Celebrating the Unpopular Arts
 
Flippin’ through ‘Previews’ – May 2018

Flippin’ through ‘Previews’ – May 2018

In a shocking move, Marvel is resetting a bunch of titles with new #1 issues! STOP THE PRESSES!!!!! What else can be gleaned from catalog #356 of Previews? Let’s find out together!

You know that I’m in blue, and Travis remains in the black. I have high hopes that he’ll show up this very weekend (it’s Saturday the 28th as I’m typing this)! His covert ops can’t last that long, can they?!?!?

Dude!  Last time I tell you anything!

Well, I mean, in your case, “covert ops” means you going to get Dunkin’ Donuts for Trump at 3 in the morning. The man does love his donuts …

I still smell of fried dough…

Speaking of covert, the world is topsy-turvy once more. Up is down, black is white, curved is straight – it’s madness! I’m speaking, of course, of the brand new DC catalog, which debuts this month, and Image moving up to the front of the catalog. Is it the Apocalypse? I guess we’ll have to wait and see!!!!!

It’s fucking me up already just looking online, since, as of the 28th, I still don’t have the print catalog (those covert ops took up too much time to get to the comic shop!).  I assume Image’s sales are better than Dark Horse, so they took over the front, in utter disregard for alphabetic order? Also, Image has their rating system up front too.  Bah.

Image:

Here are all the solicits!

On page 42, Rob Guillory is back with Farmhand, which he announced when he returned to Facebook about a month ago, so I’ve been excited for it even longer than you have! Guillory is writing this as well as drawing it, so we’ll see if his writing is any good, but it’s about a farmer who grows human organs, so it already sounds neat. Of course, there’s a BIG SECRET about his farm, but that’s to be expected. I might get this in single issues!

Ooh, that is interesting.  You’d think reading Layman’s scripts for Chew would have rubbed off on him, writing-wise.  I make my monthly plea to Image to ship the first volume of the Chew Smorgasbord edition to my shop so I can finally get the whole thing in HCs!  It’s been, like, a year, guys!  Put it back into print if you need to!

Layman told me it was good, and he tends not to bullshit about those things, so there’s that, at least.

If you can get past the pun, I’m sure it’s dandy! T: How did I miss that it was a pun?!

Mirka Andolfo has a 12-issue series on page 43 called Unnatural, which is about anthropomorphic animals who live under a totalitarian regime. It sounds okay, I suppose, but I did want to point out that it has a Milo Manara variant cover, because of course it does.

I won’t read any story about a sexy pig-woman that doesn’t star a lady who refers to herself as “Moi”!

Miss Piggy has to make a cameo in the background of this comic, doesn’t she?

I didn’t know Andolfo is a woman (not sure where I read it, though), and egads, that Manara cover is making me feel icky!  Also, I do not like the “if you like these, you’ll like this comic” blurbs at the bottom of a lot of these solicits.  Ugh.

Yeah, those blurbs are annoying. And I never really thought about Andolfo’s gender, but yeah, if you asked me, I would have guessed a woman. Her name ends with a feminine “a” and not a masculine “o”!

…yeah, that makes sense.  I guess I never really thought about it either.  And of course, I don’t really care, but for some reason I guess I thought it was a guy’s name.

Milo Manara, everyone

Joe Casey and Ulises Farinas are a good creative team, and New Lieutenants of Metal (page 45) is their latest thing. It’s about a “precision strike force” of “kick-ass, head-banging heroes,” which means the plot doesn’t matter, just that the good guys fight bad guys with the power of heavy metal. Sounds awesome to me!

Sounds cool.  Since it’s just 4 issues, I may just get the singles.

Ales Kot has another comic, The New World, on page 46, which is about two mismatched lovers on the run in a fractured future America. It sounds generic, but Kot is a weird writer, and Tradd Moore is drawing this, so it will look amazing. I’ll get the trade, probably!

Yeah, he didn’t have anything for awhile, and now he’s putting out a few things.  Isn’t his other comic basically the same plot too?  Again, the art raises it.  Also, Change was so damn interesting that Kot earned my eyeballs, at least in trades.  I have to catch up on reading, he says yet again.

The book is called Days of Hate, and yes, it sounds like the same premise.

I was going to put that in!  The first trade of that is on page 51.

I don’t know if Outpost Zero, a comic about the “smallest town in the universe” (what does that even mean?), is any good, but Sean McKeever is writing it. Hey, what’s Sean McKeever been doing with himself since he slaughtered the Wonder Twins? (This is a bit unfair, as McKeever can be a really good writer, but that’s his claim to fame!)

Wait, is this The Waiting Place…in space?  Hmm.  I might try the trade.  But yeah, it’s a shame that’s all he’s known for, because he is good (see: The Waiting Place).

That town doesn’t look that small, honestly

The Beef gets a trade on page 49. It’s Richard Starkings and Shaky Kane, so you know it will be utterly bizarre!

I was waiting on this.

On page 52, Death of Love gets collected. This is about a dude who can see the little cherubs of love and decides to kill them all. Wholesome family entertainment!

I saw the artist for this did an awesome Rob Liefeld homage (I won’t tell you what it looks like, if you haven’t seen it, but it’s good!), so that actually made me more interested in this.

Sugar on page 57 is called a companion to Sunstone and Swing, so it’s about more relationships and nudity.  Yay!

Yeah, I saw that. Of course I’ll be picking it up!

Some day I’ll catch up, but Descender ends with issue 32 on page 65.  I liked the first trade, but never got anything more.

Is Manifest Destiny still good, as the sixth trade is offered on page 76 and I have yet to catch up from wherever I left off?

It’s still good, although its pace has slowed considerably. I haven’t read any of the latest arc because I read it in six-issue chunks, and it’s been quite a while since this latest arc began, and it still has two issues to go. I do hope the creators can finish the book the way they want to, even if it’s slow..

Dark Horse:

The solicits are here!

She Could Fly on page 96 sounds interesting. It’s about a woman who flies over Chicago and then dies in a fiery explosion and the teenaged girl who becomes obsessed with learning all about her. Could be keen.

Page 106 has the complete collection of Usagi Yojimbo and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossovers, which, argh, because I’ve gotten most of them but now I’ll want this too.  What to do?!

Over on page 108, we get Criminy volume 1, Roger Langridge’s story about a family on the run from pirates searching for a new home. Langridge is an excellent creator, and this is all him, so I’ll have to pick this up.

I hadn’t looked far enough into this yet to see this was Langridge, so that’s cool.  I like his stuff quite a bit.  However, it’s not all him, because Ryan Ferrier is co-writing.

Don’t you ever get tired of correcting me? I mean, it’s kind of low-hanging fruit there.

I do it because the people deserve the truth, dammit!

Fun for the whole family!

Koshchei the Deathless is collected on page 118. Comics in the Mignola-verse are almost always worth a look, so I’ll get this one!

DC:

Can you handle all the solicits?!?!?

They say this is the first standalone catalog for DC, but actually there was a production error years ago where they had to print a special catalog (it was when The Unwritten debuted, so apparently May of ’09, from what I find).  This nerdy trivia brought to you by the fact that I have a copy of that Previews.

In Batman 51 (page 1), Bruce has jury duty while Dick has to go out as Batman in his stead.  What sitcom is this shit from?!

King should write it as a sitcom, with Jack and Chrissy thinking it’s Bruce and talking shit about Dick, and Dick getting all mad – I’d read that!

…that actually would be awesome if people badmouthed Nightwing to “Batman” while Dick is in the Bat-suit.

Yeah, and Dick just has to stand there and take it, to protect the sanctity of the secret identity!!!!!

“Nightwing has a nice ass, though.” “Thank you.  I mean, I know.  I mean, wait…”

[Pretend that I have mad Photoshop skills and can put a drawing of Nightwing into a screen grab of Three’s Company here, and you’ll get the idea!]

Joëlle Jones is writing and drawing Catwoman on page 2, which will probably be awesome for as long as Jones can keep up the schedule and if she completely ignores the (ugh) marriage of Selina and Bruce. It’s just nice to see Jones getting big assignments at DC, because she deserves it.

