Flippin’ through ‘Previews’ – June 2017

It’s already the 11th of June as I type these words, so let’s jump right in to Previews #345, with Scary Axe Batman on the cover!

In case you missed it, friends, I went on vacation last week. I mentioned it at the end of my monthly review roundup, but you’re forgiven if you didn’t read that far – I do tend to ramble a bit, and not about awesome topics like Other Greg (who’s not only far more interesting than I am on the internet, but in real life, too – damn him!!!!). With that in mind, I explained to my fellow Flippin’er, Travis Pelkie, that I would be away and out of contact for the week – we did find an Indian restaurant above a bookstore in Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands (yes, that’s the name of the town, I swear!), that allowed us to use their internet, but obviously I wasn’t going to do any work on it, so I just briefly checked the blog and moved on with the rest of my vacation (my 15-year-old nephew, whose phone is glued to his hand, wanted to look at the internet because he was worried there might have been some game he definitely needed to download that very instant). I told Travis that he could get his part done and when I got home on the 10th I could just fill in the blanks, put in some pretty pictures (Travis lives in the 1880s and doesn’t have a scanner), and hey presto! the post, she is done. Good times all around!

Yeah, that didn’t happen. I have no idea what Travis did all week – binge-watch Gunsmoke, infiltrate North Korea and destroy their nuclear capabilities, fall down a hole filled with cottonmouths, eat a giant tub of pork rinds – but one thing he didn’t do is start this post. He’s a huge disappointment to his parents, his country, and his god. Doesn’t he realize that people depend on this post?!?!?!?!? Instead, he sat around all week making prop bets on the Comey testimony. Of course there are prop bets on the Comey testimony! Don’t you guys know anything?!?!?!?

With that in mind, I guess I will start the post. Sorry for the delay! Blame Travis. That’s what his prom date did, so he’s used to it!

HA!  Joke’s on you, I didn’t GO to my prom!

Wait …

Yeah, I … didn’t get to it.  Sorry.  My face, she is red! Let’s go ahead and start this thing!

Dark Horse:

Full solicits here!

There’s a new Hellboy Library Edition on page 37, bringing us up to date on the character, which I guess Mignola is done with? Is that right? Anyway, these are amazing editions – beautifully designed, larger than regular comics, and just a chunk of fun. I do like how volume 4 is apparently out of print. Get on that, Dark Horse! Hellboy should be evergreen!

Yeah, I remember hearing that Mignola was done, but also that the BPRD universe, if you will, is also coming to an end.  I don’t know.  I should get into this stuff more, I always like what bits and pieces I do read.

Speaking of Mignola, on page 38 he “sends up” vampire stories with Mr. Higgins Comes Home, which looks suitably bizarre. Dark Horse evokes the mystical name of “Amazing Screw-On Head,” which might make some people more likely to buy it. Or they could just, you know, get that.

It does look fun.  I need to get “Amazing Screw-On Head”, too!

It’s fun. Groovy, even.

Speaking of Mignola, on page 41 we get the trade of The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed, which sounded intriguing. An alien assassin sent to kill Hellboy when he came through to our world decided not to. You know, like you do. And it’s Paul Grist doing the art, which is always a treat.

Again, intriguing.  We’re like, 10 pages in, and there’s already a lot of good stuff!

Over on page 45, there’s a new printing of Harlequin Valentine by Gaiman and John Bolton. This is a pretty good book. I’m not sure it’s worth 13 dollars for 40 pages, but it’s pretty good.

I don’t know if the story is worth that (it’d be nice to get a big omnibus of a lot of the Gaiman short stories by Bolton and Zulli and others somewhere down the line), but this story is amazing just for the one little aside about the young woman who eventually finds a lover who finds a lump in her breast.  That bit makes the story for me.

Yeah, a giant collection would be cool. A lot of Gaiman’s stories have been translated into comics, and I’m not sure I have them all!

Lady Killer volume 2 shows up on page 47. I’m a bit perturbed by this, as I haven’t gotten the final issue yet. I don’t know if it came out and I just didn’t get it, or if it’s really late and Dark Horse is hoping that soliciting the trade will get it moving. As with the first trade, this is a fun, bloody comic, beautifully drawn by Joëlle Jones.

#5 is on the Previews list for 6/21, sir.  I got the first volume in trade, mostly based on your recommendation, as I recall, and it was well worth it.  Looking forward to getting this!

Nifty. Good to know!

Hey, Bryan Talbot has a new “Grandville” novel out, called Force Majeure, on page 50. Talbot’s “Grandville” books are quite good, and of course they look smashing. It’s nice that he keeps keeping on with these, and I’m looking forward to this one!

They sound neat, and someday I’ll catch up.

There’s a new softcover of The Escapists, inspired by Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (a terrific book, by the way), on page 50. These are nifty short stories about the character and comics creators, drawn by some really good artists. It’s been around for a while – what, 15 years or so? – so it’s nice they finally put it in softcover!

I got the first issue around the time it came out, I think, and eventually got the rest of the series, but surprise surprise, I haven’t read it yet.

Gregory Suicide on page 53 sounds interesting. An AI program wakes up in cloned body and doesn’t quite know what’s going on. Sounds nifty!

It does sound neat.  I saw this listing online and got excited, thinking at first that it was a collection of the Gregory comic by Marc Hempel that Piranha/DC put out years ago.  Not that, but comics companies, get on that collection!

Also on page 53, we get Rashomon: A Commissioner Heigo Kobayashi Case, in which a detective in feudal Japan must solve a murder. That alone sounds neat, but it’s written and drawn by Victor Santos, and his creator-owned stuff (this is inspired by a Japanese story, but apparently it’s all Santos’s) is usually phenomenal. So I’m down with this!

