Buy this Comic: The Secret Science Alliance

Sorry I haven't been around much recently -- vacation sandwiched between lots of work has meant less time for writing about comic books -- but I'm hoping to get back on the horse soon. In the meantime, here's this week's edition of Buy This Comic (a couple of days late):

Buy This Comic is an ongoing feature in which I recommend one comic book -- and one book only -- arriving on shelves that Wednesday.

There was a lot of very promising stuff out this week, like Strange Tales #1, Cat Burglar Black, and Stitches (which I have reviewed here), but I only get to pick one, so here's this week's pick:

The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook, by Eleanor Davis, Bloomsbury USA, 160 pages, $10.99

Here's the description from the publisher's website:

Supersmart Julian Calendar thinks moving to a new school will mean he can shed his nerdy image — but then he meets Ben and Greta, two secret scientists like himself. The three form a covert club, complete with a high-tech lair. There, they can work to their hearts content on projects like the Stink-O-Meter, the Kablovsky Copter, and the Nightsneak Goggles. All that tinkering comes in handy when the trio discovers an evil scientist’s dastardly plan to rob a museum. Can three inventors, armed with their wacky creations, hope to defeat this criminal mastermind?

Illustrated in full color throughout, The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook is a treat for the eyes, with marvelous gadgetry rendered in elaborate detail. And stay on the lookout for more Secret Science Alliance adventures from comic supergenius Eleanor Davis!

Davis wrote Stinky, which is one of my favorite children's comic books (my kids like it too). I really like her art, and she definitely seems to have fun packing in little details and messing with the form.

Check out this drawing of the kids' hideout (click for a larger version):


Plus, the story sounds great -- who wouldn't want to read about whiz kids inventing nutty things in their high-tech lair? (Anybody remember the 80's movie The Explorers? With a young River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke? This sorta reminds me of that.) Anyway, go check it out -- whether or not you have kids, this looks like a winner.

Here's a nine-page preview.

I reviewed Stinky here.

You can read more about The Secret Science Alliance at its website or just go and buy it here: The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook

I'm outta here. Plus, Buy This Comic: The Muppet Show

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm on vacation this week. I'll be back with a vengeance next week.

Also, here's this week's edition of Buy This Comic:

Buy This Comic is an ongoing feature in which I recommend one comic book -- and one book only -- arriving on shelves that Wednesday.

This week's pick is:

The Muppet Show Comic Book: Meet the Muppets, by Roger Langridge, Boom!, 112 pages, $9.95

Here's the solicitation for the book:

This hilarious trade collects the first four issues of THE MUPPET SHOW, written and drawn by the incomparable Roger Langridge! Packed full of madcap skits and gags, The Muppet Show trade is certain to please old and new fans alike! If you have a favorite Muppet, chances are it's featured in this show-stopping collection!

I held off on getting the single issues of this one, even though everyone and their mother was going ga-ga over how hilarious and wonderful and oh-isn't-Roger-Langridge-just-PERFECT-for-this-book and it's-not-just-nostalgia-talking-no-really and awesome this book is. I'm hoping it lives up to the hype -- I've bought some of Boom's other kid-friendly output for my kids (Cars, Toy Story) and haven't been impressed. The Muppet Show is another animal altogether, however. I'll just say that I'm looking forward to it.

Buy This Comic: Ôoku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 1

Buy This Comic is an ongoing feature in which I recommend one comic book -- and one book only -- arriving on shelves that Wednesday.

This week's pick is:


Ôoku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 1, by Fumi Yoshinaga, Viz, 216 pages, $12.99

Here is Viz's description of the book:

In Edo period Japan, a strange new disease called the Redface Pox has begun to prey on the country's men. Within eighty years of the first outbreak, the male population has fallen by seventy-five percent. Women have taken on all the roles traditionally granted to men, even that of the shogun. The men, precious providers of life, are carefully protected. And the most beautiful of the men are sent to serve in the shogun's Inner Chamber...

Sounds pretty cool to me. Alternate history political intrigue? Sign me up.

Plus, the series won the 2009 Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize. Author Fumi Yoshinaga was nominated for the 2008 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist for Flower of Life and The Moon and Sandals, and she also wrote and drew Antique Bakery.

The book will be on shelves this Wednesday, August 19, 2009. You can also buy it here: Ôoku: The Inner Chambers, Volume 1

Volume 2 comes out in December.

