Whiteout (Vol. 1), by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber

Whiteout is like a mix between The Hunt for Red October and CSI: Miami, with a dash of The Thing thrown in for good measure. US Marshal Carrie Stetko is exiled to Antarctica and charged with enforcing United States law at the bottom of the world.  And that’s when the bodies start piling up. Whiteout is a classic whodunit, developed by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber at the beginning of their careers. The series has been consolidated and republished by Oni Press. The simple–yet detailed–black and white drawings highlight the stark and unforgiving landscape that the story is set in. There are no men in tights or backpack helicopters in this one. Just a single US Marshal trying to do her job, seeking vindication in the process. A true classic of the genre.

This comic is recommended for Mature readers, ages 18 and up.

March is Small Press Month, and so we’ll be featuring comic gems that show what makes independent publishers so special. So stay tuned and discover the wide world of indy comics.

The Mammoth Book of Zombie Comics, edited by David Kendall

Lumbering. Rotting. Hungry. Zombies. In outer space? Yes, The Mammoth Book of Zombie Comics is filled with every type of zombie imaginable, from those that crank call their victims to, yes, space zombies from, well, outer space. Zombies have been popular in comics forever, but now are especially riding high on a wave of zombie books like World War Z and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This collection of comics will introduce you to zombies that you will never see in the theaters. You’ll find 18 stories that cover a broad range of zombie themes: classic revenge fantasies, the last man on earth stories, and tales of people just trying to find friends—that happen to be dead. There are even (gulp) romance stories about zombies and the women who love them.  If zombie romance stories aren’t your cup of tea, then you’ll be happy to know that each story begins with a half page introduction so you can quickly skip to the chapters that you think are the most interesting. Most of the stories are only a few pages though, and they are all entertaining (if somewhat twisted). The diverse nature of this collection can’t be beat. So if you like your undead villains shambling and ugly, then this book is for you.

This book is recommended for TEEN readers, ages 16 and up.

The Legend of Zelda, Vol. 1 and 2, Akira Himekawa

If you (unrighteously) missed the famous video game classic “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” on the good ol’ Nintendo 64, then there’s still hope for you in the manga version of the “Game of the Century.” While staying true to the gaming roots, Himekawa adapts the original Ocarina of Time story into a sword-swinging comic worthy of its hero, crammed with the necessary fairy tale elements that charmed gamers to begin with. Just as the game progressed into two parts, so is the manga broken up into two volumes, one following child Link and the other, adult Link.

The manga is the perfect accompaniment for the gamers looking for more media with their favorite hero, but is still an enjoyable read for those who have never even heard of the game (for shame!). Kid-friendly while still engaging for teen readers, both volumes of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time are adventures of fantastic proportions.

Also don’t forget the original Zelda comic, which was published by Valiant after the original Zelda game.

This comic is recommended for Young readers, ages 10 and up.

Comics make great video games. The story AND the art are already there; now all we need is a little animation and BAM—comics that you control. It’s also not a huge leap to go to movies from there. Really the order is completely mixable; it doesn’t matter what kind of media comes out first because the same building blocks are always there and easily transferrable to one another. Of course there are the big dogs: Batman, X-Men, Mortal Combat, The Incredible Hulk … the list goes on.  We’ve even thrown classic literature into the mix with “Dante’s Inferno” or our very own Kid Beowulf.

With all these different media for the same story, it makes it easy for readers/viewers/gamers/etc to get immersed into their chosen obsession, and for readers to become viewers, and for viewers to become gamers, until no one is confined to a single world anymore.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya:Vol. 1, Nagaru Tanigawa

Not the average high school student, Haruhi Suzumiya is uninterested with ordinary humans and obsessed with finding aliens, espers (ESP-ers), and time travelers. In her quest for the supernatural, she is unaware that she herself is a supernatural entity, having the power to manipulate her surroundings to her liking. Unbeknownst to her are supernatural secret agents sent to keep an eye on her activities, who also just happen to be an alien, an esper, and a time traveler, which brings up the question, Are the agents there simply for surveillance, or because Haruhi has unconsciously used her powers to create them?

The answer is intentionally ambiguous, leaving room for arguments both ways and creating an amusing journey with Haruhi’s spicy personality.

This comic is recommended for Teen readers, ages 16 and up.

In January 2010 Yen Press will publish Cecily von Ziegesar’s New York Times best selling series into Gossip Girl: For Your Eyes Only, which is to be serialized in Yen Plus manga anthology. The goal of the manga series is to draw in a female audience in the same way that the original Gossip Girl books created a craze of female readers in 2002. Publishers around the world are now prioritizing the creation of women both as strong characters in comics and as faithful readers:

“There are few series in the publishing world that have been as impactful or successful as Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl,” said Kurt Hassler, publishing director for Yen Press. “The novels have captured the imaginations of young women around the world, and we look forward to demonstrating with Gossip Girl: For Your Eyes Only that graphic novels as a medium can be just as welcoming to girls as it is to boys.” –Manganews.net

In the past few weeks, Bowler Hat Comics has expanded our cyber presence by leaps and bounds. In addition to our website, we also now have a presence on Facebook with fan pages for Bowler Hat Comics and Kid Beowulf. Becoming a fan is easy! Just find the links in the top-left corner of this page.

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Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis is Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, and features her life in the city of Tehran from ages six to fourteen. The minimal black and white illustrations are emotional and often humorous, which exemplifies the tone of a war seen through a child’s playfully unsparing eyes. Satrapi depicts her story with bold lines and deceptively uncomplicated scenes, which are coupled with simplistic and emotional accounts of the madness around her.

Persepolis is both informative and compelling, comical and haunting. It was so popular in Europe that it was included in TIME magazine’s “Best Comix of 2003,” and was turned into a motion picture with the same title and art style. Satrapi also wrote the second volume, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, in which she is sent to Austria to live as a young woman.

This comic is recommended for Teen readers, ages 16 and up.