Independent comics news

[rascal_father]

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Oni Press with a six-page preview of this week’s Queen & Country Declassified Vol. 3 #1, detailing a past assignment of Minder Nicholas Poole.

The new miniseries is a first in the franchise, marking the first time any Queen and Country material has been written by anyone other than creator Greg Rucka, as Antony ( The Long Haul, Spooked, Julius) Johnston steps in to pen the story. Christopher (The Tomb, Last Exit Before Toll) Mitten illustrates.

While the Declassifieds have seen a slight scheduling delay, Queen & Country Declassified Vol. 2 #2 is due out in July. Following the Declassifieds, a new Queen & Country novel by Rucka is due in fall, which will be followed by another regular Q&C arc of the comic series.

The solicitation for the first issue of Queen & Country Declassified, Vol.3 #1 reads:

DECLASSIFIED RETURNS and this time Minder and former S.A.S. officer Nicholas Poole is in the sights. A conflict in Ireland places Poole & his S.A.S. comrades in a tough spot. Written by critically acclaimed writer Antony Johnston and illustrated by The Tomb’s Christopher Mitten all under the guidance of Eisner Award-winning creator Greg Rucka, this newest DECLASSIFIED series promises to be the most politically charged yet!

Price: $ 2.99 US,$ 4.5 CAN

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[MSth08]

NAIFEH'S POLLY AND THE PIRATES COMING FROM ONI IN SEPTEMBER

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Oni Press is pleased to announce the debut of POLLY AND THE PIRATES, a new six issue comic by Eisner-nominated creator Ted Naifeh. In this all new series Naifeh returns to familiar ground, creating the adventures of a young girl who finds herself in surprising surroundings.

Polly has grown up in a prim and proper boarding school, far from any kind of adventure, and she likes it that way. But when she discovers that she’s actually related to the Pirate Queen, she’s got to find her inner-adventurer. Hijinks and high adventure await in the world of the pirates, can Polly rise to the occasion?

Fans of Naifeh’s COURTNEY CRUMRIN will find a different, but equally lovable kind of hero in Polly. Naifeh explained, “One thing that led to the creation of Polly was the desire to take a character in the opposite direction of Courtney Crumrin. Unlike the alienated outsider with a love of trouble, Polly considers herself a good girl. She's a reluctant adventurer, preferring the comfort and security of her boarding school with its three square meals and cozy bed. Her personality lies somewhere in between Shirley Temple and Bilbo Baggins. And like Bilbo, there's enormous potential inside her, just waiting for an adventure to draw it out.”

Not only will Polly have to come to terms with her pirate heritage, she’ll also face a bigger challenge—boys. “Dealing as it does with an older girl, there are certain elements in this book which make it much more romantic than Courtney. These elements are called boys,” Naifeh added. “There will be quite a bewildering number of good-looking young men in this story. Alas, none of them are interested in the prim, proper Polly. It's only when she takes on the persona of high seas pirate adventurer that they take notice.”

One thing that Polly does have in common with Courtney is a fully realized fantasy setting with its own internal logic and design. “Ted doesn’t just create characters,” editor James Lucas Jones commented, “He creates whole worlds. Like Wonderland, Narnia, or Middle Earth, these are places that readers will want to escape to.”

The setting for POLLY AND THE PIRATES is based close to home for Naifeh. “Polly's world is based loosely on San Francisco in the gold rush, when the city was just starting to bloom. I do love my city, its history and its oddity, and as I walk the streets, I find myself constantly inspired. My neighborhood is packed with Victorian houses, and to me, they seem very nautical. So in Polly's fictional world, half the city is built on tall, Victorian style houseboats, including her boarding school, which rocks her to sleep at night. It's a place where houses look like boats and boats like houses, where the line between the comfort of home and adventure on the high seas is blurred.”

POLLY AND THE PIRATES #1 will feature 32 pages of black and white story and art, with a full color cover. With a cover price of $2.99 it will ship to comics books stores in September 2005. Future issues will ship on a semi-monthly basis.

[gogetter]

Hey I've just finished palying Pirates, should be interesting to pick up this. :laugh:

[MSth08]

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RANKLECHICK AND HIS THREE-LEGGED CAT TP
By Rikki Simons and Tavisha.

In the distant future, ghoul creatures, like Ranklechick, reside within a living space station called the Europan Zoo, orbiting the Jupiter moon of Europa. Ranklechick is an inventor obsessed with contacting the ghost of his brain-dead mother. Join in his quest as poor Ranklechick flees from handshaking lessons, avoids being made into candy, gets repeatedly decapitated, suffers the company of oniomaniac children, suicidal brains, and a grumpy three-legged cat for a best friend. This is a beautifully illustrated full-color prose novel including passages of sequential art from graphic novelist Rikki Simons and illustrator Tavisha (the duo behind ShutterBox and Super Information Hijinks: Reality Check!)