Like, good for her for scoring this big gig, because she’s great, but yeah, it will undoubtedly tie into the marriage stuff and that is all kinds of stupid.  Ugh.

There’s going to be a sad lack of chicks in bikinis in the DC Beach Blanket Bad Guys Special (page 3), isn’t there? Ah, who cares, I’m probably getting this anyway.

I’d be happy with some bikini girls with machine guns….

Don’t trust the cover and its implicit promise of bikinis!

Ivan Reis is drawing Superman on page 4. DC claims that in this issue, “Bendis and artist Ivan Reis begin their run” (emphasis mine). It doesn’t say that the run will end with issue #3, when Reis finishes his last issue and can’t keep up with the schedule!

As usual, you are harsh but undoubtedly accurate.  Are they keeping this to just a monthly (versus the double shipping they’ve been doing)?  If so, it might be easier on Reis, especially if there are a lot of Bendis talking head scenes.  Just copy and paste like a motherfucker like Maleev does!

Yeah, DC is going to the once-a-month, $3.99 model that Marvel has used to drive down their own market share. So if you’re still a sucker and buying single issues, you’ll get 20 pages for 4 dollars instead of 40 pages for 6 dollars. The New DC – There’s No Stopping Us Now!!!!

Also, this talks about how Earth is in the Phantom Zone, which undoubtedly won’t affect any other title….

DC wasn’t content with trolling Marvel with all their strangely similar new titles, so they decided to copy Marvel by launching new #1 issues (Superman for the third time since 2011, which Marvel looks at and scoffs at, but which is pretty dramatic for DC), and proliferating their title families, as I think there’s going to be four (4) Justice League books? Sheesh. Anyway, two of them are offered on pages 6-7: Justice League Dark and Justice League Odyssey. Both sound terrible, unfortunately. In the former, Wonder Woman leads a team of Zatanna, Swamp Thing, Man-Bat, and Detective Chimp to fight weird magical threats. I can’t even deal with that grouping, but then we get to the latter, in which Darkseid is a good guy. Maybe. GAWD. I do like the cover, as Cyborg stands there with his arms raised, as if to say: “Yeah, it’s stupid, but what are you going to do?”

Sejic is good, though, so it’s unfortunate he’s on this.  Are they trying to make Darkseid look more or less like Thanos?  And yeah, Dark’s lineup is… I thought, oh, Wonder Woman has magic stuff, sure, but then Man-Bat is all science, no?  So no. This sounds worse than Task Force and Extreme Justice….

They failed with Sexy Lobo, so get ready for … Sexy Darkseid!

The bad guy in The Curse of Brimstone #4 (page 18) is named “Detritus.” As in, DC really scraped the bottom of the barrel for that name!

(Furiously scribbling to rewrite my kewl new comic…)

Harley Quinn as a Female Fury on Apokolips is pretty damned awesome (page 30):

Damn, I have the absolutely best crude thing to say here, but I think I’m going to stay just a little bit classy! T: Surprisingly, I don’t have anything crass to say for once!

I love this shit.  On page 37, Mera, Queen of Atlantis 6 “flows directly into Aquaman 38″, which is fine, except this is scheduled for July 25 while Aquaman comes out the week before!  Also, Nightwing 46 (on page 41) comes out on July 4, and it teams him with Batgirl, although “can the two work together after their meeting in Batgirl 25″, which comes out… July 25th….  Oy.

It’s HYPERTIME!!!!!!

That is a sweet Darkseid on Mister Miracle 10 on page 38….

He’s no Sexy Darkseid, that’s for sure!

Scooby Doo Team Up 40 has Swamp Thing (page 45).

Why is Damian Wayne squatting like that on Teen Titans 20?  (page 51)

Come on, man, you know why …

Ha, on page 56, Wonder Woman 50 has her brother find out his “true purpose”, which I’m going to assume is like in the wonderful movie The Jerk, when he finds out about his “special purpose”!!!

On page 62, DC has the second volume of the Doug Moench/Kelley Jones run on Batman. These are superb comics, and it’s nice that DC put out the second volume to finish the run. I do love, however, that on the page, the cover of the book (which might not be the final image, of course) is an issue from AFTER the run, when neither man was on the book but Jones was still drawing covers. Jones drew the covers throughout the run, so they couldn’t find a good one from it to use?

That is a good run, and I think I actually have most of it.  One thing I liked was that they numbered the issues that they did together on the title page somewhere.  I also made a note to myself about this book that I now can’t read or decipher, so there’s that!

Also on page 62 is Batman: The Caped Crusader, which collects “Ten Nights of the Beast” and some other Batman comics from that time (not “A Death in the Family,” though). These are decent enough comics, but I’m not sure they’re worth 30 dollars, especially when you can probably find them cheap in the back issue boxes. It does, however, have that killer McFarlane cover:

He’s all cape!

Ooh, there’s a collection of all the Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover comics (or…almost all, I think, because wasn’t there a nod in Swamp Thing?  And maybe some other stuff?) on page 63.  I am tempted!

Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles gets a trade on page 67. I don’t know if this was any good, but I’m definitely buying it, simply because Snagglepuss as Tennessee Williams is too wonderful an idea to ignore!

Exactly!  And it includes the other story from the Hanna Barbera crossover book.

I might have to pick up the trade of Harley & Ivy Meet Betty & Veronica (page 70). I’ll have to think about it.

I assume you mean down the road, as this is a HC here (unless they changed it from what the order form says).

Ah, yes. I would have noticed that when I went to order it, because 25 bucks is a bit dear for six issues.

I love the Legion, and I may even have a lot of this stuff, but I might get the Legion of Super-Heroes Silver Age TP 1 on page 75.  One of the first series I knew anything about, and it’s still near and dear to my heart.

I may also spring for the New Gods by Kirby trade on page 76, although DC will undoubtedly fuck up the printing of that like they did of the Fourth World Omnibus….

I have to add up the prices from all my Wonder Woman trades from when she became Emma Peel, but I have the feeling it will be less than the $100 DC is charging for the Wonder Woman, Diana Price: The 50th Anniversary Omnibus on page 80. This is a tough call, because these aren’t exactly great comics, but they are awesome in the truest sense of the word, in that I’m in awe that DC did it and that it worked as well as it did and that Denny O’Neil was still putting awful sexist stuff into the comics. They’re worth a read, but I’m not sure if a giant, 100-dollar hardcover is the way to go.

I think I snagged some of the original issues of this for cheap, so I have at least some of this.

IDW:

The solicits are real, and they’re spectacular!

I was amused by the description of the Transformers: Lost Light crew in the solicit for issue 21 on page 135 as “shambolic”, mostly because I didn’t actually know what that word meant.  (I looked it up, man!)  Cool.

You don’t often get to use “shambolic.” Good that they did!

There’s a new Real Science Adventures mini-series, The Nicodemus Job, on page 139. Let’s count the ways it checks off my boxes: Brian Clevinger is writing it, Meredith McClaren is drawing it, it’s in the Atomic Robo universe, it’s a heist comic, it’s a heist comic set right before the beginning of the First Crusade. Yeah, I’ll be getting this.

That is all kinds of awesome, so I’ll have to get the trade.  Or I hope they do big Omnibi of these like they do with the regular Atomic Robo series.

I saw McClaren at a Free Comic Book Day event, and she was freaked out when I congratulated her on this job, because she wasn’t sure it was public yet and she thought she had told me and let the cat out of the bag. I told her that it was fine, because it was in Previews, and that eased her conscience a bit. She told me the job was very fun, which doesn’t surprise me at all. Again, a heist comic from the First Crusade!!!!

That’s awesome that she freaked out (well, you know what I mean), and that anybody thinks an early reveal on something like this is a bad thing!

Assassinistas is collected in trade on page 156, which you knew I’d be getting because of the Beto art.

I’m thinking about it. I don’t love the art, but it’s not bad, and the book sounded somewhat interesting.

Don’t love Beto art.  Who are you?!

I’m not going to get into it now, but I just don’t love it. But it’s fine, I guess. Like I said, the book sounds interesting, and it’s not as if the art is like Ariel Olivetti’s or Greg Land’s, where I will actively avoid a comic drawn by those two.

