I love comics and graphic novels, so what do I do with that love? Well, I turn it into a new feature!
From Panel to Panel is a new feature where I talk about the awesome (and perhaps not-so awesome) comic books and graphic novels I’ve read. Basically, this will be me pushing them onto your laps. You’re welcome.
September is the month with lots of interesting (and hopefully kickass) comics/graphic novels! I’ve found so many that I want to add into my shopping cart!
Let’s talk about those September graphic novels I’m excited about (and you should too!). You’ll see ones about a lady killer, a comic book character with her own Netflix series, historical humor, a gay Jamaican cop, people seeking revenge, and so much more!
| LADY KILLER |
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Josie Schuller is a picture-perfect homemaker, wife, and mother–but she’s also a ruthless, efficient killer! She’s balanced cheerful domestic bliss with coldly performed assassinations, but when Josie finds herself in the crosshairs, her American Dream life is in danger!
A brand-new original black comedy series that combines the wholesome imagery of early 1960s domestic bliss with a tightening web of murder, paranoia, and cold-blooded survival.
Written by Joelle Jones and Jamie S. Rich, and illustrated by Joelle Jones. — Dark Horse Comics
Publication date: September 2, 2015 by Dark Horse Comics
Buy: LCBS · Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository
Why I’m excited: Two words: Lady Killer. On the surface, Josie Schuller is your usual 1960s housewife, but underneath it all, she’s a coldblooded killer. How is that not exciting? It’s like Mr. and Mrs. Smith but with one person. I have so many questions like how and why did she start killing? I’m dying to know more about Josie Schuller. You’d want to too.
| JESSICA JONES: VOL 1 · ALIAS |
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Meet Jessica Jones. Once upon a time, she was a costumed super hero – but not a very good one. Her powers were unremarkable compared to the amazing abilities of the costumed icons that populate the Marvel Universe. In a city of Marvels, she never found her niche. The self-destructive would-be Avenger is now the owner and sole employee of Alias Investigations – a small, private-investigative firm specializing in superhuman cases. When she uncovers the potentially explosive secret of one hero’s true identity, Jessica’s life immediately becomes expendable. But her wit, charm and intelligence just may help her survive another day. Thrust into the midst of a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels, has Jessica burned too many bridges to turn to old friends for help?
Collects issues #1-9. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Michael Gaydos. — Marvel Comics
Publication date: September 2, 2015 at your LCBS (but September 22 for online retailers) by Marvel Comics
Buy: LCBS · Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository
Why I’m excited: Since Netflix will be airing the new Jessica Jones Marvel series in a couple of months, it would be an excellent time to pick up her comics. This particular one is the one that Jessica Jones debuted in, which ran from 2001 to 2004. It would be interesting to see how Brian Michael Bendis and the Netflix present her. She’s not your typical superhero; she’s traded her superhero identity for a different line of work. What kind of person is Jessica Jones? How does she juggle her life? I want to know it all.
| HONOR GIRL: A GRAPHIC MEMOIR |
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All-girl camp. First love. First heartbreak. At once romantic and devastating, brutally honest and full of humor, this graphic-novel memoir is a debut of the rarest sort.
Maggie Thrash has spent basically every summer of her fifteen-year-old life at the one-hundred-year-old Camp Bellflower for Girls, set deep in the heart of Appalachia. She’s from Atlanta, she’s never kissed a guy, she’s into Backstreet Boys in a really deep way, and her long summer days are full of a pleasant, peaceful nothing . . . until one confounding moment. A split-second of innocent physical contact pulls Maggie into a gut-twisting love for an older, wiser, and most surprising of all (at least to Maggie), female counselor named Erin. But Camp Bellflower is an impossible place for a girl to fall in love with another girl, and Maggie’s savant-like proficiency at the camp’s rifle range is the only thing keeping her heart from exploding. When it seems as if Erin maybe feels the same way about Maggie, it’s too much for both Maggie and Camp Bellflower to handle, let alone to understand.. — Goodreads
Publication date: September 8, 2015 by Candlewick Press
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Why I’m excited: Honor Girl is a recent find, and I want to read it right now. “Summer camp” and “first love” jumped out at me, and it just seems sweet. Of course, things aren’t going to stay sweet because first love is involved, but it should be a really lovely book. I’m interested to see how the art and story presents Maggie Thrash falling in love and finding herself falling for a girl.
| DESCENDER: VOLUME 1 · TIN STARS |
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Young Robot boy TIM-21 and his companions struggle to stay alive in a universe where all androids have been outlawed and bounty hunters lurk on every planet. Written by award-winning creator, Jeff Lemire, Descender is a rip-roaring and heart-felt cosmic odyssey. Lemire pits humanity against machine, and world against world, to create a sprawling epic.
Collects issues #1-6. Written by Jeff Lemire and illustrated by Dustin Nguyen. — Image Comics
Publication date: September 9, 2015 at your LCBS (but September 24 for online retailers) by Image Comics
Buy: LCBS · Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository
Why I’m excited: I have a hard time saying no to comics set in space. It’s such a perfect setting. Descender sounds amazing because who has read a comic (or book) about a robot boy? Not I! The world-building and the story must be amazing, and I hope it lives up to our expectations.
| SAGA: VOLUME 5 |
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While Gwendolyn and Lying Cat risk everything to find a cure for The Will, Marko makes an uneasy alliance with Prince Robot IV to find their missing children, who are trapped on a strange world with terrifying new enemies.
