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Mars Will Send No More

~ Comic books, art, poetry, and other obsessions

Mars Will Send No More

Category Archives: first issue

indie box: Tales of the Cherokee

02 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in educational, first issue, indie

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black and white, Cherokee, creation myth, first issue, Gene Gonzales, indie box, Indie Comics, Mandalay Books, Native American Myths, Native Americans, Tales of the Cherokee

Today’s pick from the box of indie and small-press comics is Tales of the Cherokee. Let’s have a look at Gene Gonzales’ illustrated version of the Cherokee creation myth in “How the World Was Made.” Dig that splash page featuring the worlds above and below!




Below is another tale, a Cherokee love story Gene calls “The Origin of Strawberries.”

Collector’s Guide:
– From Tales of the Cherokee #1, Mandalay Books 2001.

To see current works by Gene Gonzales, visit
http://www.genegonzales.com and http://www.genegonzales.blogspot.com



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indie box: This Is Sold-Out

18 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, humor, indie

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Augustus Mattick III, black and white, FantaCo, first issue, indie box, Indie Comics, John M Hebert, Roger Green, This is Sold Out, Tom Skulan

This is Sold-Out lampoons the comic book industry of the 1980s, and no one walks away without a few lumps. It’s too bad the creators never did a sequel satirizing the 1990s speculator craze. Long-time comic book fans will enjoy picking out the altered comic book titles on the racks and the ridiculous hyperbole about the medium we know and love.

My favorite moment might be when a rodent and a turtle use random words from the dictionary to come up with the title of the latest black-and-white indie sensation: The Catastrophic Obsequious Belgian Hibernation Retrieval. Someone must create that book!

This Is Sold Out has an outrageous second issue that concludes the story as the “Color Police” get together to eradicate all competition for the black-and-white madness. Absolute lunacy!

Collector’s Guide:
-From Sold Out; 1986, FantaCo.
Last we checked, FantaCo was defunct and this title is out of print.

 

 












 

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indie box: Salvador

11 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie, science fiction

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Boom Studios, first issue, indie box, Indie Comics, JK Woodward, Mark Polish, Michael Polish, Polish Brothers, Salvador, Sebastian Jones

Today we open the indie short-box to find the first and only issue of a series that never happened: Salvador!

salvador 1-003

The ultimate intent of the lavish, wordless art remains a mystery to me. I felt like I followed the central character’s journey, even though the world was unfamiliar to me, and I could draw some conclusions about what it was all about. But did this episode set up a longer storyline, or is this issue a self-contained story? What did the creators think was coming next?

The blurb in the back of the book, which you can see in the scans below, says Salvador was to be a five-issue series, and the main character was a “savior for DNA discards” in a world of genetic engineering gone awry. He can fly, but he was born brittle, so he is easily broken. I don’t know if that will help you make more sense of this unfinished work, but have a look at these gorgeous pages anyway.

Collector’s Guide:
Salvador #1; Boom Studios, 2007.

salvador 1-005

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indie comics spotlight

19 Friday Feb 2016

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie

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Andres Salazar, Betvin Géant, Chris Mullins, Indie Comics, Jose Luis Pescador, Kay, Nando Sarmiento, pariah missouri, Rise of the Antichrist, silvertongue 30xx

pariah missouri book one cover salazar pescadorPariah Missouri is much overdue for a chance in our spotlight here. Creator Andres Salazar has led more than one successful Kickstarter campaign to produce two hardcover volumes and a role playing game for this western horror series described as “Deadwood Meets Buffy.” Set in 1857, Pariah Missouri pits a detective and his rag-tag crew of frontier archetypes against murderous demons and other supernatural evils. We enjoyed the artwork from Jose Luis Pescador and encourage you to keep current with this project or pick up Pariah Missouri from the Salazar Entertainment store.

 

silvertongue interior 0 coverSilvertongue 30xx is back with a second issue, and creator Nando Sarmiento brings the outrageous story “The Chippewa Vendetta” to a high-powered conclusion. The manga-style artwork of Chris Mullins keeps the volume cranked up in this fast-paced science-fiction courtroom drama. Put down those boring John Grisham novels and brace yourself for an explosive ride across America in a giant courtroom on wheels, where the laws change every time you cross a state border! Head over to Little Nando’s store for sample pages from Silvertongue 30xx or pick up issues 1 and 2 on Comixology.

 

 

rise of the antichrist issue 6 cover geant kay

The sixth issue of The Rise of the Antichrist proves creator Betvin Geant and artist Kay have not even scratched the surface of how far out they are willing to take this concept. The lord of hell has now firmly convinced the sociopathically delusional “hero” of his divinity and set him on a nationwide tour of miraculous deeds and talk show appearances. Blasphemy, piety, and sheer insanity combine in this psychological horror story available at AntichristTheComic.com.

 

 

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Interview with 4 Seconds creator Paul O’Connor

17 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in crime, first issue, indie

≈ 6 Comments

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4 seconds, Billy King, comic book scripting, concept art, digital comics, first issue, Indie Comics, interview, Karl Kesel, Paul O'Connor, think fast, thrillbent

Author Paul O’Connor joins us today for an interview about his newly launched digital comic book story 4 Seconds. You can read 4 Seconds for free at Mark Waid’s Thrillbent. Paul discusses with us the technical side of producing a story for Thrillbent’s unique reading platform, including how he invented a new scripting technique working with artist Billy King on the initial concept design and artist Karl Kesel on the final story.

