Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.
Written by Al Feldstein, Gardner Fox, and others
Art by Wallace Wood
Promo copy:
Horror and crime shockers from the EC vaults, illustrated by a comics grandmaster.
Wallace Wood applied his preternaturally lush brushwork to over two dozen stories in the thematically overlapping (“dreadful things happen to people, both innocent and guilty”) horror, crime, and suspense genres. This work is the subject of one of the two premiere releases in Fantagraphics’ highly-anticipated new EC reprint line.
Taking its title from one of Wood’s all-time classics, the evil little paranoid thriller “Came the Dawn,” this collection features page after page after page of Wood’s sleek and meticulously crafted artwork put in the service of cunning twist-ending stories, most often from the typewriter of EC editor Al Feldstein.
These tales range from supernatural shockers from the pages of Tales From the Crypt and The Haunt of Fear (“The Living Corpse,” “Terror Ride,” “Man From the Grave,” “Horror in the Freak Tent”) to often pointedly contemporary crime thrillers from Crime SuspenStories (“The Assault,” “The Whipping,” and “Confession,” which was singled out for specific excoriation in the anti-comics screed Seduction of the Innocent, thus giving it a special cachet), but the breathtaking art and whiplash-inducing shock endings are constants throughout.
Like every book in the Fantagraphics EC line, “Came the Dawn!” will feature extensive essays and notes on these classic stories by EC experts — but the real “meat” of the matter (sometimes literally, in the grislier stories) will be supplied by these ofted lurid, sometimes downright over-the-top, but always compelling and superbly crafted, classic comic-book masterpieces.
WOW! OH WOW!
by Ben Katchor
Promo copy:
From one of the most original and imaginative American cartoonists at work today comes a collection of graphic narratives on the subjects of urban planning, product design, and architecture—a surrealist handbook for the rebuilding of society in the twenty-first century.
Ben Katchor, a master at twisting mundane commodities into surreal objects of social significance, now takes on the many ways our property influences and reflects cultural values. Here are window-ledge pillows designed expressly for people-watching and a forest of artificial trees for sufferers of hay fever. The Brotherhood of Immaculate Consumption deals with the matter of products that outlive their owners; a school of dance is based upon the choreographic motion of paying with cash; high-visibility construction vests are marketed to lonely people as a method of getting noticed. With cutting wit Katchor reveals a world similar to our own—lives are defined by possessions, consumerism is a kind of spirituality—but also slightly, fabulously askew. Frequently and brilliantly bizarre, and always mesmerizing, Hand-Drying in America ensures that you will never look at a building, a bar of soap, or an ATM the same way.
Written by Skip Brittenham
Art by Brian Haberlin
Promo copy:
EARTH 2717: THE 3RD GOLDEN AGE
Building a better tomorrow today…
The planet we call home slowly dies beneath us.
Most humans now live in teeming surface “Terrarium Cities,” off world colonies or orbiting space stations. All of earth’s resources have been depleted.
All corporations, nations and technologies have merged into THE CONGLOMERATE, whose Enforcer Battalions now conquer whole planets to feed its shareholders’ insatiable appetites.
THE CONGLOMERATE, which began with the spirit of the best mankind had to offer, saved humanity from itself by taking us to the stars and has become the most ruthless profit machine to ever exist.
Never use a robot when a human will do…
Dishonorably discharged from the Conglomerate’s elite Enforcer Corps, Jon is doing a job too lowly for a robot. He leaps at the chance to go on a peaceful, first contact mission to an untainted world. Playing armed babysitter to Samantha, the daughter of a powerful Conglomerate executive, shouldn’t be too hard.
What could go wrong?
Everything…
For Jon, it’s a relief to get away – on an easy assignment protecting a couple of do-gooders visiting a peaceful new planet. For Samantha, it’s a mission to change the world. For Jasson, it’s a chance to put his theories to the test.
Being marooned on Anomaly where technology doesn’t work, the terrain is lethal and the creatures even more so, Jon quickly learns he’s not the man he once was. Dark secrets surround the various species that call this world home. Jon’s actions here have the potential to ripple across the void of space, and touch everything in it… Maybe even the Conglomerate…
But when Anomaly sprouts synthetics-eating viruses, flesh-eating mutants and deadly magic, it becomes a race against which form of death will come first. Who will survive? Who will return?
Join us on an adventure that reclaims our humanity and saves a world!
Bonus: includes Anomaly UAR that integrates the print and virtual experience like never before.
Contributors:
Jeanne Thornton (fictioncircus.com/Jeanne )
Sam Hurt (eyebeam.com)
Aaron Whitaker (www.aaronwhitaker.com)
Mack White (mackwhite.com)
M. Austin Bedell (skweegieisland.com/)
Gilbert Smith (crithit.org/spooky)
K. F. Harlock (crithit.org)
Nouri Zarrugh (www.nourizarrughart.com)
Geoff Sebesta (unnecessaryg.com)
Brian Horst (http://www.flickr.com/…
Antonius Wolfsblut (muskville.com)
Jason Poland (robbieandbobby.com)
John David Brown (flickr.com/photos/jdbrow npopart)
Miracle Jones (miraclejones.blogspot.co m/)
Simon Jacobs (simonajacobs.blogspot.co m)
Monte Hayward
Mast (absolutemaster.blogspot. com)
Dylan Edwards (studiondr.com)
Dieter Geisler (dietergeisler.com)
Kathleen Jacques (bvbcomix.com)
Cover by Zach Taylor (gnourg.org)
I picked up this interesting looking b&w strip magazine (printed on newsprint) at the Austin Comic Con. The entire issue is available for free online.
Written by Kim Harrison
Art by Gemma Magno
Promo copy:
You can’t tell the story of how it all began for supernatural cops Ivy Tamwood and Rachel Morgan without telling how it all nearly ended. The fiery living vampire and erstwhile earth witch never asked to be paired up in the first place. And having to work Inderland Security’s crummiest beat—busting two-bit paranormal street punks—sure didn’t sweeten the deal. But when it counts, Ivy and Rachel always have each other’s backs. They’d better—because someone just hung targets on both of them.
It doesn’t take a hotshot homicide detective to know that nearly getting flattened by a falling gargoyle or impaled by a lead pipe aren’t on-the-job accidents. But it doesn’t seem possible that the class of crooks Ivy and Rachel routinely collar could kill anything but brain cells. So who put Cincinnati’s tough and tender twosome on their “to do in” list? Is Ivy’s vampire master, the powerful and seductive Piscary, jealous of her growing bloodlust (and just plain lust) for Rachel? Or have forces unknown—living or undead—made the partners prey in a deadly witch (and vampire) hunt?
Before this case is cracked, Ivy and Rachel will face down vicious dogs, speeding locomotives, rogue bloodsuckers, and their own dark desires; spells will be cast and blood will be spilled; and Kim Harrison’s hair-raising, heart-racing, dark urban world of magic and monsters will leap howling from the pages of her second electrifying, full-color graphic novel.
