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The Unwritten Vol. 1

February 22, 2010 | Trades

The Unwritten Vol. 1
Mike Carey, Peter Gross
Vertigo
$12.99/$9.99 U.S. (Paperback)
**** 1/2 (out of five)

The lines between reality and the world of literature blur in spectacular ways in The Unwritten Vol. 1, as Tom Taylor, whose father wrote the world’s most widely read fantasy novels featuring a boy wizard named Tommy Taylor, begins to suspect his dad’s stories may be more truth than fiction.

The Unwritten is true comic book genius from Mike Carey and Peter Gross, the creators of the critically acclaimed Vertigo series, Lucifer.

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The Walking Dead Vol. 11: Fear The Hunters

February 22, 2010 | Trades

The Walking Dead Vol. 11: Fear The Hunters
Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn
Image Comics
$14.99 U.S. (Paperback)
**** (out of five)

The Walking Dead is set to burst into the mainstream after being recently greenlit as a new pilot (written by The Shawshank Redemption’s Frank Darabond) for AMC.

In the meantime, fans of this chilling and undeniably engrossing series have The Walking Dead Vol. 11: Fear the Hunters, which sees the small group trying to survive all the flesh-hungry zombies roaming around run into a new problem: Cannibals.

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King: The Special Edition

February 22, 2010 | Graphic novels

King: The Special Edition
Ho Che Anderson
Fantagraphics Books
$34.99 U.S.
**** 1/2 (out of five)

Canadian creator Ho Che Anderson’s King: The Special Edition arrives just in time for Black History Month.

This updated volume contains the entire original graphic biography of historic American civil rights crusader, Dr. Martin Luther King, plus a new essay by Anderson on the making of the book, sketches, “deleted scenes” and loads of other bonuses.

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Footnotes In Gaza

February 8, 2010 | Graphic novels

Joe Sacco has already won the highest honour comics have to offer, along with a renowned fellowship and various other awards for his stirring work as the world’s foremost comic book journalist.

His latest effort, Footnotes in Gaza (Metropolitan Books, $35.95, 432 pages), is complex, compelling and worthy of becoming just the second graphic novel to win a Pulitzer (after Art Spiegelman’s Maus) — though he’d likely settle for turning the spotlight on what he believes is one of the least fairly represented places in the world.

As with past works such as Palestine and Safe Area Gorazde (for which the Guggenheim Fellow won an Eisner Award for best original graphic novel), Sacco fully immerses himself in the turbulent world of his subjects for his craft.

In this case it is a world where entire homes are routinely dispatched by bulldozers with the ease of someone shovelling snow off a driveway; where the closing down of busy streets for the funeral procession of slain children is altogether too commonplace; and where a journalist delving into the tragedies of the past is mocked for the perceived futility.

After all, what’s the point in worrying about something that happened over 50 years ago when there’s an inordinately high chance you could be killed tomorrow?

Following up on a story he first learned of while working for Harper’s Magazine in 2001, Sacco, along with his guide and interpreter, Abed, slowly pieces together the details of two incidents that took place around the 1956 Suez Canal Crisis that resulted in the deaths of almost 400 Palestinian men in the southern Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.

Deftly darting back and forth from the past to the present — perfectly highlighting how little has changed in this war-torn region over the past 60 years — Sacco uses gripping, and often heart-wrenching, first-hand accounts of witnesses to the incidents in 1956 and of those still struggling to survive as perpetual refugees.

The survivors, family members of the victims and other Palestinian witnesses help the American creator to illustrate a consensus account of what transpired in ’56; how after eight years of escalating border conflicts that saw many casualties on both sides, the Israeli army used the crisis as cover to both search for and eliminate not only suspected Fedayee (freedom fighters or terrorists, depending on which side you’re on), but also hundreds of other able-bodied men.

Noticeably absent from this book is a truly balanced perspective from the Israeli side, although the Palestinian accounts are supported by UN documents on the incidents, which confirm 275 deaths in Khan Younis on Nov. 3, 1956 and 111 in Rafah on Nov. 12, 1956. Israeli government documents from the era, included in an appendix, suggest many of those killed were looters and armed Egyptian soldiers.

No matter which account of these incidents is closest to the truth, what Sacco discovers is that they helped plant seeds of hatred in Gaza that continue to blossom to this day.

The product of almost six years of intensive researching and lavish illustrating, Footnotes in Gaza is a feast for the eyes, with a staggering level of detail displayed in Sacco’s delicate black-and-white art.

The artist continues to push his work to new heights, most notably in the amount of detail on the faces of his numerous subjects, helping complete a work of illustrated journalism more poignant and impactful than any 10 traditional books on the same topic.

(This review was first published in the Toronto Star)

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Green Lantern: Agent Orange

February 1, 2010 | Trades

Green Lantern: Agent Orange
Geoff Johns, Philip Tan, Jonathan Glapion
DC Comics
$24.99/$19.99 US (Hardcover)
**** 1/2 (out of five)

Green Lantern Hal Jordan has witnessed firsthand the immense power of rings fueled by rage, fear, passion, hope and will.

None of them could prepare him for the insatiable power of greed.

Following up the shocking events of Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns, Jordan finds himself, much against his will, belonging to two lantern corps. In addition to his usual willpower fueled green ring, Jordan now sports a blue ring of hope, the only cure for his recent possession by a red ring of rage.

While the new bauble helps boost the power of his original immensely, it simply won’t come off until he truly feels hope — something that doesn’t come very easily after an ancient enemy of the Green Lantern Corps’ creators, the Guardians of the Galaxy, suddenly reappears after countless millennia in hiding sporting an orange power ring fuelled by avarice.

Writer Geoff Johns and artist Philip Tan add another really interesting colour to the spectrum of power and superbly set the stage for the mega-crossover series, Blackest Night, currently raging across the DC Universe.

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Groom Lake

January 29, 2010 | Trades

Groom Lake
Chris Ryall, Ben Templesmith
IDW Publishing
$19.99 U.S. (Paperback)
**** (out of five)

Karl Bauer’s life changed forever when his dad vanished off the face of the earth one night.

It got even more complicated when Barnabus Bauer returned sporting two extra arms, three extra mouths and a mess of tentacles and proceeded to blow up all over him.

Groom Lake, the brainchild of IDW boss Chris Ryall and stalwart artist Ben Templesmith, is a fine blend of hick humour, superb sci-fi and black comedy as Karl quickly discovers a hidden world filled with oddball aliens and government goons — all of whom have an unhealthy interest in his crotch.

Upon learning his privates could be used to produce a weapon of mass destruction (some might argue the contents of most men’s pants already are), Karl escapes with the help of a cynical government employee (and a lovely one at that); a chain-smoking, big-eyed, sex-crazed alien; two blobs that can disintegrate almost anything; a pair of senile E.T.s; and a giant evil robot.

The ensuing race, with Karl and his companions set to turn the unsuspecting world on its ear and the aforementioned government goons trying to stop them, is as fun a trip as you’ll have in comics all year.

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Lashley steps away from comics

January 21, 2010 | Interviews

Canadian artist Ken Lashley is ready for a new path in life – one that doesn’t include drawing comic books to make a living.
For now, at least.
Lashley talks with JPK about why he’s decided to take a break from working in the comic biz, what Marvel Comics thinks about this move, his new gig as creative director at TransGaming Technologies in Toronto and more. Just click the green arrow below.