List of posts

Thousand Faces moseys into comic shops on Wednesday. Until then, here are a few more uncolored pages we found while crossing the mid-west.

Thousand Faces arrives in stores June 29, 2016 with an MSRP of $29.95/£20.99

Milo Manara (Part 1)

There are few artists who are as divisive as the Italian artist Milo Manara. Renowned as an illustrator whose skill at drawing sensuous women and intensely arousing situations is unsurpassed, he has still managed to raise the ire of many, not least when he created a controversial variant cover for Marvel Comics' Spider-Woman #1 back in 2014. The resultant furor ensured that — whether you love him or loathe him — the one thing you can't do is ignore Manara.

Born in 1945, Manara was heavily influenced by classical Renaissance painters like Rafaello Sanzio and Paolo Veronese. As a boy, he even ran away from home to see an exhibition of work by the painter Giorgio di Chirico. Manara pursued studies in architecture and painting, but became intrigued by the emerging Italian underground comix in the mid-to-late Sixties, and the flourishing of emancipated female characters such as Jean-Claude Forest's Barbarella and Guy Peellaert's Jodelle. 

Manara made his comics debut in 1969 with Genius, a sexy noir comic book in the vein of the pulpy Kriminal and Satanik fumetti*. He worked for minor publications such as Jolanda of Almavia, a lurid historical fantasy strip, and the satirical magazine Telerompo, before he was hired by the children's magazine for boys Il Corriere dei Ragazzi to work with writer Mino Milani. He eventually transitioned to working directly with several top Franco-Belgian comics publishers, introducing his talents to a whole new set of readers.

Since then, Manara has produced over 30 graphic novels and art books — nearly all of which are now available in English. Manara's stories generally revolve around elegant, beautiful women caught up in unlikely and fantastical erotic scenarios, and his art style favors clean lines and lush watercolors. His adaptation of Jonathan Swift's famous political satire, Gulliver's Travels, titled Gullivera is no exception.

Swift's original 1726 novel is updated from the shipwrecked surgeon Lemuel to a modern nymphet student by the name of Gullivera. Despite the obvious sex change and more overtly erotic nature of the story, Manara surprisingly stays quite faithful to the original work, only omitting three of the many lands described. Even the sequence where the heroine "ingeniously" helps put out the Lilliputian palace fire is taken straight from the original book!

Originally published as Gulliveriana by Les Humanoïdes Associés in French in 1995, Gullivera was part of a movement of European creators tackling erotic comic adaptations, such as fellow countryman Vittorio Giardino's Little Ego (a saucy female variant on Windsor McCay's newspaper strip, Little Nemo).

Famous fans of Manara's include Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, and Brian Michael Bendis, who called Manara "one of the greatest artists this planet has ever seen" and rightly so. His notoriety is such that in Italy he even appeared alongside an animated version of one of his female creations advertising Italian mattresses! 

*fumetti: Italian word for comics.

Thousand Faces moseys into comic shops next week. Until then, enjoy a few uncolored pages we found in the back of our local saloon while hiding from the demon simply known as Thousand Faces.

Thousand Faces arrives in stores June 29, 2016 with an MSRP of $29.95/£20.99

Following artist Mukesh Singh's departure from Book 3 of The Metabaron series (part of the new cycle of The Metabarons) for personal reasons, Humanoids is pleased to announce that Valentin Sécher will take over duties on the aforementioned volume 3.

Sécher, a rising star in the European comic book industry, has already delivered Book 1, which will be published by Humanoids in October of this year.

The Metabaron (to be comprised of 4 books), written by Jerry Frissen, and based on a story by Alexandro Jodorowsky, already has Niko Henrichon (Vertigo's The Pride of Bagdad) on board and currently wrapping up Book 2, as well as Esad Ribic (Marvel's Secret Wars) who has recently started work on Book 4.

Humanoids reveals three Manara releases for 2016
Manara classics will be published uncensored and in their original large format

Los Angeles, CA, June 13, 2016 - Humanoids announces the upcoming release of three graphic novels from Italian comics legend Milo Manara (The Sandman: Endless Nights). The first two classic tales will be published in English for the first time uncensored and in their original large formats. The graphic novel publisher is also revealing pages of the third title that will be available in color for the first time ever.