4 seconds paul oconnor promo

Paul, what is 4 Seconds and how did it come about?

4 Seconds is an original comic story in digital form published at Mark Waid’s Thrillbent site. It is free to read right now, and I hope everyone will give it a shot. The story is self-contained and easy to complete in one sitting. It tells the tale of a petty thief who discovers she can see into the future… but only 4 seconds into the future! This proves to be just enough superpower to get her into trouble.

The story was born when I won Mark Waid’s open-microphone pitch contest at San Diego Comic-Con. I was super-excited for this job, because I am a big believer in the new way stories can be told at Thrillbent. There are dozens of stories at the site, many of them are free, and they all have something to say about how comic stories can be told beyond the printed page.

4 seconds billy king cassie character design

As someone who makes books, I’d love to hear about the technical side of creating 4 Seconds specifically for the Thrillbent digital format. What’s unique about Thrillbent compared to printed comics, or even other digital platforms?

Even during the pitch stage, it was important to me that I create a story best told (or perhaps only told) in the Thrillbent format. Thrillbent specializes in digital-native stories that expand the way comics stories are told. It is critical to understand that these are still comics stories. They aren’t motion comics, and they don’t have soundtracks or spoken dialogue. They are still words, pictures, and panels that the reader pages through at their own pace.

One way things are different is in the fluidity of transitions afforded by this platform. For instance, we can do actual fades, wipes, and pans, imparting a more cinematic feel to a traditional comics story. Likewise, this platform allows for new types of page architecture and panel borders, and new approaches to balloon placement and dialogue construction. In creating 4 Seconds, artist Karl Kesel and I tried to take full advantage of being in a paperless environment, and using this platform to tell our story in a more memorable way. 4 Seconds is built from the ground-up to be a new thing in familiar clothing.

4 seconds billy king precog scene layout

Tell me how those possibilities came to life in creating a scene from 4 Seconds.

For example, we might have a “master shot”—say, a nighttime interior of the mansion of the villainous Anton Glass. Rather than show the entire shot at once, our story might reveal it in portions—first showing just that slice illuminated by the moody moonlight leaking through the floor-to-ceiling windows, then picking up the trail of bloody footprints on the floor, then finding the outstretched hand of a body lying just inside the shadows.

Across this, we place our characters, posing them for the critical moments of storytelling. And then we bring in dialogue balloons, captions, and sound effects. What Karl had to deliver were all the many individual panels, frames, and character poses that made up the story, which are then placed in the correct order for viewing via Thrillbent.

The results are equivalent to what might be many panels and pages in a paper comic, all playing out in the same narrative space using comic conventions of panels to parse time and focus reader attention on the sequential elements needed to tell the story. It’s still the same toolbox used in conventional comics, but there’s greater freedom of expression in how it’s used, particularly when it comes to isolating specific elements that you want the reader to see.

4 seconds paul oconnor script sample 1

How was writing the 4 Seconds script different from comic scripts you’ve written for other media? Was it anything like a traditional comic book script?

This was a very different process. The Thrillbent format demanded that I take a new approach to scripting, and I also challenged myself to think in visual terms from the get-go. I deliberately went outside of my comfort zone of concentrating on dialogue and description and leaving everything else up to the artist. Instead, I wanted to provide a deeply thought-out visual blueprint for Karl, which he could (and did!) use as a springboard to make things even better in the penciling stage.

That meant I was doing scene-blocking and transitions—new things for me—and also figuring out how to break the rules as fast as I made them! To tie it all together, I invented a hybrid script form that offers conventional comics direction, dialogue, etc., but abandoned panels as the unit of storytelling in favor of frame advances. Determining how much information to add/change to each advance drives the pace of the story, and sometimes the challenge is as much about deciding what to retain from previous frames more than it is about what to add.

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Thank you, Paul! 4 Seconds keeps the twists and turns coming right up to the very end. Revealing the story in frames like this means readers share Cassie’s experience of her world. They know something is coming in that empty space of the future, but they can’t see far enough ahead to be sure what it is. I found it drew me into the story and made me care that much more about what happened to her.

Read 4 Seconds for free at Mark Waid’s Thrillbent.

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indie comics spotlight: 4 Seconds by O’Connor and Kesel

10 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

4 seconds, first issue, four seconds, Indie Comics, Karl Kesel, Mark Waid, online comics, Paul O'Connor, san diego comic-con, think fast, thrillbent, web comics

4 seconds paul oconnor promo

4 Seconds is a noir thriller about a petty thief who discovers she can see four seconds into the future. That’s just enough precognition to get into trouble, but not nearly enough time to pull off the heist that will save her sister’s life.

4 Seconds is an original story from Paul O’Connor of Longbox Graveyard, in collaboration with artist Karl Kesel, launching today at: Mark Waid’s Thrillbent.com. The complete story is FREE to read online.

Paul’s pitch for 4 Seconds won Mark’s fifteen-second pitch contest at San Diego Comic-Con two years ago. Click here for the full story of that memorable event.