Sounds cool.  Reminds me of one of my favorite Simpsons jokes, too, from season 10, I think.  The family is going to Japan, and Marge says to Homer on the plane, “you liked Rashomon,” to which he replies, “that’s not how I remember it”.

Hey, I remember that! Dang, The Simpsons used to be so much fun.

James Robinson’s and Matt Wagner’s Terminator one-shot gets reprinted on page 54 in The Terminator: The Original Comics Series – Tempest and One Shot, which is certainly a mouthful. I haven’t read the other series, but the one-shot is quite good, but I wonder, of course, if Dark Horse will reprint it as a pop-up book, as God and Satan intended!!!!

That’s right, I remember seeing about that years ago.  That would be cool.  Kind of pricey for 5 issues worth of stuff, but that is a good group of creators.

Also on page 54 is another EC Archive collection, this time of Aces High.  Air war comics by George Evans, Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Bernie Krigstein…wowzers.  I will have to consider this.  I’m not sure if it’s been reprinted before (or at least hasn’t been in print lately).

It’s a bit spendy, but yeah, those artists … I’m kind of at the point where I will buy anything with Wood’s name on it, and the others are no slouches, either. So I might plunk down the cash for this!

DC:

Full solicits? Here!

Dark Nights: Metal #1. Page 72. Is it Viking Justice League? It kind of looks like Viking Justice League. There’s absolutely no information about this comic in the solicits, except that it’s what Snyder has “been planning … for as long as [he’s] been writing Batman.” Really, sir? Really? Viking Justice League? This is your big thing? O … K?

Actually, Viking Justice League would kinda rule.  But only if led by Viking Prince, dammit!  I obviously don’t give a shit enough to buy this, but I will read a trade from a library down the road.

Viking Justice League would rule, but I just thought it was funny that Snyder has been planning it for several years. It just struck me as odd. Of course, I know it’s not Viking Justice League, but still.

A Christmas special at the end of August, in Green Arrow Annual 1 on page 87.  Sure, why not?

My daughter has been watching The Wiggles’ Christmas DVD for SIX MONTHS. It’s always Christmas at our house!

I’m not exactly sure what Future Quest Showcase is, on page 107, and I know you’re not thrilled that Ariel Olivetti is drawing it, but it apparently continues from Future Quest.  So there’s that.

I saw that, but yeah, if Olivetti’s drawing it, I give no shits about it.

I tend to like Tom King, and Mitch Gerads is not a bad artist, but they seem to be the absolute wrong people to be doing Mister Miracle, as we see on page 108. Kirby creations tend to work best when they’re “Kirby-ized,” at least the New Gods part of the Kirby-verse, and King and Gerads do not scream “Kirby” in any way. This might work, but it’s an odd team. And in this centennial year of Kirby’s birth, maybe DC and Marvel could throw some money to his estate instead of simply retreading his creations. Oh, wait – bwah-ha-ha-ha!!!! Like that’s ever going to happen.

Well, I think Marvel did have to throw some money their way, if I understood that right.  I don’t know, if it’s not Kirby-ish, it might still be interesting.  Again, tradewait from the library.

“Here,” said Dan Buckley, as he gnawed on human babies’ bones while using Joey Q as an Ottoman, “have some loose change, Kirby heirs. And by the way, three of my Koenigseggs and two of my Lykans need waxing. Would you take care of that for me? You’ll get some more loose change!”

Kyle Higgins and Trevor McCarthy (or at least for as many issues as McCarthy can handle, as he seems slow) bring us Nightwing: The New Order on page 109, in which everyone’s favorite shapely butt, Dick Grayson, leads a government task force devoted to stamping out superheroes. Yes, it’s dystopian future time, but that’s not a bad team, so this might be worth a look.

So…is this a new Elseworlds?  A not yet announced tie-in to the Dark Nights stuff?  Or just…a snoozefest, as we’ve certainly seen this kind of thing before.

Beats me. I have no answers for you, sir!

I don’t know about the book, but the cover to Suicide Squad: Black Files 1 on page 110 is pretty neat looking.

I lost track of the book around the time Convergence interrupted it, as I recall, but it’s kind of sad that Gotham Academy: Second Semester is the finale of that series on page 114.  Maybe if they had put the trades out a little quicker, the book might have won a bigger fanbase.

Yeah, it was just okay. It meandered way too much, even for someone relatively patient like me.

Shane Davis is another person who doesn’t quite seem right for the New Gods, but there he is on page 120 with The New Gods Special. Now, Chaykin, with his weird, nostalgic sensibility, will probably do a better job on The Newsboy Legion and the Boy Commandos Special on page 121, even though I’m not a big fan of Chaykin anymore.

Yeah, that looks like that ’90s New Gods series, the one Luke Ross drew the first issue of.  Meh.  That Chaykin one might be fun, though, but yeah, his art hasn’t been great lately.

Then we move onto pages 122-123, where we get Jon Bogdanove and Rick Leonardi drawing The Sandman Special, which will probably work, but it’s co-written by the Human Color Beige Dan Jurgens and Steve Orlando, so we’ll have to see about that. Giffen is one writer on the Manhunter Special, and Nick Bradshaw is a fine choice for the artist, but there’s that co-writer by the name of Dan DiDio that I just don’t trust. Why does Danny D keep giving himself plum assignments? Maybe he should edit something first!

Really, is this version of the Sandman all that interesting except for being part of Gaiman’s version?  But damn, that Manhunter one should be good, though, with a backup Demon story drawn by Klaus Janson!

Stop picking on the poor Sandman!

But he puts me to sleep.  HAHAHAHA!

