Tagged: London

October 5 Declared Global James Bond Day

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film franchise on the anniversary of Dr. No, which enjoyed its world film premiere in London on October 5, 1962, and in anticipation of the worldwide release of the 23rd James Bond adventure SKYFALL(TM), Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment announced today that October 5, 2012 will be Global James Bond Day, a day-long series of events for Bond fans around the world.

A new feature documentary from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Passion Pictures and Red Box Films, Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007, will be also be unveiled, country-specific details to follow. Directed by Steven Riley (Fire In Babylon), Everything or Nothing focuses on three men with a shared dream – Bond producers Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman and author Ian Fleming. It’s the thrilling and inspiring narrative behind the longest running film franchise in cinema history which began in 1962.

Further worldwide events celebrating Bond’s golden anniversary include a global online and live auction charity event of 50 lots to benefit twelve charitable institutions organized by Christie’s in London (full details at www.christies.com/bond ), a global survey to discover the favorite Bond film by country, a film retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, a Music of Bond night in Los Angeles hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and an exhibition, “Designing 007: 50 Years of Bond Style,” at TIFF in Toronto. Leading up to Global James Bond Day, for the first time ever fans can own all 22 films in the franchise on Blu-ray Disc in one comprehensive collection with BOND 50, releasing worldwide beginning September 24. Further updates by country will be announced in due course on 007.com and facebook/JamesBond007.

Commenting on Global James Bond Day, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, producers of SKYFALL, said, “We are absolutely thrilled to be celebrating James Bond’s golden anniversary on film with this special day of events for Bond fans around the world.”

Daniel Craig is back as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007 in SKYFALL(TM), the 23rd adventure in the longest-running film franchise of all time. In SKYFALL, Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. The film is from Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Directed by Sam Mendes. Produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. Written by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and John Logan.

Hans Zimmer releases “Aurora” to benefit shooting victims

  • News
  • July 27, 2012

Hans Zimmer, composer of The Dark Knight Rises, has released a special composition called, simply, “Aurora”, to help raise needed funds.

“Aurora” is dedicated to those who lost their lives and were affected by the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado. I recorded this song in London in the days following the tragedy as a heartfelt tribute to the victims and their families. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Aurora Victim Relief organization.

The track is available on iTunes shortly and you can listen to snippets and donate here.

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Win a Copy of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

  • News
  • June 12, 2012

shh2-34884-300x198-1836386On Tuesday, Warner Home Video will release Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows on Blu-ray Combo Pack or Digital Download and they have made two Blu-ray Combo Packs available for ComicMix readers.

Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, and Jude Law returns as his friend and colleague, Dr. Watson, in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Sherlock Holmes has always been the smartest man in the room…until now. There is a new criminal mastermind at large—Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris)—and not only is he Holmes’ intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may give him an advantage over the renowned detective. Around the globe, headlines break the news: a scandal takes down an Indian cotton tycoon; a Chinese opium trader dies of an apparent overdose; bombings in Strasbourg and Vienna; the death of an American steel magnate… No one sees the connective thread between these seemingly random events—no one, that is, except the great Sherlock Holmes, who has discerned a deliberate web of death and destruction. At its center sits a singularly sinister spider: Moriarty. Holmes’ investigation into Moriarty’s plot becomes more dangerous as it leads him and Watson out of London to France, Germany and finally Switzerland. But the cunning Moriarty is always one step ahead, and moving perilously close to completing his ominous plan. If he succeeds, it will not only bring him immense wealth and power but alter the course of history.

To win, tell us which is your favorite Sherlock Holmes disguise from this film or its predecessor. All entries must be posted on our site by 11:59 p.m., Monday, June 18. The judgment of ComicMix’s judges will be final. Entrants must have a current domestic address, no post office boxes allowed.

REVIEW: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

While I like Sherlock Holmes, I am far from a scholar nor have I seen every film adaptation or read every pastiche written. Still, I love the concept and the characters and setting are certainly appealing. Holmes, as created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is etched in the public mind as one of the most brilliant consulting detectives ever imagined with no clue going unnoticed. His encyclopedic knowledge is legendary and his eccentricities make him nothing but fascinating, including the desire to have Dr. John Watson accompany him as companion and official biographer, a level of narcissism unique in the late 19th century.