I kid because I love ya, but I still shake my head at you!

Ooh!  Rick Veitch’s Brat Pack is collected in HC on page 161.  I have the first issue of this, and it’s a dark look at sidekicks.  It’s Veitch, so of course it’s good, so I’ll probably get this.  IIRC, there are multiple versions, or at least the collected edition was significantly different from the single issues.  I’ll also have to get the Steve Bissette book about this series, too, then, I guess — but I can’t find it on Amazon!

Mike Mignola’s adaptation of Coppola’s Dracula is available for the first time in many years on page 163, this time in black and white. I don’t know about this – it’s 30 dollars for a four-issue series, but damn, the art looks sweet. Also, I’ve never been as down on Coppola’s movie as others, it seems. But that price tag!

Ah, I missed that it was B&W.  I actually have the fourth issue of this.  Because I got weird single issues in the ’90s.  It looks good, of course, from what I remember.  Topps Comics, man.  They did some good stuff though.

I want to walk into a barber shop and say ‘Give me the Gary Oldman Dracula!’

I’m interested in Full Bleed, the new quarterly HC “magazine” about comics and culture on page 165, and even almost did the Kickstarter for it, but missed out on the Simonson print, but I’m a bit annoyed, because the first issue was never (unless I just missed it) officially offered in Previews.  Now you can get it here, too, along with the new second issue, but it’s a bit irksome.  I may just be unnecessarily angry, though!  (We’re comics geeks, it’s what we do!)

I’m intrigued by why and how Atomic Empire on page 166 is “inspired by a real psychological case”, because it’s about a sci-fi writer in the early ’50s who communicates (supposedly) with a future man.  Sounds neat, anyway!

Cool cover, too

Holy shit, that’s awesome!  Check out page 169, with the Jim Lee DC Legends Artifact Edition.  That page from WildCATS is drawn on Marvel paper!  HAHAHAHA!  They should sue him for using company property!

That’s hilarious. I can see Lee furtively shoving Marvel brand drawing paper into his bag as he absconds to form Image, hoping the security guard at the door just talks to him about the Yankees instead of looking through his stuff!

To be fair, he may have legitimately thought he was drawing the X-Men still.  Ahem.

And hm, unless I missed it, there are no Yoe Books this month, particularly the latest issue of Weird Love.  Did I hear they were moving to Dark Horse, or did I just imagine that in a fever dream?

Reefer Madness came out from Dark Horse, but I don’t know if that means all of Yoe’s books will now be coming from them.

Marvel:

So many solicits!

I’m amused that the ad for (Fantastic) 4 on page 1 of the Marvel book has 6 people in the ad….

The two kids, I assume?

Yes, but still, the big logo count of 4 over 6 people is funny!

Ta-Nehisi Coates is writing Captain America (a new #1 on page 2!), which is nice for him. I wonder if his fans will follow him, because I have heard very mixed reviews about his work on Black Panther.

I read the first HC of Black Panther, and found it odd.  Not terrible, but oddly not new reader friendly.  It seemed like he was trying to tell a certain story but had to shoehorn it into the current Panther continuity.  Also, the HC printed what I believe must have been the “story so far” recap page from the second trade before the story started (as in, I think that was recapping issue 1-6, but it was included before issue 1 in the HC), which is weird but was necessary.  I get not wanting to hold your reader’s hand, but a little bit more would have been nice.  Not awful comics, just somehow not good.  Pacing was strange, too, but it’s hard to articulate.  Art was great, of course, with Stelfreeze and Sprouse and a couple others, I think.

Ryan Ottley has been set free from the lucrative purgatory of Invincible and is now drawing Amazing Spider-Man (a new #1 on page 4!). Invincible started to drag at the end, schedule-wise, but I don’t know if that was Kirkman or Ottley, so we’ll see how long he can keep up with this!

I’d guess the dragging was Kirkman, but who knows?  Ottley was a nice dude at the con I met him at, from what I recall.

Cosmic Ghost Rider #1 (of 5) (page 14). BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!

Yeah, why?

You love him, and now you have him!

Between this character on page 20 in Death of the Inhumans 1 and the Man Who Laughs Batman/Joker thing, methinks people really like Judge Death….

I see no resemblance at all!

Page 50-51 has a lot of one dollar Fantastic Four reprints, which are mostly good, except the one is…the coming of HERBIE?!  Why?

Everyone loves H.E.R.B.I.E.!

I hope the classified X book on page 69 (nice) is our pal Kelly’s well-deserved X book (which I assume is coming soon!).

I hadn’t thought of that. I doubt it is, though – they usually do this when it’s a big deal, and as good as Kelly is as a writer, I just can’t see them making a big deal about her yet. But I could be completely off-base!

I get what you mean, but I am wondering what this is, because I would have thought I’d have heard about a reveal of what this is by now.  I think they’re probably starting to reveal stuff from the next catalog (because I’m so slow, sorry!), but I don’t think I’ve seen anything with this yet.  So it’s sort of a big deal but sort of not, it seems.

Steve Buscemi as Bullseye in Old Man Logan 43 on page 77.

Burn, Mike Deodato. B.U.R.N.

(I should point out that this issue begins Juan Ferreyra’s work on the book. I don’t know how long he’s going to be on it, but I’m very tempted to get the trade(s) of his issues, because he’s just so goldanged good.

That’s right, I did see that he was going to be doing Marvel stuff, and I meant to make a note of it, and then I just totally missed his name when *ahem* flippin’ through these things.

Ugh, Roxxon’s CEO is named D(ario) Agger.  That’s a cutting pun.  (Weapon H 5 page 78).

Yeah, I saw that. I tried to cleanse it from my memory!

I should probably get the Silver Surfer by Slott & Allred Omnibus on page 101. Actually, I should look for the trades I didn’t get (for some reason I fell behind) and get those, because this is a nifty run.

I’m definitely tempted, because I love Allred and I heard good things about this, and never got any of it.  Hmmmm.

So Marvel brought out a Brute Force trade paperback (page 125) before they brought out a Sleepwalker Omnibus. I’ve never even heard of Brute Force, and poor Sleepwalker is sitting over there, being drawn by a comics legend, not getting an omnibus. Where is the justice in this world?!?!?!?

I say that Brute Force obviously deserves a trade (and Power Pachyderms is included?  Fuck yes!), because look at them (Hip Hop the kangaroo, muthafuckas!), but now you make me want a Sleepwalker Omni.  Get on that, Marvel!

What. The. Fuck.

Some weird stuff on pages 128-129.  The Warlock series by Pak and Adlard was pretty good, from what I read of it.  The Wolfpack Complete Collection…what is this?  And then yet again they’re trying to reprint Spider-Girl, which was pretty good, but since I have plenty of this I won’t be getting this one.

I’ve never heard of the Wolfpack, either, so I’ll be skipping that one.

The Thing & the Human Torch by Dan Slott on page 135 is a great trade, if you don’t already own the issues. It collects the five-issue Spider-Man/Human Torch mini-series drawn by Ty Templeton, which is great, and The Thing ongoing, which only lasted eight issues but was also pretty great. Thirteen really good issues for 35 bucks ain’t bad.

I have an issue of the Spidey/Torch book, and I also have the last Thing issue in a Squirrel Girl trade, but yes, this seems like a trade that would be quite good.

Lots of good Fantastic Four stuff, and the one I’m pretty sure I’ll get is the World’s Greatest Comics Magazine trade on page 136, where Erik Larsen and friends homaging Stan and Jack.

Dynamite:

These solicits are … wait for it … dynamite!!!!

I can’t pass up a Project Superpowers 0 issue for a damn dime, on page 176.  I don’t even care if it’s any good, dammit!  There is an Omnibus of the original stuff on page 179 for 40 bucks, and what I read was decent.

One might wonder why Elvira: Mistress of the Dark keeps getting comics series, like on page 180, but she does have a superpower — double sided tape!

Well, I mean, duh

They didn’t even change the fucking blurb for Skin & Earth by Lights on page 183, where her whole life has “lead up” to this book.  ARGH!  The art’s actually not bad, kind of an Allred/Dragotta look.

