Cleo’s in her mid-20s, a struggling English artist trying to make it in New York. Frank’s in his mid-40s, a successful American ad exec. The two meet by chance and begin a whirlwind romance - Cleopatra and Frankenstein (their nicknames for each other) is the story of their relationship.
In a post-apocalyptic dystopian future (in a Jeff Lemire comic? That’s completely unheard of!), child vampires roam an empty city surviving on rats - until a human survivor stumbles across their path and they realise they’re not as alone as they thought. Tasting human blood for the first time in centuries, the group splits between those who want to continue their established way of life and those who want to venture out and see if there are more humans to feast upon. Which side will wi… zzz…
George Saunders is a brilliant short story writer but he’s also capable of writing some absolute drek - unfortunately, Liberation Day is down there with the likes of The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil and Fox 8 as among his most dire work. What’s worse is that the garbage is unrelenting - there’s no story here that’s even half decent!
Thom is preparing to move his young family from the east coast to the west coast, and hopes that the move will help settle his marriage with Maggie, as well as calm his 4 year old, Jamie. Because Jamie sees a monster in his closet each night - will he be able to leave it behind or will the monster follow him?
A screenwriter goes to a house in the mountains with his family to write - but, oh no, the house is haunted and things goes bad!
A small fishing village is terrorised by a Lovecraftian sea monster called Leviathan. A mysterious stranger offers a young adventurer a fortune if they can bring back the Starlight Wand that controls the creature - will you accept the challenge?
Alan Garner’s Treacle Walker is such a steaming pile of book, OF COURSE it’s the favourite to win this year’s Booker Prize! It’s garbage like this that turn people off from reading and awards-nominated books in general.
If you think you’re being targeted for assassination, call for Christopher Chance, aka the Human Target, to dress up like you and take the hit instead so you can find out who’s really gunning for you. Except Chris’ latest job as stand-in for Lex Luthor sees him accidentally poisoned - by someone from Justice League International! With just 12 issues, sorry “days”, to live, Chris has to interview everyone from the JLI to find out who’s killed him - but will he make it in time?
"The past is never dead. It's not even past." - William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun“Black bodies swinging in the southern breezeStrange fruit hanging from the poplar trees” - Billie Holiday, Strange FruitIn the small town of Money, Mississippi, a dead white man is found brutally killed in his home with a dead black man nearby holding the white man’s balls. But then the black man’s corpse disappears from the mortuary and later another white man is found dead - with the same dead black man nearby, also holding this new dead white man’s balls. And then the white body count keeps going up, with the same mutilation, with the same dead black corpse nearby. Something odd is happening down south…
GCPD are preparing to transport a dangerous meta-villain from Arkham to Blackgate - but Gotham’s gangs have other plans. The villain in question has electro-magnetic powers which get triggered once the convoy is attacked and soon Gotham is in a city-wide blackout. Batman must single-handedly carry the unconscious prisoner to Blackgate on foot through the dark night, while dodging the roving gangs, intent on ending both lives before the dawn arrives…
It’s Christmas week in a small Irish town in the mid ‘80s and Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, is busy finishing off his deliveries and getting the presents for his wife and five daughters. But a chance delivery to the local convent for “wayward girls” (girls who got pregnant out of wedlock and have no-one to look out for them) reveals something about the Catholic Church to Bill - a shadow of a doubt that lingers until he can’t ignore the blight in his humble rural community…
Three struggling Korean artists - a writer, a painter and a musician - in their 40s eventually make it big on the art scene but success changes them.
Fujino draws a celebrated manga for her high school paper. Then one day another strip appears alongside hers by a shut-in classmate who doesn’t attend school: Kyomoto - and the new girl’s artistic abilities shows Fujino’s to be amateurish. A rivalry - and later a friendship - is born as the two head down the path of future mangaka. Until tragedy strikes leading to the question: can one small cartoon strip literally save lives?
In Injustice we saw a world dominated by an evil Superman. In DCeased we saw zombies overrun the DC Universe. Now, in Dark Knights of Steel, we see Tom Taylor’s latest Elseworlds-style series, where familiar DC characters are placed in a generic fantasy setting. And, like Injustice and DCeased, Dark Knights of Steel is pretty underwhelming.
1649, a decisive moment happens in the English Civil War with the execution of King Charles I. 1660, Oliver Cromwell is dead having won the war but his short-lived Republic is over and the Restoration of the Monarchy has happened with Charles II installed as King of Britland. Parliament passes an “Act of Oblivion” which pardons everyone who committed crimes during the Civil War and subsequent Commonwealth period - except for 59 “Regicides” who signed their names on the King’s death warrant.
Hark! Kate Beaton’s back with her first non-kiddles comic in seven years, and her first feature-length narrative - a memoir called Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands. It’s about her time working for various oil companies in rural Canadia between 2005 and 2008 and her observations on what that business does to the people who work in it, the surrounding environment, and, of course, her.
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Claire is in Tokyo for the summer to be with her aging Korean grandparents who run a pachinko parlour. But, thinking she’ll have too much time on her hands, she accepts a part-time gig tutoring Mieko, a lonely 10 year old, in French language. And that’s both the premise and the “story”... Hmm.
It’s nearly Halloween in smalltown Missouri, 1983, and local news anchor Jerri Butler’s boozing gets her fired. Out of choices and in need of a job, she accepts the role of host of a cheesy horror movie showcase: Count Crowley. Except she finds out monsters do exist off the TV screen and her real job will be keeping them in check!