As a result, when it was learned Guy Ritchie was to helm a new adaptation with Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes, eyebrows rose around the world. Then we saw the 2009 release, and were generally pleased with the bromance between Downey and Jude Law, the latest Watson. This was a more athletic and handsomer Holmes, even capable of expressing desire for Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams). The film horrified some and enthralled the rest, earning big bucks and prompting Warner Bros. to fast-track a sequel.

A Game of Shadows opened in December and did quite well at the global box office and now it comes to home video and digital download from Warner Home Video. After the first film established Holmes, Watson, and London, the time had come to introduce audiences to the greatest criminal mind found in literature, Prof. James Moriarty. He was teased at the end of the first film and this time we waste little footage making it clear he’s the antagonist. We’ve already adored Jared Harris’ villainy as David Robert Jones on Fringe so were pleased to see him cast as the intellectual equal to Holmes.

Holmes has determined that a series of unconnected events points to Moriarty manipulating economic and political events in Europe to push the countries on an inevitable path to war. It falls to the detective to thwart the scheme but the key difference between the two is the professor’s willingness to callously murder and destroy while Holmes remains a moral individual. It doesn’t take Holmes long to convince Watson the sum of his equation is correct and despite his impending nuptials to Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly), the doctor agrees to assist. And we’re off.

Along the way, we briefly see Irene before she is killed by the villain and the participation of Mycroft Holmes (a delightful Stephen Fry). Additionally, Holmes becomes intertwined with the affairs of a gypsy clan including Simza (Noomi Rapace) while Watson more or less parallels that with his confrontations with a former military sharpshooter Sebastian Moran (Paul Anderson).

This time around, there’s a lot of sound and fury but in the end it doesn’t signify a lot. Moriarty is correct that the countries are headed inevitably towards war, as happens 24 years later in our world, but the geopolitical issues are never brought up and audiences are left to take the man at his word. His intricate scheme for war profiteering shows a certain level of impatience, a trait Holmes never exploits. Instead, there’s fighting, running, shooting, and lots of talk. The film’s rhythm feels off-kilter as some characters impossibly escape death one time too many while others are dropped with ease. The final confrontation between the two masters, over the clichéd chess table, is well done but by then we’re feeling somewhat exhausted and not all that invested in the outcome.

What is nice is that we get more Holmesvision coupled at the end with Moriartyvision and their final battle is nicely imagined until the final solution, which echoes “The Final Problem” on which the movie is most loosely based.

In the end, the film was a mildly entertaining way to pass an evening but it doesn’t measure up to the first and felt somewhat bloated. If they really move ahead with a third installment, one hopes they find a stronger story.

The video looks and sounds great allowing you to luxuriate in the costumes, sets, and nicely integrated CGI backgrounds.

The Blu-ray comes with the Maximum Movie Mode hosted by Downey, who snarkily asks if we’re unwell or it’s rainy out, the only possible reasons people would watch the film a second time with the extras. He makes some nice comments about the production, how things were choreographer and shot so we get the usual assortment of behind-the-scenes material so yes, if you’re looking to kill two hours (less actually if you skip ahead to just Downey moments)  and like this sort of material, it’s worth a look.

There are 35 minutes of collected Focus Point featurettes in bite-size chunks focusing on the characters and situations. No deleted scenes or gag reels can be found here.

Additional material can be found on the Movie App with script-to-screen comparisons, maps, character bios and other material but that requires serious desire on your part and heralds a movie away from disc to the web for such content.

Mindy Newell: Success And Failure, Part 3

Picking up the thread…

College a no-go. Work a disaster. Israel a bust.

Spending a lonely night sitting in the terminal at Lod Airport (now David Ben Gurion Airport) waiting for my 5 A.M. flight to New York. Trying to ignore leering men. Struggling to stay awake. Not knowing where to go or what to do. Thinking I didn’t have a friend in the world. Nor a family. Believing they were so disgusted with me that my dad would rather foot the bill to keep me away from home than have me there. Wishing I was brave enough to go to Paris, London, Rome or Madrid. All I had to do was exchange the ticket.

