Celebrating the Unpopular Arts
 
Flippin’ through ‘Previews’ – November 2017

Flippin’ through ‘Previews’ – November 2017

Hey, it’s the 350th issue of Previews this month! I remember when we were celebrating issue #300. It doesn’t seem that long ago, does it? Man, I’ve been doing this column for a looooooong time. It never gets boring, though, so let’s take a look!

That’s right, 300 wasn’t all that long ago.  Heck, I’ve been doing this column with you now for over 2 years, I think!

As always, Travis is in black text, and I’m in blue. You know the drill!

‘Hey, look, everyone – it’s Alan Moore! Let’s punch him in the balls!’

Dark Horse:

Read all the solicits here!

The Berger Books line sounds like it will be (naturally) good stuff.  I’m looking forward to the new edition of The Originals, as I never got the original (ahem) version.  This Kitchen Nightmares! Hungry Ghosts anthology might be neat on page 39, as some of those themed anthologies at Vertigo were pretty good (Weird War Tales was fantastic!).

The Originals is pretty good. I don’t really have any interest in the Kitchen Nightmares! book, though.

I actually read Joel Rose’s Kill Kill Faster Faster and from what I remember it was pretty good, so his name makes me think it should be decent, and the artists so far are good, but yeah, I won’t be getting this in my pull box.

The only reason I know anything about Koshchei the Deathless from this Hellboy series on page 42 and from Sandman.  Is that weird?

You have to learn your mythology somehow, man!

It’s more like, why didn’t I know anything about him until I read Sandman?  I was sheltered by growing up at the tail end of the Cold War!

Everyone should learn all their mythology from Neil Gaiman!

Damon Gentry, who wrote Sabertooth Swordsman, is writing Vinegar Teeth (page 46), about a cop who happens to be a terrible human being teaming up with an extra-dimensional tentacled creature to, you guessed it, save the world. Sounds fun! It’s drawn by Troy Nixey, who, as I have noted in the past, doesn’t draw enough comics, so it’s good to see him. The preview pages of this look groovy.

Ah, I hadn’t realized/noticed that Gentry was the writer of this/wrote Sabertooth Swordsman, which was quite cool.  The first thing I thought of was how you’d bemoaned a lack of Nixey in the comics world, though!  Is Nixey doing his own lettering, too, because it looks great!

It certainly looks charming!

Gah!  It’s so pricey, but DAMN, I want that Eisner A Contract With God Curator’s Collection on page 51.  Must think this one over …

Yeah, that’s insane. No way, no how am I buying that.

For me, the only reason I’m considering it is that it’s fucking Eisner, but I certainly understand not even considering it.  I should get an Amazon Wishlist …

Cell Block Earth and Other Stories is on page 52. This is from the writing team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, and the stories I’ve read from this – ones from Dark Horse Presents – are pretty good. I’m not sure if I’ll get this, but I’m leaning toward it.

I read “The Deep Sea,” but I’ll be damned if I remember it at this point.  “Wrestling With Demons” was pretty good stuff too.  I’ll consider this, but considering I have 2/3 of the stories, I’m probably going to pass.

That can’t be good for the Earth

The Paybacks gets a complete trade on page 54, bringing together the Dark Horse stuff and the Heavy Metal stuff. The first trade was pretty good, but I’ll have to think about this before getting this, because getting the first part again is kind of annoying.

I’m really annoyed, too, because not only will the second volume not be separate, but when volume 1 came out, they jacked up the price from the solicit (what am I, Simon all of the sudden?).  And if they ever do more with it … Counterpoint: I still have not read the first trade.

Yeah, that’s the reason I might not get it. That’s just jerky on their part.

On page 55, we’ve got the second edition of Badlands, a story from Steven Grant and Vince Giarrano about the JFK assassination.  I remember hearing about this book before, and I like Giarrano, so I’m considering this.

It’s all right. It’s been a looooong time since I’ve read it, but it’s all right.

DC:

Yep, here are all the solicits!

The Outhousers have a sign on their blog showing how long it’s been since DC did something stupid. I don’t know if Jude Terror used to update it, but as of this Saturday, 28 October, it’s been a while (172 days), which is either progress or the site-keepers not paying much attention to it. I think they should do something different, though: How Long Has It Been Since DC Fucked Alan Moore? That thing would be updated constantly!!!!! The latest is, of course, The Terrifics #1 (page 71), in which DC takes a bit of a shot at Marvel for not publishing a Fantastic Four comic (three dudes, one lady; explorers in other dimensions; the smart dude, the strong dude, the wise-cracking dude – who also stretches, just to make it more obvious, and someone named Phantom Girl), and it’s by Jeff Lemire and Ivan Reis, so it might be all right. Then, at the end of the solicitation, we get that they are trying to solve a new mystery: “Where in the universe is Tom Strong?” Bwah-ha-ha-ha!!!!! I just don’t get why DC continues to do this. I mean, I get that they can do it (I assume; the ownership of the ABC stuff has always confused me), but why do they keep doing it? Do they think that Moore can’t actually get any madder at them, so they might has well go whole hog? I don’t know. Jeebus, DC, leave Alan Moore alone. It’s pathetic.

And unless this team is connected by body tissue or rope or something, they aren’t “literally” bound together, dammit! [Edit: Yeah, I noticed that, too. I just ground my teeth and tried to ignore it.]  I just shake my damn head over what they’re doing with Alan Moore stuff.  Hell, they’ll probably have Promethea be at the root of the Dark Multiverse or some shit.  Yet they won’t publish the Top Ten series that Cannon and Ha apparently completed several years back.  I think Moore ended up selling the ABC stuff (sans LOEG) in order to get a higher page rate for his artists, if I recall what I’ve read right, and that THAT’S right.  But it probably flows back to Jim Lee, really.  According to Steve Bissette in a post I read ages ago, Lee announced Moore’s WildCATS run at a con that took away from the 1963 announcement, and then later on of course by selling Wildstorm to DC, he ended up bringing Beardy back to the beast.  And now they’re strip mining that IP for whatever they can.  Sigh.

Jesus, all of this New Age DC shit looks like it would have fit in just fine at Image circa ’95.  Sigh.

It’s Bob Harras, I’m telling you!!!!!

It can be both!!!!!

The Swamp Thing Winter Special on page 75 should be keen. I don’t know if Jason Fabok’s art really works on Swamp Thing, but Tom King should write a good story, and the final Len Wein Swamp Thing story with art by Kelley Jones is never a bad thing. Should be neat.