My latest annoyance with editing comes from the Arizona Republic, the newspaper of record in Phoenix. They were writing about the teachers’ strike we had here recently, and they quoted someone talking about the movement, which is called #RedforEd (yuck, a pound sign). Anyway, the woman said “Redfor Ed” and the newspaper placed the hash tag in front of it. There is no way the person said “Hash tag RedforEd,” so why did they put it inside the quote marks? I mean, I get it when they use actual numbers instead of writing out “forty-four” or something like that, because it saves space. But actually using the hash tag doesn’t save any space!!!!! It really annoyed me. Yes, I’m very weird.

Actually, I would not be surprised if the quoted woman said “hashtag” out loud, so while I get your complaint, I wonder if your underlying premise is true!

Keith Champagne was a co-writer on The Mighty, I think, which was pretty good, so The Switch: Electricia on page 184 might be ok, but it’s pricey and it’s a “villain masquerading as hero” story that’s been done before, so…push.

Dynamite finally gets around to releasing a softcover collection of James Bond: Eidolon on page 190. Warren Ellis’s two Bond stories for Dynamite were pretty good, but not great, but there it is, if you’re interested!

His first issue was a FCBD book, and it was decent.  I may get this.  The first trade is also on page 196, and on page 189, the recent oneshots are collected into a HC.

I would have guessed that the Bettie Page statue on page 199 was going to be a bust….

You should be on the stage …

Who’s worse – Travis for making that joke, or me for enabling him by showing the statue?

Boom! Studios:

Yeah, I got nothing here. Have at it!

Hey, I do, though! On page 208 is Bone Parish from Cullen Bunn, with a drug made from ashes of dead people that makes people hallucinate the dead coming back to life. Sounds like it could be fun.

Let’s check out the back of the book!

This month’s Cerebus in Hell? one shot is Teenage Mutant Ninja Cerebi, from Aardvark-Vanaheim on page 242.  The Going Home trade is also offered here, and I’m pretty sure I got it but I have to check.

Zorro is coming from American Mythology on page 262 with supernatural tales.  Could be fun.

Yeah, maybe. Roy Allan Martinez is a pretty good artist, too.

I don’t know if this has ever been collected, but Rogues! volume 1: The Curse of the Chicken shows up on page 266. These are the first issues that Amigo did in this country, I believe, and they’re pretty great. Anyway, even if they have been collected, here they are and here’s your chance to pick it up!

I was going to ask you about these.  If that’s the case that they’re the first Amigo books, then no, I don’t need them, but yes, they are very very good.  Also, there’s a new Rogues series, The Shadow Over Gerada, which has some Lovecraftian shit going on.

Antarctic has The Trials and Tribulations of Miss Tilney on page 268, about a Nellie Bly type interviewing a killer who might have been framed by dark forces.  Hmm.

That doesn’t look bad at all.

That tiger looks almost offended that she would use such a small gun to defend herself!

Archie Meets Batman ’66 on page 271 from Archie (and DC, obviously). You knew it had to happen eventually, and here it is!

I’m not sure if I want to get Windhaven from Bantam/Spectra, but I’m thinking about it. It’s an adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s “first fantasy novel” (was he writing naturalistic dramas before that?), which doesn’t exactly thrill me (although I’m sure it’s fine), but it’s drawn by Elsa Charretier, which does thrill me, so I’ll have to think about it.

I’ll probably hope a library gets it, but yeah, Charretier on art would sway me.

I don’t care about anything else with the book, but I love the title of the Birdcage Bottom Books offering on page 286 (I like that company name too, actually): In the Future, We Are Dead.  Gives me hope!

Hope for what, exactly?

I was being cynical and ironic, like the kids on the twitters, dammit!

If I say a book has Enchanted Cat-Nip Massage Oil, do I have to tell you what book it is?  (page 300)

How dare you besmirch the good name of Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose!

Jacques Tardi is kind of obsessed with the world wars, so it’s not surprising that Fantagraphics has I, Rene Tardi, Prisoner of War in Stalag 11B on page 316. It’s about Tardi’s father, who spent time in a prison camp, obviously, and I’ll have to get it, because Tardi is really, really good at making comics.

“My Father Also Bleeds History”

I really wanted to get the giant Witzend that Fantagraphics put out a few years ago, but it was a lot of money and I saw it at the San Diego convention once and man, it was huge (I still wanted it; it was still too spendy). So now on page 317 they have The Best of Witzend for 50 bucks, and I’ll be picking that up. Wood! Frazetta! Williamson! Morrow! Crandall! Ditko! Spiegelman! Bode! Steranko! Jones! Chaykin! Wrightson! Good stuff all around!

I still might wait and see if they reprint the whole shebang at some point.

Spill Zone volume 1 is on page 320 from First Second. I know you wrote about this, but did you ever read it? It sounds pretty neat – there’s a weird spot near Poughkeepsie where reality has been messed up, and a teenager supports her younger sister by taking photographs in the area and selling them. Of course, complications arise!

I read the FCBD issue, which I guess was a prelude to the main book, and I’ve seen that the library has it, but I haven’t gotten around to reading it.  The FCBD book was pretty dang good from what I remember, so the trade is probably good.  Poughkeepsie can dis-a-fuckin’-pear for all I care, though!  (Personal trauma issues here, don’t mind me.  Also, I’m highly exaggerating, too.)

Gallery 13 has Bad Girls on page 321, a graphic novel about three women trying to get out of Cuba with money they stole before Castro comes in and takes over. It sounds pretty good, and it’s written by Alex de Campi and drawn by the amazing Victor Santos, so I’ll definitely be picking this up.

Here’s a tip: DO NOT Google ‘Bad Girls cover,’ like I did. Nothing too skeevy, but definitely some weird stuff!

Golden Apple has Blastosaurus 0 on page 326, an all-ages comic about a mutant triceratops that’s influenced by Eisner and was New Zealand’s top-selling indie comic (the solicit says, as if that’s an achievement or something).  Looks kinda neat though, so I may check it out.

Man, now you’re besmirching Kiwis. What’s your problem, Pelkie? Huh?

I’m a horrible person, that’s all!

Kristen Gudsnuk has a middle school age reader comic coming out from Graphix on page 329.  It’s called Making Friends, and it’s about a girl in seventh grade who inherits a magic sketchbook and draws herself a bestie.  Sounds cute.

When Scholastic publishes your book, you’ve hit the big time!

Jules Feiffer has a new comic, The Ghost Script, on page 338 from Liveright. It’s a noir story set in 1953, and it sounds pretty weird. I do like how the first thing in the solicit is how old Feiffer is (he’s 89). I mean, Ditko is still cranking out comics, and nobody cares how old he is!!!! (Possibly because he drinks the blood of Randian acolytes who visit him, keeping him perpetually young.)

Somewhere, there’s a Ditko drawn image that keeps growing older while Ditko himself stays young, but the giveaway that it’s him is that weird hairstyle that the Osborns have….

Rocket Salvage came out a few years ago from … Boom! (?), and now Lion Forge has the trade on page 344. This was a pretty entertaining comic, made better by Machan’s terrific artwork, so if you’re interested, check it out!

I knew it was somewhere else, but couldn’t remember specifically.  It does look very good, too (and not at all like Motor Crush, he says kiddingly!).

Ghost Money, which is about a young woman falling into the political intrigues of the Islamic world, gets a fancy hardcover on page 346. I might get this and not wait for a trade – it’s 25 dollars, but it’s almost 300 pages, which ain’t bad. I think the series ran for 10 issues, so it’s cheaper than getting the single issues, even.

You are correct, 10 issues (provided the “volume 1” doesn’t mean that they split that amount of issues), and I was interested, so I may go for this HC.

Mad Cave Studios has a trade of Battlecats on page 355, which looks like it’s influenced by ’80s cartoons, which gets me intrigued, and the trade is a deal over the single issues, so I may snag this.

