Flippin’ through ‘Previews’ – July 2021

It’s the fifteenth of July, and what better time to begin checking out the latest Previews catalog! Travis, who when he shows up will have his thoughts in black, is too busy putting lotion on his tough skin, so he hasn’t started this yet! It’s up to me, who will be in blue after this introduction, to start us off!

Hey, I did start this a couple days ago, but you have so many review posts in the queue that you glossed right over it.  I knew I should have messaged you about it, but I thought, no, Burgas wouldn’t miss that!  It’s fine, I only got through DC and Image, so I’ll just have to do some cut and paste.  “Not in the visual editor!” I know, thanks dad!  (That was because Burgas chided me in our Slack about using the visual editor vs. the text editor for these posts.  Chided!)

Huh. I did look for it, but maybe I looked before you started, or I just missed it. Either way, I blame you. For what, I don’t know. BUT I STILL BLAME YOU!!!!

You can use the visual editor, that’s fine. It just sucks. It’s like driving a Yugo when you have a nice Buick right there!!!!

Also: Don’t blame me for trying to keep ahead of things! I’m just super-efficient, don’t you know? Why, look at when I started this post, right on time!!!!!

Fine, blame me.  But now that I delayed so long I got a copy of this Previews at a local store after they were done with it, so nyyeah, I guess!

Image:

Here are the solicits!

Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino, who must like working together, have Primordial on page 42, which is about the first three animals sent into space and how … they’re coming back! Presumably they’re now monsters bent on humanity’s destruction. It wouldn’t be much of a story if they came back as decomposed corpses and the scientists all said, “Yeah, that’s what we thought would happen.”

I thought the returning animals were just the two monkeys that the US sent up, because obviously monkeys are shifty little bastards, but yeah, I guess we technically don’t know what actually happened to Laika.

Patrick Kindlon and Marco Ferrari, who have also worked together before (it’s old home month at Image) have Frontiersman (page 46), which is about an older superhero coaxed out of retirement by an environmentalist group, but … wait for it … things go poorly!!!! I know, it’s shocking. This will probably be pretty keen, as that’s not a bad team of creators.

There’s the third “Reckless” book on page 55, Destroy All Monsters (you have to say that in Rainn Wilson’s voice from Monsters vs. Aliens, because he says the exact same thing rather dramatically in that movie), and like the first two, this should be hella keen. Brubaker and Phillips can do no wrong, yo!

On page 56 is a trade of the first part of The Good Asian, which is a book I want, since Pichetshote is pretty good, and it sounds like a good concept, but considering this is a (now 10 issue, apparently, not the 9 as originally solicited), why is this collecting just the first 4 issues?  And yes, I know that was a strange use of parentheses!

I believe the term you’re looking for is “abhorrent” use of parentheses, but you’re not wrong about your skepticism. I’m just getting the giant trade collecting the whole danged thing, 9 or 10 issues or whatever!

Exactly, in re: both things!

The trade of HaHa is on page 57. It’s a collection of “sad clown stories,” how can you pass it up?!?!?

There’s also a trade of Jules Verne’s Lighthouse on page 58. This takes a story by Verne and sets it in the far future, and it sounded pretty neat. The art is pretty good, too.

The entire Luther Strode epic is collected in a nice, 30-dollar trade on page 59. These aren’t exactly great comics, but they are pretty good, and Tradd Moore’s art is worth the price of admission almost by itself. So this is 18 issues for 30 bones, which ain’t a bad deal.

I never got around to reading any of these (I may have gotten a few issues in a cheapo back issue bin), so this one is tailor-made for me!

On page 61, we find The Silver Coin, an anthology series written by different people and drawn by Michael Walsh. It’s an ongoing now, right? Either way, the trade sounds neat, as a silver coin (presumably one of the ones that were paid to Judas, because how many “cursed” silver coins can there be in history?) makes its way to different people and wreaks havoc.

