Forward Thinking: Dark Horse

Michael May and Kevin Melrose look over Dark Horse's solicitations for May 2006:

ARCHENEMIES #2

Michael: Last time we did this, we wondered how far Drew Melbourne could carry the joke behind the premise: two college roommates who don't realize that they're archenemies in their superhero lives. Drew wrote us back and let us know that it is a superhero comedy, but that there's enough drama to it to keep it interesting for a good long while. He's got me curious now.

Kevin: If nothing else, it gives a new twist to The Odd Couple premise.

B.P.R.D.: THE UNIVERSAL MACHINE #2

Michael: I'm not such a big Captain Daimio fan that I'm looking forward to his origin story, but Kate Corrigan trying to resurrect Roger the Homunculus by searching strange shops in deserted castles in rural France... it's like Mignola and Arcudi called me up and asked me what I wanted to see in a B.P.R.D. comic.

Kevin: Y'know, I initially didn't like Daimio, either; I saw him as the poor man's Hellboy -- gruff and no-nonsense, but with a good heart. But he's grown on me, so I'm eager to learn his origin, and (I hope) see the return of Roger.

CONAN #28

Michael: Art by Eric Powell? Are you kidding me? Busiek's really going out with a bang, isn't he?

CRIMINAL MACABRE: FEAT OF CLAY

Michael: I don't pretend to be objective when it comes to Steve Niles, but there hasn't been a Cal McDonald story since Supernatural Freak Machine was cancelled mid-story and I'm excited for more. Kyle (The Hood, Billy the Kid's Old-Timey Oddities) Hotz is a nice choice for artist too. He's got a similar style to Kelley Jones, who's done the last couple of Cal mini-series, but injects it with his own sense of humor.

Kevin: I'm not always bowled over by Niles' work, but there's something irresistible about Cal McDonald. Throw in Kyle Hotz on art, and I'm sold.

DE: TALES TPB

Michael: The cover on this thing doesn't do justice to Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba's work. If this is as warm and charming as their stuff on Ursula from Ait/PlanetLar, it's going to be well worth checking out.

Kevin: To get a good sense of the range of Moon and Ba's art, check out their blog. They do "warm and charming," but their distinctive, sometimes angular, styles sometimes wander into grittier areas. There's a quirkiness to their work that's always refreshing.

OCTOPUS GIRL VOLUME 2 TPB

Michael: The solicitation for the first volume didn't grab me with all of its "prepare to be mind-boggled," "relentlessly gory collection," and "disgusting dishes of heartbreak." That was a lot of description without ever telling me what the book is about. This volume on the other hand: "Takako is happy to be known as the Octopus Girl" and "able to change herself into a teenage head with octopus tentacles" while discovering "horrors in the ocean" and facing "satanic cults, pregnancy, (and) death-trap elevators..." Now you're speaking my language, Dark Horse!

Kevin: Is it just me or is Dark Horse is releasing an inordinate amount of manga in May and June? Octopus Girl, Cannon God Exaxxion, Lady Snowblood, Path of the Assassin, Reiko the Zombie Shop, School Zone -- and that's just for starters.

STAR WARS: LEGACY #0

Michael: If it's set 100 years after Return of the Jedi, it's probably not going to have Han and Chewie in it, huh? It's a liberating concept for a Star Wars book though and it's written by John Ostrander, so I'm actually kind of interested in this one. And it's only 25 cents, so I'm gonna get to check it out with little risk. I could start buying Star Wars comics again.

Kevin: Han and Chewie are the Thelma & Louise of the Star Wars universe. The immortal Thelma & Louise.

TARZAN: THE JOE KUBERT YEARS VOLUME 3 HC

Michael: This series of hardcover collections has been off my radar until now, but I just recently started reading Burroughs's Tarzan books again and now I'm thinking it would be really cool to see Kubert's take. Gonna have to get me Volume 1 and work up from there.

Kevin: I read some of my brother's Tarzan comics, written and drawn by Kubert, when I was a tot. For a kid whose only exposure to Tarzan was those Filmation Saturday morning cartoons, the comics were real eye-openers.