Flippin’ through ‘Previews’ – July 2024

Hey, everyone! It’s time to check out Previews #430, with Travis in BOLD because he’s so sure of his opinions, while I’m in “normal” text because I never have a strong opinion about anything! Let’s go!

Marvel:

At the bottom of the solicit for Wolverine #1 on page 2 (yay, ANOTHER Wolverine series!), we get this: “Collector’s Note: A key FIRST APPEARANCE and a major addition to the lore of Wolverine in this issue!” I know I’m old and crotchety, but man, that really depresses me. I know it’s been done a lot over the years, but for some weird reason, this time it just makes me sad.

Yeah, it sounds dumb.  I probably don’t care about this series, but I do like Nightcrawler, and he’s going to be in it.  That negative space variant cover is pretty cool, but that JRJR cover homaging the first solo Wolvey book is creeping me the fuck out.

Ok, so (sigh) Exceptional X-Men #1 (page 8) has some interior art by Carmen Carnero which looks like your typically bland superhero art (it reminded me of Tom Grummett, who’s kind of way up there on the list of “typically bland superhero artists”), and there are no words, naturally, but I’m really intrigued by it, and not in a good way. There’s a girl trying to get into a convention of some sort (comic/anime kind of thing) and she’s holding a ticket while, it appears, two of her friends stand on the other side of security, having already gotten in. She does literally nothing threatening, yet the security guard pushes her, which makes her angry and shows the world that she’s a mutant, at which the security guard shoots a gun at her (which, I imagine, Kitty Pryde – who’s watching this scene – does something to neutralize). What the what? Is some art missing here? Why can’t she get in if she has a ticket? Why did her friends get in? And more importantly, in what world would a security guard push her when she is literally doing nothing threatening at all? I get that superhero comics are not the most nuanced things in the world, but I hope writer Eve Ewing has more in this scene, because if not, I just don’t buy it. I know that things are always a bit heightened in superhero comics, but this seems like a bridge too far.

I think Grummett is pretty good, but I get what you’re saying.  It also has a Mark Bagley look to it.  But this does seem dumb.  WTF is going on here?  And if it’s that she somehow reveals she’s a mutant before getting pushed, are we back to “mutants are feared and hated”?  Yawn.

Boy, I want to buy that Dazzler series on page 14, and I might get the trade, but I do not have high hopes for it. Also that Kaare Andrews cover is absolute shit. What the hell, Kaare Andrews?!?!?

I guess based on your review of the Uncle Scrooge book recently, you won’t be getting the What If…? Donald Duck Became Thor on page 25.

I doubt it. I might take a look at it, just to check it out.

Dang, that Juan Ferreyra horror homage cover on the Red Band Edition of Wolverine: Revenge 2 is pretty dang cool.  And they dug up Stephen Platt for a cover of the regular version?  Wow.

Yeah, I like that a lot. And stop picking on poor Stephen Platt like that!

I just didn’t realize he’d done any work in comics in years.

As much as I’m not going to read Venom War: Lethal Protectors (page 45), it does feature Silver Sable, who’s awesome. When I’m the most highly-sought writer in comics, I’m going to write a Silver Sable ongoing and a Puma ongoing. You know you’ll read both of them!!!!

Re: Amazing Spider-Man #58 solicit (page 57): “The most visceral issues in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN history begin here!” Boy, the reason anyone ever reads Spider-Man comics is because they’re “visceral.” Marvel sure has its finger on the pulse of comicdom!

The solicit for Daredevil #13 reads, in big red letters, “AT LONG LAST … LOVERS QUARREL!” The cover shows Wilson Fisk punching Matt Murdock. YOU KNOW YOU THOUGHT IT TOO!!!!!

I did.  I regret not starting this column sooner if only because I wanted to be the one to make this joke.  Also, why do I always want to spell his last name Murdoch?  Now that I type it out I see it’s wrong, but -dock looks wrong somehow too!

That’s what happens when you’re slow, Pelkie! All the good jokes are gone!!!!

DC:

I don’t even remember that Batman The Long Halloween: The Last Halloween was going to be a thing, but we get a reprint of Tim Sale’s version before his untimely death and the first of ten by other artists, starting with Risso on pages 2-3.  Without Sale’s art, is this going to be worth getting?  Seems doubtful.