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indie comics spotlight: robbie burns witch hunter

27 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie, occult

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emma beeby, first issue, Gordon Rennie, Indie Comics, robbie burns witch hunter, tiernen trevallion

Robbie Burns Cover LargeIn June, to promote their inclusion as award nominees by the Scottish Independent Comic Book Alliance, the creators of Robbie Burns: Witch Hunter made a preview of their work available. We read it, were immediately hooked, and ordered the book. One reviewer on Amazon has compared the artwork to Mike Mignola’s style on Hellboy, and we will agree that if you like Hellboy then you will love Witch Hunter.

The story begins with the humiliation of poet Robbie Burns, a historical figure Witch Hunter brings to life in fiction. Soon, Burns stumbles across a pagan ritual in an abandoned church, a ritual matched in its sensuality only by its pure evil. There, Burns is rescued by a pair of experienced dispatchers of hellish hordes. And so begins his adventure. (Burns composed a horror poem you may know: Tam O’Shanter, first published in 1791. It serves as the inspiration for this tale.)

robbie burns witch hunter sample splash

Did we mention how much we love the artwork in this book? Let us say it again, to give artist Tiernen Trevallion his due. After all, writers Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby did win the Scottish Independent Comic Book Alliance ‘Best Writer’ awards at the Glasgow Comic Convention, Beeby won ‘Best New Writer’, and the book itself won ‘Best Graphic Novel’. But it’s Trevallion’s artwork, along with Jim Campbell’s lettering, that brings the rollicking script to life for us on the page.

You may recognize co-author Gordon Rennie from his work on Rogue Trooper, a classic 2000AD series we have featured on this site. So, if you are a fan of that unique Scottish comic-book sensibility which brought readers in the States such popular writers as Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, or if you are a fan of 2000AD comics in general, that’s just one more reason to read Witch Hunter.

robbie burns witch hunter sample page

We don’t mind telling you our favorite character is Meg: tough as nails, quick with profanity, great with a crossbow, and seemingly unafraid to ride into the very mouth of hell itself to do battle with the demonic forces of the underworld. Meg stands in sharp contrast to the vacuous ladies Burns pleasures himself with in the opening pages. She’s every bit an action hero with a sharp mind and a sharper tongue, and her inclusion in this tale endears us to it all the more. And to think that Meg was merely the noble horse in the original Tam O’Shanter!

robbie burns witch hunter sample panels

Fast-paced adventure with an outstanding cast of leading characters fighting the hordes of hell make Robbie Burns: Witch Hunter an enjoyable and unforgettable read. We look forward to more work by these creators and from Renegade Arts Entertainment.

You can order Robbie Burns: Witch Hunter directly from Renegade Arts Entertainment, or you can find it on Amazon in both hardcover and Kindle editions.

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demo 1 by brian wood and becky cloonan

14 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue

≈ 1 Comment

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becky cloonan, black and white, Brian Wood, Dark Horse, DC Comics, demo, dreams, first issue, Indie Comics, vertigo, waking life of angels

demo 1 brain wood becky cloonan (2)

These page come from the beginning of the first issue of DC/Vertigo’s Demo series by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. AIT/Planet Lar published a twelve issue Demo series in 2003-2004 before Wood and Cloonan began with a fresh number one at Vertigo in 2010. DC/Vertigo published both series in two Demo paperbacks, and Dark Horse put them together in a single Demo Complete Edition which is 464 pages softcover.

We love Becky Cloonan’s black and white artwork and how she brings to life this dramatic first issue where dreams and reality intersect. Brian Wood is the author of DMZ, one of our favorite series. We did not feel like the target audience for the romantic drama of Wood’s New York Four and New York Five, but we have seen a few issues of Northlanders which interested us, and we enjoyed the three pointless but punk rock issues of Pounded.

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strikeforce morituri 1: the last stand of the black watch

02 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, science fiction

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Black Watch, Brent Anderson, Marvel Comics, Peter B Gillis, Scott Williams, strikeforce morituri, wilce portacio

strikeforce morituri 1 (2)

Strikeforce Morituri shows up on comic book nostalgia blogs every once in a while. The series had a great premise, one that would bear re-imagining at today’s Marvel. You get some random superpowers as an experimental soldier to combat an alien invasion of earth, and the powers kill you within one year.

Our favorite aspect of the first issue is the contrast between a heroic comic book adventure the protagonist reads and the harsh realities of a film he views. In the comic book, the Black Watch confront and heroically destroy some aliens with their Morituri powers, their last act alive. This inspirational piece of propaganda turns out to have little to do with the final tragic moments of the Black Watch.

Below, we have an abridged version of the pages from this issue. You can buy it as Strikeforce Morituri #1, Marvel Comics, 1986. In 2012, Marvel collected the series as Strikeforce Morituri trade paperbacks. The third paperback includes the Undertow series, which took place ten years after the end of the story in the original series. Undertow had artwork by Mark Bagley in 1990, long before he set the record for longest-running Spider-man artist on Ultimate Spider-man.

Brent Anderson & Scott Williams on pencils and inks, with Peter B. Gillis scripting. Wilce Portacio provides the artwork for the comic-book-within-a-comic-book story of the Black Watch.

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indie spotlight: Cabra Cini Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman

25 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie, occult

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actuality press, bruno letizia, cabra cini, dark new year, Indie Comics, nathan ramirez, RD ricci, sam johnson, voodoo junkie hitwoman

CabraDNYCoverCabra Cini: Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman – Dark New Year is a new digital comic available FREE at ActualityPress.com and DriveThruComics.com. This free issue introduces new readers to the character in an interesting way. From page one, we know she has a hit to carry out. But on the way, she travels through a limbo where she confronts an abusive figure from her past.

