"The recovery from oblivion of these treasures is in itself a work of art."
 
 - Kurt Vonnegut on YOU SHALL DIE BY YOUR OWN EVIL CREATIONS!
 
 
b o o k s   f o r   j u n e
 
Dark Entries h/c (£14-99, Vertigo/DC) by Ian Rankin & Werther Dell'Edera.
Vertigo kicks off its Vertigo Crime line with two original graphic novels to make our till clatter with excitement, both due out on August 20th. Because, yes, it's that Ian Rankin of Inspector Rebus fame who's going to bring with him so many of his hundreds of thousands of crime fiction readers.
Another batch of wanna-be celebutards are lured by the prospect of fame to the latest locked-room reality TV programme, Haunted Mansion. But as transmission begins it becomes increasingly clear that the programme's title may be far more accurate than the producers had anticipated: contestants really are going missing. Which is great for viewing figures, but otherwise alarming for the show's producers. In an effort to find out exactly what's happening they send in the ultimate mole to live in their hole and reside alongside the other house mates: John Constantine. God help them if his ciggie rations run out.
Here's Ian Rankin being interviewed about his experiences preparing for the project - LINK - some of which give Eddie Campbell doubts: LINK!
 
Filthy Rich h/c (£14-99, Vertigo/DC) by Brian Azzarello & Victor Santos.
From the author of 100 BULLETS and indeed the recent JOKER hardcover, this is the other launch title for Vertigo Crime. He brings with him Spain's thrice-favourite comicbook artist who sure likes his shadows and gets through almost as much ink on a single page as Charles Burns.
"Richard "Junk" Junkin has always lived on the wrong side of trouble. A former pro football star whose career was cut short by injury (and a nasty gambling problem), Junk now spends his time dreaming of what might have been, selling cars in Jersey and lusting after the boss's unbelievably spoiled, unbelievably sexy and unbelievably rich daughter, Victoria. So when the boss asks him to be Victoria's personal bodyguard while she tears up the New York City club scene, Junk leaps at the chance. But before long, he's finds that Victoria wants a lapdog and not a chaperone, someone who's going to do all of her dirty work—all of it—someone who wants to get filthy rich…"
Preview courtesy of the Los Angeles Times: LINK
 
100 Bullets vol 13: Wilt (£14-99, Vertigo/DC) by Brian Azzarello & Eduardo Risso.
The final twelve issues of impossibly eloquent crime in one big mortuary slab. The Trust or The Minutemen? Who's going to win the war and whose Houses will be left standing, if any?
 
Everybody Is Stupid Except For Me And Other Astute Observations (£12-99, Fantagraphics) by Peter Bagge.
A collection of Bagge's comicstrip columns for Reason Magazine, a rather fine political and cultural magazine which takes few prisoners. For example: LINK!
 
Locas II: Maggie, Hopey & Ray HC (£29-99, Fantagraphics) by Jaimie Hernandez ~
Second Massive Hardcover collating all the Maggie & Hopey stories from after the first LOVE & ROCKETS. I can hear my shelves whimpering already. [One copy of LOCAS I still in stock - Ed.]
 
Side B: The Music Lover's Comic Anthology (£16-99, Poseur Ink) Anthology ~
Flip me over, I'm b-side myself with joy. Yet another anthology with Jeffrey Brown in, so I'm already making space on my shelf. Full list of contributors and preview pages here LINK
 
Abstract Comics HC (£29-99, Fantagraphics) edited by Andrei Molotiu ~
Whether it's reducing the medium to its bare minimum and just letting the mechanics speak for themselves or fooling the mind into thinking there's a narrative between a series of randomly cobbled together Rorschach prints, there's undeniably something interesting about exploring comics' tricks. Compiling work from Lewis Trondheim, Gary Panter, James Kochalka and many others, all of whom also provide a maelstrom of information on the accompanying BLOG.
 
Welcome To Forest Island HC (£22-99,Top Shelf) by Bwana Spoons ~
Ah finally! Mark first introduced me to Bwanna vinyl-toy-obsessed way back when; pretty sure we still have a few copies of his excellent PENCIL FIGHT zines tucked away in some browser-friendly corner of the shop. "All 144 full-colour pages -- including paintings, maps, sketches, short comics, and more -- are dedicated to Forest Island, the outrageously colourful land of Bwana’s imagination! Our motley cast includes whale-gators, super-cicadas, wild killers and tapirs, arrow-shooting basket-weaving love tribes, an ex-hobo mushroom farmer, and one wacky bat who plays drums in a metal band and would do anything for a jelly-filled bagel." LINK
 
From Wonderland With Love: Danish Comics In The Third Millenium (£22-50, Fantagraphics) by lots of people whose names will destroy our spellchecker. Something to look forward to.
 
You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creations! (£18-99, Fantagraphics) by Fletcher Hanks ~
"The recovery from oblivion of these treasures is in itself a work of art." - Kurt Vonnegut
It felt like a pop surrealist version of Flash Gordon, to look at it you would assume the outlandish art style and feverish plots were devised by some young up-start from Fort Thunder, but the comics of Fletcher Hanks were actually made in the 1930s, by someone less than gentile. Paul Karasik (City Of Glass) collects the remaining Hanks comics in a collection twice the size of I SHALL DESTROY ALL THE CIVILISED PLANETS! which is still available. LINK
 
The Artist Himself: A Rand Holmes Retrospective w/DVD (£21-99, Fantagraphics) by Patrick Rosenkranz.
A creator you'd naturally associated more with The Bay Area than Canada, his most famous protagonist being hippie Harold Head. This is not only a portrait of the man but reprints the full-length Head comics "Wings Over Tijuana" and "Hitler's Cocaine". LINK
 
Love Is A Peculiar Type Of Thing (£7-50, Box Brown Comics) by Box Brown ~
Existential questions, apathy and twee are the subjects for today, and Brown does make a rather attractive lesson plan (X-Men fans click the link). Hopefully this reprints his recent stuff and not his painfully bad talking heads comics from years ago. More on arrival! LINK
 
Moomin vol 4 h/c (£14-99, Drawn & Quarterly) by Tove Jansson.
"A lost treasure now rediscovered, one of the sweetest, strangest comic strips ever drawn or written. A Surrealist masterpiece. Honest" - Neil Gaiman
He's not wrong, either. Whether you were brought up on the comics, the animation series or the illustrated prose, everyone's got to love Moomin, surely? Witness here, the most trying of houseguests from book one: LINK
 
Crazy Hair h/c (£13-99) by Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean.
"I'm sure it'll be lovely" - Tove Jansson.
Bonnie's trip through her new friend's jungle of hair. LINK
 
Echo vol 2: Atomic Dreams (£11-99, Abstract Studios) by Terry Moore.
Weapons-grade thriller in which one poor woman's body has bonded with the remains of a brand-new bomb: a semi-sentient alloy housing the consciousness of the woman who'd been test-piloting the device only to be betrayed by its developers when they detonated it mid-air. Now those same developers allied with US military want their weapon back, and they're not the only ones hot on Julie's trail: there's a vicious old man with a piece of the same puzzle on his hands determined to destroy the metal on Julie's chest - and her along with it. This is hitting our shelves at a rapid rate of knots then shooting out just as fast. I don't know why anyone should be surprised at the violence here - the things Terry put Katchoo and co. through in STRANGERS IN PARADISE was pretty damn harsh. LINK
 
Back To Brooklyn (£10-99, Image) by Garth Ennis, Jimmy Palmiotti & Mihailo Vukelic. A bloody mob war erupts between two brothers Bob and Paul Saetta. Bob's friends and family get caught in the middle as, Bob knew, was pretty much inevitable. So why go after Paulie, surrounded as he is by so many loyal torturers and hard-nosed killers? It's a package he found showing Paulie forcing himself on, then killing children. Unfortunately for Bob it's no secret to some, and they simply do not care. A more substantial read than I was necessarily expecting, and pretty grim stuff too. Interview here with images.
By the way, if you've only recently realised that you missed out on Ennis' CROSSED whose zombie packs' sexual predilections make most other horror comics look like Mary Whitehouse's idea of a good night in, you can bring yourself up to date with a pack of #0-4 @ £13-50.
Also offered this month: Garth Ennis' BATTLEFIELDS vol 2: DEAR BILLY @ 9-99, told from the perspective of nurse who survived a massacre in the South China seas at the hands of the Japanese during WWII.
 
Madame Xanadu vol 1: Disenchanted (£9-99, Vertigo/DC) by Matt Wagner & Amy Reeder Hadley.
I don't "do" this sort of fantasy involving faeries and wizards myself, so I merely dipped into the first issue for research. Another take on Camelot (though initially disguised) with Morgana et al in attendance, a kingdom is under threat and Morgana's prophetic sister is dragged into the conflict, implored by the druids to use her influence with the resident magus. The art's quite attractive for this sort of thing, particularly Amy's female faces. LINK
 
Northlander vol 2: The Cross + Hammer (£10-99, Vertigo/DC) by Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly.
The scene shifts to Ireland towards the end of Viking rule, whilst LOCAL artist Ryan Kelly is reuinted with its writer. "A series of mysterious murders and arsons against wealthy citizens leaves the Viking occupiers worried that a potential uprising might ignite. When surprising details involving the crimes are revealed, though, their jobs become much harder!"
 
Wolfskin vol 1 (£13-50 s/c; £20-99 h/c, Avatar) by Warren Ellis & Juan Jose Ryp, Gianluca Pagliarani.
Of the first issue, I wrote:
The best way to describe the colour art here, would be 'ripe'. The wild woodland is lush and dense, the blood runs in rivers, and the divided village, its fires billowing smoke, almost reeks. Into which strolls a warrior in a wolfskin, only to be ambushed by those whose pride refuses to allow him to merely pass by. Their mistake, really. Then there's the grotesque, gap-toothed "Noi", an outsider who - along with his brother - has seen fit to declare himself village leader, except that their personal differences have split the community into two separate factions. Now the Wolfskin's acts of tissue-shredding self-defence have caused an imbalance between the two powers, will he be persuaded to plug the gap?
"I will eat my enemy's flesh and consider your problem."
So that's how 2006's Eurovision was judged. As violent as you'd expect from Ellis, but also quite wordy as foreign parties take stock of each other and exchange mythological misgivings.
 
Wasteland vol 4: Dog Tribe (£8-99, Oni) by Antony Johnston & Christopher Mitten.
The intelligent sci-fi epic set on the desiccated dustbowl of our planet continues, as Abi and Michael ramp up their efforts to locate A-Ree-Yass-I.
Here's the Wasteland Website: LINK. And here's Antony on his interview on Kerrang Radio! LINK
 
30 Days Of Night: 30 Days 'Til Death (£13-50, IDW) by David Lapham
Warning: may actually contain content. It is David Lapham after all.
 
