Knowhere News

Knowhere Comics Pre-Orders: MAY 2018

Mon, 12 Mar 2018 15:20:13 GMT

Hey Comic Fans!

We're getting ready to order up all the hot new comics that will be on sale this May and we'd love to guarantee you the new upcoming titles by allowing you to pre-order them in advance! Check out this great PDF with some of our picks for new series, graphic novels, and comics that will be available in May and then print out this form, call us, message us on social media, or swing by the store and tell us what you want. Giving us this kinda heads up makes it easy to have a copy in store for you whenever you come in and prevents the possibility of the comic you want to read being sold out before you get here. This is also just another great way to see what is coming up in the world of comics. So take a look and tell us what you think!

Download the Pre-Order Picks PDF and be sure to return by 02/28!

Indie Reviews: Butcher Baker

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 19:57:33 GMT

The major comic companies get enough reviews and press, it’s time for the creator-owned and indie series to get some love and judgment. Indie review takes up-and-coming indie and creator-owned series and puts them through the review process so you can confidently support the best of the small press and passion driven projects in the comic industry.

The Info Bit
Title: Butcher Baker, The Righteous Maker
Genre/s: Superhero
Writer: Joe Casey ( Haunt, Wildcats Version 3.0 )
Artist: Mike Huddleston ( The Strain, Gen13 )
Letterer: Rus Wooton ( Thief of Thieves, The Walking Dead )
Publisher: Image Comics
Number of Issues: 8
Page Count: 24 per issue
Price: $2.99

The Review Bit

A unique little snowflake in a sea of superhero comic books, but nowhere near as dainty, Butcher Baker, The Righteous Maker, was a brilliant piece of sequential art from Joe Casey and Mike Huddleston in a form only something like Image could publish. This title was the epitome of an indie comic, pushing boundaries to the point of shattering them in raunchy, affordable, adult, genre bending, creator owned genius. It was 8-issues of sex, violence, nudity, action, and psychedelic art for just $2.99 a piece.

So what is Butcher Baker, The Righteous Maker and why might you not have heard of this awesome series? Butcher Baker was a creator owned title that first saw publication in early 2011 from Image comics, a dirty little brain child of long time comic creator Joe Casey. It told the tale of a retired superhero, Butcher Baker, who had succumb to a life of decadence and debauchery. The series opens with the character strung out on sex and substances, lost in his post-heroic lifestyle, when Dick Cheney and Jay Leno (yes, the ex-VP and Tonight Show host) come to him with a job offer. It is a rather simple mission that even Butcher shouldn’t be able to screw up: Go to an old super villain prison, blow it up, and tie off all your old heroic loose ends by killing all the villains. Sadly, our hero manages to screw up by leaving 6 of the worst villains left alive. Now Baker must fix this problem by hunting them all down and silencing them once and for all before they silence him.

The series is filled with nudity, violence, and swearing, so those not capable of enjoying a very mature and audacious title might want to stay away. However, for those that dig this kind of stuff it will be like paradise. The pages of Butcher Baker are filled with tits, ass, and cock (yes, cock, and there is a lot of the dangly bits hanging around various male characters…and even some that are questionably less male). Blood also comes in excess, though often stylized by Mike Huddleston’s incredible art and colors. Oh, and don’t forget the swearing comes flooding out like fuck was one of the only words in Casey’s vocabulary. You especially see this excess of cursing in Casey’s backmatter, a great staple of recent Image titles. In the 8 pieces of comic backmatter spread across the 8-issues of Butcher Baker, Joe Casey rants about many various topics ranging from the state of the comic industry to childhood recollections of film and television. These rants are often loosely tied together at best, but are close to stealing the show in the comic with some rather well thought out essays that seem almost like train of thought style writing.

