Market Monday: Release Date April 3, 2013
Featured Book of the Week
Letting It Go HC by Miriam Katin
The world of Holocaust survivor and mother is turned upside down by the news that her adult son is moving to Berlin, a city Katin has villainized for the past forty years. As she struggles to accept her son’s decision, she visits the city twice, first to see her son and then to attend a Museum gala featuring her own artwork. What she witnesses firsthand is a city coming to terms with its traumatic past, much as Katin herself is. Letting It Go is a deft and careful balance: wry, self-deprecating anecdotes counterpoint a serious account of the myriad ways trauma inflects daily existence, both for survivors and for their families.
Katin’s follow-up to We Are On Our Own
Firsts of the Week
Princeless vol. 2 #1, art by Emily Martin
Adrienne is back! The princess who ran away is back along with her new friend, Bedelia the girl blacksmith and her loyal guardian dragon Sparky. Now that Adrienne has escaped, she has her eyes set on freeing her sisters. First up is the most beautiful girl in all the kingdom, Angelica. However, things will not be easy for our heroines as the King believes Adrienne is dead and has put a bounty on her killer: Adrienne.
The Last of Us: American Dreams #1, co-written and art by Faith Erin Hicks
The comics-exclusive prequel to the new game from Naughty Dog! Creative director Neil Druckmann teams with breakout comics star Faith Erin Hicks to present the story of thirteen-year-old Ellie’s life in a violent, postpandemic world. A newcomer at a military boarding school, Ellie is reluctant to toe the line, which earns her new enemies-and her first glimpse of the world outside.
More of this week’s releases under the cut!
Read More
Market Monday
Bigfoot Boy vol. 1: Into the Woods TP, art by Faith Erin Hicks
Rufus is bo-o-o-ored at his grammy’s house in the country. But when he follows a girl into the woods and finds a totem in a hollowed out tree, things become a whole lot more interesting. Especially when he reads the word etched into the magical talisman: Sasquatch.
Market Monday
Marceline and the Scream Queens #4, by Meredith Gran, back-up by Yuko Ota, covers by JAB, Natalie Nourigat, and Faith Erin Hicks
DON’T MISS THE LATEST ISSUE OF THIS POPULAR ADVENTURE TIME SPIN-OFF MINI-SERIES! Starring fan-favorite Marceline the Vampire Queen and the hit of San Diego Comic-Con. Popular with all-ages and a great way to get girls into your store!
~Preview~
Did everyone pick up their Hunger Games DVD today?
I didn’t, because it’s more convenient for me to pick up at the Target near work, so I’m waiting until Monday.
If you want some more Hunger Games stuff, remember this Faith Erin Hicks Hunger Games unofficial fan adaptation of the first four pages of the book? Well, here’s a reminder! I personally am still waiting on the news that she’s been hired to do an official adaptation one of these day, but this is still a good taster!
faitherinhicks:
Some Supergirls I drew a year and a half ago for some … thing … which I guess never got off the ground? No idea. But generally when you don’t hear back about something for a year and a half, the project’s probably dead. *shrug* These aren’t great drawings, now that I look at ‘em. I could do better.
I’m still waiting on Marvel to pick up the saga of Elsa Bloodstone and Tabby Smith as roommates what Hicks did in Girl Comics, but this Supergirl would have been awesome too.
Market Monday
Marceline and the Scream Queens #2, by Meredith Gran, colors by Lisa Moore; back-up story by Faith Erin Hicks; covers by JAB, Yuko Ota, Erica Henderson, and Jen Wang
JOIN FAN-FAVORITES MARCELINE THE VAMPIRE QUEEN AND PRINCESS BUBBLEGUM FOR ROCK-FUELED EXCITEMENT IN THIS ADVENTURE TIME MINI-SERIES! Now that Princess Bubblegum is properly prepared to rock, it’s time to meet the band…the groovy ghoulish SCREAM QUEENS! Written and drawn by acclaimed cartoonist Meredith Gran (OCTOPUS PIE) and featuring a back-up story from Faith Erin Hicks, with variant covers by Yuko Ota (JOHNNY WANDER). ADVENTURE TIME #1 and #2 sold out before they hit stores! Don’t miss out!
~Preview~
Reviewsy Bits
I’m going back through links that I’ve saved since January, so some of these may be a blast from the past, but hopefully most of them are exposing you to a comic you missed!
- The Beat has an advanced review of Saga #1
- Zoe/Wolverina reviews Womanthology on her podcast “How I Got My Boyfriend To Read Comics”!
- The Outhousers, BleedingCool, Kelly Thompson and Blog@Newsarama on Grace Randolph’s Supurbia #1
- Arthur and Posy, and indie comic from the UK, written by Ella Risbridger, earned this praise from Forbidden Planet:
I’ve got to say, I was pretty much sold on it from the start. There’s a sweetness here, a delightful innocence about the pair. It’s got the feel of a somewhat off-kilter children’s book. Albeit a children’s book that looks like it’s going to be messing around with all sorts of gender roles and religious prejudices. And I’m intrigued and involved with the characters after just this short first issue to want to know much more.
