June 2009 comics solications: more good stuff

We've looked at what's coming out from DC and Marvel Comics in June. Here are some other upcoming releases of note. Click the title links to order discounted books from Amazon.

BUCK ROGERS #1
(W) Scott Beatty (A) Carlos Rafael (C) John Cassaday, Alex Ross
The future begins now! Join us as we present pop culture's first hero - Buck Rogers! The first man out of time... the first man to be taken from his present and thrown into the future... the inspiration for countless heroes, and it all begins here! From the thrilling adventure presented in Dynamite's introductory issue #0 last month, the creative team of writer Scott Beatty, artist Carlos Rafael and 50/50 cover artists Alex Ross and John Cassaday (Cassaday serves as the regular cover artist for the series) present this all-new issue #1! In the tradition of modern stories for iconic legendary heroes, Buck Rogers is the next BIG hit series from Dynamite! Join us for an all-new presentation of this classic sci-fi hero as the future truly begins now! Hey, we could tell you more, but that would ruin the surprise of the comic adventure!


LOCAS: A LOVE & ROCKETS BOOK HC VOL 1
by Xaime Hernandez 8.5 x 11, 712 pages, BW, $49.95
One of the most humane, graceful and imaginatively inexhaustible artists in American popular culture, Jaime Hernandez has created in Locas one of the great American novels of the last 30 years, graphic or otherwise. Created over 15 years from 1981 to 1996 in the pages of the legendary comic book series Love and Rockets, Locas tells the story of Maggie Chascarrillo, a bisexual, Mexican-American woman attempting to define herself in a community rife with class, race and gender issues. Maggie's story begins in the early-1980s Southern California rock scene, when it was shifting from the excesses of the 1970s to the gritty basics of punk and new wave. Hardcore punk rock came to the fore, and the teenaged Maggie finds herself drawn to the anarchy, energy and diversity of the scene, which in Jaime's hands becomes a very real, habitable place populated with authentic human beings rather than stereotypes. She quickly befriends Hopey Glass, a feisty anti-authoritarian punkette who quickly becomes Maggie's on-again, off-again lover and a constant presence in her life throughout the book.

LOCAS HC VOL 2 MAGGIE HOPEY & RAY
by Xaime Hernandez
This second, doorstop-sized omnibus volume of "Locas" tales by Jaime Hernandez - collecting over a dozen years' worth of stories from the award-winning Love & Rockets comics - picks up shortly after Maggie and Hopey's long-awaited reunion at the end of the Locas hardcover. Even though her love life remains as chaotic as ever, Hopey takes her first few steps toward responsible adulthood with a real job (as a teacher), while a depressed, divorced Maggie ends up as the manager of a fleabag apartment building, where she continues to wrestle with the demons of her past - most prominently in the stunning centerpiece of the volume, the graphic novel-length "Ghost of Hoppers," with its hallucinatory dream finale. On the "guy" side Ray, still carrying a major torch for Maggie, falls in with the "Frogmouth," the volatile bombshell (arguably the sexiest woman Jaime has ever drawn, which is saying something) whose ties to local thugs cause some hairy moments indeed. Of course, Maggie, Hopey, and Ray's paths continue to intersect in Jaime's increasingly complex, always richly imagined world, along with those of characters both old (Izzy Ortiz, Penny Century) and new (the jockette Angel, the mysterious superheroine Alarma).


I SHALL DESTROY ALL THE CIVILIZED PLANETS TP VOL 1
by Fletcher Hanks; Edited by Paul Karasik
Welcome to the bizarre world of Fletcher Hanks, Super Wizard of the inkwell. Fletcher Hanks worked for only a few years in the earliest days of the comic book industry (1939-1941). Because he worked in a gutter medium for second-rate publishers on third-rate characters his work has been largely forgotten. But among aficionados he is legendary. Hanks drew in a variety of genres depicting science-fiction saviors, white women of the jungle, and he-man loggers. Cartoonist Paul Karasik (co-adapter of Paul Auster's City of Glass and co-author of The Ride Together, a Memoir of Autism in the Family) has spent years tracking down these obscure and hard to find stories buried in the back of long-forgotten comic book titles. Karasik has also uncovered a dark secret: why Hanks disappeared from the comics scene. This book collects 15 of his best stories in one volume followed by an Afterword which solves the mystery of "Whatever Happened to Fletcher Hanks," the mysterious cartoonist who created a hailstorm of tales of brutal retribution... and then mysteriously vanished.


