Jeff Lemire | Geekscape

Geekscape Comics: Best Bets for 11/23/16

by KarsonNovember 23, 2016

It’s that wonderful time of the week again, new comic book day! Choosing what to read can be daunting (and expensive!). Don’t worry though, Geekscape has you covered. Each week we give our best bet for a comic book that you’re sure to enjoy. Let’s get into it!

It’s a quiet week from the big two publishers if you’re tastes are anything like mine. So let’s brush over them before getting to Image, who is responsible for all of this week’s sexy releases.

Marvel

I’m sure someone, somewhere once said “war never ends” or something like that. Well, I doubt they would have been referring to Marvel’s Civil War II, but they definitely could have been. Despite Marvel’s New or Now or Whatever the Heck reboot being in full effect, we still haven’t learned the conclusion of Civil War II. We get one step closer today though with the series’ seventh issue. If you’re caught in the web of Clone Conspiracy, the second Prowler tie-in issue is also out today.

DC

Nothing too crazy out of the DC camp this week. A lot of good titles but nothing I’m dying to read. Titans #5 is probably the book I’m anticipating the most, with Action Comics #968 in a close second.

Image

Get ready. There are a ton of great Image titles to read this week!

Outcast has lost a lot of it’s steam for me the past few issues, but I’m still excited to be reading another one this week.

Perhaps the series I’ve been most surprised by this year is
Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Snotgirl. I started reading this solely because O’Malley’s name was on it but after three issues I’ve really enjoyed the fresh feeling art and surprisingly interesting story line. Hopefully it gets even better with the fourth issue.

It seems like forever since we’ve had a new issue of Jason Aaron’s The Goddamned, and that’s because it has been! Well, since June. In case you forgot, here’s a snipped of the book’s description:

It’s 1,655 years after Eden, and life on Earth has already gone to hell. The world of man is a place of wanton cruelty and wickedness. Prehistoric monsters and stone-age marauders roam the land. Murder and destruction are the rule of the day. Humankind is a failed experiment. This is life before the Flood. The story of man on the verge of his first apocalypse. Welcome to the world of the Goddamned.

If I recall correctly, the first four issues were solid, so it’ll be fun to get back into this world.

Since it’s release, I’ve been saying Jonathan Hickman’s The Black Monday Murders is a book you’ll probably want to read in trade. Well, now is our chance! Sort of. The book’s first arc concludes in issue #4 today. So however you get your hands on the four issues is up to you but rest assured, you won’t regret doing it. Honestly, that’s probably what I’m most excited for this week. However, Image has one more title up it’s sleeve that I think’ll be even better!

Best Bet

A.D.: After Death Vol. 1
📝 Scott Snyder
🎨 Jeff Lemire

WHAT IF WE FOUND A CURE FOR DEATH? Two of comics’ most acclaimed creators, SCOTT SNYDER (WYTCHES, Batman, American Vampire) and JEFF LEMIRE (DESCENDER, Moon Knight, Sweet Tooth) unite to create a three-part epic like no other, set in a future where a genetic cure for death has been found. Years after the discovery, one man starts to question everything, leading him on a mind-bending journey that will bring him face-to-face with his past and his own mortality. A unique combination of comics, prose, and illustration, A.D.: AFTER DEATH will be serialized monthly as three oversized prestige format books written by SNYDER and fully painted by LEMIRE.

All I had to do was see that creative team and I knew this book was on my pull list. Having an innovative storyline and blending mediums together takes it to another level. While we won’t get it’s conclusion until the end of January, this has book of the year potential written all over it.

Geekscape Comics Reviews: ‘The Valiant’

by KarsonMarch 26, 2015

Growing up my best friend and I use to play Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal on the Sega Saturn. I’ll be honest, I had no idea who this X-O Manowar guy was. I always wanted to play as Iron Man. Not that it mattered much, we would always become frustrated and never get farther than the first few levels. That was my first little taste of the Valiant Universe. Lemire (Green Arrow, Animal Man), Kindt (RAI, UNITY, Mind MGMT), and Rivera’s (Daredevil) The Valiant is my second. It was much more enjoyable.

The four part mini series is self contained so readers can pick it up and not be intimidated by continuity. I can think of no better marketing tool than this series to grow Valiant’s readership. It’s that good.

The premise is pretty straightforward. Since basically the beginning of time the Eternal Warrior has protected the Geomancers who are mystics that speak for the Earth. No matter how hard the Eternal Warrior tries the Immortal Enemy defeats him and kills the Geomancer plunging humanity into a dark age. The cycle continues a few times throughout the ages but this time the Eternal Warrior will have help from the Valiant super heroes.

Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt’s writing is solid for most of the series. It’s paced great so you’ll definitely want to have all four issues on hand when you begin reading this one. The duo really shines during the moments that the two contrasting characters Kay (the geomancer) and Bloodshot (nanite-infused super soldier) are together. This is where you’ll find some of the series’ best moments. The only problem I had was the use of time travel in the beginning of the fourth issue brought the action and emotional climax to an abrupt halt. What came next more than made up for that though.

The end of this series will drastically shift the face of The Valiant universe. Like I said, I have no prior knowledge of it but even to me the events felt significant. This surely has something to do with how well each character is established in the beginning of the series. Each hero getting their own little defining moments and story lines. By the time the final issue rolled around I was connected to each of them.

The strongest part of this mini series is the handling of the villain; the Immortal Enemy. This may be one of the most sadistic and maniacal villains I’ve ever seen. As his name suggests, he is immortal. He shifts his appearance into what his opponent fears most; for our Geomancer it is the tuxedo and top hat wearing Mister Flay from a story her father use to read her, The Littlest Princess and the Twilight Kingdom. Perhaps the scariest imagery is when his face splits opens revealing the face of a demon-like creature inside. Paolo Rivera’s drawings create a villain that is sure to haunt you long after you finish the series.

(Please don’t invade my dreams.)

Rivera does a great job with the art in the rest of the book as well. There are many instances where he is able to perfectly capture the emotion of a character with little to no words from Lemire and Kindt. From peaceful communities on the riverside, to giant action pieces Rivera masterfully handles it all. There is no other way to put it; this series is gorgeous.

This miniseries is great and definitely worth checking out. I won’t be surprised to see it on a few best of lists at the end of the year. Whether you’re looking to dive into the Valiant Universe for the first time or just for a great miniseries that you can read in an hour or two I’d highly recommend checking out The Valiant. The fourth and final issue hit shelves yesterday!

Image Expo Announces New Projects from Vaughan, Snyder, Lemire and More!

by KarsonJanuary 9, 2015

Thanks to Image we already have TONS of new (and renewed) comic books to look forward to in 2015!

Image Expo, the first major comic book event of the year, held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts took place January 8, 2015. The keynote revealed a slew of creator-owned projects set to launch this year. Highlights include new books from Scott Snyder (Wytches, Batman), Skottie Young (Fortunately, the Milk, Rocket Raccoon, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz) and Jeff Lemire (Trillium, Sweet Tooth).

See below for all the announcements!

AD: AFTER DEATH

W: Scott Snyder (Wytches, Batman), A: Jeff Lemire (Trillium, Sweet Tooth)

AD: AFTER DEATH will be set in a near future where death has been cured and one man must come to grips with what comes next.

AD: AFTER DEATH will launch in November 2015.

BLACK ROAD

W: Brian Wood (Star Wars, DMZ, Northlanders), A: Garry Brown (The Massive, Iron Patriot), Lauren Affe

Set in Viking Age Norway, BLACK ROAD follows Magnus The Black, a fixer for the Christian Church who loses a Roman official to bandits on the infamous Black Road. Heading north to fix the problem and complete his contract, he uncovers a secret, something so big it threatens to change the balance of power in all of Europe. But with one foot in the world of the pagans and the other in that of the Church, who can trust where his loyalties lie?

BLACK ROAD will launch in September 2015.

I HATE FAIRYLAND

W: Skottie Young (Fortunately, the Milk, Rocket Raccoon, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz) A: Skottie Young, Jean-Francois Beaulieu (Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz)

Gertrude is a snarky, slightly deranged 40-year-old with a battle axe who happens to be trapped in a Shirley Temple-esque body and confined to the technicolor funworld that is Fairyland. I HATE FAIRYLAND is an all-new series full of morbid, dark humor and snark—perfect for fans of Invader Zim and Fight Club.

I HATE FAIRYLAND will launch in Fall 2015.

ISLAND & 8HOUSE

Emma Ríos & Brandon Graham

Making a rare U.S. appearance for Image Expo this year, comics creator Emma Ríos officially announced three upcoming projects. ISLAND and 8HOUSE, both collaborations with Brandon Graham, are due in 2015.

ISLAND, a collaboration spearheaded by Ríos and Graham and featuring a murderer’s row of the most interesting artists in comics, will be an oversized 72-page monthly magazine, scheduled for June 2015.

