Forward Thinking: Dark Horse for June 2006

And you thought Kevin Melrose and I were late with the Image report? HA!

Here's some Dark Horse commentary for ya.

13TH SON: WORSE THING WAITING TPB

Michael: The concept -- a monster who hunts monsters -- is a little tired. It's the same kind of thing as Hellboy and Goon. The difference, I guess though, is the tone. Hellboy is spooky and pulpy, Goon is funny and cheesy, but Kelley Jones's stuff is often genuinely unsettling. Assuming he goes for a new feel with the concept, this could be very good.

AMANO: THE TALE OF THE GENJI HC ILLUSTRATED GRAPHIC NOVEL

Kevin: As anyone who's read The Sandman: The Dream Hunters or watched G-Force (Gatchaman) can attest, Yoshitaka Amano's artwork is absolutely breathtaking. I can't think of a better description than that. He's the perfect choice to adapt The Tale of the Genji, the 11th century Japanese novel about love, lust and loyalty. Like The Dream Hunters, this is an illustrated novel, not a true graphic novel, so it may not be for everyone.

Michael: Oh, wait. That's who Yoshitaka Amano is? They shoulda put that in the solicitation copy. The cover on this one didn't grab me, but Dream Hunters was... yeah, "breathtaking" is the right word.

THE ARTIST WITHIN TPB

Michael: I'm hoping this doesn't come shrink-wrapped and unbrowsable in the store, because if it looks as good as it sounds, it'll easily be worth the $40 cover price. Not being familiar with Preston's work though, I'm gonna want to peek before buying.

B.P.R.D.: THE BLACK FLAME TPB

Michael: The B.P.R.D. series of mini-series was a quietly creepy story until this volume. It's like everything before has just been Act I and now it's all gotten out of hand and the conflict's erupting. Anyone who's been passing up B.P.R.D. because it's "not really Hellboy" is missing out.

Kevin: Is anyone still doing that? They're obviously insane because, in some ways, the B.P.R.D. books surpass Hellboy. These secondary characters have taken on separate, full and fascinating lives.

CHINESE HELLBOY AND ABE SAPIEN TOYS

Michael: These are cute in a Lego-esque sort of way, but $8 a piece? And they're only keychain-sized. I dub thee "for completists only."

Kevin: But they're so damned cute!

THE COMICS: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF COMIC STRIP ART TPB

Michael: They almost had me until I noticed two things: "a journey from the beginning of the comic strip industry to the present day" in the solicitation copy, and "Revised and Updated Edition" on the cover. It always irritates me to see a historical book in one volume that claims to come up to the present day, because you know that it's going to need updating in a year or two. Why not do a multi-volume set, with each volume covering a limited period in history? That way, rather than continually revising and updating the work that people have already bought, you can just add new volumes as history continues to unfold?

Kevin: A multi-volume set might please comics historians, but how long would we have to wait between volumes? Five years? Ten years? I think you're stuck with "revised and updated" editions, Mr. Curmudgeon.

Michael: Damn kids. Get outta my yard!

CONAN #29

Michael: Don't get me wrong. I love Cary Nord. But I will always weep for a missed opportunity to see Mike Mignola art. And missing the opportunity to see Mignola drawing a fight between Conan and a buch of frog-creatures is just about unbearable.

FRANKENSTEIN: THE SHADOW OF FRANKENSTEIN NOVEL

Michael: I love these Universal Monster novels in theory, but none of the plot blurbs I've heard so far have been especially exciting. The Frankenstein Monster vs. Jack the Ripper sounds derivative of Dean Koontz's Frankenstein and just about every other modern sequel to any piece of Victorian fiction.

GOON #18

Michael: I don't even need to know what it's about. It's The Goon. It's going to be great.

THE KUROSAGI CORPSE DELIVERY SERVICE VOL. 1 TPB

Kevin: The somewhat unusual cover initially drew my attention, but now I'm fascinated by the premise: Five students at a Buddhist university help the dead who are still trapped in their bodies move on to the next life. " The kids from Kurosagi can smell a customer a mile away -- it's a good thing one of the girls majored in embalming!" That's brilliant, I tell you.

REVELATIONS TPB

Michael: For the love of God, if you missed this in serial form, buy it this way. It's as thought-provoking as it is chilling.

Kevin: I bought the individual issues, but I think I'll get the collected edition anyway. The story seems to lag a bit in the beginning, but before you know it, you're caught up in it.

SUDDEN GRAVITY TPB
Michael: I'm sorry to see that this is in black-and-white, because I've loved his painted stuff, but I've also learned to trust that I'm going to be impressed with Greg (Freaks of the Heartland; Conan) Ruth. The story sounds scary as hell too.