Animal Man by Grant Morrison

ANIMAL MAN

Writer: Grant Morrison

Artist: Chas Truog

Published under VERTIGO

Collects: ANIMAL MAN issues 1-9

Reviewed by Aalok Joshi

Colossally MAJOR SPOILERS ahead...if you have decided to go and buy this book and read it, STOP RIGHT HERE! If not, well, this post gives you umpteen reasons to, including select samplings.

With the slowly and steadily growing mess that is my life pushing my insides out, I find far and few books that are as satisfying a read; driving me towards the fringes, far from the relative comfort zones of the standard Superman , Batman or Flash story and into the morass where the more seedy characters lurk…not all of them are seedy, just…odd. Places inhabited by THE QUESTION , GREEN ARROW, SWAMP THING & ANIMAL MAN.

STEWARTS SLATE: REVIEW OF THE ADVENTURES OF BLAKE AND MORTIMER, THE SARCOPHAGI OF THE SIXTH CONTINENT

Review of THE ADVENTURES OF BLAKE & MORTIMER: THE SARCOPHAGI OF THE SIXTH CONTINENT

Written by: Yves Sente

Art: Andre Juillard

Published by Cinebook

Review by Stewart Loud

In the latest book publisher, Cinebook, sent me to review, Philip Mortimer and his homosexual lover, Francis Blake, pit their wits against the masked Indian mincer, Emperor Ashoka and his army of communist soldiers and Baboons as he attempts to take revenge upon Mortimer and the British empire as a whole for their past indescretions against him and his beloved India!

And they shall call it... NEW DCU!

**UPDATE!** 20th June 2011 (end of post)
New info added for 2 titles continuing post October
**UPDATE!** 17th June 2011 (end of post)
 New info added for 1 new title possible starting October, waiting confirmation

 Hey folks!
Welcome once again! We have something a little extra special for you today - a full on breakdown of the new DC Universe that we can expect to see come September and the end of FLASHPOINT.
Apologies for delays with this weeks post but it was unavoidable given how much time it took to compile all this and sift through it all to find the facts! Just for you! And you should not, this post will be linked (we hope) to the main page in some fashion and all updates on the titles and on new titles not yet to announced will be added in here and updated on Facebook when it is done.
Now! According to the nice folks over at DC, there are major changes to come and while there have been any number of rumours, innuendos and speculation about what will be coming to our comic-racks come summers end - we have need of sifting through the mountains of internet "information" to get to the actual matters at hand.
So with this in mind (some of its been on my mind solidly as you'll see shortly!) I decided to compile a database of sorts where fans such as you good people could see whats coming, what is to become of some of our beloved series that have not made it to the new Universe ahead and others that have changed drastically, while others yet seem unaffected at all.

Collected here I am listing the 52 new titles that DC will be launching after the ENTIRE existing list of monthly titles is shut down and restarted. Breakdowns are to be found here with creative teams, intended story-lines and of course - my own snippets of opinion about each and every one! These titles will be launching through September and will be the front-line of DC comics for the foreseeable future.
What I am doing here though is listing the comics in order of interest, i.e, we start with the ones Im most looking forward to and why and then follow the list down all the way till the titles Im least looking forward to and why.

No Manga Madness, Simply Shamik's Sanity

Ahoy! Today be a Monday, so ye'd expect a Monday Manga Madness, but today we got a surprise for ye, me hearties.  

Our Good friend and the exalted writer sans compare Shamik Dasgupta was kind enough to write an article that takes a unique perspective on the life of a comic fanboy. Anyone who has loved comic books (and you probably wouldn't be here, reading this article, if you didn't), would associate with it and would love this article, as we did.

For those who do not know Shamik (you were probably abducted by aliens for some, eh probing, or maybe you were cryogenically frozen in 1920 and were just let out of it, to NOT know the man), he is the brain behind Ramayan 3392, Irith and now Daksh and is considered one of the top comic book/graphic novel writers in the country today.

Shamik in a pondering mood, no doubt cooking up another fantastical tale

The Adventures of Karen Ross (Part 5)

There was a light in my eyes. I closed them tight and moved away from it. There was a dull ache all over my body. Either I was still alive or no one told you about the pain of what killed you went along with crossing over. I could feel fingers on my neck. Ok, a good clue that I'm alive. I opened my eyes slowly and turned to the right where I could feel the fingers. Jeff was looking at his watch taking my pulse. His eyes lit up when he saw that I was awake.

"Thank God you're alive!" he said hugging me.

"Easy, still not completely with it yet, but it is good to see you too," I said returning the hug as best as I could.

Aalok deciphers DC - Superman: Birthright

Writer: Mark Waid

Artist: Leinil Francis Yu

Collects: SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT issues 1-12

With the massive revamp of the DCU coming in September, I thought that this origin is already written over (SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN, by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank) let me get around to it before it goes off the map completely.

Mark Waid is famous for his love of the Superman franchise, and reading this, it’s obvious that he loves Superman. This one, though it adds a lot of new elements to the popular franchise, doesn’t deviate too much from the source material, wherein it’s beauty lies – preserving continuity while adding to it.

STEWARTS SLATE: REVIEW OF XIII books 6-7 THE JASON FLY CASE and THE NIGHT OF AUGUST THIRD

Review of XIII books 6-7 The Jason Fly Case and The Night Of August Third

Writer: Jean Van Hamme.

Art: William Vance.

Published by Cinebook.

Review by Stewart Loud.

This week I'm doing the write-up for the latest couple of books publishers, Cinebook, have kindly sent over for me to review.

Jumping straight in at books 6 and 7, the back story is quickly recapped and we're introduced to Jason Fly, a man who, after waking with terrible amnesia and injuries with no memory of his past or who he is whatsoever, has so far discovered that he used to work as some sort of American government super operative after taking part in a top secret, black ops training program and was subsequently injured (in the brains) causing his total memory loss. Now he wonders the land looking for information and people that might help him piece together his life and help him regain some memory of who he used to be, all the while being hunted by shadowy government agencies and assassins who want him dead because of what he might discover.