Yeah, Fabok seems like an odd fit, as he doesn’t seem to have the lushness that most of the other great Swamp Thing artists have had, but it will be interesting.  And the last Wein ST story, with Jones art, should be interesting, although was that mini they did any good?

It wasn’t great, but it was fine, I guess. Nothing to write home about (hey, remember when people used to write on paper? good times!), but you can say that about a lot of what Wein writes. The dude is fine, but he’s usually working with excellent artists, so we don’t notice!

That’s a Fabok cover, and it’s pretty good, so maybe the book will be … fine?

I think the Dark Knights Rising: The Wild Hunt book on page 76 is the one that the bald Scotsman GMozz is contributing to, because why pass up a chance to try to add some prestige to this stuff?

Yeah, it is. I wonder why it’s not in the solicitation?

I think they wanted to save a surprise (or else Baldy didn’t sign the contract in time — the trucks of gold bars were late), but it seems like the sales will be less…or is it a trick to artificially make the initial print run low?  No one can say!

DC delayed Batman and the Signal (page 77)? I see it wasn’t so they could change Duke Thomas’s stupid superhero name, so I wonder why.

It was something to do with the hurricanes.  I only read the headline at Bleeding Cool, but I believe that Cully Hamner is based in the Atlanta area, and was presumably affected by Irma.

Oh, that makes sense. I’m glad he’s okay. But that gave them the time to come to their senses regarding the name!!!!!

Oh Jesus.  Oh no.  Doomsday Clock 3 on page 78-79 takes a turn we “never thought” we’d see, and the main cover has a bottle of gin called Victory with a big V in the middle of a circle for a logo.  And it’s crashing like a thrown bottle might, like what a government protestor might do.  Say, in some anonymous mask.  NO!  I mean, fuck, I knew it would come eventually, but still …

You do know that Danny D and Geoff “Off With His Head!” Johns call me regularly and asks “What would piss Travis off the most?” and I tell him what to put in this comic, right? Oh, wait, was I not supposed to tell you that?

Hell, I caught the end of the movie on cable once, and groaned at the stupidity, so I know they’ll just ruin things as much as they can in the name of money.  But it still hurts, man! (I’m writing this aside on the Fifth of November, FYI!)

DC: Missing the point of Watchmen since 1988!

And then they do something like the DC Super Hero Girls book on page 81, Date With Disaster, where a bunch of the girls are trying to fix up Commissioner Gordon on a date.  That sounds cute and fun!  WHA?  (Although … so … Gordon knows his daughter is Batgirl?  Or does he not realize that the costumed redhead that’s brought a bunch of other costumed girls to his house, while his daughter is nowhere to be found, is in fact his daughter?  No wonder all the villains basically succeed without Batman taking care of business!)

Don’t think so much about it!!!!!

I might get Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles in trade form (page 82), because Mark Russell is a good writer and re-imagining Snagglepuss as Tennessee Williams cracks me up. But I get depressed about stuff like this: in the solicits, he’s described as “the gay, Southern playwright,” which is sad. I know that I’m part of the oppression, but using “gay” as the first descriptor for Snagglepuss seems sad to me, as it’s awfully reductive. I know it’s to show how diverse DC is, and that’s fine, but I’m always a bit bummed when I see adjectives to describe someone that would never be used on me. No one would describe me as the “straight, Northern playwright” if I were starring in this book. I don’t know – I doubt I’m making much sense, but it’s just annoying that we have to be so hung up on sexual orientation.

Nah, I get it, it seems weird to me too.  But that is a stroke of genius to have melded Snagglepuss to Tennessee Williams here.  Hey, of course he’s a Commie, he’s literally a big pinko!  HA!

Well, that will get someone riled up – probably Tomi Lahren

Ooh, Phil Hester and Ande Parks art on Batman Beyond 16 (page 85).  Cool.

Well that’s interesting.  The cover of Deadman 3 (page 97) will have a hidden message when tilted.  (Spoiler: it says the Earth is expanding.)  That’s kinda neat, although the solicit text is … odd.  The group of characters “smell death around Deadman — and they’ve come to get a whiff!”  Um …

That’s Neal Adams, man! I will beat you one Venezuelan Bolivar (worth currently about 9 cents) that Adams wrote that solicit text himself.

Other cool artist alert news: Colleen Doran on Gotham City Garage 8 (page 98).

Peter David’s Aquaman gets a big trade on page 127, which is nice. These are fine comics, and you should own them. I wonder whatever happened to Kirk Jarvinen and Martin Egeland, the two main artists in this collection?

Those DC Meets Looney Tunes comics are collected in a trade on page 129.  I’ve heard good things about the Batman/Elmer Fudd one, and the rest all sounded fun.  I’ll probably snag this!

If you’re like me and dig Elseworlds, the Superman collecton on page 130 is tempting.  A Nation Divided, the Civil War one by Roger Stern and Eduardo Barreto, was pretty good from what I remember, and the rest are probably decent.

That does look pretty neat. I’ll probably plunk down the ducats for it.

Good stuff on page 131.  The Green Lantern Corps collection includes the Beardy/Kevin O’Neill story “Tygers” that formed the basis of the spectrum Lanterns for quite awhile.  The Jack Kirby 100 trade collects those new stories, but appears not to collect the bonus Kirby stories from the one shots.  So I’ll be back issue diving at some point!  And the Legends of Tomorrow: Atom collection includes the Tom Peyer/Steve Dillon Special that is honestly one of my favorite one shots ever.  The other stuff is probably decent too.

I’ve heard good things about that Atom comic, not only from you. It’s probably not enough for me to get this, but still. And I have to think about the Kirby book. It’s probably pretty good, and the issues looked nice, at least.

I’d check a back issue bin for the Atom Special by itself.  It’s so good!

Motherlands on page 135 sounds like fun.  A sci-fi black comedy about family, in a universe with interconnected parallel Earths, bounty hunters are the famous ones, and one who keeps to herself has to team up with her mom, also a bounty hunter.  And overbearing.  Although the solicit text is a little confusing — who is the “him” to be ID’d?  I’ll be getting this trade down the line.

That is strange. Maybe they had it in the solicit text, realized it was too long, and edited it but forgot to get rid of that. And yes, I’ll be getting the trade at some point.

Her tongue is freaking me out, and I don’t know why

I don’t think Sandman: Overture is worth the $125 for the Absolute Edition on page 137, but that’s still a pretty keen package, with part of the bonus stuff being the uncolored artwork, which was as stunning as when it was colored! So if you’re in the habit of dropping many monies for stuff like this, it will be pretty neat.

IDW:

Here are the full solicits!