Casey’s writing in the comic itself (meaning the sequential art scripting) is enjoyable, and certainly in a style comparable to Matt Fraction’s Casanova meets the extreme raunchiness of some of Garth Ennis and Warren Ellis’ more extreme titles from Vertigo and Avatar Press. It is definitely in that style of counter-traditional superhero comics with an added mix of shock value. Scenes like one depicting a Manson-esque super villain rapping his deceased victims whilst wearing a tutu are certainly out there, but might just be what certain fans of comics like Crossed and Transmetropolitan are demanding these days. Meanwhile the dialogue is often more goofy than dark, creating a fun atmosphere in all this morbid and sexualized content. The dialogue of Arnie B. Willard, a small town Sheriff caught in Baker’s violent wake as he obsessively attempts to arrest the ex-hero, is of particular humor in its southern simplicity and mock accent. Other characters take much more extreme perspectives befitting of their personalities, which can easily be seen in their captions and word bubbles. There certainly aren’t any “normal” characters in Butcher Baker, as everything hits as an extreme or clichéd comic personality. What’s truly fun in all this is that it allows for the comic to not take itself anywhere near seriously in giving readers a lot of fan service and Geeky references, such as Butcher Baker’s truck’s grill being made from a mix of Adamantium and Vibranium or just the fact that Jay Leno is a part of the military industrial complex.

On the art end, fans are able to see the true talent of comic book artist Mike Huddleston, who is beyond brilliant. Mike’s style of penciling, inking, and coloring seems to change from panel to panel to create a very unique set of moods throughout the book. In some panels and pages you can see very sketchy and simplistic designs, sometimes even looking like they were poorly cut and pasted into the art, while others show such an extreme detail you’ll be lost in the scene for ages. I partially want to compare it to Fabio Moon’s work in Casanova , once more bringing a comparison to that other incredible Image title. Huddleston’s inking style, or rather his texture style, changes throughout the series as well, with some moments having a pop art look while others look as if they were done in a quick slather of sharpie. Now let it be said, when I speak of these more simplified styles, at no point does any of this come off as a lack of care or a need for speed, but they fit rather stunningly in the moments they appear. Huddleston truly pushes the boundaries of comic art here in a very unique way, much as J.H. Williams III did in his works, albeit utterly different in approach. I must admit a strong admiration as well for Huddleston’s coloring, which truly defines the books art. Switching from grey tones to just particular colors appearing over black and white, in certain pages Huddleston even provides some of the most beautifully vivid comic color I’ve seen in ages. It truly is hard to describe what he does in Butcher Baker and simply must be seen by anyone who has the chance to pick up the comic. The best way I could truly describe it would be to say it is a highly successful experiment in varying forms of sequential art, not likely to ever be replicated to the same degree.

The Rating Bit

Butcher Baker, The Righteous Maker is a beautiful yet twisted piece of sequential art that both bucks the system and artistically experiments with the medium. While I don’t think it truly forges any new roads, it certainly shows readers the best way to take some lesser used paths. This fun and visually captivating tale earns, without any doubt in my mind, a strong 9 out of 10 for its entire run. Those of you who missed the single issues of this comic can look forward to the oversized hardcover , collecting the full series, set for release December 5th of this year.

Indie Reviews: Pretty Deadly

Tue, 14 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

The Info Bit

Title: Pretty Deadly #1
Genre/s: Western
Writer: Kelly Sue Deconnick ( Avengers Assemble, Ghost )
Artist: Emma Rios ( Captain Marvel, Spider Island: Cloak & Dagger )
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire ( Batman Beyond 2.0, Ultimate X-men )
Letterer: Clayton Cowles ( Fantastic Four, Zero )
Publisher: Image Comics
Number of Issues: 1
Page Count: 29 (24 of which are sequential art)
Price: $3.50

The Review Bit

Kelly Sue Deconnick’s new creator owned comic series, Pretty Deadly has a pretty awesome concept that really drew me in. I’ve always been a fan of Western comics, filled with cowboys and the 19th century American Frontier, whether it’s Jonah Hex, Blueberry, or Image’s recent Outlaw Territory anthologies, I’m going to check it out. So when the solicit combined the paranormal sounding concept of Death’s daughter as a gunslinger with that genre, I couldn’t resist.

