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(Tag : indie)
14 October 2009 Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards


I went down to the Durham Public Library and perused the fiction section for graphic novels. Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards is one of the many GNs that jumped out me. By writer Jim Ottavani with art by Big Time Attic (Zander Cannon, Kevin Cannon, and Shad Petosky) and a cover by Mark (Xenozoic Tales) Schultz, the full title is Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology.

The story is a highly fascinating account of the rivalry between Cope and Marsh in the early period of paleontology as they jockey for digs, naming rights, and notoriety. As with all GT-Lab books, this story is enhanced history with the facts embellished by Ottavani to move along the plot. However, when you have Cope and Marsh alongside cowboys and the famous PT Barnum, there isn't much embellishing that needs to be done as they plant fossils, usurps digs and otherwise snipe at each other to establish early dominance causing one to burn through and inheritance and the other to die with only his body to donate to science. The reader is left to speculate to what good they might have been able to accomplish if either could set aside ego and grievances to work together.

The art by Big Time Attic is dominated by Zander Cannon so it's the style that we've become familiar with in his other projects. This time it is embellished by being printed entirely in sepia tones with a single half tone shade and is filled with rather colorful historic characters. What stands out most to me is the hand lettering which is finely showcased when PT Barnum shows up in the beginning and the end. PT Barnum's speech is embellished with flourishes of the lettering that you would find on carnival posters.

From beginning to end, this is a fine and entertaining comic book look at 2 fascinating character from a bygone era and comes highly recommended.

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TAGS : comic books, GT-Lab, indie, review

15 September 2009 PREVIEWS Blogging: Non-Premeire Publishers
Every month, I go through Diamond's Previews to figure out what I want. From now until, I will blog about what I see that catches my attention. Keep in mind that most of my comic buying consist of #1s, collected editions (hardcovers or TPBs), or OGN (original graphic novels). I buy #1s to see if it's something that I will get later in a collected edition

This is the Rest of Previews (not Dark Horse, DC, Image, Marvel) Edition.

page 186: Echo #18 (Abstract)
Terry Moore won me over with Strangers in Paradise and he kept the ball rolling with his Marvel books and now with Echo.

page 188: The Black Coat: Or Give Me Death... #3 (Ape)
Writer Ben Lichus is a local, so my local comic book store carries Black Coat. Even if they didn't support it and even if Ben wasn't local, I'd be interested in this Revolutionary War "super" hero tale.

page 202: Fearless Dawn #1 (Asylum)
Fearless Dawn is one of the many features from the Bomb mini series (and now TPB). I've been following Steve Mannion's career for years and still anxiously await everything that he does.

page 228: The Incredibles: City of Incredibles TP (Boom!)
I hate ... hate ... HATE the Boom! collections. They are too small to be regular size, but not small enough to be digest. However, I love the Incredibles and my kids do as well.

page 229: The Mupper Show: The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson TP (Boom!)
see the previous comment.

page 241: Buck Rogers #6 (Dynamite)
Dynamite won me over with the #0 issue of this series. I anxiously await the collected edition.

page 246: The Talisman: The Road of Trials #1 (Del Rey)
The Talisman is one of my favorite King books. I'll be checking out this first issue to see if this series will be worth getting in collected format later.

page 255: Bloodrayne: Revenge of the Butcheress (Digital Webbing)
I buy all Digital Webbing books and you should too as some of the best new talent in the industry comes from Digital Webbing.

page 271: Grimjack: The Manx Cat #4
I already own the ComicMix version of this series, but I'll buy it again when IDW collects it so that it matches my other Grimjack trades. I love Tim Truman and I love his work with Ostrander on Grimjack. That's all it takes for me. I think the greatest strength of Grimjack is that Cynosure can be used to tell a story in any genre.

That's it for me and Previews this month. Catch me next month.

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TAGS : comic books, indie, Previews

   

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