Mice Templar s/c (£13-50, Image) by Oeming, Glass & Michael Avon Oeming. Like MOUSE GUARD this is anthropomorphic mice is a feudal fantasy setting, but this is rather darker, craggier and, as the title implies, more about secret societies, prophecy and mythology. Reprint of Jonathan's hardcover review on arrival. LINK
 
Flight volume 6 (£18-99, Villard) by various inc. Kazu Kibuishi. Cover LINK - gorgeous!
Kazu, creator of the all-ages AMULET (vol 2 due in September) is also the editor of this spectacularly successful anthology which veers towards the fantastical. Here's his blog: LINK
 
Some New Kind Of Slaughter h/c (£14-99, Archaia Studios) by MpMann & A. David Lewis.
"Cool title," writes Jeff Jensen at Entertainment Weekly. "But dig this subtitle: ''Lost in the Flood (and How We Found Home Again) Diluvian Myths from Around The World.'' No doubt comic buyers will see that and think, That sounds like the most boring comic book ever made. They would be mistaken. Slaughter takes a host of mythological and religious flood tales — plus a fictional storyline about an eco-warrior trying to reunite with her son after a natural disaster strikes — and attempts to fashion a new, modern myth for our environmentally challenged times. The baseline narrative thread follows Ziusudra, the proto-Noah of Sumerian myth, who is lost at sea in his massive ark and adrift with his own mind as he second-guesses himself and his divine direction. In response, his deity sends him visions of other flood yarns, including a well-realized story about Noah that reminds us how the God of the Bible used some fallen, nutty cats to execute his will." Interior art LINK (scroll down).
 
Eerie Archives vol 2 (£37-99, Dark Horse) by various including Neal Adams, Gene Colan, Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta, Gray Morrow.
Younger sister to CREEPY edited by Archie Goodwin.
 
Ojingogo new printing (£10-99, Drawn & Quarterly) by Matthew Forsythe ~
This is SO cute it beggars belief! Imagine Andy Watson on Jim Woodring's FRANK and you're close. Its certainly as mad as FRANK was, with all the strange creatures and the outlandish circumstance they fall into. Ojingogo (pronounced oh-jing-aw-go) is based on the Korean for Squid (Ojingaw) with an extra "Go" on the end for tickles. Unlike FRANK which was mostly wordless, Matt's creation has a strange language throughout. Part English, part Hangul (Korean alphabet), almost entirely nonsense and primarily used by the young girl whose various pursuits are foiled by stupid, stupid creatures. And the best bit is, you don't need to read the words at all, the pictures carry this and the strange symbols that come crashing out of her mouth just add accent to the bizarre situations. LINK
 
Tiny Tyrant: The Ethelbertosaurus (£7-50, First Second) by Lewis Trondheim & Fabrice Parme.
The return of Too Much Sugar Boy, now in a bigger format from smaller eyes. Of the last volume:
These gleefully silly stories gallop along at a lunatic speed, as the Tiny Tyrant in question, easily bored but excitable and tenacious, dashes off demands to his elders and betters who dutifully try to satisfy his manifold whims. The episode in which they give him a body guard to keep him safe (and in which he therefore puts himself in ever-increasing peril in order to test the man's abilities and patience!) is a masterpiece in cause, effect and contrariness, whilst the discovery of a dinosaur fossil only eggs the toddler on to create a larger, more fearsome, living version that - via a little time travel - brings about the existence of that very fossil.  It's Trondheim (MISTER O, ALIEEEN) through and through, with art from animator Parme that looks and feels just like the most exuberant of your childhood TV cartoons. LINK to the last book.
 
Johnny Hiro vol 1 (£10-99, Adhouse) by Fred Chao.
Daft rom-com romp involving "the revenge of a big lizard, the quest for a lobster, or what can happen when 47 ronin go to the opera." Silly but fun, and I think Chao reads NEXTWAVE. Finally I've found you a LINK.
 
Least I Could Do vol 2: Velcro Pants Are Awesome (£8-99, Blind Ferret Entertainment) by Ryan Sohmer & Lar De Souza. Web comicstrip starring a narcissistic nymphomaniac, and featuring some pretty good cartooning. Storylines vary from dates to current events and even superhero spoofs, so there's a decent range there that PENNY ARCADE etc. sadly lack: LINK
 
True Loves 2: Trouble In Paradise (£6-99, New Reliable) by Jason Turner, Manien Bothma & Jason Turner.
We still have a copy of volume one:
Love stories come in many hues – and indeed hews, for that matter. They can be torn and tortured, soft and idealised, quirky and comedic, damned and destructive, quietly unspoken... You get the idea. This is... pretty realistic, really.
Young woman, going out with a kind but unthrilling guy, falls for the zest of a sudden chance encounter. And you see his side too. There's no hidden agenda, he's smitten as well - and, of course, he's not taken. It's a gradual courtship with both sides bouncing the developments off their best friends, and with Ms. True's co-worker desperately trying to bolster her with the backbone and moral wherewithal to let her current boyfriend go as soon and as gently as possible before she finds herself doing something that makes her feel guilty rather than on top of the world. But it's not easy, is it, ditching someone? I'd rather be dumped on myself than doing that.
What else? I liked the friends' involvement. That's another thing, isn't it: do your friends approve of your choices? Will they get on or hate each other? And what about your friends and their friends? Wouldn't it be a bugger if each of your best mates had already indulged in a romantic interlude? That didn't work out? Because they misinterpreted each other at the time?
See, this is fine stuff. The visual storytelling - on the "cartoony" Kolchalka/Porcellino side - is pretty flawless too, driving the encounters along, and there's a real sense of place (Vancouver, in this instance). Didn't think I was going to enjoy this at all on the basis of the comparatively stiff cover, but Scott McCloud's recommendation spurred me on, and here I am, converted.
 
Astro City: The Dark Age Book One s/c (£14-99, Wildstorm/DC) by Kurt Busiek & Brent Anderson.
First half of the latest sixteen-issue storyline in Kurt's own personally constructed superhero mythology in which it's far more about the humanity than the hitting, and so often perceived - just like Busiek's MARVEL's - from the pedestrian point of view: by ordinary human beings living in a world in which metahumans exist. So here's what I wrote of the first issue to appear in July 2005:
Finally we're taken back in time to Astro City in the uneasy 1970s, as seen through the eyes of two brothers, Charles and Royal. Royal, with his Huggy Bear afro and hooked nose, doesn't much care that the heroes aren't being perceived in such shining lights these days, that the population as a whole is growing weary of the danger they seem to attract and wary of the decisions they take it upon themselves to make. If there's a growing chaos, he takes advantage of it: he's a thief. Charles, on the other hand, is a cop.
Busiek returns to the superhero series with a heart, marrying its history to our own (Korean War etc.) to create some unexpected perspectives using the power of hindsight, and once more we are firmly sat on the sidelines with the bystanders, with those who have no control over the bigger picture, as we watch what once seemed so clear-cut dissolve into disarray. And if you're a regular reader, you'll feel a certain frisson when I tell you that the Silver Agent has been arrested, and charged with the ****** of a ******* **** ** *****.  Looks like we're going to see what that statue's all about.
 
Absolute Justice slipcased h/c (£75-00, DC) by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger & Doug Braithwaite, Alex Ross.
Ross meshes beautifully with both Krueger and Braithwaite to produce a substantial, sturdy and rewarding read as the Justice League find themselves outflanked by their enemies who've banded together and stolen their thunder by going where they never did: to the desserts to rejuvenate fertility, to the sick to cure their diseases, and to the population to steal their hearts. Oh, and they've also worked out how to immobilise the Justice League one by one. Unseen artwork, and plenty more extras. LINK
 
Brave & The Bold: Without Sin (£13-50, DC) by Marv Wolfman, David Hine & Phil Winslade, Doug Braithwaite.
Oh, come on! No one wanted the hardcovers, I know, but this is Winslade and Braithwaite and it's a softcover starring Green Lantern, the Phantom Stranger, Supergirl and Raven. Not read it, no, I'm just trying to be positive.
 
Superman And The Legion Of Superheroes s/c (£10-99, DC) by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank.
We rather liked, and enough for me to write a relatively rare and substantial DC superhero review, reprinted on arrival. In the meantime here's Tom on the first issue herein:
In a parody of Superman's origin, the sequel to this year's JLA/JSA crossover [involving time-displaced members of The Legion Of Superheroes - ed.] opens with an alien couple placing their baby into a rocket and pointing it towards Earth. Only this isn't in the 21st century, but the 31st! And as the tiny ship crashes into Smallville of 3008AD, an old couple investigate the wreckage and do "what any law-abiding citizens would"... produce a double-barrelled laser gun. And obviously with Frank on art, the whole scene also draws comparisons to the opening of SUPREME POWER too! And yes, Gary Frank's Superman is very much like Hyperion (thankfully sleek in comparison to the the ridiculously muscular fashion the character is usually envisioned). After being flung into a brutal dystopian future, Superman discovers what has become of his legacy and exactly why his childhood friends warned him not to follow them back. Well look on the bright side, the sun might not be as yellow as he remembers, but he'll come back with a wicked suntan.
 
DC Classics Library: Justice League Of America by George Pérez h/c (£29-99, DC) by Gerry Conway & George Pérez.
The first half of George's run in the 1980s reprinting #184-186, 192-192 and some postcards. Six issues for £29-99. How could you possibly resist?
 
The Sandman by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby h/c (£29-99, DC) by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby.
Featuring the work of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. On The Sandman. Not Morpheus, no, as evidenced at the LINK.
 
Kick-Ass h/c (£18-99, Icon/Marvel) by Mark Millar & John Romita Jr.
All eight issues, so if this is going to make its slated publication date on 2nd July, the rest of the periodicals had better get a move on!  Of the first issue, a year ago...
Millar loves talking about comics, doesn't he? They're constantly referenced in his own, and argued about by his characters. And he does it so well. Here Dave Liweski, an unremarkably but slightly insular boy, wonders why so many people dream about being Paris Hilton but no one wants to be Spider-Man. If they've read the comics or seen the movie, well, why would they settle for a life flipping burgers when maybe they could have more fun and do some good at the same time? Well, some probably would want to be Spider-Man, but since super powers don't actually exist, no one actually tries. Until Dave. Needless to say, it doesn't go well, and it looks as if there's worse to come - worse than two broken legs, a crushed spine and being found by an ambulance in a pervert suit.
For some reason I find I can't do this comic justice - you need to read the script. It's not a superhero comic, it's about a young teenager who imitates them, with real-world consequences like getting the crap kicked out of you and inspiring copy cats who go the same way. On the other hand, it's anything but mundane, riddled as it is with sly observations about how we do live our lives regardless of whether we do end up doing anything as extreme as making ourselves a gimp suit, wear it in geography class under our school clothes and then teeter about on alley walls waiting for a fight to kick off.
 
