Graphic novel news

MirrorMask, the movie spawned from the imaginations of comic legends Neil Gaiman (script/story) and Dave McKean (director/designer/story/everything else) is out at selected cinemas in the US from Friday. The animated movie follows the story of Helena, a fifteen-year-old girl brought up in a circus, who wants to run away and join the real world. Instead she finds herself exploring a bizarre fantasy world, brought to life by McKean's extraordinary graphical talents, that bring movement to the amazing quality of work that we've already seen in his graphic novels. The Gaiman/McKean combo has always created beautiful comics that are more than worthy of reading - it seems unlikely that MirrorMask will be anything less than equally enchanting. Book your tickets now!

If you're looking for something a bit different, Fantagraphics is often a good place to start. This month look out for Cinema Panopticum and Above the Clouds. Cinema Panopticum by Thomas Ott is a collection five horror novelettes, drawn in a scratchy etched style without the need for any text, creating a truly visual journey through fear.

The Clouds Above is about as different as you could get - a colourful children's story by Jordan Crane. Beautifully drawn and multi-layered, this looks set to become the kind of book that is as popular with parents as it is with the children they read it to.

Order from Amazon.com/Amazon.co.uk

Order from Amazon.com/Amazon.co.uk

Del Rey have a batch of new manga translations available. Out now are Gundam Seed Volume 5: The Last Battle (buy it at Amazon: US/UK), Love Roma by Minoru Toyada (Amazon US/UK) and Gacha Gacha by Hiroyuki Tamakoshi (Amazon US/UK). The latter is a racey love story about a boy who falls for a girl with split personalities.

In October, Del Rey is launching Sugar Sugar Rune by Moyoco Anno (Amazon US/UK), volumes five of Othello (Amazon US/UK) and The Wallflower (Amazon US/UK), and volume seven of the ever popular Negima by Ken Akamatsu (Amazon US/UK). Also look out for Ghost Hunt by Shiho Inada and Fuyumi Ono, which follows the adventures of Mai Taniyama as she helps investigate a haunted area of her school (Amazon US/UK).

If you fancy trying your hand at drawing in a manga style, check out Mangaquest, which combines drawing tips with a complete manga story to read (Amazon US/UK).

Order from Amazon.com/Amazon.co.uk

Order from Amazon.com/Amazon.co.uk

Order from Amazon.com/Amazon.co.uk

Read Grovel's latest graphic novel review - Trinity by Matt Wagner.

Read Grovel's latest graphic novel review - Batman: Broken City by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso.

Yes, we've been away on holiday for a couple of weeks, but now we're back. Normal service will resume as soon as we've crawled out from under the pile of graphic novels that were waiting for us when we returned.

In the meantime, fantasy fans in the UK can feast their barbaric chops on the latest Chronicles of Conan volume, Brothers of the Blade and other stories, published in the UK by Titan Books. Reprinting a recoloured version of Marvel's original strips by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and friends, it's available now. Also available in the US from Dark Horse.

Order from Amazon.com/Amazon.co.uk