Buy This Comic on Wednesday, August 12, 2009: Hero Comics

Buy This Comic is an ongoing feature here at I Love Rob Liefeld in which I recommend one comic book -- and one book only -- arriving on shelves on Wednesday.

This week's pick is:


Hero Comics: A Hero Initiative Benefit Book, with contributions from Matt Wagner, Howard Chaykin, Bill Willingham, Gene Ha, David Lloyd, Kaare Andrews, J. Scott Campbell, Arthur Adams, Gene Colan, Bill Messner-Loebs, and Josh Medors, published by The Hero Initiative, 32 pages, $3.99

According to the solicitation:

The 32-page, no-ads comic, edited and produced by Scott Dunbier, special projects editor at IDW Publishing, will be released in late July with two covers, Eve by J. Scott Campbell, and Grendel by Matt Wagner. The fundraising book will contain great, all-new content including an original American Flagg! story by Howard Chaykin, and original stories by Gene Ha, Bill Willingham, David Lloyd, and Kaare Andrews, published by the Hero Initiative, 32 pages, $3.99.

In addition, Arthur Adams will recreate three classic Marvel Comics covers, and Hero Initiative beneficiaries such as Gene Colan, Bill Messner-Loebs and Josh Medors will tell their own personal stories, detailing their severe struggles, and Hero's involvement.

The Hero Initiative is a worthy cause to support, since it provides aid to comic book creators and their families. This benefit book has a number of terrific contributors, so go buy it.

Here's a link to more information about the book.

Buy This Comic on Wednesday, August 5, 2009: Frankenstein's Womb

Buy This Comic is an ongoing feature here at I Love Rob Liefeld in which I recommend one comic book -- and one book only -- arriving on shelves on Wednesday.

This week's pick is:

Frankenstein's Womb, written by Warren Ellis, art by Marek Oleksicki, Avatar Press, 48 pages, $6.99

Here's the description from the solicitation:

The newest addition to Warren Ellis' Apparat line of original graphic novels has arrived! 1816 was called 'The Year Without A Summer.' In the weird darkness of that July's volcanic winter, Mary Wollestonecraft Godwin began writing Frankenstein on the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland. But that is not where Frankenstein began. It began months earlier when, en route through Germany to Switzerland, Mary, her future husband Percy Shelley, and her stepsister Clair Clairmont approached a strange castle. Castle Frankenstein, some one hundred years earlier, had been home to Johann Conrad Dippel, whose experiments included the independent invention of nitroglycerin, a distillation of the elixir of life - and the transfer of a live soul into an awful accretion of human body parts. Mary never spoke of having entered the real Castle Frankenstein, stark on its hilltop south of Darmstadt. But she did. And she was never the same again - because something was haunting that tower, and Mary met it there! Fear, death and alchemy - the modern age is created here, in lost moments in a ruined castle on a day never recorded. Following up the huge successes of Crecy and Aetheric Mechanics, Ellis turns his spark of mad genius to bring us a fantastical tale in this all new original graphic novel illustrated in atmospheric perfection by newcomer Marek Oleksicki.

Although I am by no means a Warren Ellis nut, I enjoyed both Crecy and Aetheric Mechanics, Ellis's two previous "graphic novellas" published by Avatar, so I'm looking forward to this one.

Here is a seven-page preview.

Buy This Comic on Wednesday, July 29, 2009: Northlanders vol. 2: The Cross and the Hammer

Buy This Comic is a new ongoing feature here at I Love Rob Liefeld in which I recommend one comic book -- and one book only* -- arriving on shelves on Wednesday.

This week's pick is:

Northlanders volume 2: The Cross and the Hammer, written by Brian Wood, art by Ryan Kelly, cover by Massimo Carnevale, Vertigo, 144 pages, $14.99

According to the solicitation:

The second NORTHLANDERS collection, featuring issues #11-16, takes place during the tail end of Viking rule in Ireland. A series of mysterious murders and arsons against wealthy citizens leaves the Viking occupiers worried that a potential uprising might ignite. When surprising details involving the crimes are revealed, though, their jobs become much harder! Once again, writer Brian Wood teams with artist Ryan Kelly (Local) for an intriguing, gorgeously rendered peek at the inner workings of society.

I really liked the first collection of this series (it ended up at #6 on my list of the Best Comics of 2008). I'm betting that the second collection also will deliver the goods.

Here's my review of Northlanders volume 1: Sven the Returned and, just for kicks, my review of Wood and Kelly's Local.



*Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please.