Month: March 2004

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Megatokyo Vol. 2

By Fred Gallagher
Co-created by Rodney Caston
184 pages, black and white
Published by Dark Horse

All right, I have to admit it—while I certainly knew of its existence, I’d never read Megatokyo before now. A tremendously popular online comic, Fred Gallagher writes and draws new pages and posts them on the Megatokyo website. However, with 530 installments on the site as of the writing of this review and no sign of slowing down, I think it’s safe to say that it can look more than a bit daunting to a new reader. With Dark Horse now publishing Megatokyo print collections, though, a new entry point now exists.

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Four Constables Vol. 1

Adapted by Tony Wong
Based on the novel by Rui-An Wen
Art by Andy Seto
128 pages, color
Published by ComicsOne

Every time I turn around these days, there seems to be a new book from ComicsOne illustrated by Andy Seto. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Para Para, Story of the Tao, Shaolin Soccer… the list goes on and on. With the release of The Four Constables Vol. 1, though, I think ComicsOne has found the most attractive book by Seto to date.

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Magic If

Written by Craig McKenney
Art by Gervasio with Estudio Haus
48 pages, black and white
Published by Headless Shakespeare Press

It’s a little surprising that there aren’t more comic books about stage magicians. I find them fascinating, using illusion to transport people to other worlds where the impossible can happen. Aside from Jason Hall and Matt Kindt’s Mephisto and the Empty Box and Jason Lutes’s Jar of Fools, though, there’s been a real lack of stories in recent times in this particular genre. You can imagine how eager I was, then, to read Craig McKenney and Gervasio’s new comic book The Magic If.

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Conan #1

Written by Kurt Busiek
Art by Cary Nord with Thomas Yeates
Color art by Dave Stewart
32 pages, color
Published by Dark Horse

As far as marketing strategies go, it’s a pretty cunning one. In October, Dark Horse released the first of four volumes reprinting Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith’s run on Conan (with the second and third volumes released in December and February). In November, they released a special twenty-five cent comic, Conan: The Legend, letting Kurt Busiek, Cary Nord, and Dave Stewart show their take on the character. All of this, of course, leading up to Conan #1 being released at the end of February. Now that’s how you build up excitement for a new comic series.

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Dr. Tim Book One

By Christopher Varian
112 pages, black and white
Published by Etompro

The evening of Christmas Day, I came home to discover the apartment above mine had burst a pipe—and left unattended, water was now pouring into my living room through the light fixtures and vents in the ceiling. One of the strongest streams of water was splattering directly on a padded envelope that I’d dropped on the floor the day before, in a hurry to meet my family for dinner. I figured that, like many other possessions, whatever was in that envelope was ruined. It wasn’t until the next day that I opened it up to see what was inside and discovered that against all odds, the book was still intact. Taking it as a sign, I promised that sooner or later it would get reviewed… and while it’s a little over two months later, I’m finally getting to that promise.

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