Astonishing X-Men Omnibus h/c (£55-99, Marvel) by Joss Whedon & John Cassady.
40 pages of extras, and at about the same price as the four softcovers combined. Smart dialogue, brilliantly successful misdirection and the sexy art of John Cassady take Kitty Pryde, Cyclops, Wolverine, The Beast and Emma Frost deep underground to discover that Colossus is very much alive, but predicted to destroy a world. That takes them way up into space, where one of them stays, alone and for ever. In the end I thought this was just as good as Morrison's run, and if it was more consistent Whedon at the very least benefited enormously from Grant's smart reimagining not just of Emma Frost but of the whole dynamics.
 
Dark Reign: Accept Change softcover (£18-99, Marvel) by Bendis, Hickman, Fraction, more & Maleev, Deodato, more.
Marvel succeeds in manufacturing another of its increasingly infuriating, ill-judged and self-defeatingly greedy ways of packaging material. Following on immediately from SECRET INVASION this certainly reprints the critical and excellent SECRET INVASION: DARK REIGN by Bendis and Maleev which reveals what was said in the Cabal's meeting right at the end of SECRET INVASION, plus UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL #2 which shows Emma Frost's private reaction. It also reprints the DARK REIGN: NEW NATION one-shot (which was far from critical or indeed very interesting) introducing its new titles, but at least it makes sense to pop it in here. It goes on to reprint DARK AVENGERS #1, then charges you a tenner for interviews and stats. Plus you just know that DARK AVENGERS #1 will be reprinted in its own title's tpb - although I'll get back to you if that turns out to be untrue - whilst the X-MEN ANNUAL is indeed reprinted in UNCANNY X-MEN: LOVELORN below. If I were Marvel in a recession I'd be concentrating harder than ever to provide quality entertainment that was value for money rather fleecing the few who can still afford such high prices. Sometimes it does still pay to buy the individual periodicals. We still have some NEW NATIONS in stock, and I'll see what I can do to buy in more SI:DR for you, because you do need SECRET INVASION: DARK REIGN. Trade paperback readers, please get in touch.
 
Irredeemable Ant-Man (£25-99, Marvel) by Robert Kirkman & Phil Hester, Cory Walker.
Currently appearing in Diggle's THUNDERBOLTS, he gets the full-sized treatment after appearing in digests. All twelve issues which would have cost you £27-00.
 
X-Men: The End Trilogy (£25-99, Marvel) by Chris Claremont & Sean Chen.
All 18 issues for the same price as the 12 above. Customers do ask us what the logic is behind the pricing of corporate books, and as we've carefully explained before in measured, minute detail, we haven't a fucking clue.
 
Uncanny X-Men: Lovelorn (£11-99, Marvel) by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction & Terry Dodson, Mitch Breitweiser.
#504-507 plus, yes, you read right: UNCANNY X-MEN ANNUAL #2.
 
Captain America: The Man With No Face h/c (£18-99, Marvel) by Ed Brubaker & Luke Ross, Steve Epting, Butch Guice.
Reprints #43-49 and guest-stars Namor as Bucky's WWII past catches up with him.
 
Captain Britain & MI 13 vol 2: Hell Comes To Birmingham (£10-99, Marvel) by Paul Cornell & Leonard Kirk.
Overseas readers: Birmingham is a big city in the Midlands (which as the name suggests sits right in the middle of England) entwined by motorway (most famously the Spaghetti Junction cat's cradle of overpasses), and gave us Duran Duran, ELO and Ozzy Osbourne - that's what Brummies sound like when they're stoned. Now, as the title suggests, Black Sabbath are back and -- [that's enough bollocks, thank you, Stephen - Ed.]
 
Runaways: Dead Wrong s/c (£11-99, Marvel) by Terry Moore & Humberto Ramos.
STRANGERS IN PARADISE creator scribes errant miners. Sorry, minors. Shame, I had twenty-five years of Arthur Scargill jokes just bursting to come out.
 
Spider-Man: New Ways To Die s/c (£14-99, Marvel) by Dan Slott, Mark Waid & John Romita Jr, Adi Granov, Pat Oliffe.
Venom, Anti-Venom, The Green Goblin, the rest of the Dark Av -- I mean Thunderbolts, and more. First climax in the current run which I reviewed in a highly excitable state. Was good.
 
Dark Reign/Thunderbolts (£9-99, Marvel) by Andy Diggle, Daniel Way & De La Torre, Paco Medina.
What a crying shame. Andy'd been doing so well on THUNDERBOLTS then was presumably told he had to cross over with DEADPOOL just because he's in the new Wolverine film. Deadpool, I mean, not Andy. He did his best, but the"whacky" chappy just ruined it. Collects THUNDERBOLTS #130-131 and DEADPOOL #8-9... a bit like a poop scoop does.
 
Ultimate Origins s/c (£14-99, Marvel) by Brian Michael Bendis & Butch Guice.
Surprisingly small turn-out for this essential Ultimate mini-series which gives you vital pieces of info until now withheld by those in the know. Doesn't matter which Ultimate series you read, you'll love the revelations like who killed Peter Parker's parents. Also contains the WEAPON X of the Ultimate world, and Guice's art - for me - is always a pleasure. Hardcover already available and in stock.
 
X-Men Noir h/c (£14-99, Marvel) by Fred Van Lente & Dennis Calero. The X-Men and their associates reimagined in a midnight gangland Manhattan. Not bad, either.
 
X-Infernus h/c (£16-50, Marvel) by C.B Cebulski & Giuseppi Camuncoli. Darkchylde resurfaces from Limbo.
 
Spider-Man: Sinister Six h/c (£18-99, Marvel) by Stan Lee, David Michelinie & Steve Ditko, Erik Larsen. From AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1 then #334-339 as Spider-Man takes on first Dr. Octopus, Electro, The Sandman, Kraven, Mysterio and The Vulture, then The Hobgoblin takes over from Kraven. There are some odder choices for hardcover this month that I can't even be bothered to list in 'also scheduled'. No, really there are.
 
Powerpack Classics vol 1 (£17-99, Marvel) by Louise Simonson & many.
Regulars will know I have a slight... problem with teen teams. You could very well argue why I treat them as any more ludicrous than comics featuring adults dressing in spandex, and Mark would have been right behind you with a bear hug. I don't equate them with African child soldiers, but still. This series, on the other hand, was about infants with superpowers: under tens who'd escape being baby-sat to fight aliens.
"Hey, Stephen, if it gets an infant to read, that helps your literacy programmes, doesn't it?" Yes, and I know one Dad who orders the recent digests in for exactly that purpose. Actually no, he probably orders them in for purely entertainment purposes because his kids don't seem to have any problems at all with devouring words.
But.
This series was bought predominantly by adults. It's held in nostalgic esteem by adults who were adults then. I simply do not understand.
First ten issues from, I don't know, 20 years ago?
 
Gerry Anderson's TV 21: Adventure In 21st Century vols 1 and 2 (£14-99, Reynolds & Hearn).
From 1965 onwards, two collections of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Lady Penelope and Fireball XL5 strips.
 
World Of Warcraft book 2 h/c (£14-99, Wildstorm/DC) by Walter Simonson & Jon Buran, Mike Bowden, Jerome K. Moore.
Not an expert, sorry - I don't do online gaming. But here it is, and there you are, but if this is the sort of stuff you're into, please check out both the CORY DOCTOROW (edited review directly below), and indeed SURROGATES of which we've sold some 250 copies before the film was even announced. They'll make you think! Reviews reprinted below this section in, umm, "Review Relevant"!
 
Neil Gaiman Presents: Space Chantey (£9-99, Dark Horse) by R. A. Lafferty. Another out of print book dear to Gaiman, this "a whimsical reimagining of Homer's Odyssey" - in space!
 
The Ancient Book Of Sex And Science h/c (£14-99, Adhouse) by Scott Morse, Lou Romano, Don Shank, Nate Wragg etc.
Themed artbook Lowbrow/animation style. LINK
 
Deathreats: The Life And Times Of a Comicbook Rock Star (£9-99, Sirius) by Drew Hayes.
Inspired by Dave Sim's Notes From The President, Hayes wrote 100 "Starting Notes" in the front of each issue of POISON ELVES. Whatever was on his mind, really: the book itself, the industry at large or whatever music he was listening to.
 
Sparrow: Sergio Toppi h/c (£10-99, IDW) by Sergio Toppi.
Toppi exhibited in Angoulême in 2008: LINK
 
Prayer Requested (£9-99, Drawn & Quarterly) by Christian Northeast.
Strange! Real prayers scavenged from the internet and turned into tiny screen prints. Why would you post prayers on the internet? Regardless of their public posting, I can't help feeling uncomfortably voyeuristic looking at these. Do they offer insight, or will people pray for anything and everything? I wonder what the top ten most popular prayers of all time are? I mean, private prayers, not those prescribed for recital. Do you think God's been keeping score? LINK
 
Comicbook Design: The Essential Guide To Creating Great Comics And Graphic Novels (£17-99) by Gary Spencer Millidge.
Traditional and digital design, page construction etc. from the creator of STRANGEHAVEN. We does know his stuff, yes.
 
 
r e v i e w   r e l e v a n t
 
The Surrogates (£12-99, Top Shelf) by Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele.
Sometimes you have to read a series right to the end to understand how clever it is, and this is one of those.
As much a commentary on our vanity - our desperate obsession with staying young by any cosmetic or surgical means necessary - and how that affects society's set of priorities, this crime fiction science is set in a world full of Surrogates. Instead of hitting the interweb and firing up role playing games in which a weakling can pretend to be a knight, a woman can pretend to be a man, and a man can pretend to be a household pet, you can lie in your room whilst hooked up to your real-life Surrogate: an artificial body that can go out into the real world and do your job or courtship for your. Handy if you're a police officer, because it's a lot less dangerous; dodgy territory if your a police officer's aging wife, and you refuse to interact with him except through your younger Surrogate.
Weldele brings all the craft he bestowed on SOUTHLAND TALES, including some fiercely atmospheric, monochromatic colouring (think Templesmith on Ellis' FELL) to a very intelligent script, as a lone terrorist seeks to disable the Surrogates one by one and then en masse. Why would he or she do that?
 
"When I was a child, my father had a photograph of eleven men sitting on a steel girder. These men -- the steeplejacks as they were called -- were hundreds of feet in the air, eating lunch on the skeleton of Rockefeller Centre. I was in awe of them. That they could dine so close to death... The strange mixture of fear and exhilaration that must've made them feel so incredibly alive. Now here you are, fifteen stories above the ground, and what do you feel? Nothing. You feel no fear, no exhilaration. You certainly don't feel alive. Because you aren't here. You have traded flesh and bone for cosmetics and alloy. You live a filtered life.
"You ask what I want? Everyone dreams of changing the world. I only want to change it back."
 