KAPTARA

W: Chip Zdarsky (Sex Criminals, Howard the Duck) A: Kagan McLeod (Infinite Kung-fu)

KAPTARA follows Keith Kanga, a young bio-engineer flung across the universe onto a strange planet filled with weird danger. And if he doesn’t get home then Earth—the place where YOU live—is DOOMED!

KAPTARA will launch in 2015.

THE LUDOCRATS

Kieron Gillen (The Wicked + The Divine, Phonogram), David Lafuente (Ultimate Comics: Spider-man), Jim Rossignol, Ricardo Venancio

“The Ludocrats is a decade-in-the-making opulent fantastical comedy,” said writer of THE WICKED + THE DIVINE and PHONOGRAM, Kieron Gillen, “This is a book which has hyperbole as its baseline, and considers the impossible as an aim only fitting for underachievers. It’ll change your life. Primarily by letting you own a comic called The Ludocrats, where BARON OTTO VON SUBERTAN and PROFESSOR HADES ZERO-K are the last defenders of a ludicrous aristocracy against the insipid forces of normalisation.”

THE LUDOCRATS will launch in Summer 2015.

MONSTRESS

W: Marjorie Liu (X-Men, Tiger Eye) A: Sana Takeda (Ms. Marvel)

In MONSTRESS, readers are transported into the early 1900s, where immense Leviathans roam the Earth, wielding unimaginable powers that many have long desired to exploit. When a teenage girl with a mysterious past forms a tenuous psychic bond with the most dangerous of all the Leviathans, she becomes the target of both human and otherworldly authorities who will stop at nothing to possess her—to control her, and control the Lord of the all the Leviathans. What they don’t count on is the courage of the girl herself—and the fact that she is slowly becoming more than human…

MONSTRESS will launch in 2015.

NO MERCY

W: Alex de Campi (Smoke/Ashes, Grindhouse), A: Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), Jenn Manley Lee (Dicebox)

It was just a trip, before college. Build schools in a Central American village; get to know some of the other freshmen. What could go wrong? After tragedy strikes, these once-privileged American teens must find their way home in a cruel landscape that at best doesn’t like them, and at worst actively wants to kill them. No phones. No passports. No mercy.

NO MERCY will launch in Spring 2015.

PAPER GIRLS

W: Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Runaways), A: Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman)

PAPER GIRLS is the story of four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls who experience something extraordinary one day…

PAPER GIRLS will launch in 2015.

PHONOGRAM

W: Kieron Gillen (The Wicked + The Divine, Young Avengers), A: Jamie McKelvie (The Wicked + The Divine, Young Avengers)

Emily Aster’s the hyper-acerbic cover-queen whose one liners are sharper than her fringe; she’s been the one people love and love to quote. In this new chapter of the PHONOGRAM series, readers discover how she got that way, and where it got her. She sold half her personality for power. This is what happens when that faustian deal catches up with her, and what that half her personality has been doing all these years.

PHONOGRAM will launch in 2015.

PLUTONA

W: Jeff Lemire, A: Emi Lenox, Jordie Bellaire

PLUTONA follows the story of five suburban kids who make a shocking discovery while exploring the woods one day after school… the body of the world’s greatest super hero, Polara, laying dead among the mud and grass.

PLUTONA will launch in 2015.

PRETTY DEADLY

W: Kelly Sue DeConnick (Bitch Planet, Captain Marvel), A: Emma Ríos (Pretty Deadly)

In this second story arc of PRETTY DEADLY, the mantle of Death has fallen to a little girl, Sissy, who, along with her tattered band of reapers, is tasked with gathering souls whose time has come, or come and passed. An old woman has a dying request. Her son has been missing for more than a year, gone east, and from there to fight in the trenches overseas. She wants to see the boy one last time before she passes. And so Deathface Ginny is dispatched through clouds of mustard gas to find the young man, but between her and her quarry, atop bitter black mount of twenty hands, sits the Reaper of War himself.

PRETTY DEADLY will launch in September 2015.

REVENGEANCE

Darwyn Cooke

REVENGEANCE is a psychological thriller with darkly humorous overtones. When Joe Malarky is faced with a criminal tragedy, he sets out to make things right on his own. What follows is Joe’s odyssey through the underside of the city and the madness that seems to drive his crazy world.

REVENGEANCE will launch in June 2015.

