Reviewing the Mail: Week of 3/1

It's all comics this week -- guess the SFF publicists are ignoring me at the moment -- so let's dive right into it:

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (not the well-known Dutch author) was adapted into comics by Rick Geary in 1990 for the excellent but short-lived series of Classics Illustrated from First comics. It's been dusted off and is being reissued as the first volume in the new series of Classics Illustrated from Papercutz. It will be released in April. I remember this as one of the best books in a quite impressive line, so I'm happy to see it coming back into print. (And, possibly, saving thousands of kids from failing their tests when they can't quite manage to finish the real book.)

Papercutz's older brother NBM sent the new edition of Boneyard , Vol. 3 by Richard Moore. NBM has been reissuing the early collections of the Boneyard series in color at a slightly smaller (presumably "backpack-friendly") trim size. Actually, I'm not entirely sure if the new trim size means anything -- this series is a bit racy to be aimed at young teenagers. And the plotline probably moves a bit slowly if you're reading it in individual issues. But if you start now with the collections, there are three color volumes (and three more not in color yet) ahead of you, which neatly solves that problem. The color edition of Boneyard, Vol. 3 is publishing in March, which means it should hit comics shops and bookstores near you in the next week or three.

Also from NBM, under the ComicsLit imprint, is Lewis Trondheim's Little Nothings: The Curse of the Umbrella. Trondheim, as I understand it, is one of the major cartoonists working today in France, but I've never read him. With any luck, Little Nothings will break that streak. It's also being published in March, and so should also be available everywhere very quickly.
Alice on Deadlines, Vol. 2 came from Yen Press, and is by Shiro Ihara. It's the second in a manga series about a teenage girl who ended up in the body of a skeleton when a n incompetent shingami (minor demon who collects the dead) took over her body accidentally. The bureaucracy of the supernatural is working to fix the situation, but...it's a bureaucracy, so it will take a long time. Meanwhile, poor Alice is trying to protect her body from both Lapan (the shingami) and Ume (another supernatural being, obsessed with Lapan and now manifested as another attractive young girl in their household). In this book, apparently, they deal with yet another supernatural creature that steals underwear while it's still being worn. I enjoyed the first volume, which probably proves there is no hope for me. This second volume is also publishing in March.

Also from Yen was the second volume of With the Light Vol. 2: Raising an Autistic Child by Keiko Tobe. I've heard great things about the first book, and I have to admit to an interest in the subject -- one of my sons has a much milder developmental issue in the same spectrum. This is yet another book coming in March.

And last for this week was First Second's Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, a book about creating comics from Jessica Abel and Matt Madden. From a quick glance, it looks like a book for aspiring comics creators -- about how to go about writing and drawing for comic books. The subtitle specifies "manga, graphic novels, and beyond," which implies an orientation away from traditional American monthly superhero comics...but that might be there more because "manga" and "graphic novels" are hot topics right now. In any case, Drawing Words will be published in May, and I might review it then -- if looking at it doesn't make me feel too completely incompetent to judge the subject matter.