rainforest and dies. On one of his films is an extraordinary shot: a man with skin white as snow and an elongated cranium. Deformed human … or extra-terrestrial being? Kathy Austin, having reluctantly become the specialist in such situations, is immediately sent by the crown to investigate. But the British aren’t the only ones with an interest in the bizarre creature …




Authors: LEO & Rodolphe; illustrated by Bertrand Marchal
Age: 15 years and up
Size: 18.4 x 25.7 cm
Number of pages: 48 colour pages
Publication: August 2024
 £7.99 incl VAT

ISBN: 9781800441408

On the trail of the bizarre, potentially alien creature photographed in Brazil, Kathy Austin has reached the isolated mission where the photographer died. Unfortunately, the road forward leads into the heart of the rainforest and the territory of extremely hostile natives. Continuing will be difficult and dangerous, especially as she appears to be followed by a number of people including two suspicious Germans … and the Brazilian Navy! 


It may seem that I am late on these reviews but the books were listed and sold out on some sites by the time my review copies arrived. So, I am still reviewing as received.

The art in these two volumes is excellent and exactly what one comes to expect in these series and Marchal does an excellent job and Sebastien Bouet on colours just adds even more.  Leo and Rodolphe are as good as ever on script, dialogue and overall story telling.  The tall guy with the big head...Alien or something else?  We are kept guessing.

I do have a problem with this type of series, though.  Volumes 1 and 2 arrived together so the story draws you in but...how long before volume 3?  We know there are 5 volumes in this story but the important thing is delays between books as that can kill the buzz you get and in the past long delays have meant that my aged brain has to be back and read previous volumes to remember why someone wants to kill someone else.

And as I have mentioned volumes did you know Kathy Austin, the heroine of this series, and a British secret agent, has tackled the weird before?  Oh yes; in the 5 volume Kenya and 5 volume Namibia series.

It's good old fashioned adventure combined with spies and science fiction -the type of story that the late John Creasey used to write in his Z5 Dr Palfrey series from the 1940s on (he also created The Baron, Gideon of the Yard (developed into TV series) and many others). I would recommend Kenya and Namibia and as Amazonia are the continuing adventures of Austin...yeah, buy them and see how good comics are made.

Sunday 29 September 2024

HEXAGON COMICS The Partisans #3: War’s End

 Hexagon Comics USA now offers a growing catalog of translations of selected titles from the library of a 70-year-old French comics publisher.

You can order our books from our website at www.hexagoncomics.com or through amazon.

Retailers can purchase the books directly from us at a 40% discount from our website or from distributor Ingram. Contact us at jm@hexagoncomics.com

THE PARTISANS : WAR'S END

7x10 squarebound comic,

 48 pages 

b&w
ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-333-0. 

US$10.95

Cover: Luciano Bernasconi


  • THE FIRST DAY 

Story: J.-M. Lofficier; Art: Mario Guevara 

  • THE LAST DAY 

Story: Thierry Mornet; Dialogues: J.-M. Lofficier; Art: Luciano Bernasconi '


Spring 1945. The end of the Second World War is near... Paris has just been liberated... The Germans are retreating everywhere... The Americans are coming... However, there is still time for some desperate missions, such as stopping a last train of Jewish children from being taken by the Nazis to the death camps! The Guardian of the Republic and Marianne, Baroud and Princess Sadko of the Partisans, will each face incredible obstacles in order to halt this abominable project. And their success will only come at the price of the blood shed for some of them... But while one war is about to end, another, perhaps even more violent and merciless one, is already beginning...


 
These two sagas from the last days of the Second World War have been created by Thierry Mornet & Luciano Bernasconi, and Jean-Marc Lofficier & Mario Guevara.

Monday 26 August 2024

"The Wonderful and Frightening World of J.Webster-Sharp" Review by Paul A. Brown

 



"The Scrapbook of Life & Death" by J.Webster-Sharp
Published by Avery Hill
Paperback A4 
88 pages
 Black & White 
£14.99

You know, I'm the last person qualified to review comic books. If I'm honest I'm rarely convinced by the validity of the Graphic Novel as a form deserving of its' hype or status. I personally feel that despite the positive nature of a wider and more diverse array of artists and subject matters, it's become an orthodoxy as tedious and damaging as the Superhero genre was to the wider perception of comics, and rarely does it's content go beyond an appeasement of a certain need for the acceptance of a largely wider middle-class readership ,and the seeming  constraints both directly and indirectly imposed on publishing regards market trends, content, taste and lately political ideology. Ever so now and again though, something comes along to tell me I'm a great big know-nothing idiot ( for which I'm always thankful) ,and which goes some way to restoring my faith that there are still people out there willing to make brave, courageous and challenging art that refuses to tow the line in conforming to whatever the current criteria of how things should be or what should be written and drawn, J.Webster-Sharp's first book, "The Scrapbook of Life & Death" does just that.

