The Best Comics & Graphic Novels of June

Neil Gaiman’s How to Talk to Girls at Parties, by Neil Gaiman, Gabriel Ba, and Fabio Moon
Not the how-to guide that it sounds like, but an adaption of a Hugo-nominated, Locus-award winning Gaiman short story from 2006. Set in the ’70s, it’s about a couple of teenage Brits looking to chat up some exchange students at a party, only to find the young ladies are a bit more, er, foreign than expected.

Batman: Europa, by Brian Azzarello, Jim Lee, and Guiseppe Cammuncoli
Boasting some gorgeous art, Azzarello’s long-in-the-works story (first announced in 2004) takes Batman and the Joker on a tour of Europe. If you’re at all familiar with the sensibilities of the writer behind 100 Bullets, then you’ve probably guessed that they’re not exactly doing a lot of sightseeing. It seems a mysterious villain has infected both of them with a virus, and provided just enough clues to send them off together in search of a cure.

Indeh: A Story of the Apache Wars, by Ethan Hawke and Greg Ruth
Hawke and Ruth tell the somber and bloody story of Geronimo in this graphic novel set during the Apache Wars. An act of slaughter makes a hero of the young tribesman when he leads a retaliatory attack against a Mexican village. The book follows Geronimo and future chief Naiche through war and a search for peace.

The Black Dahlia, by James Ellroy, David Fincher, Matz and Miles Hyman
Matz and film director David Fincher worked with artist Miles Hyman to create this graphic adaption of James Elroy’s novel about the legendary unsolved murder that led two LAPD investigators into the tangled underbelly of 1940s-era Hollywood. The art looks incredible.

Wonder Woman ’77, Vol. 1, by Marc Andreyko, Drew Johnson, and Matt Haley
DC’s New 52-era WW has occasionally tilted to the heavy side, so this trip back to the late ’70s is a welcome break. In the spirit of Batman ’66, it takes its cues from the Lynda Carter-starring TV show, featuring Agent Diana Prince fighting side-by-side with Steve Trevor to save disco (at least in one episode). The stories are light, and maybe a little silly, but it’s fun to see a brighter, happier Wonder Woman battling classic enemies (Doctor Psycho, Solomon Grundy, and Cheetah) the show never got around to.

James Bond, Vol. 1: VARGR, by Warren Ellis, Jason Masters, Guy Major, and Simon Bowland
Ellis takes a slightly different tack on Bond, harkening back to Ian Fleming’s earlier novels rather than replicating the feel of the films. This one takes Bond to Berlin for what begins as a mission of vengeance and leads to the breakup of an international drug operation. The art is clean and evocative, the tone is chilly and the pace is deliberate, and Ellis crafts an appropriately twisty-turny spy story that fits well within the canon.

Assassin’s Creed, Vol. 1: Trial by Fire, by Anthony Del Col, Conor McCreery, and Neil Edwards
Just in time for the forthcoming Michael Fassbender movie, Titan Comics is releasing the collected first series based on the popular video games. Charlotte de la Cruz is a young woman who gets caught up with an Assassins Brotherhood and discovers the secrets of a past conspiracy buried in her DNA. Charlotte learns she had an ancestor alive during the Salem witch trials, and has to re-live those memories in order to uncover a secret with ties to tumult in the present day.

Dark Night: A True Batman Story, by Paul Dini and Eduardo Risso
Paul Dini, one of the masterminds behind the seminal Batman: The Animated Series as well as an accomplished comic writer, tells the personal story of a brutal beating he suffered at the height of his career. While his recovery was complicated by his immersion in the tales of Batman’s mad villains, he was helped along on the road to recovery by the Dark Knight himself.

I Hate Fairyland Adult Coloring Book, by Skottie Young
Scottie Young’s deceptively cutesy drawings are tailor-made for the adult-style coloring book format. Given the over-the-top violence of the series, you’ll want to grab a whole mess of red markers and get scribbling. The story is completely deranged, so if you’re into coloring but are getting sick of flowers and geometric shapes, this one fits the bill.

Shadowman by Garth Ennis & Ashley Wood, by Garth Ennis and Paul Jenkins
There are at least two major iterations of many of the characters populating the current Valiant Universe; this book collects work from Shadowman’s second period, when Acclaim Entertainment was using him as part of a multi-media, video-game oriented marketing plan. No matter: it’s by superstar Garth Ennis, who took the character down a darker path than had previous writers, asking extra violence and added strong hints of the supernatural.

Mighty Thor, Vol. 1: Thunder In Her Veins, by Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman
Aaron and Dauterman’s epic run of Thor stories begins a new era. Jane Foster is firmly established as the Goddess of Thunder, yet while she fights to bring order to Asgard and parse Loki’s conflicting motives, she also faces the greatest threat of all: the cancer slowly killing her human form.

Buffy: The High School Years—Freaks & Geeks, by Joss Whedon, Faith Erin Hicks, and Yishan Li
Dark Horse has been on an incredible run with its Buffy comics, carrying on the plots of the TV show with canonical stories masterminded by Joss Whedon himself. All that’s been missing are new tales set during the iconic early years of the series, before people started dying or turning evil or transforming into giants or becoming addicted to magic or inspiring the creation of robot doppelgängers or… Well, anyway, now we have more of those. Yay.

Ivar, Timewalker Deluxe Edition, by Fred Van Lente
Ivar is a virtual immortal who can catch “time arcs” that land him, unpredictably, in other eras. This oversized hardcover collects his entire series in which the tempestuous Ivar is tasked with protecting the whole of time after a young scientist at CERN discovers time travel, leaving her vulnerable to anyone and everyone who’d like to muck about with history.

Dark Corridor, Vol. 1: The Red Circle and Seven Deadly Daughters, by Rich Tommaso
Writer/artist Tommaso tells a unique crime drama set in the fictional megaopolis of Red Circle. Mobsters are fully in charge of the city, until an all-female gang of assassins begins picking them off one-by-one. Peter Prego only wants to track down the owner of an injured pit bull, but soon find himself drawn into a much larger and much more dangerous world..

No Mercy, Vol. 2, by Alex de Campi
The latest volume continues de Campi and Carla Speed McNeil’s harrowing story of a pre-college school trip gone horrendously wrong. A handful of privileged American teens are forced to fight their way home from Central America, facing the best and worse in themselves, each other, and the world at large.
What’s on your pull list?