“News, reviews and opinions from the world of comics”Volume 14 #4 August 2010

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Big Planet Favorites Invade the Screen!

SHADOWLANDDaredevil has had his share of rough patches. First, he’s blinded. Then his girl-friend dies. Then his girlfriend dies AGAIN. Then he goes to prison. You get the idea. So it should come as no surprise that ol’ Horn Head has gone completely off the deep end. What is surprising is how FAR off he’s gone. Becoming the head of the Hand, building a castle in the middle of Hell’s Kitchen and kicking out all of the cops so he can be judge, jury, and executioner? That’s the kind of thing that’s bound to get the attention of the bazillion super-heroes living in NYC. I know it got my attention! It got me reading Daredevil again!

More and more comics are getting turned into filmsand this month we have a new one, Scott Pilgrim, and a new TV show in October, Walking Dead. Both of these books are favorites of Big Planet and many of our customers. Take the time to check them out if you’ve missed them! Then you can impress your friends with your ahead-of-the-curve knowledge.

Walking DeadThe ongoing saga of survivors after a zombie apoca-lypse. How far will they go to survive? How inhuman will they become? And how many of them will die? Coming as an ongoing TV show from AMC in October. (Ongoing series)

Scott PilgrimSlacker Scott finally meets the girl of his dreams, only to find out she has 7 evil ex-boyfriends who want to fight him to see if he’s worthy. A great drama with lots of action, covered in video game references and manga stylings. (6 book series)

A Skeleton Story #1 New publisher GG Studios brings noir-crime-mystery to the afterlife in this new series remi-niscent of Grim Fandango. The art looks amazing. The story looks engaging. It’s European! Recom-mended for fans of Blacksad and Last Days of American Crime.

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1 Guy Gardner is off on a secret mission for everyone’s kindest-named guy, Atrocitus! Of course Hal Jordan ain’t down with that, and the Corps will probably get messed up, and maybe a new color spectrum ring will appear. Or not. With Kilowog action!

Ides of Blood #1The non-boring parts of history – like when Julius Caesar conquered Transylvania to make

vampyres into slaves! Throw in a few vampyre soldiers and a murder spree, you’ve got the newest Cinemax miniseries.

Neonomicon #1Some guy named Alan Moore wrote a short lil story called The

Courtyard with lots of Love-craftian goodness, now we’ve got the sequel. You might like it, he can write okay.

Namor: The First Mutant #1Gah! It’s vampire month or something! Namor heads into the depths to face the Atlantean Vampires. Plus he’s gotta choose Atlantis or the X-Men – since they come into conflict so often, you see.

Superman: The Last Family of Krypton #1DC’s Elseworlds line makes its triumphant return! Find out what would have happened if Superman’s parents escaped Krypton as well!

Guarding the Globe #1Invincible spin-off! Every-one’s favorite team from

the Invinci-Verse gets its own monthly book. Featuring Invin-cible, Brit, Robot, and everybody else!

Deadpool #1000Are there too many Deadpool books? At last count, there were two ongoing titles, two mini-series, and numerous one-shots. Wait! Maybe there really HAVE been a thousand issues of Dead-pool! No? Deadpool #1000 is awesome either way. How could it not be? It’s by Dean Haspiel, David Lapham, and Peter Bagge!

Marvel Universe vs The Punisher #1What would

happen if a

28-Days-Later-esque virus over-took the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe and turned them into flesh-eating monsters? The Punisher would kill them, of course!

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Sullivan’s Slugger’s SCJames Stokoe (Orc Stain, Wonton Soup) takes on America’s Favorite Pastime in his new original graphic novel, Sullivan’s Sluggers. It’s just like a regular book about a baseball game except for all the MONSTERS!

Dante’s Divine Comedy HCSeymour Chwast retells Dante’s poem in noir-ish style.

A Drunken Dream and Other Stories HCMoto Hagio, one of the pioneers of shojo manga, has her short stories collected.

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The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec Volume 1 HCSonn to be a major (French) motion picture! Set in Paris before WWI, this French adventure comic features a female novelist fighting a pterodactyl! That makes it automat-ically good!

Strange Science Fantasy #2In issue #1 we were introduced to The Gearheads and it was beau-tiful and kick-ass at the same time. In issue #2, we meet THE SHOGO-NAUT. I don’t know about you, but that sounds rad to me!

Fingerprints HCWill Dinski takes a science-look at our beauty-obsessed society in what is sure to be one of the most talked about graphic novels of the year.

