Chud.com reviews Corporate Ninja #2 by Matt Mocarski, which was in stores the first week of March. You have to scroll down to read it, almost all the way to the bottom. It gets five out of five Vikings, which is good because we needed five more Vikings in order to launch our invasion of Denmark. Those flat-bottomed ships sure as hell don't row themselves, you know!

Graig Kent writes, "this second issue"--in which the Corporate Ninja has to quell an uprising of nicotine-addicted pets--"is truly one of the most outrageously funny books I’ve read in a long time.... Creator Matt Mocarski dishes out both savvy satire and sheer sillyness, his cartoon forms exaggerated to the perfect point, giving each character (and animal) their own personality without having to say a word. Brilliant stuff."

We love ninja here at SLG, that's for sure. I really like the video podcast Ask a Ninja, but other people here don't. I think it's because they're brain damaged.

Okay, now that you've read the review and wasted some time watching Ask a Ninja, go back to the review page and read the very first review--of The Punisher #31. Doesn't that sound like the absolutely worst comic book EVER, just completely another exmple of the appalling stuff that passes-for-"mature" in mainstream comics? And yet the reviewer likes it! God help us all.

'Tis the first of March, tasty munchkins, and that means new comics in stores! Hurray!



Corporate Ninja #2 by Matt Mocarski
32-page comic book, $2.95

In order to expand their empire, a tobacco company manufactures a new line of cigarettes aimed at household pets. As the popularity of the product explodes, the supply dwindles transforming the once cute, cuddly, lovable, fluffy bundles of joy into vicious, nicotine-starved-killing-machines!! Can Corporate Ninja find a way to satisfy the animals' unquenchable thirst or will he be tossed aside like last week's chew toy? Find out in our second action-packed issue! Now with extra sauce!




Vaistron #4 by Andrew Dabb and Boussourir
32-page comic book, $2.95

Romance! Sex! Betrayal! Nursing! All that and more in this pulse-pounding, puppy-loving new issue. With SEPO imposing marshal law on the city, Gabriella has gone undercover as Rob’s sidekick. Gabby thinks anything will be better than a trip to General Unger’s torture chambers. She’s about to be proven wrong.

Speaking of ninjas, but not ninja hobos, there are a couple of new reviews of Corporate Ninja by Matt Mocarski, which premiered this month.

"Ectocooler" at Newsarama gives it an A-, and he gets in a dig at one of those Big Two "event comics" to boot: "This is not Inifinte Crisis or anything engaging in that sort of way, which might be why I like it so much."

Scroll down at Chud.com to find the review of Corporate Ninja. It gets four out of five vikings, and the review says some nice stuff about SLG: "Slave Labor Graphics has always done well finding incredible talents for their humour roster, from legends like Jhonen Vasquez (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac) and Evan Dorkin (Milk & Cheese) to newer blood like Jamie Smart (Bear) and James Turner (Nil: A Land Beyond Belief), each having their own distinct aesthetic and style of humor. Mocarski is the latest fresh blood, and Corporate Ninja fits right in by being so different, plus he uses pirates and ninjas in the same book. You’ve got to like that. Can’t wait for the next one."

So now all of our creators must ask themselves: "Am I a legend? Or am I fresh blood? When do I get to cross over into 'legend' status? Does being 'fresh blood' involve participation in some kind of unholy ritual?'"

These are the questions that keep them up at night. I know.

There's a review of Corporate Ninja #1 and Millarworld's The Magazine. James Dodsworth dubs it "One to try out, without a doubt."

Chad Boudreau gives an enthusiastic review of Rex Libris #2 at ComicReaders.com. Rex Libris is one of those books that is so much fun to read, he says, because it makes you have fun while feeling smart. "[Rex] revels in his own smarts, and so do we. At no time does Rex Libris seem pretentious. It's smart, yes, but it is accessible all the same because its core concept of a librarian charged with retrieving overdue library books reads like a tale of high adventure."

A confession: the copy of Three Lives by Gertrude Stein that I checked out of the local library is two weeks past due.

Here are the comics that were actually in stores yesterday.


Corporate Ninja #1 by Matt Mocarski
24-page comic book, $2.95

When the corporations of the world are threatened by evil consumers, only one man can save the day... The Corporate Ninja! A fish company is threatened when they fail to connect with the newly emerging "female consumer." To help, they call upon the legendary Corporate Ninja. But will stealthy skills and katana blades be able to sway these females' buying habits?



ITW #5
FREE!

This month, SLG's free magazine includes articles about our new one-shot Marlene by Peter Snjebjerg and SLG's international creators, and an interview with Nil and Rex Libris creator James Turner, who also draws this month's "How I Make Comics." Plus, there's an excerpt of GloomCookie #25, the first issue drawn by French artist Vincent Batignole.