YOU SHALL DIE BY YOUR OWN EVIL CREATION TP VOL 2
by Fletcher Hanks; Edited by Paul Karasik
Fletcher Hanks was the first great comic book auteur. That is, he wrote, penciled, inked, and lettered all of his own stories. He completed an astonishing 48 stories in three years from 1939-1941. As a one-man-cartooning-band, his work packs the wallop of a unique and unified artistic vision. He was a true comics visionary. In the earliest days of the comic book, before censorship, it was "anything goes!" - and in the tales of Fletcher Hanks, anything went! The superhero Stardust gazes down at evil-doers from space and doles out ice cold slabs of poetic justice with his wizardry. A villain out to kidnap all the heads of state gets turned into a giant head, himself...no body, just a head! The jungle protectress, Fantomah, looks like Jean Harlow in a skin-tight black negligee. But when she sees an evil scientist drugging gorillas to become slaves, her head transforms into a flaming skull and she tosses the villain to the gorillas who proceed to graphically tear the guy limb from ragged limb. Although the early comic books were meant for the kiddies, today's mature readers are stunned by their pop surrealism and outright violent mayhem. The first volume of Fletcher Hanks stories, I Shall Destroy All Civilized Planets! (now in its fourth printing) was an Eisner Award-winning smash hit and a staple on "Best of the Year" lists. Comics fans were thrilled to come upon a cartoonist of this caliber whom they had never heard of before. Non comics fans who read about the book in The Believer and other journals were stunned to discover an Outsider Artist in comic book form. Edited by cartoonist Paul Karasik, this second volume You Shall Die By Your Own Evil Creation, collects all of the rest of Hanks comic book work. That's right... ALL! The 31 tales in this book (more than TWICE as many as in the first), when combined with the first volume, will comprise The Complete Fletcher Hanks!


MAGIC TRIXIE GN VOL 3 MAGIC TRIXIE & THE DRAGON
(W/A) Jill Thompson
She's smart. She's sassy. And she has a big problem! When Magic Trixie sees dragons at the circus, she wants a dragon of her own. So where's a young witch to turn? Magic, of course! Jill Thompson brings her dazzling talents to this graphic novel series, and has created a brilliant, laugh-out-loud confection in adorable young Trixie. Magic Trixie and her monster friends will win over kids with their hilarious hijinks!


CAPTAIN CANUCK HC VOL 1
Richard Comely (w) * George Freeman (a & c)
Canada's first superhero returns! Captain Canuck has influenced Canadian cartoonists for more than 30 years, and now the best-selling opus returns with the first of two beautiful hardcover editions. Volume 1 collects issues #4-10. HC * FC * $24.99 * 152 Pages


DOCTOR WHO AUTOPIA (ONE SHOT)
John Ostrander (w) * Kelly Yates (a) * Yates, photo (c)
An All-American creative team tackles the celebrated Doctor in this special standalone tale. John Ostrander (Star Wars: Legacy) writes and Kelly Yates (Doctor Who: The Forgotten) illustrates an adventure where the Doctor and his companion Donna arrive on a utopian planet where robots do all the manual labor. But things aren't quite what they seem... 2 regular covers will be shipped in a 1-to-1 ratio. FC * 32 pages


NEXUS AS IT HAPPENED TP VOL 1
(W) Mike Baron (A) Steve Rude
On the distant moon of Ylum, an enigmatic man is plagued by nightmares. He is forced to dream of the past. He dreams of real-life butchers and tyrants, and what they have done. And then he finds them, and kills them. The year is 2841, and this man is Nexus, a godlike figure who acts as judge, jury, and executioner for the vile criminals who appear in his dreams. He claims to kill in self-defense, but why? Where do the visions come from, and where did he get his powers? Though a hero to many, does he have any real moral code? Collecting Nexus Volume 1 #1-3 and Volume 2 #1-4 from Capital Comics. A multiple Eisner Award-winning series that defined the careers of creators Steve Rude and Mike Baron, Nexus is a modern classic not to be missed! SC, 6x9, 216pgs, B&W SRP: $9.99


MODESTY BLAISE TP VOL 16 SCARLET MAIDEN
(W) Peter O'Donnell (A) Neville Colvin
Adventurer, spy, smuggler, racketeer and all-round bad girl, Modesty Blaise is as stylish as she is smart, as lethal and beautiful as a Japanese fighting sword! This volume features three classic hard-to-find stories: "The Scarlet Maiden," "The Moonman," and "A Few Flowers for the Colonel." This volume features new story introductions by creator Peter O'Donnell, and an article with ultra rare strips that have not been seen in over twenty years. SC, 104pgs