This Week in Comics – 9/7/2011

I walked the racks at two different stores this New Comic Wednesday and was able to find two non-DC books that piqued my interest. I also grabbed the thirteen (yes, 13!) DC Comics titles released this week and will be posting about some of them over the next week. In addition to Atomic Robo (review posted earlier today), I was excited to grab Zenescope’s new Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: The Library #1. Zenescope is known for their fairy tale retellings (not to mention some of the sexiest cover women in comics) and this one looks to be another fun story.

Grimm Fairy Tales Presents: The Library #1 – Zenescope – Brusha; Timpano – $2.99

If you have ever read one of Zenescope’s Grimm Fairy Tale books, you know they have really sexy covers and stories involving fairy tales that make any comic nerds blood boil with excitement. One half of the founding team, Joe Brusha, along with Giovanni Timpano, brings The Library to life featuring heroine, Sela Mathers. Sela is a young girl whose family is one of the richest around, her mom has died and she has serious daddy issues. Dressed in a catholic school girl like uniform and her face hidden behind big nerdy glasses, Sela tries whatever she can to get her father’s attention, approval, and affection but all he wants to do is work and buy whatever he can to make his daughter happy. Sela’s little brother, Thomas, is a constant thorn in her side since her mother’s passing and he sees no problem with letting dad give him “everything money can buy. “ On an errand with their father, Sela and Thomas stop at the latest Mr. Mathers acquisition, a large library. Sela’s father sends the kids off to explore as he argues with the librarian about the vacating of the premises. The children find a room with a special book and naturally read aloud the opened text. There are suddenly flashes of light and spinning winds start coming from the books as some sort of magic takes control. Thomas is sucked into a book in the Greek Mythology section and Sela ends up pulled into a book in the Dinosaurs aisle, both screaming for help. Sela finally gets the attention from her father as he and the librarian, Ms. Sullivan, follow the screams and arrive to find the books acting crazy and the children gone.

The first thought that popped into my mind when the books started magically pulling people in was this was going to be like that old Macaulay Caulkin movie, the Pagemaster, where the kid gets sucked into the book world and has to over come classic storytelling challenges to return to his real world. My second thought was “HOLY CRAP! This is going to be like that movie, The Pagemaster, but told with Zenescope’s imagery and imagination (and a hot young woman)!” I can see Sela meeting classic storybook characters and fighting with respective villains. Zenescope has done well twisting fairy tales for years (Tales from Wonderland, Sinbad, Neverland, etc.) and should be able to have fun with readers’ favorite stories like the Wizard of Oz, the Odyssey, Robin Hood and more. This story will maintain its entertainment value as long as it does not get dragged on for too long (there are only so many times the characters could jump through different books before it gets boring). Spend the $2.99 on this one.

Check out my review for Atomic Robo and the Ghost of Station X here. And check back for coverage of DC Comics’ new 52 throughout the week.