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May 16, 2015
Atomic Books Comics Preview - May 16, 2015
In the weekly Atomic Books Comics Preview, Benn Ray highlights notable new comics and graphic novels.
Benn Ray is the owner of Atomic Books, an independent bookstore in Baltimore. The Mobtown Shank is his blog, and his comic Said What? is syndicated weekly in the Baltimore Sun's B-Paper.
Atomic Books has been named one of BuzzFeed's Great American Bookstores, as well as one of Flavorwire's 10 greatest comic and graphic novel stores in America.
Extraordinary People: A Semi-Comprehensive Guide to Some of the World's Most Fascinating Individuals
by Michael Hearst / Aaron Scamihorn
What do P.T. Barnum, Charlie Chaplin, Nikola Tesla, Bruce Lee, Evel Knievel, Harry Houdini, Temple Grandin, Ben Franklin, Bessie Coleman and George Washington Carver all have in common? They are all in this excellent, all ages compendium of Extraordinary People. Each entry includes a portrait by Aaron Schamihorn and is loaded with fascinating facts and histories of some of humankind's most colorful characters.
The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic
by Jessica Hopper
The title of Hopper's collection of criticisms proudly declares its significance. Critics do more than act as arbiters. They serve a greater social function than simply giving a work of art a thumbs down or one star out of ten or a dreaded 0.0 on Pitchfork (I'm looking at you Sonic Youth, Robert Pollard, Liz Phair, Kiss, Flaming Lips). Critics inform. Critics educate and inspire. Critics provide cultural context. Critics can also ruin. But critics do more than explain, they offer a viewpoint - a way of seeing. They bring out things we, as biased fans, as haters with or own subjective agendas, as overwhelmed consumers may have missed in our rush to live our lives while finding new content to bring into those lives. Critics help us understand art and by extension the world we live in. Critics educate us and in educating us, they (and we) make art better. Hopper's work should be considered alongside names like Greil Marcus, Chuck Klosterman, Lester Bangs, Ellen Wills, Dave Marsh and Robert Christgau. She is a critic whose writing can challenge us as only something that offers us the truth can.
Night Nurse #1
by Jean Thomas / Winslow Mortimer / Alex Maleev / various
If you were watching the Netflix Daredevil series and were wondering who is that character Rosario Dawson was playing, well, it's sort of a hybrid character. But part of that hybrid is Night Nurse: Hell's Kitchen's vigilante fixer-upper. Marvel collects some of this quirky character's stories here in this over-sized special one-shot.
Wuvable Oaf
by Ed Luce
Ed Luce's great comic Wuvable Oaf is collected here in a nice, slightly over-sized hardcover edition. Oaf is an ex-wrestler and a bear who most likely suffers from toxoplasmosis (given his love for cats). There's romance, there's the San Francisco music scene, and there are cats. So many cats...
Questions, concerns, comments or gripes – e-mail benn@atomicbooks.com. If there’s a comic I should know about, send it my way at Atomic, c/o Atomic Books 3620 Falls Rd., Baltimore, MD 21211.
Atomic Books & Benn Ray links:
Atomic Books website
Atomic Books on Twitter
Atomic Books on Facebook
Benn Ray's blog (The Mobtown Shank)
Benn Ray's comic, Mutant Funnies
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Atomic Books Comics Preview lists (weekly new comics & graphic novel highlights)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week (recommended new books, magazines, and comics)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)
WORD Bookstores Books of the Week (weekly new book highlights)