If they don’t say anything about bringing the thunder, they’re missing a golden opportunity

Oni has The Long Con on page 360, which is about a cataclysm that wipes out everything within a 50-mile radius of the “Los Spinoza Convention Center,” except the convention itself, where the comics fans keep on keeping on. Now, a reporter discovers that they’re still in there, and he goes back in to investigate and find his best friend. It sounds goofy but fun, and it’s written (but not drawn, sadly) by Dylan Meconis, who is a very good writer (the art, by Ben Coleman, looks pretty good, too). I’m not sure if I will get this in single issues, but I might have to!

Actually, Ben Coleman is co-writer, someone else is doing the art.

Damn it, I keep doing that! Yeah, Ea Denich is the artist, and it looks pretty good.

On page 369, you can pick up a new printing of The Coldest City by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart. You may know this as Atomic Blonde, as that’s what the movie was called, and in fact, Oni adds that onto the beginning of the title and puts Charlize Theron on the cover. This is hilarious, as the movie is so very unlike the comic. The basic plot is the same, but the movie (which I loved, by the way), changes quite a bit to make it more action-packed and more lesbian (the French spy in the movie is a dude in the book). I’m planning on writing a post about it, but this new branding cracks me up. I don’t have a problem with it, because Johnston is a swell guy and if he can make more money off the movie, I’m all for it, but it still cracks me up.

Oh, this version came out already, around the time the movie did, because I picked up this and the sequel comic at that time.  I should get the movie out from the library and watch it and read the book and do my own column.  Because of course we need two columns about it!

Figures, I missed one or two of the Only Living Boy books, and now Papercutz has an Omnibus of the whole thing on page 371.  Plus a bonus story.  Yargh!

I’m really incensed by this, because I’m 99% sure that volume 5 never came out in print, but it’s included here. That’s very maddening and makes me want to skip this, even though I like the series perfectly well.

Hmm, I’m not sure about that, but when I saw Steve Ellis at a recent con, it did seem like he only had, like, the first 3 volumes, so it’s quite possible that 5 never saw print.  I know I dropped it with volume 4 or 5, after getting the first 3, just because I’d been getting them and not reading them (wha?!), so it is doubly annoying if the last one isn’t even in print.  Grr.

Man, Fred van Lente is writing prose now, as The Con Artist shows up on page 373 from Quirk Books. It’s about a comic book artist who goes to San Diego and becomes the prime suspect when his rival is murdered. So he has to clear his name! Sigh. I know I’m going to buy this, damn it!!!!!

This isn’t even his first novel, as he wrote Ten Dead Comedians, a take off on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None set in the comedy world.  It was pretty good.  I had intended to write about it here, and I still might.

Damn it!!!! That sounds awesome and now I have to read it. Damn you, Pelkie, for your information!!!!!

Scout Comics has a couple of interesting ones.  The Mall is about a mall (huh?!) in Florida in the ’80s where a mobster wills legitimate businesses in the title mall to his illegitimate children and they have to deal with that and high school.  The zero issue on FCBD was pretty good.  And then there’s Stabbity Bunny in trade, which just based on the title alone intrigued me, so I may spring for that.  Both on page 377.

I haven’t read the FCBD issue of The Mall yet. I’ll get around to it.

Somos Arte has Ricanstruction, with La Borinqueña teaming up with DC characters, and some good creators like Billy the Sink on it.  I probably have to spring for this, especially since it’s for a good cause (page 378).

On page 392, we get McCay from Titan Comics, a fictional biography of Winsor McCay in which he ends up in the fourth dimension. Sounds neat-o.

Even if his parents didn’t know how to spell his first name!

TwoMorrows has some neat stuff, of course, with Kirby and Lee: Stuf’ Said on page 404, which is a book operating as Jack Kirby Collector 75, and examining the Stan and Jack relationship of creation, and on 405, Comic Book Creator 18 has Steve Rude, Mary Fleener, and Rich Buckler, as well as Neal Adams and his jungle art.  Cool.

The Furnace on page 404 from Tor Books sounds keen. A man once participated in a strange government experiment and now, 20 years later, he’s haunted by weird ghosts. I’ve seen some pages from it, and it looks pretty good.

Peter Milligan has a new Britannia series on page 408 from Valiant, and Robert Gill is the new artist. He’s not bad, but I will miss Juan José Ryp, because he’s awesome.

So, there’s a manga called Undead Messiah on page 426 from Tokyopop, and it’s not about our lord and savior Jesus H. Christ.  JFC!

Fakku Books has, on page 450, Urotsukidojj: Legend of the Overfiend, which is a manga I’ve heard of but never seen.  It’s about a half demon trying to find and destroy an unbeatable god before that god incarnates in the body of a young man.  I guess.  It’s got mature themes, which probably means boobies, and I’m so very very weak!

Speaking of boobies, good lord, that cover shown from Monster Musume volume 13 on page 457 from Seven Seas!  (Volume 14 is solicited but they show the previous cover for some reason).

I’m not going to post that. It’s too ridiculous.

I do not blame you sir.  Even I went WTF when I saw it!

I’m not really a Pop! guy but dang, that Deadpool as Bob Ross one on M-55 is amusing enough I might spring for it.  Heck, I almost got a couple of Bob Ross Pop! figures at my local shop on FCBD!

I might get this for my daughter – she digs Pop! figures, and she digs Bob Ross

Also tempted by that classic Weird Al one on page M-59.  Why do I look at this side?!

OK, why?  There’s a gender switched Ash from Evil Dead 2 statue on page M-64, because I guess Bruce Campbell isn’t sexy enough?

I didn’t want to post this, but I had to because of the solicit text: ‘Reflecting the violent nature of the film, Ash’s clothes are tattered, exposing her robust form.’ Listen, if this had been a figure from an E.M. Forster novel, you would have found a way to rip her clothing!

On that … weird note, it’s time to bid farewell. Have fun checking out all the good stuff inside Previews!

26 Comments

  1. M-Wolverine

    Who doesn’t love donuts and porn?

    I mean, I have no problem with porn-y covers. If you want to buy it, free country and all. But is Manara even a good artist? It never seems like they’re actually good porn figures. They just pose and have less clothes on. At least make it pretty. If I wanted badly drawn comic porn I’ll stick to the Rob Liefeld foot porn covers, thank you very much!

    (Though if we’re going to have some gratuitous stuff I’d be all for it in the Beach Blanket comic. Grodd in a banana hammock!)

    Don’t be silly, they’re not trying to make Darkseid more like Thanos. They’re obviously trying to make him more like Ronan the Accuser. He’s even more blue! (You’re right about the Cyborg pose though; it almost seems like that was intentional. I have no idea who anyone else is. Is that Starfire?)

    That is, unless he’s in Mr. Miracle, in which case they’re turning Darkseid into Ben Grimm. That was in Amalgam comics, right? Along with Cosmic Ghost Rider. (Which is so insane it might be fun).

    1. Greg Burgas

      M-Wolverine: Manara is an excellent artist, but his covers for American comics aren’t his best work. I assumed for Marvel he was just cashing a pay check, but this is by a fellow Italian on an indie book, and it’s still not his best work! Even at his age, he can still draw beautifully, but I guess he just doesn’t want to all the time.

  2. tomfitz1

    This is the FIRST “Flippin’ through Previews” that I’ve seen in months!!!!

    Whatever happened to you guys?!?

    I thought Atomic Junk Shop dropped off the Internet and went into the Ethernet!

      1. tomfitz1

        I remember my laptop crashed and had to rebuild my apps and links, but for some reason my email stopped getting your posts until just a couple weeks ago.

        As I posted above, I thought you guys disappeared.

        Anyway, I agree with what you said about MIRACLEMAN. Neil Gaiman just posted his displeasure of FOX cancelling LUCIFER tv show. If he has time to write and post that, then he has time to work on MIRACLEMAN!!!!

        Be sad no more, dudes, I’m back!!! 🙂

        1. Jeff Nettleton

          I’ve said it before and Istick by it; I’m not convinced that Gaiman actually inked a deal to finish Miracleman. Maybe the equivalent of a letter of intent. I just can’t see this much time passing and no result, unless the announcements were more testing the waters. Gaiman has a rep as a tough negotiator, when it comes to his deals (at least, that was the feeling with Tundra, according to Steve Bissette). I wouldn’t be surprised that they still haven’t come to terms and that was what was holding it back. No evidence to prove it; but, that is my theory, for lack of better evidence.

