This week IDW Publishing revealed a new slate of original projects coming this July. It’s not quite the New Universe or the New 52. It doesn’t even have a clever new name, simply the “Originals.” It’s more like TKO Studios rolling out its first line of comic book series, only IDW Publishing has many years of projects in its portfolio. All-in expect nine new series–a few are short-term, limited series, while others are intended to be ongoing monthly series. You’ll also recognize at least a few of the creators in this new division of stories for IDW.
Our borgBest of 2020 list continues today with the Best in Comics and Games. If you missed them, check out our review of the Best Books of 2020 here, the Best Movies of 2020 here, the Kick-Ass Heroines of 2020 here, and the Best in Television 2020 here.
We reviewed comics from every major publisher this year, and were pleasantly surprised with all the new characters and content available. You’ll find both some new creators on the list this year and some fan favorites who keep making better comic books each new year. We also include some great games and more from 2020.
Let’s get started with The Best in Comics…
Best Comic Book Series – Bounty Hunters (Marvel Comics). Writer Ethan Sacks and artist Paolo Villanelli played with the entire Star Wars universe in a single series, bringing back the cyborg Valance and a host of our favorite bounty hunters. The result is a great series full of action and throwbacks.
Best Sci-Fi Comic Series, Best Limited Comic Book Series, Best Interior Artwork – Strayed(Dark Horse Comics) by writer Carlos Giffoni and artist Juan Doe. In the future a military-industrial complex reigns over all humanity and actively destroys distant alien worlds. The galaxy’s only hope can be found through an unlikely pair: an astral-projecting cat named Lou and his human Kiara. Honorable mention: Rogue Planet by writer Cullen Bunn and artists Andy MacDonald and Nick Filardi (Oni Press).
Arriving for the 35th anniversary of the musical, a new graphic novel will adapt Andrew Lloyd Webber’s long-running The Phantom of the Opera. Viewed by nearly 150 million people in 41 countries and 183 cities and translated into 17 languages, the musical ran 30 years in Europe and the U.S. Written by Cavan Scott (Star Wars Adventures, Doctor Who) with artwork by José María Beroy, the comic adaptation was delayed this year, but looks to be back on track to arrive in bookstores.
A DeLorean time machine Transformer? It’s like some kind of concept 35 years stuck out of time. And yet, the future is now–again. Back to the Future is back in the present, this time with Marty McFly stepping into another future, a future taken over by Transformers’ Decepticons. It’s a great mash-up idea and it actually works, as envisioned by IDW in its new mini-series, Transformers/Back to the Future. Issue #1 is now in comic book stores, and today we have a preview for borg readers.
Last week we discussed here at borg Titan Comics’ first volume of stories spinning out of History’s Vikings series. Vikings finished the 10-episode first half of its sixth season and the second half of its final season is expected late this year. The next graphic novel tie-in fans of the show should check out is Vikings: Uprising. This second book in the series features even more deception, strategy, and bloodshed than in the first. You’ll want to soak up these characters while you can. A rumored TV spin-off is expected to come to Netflix in the future, but that show will be a 24-episode series called Vikings: Valhalla, set a century after the original series. So the characters won’t be the same, but it will look similar as it will be filmed in the same location. Its focus is adventures of Leif Erikson, Freydis, Harald Hardrada, and the Norman king William the Conqueror.
As we look back on ten years of the best content we’ve covered at borg, it will be difficult to imagine the History channel’s Vikings not making our list of top television series for its faithful portrayal of historical and lore elements and its exciting drama. Vikings season 6 has wrapped up the 10-episode first half of its season and as the wait continues for the second half of its final season, Titan Comics has two graphic novels to keep fans’ thirst for more quenched. The first we’ll cover and preview today is Vikings: Godhead. If you like the characters developed in the show, or haven’t caught the series yet but are called to the Norse stories of axes, swords, and shields, this book is for you.
Jaxxon, the mercenary rabbit, first appeared in the original Marvel Comics Star Wars, Issue #8, published in November 1977. The issue was written and drawn by Howard Chaykin, co-written by Roy Thomas and inked by Tom Palmer. Jaxxon was a great character, and fit right in with that Star Wars cantina full of strange aliens in the original movie. Officially a Lepi smuggler working with Han Solo on an early job, a la Seven Samurai, Jaxxon was a 1970s early dose of snarky and cantankerous, a giant Harvey in a spacesuit with the attitude of Howard the Duck. He was tough, smart, and funny, and long before the third movie trilogy he was the first character we met who ate background characters (he hated carrots, but liked his dewback steaks).
If you missed last year’s annual for Marvel’s Star Wars Adventuresseries, you may not know Jaxxon is officially a canon character now. And he’s back this summer when the next comic book annual arrives from IDW Publishing. The creators promise plenty of Jaxxon in his next story, and even better, he’s featured on the cover. And it’s not just any cover, it’s a cover drawn by one of our all-time favorite artists, Stan Sakai, who readers of borg will have seen turn up recently in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Usagi Yojimbo, Radically Rearranged Ronin Ragdolls, and of course the series readers know him best for, the new reboot of his solo series Usagi Yojimbo.
Every creator at Marvel has seemed to want to bring Jaxxon back, from Jason Aaron to John Tyler Christopher, to Chip Zdarsky, with the artists featuring him on their variant covers for the main monthly series and tie-in titles, plus he made the recent non-canon Star Wars, Issue #108. The new, second annual story for the cartoony, young adult-focused Star Wars Adventures comes from the same team to bring Jaxxon back to the Marvel Comics pages last year, writer Cavan Scott and artist Alain Mauricet, this time pairing Jaxxon with Lando Calrissian on his next gig.
