What's New?

It's the best day of the week! New Comics Day!

For any newbies out there, Wednesday is the day that comics come out. We put out new weekly comics, and any figures, board games, and books that have been shipped in as well. 

This week's list is as follows:

BONGO:

Simpsons Comics

BOOM:

Sons of Anarchy #19

DARK HORSE:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #13

The Strain: The Night Eternal 

DC:

Batgirl #40

Batgirl Endgame #1 (One shot)

Batman Eternal #50

Batman/Superman #21

Batwoman #40

Earth 2: World's End #24

Future's End #46

Red Hood and hte Outlaws #40

Supergirl #40

Superman #39

Teen Titans #40

IDW:

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #28

TMNT #44

The X-Files #21

IDW & BOOM!:

Star Trek: Planet of the Apes: The Primitive Directive

IMAGE:

Big Man Plans #1

Chrononauts #1

Outkast #7

Spread #6

Transformers: Combiner Wars: Opening Salvo #39

MARVEL:

All New Captain America #5

All New X-men #39

Black Widow #16

Captain America and hte Mighty Avengers #6

Cyclops #11

Guardians Team Up #3

Hulk #13

Loki: Agent of Asgard #12

Magneto #16

Moon Knight #13

Princess Leia #2

The Punisher #16

Silk #2

Spiderman 2099 #10

Storm #9

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #3

Wolverine #11

TITAN COMICS:

Doctor Who #6

Remember that Previews is in as well! Again for any newbies, Previews is exactly what it sounds like: previews of future comics and products! Previews comes out two months in advance, and can be used to order products to your local comic book store. These products can range from books, statues, figurines, DVDS, board games, accessories, apparel and so much more!  This issue showcases what to expect in May. Highlights include the conclusion of Convergence and the start of Secret Wars, which comes with the first issue of A Force! Stop by and update your pull list or place your orders so you can snag an issue! 

Board Games and Our First Giveaway!

OUR FIRST GIVEAWAY

In honour of our social media presence and to celebrate our upcoming year anniversary in this location, I am happy to announce our new giveaway! To qualify for the giveaway you must either follow our Twitter and Instagram, like our Facebook, or comment on one of our blog/Facebook posts. Winner will get a Spiderman T-shirt, a Magic the Gathering Duel Deck, and their choice of our regular priced Pop! Figures.

Just liking our Facebook page, and following our Twitter and Instagram qualifies you for 3 chances to win. Appropriate commenting on any of our blog or Facebook posts will give you two for every post. The winner will be announced at the end of April.

BOARD GAMES
Throughout the upcoming posts we will be focusing on showcasing some of the board games we carry, nerdy news, and what some of our regulars are reading. Planet Hobby has made an effort to carry a variety of different board games for our customers to try. Here on the blog, we’re going to give you quick overviews of some of the most games we carry.  That way you lucky readers can see if any are a right fit for you, your friends, and/or your family!

The first game we are going to post about is Settlers of Catan.

The Settlers of Catan Expansions

- Settlers of Catan: 5-6 Player Extension

- Catan: Cities and Knights

- Catan: Cities and Knights: 5-6 Player Extension

- Catan: Seafarers

- Catan: Seafarers: 5-6 Player Extension

- Catan: Explorers and Pirates

- Catan: Traders & Barbarians

- Catan: Traders & Barbarians: 5-6 Player Extension

- Star Trek Catan

Munchkin & Munchkin Expansions

- Munchkin

- The Good, The Bad, The Munchkin

- Munchkin Cthulu

- Munchkin Legends

- Super Munchkin

- Munchkin Bites

- Munchkin Booty

- Star Munchkin

- Munchkin Pathfinder

- Munchkin Zombies
- Munchkin Fu
- Munchkin Apocalypse

- Munchkin Axe Cop

- Various Muchkin

Various Star Wars X-Wing

Killer Bunnies

Polyhedral Dice in Various Colours

Ticket to Ride and Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 Expansion

Dominion

Bang! The Bullet!

Axis & Allies

Legendary

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Journey to the Lonely Mountain Strategy Game

Look forward to our upcoming post for more details, and don't forget to like, follow and comment for a chance to win! 

Get to Know Our Staff: Part VI

Thought we were done, didn't you? Well, I did, too. Until I realized I forgot to fill out the questions myself. Whoops. 

