This week’s highlights, with commentary from the NFNT gang:
Fury MAX Volume 1: My War Gone By (Marvel, 9780785157779)
Jack: Fury MAX: My War Gone By is a really great book that got very little attention when it was on the stands. It’s about the MAX version of Nick Fury and his shenanigans in Cuba during the Cuban Revolution and the Cold War, as told by Garth Ennis (so naturally it’s full of violence and swears). It also does a really good job of presenting (in a very cynical fashion) some of the behind-the-scenes political maneuvering that informed US involvement. Fury’s a great character — a no-nonsense, down to earth secret agent type — and I really hope that Ennis continues his run and that the collected edition gets more attention!
Umineko: When They Cry (NIS America)
Michael: Umineko:When They Cry is a really interesting, clever supernatural anime with a unique premise. It’s based off a series of visual novels of the same name. Sadly the plot of the anime only covers roughly the first 4 of the 8 visual novels so the ending is fairly unsatisfying. It’s still worth a watch though.
Emily: I have actually read all the visual novels and have seen all of the anime. (I’ve also seen and read all of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, a series that has some loose connections to Umineko, both by the same writer, Ryukishi07, of whom I’m a big fan of.)
As Michael said, it’s an interesting and clever supernatural anime. More specifically, there are many things that would appeal to someone who likes logic and reasoning. The main character is trying to solve closed room murders by presenting logic statements that are supposed to prove that a human could commit the murders, rather than having them being murders committed in supernatural ways by a witch. These presentations of logic are done in the form of battles using logic rather than actual fighting, which is something I find pretty unique and interesting. There’s also many questions presented in the anime to be solved, and a good amount of them can be solved in the anime. (However, the bigger ones are only answered in the second half of the visual novels, unfortunately.)
AND NOW FOR THE COMPLETE LIST
The following list of new releases is compiled from Diamond Comic Distributors’ complete weekly shipping list and Anime News Network’s Releases encyclopedia
Graphic Novels
BOOM! Studios
- STEED & MRS PEEL TP GOLDEN GAME
- VALEN OUTCAST TP VOL 02
Dark Horse
- BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 9 TP VOL 02 ON YOUR OWN
- NGE SHINJI IKARI RAISING PROJECT TP VOL 12
DC
- BATMAN NO MANS LAND TP VOL 04 NEW EDITION
- IZOMBIE TP VOL 04 REPOSSESSION
- JACK KIRBYS FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS TP VOL 04
- SUPERMAN GROUNDED TP VOL 02
IDW
- BATTLE BEASTS TP VOL 01
- DUNGEONS & DRAGONS TP VOL 02 FIRST ENCOUNTERS
- KISS TP VOL 01
- MICHAEL KALUTA SKETCHBOOK SERIES SC VOL 03
- TALES O/T TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES TP VOL 01
Image
- BUTCHER BAKER RIGHTEOUS MAKER HC
- HOAX HUNTERS TP VOL 01
- KRISHNA A JOURNEY WITHIN GN
- PIGS TP VOL 02
- THINK TANK TP
Marvel
- AVENGERS X-SANCTION TP
- FURY MAX TP VOL 01 MY WAR GONE BY
- MARVEL UNIVERSE ULT SPIDER-MAN COMIC READER TP #4
- MOON KNIGHT BY BENDIS AND MALEEV TP VOL 02
- MUPPETS TP FOUR SEASONS
- NEW MUTANTS TP VOL 07 FIGHT FUTURE
- SPACE PUNISHER TP
- ULT COMICS SPIDER-MAN BY BENDIS TP VOL 02
- UNCANNY X-MEN BY KIERON GILLEN TP VOL 02
NBM
- SKY OVER THE LOUVRE HC
Papercutz
- SYBIL THE BACKPACK FAIRY HC VOL 01 NINA
Pocket Books
- TEN SECONDERS AMERICAN DREAM GN
Valiant
- X-O MANOWAR TP VOL 01 BY THE SWORD
Viz
- ARATA THE LEGEND TP VOL 12
- BAKUMAN TP VOL 17
- BLACK BIRD GN VOL 15
- BLEACH TP VOL 52
- BLEACH TP VOL 53
- D GRAY MAN GN VOL 23
- DAWN OF THE ARCANA TP VOL 07
- DEMON LOVE SPELL GN VOL 01
- DEVIL & HER LOVE SONG GN VOL 06
- EARL AND FAIRY GN VOL 04
- NATSUME’S BOOK OF FRIENDS TP VOL 13
- NURA RISE O/T YOKAI CLAN GN VOL 12
- SAKURA HIME LEGEND OF PRINCESS SAKURA GN VOL 09
- SLAM DUNK GN VOL 25
- TORIKO GN VOL 13
- VOLTRON FORCE GN VOL 05 DRAGON DAWN
Zyo Comics
- ULTIMATE 7 TP VOL 03
Anime
Funimation
- Black Lagoon – Complete Series
Manga Entertainment
- Clannad After Story – Part 2
NIS America
- Umineko: When They Cry
Sentai
- Mashiroiro Symphony – the color of lovers – Complete Collection
- Ninja Scroll
Viz
- Bleach the Movie: Hell Verse
Keep in mind that titles are not always available from book vendors on the same dates as they are released in comic book stores, so not all of these will be available everywhere at the same time. Check with your vendors, just to be sure!
