It’s time once 
again to take a look at the new books being published this week, and to put together a little wish-list of graphic novels or trades that I would like to buy or recommend.
Books I’d Like to Buy:
North 40 TP
by Aaron Williams and Fiona Staples; Wildstorm, $17.99
This mini-series looked interesting when it came out earlier this year, but I never picked it up. If I remember right, it got decent reviews, and Fiona Staples is an artist who has come onto my radar lately, with her work in Northlanders, among other places.
The book is about a rural region where people develop superhuman abilities, so long as they stay within county lines. There’s some sort of demonic thing going on too.
This strikes me as the type of project that Wildstorm always did well, and which sometimes launched careers for new creators.
Tonoharu Part 2 HC
by Lars Martinson; Pliant Press, $19.95
I read the first volume of this series earlier in the year, and I enjoyed it. Martinson’s books are autobiographical renderings of the time he spent in small-town Japan as a teacher of English. I’ve long wanted to visit Japan, and find myself fascinated by the culture and the people. For this reason, I enjoy these types of outsider’s views into the country.
I did find that the first volume was a little too short or stayed too much on the surface, but I hope that with this second book, Martinson digs a little deeper.
Books I Think You Should Buy:
Unknown Soldier Vol. 3 Dry Season TP
by Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli; Vertigo, $14.99
Unknown Soldier, which finished last week, has been one of the best Vertigo titles of the last few years. It follows Moses Lwanga, a Ugandan/American doctor who, during a humanitarian trip to his homeland, basically went crazy, mutilated his own face, and started hunting Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, which was tearing up the countryside at the start of this decade.
In this trade, which collects six issues of the comic, Moses starts looking for redemption. He’s been traveling with Paul, a young child soldier he rescued, and he returns him to his people in a UN-administered displaced persons’ camp. Moses sticks around the camp, and soon becomes embroiled in the mystery surrounding the murder of the camp’s doctor.
This arc is one of the best of the entire run of this title. Dysart steeps his story in the traditions and superstitions of the Acholi people, while accurately portraying the difficulty of life in Uganda. The story can be read well on its own, but it also plays a key role in Moses’s story.
Ponticelli uses a different artistic technique for some of this story, and it’s quite beautiful. Recommended.
Red Mass for Mars TP
by Jonathan Hickman and Ryan Bodenheim; Image, $14.99
Since making the move to Marvel, Jonathan Hickman has become one of the darlings of the superhero crowd, with his long and complex plots in Secret Warriors and Fantastic Four drawing him plenty of positive attention, to say nothing of his SHIELD, which is a truly bizarre and spectacular comic for Marvel to be publishing.
Before he was “the next Bendis” though, he was writing some pretty amazing comics at Image. I loved his debut, The Nightly News, and his second series, Pax Romana. His Transhuman, the first book he didn’t draw, was interesting and novel. Then there was Red Mass for Mars.
This four issue series took years to complete, and kind of lost all its steam because of that, but I imagine it would read wonderfully in trade. The story, beautifully illustrated by Ryan Bodenheim (who has a new book coming out from Image soon) is set in the far future, where Earth is facing imminent conquest by a Space-Barbarian horde. The Earth’s heroes try to pull together a defense, and need to turn to Mars, an immortal Superman-type character, who has removed himself from society.
The book is not set up like your traditional superhero comic at all. Hickman comes at the narrative kind of sideways, and there are a number of interesting supporting characters. If you’re someone who keeps raving about SHIELD or his Fantastic Four (no one seems to talk about Secret Warriors, which I think is his best book), you owe it to yourself to check this out. Then you can lie and say you’ve been following him from time.
So, what would you buy Were Money No Object?
