It’s time to look through this week’s new graphic novels and trades, and see what stands out.
The Book I Want to Buy:
Get Jiro!
by Joel Rose, Anthony Bourdain, and Langdon Foss; Vertigo, $24.99
Here’s what the Vertigo website has to say about Get Jiro!, their latest original graphic novel:
Don’t miss this original graphic novel from Anthony Bourdain, renowned chef, New York Times bestselling author (Kitchen Confidential, Medium Raw) and star of the Emmy-winning hit travel show No Reservations and the brand new series The Layover! Co-written with Joel Rose (LA PACIFICA, Kill Kill Faster Faster) this stylized send-up of food culture and society features spectacular detailed and dynamic art by Langdon Foss.In a not-too-distant future of food obsessed L.A., where master chefs rule the town like crime lords and people literally kill for a seat at the best restaurant, Jiro, a renegade and ruthless sushi chef arrives in town with strong ideas of his own. It’s a bloody culinary war of epic proportions, and in the end, no chef may be left alive!
I don’t care at all about the ‘celebrity’ co-writer, but this does sound like it should be a fun read. Also, from what I’ve seen of Langdon Foss’s artwork, this should be a very attractive book. His work reminds me a little of Geof Darrow and Seth Fisher, and that can’t ever be a bad thing. I do get a bit of a Johnny Hiro vibe off this book, but that’s also a mark in the plus column. Also, how often are Vertigo OGN’s bad?
The Book I Think You Should Buy:
Fatale Vol. 1 Death Chases Me
by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips; Image, $14.99
If it’s not enough for you to be told that this trade collects the first five issues of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s new series Fatale, than you need to go to comic book school. This august team have been working together since Sleeper, a terrific superhero espionage story that was part of the much-missed Wildstorm universe back in the day. From there, they have examined crime comics together in Criminal, and pulp heroes in Incognito.
With Fatale, they are turning their lens towards mystical, Lovecraftian pulps, and in the process, are creating their best-selling series of all time. Fatale exists along two timelines. In the present, a young man discovers after his novelist godfather dies, that the old man had been involved in some pretty strange stuff back in the day, before he is almost killed in a car crash.
In the past, the novelist, then a journalist, finds himself hooked up with the mysterious and ageless Josephine, an ingenue with some sort of connection to a vicious cult. This first arc is used to set up the series, which has a huge scope. There are tons of surprises, some very sharp writing, and great art throughout this comic. Consider it highly recommended.
So, what would you buy Were Money No Object?