That was the worst part, I think. Some part of me was mocking herself. Even as I checked in, as I was boarding, while I was finding my seat, some part of me was mocking, laughing hideously, scoffing and scorning.

Coward. Loser. Fuck-up.

Poor little lost girl.

I landed at JFK Airport. No one there to meet me.  Three hours later my mom and my Aunt Ida showed up.

Aunt Ida. She had an uncanny ability to show up when I was in trouble or unhappy, no matter where or far away I happened to be.

The first time was when I was staying at my Aunt Augie’s house on Long Island while my parents went on a trip. My aunt had gotten me an absolutely beautiful party dress to wear to a birthday party. Only it had a crinoline undergarment. Crinoline, for those of you too young to remember, was a god-awful material that looked like lace soaked in lacquer. It was as stiff as a board and scratched – no, stabbed – the skin. Well, my aunt put me in this dress and I was in pain. I cried and carried on and basically threw your average terrible childhood tantrum, even throwing ice cream into the face of the birthday girl. (I was really little, which perhaps explains my inability to simply tell my aunt that the dress “wasn’t working for me.”) Even after the dress came off, I continued to sob. After hours of this, the doorbell rang. Aunt Augie went to the door, and there stood her sister (my mom’s sister, too, of course), my Aunt Ida. I ran into her arms, screaming Fairy Godmother! Help me!! In her arms I quieted.  (Poor Aunt Augie. I so hurt her feelings.)

The second time that stands out in my memory is the time I was seven years old, and away at camp. I was climbing a tree. Climbing higher and higher, ignoring everyone far below me to come down. I climbed until I couldn’t climb any higher, and promptly fell off the tree. Whomp! A perfect executed, score ten, belly flop. My face kissed the pavement. Hell, my face tongued the pavement.  I remember voices around me. And lifting my eyes to see… my fairy godmother. Aunt Ida.

And here she was again, my fairy godmother. Come to rescue me from JFK airport.

Come to rescue me from myself.

Next week: “All you can do is open up the throttle all the way and keep your nose up in the air.”

First Lieutenant Meyer C. Newell

P-51 Mustang Fighter Jock

Separated from his squadron, shot up and leaking hydraulic fluid somewhere in the skies over Burma

TUESDAY MORNING: Michael Davis Isn’t Happy Until…

TUESDAY AFTERNOON: Emily S. Whitten Goes Splitsville!

 

Britain’s Commando Comics Celebrates 50 Years!

  • Uncategorized
  • December 2, 2011

Britain’s favourite war comic, Commando, reached a major milestone in June 2011 when it celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first publication on 27th June 1961. Part of the Dundee-based DC Thomson & Co. Ltd stable of comics and magazines, Commando publishes 4 stories every fortnight — 2 new and 2 re-issued classic stories — and maintains its place as the home of comic action and adventure.Although it retains the classic illustrated cover and the iconic black and white comic artwork which has made it so beloved of the UK public, Commando has moved with the times over its 50 years and the stories contained within its pages now span a range of conflicts, right up to the first Gulf War in the early 1990s. Commando’s current editor, Calum Laird, who took over in 2007 said, “As someone who read Commando in the 60s and 70s, worked on the title as a junior member of staff in the 80s and 90s, and became editor in the 2000s, sitting in the hot seat for the 50th birthday is a great honour. Not everyone can have my career path but if Commando can entertain others as well as it did me, I’ll be very happy indeed!”

Visitors to the website (www.commandocomics.com) can also get their hands on some famous Commando cover posters (in A1 size format), exclusively, for the introductory price of £19.99. This September will also see a brand new collaboration for Commando, with the launch of the “Draw Your Weapons” exhibition – celebrating the iconic artwork from 50 years of the comic – at the National Army Museum in London. The exhibition will open on 1st September and Calum commented, “Everyone is delighted that this major exhibition of Commando artwork is to be hosted by the National Army Museum, as one of the key activities of our 50th anniversary celebrations. We’re sure that fans of Commando old and new, will revel in this display of comic art at its best, exhibited so dynamically by the National Army Museum.

Commando No 4447 Colours Of Courage

The proudest possessions of any regiment are its colours — the flags which it carries into battle. Its history is recorded on these colours, the victories it has won.
A regiment guards its colours fiercely. To have them captured by the enemy is a terrible thing. But when a man hands over the colours to save his own skin it is a disgrace that brave soldiers can hardly bear think about.

