There is a fairly diverse range of graphic novels from the smaller, independent publishers now available to browse in the February pre-orders on our website. The third volume of the new colour editions of Jeff Smith’s classic Bone series is due in February; top SF author and major comics fan James Lovegrove picked Bone as one of his all-time top ten graphic novels:
“Bone is in many ways traditional fantasy. It has all the staples: a magical kingdom, an imperilling evil, an orphaned princess who does not know the truth of her origins, and even dragons. But the three central characters, the Bone cousins, are weird, cartoony, Schmoo-like creatures, visually at odds with the naturalistically depicted world around them – a conceit that could only be pulled off in comics – and are rounded, conflicted individuals who manage to become heroes almost in spite of themselves. Writer/artist Jeff Smith has composed a 1,000-page epic which succeeds in breathing new life into old tropes.”
So, if you never got around to Bone, this new re-issuing of the saga in colour volumes is a perfect chance for you to jump onboard and see why it is so revered. There is a graphic novel adaptation of A Scanner Darkly, a new rotoscoped animation movie of the classic Philip K Dick novel coming (will rotoscoping make Keanu’s acting seem better?); the first volume of Caballistics will be coming from 2000 AD/Rebellion, as will a new collected D.R. and Quinch volume (one of my favourite 2000 AD classics) and a fair smattering of manga, including some manhwa from Korea, such as Real Lies.
There are also some interesting looking reference materials due in February. TwoMorrows – who have published several good comics reference works over the years – have Dark Age by Mark Voger, which takes a look at post-modern comics of the 80s, 90s and 00s, while NBM are aiming to bring us a new and updated second edition of Stephen Weiner’s now classic 101 Best Graphic Novels. Regardless of you own views on some of the choices in there you are bound to find material to fascinate you and it is a very good starting point for a good bit of informed debate on the genre.
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