So here goes.  Time to get to know me. (Gabby) 

Cover of Lumberjanes #1, by BOOM! Studios

1. Are you reading anything right now? If not, what are you watching?

I’m graduating this year so comics have been put on the backburner in terms of priorities. When I do read I usually aim for something that is easy to catch up on. I’ve also been leaning towards a lot of lighter reads to help balance out the stress of school and work, so in that regard Lumberjanes is perfect for me.

Lumberjanes is about a cabin of girls at summer camp and the shenanigans they get up to. These shenanigans almost always surround ditching their camp counsellors and dealing with the various amount of both supernatural flora and fauna of the forest. Think Gravity Falls but with a lot more GIRL POWER. 

2. What do you like/dislike most about it?

Lumberjanes' team of writers are Grace Ellis, Noelle Stevenson, Shannon Watters, with artists rotating each issue. It’s a really good all ages book, and I love that it's not only female led but the team working on it is women as well. It’s lighthearted and fun, and at the end of every issue there is a track listing for a mixtape made by one of the main characters. Also, this is not a huge priority but I love that the few hints of romance that we’ve seen are between two of the main (female) characters. Representation matters!  

Cover of The Far Side Gallery by Gary Larson 

3. What is the first comic you remember reading?

The Far Side. When I was little, I read anything I could get my hands on. I remember getting bored of rereading my Dr. Seuss books and hunting down some more things to read. I was unsupervised, so one of them was 1001 Dirty Jokes and the other was The Far Side Gallery 4. I didn’t understand the jokes in either book but I remember becoming obsessed with collected editions of comics like Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes.  

Panel from Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and art by Fiona Staples

4. Tell me about your favourite ongoing comic? Why is it your favourite?

Saga!!! It has romance! Drama! Violence! And Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples! It’s one of those comics that I can be alone and I will still have audible reactions as I read. The characters are incredibly diverse, and the world that they've created is just so interesting. I've also got a soft spot for it because it was one of the first recommendations I had from one of my coworkers at the shop! (LET IT BE KNOWN IT WAS MOSTLY JOEY’S DOING)

Cover of Wonder Woman #23 , art by Cliff Chiang

5. Do you have a favourite artist? If so, who is it and why have you chosen them?

If I could have posters of all of Cliff Chiang's covers for the New 52 run of Wonder Woman I'd die a happy lady. I love his use of colour in all his work; the contrast is bright and dramatic without being an eye sore. He also includes details in his illustrations without anything seeming unnecessary. Minimalist without being boring. 

Get to Know Our Staff: Part V

Part two, as promised, of Leo's questions. Get that notebook back out or ask the Google since you're clearly already on the Internet. 

4. Tell me about your favourite ongoing comic. 

Oh boy, that’s a big question. Do you mean, like, favourite ongoing comic of all time? Current favourite ongoing? I’ll… I’ll have to give you a few.  

1. The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman and a variety of artists. This is the series that turned me onto Gaiman’s work. It’s an epic in the actual literal sense of the word (you kids today), and I love it for all the reasons I’ve already mentioned re: Gaiman’s work, but also for the staggering amount of research that must’ve gone into it. It’s a work of literature, going far beyond the spandex perception of comics. It’s steeped in culture, history, and mythology, but also places its own spin on those—in fact, it creates its own mythology. Beyond the plot, it’s also about stories, storytelling, and dreams. It’s an incredible piece of work, and my favourite comic of all time.  

2. 
   

   Transmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson. Like Sandman did with Gaiman, Transmet is the series that got me onto Ellis’s work. It’s a near-future sci-fi political series that pits gonzo journalist Spider Jerusalem against the newly elected president of the United States. Spider is a truth-above-all-else old-school journalist who, yes, may be a total bastard, but you’re on board with him because he’s got heart when it counts. Like a lot of great science fiction, some of the weird things envisioned by Ellis in this series have actually come true (though thankfully not the Bowel Disruptor). And like the best science fiction, it’s really talking about present-day issues. It’s also wickedly funny. The first two volumes (12 issues) are magic, exploring the world Ellis and Robertson have created. 

Cover of Transmetropolitan: Lust for Life

3. Sex Criminals, by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky. This is, by a considerable margin, my #1 book right now. The high-concept version is this: a couple can stop time when they orgasm, and they use that time to rob banks. But it’s so much more than that. It’s an unflinchingly honest look at sex and relationships without shame or judgment (though that may not be true of the main characters; they’re flawed humans like the rest of us). The book itself is mature yet juvenile, silly yet serious, light-hearted and fun yet deep and impactful—you could say the same things about sex, really. But it’s honesty of the dialogue that really grabs my attention (you see the same thing in Saga... and who doesn’t love Saga?). The characters are so well crafted, too; you really want to know how it’s all going to end up for Suzie and Jon. 