The trade of Jem and the Holograms: Infinite is on page 154. I haven’t read this yet (I’m getting to it!), but given that Kelly has an excellent track record on the ongoing series, I imagine this is quite good, too.

Frankenstein Alive, Alive gets completed on page 173, with Kelley Jones (an obvious choice) taking over for Bernie Wrightson. I’d love to see if Jones tried to do more brushwork on the art to make it look a little more like Wrightson’s. That would not only be neat, but it would force Jones to stretch himself a little.

If they were going to finish this, why did they collect the first 3 issues like this Trio one below #4 on 173, and then the last issue separately, and then (presumably) a trade of the whole thing later on?  (I mean, I know why, to make money, but who’s going to buy this collection of the 3?)

Ha, I ignored that. That’s pretty funny. MONEY GRAB AHOY!!!!!

Thom Zahler is a good creator, so I’m getting the trade of Time & Vine on page 176. Bottles of wine that take you to the year in which they were bottled? Sounds groovy!

Jeez, though, I thought the single issues were pricey, but I think they’re still cheaper than the trade!  I’ll wait and see later on with this.

Yeah, but Zahler’s comics are always a bit longer than regular issues, so while it’s spendy, it’s probably good and meaty, too.

I am definitely getting Saucer State, collected on page 176, the continuation/conclusion of Saucer Country, which was a quite good Vertigo book.  And in truth stranger than fiction, apparently a Florida congressional candidate has claimed to have been abducted by aliens.

I want aliens to look like someone named Chad. That’s no Chad!

Man, I probably have the stories from the Rocketeer Adventures, but that Funko cover for the best of story collection is cute on page 177.

I had seen the stuff about The Goat Getters in the online listings, but didn’t realize until seeing it on page 178 that it’s a book by Eddie Campbell about the early 20th century creation of newspaper comics.  I’m tempted now …

I’ll have to think about it, as well.

Image:

Hey, check out the solicitations here!

Hey, it’s the final issue of Invincible on page 186! What do you know about that!

Ice Cream Man on page 191 sounds neat. It’s about an ice cream man who might be God. Or Satan. Who knows? It’s by W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo, who are a good team, so it should be pretty good.

Sounds like a creepy fun series like Sink.  I may need to get it in singles.

Travis did not make a David Lee Roth reference. I’m so disappointed!

Postal is ending, on page 219 with issue 25, but a one shot on page 192 is an epilogue to the series.  Which means that these two issues will be the seventh trade.  Grr.  Singles or trade?

Did you ever read Cowboy Ninja Viking?  There’s a dee-loox edition on page 193 and I’m thinking about it because Riley Rossmo is good.

No, I didn’t read it. It seemed to “Look how cool we are!” for me. But maybe it’s good!

I know you weren’t big on the idea, but the first 6 issues of Crosswind from Gail Simone and Cat Staggs is collected in a 10 dollar trade on page 194.

Steven Seagle, who’s always an interesting writer, has Get Naked on page 195, a book with 19 “essays” by different artists. I’m intrigued!

So many of them “o”s with a slash through them in the names of the creators.  And Js!  But this is an interesting project, so I may go for this.

That must be Cable getting naked, because of the pouches

Scales and Scoundrels is an all-ages fantasy, sounds rather generic, but the first trade is 5 issues for 10 bucks on page 196.

Spy Seal hasn’t been as good as some of Rich Tommaso’s work, but it’s still pretty good, and there’s a trade on page 197. I very much doubt the series will make it too far, but you should give it a look anyway!

I’m getting the trade.  But man, just 72 pages?  I love the Tintin style for the cover.

Yeah, it’s only four issues. Unfortunate. I wonder if that’s all we’re getting.

I like how Image keeps soliciting The Fix even though it’s been a really long time since an issue came out (page 210). Hope springs eternal!

Well, Rock Candy Mountain 7 is the first of a 2 part series finale, so there’s that (page 222).

I haven’t read the first trade yet, but Violent Love concludes with the second trade on page 230.

The first trade was okay, made significantly better by Santos’s art.

Marvel:

So many solicitations here!

Marvel really wants Avengers to get to issue #700 quickly, so they’re going with a weekly series leading up to it (pages 2-6). Boy, that sounds fun. Four dollars a week for four months! Yeah, I can get behind that!

Five bucks for the first issue!  And they’re going to the “forgotten character” again?  They just did that with the Avengers Four series.

Part of what’s wrong with Marvel: I count at least four characters here who should NEVER be Avengers, and a few others who probably shouldn’t be, either

Old Man Hawkeye (page 23)! It’s DC’s and Marvel’s business model: If lightning strikes once, build a tall thin piece of metal and stand in a storm!

Peter Milligan is doing a Legion mini, which could be hit or miss.  (page 24)

Yeah, I’ll get the trade, but who knows. That’s the chance you take with Milligan!

Damn it, Kelly Thompson is writing a Rogue & Gambit mini-series on page 25. I will wait for the trade, but she’s going to make me read a Gambit comic, damn it!!!!!

HA!  I had seen something on her twitter a while ago that made me wonder if she was doing something like this, and then when the book was announced without a creative team, I figured it had to be her writing it.  I imagine that she would have cut someone if she hadn’t gotten to do this!

Damn it, Thompson!

On page 28, the top banner solicit reads “Inumans”. Even Marvel doesn’t care about the Inhumans enough to spell their name correctly!

It’s the “Cars” guy’s autobiography, I, Numan.  Duh.

OK, how does this work?  On page 37, Amazing Spider-Man 794 has a story where “nearly one year ago Spider-Man hurled…Zodiac a full year into the future”, but Spidey catches up to him in this issue, where “Zodiac’s had a whole year to prepare for their rematch”.  Um…if he’s been hurled into the future, he’s had no time to prepare, SPIDEY has had a year to prepare.

Don’t question the logic of the solicits! Have you ever time-traveled, tough guy? If not, then keep your opinions to yourself!!!!!

Daredevil #597 (page 43) has the tantalizing solicit: “But surely Daredevil would never give up on taking the Kingpin down …” Well, he would if he’s taken him down several times in the past and Marvel keeps bringing him back!

On page 52, Marvel – remember, they want to “honor” their “legacy” and “appease” idiot fans and also possibly make it easy for people to jump on – give us this nugget: Tales of Suspense #101 (of 5). Slow fucking clap, Marvel. SLOW. FUCKING. CLAP.

The granddaddy of all slow claps, and the granddaddy of all slow clap gifs! T: “Rosebud” is what he called the sores he had from getting the clap. Right?

