Let me just start off with a a little disclaimer. Just shy of two years ago, I was introduced to Accent UK by a group of great guys over at the Tales From The Parents Basement Podcast (find them on Twitter at @tpbpodcast , tell them John sent you if you want them to block you). When I say “introduced” I mean to say “had them violently forced upon me, with no mention of a safe word” by the TPB guys. They sent our little ol’podcast a copy of Whatever Happened To The World’s Fastest Man, and everyone pretty much loved the book.

What else can we get our grubby little hands on? Oh look, there is the mostly wordless and powerful story being told about the loss of a child to a couple in MAN OF GLASS. Our love of thick lines and snarling werewolves was rewarded with the wonderful WOLFMEN/FALL OF THE WOLFMEN books. We even ran to the computer to check out the web offering of STRANGE TIMES.  Then we were told the company also makes anthology comics . . . and we love anthology comics! Well, gotta get those, right?

We tore into the wonderful collection of stories found inside of ROBOTS, and pulled on our best and fanciest chaps to saddle up to WESTERNS, and even got the shotgun ready to take on ZOMBIES. Weed, Bo and I all had our favorites from each book, and they did tend to overlap, but were not exclusively the same stories. It is true, in anthology comics, there is a little bit of something for everyone, and in Accent UK anthologies, there is a whole lot of something for everybody. So yeah, we have a lot of love for the products Accent UK puts out as you can tell a lot of work and love goes into them making these very books.

I heard their newest anthology was going to be called “Predators” and had a sabre-tooth tiger on the front. Cool image, but really, how many stories of crazy animals can I endure? I was a little bummed and just hoped Zombies 2 would be coming out soon. Then a funny thing happened. A few preview images were posted for the book, and some panels snuck out. Well, this instantly got my attention because it look like there was war comics. Okay, why didn’t I trust these guys to deliver?

The amount angles of storytelling in the past books was vast, why shouldn’t this Predators book be the same? I felt a little silly looking past this for the next one at this point, and got more excited about it. Now I have PREDATORS sitting right in front of me. Pardon my language, and I hope my grandmother doesn’t end up reading this, but holy shit is this book great!

It’s a simple mistake to hear the word “predators” and simply think of lions, tigers, bears (no, no “oh my” joke) and even sharks. But what about the predators in everyday society. The maniacs, the sociopaths, and even the woman or gent at the bar looking to score? People are some of the most fierce and cunning predators on the planet. Soldiers, boxers, and pilots all take center stage in their stories. Okay, and yes, some dinosaurs, tigers and other viscous animals show up, but in a way you may not expect, the book is full of surprises!

So what are you going to find exactly? One of my favorite stories was ” THE DRILL” by Morgan Pielli and Jon-Mikel Gates about a playground full of children who frantically set up the playground and school with burning moats and camouflage to defend against giant, elongated alien monsters! Gorgeous art, and a powerful and heartbreaking story told in only a few pages. This is what a good story in an anthology can do: instantly hook you, squash it all into a few memorable pages, and force you to flip back to it every once in awhile to soak in a small, clever detail you may have missed. Great stuff.

PREDATORS is full of different art styles and storytelling methods, so if the preview below doesn’t entice you, I would be willing to bet you can find several other varieties in the book that do hook you into enjoying the book and checking out more.

We talk about more of the issue on EPISODE 94 at about the 47:50 mark. Bo and Weed really loved the anthology as well, talking about the wonderful job done by nearly every creator in the book, where I gush about the wonderful pinups and such in the back as I didn’t get my copy yet to check out.

Bottom Line: If you like anthology comics, this is a no brainer to me. Pick up PREDATORS (and hell, check out ROBOTS as well). If you have never tried out an anthology comic or it has been awhile, this is a great place to jump back into the world of the short stories collected in a graphically compelling package of fantastical awesomeness. The last sentence made no sense, but you should still give the book a look.

Carl Daves, Matthew Rivera and Ty Jeter have released the second issue of Billy The Zombie, following the adventures of two guys who are “friends” with a bumbling, semi-sweet and trustworthy zombie named Billie. Worth a look if you are into the Adult Swim comics and just want something fun and bloody. Issue #2 has Carl and Matt dressing Billy up like a cheap hooker, running around with a sexy and dangerous commando chick for whatever reason, cleaving up bad zombies, and tearing around in their bad ass muscle car!

The guys that bring you Reed Gunther want to proved to you that an ALL AGES COMIC does not mean that it is just for the kiddies. Click the below art to enlarge to a readable size . . .

You can find all the episodes here of this fun web series.

Behold THE VARIANTS, the Web comedy series that takes you behind the counter of your favorite comic book store.

THE VARIANTS is the brain child of Richard Neal, Joe Cucinotti and Ken Lowery. In early 2009, Richard, owner of the award-winning Zeus Comics, thought all the crazy stuff he saw in his store would make excellent fodder for a comedy series. Seeing the success of Web comedies like “The Guild,” Richard approached Joe and Ken – longtime friends, writers and regulars at the store – to help him develop the series.

