The fourth and final tale in Archaia’s Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Witches miniseries is Jeff Stokely’s Vasilissa the Beautiful. Born into a village at the edge of the world, a village forgotten by god, our heroine is a little beacon of light and warmth. Until her mother dies. “Such cruelty,” our narrator muses, “makes you wonder where it comes from.”
Mortality is, more or less, the bane of human existence, wouldn’t you say? Looming over each of us, sometimes menacing and always mysterious, death is life’s only guarantee. Naturally, we fear it. We do not understand it and cannot prepare for it. For those of us left behind in its wake, it is tragic. It’s loss. But every living thing does it. Our very human response is to attempt to make sense of it, to make it okay. And we do this in a very human way. Storytelling. Matthew Dow Smith’s The Phantom Isle, tale three of four in Archaia’s Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Witches series, is a story about stories. And life. And death.
These Jim Henson Storyteller Witches books that Archaia is putting out are really remarkable. Kyla Vanderklugt’s, The Snow Witch,is a vaster contemplation of life and the human experience than stories ten times its length.
BOOM! imprint Archaia is doing this cool little series inspired by the Jim Henson Storyteller television series that aired in the late eighties and early nineties. S.M Vidaurri’s The Magic Swan Goose and the Lord of the Forest is the first of four tales in The Storyteller: Witches run. If this is any indication of what’s to come, we’ve got a lot of looking forward to do.
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Chro Noz, the time travel drug. Just pop a capsule, take aim, and the next thing you know, you’re there – wherever, nay, whenever you’ve aimed – within the parameters of your own existence, of course. Addictive as all get out. It’s becoming a problem in Interesting Drug, Shaun Manning’s new graphic novel from BOOM! imprint Archaia.
Cover courtesy of fandomania.com
While each of Aesop’s fables offers a moral lesson, the collective body of work attributed to him paints a comprehensive picture of the human condition that remains remarkably accurate, even today. The Ant and the Grasshopper, circa 550 BCE, juxtaposed the fates of a pragmatic ant and an improvident grasshopper, neither of whose polarized approaches toward living ends very well. In May 1960, Harvey Kurtzman’s take on the tale was published as a tiny strip in Esquire magazine, illustrating the culture clash between the beatnik movement and mainstream society. As with much great art, Kurtzman’s The Grasshopper and the Ant disappeared into the proverbial ether where it remained for over forty years. Lucky for us in the here and now, BOOM! Town has re-released a larger formatted and hard covered edition, much better for posterity.
“Midas Flesh” #5 from BOOM! Cover art by Emily Carroll.
So close to the end folks, and the plot continues to get darker and denser. I genuinely have no idea where this comic is going from month to month, and I love it. “Midas Flesh” is a unique storytelling experience that keeps on getting better. The events of this issue will be kicking around in my head for days to come.
Every Monday on G&C I’ll be previewing the new comics I’m most looking forward to in the coming week. These are the comics that I expect will be fun, exciting, and worth your monies. If you think I’ve missed anything, leave a note in the comment section and let me know what you’re eagerly anticipating. Here’s my top three, and then a short list of other books to be aware of.
New Comics for April 23, 2014:
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” #33 from IDW. Cover art by Mateus Santolouco.
Cover to “Translucid” #1 from BOOM!
Every superhero has a supervillain; heck, some would even say that every superhero needs a supervillain. Superman has Lex Luthor, the Fantastic Four have Doctor Doom, and Batman has the Joker. These characters act as foils for one another; their strengths, weakness, and personality are complimentary. The question has been asked before: are supervillains essential to their superheros? Do they need each other to provide them with purpose, to fulfill their existence? This twisted relationship is at the heart of BOOM!’s newest six-part miniseries, “Translucid.”
Cover to “Lumberjanes” #1 from BOOM!. Cover art by Noelle Stevenson.
Have you ever heard of the Bechdel movie test? It was popularized by Alison Bechdel (famous American cartoonist and graphic novelist) in her comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For.” In order to pass the Bechdel test, a movie must have: 1) At least two named female characters; 2) Those characters have to talk to each other; 3) Their conversation has to be about something other than a man. You’d be surprised how few movies pass that test, but this applies to more than just movies. I read a lot of comics, and unfortunately most of them also fail the Bechdel test.
Gamenomics & Comicology 