Graphic Novel Roundup: Killer Pigs, Canadian Justice, and Sex Police

Justice League United Vol. 1: Justice League Canada (The New 52), by Jeff Lemire and Mike McKone
I was a little more jazzed about this series when it was going to be called Justice League Canada, but wiser heads seem to have decided that the setting and a subtitle would be just as effective. Indie-comics guy and native Canadian Jeff Lemire leads this new team, which splits its time between a stark new home base in Moose Factory, Ontario and a variety of cosmic locales, including Adam Strange’s planet Rann. Stargirl, Supergirl, Animal Man, Green Arrow, and debuting hero Equinox are on the new team’s roster.

Exploring Calvin and Hobbes: An Exhibition Catalogue, by Bill Watterson and Robb Jenny
I managed to horn in on a road trip last year to deepest Ohio to see the Calvin and Hobbes exhibition in the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library at OSU. I’d recommend the book based on the strength of the show alone, but the catalog also includes an “in-depth, original, and lengthy” discussion with the infamously interview-averse Bill Watterson. You get to read about and see some of the strips that influenced him, as well as some early and unpublished work, and a few works-in-progress. Pretty cool if you’re into Calvin and Hobbes. And who isn’t?

Sex Criminals, Volume 2: Two Worlds, One Cop, by Chip Zdarsky and Matt Fraction
Funnier and smarter than it sounds, but not quite as dirty, Sex Criminals won a ton of awards last year for its perfectly old-fashioned love story. Lead characters Jon and Suzie discover that they each have the ability to stop time at a very particular moment during sex, and decide to use that power to rob banks in order to save the library where Suzie works. Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky’s story is about relationships at least as much as the super-sex premise. The discovery of new individuals with similar powers coincides with a new, more complicated phase in the central romance in this volume, collecting issues #6 to #10. If you want to skip the story and move right to the sex jokes, check out Fraction and Zdarsky’s hilarious (really) Just the Tips. This is another one that may well become a TV series in the near future, so fellow brimpers have plenty to look forward to.

OINK, by John Mueller
Speaking of dirty: Mueller’s Oink: Heaven’s Butcher came out from Kitchen Sink Press in 1995, but he’s spent the last several years on this remastered version, including fresh art and new sequences. The book begins with a quote from George Orwell’s Animal Farm, and tells the story of a race of pig-men who serve as slaves for human masters. The title character leads a violent, vengeful revolt after witnessing the execution of a comrade. The painted art of this updated dystopian piece is beautiful.
What’s on your pull list?