Finally, Mark Evanier, who knows a thing or two about Kirby, writes the Darkseid Special on page 124, and Scott Kolins on art should be a good fit. I’m not too sure about Reginald Hudlin writing The Black Racer and Shilo Norman Special on page 125, but if any of the New Gods fit Hudlin’s style, it’s probably these two, while the art team of Denys Cowans and Bill Sienkiewicz is always great.

Yes on that Darkseid one, especially with OMAC by the Dude as a backup!  The Black Racer and Shilo Norman might be good too.  I’m hoping these all get collected in a nice trade with all the backup Kirby reprints they’re offering, too.

That would be ideal.

Damn, Mister Miracle collected in trade on page 126 (I know they did a B&W trade of the first 10 issues before), and the Fourth World Omnibus on page 127 is freakin’ huge!  But so much coolness!

Jeezly Crow, how is a book of the covers of DK3 almost half the size of the collection of the 9 issue series?  They varianted the fuck out of that one, huh? (page 133)

I have no idea who invented the “jeezly crow,” but I tried it with my wife the other day, and she almost had me arrested.

Hi-yo!

Batman ’66 Meets Steed and Mrs. Peel gets a trade on page 134, and you should get it not only because it’s probably pretty good (Ian Edginton knows what he’s doing), but also to honor Adam West!

I was getting this regardless, but good to remind everybody!

DC is printing big trades of Jim Balent’s Catwoman run in the Nineties, beginning on page 136. Is this because of the big Catwoman news? It can’t be because of Balent, because he’s off doing his own thing, getting married as Darth Vader to his wife’s Leia (wrong in SO MANY WAYS, Jim!!!!!). Are these any good, beyond the obvious reason to get it? I don’t know – I only bought a few issues of the series, when it crossed over with the rest of the Batman books.

I have a number of later issues (I think Chuck Dixon was writing them at that point), and they were ok.  The Zero Hour issue, and the zero issue after it, were decent enough, from what I remember.  I doubt there was any real demand for these, though.  But kudos to Balent, as he did draw something like 70 issues of that book and maybe missed one, so for sheer work ethic he should be applauded.

Ooh, new Flash Silver Age book on page 137.  Volume 2 has the “Flash of Two Worlds” story.  I’m in!

Holy crap, Night Force is getting a trade on page 138. Wolfman and Colan doing a supernatural comic? Shit, why not? I know this doesn’t have the most sterling reputation, but I’ll probably get it anyway. Yes, I’m a sucker. I’m sure Simon will take me to task for it!

A few years back, I think, when DC did a new version drawn by Tom Mandrake, they had a 100 page special reprinting the first 4 issues (and, if I recall correctly, fucked up a 2 page spread by printing it wrong).  I thought it was fairly good stuff, and I managed to find a good portion of the other issues as well.  I’ll have to see what all I have.  It must have been a while ago when they previously solicited this, as I don’t remember talking about it any time recently.

Also on 138 is a collection of the DNA run on Legion, which also had early Olivier Coipel work.  It’s ok, but not the greatest Legion stuff, from what I remember.

I think I have the trade of “Legion Lost,” as I got it during one of my periodic “I really should try to get into the Legion of Super-Heroes” phases. If I do have it, it didn’t make much of an impression on me, so I’ll be skipping this.

Ooh, goody, I waited for the trade on this and here’s the DC Meets Hanna-Barbera trade on page 139.  I’m in.  Also the second volumes of Future Quest and Scooby Apocalypse are here too.  FQ is a no brainer, but I may need to look at SA before I think about this one.

They were pretty fun comics, so it’s nice that they’re getting collected (although be warned that some of the back-ups don’t actually finish, as they’re setting up future and possibly never-coming series). Scooby Apocalypse is big dumb fun, so I’m getting the second trade.

IDW:

Here – full solicits!

Weren’t we wondering what comics Devin Grayson had done recently?  Well, she’s writing the fifth issue of the TMNT Dimension X series on pages 154-155.  So good for her!

Ooh, if I didn’t already have a bunch of the Bloom County stuff, I’d want the Compleat edition on page 164.  So good!  And new strips in print for the first time on page 165!

Yeah, I have all the hardcovers IDW released a few years ago, but I might get the new collection. I know you don’t follow Berke Breathed on Facebook because you’re not on Facebook like some kind of savage, but the new Bloom County is just as funny as the old stuff, and he uses pops of color in the black-and-white strips really well.

I’ll say it: I’m a fan of For Better or For Worse, and I’m glad there’s a collection of the Complete Library starting on page 166.

Where’s the complete collections of “Luann”? Yes, I’m a hopeless “Luann” fan. It’s a sickness!

Wow.  There are no words …

Says the person who just admitted to being a “For Better or For Worse” fan!

I will fight you on this one, sucka!  FBOFW is a work of art, sir!

Tara O’Connor’s Roots (page 168) is autobiographical – yuck – but still sounds charming. It’s about her going through a divorce and trying to discover her family roots in – wait for it, because it’s pretty shocking – Ireland. I know, someone named Tara O’Connor is Irish – what are the odds? I always give autobiographical comics that sound interesting a try, so I might with this one!

The solicit for Bottled on page 169 doesn’t give us too much – an old successful friend of the main character returns to the town where said main character still lives, desperate to leave, and things start happening – but it does sound kind of cool. I’ll have to think about it.

I got on the Top Shelf mailing list several years back (hi, Chris Staros!), so I give unto you linky bits for Roots and for Bottled (click on the cover over at the link).  I feel like Simon!  Bottled doesn’t look particularly great, but Roots looks intriguing.

Gee, thanks, sir! That was keen. And shouldn’t we all aspire to be more like Simon? I mean, really.

