Dark Horse Previews Picks: August 2022
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! vol. 4
Editor Carl Horn mentioned that Dark Horse had licensed vols. 4 & 5 of this series in the afterword to vol. 3. So while it’s not surprising to see this volume here, it’s still very reassuring. (On that note, there’s a Dark Horse Manga panel at Fanime this weekend and you can be sure I’ll be asking Carl about the status of “The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service” omnibi that were announced back in 2019 and have yet to materialize.) In case you haven’t jumped on this delightful series, it’s about three (now four) girl group of aspiring animation production staff members who are working on making anime at their high school as part of the Moving Pictures Society. The series follows them as they encounter struggles that are also common in the anime industry – production, distribution, marketing, sales – from a high-school perspective but with lots of magical realism as they try to realize their productions. The one described in this volume promises to be their most ambitious yet as their vacation at a mountain resort leads them to tell the story of Tanuki Eldorado!
40 Seconds: This comes to us as part of the Dark Horse/ComiXology publishing deal where the former publishes print editions of digital comics produced for the former’s platform. This comes to us from writer Jeremy Haun and artist Christopher Mitten, and it’s a tale about a rescue operation that spans the universe. After receiving a distress call, a group of science explorers utilize a series of alien gateways in order to reach the sender in time. While the journey itself is inherently perilous, the team also finds themselves pursued by an alien horde at the same time. I’m plenty familiar with Mitten through his Mignolaverse work, but not familiar at all with Haun’s work over the years at Image. This sounds like an intriguing, high-concept adventure, but also one that I could flip a coin in regards to its expected quality.
Avatar: The High Ground HC: “Avatar” came out over a decade ago and director James Cameron has been hard at work on the sequels ever since. However, the question of whether or not people are still interested further stories of Pandora, along with the question of whether or not the movie was a one-film wonder, have hung over the budding franchise ever since. The trailer for the sequel, “The Way of Water,” racked up millions of views when it hit the internet does suggest that people are still interested. Do you know what will be a better indication of whether or not people are interested? Seeing how many of them will be willing to pay $25 for an 88-page hardcover graphic novel that’s billed as a direct prequel to the movie. I liked the first film and am curious to see if Cameron’s expertise with sequels extends to this new movie; but, at that price point, for such a slim comic, I’m going to give this prequel a hard pass.
Blade of the Immortal: Deluxe Edition HC vol. 7: The deluxe reprinting of this series is now more than two-thirds done, and reaches the end of the “Prison Arc” with this volume. Even though I’ve read the series multiple times before in its original trade paperback release, I still find myself looking forward to re-reading it again in this new forma. The story still holds up, in other words.
Count Crowley: Amateur Midnight Monster Hunter vol. 2: The story of a woman who moved back to her hometown to host a late-night creature feature show and who became her community’s local monster hunter gets a second volume. I still haven’t read the first one, but the fact that it was successful enough to get a sequel is encouraging. (I may have written something similar to this when the miniseries was first solicited…) So I’m curious about this, particularly in the way that it’s another recent Dark Horse series that managed to spawn a sequel. Much in the same way that “Jenny Zero” did, and wraps up its latest miniseries in these solicitations as well. While I need to check out the first volume of “Count Crowley,” everyone else can go give “Jenny Zero” a shot.
Cover vol. 1: I find the “vol. 1” in these solicitations to be somewhat disingenuous given that there’s been no indication that Bendis and David Mack have worked on a second volume to this series. The promotional image used here does indicate that an HBO Max series is in the works, to be written by Bendis and directed by Mack, but I’ll believe it when I see it (and hope that it turns out better than the HBO Max adaptation of “DMZ” did). Regardless of “Cover’s” future, this first volume was arguably the best thing to come from Bendis’ creator-owned output at DC. It’s the story of a comic book creator who’s recruited by the CIA to gather intelligence in specific situations. It’s a dialogue and character-heavy story that plays to the creators’ (specifically the writer’s) strengths, while also telling a self-contained story. That is to say while I wouldn’t mind a follow-up, one wouldn’t be necessary to enjoy the story being told here.
Frankenstein: New World #1 (of 4): Because the end of the world doesn’t mean the end of the story. “B.P.R.D.: The Devil You Know” saw the Mignolaverse reach its long-advertised conclusion as the world was inherited by frog-people. There were a small group of humans who managed to survive the apocalypse and are living inside the Hollow Earth. One of them, a young girl named Lilja, has had visions of a new evil taking root on the Earth’s surface and wants to investigate it. To that end, she awakens the oracle known as Frankenstein to act as her guardian in this adventure. While creator Mike Mignola is credited as a co-writer here, reading about the origins of this project make it clear that this is really the brainchild of co-writers Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski. The fact that they’re tinkering with the Mignolaverse’s ending shouldn’t inspire confidence, but longtime readers will know that I was ultimately underwhelmed by “The Devil You Know.” So to them I say, “Tinker away,” while “Baltimore’s” Peter Bergting provides the art.
The Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz HC: It’s billed as one of the most moving, harrowing, and controversial war stories ever told, and one that’s finally finished after all these years. The description in the solicitation isn’t all that specific beyond telling us that it’s about an American soldier of German heritage who finds himself on the wrong side of the war in WWII. A look at the Kickstarter page for this comic (which is being published by Dark Horse and IT’S ALIVE!) reveals a much more interesting story. Both for the comic and its publication – I recommend you check it out. After reading about it, I’m of the opinion that this story belongs in my library
Minor Threats #1 (of 4): “M.O.D.O.K.” may have been canceled but its creators, Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum, have found another way to work together. They’re writing this new comic which sees a group of C-list villains teaming up to find the psychopath who killed the sidekick of Twilight City’s most prominent hero. While it’s clear that Oswalt has always been a huge comics fan, “M.O.D.O.K.” show that he and Blum were able to use that nerdery to fashion to wring quality humor out of the weirdest bits of the Marvel Universe. This series looks to skew a bit darker than that, but I’m still curious to see what these creators do when working with their own characters.
Organisms From and Ancient Cosmos HC: Craig S. Zahler has directed well-regarded cult films like “Bone Tomahawk,” “Brawl in Cell Block 99,” and “Dragged Across Concrete.” While I was expecting him to keep directing these kinds of films, he’s shifted gears and mediums to deliver this original graphic novel. It’s about an alien craft the size of a city that materializes over the Pacific Ocean one day. After humanity’s attempt to deal with it by force ends in a stalemate, some of humanity’s brightest minds are left to ponder who these aliens are and what they want with us. This isn’t a bad premise, but it also isn’t one that convinces me to pay $40 for this 256-page hardcover. I think I’ll check out one of Zahler’s films beforehand to see if they can inspire me to shell out for this.
Survival Street #1 (of 4): Corporations have taken over America and carved it up into dystopian enclaves. What’s worse is that they’ve also shut down public broadcasting as well! While most of the edutainers are left trying to find their own way, one group has banded together to continue to bring educational fun to kids in this new corporate hellscape. This is a deeply strange premise… until you look at the cover for the first issue of this series from co-writers James Asmus and Jim Festante, and artist Abylay Kussainov and realize what they’re really going for here. Admit it, you’re more interested in this now, aren’t you?
