Author: Now Read This

By Geoff Johns & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1650-4

After the mega-successful return and relaunch of Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern of the Silver Age (see Green Lantern: Rebirth ISBN-13: 978-1-84576-131-8), scripter Geoff Johns continued in his avowed mission to make the character a pivotal cornerstone of the entire DC Universe. Increasingly ambitious storylines which directly lead into all the company’s major crossover events eventually culminated in this pan-galactic extravaganza featuring not only the Green Lantern Corps but also many DCU icons wrong-footed and desperately battling their evil counterpart created by their ultimate nemesis Sinestro.

This first volume collects Green Lantern #21-23, Green Lantern Corps #14-15 and the one-shot Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War Special which kicked it all off. Illustrated by Ethan Van Sciver it reveals how Sinestro tamed the yellow light of the emotional spectrum – Fear – and created his own army to destroy the intergalactic police force of the Guardians of the Universe.

Pseudo-Science Note: This spectrum is a cosmos spanning phenomenon that reduces the various emotions of sentient beings into visible energy wavelengths, each capable of affecting the material world in astounding ways. Green Light is the power of will, Blue is hope, Red is rage, Yellow is fear and so on…

Using the reanimated corpse of the Anti-Monitor – one of the universe’s greatest monsters – as a battery Sinestro recruits beings capable of “instilling great fear” and gives them yellow-powered rings. He allies with the Parallax, the living embodiment of Fear, and joins with some of Earth’s greatest villains such as the Cyborg Superman and Superboy-Prime in an all-out assault on everything good and safe and decent in existence.

Attacking all over creation the devious renegade swiftly decimates the ranks of the Green Lantern Corps, subverting where he doesn’t destroy outright, and the fate of the universe has never been in greater doubt. As the heroes make ready for their last stand the defenders realize that Sinestro’s entire campaign has been a huger bluff, as his real intentions have been…

And that’s where this outrageously over the top blockbuster breaks off, with the tale to be expanded and concluded in Green Lantern: the Sinestro Corps War Volume 2 (ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1800-3) and Green Lantern: Tales of the Sinestro Corps (ISBN13: 978-1-4012-1801-0).

Despite being every action-fan’s dream there’s still room found for character development and moments of tangible tragedy. Illustrated by Van Sciver, Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Angel Unzueta, Oclair Albert, Prentis Rollins, Drew Geraci, with colours from Moose Bauman and Guy Major, and lettering by Rob Leigh and Phil Balsman, the GL Corps chapters are written by comics veteran Dave Gibbons, no stranger to cosmic conflagration from his early days at 2000AD, and this book just rockets along, dragging you helpless in its wake.

If you’re the impatient sort you’d best ensure you have all the volumes to hand when you start to read, because once you’re hooked there’s no stopping or going back.

© 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

A MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL

By Roger Stern, Michael Mignola & Mark Badger (Marvel)
ISBN: 0- 87135-559-0

I can’t recall the last time Marvel published an all-original graphic novel as opposed to a collection, but not so very long ago they were a market leader in the field with an entire range of “big stories” told on larger than normal pages (285 x 220 mm rather than the now customary 258 x 168 mm) featuring not only proprietary characters but also licensed assets like Conan and even creator-owned properties like Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar.

This odd seeming concoction is perhaps one of the very best Marvel Universe tales from the post Kirby years and tells a powerful tale by contrasting the mandatory origin sequences of the two doctors to produce effective motivations and deeper insights for both characters.

Victor Von Doom is a troubled gypsy genius who escaped the oppression of his homeland on a scholarship to America. Whilst there he was a rival to young Reed Richards, perhaps the most brilliant man alive. The arrogant Von Doom performed unsanctioned experiments which marred his perfect features, leading him down a path to super-science and an overwhelming hunger for power and control. His mother, a sorceress, burns in hell for the unholy powers she used in life, powers which her son also possesses.

Steven Strange was America’s greatest surgeon, a vain and arrogant man who cared nothing for the sick, except as a means to wealth and glory. When a drunken car-crash ended his career, Strange hit the skids until an overheard barroom tale led him to Tibet, an ancient magician and eventual enlightenment through daily redemption. He battles otherworldly evil as the Sorcerer Supreme, Master of the Mystic arts.

When a magical call goes out to all the World’s adepts offering a granted wish to the victor in a contest of sorcery both Doom and Strange are among the gathered. After mystic combat reduces the assemblage to the two doctors, Doom’s granted wish is to rescue his mother’s soul from Hell…

A classic quest saga, Triumph and Torment sees the two mages storm the gates of the Underworld in a mission of vain hope and warped mercy, battling the hordes of Mephisto and their own natures in a mesmerizing epic of power and pathos.

Roger Stern is at his absolute writing peak here and the unlikely art team of Michael Mignola and Mark Badger defy any superlatives I could use. The art is simply magical, especially the mesmerising colouring, also courtesy of Mr Badger.

High drama, heroism, perfidy and plenty of surprises wrapped in superb craftsmanship typify all that’s best in the “Marvel Style” and this tale has it all aplenty. A softcover edition (ISBN13: 978-0-87135-660-4) with an alternative cover is also available.

© 1989 Marvel Entertainment Group/Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

By Keith Giffen, John Rogers & Cully Hamner (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-0965-0

There are precious few comic-books in the modern climate that combine action and adventure with fun and wit, so the new Blue Beetle comes as a delightful surprise to me – and I’m eager to pass on that feeling to all the other old gits and young know-it-alls who’ve missed out.

I grew up with the somewhat funky 1960’s Charlton revival of Dan Garrett, and was subsequently blown away by Steve Ditko’s re-imagining of the character as inventor/acrobat Ted Kord. So I approached the new series reluctantly and with the caution you’d expect when encountering something unknown that chittered and scuttled at the corners of your vision. But this is great stuff!

