Wednesday is New Comics Day! Each week, The Comics Observer picks brand new releases worth checking out that should be suitable for someone who has never read comic books, graphic novels or manga before.
These are out today! If you like what you see here, click the links to see previews and learn more about them. Then head to your local comic book store, or check out online retailers like Things From Another World and Amazon. Let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook.
For a full list of this week’s new releases, see comiXology and ComicList.com.
The Hammer and the Anvil by Dwight Jon Zimmerman and Wayne Vansant
The Hammer and the Anvil: Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the End of Slavery in America
Written by Dwight Jon Zimmerman
Illustrated by Wayne Vansant
Published by Hill and Wang
Genre: Non-Fiction, History
Ages: 13+
160 pages
$24.95
The period leading up to the Civil War was one of great change. Congress divided itself between Northerners and Southerners, citizens on the frontier took up arms against one another, and movements for secession and abolition were more urgent than ever.
In The Hammer and the Anvil, the award-winning author Dwight Jon Zimmerman and the renowned artist Wayne Vansant vividly depict the tumultuous time through the lives of two men who defined it: Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
With a foreword by the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson, The Hammer and the Anvil reveals that its protagonists each wrestled with the question of slavery from a young age. Douglass, a slave who was spared no brutality, once fought an especially cruel master and eventually escaped north to freedom. Lincoln, who was hired out by his father to do manual labor on neighbors’ farms, found this harsh life intolerable. As a senator, Lincoln sought ways to end the westward spread of slavery, believing that adding free states to the Union would diminish the power of the Southern states and lead to the gradual disappearance of the “peculiar institution.” Douglass was less patient. He had become a skilled orator and an influential editor of Northern abolitionist journals, and called on white Americans to honor their nation’s founding commitment to liberty.
When the Civil War erupted in April 1861, Douglass hoped that the conflict would mean the end of slavery. But Lincoln delayed emancipation, and Douglass despaired—until he met the president face-to-face and recognized that their causes were one and the same. Featuring evocative and dramatic scenes of this seminal time, The Hammer and the Anvil will engage both Civil War buffs and young people new to the study of American history.
Sunset by Christos Gage and Jorge Lucas
Sunset
Written by Christos Gage
Illustrated by Jorge Lucas
Published by Image Comics/Top Cow Productions/Minotaur Press
Genre: Action/Adventure
Ages: 16+
160 pages
$19.99
Imagine a noir badass out of Chandler or Spillane – a two-fisted man of the post-war years venting his righteous wrath on our pansy-ass era of Priuses, Blackberries and organic whole-grain trans-fat-free diets. A man aged but still vital, who’s lost everything he cares about except for two things: revenge… and the chance to die with his guns blazing. Thirty years ago, Vegas legbreaker Nick Bellamy and his crew pulled off the fabled “One Last Heist,” ripping off a mob boss to set them up for life… and they got away with it.
But now the mobster, Gianelli, is out of jail and out for revenge. Nick had a longer run than he ever imagined. He knows his life is at an end. But he’ll be damned if he’s going to die without sending Gianelli to Hell first. He reassembles the survivors of his crew and they set out to take the battle to their enemy, in a Vegas very different from the one they left. Only one thing could throw a curve into Nick’s plan: falling in love.
The Stuff of Legend by Mike Raicht, Brian Smith and Charles Paul Wilson III
The Stuff of Legend: Omnibus One
Written by Mike Raicht and Brian Smith
Illustrated by Charles Paul Wilson III
Published by Th3rd World Studios
Genre: Fantasy
Ages: 10+
260 pages
$29.99
As Allied forces fight the enemy on Europe’s war-torn beaches, another battle begins in a child’s bedroom in Brooklyn when the nightmarish Boogeyman snatches a boy and takes him to the realm of The Dark. The child’s playthings, led by the toy soldier known as the Colonel, band together to stage a daring rescue. On their perilous mission they will confront the boy’s bitter and forgotten toys, as well as betrayal in their own ranks. The Stuff of Legend is a haunting and ultimately redemptive tale of loyalty, camaraderie, and perseverance.
This hardcover collection brings together the first two volumes of the New York Times bestselling graphic novel The Stuff of Legend (The Dark and The Jungle) in one beautiful, 260-page edition. The book also contains never-before-printed character sketches and artwork by series artist and Russ Manning Award nominee, Charles Paul Wilson III.
