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tié'SEYJSEhER l . memoirs“ The Rapture ' (Bloomsbury) ”O i B E A R S SEIBCU¥3NAL .. l .- . Jan-mew l . - ...‘ ‘ a The Devil’s Music A . g .. i .. 3 I? g . man returns to the l ‘r “Tm «at . coastheknewinhis l “ .i ' 2 childhood to try and ENEMND make sense of the traumatic events that ; .. '33::an occurred therewhen l """““ ‘.T.:';.;.‘r'.t‘.t"“' he was five. l Bloomsbury. i this beast is rendered in Carolina De ! lightly stepping prose Robot-us The E and impressively Invisible Mountain A i evocative illustrations i sweeping South There are three distinct : from David Roberts. i American-set maiden storylines fighting for : who has previously ' voyage about three oxygen inside Liz l sketched for the works 3 generations of Jensen's latest novel. l of Georgia Byng and l women at the turn of Sadly, they end up Chris Priestley. i the 20th century. suffocating one ; Each tale delves into i HarperCol/ins. another. Most f a semi-mythical bear g James A Levine deserving of air is the 1 genre including sin- l The Blue Notebook well-researched tale of . eaters. ‘civilians' and ; The dark tale of a 15_ a woman broken, both ' sewer-dwellers. and it i year-old prostitute physically and ' all makes for an 1 who lives in a cage emotionally. by a tragic ; enticing package. But 3 on the streets of car crash. Losing the , crucially, the whole ( Mumbai having been , man she loves and the ‘ effect is sadly diluted by i sold into sexual ~~~ ' ability to walk in one fell . the content of the 5 slavery by her dad at ”H swoop. Gabrielle Fox ; stories themselves i the age of nine. slowl ad'usts to her which heavil hint at '- - SUPERHERO COM'C i new liyfe ajnd giving the l darkness and comedy F VVBIdBflfG/d8 GRANT monnisou & FRANK ourrELv d t t g b ,d ,. ,h. Nico/80". Batman and Robin No.1 rea er as U e i U e iv-er some ing Nicola Keenan (DC) 000. observations about ; vaguely in between. Swimmin The new _- __ _-_. . _-_- wheelchair-bound life ; Ultimately, the plentiful . 9. It starts with a toad-man in a top hat and a classic car being chased down along the way. 2 quirks only work on Lionel Shnver the highway by a flying, rocket-launching Batmobile, detours through a In second place i their own merits and (according to her burning man attacking a police station and ends with a fleeing crook and comes Fox's hanging- are a mere hindrance “PD“SWG’S) debuts his daughter being turned into eerie doll-faced assassins by some crazy in a by-a-thread career as l as Jackson attempts to W'th this Kansas-set a pig mask. Yes, Grant Morrison (pictured) is back on Batman, and we i an art therapist. E deliver a series of i tale Of a gifted should rejoice. Through the classic Arkham Asylum graphic novel and the l Transferred to 8 ~ emotional impacts. 5 teenage swummer recent Batman RIP arc, he’s proved to be a writer in tune with the ' hospital for adolescent ' (Brian Donaldson) 3 who takes to the combination of action, obsession and weirdness which makes up Batman’s I psychiatric patients. : . 2 waters lithorder to f world. But Bruce Wayne, don’t forget, is deceased, so this new duo she encounters a i ggLaRENggg'Tfig S :30”er e r069; 0 comprises . . . well, that would be giving the game away. It’s enough to say teenage girl damaged 3 B is for Beer : faerrfidysChnzgna that there’s a whole new dynamic going on with this seemingly familiar beyond repair by her 1 (No Exit Press) .. , y. a ' . pair, and Morrison plays it with easy humour. evangelist parents. A ; 2 All Set!“ The VVISh Another major selling point of this new series is the art of Frank Quitely, potentially fascinating l l Maker This 24-year- Morrison’s fellow Scot and collaborator on the recent, critically-acclaimed case study is lost M , O'd delivers a first. All-Star Superman series. Alongside Mark Millar's most popular muse = beneath the unbearable i ‘O’*§_’"8 novel about a family Bryan Hitch, Quitely is quite possibly the best artist working in superhero weight of Jensen's third 3. ‘33-'33? 3 wedding W'th some comics today. His action sequences and splash pages are kinetic and strand of storytelling: . i1 dramatic action-packed, and his panel borders always clearly-defined, which is a apocalyptic climate 3 i consequences. nice old-school touch in comparison to the eye-watering bleeds of many change. The future E Hamrsh Hamilton. other artists working in the genre. This is, in terms of characters and world Jensen depicts 5 creators, a return to a classic comic book team-up. (David Pollock) may send a shiver
down the spine. but by wrapping it up in ;
origins. manufacture. and effects by the Beer
SOC'AL DRAMA E central London is something akin to ‘ B Is for Beer i Fairy.
DANNY '0'“; i is ! wonderfully chaotic and science fiction. she ; Thankfully. there is no (legggnoléa{aii) u l i the manipulation of renders it almost ' moral to the story: it's ..-___-._._..___ __ ' Terry's colleagues frivolous. (Kelly Apter) 1 Tom Robbins has had a just a fun way to Danny King. usually a during the filming of a i long, fruitful relationship educate your kids in the crime fiction writer. has BBC reality TV show firéfipkaéKSON with the offbeat. zany perils and pleasures of many chances to make about builders Bears of England 5 and otherworldly. B is i alcohol. But as bedtime comic-yet-truthful convinces. But it's (Faber) m g for Beer, his shot at l reading, it really observations on British King's failure to draw an i children's fiction. is depends what you notions of class in Blue . . alluring portrait of the The mind's eye image l characteristically quirky. want the nippers to Collar, in which figmm’gt‘mra i central couple that is of bears range from i Let down again by her dream of. If you're workinSJ-class builder .7" ' Blue Co/lar's real cuddly marmalade or F taciturn father and fly- happy for them to drift Terry strays into the shortfall and when the honey-chomping ' by-night uncle. and off murmuring a
murky world Of trendy two finally part ways to animated icons all the ' intrigued by the drink of multitude of booze ISIinQton bars when he . ‘ i ' usher in a tired ‘will way down to those l which they seem so brands to the sound of starts dating SOk-a-year narrative overburdened they/won't they' ending. poor creatures being ' enamoured. monkey- drunken Egyptians. it's Charley. Yet the book's with romantic anguish. it's hard to sympathise baited or dragged off to : dancing five-year—old ' a sweet read with a potential for success is ! There are some well- with what they have the circus. In Mick ! Gracie sups some beer. ; happy ending. If not, extinguished by a l drawn moments: the lost, let alone hope they Jackson's playful set of . She throws up, passes ! something a little less storyline that routinely i depiction of an anti- will regain it. mythic tales, the human i out. and is taken on a i Tom Robbins would forfeits action for a l globalisation rally in (Yasmin Sulaiman) fear and fascination for 5 meander through its ! better suit. (Kate Gould)
25 Jun—9 Jul 2009 THE LIST 33