June 17th, 2009

It would seem that, thankfully, Jonathan Hickman hasn’t been completely devoured by his new Marvel overlords, and eight months since issue #2 shipped, A Red Mass For Mars #3 is finally coming out — TODAY! My copy won’t arrive until next week, but I thought I’d throw out a reminder. If you aren’t familiar with A Red Mass For Mars, I first wrote about it for Comic Tips almost a year ago, before Comic Tips was even a thing.

April 2nd, 2009

Transhuman Vol. 1Transhuman is a four-issue science fiction comic book mini-series written by Jonathan Hickman, with art by J.M. Ringuet, published by Image Comics. It was collected into a trade paperback in January 2009.

Transhuman is a story about genetic engineering in humans told in the style of a mockumentary. Think This Is Spinal Tap, but not hilarious. Although a certain dark humor is apparent throughout, Transhuman takes a more serious tone as narrator Heinrich Dowidat guides readers through the story of two corporations racing to upgrade Humans to Posthumans. Along the way Heinrich gets first-hand accounts from the scientists, the suits, and test subjects that were involved in the genetic enhancement projects. Ultimately, Transhuman is a story about people, their ambitions, their hidden agendas, their politics, their spite, and their greed. It’s about capitalism.

Transhuman, just as Jonathan Hickman’s other works, blew my mind. Though beautifully illustrated by J.M. Ringuet, the book also features several of the signature layouts that Hickman’s books are famous for. Just as is the case with The Nightly News and the unfortunately scheduled A Red Mass For Mars, I can’t recommend Transhuman highly enough.

August 1st, 2008

Once in a while I stumble upon a comic creator that is so good at what they do that it’s very difficult not to obsess over them for a good long while. This has happened to me in the past with Garth Ennis, Robert Kirkman, Jay Faerber, and now it’s happening again with Jonathan Hickman. My initial experience with his creations was through the first issue of Transhuman that I pulled on a lark because the idea of a mockumentary comic sounded novel and the cover was interesting. Now I simply cannot get enough of this man’s work, and that’s unfortunate since most of it – including Transhuman as well as A Red Mass For Mars – has been heavily delayed.

Jonathan Hickman has completed one mini series so far, however, called The Nightly News. The original 6 issues first shipped between November of 2006 and July of 2007. Unfortunately, I was late to the party and didn’t find out about the book until I visited Hickman’s website, but I immediately put in an order for the trade paperback. It arrived this week.
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June 24th, 2008

In lieu of a game recommendation this week, as various recording software is strongly disagreeing with the games which I’m trying to cover, I’m going to talk about what I think may be relevant to the interests of those who normally read my posts. Comics! Rather, *a* comic. I may do more of these types of posts every now and then instead of games posts since they don’t rely so heavily on technical things working out perfectly. I may not need to include video in every post, but I really want to. I don’t feel I’ve made a full post unless I do. But I may not always have it from now on. Fair warning!
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