Weekend Shopping Guide 4/13/07: Whither Booster Gold? » Quick Stop Entertainment
It’s a book like Elk’s Run (Villard, $19.95 SRP) that restores my faith in independent comic books. Originally published by a small distributor who went under before its 10-issue run finished, author Joshua Hale Fialkov and artists Noel Tuazon & Scott Keating have crafted a tense, nuanced bit of post-9/11 noir, about a small community with a lot of big secrets, whose tension-filled idyll is suddenly blown to pieces after an accident sets off a chain of events that tears the town - and families - apart. I’d go into more detail, but I’m really hoping that you pick up a copy in its mass-market form - which collects the entire run, with supplemental material - and experience it for yourself. It’s highly recommended.
Raising the Steaks: Finally, My Balls Hurt!
If you like good comics, go read this one. Please. You owe it to yourself as a fan of comics. It’s not a superhero book. It’s not an underground indie book. It’s just a solid story executed about as well as any comic you’ll see this year.
From the stack: Elk's Run « Precocious Curmudgeon
Joshua Hale Fialkov structures the escalating crisis with care and intelligence. The events he portrays are extreme yet chillingly plausible. Characters are given depth and detail. Artist Noel Tuazon has an impressive cartooning vocabulary. He adopts drastically different styles to ground the story in place and time, but it holds together. And I love the rich, saturated coloring by Scott A. Keating.
ComicList: New Comic Book Releases List - REVIEWS: On The Shelves 04/04/07VILLARD BOOKS
Elks Run GN, $19.95
FINALLY!!!! I championed this book so loudly, for so long, it seems almost anticlimactic now that it’s finally hitting the shelves. Don’t sleep on it, though, as Fialkov, Tuazon and Keating deliver the goods through to the very end, telling a gripping story that packs an emotional whallop at the end.
Las Vegas Weekly
"Together they've created a smart thriller that's as challenging as it is suspenseful."
If that's not a pull quote I don't know what is. You can check out the rest of this really, really gracious review at the above link.
Bookgasm has a great review of the entire five issue run of Western Tales of Terror. I somehow missed it when it came out (probably because the book had already been dead and buried for about a year when it ran), but, it's greatly appreciated.
Y'know... I'm actually incredibly proud of those five issues. I think they go toe to toe with just about any horror comic on the market today or yesterday. And they're still for sale over at the Hoarse and Buggy store.
Go, buy them, enjoy.
From Today's Bad Signal
And I've read CASANOVA #1 by
Matt Fraction & Gabriel Ba, which is
a total mindfuck, Moorcock via
Steranko, Nino and OUR MAN FLINT.
It, Gillen & McKelvie's PHONOGRAM
and probably Fialkov and Chamberlain's
PUNKS are looking like the singles
of the year so far.
Friend and Blogger Mark Fossen had this, and more to say about the first 12 pages of Punks which we casually sent his way as part of our 'feedback phase.'
"Punks is the kind of thing you find when you wake up passed out on a friends couch with a splitting hangover. It's crumpled under your head, and as you come to consciousness, you read Punks and say : 'Dude. What the FUCK is this?? Where are the rest?' .... And then you spend the rest of the day calling your buddy 'Noisy McNoise-Noisenstein', and quoting lines from the book."
So, go read, get excited.
Or else.
In that issue there, there's a beautiful Elk's Run Review that says things like the following:
"Easiest described as Stephen King's The Body (aka Stand by Me) crossed with M. Night Shyamlan's The Village, but comic's best kept secret is actually a great deal more."
and
"A far from happy ending is exactly the reason we're reading why we're reading this excellent book in the first place."
So, go support the best horror mag on the stands, cause they've supported the best indie comic on the stands. It all works out karmically.
Or so says Steven Grant's readers
Elk's Run is right smack dab in the middle of the list of Indispensable Comics Series of 2005. Take that Fables and Y: The Last Man! We're at the very least alphabetically superior!
Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.:
"ELK’S RUN #4
Speakeasy Comics
I first heard about this book after reading Vroom Socko’s excellent review of issue #3 last summer. Since then, I have digested every issue of this series and found it to be one of the most spine-tingling reads I have read in ages. Never have I been more invested in the outcome of a story than I am with this one. The secluded town of Elk’s Run is threatened with interference from the outside world. Recognizing that their parents are a little bit of bat-shit crazy, four kids decide that they need to get out of town…and fast. This book has a tempo, a heartbeat that is ever-present. And as each issue goes by, the beat gets faster. Search out the first three issues of this series and buy issue #4 released last week. You won’t be sorry. - Ambush Bug "
Thanks for the love guys.