This is a neat concept and Walsh has a lot of good writer friends, so I’m in for this. I think since this is volume 1 it’s probably ongoing, but that’s never a defining element. Plenty of done-in-one books got tagged volume 1!

On page 63 is Ultramega by James Harren, about people changed into kaiju, and this should be cool. I got Skybound X 1, with a story of this series, so I’ll have to read that and see how it is. I think the individual issues were more than your average comic as well, so 20 bucks for 4 issues is a bit of a price break.

Dark Horse:

Take a look at the solicits here!

Jeff Lemire (hey, that’s how I began the Image section!) has a new mini-series on page 92 called Mazebook, which is about a dude who gets lost in a maze. Oh, yes, it’s more than that – some dude is looking for his missing daughter and searches all of reality to find her!!!!!, but, you know, it’s a dude who gets lost in a maze. I generally dig Lemire’s work quite a lot, so of course I’m getting this!

Yeah, this looks interesting.

IDW:

Here we go with the solicits!

For all your undead cowboy needs, there’s the trade of Chained to the Grave on page 134, which is about … an undead cowboy. Pay attention, people! This sounds pretty keen.

On page 147, Dan Watters is writing the Transformers Halloween Special, which has the story title “I Have No Mouth and I Must Starscream”.  Nice!

That’s pretty funny.

Marvel:

So much in the solicits!!!

Wasn’t that whole King in Black stuff the same thing as this Dark Ages stuff on page 2?  The lights are going to go out and that’s why we have a Watcher?  Seems sus.

Are you implying that Big Two Superhero Events are all extremely similar? BITE YOUR TONGUE, SIR!

They’re really doing Inferno (page 6)? Like, Inferno Inferno? Like, Maddie Pryor is all grumpy about shit? I doubt that, but it has to be something like that, as they couldn’t have chosen that title without knowing its place in X-History, as stupid a place as that is. Anyway, is Hickman done with the X-Books after this? Will they reboot the entire thing if he is? Gawd, I love the X-Men, but man, it’s such a clusterfuck.

Hopefully it’s wrapped up in just these 4 issues, which would be a significant improvement over the original!

Does the Death of Doctor Strange on page 16 mean that Cumberbatch only signed on for the two movies?

Skinny-ish Thanos on page 21 (Eternals: Thanos Rises 1) looks wrong to me.  He should be blockier, right?

Yeah, that ain’t no good. He’s too sexy!

Ka-Zar died?  When? (Page 24)

Does it really matter?

So page 62’s Black Widow 11 cover caught my eye because the gun smoke creates even more cleavage, and then the solicit says Natasha is looking for a mysterious pair called “the Twins”?  C’mon, man!

Well, you know Kelly is all about exploitation of women. That’s just her thing!

If they moved the logo just a little bit, Natasha would Have No Head either!

That’s funny, the series that most influenced the creation of Cerebus just now apparently reaches its own issue 300, some 17 plus years after Cerebus, with Conan #25 on page 66.  Ah, renumbering!

Well, that’s bullshit, because there were 250 in the first Marvel series, and far more than that when Dark Horse published it, so I’m not exactly sure how they got to 300 from that. So it doesn’t even make a lick of sense.

I thought it said 300 Marvel issues, so have they done 2 titles of 25 issues each since it’s been back at Marvel?

Nope, it says it’s been 300 issues since Thomas and Windsor-Smith first brought him to comics, not to Marvel. I don’t really care, but these torturous attempts to create events is annoying. Remember when an issue became an event because it actually reached a milestone number due to being published continuously? Good Fucking Times!

Plus, I don’t think they’ve done 50 issues since it’s been back. Maybe they have?

OK, so this stuff about Diamond’s new terms of sale and the distributor of choice on page 83, etc. is referring to that new distribution deal Marvel made, I guess, but are they still going to be in Previews?

I’m not sure. I’ll have to ask my retailer next week to see if he knows what’s what.