Introduction by Calum Laird, Commando Editor

If there are two things difficult to get right in a Commando they are French Resistance stories and ghosts. Resistance stories could easily be 63 pages of skulking about avoiding searching German soldiers and ghosts could easily look like normal characters drawn without enough ink.
Thanks to ace story-teller Cyril Walker, Colours Of Courage cracks along with plenty of action to break up the tension. And Arthur Fleming — an art teacher from Glasgow — manages to skilfully depict a glowing figure despite only having black ink and white paper to work with.
Wrapped in one of Ian Kennedy’s superbly drawn and laid-out covers it’s got all it needs for a cracking Commando.

Colours Of Courage, originally Commando No 1182 (December 1977), re-issued as No 2412 (October 1990)

Story: Cyril Walker
Art: Arthur Fleming
Cover Art: Ian Kennedy

Commando No 4448
The Four Scars

Corporal Bill Kirk felt the tiny life-raft rock lazily as the Jap struggled aboard. Both turned to look at the sinking Jap prison-ship they’d been on — Bill a prisoner, the Jap a guard. Then they turned back, to look at each other; and what that Jap read in Bill Kirk’s eyes made him start back in fear.
But there was no escape for him. With only the vast empty ocean and the sharks circling the raft for witnesses, they grappled in a fight to the finish.

Introduction by Calum Laird, Commando Editor

I’ve mentioned before that I my childhood Commando issues at the back of the garage a few years ago. Some I had to look at again to refresh my memory, but not this one. I don’t know how many times I read and re-read this in the 60s but it must have been a lot because I had almost total recall.
Ken Barr’s cover with its ethereal hand hovering over the action, Victor de la Fuente’s action-packed, high-energy inside art and Eric Hebden’s crackerjack of a story with its startling twist were just what the doctor ordered in 1965…and are equally so today. I think so anyway and I hope you’ll agree.
As an aside, Ken Barr used a sheet of transparent plastic sheet with the outline of the hand painted on it to get that ghostly effect. I certainly didn’t know that in 1965.

The Four Scars, originally Commando No 185 (October 1965), re-issued as No 831 (April 1974)

Story: Eric Hebden
Art: Victor de la Fuente
Cover Art: Ken Barr

Commando 4449
Days Of Danger

Simon Katz was a young German and a fervent anti-Nazi. A brilliant mathematician, he escaped Germany by the skin of his teeth and went to work as a code-breaker for the British.
Not long after, Sergeant Barney Taft also made an escape – from the bullet-strafed beaches of Dunkirk.
Though they were on the same side, when circumstances threw the pair together, they clashed bitterly. But could they manage to work together against a ruthless enemy? They would have to if they were to survive.

Story: Stephen Walsh
Art: Vila
Cover Art: Nicholas Forder

Commando No 4450
The Nightmare War

Private Franz Bauer, a German Army engineer wounded during the invasion of France, was haunted by the deaths of his comrades in the same battle — wiped out by a mine. When he recovered he threw himself into his new job developing the remote-controlled Borgward IV demolition vehicle, hoping it might save other German lives.
His chance to save thousands of lives would come, but he would be working alongside an unlikely ally — someone who had nightmares every bit as bad as Franz’s.

Story: Mac MacDonald
Art: Keith Page
Cover Art: Keith Page

Dylan Dog: A Background Primer

  • News
  • July 22, 2011

Dylan Dog has sold over 60 million copies all over the world making it one of the most popular comic books around.  Courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, we examine the history behind Dylan Dog and the Italian comic series that was created by and originated in 1986.  We will give fans background information on Dylan’s character and adventures, as well as educate fans of the flick to explain differences between the film and comic version.