Yeah, that’s a good one (the 101 of 5 and the gif).  Oy.  That series definitely should have been a 1-5.

On page 116, Captain America: The Adventures of Captain America trade collects the Nicieza/Maguire mini, of which the first issue was pretty good (that’s all I got!) and the “1940s Newspaper Strip” by Karl Kesel.  I think I have all of that, so I doubt I’ll get this, but it should be good.

Avengers Academy gets a nice complete collection on page 117. AA was a keen little book that never really took off, but it’s definitely worth your time. It’s a bit pricey at 35 dollars, but it’s a decent-sized chunk of comics.

Well, this must be the first of 3 or 4 volumes, as that series went 39 issues (plus a point one issue).  But what I’ve read of it was good.

Yeah, whoops, I forgot to mention that this is “volume 1.” Those “complete collections” with multiple volumes crack me up.

Mystery Men: The Golden Age trade is on page 124, which was good from what I read of it, plus I like David Liss, although this book appeared to be a way for Marvel to cockblock Bob Burden over the Mystery Men name.

It was not bad. Not great, but not bad.

It’s time for the back of the book!

Terry Moore can do what he wants, but I always feel like creators really shouldn’t revisit old stuff, as he’s doing on page 244 with a new Strangers in Paradise (from Abstract Studios, of course). It’s only ten issues, but I don’t know … I mean, I’ll get it eventually, but I hope Moore knows what he’s doing.

Yeah, what I’ve read of the series (I don’t have quite all of it) was really good, but circled around and around towards the end there.  I see in an interview with Moore on page 15 that there’s a SiP movie in the works, which undoubtedly played into bringing the series back as well.

That cover is way freaky

Also on page 244 is the latest Aardvark-Vanaheim Cerebus in Hell? one shot, Watchvark, which has a sweet looking cover.

And also on page 244 is the latest issue of the Charlton Arrow, #3, from AC Comics, which has a neat Spider-Man 300 homage variant cover.  I haven’t read the first issue yet, but this has more E-Man (concluding his new story, it appears).

Action Lab has a trade of Misbegotten, that weird Marilyn Monroe clone nun book.  How can we turn it down?!  (page 250)

Thanks for pointing that out. I probably would have seen it anyway, but I missed it on the first pass. Of course I’m getting this!

I’m kind of curious to read the trade of Pestilence that AfterShock has on page 259, because the company has been putting out some good comics and it’s set in the 1300s (Middle Ages represent, yo!), but … it’s a zombie book. Man. What to do, what to do.

I’m tempted myself, but I dunno either.

I haven’t read the first Killbox trade yet, but American Gothic Press has the second one on page 262, so I might pick that up, too. I’m so Travis!

Fuckin’ A.  I haven’t read the first one either!

Amigo has a few interesting ones on page 268.  Call of the Suicide Forest is a miniseries sequel to the GN (which I still don’t think has come out from Amigo).  Tales of the Rogues! is a continuation of that fun series by other creators.  And the Sunday pages of Sky Masters of the Space Force Kirby/Wood comic strip are collected.  Neat stuff.

That Sky Masters book has been around. I ordered it when it was at a different publisher, and I think that was the second one. We shall see if it comes out this time!

Archie has the Chilling Adventures in Sorcery trade, a collection of their weird stories, on page 275, which has some creepy stuff, based on the Madam Fatal story in the Sabrina collection.

I will never get tired of seeing Francavilla’s art

On page 276, the fourth issue of the Archies comic has them meet the Monkees.  Fun!

Black Mask has Eternal on page 284, a short graphic novel (64 pages, which means less than that in story) by Ryan K. Lindsey and Eric Zawadski, two talented dudes. It’s about chick Vikings doing some Vikinging, and things go poorly, apparently. I’m totes getting this.

I also might get the trade of Clandestino on the same page. It’s about a rebellion in a Latin American country, and it sounds pretty bananas.

I’m considering both of them.

Boom! (check out the full solicits here!) has Abbott on page 294, a miniseries about a reporter looking into grisly occult crimes, like the ones that destroyed her family.  Sounded good to me already, but after Saladin Ahmed, the writer, got Corn Pops to not be racist, I’m more interested!

I’m weirdly annoyed by that. I don’t know why.

What, the Corn Pops thing?  Overall it was probably mountain out of a mole hill, but it’s something worth pointing out, at least.

Yeah, the Corn Pops thing. I get it, I really do, but then I look at it and think, “Is this really going to cause a child to feel bad about him/herself?” I mean, maybe, but I just don’t know.

I agree that it did seem so subtle that most kids wouldn’t even pick up on it subliminally, but at least Corn Pops considered that it was something to at least look at.

On page 303 is Lumberjanes: Bonus Tracks SC, which includes the special that Kelly Thompson wrote.

I don’t think I ever read all of The Deep, but I read some of it many years ago, when it was with a different publisher, and it was pretty good. Now the trade is out from Boom! on page 307. I guess it’s a cartoon now, but I haven’t seen that.

Me neither, but it sounds fun.

On page 318, Chapterhouse has a bunch of trades for just 10 bucks!  Woo-hoo!  Agents of PACT, 2 Captain Canuck books, Fantomah, Freelance, Northguard, and 2 Pitiful Human Lizard books.  I will be getting most if not all of these.

If you like cheap comics like I do, the Dejah Thoris 0 issue on page 322 from Dynamite (with the full solicits here) is just a quarter!

Yeah, the price is why Travis is getting this

Peter David is writing Battlestar Galactica vs. Battlestar Galatica on page 326. I don’t have any interest in this, but good for him!

The James Bond series that Ales Kot is writing on page 329, The Body, sounds interesting, as Bond’s injuries are used to tell the story of his mission.  Maybe some day I’ll get the trade!

Over on page 330, Dynamite reprints Swords of the Swashbucklers, an old Marvel graphic novel and 12-issue series, for what appears to be the first time. Good for them! I’ve never been the hugest fan of Bill Mantlo, but I dig Jackson Guice and this looks fun, so I’ll pick it up. Yes, it’s 50 dollars (phew!), but it’s also 500 pages, so it’s got that going for it.

Sounds interesting, and I’ll consider it.

Old School!

GWAR!!!! on page 335!!!!  GWAR Orgasmageddon is collected here.  I’m mildly interested.  I know the multiple exclamation points belie that assertion, but still.

Mighty Mouse is collected on page 336, which I was interested in because Sholly Fisch wrote it, and he’s pretty damn good.