          1. tomfitz1

            Maybe I’m wrong, but didn’t MARVEL help Gaiman out with the lawsuit fees?

            After all, MARVEL did reprint all the Miracleman issues that were written by Moore (excuse me, that’s the Original Writer) and the Golden Age book by Gaiman, plus a few issues of the original series by the creator.

            Why wouldn’t Gaiman not use MARVEL to publish the remaining 2 books?

            Well, if this keeps up, people may not even care any more if Gaiman ever gets to writing the MM again.

            At least, Matt Wagner’s halfway through the final part of the MAGE trilogy. Maybe then I can finally quit comics. 🙂

  3. M-Wolverine

    It’s been there. But the auto message for new stuff has been offline with the site changes for awhile. It go reset and is working now.

    Click on the “Previews” folder up there and enjoy reading months of back stories about it. (Because it’s not really about the Preview as much as the commentary on it, amiright?)

    Then go back and click on the AJS home page and see how many other articles you’ve missed. 🙂

  4. Woohoo! I just dropped by to check out your Atomic Junk, and I am not disappointed!

    I’m pretty excited for Ta-Nehisi Coates on Cap. His BP run started slow but got better, and I’ve really enjoyed the spinoffs The Crew and World of Wakanda. But really I think Cap is perfect for him. I’m more excited to read his take on a grand symbolic figure like Captain America and the kind of issues that Cap has always taken on than the lore and politics of a fictional African nation, though I think what he’s done with that is interesting too.

    I won’t be getting the omnibus because I have all the trades, but the Slott/Allred Surfer run is superb. Just lovely stuff.

    Oh lord, Power Pachyderms. That was…not a good comic.

    I had to tap out of the Cerebus in Hell? one-shots pretty early on (though not early enough!). It seemed like just more of the same joke he’d already pretty well exhausted in the miniseries, though those homage covers are fun.

    The differences between The Coldest City and Atomic Blonde are pretty funny. I enjoyed both versions, but man. They basically changed everything except the basic plot and the constant smoking. She’s not even blonde!

      1. M-Wolverine

        What if Manara or Jim Balent was drawing it?

        Though the first thing that popped to mine was it done in 60’s style, with Steve Ditko or someone doing the art for “Atomic Junk” (-Man? Or does that make it sound like he runs a garbage dump?)

    1. Call Me Carlos the Dwarf

      Yep!

      Each issue of BP has, genuinely, been better than the last over the course of his run…and Cap is a much better fit for what he likes to do as well!

      I’m as excited for this as I am for Nick’s Spidey run!

  5. Terrible-D

    The Marvel Wolfpack book solicited; is it the street gang book Hama wrote in the late 80’s?
    Saga of the Swamp Thing #46 was the issue with the Crisis cross-over. If you want to get technical, almost the whole of the American Gothic story could be considered Crisis related.

  6. Simon

    You’re listening to Radio KAJS, welcome to Si McClure’s Dimly Lit-Crit Corner! Today, it’s a mousetrap world: you’re just flippin’ it!

    > G: “catalog #356 of Previews?”

    What’s in a name? That which we call a mousetrap by any other name would bite as bad.

    > G: “Image moving up to the front of the catalog”

    Maybe the top spot goes to a different pub every month?

    > T: “I didn’t know [Mirka] is a woman”

    Didn’t they list HOW MIRKA GOT HER SWORD some years ago?

    > G: “a feminine “a” and not a masculine “o”!”

    You’d think Spanish and Italian would keep it that simple, and yet they have a female Rosario and a male Andrea? And careful with the woman Mirka and the man Micka, now? And the (wo)man Nikita? (Or Japanese -ko girls and -hiko boys, ahm.)

    > T: “Sugar”

    And since Matt Hawkins so successfully ran his own series into the ground with greedy crossovers, why not help him drown SUNSTONE in a sea of parasitic spinoffs?

    > “DC”

    “The Preterites of Spring.” (Waiting for Godot, Act III)

    > T: “Bruce has jury duty while Dick has to go out as Batman”

    Superman had JFK for stand-in, couldn’t Trump make time for Batman?

    > G: “you’ll get 20 pages for 4 dollars”

    Or 16 story pages plus 4 splashes (possibly with inset panels overlaid in Photoshop), as Disney-Warner reduced page rates some years ago, and apparently told artists to make up for it with splashes to sell on the original-art market? (And generate more poster- and lunchbox-ready artwork paid for by zombies, heh.)

    > G: “Harley Quinn as a Female Fury on Apokolips”

    Were you shy to say he’s giving head to Harley Quinn?

    > T: “Brat Pack”

    That was a good softcover, and if it’s now a hardcover mousetrap (like all IDW books now) padded with prose and overpriced for libraries, why not read it there?

    …………………………………
    BRATPACK TP [2003 to 2007]
    by Rick Veitch

    Veitch’s no-holds-barred dissection of the hoary old sidekick phenomena is as harrowing as it is hilarious; subversively subtle yet completely over the top. Bratpack is an edgy and unforgettable dance macabre. Introduction by Neil Gaiman.

    SC, 7×10, 176pg, PC $19.95
    …………………………………

    > T: “Atomic Empire [is] ‘inspired by a real psychological case’ ”

    Stay tuned, just don’t expect this roman-à-clef to explain it?

    > “Marvel”

    “The Preterites of Fall.” (Waiting for Godot, Act IV)

    > G: “There is no way the person said ‘Hash tag RedforEd’ ”

    People already say out loud “hashtag fail”, so why not?

    > G: “Rene Tardi, Prisoner of War in Stalag 11B”

    Stay tuned, and isn’t it “René” (ruh-nay) and “Stalag II-B” (two-bee)?

    > G: “Spill Zone volume 1”

    Wasn’t that the FCBD 2017 sampler with a videogame-like zombie/monster story that read in seconds thanks to 2- and 3-panel pages of pretty art, maybe for ADD kids watching http://www.theSpillZone.com on a phone?

    > G: “The Ghost Script”

    Even at softcover price, wasn’t KILL MY MOTHER kinda weak in the knees? (And if this sequel to COUSIN JOSEPH is a hardcover mousetrap overpriced by the lousy liars at Liveright for libraries, why not try it there?)

    > G: “Ghost Money”

    How come there are three books by Smolderen (2000’s McCAY, 2008’s GHOST MONEY, 2013’s ATOMIC EMPIRE) from three different pubs, all in the same catalog? (Did his backlist got bargain-licensed at last Frankfurt Book Fair, or is it like buses?)

    * (6 pages) http://www.magnetic-press.com/ghost-money/

    > G: “I’m 99% sure that volume 5 never came out in print, but it’s [in the omnibus]”

    Isn’t that the Dying Market’s SOP? Now, THE ONLY LIVING BOY HC VOL. 5 was on Diamond’s May 2 list, so why is Papercutz giving suckers an even break? Are they some sort of bookstore-friendly, mainstream-market pub? They sure do look the part, what with being pro enough to list hardcover and softcover at the same time?

    (Meanwhile, the DM ignored T-Pub’s outstanding output because they think B&W comics can’t be no good, and now on p. 384, Neil Gibson has to comicize “Stan Lee’s Lucky Man” in FC? Will it bring exposure, or bury him ala Bendis?)

    > G: “McCay”

    Stay tuned, and didja know it’s the hero book in Paul Gravett’s 22 suggestions for May?

    [CONTINUED ON 2ND SPOT FOLLOWING.]

  7. Simon

    And now, a word from our kind and benevolent sponsor, DIAMOND COMICS OVERLORDS: “…Do you wish you could show your support for your hostile market? …Do you wish you could vindicate its sucker-given right to list one thing and ship another? …YES, you can: BUY MOUSE TRAPS!”

    — TANGO by Hugo Pratt (p. 166, ALLEGEDLY $20)

    Standalone Corto Maltese stroll under twin talking moons… Now with a looser line in starker contrast to Guido Fuga’s uncredited backgrounds, a fluidity that would inspire Tardi and Comès or F’murrr and Graham…

    * Corto Bond: When they kill your friend, all you have left is revenge.
    * Esmeralda: You like the past… it’s easier for keeping romantic ties.

