Hello there. WAR BIRDS is in fact a REAL BOOK, and here’s proof of it. It comes out THIS WEDNESDAY 3/22/2023 in comic shops, and 4/18/2023 in bookstores. Amazon is following the bookstore release date for print copies. I am sure it will be available digitally through the smoldering husk that remains of Comixology on Wednesday. You can also still get this from your local shop, Diamond code NOV220478.

Steve Parkhouse and I were interviewed by FreakSugar about the book. I wasn’t aware of this site before, but Dark Horse set up the interview. That’s one thing I hadn’t realized, was that publishers set up interviews etc. Back when I wrote for Bleeding Cool, I’d do interviews, but my editor at BC would send me the assignments; for some reason it never clicked with me that it was arranged via publishers. Anyway, you can read this now.

You can also see this little essay I wrote to hype the book, which is now in the Horsepower column that runs in Dark Horse’s monthly issues. Of course it has the wrong release date, but that date was what it was at the time before Diamond pushed us back for some reason. Dates getting moved around happens a lot too, it seems, because I remember when WAR BIRDS was supposed to be out on 8/30/2022, but then, despite hitting all our deadlines, it inexplicably became this month out of the blue. It is what it is, I guess.

Anyway, yes, WAR BIRDS, this Wednesday. Check it out.

In other news, I’ve now managed to secure a spot in Artist Alley for C2E2, my home con as it were. If you’d like to come by, I’ll be at Table O-14. I will have copies of WAR BIRDS, as well as copies of my previous one-shot TAKEDOWN, both the regular cover by Zack Bassett and the special variant by Phil Hester. I will be there all three days, and of course, probably in one of the hotel bars afterwards. There are two now.

I'm relatively new to CHIRP Radio, been volunteering behind the scenes for since late 2022 after only finding out about it in late 2021. I may be doing more, so stay tuned, literally. If you are in Chicago, they are at 107.1FM on the north and west sides of the city. If you are not in Chicago, you can stream live from the website, or tell your smart speaker “Play CHIRP Radio.” Try it, you’ll like it.

In any event, CHIRP is community radio, community-funded, and right now they are in their Spring 2023 pledge drive cycle. I'm asking for a modest amount to donate to the cause of great local radio in the city of Chicago, helping out local independent artists and musicians. Please consider a donation.

And lastly, happy Aries Season Eve to everyone.

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Cover of The Lost Fleet: Corsair. Art by Alex Ronald.

From Titan Comics press release:

Centuries-old grievances must be put aside as a legendary war-hero attempts a daring intergalactic jail-break in this gripping new comic series based on the New York Times best-selling military science fiction novels by Jack Campbell. 

Set after the end of a century-old war between two space empires, the Alliance and the Syndics, Corsair centers on the story of Captain Michael Geary, missing in action after the Syndic ambush that almost destroyed the spacefleet John “Black Jack” Geary had to get home, against all odds! Forming an uneasy pact with rebel Syndics led by Destina Aragon, Michael Geary sets out to save not only fellow prisoners but their jailors, too – on the run from a government chafing at defeat and determined to crush any uprising! Can he live up to the legend surrounding his family name “Black Jack” Geary has carved – or will he die trying?

Jack Campbell is the pen name of John G. Hemry, a retired U.S. Navy officer, who grew up living everywhere from Pensacola, Florida to San Diego, California, including an especially memorable few years on Midway Island. His U.S. Navy assignments included service on the USS Spurance, and roles at the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Navy Operational Intelligence Center. As Jack Campbell, he writes The Lost Fleet series of military science fiction novels, published by Titan Books in the UK and Ace in the United States.

The Lost Fleet: Corsair graphic novel hits stores on April 17.

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  Preview art for page 1 of “Going Down Easy” by Francesco Francavilla.