Probably not, but that horse isn’t going to flog itself, you know!

DC doesn’t have the license to Conan, but that doesn’t mean they can’t turn Batman into Conan, and that’s what we get on page 10, as Greg Smallwood writes and draws Batman the Barbarian. Why not?

Should be fun!

I like these Nicola Scott DC Through the Ages covers on page 11.  Some of them look Bolland-esque.

They are pretty keen.

How does the Nightwing Uncovered book on page 13, ostensibly a pinup book of various Nightwing covers from over the years, have a writer?

Because writing is the most important thing in comics, sir. I thought you knew that. So even a book of covers must stem from the genius of a writer somehow!!!!

Thank goodness DC got right on this being a leap year with Batman: The Brave and the Bold 17 on page 14.  You don’t want to waste an opportunity to use Calendar Man.

Maybe they were taken off-guard by the fact that this a Leap Year? I mean, how could anyone have known until the 29th of February came around, right?

You’re going to cancel a Catwoman series right before issue 69, DC?  Not nice!  (page 15)

Hey, now! This is a family blog, sir!

Also on the same page, I’m worried that Birds of Prey seems to be coming to an end, as this sounds like it’s an end of an arc, and there’s a BOP backup in Batman 152 on page 1.  Of course, if I actually read them and then don’t like them, I won’t feel as bad.  I wonder if this Absolute reimagining of Wonder Woman that Kelly is supposed to be doing is actually happening.  If so, hurrah for her!

I saw a tiny, tiny bit about that Absolute thing and felt my soul die. I mean, good for Kelly, but man, it sounds and looks … not good.

I hope Bryan Q. Miller is making some nice cash on this Multiversus comic on page 20.  I don’t know what he’s been doing the last few years, but good to know he’s still writing for comics.

Page 26 looks fun.  There’s the Lobo Cancellation Special by Kyles Starks and Hotz, which should be a kickass team for the character, and DC’s I Know What You Did Last Crisis, one of those anthology books, which sounds especially fun to me because the stories revolve around the various DC crossovers and crises.  I mean, it sounds like they’re finally going to let Dan DiDio kill Nightwing in a Crisis, but nothing’s perfect!

Gotham by Gaslight is back to 12 issues on page 28. Last month’s “of 6” solicit must have been a typo.

That’s what they want us to think!

Christopher Cantwell is a decent enough writer, so I might get Plastic Man No More! on page 30 when it’s out in trade. Can you resist “body-horror Plastic Man noir,” as the solicit calls it? CAN YOU?!?!?

I might be able to, because I have faith no more, dammit!  Alex Lins’s art looks perfectly good here, but the variant covers are by Mike Allred, Chris Samnee, and Tyler Boss, and any of those three would be a better artist for a Plas book that was actually, I don’t know, fun? Like Kyle Baker’s version.  “Shirtless Fighting!”

We don’t speak of the Kyle Baker Plastic Man around here, because Baker is overrated. Let the internet fighting begin!

You are so wrong, poets weep at the sound of your voice (as Bucky Katt once said).

Jeebus, the Jenny Sparks book is having her come back because of 9/11.  Wouldn’t/Shouldn’t that be the impetus for a new Spirit of a New Century?  (page 34)

Oh, that’s going to be a clusterfuck. I may have to read it just for that!

We’ve got the first half of one of my favorite comics of the early 21st century, Scalped, collected in Omnibus on page 45.

Hey, it’s Bryan Q. Miller on the Stephanie Brown Batgirl on page 47, collecting the first year of that book.  That one was well-regarded!

I like how you say it’s “well-regarded,” because I assume you didn’t read it. Stop watching Lifetime “ripped from the headlines” movies and read a comic, Pelkie! And yes, that iteration of Batgirl is quite good.

I … I can’t believe that you … saw through me so easily!

OK, Hispanic Heritage Month, especially with Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez art on these covers, is a fine thing to do, but Kyle Rayner is Hispanic?  Why don’t I remember that?  And no Fire?

I don’t know where you’re seeing this (on-line somewhere, I imagine), but no, Kyle Rayner is not Hispanic. Well, at least he wasn’t back in the day, but diversity retcons are all the rage, I guess. And Beatriz, nit-pickers will tell you, isn’t Hispanic because she’s Brazilian, which is derived from Portugal. So she’s … Lusitanian?

