Comics and Magazines from Diamond Distributors for May 30 2012

PREVIEWS PUBLICATIONS
APR120001 PREVIEWS #285 JUNE 2012 PI

COMICS
MAR120732 AIRBOY DEADEYE #2 (OF 5) $3.50

APR121220 AKA GN $19.99

FEB120822 AMORY WARS SECRETS OF SILENT EARTH 3 HC ULT ED $29.99

MAR120757 ARCHIE & FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #16 $3.99

MAR120760 B & V FRIENDS DOUBLE DIGEST #225 $3.99

MAR121208 BATTLE OF BLOOD & INK FABLE OF FLYING CITY GN VOL 01 $25.99

MAR121134 BEST OF THE THREE STOOGES $19.99

FEB120962 BIONIC WOMAN #2 $3.99

APR121104 BOOK OF MR NATURAL HC (NEW PTG) (O/A) (MR) $19.99

FEB121129 BRIAN BORU IRELANDS WARRIOR KING GN $24.50

MAR121288 CALL OF WONDERLAND #1 (OF 3) A CVR SPAY (MR) $3.99

MAR121289 CALL OF WONDERLAND #1 (OF 3) B CVR MYCHAELS (MR) $3.99

JAN120822 COW BOY A BOY AND HIS HORSE HC $19.95

APR120855 CROSSED BADLANDS #3 AUXILIARY ED (MR) $3.99

MAR121026 DF SPIDER #1 EXC VIRGIN ROSS CVR $14.99

MAR120872 EXILE PLANET O/T APES #3 (OF 4) $3.99

FEB121103 FAIRY TALES OF OSCAR WILDE HC VOL 04 NEW PTG $16.99

APR120853 FERALS #3 AUXILIARY ED (MR) $3.99

MAR120838 FUTURAMA COMICS #61 $2.99

MAR120979 GAME OF THRONES #8 (MR) $3.99

JAN121035 GARTH ENNIS JENNIFER BLOOD #13 (MR) $3.99

MAR121105 GENSHIKEN OMNIBUS TP VOL 01 $19.99

FEB128088 GFT ALICE IN WONDERLAND #1 (OF 6) 2ND PTG (MR) (PP #1015) $2.99

MAR121292 GFT ALICE IN WONDERLAND #6 (OF 6) A CVR SPAY TRIFOLD (MR) $5.99

MAR121293 GFT ALICE IN WONDERLAND #6 (OF 6) B CVR SEJIC (MR) $4.99

MAR121290 GFT JUNGLE BOOK #3 (OF 5) A CVR QUALANO (MR) $2.99

MAR121291 GFT JUNGLE BOOK #3 (OF 5) B CVR GRANDA (MR) $2.99

MAR121296 GFT MYTHS & LEGENDS #17 A CVR GARZA (MR) $2.99

MAR121297 GFT MYTHS & LEGENDS #17 B CVR CAPPROTTI (MR) $2.99

MAR121301 GFT MYTHS & LEGENDS TP VOL 03 (MR) $15.99

MAR121298 GFT OVERSIZED COSPLAY SPECIAL A CVR EBAS (MR) $4.99

MAR121299 GFT OVERSIZED COSPLAY SPECIAL B CVR REYES (MR) $4.99

MAR120701 GLAMOURPUSS #25 $3.00

NOV111006 GORE #6 (OF 12) (MR) $2.99

JAN121258 GRAPHIC CANON TP VOL 01 GILGAMESH TO SHAKESPEARE TO DANGEROUS $34.95

FEB121071 INCAL CLASSIC COLLECTION HC (HUMANOIDS ED) (O/A) (MR) $44.95

MAR120860 IRREDEEMABLE TP VOL 09 $16.99

APR120963 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #13 DRAGONS CVR (MR) $9.99

APR120962 LADY DEATH (ONGOING) #14 AUXILIARY CVR (MR) $3.99

APR120964 LADY DEATH ORIGINS CURSED #1 (OF 3) KICK BACK CVR (MR) $9.99

FEB120722 LAST ZOMBIE NEVERLAND #4 (OF 5) $3.99

NOV111008 MEDITERRANEA #7 (OF 14) $2.99

NOV111007 MEDITERRANEA TP VOL 01 $18.99

MAR121271 MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA GN VOL 12 $11.99

JAN121160 MONSIEUR JEAN SINGLES THEORY HC (MR) $24.95

MAR121076 MOON MOTH GN $17.99

NOV111090 MY BOYFRIEND IS A VAMPIRE GN COLL ED VOL 02 $15.99

MAR121272 NABARI NO OU TP VOL 10 $11.99

MAR121136 NINJAGO GN VOL 03 RISE O/T SERPENTINE $6.99

MAR121137 NINJAGO HC VOL 03 RISE O/T SERPENTINE $10.99

MAR121273 OMAMORI HIMARI GN VOL 07 (MR) $11.99

MAR121122 OMEGA PARADOX DOUBLE FEATURE ONE SHOT $4.99

MAR121274 PANDORA HEARTS GN VOL 10 $11.99

JAN121191 PEYO LIFE AND WORK SC $50.00

MAR121275 PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA GN VOL 01 $11.99