So, I picked up the DC Holiday Special 2017, and came away really pleased. There are eleven very different stories in the book, including a nice frame by Jeff Lemire and Giuseppe Camuncoli. Other highlights include a tale of the Batman by Denny O’Neill and Steve Epting, and a Batman & Wonder Woman yarn by Greg Rucka and Bilquis Evely. The whole thing feels worth the $9.99 cover price, but I have to tell you, I would have happily paid more for the fourth story in the book all by itself. So you start with Tom King, add in Francesco Francavilla, and finish off with colorist Clem Robins for a wintry tale titled “Sgt. Rock in ‘Going Down Easy’,” at which point I am just throwing money at a retailer to get my hands on the book.

The trio deliver a tour-de-force that is exactly what comics can and should be. In eight pages – and let me say that again, eight pages – they deliver a complete, totally absorbing, edge-of-your seat story that had me hooked from panel 1, and that lands like a punch to the gut. Rock is telling the tale of Private Hammerman, separated from the rest of Easy Co. in a snow-covered forest with his prisoner, a German officer. A stray shell mortally wounds Hammerman, but he doesn’t die immediately, and his story plays out over the course of the following eight nights.

Art by Francavilla

Francavilla is the perfect choice for the piece, his loose lines, heavy blacks and sheer genius for tone make the frigid north European winter seep into the readers fingers, while King’s script pulls no punches whatsoever, his characters’ banter laced with steel and hate and death. “Going Down Easy” is one of the best war stories I’ve read this year, and the fact that King chose Rock and Easy Co. to tell it pretty much makes my holidays bright, and leaves me with a ravenous hunger for a longer Rock story from him. Rock is ripe for a return, and in these few pages, King shows that he knows exactly how to do it, so if you are listening DC, if Tom wants to do a 12-issue series with Rock – let him. In the name of all that is good and holy in this miserable world, let him.

And Tom, seriously, do a Sgt. Rock limited series! As for the rest of you: have a very merry holiday season, and may there be plenty of great comics under your tree this year!

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  Forever Free #1. Art by Marvano.

Way back in February, writer Joe Haldeman and artist Marvano told Freaksugar that Gay Haldeman, who had back-translated the duo’s graphic adaptation of The Forever War, was doing the same for the sequel, Forever Free, to be published by Titan Comics. After almost a year, Titan announced Monday that Forever Free #1 would be shipping in April 2018. The news comes the same week that Titan’s re-issue of Haldeman and Marvano’s The Forever War hits bookstores nationwide as a graphic novel.

Both series/graphic novels are adaptations of books by Haldeman. First published in 1974, The Forever War won a Nebula Award in 1975, and the Hugo and Locus Sf awards in 1976, additionally, the book was praised by science fiction grandmaster Robert A. Heinlein as being perhaps “the best future war story I have ever read.” Forever Free, a direct sequel to the Forever War, was first published in 1999 and earned praise from Charles de Lint as being “everything good science fiction should be but so often isn’t: a grand adventure into what it means to be human, told through rich characterization and thoughtful scientific (not to mention religious) speculation that doesn’t lag for a moment.”

Volume 1 of the original 3-volume graphic novel adaptation of The Forever War was first published in a Dutch edition in 1988, and was later translated into French, Spanish, Polish, and Czech before being released in an English edition in late 1990. The adaptation didn’t sell well in the US, but was successful in Europe, leading to a further collaboration on Forever Free (published in French as Libre à Jamais), but Titan’s re-issue of The Forever War earlier this year was the first time the adaptation had been reprinted in the US in some 30 years, this time to great success, and even greater anticipation of this week’s graphic novel release.

Judging by the preview pages provide by Titan, Forever Free maintains the same high quality of the previous series, and Marvano’s art and panel work continues to be breathtaking, making full use of the comics medium in a way that far too few modern artists do. This one will be on my pull-list come April – and it ought to be on yours too.

Look for Titan to solicit Forever Free in February’s Previews, and pick up the graphic novel collection of The Forever War at your local comic shop or from Amazon today.

The post <strong><em>C’est la Guerre</em></strong>: Titan Comics Announces Release Date for <em>Forever Free</em>. appeared first on Freaksugar.

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Original panel from The Vision and The Scarlet Witch #6, art by Richard Howell, words by an Internet Hero.