I highly recommend people get the Untold Tales of Spider-Man Complete Collection volume 1 on page 118.  It’s a great series on its own and it’s a lot of fun to see how the book weaves into the original ASM stories.  Plus, the 3 issue Amazing Fantasy mini detailing what Peter did immediately after getting his powers is here too, and I need to find me those issues someday.

You can’t tell us what to do!

I CAN SUGGEST!!!

I’m interested in the Killraven Epic Collection, apparently 1 of 1 volume, because I’ve always heard it was cool, and any P. Craig Russell art is good.  It’s on page 129.  As to the note atop the page, why did they list the books if they were just going to cancel the orders from before? So weird.  And while it doesn’t apply to this one, I wonder what will happen with the Epic collections if down the road, one of them wasn’t figured right, and there’s only, like, 5 issues in a volume, since they publish most of them out of order?

First of all, this is very cool and you should get it. Second of all, what?

So the Fantastic Four Epic Collections haven’t all been published in order, so what if they get to, say, volume 25, and figure out that in volumes 24 and 26 they already collected everything except issues 403-407, say, is that volume 25 only going to have those 5 issues?

I’m not saying it’s likely but these are the weird thoughts that go through my head!

Oh, I see. Are you “suggesting” (since you’re allowed to do that) that Marvel doesn’t have its shit together? I mean, that’s just crazy talk.

Boom! Studios:

The solicits – sans covers – are here!

The Short While on page 200 is a graphic novel about two men who fall in and out of love. It sounds a bit neater than that from the description, but still – it’s a love story! I don’t know the creator, Jeremy Sorese, but his art looks pretty keen.

I only want to point out Maw on page 202 because I like to imagine the cover art yelling “MAAAAWWWWWWWW”, like trying to get its mother’s attention.  Hee hee.

I don’t know how good it might be, but Proctor Valley Road is collected on page 213, and GMozz is a co-writer.  I think it’s something where they’re trying to seed IP in comics that can be harvested on TV or in movies.  It’s about kids in the ‘70s and horrors on the road as they try to get to a cool concert (probably Starland Vocal Band).

I haven’t read it yet, so I can’t say if it’s good. The last issue came out this week, but I’m a bit behind!

Is Once & Future worth getting in the deluxe HC version?  It’s on page 216 and it’s 60 bucks for 18 (I think) issues, and Gillen and Mora are both really good.

Well, I think so. Go read my reviews, sir!

DC:

Solicits are here!

I tried some Miracle Molly once.  Hoo boy, that stuff’ll getya!  And at least in the copy of DC Connect 14 that I downloaded, they aren’t even trying with the variant covers, as it’s just the same art with less cover type.

And yet stores will still charge double for it.

Nightwing 84’s cover is a cool one where he’s just chillin’ with Robin.  That’s fun. Bruno Redondo is a quite good artist.

The variant of that should replace the milk shake with a cigarette. Then DC would have to polybag it with a black stripe across it so it won’t warp the delicate minds of the children!!!!

Batman: Urban Legends 7 has a new Batman One Million story, so that’s kinda cool.

Batman vs. Bigby! A Wolf in Gotham is a new Fables related mini bringing that world and Batman’s world together, which I guess makes sense in a certain way.  Batman having sort of became a fable in our world by now, that is.

One of six? Dang. But yeah, I’ll probably get this eventually.

Obviously, that Harley Quinn Animated Series Eat Bang Kill Tour is a certain kind of fan service, but it’s interesting how dichotomous the reactions of Commissioner Gordon and Batgirl are.  Jim seems angry at the Harley/Ivy PDA, while Babs … looks like she wants to join in.  Ahem.

So much to unpack. First of all, I disagree with you about Barbara. But that’s just me. Second, I like how it’s drawn in a cartoon style but it’s labeled “17+” – because that won’t confuse anyone. Third, I know the “Bang” part of the title is about gunshots, but with that cover, it’s clearly a double entendre, which is actually kind of cool of DC, to go that all in on the fuckability of these two characters.