Fantagraphics, knowing that I am trying to spend less on comics, comes at me with double barrels, as on page 346 we get Master Race and Other Stories by Bernard Krigstein and The Life and Legend of Wallace Wood volume 2. The first is 30 dollars and the second is 40, but how can I resist? I’m hoping I can find a listing of the stories in the Krigstein book, because I own Messages in a Bottle (still available, as the solicits note, and well worth it!), and I don’t want to double up too much, even though there’s bound to be some – I’m going to go out on a limb and say “Master Race” is in this book, and it’s also in Messages in a Bottle, but we’ll see. And of course I’m getting the Wood book, even though I’m sure it will get icky as he started doing porn in the 1970s.

Messages in a Bottle was in color, no?  Those EC books are in B&W, I believe.  So consider that, friend!

Yeah, it was in color. I wish these were, too, but that would, I guess, bump the price up? I dunno. Still, I’m sure Krigstein’s art looks amazing in black and white, too!

See, that’s a selling point to me, to see the stories in B&W and in color to compare and contrast.  It’s a bit annoying that it’s only “most” of Krigstein’s EC work.  Maybe the stories not collected are the MAD stories?  Remind me to tell everyone my Krigstein related story sometime.

Also from Fanta on page 347 is Good News Bible: The Deadline Strips of Shaky Kane, who is an artist I dig, and I think I might have some of this, but I will probably go for this.

It sounds like a somewhat generic sci-fi comic, but Stained, the writing debut of colorist David Baron, is collected on page 350 from 451 Media Group.  It’s a cyborg and bounty hunter story, with a dark twist!  I may be going for this though.

I’m thinking about it, too. Sounds all right. Thanks for reminding why I knew Baron’s name. It was really bugging me!

I think they were pushing it with the first issue of this, but yeah, without that I’m not sure I would have had it click in my head.

If you want to make your comic more awesome, just add boars!

Well, Immortal 4 is the last issue, from Keenspot on page 356, so I guess I’ll just get it.  Find out what I thought of the first 2 issues!

Knockabout reoffers the Fifty Freakin’ Years of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers on page 361, which was offered some time earlier this year, I think.  So I have to tell my guy again to get this!

Lion Forge (wait, Newsarama has Lion Forge solictations?) has a neat sounding one on page 370, The Dream of the Butterfly, where a girl gets lost in a village with anthropomorphic creatures, including rabbit secret police.  It’s volume 1, which implies a series in the making, but it does look pretty.

That seems decent. Another one to consider!

When puppets attack!

Man, I don’t know if this is worth 30 bucks, but NBM has Phantoms of the Louvre (yet another of their tie-ins with the museum, which always cracks me up) by Enki Bilal, and Enki Bilal is terrific. It’s 144 pages, so it’s not short, and I imagine it’s more than these usually are because Bilal is a bigger name than most of the creators who work on these. I’m torn!!!! (page 373)

Oni has another Bad Machinery book offered on page 382, volume 4, The Case of the Lonely One.  This series is so good.

I haven’t gotten it yet. Maybe I should …

Hells yes!

How can I pass up a series called Stabbity Bunny?  Scout Comics offers us, on page 391, this story about a young girl kidnapped by supernatural forces, but she is protected by the title character.  I may get this series in singles, it sounds so out there.

That does sound neat.

Well, that can’t be a warm, nurturing toy

I don’t know how I missed this part of the solicit back when volume 2 was offered, but the third volume of Don’t Meddle With My Daughter is on page 392 from Seven Seas, and the villainous organization is called Blowjob.  WHAT?!?!  Also on that page is Giant Spider and Me: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale, where a young woman living alone in the mountains encounters a giant spider that she befriends.  It’s a cute spider!

Why would you call your villainous organization that? That just seems strange.

Even without the usual meaning, if you parse it as blow job, wouldn’t that mean they screw up the work they do?  So weird!

Seven Stories Press has a comics version of The Epic of Gilgamesh on page 395 that sounds interesting.

215 Ink has the third and final volume of Flutter on page 398, which is about a teenage shapeshifter and her trials and tribulations.

I read the first volume, and it was fine. Nothing great, but not bad.

Titan offers Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter in trade on page 407, written by Dan Abnett and drawn by Tom Mandrake.  Sounded fun.  Here’s the movie it’s based on.

Yeah, I wanted to get that. Thanks again for pointing it out. Titan’s solicitations are so small!!!

Which is weird considering they have about a thousand damn pages in the book!  At least now they’ve stopped the ad pages and then the listings of the books, like they used to do.

On page 409, Titan also has Babylon Berlin, which is about a detective in 1920 Berlin getting involved in a dicey investigation. I dig Weimar Germany (so weird, so doomed!), and this looks terrific, so I’m getting it!

Yeah, that does look good.  Damn you for giving me another book to consider!

So jaded!

They also have Death to the Tsar on page 410, which is about events in 1904 that led to the revolution the following year. Sounds neat.

Indeed.  The Death of Stalin is also offered in trade on the same page, by the same creators.  Did you read it?

I have not yet. It’s in the stack next to my desk that, if you’ve noticed, I’m slowly getting through reviewing. I’ll write about it soon, unless it’s so terrible I get depressed thinking about it!

I’ve noticed you’ve been reviewing stuff like crazy, and a couple of those I’ll have to add my comments in the … comments, in lieu of a real review from me.

TwoMorrows has the usual batch of greatness on page 420.  The new issue of Alter Ego, 151, has a feature on Frank Thomas, a Golden Age artist, as well as a feature Dell and Gold Key superheroes, which makes me want it.  Hero-A-Go-Go is offered again, a book about campy superheroes that our pal John talked about, and if you missed the issue of Back Issue (99) about Batman the Animated Series, with a big article by our pal John (which he mentions in that column), you can order it again!

I didn’t love the first Divinity mini-series, but now Valiant is offering Divinity: The Complete Trilogy on page 431 for 60 dollars (over 500 pages, though, so there’s that). I’ll have to think about this – Matt Kindt is, obviously, a very good writer, so maybe this shook out pretty well in the end.

I’ll have to read the first volume myself.  The third volume intrigued me with its alternative history/USSR winning the Cold War kinda thing, so I’m interested.

Hey, Yen Press knows my story, with The Demon Who Became My Sister on page 444.  HAHAHA!  (She’s gonna kill me.)  (But if you saw her baby picture, you’d agree with me.)

I am a Canadia-phile, so the Canadian Alternative: Cartoonists, Comics, and Graphic Novels HC on page 454 is tempting me, but day-um, 65 bucks is a lot (and probably even more in Canadia!).  Cerebus playing hockey on the cover is cool, though!