Brandon Routh (Superman Returns) stars as Dylan Dog, a supernatural detective who will go where the living dare not — facing friend and foe alike in the monster infested backstreets of New Orleans. Armed with an edgy wit and an arsenal of silver and wood-tipped bullets, Dylan must solve a series of murders before an epic war ensues between his werewolf, vampire and zombie clients. Based on one of the world’s most popular comic books (over 60 million copies sold), this inventive horror comedy will slay you with humor and genuine frights.
Acclaimed horror director Kevin Munroe (TMNT) guides this comedic cast, which also includes Taye Diggs (Private Practice), Peter Stormare (Minority Report), Sam Huntington (Being Human) and (Kurt Angle (Death From Above). (more…)

Video Game Review: “Alice: Madness Returns”

In the year 2000, American McGee’s Alice took the story of Alice in Wonderland and turned it on it’s already twisted head. As a sequel of sorts to the books, the game opens with an accidental fire destroying Alice’s home in Victorian London, in which her parents and sister die. Alice then attempts to commit suicide (due to survivor’s guilt) and is committed to Rutledge Asylum. While there, her shattered psyche has her (and players) revisiting the Wonderland of her childhood, now decayed under the rule of the Queen of Hearts. By the game’s end, she destroys the Queen (who some believe to be a manifestation of her own insanity) and restores Wonderland to its original charm and glory, and is declared stable (or stable enough) to leave the asylum.

Perhaps that wasn’t for the best, however. In [[[Alice: Madness Returns]]] (out now on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360), it’s eleven years since Alice left Rutledge (and, ironically, eleven years after the original game). Alice is living with and being cared for by a child psychiatrist in London (as his oldest patient), and the death of her family continues to stalk her. Her madness has manifested again, and now she finds herself returning to Wonderland – albeit the Wonderland that we now know to be imagined – in order to restore order to its now-recurring chaos. This time, though, there’s an bigger question fueling her madness: was the fire that caused it all accidental?

The game divides its time between two settings: Victorian London, with its bleak, muted color palette, and the visual mind-bender that is Wonderland. Take Tim Burton, throw him in a blender with Dali and Picasso, and add a dash of steroids and heroin, and you’ll have a rough approximation of the visuals here. The settings are stunning, from the steampunk-esque Hatter stage, to the underwater follies of the carpenter and the Walrus, to the card bridge and the Queensworld…it’s all, well, fairly crazy actually. The animation is also fluid, as Alice jumps, twirls and floats through demonic paranoias and her own destroyed psyche, made visual in Wonderland. She can even shrink in size to pass through keyholes, which also gives her a new perspective on the layout of a level, revealing hidden clues as to where to go next, or thing she just couldn’t see at normal size.

At it’s heart, Madness Returns is a platformer, but there’s a heavy bent on action. Alice has many weapons at her disposal to use against the negative densiens of her mind. At first, black slime with babydoll faces known as “ruins” populate the land, and Alice can dispatch them with her trusty Vorpal Blade (which goes Snicker-Snack!) or a Pepper Grinder (basically a hand-cranked machine gun). Later she gains a Hobby Horse, which she uses as a melee club to bash and smash. All of these weapons flow effectively into one another for combos, and when combined with the dodge move, become invaluable in escaping hasty death from an onslaught of enemies. After traversing some areas, the foes become more familiar, namely the Card Guards, only now more…demon-esque.

As a platformer, there’s also a good amount of gathering collectibles, and each one has it’s own use. Scattered throughout the land are memories, which piece together the story for Alice (and the player). There are also teeth, which Alice gathers from fallen foes or smashable objects, and are used as currency in the game to upgrade weapons. It all seems like typical fare for an action platformer, but teh setting and storyline are really what set this one apart. There’s some truly messed-up things here, and the game really pushes the M rating.

If there were one complaint to make towards the game, it’s more about the little hiccups you encounter during gameplay. Sometimes, Alice will get hung up on an invisible wall or something in the floor, usually after releasing the “shrink” button on the controller. It’s a minor setback, but when the animation is usualy so fluid, getting held up in a graphical glitch can take one out of the moment. Also, the level layout is preposterously long. One chapter can have several individual sections, feeling like their own levels, but are really part of the chapter istelf. Sometimes this works to move the story along, and sometimes it gives the player the feeling of the developers trying to drag out the length of the game. Alice herself even comments on this, in a manor, when asked repeatedly by various characters in the game to do tasks for her, acting as though the level would be much shorter had they simply done teh task themselves. But then, it wouldn’t be a game then, would it?