    (Isn’t a $20 mousetrap steep for 53 B&W story pages, even with a 12-panel grid?)

    — ATOMIC EMPIRE by Smolderen & Clérisse (p. 166, ALLEGEDLY $25)

    A Pentagon analyst gets shrinked for his delusions of watching the 1111th century and its influence on his era, unless it’s all true? (Just work out he’s Paul Linebarger aka scifi grandmaster Cordwainer Smith if he had the psychosis ala Swedenborg from the infamous Kirk Allen case, do you follow?)

    This veers into perfunctory pulp checklist: 1950s mad scientist riffing on E.P. Jacobs and ZORGLUB plus THE PRISONER, future galactic empire riffing on Hamilton and Van Vogt plus THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF MANKIND, and spot-the-cameo games such as Franquin playing Gomer Goof re-enacting the Lumières short based on a 1880s comic, do you follow?

    * (untr. select pages) A, T, O, M, I, C
    * (untr. opening pages) https://empiredelatome.wordpress.com/lire-les-premieres-pages/

    (Mostly teen lit up its own museum of referentialism, like a shallow LOEG episode with the loveliest 1950s cartoon art, and if it’s a hardcover mousetrap overpriced for libraries, why not try it there, Travis?)

    — PERMANENT PRESS by Luke Healy (p. 284, ALLEGEDLY $15)

    Reviews say it’s no navel-gazing, just a framing device to intertwine three stories, and his HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE NORTH was a best-of-2016 also doing so, so why not?

    * (7 samples) https://downthetubes.net/?p=43306
    * (review w/ 3 samples) http://normsmithbooks.com/creation-and-existentialism-in-permanent-press
    * (review) https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-910395-33-2

    (And if it’s a DM mousetrap, why not try it returnable from a bookstore?)

    — I RENÉ TARDI standalone VOL. 1 OF 3 (p. 316, ALLEGEDLY $30)

    Tardi’s MAUS, with a black & brown 3-panel grid and an engaging narrative device: the soldier is hounded by an imaginary boy and their banter is the 1980s father grilled by his adult son about the 1940s action we see, not unlike a director’s commentary?

    This 2012 volume chronicles his 1940 tank war (60 pages) then 1940–1945 detention (120 pages), and Stalag II-B was harsher than Stalag 13. (2014’s volume is his 4-month POW march in 1945 Germany. The final one, late since 2016, should cover his life as an occupying soldier in West Germany?)

    * (review w/ 2 pages) http://www.dw.com/en/war-in-comics-new-graphic-novel-tells-untold-side-of-wwii/a-18427832
    * (review w/ 1 sample) Yoda-translated from The Monde
    * (2014 interview) Yoda-translated from Ligne Clear

    (Regular bait-n-switch pub sans mousetrap tags to avoid giving the game away, and until this reaches libraries, what about great and gripping death-camp memoirs such as Hermann Langbein’s PEOPLE IN AUSCHWITZ or David Rousset’s A WORLD APART, Greg?)

    “…And remember: BUY! MOUSE! TRAPS!”

  8. Simon

    You’re on KAJS, and now for something completely different… Look, ma, no mousetraps!

    — ROULETTE by Kaufman & Zumel (p. 286, $10 @ Big City)

    Possibly interesting, even from the prez of a pub ala Zenescope, and maybe reviews will have samples to decide on it? (Wait, does its cover‘s “a graphic novel” mean “explicit prose book with spot illos”?)

    — IN THE FUTURE WE ARE DEAD by Eva Müller (p. 286, $15 @ Birdcage Bottom)

    “My name is Death: the last best friend am I.” Can one gamble against it?

    * (12-page excerpt) https://issuu.com/birdcagebottombooks/docs/wearedead_excerpt
    * (5 pages) https://www.birdcagebottombooks.com/products/in-the-future-we-are-dead
    * (synopses, samples) https://deadmaidens.com/2018/02/14/in-the-future-we-are-dead/
    * (review w/ 5 pages) http://www.brokenfrontier.com/eva-mu%CC%88ller-future-dead-birdcage-bottom-books/
    * (review) https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-9826595-6-4

    (“Does death come alone, or with eager reinforcements?”)

    — YOU ARE THERE by Forest & Tardi (p. 316, $20 @ FBI)

    Great Kafkaesque story, and your best Tardi bet on that page?

    * (19-page excerpt) http://www.fantagraphics.com/youarethere/
    * (best-of-2010 w/ 1 page) http://forbiddenplanet.blog/2010/best-of-the-year-matt-brooker/
    * (review) http://seantcollins.com/2009/12/comics-time-you-are-there/
    * (review) https://www.cbr.com/robot-reviews-two-by-tardi/

    (The now-released, known-specs softcover, right?)

    — MARRY ME standalone VOL. 1 & 2 by Crosby & Mokhtar (p. 337, $15 @ Keenspot)

    Fun rom-com & its sequel, still free online to decide on a hardcopy?

    * (96 & 96 pages) http://marryme.keenspot.com/d/20120730.html

    — A SEA OF LOVE by Lupano & Panaccione (p. 340, $25 @ Lion Forge)

    A fun and wordless fable that made a nice splash, Greg? (From the writer of best-of-2017 THE OLD GEEZERS, unlisted in Previews because fun?)

    * (first 32 pages) http://www.lemonde.fr/livres/visuel/2014/11/03/un-ocean-d-amour-par-lupano-et-panaccione_4513080_3260.html

    (And if it’s a bargain-priced hardcover, why not get it?)

    — MORTE by Kevin Joseph & D.A Bishop (p. 382, $4 @ Source Point)

    What’s the wordless quest of the last man on Earth?

    * (6 pages) http://renerd.com/morte/
    * (review) http://www.roguesportal.com/morte-review/
    * (review) https://www.comiccrusaders.com/review-morte-one-shot/

    — McCAY by Smolderen & Bramanti (p. 392, $40 @ Titan)

    Oh, this was a beaut, this was a peach, oh, this was a pearl: a story ala H.G. Wells grafted onto Winsor McCay’s actual life from 1889 to 1914, Greg? You’ll remember FROM HELL’s talk of Prof. Hinton’s 4th Dimension, and now someone is using it for impossible crimes…

    Great art, a story cleverly using the life and times of McCay plus celebs such as Houdini, Boole’s daughter, or Hearst, and this Smolderen one doesn’t require nostalgic knowledge to enjoy the riddle or the ride. (Besides, who hasn’t read LITTLE NEMO?)

    * (untr. pages) M, C, C, A, Y

    (190 story pages plus 30 of backmatter, and if it’s a hardcover overpriced for libraries, why not read it there?)

    Well, that’s our show.

    1. Greg Burgas

      Simon: To be fair, Sejic wants to do a lot of spin-offs for Sunstone, so Sugar is part of the plan!

      No, I wasn’t going to say that about Harley, although that’s not bad. I was going to write that she can activate my boom tube anytime. Hey-o!!!! (As Pelkie would say.)

      I would agree with you about saying “hash tag,” but this person was a representative of the teachers’ union, not Ariana Grande, so I just assumed she wouldn’t say it out loud. But yes, perhaps she did.

      Fantagraphics does not use an accent for Rene (although I assume it ought to have one) and the title clearly shows two “1”s, but in the solicit text it does seem to be a Roman numeral. I just used what the title was in the headline.

      I wasn’t a huge fan of Kill My Mother, but this does sound intriguing.

      I missed the fifth volume of The Only Living Boy, so if I can find that, I won’t be quite as peeved.

      Tardi’s You Are There is terrific, and I do like Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge, although it’s a step below You Are There.

      Thanks, as always, for the suggestions!

  9. “…that weird hairstyle the Osborns have…”

    Let’s settle that one right now.

    It’s not a weird hairstyle; it’s two (maybe three) generations of artists who don’t have the slightest idea what they’re trying to draw.

