A monthly column devoted to recommending interesting indie comics for pre-order. Pre-ordering supports indie creatos and can often be the difference between a book succeeding or failing. Plus, you usually save money by doing it, too.
There's a great collection of indie books, manga, and prose this month. If you buy any one of these, I'd make it Death Note, but I suspect you'll get plenty of entertainment from any of the books on this list.
Indie Comics Pre-Orders for November 2010
Here are the indie comics I recommend that you pre-order in November 2010.
ALAN MOORE'S WRITING FOR COMICS
Order Code: STAR18707
Publisher: Avatar
Details: SC, 48pgs, B&W
Price: $5.99
If you're interested in writing comics, there are probably worse things to read than this pamphlet by the man who's arguably comics' greatest-ever writer. I haven't read it myself, but Moore's likely forgotten more insights about writing comics than most other mainstream writers will ever earn.
DEATH NOTE BLACK ED
Order Code: NOV101063
Publisher: Viz
Details: SC, 392pgs, B&W
Price: $14.99
Easily the best thriller/horror comic series of the past few years. This manga series concerns a smart, good-looking, but morally bankrupt and emotionally hollow college student named Light who discovers a death note—-a notebook used by a god of death to decide when people die and how. Light, sociopath that he is, decides to use the death note to try to control the world. THis edition contains the first two volumes of the original series at a great price. Whether you like manga or not, I defy you to read these nearly 400 pages and not get hooked on this amazing series.
GHOST PROJEKT VOL 01
Order Code: NOV100992
Publisher: Oni
Details: HC, 144pgs, Color
Price: $19.99
Preview
I haven't read this series, but the premise is intriguing: a former Soviet military/research facility is broken into my thieves who make off with armor that can unleash an army of ghosts. A pair of agents are tasked with tracking the armor down and stopping the ghosts. Sounds fun, and Steve Rolston's art–seen on Queen and Country, Pounded, and other series–is always fun.
MOVING PICTURES
Order Code: MAR101136
Publisher: Top Shelf
Details: SC, 144pgs, B&W
Price: $14.95
Preview
A story of art, love, and secrets set during World War 2, by husband/wife team Kathryn and Stuart Immonen (you'll know Stuart's work from Ultimate Spider-Man, Nextwave, and others, but Kathryn's got a few Marvel credits, as well as other solid comics, to her credit). The preview art looks appealingly minimalist–kind of a Paul Grist vibe to it–and the reviews are glowing.
STRANGE CASE OF EDWARD GOREY
Order Code: NOV100924
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Details: HC, 144pgs, B&W
Price: $14.99
Not a comic as far as I can tell, as much as a short-book length treatment on one of the last century's most interesting, iconic, macabre, and funny cartoonists, Edward Gorey. This new edition apparently nearly doubles the length of the original. If you're at all interested in Gorey–and if you don't know his work, you should check it out–this sounds interesting.
SCENES FROM AN IMPENDING MARRIAGE HC
Order Code: NOV100902
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Details: HC, 56pgs, B&W
Price: $9.95
Preview (PDF)
Adrian Tomine is best known for his well-observed, quiet short story series Optic Nerve (and the book-length tale, Shortcomings, of a few years back). This book started out as a wedding favor for Tomine's marriage, but grew into a larger book about getting married. The preview reveals the art here to be rougher than Tomine's normal style, but his stories are so funny, and touching, that this merits a look.
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
On My Own in Indie Comics Series:
Indie Comics Coming Attractions Series:
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Scenes from an Impending Marriage looks interesting. I may pick that up.
I picked up Alan Moores: writing for comics a couple years ago. i have never finished it.
Moving Pictures looks and sounds interesting. I am a sucker for WWII stuff. thanks for throwing up the previews Sam!
Moving Pictures is great. I love how stuart Immonen can change his style so drastically.
Death Note finally featured on iFanboy. A Top comic like no other, better or as good as things like "Y: The Last Man." Yes, we’re talking on that level good.
impending marriage looks fun, might have to get it to keep as a gift for someone.
@KickAss: Unless it’s a different DEATH NOTE, we talked about it two years ago.
I would definitly reccomend for everyone to try out Deathnote. Easily the best manga I’ve ever read, and its better than almost any comic I’ve ever read as well.
Anyone know how Alan Moore’s Writing for Comics is? @weaklyroll? And if it assists me in getting work published, does it include his phone number so that I can be sure to call him and thank him?
Easily the best thriller/horror comic series of the past few years.?
I would give that to Locke & Key over Deathnote in less than one note.
Ah, Death Note! One of the worst comics I’ve ever read.
Moore did self publish a better one in the nineties. I happen to have it in an old long box. I’ll upload a pic whenever I get to clean out the garage. (There are rats so it’ll be a while =| ) But it’s good! I swear! (I hope it holds up.)
@muddi900 Death Note is clearly one of the lesser manga out there. Think of it as the Twilight of manga. It was written with mainstream $$$$ in mind so it was written in shallow quality. As opposed to greatness like Masakazu Katsura’s Zetman, Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte, Tsutomu Nihei’s BLAME!, Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix, or even the hilarious karate manga AIKI created by the mysterius Isutoshi* (whom no one has ever seen). You’ll enjoy Phoenix I think, it was his last work and it’s a very long series so it’s well worth the cash.
*Isutoshi had used this psuedonym to avoid scrutiny for his (or her) controversial work with comic pornography in the 90s.
I love Death Note, though the anime adaptation particularly, oh yes!