JAN121074 QUEEN SONJA #29 $3.99

MAR120703 RACHEL RISING #8 $3.99

DEC110960 RASL #14 (MR) $3.50

FEB128206 RICH JOHNSTONS IRON MUSLIM #1 (2ND PTG) (PP #1018) $3.99

MAR120875 RINSE TP $14.99

MAR120892 ROGER LANGRIDGES SNARKED #8 $3.99

MAR121173 ROGUE TROOPER TALES OF NU EARTH GN (S&S) VOL 01 $19.99

MAR120840 SIMPSONS SUMMER SHINDIG #6 $4.99

MAR120768 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #237 $2.99

MAR121276 SOUL EATER TP VOL 09 $11.99

MAR121130 SPEED ABATER GN (O/A) $13.95

APR120854 STITCHED #4 AUXILIARY ED (MR) $3.99

MAR120897 TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #74 (MR) $2.95

MAR128256 THE SPIDER #1 VAR CVR 2ND PTG $3.99

MAR121278 UNTIL DEATH DO US PART GN VOL 01 $18.99

MAR121109 WALLFLOWER GN VOL 28 (MR) $10.99

JAN121247 WAR OF THE INDEPENDENTS #3 $2.99

MAR121238 WORLD WAR HACK GN $7.95

MAR121127 ZOMBIES VS CHEERLEADERS #7 $3.99

MAGAZINES
JAN121370 CLASSIC MARVEL FIG COLL MAG #171 THUNDERBIRD $14.00
JAN121371 CLASSIC MARVEL FIG COLL MAG #172 DRACULA $14.00
FEB121242 CLASSIC MARVEL FIG COLL MAG #173 AVALANCHE $14.00
JAN121374 DC SUPERHERO FIG COLL MAG #105 ELASTI-GIRL $14.00
JAN121375 DC SUPERHERO FIG COLL MAG #106 STARGIRL $14.00
FEB121252 DC SUPERHERO FIG COLL MAG #107 GOLD $14.00
MAR121317 NON SPORT UPDATE VOL 23 #3 $5.99

Leroy Douresseaux on THE PURPLE SMURFS

THE SMURFS GRAPHIC NOVEL #1: THE PURPLE SMURFS
PAPERCUTZ/NBM

CREATOR: Peyo
WRITERS: Peyo, Ivan Delporte
ARTISTS: Peyo, Peyo Studio
TRANSLATION: Joe Johnson
LETTERS: Janice Chiang
ISBN: 978-1-59707-207-6
56pp, Color, $10.99 U.S., $12.50 CAN

The recently released summer film, The Smurfs, from Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, has made those blue elves, the Smurfs, hot again. People who know the Smurfs likely know them from the animated Saturday morning television series, The Smurfs, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and aired on NBC from 1981 to 1989. Since its cancellation, the series has appeared on various cable networks and currently airs on Boomerang.

However, the Smurfs began life in comics, created by the late Belgian comics artist, Peyo (the pen name of Pierre Culliford). The Smurfs debuted in 1958 in Peyo’s Johan and Peewit comics series, in the storyline, The Flute with Six Holes (now entitled, The Smurfs and the Magic Flute). The Smurfs were immediately popular and started appearing in their own comics series in 1959.

Eventually, those Smurf comics were reprinted in graphic albums (novels), and the first was Les Schtroumpfs noirs (The Black Smurfs). Although the Smurfs graphic albums were eventually published in English in the United States, they had long been out of print. In 2010, Papercutz, the all-ages graphic novel wing of NBM, brought the Smurfs back to American comics.

The first release is The Smurfs Graphic Novel No. 1: The Purple Smurfs. This is an English edition of The Black Smurfs, but with the black Smurfs re-colored purple. The Purple Smurfs contains three stories: “The Purple Smurfs,” “The Flying Smurf,” and “The Smurf and His Neighbors.” There is also a preview of The Smurfs Graphic Novel No. 2: The Smurfs and the Magic Flute, as well as an after word by Papercutz Editor-in-Chief, Jim Salicrup.

I’ve wanted to read the original Smurf comics for over two decades, and even after that long wait, I am not at all disappointed. These are delightful children’s comics, but there is an oddness and an eccentricity about The Smurfs comics that will make them enjoyable for older readers.

The Smurfs are at once tribal and social, but are also fiercely independent. Most of the time, they refer to one another as Smurf (as in “Hey, Smurf” or “Find that Smurf”), but they also clearly recognize each other’s individualism and unique personalities.

The Smurfs are little problems solvers, but they often make their own problems. The lengths to which the Smurf who wants to fly is willing to go to fly yields comedy gold. The title story (“The Purple Smurfs”) is surprisingly a thriller dressed as slapstick comedy. “The Smurf and His Neighbors,” an ode to the yearning to escape the noise of civilization for the quite and solitude of the wild, is like a little morality tale. I can’t pick a favorite of these three stories; each is fantastic in its own right.

This little hardcover, the size of a standard comic book, is the kind of comic book to pass on to new, young readers. The stories within, however, will inform readers why the Smurfs have such staying power. Longtime comics readers who are looking for a reminder of why comics are fun to read will want The Purple Smurf.

A

http://www.smurf.com/
http://www.papercutz.com/

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