Ken Meyer Jr. has been an illustrator for over 25 years. His work has appeared in comic books from Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, Revolutionary, Caliber and many others. His work has also appeared in games such as Magic the Gathering, Vampire the Masquerade and in countless other game books and cards.

He has been nominated for an Eisner award, the highest award in the comics industry. His dramatically lit images have enthralled fans around the world and this is the first collection of his work. See 92 pages of incredible imagery, comments from the artist and progressions from sketch to final art, including reference photos.

If you love fantasy, if you love the macabre, if you just love beautiful painted images, this is the book for you!

Tina Fey is many things. Writer. Producer. Golden Globe and Emmy winner. Academy Award presenter. Improvisationalist. Pennsylvanian. Star Wars enthusiast.

And now the subject of the latest in Bluewater's Female Force series in this light-hearted look at the lovely and talented creator of 30 Rock.

He has been called "the most dangerous man in America" as well as "the leader of a vast Right Wing Conspiracy." And many politicians, news pundits and commentators have asked, "Is he good for America?"

Those questions are discussed, as well as the revealing story of how a simple football fan from Missouri changed not only the faces of the news industry and radio industry, but with the help of 20 million listeners a week, Rush Limbaugh changed the face of modern politics.

"Johnny Space Commander, saving the universe one ridiculous siuation after another!"

Johnny and Dick meet Doc Zola! Our heroes are called to Kleebax to fight off the invincible space horde called "The Lunar Legion of Yesterday!" Oh yeah, there is also the matter of the most powerful weapon in the universe! The SEX robot!

NEW CREATIVE TEAM! BOLD NEW DIRECTION!

“THE CRACK IN EVERYTHING,” Part Three

At home, Jackie remains blissfully unaware of the rot growing under the surface of his perfect family life. But at the office, he’s painfully aware that the cold war brewing between him and the Bulgarian mafia is about to boil over. Hot on the heels of THE DARKNESS II video game release, Top Cow proudly welcomes the new creative team of DAVID HINE (THE DARKNESS: FOUR HORSEMEN, THE BULLETPROOF COFFIN) and JEREMY HAUN (ARTIFACTS, BATTLE HYMN, Detective Comics)!

As a special bonus get Berserker #1 free from Top Cow and DriveThruComics.com!

The Darkness created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis, and David Wohl.

"SEARCH FOR THE ANGELUS," Part Four

Tom Judge and Tilly Grimes were prepared that not all the bearers of the 13 Artifacts would be receptive to their call to action. They even anticipated that it would shake some to the core. But they never expected what came next. RON MARZ (MAGDALENA, SHINKU) and STJEPAN SEJIC (ANGELUS) continue the story of the Top Cow Universe in directions that will top everything that has come before!

As a special bonus get the Darkness Pitt #2 free from Top Cow and DriveThruComics.com!

A common misconception is that professors who use popular culture and fantasy in the classroom have abandoned the classics, yet in a variety of contexts--high school, college freshman composition, senior seminars, literature, computer science, philosophy and politics--fantasy materials can expand and enrich an established curriculum.

The new essays in this book combine analyses of popular television shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer; such films as The Matrix, The Dark Knight and Twilight; Watchmen and other graphic novels; and video games with explanations of how best to use them in the classroom. With experience-based anecdotes and suggestions for curricula, this collection provides a valuable pedagogy of pop culture.

In the 1950s and '60s, a grassroots movement arose to celebrate comic books and strips, which were becoming increasingly important to American popular culture. This broad group of ardent readers and collectors had little formal structure until the 1950s. As the art and literary form grew in popularity, a dedicated core began building an organized network.

Profiled here are 90 people at the heart of the movement: indexers, dealers, fanzine publishers, convention organizers, writers, artists, active collectors and industry professionals.

From his first comic-book appearance in 1939 through his many incarnations on the big screen, the archetypal superhero known as The Batman has never been far from the American consciousness. The character shaped the way we read comics and graphic novels, view motion pictures, and analyze the motifs of the Hero, the Anti-Hero and the Villain. He has also captured the scholarly imagination, telling us much about our society and ourselves.

