A monthly column devoted to recommending interesting indie comics for pre-order. Pre-ordering supports indie creators and can often be the difference between a book succeeding or failing. Plus, you usually save money by doing it, too.
Sorry to say that, once again, no publisher whose books interest me this month has made an easy-to-find preview of said books available on their sites. I'll continue to look for them each month. Maybe someday publishers will work out this whole Internet thing.
Alexandro Jodorowsky's Screaming Planet
Order Code: JAN11233
Publisher: Humanoids
Details: HC, 168pgs, Color
Price: $29.95
Comics is Jodorowsky's second career. His first was making way-the-hell-whacked-out horror movies like El Topo and Santa Sangre in the 70s and 80s. This is a collection of science fiction short stories set on a dead planet, with art from J.H. Williams III, Ladronn, and Adi Granov. You may know Jodorowsky's comics from The Metabarons, another imported SF series that got some good press in the early/mid-2000s.
The Broadcast
Order Code: JUN101062
Publisher: NBM
Details: SC, 180pgs, B&W
Price: $13.99
Cool set-up for a story here: a drama about a conflicted family and their neighbors set during the one-night panic generated by Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast (which, by the way, is awesome radio. If you ever get the chance, listen to it). I don't know Hobbs' work, but Tuazon's done some interesting work on Elk's Run and Tumor.
Hellraiser #1
Order Code: JAN111031
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Details: SC, 40pgs, Color
Price: $3.99
I love me some Hellraiser. The concept is that the Cenobites—a group of demons who worship order, not chaos, who love both pleasure and pain, and dig S&M gear—actually aren't really bad guys at all so much as just doing (and loving) their jobs, which sets up endless, scary story scenarios. This first issue of the new ongoing anthology features a story from Hellraiser creator Clive Barker and art by Leonardo Manco.
Hellraiser Masterworks Volume 1
Order Code: JAN111033
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Details: SC, 200pgs, Color
Price: $19.99
This is a collection of some great stories from 80s/90s Epic Comics anthology of Hellraiser shorts. Lots of good twist endings and some beautiful painted work here. If you dig short horror comics, as I do, you should check this out. This is a repackaging of the books that Checker published in the early 2000s, and has work by Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Mike Mignola, Alex Ross, and many others.
Dan Clowes' Mister Wonderful: A Love Story
Order Code: JAN111279
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Details: SC, 80pgs, Color
Price: $19.95
This story was originally serialized in The New York Times Magazine (the Times is paper that doesn't run cartoons, so I think that's a big vote in its favor). It centers around a blind date that starts off on the wrong foot and, from the sound of it, only gets worse from there. You can't really go wrong with Clowes (whose Ice Haven I recommended in October).
R.I.P.: Best of 1985-2004
Order Code: JAN111195
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Details: HC, 144pgs, B&W
Price: $28.99
Ott's comics are wordless short stories, rendered in black and white on a scratchboard, and focus on dark crime and horror themes. The combination of wordless comics and the old-timey scratchboard look means that Ott is probably an acquired taste (all the better reason for posting a Preview, Fantagraphics), but if you're feeling adventurous or know you like this kind of thing, Ott makes some great comics.
Sam Costello is the creator and writer of Split Lip, a horror webcomics anthology that io9 has called “the webcomics answer … to the Twilight Zone and Night Gallery.” It offers nearly 500 pages of free comics.
Coincidentally, Split Lip vol. 3 is now available from pre-order directly from Sam.
Other iFanboy Posts by Sam Costello
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Indie Comics Coming Attractions Series:
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Tee hee – I am old enough to have the original HellRaiser series on my shel. I Still get freaked out by one or two of those images.— Smile painted on the hand — YIPES!!!!!!
Very cool. The Hellraiser Anthology is very intriguing. However, not being a big Hellraiser fan, I never read any of it. However, skimming through them, they almost seemed more like an anthology book. Speaking of that, can we get collected editions of Epic Illustrated? More Epic books please. It was like Marvel’s Vertigo via Heavy Metal. Bring it back.
I do appreciate your article every month. I have been getting bored with the big two lately have been cutting back my pull list. I still love reading comics, but feel that I just need to take a break from mainstream books and want to read more stores that are written and drawn out of the box.
This is the first time I read this monthly column, and I got to say, it’s really very informative and fun to read. I myself have been leaning towards indie comics as of late, and a column that lets me know some notable indies coming out is much appreciated. Keep up the good work!
Great column, I love finding out about great upcoming indie books. Does ifanboy have a column that focuses on reviews of new indie releases for the month? I enjoy reading the user comments and reviews but I always feel like I’m missing some great finds that I should know about.
Nice to see this column on iFanboy. Just wondering, what is your classification for indie? Fantagraphics and Pantheon are indie to me, but Boom! is more small mainstream. Though I guess it’s all semantics with comics — sometimes it feels like anything non-superhero is “indie”.