The trio discussed and discarded several ideas, including making a faux-documentary-style comedy like “The Office” before settling on an absurd sitcom in the vein of “30 Rock” or “Arrested Development.”

The trio recruited Keli Wolfe and Barry Fuhrman (actual employees at Zeus) to play exaggerated versions of themselves. The group tried a couple Directors of Photography and Editors before choosing Luke Hawkins and Chris Williams, respectively, to give the show its look and feel.

“Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave Challenged us to write a song to Walt Flanagan’s lyrics….this is…I SELL COMICS!!”

Not a shabby little tune, althoughI would have personally asked Machine Head to create the song

Looking for some comics you should be grabbing tomorrow?

Skullkickers #9 – Image Comics

While not the best jumping on point, this issue does feature a fight with a squirrel in the sewers! C’mon, take a look inside of this book if you like your comics to have piles of fun jammed in it!

Captain America & Bucky #620 – Marvel Comics

Haven’t seen more than a few pages of previews, but this book looks gorgeous thanks to Chris Samnee on art duties, and I can imagine the story is going to be top notch when you have Ed Brubaker and Mark Andreyko (Manhunter) sharing the writing duties!

The Vault #1 – Image Comics

The art on this book looks amazing and the promise of a tale steeped with mythology and squid fights has me stoked! I hope I can snag one of these off the shelf as I was stupid and passed on pre-order of it. ME SO DUMB!

John requested I actually use my Twitter a bit more often, and when I started undoing my pants he reminded me that is is a social networking service and not my favorite little guy!

You can find and follow me at twitter.com/axonovian on Twitter, where from time to time, I will be witty, while other times I might talk about stuff I like. Pretty much, to sum it all up, my tweets will contain humor and non humor.

Below are a few of my Twitter thoughts on comics:

Free Comic Book Day Comics

DarkCrystal/MouseGuard-as Bo said, an awesome revisitation of pre-movie backstory with great mythosfeel/great nu-fable for furrypests

StarWarsClnWars/AvatarTLAirbender-aimed at a younger audience, this still hits upon some nice themes – outwitting strategy and lightsabers

Locke&Key-The main title is not for kids; not sure why this was a FCBD book but it still kicks ass as a horror/mystery. I’ll be getting it

Other Books

Finding out where you fit in life can be really difficult. What is your dress style? What music do you like best and will you use this to represent you? Is honesty and openness always the best policy when it comes to friends you think are better and more interesting than you?

Paige Turner (ha, yep, clever), is at that age where the rest of her life is coming into focus, but much of it is still blurry. She spends a lot of time clumsily navigating in her new city, and trying to find a place in her new group of friends, while missing old relationships. In this book, writer Laura Lee Gulledge does a terrific job of making Paige a character you can relate to very quickly, and at the same time, envy what she has.

Paige is a hell of an artist, and has a real knack for expressing herself, and spends most of the book following a set of rules her grandmother laid forth a long time ago to not only to make you a better artist, but a better person in general. The story is warm, charming and full of sugary sweetness, inspiration, trust and caring of friends, a budding relationship and tons of feel good moments.

The artwork inside of the book is gorgeous, often wrapping all around the page, with illustrator Gulledge not afraid to take the readers on a visual stroll that is engaging and distracting at the same time, much like an amusement park. Personally, I spent several minutes on more than a handful of pages just pouring over the wonderful artwork.

Paige and her friends create several works of art around the city, ranging from paintings to easter eggs full of random things, with this book screaming that young folks (and really all people) can do great and wonderful things when they work together, and that the experience can be more rewarding when shared in a project.

Bottom Line: I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone who has a creative streak, and honestly, this would be on my recommended reading list for young girls 10-16. If you have a young lady in your life who is interested in comics, art, music or some form of creative outlet, then do her a favor and grab this book. The artwork is vibrant, stunning and extremely fascinating. Not only for young readers and one I am sure will easily make it onto my personal “best of” list of 2011.

So I am a few years behind on reading . . .  and missing gems like this is tragic! One of those I promised I would pick up once it was collected, somehow, I just never got around to it until recently. And let me tell you, I regret this immensely!

Wonderfully drawn by J. M. Ken Niimura and a terrific story supplied by Joe Casey, I KILL GIANTS is the tale of a precocious and rambunctious gal named Barbara, who spends a great deal of time losing herself in her fantasy world, pushing people away, trying hard to avoid the problems at home.

Bottom Line: Another one to pick up if you passed it over. Wonderful story coupled with great art (and a low cover price) make this a great gift to yourself or another. Fans of fantasy will be thrilled with this book.

Just a reminder that we are only a couple weeks out from FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! To find a comic shop near you, call 1-888-comicbook

“Mercury” by Hope Larson

Although we can often times get pretty raunchy and foul on our podcast, we do appreciate books that do not stray into that territory. Case in point is this wonderful tale from Hope Larson about two canadian girls, one in the mid 1800’s and the other in present day. Tara, in present day, is trying to deal with the fallout from her mother losing her house in a fire and trying to fit back into an old school. Then back in the olden days, Josey is hopelessly falling for a gold prospector that has approached her family with a hell of a deal that may not be as sweet as it looks.

