Paul's Picks! - R.I.P.D.: City of the Damned (Dark Horse Comics)

Hey guys, Paul here. Over the past few months, there has been a surge of increased activity for the guys over here at AC, and we couldn't be more excited about it. To name a few: we've recently shattered all of our records concerning downloads of the Ancillary Characters Podcast (thanks to you guys)! We've welcomed a new member into the fold here at ancillarycharacters.com in the form of our good friend Dan, or as you might know him, @penooch on Twitter. (Check out his new column "Brand New Feature," it's a fantastic read.) And finally, we've recently been welcomed by a handful of publishers to review advanced copies of books that they are publishing, from Action Lab Comics to Dark Horse, and we couldn't be more humbled or excited for these exciting opportunities. Things are really taking off for the Ancillary Characters, and we owe it all to you guys. Thanks.

And in honor of these new opportunities, I'm bringing you another one of Paul's Picks, in the form of an advanced review of...

R.I.P.D.: City of the Damned (Dark Horse Comics) with writing by Jeremy Barlow and Peter Lenkov, art by Tony Parker, and colors by Michelle Madsen.

R.I.P.D. is based on two protagonists, Roy Pulsipher and Nick Walker. The two men served as law enforcement while they lived, and after death they were enlisted into the Rest In Peace Department. The R.I.P.D. is a police organization of dead men, sent around the world to protect the living and bring the rogue dead to justice. In this particular trade paperback, the reader is given the origin of Roy, who will be played by Jeff Bridges in the upcoming film based on the R.I.P.D. property. In fact, this was a large part of my own motivation for reading this book. If you've seen the trailer for movie, also starring Ryan Reynolds as Nick, then this book is a great place to get a taste of what you might expect.

G.I. JOE #1 & #2 / G.I. JOE: Special Missions #1

G.I. Joe has been launched, and relaunched more times than any other title in the history of comics. This is a fact.

Interestingly enough we're getting the third relaunch under the watchful eye of publisher IDW. This time out Fred Van Lente and artist Steve Kurth are at the helm. While Kurth is a relative unknown, Van Lente is one of the more prominent writers to take a stab at a JOE title since Max Brooks wrote the Hearts & Minds miniseries. The series launched last month to a fairly substantial amount of fanfare and relatively solid reviews. 

Our story picks up where the previous JOE incarnation ended. With JOE's previously-secret identity now made public by Cobra, the government decides to bring the "highly trained special missions force" into the modern era. They do this by essentially turning them into a "highly trained, special PR campaign", which pleases none of the veterans, particularly team leader Duke. 

Meanwhile a town called Warrenton, Ohio (obviously our villains have a thing for Ohio as they've previously gained ground in Springfield, Ohio as well) has been overtaken by the "ruthless criminal organization" known as Cobra. General Colton dispatches Duke and his hand picked team of soldiers to the town in an effort to stop Cobra's first real showing on American soil in quite some time. The team is comprised mostly of recognizable JOE characters with the exception of a legacy character and, unfortunately, a new one called Hashtag. The team hits the streets of Warrenton where they're quickly attacked by the locals with everything from rocket launchers to machine guns and from there the action escalates.

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

You can now hear our interview with Lucy right here...

What is Relish? Not the condiment eaten on a Chicago-styled hot dog (although that does sound delicious) but rather the latest book by Lucy Knisley. Is it an auto-bio graphic novel or an illustrated cook book? Is it a travelogue or a cooking memoir? In truth, it's all these things. Relish opens with an adorably drawn panel of Lucy as a baby, clothed in a diaper, seated on the family's kitchen counter grasping a wheel of cheese. It ends in a panel of equal adorableness with Lucy as an adult, eating carrots in her own kitchen with a smile etched on her face as she tells us to face life with "Relish".

In between these panels we get a tome chock full of anecdotes, short stories and, yes, recipes that have helped shape Lucy's life.

For any follower of hers it's always a treat when a new Lucy Knisley book hits the shelves. Whether it's the short and sweet comic strips of Radiator Days or the enticing recounting of her trip abroad in the similarly food-themed French Milk, her work never disappoints and consistently shows growth into not just an wonderful cartoonist but into an equally capable writer. Perhaps the growth can be attributed to the independent nature of her work. She is, after all, responsible for the creative content of Relish, from the words to the pictures and unlike some artists who illustrate their own writing, she has a wonderful eye for what to show and what to tell.

Paul's Picks! - September 19, 2012

Well, it's that time again folks: Wednesday! And you know what Wednesday is?... Well, of course you do, you're reading a blog about comics, so you obviously know it's New Comics Day, a.k.a. Paul's favorite weekly holiday! And now for his much-anticipated pick-of-the-week...

