Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
It’s too hot to do anything, right? It’s so hot that the paint is melting off of your canvases and your energy just oozes out of your pores with your sweat. The only thing you want to do is lay down in a cool place …and read. But your eyes want more to look at than endless pages of printed words or endless text on your Kindle, so this post will recommend several art books and comics for the artistically inclined! Elfworld Volume 1 Compiled by artist Jeffrey Brown and edited by Francois Vigneault, the long-awaited indie-comics fantasy anthology is now available! This first volume compiles individual stories of sword and sorcery with art from artists like Jeffrey Brown, Martin Cendera, Jesse Reklaw, Ron Regè, Jr., Souther Salazar, Matt Wiegle, Sean Collins, Grant Reynolds and many others. Some stories are comedic while others pull you into an intricate world where sword and sorcery rule. Each story contains its own array of magical creatures and battle-scarred heroes, pulling you into a different realm that existed long ago. These are indie comics with a fantasy twist! Andy Hartzell – Fox Bunny Funny The rules are simple: you’re either a fox or a bunny. Foxes oppress and devour, bunnies suffer and die. Everyone knows their place. Everyone’s satisfied. So what happens when a secret desire puts you at odds with your society? Starting from a simple premise — and without using a single word — Fox Bunny Funny leads the reader on a zigzag chase in and out of rabbit holes, and through increasingly strange landscapes where funny animals have serious identity problems. The tale swerves from slapstick to horror and back again before landing at the inevitable climax, in which all the old rules are shattered. When you emerge, you’ll find yourself gazing at our own fragmenting society with new eyes. High Soft Lisp Five six. Hundred twenty-eight pounds. Forty-three twenty-two thirty-sex. High soft lisp. Genius level I.Q. Meet the enchanting Rosalba “Fritz” Martinez, half-sister to the legendary Luba, in this latest volume of never-before collected work from Gilbert Hernandez. High Soft Lisp is the chronicle of her lives and loves, from punkette to psychiatrist and all the way to “Z” movie star. Featuring an eclectic cast of Hernandez-created eccentrics including motivational speaker Mark Herrera, slobby rock n’ roller Scott “The Hog,” and high school nerd turned obsessive bodybuilder Enrique Escobar, High Soft Lisp is one of Hernandez’s sexiest, funniest, and most freewheeling story collections. Check out more new and favorite comics [HERE].
Continue reading
The Japanese American National Museum is hosting an exhibition of the work of Stan Sakai, the creator of Usagi Yojimbo. The rabbit samurai character is an often forgotten about property in the scheme of educational comics. Perhaps it’s because it’s American created versus Japan, but it does use Japanese history. Maybe it’s because of it’s time period and it being overshadowed by Maus, and a slew of comics about WWII Japan. Yet JANM is covering it. It begins July 9th and he’ll be doing a talk at 2pm. Check out more at (JANM – Stan Sakai)
Continue reading
Viewers with a keen eye might have pinpointed something peculiar about the Captain America: The First Avenger trailer broadcasted during Super Bowl XLV. One of the men escorting Captain America was of Asian descent. The man is a character named Jim Morita of The Howling Commandos, an elite special unit in the Marvel Universe formed during World War II. Morita first appeared in “Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #38” in January, 1967, and led his own separate division called “The Nisei Squadron.” Unlike the Howling Commandos, or even Captain America for that matter, the basis of the squadron isn’t steeped in fiction. It’s likely that the 442nd Regiment of World War II served as the inspiration for Morita’s Nisei Squadron during its first inception. The 442nd Regiment was a segregated unit comprised mostly of Japanese Americans during World War II. They fought against the Axis in Europe while their relatives and families were interned during the relocation. Kenneth Choi, the actor portraying Jim Morita, even stated himself in an interview that he researched the regiment and drew upon it to form a more factual basis for his character. We’re just glad that unlike a certain director, Marvel decided not to White Wash its own movie continuity. Captain America: The First Avenger opens in theaters on July 22, 2011.
Continue reading