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Mindcraft: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books Re-Interpreted From the Inside

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One day I will be pushed to write critical essays on the science fiction renaissance that happened in comics for the year 2015. I envision the scene already. Lost in the trenches of a dystopian city, the brain feed will seek me out for new content that it will ask to pump from my cerebellum so that all digesters will be placated for the month, enriched by my recollections of stories once printed. Crammed into a compartment that I thought would be invisible from the feed, I will duly comply, rise from my freeze chamber, and begin to transmit my knowledge of what stellar books I remember from the October PREVIEWS catalog.

Stand by for the transmission. For this session, we are about to highlight those comics which embrace the spirit of sci-fi and fantasy.

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Article ImageAround the same time we discovered long, dark stains on the Martian terrain, we were made aware of the Ukiyo HC (OCT151302) from writer/artist Cary Polkovitz.

This book from ComicMix is a necessary diet for those prone to thinking past the third dimension, and asking questions about life on the other side of wormholes. It is “a study in non-linear storytelling, drugs, online personas, and obsession.” Which is to say that it is absent of giant space bugs and men trying to kill them with laser rifles. This is a book that questions your ability to think. The word “Uikyo” itself lends itself to various interpretations. It can imply a life of excess, leisure, and luxury. Or it can mean a life of transitory sorrowful hell. It depends on you, really. If you read this book, you’ll ultimately ask yourself if this is your only life, or merely a page to turn while your energy transforms from one plane of existence to another. Your answer to that question will best determine how well you receive the hallucinatory visuals in the Ukiyo HC, and whether or not you can handle global interconnectivity.

Article ImageOne can only ponder such lavish landscapes of logic if he or she has first been given a foundation in the classics. For it is the classics that help us walk, and then prepare us to run once we understand the distance to the abyss.

Such a classic may well be in the making once we see read the description for Humbug #1 (OCT151471) from 451 Media Group.

A story that is rooted in classic literature, it is. A story that’s simply recycled plot it is not. This five-issue black-and-white series obliterates complacency and instead pushes through the ghosts of Christmas past to ask what if A Christmas Carol did not end with Scrooge happily embracing Tiny Tim and helping himself to a drumstick. Happy endings do not put roadblocks in front of the time stream. There must be more corporal activity past Bob Cratchit getting a new lease on life. We see, yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus because he gave writers A. J. Gentile and David Forrest the idea to make Scrooge a ghostbuster. Armed with illustrator Cosmo White, they weave a tale that shows the former money miser now the leader of the Humbuggers, which have made it their mission to purge the city of London of its malevolent spooks and savage spirits. Such a hybrid in your hands will undoubtedly make you wonder if Bill Murray is already calling his agent.

Article ImageIt is the gravity we live in today: classics being collected in the arms of visionaries to have them dropped into a bottomless pit of infinite imagination. And behold! Some demon we cannot decipher spits out an amalgam of flavors we once thought impossible. But that is where your grasp of physics falls short. You didn’t know such a hybrid like Henchmen: I, Henchbot TP (OCT151621) could live outside of the womb, did you?

And yet, there is life!

Publisher Robot Paper saw the heartbeat clearly when the story was passed on from writer Jamison Raymond and artist Ryan Howe. Both men welcome you to the machine where a man named Gary Harrison has responded to a curious classified ad that sends him into a freefall of fantastical happenings. Shackled by a “subversive world of villainy versus valor,” Gary is no longer able to live in a world that offered him the comfort of a Starbucks or king size mattresses. Life has taken a left turn, and let him fend for himself in a world without logic. He must now face off against inane heroes, freaky bosses, labor laws that will make you want to chew glass, and yes, robots. No one ever shows up for this kind of job interview. Best to leave the position vacant (or have Gary remain as a lifetime appointment).

Article ImageSometimes it’s best to walk away from things you don’t understand, and leave the heavy-lifting to the professionals. Writers Bruno Letizia, Saverio Tenuta, and artist Carita Lupattelli would agree, as the Izuna Deluxe HC (OCT151503) they produced for Humanoids shows the bar to jump for self-preservation is well past the skyline, and barely visible.

In Izuna, invisibility is a good thing, at least for the spirits of nature. Living beings tend to desecrate or destroy what they don’t understand, and while fear is to blame (and makes it hard to hate the perpetrator), it nevertheless doesn’t make a bad situation better. Thus we never see a spaceship land on the lawn of the White House. Likewise in the world of spirits, secrecy is safety, and to lose it is a cost one does not want to chance. It is for this reason that the spirits of nature in Izuna created the “Kamigakushi,” which kept them hidden from the eyes of man. Evil spirits known as the Noggo, however, decide to invite chaos, and the mysterious birth of a wolf cub may invite chaos on a scale so vast that those who are faint at heart may have to leave the room before two worlds collide and combust.

Article ImageAh, it is almost time for me to disconnect from the brain feed. My mouth is dry, and energy levels are subsiding. Let me leave you, then, with one more image that will appeal to fans of The Hobbit and Harry Potter, for it is a book some of you may know, but others will need to remember, as it is testament to the limitless possibilities of a mind left to its own devices. Writer/artist Mark Oakley has once again been called to arms, and asked to bring back his masterpiece with the Thieves and Kings Volume 1 GN (OCT151563) from One Peace Books.

This enchanting fantasy unravels in an innovative mixture of prose and artwork, and will have many of you recall the early readings of your childhood that left you addicted to books that filled the shelves of your local public library. Main character Rubel returns to the city of Highborn and declares himself a thief. Having completed an apprenticeship, he believes he is able to rely on his own faculties to weather any outside challenge or influence. And he couldn’t be more mistaken. Knights, sorcerers, and the mysterious Shadow Lady are thrust into his path, and leave Rubel wishing for the nearest exit. But such a trap door is never offered for the weary, and it is what makes this all-ages story so attractive, and very hard to put down before it's lights-out for bedtime.

With that, we unplug from this session, retract the steel coil that had affixed itself to my skull, and depart until a later time when more information can be conveyed after fresh liquid has cooled my esophagus.

Look for all of these above-mentioned comics and books in the October edition of the PREVIEWS comic shop catalog.

I bid you all peace, and please ... keep the faith.

And keep reading comics.

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