Cory Doctorow's Futuristic Tales Of The Here And Now h/c (£16-99, IDW) adapted by many.
Collection of never-to-be-collected short stories (that's what Cory said), the first two of which I read and thoroughly enjoyed.
Of the first, what stunned me into wide-eyed silence was the truth behind this story, as detailed in the editor's interview with Cory right at the back. It does sound like a bizarre, futuristic concept, but it's happening right here in the now, removing the "virtual" from "reality" and making you think very hard about role playing online, not in a "Oooh, the violence of it all!" nor in a "Oooh, why can't people congregate in person these days, but instead hide in their cubicles, socialising via a screen?" sort of a way.*
I mean, in a "Jesus, the ways people find to exploit one another!" way, and will leave it at that. Instead, I'll present you with the mystery Anda is presented with here.
She and her friend's avatars (their virtual reality counterparts) are being sent on missions in the virtual fantasy land by an unknown party who will reward them with real cash if they successfully complete them. The missions aren't unusual for such games: find a particular well-guarded landmark, cast spells, capture the landmark and hack the opposition to death before they do the same to you. What is unusual is a) the real cash involved, and b) that those standing guard (potentially for hours on end) aren't Artificial Intelligence enemies, but other online players. "Who wants to sit around in gamespace watching a boring road all day?" asks Anda perceptively, but Lucy doesn't care. Also, when Anda breaches the defences, all she finds are virtual serfs (who again, are real gamers) making shirts, for which they could gain no more than a few virtual copper bits. Why would they do that, instead of embarking on big missions for virtual gold?
Against her instincts, Anda completes the mission by slicing them up with her sword, but there's a niggling doubt in her mind that something is very, very wrong... And it is, by the way.
The art does all it should, but what's special here is the story concept, the way in which it's delivered (Anda's suspicions threaten to destroy her friendship with Lucy who just wants to play on), and, as I said, that Cory's fiction is actual fact. I wasn't expecting anything here, and just ordered a copy out of professional curiosity. Very glad I did so.
 
*Although E.M Forster accurately anticipated the trend and wrote a critique on it as far back as before WWI in the form of a short story called "The Machine Stops" originally published - as a collection, anyway - in 1947.
 
 
also scheduled:
Judge Dredd: Complete Casefiles vol 13 (£18-99, Rebellion) by Alan Grant, John Wagner & Liam Sharp, more
Myspace Dark Horse Presents vol 3 (£14-99, Dark Horse) by Mike Mignola, Stan Sakai, Jane Espenson & Sakai, Will Conrad, Ben Stenbec, Farel Dalrymple, more
Gigantic (£13-50, Dark Horse) by Rick Remeder & Eric Nguyen
Savage Sword Of Conan vol 6 (£14-99, Dark Horse) by Roy Thomas, Michael Fleisher & Bruce Jones
Legacy (£10-99, Hero Initiative) by Jack Katz
Leo Pulp (£20-99, IDW) by Claudio Nizzi & Massimo Bonfatti
When we Fall (£13-99, Lapin Factory) by Mr. Clement
Queer Visitors From The Marvelous Land OF Oz h/c (£55-99, Sunday Press) by L. Frank Baum & Walk McDougal, W.W. Denslow
Magic Trixie And The Dragon vol 3 (£5-99, Harper Collins) by Jill Thompson
Salt Water Taffy vol 3: The Truth About Dr. True (£4-50, Oni) by Matthew Loux
Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen h/c (£14-99, Oni) by Layman, Peyer, Massey & Rodriguez, Chantler
The Wind Raider (£10-99, Ape Entertainment) by Richard Finney, Dean Loftis & Gabriel Hardman, Micah Farritor
Fall Of Cthulu vol 5: Apocalypse (£11-99, Boom!) by Michael Alan Nelson & Mateus Santolouco
Bring Out Your Dead vol 1: It Tolls For Thee (£7-50, Lawdog) by James Heffron & Manuel Penniche
Hero Squared vol 3: Love & Death (£11-99, Boom!) by J.M. DeMatteis, Keith Giffen & Nathan Watson
Fart Party vol 2 (£10-50, Atomic Book Company) by Julia Wertz
Nexus Archives vol 9 h/c (£37-99, Dark Horse) by Mike Baron & Steve Rude, Paul Smith, Adam Hughes, more
Nexus: As It Happened book 1 (£7-50, Rude Dude) by Mike Baron & Steve Rude. Goes right back to the beginning, and affordably so.
Essential Thor vol 4 (£14-99, Marvel) by Stan Lee, Gerry Conway & Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, John Buscema
Essential Dr. Strange vol 4 (£14-99, Marvel) by many
Excalibur Visionaries: Alan Davis vol 1 (£18-99, Marvel) by Alan Davis. Collects #42-50.
Punisher: Year One (£9-99, Marvel) by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning & Dale Eaglesham
She-Hulk vol 9: Lady Liberators (£10-99, Marvel) by Peter David & Vincenzo Cucca, Pasquale Gualano
Patsy Walker: Hellcat (£12-99, Marvel) by Kathryn/Stuart Immonen & David Lafuente, Stuart Immonen
Adam: Legend Of The Blue Marvel (£14-99, Marvel) by Kevin Grevioux & Mat Broome
Iron Fist vol 4: The Mortal Iron Fist s/c (£10-99, Marvel) by Duane Swierczynski & Travel Forman, Heath, Camuncoli
Ms Marvel vol 6: Ascension s/c (£10-99, Marvel) by Reed & many
Deadpool vol 1: Secret Invasion s/c (£10-99, Marvel) by Way & Medina, Barberi
Venom: Dark Origin (£10-99, Marvel) by Zeb Wells & Angel Medina
Sub-Mariner: The Depths h/c (£18-99, Marvel) by Peter Milligan & Esad Ribic
Sentry: The Age Of The Sentry (£14-99, Marvel) by Jeff Parker, Paul Tobin & many
Runaways: Rock Zombies h/c (£14-99, Marvel) by Terry Moore, Christopher Yost, James Asmus & Miyazawa, Pichelli, Rios
Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four vol 3 (£18-99, Marvel) by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby.
Lots of unaffordable hardcover reprints of softcovers customers stopped wanting
Birds Of Prey: Platinum Flats (£13-50, DC) by Tony Bedard & various
Green Lantern Corps: Through The Ages (£3-50 - is that a typo?, DC) by various
Final Crisis: Revelations h/c (£14-99, DC) by Greg Rucka & Philip Tan
Justice League International vol 2 a/c (£13-50, DC) by Kieth Giffen, JM DeMatteis, John Ostrander & Maguire, Willingham, McDonnell, Gordon, Lewis, more
Superman & Batman vs Vampires & Werewolves (£10-99, DC) by Kevin VanHook & Tom Mandrake
Showcase Presents: Bat Lash (£7-50, DC) by various
Showcase Presents: Batman vol 4 (£12-99, DC) by various
Terror Titans (£13-50, DC) by Sean McKeever & Joe Bennett
Wonder Woman: Amazons Attack s/c (£14-99, DC) by Will Pfeifer & Pete Woods.
Wildcats: World's End (£13-50, Wildstorm/DC) by Christos Gage & Neil Googe, Pete Woods
Death Defying Devil vol 1 (£10-99, D.E.) by Alex Ross, Joe Casey & Edgar Salazar
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files: Storm Front vol 1 h/c (£16-99, Dabel Bros.) by Jim Butcher, Mark Powers & Ardian Syaf
Kaboom vol 1 (£10-99, Image) by Jeph Loeb & Jeff Matsuda
Goats vol 1: Infinite Typewriters (£10-50, Del Ray) by Jonathan Rosenberg
Caliber vol 1: First Canon Of Justice (£10-99, Radical) by Sam Sarkar & Garrie Gastonny
Hercules vol 1: The Thracian Wars (£10-99, Radical) by Steve Moore & Admira Wijaya
 
 
m a n g a   f o r   j u n e
 
Cirque Du Freak: The Manga vol 1 (£roughly £6-99, can't recall - we ordered the UK version) by Darren Shan & Takahiro Arai.
First comicbook adaptation of the wildly popular vampire novel series for young adults. How popular? Well over 10 million copies sold.
You actually have to search quite hard to find out that Darren Shan, supposedly the writer and lead protagonist, is actually Darren O'Shaughnessy, one of Page 45's most loyal and voracious mail order customers who sent Mark a copy of this first novel way back before Page 45 even opened.
Here's the official Darren Shan website, a far cry visually from the manga! LINK
 
The Summit Of Gods vol 1 (£18-99, Fanfare/Ponent Mon) by Yumemakura Baku & Jiro Taniguchi.
"Because it's there." That's why George Herbert Leigh Mallory said he wanted to climb Mount Everest. "On his third expedition in June 1924, Mallory and his climbing partner, Andrew Irvine, disappeared on the North-East ridge during their ascent, having been sighted only a few hundred metres from the summit. In 1993, in a small Nepalese store, Makoto Fukamachi, photographer for a Japanese expedition to conquer Mt Everest, stumbles across an old camera – a Vest Pocket Autographic Kodak Special. Could it be Mallory’s camera? Did it hold the secret of whether Mallory and Irvine made it to the summit?" Art by the creator of WALKING MAN and THE ICE WANDERER.Click on the 'In The Making Tab' tab of the left-hand side, then on the left-hand book for a preview: LINK.
 
Biographical novel: Mother Theresa (£11-99, Emotional Content) by Hisako Matano & Eiji Han Shimizu.
Jonathan thought I was joking when I said Ma 'Resa was going to be up next. We haven't had the Dalai Lama book in yet, so still can't gauge the quality.
 
Luto vol 4 (£9-99, Viz) by Naoki Urusawa x Tezuka
Gantz vol 7 (£9-99, Dark Horse) by Hiroya Oku
Colour Of Water vol 2 (£12-99, First Second) by Dong Hwa Kim
 
 
c o m i c s   f o r   j u n e
 
Batman And Robin #1 (£2-25, DC) by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely.
Oh come on, we are allowed once in a while. It's undeniably headline material for the comic section this month given the brilliance of the same team's ALL-STAR SUPERMAN.
"David Lynch directs the Batman TV show" - that's how Morrison's pitching this new in-continuity series, the only new superhero work he'll be doing this year. Other than that, he's concentrating on material for Vertigo like SEAGUY vol 2 (#1 in now: enormous fun and selling faster than the first series - review already written for later this month), an eight-part "world in a wardrobe" affair drawn by Sean Murphy and THE NEW BIBLE with art by Camilla D'Errico. So, with Bruce Wayne off the mortal radar for the moment, who are the new Batman and Robin?
LINK
 
Anna Mercury 2 #1 (£2-99, Avatar) by Warren Ellis & Facundo Percio.
Return of the transdimensional, tranny-wigged Tomb Raider, this time responding to an Earth-bound probe and catapulted through the fabric of universe to the probe's origin in order to decide whether returning contact is a good idea. Given that there appear to be a bunch of kidnapped humans on the other side might indicate that a "Thanks but no thanks" response would be in order, but my guess is that there will actually be a great many very big 'xplosions.
First softcover in stock and reviewed last month, I believe. LINK
Warren wrote, "It really wasn't mental enough." Yes it was. "A few hours and a bottle of Scotch later, it came to me: She would much rather be fighting Techno-Vikings From Beyond Space. I mean, wouldn't you? Within moments, I had the skeleton of the [second] series: not only the weird ethnic mix of the Constellation pseudo-world of Three Souls Town, but the sub-human Nordic sheep-worriers of the Ultraspacial Dreadnought Vanaheim, sailing the hypergel between universes and gnawing on the flesh of the unwary." Just remember that the next time you consider drinking spirits.
 