- Forbidden Planet has also looked at Karrie Fransman’s ambitious The House that Groaned, Magda Boreysza’s “dreamlike and beautiful” Toasty Cats #6, Jenika Ioffreda’s quirky gothic love story Vampire Free Style #6, Maura McHugh’s Róisín Dubh #2 (with “Celtic zombie-slaying action”), and Leeann Hamiliton’s “remarkably clever” Irish myth-inspired Finn & Fish.
- Jamaica Dyer guest-posted on Robot 6, and she had this to say about the first Conan the Barbarian issue from Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan:
I picked up the first issue of the new Conan the Barbarian, and I’m kind of bummed out by how cool it is. Becky Cloonan’s art is amazing, Brian Wood’s writing is compelling, and not only is Conan pretty fun to look at, but the Queen is dead-hot. The fantasy sequences are really well-done, though the action sequences are a little hard to follow. Why am I bummed out by it? Because I was dreaming of doing an indie adaptation of Conan, and it appears that the king and queen of indie comics just took up the mantle. You know what they say, “Conan, what is best in life? …”
- J. Caleb Mozzocco found Nancy Goldstein’s Jackie Ormes biography excellent despite its limitations due to lack of primary sources
- Johanna Draper Carlson recommends Faith Erin Hicks’s Friends with Boys.
- Pink Raygun’s Lisa “Alpha-Girl” Fary has some thought-provoking criticism of Phil and Kaja Foglio’s Girl Genius Omnibus vol. 1
- iFanboy says that Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman’s Heathentown is “undead horror born again on the bayou, perfect for anybody looking for the modern response to Creepy and other classic black & white tales of terror.”
- Spandexless says of John Ostrander and Jan Duursema’s Dawn of the Jedi #1, ”For a first issue, it’s a well done beginning to a new chapter in the Star Wars saga, and though it has many elements that have been done before, when has that ever stopped anyone from enjoying more Star Wars?”
- And Greg Burgas of “Comics Should Be Good” takes a look at Mary and Bryan Talbot’s Dotter of her Father’s Eyes.
Market Monday
Friends With Boys GN by Faith Erin Hicks
A coming-of-age tale with a spooky twist!
Maggie McKay hardly knows what to do with herself. After an idyllic childhood of homeschooling with her mother and rough-housing with her older brothers, it’s time for Maggie to face the outside world, all on her own. But that means facing high school first. And it also means solving the mystery of the melancholy ghost who has silently followed Maggie throughout her entire life. Maybe it even means making a new friend—one who isn’t one of her brothers.
Funny, surprising, and tender, Friends with Boys is a pitch perfect YA graphic novel full of spooky supernatural fun.
~Webcomic~
Faith Erin Hicks summarizes Carla Speed McNeil’s Finder: Voice.
Next Week’s Featured Event
Ladies’ Night at Strange Adventures in Halifax
After hours on Leap Day, Strange Adventures will be hosting an exclusive, ladies only event featuring cupcakes, discounts, trivia, and prizes!
Faith Erin Hicks (Friends with Boys, The War at Ellsmere) and Jordyn Bochon (Spera) will be on hand for signings, and Tumblr’s own comic star Kate Leth will be there working her usual retail gig (but I’m sure she’ll be happy to sign her Locke & Key appearances and other merch!)
On Facebook, 119 ladies have already RSVP’d, how can you miss such a party? At the very least, go to piss off this guy. And bring your comics-curious friends!
Other Events
Tuesday, February 28
Friday, March 2
Saturday-Sunday, March 3-4
Saturday, March 3
Sunday, March 4
Another Interview Round-Up!
There have been so many new interviews (or at least ones I missed/forgot) over the past few days, I’m posting another round-up this week!
- ComicsAlliance got quotes from each member of the now-defunct Pizza Island studio about their futures and their feelings about the end of this era.
- Alan Moore (in response to the question I asked along with my Kickstarter pledge for the Harvey Pekar statue) shared that Melinda Gebbie, his wife and Lost Girls artist, is currently working on her autobiography about the San Francisco underground scene and her subsequent life. She will then illustrate his William Blake-inspired performance piece ”Angel Passage”.
- Amy Reeder talks to CBR, DCWKA, and Newsarama about starting her arc on Batwoman.
- The Unwritten cover artist Yuko Shimizu talks to Multiversity Comics about how she got the gig and her other projects!
- School Library Journal talks to Faith Erin Hicks about Friends With Boys.
- And the Hooded Utilitarian talks to Marguerite Dabaie about her book The Hookah Girl and Other True Stories, a memoir about growing up as a Palestinian Christian and immigrant to the United States:
I’ve nicknamed The Hookah Girl “Arab 101” because I ended up writing with a non-Arab audience in mind. I wanted to highlight that, while my family and some of their practices are not “western” and may be distinct, they are not any more or less distinct than any other family. The positives and negatives are not all that different from any variety of cultures, and they just are.
