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NEW COMICS will be out WEDNESDAY March 14th
Thanks to EVERYONE that attended our very first
LADIES NIGHT at our CHICAGO LOOP
location! Turn out was great and everyone seemed to have a good
time!
We will be making this a MONTHLY event at the store, setting aside the
FIRST WEDNESDAY of every month from 6pm-8pm for LADIES NIGHT!
____________________________________________
Special thanks to
Hannah
Chapman for idea, organizing, and basically making the
whole event happen! Next months will be even better!
Have a great weekend!
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HERO INITIATIVE MEMBERSHIP DRIVE 2012
Meet & greet with JUSTICE LEAGUE #7 artist
GENE HA!
SATURDAY, MARCH 24th
@ Graham Crackers Comics, Plainfield
5pm - 7:30pm
Meet Artist Gene Ha (Top Ten, Flashpoint: Project
Superman,
the upcoming Justice League #7 -released that very week)
and help support the HERO INITIATIVE!
There will be snacks, refreshments, and pizza provided to all
participants.
There are two levels of participation for this event:
For $29 you get a HERO Initiative
one-year membership plus the meet and greet with Gene
or
For $99, a Silver HERO one-year membership,
a FREE New Avengers 100 Project book, discounts on HERO merchandise, and
a head sketch
(of any one character of your choice) from Gene!
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at GRAHAM CRACKERS COMICS of
NAPERVILLE
this WEDNESDAY at 6:30pm
Dungeons and Dragons Encounters GCC
Style!
While it’s not an official D&D encounters session, to begin with, it
will have all the same elements as the current encounters season. Think
of it as the pre-season till we kick the official campaign in May.
So what is D&D Encounters?
* -It’s a quick battle with the current D&D 4th edition rules that can be
played in about 60 to 90 minutes.
* - Great for
gamers that want to get some Orc bashing in but
don’t have time to devote 4-6 hours a week to gaming.
* - Best of
all you don’t have to show up each week to get in on the action! If you
can make it weekly cool, once a month cool, that’s the beauty of the
Encounters system.
This
Wednesday at 6:30 in our Naperville
location and we will have pre generated characters for you to use so all
you have to do is show up! See ya there! |
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REVIEWS of RECENT BOOKS
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Villains for Hire #4
story by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
art by Renato Arlem
reviewed by John 'Doc' Schaefer
The wonderfully entertaining conclusion to this 4 issue mini
leaves you wanting more. Killgrave, the Puppet Master, Misty Knight
bring us a complete ending that not only answers all of our questions
but does it in an enjoyable fashion. With all the double crosses and
double, double crosses, and double, double, double crosses, it all still
makes sense. And the best part of all of it is that it's so traditional.
All the bad guys go to jail, good guy gets to kiss good girl, and old
villain gets to reform.
The characters are handled well and the fight scenes are wonderfully
minimalistic. And the good news is that Misty (whom has been in the
Marvel Universe background since the 70's is still going to be around as
the blurb at the end of the book tells us. Want to know where? Hah, no
spoilers here! Buy the book and find out for yourselves.
$2.99 / MARVEL Comics
8
out of 10 Grahams
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Manhattan Projects #1
story by Jonathan Hickman
art by Nick Pitarra
reviewed by Kirk Jackson
How many of you out there are lovers of historical
science fiction? Well then, how many of you love a good psychotic
killer? If you raised your hand to either question, Mr. Jonathan Hickman
has a treat in store for you!
As the name suggests, this story uses as its setting the World War 2 era
scientific project that gave us the very first Atom Bomb. In Hickman’s
twisted version of history however, the Manhattan Project not only won
the atomic race for America, but also served as a cover for the weirdest
of weird science experiments known to man. This is why the name of our
comic is pluralized: there are many projects that comprise the
“Manhattan Project,” all of which are as ambitious as the one meant to
produce “the bomb”.
Imagine then, the man brilliant enough to oversee such a project. Enter
Robert Oppenheimer, the co-father (with Enrico Fermi) of the Atomic
Bomb. Then imagine for a second that this man had a mentally unstable
twin brother. Now perhaps you can realize the implications.
The layouts Hickman and Pitarra give us read like a simple cause-effect
analysis of a situation with the most dire consequences possible. The
layouts are even and symmetrical, designed to read like a disaster
preparedness manual. The matter of fact presentation of the events as
they unfold make them all the more chilling.
Pitarra’s pencils bring the detail and texture one has come to
expect of artists such as Frank Quietly and Chris Burnham. His facial
expressions are dynamic and his action scenes, exciting. Perhaps some of
his figures could be a bit cleaner, but honestly, I feel they would lose
a lot of character for it.