Page 456 has A Tribute to Mike Mignola’s Hellboy Show Catalogue SC, which features different artists doing Hellboy art.  Patrick McDonnell of the comic strip Mutts does a piece, which has to be groovy!

HAHA!  On page 457-458 there are a bunch of DC kids books, with titles about how nice the characters are, like Batman is Trustworthy.  Hope the kids learn good stuff!

Mike Sterling made a joke when he said DC missed a HUGE opportunity to title one of those “Darkseid Is.” That would have been awesome.

HA!  That would be cool.  They could still do it!

Dang, it’s nearly 20 years since The Big Lebowski came out?  (He says, as if he saw it more than just a few years ago.)  Anyway, there’s a book called I’m a Lebowski, You’re a Lebowski offered on page 464.  I hope it’s more than 32 pages for 20 bucks, though!

I’ve seen it once, in the theater, and never since. I have it on the DVR, though, so I’m planning on watching it soon. I am not a lover of the film, but I’ve heard repeated viewings really make it better. But if I didn’t love it once, why would I want to watch it again?

From what I understand it’s sort of an homage to Chandler and his work, so the meandering is deliberate.  I will say that it did sort of lose me towards the end.  But it is eminently quotable!

The Creeps gets to issue 13, on page 468.  I need to read the issues I’ve gotten of it so far at some point!

Hmm, I don’t usually look too closely at the movie magazines, but Cinema Retro 40 sounds interesting, with a feature on Christopher Lee as Dracula, the Roger Moore Saint episodes released as movies, and behind the scenes turmoil on the Popeye movie (page 470).

Heh, the DC tank dresses on page 486 are interesting.  Robin, Joker, and the Riddler look distinctive, but that Catwoman one … even with “claw marks” on the side, they still have to put CATWOMAN across the front of it so you know who it is!  Even the model looks chagrined!

Nothing says ‘Let’s commit mass murder together!’ like a Joker tank dress

Some cool Hanna-Barbara dolls action figures on page 516, with the Space Ghost crew (no Brak or Zorak though, I’d be all over those!), the Scooby Doo crew, and the Jonny Quest gang.  Pricey, though!

Ooh, that Samurai Captain America figure on page 563 looks cool, if incongruous.  Even anachronous!

Who cares if it’s not historically accurate – that thing is boss as fuck

Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring dolls on page 578-579.  Sure.  Why not?  Commodify them as much as possible.  Ah, well.  At least the Basquiat movie and soundtrack were pretty good. (And there I go commodifying them!)

And on that cynical note, I’m out!

Have a fun time digging through Previews, everyone. We’re sorry for the tardiness of the post – first it was Travis being slow (you’ll note I wrote most of my stuff before Halloween), and once he was done, I dragged my feet for a few days. You still have time to find good stuff and let your store know to order it, though! Get to it!

17 Comments

  1. tomfitz1

    Hmmmmmmmm, nothing to buy this month other than my usual pull list.

    I really don’t know about MARVEL these days, what with all the re-numbering of long running books that goes back 50 years or so.
    You have so many re-starts, re-boots, re-versals, re-tcons (too many re-words!!!!) that you can’t keep track of who’s who, when’s when, where’s where, how’s how, and why’s why.
    Jeez – give it a rest, MARVEL. and bring back MIRACLEMAN, already!!!

    First, Romita, JR switches over to DC after decades of working at MARVEL, and now, Bendis. It’s been years, but I’m actually interested in what Bendis is going to do next.

    I don’t know if it’s winter where you guys live, but stay warm, eh?

  2. Eric van Schaik

    Paybacks for me. I didn’t had anything of this yet. It kinf of reminded me a little bit of Marshal Law with all kinds of text on guns and other stuff.
    The final Irredeemable Premier Edition. I love me some Waid.

    I agree with some great Francavilla stuff. Has his spirit stuff been collected yet? I don’t know if I missed it.

  3. fit2print

    It’s the “Cars” guy’s autobiography, I, Numan. Duh.

    Good lord, this pop culture reference is so supremely outdated it’s hilarious.

    No, really, I laughed. A lot.

    Then I thought, My god. Is the average comic book (or AJS) reader really THAT old?

  4. Jeff Nettleton

    The Adventures of Captain America was a pretty darn good mini, though Kevin Maguire exits about a third of the way into issue three and the shift is a bit jarring, though Kevin West tries to keep it as consistent as he can. In that Twomorrows special about him, Maguire said they were shooting for a Raiders of the Lost Ark vibe for the thing and I felt they mostly achieved that. The German villains with untranslated German names was a bit annoying, in the days before Google. You actually had to go find a German dictionary and look it up! And we wen to school through 14 feet of snow, uphill, both ways….

    I never read Swords of Swashbucklers; but, mantlo was decent with that kind of material (more than a bit in Micronauts) and you can’t go wrong with art from Jackson Guice, Geoff Isherwood and Colleen Doarn. Even if it is incomprehensible, it’ll be purty!

    For Enki Bilal, I don’t know…..his stuff with Pierre Christin is fantastic (well written, great art); but his solo stuff looks good and gives me headaches when I try to make sense out of the story. He can be very obtuse and symbolic.

    Captain Kronos? Love the movie, love Tom Mandrake; Dan Abnett??????????? well….

    Babylon Berlin sounds interesting. What someone needs to do is a series of Inspektor Lohman mysteries, with the police inspector from Fritz Lang’s M and Testament of Dr Mabuse. Heck, a Lohman vs Mabuse comic series would be awesome all the way around!

    The Big Lebowski was one I didn’t really get (and I love the Cohens) until I saw a feature, where they talked about a stoner Phillip Marlowe and then I got it (I hadn’t seen The Big Sleep, at that point). Suddenly, it all made sense.

    Cinema retro is a great magazine! I used to read it on my lunch hour, when I worked for Barnes & Noble (we carried it on the newsstand). Especially good if you are a fan of cool movies from the 60s and 70s.

    Samurai Captain America? I think I will wait until they produce the Jannisarie Captain America Or the Musketeer version. Maybe the Swiss Guard version…

    1. frasersherman

      When I GMed a DC Roleplaying Game many years ago, I’d planned to introduce Mabuse as a kind of spiritual godfather to European terrorist groups (based on his plans for disrupting society in Testament of Dr. Mabuse). Although my gaming group fell apart, so I never got to do it.

    2. Greg Burgas

      Jeff: I feel the same way about Abnett, perhaps a bit better. He’s just … fine. He doesn’t screw things up too much, so I’m sure the Mandrake art will go a long way toward making the story better.

      Man, a Janissary Captain America would be pretty danged cool.