At the height of the Infinite Crisis (ISBN: 978-1-4012-0959-9) El Paso high-schooler Jaime Reyes finds a strange blue jewel shaped like a bug. That night when he’s asleep it attaches itself to his back transforming him into a bizarre beetle-like warrior. He’s quickly swept up in the chaos and joins Batman and other heroes in a space battle.

Now he’s coming home, terrified for staying out late on a school night, but isn’t prepared for the reaction when he discovers he’s been missing for a year! This is fast-paced storytelling, action-packed and stuffed with DCU guest-stars such as Guy Gardner, The Peacemaker, Oracle and the Phantom Stranger. Collecting issues #1-6 of the monthly series this book follows that tried and tested formula of a teenager suddenly gifted with great powers, as well as revealing those experiences everybody goes through eventually, and does it in a lively and moving manner.

By watching Jaime slowly put his life back together, seeing him discover how little he knew about his friends, family and sleepy old town, and most importantly by sharing in the learning experience of becoming a hero, readers of any age from six to sixty-plus can feel the buzz that only the very best comics can produce. Also, he purely kicks butt in that bewilderingly argumentative bugsuit!

Written by Keith Giffen and John Rogers, with art by Cully Hamner, Cynthia Martin, Duncan Rouleau, Kevin West, Phil Moy and Jack Purcell, this is a series firmly rooted in DC continuity that can be read by the freshest recruit without confusion or loss. So none of you have any excuse to miss this little gem…

© 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

By Vittorio Giardino (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-56163-184-1

Born on Christmas Eve 1946 Vittorio Giardino was an electrician who switched careers at age 30. He worked for a number of comics magazines initially and his first collection Pax Romana was released in 1978. He worked, slowly but consistently, on feature characters such as detective Sam Pezzo, the saucy Winsor McKay homage Little Ego and the cold-war drama Jonas Fink as well as general fiction tales, producing over 35 albums to date.

In 1982 he began the occasional saga of a quiet, bearded fellow recalled by the Deuxieme Bureau (the French Secret Service) to investigate the slaughter of almost every agent in the cosmopolitan paradise of Budapest. The series ran in the magazine Orient Express before being collected as Rhapsodie Hongroise or Hungarian Rhapsody (ISBN: 0-87416-033-2). Within three years he had returned to the subtly addictive pre-war drama with the follow-up La Porta d’Oriente or Orient Gateway to you and me.

Summer 1938: All the espionage agencies in the world know that war is coming. Frantically jockeying for the most favourable position, they’re all seeking every advantage for when the balloon goes up. Soviet engineer Mr. Stern has become just such a preferred asset of too many rival organisations, so he runs, losing himself in the teeming, mysterious city of Istanbul.

Once again reluctant, canny Max Friedman is drawn into the murky “Great Game”, but alongside the exotic, bewitching Magda Witnitz, is he the only one to ask why so many dangerous people want to acquire Stern? And why are they so willing to kill for him?

Subtle, entrancing and magnificently illustrated, this is a superb thriller with all the nostalgic panache of Casablanca and labyrinthine twists and turns of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and no fan of the genre, let alone comics aficionado, can afford to miss this beguiling adventure.

Giardino is a smart and confidant writer who makes tone and nuance carry a tale and his art – a semi-representational derivation of Hergé’s ligne claire (clean line) – makes the lovingly rendered locations as much a character as any of the stylishly operatives in a dark, doomed world on the brink of holocaust.

After ten years, Giardino recently completed a trilogy of albums featuring this unassuming spy which reveals much of his early years during the Spanish Civil War, and with the earlier tales they form an archive of spy-fiction that rivals the best of Le Carré, Hammett, Buchan or Fleming.

Max Friedman is one of the form’s greatest characters and Giardino’s work is like honey for the eyes and mind. This is another graphic novel every fan of comics or the Intelligence Game should know.

© 1986 Vittorio Giardino. All Rights Reserved.

By Andreas (Michel Deligne Publishing Co)
ISBN: 2-87135-022-1

To me the perfect comic strip begins with the humble line. The greatest drawing is always the versatility of black against white. Colour enhances but it doesn’t create.

Andreas Martens is a versatile East German artist (from a time when that meant another country not different location) whose work has appeared in Le 9e Rêve, and Tintin for which last he produced Udolfo and Rork (from 1978).

Andreas has adapted the works of Francois Rivière (collected as Révélations Posthumes in 1980) and produced a graphic edition of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre for Je Bouquine. Among his many original efforts are Raffington Detective, Cyrrus, Arq and a host of others. All his works are steeped in classical style and rich in visual tension. Many are thematically linked.

In 1982 he crafted a chilling, moody pastiche of the fantasy works of August Derleth, William Hope Hodgson and H. P. Lovecraft that related the tale of a survivor of a mysterious maritime tragedy.

Years ago a mutiny aboard the ‘Leviticus’ led to thirteen survivors being abandoned in a lifeboat on the High Seas. Against all odds they reached land safely. Every year they hold a reunion, and every year there has been one less survivor at the table…

Now the last three are to meet again and Cromwell Stone feels that the mystery is coming to an end. He arrives in the small seaside town to prepare but is sucked into a swirling maelstrom of unease and anxiety…

And the horrors of an unimaginable world are waiting for him to misstep…

The art is a stark blend of early Berni Wrightson and classical woodcut prints in this suspenseful tale of the unknown. Compelling beyond belief this is a superb horror story from a criminally under-regarded creator. Hopefully some enterprising publisher will get the English language rights and bring this and all his other works to a greater public.

© 1985 Editions Michel Deligne S.A. and Andreas. All Rights Reserved.