Hm, I read it as a play on “fuck marry kill”, so that the double entendre was only an entendre, not about gunshots.

Yeah, I suppose so. Who the hell knows what DC is thinking these days, though?

“What if everything was Batman related?”

Sad but true.

Are You Afraid of Darkseid? is one of those cool collections DC puts out every few months, with Halloween and/or urban legends seeming to be the theme.  I know it doesn’t quite work this way either, but I think the title should be Are You Afraid of THE Darkseid?  But that’s just me.

I agree. Great minds thinkin’ alike!

You just discussed Far Sector, and it seems you liked it enough that getting the $30 for 12 issue trade is probably a good idea on my part!

Yes, yes it is.

The HC of The Other History of the DC Universe is offered as well, and it sounded like a good take on the “other side” of the DCU, focusing on characters of color and how they view the DCU.  I might get this.

I’ll wait for the softcover, but I will say that Dang, there was a lot of text in the first issue. I mean, a lot.

Well, wasn’t it supposed to be an illustrated text and not comics?  Or did I misunderstand?

Oh, I didn’t know that. I just thought the text was out of control!!!!

That’s awesome!  Yeah, it’s supposed to be like the original Wolfman/Perez History of the DCU 2 parter from ‘87 or whenever it was.

Holy hell, that Milestone Compendium One collects the first year of several of the ‘90s titles, including Blood Syndicate and Hardware.  It’s $60 for the collection, which is about a buck an issue.  My only worry is about the binding on such a big book.  DC hasn’t always been the best at that.  But that’s a good collection.

I might get Wonder Woman by George Pérez volume 6 simply because it has War of the Gods #1 in it. Do you know how hard it is to find War of the Gods #1? And when you do, it’s like 10-12 dollars? It’s insane. And very frustrating. Plus, these are good comics!

I thought I heard War of the Gods was terrible, but maybe it was the execution of the crossover issues.

The final trade of American Vampire is offered, so that’s neat. I’ve always said this is Snyder’s best work because he hasn’t needed to end it, but we’ll see how he does, since his endings don’t always land!

Batgirl of Burnside gets an omnibus (again?  I swear they’ve solicited this before!), and while I’d say it was one really awesome arc at the start that later petered out, it was still a damn fine run of comics, so this might be worth it to you (our readers, since I know Burgas got this stuff!).  Unless you’d rather get the singles and avoid the rewritten Dagger Type stuff …

It claims it’s never been collected before, though!

Solicit writers are LIARS!

Too true, sir.

Let’s get to the back of the book!

Ablaze has He Who Fights With Monsters on page 230, which sounds pretty decent. I like how it’s a supernatural horror comic set in Prague during World War II and they don’t come right out and say it’s a golem story. I mean, we’re comic book nerds – of course we know it’s a golem story!!!!!!

Aardvark-Vanaheim have [has?] [um…probably?] on page 235 the new Batvark: Coronavirus one shot, parodying that one Contagion book quite nicely, as well as the 6th volume of Swords of Cerebus in Hell?, which collects all the one shots, and the 1st volume is also reoffered. Eventually I’ll have to get those!

I’m not sure if Grass of Parnassus will ever come out because AdHouse Books is going dark, but it’s a Kathryn and Stuart Immonen joint, so you know it will be awesome!

Well, from reading the blog post about the end of AdHouse (which I hadn’t heard about), this and maybe one other book will be their last publishing ventures, and from there they might focus on trying to sell their remaining stock of comics.  I don’t have a lot of AdHouse, I don’t think, but what I do have was very good stuff, from what I recall.

Yeah, it sucks. The vagaries of publishing, man.