So, there are quite a few things to rage about or against in the comics world. For example, there  are entire websites devoted to things like Has DC Done Something Stupid Today? (Today? No. 8 days ago, though…), and Is Wolverine Still Dead? (No. No he is not. [Charles Xaiver, on the other hand… well, it’s complicated]). Then you get into Marvel’s Terrible, Awful, Really Bad Year or Two, all of the publisher-distributor-retailer madness so eloquently documented by Brian Hibbs, and the rapidly changing marketplace swinging from floppies to trades, specialty shops to big-box retailers and Amazonian Behemoths, and non-domestic markets. Moreover, all of that is just the thin ice covering a deep ocean of industry woes and complaints, both significant and otherwise. Just taking a cursory look, things look pretty damn awful, and gods help someone thinking about getting into comics for the first time, or getting back into them after a hiatus of more than a year or so.

And yet…. It’s Thanksgiving here in ‘Murica, and in the spirit of the season, and despite all of the above, there are some things in the comic world that I am truly thankful for:

Mark Waid and Chris Samnee on Captain America. Seriously. Thanks guys. After The Run Which Shall Not Be Named, it’s nice to have one of my favorite four-color heroes back.

Chris Samnee’s cover for Captain America #695. #CapisBack #NoMoreNazis #Thankful

Image Comics. Lazarus, Saga, The Wicked + The Divine, Copperhead, Manifest Destiny, The Walking Dead, and on, and on, and on.

Smaller Independent Publishers. The growing strength, quality, and innovation of small publishing houses in the industry is simply incredible. 451 Media Group, Aftershock Comics, Avatar Press, Lion Forge Comics, Oni Press, Red 5 Comics, Titan Comics, and Vault Comics are just a handful of the publishers out there right now that are delivering incredible stories from powerful creative teams every month. If you’re not reading at least a few of these guys’ titles, you’re missing out.

The Return of the Mini-Series. And a lot of these are coming out of the independents, but we’re also seeing some from Marvel (Punisher: Platoon, Astonishing X-Men, the forthcoming Phoenix Resurrection). I love this format, because it helps me to keep new titles flowing through my pull-list. Let’s face it, at $4/book, my monthly comic budget gets eaten up pretty fast, so it’s nice to have some slots opening up every few months for new stuff. Plus, more and more of the industry’s best creators are looking to tell self-contained, complete stories that they really care about – and then move on to the next, different story, so there are some insanely good limited series being produced.

Astro City.  Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, Alex Ross, et al. making old school new again since 1995.

Ms. Marvel, The Champions, and the whole diverse teen crowd at Marvel. Suck it haters, these kids are freaking awesome. Hope and idealistic heroism is kinda what the world needs right now. Hell, I even like kid Cyclops, and any franchise that can make me like Scott Summers has to have something going for it. These books do the best job of remembering what made Marvel great to begin with, and I can only hope some of their spirit bleeds over into more books at the House of Ideas.

Wonder Woman. Because she’s always been kick-ass, and now everyone knows it. Dark Knights and Men of Steel? Pffft! We know who run the world.

YAAS PRINCESS! Original art by Francis Manapul, words by @jermainedesign, a.k.a Winner of the Internet.

Cinebook, which is bringing some of the best European comics to American readers who have finally realized that the Old World has more to offer than wine, beer, and cheese.

Garth Ennis. The man who is sometimes single-handedly keeping war comics in the mainstream, and who also continues to write some laugh-out-loud funny, thoughtful, and occasionally cringe-worthy books. Let’s face it, though: the man hits far more often than he misses: Preacher, The Boys, War Stories, Johnny Red: The Hurricane, Punisher: Born, Punisher: Platoon – I mean, c’mon!

Tom King. See the bit about mini-series above. Also see The Vision, The Sherriff of Babylon, and Mr. Miracle. And let’s hope that DC has the sense to greenlight King’s proposed Sgt. Rock series, because THIS MUST HAPPEN, AND I WILL FLY TO BURBANK AND COME FOR DC IF IT DOES NOT. Just sayin’.

Greg Rucka. I’m not sure this guy knows how to write a bad comic. There are a lot of great writers in the industry right now, but Rucka is far and away my favorite, particularly when he’s playing in sandboxes he built, but he’s no slouch when it comes to other IPs either. Read his Wonder Woman and Punisher runs for instance, but if you aren’t reading Stumptown and Lazarus you should probably seek immediate psychiatric help.

