LurkerWithout
LurkerWithout’s Sunday Trade: Asterix Omnibus
Asterix Omnibus written by Rene Goscinny, illustrated by Albert Uderzo, translated by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge
First published in 1961 Asterix has been one of the two pillars of European comics for FIVE decades. The tales of a fictional Gaul village in the 1st Century, holding out against the Roman conquest have sold millions of copies. This omnibus collects the first three stories. Astrix the Gaul which introduces the titular hero, his best friend Obelix and their village. Asterix and the Golden Sickle has the pair attempting to buy a new golden sickle for their villages druid, Getafix, and running up against a band of sickle smugglers. The last story Asterix and the Goths has Getafix kidnapped by the Goth chieftan Choleric, who hopes to use the druid’s magic to aid his plans for conquest…
The stories of Asterix are amusing as hell. Full of bad puns, running gags and broad physical humor. Its no wonder that for decades millions of people have been following the adventures of the clever Gaul and his friends…
LurkerWithout’s Sunday Trade: Nixon’s Pals
Nixon’s Pals written by Joe Casey, art by Chris Burnham, letters by Rus Wooton
Nixon’s Pals is about one of those simple high concepts that you can’t believe no one thought of before. In this case its this, Nixon Cooper is a parole officer for super-villains. Of course coming up with the concept is just the start. Casey and Burnham deliver a sharp bit of supers/crime mash-up fiction. With characters that have realistic motivations and problems and that are visually striking to boot…
And Nixon is perfectly done as an old-school crime/noir hero. Battered, pushed about and then battered again. But never broken no matter how much it piles on…
LurkerWithout’s Sunday Trade: Smoke and Guns
Smoke and Guns written by Kirsten Baldock, art by Fabio Moon
I don’t normally pick something up just for the art. ‘Cause that’s how you end up like my roommate owning a copy of Oktane. But I’m a sucker for anything by brothers Moon or Ba and this was only 12 bucks…
Its a fun little piece, about gun-toting cigarette girls. Their city is divided into violently defended sales districts, but Scarlett keeps straying out of her Puff district into that of the Belles. Which eventually escalates into a war between the two crews…
An enjoyable romp with hot women and lots of frenetic gun play…
LurkerWithout’s Sunday Trade: Parker the Hunter
Richard Stark’s Parker the Hunter adapted and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke
Most of you are probably more familiar with this one as the movie adaption Payback with Mel Gibson. Or maybe even the ‘67 Point Blank with Lee Marvin. But the Parker in those two is a cuddly puppy of love and forgiveness compared to the original. And that brutal bastard is the one you see in Cooke’s adaptation. This Parker is out for revenge and his missing money. But he wasn’t so much betrayed and robbed as beaten to the punch. Parker is a master thief and a cold-hearted machine…
And not enough can be said about Cooke’s art here. His simple inks evoke the noir style better than anything I can think of elsewhere. Cooke brings the full emotion of the story to..well not the light. But to well-defined shadows…
LurkerWithout’s Sunday Trade: Usagi Yojimbo – Yokai
Usagi Yojimbo: Yokai by Stan Sakai
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Usagi Yojimbo, Stan Sakai created this hard-bound short ghost story. In it Usagi is drawn into the woods in pursuit of a lost girl only to encounter an army of ghosts and demons. This night is one that happens every hundred years when the yokai or haunts walk the earth in great numbers and will try to bring their Witch Queen over. Luckily, Usagi’s friend Sasuke the Demon Queller is in the area to stop this so the samurai doesn’t have to face this danger alone…
LurkerWithout’s Sunday Trade: The Dead Boy Detectives
The Dead Boy Detectives by Jill Thompson
The Dead Boy Detectives, Charles Rowland and Edward Paine, are a pair of young boys who are ghosts. The two first showed up in Gaiman’s “Season of Mists” arc of Sandman, where they refused to go back with Death when Hell was re-opened…
Here the pair respond to a letter asking for help from one Annika Abernathy, a girl at a private school worried about the disappearance of one of her friends. So the two ghosts travel to Chicago and help Annika and her gang investigate the missing Elizabeth…
The big appeal here is Thompson’s shoujo style of art and story-telling. The characters are exuberant and fun. And the story maintains a light and humorous tone throughout. Hell, the book has an excerpt from another Thompson created Vertigo manga where she makes Despair of the Endless cute. Thats no small feat indeed…