    3. Edo Bosnar

      As I did over at the Classic Comics Forum, I have to second everything Jeff said about Bilal.
      On the other stuff:
      Man, I’ve been wanting a collected edition of Adventures of Captain America since, like, forever. I guess it’s nice that they’re including the fake newspaper strip by Kesel, but I’m guessing the extra page count is making the book more expensive. I also wouldn’t mind reading Swords of the Swashbucklers, but that $50 price tag is too hefty for me.
      By the way, for those who are interested in reading Mystery Men, the trade that was published a few years ago can be found online for peanuts. A few years ago I bought it from a seller on eBay for next to nothing – seriously, I think I paid about $7 total (that includes postage to Croatia!)

  5. Simon

    It’s a turkey alright, shall we carve it?

    > G: “the 350th issue of Previews”

    THIS IS IT! WE ALWAYS INTENDED THIS Previews to be the ultimate jam-packed must-have, sure to be unlike anything you’ve ever read before! From everyone’s favorite New York Times best-sellers catalog, this pinnacle changes everything! Satisfaction guaranteed or our money back! (C: 0-1-4)

    FOREVER CHANGED WILL NEVER BE THE SAME EVER AGAIN AFTER THIS world’s most revealed for the first time ever! Help, I’m being held in a baloney factory! But when Sears meets Comics with the sexy violence of a vengeance on steroids, the era of bold, new hotness you demanded begins here for the ages!

    NO TRUE BEST FAN FOREVER COULD POSSIBLY BE WITHOUT THIS never-before-seen, never-to-be-reprinted megazine! Our exclusive love letter to fan-favorite ads is destined to be a smash-hit selling out in nanoseconds! Don’t you dare be left missing out on the highest-collectibility event of the month!

    THIS IS OUR ADJECTIVEST WORK TO DATE, absolutely bound to be the most talked-about Previews of November! Available in lenticular beige cover by legendary artiste extraordinaire TBD and four fantastic connecting taupe covers by blisteringly ultraviolet-hot rising hyperstar TBD!

    * EVERY CATALOG HAS BEEN LEADING UP TO THIS!
    * Already the instant classic you deserve!
    * Perfect for fans of complete collections!
    * Bursting at the seams with fresh solicits!
    * And so much, much beaucoup more on top!

    Catalog, SC, MSRP: was $6.99 NOW $3.99! Allocations may occur!

    > “Dark Horse”

    We are thankful for DH leaking their November ads on October 13, maybe Avatar should try that?

    > “DC”

    AT&T¼ presents: LEX LUTHORℱ!

    > “Image”

    Yay for a new SEX CRIMINALS arc, heralding Vol. 5 for summer 2018?

    > T: “Postal is ending”

    Didn’t it end when some cow said you’d have to buy three other series on top?

    > G: “That must be Cable getting naked”

    His belly button looks like an eye, izzat navel gazing?

    > “Marvel”

    NORTHROP GRUMMAN¼ presents: THE PUNISHERℱ!

    > G: “It’s DC’s and Marvel’s business model: If lightning strikes once, build a tall thin piece of metal and stand in a storm!”

      “You will want cause and effect. All right. [Here was] a Polish undertaker in a rowboat, out in the storm tonight to see if he can get struck by lightning. The undertaker is wearing, in hopes it will draw electricity, a complicated metal suit, something like a deep-sea diver’s, and a Wehrmacht helmet through which he has drilled a couple of hundred holes and inserted nuts, bolts, springs and conductive wands of many shapes so that he jingles whenever he nods or shakes his head, which is often. […]

      “Ever since reading about Benjamin Franklin in an American propaganda leaflet, kite, thunder and key, the undertaker has been obsessed with this business of getting hit in the head by a lightning bolt. All over Europe, it came to him one night in a flash (though not the kind he wanted), at this very moment, are hundreds, who knows maybe thousands, of people walking around, who have been struck by lightning and survived. What stories they could tell!

      “What the leaflet neglected to mention was that Benjamin Franklin was also a Mason, and given to cosmic forms of practical jokesterism, of which the United States of America may well have been one. Well, it’s a matter of continuity. Most people’s lives have ups and downs that are relatively gradual, a sinuous curve with first derivatives at every point. They’re the ones who never get struck by lightning. No real idea of cataclysm at all. But the ones who do get hit experience a singular point, a discontinuity in the curve of life — do you know what the time rate of change is at a cusp? Infinity, that’s what! A-and right across the point, it’s minus infinity! How’s that for sudden change, eh?”

    > G: “Don’t question the logic of the solicits! Have you ever time-traveled, tough guy?”

      “Every life, Epifanio said that night to Lalo Cura, no matter how happy it is, ends in pain and suffering. That depends, said Lalo Cura. Depends on what, champ? On lots of things, said Lalo Cura. Say you’re shot in the back of the head, for example, and you don’t hear the motherfucker come up behind you, then you’re off to the next world, no pain, no suffering. Goddamn kid, said Epifanio. Have you ever been shot in the back of the head?”

    > G: “Tales of Suspense #101 (of 5)”

    Izzat some sort of high five?

    > T: “It’s time for the back of the book!”

    We are thankful for Diamond omitting some books in the digital Previews, and for their order forms now sans catalog-page numbers, though strangely for back-of-the-book pubs only?

    (Shirley not to annoy online shoppers using them alongside the text Previews? Shirley monopolistic malice shouldn’t be ascribed to what may be monopolistic incompetence? Shirley we didn’t need more reasons to wait for reviews and buy from bookstores?)

    > G: “a new Strangers in Paradise”

    We are thankful for Terry Moore going back to that well-fed well with such a Hollywood-pleasing plot, plus a logo that may make Manara proud? Reviews will tell, but how many… fans will keep on paying $4 for 18 story pages in B&W?

    > T: “Archie”

    Talkin’ about blood ‘n’ boobs, Avatar has to resolicit their nonreturnable mousetrap WAR STORIES VOL. 5, while the series seems cancelled at #26? (Won’t that be one slim four-issue Vol. 6 for $20 if they get there?) We are thankful to see myopic greed sabotage standalone evergreens, but will Ennis move the series to a mainstream pub?

    > G: “Eternal”

    Does the note “some opponents won’t ever stay down” cover a vampire or zombie story? What does “bande dessinĂ©e graphic novella” mean, especially with 5 panels a page and not 10? How is it “oversized” at 7×10”? Why say “Written by Ryan K Lindsay” but credit “(W) Eric Zawadzki, Ryan Lindsay” as if the latter’s just been hired to clean up an artist’s script? If this “love letter to brutal violence […] will be one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking things”, why not wait for reviews and noms to back it up?