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? #1 of 24 (£2-99, Boom!) by Phillip K. Dick & Steven Dupre, with back matter by Warren Ellis.
Apparently this is the novel's full script - the novel which inspired Bladerunner. Far more information here: LINK
 
Olympus #1 of 6 (£2-75, Humanoids/Devil's Due) by Geoff Johns, Kris Grimminger & Butch Guice with Dan Brown on colours.  
Complete graphic novel still kept in stock here @ £9-99 if you prefer. The first copies arrived in May 2005 when I wrote...
"God... from up here... this place is really beautiful, isn't it?"
When a character makes an awestruck observation like that, the artist better be on top form. Fortunately Guice and Brown are both on such amazing form here, you'll have been thinking exactly the same thing dozens of pages previously. Guice's figures have increasingly displayed a sort of John Buscema/Neal Adams fusion of lithe classicism, and I remember seeing a BIRDS OF PREY sequence set in a jungle where you began to suspect what he was truly capable of. This is what he's truly capable of: capturing an isolated mountain island of such scale and wonder that you will be gasping round every corner as waterfalls cascade, the caverns stretch out, and the seas grow mighty and roar. Dan Brown's colouring is the sort of rich, classy stuff you'd see on the cover of some adventure novels from the 70s, and I haven't had this sort of fun since the first two Tombraider games, or the Ray Harryhausen films (Jason & The Argonauts etc.).  
Geoff Johns, it strikes me now (although one can only guess how much Grimminger has to do with the style as well as plot) might be another Kurt Busiek, because I've rated relatively little that Johns has written of DC superheroes myself, and I wonder if it brings out too much of the excitable fanboy in him. Busiek (also prone to two-dimensional fandom on corporate titles) writes with a completely different sensibility on ASTRO CITY, and maybe the same would work for Johns. What if he were to concentrate on his own projects? And, preferably, this sort of mythical action/adventure rather than costumes.
So let's get to the story, which opens on the last day of a student archaeological field trip to Greece, led by a young professor (Gail Walker) who knows her course is about to be closed down. While two sisters, one applying herself to the trip with a little more enthusiasm that the other, sunbathe on the deck of the fishing boat, Gail takes Brent, the fourth member of the expedition, diving in the hope of finding something to return home with - or at least report in to the Greek authorities. They surface with a mucky, barnacled box, but once opened they find a splendid black and gold, ancient Greek jar. And when I say ancient, there's an inscription which reads "Herein contains...  the misfortunes... of man."  Pandora's Box. Their first misfortune is to be mistaken for a boat bearing valuable contraband, and hijacked by York and his heavily armed mercenaries; worse still, the sea erupts out of the blue, scuttling the ship in the deafening squall. Where they wash up, under a bright blue sky, is spectacular, and what happens next I will leave for your own discovery. To begin with it just looks like an idyllic beach below a towering mountain, albeit with a vast, carved statue of Zeus, the likes of which they've never seen. Nor are they alone.
"Some of 'em look like they're on horses."
Heh. Which will be their biggest asset? The guns of the mercenaries, or the wits of the students versed in ancient mythology? And what will be their biggest liability? Probably one of their own.
 
[Actually I originally wrote "I've rated not one word" rather than "relatively little". Imagine how much I cringed with embarrassment when gentlemanly Geoff Johns emailed in to thank me for this review, rather than taking exception to the others. I'm actually still wincing now.]
 
Zombie vs Robots Aventure #1 (£2-99, IDW) by Chris Ryall & Ashley Wood.
Not a typo: I checked the cover.
 
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Tales Of The Vampires one-shot (£2-25, Dark Horse) by Becky Cloonan & Vasilis Lolos.
Please note: this isn't Season 8, so you'll need to order it separately, please.
 
Dawn: Not To Touch The Earth one-shot (£4-50, Image) by J. Michael Linsner. Now DARK IVORY's finished, Linsner returns with Dawn as a Faerie Queen.
 
Chew #1 (£2-25, Image) by John Layman & Rob Guillory. From the writer of MARVEL ZOMBIES VS. ARMY OF DARKNESS, this is comedy crime in which the lead detective Tony Chu is a "Cibopath" which apparently means he receives psychic impressions from whatever he eats - its history of you like. Rather off-putting seeing and/or feeling the final living moments of a large, juicy steak, I'd have thought. Think what you'd have to do to learn who dunnit to a murder victim. Doubly unfortunate for Tony is that the government has sussed him out, and his its own uses for his peculiar talent in mind. LINK
 
Barack Obama: The Road To The White House #1 of 2 (£2-99, IDW) by Jeff Mariotte & Tom Morgan.
From IDW? Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd be more inclined to trust 08: A GRAPHIC DIARY OF THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL reviewed here in February.
 
Batman #687 (£2-99, DC) by Judd Winnick & Ed Benes.
The Battle For The Cowl is over, and Gotham has a new Batman. This is the first-post BATTLE issue, should you wish to hop on board. Judd wrote the BATMAN: UNDER THE HOOD books which saw the return of the long-dead second Robin, Jason Todd. A coincidence...?
 
Detective Comics #854 (£2-99, DC) by Greg Rucka & JH Williams III, Cully Hamner.
The Battle For The Cowl is over, and Gotham has a new Batman. On the other hand, this is Batwoman. With art by PROMETHEA on the main story, it's good to look spectacular, and with one of the two writers of GOTHAM CENTRAL Renee Montoya comes too in the back-up feature illustrated by Hamner.
 
Red Robin #1 (£2-25, DC) by Christopher Yost & Ramon Bachs.
The Battle For The Cowl is over, and Gotham has a new Batman. And a new Robin, if I inferred correctly from BATTLE FOR THE COWL #1. One who understands exactly how DC works and is 100% positive that Bruce Wayne is still alive. Off he flies, then, to see if Bruce is hanging out with Steve Rogers in the waiting room.
 
Batman: The Streets Of Gotham #1 of 27 (£2-99, DC) by Paul Dini &  Dustin Nguyen; Marc Andreyko &, Georges Jeanty.
The Battle For The Cowl is over, and Gotham has a new Batman. And a new Bat-title to last roughly 27 issues at a guess. The streets react! Back-up features the non-Martian Manhunter.
 
Gotham City Sirens #1 (£2-25, DC) by Paul Dini & Guillem March.
The Battle For The Cowl is over, and I don't know if it changed anything. A new Batman, maybe? Regardless, this stars the bad girls of Gotham, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Catwoman.
 
Dark Avengers / Uncanny X-Men: Utopia (£2-99, Marvel) by Matt Fraction & Marc Silvestri.
Yesterday (Thursday 2nd April) we received component parts to three separate, concurrent crossovers at Marvel. I wish we could have another.
Mutants riot in San Francisco, so Norman Osborn declares martial law and sends in his Dark Avengers to quell the riots and quash the X-Men. This kicks off a six-part crossover whose other chapters are I know not where as yet, but feel free to ask us for this as a one-shot or the entire crossover and we'll make sure we get each part wherever they appear and whatever you may (or may not) be already down for.
 
Captain America #600 (£3-50, Marvel) by Ed Brubaker & Butch Guice, Luke Ross, Dale Eaglesham with Mark Waid, Roger Stern, more.
Otherwise known as CAPTAIN AMERICA #51. Is Mr. Rogers starting to feel better now? It's been a very long stomach ache.
 
Thor: The Trial Of Thor one-shot (£2-99, Marvel) by Peter Milligan & Cary Nord. Thor on trial for the murder of innocent Asgardians. Probably nothing to do with the current run, but it's Milligan so I mention it.
 
Dark Reign: Mister Negative #1 of 3 (£2-99, Marvel) by Fed Van Lente & Gianluca Gigliotta.
No, it's not me - it's that new Spider-Man villain/philanthropist constantly looking over Aunt May's shoulder down and the drop-in. Three additional new DARK REIGN mini-series kick off this month on top of the five current ones and the two-dozen tie-ins, including Dark Reign: The Sinister Spider-Man #1 of 4 (£2-99, Marvel) by Brian Reed & Barry Kitson which is indeed Venom. There will be over 100 Marvel comics in June and some 45 books.
 
Comics Journal #299 (£8-99, Fantagraphics).
"Revealed at last: the catastrophic story of what might have been the comics anthology of the century... Bob Levine tracks down the El Dorado of comics: a lost 1970s collection of unpublished stories by 190 of the world's most important cartoonists including Eisner, Bodé, Kirby, Kurtzman, Spiegelman, as well as William Burroughs, Tom Wolfe and Frank Zappa!" Blimmin' 'Eck.
 
UK Postage (overseas at cost): 1-00 for the first comic or t-shirt (unless there's a book included in the package in which case it's just 25 pence), and 25 pence thereafter...
1-00 each for of the pocket-sized manga books, 1-50 each for all other books except...
Complete Calvin & Hobbes slipcased edition and Little Nemo will cost a flat 5-00 postage, but anything ordered on top of it will of course be postage free, because.....
Maximum postage for all this lot in whatever quantities is 5-00.  
Posters and prints are sent separately @ 1-50 for as many as we can fit in a single tube.
Standing Orders:To ensure that you never miss a single issue of a title you read, Page 45 provides a free standing order service either for personal collection or sending by post. All you have to do is tell us which titles you want, and we'll save them for you as they come out. We can do that, because we're not an underpaid bunch of numptees, we know how many copies to order, and when we were young we practised popping the right-shaped bricks into the right-shaped holes in that babies' plastic ball. Not really too difficult adapting that early learned skill to getting the right monthly comics into the right files. You can visit or phone or even email as often as you want, but we must hear from you at least once every three months, please. Single orders and reservations just as gratefully received as any others.
 
Page 45 gift vouchers available again now in a fancy new design and a wider range of denominations.
You get: a free card and envelope. We get: to see your friends later on.
 
Removal instructions: there is no way out. Oh, okay, just type 'remove' in the subject heading, and feel our desolation.
 
Page 45 is a comic shop.
We are:Stephen L. Holland
Tom Rosin  
Jonathan Rigby
with the illustrious Emily Hubbard on back-up
 
Page 45 was created in 1994 by Mark Simpson (1968-2005) and Stephen L. Holland (1703- ),
then kick-started with more than a little help from the glorious Dominique Kidd.
 
