Spring 2012 Graphic Novel Preview: Adults
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Kids | Tweens | Teens | Nonfiction
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On sale now
The Compleat Terminal City
by Dean Motter and Michael Lark
Dark Horse
ISBN: 978-1-59582-877-4
Visionary designer and comics creator Dean Motter returns with the purest expression to date of his patented retro futurism! Terminal City is a place where transistor-tube robots rub elbows with old-time gangsters, where bright, shiny technologies cast deep noir shadows.
Crime Does Not Pay Archives, Vol. 1
by various
Dark Horse
ISBN: 978-1-59582-289-5
Uncut and uncensored, the infamous precode Crime Does Not Pay comics are finally collected into a series of archival hardcovers! With brutal, realistic tales focusing on vile criminals, Crime Does Not Pay was one of the most popular comics of the 1940s. The series was a favorite target of Dr. Fredric Wertham and other censors and is partially responsible for the creation of the stifling Comics Code Authority. Now revered and mythic, this collection of the first four hard-to-find Crime Does Not Pay comics features a fine roster of Golden Age creators and a new introduction by Matt Fraction!
Explorer: The Mystery Boxes
edited by Kazu Kibuishi
Amulet
ISBN: 978-1419700095
Seven clever stories answer one simple question: What’s in the box? Funny, fantastic, spooky, and suspenseful, each of these unique and beautifully illustrated short graphic works revolves around a central theme: a mysterious box and the marvels—or mayhem—inside. Artists include middle school favorites Kazu Kibuishi, Raina Telgemeier (Smile), and Dave Roman (Astronaut Academy), as well as Jason Caffoe, Stuart Livingston, Johane Matte, Rad Sechrist (all contributors to the groundbreaking comics anthology series Flight), and upcoming artist Emily Carroll.
Goliath
by Tom Gauld
Drawn & Quarterly
ISBN: 978-1770460652
A master of striped-down, powerful storytelling reworks the David-and-Goliath myth. Goliath of Gath isn’t much of a fighter. Given half a choice, he would pick admin work over patrolling in a heartbeat, to say nothing of his distaste for engaging in combat. Nonetheless, at the behest of the king, he finds himself issuing a twice-daily challenge to the Israelites: “Choose a man. Let him come to me that we may fight. If he be able to kill me then we shall be your servants. But if I kill him, then you shall be our servants.” Day after day he reluctantly repeats his speech, and the isolation of this duty gives him the chance to banter with his shield-bearer and reflect on the beauty of his surroundings. This is the story of David and Goliath as seen from Goliath’s side of the Valley of Elah. Quiet moments in Goliath’s life as a soldier are accentuated by Tom Gauld’s drawing style, which contrasts minimalist scenery and near-geometric humans with densely crosshatched detail reminiscent of Edward Gorey. Goliath’s battle is simultaneously tragic and bleakly funny, as bureaucracy pervades even this most mythic of figures. Goliath displays a sensitive wit, a bold line, and a traditional narrative reworked, remade, and revolutionized.
Inner Sanctum
by Ernie Colón
NBM
ISBN: 978-1561636143
A revered veteran of comics brings to comics life one of the most fondly remembered mystery and horror radio shows in history. In striking black & white as only Colón is well known for, we are swept into 4 chilling mysteries
April
Rohan at the Louvre
by Hirohiko Araki
NBM
ISBN: 978-1-56163-615-0
On sale April 1
After Glacial Period and The Sky Over the Louvre comes another completely original story with stunning art by a leading mangaka. Rohan, a young mangaka, meets a beautiful mysterious young woman with a dramatic story. Seeing him draw, she tells him of a cursed 200-year-old painting using the blackest ink ever known from a 1,000-year-old tree the painter had brought down without approval from the Emperor, who had him executed for doing so. The painting, meanwhile, had been saved from destruction by a curator of the Louvre. Rohan forgets this story as he becomes famous, but 10 years later, visiting Paris, he takes the occasion to try to locate the painting. Little does he know how violently powerful the curse of it is until he has the museum unearth it from deep within its archival bowels….
Unterzakhn
by Leela Corman
Shocken Books
On sale April 3
ISBN: 978-0805242591
Leela Corman’s new graphic novel Unterzakhn is a mesmerizing, heartbreaking graphic novel of struggling immigrant life on New York's Lower East Side at the turn of the twentieth century, as seen through the eyes of twin sisters whose lives take radically and tragically different paths.