As the solicit hinted at, Pretty Deadly involves Death’s daughter in a Western style setting…but her involvement in the first issue is rather minimal. The comic does open with a young girl we might later presume is Ginny, Death’s daughter. Furthermore the comic is narrated by a butterfly and a bunny. Whether these are literal animals, which it seems, or the names of characters as of yet unrevealed in the first issue has yet to be determined. The story begins with Bunny telling the story of Ginny to butterfly, jumping from her unrevealed origin to the first time she met “the other girl”, the girl in the vulture cloak. We are introduced to this girl in a cloak of black vulture feathers, with a vulture head hood, in a small frontier town. There, her and her blind, bearded, and older compatriot by the name of Fox captivate the town with the tale of Ginny, Death’s daughter. Deconnick tells the whole tale in a wonderful rhymic meter, that is quite poetic, while Rios uses an almost tarot card like series of panels mixed with bleeding and gaseous panels that truly set the style of tale being told. This would be Ginny’s origin tale, even if she has yet to make a proper appearance. Instead the protagonist of this series seems to be Sissy, the young girl in the vulture cloak. After she tells the story of Ginny to the town, its various citizens offer her money for the show. One man, a red headed gun wielder by the name of Johnny, stops Sissy to look her over with a somewhat dark demeanor. He is put off by Sissy’s compatriot, Fox, and offers the girl a few coins in a rather condescending manner. This leads Sissy and Fox to exit the town and join up with their gang, moving on to another place. At the same time, a tall and dark clad woman by the name of Big Alice arrives in the town, searching for Johnny. She makes her way through the town’s brother with great authority until she tracks down and tortures Johnny into giving her a vulture feather fallen off the young Sissy’s cloak. From there, her and her posse begin pursuit of Sissy. Fox leads them away, having discovered Sissy stole something from Johnny that has obviously put a fright into the blind old man who seems to be a very talented gunslinger, despite his visual impediment. The group reaches the home of one of Fox’s old acquaintances, where Sissy sings the song of Ginny, a song that supposedly will bring Death’s daughter to the aid of anyone who has been done wrong.

Pretty Deadly is a fun western story that oddly reminds me of many unique fusion western films, like Sukiyaki Western Django or Bunraku . Well it has many of the basic tones and style of a classic spaghetti western, it also is rather stylized, with an almost asian cinematic feel to it (particularly a Zatoichi , blind warrior feeling via Fox). I have to admit, I’ve been following Kelly Sue Deconnick’s career in sequential art since she was the cute girl that worked at Viz. I was a fan since her 30 Days of Night mini-series with Steve Niles and love her recent Marvel and Dark Horse comics. This series feels rather different from those, but has a great style. Expecting Ginny to be the main character of the story, it is quite unique that she has yet to truly be involved outside of myth and brief reference. It gives the story an air of mystery, added to by multiple moments where the reader must question what is happening and where things are going, the really will draw you back for issue #2. This is much like the backmatter that Deconnick provides at the end of the issue, confusingly starting with a series of anecdotes that are titled by time and place, sharing the theme of Kelly’s fear of falling. Yet at the end of this fun and insightful backmatter you can see how everything ties together into the creation of Pretty Deadly. In that, I feel there is something to be said about the narrative this series will take.