We enjoyed this action-based approach to learning about a character’s background. It got us involved with the story and with her. We’d love to read more from this creative team to see where they take this unusual story.

Cabra Cini is a bad-ass, and the authors seem determined to subject her to some pretty horrifying events to test her mettle. The free issue of Dark New Year is a great place to jump on board, meet the character, and begin what promises to be an exciting adventure. Here are the first three pages to preview!

Written by Sam Johnson (Geek-Girl, The Almighties). Illustrated by Bruno Letizia, Nathan Ramirez, and R.D. Ricci (Ligeia the Vampire, Reborn, The Shadow of Rivene) , published by Actuality Press.
Suggested for Mature Readers. 17 pages.

CabraCiniDNYPreviewPage1

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Cabra Cini: Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman – Dark New Year is available FREE at ActualityPress.com and DriveThruComics.com.

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indie spotlight: Silvertongue 30xx, Space-time District Attorney

14 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie

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black and white, first issue, Indie Comics, little nando, manga, silvertongue 30xx, spacetime detective

silvertongue interior 0 cover

The opening scene of Silvertongue 30xx: Space-Time District Attorney caught our eye and drew us into this book. The coin falling, flipping end over end from heads to tails, in a dramatic beam of light, with short voiceovers: what a visually dramatic way to bring us in and set up the story! In the scenes that follow, creator Nando Sarmiento delivers on the expectation for visually striking settings.

silvertongue interior 1

The opening scenes make it clear this digital manga will address political and cultural conflicts in its two-part story, The Chippewa Vendetta. Silvertongue Hernandez and all his supporting characters have a unique perspective on the central conflict: industrial construction and waste disposal in tribal lands. Each scene explores what they personally have at stake, and this really puts the meat on the bones of the main courtroom drama. We expected more of a straight detective story, but found ourselves drawn into a story you don’t usually see in comic books.

silvertongue interior 2

As with many first issues, it can feel like we need to do a lot of catching up to understand the main scenes. Background exposition takes the form of a news broadcast which reinforces the court case as a spectacle, a form of entertainment. The case takes place in a gigantic court-on-wheels whose laws change as it crosses state lines. This puts pressure on the case and keeps the dramatic tension at a feverish pitch.

The first issue promises an episodic manga with entertaining, dramatic artwork and character-driven scenes. We look forward to seeing how this story continues, and what other thought-provoking scenarios Nando can invent for his space-time district attorney.

View more interior artwork and a short video about Silvertongue 30xx: Space-time District Attorney at Little Nando’s website, where you can purchase the book in several digital formats.

silvertongue interior 3

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love and rockets tpb set

06 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie

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black and white, collection, Fantagraphics, Gilbert Hernandez, Hernandez Brothers, Indie Comics, Jaime Hernandez, Love and Rockets

love and rockets tpb set (14)

Before packing up our modest collection of Love & Rockets paperbacks, we snapped a few examples of the dramatic and personal artwork inside. Let’s just admit the photos aren’t the greatest, and offer this as merely a peek – a glimpse – of greatness. The Hernandez Brothers treat their cartoons with love. Though many of these stories resonate with us more than others, you won’t find any poorly done stories.

Highlights include the book Love & Rockets X, a riotous melting pot of ethnic, generational, and gender identity conflicts rendered with humor – but not so much sensitivity it doesn’t sting. The stories of female wrestlers remain our favorites, with loveable and pleasingly plump heroines rendered in black-and-white perfection. Our collection held a large chunk of the critically-acclaimed Palomar stories and the earliest Mechanics stories. If you haven’t read any of this historic series before, see if these pages catch your eyes.

Fantagraphics continues to publish new printings every few years. You can browse the Fantagraphics Love & Rockets selection to see what they currently have in print and in stock. Happy Reading!

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Indie Comics Spotlight: 130 Odyssey by Nikkarin

08 Thursday May 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie, science fiction

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130 Odysea, 130 Odyssey, Big Book Brotherhood, black and white, Czech, digital comics, digital comics app, first issue, Indie Comics, Nikkarin

130 Odyssey Part One

This 100+ page epic by Czech artist Nikkarin follows a pilgrim named Bo as he travels through a post-apocalyptic and thoroughly psychedelic wasteland, getting acquainted with the new realities of a post-war world.

130 Odyssey may be the first comic we’ve read from a Czech artist. Its infrequent dialogue takes place in English, at least in the version we previewed. Our images here are from some untranslated sources online, but we read it in English. Its original title reads as 130 Odysea. Regardless, this work relies mostly on purely pictorial storytelling. Nikkarin shows little interest in explaining through exposition the strange places and people on this journey. Instead, the reader becomes immersed in the unfamiliar, a wandering soul in the landscape of the artist’s imagination.

We won’t say we completely understood 130 Odyssey on the first read. On the other hand, incomprehensiblity may be part of its charm. Everything has changed, and we discover it with Bo as the journey unfolds. We would recommend this work to our readers in the States who have already discovered Moebius and other European talents, or to readers who want to get a taste of something off the beaten path of American comics.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Graphic Novel Collection by First

26 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

collection, color reprints, first issue, First Publishing, graphic novel, Indie Comics, Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, TMNT

teenage mutant ninja turtles graphic novel set (2)

IDW has lately been reprinting the earliest and original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics from the 1980s. Back in the 80s, prices of first prints of the original comics skyrocketed, and they still retain a fairly high collector’s value. In response to their limited availability to all but the wealthiest collectors, First Publishing produced four full-color oversized graphic novels from the original black and white stories.