These essays examine how Batman is both the canvas on which our cultural identity is painted, and the Eternal Other that informs our own journeys of understanding.

Questions relating to a wide range of disciplines--philosophy, literature, psychology, pop culture, and more--are thoroughly and entertainingly explored, in a manner that will appeal both to scholars and to fans of the Caped Crusader alike.

Ask Not What Your Country Could Do For you. Ask What It Could Do To You.

John Cruise — better known as the superpowered delta Patriot — only wanted to serve his country, which has suffered under martial law since the assassination of the First Lady back in 1963. For years, he did so as a member of Delta Prime, the federal paramilitary organization dedicated to keeping deltas and the rest of the population in line. Then, during the Bicentennial Battle, Chicago disappeared in a blinding flash of light, taking the world’s most powerful deltas with it, along with Patriot’s wife.

Today, in 1999, Patriot leads a group of rebel deltas known as the Defiance, all of whom are on the run from Delta Prime. He hopes to find a way to break scores of their imprisoned friends out of New Alcatraz, the only place on the planet strong enough to hold them all. But then, while rescuing college student Lisa Stanski from a pack of Primers, the unthinkable happens.

Patriot gets caught.

Now it’s up to the rest of the Defiance, including Lisa, to figure out how to break Patriot out of New Alcatraz before his old pal Ragnarok, now the leader of Delta Prime, has him executed without trial, under the direct orders of President John F. Kennedy himself. 

"Johnny Space Commander, saving the universe one ridiculous siuation after another!"

Johnny and Dick answer a distress signal, only to find all is not what it appears to be! Featuring the return of Butthead! (I realize this is the first issue, so someone can't technically return; so, we'll get to the back story later... maybe.

Download Location of the Week: Walla Walla, WA

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Reviews
FCBD: Mouse Guard, Labyrinth and Other Stories
FCBD: Superman Family Adventures
FCBD: Bad Medicine #1
FCBD: Bongo Coics Free For All

Out of the Longbox
Rogue Trooper #1

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A compilation of short, all-ages comics stories, BREAKOUT! was created as a showcase for up-and-coming indie writers and artists in Canada. This full-colour issue features a grab bag of stories about hippie wizards, 2D private eyes, swingin' space crooners, suburban monsters and even a very strange true story from history...

This is a PDF file, viewable with Adobe Reader and other programs.

Although the idea that graphic narratives represent an important literary form is still debated in academic circles, in recent years comics scholarship has emerged into wider contexts.

This collection of new essays considers various literary approaches to graphic narrative and sequential art. The authors examine the politics of comic form and narrative, the ways in which graphic narrative and sequential art "cross over" into other forms and genres, and how these articulations challenge the ways we read and interpret texts.

By bringing literary theory to bear on graphic narrative and balancing readings of individual texts with larger ideas about comics scholarship as a whole, this work expands our understanding of the form itself and its engagement with political culture.

This is a graphic biography of Fred Hutchinson, one of baseball's most beloved men. Hutch enjoyed a successful big league career, first as an All-Star pitcher for the Tigers and later as a pennant-winning manager with the Reds. And he is remembered for his final major league summer and a season he didn't finish. In the winter of 1963, after three straight winning seasons as manager of the Reds, Hutchinson was diagnosed with cancer.

The former Navy man chose to stay on as manager for as long as he could. Steadily worsening, he guided the club through spring training and the first four months of the regular season. He was hospitalized in late July but after little more than a week he returned for another nine games as the 1964 pennant chase heated up. After relinquishing his post in mid-August, he returned to spend the final day of the season with his team, whose postseason hopes had come down to the final weekend. He died just over a month later.

Major League Baseball has given the Hutch Award every year since 1965, honoring the player who exhibits the courage, dedication and competitiveness of Fred Hutchinson.

Faced with a tiny cupcake and lackluster meal Naomi uses a forbidden shrinking spell. She enters a fantastical world of food-landscape where she performs a culinary obstacle coarse on her path to frosting. Sweat-stuffed and tired she decides to return to regular size. But that's a spell she doesn't know!

Superhero films are one of the most enduring genres of cinema, and their popularity is only increasing in the 21st century.

