Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.
AX Volume 1: A Collection of Alternative Manga Edited by Sean Michael Wilson
Promo copy:
With an introduction by Paul Gravett, author of Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics!
Ax is the premier Japanese magazine for alternative comics, heir to the legendary Garo. Published bi-monthly since 1998, the pages of Ax contain the most innovative, experimental, and personal works in contemporary manga — the flourishing underground of the world’s largest comics industry. Now Top Shelf presents a 400-page collection of stories from ten years of Ax history, translated into English for the first time.
This landmark volume includes work by 33 artists, including Yoshihiro Tatsumi (A Drifting Life), Imiri Sakabashira (The Box Man), Kazuichi Hanawa (Doing Time), Yusaku Hanakuma (Tokyo Zombie), Akino Kondoh, Shin’ichi Abe, and many many more! It’s a feast of pure creativity, and a guided tour of fascinating new directions in Japanese comics. Ready for adventure? Then grab your Ax and come on!
Game of Cages by Harry Connolly
Promo copy:
A SECRET HIGH-STAKES AUCTION
As a wealthy few gather to bid on a predator capable of destroying all life on earth, the sorcerers of the Twenty Palace Society mobilize to stop them. Caught up in the scramble is Ray Lilly, the lowest of the low in the society—an ex–car thief and the expendable assistant of a powerful sorcerer. Ray possesses exactly one spell to his name, along with a strong left hook. But when he arrives in the small town in the North Cascades where the bidding is to take place, the predator has escaped and the society’s most powerful enemies are desperate to recapture it. All Ray has to do is survive until help arrives. But it may already be too late.
Elfsorrow (Legends of the Raven 1) by James Barclay
Promo copy:
Another action-packed adventure from the new master of fantasy. The Raven travel to a new continent in search of mages to help the ruined college of Julatsa rebuild and find themselves in the midst of an ancient curse—a curse that has unleashed a plague that threatens to wipe out the elven race. Barclay excels with another tale that pitches The Raven against the clock and unseen foes. Full of desperate fights and secret betrayals, the story also fills in more of Balaia’s history and delves deeper into the ancient emnities between the colleges. Barclay has created a wonderfully appealing group of heroes, and with every book their history grows and the land they live in becomes wider and richer. This is landmark fantasy in the making.
More in Part II