While it isn’t a perfect game, it is certainly a fun one, and visually, one that will take hold of you, with it’s abstract settings and newspaper cut-out style cut scenes. It’s all very stylized and slick. As an added bonus, the original American McGee’s Alice is included on the disc (unlockable by download on an online pass included with new copies of the game). Playing through it is definitely a treat to those not familiar with the original, though I will say, it hasn’t held up well over time.

If you’re looking for solid action, decent platforming and puzzles, and a intriguing storyline, you needn’t look much further than here. While it may seems a bit unfair at times with the number of enemies beset upon you, the story is one certainly worth going through, and the adventure is truly a fascinating one. Horiffic though it may be for our heroine.

Rating (based on a scale of BUY IT, RENT IT, SKIP IT):

BUY IT!

‘X-Men’ Are ‘Waiting For Godot’

  • News
  • November 3, 2008

patrick-stewart-ian-mckellen-x-men-001-5823444If you’re not based in England but need a reason to travel to London, well, here you go. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are about to share the stage together.

That’s right, homeboys! Magneto and Professor Xavier have mutually knocked over their respective king pieces, deciding on a "gray" middle ground over a "black" or "white" dominant party, and are starring alongside one another for an on-stage production of Waiting For Godot.

Okay, yeah, before you leave, we’re talking about theater. No major shifts in the sociopolitical dynamics between mankind and mutantkind, but, hey, this is pretty close.

The two well known thespians, who shared the silver screen with each other as Erik Lansherr and Charles Xavier in the X-Men trilogy, will star alongside each other in Waiting For Godot on The West End, according to Variety.

The trade reports, "Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will topline a Brit production of Waiting for Godot that will launch a U.K. tour in March ahead of an April bow at the Theater Royal Haymarket."

American audiences will recognize the actors as having shared the screen as nemeses in X-Men, but Stewart and McKellen had previously costarred in Every Good Boy Deserves Favour in 1977.

Waiting For Godot focuses on two men waiting for a man whom they’ve never laid eyes upon before, but know that his presence is incredibly important to their own self-worth. McKellen and Stewart play the two men, Estragon and Vladimir, respectively. The play is written by Samuel Beckett, and despite multiple attempts, has never seen a film adaptation. Waiting for Guffman, filmed and written by Christopher Guest, plays on Godot‘s themes without being a direct knock-off.

If anyone has tickets to London, please direct yourself to ComicMix. We’ll trade you in beets and other various candies.

Review: ‘The Dead Boy Detectives’ by Bryan Talbot and Ed Brubaker

deadboy-3368922By my count, there are four good reasons to buy [[[The Sandman Presents: The Dead Boy Detectives]]], now out from Vertigo.

First, it’s cheap, at a slight $12.99 for some 100 pages of comics.

Second, it’s a heckuva good mystery yarn with plenty of occult elements.

Third, it’s part of The Sandman world, and there are plenty of readers who snap up anything associated with Neil Gaiman’s creation.

But the last — and, for me, best — reason to pick up the book is that it further illustrates Ed Brubaker’s dexterity as a writer. I’ve long said that the thing that makes him so talented is that if his name wasn’t on the cover of his comics, you wouldn’t be able to recognize him as the author (also, his books are all quite good).

Unlike a Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis or Brian Michael Bendis, Brubaker writes comics without stamping his voice all over them. And, in [[[The Dead Boy Detectives]]], he shows off a wholly new voice, slipping seamlessly into the world of the ghostly boy sleuths and their London setting.

Like all great P.I. stories, this one begins with a girl, then gets all weird with shriveled dead bodies, witches and immortal creeps. It’s not quite unpredictable yet manages to be surprising.

But, mostly, the great characterization of ghosts Charles and Edwin and their childish interplay is what makes this one a winner. Well, that and the other reasons listed above.

Van Jensen is a former crime reporter turned comic book journalist. Every Wednesday, he braves Atlanta traffic to visit Oxford Comics, where he reads a whole mess of books for his weekly Reviews. Van’s blog can be found at graphicfiction.wordpress.com.

Publishers who would like their books to be reviewed at ComicMix should contact ComicMix through the usual channels or email Van Jensen directly at van (dot) jensen (at) comicmix (dot) com.

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