Exit Wounds
Rutu Modan
Drawn And Quarterly
$21.95/$19.95 US (Hardcover)
**** (out of five)
Koby Franco hasn’t seen his dad in over two years — and frankly he doesn’t care too much.
So he’s not sure how he should feel when a soldier named Numi contacts him and tells him his father may have been the victim of a suicide bombing.
With mixed emotions, Koby reluctantly joins Numi is her search to discover if Gabriel Franco was, in fact, the person who was killed in the attack as he also seeks the truth behind her interest in the case.
As the pair rides a roller-coaster of emotions through their investigation, the question is: Is Gabriel really dead, or just the deadbeat dad Koby believes him to be?
Set against the backdrop of modern-day Tel Aviv, Exit Wounds is a thoughtful look at the fragility of life, love and relationships both familial and otherwise.
Writer/illustrator Rutu Modan, highly acclaimed in her native Israel, finally has her work debut in North America — and it’s an impressive one.
Phonogram: Rue Britannia
Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie
Image Comics
$14.99 US (Paperback)
****
Phonomancer David Kohl is an unrepentant rock snob who uses his knowledge as power for some wicked magic.
But like so many of us, Kohl’s identity is tied to a certain era of music— in his case 90’s Britpop — and that connection threatens his very existence.
Someone is messing with Britannia, the dead Mod-goddess of Britpop, and Kohl needs to find out who it is before he’s changed forever and finds himself listening to Britney Spears CDs and loving every minute of it.
Peppered with Britpop references, quotes and names, Phonogram is the most touching love letter ever written to a bygone musical era disguised as a comic book.
Writer Kieron Gillen and artist Jamie McKelvie have created something highly original, extremely compelling and hopefully worth revisiting.
Star Wars 30th Anniversary Collection Vols. 1-5
Dark Horse Books
$16.95-$24.95 US (Hardcover)
****
It’s been 30 years since we first saw those immortal words “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” and some of us still get a chill up our spines just thinking about that first time.
The Star Wars films have become a major part of pop culture— as have the copious comic book projects that have accompanied them over the years — and to help celebrate this milestone, Dark Horse Books is giving the best of the best a brand-new look.
The 30th Anniversary Collection is a monthly series of 12 sleek-looking hardcover volumes of some of the best Star Wars tales produced by the company over the past the 16 years.
The first five editions include:
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Vol. 1: The Freedon Nadd Uprising — A story of ancient Jedi and their battle against a Sith lord who has cheated death.
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Vol. 2: Jedi Vs. Sith —The tale of three children who can all use The Force and how they decide to use that power.
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Vol. 3: Darth Maul — The Sith warrior’s secret mission to destroy a massive criminal organization.
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Vol. 4: Jango Fett & Zam Wesell — Two bounty hunters find themselves torn between love of money and doing the right thing.
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Vol. 5: Light & Dark — Can an undercover Jedi avoid the temptations of the Dark Side?
Superman/Batman: Enemies Among Us
Mark Verheiden, Ethan Van Sciver, Matthew Clark, Joe Benitez
DC Comics
$23.99/$19.99 US (Hardcover)
*** 1/2
Batman has a lot of people gunning for him — he just never expected one of them to be an old friend.
When fellow longtime Justice League member Martian Manhunter shows up at the Bat-cave and lays a beating on him that he barely survives, the Dark Knight is shocked.
After deciding against taking on such a powerful opponent by himself again, Batman decides this is a job for Superman. While the duo quickly learn the true meaning of the attack, they soon find themselves under siege by more and more aliens — all of whom are old foes not seen or heard from in years.
Soon all Earthbound aliens, friend and foe alike, are all working together to stop Batman and Superman from finding out the truth and preventing a major catastrophe.
And the question becomes: How long can the Kryptonian hero ignore the lure to join his alien brethren?
Battlestar Galactica executive producer Mark Verheiden — helped by the sublime art of Ethan Van Sciver — equates himself well as writer of this fast-paced and intriguing Superman/Batman story arc.
Satan’s Sodomy Baby
Eric Powell
Dark Horse Comics
$3.50 US
**** 1/2
Some things are just so wrong that they’re right — and Satan’s Sodomy Baby is definitely one of them.
After being delayed for months and months thanks to a fear-mongering campaign by an overzealous American religious conservative, the most over-the-top and wonderfully offensive tale of The Goon is finally available.
Let’s be clear: There is nudity, profanity and more hillbilly anal sex jokes than perhaps any previous comic in history — this book is not for everybody.
If you consider yourself open to such humourous notions, however, you may just injure yourself while laughing so hard at writer/illustrator Eric Powell’s masterpiece.
Gutsville #1 (of 6)
Simon Spurrier, Frasier Irving
Image Comics
$3.50/$2.99 US
****
If being lost at sea is a scary thought, then being lost in a sea monster is a nightmare.
This is the bizarre reality of the people of Gutsville — the descendants of the passengers and crew of the HMS Daphne who have survived for over 150 years in the belly of the beast.
Making matters worse in this puritanical society are the rumours of revolution and the presence of a mysterious serial killer they call the nosunman, who’s latest victim Jon Oliphant was the town ratcatcher, forcing his artist son Albert into taking up the family business.
While he’s reluctant to get too into his dad’s work, Albert finds out the business may just have led Jon to something nobody in Gutsville thought existed: A way out.
Gutsville is one of the most unusual and gripping concepts in years. Writer Simon Spurrier and artist Frazier Irving may just have a million-dollar idea here.
Strange Embrace #1 (of 8)
David Hine
Image Comics
$3.50/$2.99 US
*** 1/2
Strange Embrace had long been one of the most chilling comic book stories around — and it just got even more so.
The psychological horror from the mind of David Hine (Spawn, X-Men: Civil War) finally gets the full-colour treatment as an eight-issue miniseries from Image Comics.
The first issue sees delivery boy Sukumar’s first encounter with the mysterious psychic Alex and a trip into Alex’s past that leads him face to face with the devil.
Fans of Hine’s fine recent work on Spawn won’t want to miss this one.
