Published bi-monthly for over ten years, the pages of "AX "contain the most creative and cutting-edge works of independent comics in the world's largest comics industry. Now, Top Shelf presents this collection of stories from ten years of AX history, and features work by such visionaries as Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Akino Kondoh, Kazuichi Hanawa, and Shinichi Abe.

    All Lucius wants is to recapture the Rome of earlier days, when one could enjoy a relaxing bath without the pressure of merchants and roughhousing patrons. Slipping deeper into the warm water, Lucius is suddenly caught in the suction and dragged through the drainage at the bottom of the bath! He emerges coughing and sputtering amid a group of strange-looking foreigners with the most peculiar bathhouse customs...over 1,500 years in the future in modern-day Japan! His contemporaries wanted him to modernize, and so, borrowing the customs of these mysterious bath-loving people, Lucius opens what quickly becomes the most popular new bathhouse in Rome-Thermae Romae!

    But living in cyberspace isn't always fun and games. High-tech crimes and pesky viruses are always a big problem for the authorities. Thank gookness for MegaMan and his NetOperator, Lan Hikari. Together, they do their best to keep their hometown safe from being permanently deleted.But now a strange and dark aura has surrounded all of DenTech City. The Dark Forces have arrived and they're making a bid to destroy the brick-and-mortar megalopolis. Just when things look their worst, MegaMan suddenly and unexplainably appears. What the heck is going on?! Everyone knows the Net Warrior can't exist in the real world. Has MegaMan's network transmission gone completely phooey?

    Hellboy is one of the most celebrated comics series in recent years. The ultimate artists' artist and a great storyteller whose work is in turns haunting, hilarious, and spellbinding. Mike Mignola has won numerous awards in the comics industry and beyond. When strangeness threatens to engulf the world, a strange man will come to save it. Sent to investigate a mystery with supernatural overtones, Hellboy discovers the secrets of his own origins, and his link to the Nazi occultists who promised Hitler a final solution in the form of a demonic avatar." ... Hellboy is a brilliant example of how to elevate the comic of the future to a higher literary level while achieving a higher pitch of excitement." --Robert Bloch, from his introduction

    

    To escape a world with no future, many turn to the Syndicate, a criminal organization who, for the right price, will smuggle you back in time to the promise of a better yesterday. Tatsuo -- a smuggler for the Syndicate-- wants to leave his life of crime behind, but when an FBI agent disrupts his plan to steal a time machine, they both find themselves hunted across time by his former employers.A mix of SAGA and Looper, TIME BEFORE TIME is a sci-fi crime tale that shows the one thing you can never escape is your past. Collects TIME BEFORE TIME #1-5

    Today, the followers of the original Killjoys languish in the Desert while BLI systematically strips citizens of their individuality. As the fight for freedom fades, it’s left to the Girl to take up the mantle and bring down the fearsome BLI! Collects The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys #1–#6 and “Dead Satellites” from Free Comic Book Day 2013.

    By logging in you'll be able to interact with your deceased loved ones who now exist in a digital afterlife. It's October 2021 and everyone is eagerly anticipating its official release.But things are about to go wrong.ELYSIUM ONLINE is a full color, 96 page graphic novel by Ilias Kyriazis.It's a sci-fi, horror drama that is as much about the way society deals with mortality as it is about disaster movie type mass destruction.—taken from:http://www.iliaskyriazis.com/comics/e...

    Nearly fifty years after it was originally published in Japan, the famed Batman manga is now fully translated and available to English-speaking readers in its entirety for the first time! Dive into these beautiful, timeless stories written and illustrated by the legendary manga creator Jiro Kuwata.

    The epic finale to the story of the Children of the Atom! Renowned X-Men scribe Chris Claremont (Uncanny X-Men) joins with star artist Sean Chen (Wolverine) for a trilogy in the style of the Lord of the Rings movies, one that spans the length and breadth of the X-Men canon and brings the saga of Marvel's mutants to a climax! Collects X-Men: The End -- Dreamers and Demons #1 to 6, Heroes and Martyrs #1 to 6, and Men and X-Men #1 to 6.

    With the enemy pushing inexorably forward, he knows the Horde must turn its attention to more vulnerable prey, and he'll use every atrocity and deception at his disposal to bring the high council around to his way of thinking.A prequel to the original Gears of War, written by Kurtis J. Wiebe (Rat Queens) with art by Max Dunbar (Dungeons & Dragons). See how it all began as Queen Myrrah's deadliest servant steers the course of history to bring about Emergence Day and the attack on humanans, setting in motion the events of the game!

    President-General Adzic and his new Czervenian Army set upon a murderous campaign to destroy the neighboring Republic of the Ostregals. But the war is only the tip of the iceberg and sets in motion a mysterious plan to change the course of world power. Sergeant John Plaxco and his elite Long Range Surveillance Team conduct a critical recon mission and make an ominous discovery that could endanger the world. With new information in hand, will every American Soldier make it out alive? Only strength and teamwork will make the difference in America's Army #1 Knowledge Is Power.

    But now his successor has been chosen to shift the balance of power in the world - Zheng Zhu’s son, Shang-Chi! Witness the Marvel Universe’s greatest fighter return to a world of death and destruction he thought he left behind long ago - and discover the secrets to Shang-Chi’s past that will change his world forever. Don’t miss out on this epic tale of family, betrayal and justice as the incredible team of Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese), Dike Ruan (SPIDER-VERSE, BLACK CAT) and Philip Tan (UNCANNY X-MEN) launch a new chapter in the legend of Shang-Chi!

    In the late Sixties a fireball struck the town of Pederson, Illnois granting fantastic powers to the 113 children who were in utero at the time of impact. They grew up as the world watched. Labeled the Specials by the Media, their powers were monitored and catalogued by the United States Government. Public perception of them changed often. Were they the future of mankind? A scourge? A random occurrence? Heroes? Villains? Role models or simply caricatures? What would be their impact on culture and society? They were a waried as kids and adults ever are; some were more powerful, some less. As adults they became many things: a policeman, a corporate symbol, a singer, an assassin, a writer, a painter, a thief, a preacher. Some found celebrity, some notoriety, while others simply went to work and raised families like everyone else. But they all carried inside them a seed of something great. Something special. Something that made them stars. As their epic stories unfolded, there were other stories as well...of their lives and the lives of those around them. This book is about those stories. Collected here are the short stories about the Specials, a bit about their beginnings, a bit about their middles and just a little bit about their end.