Previews Orders Due Saturday, March 13
Has another month come and gone
already? We're afraid so — and it's time to submit
your monthly Previews order to Heroes and Dragons.
If you don't have a copy of the print
catalog, you can
download the text version on our web site, browse through the
great products arriving at H&D in May, and
submit your order online.
But get cracking — the deadline is
Saturday, March 13 at midnight!
Comic Club
Goes to Hell, Boy!
For our next meeting (Thursday, April 8), the
H&D Comic Club is delving into the lore of Hellboy.
Mike Mignola's creator-owned series has grown from a
quirky Dark Horse Presents feature to a media juggernaut, and
Comic Club will celebrate Hellboy's conquest of the big screen by
reading the
first Hellboy tale (and basis for the story of the film), Seed of
Destruction.
We'll also be reading The Corpse, a
one-shot widely acknowledged as one of Mignola's best Hellboy tales, when
Dark Horse reprints it later this month.
(Members,
take note: The Corpse one-shot is now scheduled to arrive at H&D on
March 24.)
Comic Club will meet to discuss Hellboy at 7:30pm on Thursday,
April 8 in the H&D Game Room. We're meeting on the second Thursday of
the month to give everyone a chance to see the Hellboy movie, which opens
in local theaters on April 2.
If you're still not a member of Comic Club, this is a great chance to meet
everyone and learn all about the program. If you decide to join,
there's a $20 per year membership fee, which also entitles you to a year-round
20% discount on all graphic novels (not just the ones we read for Comic
Club).
Plans are underway to line up a Comic Club screening of
the Hellboy movie. We'll
keep members posted on the date and time.
Pick of the
Week —
Avengers vs. Thunderbolts #1
By
Comics Manager
Tug
Baker
Currently, the Avengers are fighting the JLA. (Sorry, I have
no idea when that last issue is coming out!) Pretty soon, they’ll be fighting
the rich and famous mutants of X-Statix. But this week, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
take on Marvel’s Most Unpredictable (Marvel’s tagline, not mine) in Avengers
vs. Thunderbolts # 1.
This six-issue mini-series is made possible by the writing
team of Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, with pencils by Barry Kitson. Busiek and
Nicieza both had great runs on Thunderbolts before that title fell victim
to NuMarvel thinking and became some ridiculous Fight Club knockoff. Of course, neither
writer is a stranger to the Avengers.
Busiek and Nicieza decide to take this
book in a direction that’s becoming pretty familiar in this post-Authority
world: The Thunderbolts have decided to go into a made-up Marvel country and
destroy their nuclear program, "making the world a safer place" but
raising the eyebrows of the entire world in the process — especially Captain America and crew.
The writing is spot-on, and fans who have been clamoring for
the return of the Thunderbolts need wait no longer. The story so far is
very T-Bolts-centered. (After all, the Avengers still have their monthly book.) The
only real drawback is that if you’re not 100% caught up on your T-Bolts history,
then there’s a chance you'll miss some references here and there, but
nothing that will completely ruin your comic-reading experience. And with that
awesome Barry Kitson art, you can’t go wrong. If you liked Kitson’s work on
Empire (written by Mark Waid), then you’ll dig this book as well.
This week's Pick was a tough call, though.
These other titles put up a good fight, and if you'd like to learn why I almost
made them "Tug's Pick of the Week," you can
read the mini-reviews on heroesanddragons.com:
For Tug's complete review,
click
here.
Toys of the Week —
Spawn Series 25: Classic Covers II
By
The Toyman
Welcome back, toyboys and
toygirls! The Toyman has returned with your weekly dose of toy reviews and news.
This week's review
is Spawn Series 25: Classic Covers 2 — the most recent release from Todd
McFarlane Productions. This six-figure series has just been released, and like
the previous 24 series is flying off the shelves. Only five of the figures are
being reviewed today. The sixth, The Creech, is the boxed set for the line and
is running about a week or two behind the regular series.
The series consists
of
Spawn
(from the cover of Spawn # 95),
Hellspawn (from Hellspawn # 5),
Sam & Twitch
(Sam and Twitch # 26), Raven Spawn
(Hellspawn # 11), and the Redeemer
(Spawn # 117).
As always, if you are a fan of McFarlane toys, you will not be
let down.
The Spawn figure is a perfect representation of
the artwork from the series. His cape is sculpted to capture
the dynamic motion of his pose, a pose that commands attention.
The figure under the cape is not a dramatic improvement over the
last few Spawns and actually looks very similar to the Series 20
Spawn.
At first glance, this Hellspawn looks like the last one with a
new cape and gun. Nothing could be further from the truth. A vast
improvement over that last Hellspawn, this one is more menacing and looks even
more like Ashley Wood's artwork just stepped off the page.
Raven Spawn's pose may be the dullest of the bunch. Yes, the
level of detail is still there, but the character just doesn't look as dramatic
standing next to the rest of the wave.
The Redeemer is the stand-out figure of the line. His pose is
beyond impressive — arms outstretched, wings spread, ready to attack.
Every feather is there, sculpted realistically enough that you almost think he
could fly. His armor is well-engraved, and his muscle tone is well-captured.
And finally we have a new Sam and Twitch. They are fantastic! We now have a Twitch that is
dwarfed by the massive size of his partner. Ashley
Wood's art translates perfectly to plastic in the Sam and Twitch, Hellspawn, and
Raven Spawn figures. I am not a fan of Wood's artwork at all, but when his
designs are translated into plastic, they make for impressive toys.
Spawn Series 25 as a whole receives 4 out of 5
stars from the Toyman. A great buy that will please even the pickiest
Spawn fan.
And Now for This Week's News ...
It has been a slow news week, but two highlights are:
-
McFarlane Monsters
Series 3: Faces of Madness is finally revealed (sort of) at
Spawn.com.
-
Diamond Select has
taken over the Buffy license from Clayburn Moore. Moore will still be
involved in the sculpting.
That's it for this week, toy fans. Tune in
next week for a review of Kingdom Come Series 1-3.
Coming
Events
Lord
of the Rings CCG League meets this Tuesday, March 16 at 4:00pm.
Site to
See
In keeping with this week's
Hellboy movie theme, here's a ten-minute
featurette on the film, only available through Best Buy:
Click the link for interviews with Mike Mignola, director
Guillermo del Toro, actor Ron Perelman, and other members of the
cast and crew — plus lots of exclusive footage.
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