Page 45
9 Market Street
Nottingham
NG1 6HYTel: (0115) 9508045
www.page45.com
page45@page45.com
www.myspace.com/page_45
 
Open Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm
 
This Page 45 Mailshot was brought to you by Stephen and Tom while Jonathan sat in the corner of the office upstairs, surrounded by data and crying.
 
 
b r e a k i n g   n e w s
 
As in, I'm breaking it here:
 
I mentioned a month or so ago that members of Page 45's Comicbook Of The Month would be in for a bit of a surprise whenever they come to read the endpapers of Bryan Talbot's GRANDVILLE in October.
 
See, Bryan and I like to have the odd drink together, and it was three or so years ago in Bristol - after Jeffrey Brown had clearly looked after me at the Top Shelf booth while Chris Staros waltzed off to Alan Moore's wedding - that Bryan showed me the proofs of this spectacular new book. It was the work of his latest discovery, Véronique Tanaka, which he had agreed to become her agent for, called METRONOME.
 
I loved it so much that I went on to promote the animated version then the book, and Bryan and I even chatted about it in the interview we did together to promote ALICE IN SUNDERLAND.
 
But the thing is... ummm... we lied?
 
Because after I'd read the proof while Bryan quietly drank his pint, after I'd declared it a magnificent composition, completely different from anything else I'd read in comics... Bryan came out of the closet. Véronique Tanaka is Bryan Talbot, and we decided to have some fun.
 
Now for the record, I did not make METRONOME Page 45's Comicbook Of The Month. Tom did, and he did it with no knowledge of the book's true provenance because he knows a great work when he sees it. Tom, remember, was also solely responsible for choosing SOLANIN. I only told Tom when Bryan sent us the GRANDVILLE files last month because I'd been sworn to secrecy, and I apologised profusely. But yes, I did write the review. It's still available here at its original price, so here's that review again, after which I've asked Bryan to say a few words...
 
Metronome h/c (£8-99, NBM) by Véronique Tanaka/Bryan Talbot, introduction by Jeff Smith. Can you say "ligne claire"?
A room. A man. A fan.
A fly on the wall.
The seconds tick by on a metronome.
Viscous fluid rises in the lava lamp; coffee drips to the floor.
There is a photograph of a woman sitting on the piano.
What happened?
This is, I swear to you, like nothing else you will ever have read, and I've just found a 2007 Lucca Festival interview with Veronique Tanaka online in Italian and English. The 17-minute flash-animated version is still available to view here, and unless the code's been changed you can view it for free by typing 04545 into the box that says "I've already paid". You will be mesmerised - and I choose my past participle very carefully. When I first saw it, I wrote, "It's like the pumping of your heart:so demanding, almost threatening, yet totally compelling. It plays with your desires, your expectations, your aspirations, your delectations... yet half-way through the heartbeat loses its echo, and what was once reflected is reduced to a staccato, violent insistence. As a graphic novel, it will be awesome, but as a piece of multimedia animation (for that's what it is online - not comics - with each frame replacing the other) it's haunting, harrowing, and enough to make you want to hit someone. Hard. Take that appalling irony as you will - it's the gut-felt truth."
This is the graphic novel. As a square, 16-panel paged graphic novel (4 panels wide, 4 panels deep) it remains equally disciplined, but becomes something else as panels combine to form larger ones, and you're given time to interpret them, to join the dots. But that's your job, not mine.
So, Bryan, apart from the obvious thrill of doing anything covert, what was this experiment in misdirection all about?Well, the whole thing was an experiment. Totally different style, all done on computer, totally silent, on a strict sixteen panel grid, sixty-four pages in 4/4 time. The book is even read differently – from bottom left on the verso page to top right on the recto page. And I’ve never done manga before. It was an experiment in comic storytelling. While I was working on it, I realized that no one would even recognise it as being by me so I thought, as part of the experiment, why not put it out under a different name? At first I considered English names, which got progressively more exotic until I thought a Japanese one would suit the style. Then I thought "Why not take it even further and make it a woman’s name?" I did some interviews as Veronique and actually stated that it was a pen name.  On page 35 of the book, in panels 13 and 14, the shadows behind the bridge spell "HOAX".Oh my god, it does! But what provoked you to create METRONOME in the first place? Because on the surface at least it's a far cry from anything you've done before.For the same reason I create other comics – I got the idea and thought it was original and worth doing. My first intention was to make it completely existential but I couldn’t help crafting a story into it. This is what I said in one of my Veronique email interviews in response to the question "When did you conceive Metronome?":"About eight years ago, after reading a short story, La Plage by Alain Robbe-Grillet. It is an existentialist piece of writing. It is no story. Some children walk along a beach. They leave footprints in the sand. Seagulls fly off when they get near, fly about and land in front of them. A church bell is tolling in the distance. That's it. They walk, waves come in, the birds fly off, the bell rings. Each thing repeats. It is as if the moment is going on for ever. It is frozen in time and also taken out of time to exist in its own space. But the atmosphere is fantastic. It made me start to think of a story that could be told in repeated images. Images that at first seem random but all gain significance as the pages turn."
And, I have to ask, how did its publisher NBM react to you coming clean when they had a book in their hands that they could have marketed from the get-go as another Talbot masterpiece? I'd have been so pissed off it's not true (although rather delighted in retrospect to find I had the rights to a Bryan Talbot book!).NBM accepted the book not knowing it was by me. I claimed to be simply acting as Veronique’s agent. After NBM took the book, but before they published it I did come clean with boss Terry Nantier and, to his credit, he didn’t try and persuade me to put it out under my real name. It’s had some really great reviews but not sold in any great numbers, so I’ve decided to "come out" and see if it does any better.It's a shame you never came to sign here, as I suggested at the time, in high heels, wig and lipstick. But it's never too late if you fancy...?
 
Naah. I’d be a real dog!
 
 
l e t t e r s
 
Well done, you!
 
You kept enough fine letters coming in to keep me from writing another column. You see how easy it is?
hello: my name is rusty brown. i'm a collector from milwaukee, wisconsin in the united states. i've been looking for a specific book that comes from the current superman/batman series. it's the number 4-however, it's a variant cover that was drawn by the deceased michael turner. the words on the cover are written in german and it has a picture of supergirl nude-she's got superman's cape covering her. if any of you have this variant, and are looking to sell it, please email me back with the price. i would love to have this as part of my superman/batman series. thank you, rusty
Okay, his name wasn't really Rusty Brown - it was Tom having fun with an otherwise genuine email sent to ourselves, Gosh! and a dozen other UK retail outlets from a guy called Demond.
 
On a not remotely related subject, a month ago I did write:

"But as a serious businessperson would you actually take notice of a grown man who - rather than being ashamed at being surround by children's ephemera - is delightedly proud of them and seeking to instil in you an urge to buy some for yourself?"

Now, I'm not disputing that Bob Wayne is a tit. But for a comics fan and retailer, using that line of argument is distinctly dodgy ground. Like when Stewart Lee, comedy genius and acknowledged comics fan, opened his new TV series by having a go at adults who read Harry Potter on the grounds that it's for kids. Don't use petards you can so easily be hoist by.

And "bending over backwards to be shagged up the arse" would seem like very poor logistics even by the admittedly bonkers standards of Diamond.

[Alex Sarll]

It's long been established that I am the world's worst gay man. Thank you for your... contribution to that argument.

Is there any reason why you couldn't set up a blog and simply dump the mailshots onto it? I'd love to be able to just chuck people a link to it occasionally.It really shouldn't take much time to do - less than an hour I'd imagine...Andy [Ducker]

Jonathan responds:
Hi Andy,
 
Well you're absolutely right but I'd just ask you to bear with us for the next few months as if we get distracted with blogging and forums etc. we'll never get our EPOS system in (very nearly there!) which in turn will also power the trading portion of the website and we can begin to get that set up over the following couple of months. My eyes are nearly bleeding from getting getting myriad datatables and the like done, and I'd far rather be doing something more interesting like blogging but that'll have to be our reward once we get all the main functionality of the site in. But rest assured once we've got the essentials in we'll concentrating on the fun stuff immediately afterwards. There's no one keener than Stephen to turn the mailshot into a blog so we can get interior artwork in to complement the reviews etc. but we just have to get the EPOS installed and trading website up first, both big tasks, whilst keeping the shop running which actually takes up a vast, if invisible, amount of time in itself. Bear with us though please, it'll be well worth it I promise!!
 
Kind regards and thanks for dropping us a line. And believe you me, I looking forward to seeing you in the blogosphere if I can still see by then!!
I can announce that the biggest task which Jonathan refers to above has now been accomplished. The data is in, and the EPOS system is testing out well. We'll be ready to roll with that on the shop floor imminently. Until you go through this yourselves, you will have no idea how much eye-crunchingly hard preparatory work it is. And because neither I nor Tom went through it ourselves but abandoned Jonathan upstairs, we still have no idea!
 
Ha ha ha ha!
Hello - Hope you are all well.
 
Re the following in the latest mailshot:
 
Wizard #212 (£4-50, Wizard) by a babble of bad-breathed baboons. "100 Greatest Graphic Novels of the Last 20 Years!" is what the simpering simians promise. More corporate arse-licking propaganda to sedate the superhero simpletons, but probably less alliteration than this hack can resist. Prediction: they get just two graphic novels right (both by Alan Moore), and one more in a mere chimpanzee/typewriter interface. Will there be a single Page 45 Comicbook Of The Month in there? Yes: PRIDE OF BAGHDAD and PROMETHEA. Other than that, you can forget it. And PRIDE OF BAGHDAD, however fine, can't possibly rate as one of the top 100 in the last 20 years. Still, that'll be the first time in ages that they've devoted more than three pages to comics rather than film and computer games. Should Page 45 draw up its own highly contentious list for the website, do you think? I've never been a fan of those: even the COMICS JOURNAL's contribution was - from the other end of the spectrum - so out of whack with reality. The only time I've ever agreed with such an overview was with Eddie Campbell towards the end of HOW TO BE AN ARTIST. I'd not argue with a single one of those.
 
There is always a problem with a so-called definitive "best of" list be it for music, films or anything else. Having said that if a list is compiled by people who know more than a little bit about what they are talking about and it is supported by a few words about the chosen items then it can make for an interesting read and can alert you to something you may not be aware of or may not have thought you'd like.
 
The recent "1000 songs you must hear" in The Guardian and the 2 books by Garry Mulholland ("Fear of Music: The Greatest 261 Albums Since Punk and Disco" and "This is Uncool: The 500 Greatest Singles Since Punk and Disco") spring to mind and work, partly because of the knowledge and enthusiasm of the write-ups on each song/album/single and because, particularly in Garry Mullhollands case, they are personal choices not just the same old selections appearing on a list just because they always do (Pet Sounds/Astral Weeks/Sgt Pepper etc).
 