All in all, the Manhattan Projects is the best kind of historical
fiction. It re-imagines historical events in a way that makes us
re-examine those events from a fresh perspective. Sure, we came out ok
on the other side of the atomic age, but just how lucky were we to avoid
disaster?
I’m eager to see how Hickman’s history answers that question!
$2.99 /
IMAGE Comics
9
out of 10 Grahams
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Avengers Childrens
Crusade #9
story by Alan Heinberg
art by Jim Cheung
reviewed by
John 'Doc' Schaefer
Finally, the epic conclusion ends after delay after
delay and I am left feeling cheated. With all the hype, you know...
Young Avengers, the Return of the Scarlet Witch, the marriage of Doctor
Doom, etc ! I thought I'd get a lot more out of this. Get ready for some
mega spoilers here! Doom doesn't get married. The Young Avengers
disband. Cyclops holds a grudge and doesn't want Wanda dead now but
wants her to live in mental agony forever. A Magneto, Quicksilver,
Scarlet Witch reunion. Wanda goes her separate way and right into the
next big mini-series. Ant Man returns to life, his daughter dies in his
place. The Vision dies again. A new version of Kang will rise from the
ashes. In essence, nothing we haven't seen before over and over again!
The big question here is "Is this the real ending Heinberg
had in mind when he started this or did the evil time altering corporate
execs at Marvel rewrite history to accommodate a future storyline in
some other million issue crossover extravaganza! Good news, the Scarlet
Witch is back. The bad news is it really doesn't matter.
$3.99 /
MARVEL Comics
6
out of 10 Grahams
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Fairest #1
story by Bill Willingham
art by Phil Jimenez
reviewed by John 'Doc' Schaefer
So
far Fables has begat several successful spin-off series. My favorite
being the first Cinderella mini-series. And now the boys and girls in
the lands beyond present us with this little gem. However, beware this
is not some Grimm Fairy Tales knock-off, no matter how beautiful the
cover is. The focus of the story may be the women of Fables but there is
an intricate storyline to this book. The first issue actually picks up
on a story thread from Fables #107 and features the rogue known as Ali
Baba and his new bottle imp pal Jonah Panghammer. The first girls
actually appear is on like page 17. So what we have here is an
interesting dichotomy of a book. If you read the preorder ads and saw
the cover, you were looking forward to a book devoting itself to the hot
babes of the Fables universe. However, after you get past the cover, you
get the beginning of a fascinating storyline that means you actually
have to read the words on the page and not just stare at the pictures.
Well played, Clerks! Well played! And it would be a crime not to mention
the exquisite Adam Hughes Cover! Zounds!
$2.99 / DC Comics
9
out of 10 Grahams
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Night Force #1
story by Marv Wolfman
art by Tom Mandrake
reviewed by John 'Doc' Schaefer
Hey gang, guess what ... another new
52 universe title (but don't worry it's just a mini-series.) ! I believe
there are now 467 titles in the "New 52" universe. (Now that 6 titles
have been officially cancelled after only 8 issues does that mean that
mini-series count as series? Makes you wonder?) The good news is that DC
has picked a good title to revive. Night Force went through both the
80's and the 90's as the sort of X-files of the DC universe at that
time. For those of you unfamiliar with Night Force lets Dick and Jane
it.
Creepy house with paranormal powers owned and operated by b&st*rd Baron
Winters. (Now re-imagined as a younger b&st*rd.) The Baron knows that
bad things happen and gets involved when he has to. Problem is he can't
really operate in the real world. So he borrows, (kidnaps is such a
dirty world) normal joes like you and me whom he can sense have some
special property that will be useful. (No! Not like heat vision or junk
like that! Stuff like can see evil creatures in the ether or is blessed
cause his great uncle was a shaman.) And throw them at the evil.
This reimaging is no different younger Baron Winters knows something bad
is coming. So he grabs a cop trying to make his dad proud (lucky guess?)
and a girl who has escaped from devil worshipping cultist and starts
making some plans. Although I liked the idea of the return of Night
Force, it did make me wonder if this could be as badly botched up as the
I, Vampire series. But with Marv Wolfman (heh, get it horror title ...
Wolfman) and Tom Mandrake (heh, get it horror title ... Mandrake) I'm a
little more put at ease knowing that these stalwarts have made wonders
over their collective years in the comics field. Issue #1 is worth
taking a look
$2.99 / DC Comics
7
out of 10 Grahams
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