Yowzers, a cool Bernie Wrightson Artifact Edition HC on page 170.  Given the collections like this that are getting solicited but must have been in the works for awhile, I assume he realized he was nearing his end and managed to wrap up some archival stuff.  So spooky! (um, his art, but also the notion that he knew the end was near….)

I still haven’t read Zero Girl, Sam Kieth’s series from back in 2001, but IDW offers a trade of it on page 174. I own all the issues, but I’m just waiting to get to “Z” in my back-issue reading. I’m on “T” – it won’t be too long!

There was a follow up series as well, so I wonder why they didn’t just include that here too.  I have read the first issue of this and it was interesting.

Peter David’s Fallen Angel gets a big trade on page 174, collecting some of the DC run. I know this has been collected before, or at least I’m pretty sure, but this is a nice new printing, and this is a cool series that never quite got the attention it deserved.

This one interested me, so I may go for it.  I may have read an issue of it.

As promised, many months after it debuted, we get a trade of Ragnarök, Walt Simonson’s new Thor book. That wasn’t too long a wait, was it? This is a super-keen comic, with Simonson doing his Simonson thing, and it’s well worth it.

I forgot I was waiting for it!  HA!  (page 175)

I may go for the Definitive Edition of Mystery Society from Steve Niles and Fiona Staples on page 177.  Sounds a bit like Midnight, Mass., from Vertigo.  I wish that would get collected, and continued.

Mystery Society was all right. As with most of Niles’s comics, the idea was better than the execution. Nice art, though. Possibly … better than Saga‘s? Bwah-ha-ha-ha!!!!! (I just like stirring the pot when it comes to Saga.)

Image:

Solicits? Full? Here!

I think Tom wants to know that Mage 3 (AKA Mage: The Hero Denied) is actually really happening, it’s on page 188!  That’s got to be some tricky rights issues, with Kevin singing a Nick Lowe penned song in this preview, and Lowe edits at Marvel…. (I’m being told that’s a different Nick Lowe…).  (This stretch for a lame joke is brought to you by Flat-Man from the GLA!)

I don’t know if she’s any good of a writer, but colorist extraordinaire Jordie Bellaire is writing Redlands, with Vanesa R. Del Rey on art, and it’s a story about killer witches.  So it might be decent!

Joe Casey, weird dude that he is, has Annual on page 192. It’s an anthology, and it appears that it will have old stuff and new stuff, which sounds good to me, especially because I’m sure I don’t have a lot of the old stuff. Casey is a wildly underrated writer, and I’m keen to check this out.

Sweet.  I’m in.  And hey, the cover is by our old pal Sonia Harris!  Hey, Sonia!

Yeah, I miss Sonia. I’m sure she doesn’t miss me, but I miss her. I haven’t heard from her in three years, and it’s too bad. Oh well.

I intended to email her about the covers for Sex and stuff, but since I got hopelessly behind on reading that series, I figure I’ll wait until I catch up and maybe she’ll be willing to do an interview for here at the AJS?!

Hey, Jay Faerber is back (well, he never really went away, but deal with it) with Elsewhere on page 193, in which Amelia Earhart disappears into another dimension. The elevator pitch sounds lousy, but Faerber is a really good writer, so I’ll have to check this out.

Oh, you mean Jay Faerber of RINGERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!  Uh, yeah, he’s got Copperhead coming out recently, remember?  In fact, the third trade of that is offered on page 212.  This Elsewhere, though, does sound like a dumb concept, but the cover looks good.

Just want to point out that Extremity is offered in trade on page 194 and The Few is collected on page 195.  FYI.

Man, I need to read the Genius series.  The original Pilot Season issue was really good, and the first regular issue was good, and I have it all, I just need to read it.  Maybe by the time the trade of Genius: Cartel (issue 1 on page 196) gets offered!

The first trade was pretty good. This is a new artist, by the way.

New Baboushka series from Antony Johnston and Shari Chankhamma on page 197, Ghost Station Zero (whose cover and lettering looks kinda like Ghost Projekt….).  I’ll probably wait for the trade on this, although at only 4 issues, perhaps I will get the singles, since they’ll probably be about the same price!

I didn’t love the first series with the character, so I’ll probably skip this one.

I haven’t read all of Green Valley yet, but Image gives us a hardcover on page 198. So far, it’s weird and neat, but this is slightly more than you’d pay in single issues, so maybe wait for the softcover?

Yeah, I did definitely want this, but who knows if/when they’ll offer a trade instead?  So many decisions!

Meanwhile, another one I haven’t read all of yet (because the final issue isn’t out yet!), Hadrian’s Wall, gets a trade on page 199. This is also a nifty comic, about a murder mystery on a space station, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it all ends!

Did I hallucinate a trade of the first 4 issues, or did I just forget that they didn’t offer a trade when they took a brief break between the first 4 issues and the last 4?

I thought they offered a trade, but I’m buying the single issues, so I ignored it. But it’s kind of weird that we both think it exists but neither wants to check on it. I don’t care that much!

I don’t know when it would have been offered, and I’m too lazy to look on Amazon or anything.  I took long enough getting this much done!  The only one I see on Amazon is this complete series one.  So I think we’ve been huffing too much comic book ink!

The 12 Gauge people are back with The Hard Place on page 200, which sounds like a neat, if somewhat clichéd, “last heist” story where things go awry.  I like their other comics, like The Ride stuff, so I will see when the trade is offered.

They also gave us Loose Ends, which finally just finished earlier this year. That was neat, too.

I’ve been liking Image Plus, even if I haven’t mentioned the contents in awhile, but I hear that this v2 #1 on page 201 is already cancelled.  Weird!

Also FYI, Magdalena: Reformation (page 202) and The Old Guard (page 203) are offered in trade.  It’s looking like Image’s 10 dollar volume 1 trades are going the way of the dodo, though!

