Twilight Detective Agency is a new comic created by two very active fans of Disney’s Gargoyles TV series and comic. They must be: McAdam and Rieger call their publishing company “Two Gargoyles Graphics”. Twilight follows the adventures of a pair of “gargoyle gumshoes” working in a town that has much more magic afoot than most of the inhabitants are aware of. You can find out more about this and the team’s other comic titles, at the Two Gargs web site.
Black & White
Early Usagi
If you just can’t get enough of Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo, you might want to check out this new, very large compilation. For the first 10 years of its existence, Usagi was published by Fantagraphics Press. Now, to celebrate the comic’s 25th anniversary, Fantagraphics has released Usagi Yojimbo: The Special Edition, a 1200-page two-hardcover-book collection of the first seven Usagi Yojimbo books. There are lots of extras too, including a full-color cover gallery, behind-the-scenes art, an interview with Stan Sakai, and more. There’s also a special limited version available, each individually autographed by Stan himself.
Catching Up with the Gargoyles
Slave Labor Graphics has three graphic novel/comic book collections available from their popular Gargoyles comic book series (based, of course, on the Disney TV series Gargoyles). Clan Building Volume 1 collects issues #1 through #6 of the full-color Gargoyles comic. The plot directly follows the events of the original Gargoyles TV series, while ignoring the events of the later Gargoyles: Goliath Chronicles TV series [long story — ye Ed-otter]. It also features an introduction by Elfquest creator Wendi Pini. Clan Building Volume 2 collects issues #7 and #8 of the comic book series along with the not-yet-published issues #9 through #12. One of those issues, #10, was illustrated by Greg Guler, the original character designer of the TV series. Meanwhile there’s the spin-off comic book series Gargoyles: Bad Guys, now collected in a trade paperback edition that brings together the first four-issue mini-series as well as two un-published issues that complete the story. “Five of the toughest villains in the Gargoyles Universe: Hunter – member of a Scottish family of gargoyle-slayers; Dingo – Australian mercenary and charter member of the deadly Pack; Matrix – a nanotech hive-mind artificial intelligence that came very close to destroying the Earth; Yama – a Japanese gargoyle who betrayed his own clan, and Fang – the mutate who would be king. Take this quintet of felons and force them to work on the side of the angels. It may be hard to believe, but these Bad Guys are the best hope we’ve got!” Bad Guys features black & white art by fan-favorites Korine Charlebois and Stephanie Lostimolo. Both Clan Building and Bad Guys were written by Gargoyles series-creator Greg Weisman. You can see previews and order Gargoyles merchandise (like t-shirts and TV series DVD’s) at the Gargoyles Comics web site.
Keeping Up with the Turtles
Mirage Studios has two new black & white trade paperbacks of interest to the many fans of TMNT. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Collected Book Volume 1 celebrates the 25th anniversary of Mirage by reprinting the first 11 issues of this ground-breaking comic along with four micro-series by the creators of the Turtles, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Meanwhile, Future Tense (by Dean Clarrain, Chris Allen, and Jon D’Agostino) collects the Archie Comics TMNT Adventures issues #42 through #66, featuring the “Future Shark” and “Dreamland” story arcs. All the stories feature the “future Turtles”, and act as a lead-in to the upcoming Future War mini-series.
It’s a Blast from the Past! Run Away!!
About Comics brings us the first graphic-novel complilation of the original black & white Weasel Patrol comics by Ken Macklin and Lela Dowling. Premiering as a back-up comic in the science fiction comic Fusion (itself very popular with furry fans) back in the 1980’s, The Weasel Patrol follows the insane adventures of “Willie, Leroy, and the other genetically altered weasels who work as an amazingly incompetent yet surprisingly effective force against the criminal elements among us”. Eventually the weasels graduated to their own (short-lived) comic title, before they finally rode off forever into the universe. Now all of their original adventures (long and short tales, as it were) are collected here in one soft-cover book. Never forget: Protect! Serve! Run away!
Bun Buns!
Radio Comix/Sin Factory have a new adults-only black & white release that we learned about on line: Bun Buns #1.
“They’re rascally, they’re raunchy — they’re rabbits! This all-new special from the Genus alumni features nothing but bunnies doing what they do best, and all focusing on the derriere! Sexy stories and art spotlighting bushels of backdoor action featuring straight couples, gay couples, and everything in-between.”
Bouncing buns of all persuasions by AnimeCat, Karno, Bellamy, Blackberry, Gibson, D.A.Q., Giles, Harlan-Stein, Howell, Palmer, Paperbag, Rosales, Smith, Williams, and XianJaguar, with a cover by Yamaneko-Ya. Ask your local comic dealer about it.
Aardvarks and more
Dave Sim’s very, very strange journey to creating his world-famous Cerebus the Aardvark series is now reflected upon in Dave’s new bi-monthly black & white publication, Cerebus Archive (from Aardvark-Vanaheim, of course). From his earliest cartoon creation, The Beavers, to his first professionally published comic book story Cry of the White Wolf (with art by Stan Connerty), it’s all here, plus a lot of extras — including some of Dave’s early rejection slips from major comic book publishers!
The Return of Milikardo Knights
Matt Henry, also known as Cutter McCoy or El Badjah, has decided to revive his black & white furry science fiction comic book series Milikardo Knights. Originally published in 1997 by Steel Badger Studios (with illustrations by Freddy A-Son, Richard Bartrop, and Steve Adelsee), the story involves an elite multi-species team of interplanetary fighter pilots battling to save their homeworld from the forces of a corrupt planet-stealing corporation. Currently, El Badjah is re-working the story and looking for interested artists. Visit www.myspace.com/elbadjah to find out more.
