New Comics for New Readers – September 26, 2012

Wednesday is New Comics Day! Each week, The Comics Observer spotlights three brand new releases worth checking out that should be suitable for someone who has never read comic books, graphic novels or manga before.

These are out today! If you like what you see here, click the links to see previews and learn more about them. Then head to your local comic book store, or check out online retailers like Things From Another World and Amazon. Let us know what you think in the comments below or on Facebook.

For a full list of this week’s new releases, see comiXology and ComicList.com.

(Disclaimer: These aren’t reviews. Recommendations are based on pre-release press, previews, and The Comics Observer‘s patented crystal ball. Product descriptions provided by publisher.)

Erstwhile by Gina Biggs, Louisa Roy, Elle Skinner

Erstwhile: From the Tales of the Brothers Grimm
Written by the Brothers Grimm, adapted by Gina Biggs
Illustrated by Gina Biggs, Louisa Roy, and Elle Skinner
Published by Strawberry Comics
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale
Ages: 10+
160 pages
$20.00

Fairy Tales have captured our hearts for generations, appealing to our taste for adventure, horror, and romance. Erstwhile gives the lesser-known Brothers Grimm Tales the spotlight in these delightful comic adaptations.

While we love Snow White, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and the others, everyone knows them already. They’ve been done to death, spoofed, parodied, and reimagined to death. Many of the fairy tales we know today have been watered down as many have been considered too dark for today’s children.

Erstwhile is returning to the roots of these stories, telling five complete stories as they appeared when Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published them.

Memorial by Chris Roberson and Rich Ellis

Memorial
Written by Chris Roberson
Illustrated by Rich Ellis
Published by IDW Publishing
Genre: Fantasy
Ages: 12+
148 pages
$24.99

New York Times best-selling author and Eisner-nominated creator of iZombie Chris Roberson delivers a magical new series featuring art by the fantastical Rich Ellis and covers by the legendary Michael Wm. Kaluta.

Memorial is the story of Em, a young woman who arrives at a hospital in Portland, Oregon, with no memory of her past. A year later, she has rebuilt her life, only to find her existence thrown into turmoil after she inherits a magical shop. The kind that appears in an alley one instance and disappears the next. Em is drawn into a supernatural conflict between beings that not only represent, but are, fundamental elements of the universe itself!

Little Death by Thomas Kriebaum

Little Death
Written and illustrated by Thomas Kriebaum
Published by Soaring Penguin Press
Genre: Humor
Ages: 16+
96 pages
$14.99

He comes when he is least expected. You hear a knock at the door. You fear the worst: it’s Little Death. But is he here for you? Or your cat?

Little Death, the pint-size death merchant in the black suit, is the creation of Thomas Kriebaum. Created initially as a response to his previous, critically-acclaimed book Life, and riffing on the premise of Death in Venice, it wasn’t until Kriebaum saw Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman that he thought of Little Death as a world-weary, door-to-door salesman, plying his trade to the unwelcoming public.

The result is Little Death, a smart and witty interpretation of the time old question of what to do if death came knocking at your door? Told in 14 stories. Kriebaum’s Little Death may be child-like in size, but sports a smart black suit, a dashing cap and tinted glasses over his ‘deathly’ pale face. Along his journey to collect his due souls, we are transported from a Nighthawks styled diner to various apartment complexes – meeting dramatic starlets, familiar little old ladies, and the unsuspecting public just going about their errands.