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!
A library patron somehow falls asleep and stays overnight in the library to be awakened by the narrator of this novella: a lovesick librarian who decides to use her surprised audience as a sounding board for her thoughts on her job, myriad subjects of interest and - of course - the graduate student she’s secreting pining for.
The Killing Joke is one of the most famous and bestselling Batman books of all time so it makes sense that DC would model an entire series around it to try to replicate that success for each of Batman’s less-but-still-quite-famous villains.
I love me some Noah Van Sciver but his latest collection, As a Cartoonist, was very weak with few strips in it that were entertaining or funny.
Mona is a novelist who gets nominated for a prestigious award in Sweden (not the Nobel), so goes there to be with her fellow nominees and enjoy Swedish hospitality, etc. Riveting stuff, eh?
