Grimm Fairy Tales Presents Alice in Wonderland #1 Released January 25th Artwork by Artgerm, Eric Basaldua and Nei Ruffino.  32 pages

Paperback: 168 pages
Publisher: Zenescope (January 22, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1937068668

Decades ago, a girl named Alice was sacrificed into the horror-filled realm of Wonderland but her terrifying and awe-inspiring experiences there have been shrouded in mystery. The one thing known is that her time spent in a world full of insanity left her a broken adult. However, her courageous will to survive is what ultimately saved humanity. Now the story of Alice’s visit into Wonderland is fully revealed and the truth of the terror will be told in full! From Raven Gregory, Ralph Tedesco and Joe Brusha, the same minds behind Grimm Fairy Tales and Return To Wonderland comes the newest series that Zenescope fans have been waiting for. What every Zenescope fan has been waiting for is finally here! Follow Zenescope back down the rabbit hole and find a world of madness like you have never seen before!

In a dark twist to an already unusual story, this graphic novel tells a story of a young  Alice who is coaxed into the Real of Dreams by her grandparents. Alice has become a slave to the evil and grotesque Jabberwocky. In Vol 1 we see Alice as a young woman who with some help, escapes the Jabberwocky and has several encounters with the people/creatures of Wonderland. The Chesire Cat is chasing after her to return her to her master and Alice is stuck in a land of terror.

Throughout the story we get flashbacks of how Alice came to be in Wonderland and what is happening in the real world. As she travels through Wonderland, and encounters different people, she soon comes to realise that she has to conquer the Jabberwocky to ever really be free of him.

As with all comics, this one was a very fast paced adventure, introduced to us with a Grimm twist. There is no down-time as Alice is in a race for her life.

With full colored  pages, a more risque, adult version of Alice and horrific landscape, this comic is a view into a twisted and terrifying side of Wonderland. Most of the storytelling is done through the art work and visuals to accentuate the creep-factor of the characters and lands she travels through. (There are no fluffy white bunnies or flowers in this version!) It has a good balance between dialogue/story telling and really focuses on the artwork to reveal the  majority of the story.

Spiral (Gears) is, without question, the best thing I’ve watched on television aside from The Killing. The cultural differences between the two series are quite significant as Spiral is French and The Killing is Danish but both have brilliantly well drawn characters.

The story focuses largely on events surrounding Police Inspector Laure Berthaud (Caroline Proust) and Assistant Prosecuting Judge, Pierre Clement (Gregory Fitoussi – yum!). In doing so the series relfects heavily on the French Inquistorial Justice system. It also highlights many of the social problems in Paris; drugs, immigrant assimilation and political corruption.

It is quite explicit and gruesome in parts, and very violent. While  The Killing works as a slow burn, Spiral is confrontational and (depending on your sensibilities) shocking. It doesn’t hold back on the uglier side of human nature.

We talk a lot about flawed characters in fiction, and they don’t get much more flawed than Laure, Pierre, Judge Francois Roban and Josephine Karlsson. Laure and Pierre swing between integrity and its opposite, while Francois’ passion for the law costs him everything, and the black-hearted Joesephine shows that even the most corrupt of people can sometimes come through. Truly riveting stuff! I particulary enjoyed the dynamic between Laure and her team – specifically her co-dependency with the cocoaine-snorting Lieutenant “Gilou”.

I am absolutely hanging out for series 4. Can things get any worse for the volatile, single-minded Laure and the suave, conflicted Pierre? I imagine, having seen what the brilliant writers have done already, they can! I’ll certainly be there to stumble with them, and angst over whether they will make the right decisions.

Few romantic stories are as complex as those written by a futurist; and Bruce Sterling proves this case to the elegant extreme.

Love is Strange is just what the title suggests; an exploration of romance that is destined to take the protagonists places far beyond the norm. But then the main characters themselves cannot claim to be mainstream, so their journey seems custom tailored the their eccentric dispositions.

Gavin, a young Seattle project evaluator working in a venture capital firm, is a guest speaker at a futurist conference in Capri. Using the conference as a cover for his company’s somewhat shady business deal with a Brazilian cultural minister he enlists the help of his nomadic translator, Farfalla, to help him get in contact with her past client.

Deeply rooted in her mystic upbringing, Farfalla immediately develops an attraction to Gavin; believing him to be “The One” spoken of by her occult mentor. She also rapidly takes on a semi-maternal role with Gavin’s sister; a young Goth musician who is as certain of her eventual fame as Farfalla is of her supernatural connection to Gavin.

The story soon delves deep into the complexities of love, especially when two completely separate narratives seem to be running side by side. Gavin’s journey is taking him towards either the salvation or destruction of his old-money family. Farfalla’s own road to happiness is also strewn with complications revolving around her communist parents and oblivious circuit designer boyfriend.

Love is not only strange but horrifically difficult in Sterling’s tale; and certainty is as much of a hindrance as ambiguity. It is often hard to consistently empathise with both Gavin and Farfalla at the same time, as their opinions clash repeatedly making this story an emotional tug-of-war with no clear line in the dirt.

During the novel Sterling maintains his consistently expressive style that is inherent in many of the greatest futurist writers. There is the constant reverence for what has come with the hope of what is to come, and on the edge there is always a hint of possible destruction. These things are what makes a great tale, and Love is Strange is no exception simply because it is a romance story above all.

Solid writing, evocative scenes and twisted underlying narratives all come together to create something that is neither one thing nor another, but a mixture of many different subjects that prove that love is very strange indeed.

Publisher: 40k Books (December 22, 2012)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Language: English

ASIN: B00ASBPAWY