Princess Ugg #2
Written and Illustrated by Ted Naifeh
Colored and Lettered by Warren Wucinich
Cover by Ted Naifeh
Oni Press
Release Date: July 16, 2014
Cover Price: $3.99

Ulga, the only heir to the mountain king, Thorgrim of Grimmeria, has bested warriors and giants in combat, but now faces her toughest challenge yet: princess school. In Princess Ugg #2, written by Ted Naifeh, Ulga begins her princess training and it proves to be quite the uphill battle.

Naifeh does a fantastic job on so many levels in issue two. The narration is told in typical fairytale fashion, but from the voice of a Norseman storyteller, helping to guide the reader along Ulga’s physical and emotional journey. The dialogue remains true to character; in fact, I found myself reading Ulga’s accented barbaric dialect out loud, and enjoying every moment. In terms of connecting with Ulga, Naifeh makes sure that his readers feel defeated along with Ulga when she can’t hold a utensil correctly and proud when she proves her classmates wrong.

The Life After #1
Written by Joshua Hale Fialkov
Illustrated and Colored by Gabo
Lettered by Crank!
Cover by Gabo
Oni Press
Release Date: July 9, 2014
Cover Price: $3.99

When dullness of life seems ever-present, it becomes increasingly necessary to make a sudden change. In Oni Press’s newest ongoing series, The Life After, creator Joshua Hale Fialkov constructs a surreal existence for his protagonist, who finds himself caught in a constant flow of past, present, and future history — a reality of his own doing; or is it?

The beginning of the comic spans time and space through brilliant scene-to-scene transitions that exemplify the monotony of Jude’s life to an outstanding measure. The repetitive current of living continues daily, everything our hero experiences always seems to be slightly off or second best; until he makes a conscious effort to walk off of the bus — inadvertently altering the course of his life.

Buzz!
Trade Paperback | Kindle Edition
Written by Ananth Panagariya
Illustrated by Tessa Stone
Edited by James Lucas Jones
Cover by Tessa Stone
Oni Press
Release Date: April 9, 2014
Cover Price: $19.99

Words can be powerful weapons, and in the case of Buzz!, the latest graphic novel from Oni Press, this idea has never been truer. Written by Ananth Panagariya with art from Tessa Stone, comes an action-packed spelling bee extravaganza that will surely have you studying your dictionary.

Before anxious Webster heads off for his first day of high school, his sister tells him to “stay away from the trouble makers.” Unfortunately for Webster, this proves to be an immediate problem as he stumbles across an underground spelling bee in which the contestants are literally physically beaten by the words spelled against them. The gladiatorial-like combat scares Webster more than he’d like, even after he’s inadvertently thrust into and wins a match in the competition.

The Auteur #1
Written by Rick Spears
Illustrated by James Callahan
Colored by Luigi Anderson
Lettered by Rick Spears
Oni Press
Released March 5, 2014
Cover Price: $3.99

From time to time, a comic comes along that is so different from everything else that it becomes hard to describe exactly what is going on in the comic. Such is the case when it come to The Auteur #1 from Oni Press. In the first issue, we are introduced to Nathan T. Rex, movie producer extraordinaire. He’s just made a wildly unsuccessful series of movies. Now he’s trying to get back on track with a horror movie.

That may not sound like a very interesting premise for a comic, but under the pen of Rick Spears, the series takes a series of strange twists as Nathan looks for inspiration.

Helheim
Issues #1-4
Written by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Joëlle Jones
Colored by Nick Filardi
Lettered by Ed Brisson
Covers by Joëlle Jones
Oni Press
Release Date: June 12, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

When witches go to war, no one is safe. Oni Press offers up a dose of bloody mayhem in Helheim, a new epic ongoing series from creator Cullen Bunn and artist Joëlle Jones. In issues 1-4, a small band of Vikings struggle against savage invaders and beast men alike, while the looming threat of two opposing witches strangle all with fear.

The Viking named Rikard has died. Using his death to her advantage, Rikard’s lover, Bera the witch, has revived him, creating a Draugr “” a massive reanimated, grotesque monster forged with appendages from other dead creatures “” to do her bidding. Now shunned by his entire village, including his warrior father, the new Rikard is sent out by Bera to kill the followers of her rival: an old witch named Groa; however, when Rikard meets a kind young girl who not only shows no fear of him, but actually talks with and teaches him as though he were a regular man, Rikard begins to take matters into his own hands “” waging a new war against both powerful witches.