Seedless SCUm, okay – so grapes come to life, since they are from the distant planet Crazy, and only a new breed of grape warriors can stop them – the Seedless! With jetpacks and inventors and sabretooths and robots?! I’m in!

7 Psychopaths SCHow do you kill Hitler? It seems like an impossible task, right? I mean, he died, like, 65 years ago! Well, the first step is: Be alive during WWII. Second step: Gather a group of psychopaths to go behind enemy lines and take him out! Third step: This book is awesome!

Bone: Tall Tales SCYay! Sort of a new Bone book! Bone: Tall Tales collects some old, long out-of-print Bone mate-rial and book-ends it with some brand-new material. Not exactly the new Bone book we’ve all been waiting for, but still pretty cool.

Halo: Blood Line HCHalo comics about Halo dudes doing Halo stuff. If you like Halo or Fred Van Lente, this comic is for you!

Cages SCMulti-media artiste Dave McKean tried his hand at writing as well in his opus, a rumina-tion on art and reality, following a painter, a writer, and a musician. Ambitiously cool.

Invincible 13: Growing Pains SCInvincible got smacked around quite a bit, so he’s gotta figure out what sort of hero he’s going to be – especially with the Viltrumite War looming! Epic!

Zero Killer SCThe superb Arvid Nelson (Rex Mundi) finally finished his apoc-alyptic adventure series, where Zero the bounty hunter gets caught up between the paramili-tary and the crazed survivors of New York.

Smurfs Vol. 1 & 2 SCThe original Peyo Smurfs comics are finally in print again

in the U.S.! I can guarantee that these Smurfs comics are way better than you think they are. Read these and skip the really crappy looking Smurfs movie!

Kick-Ass SCYou’ve read the comics. You’ve seen the movie. Wait! You haven’t read the comics? BUY THIS! It will kick your ass, eponymously.

Johnny Comet SCFifties hot rod comic strips by the immortal Frank Frazetta. Frazet-ta’s earlier comics work was much different than his later, more fantasy-driven paintings, but this collection proves him more than a match for guys like Raymond and Williamson!

Showcase Presents: The Doom Patrol Vol. 2 SC Finally the other 20 issues of the classic 1960s Doom Patrol are here for your reading pleasure! And they were comics strangest super-team long before Grant Morrison ever got hold of them. Recom-mended.

Big Planet Orbit Volume 14 #4; August, 2010 is published by Joel Pollack, Peter Casazza, Jared Smith, and Greg Bennett for Big Planet Comics. www.bigplanetcomics.com.

Big Planet Comics, Inc. 4908 Fairmont Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814, 301.654.6856

Big Planet Comics of VA Inc. 426 Maple Ave. East, Vienna, VA 22180, 703.242.9412

Big Planet Comics of DC Inc. 3145 Dumbarton St. NW, Washington, DC 20007, 202.342.1961

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Big Planet Comics of College Park Inc. 7315 Baltimore Ave. , College Park, MD, 20740, 301.699.0498

SPX 2010 AND BALTIMORE COMIC-CON ARE BACK!

The best mainstream comic convention within 200 miles, Baltimore never disappoints, and this year looks to be just as jam-packed with top-tier guests as usual! Mike Allred, Todd McFarlane, Howard Chaykin, Geoff Johns, Sergio Aragones, Frank Cho, JG Jones, James Robinson, Walter Simonson, and Terry Moore and many more should make Balti-more 2010 one not to miss!Saturday and Sunday, August 28-29! www.comicon.com/baltimore/

I READ IT! I LOVED IT!

BY JARED SMITH

THE SIXTH GUN #1A cartoony European art style merged with over the top Western horror action. A zombie Confed-erate general and his goons going up against a gunslinger, a haunted pistol, a tale of revenge, and one innocent girl.

SPX time is always our favorite time of year, and guess what? It’s that time again! SPX has become the convention to go to if you’re looking for self-published comics and it’s right down the street in North Bethesda! Besides the legions of bearded mini-comics empresarios, this year’s show also features some top-tier talent from the indie comics world. Dean Haspiel, Kate Beaton, Jaime Hernandez, Raina Telgemeier, Lisa Hanawalt, Vanessa Davis, Dustin Harbin, and Will Dinski are just a a few of the amazing creators who will be there, so whatever you do, make sure you don’t miss SPX 2010!

What: SPX 2010

Where: Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center

When: Open to the public Saturday and Sunday, September 11 and 12, 2010.

As with every year, profits from SPX will go to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, protecting the First Amendment rights of comic book readers and professionals. www.spxpo.com