Savage Town (page 205) looks … weird. I mean, I guess it’s an Irish gangster story from Declan Shalvey, Philip Barrett, and Jordie Bellaire, but what’s up with that cover?

I’m interested, but yeah, that is … a cover.  Huh.

Poor Rich Tommaso. He’s very talented, and he keeps cranking out series for Image, which … don’t sell. He keeps trucking along, though, and on page 207, we get Spy Seal, his latest, which is a spy comic starring anthropomorphic animals. Give Tommaso a break, guys, and check this out!

Well, glad they keep letting him try new stuff.  This one actually sounds like I may want to get it in singles, because “Spy Seal”, man.  SPY.  SEAL.

Corey Lewis’s Sun Bakery is collected on page 208.  Since I was waiting for a trade, I will be considering this.

I’ve looked at some of Lewis’s stuff, including this, and it’s just not doing much for me. Good for him for doing it, but I’ll pass.

Hmm, I think I have the Colt Noble issue collected in Tim Seeley’s Action Figure Collection on page 209, but this includes art by Sophie Campbell, so I am highly intrigued.  Revival and Hack/Slash books are reoffered on the same page as well, fyi.

I know I’ve gotten far behind on my comics reading, but there’s already a third trade of The Beauty offered on page 210?!  Oy.  I gotta play catchup soon.

The fifth volume of Manifest Destiny is offered on page 222.  I assume the series has continued to be well done?  I need to catchup on that one too.

Yeah, it’s still pretty keen. It just keeps trucking along, and I keep enjoying it!

The fifth volume of Think Tank is offered on page 232.  I’m getting this in singles because I apparently forgot to take it off my pull list.  However, since the trade is a little more than the singles, maybe it’s worked out for me!

Marvel:

Here: Solicits! FULL!

Those Kirby variant covers on page 1 gloss over the Kirby with the fancy computer coloring.  Ugh.

How dare you pick on the modern marvel of digital coloring, sir!

I don’t know if these “Generations” specials that Marvel is doing will be any good, but something on page 6 pisses me off. “Banner Hulk”? Really? That’s what we’re calling the original guy now? No. HE’S THE FUCKING HULK. Just deal with it, Amadeus Cho and Thunderbolt Ross and, hell, Frederick Foswell has probably been a Hulk by now. Banner is “HULK,” everyone else is just poor substitutes.

Fair enough, but it doesn’t bother me all that much…(sees the Wolverine one doesn’t specify Logan Wolverine, and then that Hawkeye is Hawkeye is Hawkeye)…ok, fuck that noise, you’re right.

I’ll probably get the Hawkeye one on page 10, though, since it’s Kelly.  I hope to read and review the first trade of her run on Hawkeye…soon?

Lockjaw gets a one shot on page 26 because why not?  Surprising list of talent on this one, actually.  Rick Geary has done a Lockjaw story!

Yeah, that’s a weird one. I’ll probably skip it, but good for Marvel for bringing those weird things together.

Ultimates 2 gets a 100th issue on page 28. I’m not sure any amount of fancy accounting can make all the comics labeled “Ultimates” add up to 100, but I guess Marvel knows what they’re doing!

I’m juvenile, so I hope they have a typo and call it the “Fist Firmament”.  HUHUHUHHHAHAAUHUAHHHUHA!  (And this is what happens once you haven’t still left me alone!)

“Fist Firmament” is soooooooo much better.

OK, you may have missed this one, but James Stokoe is drawing the Edge of Venomverse issue 5 on page 41, where Venom and Deadpool bond.  OK, I’m mildly interested now.

I did miss that, even though I heard about it before I looked at Previews (I can’t remember where, though). It might be enough to get me to buy it, honestly.

Note, the cover of America 6 on page 59 is an homage to Love and Rockets 24.  Cool.

Oooh, I wish I were as cool as Jen Bartel, referencing groovy indie comics like that!

Those Kirby True Believer dollar issues have a lot of neat stuff on pages 104-105.  Black Panther, Thor vs. Banner Hulk, Inhumans from Amazing Adventures, Nick Fury, the Eternals….  I will probably get a bunch of these!

Huh, I’m looking at the credits for the Captain America by Waid and Garney omnibus on page 106, and I see Steve (Fearless Dawn) Mannion did some art in this stuff.  Coolsville.  I know you weren’t as big on this run as some people.  I like what I read, but it probably is a tad overhyped.  Still, that’s some good stuff.

Mannion’s story was in Sentinel of Liberty #10, which I took a look at … here!

I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that Marvel was soliciting an X-Men Classic Omnibus, but there it is on page 107! This collects all the back-up stories from the reprints of X-Men that Marvel did back in the 1980s (can you believe that they did that? man, how times have changed), and I’ve only read a few, but I know they were pretty awesome. It’s $125, but it’s also over 1000 pages. I know I could probably track these down, but who has time for that? Plus, why do I need the comics in the front when I already own them? Anyway, good job, Marvel!

Yeah, that is cool.  I actually did pick up a bunch of these issues for cheap not long ago.  That cover doesn’t look right like that, though.  Damn new computer coloring!

Ed Brisson writes the new Iron Fist book, volume 1 of which is offered on page 119, and Mike Perkins does the art, so I am at least intrigued.

Bloodstone and the Legion of Monsters (page 128) is notable mainly because it collects Bloodstone, a mini-series starring Elsa from 2001 that was, well, it was something. Here’s the cover of issue #1, for instance. I honestly don’t know if I’m going to get this. It sounds neat, but I do own some of the stuff in here, and it collects Bloodstone. Here’s the cover of issue #2.

