Forward Thinking: Image Comics for May 2006

It's that time again, as Michael May and Kevin Melrose look over Image Comics' solicitations for May 2006.

THE ART OF BRIAN BOLLAND HARDCOVER

Kevin: That $49.99 cover price -- $79.99 signed and numbered! -- stings a little, but a 176-page Brian Bolland retrospective is very tempting. I'm dating myself, but I remember first seeing Bolland on DC's Camelot 3000, and being stunned by the detail of his art. His work was realistic but expressive, and certainly not bland like so much of the "photorealistic" art that's become popular in recent years. Then came Batman: The Killing Joke, with Alan Moore, which helped to reshape the "Batman Universe." All right, I've talked myself into getting this ...

Michael: His Wonder Woman is legendary and no one, but no one, draws Zatanna like Bolland. If this was released by DC, I'd be all over it. I'm still interested in it because of all the traits of his work you mentioned, but for $50 I'd like it to have puh- lenty of his DC work in it.

EMISSARY #1

Michael: I kinda feel like the questions this series is asking have already been asked and answered in other series like Marvels and Supreme. Maybe this book is especially well executed, but I can't tell that from how high-concept this solicitation is.

THE FIVE FISTS OF SCIENCE GRAPHIC NOVEL

Kevin: Originally set to be released last summer from AiT/Planet Lar, Matt Fraction and Steven Sanders' quirky alternative-history graphic novel finds a new home at Image. And it's in color. Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla battling Thomas Edison and J.P. Morgan's "evil science cabal merging the Black Arts and the Industrial Age"? Sold!

Michael: If it's half as fun and funny as Tales from the Bully Pulpit (Thomas Edison and Teddy Roosevelt vs. Martian Nazis) was, it'll be awesome. Fraction's got just the right dry sense of humor to pull this off. I'm in too.

THE LAST CHRISTMAS #1 (of 6)

Michael: Rick Remender told me about this one last fall and I've been anxious to see it ever since. Brian Posehn is the comedian who played Kevin the mail guy on Just Shoot Me and has guest-starred on every great sitcom from Seinfeld to Friends to NewsRadio to Everybody Loves Raymond to The Bernie Mac Show. He's hilarious (and a huge comics fan) and I'm looking forward to seeing if that translates to the comics page.

NEGATIVE BURN #1

Kevin: The award-winning Caliber Comics anthology is reborn as a black-and-white monthly series, with the first issue featuring the likes of Brian Bolland, Phil Hester, Jonathan Luna, Eric Powell and Patton Oswalt. It's a curious mix of talent -- and one that'll get my $5.99.

Michael: Mine too. I've never read the Caliber version, but you can't walk very far in a roomful of comics fans without hearing someone bring it up. In addition to the guys you mentioned, it's also got Greg Ruth, who's done beautiful things with Dark Horse's Freaks of the Heartland and the "young Conan" stories in Conan.

Kevin: Two Comedians of Comedy -- Posehn and Oswalt -- in the same month? I smell a trend!

NIGHT TRIPPERS GRAPHIC NOVEL

Kevin: Mark Ricketts and Micah Farritor's psychedelic tale of vampires, Satan worshippers and serial killers in swinging London of the mid-1960s is, well, trippy , to say the least. I know "trippy" makes me sound like my parents, but take a look at the Night Trippers website and tell me how you'd describe it. Yeah, see? I was right. Trippy. I particularly like the image of the Satan-worshipping "fab four."

Michael: Your link sold me. Unfortunately, the cover wouldn't have. Too bad it doesn't look more like the interior art and capture more of that "swinging London" feel.

RUMBLE IN LA RAMBLA #1 (of 3)

Kevin: I'm not familiar with creators Felipe Ferreira and Rafael Albuquerque, but when it comes to crime comics I'm a pretty easy mark. (You like how I worked in that bit of crime slang?) The solicitation copy is a little awkward, but the notion of three crimelords breaking a 10-year truce is an appealing one, particularly if you like betrayal peppered with gunfire. Rumble in La Rambla is listed as a three-issue limited series, but the book's website implies that it might be part of a series of minis.

STAGGER LEE GRAPHIC NOVEL

Kevin: It's the stuff of legend, and of countless songs: On Christmas night 1895, a pimp (or gambler or carriage driver, depending on the account) named Lee Shelton shot and killed William Lyons in a St. Louis saloon in a dispute over a hat. It's a true American folktale. According to the solicitation, "A hundred years and a thousand songs later, this ordinary little murder had become a legend. This is the true story of what happened after Stagger Lee shot Billy." Creators Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix have a blog devoted to the graphic novel.

MAGE, VOL. 2: THE HERO DEFINED, AND SPAWN COLLECTION, VOL. 2 TRADE PAPERBACKS

Kevin: Two creations that loom large in the history of independent comics, Mage and Spawn, get collected. I'm dating myself again, but I remember as a kid discovering issues of Mage and Grendel on the spinner rack at Taylor's Market, which previously only carried Marvel, DC and Archie. But for some reason, Comico titles like those two, and Elementals, Robotech and Justice Machine, started making appearances, if only sporadically. That was the first time I realized there were companies other than "the Big Three" publishing comic books. I recall liking Mage and Grendel, if not entirely understanding them (most likely because I was jumping in mid-story). Maybe it's time for me to rediscover Mage.

As for Spawn: I've never picked up an issue in my life, but I imagine this collection of Issues 13-33 -- "out of print for years!" -- is a big deal for a lot of fans. So, there you go.

Michael: It's always a good time to rediscover Mage. If you haven't read The Hero Discovered though, The Hero Defined isn't a great place to start. Like you've already noticed, it's not an easy story to just jump in the middle of. Check out Discovered first, then you'll be eager for Defined and can join me in my impatient misery as we wait for the third volume.

Kevin: Luckily, The Hero Discovered is part of Image's backlist.