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teenage mutant ninja turtles graphic novel set (21)

The unique and gritty visual style of Eastman and Laird’s reptilian martial artists comes through even in color. First did a wonderfully professional job on this production. They wisely included the Leonardo one-shot, since its story leads right up to the events of issue #10. And, First thoughtfully preserved the dramatic three-page fold out from issue #10. We have scans of the original black and white pages in our archives for comparison.

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But all of the splash pages look great, and the binding and paper quality of these turtle tomes remains evident decades later. From the first issue to the battle with Triceratons in space to the hilarious Cerebus crossover, all of the Turtles earliest adventures rock hard in this graphic novel format.

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Let us offer a few suggestions for those seeking some high-quality Turtles reprints. You can still find copies of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TPB by First in stock at reasonable prices ($10-$15 for a Fine copy,) though you may need to go to eBay to get a complete set all at once! IDW printed the stories in single issues in full color as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Color Classics, but it seems they left out the Leonardo one-shot to include issue #11 which more or less wraps up Eastman & Laird’s original plot line.

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A second volume of color classics reprints some excellent adventures from the subsequent stories, including a reprint of the glorious Return to New York storyline this spring. Those who want these stories in black and white should get the excellent seven-volume Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Collected Book produced by Mirage in the 1990s. IDW more recently gave us The Ultimate Collection in hardcover which wisely includes the one-shots from the 80s as well as the original title.

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Despite the availability of recent reprints, the old ones have managed to hold onto their collector’s value due to their limited runs and high production values. The First Publishing collection also gives you a much larger page size than, say, Mirage’s normal-zized Collected Book reprints.

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Clearly IDW has much to gain by reprinting these collectible issues, but they also do readers a great service by keeping these classics in print. We sold both the First TPB set and the Collected Book set on eBay last year, but you can bet we would like another copy of Return to New York in our hands before all this is over!

teenage mutant ninja turtles graphic novel set (19)

teenage mutant ninja turtles graphic novel set (3)

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An Inhuman Retrospective

24 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, superhero

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Amazing Adventures, collection, Doug Moench, first issue, George Perez, Gil Kane, Inhumans, Jack Kirby, Jae Lee, Marvel Comics, Paul Jenkins

inhumans collection (1b)

We’ve always had a fondness for the Inhumans as characters and concepts despite the lackluster treatment they often receive in print. The Inhumans first appeared as supporting characters in the Fantastic Four when creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby still masterminded that title together. In 1970, Kirby launched Inhumans on their own adventures in Marvel’s second attempt at an Amazing Adventures title.

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Marvel ran the 1961 Amazing Adventures for just half a year, its first six issues collecting some entertainingly vintage stories by Kirby and Steve Ditko, Dick Ayres, Paul Reinman, Don Heck, and Larry Leiber. You can preview many of these golden-age sci-fi and monster stories in our archives.

Beginning with a new #1 issue – something that seems a monthly event at Marvel these days – the 1970 Amazing Adventures put both the Inhumans and the Black Widow on the cover. The Black Widow stories have some wonderful John Buscema and Gene Colan artwork you can preview at Diversions of the Groovy Kind.

The Inhumans get the full Jack Kirby treatment for three issues. He writes and draws them in pretty straight-forward superhero adventures. We have the first story in our archives. Like Kirby’s Black Panther, they lack  depth but make fast-paced action stories for young readers. 1970 also gave Inhumans fans another Jack Kirby treatment of his genetically-modified heroes: the final issue of the first Silver Surfer series.

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Even the Mandarin appears in these Amazing Adventures, in his utterly ridiculous “Asian Villain” outfit! The Inhumans made it about 16 issues in this format, with Roy Thomas and Neal Adams stepping up to create new stories after Kirby left. But like Thomas & Adams’ X-men, the Inhumans were doomed as a publication.

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Okay. Not exactly doomed. They got their own title after that! Leaving behind the anthology comic format, the Inhumans had earned their own shot as title characters. Doug Moench and George Perez launched them with Inhumans #1 in 1975. We have that first issue in our archives, too: Spawn of Alien Heat!

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That series showed a lot of potential, but its struggle to find its feet is almost palpable. You can find it reprinted in a hardcover format as Marvel Masterworks: Inhumans #2 from 2010, the first volume of which covers all those Amazing Adventures stories plus their origin story from Thor.

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Marvel billed the Inhumans as “uncanny” in this series, a word they would later apply to the X-men. The “Uncanny X-men” stuck, and few readers of bronze-age Marvel recall anyone but the X-men ever being uncanny! Gil Kane moved from cover art to interior art in this series. Although his style seems rough after Perez’s smooth work, Kane delivers some truly classic 70s work in stories like “A Trip to the Doom” in issue #7.

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In what now feels like a desperate ploy to boost sales, the Inhumans fight Hulk in their final issue. The same thing happened to Kirby’s Eternals in the mid-70s. Bad sales figures? Hulk Smash! “Let Fall the Final Fury” turns out to be the last appearance of the Inhumans in their own title for about 25 years.

