Weekly Treats! Clonk! & Yeah!

 In late 2000's Spanish cartoonist Ximo Abadia quit his illustrating course in order to shut himself away for two years and actually create some comics. Clonk (Kettle Drummer) marks the first translated release of his work. It's a simply told tale of a character journey from youth to adulthood focusing on a friendship a romance and the consequences of a call to war. The artistic influences are a little too prominent (think Jason by way of George Herriman) but it is a lovely looking and charming book (if you like a side order of melancholy with your comics). See here for his blog.

Also worthy of a goosey-gander is the re-print of Peter Bagge and Gilbert Hernandez' Yeah! (Fantagraphics), all-ages appropriate zaniness about a girl band. Comics can be fun folks and this one deserves to have the youngest member of your family let loose on it with crayons.

Talking age-appropriate content, Crossed 3-D (Avatar) is definately not eye-popping fun for all the family in an original mini-graphic novel by David Lapham. What is it with the horror genre that cries out for gimmicks? Smell-o-vision and buzzing pages must surely be next.

And then DC keep the Vertigo cannon firing with new volumes of House of Mystery, American Vampire and Unknown Soldier.

Moving on to the floppies, Thor #2 continues to tease us with thought of Thor versus Galcatus and Flash loses control of Venom and it's only the third issue. Action Comics #901 see the return of Doomsday; Green Lantern #66 heats up the War of the Lanterns and there's a new issue of the excellent Xombie (keep going Frazer, you can do it). Also, Kirby Genesis #0 from Dynamite should be worth a look as Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross (layouts only folks) work off characters created by King Jack Kirby.

As ever, the full list of releases can be found lurking under the Features tab.