Here are just a few of those covers in case you missed them, and a preview:
Our borgBest of 2018 list continues today with the Best in Print. If you missed them, check out our review of the Best Movies of 2018 here, the Kick-Ass Heroines of 2018here, and the Best in Television 2018here.
So let’s get going. Here are our selections for this year’s Best in Print:
Best Read, Best Sci-fi Read – The Synapse Sequenceby Daniel Godfrey (Titan Books). The Synapse Sequence is one of those standout reads that reflects why we all flock to the latest new book in the first place. The detective mystery, the future mind travel tech, the twists, and the successful use of multiple perspectives made this one of the most engaging sci-fi reads since Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park. Honorable mention: Solo: A Star Wars Story novelization by Mur Lafferty (Del Rey).
Best Retro Read – Killing Townby Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime). The lost, first Mike Hammer novel released for the 100th anniversary of Mickey Spillane’s birth was gold for noir crime fans. This first Hammer story introduced an origin for a character that had never been released, in fact never finished, but Spillane’s late career partner on his work made a seamless read. This was the event of the year for the genre, and a fun ride for his famous character. Honorable mention: Help, I Am Being Held Prisoner, by Donald E. Westlake.
Best Tie-In Book – Solo: A Star Wars Story–Expanded Editionnovelization by Mur Lafferty (Del Rey). Not since Donald Glut’s novelization of The Empire Strikes Back had we encountered a Star Wars story as engaging as this one. Lafferty took the final film version and Lawrence and Jon Kasdan’s script to weave together something fuller than the film on-screen. Surprises and details moviegoers may have overlooked were revealed, and characters were introduced that didn’t make the final film cut. Better yet, the writing itself was exciting. We read more franchise tie-ins than ever before this year, and many were great reads, but this book had it all. Honorable Mention: Big Damn Heroby James Lovegrove (Titan).
Best Genre Non-fiction – Hitchcock’s Heroinesby Caroline Young (Insight Editions). A compelling look at the director and his relationship with the leading women in his films, this new work on Hitchcock was filled with information diehard fans of Hitchcock will not have seen before. Young incorporated behind-the-scenes images, costume sketches, and a detailed history of the circumstances behind key films of the master of suspense and his work with some of Hollywood’s finest performers.
There’s much more of our selections for 2018’s Best in Print to go…
Many books have called themselves the definitive guide to Doctor Who, but only one really can back it up. Five years ago the BBC tapped comic book writer Cavan Scott and Mark Wright to create the ultimate data source for the series’ 50th anniversary and the result was Doctor Who Who-ology: The Official Miscellany. It’s hard to believe five years have breezed by so quickly, but Scott and Wright are back again with an update in Doctor Who Who-ology: The Official Miscellany Regenerated Edition. Scott, writer of comic books and audio novels and one of the few people to have penned stories for Doctor Who and Star Wars and Star Trek, and Mark Wright, Doctor Who tie-in writer and audio actor, have filled in all the blanks leading up to the 11th Season (11th “Series” for British fans), coming this Fall.
So fans will find 55 years of encyclopedic information about everything Doctor Who in this 355-page hardcover brick of a book, nicely designed to represent the appearance of the TARDIS. For only a five-year span the updates to the 2013 edition are many, with updates representing David Bradley’s new stint as the 1st Doctor, the end of Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor, John Hurt’s appearance as the War Doctor, the entire run of Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor, and the beginning this past Christmas of Jodie Whittaker’s new 13th Doctor. Except for the 13th Doctor’s premiere appearance in this month’s Free Comic Book Day edition of the Doctor Who comic book, Who-ology looks to be the first book to feature Whittaker’s Doctor in an official Doctor Who publication.
Subject to the updates, the same design and organization that made Who-ology a British bestseller five years ago are back. A trivia guide representing both in-world information and real-world information, cross-references to actors, creators, and episodes of the series, plus references to the radio dramas, audio books, comic books and other tie-in stories will allow anyone to access answers to Whovian questions quickly. The scope and breadth of reference material demonstrates the reason why the series has so many fans. Do you want to see a complete list of all the famous celebrities and historical figures the Doctor has encountered? It’s broken down between people he only name-drops and personalities he encountered in his time travels throughout the series (from Alexander the Great to Shirley Bassey, and Nefertiti to Louis Pasteur). How about the Doctor’s explanations for all of Earth’s mysteries of the unknown, like the end of the dinosaurs, the fate of Atlantis, the abominable snowman, and the Loch Ness monster? And Who-ology isn’t just a big cold book of lists–Scott and Wright dig into the details of what makes all the incarnations of the Doctor and all their companions tick. It’s interesting stuff, tying in the four corners of pop culture fandom, including actors that appeared in both Doctor Who and the James Bond movies, Star Wars, Star Trek, and the Harry Potter movies.
TEKKEN is a fighting video arcade game franchise from Bandai Namco that premiered in 1994–one of the first fighting games to use 3D animation. The game has gone through seven main games over the years, the second being one of the best selling fighting games of all time. TEKKEN has seen several spinoff games, as well as movie adaptations, both in animated and live action, and comic book adaptations.
TEKKEN is returning in an all-new comic book series next week, featuring a story by Cavan Scott (Doctor Who, Vikings), and a interior artwork by Andie Tong.
Fans of the arcade game (also available in various PlayStation formats) will recognize characters from the game including Jin, Heihachi Mishima, Yoshimitsu, Nina Williams and Paul Phoenix. Issue #1 is a great series opener. The artwork is vibrant and the story full of good humor and fun action.
Check out this preview and variant covers for TEKKEN, Issue #1, courtesy of Titan Comics: Continue reading →
