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Today at AiT/Planet Lar

April 05, 2007
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The Black Diamond and The Homeless Channel get the Brian Domingos treatment at PopImage: "It's hard to believe that it's already been a year and a half since The Black Diamond: On Ramp shipped. Assuming The Black Diamond #1 ships on time in May, it will have been 23 months between that and its preview issue in June '06.

"I've read a rough cut of the first issue, courtesy of Mr. Larry Young himself and it's a perfect first issue. It focuses on the daily life of Dr. Don before the bad news. It's him interacting with his patients, the minute details of his practice, etc. We get a lot of who the main character is with out sacrificing the plot. I started reading, waiting for the fast cars and high concepts, and by the end I was really enjoying the character interaction and the normalcy of Doctor Don's life before it all turns to shit. Really terrific.

"Next there's Matt Silady's original graphic novel, The Homeless Channel

"It's a strange kind of book: Darcy Shaw creates a 24 hour cable television network called The Homeless Channel.

"It deals with the lives of the homeless in the big city and the people living those lives. Darcy finds her sister living on the streets, finds a possible love connection and has to deal with the pressure of corporate sponsors.

"It's kind of hard to explain: go check out The Homeless Channel trailer on Google Video. I saw it a few months ago and it totally sold me on the book. (The song's pretty catchy, too.)

"I like Silady's artwork – a photorealistic style that uses life models and still looks fluid and life-like."

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...while Bill Sherman looks at GRW for Blogcritics: "One look at its dust jacket cover -- with its battle-ready robot posed holding an outlandishly long Old Glory and its stark black lettering — and you pretty much get what Giant Robot Warriors (AiT/Planet Lar) is all about. They're giant; they're robot; they're warriors. What more is there to know?"

April 04, 2007
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Peter Rios and the guys at Comic Geek Speak chose The Black Diamond #1 as one of their Indie Spotlight books, and interviewed me about it. Shout-outs to Jon Proctor, James Sime, Brian Hibbs, Mindy Owens, the answer to who should be selling comics, and literally, I sing "Kum-Bi-Ya" for the crowd. The fun starts at the hour-ten mark or so. I particularly liked after I got off the phone when one of the geeks sighs like I tired him out and says, "Ahhh... he's fun."

That's the comics' righteousness, right there; what fuels me tires everyone else out.

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Christopher Mills takes a look at Last of the Independents: "...a superior 'one-last-caper' tale with well-defined, likable characters, a plot that deviates refreshingly from formula, and a distinctively different publishing format... Fraction's script is smart and wry, with some particularly sharp dialogue and clever bits of characterization. Where he excels, though, is in knowing when to shut up and let the art carry the story, and he's fortunate to have a colllaborator capable of letting him do that.

"Kieron Dwyer's art is frankly perfect. Characters, environments, vehicles all look and 'feel' real. His visual storytelling is highly accomplished, with carefully conceived layouts that use varied panel sizes and placement to convey everything from moments of intense emotion to flowing, cinematic action. It's beautiful stuff, and the sepia-tone color scheme really works.

"I hadn't read this in a while, and I'd forgotten how good it is. Last of the Independents is by far one of the best crime graphic novels I've read, a rock-solid piece of work that respects the conventions of the genre while never, ever feeling imitative or derivative. Highly recommended."

I love it when people pull the backlist off the shelf.

April 02, 2007
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Alasdair at Fractal Matter reviews Last Sane Cowboy, debuting at the Alternative Press Expo: "Daniel Merlin Goodbrey’s quietly astounding collection of stories takes the second view, that life would be basically the same, and the end result is some of the most fun you’ll read in comic form this year... The Last Sane Cowboy And Other Stories is unlike anything you will read this year. Touching on science fiction, fantasy and horror but ultimately finding a voice all of its own, the book is a window onto a surreal world with a rich, internal logic and a wry look at modern life. Utterly unique and utterly unmissable."

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"Larry Young is the best comic marketer of our time." --Johanna Draper Carlson. Aw, gee.

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...and in his "Bad Signal" list, Warren Ellis says: "You don't see many landscape books because comic shop shelves aren't built for them. Larry Young had a moment of marketing brilliance when he wrapped the landscape LAST OF THE INDEPENDENTS in a portrait-oriented slipcover, so it'd stand up and present as a regular-format book."

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