The Private Eye Comes to Print

The fascinating, of-the-times, digital comic The Private Eye, a near-future-set sci-fi mystery in a world with no internet and no public interaction without costumes or anonymity, will be coming to print this fall from Image Comics.

A deluxe hardcover will be available November 2015. The series is by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin with colors by Muntsa Vincente. Said Vaughan, “Readers and retailers have been begging us for a physical version of this story ever since we first announced our hard-boiled parable about the future of privacy in America. So when the time came, Marcos and I knew that we had to go with Image Comics, the most creator-friendly publisher of print comics ever.”

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iZombie on DVD This Fall

The release date for iZombie on DVD has been announced as September 29. This is a week before the show returns for its second season on October 6. The DVD set also includes deleted scenes and a recording of a 2014 Comic-Con panel. I’m excited, since iZombie wound up being my favorite new show and my favorite comic book show (beating The Flash just slightly).

Although pretty different from the original comic created by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, the show has a great cast, led by Rose McIver as new zombie Liv. I’ve enjoyed their week-to-week episodes, as Liv takes on new characteristics or personalities based on which brain she’s most recently eaten out of the morgue. I’ve also enjoyed the continuing storyline across the 13-episode season, as Liv’s former fiance Major (Robert Buckley) comes to believe in the existence of zombies and suspect the big bad brain seller (David Anders). Plus, Rahul Kohli does a terrific job as Rose’s sidekick Dr. Ravi, trying to cure zombie-ism while commenting on her brain recipes.

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The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Volume 14

I’m so glad to get another volume of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service! (The previous book, volume 13, last appeared at the end of 2012.) Although it’s horror, it’s one of my favorite manga series, with each volume featuring creative deaths and victim quests that say something about the modern human condition. And The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Volume 14 was well worth the wait, with two unique takes on the corpse-assisting team.

The first story incorporates a hypocritical, corrupt politician, a conspiracy website that’s begun writing about the Corpse Delivery Service, a smartphone app that reveals the thoughts of the dead, and a group pretending to be the team we know. Amusingly, the imposter group, which charges to make body problems go away, are better at making money than the real thing. It’s a suspenseful story, with the reader following along with the team as they try to figure out who’s impersonating them and why. The final showdown, with a zombie uprising, is amazing.

(Frequent readers of this site may be wondering why I like this series so much if it involves walking corpses and other horror elements, since I don’t care for the genre in general. It’s because the concepts are so interesting, and the theme of wanting justice is universal, both expressed with a black humor. Plus, the characters — made outcasts by their abilities to find or communicate with the dead or their knowledge that there’s more in the world than most people know — are sympathetic in their desire to find their place and way to contribute to making things right.)

There’s an interesting undercurrent, mentioned in passing, of the surveillance state, with everyone assumed to be on camera whenever they’re in public. Sasaki, their hacker, finds this convenient for her work, of course, but it’s something the others are surprised to have brought to their attention.

My favorite story in this volume is the one that inspired the cartoony headshots on the cover. Someone has made a Hollywood-ized cartoon version of the team, only their cover is pizza delivery guys in Los Angeles. It’s all drawn in a style reminiscent of the Batman animated series, which I found hilarious. Parody can be tricky for new readers, but in this case, the group is defined through contrast — their behavior shows how they’re not like the imposters or the cartoon version. And I think this volume has everything you need to know, revealing key points through action.

The final story returns to politics, with misuse of public funds, a younger politician trying to clean up corruption, and a museum dedicated to execution and torture devices. And as always, there are the best endnotes in comics, with editor Carl Gustav Horn not only explaining references but elaborating on cultural differences.

If a new reader doesn’t want to start here, the first three volumes of the series will be re-released in an omnibus this August. The endnotes mention that sales on that volume will likely affect the release schedule for future series volumes, so I encourage people to sample the series, either now or then, if they’re interested. The publisher has posted some preview pages.

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The Cartoon Guide to Algebra

It amazes me that Larry Gonick is still turning out such interesting cartoon science guides. I remember reading my first one, The Cartoon Guide to (Non)Communication, back in the early 90s, and here, over 20 years later, I’m still learning things from him.

The Cartoon Guide to Algebra covers a topic I should know, given that I passed high school math, so it was a pleasant surprise to discover how much was new to me. (Starting with an overview of number theory helps.) It takes a few chapters to get into algebraic expressions proper; before then, there are explanations of natural numbers, fractions, negative numbers (particularly necessary for algebra), and the basics of arithmetic, making for a helpful refresher.

A cartoon volume allows particularly well for visual demonstrations of what numbers mean, so readers can grasp concepts, not just rules. I was also pleased to note that Gonick’s illustrative figures have expanded beyond his stereotypical wacky professor —- they’re diverse in size, gender, color, and figure type, demonstrating math for everyone.

There’s a lot of content in this volume. As always, the humorous drawings make the lessons more memorable, providing visual reminders of the concepts. Each short chapter ends with a set of exercises making the book suitable for use in a class.

