Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week.

5. WELCOME TO HOXFORD #1
By Ben Templesmith
IDW Publishing
$3.99 | 32 pgs

Writer/artist Ben Templesmith brings his blurry and disturbing style to a new horror comic about the inmates of a mental institution/correctional facility. The story follows a new, and quite loony, inmate to the facility and one lone doctor who thinks there’s something up with the facility’s corporate overlords. Templesmith, most recently known for Warren Ellis’ Fell, draws like a children’s book gone horribly wrong so this subject matter should allow him to creep you out pretty sufficiently.

Read a preview here.

4. SPDIER-MAN: KRAVEN’S LAST HUNT
Written by J.M. DeMatteis; art by Mike Zeck
Marvel
$14.99

Marvel has so many Secret Invasion books coming out this week that I don’t even know where to start so I’m just going to ignore them. Hey, remember this series from the 1980s when Kraven the Hunter shoots and buries Spider-man and then runs around with his costume on, impersonating him? This was a dark and kind of scary book for it’s time. It featured stunning artwork by Mike Zeck and a new take on a goofy old Spider-man villain that actually made him seem pretty off his rocker. It’s a story that hasn’t been long forgotten by fans and its success probably spawned a lot of other dark and grisly Spidey stories since then. It gets a new printing this week with a new Zeck cover.

3. DISAPPEARANCE DIARY
By Hideo Azuma
Fanfare/Ponent Mon
$22.99 | 200 pgs

Here’s one that might be a little hard to track down but it really sounds like it might be worth doing so. Acclaimed Japanese magaka, Hideo Azuma, tells a very strange kind of memoir that juxtaposes cute, comical artwork with his own story of dropping out of society after suffering a severe nervous breakdown. The book actually starts with the author waking up in the woods with a noose around his neck after a failed suicide attempt and proceeds to play everything that comes after for laughs. Any memoir you read is basically a fictionalized version of someone’s life but this book goes out of its way to take a disturbing and tragic time in the author’s life and remove as much of the reality from the story as possible so that you’re actually reading the comically unfortunate times of a downtrodden cartoon character who takes to eating garbage on the streets.

The black and white artwork looks great, as you can see in this preview at the publisher’s website.

2. A TRESURY OF 20TH CENTURY MURDER VOL. 1: THE LINDBERGH CHILD
By Rick Geary
NBM
$15.95 | 80 pgs

Somehow I never knew about Rick Geary and his awesome idea of chronicling all the great murder cases of the Victorian era in comic form. He did numerous volumes of his A Treasury of Victorian Murder books but apparently ran out of cases because now he’s started with a new Volume 1 that begins tackling 20th century cases. The first case on his list is the mysterious abduction of Charles Lindbergh’s baby in the 1920s. This was a case that got the Jazz Age equivalent of wall-to-wall breaking news coverage and captured the hearts of Americans. Geary gets into every little detail and outlines all the crazy events that came about as authorities and the Lindbergh family tried in vain to find their missing child.

You can preview the first couple of pages here.

1. MIDDLEMAN COLLECTED SERIES INDISPENSABILITY COMPENDIUM
Written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach; art by Les McClaine
Viper Comics
$19.95 | 336 pgs

Again, I’m going to have to plead guilty on having never heard of this series until today. Nor did I know there was a TV show based on it that runs on ABC Family. Although if you put a gun to my head I doubt I’d be able to even find ABC Family in a timely fashion on my DirectTV channel guide. Anyway, I’ve heard a lot of great things about this series. There have been three volumes published so far and they are now collected in this comprehensive package. Written by one of the Lost writers, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Middleman is a superspy comedy about an organization of “Middlemen” that for centuries have been “fighting evil so that you don’t have to”. Wendy Watson, a young struggling artist, gets recruited into the organization as a sidekick to the latest Middleman and finds herself fighting mad scientists, genetically engineered monkeys, and Mexican wrestlers while also having boyfriend, roommate and mom troubles. The art is cute and very much in the Viper Comics style and the story is so full of pop-culture references you’ll need to read some Joss Whedon or Brian K. Vaughan to unwind a little afterwards.

Read some previews of the various volumes this book collects here.

Yes! As mentioned in last Friday’s Heroes Hotline, our buddies at the Hero Initiative are auctioning off the first-in-line slot at this Sunday’s Mark Millar and Tony Harris appearance! Not only that, but the winner will also get a FREE copy of the exclusive “Tour of Duty” cover to War Heroes #1, available only at one of the 7 U.S. tour stops! Cuh-razy!

You can get to the Ebay auction here: note that the gremlins got into the link I sent out in the Hotline, so this link should work. Remember that ALL of the moneys resulting from this auction go to the Hero Initiative, which is a super-awesome charity that you should give a lot of money to. I’d go on and on about how great they are, but they’re better at talking about it than I am.

Okay! Get charitizing! See you this Sunday–don’t forget the already mentioned sale stuff, as well!