So there you go. Despite all of the problems in the industry, and the challenges it faces, there’s a lot of good stuff going on as well, and it’s not a bad idea to remind ourselves of that fact from time to time. Now go and have a happy Thanksgiving – eat too much, watch the MST3K Turkey Day Marathon, and round out the day with some great comics – just, you know, wipe the gravy off of your fingers first.

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Aaron, Stewart, and McCaig’s The Other Side delivers a strange and terrible beauty where the heat, humidity, fever, stench, and mania of the Vietnam War is palpable. If you don’t already own this one, you should.

The Other Side Special Edition. Cover art by Cameron Stewart.

The Other Side, written by Jason Aaron with drawings by Cameron Stewart and colors by Dave McCaig, recently received the deluxe edition treatment with a hardcover collected edition from Image Comics of the Eisner-nominated 2006 Vertigo mini-series. Marking 50 years since the American war in Vietnam reached its peak in terms of US troops committed, 2017 has seen the release of numerous new histories of the American phase of the Vietnam War, the release of Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s documentary series The Vietnam War, and a concurrent renewed scholarly and public interest in the conflict, so Image’s reissue of this excellent series is very well-timed.

The Other Side p. 1. Script by Jason Aaron, art by Cameron Stewart.

The story follows the journeys of 19 year-old Marine PFC Bill Everette and People’s Army of North Vietnam (PAVN) recruit Vo Binh Dai, tracing roughly a year in their lives through brilliantly executed parallel storytelling. Aaron has claimed that The Other Side represents the hardest work he has ever put into a book, and he credits the work with launching his subsequent career in comics. Cameron Stewart also put a great deal of effort into the work, including a research trip to Vietnam, and the new edition includes excerpts from his e-mails home, as well as numerous photographs from the trip. One of the latter particularly struck me: it shows Stewart, a skinny young man either emerging from or lowering himself into the opening of a tunnel system used by PAVN and Viet Cong troops during the war. The opening appears to be only an inch or less wider than Stewart’s ribcage, and the reader can easily draw a line from that particular tour to the claustrophobic scenes of Vo’s own time in the tunnels in the comic.

The Other Side. Aaron & Stewart.

Aaron and Stewart don’t shy away from the war’s brutality, horror, and – for Everette at least – pointlessness. Even more striking, however, is their choice to underline the madness of the war, both literally and figuratively, for Everette is truly mentally ill, suffering from visual and auditory hallucinations even before he leaves Boot Camp, and despite his honestly about his condition, the Marine doctors, Chaplin, and even his platoon sergeant in Vietnam are utterly unconcerned and uncaring. So long as he can keep it together enough to do his job in the field, no one really cares if he goes truly insane. Nor does Vo escape the madness as he and his comrades march down Route 559 (the Ho Chi Minh Trail), progressively falling victim to hunger, thirst, heat stroke, malaria, and other fevers, he too leaves reality behind for a world in which B-52 spilling thousands of pounds of explosives from their bellies become mythical dragons, and the American enemy monsters from legend. It is this kind of portrayal of mental and emotional stress and horror that sets The Other Side apart from most war comics with a Vietnam focus, and gives the book a visceral horror that very effectively reaches out and grabs the reader.

The Other Side.

Stewart’s artwork is perfectly suited to the story, and artist, writer, and colorist work together seamlessly to tell their tale of two kids who are ultimately little more that meat in an industrial grinder that controls their very lives and doesn’t care about either of them. This feeling of a lack of agency in the face of a seemingly inevitable and unavoidable progression towards madness and death pervades Aaron and Stewart’s book, and Stewart’s cartoony-realism combined with his use of deep blacks and a moody palette brilliantly used by McCaig bring a strange and terrible beauty to the entire book where the heat, humidity, fever, stench, and mania of the war and the land are palpable. This is one of those comics that really is important, and Image’s well-made hardback edition does it justice. The Other Side is available from your local comic shop or Amazon, and, if you don’t already own this one, you should.

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