These stories can be described as standard coming of age tales for sure, but I think they succeed so much further than that. Both stories are engaging and thoughtful and would be strong enough to stand on their own, but are beautifully interwoven with each other, and even tied together in a very charming way (although most readers will see it a mile away long before it is fully revealed).

Hope Larson has delivered a great tale that has a bit of mysticism and magic(very small element in the overall story) interwoven with very likable protagonists you want to see succeed and prosper, and engages them with more clever and fun characters. It is also curious to me that I have gotten this far into talking about the book without pointing out the artwork is gorgeous!

Bottom Line: I cannot recommend this book enough, especially if you have a younger reader in mind who happens to be a 10-15 year old girl, but at the same time, read it yourself. Hell, even if you don’t have a kid, check out this book. Hope Larson has impressed me enough I will be checking out more of her books very soon. I do suggest that if your only draw into comics is spandex and capes, this is definitely not the book for you, but if you are looking for something different with beautiful artwork, then Mercury is well worth your time and money.

The first thing I checked out this week was a book with no pictures. Blasphemy, you say.

This book written by Mr. Ray Bradbury was Titled “Fahrenheit 451.” I would recommend it to fans of “A Clockwork Orange”, or maybe “Brazil.” The story takes place in the future, about 50 years. Now that was 50 years ago, placing it right about current time. Society has given up on books and any independent thought is discouraged. The government is a twisted version of itself. The main topic of the story revolves around a Fireman who makes the mistake of reading one of the books he was meant to burn, and starting down the path of enlightenment. Society is brought crashing down in a terrible war, and all that is left, some wandering lost souls, and a group of intellectuals who have sworn to remember a book each to help society crawl back from the dark and remember the mistakes of the past.

Ray then goes on to hammer the point home, that he strongly disagrees with censorship, or painting over the past with newer, brighter, go fast stripes. Stating that he has been approached many times by groups petitioning him to amend old work, and he adamantly stands firm the he will not.

Up next on the list is a little number called “Venom” issue #1 from Marvel comics, Written by Rick Remender, pencils by Tony Moore. In this new series Flash Thompson has taken the mantle of Venom, wearing the symbiote while preforming covert ops for the U.S. Army. He can wear the Symbiote for up to 48 hours before it bonds with him. The mission he takes off for this time around involves capturing a scientist who has found a way to weaponize Antarctic vibranium. It just so happens that Jack ‘o’ Lantern is also on a similar mission. During the scuffle, Flash, offs the scientist rather than have him fall into the hands of the enemy, so that he has enough time to save a family. This does not sit well with his superiors, who let him know that they have their fingers on the fail safe, I. E. Watch out or we’ll blow you up. He is told to reign in his anger and ego, to keep from “Venoming out.”

Flash’s friends and family feel alienated from him and think that he is drinking again. This leaves Flash in a funk and wondering if it’s all worth it. And for some reason my spell check is telling me ’symbiote’ is spelled wrong, but if it is, Marvel spelled it wrong too.

Next, is a comic called “Conan: Road of Kings” #3, or the 78^th in a series. Written by Roy Thomas, and penciled by Mike Hawthorne. This section of the series takes up with Conan on a chaperone mission, escorting the Princess of Ophir home. In true Conan fashion he tussles up the wenches, fights the prehistoric monster, and sets of to retrieve his kidnapped Princess. Personally, I love this series of Conan. This issue is right in the middle of what will be the 11^th trade, and seems to me, to be, the first time that Conan tales have been retold in chronological order. If your a fan of Conan I highly suggest this series, go back, start with Vol. 0 and enjoy the ride.

Also this week I was able to check out “Elephantmen” #30. This was a very sexy issue. The art was fantastic, done by Medellin, and giving credit where it’s due, them there is some smokin’ ladies. In this issue we find that there has been discovered a way to “flip on” the Elephantmen. The man who figured this out tries to warn the Information Agency, but they would rather keep things the way they are. Sahara’s look-a-like almost has to sleep with Obadiah Horn, and Miki visits Hip Flask for a little booty call. I then did a little research on the math involved in this little tryst, and came up with some interesting results. It turns out that, True Fiction Fact:

Last but not least this week, I was able to check out “Freak Angels” Vol 5. Written by Warren Ellis, and art by Paul Duffield. Which is a collected edition of a web comic from Avatar Press. Now, it seems to me that things really took off in this volume. The Freak Angels figure out that they can upgrade their “packages”, and who doesn’t want that, by offing themselves. Several of the Angels have already upgraded, and they find themselves in a kind of “mexican standoff.” They also discover that their future selves are communicating with…well themselves while in trepidation and undergoing their upgrades. As always, I love the art for this series, the character development is first rate, and my overall enjoyment of the book has been reeled in even more.