Three Shadows GN
by Cyril Pedrosa

Three Shadows is one of a recent bumper crop of excellent or semi-excellent books from relatively new publisher First Second. Kind of like a slicker, probably better-funded version of NBM, insofar as they’re publishing a fair amount of European graphic novels, First Second has quickly carved out a niche as a highly respectable publisher with a lot of solid critical success so far, including books by Gipi, the recent Eisner-winning Laika by Nick Abadzis, and numerous books by Joann Sfar and other members of the French collective L’Association.

The loose plot of the book is that a family’s idyllic existence is interrupted by the appearance of the titular three shadows, which pose some sort of unspoken menace to the young son of the family. While I don’t know much about Cyril Pedrosa, I can only assume that he is an animator of some great talent–his art is loose and flowing in the best tradition of European animators. His figures are all imbued with an incredible sense of movement, not only because of how they’re posed within the page, but because of the way they’re drawn: Pedrosa’s line is so fluid that I found myself staring again and again at individual panels. If nothing else, you get a huge sense of organic humanity in the drawings; it’s clear that human hands made this art, chose these lines, posed these figures.

One of the more effective visual tricks of the book is the way that the art seems to blur and simplify itself at moments of stress or danger in the story. In a sequence where the father is trying to escape through the woods with his son, the page reverts to a simple 6-panel grid, with the figures little more than blurry thumbnails. They almost seem to vibrate with danger, especially contrasting against the very calm, beautifully drawn family scenes just pages prior.

All in all, this was a good quick read. However, while I normally prefer comics to be shorter, more condensed, more edited, this is one of the rare books that I wish were longer, more fleshed out. Without ruining the conclusion of the story, about halfway through the book the locale of the story changes pretty suddenly to a ship crossing some sort of inland sea or vast river or something. There’s a mystical climax, and then an even stranger change of scene/characters, almost to an entirely different story. These aren’t necessarily bad things, but they feel so fast, given the theme and subject matter of the book, that it feels more frenzied than the pace of the book calls for.

Maybe this could have been two (or even three?) books? Hard to say–the anticlimax is so lengthy it could almost have been its own book by itself. Still, regardless of these smallish complaints, this book is so beautifully drawn that it could be about a bunch of sentient stuffed animals and it still would have been a very pleasant reading experience. The only other complaint I might make is (as with pretty much all the First Second books, especially the translated ones) is that the computer lettering is super-boring, especially compared with the art. This is offset somewhat by the very attractive book design, including untrimmed page edges that give the book a kind of old-world appeal that’s rare for a comic.

As it is, it’s a slightly flawed book that you will most likely enjoy reading, possibly multiple times over the years. Extra good (or bad) for parents who are constantly worrying about their children and all the many menaces the world has waiting for them.

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week.

5. NYX: NO WAY HOME #1
Written by Marjorie Liu; art by Kalman Andrasofsky
Marvel
$3.99

The original NYX series was an interesting disaster that started life as a Brian Wood project about teenage mutants living in New York City and later became a Joe Quesada written book that featured breakout visuals by then newcomer Josh Middleton. It made a big splash at first but a few issues in things fell apart, issues stopped coming out in a timely fashion and the series was quickly canceled. Now, years later, a new mini-series launches featuring the same lead character, Kiden Nixon, and is once again set in Manhattan but this time set in the current Marvel landscape that only contains less than 200 lonely and paranoid mutants.

The new book is written by New York Times best selling author Marjorie Liu (the Dirk & Steele series) and has some really nice art by Kalman Andrasofsky who’s work can be seen at his blog here.

Preview the first few pages of the book here.

4. FINAL CRISIS #3
Written by Grant Morrison; art by JG Jones
DC Comics
$3.99

DC’s weirdly somber summer event comic continues with it’s third issue. A lot of people were turned off by the quiet start this book had but things are ratcheting up quickly as we build towards the day that Evil wins (whatever that really means). If you’re a Grant Morrison fan you’ll be pleased to know that the writer is building his own subset of continuity within the larger DC Universe framework as this book has more to do with his excellent Seven Soldiers series than with anything else that is really going on in other DC books right now. This issue even boasts an appearance by Frankenstein and the agents of S.H.A.D.E. Oh yeah, and did I mention Barry Allen is coming back from the dead (or the future or something) this issue?

3. CROSSED #0 (of 9)
Written by Garth Ennis; art by Jacen Burrows
Avatar Press
$1.00

Frequent collaborators Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows introduce their new horror series with a ten page 0 issue (issue #1 comes out in October) this week. The story is about an apocalyptic plague that takes over the world and, rather than turn people into zombies, turns them into…well, into into Garth Ennis characters – violent, immoral, raping and murdering maniacs. The last thing comics needs is another zombie apocalypse so this could be a welcome change.