The stark, unnerving cover alone should tell you you're in for an uneasy ride; a garish yet beautifully rendered disembodied head with smaller head appendages extending from it on stalks in a void of black, and hand-lettered titles that create the impression of something off-kilter and out of time, a hand-made artefact, an illicit secret discovery best left unopened. The entire contents do nothing but add to the disquiet and unease, as well as a continual tension that what you're engaging with isn't remotely comfortable, possibly bordering on the distasteful and pornographic; the subject matter and themes permeated by sex, horror, death and an underlying perversity. It's interesting in her own introduction to the book that Webster-Sharp states that the latter half of the book "evolves out of a deteriorating sense of self and a collapsing of a will to survive". I want to return to that later, but you could be forgiven for feeling something similar as a reader, under the weight and nature of the artistic language the artist employs in relation to the subject.

Webster-Sharp's starting point as subject are the scrapbooks of one George Cecil Ives ( 1867-1950 ) poet, writer, penal reformer and homosexual law reform campaigner, who in the course of his lifetime amassed a collection of interesting and unusual newspaper clippings and articles.Splitting the book into two halves, Webster-Sharp includes a description of those items and stories she has used and been inspired by to illustrate, as a hand-lettered appendix to the visuals, reinforcing the sense of her Graphic Novel being an almost parallel visual version existing in a different time. The pieces of Ives' archives she chooses to illustrate are indeed interesting and unusual, as well as horrific.absurd and perverse, the kind of stuff the likes of the News of the World or National Enquirer would have had a field day with, such as the crimes of child murderer Albert Fish, a Dentist who took out womens' teeth to "satisfy his cravings",a woman who fed her son like a bird, and a man who had thousands of pictures of pigs. Taking these snippets, Webster-Sharp weaves these pieces and others into a patchwork of comic pages and strips that illuminate an overall sense of grotesque visual surrealism.

And what pictures, panels and pages they are. From my first discovery of her work via her Instagram page, I have been utterly blown away by the audacity of Webster-Sharp's art. There aren't many artists you can say are unique, but right now I think she is. There hasn't been anyone in comics since Eleanor Davis who has made me so excited to see their next drawing, their next page. Webster-Sharp has. And oddly, hers is not a drawing style I would consider one I either like or would usually find interesting. So what is it I find that makes her work special ?

Well, it's about drawing that looks like it's been drawn by a human being, that doesn't look like every other tedious, bland, graphically and artistically reductive, spineless, anodyne, visually dull, badly observed and unexciting bore-draw that seems to populate most graphic novels and comics these days. Webster-Sharp's art here does everything comic art used to do; it has detail, it has passion and courage and guts, and wit and intelligence. It's daring and takes risk in both subject matter and execution.It also makes you unnerved, uncomfortable, intrigued, repulsed, excited. It's singular and unique, it doesn't really look like anyone else, even though there are other artists that use a similar style ( think Drew Friedman). It's also the way she juxtaposes the vocabulary of her visuals, a collage of images and objects that create a tension by their proximity  and opposition to each other, whether it's human-animal body hybrids, butchery, genitalia, dolls, gasmasks, fetish gear and assorted meat products, it's a disturbing visual lexicon that is likely to give you nightmares, or a strange erotic frisson, if so inclined. The devil is in the meticulous detail of the drawing, a pointillist stippling style that I would suggest was fashionable in the Sixties and Seventies, but has since gone way out of vogue, which also lends it an eerie, out of synch feel. For me there's an odd nostalgia for such drawing and the genuine insanity of it's time-consuming nature, but when it works, there's also a certain sublime quality to the imagery, and in some of these individual panels and pages, Webster-Sharp executes some quite brilliant and dare I say it, strangely beautiful artwork, even if the content of those drawings might make some reach for the sick-bag and the censored sticker. If I was to make any artistic comparisons, my immediate thoughts were to artists of the earlier decades I hinted at, but not comic artists. Her sense of collage and juxtaposition of content, allied to a threatening and frightening worldview, reminds me of the art of Crass' Gee Vaucher and the collages of Linder Sterling, also, and perhaps not so obviously, the artwork of 1970's/80's British illustrator Stewart MacKinnon, and maybe also the surrealist Leonora Carrington. I doubt any were an influence or inspiration, but I find echoes of a similar feel in her work. There are also echoes of David Lynch and Charles Burns somewhere too maybe. If I haven't described individual pages here, it's because I think it's a book that must be looked at, and I don't want to spoil it -you should all go out and find it and look at it,and keep looking, take it all in. All its' beauty and horror and tension.