It may be something that you could pursue with the new website. It doesn't necessarily have to be a "definitive" list of 100 graphic novels although that would no doubt make for an interesting enough read and no doubt lead to discussions on the choices. The 3 of you could go down the line of picking your own particular favourites - a personal top 30, 40 or 50 with a short write up on each one. As with the books mentioned above it could well highlight a book that someone has never even considered buying or may remind someone of something they meant to buy years ago and have now forgotten all about. That would be great for me (and I would imagine other customers) and also good for you as retailers.
 
Cheers
Christopher [Powell]
Actually a very good argument which ties in with what Jonathan's been instructing us on when it comes to navigating the forthcoming Page 45 website.
 
Thanks for that, man. Sounds like a plan, as well as the perfect incendiary device to catalyse the forums we have in mind.
Hi Stephen et al,
 
Don't suppose you have an old review for CEREBUS: READS anywhere do you? I've just read it and don't quite know what to make of it! I'd be interested to see another point of view.
I honestly think it's one of the most fiercely intelligent and cleverly structured graphic novels of all time. And I'm not talking about the prose/sequential art mirror ratio, either. Unfortunately I've only read it four or five times and not since Page 45 opened, I'm afraid, so I can't go into any great detail - you know what my memory for specifics is like!
 
I do remember grinning my head off at the way he was breaking down the fourth wall, and messing about with readers' perceptions of a) the difference between the authorial and non-authorial voice b) autobiography and fiction c) their relationship with comicbook creators and in particular those who run letter columns which often create a false sense of one's level of familiarity with the person hosting that column.
 
That really is the tip of the iceberg - so much more in there, and if I had the time to devote a week to rereading it and then presenting you with a full review, I would. Ummm...I don't, sorry. Although I imagine once our website's up we'll find so many gaps - for prime material that came out before we were writing reviews - that Tom, Jonathan and I will all have to go back, read parts of our own private collections again and come up with fresh assessments.
 
Oh wait, you're just asking if I think women are "voids", aren't you? I don't, no.
 
My best friend Ryz has a better psychological understanding of other people than I will ever be able to grasp, Page 45's Dominique has a better grasp of technology than I will ever be able to understand, and half of my favourite comicbook creators are female. Compared to all these thoroughly independent and individual women, I am a void. But that doesn't negate the fact that READS was an exceptional book, Sim is an exceptional comicbook creator and I... oh, fuck, I really am a void, aren't I?
 
As evidence I may well rabbit on in a future blog or letter column about how I once suggested to Dave that if he was gay, he'd have written a very different book. Possibly the most redundant sentence I ever uttered, but there you go.
I thought it was very interesting in many ways and I'm not sure I "got" most of it.
 
The creation of the Victor Davis character (who we are lead to believe is autobiographical) certainly made the last section very interesting.
Part of me just felt a bit sad about the beliefs expressed by Victor towards the end of the book.  While I'm not going to fall into the trap of assuming that the beliefs expressed by the character are the same as those of the author (we can never really know the author's thoughts) it was still a bit uncomfortable the level of misogyny expressed.  
 
But then I guess that the main aim was to make people think (or feel!) about the issues raised, which it certainly succeeded in doing.
 
Much like something like Judenhass stimulates debate about racial/religious prejudice this should stimulate debate about sexual prejudices.  However I can imagine that what it actually stimulated was quite a bit of hate towards Dave Sim by people unable to see a difference between Victor and Dave.
 
Quite a long way from the farce of High Society!
 
[Richard Moore]
Yes. Quite a bit of hate.
 
Unfortunately Sim then went and pulled the rug from under that exact argument I was using about Victor and Dave at the time, and pronounced it his actual view.
 
But I still don't think it's 'misogyny'. It's a political, anti-feminist statement. And he's not alone in thinking things may have been side-tracked/gone too far. Look at this from the brilliant comicbook comedian, family man and creator of HATE, Peter Bagge: LINK!
 
That and more can be read and cherished in Peter's collection previewed above.
 
Fair timing, though, for we received this from Craig Johnson a month ago, and I confess I've held on to it for a wee while because I was hoping that my own efforts to chivvy Dave from his Den Of Solitude would work, and that this might have got in their way. They haven't worked, I'm sorry to say, so I apologise to Craig for sitting on this.
Hi guys,
 
I'm writing to you dozen because I either know you to chat to in person or online, or because you have a lot of experience and I respect and value your opinion, or both!
 
I have to admit to being a fan of Dave Sim's Cerebus series - I'd read about it in Fantasy Advertiser before seeing issue 114 (the first episode of Jaka's Story) and the four preceding phone books in Ace Comics in Colchester (such that I ended up trading in my X-Men comics to Biff to buy them all).  Much has been said about Sim online - and typically online mutterings (as been discussed recently on the MM list, Dez) go overboard and herd mentality can set in.
 
However it seems to me that Dave Sim has taken a few vicious online attacks to heart very strongly - you may have heard he pulled out of the SPACE con in Ohio, out of sponsoring the Day Prize because of it, he has the impression that he has no support in the comics world.   This has got to the stage whereby someone set up an online petition
 
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/davesim/index.html
 
for people to publicly declare they don't believe Dave is a misogynist.  From my point of view, the fact 160 people have actually signed it is amazing, we know what online people are like, but Dave seems to feel that this just backs up his point: i.e. if people don't sign it, then ipso facto they DO believe he's a misogynist.  As opposed to not having heard of the petition, or not thinking it necessary, a bit of a waste of time, proving nothing, whatever - I can't honestly say that they'd be wrong in that, as I said, I think 160 is pretty good.
 
However, I also think it's a great tragedy that Dave has pulled himself away from comics people over this, that he thinks he has no support in the industry - there's too much hate in comics and not enough love.
 
But - my question to you guys, if you're of a mind to answer it (and please feel free to hit delete and move on), is...what can *I* do about it?  What should I do about it?  Should I email everyone I can think of and ask them to sign?  Should I try to set up some sort of supporter group to let Dave know he's appreciated?   Should I just shut up as it's not really any of my concern and if Dave wants to withdraw himself from people for a spurious reason then let him?
 
Thanks for your time, best wishes,
Craig,
 
P.S  Dave didn't set up the petition, so writing to him making your declaration, and stating it in public, and all that, does not get you added to the petition.  The only way - the ONLY way - is for individuals to access that link themselves and sign it online.  
Which is why our names are so low on the list. I didn't know that until Craig pointed it out.
 
When it was first announced that there'd be a petition I could find nothing on-line, so I wrote to Dave instead along the lines of what you'll have read in previous letter columns here, and assumed we'd be added onto that list.
 
What I wrote then provoked dozens of pro-Sim respondents here, so to all of you, please sign up now. Just do it anyway (if you believe he's not a misogynist), regardless of the fact that it will no longer prompt Dave to turn up at Page 45 as we'd planned this or, I imagine now, any year in the future.
 
Sorry. I gave it my absolute best shot, and wish I could reprint it here now, but it was a private letter.
Hey Page 45ers
 
Well, The DFC has been cancelled. This is really depressing. Doubly depressing considering that I only discovered the fact looking online after finally picking up an issue (old overstock from the publisher it would seem) from the local Waterstone's. For those unfamiliar with it, The DFC was a weekly subscription only anthology comic published by Random House generally aimed at the junior school demographic. It was 36 pages including covers and about the same dimensions as a good old fashioned British comic but on much thicker, nicer paper and without a packet of Refreshers or small plastic frisbee shoddily sticky-taped to the front.
 
The issue I bought had 9 different comic features inside and a humour strip by Simone Lia on the back above subscription and next issue details and the like. There were a few funny animal strips, a high seas adventure as the lead, a magical adventure series, a story about school kid detectives (so, so, BRITISH looking!), a humour feature about a young boy, and my favourite of the bunch, "Monkey Nuts", a bizarre action comedy serial starring a monkey and a robot (which as we all know is the perfect recipe for success). There's still a Monkey Nuts comic available on the now all but closed down DFC website: http://www.thedfc.co.uk/monkey%20nuts1/ How gorgeous is THAT?!
 
Writers and artists were credited for each comic, even on the contents page. From what I understand the creators have complete ownership of their comics. As a whole the comic was fairly gender balanced and ethnically diverse where human characters were present. A couple of puzzle pages were in there, which appear to be of better quality than the usual tat.
 
It was essentially everything a good serialised children's comic should be. It's a damn shame it was cancelled in its first year. It's a damn shame it stayed subscription only when it should have been in every GT News, WH Smith's and Waterstone's in the country.
 
The comics section of British newsagents is a miserable sight. The majority are licensed products usually aimed at a young demographic with relatively little comic content (though the comic feature in Doctor Who Magazine does seem rather fun I must admit), The Dandy has "improved" and "modernised" itself by removing comic content in favour of thinly veiled video game and movie advertisements, and The Beano seems to get less creatively adventurous each decade. For slightly older audiences there are some nicely presented and reasonably priced US Marvel/DC super-hero reprints - not the most exciting of stuff and not even British. Sometimes you'll chance upon an archaic Commandos comic digest, each time I spot an issue I'm consistently surprised that this still has an audience.
The Big Cheese of comics on the British magazine racks remains 2000 AD, which most certainly has its place, but at the end of the day is still just sci-fi aimed at adolescent males. Everyone on the Page 45 mailing list knows that British cartoonists have more to offer than THAT.
 
I absolutely love the fact that today there are many full length books (be they original or collections) of comics and an ever growing online presence (ah, Dinosaur Comics, you can do no wrong), but am I wrong in thinking that there should also be some creative and entertaining stapled comics on the magazine rack to pick up with a loaf of bread and carton of orange juice at the local corner shop?
 
- Lee Hiley
What a thoroughly eloquent, informed and impassioned letter, Lee. You should write the Page 45 Mailshots.
 
You're absolutely right: it's a great, great shame. You're also right, I believe, that half of its problem was its subscription-only status. It would surely have found far more readers had they had the chance to stumble upon issues physically on sale, and retailers nearby to recommend it.
Morning guys,
 
The situation comic-book retailers are struggling with at present certainly draws parallels with the current state of the music industry, which I have a fair bit of experience in. It is a sad indictment that corporations will always take the path of least resistance, and the real innovation will always be by those who are denied the support of the big-boys, and so, have to take other routes to get their books or music out there.
 
Similarly, as with music, the specialists will be the ones that survive, by supporting and developing this innovation culture. Music shops are closing in their hundreds, mostly due to the changes in technology, which has moved the customer base away from the high street, but these customers are those that see HMV as the be-all-and-end-all of record stores. Those that are surviving, and even flourishing, are those that specialise, and deliver expertise as well as the product. As I see it, there is no obvious comic book equivalent to HMV (apart from Amazon etc, maybe) but the parallels to the specialist music store do compare - for instance, last year, you guys pointed me in the right direction on quite a few things, as well as the fantastic Comic Book Of The Month, which has certainly whetted my appetite to try things I would never have considered before.
 