Search for Hu on page 242 from AfterShock might be pretty good (a dude fights gangsters for revenge in China), but I do like how only in comics could a dude discover that his mother comes from TWO DIFFERENT GANGSTER FAMILIES!!!! Like, how does that conversation go? “Uh, son, my father was a gangster.” “Oh, damn, Mom, that sucks!” “Yeah, well, then, you won’t like hearing about my mother …” Comics are awesome, you guys. 

Of course.  Aftershock also has on page 252 Scout’s Honor in trade, about the post-apocalypse society that rises up when a young boy tries to rebuild society from a scout’s manual.  Sounded fun.

Ahoy has a few trades that might be good. The anthology Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Blood is collected, and The Wrong Earth gets a second volume, both on page 254. I liked volume 1 of The Wrong Earth, and anthologies are always fun, so these should be pretty good.

Yeah, AHOY does great stuff.

Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics has a new one on page 255 from James Turner of Rex Libris and other stuff with The Book of Maggor Thoom, which sounds of Lovecraftian things and other weirdness.  Sounds fun.

Dang, I missed that. Thanks for pointing it out!

That’s why you asked me to join you on this column!

I thought it was because you snuck into my house, duct-taped my mouth shut, and threatened to tell the world about my secret, shameful addiction if I didn’t let you join up!

Chuck Dixon is writing a crime noir for Antarctic Press, which is a phrase that has so many weird things in it I almost couldn’t type it. Alias is on page 263, and I’ll have to check this out, because Dixon can write a mean story, no matter what you think of his politics.

So, this (I think) was published by NOW Comics in the early ‘90s, in 5 issues.  I have the 5th issue, and from what I remember, it was … ok?  I’m not entirely sure if this is just a reprinting of that or if it will expand on it.  I think since this one is called Stranglehold and the first NOW issue had that on the cover, it’s probably a reprinting.  I’m wondering if there were a few more issues finished but never published?  Also, interestingly, Billy the Sink did the cover of the first issue of this NOW book, and also did some art for the Marvel comic book called Alias.  Now I wonder if he ever did any art for the Jennifer Garner TV show, either for the show or the DVD.

You’re weird, man. I didn’t realize this was just a reprint, as the solicit seems to imply it’s a continuation. Still, it will probably be keen.

I assume if they’re doing 7 issues they’re going to continue past the originally published stuff.

I didn’t realize that Marjorie Finnegan, Temporal Criminal was going to go longer than one trade, because volume 1 is offered on page 279 from AWA/Upshot, on the same page as issue #5. So I don’t know if Ennis is doing eight or 12 issues and we’re getting short trades, but there it is. This sounds like fun.

I think I may have heard that this is 8 issues, but I may be wrong.  I like how the solicits are exactly the same.  This does sound fun.

Binge Books on 283 has

[I should point out that I checked in on this on the 19th and Travis had simply written “Binge Books on 283 has” and then stopped, in the middle of a sentence, and then left the edit. I’m dying to know what was so fascinating that he stopped in mid-sentence to go do. Dang, I hope he’s all right and didn’t just collapse on his keyboard. I suppose he wouldn’t have saved it and gotten out of it if that had happened, right? And we’d probably have a Monty Python situation going on, too.]

Ahem.  I stopped that way because I needed to take a break, but wanted to know where I left off without finishing the whole entry.

So on page 283 Binge Books has Super ‘Suckers Binge Book 1, about an STD called “vampire”, which turns them into vampires, I guess.  The term “suck buddy” got a giggle from me, and Jason Yungbluth of Weapon Brown fame does some “Sit-Commercials” in the book, presumably fake ads.  I’ll have an eye out for this.

Black Panel Press has The Adventures of the Mad Tsar, in which the actual tsar wanders through town disguised as a peasant, but a group sees that he looks like the “actual” ruler, so they want to use him as a lookalike in their sinister plans. Sounds fun.

That sounds like a lot of fun.