    Ditko was drawing a pretty common hairstyle of his youth, a guy with wavy red hair slathered up with Brylcreem, which controlled the curl and made the hair shiny, as can be seen in ads of the time:

    As hair grease fell out of favor, artists found themselves copying Ditko’s abstraction of the highlights, shadows, and waves of the Osborn hair, but were not clear on what the abstractions were meant to represent. Harry and Norman’s hair became cornrows, or weird lumps, or any number of other oddball things.

    Hair grease on curly/wavy red hair. That’s all it is.

      1. I’m sure you did. Clearly a lot of Marvel artists did not. Some of them make Norman’s hair look like little sourdough loaves in rows on his head. It’s a thing that drives me crazy.

        Almost as much as people doing the “Superman’s hair is blue” thing.

        No, it’s not. It’s just a thing we don’t see anymore, because we don’t grease up our hair unless we’re playing in a ’50s tribute band.

        His hair is shiny, because it’s slathered up with grease. Do you know what shiny things do? They reflect. What do they reflect? Whatever is around them. So if somebody with shiny hair were outside on a sunny day, what would their hair reflect? Yes, the sky. And what color is the sky? Whoever said “blue” can stay after and clean the erasers.

  10. Jeff Nettleton

    Brat Pack did indeed have two different endings. The original issues had one that took some flack and Veitch agreed and redid it for the trade. Brutal yet very logical look at how twisted the people would be who would drag kids into battles with psychopaths and violent criminals. The King Hell Heroica had some nice ideas and some twisted ones; but, I ended up being kind of disappointed, as Veitch seemed to kind of lose the thread in each one that he did (and never did complete it). Brat Pack was tighter than Maximortal and better than The One (in my eyes); but, there is some wonkiness in the last act and the original ending did seem like a bad swerve.

    Urotsukidoji is the King of Tentacle Porn, in manga. The animation was a staple of anime porn, in the 90s and the manga had been translated (I think) and was the subject of customs confiscations in Canada and I, think, a couple of close calls in the US. The US releases were censored from the original, as I recall, though I never had any desire to look at that junk. The Comics Journal had a few pieces about comics seized by Canadian customs (which included some far tamer stuff, as there seemed to be arbitrary guidelines), which was happening around the time of the Michael Diana case, in Florida. I wouldn’t waste any money; there’s enough free porn on the internet. It is funny, though, how squeamish America is about sex and such, when you look at how some manga properties were censored in the US editions. Crying Freeman had a flashback sequence where Freeman receives his dragon tattoo and is running a fever, due to the traditional inking (bamboo needle) and the very attractive female tattoo artist helps him out with some oral medicine. The Viz adaptation basically whited-out the male genitalia; but, left the female character’s pose and the empty space pretty much gave you the impression anyway. The violence didn’t get a single alteration though, ’cause that is far less dangerous than sex. ‘Murica!

  11. Simon

    @Greg: Well, maybe the cover sez “RENE” because Fanta’s intern can’t copy an É from Word or Google? And maybe the print Previews sez “11B” because Diamond’s intern can’t read Roman numerals, especially in a sans-serif font? (To be fair, why would anyone half qualified work for peanuts in comics instead of in a real industry?)

    Among Tardi’s noir adaptations, FOG OVER TOLBIAC BRIDGE is also a step below THE BLOODY STREETS OF PARIS, if you feel like having seconds of Nestor Burma? (Aka 120 STATION STREET, it opens in a WW2 stalag, leads to an investigation in Nazi-Occupied France, and is closer to YOU ARE THERE for its use of dark humor and weird dreams…)

  12. Louis Bright-Raven

    I’d forgotten I’d already looked through the mags and turned in my order. Kinda tells you how non-plussed I am about this month’s offerings, I guess.

    Travis comments, “I assume Image’s sales are better than Dark Horse, so they took over the front, in utter disregard for alphabetic order?”

    Yeah, they’re doing it more by market share than alphabetical order.

    IMAGE COMICS

    It looks like I ordered

    OUTPOST ZERO by McKeever and Co. (page 47)

    VS. VOl. 1 TPB by Ivan Brandon and Esad Ribic (page 58)

    COPPERHEAD #21 by Jay Faerber and Scott Godlewski (page 62)

    MAGE: THE HERO DENIED #10 by Wagner (Page 75)

    Maybe PROMIXA CENTUARI by Farel Dalrymple (page 80)

    Maybe STELLAR by Joe Keatinge and Bret Blevins (page 87)

    THE WEATHERMAN #2 by Jody Leheup and Nathan Fox (page 89)

    DARK HORSE:

    THE QUANTUM AGE: FROM THE WORLD OF BLACK HAMMER #1 (page 94) – Lemire’s Black Hammerverse is kind of replacing the Mignolaverse as I wind down and close that chapter of collecting in my life, it appears.

    SHE COULD FLY #1 (Page 96)

    RESIDENT ALIEN: AN ALIEN IN NEW YORK #4 (of 4) by Hogan and Parkhouse (page 105).

    BPRD: THE DEVIL YOU KNOW #8 (likely the last story arc of BPRD I will buy – page 118).

    BLACKWOOD #3 (of 4) by Dorkin and Fish (page 120).

    IDW:

    I didn’t preorder it, but I will probably take a look at EUTHANAUNTS by Tini Howard and Nick Robles. (page 157).

    I will get Rick Veitch’s THE ONE #6 (page 160) which I think concludes that series. At least I hope it does (what I’ve read so far was a massive disappointment, given the historical hype that THE ONE, MAXIMORTAL and BRAT PACK get) – so much so that I said, ‘fuck it’ and didn’t order the BRAT PACK collection offered.

    I don’t know if I’m getting ANTAR by Nnedi Okorafor or not (I think I am but it hasn’t come out yet so I can’t remember), and I will get SWORD OF AGES #5 by Gabriel Rodriguez (both page 162).

    DYANMITE:

    SWASHBUCKLERS #4 (page 194) – I don’t know… it just isn’t the same as Mantlo / Guice. I think it’s just that Marc Guggenheim doesn’t cut it for me. But I suppose I’ll keep with it until the first arc concludes or through #12, whichever comes first.

    DC:

    Well, firstly, I’d like to bitchsmack the bastards at DC (and Marvel) who think they need to do their another separate catalog and cost the retailers yet even more money in ordering copies and paying shipping to have their shit. Such self-aggrandizing, self-interested piece of shit management / organizations.

    That having been said, was there actually anything in DC’s stupid catalog I wanted / ordered? Oh, hey. I guess there was. Shocking.

    Cave Carson Has An Interstellar Eye #5. (page 17 of their catalog)
    Future Quest #12 (Final Issue – page 26) – Not surprising.

    So I guess as soon as Cave Carson’s done, I’ll be done with DC.

    That’s it.

    MARVEL:

    I really don’t even look at the Marvel catalog (Why would I? I haven’t bought anything from them since 2000), but if I had to suggest anything out of it, it would be WAKANDA FOREVER: X-MEN #1 by Nnedi Okorafor and Ray-Anthony Height.

    The rest of the catalog:

    ACTION LAB ENTERTAINMENT:

    ACTIONVERSE: MIDNIGHT TIGER PART 4 (P. 243)

    ALTERNA COMICS:

    ZERO JUMPER #3 (P. 250), EDEN #1 (P. 250).

    AFTERSHOCK COMICS:

    Maybe RELAY #1 (p.252) – I *think* I got the Free Comic Day preview book a couple weeks back but I haven’t looked at my free books. If I like the preview, then maybe I’ll get it.

    CARTOON BOOKS (Jeff Smith):

    RASL Books 1-3 (page 304-305)

    CINEBOOK:

    VALERIAN: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION Vol. 5 (p.306)

    LION FORGE:

    MAE VOL. 2 #2 (p. 353)

    REBELLION / 2000 AD:

    BALLAD OF HALO JONES V. 2 TPB (p.374)

    TITAN COMICS:

    ENKI BILAL’S EXTERMINATOR 17 (p. 391)

    TOR BOOKS:

    THE FURNACE GN by Prentis Rollins (p. 404) – I just like Rollin’s stuff and I’ve seen previews of this from him.

    And that seems to be it.

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