These ten critical essays explore the phenomenon through the lenses of numerous academic disciplines, and cover topics such as the role of globalization in the formation of superhero narratives, the shifting nature of masculinity and femininity in the superhero world and the state of the genre today.

Of particular interest is the way these narratives, however fantastic, abstract, futuristic or simplistic, resonate with specific events in the world and function as starting points for discussion of contemporary sociopolitical conflicts.

That notorious evening at Villa Diodati when Lord Byron challenged his contemporaries to write a ghost story, his summons brought forth a mad doctor intent on reanimation and a vampire drunk with bloodlust.

The night modern horror was born was notoriously dark and stormy, as were the lives of those who wrote the most fearsome--yet beloved--tales in literature, for those so gifted were also cursed.

Horrors, a graphic novel, reveals in gruesome detail how Mary Wollstonecraft, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe and other masters of the genre were haunted by their monstrous creations.

These essays from various critical disciplines examine how comic books and graphic narratives move between various media, while merging youth and adult cultures and popular and high art.

The articles feature international perspectives on comics and graphic novels published in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Portugal, Germany, Turkey, India, and Japan. Topics range from film adaptation, to journalism in comics, to the current manga boom.

A significant expansion of the critically acclaimed first edition, Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History, 2d ed., carries the story of  the Kanter family's series of comics-style adaptations of literary masterpieces from 1941 into the 21st century.

This book features additional material on the 70-year history of Classics Illustrated and the careers and contributions of such artists as Alex A. Blum, Lou Cameron, George Evans, Henry C. Kiefer, Gray Morrow, Rudolph Palais, and Louis Zansky. New chapters cover the recent Jack Lake and Papercutz revivals of the series, the evolution of Classics collecting, and the unsung role of William Kanter in advancing the fortunes of his father Albert's worldwide enterprise. Enhancing the lively account of the growth of "the World's Finest Juvenile Publication" are new interviews and correspondence with editor Helene Lecar, publicist Eleanor Lidofsky, artist Mort Kunstler, and the founder's grandson John "Buzz" Kanter. Detailed appendices provide artist attributions, issue contents and, for the principal Classics Illustrated-related series, a listing of each printing identified by month, year, and highest reorder number. New U.S., Canadian and British series have been added.

More than 300 illustrations--most of them new to this edition--include photographs of artists and production staff, comic-book covers and interiors, and a substantial number of original cover paintings and line drawings.

For more than 60 years, Captain America was one of Marvel Comics' flagship characters, representing truth, strength, liberty, and justice. The assassination of his alter ego, Steve Rogers, rocked the comic world, leaving numerous questions about his life and death.

This book discusses topics including the representation of Nazi Germany in Captain America Comics from the 1940s to the 1960s; the creation of Captain America in light of the Jewish American experience; the relationship between Captain America and UK Marvel's Captain Britain; the groundbreaking partnership between Captain America and African American superhero the Falcon; and the attempts made to kill the character before his "real" death.

"Boys' love," a male-male homoerotic genre written primarily by women for women, enjoys global popularity and is one of the most rapidly growing publishing niches in the United States. It is found in manga, anime, novels, movies, electronic games, and fan-created fiction, artwork, and video.

This collection of 14 essays addresses boys' love as it has been received and modified by fans outside Japan as a commodity, controversy, and culture.

Newsdesk
Letter writing campaign for Witch Hunter
Previews Guide--upcoming releases

Reviews
The Almighties #1
Popeye #1

Boob Tube Bonanza
Bob’s Burgers
New Girl
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Gametime
Walking Dead: A New Day
Star Wars Kinect (XBox 360)

Creator Spotlight: Joe Caramagna
Brian spoke with our good friend and letterer extraordinaire about the new series of young reader novels he’s writing. You can order the Amazing Spider-Man: Behind the Mask at Amazon right now (http://tinyurl.com/d6qq6pw).

Send comments to sipodcast@comcast.net OR secretidentityradio@gmail.com. Leave us a voicemail at 860-698-0468. Check out www.secretidentitypodcast.com for all things Secret Identity.