In the zero issue we’re introduced to a small band of survivors on the run from the transformed, who are recognizable by a bloody cross that appears on their face. Since this is the writer of Preacher and the creative team behind Chronicles of Wormwood – a very weird take on Jesus and Satan – expect some Catholic themes to poke through here. Oh and also expect a lot of disturbing and most likely, offensive, carnage to ensue.

2. SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE SEASON TWO #1
Written by Terry Moore; art by Craig Rousseau
Marvel
$2.99

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane is a series that the cynical critic in me would think wouldn’t work because of the transparency of Marvel trying to tap into manga’s ever growing teenage girl audience by giving them something teenage girls still don’t really want – superheroes. But a strong creative team can work wonders and that’s why the last run on this title garnered such a avid fan base. Writer Sean McKeever, with artist Takeshi Miyazawa for most of the run, proved to be very adept at delivering an enjoyable teen drama/comedy focused around a teenage version of longtime Marvel character Mary Jane Watson. Now, with a new mini-series, Marvel continues to seem to be doing this right by bringing in Strangers in Paradise creator Terry Moore as the writer. As Mary Jane starts another year at school she has a lot to be angsty about – trouble with
her superhero boyfriend, her ex-boyfriend, her mom and everything else I guess. High school can be rough, you know.

1. ARMY@LOVE: THE ART OF WAR #1 (of 6)
Written by Rick Veitch; art by Gary Erskine
DC Vertigo
$2.99

Rick Veitch’s Army@Love is probably my favorite new Vertigo series but like a lot of books I like it doesn’t sell all that well. I guess that might explain it’s recent move to a seasonal approach of mini-series rather than an ongoing book. Season 2, a 6-issue series, begins this week and it’s a great place to start if you’re curious about the series. Veitch’s Joseph Heller-like satire on the war against terrorism in the Middle East is raunchy, smart and LOL funny. Not to mention it’s probably a lot more spot on than you’d even think. Especially with recent news that NATO was hiring form Coca-Cola marketing people to help improve their image. That’s like something right out of this book.

By the way, the most recent trade paperback collection of this series hit the stands last week so there’s that too.

Hot on the heels of the Trailer that has set the world on fire!!! It’s Hyperbole Man here to announce to you dedicated supporters of all things heroic something REALLY BIG! Presenting A Special WEEKEND HEROES DISCUSSION GROUP spotlighting WATCHMEN by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons!

This book is so big, so vast, so talked about and so darned entertaining, we need to have dinner and drinks to complement the great conversation: unlike other discussion groups including the up-coming ICE HAVEN on August 11th, we’ll meet at Heroes and then step across the street to one of the restaurants over there and have dinner while we talk!

All we ask is that you read (or re-read) the book, come with an open mind and plenty of opinions and if you plan to eat and drink (though you certainly aren’t required to do either) please bring CASH. We will be splitting the bill and it will be a lot easier if everyone has cash!

Topics certainly will include

• How well has WATCHMEN aged? How influential is the book today?
• Has it had a positive or negative impact on super-heroes?
• What is the deal with PIRATES?
• Do the over-riding themes– Art vs. Commerce–dwarf the plot?
• ALSO: A comparison between the FINAL product and the original premise submitted by Alan Moore (If you don’t know it– don’t Google it, come and be surprised.. it will be fun!!)

Will we talk about the movie? You betcha!! Especially regarding the setting. New York is a heckovalot nicer now than it was in the early 80s; and does it have to be Nixon vs. the Commies or could the story work in our post 9/11 world?

If this special outing works well, we will look into expanding the scope of the Discussion groups.
• Are they better with food and drink?
• Should we branch out into movies– comparing comic to film? Who knows?
One thing is for sure– if you haven’t read Watchmen, you are in for a treat!

Remember both Watchmen (Saturday, August 30 at 6pm) and Ice Haven (Monday August 11th at 7pm) are available from Heroes at a special 10% off discount ONLY if you ask for the Heroes Discussion Group discount!

Okay, so you already know that Mark Millar (Wanted, Ultimates) and Tony Harris (Ex Machina, Spider-Man: With Great Power) are going to be signing here on Sunday, August 17, from 2-5, as part of the 7-stop “Tour of Duty” promoting their recent hit War Heroes. That’s plenty exciting enough, BUT we wanted to juice it up just a hair.

To make a stop by the store that day truly impossible to resist, we’re also going to be having a storewide SALE! Oh yes, please! The following are just a few of the items that will be discounted:

ALL NEW COMICS & TP’S: 10% off (15% for qualifying reserve customers)!
MANGA: 10% off!
REGULAR BACK ISSUES: 50% off!
“HOT” BACK ISSUES: 10% off!
VARIANTS: 10-75% off!
ALL TOYS AND ACTION FIGURES: 20% off!
STATUES: 10-75% off!
COLLECTING SUPPLIES: 10% off!

PLUS we’ll have special stocks available of half-off trade paperbacks and mangas, and plenty of other surprises! This will give you something to do before and after you meet Mark and Tony and let them know how awesome they are–or heck, if you prefer, just come for the sale! We’ll see you there!