Some stories are charming and intricate because they offer multiple perspectives and characters to appreciate and consider. However, stories about stories show how the power of storytelling can shape lives by telling tales steeped in history, myth, and culture. In the medium of comic books alone, there are books, such as Marvel’s Loki: Agent of Asgard
best new graphic novels
Best New Graphic Novel: Eternals Vol. 1 by Kieron Gillen & Esad Ribic!
Of the big three “non-human races” of the Marvel Universe, the Eternals have long been playing catch-up. The X-Men are, well, the X-Men. While the Inhumans have a rich and varied history interwoven into the fabric of the larger Marvel Universe dating back to the Silver Age (to say nothing of a failed TV series and that time when Fox still owned the X-Men movie rights so Marvel tried to position them as their new, more cinema-friendly, version of mutants).
The Eternals, while of a similar pedigree (all three share an artistic creator in Jack Kirby), have long existed on the fringes of the Marvel Universe: various artists and writers, often top-notch ones, step-up and present their take on the long-lived demi-gods secretly protecting humanity from the monstrous Deviants in the name of the cosmic Celestials, and when they’re done, the Eternals quietly fade once more into the background of the Marvel Universe.
Eternals: Only Death is Eternal
Gillen and Ribic don’t just put a new spin on things; they do so in a way that contextualizes and synthesizes all of the previous versions, creating a kind of grand unified theory of the Eternals that honors what’s come before in the Eternals history while breaking new ground. Along the way, they also tell a densely-plotted, gorgeously-illustrated, rip-roaring tale filled with moments of fist-pumping excitement and tragic heartbreak alike. The end result is the best possible entry point into the Eternals for a new reader.
Ed. Note: Story Spoilers Follow
[Read more…] about Best New Graphic Novel: Eternals Vol. 1 by Kieron Gillen & Esad Ribic!
Best New Graphic Novels: The Impossibility of Closure in I Walk With Monsters
Even amid a new renaissance of A+ horror content, some books still manage to stand out as especially good. I Walk With Monsters
Best New Graphic Novel: Home Sick Pilots Vol. 1 – Teenage Haunts
In order to appropriately review the first volume of Home Sick Pilots
Home Sick Pilots: Teenage Haunts collects the first five issues of the Image Comics book from:
Writer: Dan Watters
Artist: Caspar Wijngaard
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Designer: Tom Muller
* Spoilers For the book Follow! *
[Read more…] about Best New Graphic Novel: Home Sick Pilots Vol. 1 – Teenage Haunts
Best New Graphic Novel: Usagi Yojimbo – Homecoming
In 2019, Stan Sakai announced that he would be moving Usagi Yojimbo to IDW from Dark Horse, his publisher for more than 20 years. Certainly it wasn’t the first time that Usagi had moved houses, with early stories at Thoughts & Images, then Fantagraphics and a brief stint at Mirage Studios, but despite all of these moves, the collected format of these comics had remained remarkably consistent.
The trade collections, numbered volumes 1-33 (available in paperback and limited hardcover editions
The omnibus editions of the series consisted of a special edition hardcover slipcase from Fantagraphics which was later republished as a paperback which has become almost equally hard to find (though there are rumors of a reprint hardcover edition coming later this year). From Dark Horse, the limited hardcover Usagi Yojimbo Saga collections (volumes 1-9 and Legends, collecting non-canonical stories), remain something of a gold standard for omnibus collectors. These editions feature full comic sized pages, and each collects three of the numbered editions.
Which is a long, circuitous way of saying that, moving forward, IDW will not be publishing new Usagi content collections consistent with the Fantagraphics and Dark Horse collections. The smaller 6” x 9” format for trade collections has been abandoned in favor of full-sized editions. This presents the art in a larger format that’s more consistent with the monthly comics, but, as many collectors find important, it won’t gel well on the shelf with prior collections. The numbering scheme has also been restarted, with “Bunraku and Other Stories” being the new volume 1, and “Homecoming,” the collection under discussion, as the new volume two. [Read more…] about Best New Graphic Novel: Usagi Yojimbo – Homecoming