While Bellaire’s colors on the book are rather flat, the art provided by Emma Rios is quite nice. It is nothing overtly sexy or detailed, but it does give a wonderfully Western appearance that suits the tale. Don’t expect the fine and stunning line work you see on the regular cover for the comic on the interior pages, which are a bit more basic and heavily inked. Instead, Rios’ interiors almost remind me of Becky Cloonan’s brief run on Conan the Barbarian. Her backgrounds are rather simple, defined heavily by the colors of Jordie Bellaire, and add to the fusion feeling as if this had Japanese manga styling to it. It is also worth pointing out there is a bit of nudity in the comic, giving it some more adult moments. I almost find it funny that the opening issue of Pretty Deadly has more nudity than Deconnick’s husband’s Image comic, Sex Criminals , which had a surprising lack of nudity for a comic with the word sex in the title.

Clayton Cowles provided lettering for the issue, and does quite the splendid job. While many of the word bubbles fit traditional comic stylings, his use of narrative over blank space and light color differences in the caption boxes between narratives of Bunny and Butterfly are subtle yet great usages of the medium. In the back of the comic, after Deconnick’s backmatter, is an additional piece of prose written by Chad Collier, with an illustration by Summer Suzuki. Cowles gives it a nice saloon style font that compliments the title preceding Collier’s enjoyable prose backmatter piece.

The Rating Bit

Pretty Deadly is a unique Western-esque tale in comic form. For those who like the recent Western-fusion films like The Warrior’s Way, this will likely be right up your alley. But this isn’t your traditional cowboy tale, and while the art is fitting to the story it is also somewhat unremarkable. With this in mind, I must give Pretty Deadly a 7 out of 10. It is a fun story, with a bit of potential, and a strong female cast and creative team, but it will sadly be passed over by a fair amount of comic readers who hoped for something closer to Lady Mechanika.

Indie Reviews: Cadaver Dogs of Winter

Mon, 13 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

The Info Bit

Title: Cadaver Dogs of Winter
Genre/s: Crime/Drama
Writer: Matthew Fillbach & Shawn Fillbach ( SW: Clone Wars Adventures, Broken Heroes )
Penciler: Matthew Fillbach & Shawn Fillbach
Letterer: Matthew Fillbach & Shawn Fillbach
Publisher: First Comics
Number of Issues: 1 (OGN)
Page Count: 161
Price: $19.99

The Review Bit

It is rare that you see art so wonderfully drive the story of a comic these days, but Cadaver Dogs of Winter does that to a degree that only the comics medium is capable. To steal a line from the graphic novel’s introduction, by Charlie Adlard, “the art immediately grabbed my attention”. Now I’ve long appreciated the art of the Fillbach brothers, but I think in dropping Adlard’s name you can recognize the value of this statement. Charlie Adlard is a very famous comic artist known for doing the highest selling black and white comic currently being published, The Walking Dead . He knows good art in part because he creates it. What the Fillbach brothers did here was on par with that visually strong and stunning style, yet mixed with a wonderfully minimalist appearance that makes the whole thing stand out all the more. I want to compare it to Michael Avon Oeming, but I feel the need to call it superior in just how strong the solid blacks to negative space use of whites wonderfully contrast and feed the story in often word-less panels.

Cadaver Dogs of Winter is a revenge story, through and through. It has the hardcore action of films like Taken, with all the dark reasoning you’d need to relate to the protagonist and his mission. But it is also much more, in that is an artistically breath taking example of how powerful sequential art story telling can be. The 161-page original graphic novel opens up with 3 quotes, of which one stands out at first as oddly unrelated. It isn’t until the story progresses that you understand why a quote on physicians by Thomas Fuller could be connected to two quotes on revenge. You are then silently pulled into the comic’s setting. The first 20-pages have absolutely zero dialogue, but wonderfully set the scene for the comic in both location and feeling. It is amazing how you can almost hear and feel the setting and events that are captured so beautifully in each sequential panel. I’d almost say you could safely decide whether or not you’re going to love the book in just those first quiet pages that bring you into the empty, snow filled winter of a small mid-western town.

The protagonist of the story is Doctor Cooper, a small town physician and single father. At the start of the story life seems normal enough for a small town in the cold forests of Northern America. But when two hunters discover a body, abandoned after a brutal murder in the woods, the doctor is called out for examination. Unfortunately, the discovery of whose body it is and the circumstance behind their death starts Doc Cooper down a dark and bloody path.

