Grovel

Graphic novel news and reviews

Author Archive

Kingdom of the Winds

By Andy • Jul 4th, 2008 • Category: Preview

Mixing history and folklore isn’t new ground for comics but this Korean twist on proceedings should certainly offer a different angle for Western readers. Guguryeo, a 2,000-year-old Korean kingdom, is in turmoil, as its king slowly loses his marbles and is seemingly involved in the suicides of his heirs. The latest in line to the [...]



James Bond 007: The Paradise Plot

By Andy • Jul 3rd, 2008 • Category: Preview

Sebastian Faulks, Charlie Higson and Daniel Craig may be doing great things to keep the Bond character up to date, but sometimes only vintage Bond really hits the spot. This collection of two stories from the classic newspaper strips (The Paradise Plot and Deathmask) see James in a classic, womanising mood; while deadly assassins and [...]



DreamKeepers Volume 2

By Andy • Jul 2nd, 2008 • Category: Preview

One of the best things about reviewing comics is that it’s full of surprises. DreamKeepers Volume 1 was one of the surprise highlights of last year, coming out of the blue and knocking our socks off with its beautifully-realised talking animal fantasy.
Thankfully, David Lillie has now completed Volume 2. We’ll be writing a full review [...]



Team Zero

By Andy • Jul 1st, 2008 • Category: Preview

Garth Ennis may have helped put war stories back on the comics map, but he’s not the only one with Second World War tales to tell. This story is set in the last few days of the war, as America, Russia and the Allies jostle for control over Nazi secrets and territory. One unit of [...]



Dororo

By Andy • Jun 30th, 2008 • Category: Preview

UPDATE: Volume 2 out now.
We could hardly be more happy to see that Vertical is continuing it’s plunder of the Osamu Tezuka archives with Dororo. More familiar to gamers as the inspiration behind PlayStation 2 game Blood Will Tell, this three volume classic is a fantasy story, set against the backdrop of Japanese mythology. A [...]



Amor Y Cohetes

By Andy • Jun 27th, 2008 • Category: Preview

We’ve been spoilt in the last few months with the reprinting of Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez’s wonderful Love and Rockets books, in a convenient and affordable format. Amor Y Cohetes is the final volume in this collection, which gathers together all the stories that were published alongside Gilbert and Jaime’s Locas and Palomar epics, but [...]



Jessica Farm

By Andy • Jun 26th, 2008 • Category: Preview

Jessica Farm is an intruiging project from Josh Simmons. Simmons has devoted some of the next 42 years of his life to creating a 600-page graphic novel, which he’ll publish in 2050. Since January 2000 he’s been creating this work, one page per month, which he’ll make up as he goes along. Every time he [...]



Superman/Batman: Torment

By Andy • Jun 25th, 2008 • Category: Preview

If there’s one thing we’re getting used to in the Superman/Batman series, it’s that Supes and Bats are inevitably going to come to blows. In Torment, everything starts off quite innocently. A seemingly straightforward burglary is left to the detection skills of Batman, even through it’s a Kryptonian artefact that’s gone missing. Soon however, Superman [...]



In Odd We Trust

By Andy • Jun 24th, 2008 • Category: Preview

It’s Dean Koontz’s name that’s plastered across this graphic novel because he created the character of Odd Thomas, the Californian teenager who can see the spirits of the recently deceased. Odd uses his power to help uncover injustices and bring the dead some peace, in between shifts flipping pancakes at the local diner.
Koontz’s character is [...]



Scalped 2: Casino Boogie

By Andy • Jun 23rd, 2008 • Category: 2008, 4 stars, 5 stars, 5 stars, Aaron, Jason, Crime, Gangster, Guera, J. M., Political, Review, Scalped, Thriller, Titan Books, Vertigo

If you thought from the first volume of Scalped that the series was going to be about the book’s lead character Bad Horse, you’ll be surprised by this second volume. But then surprises are part of the joy of this superior ongoing story of life in a Native American reservation. Bad Horse certainly appears but [...]