GeekMom: Comic Book Corner — May 30th, 2012

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week.

Dakster Sullivan – Green Lantern: New Guardians 

This past week I had a case of the “I want something new” blues. None of my current subscriptions had new issues last week, so it was as good a time as any to pick up a new title. I’m already reading Geoff John’s New 52 Green Lantern series so I figured why not pick up New 52 Green Lantern: New Guardians. It seemed like a logical choice since I’m enjoying the Green Lantern so much.

Before reading the series, I asked my Facebook friends if the Green Lantern and Green Lantern: New Guardians shared the same universe. To my surprise, DC Comics writer (Green Lantern New Guardians) Tony Bedard himself explained it to me:

“Yeah, all the Green Lantern titles share the same universe. And pretty soon they’ll be tying together a bit more closely, so you may as well check out New Guardians. 🙂 ”

Sold! I love it when some of the titles I’m reading actually tie into each other. It really adds to my reading experience.

Green Lantern: New Guardians focuses on Green Lantern Kyle Rayner. We get to see how he gets his ring and learn a little about his friendship with Guardian Ganthet. This is my first time reading about Rayner and I found his attitude to be a nice change from Hal Jordan’s. Pretty early on in the first issue, we get to meet a member of each of the lantern corps and they are not happy. Someone has forced a ring from each corps to seek out Rayner and no one seems to understand why. Just before Rayner gets his tail kicked for “stealing rings”, blue lantern member Saint Walker shows up to lend a hand. Overall the story line has me hooked. I’m on a budget, so I’m not able to catch up to the most recent issue as I would like, but hopefully that will happen very soon.

Kelly Knox — What I’m Reading This Week – Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison #1

This week a new Star Wars comic series made its debut, set in the months after Revenge of the Sith as the Galactic Empire is established. The story opens with a flashback to the graduation ceremony of the first class of officers from the Imperial Academy. Told from the point of view of Cadet Laurita Tohm, the stage is set for a conspiracy tale from the Imperial perspective, which I find intriguing.

Although the series is named after Darth Vader, I was surprised to see that he is relegated to the background for this first issue. I had hoped that he would be the lead character in the story, but Tohm is sympathetic enough to catch my interest to keep reading Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison.

A copy of this issue was provided for review by Dark Horse Comics.
Rebecca Angel – Mastering Comics: Drawing Words and Pictures Continued

Mastering Comics: Drawing Words and Pictures Continued by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden isn’t a comic book, it’s a fantastic guide for artists and writers of comics. My children have created comics for years and I’ve gotten them some how-to books about it. They ignore these books. Instead, they would rather just draw and have fun and figure it out themselves. But there comes a point where you need to know the nitty-gritty, and that’s where this book comes in.

It is styled as a course-book with readings, assignments, and extra credit for each section. I read most of the book in an afternoon because I found it so interesting, becoming inspired to learn how to draw so I could be cool like these people. However, if you actually do the course, it is a hefty book and can be used as a 15 week college semester textbook on advanced comics.

I gave it to my daughter, casually saying, “It’s not the basics.” She gave it a withering glace and flipped through it. Then took it to her room. Over a week, she kept mentioning different parts of the book she found relevant to her. She especially liked the examples. I had to go ask her for it back so I could write this.  I’m happy to own it (I received a promotional copy) because it will be getting a lot of use. A very big recommendation.

Looking for something else, readers? Check out this week’s listed books from DC and Marvel:

Acronym Key:  VC = Variant Cover  / HC = Hard Cover / TP = Trade Paperback / CP = Combo Pack 

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