LurkerWithout’s Sunday Trade: ps238
ps238: With Liberty and Recess for All by Aaron Williams
I may have mentioned my love for the comic ps238 a time or two or twenty. Aaron Williams has created one of my favorite super-hero titles. He starts with a perfect high concept, a grade school for super-powered children. Then adds in various characters, some of whom are loosely based on more well-known characters. But through it all he writes children like what they are. Kids. ps238 is fun and smart and funny and even exciting on occasion…
This first volume collects issues #0-#5 of the series, which introduces the faculty and many of the student body. Including the “evil genius” Zodon, the alien visitor Prospero, Suzi the Nucleur Girl and Tyler the non-powered son of two of Earth’s mightiest heroes. It even has Revanent, the Batman archtype created by Michael Stackpole and gifted to Aaron to use in his book and Tyler’s off-campus mentor…
LurkerWithout’s Sunday Trade: Atomic Robo
Atomic Robo: Vol. 1 Atomic Robo and the Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne written by Brian Clevenger, art by Scott Wegener, colors by Ronda Pattison and letters by Jeff Powell
In 1923 Niola Tesla unveiled the world’s first artificial intelligence, in the form of a Atomic Robo. In 1938 Robo goes on a top secret mission for the U.S. government in exchange for full citizenship rights (the mission involves a secret Himalayan Nazi base). After that Robo goes on to form Tesladyne, where he and his selected action scientists engage the strange and bizarre. Like giant ants in Nevada or “walking” pyramids in Egypt. Or maybe secret, once lost Nazi science bases…
Clevenger’s sense of humor (familiar to those who know him from his webcomic 8-bit Theater) is what makes this book shine. Its not just watching a robot smash a giant ant with a car. Its clever and well-crafted jokes WHILE hitting a giant ant with a Buick…
LurkerWithout’s Sunday Trade: SuperGirl
SuperGirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade written by Landry Q. Walker, drawn by Eric Jones, colored by Joey Manson and lettered by Pat Brosseau, Travis Lanham & Sal Cipriano
I’ll be honest I’ve never been all that interested in SuperGirl. Not the classic pre-Crisis one or the other dimensional shapeshifter/hybrid angel one or the moody, annoying current one. I’m sure they all had some decent stories but I had no drive to hunt them down then I do any of dozens of other DC properties. But Walker manages to do something that is all too often lacking from the super-hero books of the Big Two. Present a story thats fun…
Here Kara arrives on Earth after accidentally getting into space aboard a Kyrptonian rocket. From the the colony of Kandor thats located in a pocket dimension, where it ended up after Krypton’s destruction. So Superman, after letting her know he can’t just send her home, gets her a secret identity as Linda Lee and puts her in school so she can get used to her new powers and Earth culture. Where everyone hates her of course. Or at least laughs at her all the time…
Soon enough though SuperGirl is dealing with a kind-of-evil twin, a strange new best friend, a super-powered cat, lots of glowing meteorites and of course, continuing to be crushingly un-popular. With only six-issues you get killer anti-Superman vehicles, time travel, magic imps, mind control, Kryptonite, clones, flying pets, heroism, teen angst and a dude who turns into an ice cream cone. So yeah. Fun…
LurkerWithout’s Sunday Trade: Beta Ray Bill
Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter written by Kieron Gillen, pencils by Kano, Inks by Kano & Alvara Lopez, Colors by Javier Rodriguez, Letters by Blambot’s Nate Piekos
Its been a while since the last regular Marvel super-hero comic. And what better way to return then with the magic hammer wielding cyborg space man-horse, Beta Ray Bill. Keron Gillen has the Asgardian ally go forth on a quest to put a stop to Galactus. Seems the World-Devourer is responsible for the destruction of BRB’s people. But even when you’re a mighty cyborg alien with a hammer twin to Mjolinor Galactus is a bit out of your weight class. So he comes up with a fairly unique plan to stop the cosmic menace. One that might just work, but at a great cost to Beta Ray Bill…
Gillen’s story is exactly the type of thing that cosmic super-hero comics should be. It embraces the odd and the silly and treats it as normal. Then cranks the action up to 11. Kano isn’t my favorite artist, but he gets the job done, especially given the scope of what he’s drawing…
The volume also includes “The Green of Eden”, by Gillen and artist Dan Brereton, about a small group of Skrulls. Survivors from the most recent Skrull/Earth conflict they’re pilgrims seeking a new God and hoping they’ve found one in Beta Ray Bill…
