Graphic Novels Prepub Alert

Featuring Hiro Arikawa, Neil Young's Greendale & Tracy White

By Martha Cornog, Philadelphia -- Library Journal, 02/18/2010

In this second installment of Graphic Novels Prepub Alert (click here for the debut), we sample intriguing titles scheduled for June and July 2010 release. Two big-time European classics await later this year in English translation: the adventures of Corto Maltese republished at last (Dalen Books for the UK) and Joann Sfar’s graphic novel adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).

Arikawa, Hiro (text) & Kiiro Yumi (illus.). Library Wars: Love & War. Vol. 1. VIZ Media. Jun. 2010. 200p. ISBN 978-1-4215-3488-6. pap. $9.99. F
A Fahrenheit 451 set in Japan, with the librarians forming a military defense force against the big, bad censoring feds. We’ll all want the T-shirts!

AX: A Collection of Alternative Manga. Vol. 1. Top Shelf. Jul. 2010. 400p. Ed. by Sean Michael Wilson. ISBN 978-1-60309-042-1. pap. $29.95. F
For ten years, the Japanese magazine AX has been publishing diverse and creative work by artists unknown here. But now with the U.S. acceptance of shonen and shojo manga, we’re getting more variety and more cutting-edge material. This collection includes stories from 33 artists, of whom only Yoshihiro Tatsumi is widely recognized in this country for his gekiga (realist) classics A Drifting Life, The Push Man and Other Stories, and Abandon the Old in Tokyo.

Black, David (text) & John Howard (illus.). Miracle. Arcana. Jun. 2010. 96p. ISBN 978-1-897548-61-5. pap. $14.95. F
A cynical cop drops in on an East Harlem social club to investigate a reported murder. But he finds no shooter, no victim, and a bunch of witnesses who swear that an Angel of God brought the dead man back to life. WWTF?! The color art manages to combine grit and grace.

Brémaud, Frédéric (text) & Giovanni Rigano (illus.). Daffodil. Marvel. Jul. 2010. 168p. ISBN 978-0-7851-4001-6. $24.99. F
If you admired the sassy elf Holly Short from the Artemis Fowl graphic novels, you’ll love Daffodil, Globuline, and Achilles, three fetching and fanged agents of the Vampire Parliament who have to take in their out-of-control boss, Nosferatu. Rigano drew them all. Rated for adults.

Cruse, Howard. Stuck Rubber Baby. New ed. DC. Jun. 2010. 224p. ISBN 978-1-4012-2713-5. $24.99. F
Since its appearance in 1995, Cruse’s classic about coming out gay in the homophobic and racist 1960s South won the Triple Crown of comics awards—Eisner, Harvey, Angoulême—plus a few more besides. This 15th-anniversary edition comes with an introduction by Alison Fun Home Bechdel.

Dysart, Josh (text) & Cliff Chiang (illus.). Neil Young's Greendale. Vertigo. Jun. 2010. 160p. ISBN 978-1-4012-2698-5. $19.99. F
Neil Young’s 2003 album has been called a "rock opera" and "audio novel," exploring the effects of crime, consumerism, and environmental issues on small-town California. In this adaptation, teenager Sun Green comes to discover her own unusual powers and those of other women in her family to confront the mounting injustices. Adaptor Dysart, who describes his own political leanings as "left of Lenin," pegs the theme as antiwar and pro-planet. Having directed a film version, Young himself approached Vertigo for the project. For more on music-comics crossover, click here.

Dixon, Chuck (text) & Esteve Polls (illus.). The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Vol. 1. Dynamite. Jun. 2010. 168p. ISBN 978-1-60690-124-3. pap. $19.99. F
The Man with No Name is back: Sergio Leone’s antihero of cinema stars in gritty new Western adventures, and Polls’s art has been praised for the dark meanness he gives the characters.

Evens, Brecht. The Wrong Place. Drawn & Quarterly. Jun. 2010. 184p. ISBN 978-1-77046-001-0. pap. $24.95. F
The dance of relationships among twenty-somethings in that nether place of parties between school and career, where drinks and friends slide in and out of focus. Evens is Belgian and a member of the Pulp de Luxe comics collective, and this story told in conversations and cheery, layered colors is his first graphic novel to be translated into English. (His Night Animals has been announced for November by Top Shelf.)

