Previews

Here's a small preview of DENIS KITCHEN'S CHIPBOARD SKETCHBOOK, which presents some of his distinctive work from another medium -- cardboard! The book, published by BOOM!, goes on sale tomorrow. Following on the heels of...

Dynamite has provided first looks at several of their March covers. DEAN KOONTZ’S NEVERMORE #1 (of 6) Written by DEAN KOONTZ w/ KEITH CHAMPAGNE Art by LENO CARVALHO Covers by DARICK ROBERTSON (50%), TYLER WALPOLE (25%) & LENO...

It's one of the more notable aspects of the Franco-Belgian comics scene that there's no stigma either way for comics experimentalists to create genre work. Thus the trailblazing cartoonists of L'Association have variously worked on children's comics and most light-hearted fare with great success. Such a work is Lewis Trondheim's DONJON, which NBM has been publishing in the US. DONJON is a sprawling satirical fantasy about anthropomorphic warriors in a magical, ludicrous kingdom. It's a darkly whimsical epic that's a mash-up of D&D, CEREBUS, GROO, and any number of works by headliners Trondheim and Joann Sfar.

Back to the previews, we're proud to present a peek at Bryan Talbot's Grandville Mon Amour, a steampunk talking animal mystery mash-up, or as Talbot puts it:

Grandville Mon Amour pits Detective Inspector LeBrock of Scotland Yard against an old adversary and ruthless urban guerrilla, Edward "Mad Dog" Mastock. It's a fast-paced, Hitchcockian steampunk thriller.

If you've been following Talbot's career at all you know he's one of the most eclectic storytellers in the medium, producing a string of amazing graphic novels that show a range of emotion and imagination few can match -- from Grandville to The Tale of One Bad Rat to Alice In Sunderland and the previous Grandville. This is no exception.

On the occasion of Veterans day, what better book to preview than the extraordinary LUCKY IN LOVE by George L. Chieffet and Stephen DeStefano. The story follows Lucky Testatuda, a young man from New Jersey who discovers a lot about life and love in World War II. Stationed in the Air Force in the Pacific Theater, life for Lucky is a mix of worrying about death, inflicting fiery death upon others, and confronting the differences between fantasy and reality.

Continuing our month of previews, here's a peek at WOLVERINE #4, the continuation of the "Wolverine Goes to Hell" storyline by Jason Aaron and Renato Guedes. In this issue "Hellverine" tussles with Colossus and...

Continuing our previews of ELMER, the graphic novel by Gerry Alanguilan, available this month from SLG.

I'm going to cheat here a little by breaking up the first chapter of ELMER, by Gerry Alanguilan, which is collected this month by Slave Labor. Originally published in the Philippines as a mini-comic, it's many things: a bizarre SF social satire in the style of George Orwell or (as one reader suggested to me) Poul Anderson's Brain Wave -- and also Adam Hines' recent Rex the Wonder Dog, which has some of the same themes treated very differently. It's also a beautiful example of the Filipino komiks school, all lush penwork and atmosphere. it's also just a good read. Because it's the whole first chapter I'm going to break it up over two days. Tune in tomorrow for the second part.

While in other places the indie periodical comic has languished, Stan Sakai and Usagi Yojimbo do not question, they just do. After five publishers and 26 years, this story of a wandering rabbit samurai in Edo period Japan has become one of the longest-running and best loved independent comics of all time. With a loyal home at Dark Horse since 1996 and 24 collections published, the Usagi saga has become a continuing epic of heroism, betrayal and romance, with a large cast of characters who weave in and out of Usagi's life. It's comics world building at its purest, and all-ages in the best way. A new issue is out this month that serves as a jumping on point (although truthfully, Sakai is such a strong storyteller that you can always catch up just by jumping on -- check out how the first page of the preview sets up the situation so you can just keep on going.)

Continuing our preview month, here's a 16-page preview from Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer Volume 2: The Great Puppet Theater, the sequel to the best-selling Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer by Van Jensen and Dusty Higgins. In this installment, our wooden vampire hunter meets other like him in a story inspired by the great Italian puppet theaters seen to this day in Sicily. The Great Puppet Theater is published by SLG and is on sale this month. There's more info on the book at pinocchiovampireslayer.com, on the Facebook page or on Twitter @p_vampireslayer.

Day Two of Preview month features is the Xeric Grant-winning Lone Pine by Jed McGowan, which looks like your typical duo-tone indie comic but turns into a mystery set in the deep, dark woods.

This is an experiment that will either get some good comics some good exposure...or melt our bandwidth! Every day it seems we get a preview of a comic that is worthy of some attention...