My Doom loving friend at work got the first 3 issues of that 2001 mini, and I believe it’s got art by the same guy who drew Alan Moore’s Voodoo series.  Yeah, it’s…something, from what I flipped through.  I have most of the Legion of Monsters mini, and that Assistant Sized book, and the Girl Comics issue, but this is probably a pretty good collection of harder to find stuff!  I’m considering it.

Cool, the Howard the Duck Complete Collection v4 is offered on page 129.  This appears to have the issue that Gerber did in the ’90s that was the “secret” crossover with Savage Dragon that led to the “real” Howard escaping to the Image Universe.  It’s also got a bunch of other interesting stuff.  Tune in to AMOC soon to find out why it will be highlighted over there as well!!!

Yeah, I’ll be getting this, even though I never got through volume 1. Some day!

It’s time for the back of the book!

I will let Travis write about Batvark (page 246). I’m sure he will!

Yes indeedy.  It’s the latest iteration of Cerebus in Hell? from Aardvark-Vanaheim.  There will be a new one shot the last Wednesday of every month, reprinting the CIH? strips chronologically, as well as having a comics homage cover with 4 pages of strips related to that cover.  I will be reviewing CIH? 4 soon (he says, hoping it will be true!).  And while it’s solicited here at 5 bucks, I have word that it will, in fact, be just 4 bucks!  Hoorah!

I never hear much about Action Lab books, so I don’t know if Medisin is any good, but the first trade is offered on page 253. A doctor gets blackmailed into caring for supervillains! Sounds neat.

Jeez, they got that out fast, it feels like.  I was interested, as I noted before.  I’ll also point out their Toyetica issue 1 on page 252, which had a preview story in their FCBD issue (which I still plan to review, I swear!) (spoiler: this story was interesting).

Also from Action Lab is the trade of Spencer & Locke, which is “Calvin and Hobbes” if they were grown up and Calvin was a homicide detective. I’ll be getting this!

Yeah, I’m in to, I think.  That’s on page 254, btw.

On page 255, Adhouse Books has Screwed Up GN, by Konstantin Steshenko.  A down on his luck dude proposes to his ex where they first met, at a busy subway station.  If the cover is implying what I think it is, this might be quite interesting.  GN is a loose term for a 32 page comic, though, no?

Um, yes, yes it is.

Albatross Funnybooks gives us Galaktikon 1 on page 266, from Metalocalypse creator (and voicer of … some Venture Bros. characters that I can’t think of right now — Action Jonny, I think) Brendon Small and artist Steve Mannion.  I may get this.

I might get it, too, but I always get nervous when Powell’s name is attached to the writing part of a book. I just don’t like his writing. If this means that he “wrote” it by simply making sure Small didn’t write too much prose in a comic, then I’m in. But Powell’s writing … to say it’s juvenile is an insult to young people.

Alterna continues some more of their $1.50 comics, as well as another one called The Wicked Righteous, about kids in the post-apocalyptic San Diego.  Worth trying at that price!  They also have a GN about a storage unit Area 51 uses that the agents in charge of forgot to pay the rent for.  Hilarity, I assume, ensues.  Sounds amusing!  (page 267)

Arcana has a couple of interesting ones on page 280.  More kids in the apocalypse in Children of the Fall, and then there’s Pizza Tree, which seems self-explanatory.  Fun!

Archie has the Marvel Comics Digest 2 on page 280, highlighting the Avengers.  I understand the Spider-Man one made it to grocery stores but not comics stores just yet.  We’ll see if it’s good when it comes out!

Best of Josie and the Pussycats on page 282, a big 400 pager for 10 bucks.  The Sabrina B&W collection apparently just came out, but I didn’t get to the LCS yet to get it.

Well, since I got the first 2, I have to get the third HC of Providence on page 286 from Avatar.  Us beardy faces have to stick together!

The final issue of Quantum Teens Are Go hasn’t, I don’t think, come out yet (I assume it hasn’t, but then again, Diamond likes to screw my store out of small press stuff like this), so I can’t say if it’s completely good, but it’s been good so far, and Black Mask has the trade on page 288, if you’re interested.

Issue 4 is on the Previews list for Wednesday, sir!  I am interested, because it did sound neat.

Ah, yes, it did come out this week. Coolio.

Boom! has Mech Cadet Yu from Greg Pak and Takeshi Miyazawa on page 294, which doesn’t sound like it’s particularly groundbreaking, but from that team should be at least entertaining. (Boom!’s fill solicits, are here, by the way.)

I saw that, too, but you’re right – it doesn’t sound like it’s particularly amazing. I’ll have to think about getting a trade, though.

Hi-Fi Fight Club on page 296 sounds kinda stupid (a record store in ’98? and the women who work there have a teen girl vigilante fight club? ugh), but it looks like artist Nina Vakueva is someone to keep an eye out for.

I groaned a bit, too, when I saw the solicit. But the artist’s work does look neat.

On page 297 is a trade of Coady and the Creepies by Liz Prince and Amanda Kirk.  The story in the FCBD Boom! book was pretty decent, so it might be pretty good.

Ladycastle sounded interesting, and the trade is offered on page 303.

I’m not sure if Caliber‘s Nosferatu, which is an adaptation of the movie, is any good, but I’m intrigued! The solicit says that it’s a movie “many have heard of but have not seen.” I’m going to assume you’ve never seen it, sir, because you’re an uncultured mouth-breather, but is that true? How many people reading this have seen Nosferatu? It’s quite good – you should check it out. And I guess the comic, too, if you’re into that. And while you’re at it, check out Shadow of the Vampire, which is a movie about the making of the movie, where F.W. Murnau hires an actual vampire (a having-way-too-much-fun Willem Defoe) to play the starring role. Good fun, that.