Female Force: Women of the Media. Bluewater. Jun. 2010. 96p. ISBN 978-1-61623-927-5. pap. $15.99.
Short bios for TV superstars Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters, Ellen DeGeneres, and Meredith Vieira collected from the individual comic book issues; each has a one-page bibliography of web and print sources. A good bet for hooking the literacy-challenged. In August, look for the Female Force: Best Sellers collection of supernaturally famous wordsisters: Anne Rice, J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, and Charlaine Harris.

Hine, David & Fabrice Sapolsky (text) & Carmine Di Giandomenico (illus.). Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without a Face. Marvel. Jun. 2010. 112p. ISBN 978-0-7851-4444-1. $19.99. F
The "Spider-Man Noir" series re-envisions our web-slinger in shabby goggles and trench, crawling the mean walls of 1930s New York. After a new origin story in Volume 1, this second plot arc pits Peter Parker/Spider-Man against the evil Crime Master, his enforcer the Sandman, and a twisted scientist who’s experimenting on kidnapped African Americans for the American Nazi party.

Moore, Alan & Jamie Delano (text) & Alan David (illus.). The Complete D.R. and Quinch. 2000 AD. Jun. 2010. 128p. ISBN 978-1-906735-88-3. pap. $17.99. F
Alan Watchmen Moore! Funny! Really! This reprint collection follows the misadventures of two psychotic teen aliens wreaking anarchy throughout the galaxy. The deranged duo debuted in British comics magazine 2000 AD in the 1980s. Hunter S. Thompson would have loved it.

Napton, Robert Place & Jamie Nash (text) & Mario Guevara (illus.). Black Beard: The Legend of the Pyrate King. Dynamite. Jun. 2010. 200p. ISBN 978-1-60690-083-3. $29.99. F
He braided his beard up with colored ribbons, but Black Beard was the real deal and would totally kick Jack Sparrow’s butt. This semi-fictional treatment aims to reveal the real man behind the cutlass: a surprisingly principled fellow named Edward Teach. With thrillingly kinetic, watery art, plus back matter providing biographical information on the notorious pirate.

Rucka, Greg (text) & Matthew Southworth (illus.). Stumptown. Vol. 1. Oni. Jun. 2010. 144p. ISBN 978-1-934964-37-8. $19.99. F
In Rucka’s self-confessed love letter to The Rockford Files TV show from the 1970s, Dex can get her gambling debts cleared if the talented but unlucky PI can find her casino owner’s missing granddaughter. Dex’s phone book ad says it all: "Stumptown Investigations: Pulling the thorns out of the city of roses since 2005." Gritty tongue-in-cheek action with noirish color art.

Rucka, Greg (text) & J.H. Williams (illus.). Batwoman: Elegy. Deluxe ed. DC. Jul. 2010. 192p. ISBN 978-1-4012-2692-3. $24.99. F
Haunted by a family tragedy, Katherine "Kate" Kane fights her own private war as Batwoman. She’s able to save Gotham—and her father—from a toxic cloud unleashed by a madwoman known as Alice, but the fate of Kate’s long-lost sister hangs in the balance. Ironically, the original Batwoman was introduced in the 1950s as a love interest to shore up Batman’s heterosexuality. But this Batwoman is a Jewish lesbian, trying to balance her closeted love-life with her vigilante ventures. With especially striking black-and-red-heavy art.

Suekane, Kumiko. Afterschool Charisma. Vol. 1. VIZ Media. Jun. 2010. 208p. ISBN 978-1-4215-3397-1. pap. $12.99. F
Most kids read about people like Napoléon and Freud in their history books. But at St. Kleio Academy, regular kid Shiro meets them as classmates—their clones, that is, as kids themselves but perhaps with a whole load of karma from the originals. Sounds like a promising premise, especially when a student named Adolf enrolls. I’m wondering who else will turn up in this one.

White, Tracy. How I Made It to Eighteen: A Mostly True Story. Roaring Brook. Jun. 2010. 160p. ISBN 978-1-59643-454-7. $16.99.
White’s depressions, addictions, and body image issues led her at age 17 to check into a mental hospital to find a way to be happy with her life once more. Simple black-and-white drawings create the effect of an illustrated diary. Go here to sample White’s webcomics.