RUN LOVE KILL
Eric Canete (The End League, Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin), Jon Tsuei (Comic Book Tattoo), Leonardo Olea, Manu Fernandez
The story follows a wanted woman in hiding named Rain Oshiro. The narrative style will prominently feature two very different but significantly connected moments throughout her life: “The Past”—which will explore her history as an impressionable student, an abiding soldier, and a wanted fugitive; and “The Present”—which will show her as she is now and how she copes with (and runs away from) the decisions made in her past. At its core, the story is an exploration of choices—both good and bad. And now, how her choices have formed her into the person she has and will become. Set against a background of a futuristic world as only artist Canete can imagine, Rain has just 24 hours to escape a barricaded city while trying to evade a military force determined to either capture or kill her.
RUN LOVE KILL will launch Spring 2015.

SAVIOR
W: Todd McFarlane, Brian Holguin (SPAWN, Mr. Majestic), A: Clayton Crain (X-Force)
A man appears with no background, no memory, and no place to call home. But this much is clear—this individual possesses certain powers, abilities that harken from the Old Testament… Could he possibly be this corrupted world’s SAVIOR in the flesh? Or will he be the world’s undoing?
SAVIOR will launch in April 2015.

SONS OF THE DEVIL
Brian Buccellato and Toni Infante
SONS OF THE DEVIL is a dark look at a blue collar 25-year-old orphan who learns he is the son of a cult leader. Like True Detective and The Following, SONS OF THE DEVIL is an exploration into the dark side of human psychology. It’s a grounded take on cults that balances the real world with the supernatural.

STARVE
Brian Wood (Star Wars, DMZ, The Massive), Danijel Zezelj (Northlanders, Loveless), & Dave Stewart (The Walking Dead, Star Wars)
STARVE is set in a world where chefs are practically royalty, and access to them is the ultimate status symbol. Chef Gavin Cruikshank, back from self-imposed exile, finds his little foodie television program “Starve” transformed into a gonzo arena sport where chefs slice and dice rare and endangered species for their super-rich patrons. Since his personal life is as much a shambles as his professional career, Chef Cruikshank works to repair his relationship with his grown daughter while dismantling the monstrosity that Starve has become.

TADAIMA
Emi Lenox (EMITOWN)
Throughout childhood, Emi visited her Grandmother in Japan frequently. But through the years of high school and after, she hadn’t been back in nearly twelve years. Sadly, within those twelve years, both her Japanese grandparents passed away. TADAIMA is a travelogue documenting a trip back to Japan with her mother for a memorial service to renew the sobota, a wooden grave marker, at her grandparents’ tomb in Fukushima. Touching on Japanese spirituality and cultural differences, TADAIMA is more than a book about landmarks and foreign cuisine. It’s about family.

WE STAND ON GUARD
W: Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Ex Machina), A: Steve Skroce (Doc Frankenstein, storyboard artist for The Matrix and Jupiter Ascending)
WE STAND ON GUARD is an action-packed, military thriller set in the 22nd century. The series follows a heroic band of Canadian civilians-turned-freedom fighters who take up arms against a violent invasion of their country by a technologically superior nation: the United States of America.

HEAVEN
James Robinson (The Saviors) and Phillip Tan (Spawn, Uncanny X-Men)
HEAVEN introduces readers to a distant future where the forces or man and alien combined have used religion to conquer this universe and are now ready, about to invade the next one — Heaven itself. The “Good War” between man and angel will span galaxies and dimensions, building to a final conflict that threatens to negate all of reality itself. Along the way many players on both sides of the war will be featured; soldiers, spies and politicians all with different goals and agendas even as their two distinct and differing realities explode around them.

Oofta! There you have it. What are titles are you excited for in 2015? Let us know in the comments below!

Geekscape Comics: Vertigo And Jeff Lemire Team Up For ‘Trillium’

by Derek KraneveldtOctober 12, 2012

More cool news from NYCC – Jeff Lemire has a new limited series coming next year! As usual he’ll be writing and illustrating the title, which is Lemire’s first forray into Sci-Fi. Vertigo described it as “a mind bending Sci-Fi thriller about the end of the universe”.

From the Vertigo panel:

Arriving in 2013, Vertigo will publish TRILLIUM, a limited series written and illustrated by the incomparable Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Animal Man, Justice League Dark, Essex County Trilogy, Ghosts).

