I’m very excited to sneak preview this for you. The amazing Wayne Haag (aka Ankaris) is drawing a boutique graphic novel for the Sentients of Orion US release. It will be available free, electronically, for all fans of the series and will centre around a pivotal and dramatic scene in Mirror Space where Mira escapes. I’ve seen the roughs and you are going to love it!

There will be a press release with more information and a dedicated web page for it when it’s ready to go but I couldn’t help but share this early pencil of the cover. Excited!!!!!

Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love (Fabletown) by Chris Roberson

When supernatural artifacts from the Homelands begin surfacing in the modern world, it falls to Cinderella, Fabletown’s best kept (and best dressed) secret agent to stop the illegal trafficking. But can Cindy foil the dark plot before Fabletown and its hidden, exiled inhabitants are exposed once and for all? And how does her long lost Fairy Godmother factor into the equation?

Whether she’s soaring through clouds, deep-sea diving, or cracking jaws, Cindy travels from Manhattan to Dubai and hooks up with a handsome, familiar accomplice who may be harboring secret motives of his own. Meanwhile, trouble brews back home in Fabletown when Cindy’s overworked, underappreciated assistant decides to seize control of The Glass Slipper, Cindy’s exclusive shoe boutique.

Paperback, 144 pages  Published August 10th 2010 by Vertigo  ISBN  1401227503 (ISBN13: 9781401227500)

I loved getting a closer look at Cinderella in this edition of Fables. Cindy is a spy who loves her job. She also owns a shoe store back in Fabletown called The Glass Slipper, which recently she has neglected because of her other duties. Fortunately, she has one employee who runs the store when she is gone. Just as she gets home again, she is called back before time and has to do a quick visit to her magic supplier before heading off to Dubai.

Her magic suplier has given her a charm bracelet that alerts her backup when called from anywhere on the globe. So she makes a quick stop off to see Puss N Boots, Jenny Wren and Dickory Mouse, her animal friends that are willing to give her the back up she needs when she calls for them. She also gets a magic ring that gets warm when magic is around and hotter as she gets closer to it.

As she boards the plane to Dubai to locate the black market of the magic trade, her disgruntled employee back home has taken the business into his own hands. He has decided to start selling magical shoes. Although the elves that make the shoes advise him against such business they eventually come to an agreement and he begins to sell the shoes to the public.

When we go back to see what Cindy is doing as she lands in Dubai, she can already feel the ring getting hotter. She flashes back to fill the reader in a little on her history. Her divorce and then eventual hiring as a spy for Sheriff Wolf. She runs into Aladdin who is fronting as a concierge in the hotel she is staying at and they find out they are after the same thing and decide to work together. They arrive just in time to attend the party in which the magical item will be sold.

The hostess of the party and seller of the magical items recognizes them at the party and sets ghouls on them. But with Aladdin’s magic carpet, they find their way to safety. Cindy calls upon Jenny Wren to follow the hostess as she escapes so they can find her wherever she ends up. Aladdin and Cindy soon follow and find themselves in danger and out numbered.

What I have come to really enjoy about the Fables stories is the connection to those childhood characters who I have grown to love become more appealing to my adult side. They are well rounded characters and through flashbacks like Cindy’s, we are able to get a peek at what went wrong with their fairytale. They have grown up beyond the idea of a happy ending and become powerful and what women of today like to see in a rolemodel.

As each character is introduced we get their background and how they came to be in their current position in the more mundane world. I think
this is the key that gets the reader fully engaged into these stories as more than just a comic strip. You really do get great in-depth, well-rounded characters and plots that are entertaining. There is always a focus on one main story in each book, but there are interweaving sub-plots and stories that cross each other as well.

With each of these volumes that I pick up, I get more into the world of the Fables and have fast become a huge fan. I loved the ending and the imaginative way that these characters stories interweave in today’s settings.

Anita Blake: Circus of the Damned Book 2: The Ingenue (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Circus of the Damned #2)  by Laurell K. Hamilton

BEST-SELLING AUTHOR LAURELL K. HAMILTON’S HEROINE IS BACK. Morgues, as a rule, are pretty quiet places. But in a world of vamps and the rising dead, they can be positively hopping. Join animator Anita Blake as her search for a serial killer takes her to the most dangerous after-hours joint in St. Louis.

Collecting ANITA BLAKE: CIRCUS OF THE DAMNED – THE INGENUE #1-5. Hardcover, 120 pages  Published September 21st 2011 by Marvel (first published 2011)  ISBN  0785146903 (ISBN13: 9780785146902)

At 24 years old Anita Blake is no stranger to danger. She is a kick ass animator who shoots first and asks questions later. Something has gone awfully wrong in an investigation. Anita did not put the pieces together fast enough and now there is another newborn vampire on the loose. She feels responsible and her and the police team she works with often take off to the morgue to make sure the vampire does the least amount of damage to the unsuspecting bystanders.

From one fight to another, Anita barely makes it back in time to help train the new animator that Animator’s Inc has hired to help with all the incoming work.( Anita has finally stood up to her boss, telling him that she was too overworked with jobs coming from both the Animator’s Inc and her retainer work for the police supernatural force.)

Her new trainee is just out of school. He’s decided to take on his third animation for the night when Anita shows up just in time to help and explain everything that could have gone wrong. He was trying to do too many animations in a row, which drains an animators power and can cause the zombies to rampage if not controlled.

As if Anita does not have enough on her hands already, the new vampire group in town has finally caught up with her and she barely gets away from their attack with her life.

Even though her new partner has only seen the beginning of what the job may entail, he doesn’t change his mind. Anita thinks he’s just too young, but he’s not giving up after just one bad night. He gains her respect and she thinks that they just may be able to work together after all.

Anita keeps getting pulled deeper into vampire politics. Some are fighting for more rights, and others for less. This drives her into the arms of Jean Claude, the master of the city, yet again. Jean Claude is set on making Anita his human slave. Although Anita does have a growing attraction to Jean, she is unsure if it is because of his powers or not. Plus the fact that she absolutely despises the thought of a vampire believing he owns her. She is a very independent and stubborn woman.

Full colored glossy pages and equal amounts of dialogue and visuals, these graphic novels are intense and fun. Lots of action, blood, supernatural creatures, and a main heroine that has a shoot first ask questions later attitude that will get you addicted fast.