Weekly Treats! Ichiro, Elektra: Assassin, Axe Cop

Well here's an embarrassing howdy-doody.  I would like to recommend Ichiro (Houghton Mifflin) by relative newcomer Ryan Inzana as a highlight of the week by I'm afraid I've not been able to find any interior images on the web.  There's really nice ink-work art, somewhat similar to Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, along with some thoughtful use of colour drawing attention to characters, representing the past, or the mythological land that our young protagonist finds himself in and at just under 300 pages and hardcover for only £15 it's excellent value.  So instead I'll leave you with images from his website (see here) and nice, brief review taken from KirkusReviews (see here):

A young American teen, son of a Japanese immigrant and an American soldier killed in combat, goes to Japan with his mother for an extended visit and begins to grapple with sophisticated cultural complexities. The graphic novel opens with a familiar Japanese legend about a shape-changing tanuki trickster spirit. The story cuts to New York City, where Ichiro and his mother prepare for their trip. Ichiro has been very close to his American grandfather, who has schooled him in the worst kinds of American jingoism. First his mother, then his Japanese grandfather began to share the legends and history of Japan, both positive and negative, with Ichiro. A nighttime pursuit of a persimmon-thieving tanuki turns into a surreal odyssey that takes Ichiro deep into the mythic realm of Japanese folklore. Inzana’s graphic style is, at first glance, far more Western than Japanese-influenced; there is no look of manga in his figures. But his compositions and his brushwork, particularly exquisite transitional spreads between episodes, echo classical Japanese art, and his depiction of the Japanese Otherworld will seem familiar to anyone who has seen a Miyazaki film. Ichiro's realistic and mythic journeys combine to give both him and readers a better understanding of the importance of both understanding and overcoming history.Beautiful and thought-provoking; questions unanswered will linger in readers' minds.

One artist you may have heard of is Bill Sienkiewicz and this week sees the hardcover return of Elektra: Assassin (Marvel) written by Frank Miller.  Groundbreaking stuff.

 

And finally: 

Axe Cop vol. 3 (Dark Horse). You know the deal by now...

But the answer the question on everyone's lips is "WHICH COMICS ARE CHEAP THIS WEEK?!" Alright, alright ya cheapskates.  Supercrooks #1 continues the Millarworld quest for global domination.  I think it's fairly safe to say that if any writer could pull this off it's Mark Millar who has the writing chops, high profile and the super power to be everywhere I look on the internet at the moment (even cutekittens.com curse you MM).  Just letting you know that it's written by Millar and illustrated by Leinil Yu is enough for a lot of people but if need more it's about a group of super-villains who, fed up with getting busted by the multitude of super-heroes in America, head for Spain to pull off a major bank heist.  Also making it's first steps into the big wide world as part of Vertigo's new title launch is Dominique Laveau: Voodoo Child #1 by Selwyn Seyfu Hinds and Denys Cowan.  Half-breed heir to the New Orleans - most haunted city in America thanks to all the ghosts and demons - Voodoo Queenship is framed for her murder.  Can our heroine investigate the crime whilst avoiding pursuers amidst the disrupted balance between our world and the spirit world? 

 
Both these comics will be on sale for only £1.50 for the remainder of the week and up to next weeks arrivals.  Full list of releases under the tab at the top of the screen.