Pardon me for mentioning it.

I have a rule about never hyping product on this blog.

But I received three graphic novels in this week that are so unique, that I can't help but talk about them -- this is meant more as news than any effort to get you in my store. O.K.?

A few years back, Frank Miller, creator of The 300, and Sin City, announced that he was going to write a story which, in effect, had Batman kicking the crap out of terrorists.

Apparently, the political slant was a little too much for DC, because they bowed out.

So it was put out this week by a different publisher -- in the exact same format as The 300 -- and called the HOLY TERROR.

I haven't read it yet -- but I think I can sum it up like this: it's a Batman-like character kicking the crap out of terrorists...


The second book is the CASTLE graphic novel. What's interesting about this to me, is that the T.V. show actually has made an effort to promote this, having the Castle character talk about the book and actually having an episode last week involving a superhero and a visit to a comic shop and a highlighting of the book. They also, apparently, had an ad run during the show. (I mindlessly skipped it on my DVR, as I usually do...doh.)

That is SO unusual. It's always driven me nuts that the T.V. shows and movies make so little effort to point out the original comics....


The third interesting book is by Craig Thompson, who wrote a large autobiographic tome called BLANKETS several years ago.

He just released a book called, HABIBI.

The description on his webpage:

Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, HABIBI tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them.

At once contemporary and timeless, HABIBI gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling.

672 pages
7" x 9"
Hardcover
Fiction; Graphic Novel; Black-and-white drawings throughout
$35.00

Yep, it's 672 pages long. But absolutely gorgeous. I took one look at it, and ordered 2 more copies from my book distributor.

Anyway, usually there isn't even one book in a week that I would feel the need to trumpet, and this week there were three!

Pardon my hype.