Releasing in July, Milo Manara's Gullivera is the loosely inspired adventures of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, sensually revisited by an undisputed master of erotic comics. In August comes the uncensored and erotic graphic novel adaptation of one of classic Roman literature's most legendary stories The Golden Ass of Apuleius, titled Milo Manara's The Golden Ass.

Pandora's Eyes, written by Academy Award-nominated Vincenzo Cerami (Life is Beautiful) and brought to life by the art of Harvey and Eisner Award-winner Milo Manara, will be available for the first time in color by Francesco Gaston (artist of Image's Bloodstrike) in November.

Tim Pilcher, author of Erotic Comics: A Graphic History said, "Manara is undoubtedly the king of not just erotic comics, but is also one of the all-time great legends of international sequential art, having worked with luminaries such as Hugo Pratt and Federico Fellini, and influencing creators across the globe. These three titles reveal his incredible talent as both as a writer and artist. They are important and vital works that are guaranteed to excite new and old fans alike."

Madwoman of the Sacred Heart
Story by Alexandro Jodorowsky, Art by Mœbius

Alan Mangel has it all. As a popular Philosophy Professor at the world famous Université de La Sorbonne, he is wealthy, married and academically acclaimed. On his sixtieth birthday, however, Alan's life will crumble as Elisabeth, a beautiful young student, claims she received a vision from God that he is to impregnate her with the second-coming of John the Baptist. As Alan gives himself up to the wild forces bullying him through life, he engages on a spiritual journey that challenges his very "reality." Everything once true is proven to be false. Everything once false is proven to be true.

Quick facts about Madwoman of the Sacred Heart:
• Winner of the Haxtur Award for Best Long Strip (as Le Cœur couronné in 2001)
• One of Jodorowsky's most personal and provocative works.
• Features a progressively evolving art style for Mœbius.
• An original cover art page by Mœbius sold for $56,500 at auction.
• Moebius, also known as Jean Giraud, has a long history of critical acclaim including: induction into the Science Fiction, Will Eisner and Jack Kirby Halls of Fame as well as several Eisners, Harveys and many more international awards.

Available below is the desktop wallpaper of Madwoman of the Sacred Heart. Click the picture to choose your resolution.

Madwoman of the Sacred Heart arrives into bookstores June 14, 2016 with an MSRP of $29.95/£19.99

Day of the Magicians arrives next week into book stores and comic shops alike and will begin immediately casting spells. Until then, enjoy a few more of these early pages that our apprentices found in the library...

Sometimes we have to use panel arrangement spells to achieve the final result.

Day of the Magicians arrives in stores June 14, 2016 with an MSRP of $24.95/£17.99

Rediscovering Jodorowsky
Universe. Multiverse. Jodoverse

Los Angeles, CA, 8 June 2016: Hot on the heels of a successful premiere of his latest autobiographical film, Endless Poetry, at Cannes Film Festival, and the English release of his novel: Albina and the Dog-Men, Alexandro Jodorowsky's most prolific medium, his graphic novels, are now even more accessible with a trade paperback compilation of key titles in his "Jodoverse" at a very affordable $4.99/£3.50. 

Visionary author, filmmaker, and philosopher, Alexandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, Dance of Reality) has created an incredible Sci-Fi universe, full of love, revenge, intrigue, betrayal, and redemption, along with some of the world's most singular and talented sequential artists, including Mœbius, Juan Giménez, Zoran Janjetov, and Fred Beltran. Told one series at a time, this wholly imaginative realm continues to expand on a cosmic scale. Humanoids Presents: The Jodoverse features excerpts from The Incal, The Metabarons, The Technopriests, and Megalex, a 112-page collection that provides a peek into this mind-blowing world that will ensure that you'll want to hop onboard and explore it further.

There will be limited copies of Humanoids Presents: The Jodoverse (ISBN: 978-1-59465-167-0) available at the Humanoids booth (1632) at San Diego Comic Con (21-24 July) followed by a general release to book and comic stores in September.