We asked Lemire to share some thoughts about the new series and here’s what he said: “As Sweet Tooth moved towards its conclusion earlier this year, I started to look ahead to what my next creator-owned project for DC/Vertigo could be. I pitched a number of ideas to editor Mark Doyle that I wasn’t totally happy with. Finally he pushed me to leave my comfort zone, and get away from the genres and themes that I’d become known for.

Sci-Fi is something I’ve wanted to tackle for a while. I experimented a bit with it last year when I did the ULTRA THE MULTI-ALIEN short story for Vertigo’s STRANGE ADVENTURES anthology and enjoyed that project so much that I was eager to do more. I’ve also always wanted to do a really powerful, human love story. There have been so few love stories done really well in comics. Preacher and Blankets come to mind as recent successes, but in my mind, it’s still a difficult and rather unexplored genre in the comics medium. It seemed like just the kind of challenge Mark was pushing me to undertake. So, I combined these two interests along with my ongoing fascination with in World War 1, and turn of the century exploration, and the results are TRILLIUM.”
It’s the year 3797 and botanist Nika Temsmith is researching a species of strange plant-based life forms on a remote science station near the outermost rim of colonized space.

It’s the year 1921, and war-scarred explorer William Pike leads an expedition into the dense jungles of Peru in search of the fabled “Lost Temple of The Incas,” an elusive sanctuary said to have strange healing properties.

Two disparate souls separated by thousands of years and hundreds of millions of miles. Yet they will fall in love and, as a result, bring about the end of the universe. Even though reality is unraveling all around them, nothing can pull them apart. This isn’t just a love story, it’s the last love story ever told.

Lemire continued, “It will be my most ambitious creator-owned project and my most challenging. I think fans of my previous work will see traces of both SWEET TOOTH and THE UNDERWATER WELDER in its chemistry, but I really do want to push myself in new directions as well.

TRILLIUM is a mind-bending sci-fi thriller about the end of the universe. And, it’s a story about the dawn of human exploration and its natural conclusion thousands of years away. But most of all it’s a love story. And I can’t wait to share it with you.”

I’m in. How about you?

Source: BleedingCool

Are You Fit Enough? The Geekscapepod For October 7th, 2012!

by JonathanOctober 7, 2012

How fit are you? I start this episode trying to find out! Then I tell you how good or just silly ‘Taken 2’ is! Plus, is AvX really over? Where does it go from here? What Batman comics should I read if I’m scared of crossovers? Why Jeff Lemire’s ‘The Underwater Welder’ is definitely something you should pick up! Does the New Super Mario Bros 2 ‘DLC’ add anything and is ‘Resident Evil 6’ deserving of all the hate?

Subscribe to the show on iTunes!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:26 — 15.9MB)

Geekscape Comics: ‘Swamp Thing’ Writer Scott Snyder Discusses ‘Rotworld’ Cross-Over Event

by Scott AlminianaAugust 6, 2012

If you want some highly original and non-traditional super hero tales then you really need to be reading Animal Man and Swamp Thing. Both titles have just been consistently great since they launched almost a year ago.

Last week writer Jeff Lemire (Animal Man) discussed the “Rotworld” event that’s currently taking place in Animal Man and Swamp Thing. Now, Swamp Thing writer Scott Snyder, who is writing some of my favourite comics today, discusses the long in the making event.

“So we’re finally here – the moment Jeff Lemire and I have been building towards since day one on these two crazy books we’re writing, ANIMAL MAN and SWAMP THING.

To say this is the culmination of our year long stories on these books would be an understatement. This moment is the culmination – the Rot, Arcane, The Hunters Three all have led us here – but it’s also the start of something even bigger. Because in Rotworld, you’ll get to see the DCu completely transformed by the Rot. You’ll see which of your favorite heroes and villains survived the Rot’s invasion (not many, we’re afraid). And you’ll get to see which have been overtaken and transformed by the Rot.You’ll get to see Gotham, Metropolis – this is the whole DCu, but rotten.

Swampy and Buddy will face impossible odds, and will have to bring everything they’ve learned over the past year to bear against the figureheads of the Rot in this world. They’ll travel by land, sea and air. They’ll meet friends and enemies transformed. And most importantly, at the end, they’ll come face to face with their own greatest fears about themselves. This story will push them like nothing you’ve seen, and when it’s over, both books will be forever changed.

It’s been a wild year in for these characters, and we can’t thank you all enough for all the support. It means the world to all of us on ANIMAL MAN and SWAMP THING. And we promise, the best – and wildest – is coming right now, in Rotworld.”

Source: DC Comics