It's this tension, as well as the actual pages and imagery itself, that perhaps account for Webster-Sharp's admission of that "deterioration of a sense of self " mentioned earlier. The images of the final pages and section of the book seem to move away from a certain formal cohesion of the earlier short narratives depicting the Ives archival material, to imagery and pages that suggest a more personal narrative direction taking hold, resulting in singular illustrations that mark a visual representation of the "physical and psychic abandonment "she suggests occured in making the work. By the end, the drawings have gone from full-page, full-blown horror to  become smaller, encapsulating the merest fragments of strange small microscopic crying faced worms or larvae, before completely disappearing to blank, black pages. Whether intentional or not, I feel it works as a conclusion of sorts, the effect of inhabiting someone else's collection of disturbed psychic debris, the result of a kind of possession, leaving us all in the dark.

This is a rather wonderfully frightening book, in all the right ways. Credit also to Avery Hill for having the guts and courage to publish a book like this. J.Webster-sharp is that rare thing. An artist to excite and disturb, an artist with courage, intelligence and wit, and no small amount of skill and visual flair. I can't wait to see what she does next. Fondant anyone ?

Paul Ashley Brown

Friday 23 August 2024

Chang3lings Comics: 4th Big Book of Rap

 


 


  • US Letter, 8.5×11 in, 22×28 cm
    number of Pages: 20
  • Publish Date: Jun 02, 2024
  • £6.00
  • https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/12020717-4th-big-book-of-rap

  • "Underground legend Richard Pester continues exploring decades of work never before seen."
  • A simple statement but it hides a lot.  Apart from the covers that are very eye catching and different there are the interiors.  Trials of the Cosmic Oddity continues and in this part "Davey" is caught out drawing...comics! Know the feeling from when my own parents taunted me over writing science fiction when I was at school.  
  • Derna Assumed and Derna A Lost Episode are nice changes as the text stories featuring colour as well as black and white illoes (19 in total) nicely and is reminiscent of the old British comics where there were illustrated text stories.  Even the old Class Comics featured these and as someone who learnt mainly to read from comics ("Gran -what does 'psychokinesis' mean?") I approve. If you just want pretty pictures (this one has those) but really don't want to strain yourself by reading...you are in the wrong place.
  • The front cover as well as the back (interior and external) feature two lovely pin up pieces and, oh, right; there's also a short piece on why to never trust Fantagraphic Books or a contract from them.
  • I still say that A Cosmic Oddity would make a great graphic novel and having already read it all in black and white I think it is fair to say it would make a great British rival of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor -and that is not bull-shit. I re-read the first volume twice and bored people talking about it.
  • This is bound to get a big thumb's up and if you don't buy it now you are going to be rather daft looking in the future!

Chang3lings Comic: My 5th Big Book Of RAP

 


  •  US Letter, 8.5×11 in, 22×28 cm
    no.  of Pages: 20
  • Publish Date: Jul 21, 2024
  • £5.00
  • https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/12062919-5th-big-book-of-rap

  • Underground comic legend Richard Pester returns with more of his autobiographical tales in Trials of the Cosmic Oddity, Derna continues her train journey in Assumed, additionally we get two short tales from his impressive (unseen) archive.
  • A "Summer Special"?  Don't worry it is all explained inside and if you are my age or slightly younger you will remember UK weekly comics and their bumper specials.  Trials of the Cosmic Oddity continues and we learn about his love of music and a certain Toyah.  There is the growing rebellious streak and a swift interruption by two...yes, two, Cosmic Oddities!
  • If you have ever watched the movie Prince of Darkness then you will get the joke in The Transmission.
  • What would happen if the Terminator met Judge Dredd? And, say, a sword wielding mystery woman? Guess where you can find them?
  • My only complaint about this series is that there are not enough pages!
  • In today's self publishing field it is good to have personal comics that are not complaining about "the bloody Tories" or "I spent my Uni allowance now I have to ask the oldies for extra cash" or "Oh my life is hell" and so on.  If you are going to produce a comic to entertain and tell a story then make it good -add a text feature like Derna Assumed (part 4 in this issue) where you will see how not to use a syringe.
  • It really is fun when these books arrive and I finally have some energy to actually re-read and review!

