SLG/Slave Labor

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.

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.

SLG has posted their con schedule at their blog, which includes an epic signing list of Jhonen Vasquez, Drew Rausch, Van Jensen, Dusty Higgins, Gene Luen Yang, Greg Wiesman, Aaron Alexovitch AND MANY MORE. Full details here.

Did you know there is an award-=winning short film based on Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca's awesome STREET ANGEL comic? Short version: what if Hit Girl was Kick-Ass? The film will be screened on Thursday at this year's Comic-Con, as part of the indie film festival. The film already won Best International Film, Best Director and Best Actress at the Phoenix Comic-Con and was made in Australia.

A couple of publishing announcements that caught our eye the other day. • Tokyopop will publish Kenji Sonishi's NekoRamen. a manga about a cat who cooks ramen. SOLD. Via Johanna, who has a rundown...

SLG has released details of a collection of early stories by National Book Award-nominee Gene Luen Yang, ANIMAL CRACKERS. The past few years have been a whirlwind of success for American Born Chinese author Gene...

PINOCCHIO, VAMPIRE SLAYER by Van Jensen and Dustin Higgins is coming out this fall from Slave Labor, and the creators are promoting it with a most imaginative contest: Hyphothetical question time. What if you were...

Here's the details on SLG's con activities, via Jennifer de Guzman. First signings: Aaron Alexovich (Serenity Rose) Kerry Callen (Halo and Sprocket) Derek Hunter (Pirate Club) Aleister Gilgrim (The Cemeterians) Karl Christian Krumpholz (Byron) Kenny Keil (Tales to Suffice) Tommy Kovac...

Everyone is justifiably linking to this post at The Comics Reporter as a passionate response to the ongoing winnowing at Diamond that is removing books like James Turner's WARLORD OF IO from its catalog...

SLG is having a tax time sale, according to Twitter (THAT AGAIN!): Tax time sale at www.slgcomic.com. 30% off everything in the store. Use coupon code taxtime09. Sale ends Friday April 17th. Hurry up and...

Who wants to buckle a swash? SLG has announced a serialized adaptation of Rafael Sabatini's classic novel of sea-faring adventure Captain Blood, to be written by Matthew Shepherd and drawn by Mike Shoykhet. A...