Oddly enough, because I do see so few movies, I have watched both Nosferatu and Shadow of the Vampire!  I would like to see them again, though, because I think my attention wandered during both.  From what I understand, Nosferatu is actually a more faithful adaptation of Dracula than the Tod Browning Dracula movie.  I will consider this, because Ken Holewczynski did the art, and he also did a wonderful comic called Reactoman that you all should check out!

Also on page 318 is the second trade of The Searchers, which means I need to read v1 before the orders are due.

Candlewick has, on page 318, a collection of Poe Stories and Poems by Gareth Hinds, who’s pretty good, so it should be a good book.

Chapterhouse has the first trade of The Fourth Planet, which is probably the best way to read this comic. I get the single issues, and it comes out quarterly, which means I never know what’s going on. It’s nice to look at, and it’s an intriguing story about war and introducing higher technology into a volatile situation, but it’s very hard to remember what happens from issue to issue. So the trade should solve that!

Yeah, that was one that intrigued me, so I may go for this myself (page 319).

Man, Neal Adams is good (to put it mildly), but I’m not entirely sure 20 bucks for 32 pages of Vintage Sketchbook stuff from Continuity on page 321 is a good deal.  Maybe, though!

Darby Pop has an interesting one, Things You Shouldn’t Remember, on page 322, about people remembering things that have been erased and a group of “Handlers” trying to eliminate those people.  God, I hope it’s not Chelsea Handler!  Anyway, this sounds like some sort of Mandela Effect type of story, and that cover is way cool.

Marguerite Bennett and Christina Trujillo are writing a new Sheena from Dynamite, which shows up on page 324. I don’t think I know Trujillo, but I like Bennett, and Moritat is drawing this (I hope he’s drawing the series, as this is a special quarter-priced zero issue), so it might be worth taking a look. (The full Dynamite solicits are here.)

I’m definitely getting this since it’s a quarter, and yeah, hopefully Moritat is the regular artist.

Simon Spurrier is a good writer, and he’s taking over The Shadow on page 328, so that might be a nice book.

Sounds neat, with a story set in modern times.  Sweet ass covers, too.

James Bond: Moneypenny gets a one shot on page 330.  Just FYI.

Wha?  The Atari Classics: Swordquest trade on page 335 includes the Yars Revenge comic, which had strange looking art, as I recall.

I’ll probably get the trade of Grand Passion on page 339 – it’s James Robinson, and it’s a story of a cop and crook falling in love with each other. You know, like you do.

That was one I was waiting on, so I’ll be considering it as well!

Devil’s Due/1First has the new Bill Willingham book, Lark’s Killer, on page 350, which sounds…rather bland.  A runaway in LA is transported to a sword and sorcery world and everyone wants her dead.  Yawn.  Interesting that Jen Bartel and Paulina Ganucheau, among others, did covers, given that I don’t get the impression they have the same politics as Willingham.

Maybe Willingham isn’t too crazy conservative? I mean, people worked with Chuck Dixon for years. But it’s probably just more that money makes political differences fade away.

Yeah, I think money’s it, since if I recall correctly, Willingham was on a panel about creating female characters and no females were on the panel, and I think he got irked when some people took him to task on that.  Of course, I may just be stirring up shit!

On page 354, Dover reprints Don Simpson’s Border Worlds, which Simpson has finished for this collection. I don’t know anything about this – a woman gets involved in a galactic war, I guess – but I like Simpson, so I’ll probably pick it up. Unless others have bad thoughts about it?

I’m in for Don Simpson stuff, so I’ll probably go for this as well.

Fantagraphics pisses me off on page 359 with the Fantagraphics Studio Edition: Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, which collects every page of “Prince Valiant” Foster ever did. It pisses me off because it’s $175, and I’m actually tempted to get it. Damn it, Fantagraphics!

I…don’t think that could possibly be every page of Prince Valiant he did, since he was on the strip for over 1700 of them, I think.  But yeah, they’re very unclear about what’s in this.

Maybe these are the ones they know he actually did, and the rest are studio artists aping him?

Mmmmaybe?  I suspect it’s probably a selection of pages, though.  Simon undoubtedly will tell us it’s a mousetrap and you’re a sucker for even considering it!

Also from Fantagraphics is Last Girl Standing, a memoir by Trina Robbins, which is probably going to be interesting, on page 358, and on 359, there’s the new Richard Sala book, The Bloody Cardinal, which had a fun preview in the FCBD book, and Whatsa Paintoonist? by Jerry Moriarty, who lives in my area.  I should look him up and see about interviewing him or something….

Jiro Taniguchi may be gone, but Fanfare/Ponent Mon has a new book by him on page 361, a travel book called Venice produced by Louis Vuitton, of all people. Taniguchi’s work is always cool to see, and this can be a nice memorial to him!

It sounds neat, so I’ll consider it too.

Kodansha has a couple of interesting ones on page 373, with Kigurumi Guardians v1 where a man in an animal suit is living in a teen girl’s house, and they have to fight off invaders from another dimension together by kissing (?!), and Love and Lies v1 has a world where love is forbidden and your marriage partner is assigned at age 16, but one 15 year old boy is going to declare his love for a girl anyway!  And on page 376, they have That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime v1, where a 37 year old salaryman is stabbed to death (gulp!) and comes back in a fantasy world as a blob of slime.  Intriguing ones all!

On page 385, Lion Forge has Water Memory, which sounds like a kid-friendly creepy story, about a girl who moves into a new home on a beach where she finds weird rock carvings and a sinister lighthouse watchman. Well, of course – are there any other kind? Anyway, it sounds neat.

Interesting.  I’m intrigued by the political thriller on page 380, Ghost Money, about military vets in 2020 looking for a secret fortune that may have been claimed by a beautiful young billionaire.  Hmm.