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Despite some great guest appearances in John Byrne’s Fantastic Four in the 1980s, the Inhumans never really got a stellar treatment until Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee crafted a twelve-issue limited series for them in the 21st century. We have some of that artwork in our archives. The Inhumans live up to their potential in this compelling story, despite its reliance on the same old struggle with Maximus the Mad.

The four-issue Inhumans series by Carlos Pacheco earlier that summer had some stunning art by Ladronn. It attempted to free the Inhumans from the only two stories they ever seemed to get: the fight with Black Bolt’s mad brother, and their thing about needing to live on the moon. Pacheco stepped in and said, “Let’s shake this up a bit,” taking their conceptual struggles in the next logical plot direction.

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But, in the wake of the Jenkins/Lee story, Marvel decided on a “next generation” approach to the Inhumans. The book became more teen-friendly and introduced a new, younger set of Inhumans characters, some of whom we met in Jenkin’s story. This 2003 Inhumans series ran for twelve issues. It has its merits and perhaps competed at the time with Marvel’s Runaways and Exiles for a teen audience wanting teen characters. Of those three, only Runaways kept our attention, proving to be a book about teens that older audiences could appreciate, too.

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And that, dear Martians, is why some lucky buyer overseas ended up with a stack of Inhumans comics from us! We collected those first Kirby issues, the run of their 1970s title, and the Jenkins/Lee paperback, along with some other minor Inhumans goodies from over the years. It was fun to have them all close at hand for a few years, and we did hold on to our single-issue copies of the Jenkins stories.

As we liquidate our physical comic book collection to help pay for our Masters degree, you can support the Martian resistance by shopping in our eBay store. A special thank you goes out to our readers who have helped spread the word about our sales through Twitter!

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The Day the Nazis Ruled Latveria, and Other Astonishing Tales!

13 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, superhero

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Tags

Astonishing Tales, Barry Smith, Black Panther, collection, Dr. Doom, Gene Colan, Gerry Conway, Herb Trimpe, Jack Kirby, Ka-zar, Kraven, Larry Lieber, Marvel Comics, Red Skull, Roy Thomas, Stan Lee, Wally Wood

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Of all the glorious splash pages in Astonishing Tales #1-8, this one of the Red Skull turning Latveria into Nazi Nation cracks us up the most. It’s so wrong in so many ways. Red Skull, what were you thinking? Do you have ANY idea what Dr. Doom is going to do to you when he gets home? And why does the decor look like a high school assembly?

But let’s start at the beginning. Long before we used the controversial picture above to sell the set on eBay, Jack Kirby kicked off Astonishing Tales #1 in 1970 with a Ka-Zar story. Ka-zar versus Kraven sounds like a manly jungle free for all, but the tale lacks substance. Each issue, however, provided two stories, and the second one features Dr. Doom. Roy Thomas teams up with artist Wally Wood for several issues of unique stories in the Dr. Doom archives.
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After Stan & Jack wrap up the Kraven story, Gerry Conway and Barry Smith tell what may be the greatest Ka-zar story of all time. X-men fans may recall Garokk the Sun God from the days of Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s run. Byrne & Claremont’s tale, one of our favorites, has its roots in the pages of Astonishing Tales. Barry Smith renders the Savage Land and its inhabitants like never before or since. Conway’s tale is so awesome we could almost forgive him for killing Gwen Stacy… but we won’t.
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Stan’s brother Larry Lieber takes the reins from Roy Thomas to continue Doom’s adventures, which include revolution, androids, and bringing a mummy back to life. It’s a whacky mix of themes that Wally Wood renders like its still the golden age at EC Comics. And did we mention the Red Skull shows up while Doom is on vacation? Guess what – he turns Latveria into Nazi Nation! What an idiot.
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Conway and Smith continue their dramatic portrayal of the Savage Land through several issues. Just look at that splash page!
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Just when you are thinking that you might subscribe to a monthly title featuring Dr. Doom drawn by Wally Wood, the creative team begins changing. Gene Colan joins Gerry Conway for a pretty awesome Black Panther story, the goofy gimmick of drilling underground in Wakanda serving as an excuse for a fine character study of the opposing monarchs, Doom and T’Challa.
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Herb Trimpe steps in with what seems a Frazetta-inspired pose for Ka-zar, and Colan’s pencils seem to become more flowing and abstract in his next few issues of Doom.
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Doom’s mystic battle is one of our favorite examples of Colan’s style, rendered in bold flowing areas of black ink.
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But despite these creative high points in these little-known and certainly underrated stories, they might have been too odd for the market at that time. Doom got the axe and the book became Ka-zar’s title for more than a year beginning with the ninth issue. Later, it would become a sort of proving ground for potential characters. Tony Isabella and Dick Ayers would give us “It!” for a few issues, and then Deathlok by Rich Buckler and Doug Moench. The Guardians of the Galaxy also make an appearance, but Marvel axed the whole title after issue #36, six years after it began.
We recently sold our ‘reader’s copies’ set of the first eight issues, but you can usually find Astonishing Tales (Marvel, 1970) in stock. Many well-worn copies exist, so prices on VG+ Marvels from this era remain super cheap. Just try finding VF/NM copies, though, and you will have yourself a collecting challenge!
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astonishing tales 1-8 ka-zar doom set (3)

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Moon Knight by Moench and Sienkiewicz

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, superhero

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bill Sienkiewicz, Doug Moench, first issue, fist of khonshu, Jim Owsley, Moon Knight, origin, Priest

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One of our earliest childhood friends was a huge Moon Knight fan, so let’s have a look at some highlights of the series from the 1980s. The first issue declares the “macabre” Moon Knight, and elements of the supernatural and spooky would remain an integral part of the character. “Macabre” may be overstating the horror element, but you know how bronze age Marvel thrived on alliteration!