OK, I wasn’t sure with Beatriz since she was Brazilian.  And this is on the back page of the DC Connect (#50, wow!) print mag, I forgot to say.

Oh, whoops, there they are.

Boom! Studios:

Jeff Lemire has a new series called Minor Arcana on page 34, which I will be buying because I like Lemire, especially when he draws the stuff he writes. Of course, it’s a series about magic that deals with the tarot, so I’m not completely sold on it, but I’ll definitely give it the benefit of the doubt!

The solicit for Something Is Killing the Children #0 (page 42) reads: “It’s been 5 years since the smash hit Eisner-winning series Something Is Killing the Children changed the world of comics …” Um, how, exactly, did it change the world of comics? I mean, it’s fine, I guess (although I have stopped reading it because it got a bit boring), but it’s just a series about a weird, secret organization that fights evil and the sassy operative inside it who doesn’t always fit into its goals. How is that any different than any number of series we’ve seen over the years? Is it because Tynion dares to (gasp) kill children? I mean, ok, but that’s also not terribly unique. I know solicits are hyperbolic by nature, but that’s a bit excessive!

I don’t know, but the sales have always been very high on it.

Dang, I guess I have to get at least the trade of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Usagi Yojimbo, the first issue of which is on page 52.  Wait, is it a one shot?  Honestly though, has anyone been “waiting for” this?

Gosh, I know I have!

I don’t think I ever got the original version of Pulphope, so I guess I oughta get the new updated Boom! version on page 58, highlighting the art of Paul Pope.  I hope he’ll be doing some new comics soon!

Dynamite:

I don’t know anything else about him, but the writer on the new Red Sonja book, Luke Lieberman, is shown on page 84, and he looks like several different actors, like Sean Astin and Jeremy Renner and there’s another dude who he looks even more like whose name is escaping me now.

Dang, now it’s bugging me, too, because I agree with you – he looks like someone!

Titan:

I’ll have to check if I ever got Death Sentence volume 3, because I think it was never collected, but now, Titan has all three volumes in one big fancy book (page 156), because of course they want me to buy the first two volumes again! I will probably get this, because this is a pretty cool take on superheroes with good art by Martin Simmonds. Still, it’s a bit annoying.

I think the writer (and artist on later volumes, I thought?) Montynero Kickstarted not only this collected volume but had done volume 3 separately.  I keep forgetting if I have the second volume in HC, so I don’t think I got the third HC, but I might get this collected version.

Norm Konyu has done some cool comics, so I’m intrigued by his latest, Downlands, on page 164. A teenager whose twin sister has died becomes fascinated by the local folklore of his area, and creepy things begin to happen. Of course they do!!!!

Image:

Daniel Warren Johnson and Riley Rossmo have The Moon Is Following Us on page 179, in which parents try to rescue their daughter from some evil force with the help of magical creatures. Sounds decent, and those are good creators, so I’ll probably check this out.

I like occasionally screaming this title out when I’m driving at night.  Keeps the family awake!

A couple of good things on page 183, with the Revival Compendium, collecting the whole rural zombie series (which is getting a TV adaptation, it seems), and I liked the amount of the series I did read, and The Complete(d) Saucer Country, which I got through Zoop, and I loved the original Vertigo series, but never got around to reading the Saucer State mini followup.  

I’m a sucker for ’90s nostalgia, so the fact that Local Man is jumping forward to issue 25 (on page 188) Images of Tomorrow style pleases me to no end.  I’m not proud!

Ablaze:

So I’m torn on page 198’s offering of Harvey Kurtzman’s Marley’s Ghost, because the people adapting this are all pretty good, but I’m not sure if this should have been done since it’s still not Kurtzman’s vision per se.  I don’t know.

Yeah, I was going to safely skip this. I’m sure it will be fine, but … eh.

Torpedo 1972 on page 203 has Eduardo Risso art, so it probably is quite good.  They call this a re-imagining of Torpedo, but didn’t Risso do that?

Dunno. I just know this looks neat-o.

I am amused that The Cursed Library: Omega is the second of three parts of the Archie crossover on page 222.

You got a problem with the people at Archie not knowing the Greek alphabet, sir?!?!?