On page 287 Book Palace has a bunch of cool Illustrators things.  Magazine 35 features Alex Raymond.  Special 13 has the Art of Glamour: a Pictorial History of the Pin-Up, and Special 14 has artists who have interpreted Edgar Rice Burroughs characters, especially Tarzan.

Sergio Cariello draws the Dagon book on page 292 from Caliber, and Cariello is a good artist and who doesn’t love a good Lovecraft yarn? (Well, besides me, as I still haven’t read any Lovecraft, but I’m trying!)

Well, this includes the original short story, so you can read some then!

Chronicle Books has, on page 293, Death & Sparkles, a buddy book about Death and the last unicorn, whose name is Sparkles, come together in a strange friendship.  Could be fun.

Wasn’t Cassidy’s Secret that he was a vampire?  (Sorry, *SPOILERS* for Preacher!). Maybe this is something different from Clover Press on page 294, then.

[Slow, very reluctant, and extremely sarcastic slow clap.]

I wouldn’t think of Glenn Fabry as the first artist to ask about realistically based anatomical art, but he’s got an art book on page 298 from David & Charles called Anatomy for Fantasy Artists.  I suspect I’m picturing some of Bisley’s art instead of Fabry, because for some reason they’re associated in my head, and Bisley probably shouldn’t be doing a book like this.  Actually, I suspect it’s a case with both that they know the rules of anatomy so well they can play around with them to the breaking point and beyond.

Fabry is pretty realistic, very unlike Bisley. He can certainly do weirder stuff, but he tends to be fairly realistic. Et voila:

Dial Books has a fun one on page 300 with Otto: A Palindrama, by Jon Agee, who is apparently the World Palindrome Champion (there’s something for everyone, I guess) (and you know he’s been thinking of changing his first name to EEG or his last to NOJ for years).  It’s the story of Otto searching for his pet Pip and the absurdly strange problems he encounters along the way.

Drawn & Quarterly has Leonard Cohen: On A Wire on page 301, where the man reflects on his life on the last night of his life.  Cheesy concept, but the subject is interesting enough.  He had a documentary about him in the mid-60s, before he did music and was “just” a poet, on some form of Canadian Broadcasting.  That alone is a fun fact!

Your definition of a “fun fact” needs some work.

You’re mean.

Fairsquare Comics has Noir Is the New Black on page 306, which is a collection of noir stories by black creators. Dang, I’m going to buy the hell out of this.

That is an awesome lineup of creators!

I’m torn about the existence of The Official Marillion Coloring Book on page 312 from Fantoons. On the one hand, it’s a coloring book. On the other, holy shit Marillion is in Previews, which is one of the weirder things I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a lot of weird things. I’m very tempted.

Yeah, if it hadn’t been for you, I’d never have heard of them.  I still don’t think I’ve ever listened to any of their stuff yet.  I’m amused by the Learn to Count 1-2-3-4 with Johnny Ramone book for the kids.  From the way Henry Rollins told it, when I saw him do spoken word in the early 2000s, Johnny looked at the Ramones as just another job and didn’t really keep any mementos from the time in the band.  Except Linda, his wife, who had been Joey’s girlfriend.  Whoa!

That is a fun book, but honestly, no kids need to be introduced to the Ramones.

Blasphemer!  Heretic!  Nogoodnik!

Blah. When I hear a Ramones song, I want to be sedated.

Interesting, on page 320, Heavy Metal Magazine 310 has an interview with Jim Shooter about when Marvel tried to outdo HM.  I assume this is about Epic Illustrated, so I may want to pick this up, as I have many issues of that series and think it’s pretty good stuff.

Koren Shadmi is back with Lugosi: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Dracula (page 326 from Humanoids), and as I’m in the bag for Shadmi, I’ll be picking this up!

That’s neat that the preview page has Lugosi visited by the “spirit” of Dracula.  Used sparingly, that might be a fun way to look at Lugosi’s life.