The artwork is nowhere nearly as experimental as what Bill Sienkiewicz later developed for books like Elektra: Assassin. We have heard Moon Knight compared to Batman, and Sienkiewicz delivers a style that seems well-suited to attracting a Batman audience accustomed to the classic work of Neal Adams and Marshal Rogers. Sienkiewicz shows an early flair for dramatic layouts and panel shapes, as these pages show.
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Doug Moench cranks up the macabre in issue #12 by introducing Morpheus, a walking nightmare with a face only his mother could love and lots of icky black goo. This otherworldly menace gives Sienkiewicz a license to get weird, with dark and dramatic renditions of creepy interiors and conflicts.
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The energetically odd-shaped panels remind us of Neal Adams’ work on the X-Men during his brief stint with Roy Thomas on the title. In a 2001 interview with Comic Book Resources, Bill admitted his fascination with Adams’ style: “Studying Neal’s work… I became obsessed… and became fixated on it. It was like my intention was to be Neal… There was no one at this point saying don’t do that, you’ve got to be your own person… When I finally got started, what got me hired was the fact that I drew like Neal. Neal in fact called up Shooter and said, ‘I’ve got this kid fresh off the street and he draws like me. Is that a problem?'”
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Next up, let’s have a look inside issue #15. This one is so insane: something about white supremacists breeding rats in army helmets, and then a giant talking rat-man named Xenos shows up to assassinate a politician with a gun. WHAT?
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But, #15 also has some cool ‘Moon Knight Files’ that discuss his weapons and origin and his different personalities. Though not as kooky as the Badger, Moon Knight had a thing about his identity. “Shades of Moon Knight” by Doug Moench also tells us about the development of the character as a concept.
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Of all the issues we’ve read of this series, #24 stands out the most in terms of art and story. Focusing Moon Knight on crime takes him out of the spandex-clad superhero vibe and gives us some powerful human drama, masterfully rendered by Sienkiewicz. Let’s just look at the opening pages from this mini-masterpiece. Sienkiewicz treats us to visually appealing ‘stained glass window’ shapes, lots of dark shadows defining people and spaces, and great depictions of Moon Knight in stark black and white.
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Pretty awesome, huh? If the whole series had been this intense, we might have tried to fill in every issue in our set!

We also dig this illustration from a subscription ad that portrays Moon Knight in an iconic pose rendered entirely in black and white. This needs to be a poster!
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More dramatic black-and-white Moon Knight art appears in this ad for #25.
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Before we go on, let’s pause for the sake of interested collectors. You can collect these 1980s issues very inexpensively as the single issues of Moon Knight Volume 1, or in the black and white reprint Essential Moon Knight. Essential Moon Knight covers, in three volumes, all kinds of early Moon Knight stories, the Moench run, the first six issues from the second series, and more! Don’t forget the Moon Knight Special Edition, which reprints on higher-quality paper the early back up stories from The Hulk. Now let us move forward in time to the short-lived Moon Knight Volume Two!
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Marvel cancelled the title and brought it back in a second volume with a new creative team, printing “Fist of Konshu: Moon Knight” on the cover. Frankly, we don’t understand why. It doesn’t have a significantly different vibe from volume one, and it revisits the themes of ancient Egypt and Morpheus in its early issues. We get a hint that Moon Knight’s split personality and new relationship with his power source will be a focus of the series, but it isn’t all that different from before.

The Morpheus tale in #3 really is creepy, but Marvel’s “new” printing process makes the colors decidedly garish to our eyes. (We processed them here to look a little more normal.) Many books circa 1985 had this look, and we don’t like it any better now than we did then. It seemed like an attempt to move into today’s high-quality formats, but without really having a clue how that would work. Despite this harsh judgment, we dig the disturbing nightmare worlds created for some criminally insane residents of the institution! Totally twisted.
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The new creative team finds its feet in the first few issues, but then the book gets passed around. In #5, Jo Duffy gives us a morally grey tale where Moon Knight may or may not be in the right when he tries to stop a murder.
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Issue #6 sports one of our all-time favorite Moon Knight covers, a wonderfully painted and suitably spooky scene. James “Priest” Owsley steps in for a tale that ends our collection. Moon Knight jumps through a closed window and then hugs a crack whore before busting out of some chains in classic superhero style. All in a day’s work!
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Priest gave us some memorable stories in the 80s and our favorite Black Panther story more recently before moving out of comics and on to other endeavors. We also moved on to other things besides Moon Knight at this point in our early teenage collector days. The second series was cancelled after just six issues. What was the point of the reboot? We don’t know.

But, we have always had a fondness for the character, probably because he just looks so awesome when drawn well: the white cloak, the ankh, the face shrouded in darkness. We can’t help but wish that Sienkiewicz had some day returned to the character with his more lavishly abstract style, loaded with shadows and supernatural weirdness. Moon Knight works best the farther he gets away from standard superhero fare and off into the world of madness, mystics, and dreams.