Matthew and Shawn Fillbach devised a great plot for Cadaver Dogs, but it is without question that their art drives the tale into being so notable. As said before, high contrast between solid blacks and white make the art pop, but choices in that contrast and what is and isn’t shown define it. The book has no grey, and the only major art change comes in a simple flashback where the creators wonderfully change the art style in the minor way of using hatching style shading. Two things I can very confidently say about the Fillbach brothers in this comic is that they are masters of lighting contrast in artwork and defining atmosphere. I say they’ve mastered defining atmosphere because, despite the fact that the story is following select characters, you’re given an almost Twin Peaks like feel for the entire town and everyone filling it around our main characters. Subtle notes given in the artwork and backgrounds of the story fill you in on what life is like in this once quiet town, and even convoke a silent empathy for the characters on panel in each scene.

Fans of lettering will undoubtedly enjoy that this graphic novel was done in traditional, hand lettering. No fancy fonts or computer based lettering tactics that leave every alphabetical representation looking like the last. The hand written lettering of the Fillbachs very nicely compliments the story and reads nice; not that you’ll see it too often with many of the scenes relying on the cliché these brothers prove, that their pictures are worth a thousand words. My only possible complaint about this book comes from the publishing end. While the cover and binding on this graphic novel look great, on some very nice cardstock, the pages it contains are not quite thick enough to prevent color bleed through. Early on in the story this bleed through of images looks kind of nice, with serene and quiet backdrops setting the mood almost like slow fading transitions. But later in the comic it is a slight annoyance seeing previous or future panels through the white areas of the page. With that said, it does not hugely affect the reading of the story, but it takes away from the otherwise often astonishing contrast in the artwork.

The Rating Bit

Cadaver Dogs of Winter is an intense tale of revenge filled with high contrast art that amazingly captures the cold and deadly silence of winter. The art alone could sell this book, but the amazingly woven story the art tells is the linchpin that makes the tale such a notable comic. I highly recommend this graphic novel, gladly handing out the rare 10 out of 10 to this very deserving book.

Indie Reviews: Lion of Rora

Sun, 12 Nov 2017 00:00:00 GMT

The Info Bit
Title: The Lion of Rora
Genre/s: Historical Fiction
Writer: Ruth Fletcher Gage and Christos Gage (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Amazing Spider-Man)
Penciler: Jackie Lewis ( Play Ball , Jam: Tales From The World of Roller Derby .)
Letterer: Jenny Vy Tran
Publisher: Oni Press
Number of Issues: Graphic Novel
Page Count: 184
Price: $24.99

The Review Bit

At a glance The Lion of Rora is a book about overcoming religious oppression, and is tale of the history of the Waldensians. However it is in truth much more, as it becomes an epic tale of action that shows honorable men fighting for basic freedoms in a time where such things were only held by the rich and powerful. It details a very interesting time in history that many might not be familiar with, while making the events incredibly exciting for readers of all types.

The story follows Joshua Janavel, a young Waldensian from the Savoy region of the French/Italian alps in the 17th century. While the comic begins with a short background of his youth and the religious oppression thrown upon the people of the Waldensian protestant faith, the core of the story is how this young man became an iconic figure called the Lion of Rora. As the book’s namesake, Joshua Janavel, was man from Rora who fought for his people’s right to hold faith and practice religion in the Waldensian protestant denomination. Playing the antagonist was the Duke of Savoy, an easily manipulated but not fully villainous figure, controlled by his more selfish associates, particularly an unnamed marquis.