    * (4 talky pages) https://comicsheatingup.net/2017/10/27/preview-eternal-by-ryan-k-lindsay-and-eric-zawadzki/
    * (3 swordy pages) https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/10/18/eric-zawadzki-ryan-lindsay-graphic-novel-eternal-from-black-mask-january-2018-solicits/

    > G: “Clandestino [is] in a Latin American country, and it sounds pretty bananas”

    You mean, it’s a banana republic?

    > G: “I’m weirdly annoyed by [the Corn Pops affair]”

    You mean, it wasn’t beyond the pail?

    > T: “The Dream of the Butterfly”

    Why does the cover conceal it’s a Vol. 1? Shirley not to con the kids?

    > G: “Phantoms of the Louvre […] 144 pages, so it’s not short”

    Bilal has long stopped doing comics, it’s an artbook of double-page spreads made of reworked photos and historical captions, Greg, so maybe you’ll still find this 2014 relist kinda short? (And it being a hardcover overpriced for libraries, why not read it there?)

    * (4 pages) http://www.nbmpub.com/comicslit/glacialperiod/phantom/pre1.html
    * (blurbs) http://www.nbmpub.com/comicslit/glacialperiod/bilalhome.html

    > T: “The Epic of Gilgamesh”

    Why are Dixon & Dixon withholding samples? We are thankful for mousetraps, but do they deserve preorders?

    > T: “the third and final volume of Flutter”

    Jennie Wood & Jeff McComsey’s Vol. 1 felt good enough to gamble on Vol. 2 last year — so of course, Diamond didn’t fulfill that preorder then backorders, because why should they? And 215 Fink being unavailable to bookstores, we are thankful for the interesting choice between Diamon’ and Amazon — unless there’s an omnibus for bookstores some day?

    > G: “Divinity: The Complete Trilogy”

    Worth a read (despite each volume having one issue of rasslin’ nonsense with guests from other series), though if you already have DIVINITY I, then II & III are still available for $30 (160 story pages) if you don’t need 240 more pages of backpadding and cash-grab spinoffs by lesser hands for $60? (Also, III was a satisfying conclusion but DIVINITY IV is still coming out as ETERNITY, because someone demanded it?)

    [CONTINUED ON 4TH WEEK FOLLOWING.]

    — THE GOLDEN HOUSE OF SAMARKAND by Hugo Pratt (p. 178, $35 @ IDW)

    Standalone Corto Maltese adventure from Turkey to Turkestan, for a friend and a treasure, against his dreams and his double, with guns and… dances?? (Raised from $30 to $35 because Disney-Warner, Greg, be thankful!)

    * Corto sez: Friendship is incompatible with truth… only adversaries can talk fruitfully…

    * Rasputin sez: Only three things are important… eating, and two more I don’t know yet…

    — TALES FROM THE HYPERVERSE by William Cardini ($8 @ Big Planet/Retrofit)

    Colorful scifi with the weirdness of DeForge, Regé, Yokoyama, or Fiffe?

    * (8-page excerpt) https://justindiecomics.com/2017/04/25/preview-tales-from-the-hyperverse-william-cardini/
    * (16 pages) http://www.hypercastle.com/comics/hyperverse/

    (Odd to see a one-shot not advertized with a fake #1 or $.99 tag, eh?)

    — RED WINTER by Anneli Furmark (ALLEGEDLY $22 @ D&Q)

    Reviews will tell how overpriced this is (especially for undersized 4-panel pages). And do bait-n-switch pubs deserve preorders?

    * (10-page excerpt) http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/sites/default/files/docs/samples/9781770463066_sample.pdf
    * (untr. samples) http://annelifurmark.com/books/red-winter/

    — ARCHIVAL QUALITY by Ivy Noelle Weir & Steenz ($20 @ Oni)

    Ghost drama ala SECONDS or FRIENDS WITH BOYS?

    * (1 page) https://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/02/24/archival-quality-a-comic-by-librarians-about-librarians-possibly-for-librarians/
    * (3 pages) https://nerdist.com/archival-quality-haunted-library-comic-exclusive-interview/

    Bookstore variant cover: “In the book, protagonist Cel Walden accepts a job at a creepy museum, and takes on more than her own struggles with depression and anxiety as she strives to solve the mystery of a ghost that is trapped in its walls.” / “KEY SELLING POINTS: Main character is a person of color! Female creative team! African American Artist! Written by librarians! Characters dealing with disability! A positive tale about struggling with depression! […] Recommended Age: Young Adult (13 – 16)[!]”

    — MY NEIGHBOR SEKI standalone VOL. 10 ($11 @ Vertical)

    Takuma Morishige keeps it fresh and fun, what’s not to like?

    — Some stuff to stoke your stocking?

    PARIAH (p. 68), sci-fi/mutant ala ENDER’S GAME and DEMO?

    SEX CRIMINALS (p. 201), best rom-com you ain’t reading?

    HIGH SOCIETY (p. 244), best pol-com you ain’t read? (free PDF)

    JOHNNY THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC (Amaze Ink), black comedy ala ARSENIC LULLABY?

    (Aren’t backorders faster from bookstores, though?)

    Always consult with a qualified ordering professional prior to beginning any preordering program or taking any backordering supplement. The content of this comment is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as ordering advice or to replace a relationship with a qualified ordering professional. Batteries not included. Some assembly required. May contain sulphites. Caveat emptor. Void where prohibited. YMMV.

    1. Greg Burgas

      Simon: Well, Marvel cancelled that Northrop Grumman comic, so there is that.

      What are you quoting from? Sound weird.

      I wasn’t sure about the Bilal book, because it sounded like full page pieces, but with a story? I don’t know, but thanks for the links, because I wasn’t completely sold on it, and now I have to think even more about it!

      You know I don’t like Sex Criminals!!!!! 🙂

      1. Simon

        @Greg: Quoted from Pynchon’s GRAVITY’S RAINBOW and Bolaño’s 2666. As for SEX CRIMS, maybe you disliked it as the heist comic it wasn’t, just as some disliked it as THE FERMATA comic it wasn’t… but why not give it a reread as the sister book to SUNSTONE it is?

  6. Fuck! I totally did intend to make a David Lee Roth and/or Jonathan Richman reference re: Ice Cream Man! Dammit!

    As to Spy Seal, I did see when looking at the catalog again that it is a larger than regular size trade, so there’s that.

    Yeah, the price IS what I’m looking at for Dejah Thoris! Yeah!

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