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Incredible Hulk Pocket Book 1978

22 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, superhero

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

1978, collection, Herb Trimpe, Hulk, Incredible Hulk, Incredible Hulk Pocket Book, Jack Kirby, paperback, Pocket Book, Pocket Books, reprint, Stan Lee

Hulk Pocket Book 1978  (2)
This handy paperback has most recently proven useful in settling questions about Hulk history. Often these stories get forgotten in the vast expanses of Hulk lore, his origin story retold so many times that any two people probably have a different version in their heads. Here, Hulk remains more a man than a monster – a sullen and irritable man with a limited vocabulary, but far from the dim-witted “Hulk Smash” of the 1970s. In these stories, Banner hulks out at night, not simply from rage.
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Stan Lee provides a brief but entertaining introduction as he did with all the Pocket Books we’ve seen from the 1970s. These books were great fun to own then, and we read these stories until we had them memorized. Ditko’s artwork – featured in one story here and in the similar Spider-man paperback – and Kirby’s artwork entertained us to no end.
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These days, they seem a bit dated. Hulk is always fighting Commies, the art is far more simplistic than Kirby’s later style, and the plots seem kind of goofy. Stan and Jack probably hit the nail right on the head for their audience: boys and young men who enjoy action stories full of conflict and gadgets, at a particular time in history. Today they are curious beasts, an odd lot from a simpler time of comics where pulp horror and science fiction met in the mainstream to create superheroes.
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Stan and Jack had no idea how big this thing would blow up, and readers 50 years later would seek out these stories for reference and entertainment. The charm in these first six Hulk tales lies in that very lack of self-consciousness, innocently dashed out in a few days or weeks. Just look at the utter disregard for backgrounds and ornamentation on these pages: direct, economical, focused entirely on figures and dialogue.
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This little volume from Pocket Books in 1978 held up remarkably well. Even as a mass market paperback it enjoys very solid production: durable pages with clear art and color, a firm binding more than 35 years later, and a tight, glossy cover. We have this copy of the Incredible Hulk Pocket Book for sale on eBay, if you would like to be the next fan to take a turn unearthing this Marvel Comics time capsule.
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It even comes with a bonus two-page spread of “Hulk’s life in a single image” by Herb Trimpe. Trimpe, of course, had put his unmistakable stamp on the Hulk by the time this reprint book arrived in 1978, visually defining the Hulk for a generation of fans.
Hulk Pocket Book 1978  (10)
Hulk Pocket Book 1978  (11)

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Out of the Ruins of Fascist Amerika, Trashman Fights for Freedom!

22 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie, science fiction

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Agent of the Sixth International, Fantagraphics, first issue, Indie Comics, origin, Rip Off Press, Spain, Spain Rodriguez, Subvert, Trashman, Trashman Lives, underground comix

It’s our birthday today, so we offer you an origin story. But not just any origin story: Trashman! Bearded hero of the people’s revolution: Trashman! Sometimes called “the Superman of the New left”: Trashman!

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Subvert #1 by Spain Rodriguez contains the origin of his guerilla resistance character, Trashman. This off-beat 1970 story published by underground comix legends Rip Off Press describes the transformation of average guy Harry Barnes into an Agent of the Sixth International. He even masters molecular disintegration – whoa!

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Murder, nuclear apocalypse, covert agencies, class struggle, satire – and that’s just the origin! The longer story which completes Subvert #1 involves some sexually hungry female revolutionaries. It’s a hoot, but forgive us for not sharing a few pages of THAT with you here.

Collector’s Guide:
You can still find well-read copies of Subvert #1 for a few dollars if you are willing to dig. We found a VG- copy at the local comic store for 3 or 4 bucks, or you can go right to Subvert #1 on Amazon.

Fantagraphics published a wonderful collection of all the Trashman stories from 1968 to 1985: Trashman Lives! It fetches a hefty price on Amazon these days, but we found a copy at a used bookstore for less than $20.

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Indie Spotlight: Nova Phase released today on Comixology!

15 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by Mars Will Send No More in first issue, indie

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

8 bit art, Adam Elbatimy, comixology, first issue, Indie Comics, Matthew Ritter, Nova Phase, Slave Labor Graphics

nova phase 1 cover

 
Now that Nintendo is becoming ‘vintage’ and a generation of comics readers has already grown nostalgic for the nineties, Nova Phase may be hitting the market at just the right time. With a plot loaded with action and rendered in the style of 8-bit arcade graphics, it reads like one of Warren Ellis’ fast-paced sci-fi stories in the shape of an old video game.

In this six-issue series from Slave Labor Graphics, Veronica Darkwater is a down-on-her-luck bounty hunter who finds herself plunged into an intergalactic treasure hunt for a legendary world of untold wealth. But, she must compete with a crazy military commander who will stop at nothing to cement his name in history. Will she stay alive long enough to see if the legends of the mythical world of Una Tesara are true?

You can score the first issue of Nova Phase at http://www.comixology.com/Nova-Phase/comics-series/14632
– and the second issue is up now for just 99 cents!

From the creators of Nova Phase:

“I wanted to do a space western because I love space and I love westerns. I also love old video games. So there you go.” – Matthew Ritter, writer

“I love pixel art. I think of it as a genuine aesthetic choice, as apposed to a limitation. It has allowed us to give Nova Phase a really unique look.” – Adam Elbatimy, artist

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