Black Butler, Vol. 9
by Yana Toboso
Yen Press
ISBN: 978-0316189675
On sale April 24
Earl Ciel Phantomhive's quietude is interrupted as Queen Victoria's very own butlers commandeer Phantomhive Manor for a lavish banquet sanctioned by Her Majesty. Preparations for such an event are quick work in the hands of Sebastian, the house's most able butler, but corralling the eminent guests may prove to be rather more of a challenge. For this dinner party is anything but festive, and as a stormy night batters the outside of the grand residence, a far more violent storm begins to unfurl within. And no one is safe from the havoc it will wreak-not even one seemingly impervious manservant...
May
Dungeon Zenith Set, Vol. 1-3
by Lewis Trondheim, Joann Sfar, and Boulet
NBM
ISBN: 978156163-624-2
On sale May 1
Collecting the core introductory storyline to the sprawling dark-humored epic spoofing horror and heroic fantasy.
Boneyard Set, Vol. 5-7
by Richard Moore
NBM
ISBN: 978156163-625-9
On sale May 1
The conclusion to this popular sharp-humored spoof of horror. Michael Paris, Abbey and their cemetery buddies face a chain-saw wielding behemoth, the Pumpkinhead, the Luminary’s Ball put on by the head of all fantastic creatures and a final showdown with the vast and powerful rival armies of the land of Faeries.
Manara Erotica, Vol. 1
by Milo Manara with Hugo Pratt
Dark Horse
ISBN: 978-1-59582-779-1
On sale May 9
Milo Manara’s landmark collaboration with Dark Horse continues with the premier volume of Manara Erotica, a sumptuous companion to the Manara Library! A master of storytelling and of the human form, Manara has created some of the sexiest comics ever published, all of which are included in this deluxe three-volume series. Volume one is anchored by all four parts of Manara’s internationally acclaimed Click! A beautiful but passionless woman is plunged into a hilarious, world-spanning adventure when she is implanted with a remote-controlled chip able to unlock her inner lustfulness. Manara classics Fatal Rendezvous and “Piercing” round out this dazzling compilation.
The Summit of the Gods, Vol. 3 (of 5)
by Yumemakura Baku and Jiro Taniguchi
Fanfare/Ponent Mon
ISBN 978-84-92444-33-5
On sale May 15
“Far higher in the sky than imagination had dared to suggest, the white summit of Everest appeared.” --George Mallory. In 1924, Mallory and Irvine vanished on Everest’s northeast ridge, leaving behind them the mystery of who was first to reach its summit. There was a camera that could provide the solution. Tsuneo Hase has died in an avalanche attempting to climb K2 solo without oxygen, leaving Jouji Habu alone to face the next big challenge, but what would it be? Habu has disappeared in Nepal, as has the camera that may unlock Everest’s mystery, so Japanese photographer Fukamachi has to search anew for the man known as ‘Venomous Snake’ and he draws on an unexpected source for help. Taniguchi’s realistic art and Baku’s tireless script will take you to such heights that mountaineers can only dream of in this Ignatz nominated series.
The Graphic Canon, Vol. 1: Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons
edited by Russ Kick
Seven Stories Press
ISBN: 978-1609803766
On sale May 22
The Graphic Canon is a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind trilogy that brings classic literatures of the world together with legendary graphic artists and illustrators. There are more than 130 illustrators represented and 190 literary works over three volumes—many newly commissioned, some hard to find—reinterpreted here for readers and collectors of all ages. Volume 1: From the Epic of Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons takes us on a visual tour from the earliest literature through the end of the 1700s. We’re treated to eye-popping renditions of literature’s greatest epics—The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Iliad, The Odyssey (in watercolors by Gareth Hinds), The Aeneid, Beowulf, and The Arabian Nights, plus later epics The Divine Comedy and The Canterbury Tales (both by Seymour Chwast) and Paradise Lost—as well as two of ancient Greece’s greatest plays, Euripides’ tragedy Medea and Aristophanes’ bawdy comedy Lysistrata. Also included is Robert Crumb’s rarely seen adaptation of James Boswell’s London Journal, filled with philosophical debate and lowbrow debauchery.
The Moon Moth
adapted and illustrated by Humayoun Ibrahim, based on a short story by Jack Vance
First Second
ISBN: 978-1-59643-367-0
On sale May 22
A fascinating blend of murder mystery and high-concept science fiction, The Moon Moth has long been hailed as one of Jack Vance’s greatest works. And now this intricately crafted tale is available in glorious full color as a new graphic novel. Edwer Thissell, the new consul from Earth to the planet Sirene, is having all kinds of trouble adjusting to the local culture. The Sirenese cover their faces with exquisitely crafted masks that indicate their social status. Thissell, a bumbling foreigner, wears a mask of very low status: the Moon Moth. Shortly after Thissell arrives on Sirene, he finds himself embroiled in an unsolved murder case made all the more mysterious by the fact that since everyone must always wear a mask, you can never be sure who you’re dealing with.