I saw Space Bastards 8 on page 328 and wondered if that was a Chaykin cover, and now I realize that Darick Robertson must be influenced by Chaykin at least somewhat.  Interesting.  It’s probably something he’s acknowledged before, and here I am thinking I had some great insight.

You’re always insightful, sir!

From your other comments, I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic here or not!

On page 336, Mad Cave has the trade of Nottingham, in which the heroic sheriff hunts a serial killer in the woods and has to deal with a bunch of terrorists known as Merry Men. Sounds ginchy.

That does sound like a neat twist on things.

On page 340 from Myriad Editions is a book called Coma, which the solicit lists as being by Zack Slattery, but the cover says Zara Slattery, and the rest of the solicit talks about her.  She was in a coma for 15 days, and she interweaves the mythological creatures she fantasized about having to battle while in her coma with her husband coping with the idea that his wife and mother of his children might not make it out alive.  Spoiler, it seems she did!  But the book still sounds intriguing.

Yeah, I saw that and was cornfused too. I assume it’s a typo.

Dash Shaw has a new book, Discipline, on page 342 from New York Review Books. It’s about a Quaker who enlists in the Union Army and what happens to him. I’ve never been the hugest Shaw fan, but I’ll have to think about getting this.

His work is pretty interesting overall.  He’s not a favorite of mine but I acknowledge the skill.

Oni has a collector’s edition of Upgrade Soul on page 344, and I have to say that it was a fantastic book.  One of the best things I’ve read in the last few years (with the caveat that I haven’t read a ton of stuff overall in the last few years!).  I may need to add this to my collection, since I read it from a library originally.

On page 351 is Farm Crimes! The Moo-sterious Disappearance of Cow from Owlkids, where the farm animals hire the world’s only goat detective to investigate.  Sounds cute.

Since Douglas Wolk is a good writer, I’m interested in All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told from Penguin Workshop on page 352.  I’m not sure you can really categorize Marvel Comics in the way that he does here, but I’m willing to see what his argument is.

That does sound neat. And how dare you second-guess him? His stuff is printed, so of course he’s right!!!!

I’m tempted by the HC of Silver Age Classics: Brain Boy from PS Artbooks on page 355.  I don’t think Dark Horse or anybody has reprinted these before, even though DH resurrected the character several years back.  And it sounds like wacky fun.

That’s a lot of money, though, and who knows if it will ever come out, as those come very slowly, and I don’t love their packaging, as the credits don’t seem to exist. It’s nice that they’re reprinting so many old comics, but the timeliness and presentation leave something to be desired.

On page 358 from Red 5 is Verge #1, where thousands of people from throughout history have been brought to modern day NYC, and the police have to deal with it when 3 samurai are murdered.  Sounds kinda fun!

Midnight Sky, which is about people being replaced by odd replicas, is in trade on page 361 from Scout. It sounds pretty keen.

Yeah, I didn’t realize how much of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe there was to this.  On the same page is Impossible Jones 1, featuring the character our pal Edo wrote about a bit ago, and whose Kickstarter I got but still haven’t read yet.  Word is the new issue should have printed right around now.  I guess the original GN is getting printed as 4 issues by Scout, with some cool covers and extra stuff, so I probably will have to get the singles too!  Unless I read it and am not impressed, somehow.  I doubt that Karl Kesel and David Hahn would do that to me, though!

I’ll just get the trade, because this sounds keen.

On the next page is Mullet Cop, which has an interesting looking art style, even if the story sounds entirely too silly, and Phantom Starkiller 1 has a fourth printing with a cool ass glow in the dark cover.

Second Sight Publishing has Iron Head, a one shot with story and art by Stefano Cardoselli, whom I believe you’ve praised before.  It’s on page 364 and it’s about a huge battle.

Well, that sounds ridiculously fun and violent. I’m in!

Soaring Penguin Press collects their anthology book on page 367 with The Collected Meanwhile …, featuring the first 4 issues of this book.  I managed to pick these up, and from what I flipped through, they’re pretty good.  Gary Spencer Millidge’s Strangehaven is continued here.