Clearly, the "superhero" is the cultural theme du jour, which the big corporations are following blindly and short-sightedly. Endless movie versions seem to be viewed as the obvious conclusion to the comic book process, which can only devalue the medium - instead of leading people to explore the medium, the source material becomes seen as holding as much value as a toy or a t-shirt. If the big boys can't use the opportunity of people picking up a copy of "Watchmen" as a way of leading a whole new audience to the medium, then fuck 'em. Someone else will have to do it.
 
I truly believe quality will always out. If Diamond can't provide the service to both the stores and the creators then someone will. Then the stores have to then deliver to the customers, who do have an appetite for something new, but just need some guidance to find it.
Anyway - plans are afoot for a visit in April, so I will be popping in, all things being well, on the 24th. If you have the time, I would certainly love to have a chat with you about the changes afoot, and I'll bring some reports and things that we have used that helped us last year - might be of use to you, anyway.
 
Glad to hear things are going well,
 
Cheers
 
Craig [Dawson]
Look forward to seeing you, mate.
 
In the meantime Richard is back for Moore:
Hi Stephen,
 
Another rambling missive where I say little of importance!
 
"Everyone is allowed in this shop as long as they bring their wallets.
 
Apart from Thatcher. I can't imagine why it would ever have occurred, but for the fourteen years since I've owned floorspace I've nurtured a pathetic desire for revenge: a scenario whereby Margaret Thatcher totters into Page 45, preferably with TV cameras in tow, and I summarily eject the hateful old harridan."
 
For some reason I've always had a similar desire to do something like this. Not sure if you're aware of it (sadly I couldn’t find it on You-tube) but there was some point when after retiring she was shown the new design for a BA plane which instead of the Union Flag on the tail-fin of it had something that celebrated multiculturalism. The daft old bat got out a tissue and covered this up to show her distaste, while a bunch of senile old men chortled along in the background. I'd have loved to have been there, ripped off the tissue and told her to stop being such an offensive, bigoted, old fool.
Has any other individual done as much to damage this country as she has?! Oh well she'll die soon... (Is it bad that I already have mentally planned my Facebook status for when she finally dies?!)
 
On another issue I do slightly disagree with your judgement on Selectadisc. While there is no doubt that it is a shame that the shop is closed. (Does Nottingham really need 3 HMVs and no independent music stores?) I can't help but feel that at some level they have themselves to blame.
When I first came into Page 45 knowing very little about comics Mark, Tom and you were all very welcoming. Keen to help out someone who's knowledge of comics was limited to the childish stories I'd read as a kid. The vibe running through the shop was that comics were for everyone.
On the other hand I felt there was always an elitist feeling running through Selectadisc, and I'm not the only person who has said this. My brother, who knows quite a lot about music and far more than me, used to only buy some of his music from there. Despite loving the shop whenever he wanted to pick up something mainstream, or that he "should" already own like an old Beatles or Stones album, he would go to HMV or Virgin to pick it up as when he bought them in Selectadisc he said it felt like the staff were sneering at him! Compare this to Page 45 where you're more than happy to sell me the crap Superhero comics I enjoy, as well as try and point me towards more interesting challenging books. I guess this comes back to your old argument about the "real" mainstream, an independent store has to engage with everyone in the market, not just those people already interested in what it sells.
 
Also I remember at a discussion about customer service when I worked at Waterstone's one person saying that although the knowledge of the shop was good, the attitude was "too cool for school". They had personally shopped in the place for over 20 years and put thousands of pounds through the till but at no point was this acknowledged by the staff, they felt as faceless as every other customer in there. Where as at Page 45 the fact that I am known by name and (slightly scarily) by voice over the phone reinforces a real sense of community about the place, which makes me want to shop there in order to keep the shop going.
 
This may have come across as a bit of a love-in towards the shop, but the reason I shop at Page 45 isn't because it's independent (although that may be part of it), a shop doesn't deserve to survive just because it is independent, but because you provide services that I can't get elsewhere & because you are a shop for everyone - even if everyone doesn't realise it just yet! I wouldn't have a second thought in sending anyone else into the shop knowing that they would be treated like an individual and welcomed in (unless you're just about to go on a fag break when you might be a bit tetchy!) I've sent my Mum in on quite a few occasions to pick something up and recommended the shop to loads of people and never heard anything bad back.
 
Maybe I'm being unfair on Selectadisc and this wasn't always the case when shopping there, but I've heard quite a bit of anecdotal evidence to suggest that I'm not the only one who felt like this about the shop. I think any comparison between Page 45 & Selectadisc does yourself down, and without wanting to be overly harsh the fact that you are going strong while they have been forced to close sort of underlines it. (Although things like downloads etc won’t have helped them, you’ve had to deal with similar things such as Amazon under-pricing at every turn.)
 
I think that's the end of my addled and slightly sycophantic ramble, I'm sure I'll have more ill-advised opinions to share after the next mailshot!
 
Cheers,
Richard [Moore]
I'd hardly call it sycophantic - it's us who need you, not the other way round, so thank you.
 
Actually I couldn't agree with you more, and I've heard more than a little additional anecotal evidence myself.
 
The best place for music was Arcade Records run by two lovely brothers and the equally lovely sister of one of our equally lovely customers. They beamed, enthused, recommended and even saved me David Sylvian and Nick Cave promos - which they gave me for free.
 
My own experience of Selectadisc service depended entirely on who served me. Great help from Simon (who left four years ago) and most of them recently, but yeah I too used to get sneared at. You couldn't win. Either a) they hated your taste in music or b) they'd discovered in first and I was behind the times. But Jim who ran it was and one of the friendliest men in the world. Nothing seemed too much trouble for him, even taking our deliveries in. He went out of his way to invite Tom and myself to the closing party last Saturday.
R.e. Anna Mercury
 
Just a quickie, chaps, when you say the twist at the end of issue #1 is pretty much unguessable I'd've added "unless you've played Assassin's Creed" because that might be where Ellis nicked the idea from! The game was up at the word "anchor" in #1, but the suspicion started forming when the parkour kicked in.
 
You comics geeks need to get a life and do some other, less nerdish activities, like playing video games...
 
Er, I'll get me coat.
 
-- King GeekNerd Craig [Johnson]
If you think I could actually play more computer games, then you haven't see me the day after any Grand Theft Auto release. Currently amusing myself far more innocently with Little Big Planet beautifully narrated by Stephen Fry. Also half-tempted into a third bout of Resident Evil 4 just to refresh me in time to review the new RESIDENT EVIL mini-series and collection, neither of which I have any intention of reading, so I'll be a little stuck for material otherwise. They're out, by the way, in case I resist temptation.
 
Lastly, it's the annual press release for the Bristol Comic Convention, so I bid you all a fond farewell and remember: writing letters saves you the miserable experience of another bolshy column.
 
I'm saving the last fortnight's hair-tearing experience of categorising our stock for the website until my first blog there. Why will become apparent on launch.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Focusing this year mostly on the Best of British Comics around the Bristol International Comic Expo returns at the Ramada Plaza Hotel on 9th and 10th May 2009, with a special one day extra event – Small Press Expo 2009 at the nearby Mercure Holland House Hotel (full details of both locations at http://www.fantasyevents.org/index2.html).
 
One ticket, two Expos. Pre-orders via the website, and these are running so high only limited tickets will be available on the Saturday at least….booking is highly advised (this also reserves Expo Exclusives book as per the website).
 
Guests over the events include:
 
Kevin O’Neill (in association with Top Shelf and Knockabout)
Alan Davis (with exclusive new DR & Quinch print only available at the Expo)
Dave Gibbons
Mark Buckingham
John Charles
Mike Collins
Rob Williams & John Higgins (in association with Com.X)
Gary Frank
Ian Gibson
David Hine
Lee Garbett
John M Burns
Lee Bradley
John Watson
Ian Culbard
Phil Winslade
Hunt Emerson & Gilbert Shelton (in association with Knockabout)
Simon Bisley & Mike Ploog (in association with Reed Comics)
Charlie Adlard
Sean Phillips
James A. Hodgkins
Duncan Fegredo
Neil Edwards
Gary Spencer Millidge
Dylan Teague
Tim Pilcher
Joel Meadows
Shaky Kane
Boo Cook
Al Davison
Laurence Campbell
John McCrea
Dave Shelton
Martin Hayes
Jock
Asia Alfasi
Ian Sharman
Tony Lee
Ferg Handley
Peter Hogan
Steve Cook
Robert Deas
Kris Justice
Kat Nicholson
Liam Sharp
Dan Boultwood
Andie Tong
Emma Vieceli
Ian Edginton
Paul Grist
Graham Bleathman
Henry Flint
Lew Stringer
Lee Townsend
Andy Diggle
Siku
Roger Langridge
Jim Boswell
Gary Erskine
Bambos!
Jon Davis-Hunt
Cy Dethan
David Baillie
Kirsty Swan
Paul Gravett
Ilya
Stephen Baskerville
Jason Cardy
Emily Hare
Mike Carey
 
Plus SP Expo comics from:
Steve Tanner (Time Bomb)
Howard Hardiman (Cute But Sad)
David Goodman (Zip Gun)
John Anderson (Soaring Penguin)
Paul Rainey (There’s No Time Like The Present)
Tom McNally (Semiotic Cohesion)
Willie Lengers (Itch Publishing)
Tom Meddings (Unedible)
Will Morris-julien (Butternut)
Michael Burness (Unico Comics)
Stephen Paul Coffey (Best of What’s Left)
Luke Paton (The Adventures Of Kez And Luke)
Andrew Cheverton (Angry Candy)
Dan Barritt (Ragadabah)
Nic Wilkinson (Insomnia Publications)
Isaac E C Lenkiewicz (Duh Brain Comics)
Amsel Von Speckelsen (Underfire Comics)
Chris Denton (Massacre For Boys)
Chin-Hsuen Lee (Tpcat Comic)
Steve Tillotson (Banal Pig)
Geoffrey Banyard (Fetishman)
Richard Scott Butler (Cherubs Comics)
Sally Jane Thompson (IndieManga)
Mathew J Pallett (Stir Fried)
Samantha Borras (Inspired)
Chris Lynch (Monkeys With Machineguns)
 
Panels will run throughout both days, EXpo EXclusives available at various times (signed ashcan of the new DC Vertigo comic from Mike Carey & Peter Gross available only at the Vertigo Panel, for example), and a host of signings, sketchings and comics to check out….
 
http://www.fantasyevents.org/index2.html
 
Saturday 9th May. Sunday 10th May. Bristol. See you there!
By the way: don't even attempt to navigate to any nearby hotel in a car. That area's one-way streets make Nottingham's new road system look accessible. Instead the train station is very close by.
 
And if The Wailingest Cats are playing a gig while you're there, make sure you catch them. (Tell them Peter at Page 45 sent you. If you say Stephen, they'll look at you blankly.)

Craig Johnson