It's that time again! Smoke rises from the Mountain of Doom. The hour grows late and Jim Gibbons the Publicity Coordinator rides to the internets bearing Dark Horse-centric links aplenty. For that is why you have come, is it not, my friends?
Alright, enough (Dark) horsing around! Let's take a look at what DH projects have been getting some nice press in the past week.
Accolades!
Though 2010 is dead and gone, the "end of year" lists highlighting the best and most critically acclaimed comics from the past year continue to crop up all over the interwebs. Let's take a look at a few DH books listed amongst the best of the best...
-Over at ComicBookResources.com's Robot 6 blog, two unanimous 2010 favorites and a legendary ongoing series got some lovin'. Beasts of Burden, Usagi Yojimbo and Blacksad were all isted amongst the CBR staff's favorite books of 2010.
-Being on a list in nice, but topping one? Yeah, that's the stuff! CBR's Comics Should Be Good blog gave us warm fuzzes when they announced that Axe Cop was their "Comic of the Year." "It's an electric, exciting comic, one free from the burdens of irony and cynicism, because its writer doesn't know what those things are yet," CSBG said. "Axe Cop's world is one of good and evil, action and adventure, dreamlike video game logic, and a relentless torrent of ideas.
-You know who's great? Johanna Draper Carlson. "Why?" you ask. Well, for one, her "Best Graphic Novels of 2010" list over at Comics Worth Reading featured three Dark Horse titles! Beasts of Burden, Scary Godmother and Blacksad all made the cut. Thanks for the kind words, Ms. Carlson
-Publishers Weekly's Comics Week selected Beasts of Burden as one of their top 2010 books in their Fifth Annual Critics Poll. Anyone beginning to sense a trend here?
-The aforementioned Ms. Carlson was one of the critics polled by PWCW. She published her votes here and highlighted Beasts and Scary Godmother.
-iFanboy, which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary (Congrats, guys!), ran down their "Best ofs" last week. Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden and Ben Stenbeck's Baltimore was listed as one of the "Top 10 New Non-Superhero Series of 2010," Blacksad made the cut for "Top Collected Editions of 2010" and Hellboy In Mexico was one of the "Top 10 Best Single Issues of 2010."
-Mignola's Baltimore #1 cover was also ranked as one of Robot 6's "50 Best Covers of 2010, as was Jo Chen's Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 #31.
-On the manga front, Deb Aoki at About.com compiled reviews from across the internets to make her "Critic's Choice: Best Manga of 2010" list. CLAMP's Cardcaptor Sakura made the top ten! About.com also listed Drifters as one of the best new manga of 2011.
-Ms. Carlson, who also writes maintains Manga Worth Reading, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Volume 11 as one of the best manga reads of 2010.
-What was that running theme again? Oh, right… io9.com ran down the best science fiction and fantasy comics of 2010. Sitting alongside lauded titles like Scott Pilgrim and Grant Morrison's Batman and Robin is our very own Beasts of Burden/Hellboy one-shot, as well as Hellboy In Mexico and Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil.
-And lastly, but not leastly, ComicAttack.net's Infinite Speech listed StarWars: Legacy in his 2010 Top Ten. "For fifty consecutive issues Jan Duursema and John Ostrander took us over 100 years into the future of Star Wars and the dark side never looked so good!"
-Being on a list in nice, but topping one? Yeah, that's the stuff! CBR's Comics Should Be Good blog gave us warm fuzzes when they announced that Axe Cop was their "Comic of the Year." "It's an electric, exciting comic, one free from the burdens of irony and cynicism, because its writer doesn't know what those things are yet," CSBG said. "Axe Cop's world is one of good and evil, action and adventure, dreamlike video game logic, and a relentless torrent of ideas.
-You know who's great? Johanna Draper Carlson. "Why?" you ask. Well, for one, her "Best Graphic Novels of 2010" list over at Comics Worth Reading featured three Dark Horse titles! Beasts of Burden, Scary Godmother and Blacksad all made the cut. Thanks for the kind words, Ms. Carlson
-Publishers Weekly's Comics Week selected Beasts of Burden as one of their top 2010 books in their Fifth Annual Critics Poll. Anyone beginning to sense a trend here?
-The aforementioned Ms. Carlson was one of the critics polled by PWCW. She published her votes here and highlighted Beasts and Scary Godmother.
-iFanboy, which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary (Congrats, guys!), ran down their "Best ofs" last week. Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden and Ben Stenbeck's Baltimore was listed as one of the "Top 10 New Non-Superhero Series of 2010," Blacksad made the cut for "Top Collected Editions of 2010" and Hellboy In Mexico was one of the "Top 10 Best Single Issues of 2010."
-Mignola's Baltimore #1 cover was also ranked as one of Robot 6's "50 Best Covers of 2010, as was Jo Chen's Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 #31.
-On the manga front, Deb Aoki at About.com compiled reviews from across the internets to make her "Critic's Choice: Best Manga of 2010" list. CLAMP's Cardcaptor Sakura made the top ten! About.com also listed Drifters as one of the best new manga of 2011.
-Ms. Carlson, who also writes maintains Manga Worth Reading, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Volume 11 as one of the best manga reads of 2010.
-What was that running theme again? Oh, right… io9.com ran down the best science fiction and fantasy comics of 2010. Sitting alongside lauded titles like Scott Pilgrim and Grant Morrison's Batman and Robin is our very own Beasts of Burden/Hellboy one-shot, as well as Hellboy In Mexico and Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil.