Ok, I got why the “beat off three guys” Archie cover got reprinted as a facsimile edition, it’s funny, and I think it was from the ’70s, but if the facsimile editions are to celebrate the “early” days of Archie, why is this ’90s (I think) Veronica issue being reprinted on page 225?  Just because she’s in a tiny bikini?  She is a teen girl, sirs!

Creepy dudes don’t care, man!

Dark Horse:

Space Usagi: White Star Rising on page 242 is, I think, a new color version of old Space Usagi comics, but I’m not completely sure.  I hope there will be a nice big collection.

On page 243, we find the trade of Backflash by Mat Johnson and Steve Lieber, which sounds intriguing. A dude whose life is falling apart discovers that “nostalgia” is his superpower – he can relive moments in his life just by touching memorabilia, and he wants to discover secrets about his past, but when he uses his power, his present falls apart more quickly. Oh, it’s a conundrum!

Gunnerkrigg Court comes to DH on page 245.  I think you always liked this book, right?

Yep, but I’m a bit behind. I’ll have to watch to see when they catch up to where I stopped buying it (because I think they stopped printing nice collections).

IDW:

Supposedly, Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees is pretty good, and the first trade is offered on page 246. Anthropomorphic animals who are also serial killers? Sure, why not!

I don’t know the creators, but Section VII on page 256 from Afterlight Comics sounds keen. A group of detectives behind the Iron Curtain in the 1950s investigates paranormal phenomena. What could go wrong?

I mean, how can you go wrong with a book called Tibbi and Her Time-Traveling Psychedelic Mushrooms? You can’t, and there it is on page 278 from Antarctic Press!

Dstlry has another series on page 326 called Through Red Windows, which sounds nifty. It’s a horror story about a creepy old dude and his weird high-rise in Manhattan. It’s by Ram V and Joëlle Jones, so of course I’m getting it!

Meschugge on page 346 from Fairsquare is a book about a serial killer in the Copenhagen ghetto in 1905. Of course I’m going to check it out!

In case you missed Kill Shakespeare back in the day, Gemstone has a big ol’ volume on page 353 which collects, I think, the first 12 issues, which is really all you need (the series didn’t get bad, but it got a bit inessential after that). It’s 30 bucks for a big slab of comics!

I liked what I read.  I met Anthony Del Col, the co-writer (interviewed on page 9), at the Boston Comic Con in 2011, and he was definitely an excellent hype man for that book!

That he definitely was!

Jules Feiffer is still going strong with a new GN on page 399 from Michael di Capua Books called Amazing Grapes.  A family has to save their mother, and another dimension, which happens.

Same page is All New Henry and Glenn Comics and Stories from Tom Neely and Microcosm Publishing.  They’re running a Kickstarter for this right now, so I guess I have to see what’s special about that version before I just preorder from my local comic shop!

I probably would have seen this, but I did miss it the first time through, so thanks for pointing it out, because this ought to be keen!

Oni has The Autumn Kingdom on page 402, which is by Cullen Bunn and Christopher Mitten, so of course I’m going to get it! It’s about a writer living on the edge of a forest in Sweden whose kids discover some weird shit while they’re wandering through it. Of course they do! Kids are always discovering weird shit – that’s why they should stay in their rooms and watch the YouTube all day!

Yeah, more screen time, outside is where bad stuff is!  This does sound cool, and will look awesome.

In the Shadow of Stalin: The Story of Mr. Jones (page 414) is about a journalist in the 1930s who tries to tell the truth about the famine in Ukraine. I’m sure that will end well!

Charles Burns has a new book, Final Cut, from Pantheon, on page 418. Burns is a very good creator, and this sounds like a cool story – a dude is making a horror movie in the woods and things get creepy, mainly, it seems, because he’s a dude who won’t take “no” for an answer. Listen to the ladies, dudes!

SelfMadeHero has a couple of interesting things on page 439. Madame Choi and the Monsters tells the story of a Korean actor and her ex-husband, a filmmaker, who were abducted by the North Koreans and forced to make propaganda films until they were able to escape. They Shot the Piano Player is about Francisco Cerqueira, a famous pianist who disappeared from Buenos Aires in 1976. Both sound nifty!

All righty, that’s all for this month. Thanks for joining us, and always remember to check out Previews – you never know what you might find inside! Have a good day!