Monday 5 August 2024

Browner Knowle 2/2

 

24 pages   
A5 
Black and White zine  w/colour covers. 
N.B. MATURE READERS ONLY 
£5.00 

According to Mr Brown:

"A  shopping list of the lost and desperate. A last-but-one will and testament to artistic futility. A spit in the face of  The New Graphic Novel Orthodoxy. The difficult twelfth album nobody understands until twenty years later. And none of these things. "

Honestly. At times I could slap his bottom!  And just when everyone though Browner Knowle had vanished .  Vol. 2 number 1  was published in October 2023 and you can still order via the store. A 9 month wait between issues is not bad since each is self contained and some of the bigger publishers have been a year or more to bring out part of a series. Hey, I think he deserves this...

The Brian Bolland Delayed Comics Award 2024
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know it is not delayed but this is my blog so there!

One thing you can expect is good, solid black and white work; look at the pages above and also the brickwork -all hand drawn mind you and Ole Slow Hand does good brick work (shaky on the art but superb at garden walls). And someone was noting the other day that they hate trying to draw tartan patterns so use an app that offers copy and paste for that. Seriously? Look how good it  looks (yeah, too many "looks") hand drawn -buy a ruler!

Take a look at his web page and you can see more art -and some in colour, too!

As for the pages below; total manic insanity -just look at the insane faces. Last time I saw something like this was when Asda had a sale on alcohol.  This is from Staring At The Rude Boys while below is from Endless. And if you are expecting any humour here....have you ever read an issue of Browner Knowle??!


All of Us Orphans will have you in stitches if you are on the right meds. Somewhere In Another Room would be a black and white short directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring a young Tom Bell. Enigmatic ending. Fires On The Horizon... again something that works nicely. But having written that Mr Brown was doing this before Morrissey was invented.

If you like independent comics, art and creators then there is no reason not to buy a copy and check it out. I mean..£5.00!!!

And if you cannot be bothered supporting creative talent well....
Wait!! You WANT to support independent creative talent? Well, latch your wallet onto this!

from 

Browner-Knowle Vol. 2 #1 – Paul Ashley Brown Reflects on Identity, the Pandemic, Thatcherism and the Realities of the Comics Industry on Broken frontier


Hexagon Comics Strangers #12: In the Era of Kabur

 



Hexagon Comics USA now offers a growing catalog of translations of selected titles from the library of a 70-year-old French comics publisher.

You can order our books from our website at www.hexagoncomics.com or through amazon.

Retailers can purchase the books directly from us at a 40% discount from our website or from distributor Ingram. Contact us at jm@hexagoncomics.com


Stories by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Eduardo Garcia, Manuel Martin Peniche, Christophe Ouvrard.

cover by Manuel Martin Peniche.

ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-313-2. 

94 pages

 b&w. 

U$12.95.

In this twelfth volume, Tanka, Homicron and Starlock have traveled back in time to the era of King Kabur to try to learn how the legendary hero once defeated the alien Wan Lords. Meanwhile, in the present, the C.L.A.S.H. has its hands full with Mr. 17, whose secret identity is at last revealed, while Futura comes across a new threat...

Saturday 8 June 2024

It's All Local and NO International Shipping on Black Tower Books

 


To make it clear: 

1.  if you order a book from the online store it does not involve international shipping. Books are printed in your region -that's how print on demand works.  

2.  The price of the book should be shown in your own currency.

3.  Obviously your local postal rates apply and there are options for tracked, special delivery and untracked (the least expensive) postage from within your region.

Ordered in your region, printed in your region and delivered by the postal system in your region.  It could not be more simple.

One important thing to note is that third party sellers will state "post free" and that is a lie. You often pay 30-75% more on a book ordered through a third party seller than from the online store. The reason is because the third party seller HAS to buy from the online store and the selling price usually covers two postal payments -0from store to them and then to you.  