Hey guys! Sorry about the delay on this weeks Pick, I'm in the heat of classes, so I'm afraid there may be a few weeks throughout the semester when my column may slip back a day or two... But don't worry, I'll be certain to get a pick up every week, barring any excessive hindrances.

Throwing out my usual blurb leading into my pick of the week, lets just get right into comics, shall we? My absolute pick of the week (as spoiled by this weeks episode of the podcast) is...

Tales from the Long Box: Is Marvel Winning the Comic Book Wars?

Every week Seth goes into his back issue bins, picks out a single issue, story arc, or creative run, pours through it and then writes about it. He calls it Tales from the Long Box. Though old and now either retconned out of existence or made irrelevant by the latest event, these books still share something in common... they're bagged, boarded, and a part of comics history.

Is Marvel Winning the Comic Book Wars?

On the most recent episode of our podcast (out now) we were sent an e-mail by faithful listener Michael/@Ctcher asking us if we believed, like him, that Marvel is currently the better company. He mentioned the depth of Marvel's character roster as well as their stable of creative talent. Paul and I got into it a little bit on the show but I felt I had more to say on the subject. So here is me saying more on the subject.

For my part, the importance is always placed on the creators. Sure I love Batman but plenty of bad writers have written awful Batman stories. This was a lesson I learned when I first started reading comics regularly. It all comes down to the creators. When you look at the big guns at Marvel, names like Hickman, Bendis, Fraction, Brubaker, Aaron, Loeb (regardless of how you feel about his work, he's still a big draw for many people), Zeb Wells, Waid... I could go on. At DC you have Johns, Morrison, Lemire, Snyder... I guess you could toss Gail Simone in there but she's only writing one title currently. This isn't to say there aren't more solid writers at either company; there are. But these are the guys who will sell a comic based on name recognition alone.

Paul's Picks - July 11, 2012

Well, it's that time again folks: Wednesday! And you know what Wednesday is?... Well, of course you do, you're reading a blog about comics, so you obviously know it's New Comics Day, a.k.a. Paul's favorite weekly holiday! And now for his much-anticipated pick-of-the-week...

Wow. I have to start off by saying, I'm sorry. That is, I'm sorry to all of you faithful readers who have come back to my column on multiple occasions to read my weekly pick, only to find that there has been complete silence on my end over the last month or so. And while Seth and I owe much thanks to Mr. Allen Boone for keeping the blog going with his always-entertaining "Weekly Roundup," there is a Pick-shaped hole in the content we've been providing you on the blog. I'm in the craziest part of summer, and responsibilities from the real world have kept me tied up to the extent that I haven't been able to make time for Paul's Picks...

But never fear, the drought has ended! While we Ancillary Characters have certainly been keeping everyone up to date with our weekly podcast, – which KILLED IT in downloads last month! Thanks everyone – we will hopefully be bringing you a consistent, quality output of comic-related goodies going forward. I'm back with a vengeance, and I'm here to deliver a pick alongside a review for the one book that has made the biggest impression on me so far this summer, if not since the beginning of the year. And that title is...

Paul's Picks! - May 9, 2012

Well, it's that time again folks: Wednesday! And you know what Wednesday is?... Well, of course you do, you're reading a blog about comics, so you obviously know it's New Comics Day, a.k.a. Paul's favorite weekly holiday! And now for his much-anticipated pick-of-the-week...

What a Wednesday! It's late Thursday night, and I'm a little bit tardy on my column for this week. It's been a long day, but after putting some grueling final exams behind me, I'm racing into summer break with reckless abandon! I'm looking at a coming week full of quality time with a massive stack of trades and hardbacks, along with my usual week's pulls, and I can't wait. But for now, I have my pick from this week ready for you all, and if you're guessing what it's going to be you're probably going to off...

Buy This! - May 9th, 2012

Another week, more comics. Hopefully everyone hit their local shops this past Saturday for Free Comic Book Day. I was amazed and delighted by the offerings at Bill's Books here in Canton. I scored a free t-shirt, bought a couple hardcovers at 50% off and, obviously, left with loads of free books. I was especially impressed with Archaia's hardcover sampler. Props to those publishers who took the time and effort to actually create new content for FCBD (Dark Horse, DC) and shame on those who didn't bother... *cough* Marvel *cough*

Big thanks to all the retailers out there who throw their hard-earned dime behind funding FCBD as well. I hope it pays off. Judging by the size of the crowd at my local shop I'm guessing for some it will.