ELK'S RUN #4 REVIEW - comiXtreme:
"Now that Speakeasy has released a “bumper edition” of the first three issues (and you can read number three for free online - check the Hoarse and Buggy website for details), there’s no excuse not to pick this up. And you should, because it’s comics like this that give me hope for the medium. "
Thanks for the kind words, Andy!
Over at the phenomenally thoughtful and well written NinthArt, Elk's Run got on the Honor Roll for Best Debut book. Here's what they had to say: Ninth Art Lighthouse Awards 2005:
"ELK'S RUN: Let's set the record straight. There are no elk in this comic. If there were, they would not run, unless it was to escape from the pseudo-moral militia who are building up to unleash tragedy in a tiny American town in this tense, slow-burning series. Fialkov, Tuazon and Keating have created a story that's genuinely foreboding, chilling and creepy. It is most assuredly not a funny animal book."
Best Comic Book That No One is Reading:Elk's Run. Okay, according to Jason, maybe 150 people are. But that's not nearly enough. This is a bracing, intense look at a generational war played out in small-town America with enough secrets to stymie the CIA. It's a gripping adventure story but also a insightful psychological piece. The bumper edition (collecting the first three issues) and the fourth issue should still be around. The only excuse you have for not reading it is not being able to find it, which, I admit, is a reason, but people can help. Ask Jason where you can get it. Ask Joshua, the writer. Or, you know, go here."
Click Here for the Rest of Their Picks
And much thanks guys!
Cellar Door Review Column:
"Elk's Run (Speakeasy Comics) This is a title that had to jump from one publisher to another, but well worth it to find (or ask your retailer). This is quite simply a story of town which has drawn back away from the rest of society. In the hills of West Virginia, this sleepy town is on the verge of an uprising.Joshua Fialkov keeps the story moving with each issue being told from a different character's perspective. Instead of ‘rehashing' events, this style of story telling actually opens up the story more than I expected it too. Motivations, ideas, dreams, and hopes are all expressed by these characters who find themselves in a town like no other. The age old battle of the younger generations ideals vs. their parents ideals gets a whole new spin, as some of the local children realize that what their parents are doing ‘for their protection' seems to do more harm than good. Check out this book for a tale of a town slowly realizing that their way of life is about to get turned on its ear. "
Our pals over at Buzzscope made it official. We made it on to EIC Guy Gonzalez Best of the Year list, and now we made it onto the Official Best of the Year. Read on! And go check out their other picks, there's really and truly the cream of the crop there, and we're honored to be in such wonderful company.BUZZSCOPE :: Buzzscope Comics: Best of 2005:
"ELK’S RUN, by Joshua Hale Fialkov, Noel Tuazon and Scott A. Keating (Hoarse & Buggy/Speakeasy): Imagine a compelling combination of Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery' and Stephen King's 'The Body,' with a healthy dose of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, and you'll have a good idea of the overall tone of Elk's Run, the critically acclaimed mini-series from writer/creator Joshua Hale Fialkov that you're most likely not currently reading. Then, imagine the resultant story being told from multiple viewpoints, Rashomon-style, and you'll realize that you're missing out on THE sleeper hit of the year. Noel Tuazon's art is perfectly suited for the eerie but grounded tone of Fialkov's story, reminiscent of Craig Thompson's impressionistic work in the way he excels at making the ordinary interesting and distinctive, while Scott A. Keating's coloring complements him with a simple, but subtly varied palette. A suspenseful blend of familiar genre elements whose sum is far greater than its individual parts, Fialkov has crafted the kind of story that stretches the definition of 'comic book' and is deserving of the superlative tagline: Instant Classic. – Guy LeCharles Gonzalez"
HH Skewed Perspectives - Elks' Run Bumper Edition
While each issue of the series provides an interesting read, I’m glad I read the first three issues in this collected edition, as it let me better appreciate the unusual structure Fialkov’s chosen to tell this story. Even though the first story page cleverly foreshadows the plot’s progression, read on its own, the first issue could give a misleading impression of what the book’s about--it appears to be a story of teenage rebellion. While that element is certainly a part of the tapestry ELK’S RUN’s creators are weaving, the story is much larger than that. It’s only by the end of the third issue that we get a sense of exactly how bad things are going to get for everyone in Elk’s Ridge.