I am a fan of Nicole Georges, and she has a new graphic novel about her dog called Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home from Mariner Books on page 389. As much as I do like Georges, I’m having a hard think about this one. I’m not really that big of a dog person, so I’m not sure if I’ll dig this. We shall see!

Do you hate America too, for the love of all that’s holy?  Don’t tell me you’re a cat person.  DON’T TELL ME THAT!  This sounds ok, although that last line of the solicit (she never taught the dog to sit, but the dog taught her how to stay) is groan and/or vomit inducing.

I’m not really much of a pet person, to be honest. I like cats slightly more than dogs simply because they don’t require as much care, but I’m just kind of ambivalent about cats and dogs. I like having them around, but I don’t care if they’re not. We’ve had no pets for about a year in the past 20 or so, and it was a nice year – I could leave doors to the outside open with impunity, and I didn’t have to clean litter boxes!

Oh, I’m with you on not having to do anything with no pets around.  Haven’t had any dogs for several years, and that not having to do stuff part is nice.

Microcosm Publishing has the complete Henry and Glenn Forever, which is a lot funnier than it has any right to be. It’s about the love of Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig and their misadventures with their next-door neighbors, the Satanists “Daryl” and “John.” Apparently Henry Rollins is fine with it, while Danzig, being kind of a douchebag, doesn’t like it at all. But it’s a fun comic nevertheless!

Oh good, I have been waiting for a complete collection of this.  I almost got some of it, I think, at the Million Year Picnic comic shop in Cambridge (Click and Clack’s fair city), MA!  Do I want the coloring book as well?

Considering you’re not five years old, no, you do not.

But I ACT it!

The Tick is back on page 390 from New England Comics, with Cullen Bunn taking over the writing. That might be all right. I just want them to get a trade out of the Benito Cereno/Les McClaine run on the character, because I have a few issues and they’re damned fun. I assume the crossovers with Invincible and Madman might be holding it up?

Possibly.  I do have the Madman issue, I believe.  I’m more excited about Douglas Paszkiewicz of Arsenic Lullaby on the art (although that probably means we’ll never get that “new” AL book…).  SPOON!

Oni has some good stuff.  Page 399 has the collection of Jeff Steinberg: Champion of Earth, which sounded amusing, about a normal schlub being chosen to champion Earth for a bunch of aliens.  Also have the 10 dollar first volumes of Stumptown and The Bunker on page 401, and I missed both of those previously, so I may go for these.  Although there’s so much stuff this month!

Cool, Papercutz‘s new line Charmz has a neat sounding one, The Scarlet Rose, by Patricia Lyfoung, where a young woman is learning the art of sword fighting and wants to keep learning to get revenge on her father’s killers, but her grandfather who has taken her in has other ideas for her.  Charmz also reoffers Stitched and Sweeties on page 406.

On page 407, PS Artbooks has a hardcover of the first 6 issues of Out of This World, which features Ditko work.

Seven Seas Entertainment features a couple of reimaginings of manga on page 410, with a new Captain Harlock and a new Cutie Honey book.  If that Cutie Honey is actually 14 bucks for 400 pages, that’s not a bad deal.  Unless it totally sucks, of course.

Ted Naifeh’s Heroines gets collected on page 414 from Space Goat Publishing. I don’t know anything about this, really, except it’s about a superheroine who forms her own team of female heroes, but Naifeh is always good, so I’ll probably get this.

Oni also has the first new issue of “season 2” of Night’s Dominion offered on page 396, btw.  I will probably go for Heroines as well.

I’m not sure if I’m going to get the trade of Anno Dracula, but Titan has it on page 426.

I have to think about that one too.  Given how much other stuff is offered this month, it’s probably not going to quite make my list.  Same page also has the trade of The Forever War as well, which is in consideration.

Back Issue reaches issue #100 from TwoMorrows on page 438. Good for them! Back Issue is a terrific magazine, and I’m not just saying that because our own John Trumbull writes for them and I know a few other people who have written for them over the years. It’s just a fun and immersive read, and it’s cool that it’s lasted this long.

Sweet.  I have a bunch of issues, and have mostly just skimmed through them so far, but it’s lots of good stuff from what I’ve seen.  I like the spotlight on fanzines here, as I nerd out over this kind of stuff.  They also relist Hero-A-Go-Go on page 440, which our pal John discussed recently.

The solicit text is dumb, but Uncivilized Books has, on page 440, Elijah Brubaker’s Story of Jezebel.  A modern take on the story, I guess, and it’s supposedly haha funny.

Yeah, that text is kind of dumb. But I’ll probably get this. I love me some modern takes on the Bible!

Page 482 features some neat books.  I believe Simon talked about Fredric Brown before, when a GN of his stuff got solicited (and later cancelled), and there are 2 big books of his pulp stories offered here.  There’s also a Moonstone book by Adam Lance Garcia pairing Sherlock Holmes with The Green Lama, which Hatcher should dig, I’m sure.

On page 486 is The Pacesetter magazine issue 15, which highlights George Perez and focuses on his Wonder Woman work, so that might be neat.

On page 487 they resolicit the Sketch magazine with Colleen Doran art, so maybe this will finally come out?

And I’ll end on this pleasant note: on page 577 are some Disney figures, and that Pinocchio is gesturing as if to say “yeah, it’s ALL made out of wood, take a look!”

I…I hate myself sometimes….

While Travis is struggling with his latest bout of existential angst, I’ll just say have a great time going through Previews, and as always, we hope to have it for you in a timely manner next month. We all know who’s fault it is that it’s not! (I’m sitting here in Chandler, Arizona pointing vaguely to the northeast, where Travis resides!) See you next time!