meltblog

In the midst of a huge week for comics, let’s not forget that Jeff Smith, the creator of Bone, has a new ongoing series, “RASL”, debuting today. It’s a mature-readers tale (don’t share this one with your Bone-loving toddler) about a thief who hops thru dimensions to snatch priceless artifacts, and the toll it takes on both him & the space-time continuum. The mostly wordless first issue snaps along at a brisk pace while still feeling epic; Smith is clearly building on a large scale, and the bizarre creature that chases the title character looks like something out of Paul Pope’s nightmares.

RASL #1 is in stock now, with issue #2 scheduled for a May release.

Frank Miller makes a great point in his Intro to the second collection of Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips’ noir comic, “Criminal”:

“Not many people understand what makes a crime story tick…they dress it up dark, even murky, but the essential inner darkness that a good crime yarn exposes, relishes in, and releases never occurs to them.”

The genius of Criminal is in that inner darkness–instead of focusing on the mechanics of the Big Score, Brubaker & Phillips focus on the flawed men & women in the game, battling internal demons as much as other hustlers. If you’ve enjoyed any of Brubakers’ recent work on Captain America, Daredevil (both series have excellent new issues out today), Iron Fist, X-Men, etc, you need to give Criminal a try–you’ll love it.

Frank Miller & Jim Lee’s “All-Star Batman & Robin” had been enjoying rolling around in the murkiness a bit too much over the first 8 issues: even a die-hard Miller disciple like myself was turned off by the wanton violence and mean-spirited depictions of classic DC characters…but in today’s new issue, The Dynamic Duo come to grips with the consequences of their actions, and finally take the hard steps towards actually becoming heroes. Pages in this series thus far have made me laugh (at, not with the book) and scratch my head in disbelief–but the haunting finale to the arc made me reconsider what’s come before, and for the first time in the run, made me care about these two lonely orphans.

This week I’ve got to go with Kick-Ass. There are certainly other books of note, but I chose this one for a number of reasons. First, Millar and Romita are obviously having fun creating this comic…and that experience translates to the reader. Unfortunately it’s rare to be able to discern how much a creator is enjoying a comic, not from what they say in interviews or at panels, but from the work itself. Kick-Ass is a blast of a concept, the creative team’s having a blast making it and I’m having a blast reading it. Second, this is a first issue and I’d feel remiss as your retailer if I didn’t at least try to help you get on at the ground floor before the sell-outs start hitting, which they will. And third, this book has the highest order numbers of any book yet from Marvel’s Icon imprint and I think it’s important to support these books with our dollars so we can see even more passionate creator-owned titles such as this and Criminal.

Speaking of Criminal, I have to mention it as my runner-up this week. This book is fantastic and it’s a real shame if you’ve somehow missed it. But this month is an over-sized stand-alone story and the perfect chance to jump on the series for only $3.50 and discover what you’ve been missing.

If you’re not familiar with the adventures of the Laugh-Out-Loud cats, here’s a quick primer.

There’s a brand new book full of these comics, and Meltdown is the only place in town you’ll find it.

FreakAngels, the new, entirely free webcomic from writer Warren Ellis and artist Paul Duffield is now live. Six new pages posted every Friday. Episodes 001 and 002 are already up. Go, read.

WonderCon is going on now, and the Image booth is advertising a new comic called War Heroes coming summer of 2008 from Mark Millar and Tony Harris!

If you’re in the LA area, tonight is the opening reception at Black Maria Gallery for Tom Neely (creator of The Blot comic) and three other Igloo Tornado artists. Details here.

Y: THE LAST PARTY — Joss Whedon Speech

Keep Staring……Keep Staring………Keep Staring……..See it?

Today marks my first manga pick of the week. It’s the latest volume of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, the series from the writer of MPD Psycho and the artist/writer of Mail (both fantastic manga in their own right). Each volume is self-contained, and most volumes have multiple self-contained tales within. At the same time, there is an ever growing meta-story behind the scenes, one into which this volume gives the deepest glimpse yet. This is a delicate balance to maintain between ongoing and self-contained, but Kurosagi has always pulled it off with aplomb. Tale after tale, the sheer number and sheer inventiveness of the mysteries our heroes face is quite impressive. If you’re looking for a quality absurd, darkly humorous, horror-ish mystery/adventure tale, or just an excuse to try your first manga, then Kurosagi is the book for you.