-And lastly, but not leastly, ComicAttack.net's Infinite Speech listed StarWars: Legacy in his 2010 Top Ten. "For fifty consecutive issues Jan Duursema and John Ostrander took us over 100 years into the future of Star Wars and the dark side never looked so good!"
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 #40
Though the completion of Season 8 is still a week and a half away, reporting on the big finale has already ramped up. Last week, Robot 6 (Who just celebrated their third anniversary… Congrats, ladies and gents!) ran the first preview of issue #40. Later in the week, the pages were picked up by top sites across the comics industry: MTV Splash Page, MTV Geek, Broken Frontier, Hyper Geek, "Has Boobs, Reads Comics" and Bleeding Cool. Slayer fan site BuffyFest also got in on the action, and even reblogged some teaser panels from the final issue originally posted on the Dark Horse blog.
Speaking of The Slayer, the shiny, recently-released hardcover collection Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales had a preview featured on a few prominent sites last week. CBR, MTV Geek, iFanboy and Broken Frontier all showed samples of the tome.
Dark Horse Digital
Did you know you can register now to win every single 2011 digital release from Dark Horse Comics? If you read CBR, Wired's Geek Dad blog or MTV Geek you probably do. If not, head over to Digital.DarkHorse.com and sign up today for a chance to win!
Mass Effect: Evolution
This month, Mass Effect fans will get a chance to delve into the Illusive Man's past with Mac Walters, John Jackson Miller and Omar Francia's Mass Effect: Evolution. Last week, io9.com showcased the first preview pages from the highly-anticipated upcoming series. The pages were featured on the BioWare blog shortly thereafter and then commenced to make a full loop around the internet. Linked on the MTV Multiplayer blog, Kotaku, Destructoid, CVG and Joystiq, as well as dozens of other sites, it's nice to see the video games community getting legitimately excited about our new ME comic!
Need more Mass Effect news? IGN premiered both covers to Evolution #4 and Comic Vine interviewed Miller about the upcoming series.
Little Lulu and Tubby
Over at BoingBoing.net, Mark Frauenfelder wrote a glowing recommendation of John Stanley's Little Lulu and Tubby and made special note of Dark Horse's affordable reprints of these classics. If you haven't already, it's about time you tried these books: "These timeless comics reveal and revel in the secret world of kids: clubhouses, campouts, tall tales, jealousy, rich kids vs. poor kids, outwitting bullies, vacant lot adventures and all the intriguing schemes and rivalries that kids cook up."
Previews
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-A preview for the much anticipated Star Wars: Darth Vader and The Lost Command #1 made the rounds, appearing on StarWars.com, CBR and Newsarama.
-MTV Splash Page issued the first look at the cover for The Strange Case of Hyde
-Wired's Underwire showcased pages for the final issue of Eric Powell and Kyle Hotz's Billy The Kid's Old Timey Oddities and the Ghastly Fiend of London. (iFanboy recommended the title, as well!)
-Tor.com premiered the cover to Conan: Road of Kings #5 by Doug Wheatley. And, on the art bent, Newsarama interviewed Road of Kings interior artist Mike Hawthorne.
-CBR showcased the first look at Darick Robertson's cover to the third issue of King Conan: The Scarlet Citadel alongside the Guy Davis and Gregory Manchess covers for Solomon Kane: Red Shadows #1!
-The Beat gave readers their first look at the upcoming collection containing all of Al Capp's Shmoo newspaper strips.
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-Blog@Newsarama had some very nice things to say about Mark Crilley's Brody's Ghost: "The art's terrific—detailed and nuanced, with strong designs and a compelling world design; the mysteries of Talia's death and afterworld travails hang over the entire book like a massive eclipse, yet Brody's struggle to rediscover his own worth remains the emotional core through the first book."
-Comic Vine enjoyed the final issue of Billy The Kid: "Eric Powell always manages to create a crazy and interesting world with each story he crafts… The backup stories with the Goon and Franky are priceless. This final issue gives a satisfying and fitting ending to the story and the series succeeded in provided a different kind of comic book entertainment."
-Ain't It Cool News took a look at the thirteenth and fourteenth volumes of Gantz: "in terms of an explosive, transgressive take on genre material, this is it. Whether a casual manga reader or a hardcore fan, if you're looking for manga that runs with its capacity for the strange, enormous action, you can't do better than Gantz."
-The Guardian (A British newspaper) reviewed Bryan talbot's Grandville Mon Amour: "Believe me, in Talbot's hands the whole thing is utter bliss: clever, knowing, funny, imaginative, chilling and illustrated so gorgeously, you could stare at each frame for hours."
-Both MTV Geek and Comics Bulletin had great things to say about Hellboy: The Sleeping and The Dead #1: "Mignola crafts a backdrop that's as chilly as the keen of a banshee and then he tosses a spanner into the folk tale," Comics Bulletin relayed. "That spanner is Hellboy and he stands out like a proverbial thumb, bright red from the impact, and stubbornly colloquial to contrast the surrounding poetry."
-ComicAttack.net enjoyed Kull: The Hate Witch #2: "I've got to say that David Lapham is doing a fantastic job with this story, and the artwork by Guzman is great as well. I can't wait for the next issue of this series to see more action and magical mayhem from Dark Horse!"
A day may come when the Dark Horse in the Headlines fails, when we miss our deadline and fill a column with broken links, but it is not this day. An hour of woes and poorly written sentences, when the age of DH blogging comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we blog! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you… stand, men and women of Dark Horse!
But seriously, folks, thanks for stopping by to check out the column. Be here at the same time next week, when Shadowfax stops by to show you all the meaning of haste. (In regard to be-hoofed blogging, of course!) --Jim Gibbons