People have purchased from third party sellers and not gotten their books or have had to wait over a month for them to arrive. At that point they contact me and it is all very simple: they tried to rob me of a sale and bought a book at a far more expensive price because they read "post free". That is important because if you buy from a third party seller you are removing the small profit I make on a book. Also, ordering from the online store is not just cheaper but, even though it has never happened since I started selling in 2009,  I can actually look into why you have not had your book delivered. Third party seller -your tough luck.

Support the creator and publisher not third party scammers.


I have asked to clarify which countries books can be ordered from as I know someone in Hong Kong and China were interested and it looks like you can order from there. According to the  print company:

We do NOT ship to the following countries/territories:


  • Belarus

  • Region of Crimea

  • Cuba

  • Iran

  • Johnston Island

  • North Korea

  • Russia

  • Saint Pierre Et Miquelon

  • South Sudan

  • Sudan

  • Syria

  • Republic Of Turkmenistan

  • Ukraine

  • Wake Islands

  • Yemen Arab Republic

  • Venezuela

Hope that helps!

Sunday 2 June 2024

HEXAGON COMICS JUNE 2024 RELEASE: KABUR #7: THE JEWELS OF CING-KOR

 




Hexagon Comics USA now offers translations of selected titles from the catalog of this 70-year-old French comics publisher. Books can be purchased on amazon or through the website www.hexagoncomics.com. Retailers can purchase them at a 40% discount from distributor Ingram or from the publisher at the website above.


KABUR #7: THE JEWELS OF CING-KOR - 

7x10 square bound trade paperback, 

108 p. 

b&w. 

ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-306-4. 

US$14.95


Stories by Jean-Marc Lofficier; art by Roberto Castro, Mario Guevara; cover by Mario Guevara.

Portfolios by Manuel Martin Peniche; Mario Guevara.


After avoiding the many traps of the city of Foralume, KABUR, now alone since Arianrod’s departure, must cross the Purple Sea to reach the Southern Continent of Gondaxa, which he must also cross in order to rescue the beautiful LAGRID, kidnapped by SELINOR PSAH, the powerful sorcerer-sultan of the distant city of Arkhanal.


But Psah creates a magic storm which causes Kabur to run aground near the citadel of Yaros, currently besieged by the formidable SHAIKORTIN pirates who seek to retake it from the TOADMEN OF NUNIA, who have seized it. In the midst of this savage battle, Kabur meets a traveler from the Future, TANKA, and finally unravels the mystery of his older brother’s disappearance...


After the siege of Yaros, KABUR finally arrives in Gondaxa in the port of Cing-Kor. But, without resources to continue his journey, he is forced to join forces with FERRANE. a young thief who plans to steal the treasure of the sinister magician NODON. But the wizard is not defenseless, and the enterprise quickly proves more perilous than expected, especially since Ferrane has not told Kabur the whole truth...

Thursday 23 May 2024

Kult Creations:- Helga Frankenstein V: Vengeance Express

 


Writer John A. Short
Art Gabrielle Noble
48pp
Perfect bound
US comic size
Full colour
UK £7.00
Europe £10.00
Outside Europe £15.00

Helga's most eventful and spectacular adventure yet! Her and her friends and family travel across the mysterious country of Golgothica on the track of a cure for vampirism! Can Helga save her friend and undead nun, Sister Genevieve? What they don't know is that a wealthy enemy has hired a whole monster revenge squad to take his vengeance on Helga and her family. 



Who will survive? 

And what will it mean to the wider world of this hidden European land? 

Season finale energy!


Well, what can I write? To be honest almost anything I mention from this issue is going to be a spoiler! Short's script/story delivers some surprises as well as twists and is far more serious than some of his other work with the tongue-in-cheek naughty Carry On style quips absent. Which is a good thing as this is more like a Hammer Horror film that you wish they had made!

Then we have the full colour art by Gabrielle Noble whose work I first saw a long time ago on Spliffy The Stoner Chick.  There always seems to be a sense of fun in the art even if the story is serious as this one is. I have no idea why I like the art style but I do and that is all that matters as far as I am concerned.  Whether vampire, creation of Frankenstein or werewolf the art pulls it all off very well.

But the end of this story arc leaves some unanswered questions especially with the human-vampire peace pact so the question is.... when does the second story arc begin!

The Short and Noble team have always provided the goods and this is no exception and you can still buy previous volumes by using the link above.  Highly recommended.

2024 (another ) Avengers Annual 1

  Let's be brief. No. Thanos does NOT fight alongside the Avengers.   The only Avengers in this book are Thor and Captain Marvel who are...