Joshua plays a strong and relatable rebel, unwilling to bend the knee as many of his fellow men have for the sake of not being disturbed in their practices. Reader’s interest in the character, despite their views on religion or the like, will quickly grow as Joshua proves himself an honorable hero fighting for basic rights many of us now take for granted. The first major event of this tale, where Joshua shines, depicts the Piedmontese Easter in a surprisingly tame showing of the massacre that took place in the valley near Rora. However, do not let the non-graphic panel depictions by Lewis lead you to believe that the book glances over the atrocities or weight of the event. Readers will quickly side with Joshua Janavel and his Waldensian followers as the brutality and ill justifications of the Savoy soldiers are shown, underneath the command of the Duke’s right hand man, the marquis. Through his unforeseen success in fighting back career soldiers, Janavel rises to being the reluctant General of the surviving and willing Waldenses that look to repel their oppressors and fight for their land. Janavel also plays the benevolent protagonist that is, once again, very easy to support as he is fighting a battle against oppressive rule but not looking to oppress or hurt the innocents himself. He makes just decisions that prove him a worthy hero in the reader’s eyes, while the villains continue to grow darker in their decisions and attempts to squash the Waldensian rebellion.

The story quickly builds speed as it races to a climax in Joshua’s time as a Waldensian rebel, even though the span of history this story contains is quite a few years. It makes for some very exciting moments, as danger looms and Joshua overcomes with his people. However, not all victories come with the desired outcome, and this story is a perfect example of such as history proved. Yet it still shares a brilliant message that will make you want to stand up for what is right and admire the historical figure that is Janavel.

The Gages wrote a stunning tale that sucks you in more and more as you turn each page. The excitement and adventure of it all becomes quite breathtaking towards the end, to a degree that you almost couldn’t believe it was based upon historical facts. There are times, however, where the story seems to play into a common err in story telling that makes for better pace in that messages and travel time are shortened to a near speed of light, with troops and letters moving between villages in mere moments. An example of this comes when Janavel’s men raid a fortress, with the Marquis and Duke being informed immediately so they might send troops to Rora to attack Janavel’s unguarded wife. As these Savoy soldiers attack Janavel’s house, during the raid on the fortress, Janavel receives word and makes it home just in time to chase off the Savoy soldiers. It’s almost as if messages were sent through mobile text and troops could teleport, but it never-the-less makes for a very quick and intense scene, with high risk involved for the main character.

One of the more wonderful additions to the graphic novel, that I found truly amazing, was the Further Reading section included at the end. As someone who entered this graphic novel with zero knowledge on the subject matter, both Gages drew me in so heavily I felt inclined to learn more. Thankfully this section of the book shows several information sources in which readers can track down more about these historical figures and events. This isn’t a highly common addition to historical fiction comics, but it really should be.

On the art end we see a rather wonderful 170+ pages done entirely by Jackie Lewis. While the art is sometimes inconsistent, it is always brilliant in displaying emotion, particularly across facial expressions. Lewis’ art style reminds me of several creators and works associated with Oni, including the art of Bryan Lee O’Malley. In moments it can be somewhat simple, with sometimes empty panel backgrounds that force you to focus on the talking heads, but this also leads your eyes to the right part of the story. At other times, Lewis’ vast array of unique faces/visual characters makes for a great cast that spans countless numbers and is more like a live action film hiring extras rather than the traditional animation or comic art which will feature less detailed masses to depict crowds. The art for The Lion of Rora is in Black and White, which helped make some of Lewis’ more detailed line work stand out greatly. In fact, there are many moments and panels within the graphic novel that are so visually powerful they still stand out vividly in my memory. However I only wish her art held that consistency in every panel. But even with this said it is visually great and works wonderfully with the tale being told.

The Rating Bit

The Lion of Rora is an amazing tale filled with unexpected action, strong moral points, and a wonderful bit of education on an often over looked piece of history. It is comparable to some of the best pieces of historical fiction in film and literature, with a great bit of thrilling pace that will keep you turning pages. Without hesitation I can rate this graphic novel a 9 out of 10, and highly implore you to give it a read.