There are a few neat trades from Source Point Press on page 368.  Classic Pulp v.1: Spooks and Sleuths collects a few of the one shots SPP has done, and they reprinted some good old stuff.  Seis Cuerdas, Defender of Mexico, about a mariachi singer who doesn’t need sleep trying to save kidnapped kids, sounds like fun.  Yuki vs. Panda is about a young girl who has to fight against a panda, like one does.  Also, the Alves cover of Suicide Jockeys 2 on the next page indicates they sure do want Bruce Willis in the movie version, huh?

Blech, I hate that. Knock it off, ya goobers!

Hey, there’s a new Twisted Dark (volume 7) on page 372 from T-Pub. Neil Gibson has mentioned that he wants to do 18 (!) volumes of this, so I’m glad the second group of six is beginning to come out, because I was getting a tad worried about it!

I still need to get into this, because it sounds good.

Titan has Gun Honey on page 374, about a weapon smuggler who is used by the government to track down the man her smuggled weapon helped get out of prison.  It’s written by Hard Case Crime founder Charles Ardai, so we know Hatcher is in for this (and probably already got a preview of this!).  Sounds cool.

I agree. This does look neat, and Hatcher probably did get a preview of it. Damn him!!!!!

TwoMorrows has Our Artists at War on page 384, and you know I’m all over this. There’s a bunch of war stories from a bunch of different publishers, and you know the research will be impeccable!

I’m sure it will be good, although at 160 pages it’s going to be just a taste of the genre and not a meal.  And I swear I’ve seen other books about war comics.  I guess it wasn’t the sole focus, though.

Vault has some interesting trades on page 397. The Devil’s Red Bride is a revenge-filled samurai tale of 1500s Japan, while Hollow Heart is about a bunch of organs in a “bio-suit” who has a chance to be human again. John Bivens, who’s a pretty good artist, draws the first one, and Paul Allor and Paul Tucker, who are the creators of the second, are a pretty good team, so these should be nifty. Then on page 398, Paul Cornell is the writer of I Walk With Monsters, in which a girl whose brother turns into a monster and what they do about it. That also sounds good.

They’ve also got Human Remains #1 on page 394, another Peter Milligan book (he’s been pumping them out lately!), this one about a world where aliens somehow suppress (or try to) human emotions and how a couple will defy them!  And on 398 is the complete series of Rockstars, a book Image was publishing but apparently didn’t sell well enough to print all the issues and/or the second trade.  The first trade was pretty good, so I’ll probably get this.  I wonder if they completed it as originally solicited (as in, this is what issues 7-12 would have been in singles) or if they printed, say, 7, 8, and 9 and then wrapped up the series in a certain number of pages.  It doesn’t matter that much, I guess!

I saw the Rockstars solicit and wondered about it. I didn’t love the first trade, but good for them for getting the rest out!

Apparently Jim Warren or somebody representing his interests won a lawsuit against Warrant Publishing, or something, because now their magazine, offered on page 402, is called Shudder Magazine.  They get to start with a new #1, so that should help them out some.  If you go to their website, you can still order back issues of The Creeps magazine (what they used to be called, but apparently it’s too close to Creepy) until May next year, so I’ll have to figure out which issues I need.  Unless I’ve been buying this book all along and it sucks ass.  Damn me and my blind purchasing!

You’re a kook, man. Why don’t you sit down, drink some tea (or, you know, Scotch), and read some damned comics? It couldn’t hurt!

The OCD is powerful at making me think I have to have everything in order so that I can even start to read any comics.  It’s very powerful at messing with my brain.  I need to get past that!

Well, as Travis leaves us with an upsetting portrait of his mental state, we reach the end of Previews for this month. Will we ever be timely with these? NO MAN CAN SAY! You still have time to trawl through the catalog, so have at it. Have a good day!