However, those problems were my biggest source of frustration with the book. Solutions are only provided to selected problems, which makes it tricky to be sure you’re understanding the material if you’re playing along. And I found several errors in the answer keys. (I’m not sure that’s because of typos, mismatched labels, or that I don’t understand the concepts as well as I thought I did. It looks to me like maybe one section (either problems or solutions) was updated without making sure the other was in sync. Regardless, it’s disconcerting.)

By the end of the book, I had a thorough understanding of algebraic equations, the use of exponents, rates and averages, and a reminder of how to solve quadratic equations. It was a pleasant educational read. (The publisher provided a review copy.)

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War of Streets and Houses

Sophie Yanow’s War of Streets and Houses is a difficult graphic novel to approach, but a rewarding one. I picked it up because it was described to me as about urban planning, as well as student rebellion during strikes in Montreal in 2012, and my brother is a civil engineer, so I thought he might find it interesting.

The concepts rely on the reader to bring herself to the work, as do the images. The art is sketchy and minimalist, sometimes relying on blank space to indicate concern and disconnection. It can be more of an outline for a book than a fully realized explanation, but I liked how much it shared and how it made me grapple with concepts foreign to my experience.

Yanow is ambivalent about participating in the student strikes against rising tuition. Like most people, she’s afraid of being hurt or arrested. She ponders the differences between urban and rural living, sprawl, how cities are designed (or spread), police tactics, urban warfare, and paranoia.

There are a lot of big ideas in this little volume, and I’m not sure an illustrated essay wouldn’t have been a better choice. There are moments when her images show the experience — as when she gets off the metro to a huge crowd of hooded figures — but others where the art is much more abstract, as when her figure, pondering city living, is shown small in an otherwise empty panel. This isn’t a story so much as a loose connection of related concepts and memories.

As the end notes explain, the title comes from a pamphlet written by a French officer sent to suppress resistance in Algiers in the 1840s, adding historical context to these conflicts. It’s rare to see such deep ideas about the ways we live and build explored in such a clear way. “How do we own our spaces?” is a fascinating question that I’m glad this book raised to me. You can see sample pages in this interview with the artist.

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Why Murder Mysteries Are Enjoyable

Andrea Tsurumi’s “Murder Mystery Superfan” is a webcomic that explores the appeal of murder mysteries, subtitled “Why I love bodies in the library.” I share this enjoyment. Tsurumi has some great observations about appealing detectives and the need for order.

“Someone has to die”

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How Much Do I Want to Meet Nathan Fillion?

Wizard World has begun sending out guest announcements for Wizard World Comic Con Chicago, to be held August 20-23, 2015. I don’t normally go in for celebrity sightings, but I am intrigued that this show will include the following faves:

• Nathan Fillion (Serenity, Castle)
• Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye in The Avengers)
• Stephen Amell (Arrow)
• Billie Piper (Doctor Who)
• Arthur Darville (Doctor Who and the upcoming Legends of Tomorrow)

Sadly, Adam Baldwin will also be there. (They also announced comic guests in this press release, a nice balance, but I’m not as excited about Neal Adams or Gerhard or others from that generation. The artists who may be appearing that I’ll be excited about usually aren’t “big name” enough to qualify as special guests, so I’ll keep watching the site lists.) The show runs Thursday through Sunday, but guests only appear on selected days. The VIP experience for Nathan — which includes early admission, a photo op, and a signature — is $350. So I guess I need to figure out just how much I want to shake his hand.

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Saved by the Bell (The Comic)

Since I didn’t care at all about Saved by the Bell (the TV show), I only took a look at Saved by the Bell (the comic) because part of it was drawn by Chyna Clugston Flores, whose comic Blue Monday I adored. (Although I couldn’t tell you which parts, exactly, since the advance PDF I got of the upcoming paperback collection lacked credits. The PR said that the other artist was Tim Fish, and the book is written by Joelle Sellner.)

Sadly, while Clugston’s figures were cute teens, the content of the stories read like sub-par Archie. Zack frames Slater into detention so he can hit on Kelly. Lisa wants to win a fashion contest. Screech creates a dating site. Kelly wants cheerleading taken seriously as a sport. This was all horribly boring, and nothing’s done to establish the characters for readers new to the concept — it’s almost entirely reliant on nostalgic readers who already know the personalities. Yet the setting is modern, with video blogs and without Zack’s brick of a mobile phone.

Roar Comics is promoting itself as a line for all ages, particularly suitable for kids seeking digital comics (or their parents who want something perceived as safe), so I’m confused why their material so far consists of retreads of 80s favorites. (Their other major title is Punky Brewster.) Their target market likely never heard of these shows. However, it’s a subsidiary of Lion Forge, which is also depending on 80s licenses, including Miami Vice, Airwolf, and Knight Rider.

The content here was previously released as digital issues, which is probably why every page could be cut in half horizontally, into two “screens”. It makes the storytelling feel even clunkier than it is. I hate to be so negative — for all I know, fans of the show would love this book — but I found it forgettable and a waste of time.

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