Collects issues #25-30. Written by Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Fiona Staples. — Image Comics
Publication date: September 9, 2015 at your LCBS (but September 15 for online retailers) by Image Comics
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Why I’m excited: Saga is the greatest comic book ever, and if you haven’t read the first four volumes, you need to. GO. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT. I PROMISE. (Because oh my god, you need to get to this volume because it puts you through various rollercoasters and will destroy your emotions. 100 percent. Though, I admit Saga always does this. I was such a mess and wished I had a copy of my own.)
| VIRGIL |
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Betrayed, beaten, and banished by his own, an outed cop fights his way across Jamaica to save his man and get revenge! Virgil thought he was safe on the police force, but his gun and his attitude can’t protect him from his own secret – he’s gay. For thirty years he’s had two lives. In the uniform he’s the toughest on the street. Out of uniform he’s a loving boyfriend. But when his own precinct turns on him, his worlds explodes. They put his name in the paper, raided his house, and took his lover. They left him bleeding in the ocean. They shouldn’t have left him alive. Virgil is the next era of exploitation, following in the steps of Shaft and Django Unchained. Hard hitting crime noir given a fresh face but the same busted knuckles.
Written by Steve Orlando and illustrated by JD Faith — Image Comics
Publication date: September 9, 2015 at your LCBS (but September 24 for online retailers) by Image Comics
Buy: LCBS · Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository
Why I’m excited: Let’s see: Virgil is set in Jamaica; it’s about a gay Jamaican man working as a police officer; and he fights back when he is persecuted for being gay? Yes, I gotta read this. I briefly read how the writer wanted to tackle crimes against the LGBTQ community in the same vein as Django Unchained, and thought how wonderful Virgil will be for bringing to light issues that plague the LGBTQ community in Jamaica since it’s not well-known.
Though, I am a bit apprehensive because I hope the creators of Virgil did a good job portraying Jamaican culture and people in a way that isn’t stereotypical or offensive.
| STEP ASIDE, POPS: A HARK! A VAGRANT COLLECTION |
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Heathcliff! Wonder Woman! Feminists, hunks! Great men and women of history! Step aside – Kate Beaton is coming for you.
A combination of new material and classics from the smash-hit Hark! A Vagrant blog, Kate Beaton’s new book showcases of a true pomposity-deflator at work. It is also one of the funniest and smartest collections of cartoons you will ever read. — Goodreads
Publication date: September 15, 2015 by Drawn & Quarterly
Buy: LCBS · Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository
Why I’m excited: Kate Beaton’s work is always a delight to read through. Beaton does a wonderful job of mixing humor, history, and issues that makes it entertaining. Step Aside, Pops will be no different. I’m always in awe when I read her stuff.
| HOWARD THE DUCK: VOLUME 0 · WHAT THE DUCK |
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Hot off the pages of the…well, the post-credits scene at the end of a popular movie…Howard the Duck is back! Join the foul-mouthed fowl, trapped in a world he never made (but has grown accustomed to) as he takes on weird cases that only a talking duck can crack — as the Marvel Universe’s resident private investigator! Howard’s first case begins with the Black Cat but soon goes cosmic, landing him in the Collector’s clutches! But he’s not alone — Rocket Raccoon is a prisoner, as well! Can these two anthropomorphic animals turn the tables and break free? Well, yeah. Plus: Howard investigates a a senior citizens crime spree, teams up with Doctor Strange for some magical antics and learns a lot about new friend Tara Tam, because communication is key. Plus: a SECRET WARS tie-in! Sort of.
Collects issues #1-5. Written by Chip Zdarsky and illustrated by Joe Quinones. — Marvel Comics
Publication date: September 23, 2015 at your LCBS (but October 13 for online retailers) by Marvel Comics
Buy: LCBS · Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository
Why I’m excited: Remember good ole Howard? What could this duck be up to? Well, he has a new comic he’s starring in, and you can expect great things if Chip Zdarsky is writing it. Chip has such a great sense of humor, which I hope is translated in Howard the Duck.
| SOUTHERN BASTARDS: VOLUME 1 DELUXE HARDCOVER |
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Welcome to Craw County, Alabama, home of Boss BBQ, the state champion Runnin’ Rebs football team and more bastards than you’ve ever seen.
Earl Tubb is an angry old man with a big ol’ stick. Coach Euless Boss has buried more bodies under his bleachers than there are championship rings on his fingers. And they’re just two of the kind of bastards that have always seemed to flourish in Craw County, Alabama. When Earl comes home after 40 years, he finds some family business that still needs settlin’ and Coach Boss is at the center of it all.
The seminal southern-fried crime series, Southern Bastards by Jason Aaron (Scalped, Star Wars) and Jason Latour (Spider-Gwen, Loose Ends) gets an oversized hardcover, collecting the first two arcs “Here Was a Man” and “Gridiron.”
Collects issues #1-8. — Image Comics
Publication date: September 30, 2015 at your LCBS (but October 15 for online retailers) by Image Comics
Buy: LCBS · Amazon · Barnes & Noble · The Book Depository
Why I’m excited: Goddamn those Southern Bastards because I definitely want this comic on my shelf. It’s a revenge comic sent in the South. What can go wrong with that? I’ve actually read the first issue, and I was instantly captivated by the story. I wanted to know what kept Earl Tubb away from Craw County, what Boss BBQ have to do with it, and who these bastards are and what they do. Just give me all the bastards and the fights. I’m ready for it.
We’ll probably pick up the new volume of Saga tomorrow when we head to comic shop. I’m sort of behind on what’s new and stuff, so I doubt I’ll grab anything else but a few of these definitely look like something I would enjoy.
I hadn’t heard of Lady Kill, but that sounds pretty boss. I’ll have to flip through it at my comic shop!
Lady Killer sounds so cool! I’m definitely looking forward to that one. Descender Vol. 1 was amazing. It was rocky for me at first, but by the end I was absolutely in love. Highly recommended! I’m so excited to continue Saga! It’s been too long.