4. Oh, and I’ll also throw in Chew, by John Layman and Rob Guillory. Chew is just crazy fun. It’s about FDA agent and “cibopath” Tony Chu, who can get psychic imprints from the food he eats, i.e., if he eats an apple, he can tell you about the orchard it grew in and what pesticides were used on it, or if he eats a burger, he can tell you how the cow died, etc. This power also comes in handy when solving murders (the FDA is a far more powerful agency in this world). The series is ultimately about Tony vs. The Collector, another cibopath who keeps the food-oriented powers of the people he kills. There’s a lot more to it, but that’s the gist. It’s another wildly inventive book, very different from everything else on the stands. 

Cover of Chew #1

5. Casanova, by Matt Fraction and either Gabriel Bá or Fábio Moon. The book that got me onto all things Fraction. Much of this is an homage to Diabolik, but beyond that, I’d say it’s a superspy/sex/robots/time-travelling/dimension-hopping kind of book. It’s batshit crazy at times and a little complicated so you need to be paying attention, but wow, is it ever fucking cool.  

MAKE ME STOP GABBY WHY CAN’T I STOP 

6. Afterlife with Archie, by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Francesco Francavilla. I love Archie books. I hate zombies. But I love this story about the zombie apocalypse starting in Riverdale. Whoever thought a mature look at Archie comics yet in a horrific setting could yield such a great book? It’s creepy and complex and has great character development—see Archie’s torment at having to kill his own father after he turned. Geez… that was brutal to read. Now if only the book (and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) would actually come out on anything even remotely resembling a regular schedule... 

Variant cover of Afterlife with Archie #1

I SWEAR THIS IS THE LAST ONE 

7. Atomic Robo by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener. This is the funniest book about a sentient atomic-powered action scientist robot built by Nikola Tesla you’ll ever read. Beyond the humour, which is ridiculous and silly, the book bases a lot of its material on real, hard science. There’s a great bit when they introduce Dr. Dinosaur (from FCBD 2009), and Robo takes down his entire origin (and time travel in general) as idiotic and scientifically impossible. You’ll see: http://www.nuklearpower.com/2009/07/24/free-comic-book-day-2009/ . 

5. Do you have a favourite artist? If so, who is it and why have you chosen them? 

This is a question Absar asked me many years ago, and I’ve given it some thought. I’m going to give you two groups of artists. I tend to prefer either a dark and sketchy style or a beautifully refined style. The middle ground doesn’t seem to hold much interest for me. 

Dark and Sketchy 

Simon Bisley (Lobo—the real Lobo, not the bullshit DC is producing today), Dan Brereton (The Nocturnals, The Psycho), Jhonen Vasquez (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac), Dave McKean (all the covers of The Sandman, Arkham Asylum). 

Bisley’s art is jagged and rough, mean-looking—perfect for Lobo. Brereton is a painter; great for monsters. Vasquez’s books are angst-riddled, dark, funny, gory, and nasty, with lots of hidden notes in between panels. (He also created Invader ZIM.) McKean is the best of the bunch, using mixed-media and Photoshop to create fantastical works. I still like his earlier, pre-Photoshop stuff a little better, personally—seems to have more weight to it. 

The thing that binds these artists together for me is that they’re unconventional. They don’t look like anything else out there. 

Lobo #1 cover art by Simon Bisley

Refined and Beautiful 

P. Craig Russell (The Ring of the Nibelung, Elric of Melniboné, Sandman #50, tons of others), Frank Cho (Marvel stuff, Liberty Meadows), Art Adams (he mostly does covers now, but he’s mainly a Marvel guy as far as I know). 

Sandman art by P. Craig Russell

And then there’s the other side of it: artwork that stands out from the norm by being simply gorgeous. Russell and Adams have similar styles with tight line work and fine detail. Cho… well, we all know what Frank Cho is good at. And yes, I know the women he draws are beyond idealized and not realistic, but good god, Lemon—so beautiful. Credit should be given, though, when it comes to anatomy: he draws six-foot athletic women as though they have actual musculature beneath the cheesecake. He understands how the body moves and functions, so his drawings look quite natural. He’s amazing.