This Isn’t A Library: New, Notable Releases Into Comics’ Direct Market



*****

Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's no-doubt largely accurate list of books shipping from Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. to comic book and hobby shops across North America.

I might not buy all of the works listed here. I might not buy any. You never know. I'd sure look at the following, though.

*****

DEC151200 RAMSHACKLE GN $20.00
This is Alison McCreesh's part memoir, part place-study of north-central, rural Canada, and just the kind of book I love seeing at the comics shop. If I had Scrooge McDuck's building of cash dropped in my backyard, a really interesting way of setting up a comics foundation would be one for local history and memoir, which I think comics does so freaking well. Anyway, delighted to run into this one. I hope it's good!

DEC150469 AMAZING FOREST #2 $3.99
NOV150631 PRETTY DEADLY #8 (MR) $3.50
MAR150612 VELVET #13 (MR) $3.50
DEC150554 WALKING DEAD #151 (MR) $2.99
DEC150536 MIRROR #1 (MR) $2.99
DEC150069 JOE GOLEM OCCULT DETECTIVE #4 $3.50
DEC150823 DOCTOR STRANGE #5 $3.99
DEC150792 HOWARD THE DUCK #4 $3.99
DEC150754 VISION #4 $3.99
Here are the comic-book comics that leapt to my attention from this week's list. You won't find ten better-looking covers than the one featured here, from IDW's solid-sounding Amazing Forest series. I hope to buy that myself tomorrow or Friday. Issues of Pretty Deadly are welcome in those shops that have made it a solid performer; no one rips it up now, I imagine. Steve Epting's work on the spy thriller Velvet is a lot of fun. It's a deliberately paced story for all the flying suits and double-crosses, and I wonder how these pages will play in the context of all of them in this particularly storyline. Walking Dead enters a new phase and I appreciate the creative team's ability to resist a ramp-up around the anniversary issue. Mirror #1 is more 8House. Joe Golem is the part of the Mignola-verse with which I'm least familiar, but it's always to see those book with a steady market presence. Doctor Strange, Howard The Duck and Vision are the series I follow from Marvel Comics right just to get a sense of their line, so it looks like I'll be at the comic shop, too. I'm always intrigued by how Doctor Strange resists memorable storyline, I feel Chip Zdarsky has found tone and pace but maybe not structure with Howard and Vision is the one all the kids talk about while I cross my arms and glare.

AUG150896 SUPERIOR FOES SPIDER-MAN OMNIBUS HC $49.99
This is a bunch of well-crafted, funny comics about various lower-level bad guys with Spider-Man in common. They don't have that extra artistic and formal oomph of that Fraction/Aja Hawkeye series, but they have a similar tone and the worlds seem built from the same sets. I might look into buying the whole series in comic book form rather than this form, but to each his own.

MAY150451 COMP JUNIOR & SUNNY BY AL FELDSTEIN HC GIFT ED $75.00
This is a run of the slightly naughty Fox teenagers comic Al Feldstein did, with some extras to make it gift-able. This isn't an area of comics I collect, but it'd kind of extraordinary that there are enough people out there for whom that's true to make such a project possible. I'm glad for those people to be maximally happy.

DEC151366 ANYAS GHOST GN $15.99
NOV151445 BABY SITTERS CLUB COLOR ED GN HC VOL 04 CLAUDIA & MEAN JANI $24.99
NOV151444 BABY SITTERS CLUB COLOR ED GN VOL 04 CLAUDIA & MEAN JANINE $10.99
DEC151569 ROBOT DREAMS TP $9.99
DEC151365 LAIKA SC NEW PTG $18.99
DEC151354 SWEATERWEATHER HC $19.99
That's a lot of reprints. Some of these are for First Second to have on their 10th anniversary convention stops. They're all sturdy books, and should be in print. Both of those Sara Varon books have an idiosyncratic rhythm to them, if you've never had the pleasure. I own them all.

DEC151698 ONE PIECE GN VOL 77 $9.99
DEC151686 SCHOOL JUDGMENT GAKKYU HOTEI GN VOL 01$9.99
If I were to buy some manga this week I'd choose between checking in on One Piece -- just the most popular comic series in the world, bristling with virtues that made it possible for that to be the case. I enjoy every chance I get to read some. It's likely, though, that I'd opt for the first volume in a fantasy about a court system for kids drawn by Takeshi Obata.

SEP151625 SKYDOLL DECADE GN (MR) $34.99
I had to look it up, but it's been eight years since Skydoll has been put in front of English-language audiences, so it's time that happened again. It's very attractive work, and this edition has all of it plus pin-ups so I'd love to see it in the store.

DEC151087 FUTURE SHOCK ZERO GN (MR) $18.00
This is a good-looking anthology from the Retrofit crew including such artists as Keren Katz, Ben Urkowitz and Sophia Foster-Dimino. It's priced at a nice point for the "pick up work from artists I don't know that well" crowd, and the "I follow almost everything these people do" crowd.

NOV151482 TIPPING POINT HC $29.95
NOV151483 TIPPING POINT ULTRA DLX HC $499.00
I'm probably more of a Future Shock Zero guy than I am a Tipping Point person, but I'm impressed with any $500 comic book because it reminds me of some sort of bizarre prediction/threat my father might have shouted at me in 1981. This is actually a star-stuffed, illustration-heavy-but-not-overly-so fancy anthology of the kind where people notice the lack of female contributors. Atsushi Keneko, Naoki Urasawa, Paul Pope, Boulet and Bastien Vivès are name I would buy anthologies to read, and pretty much the whole line-up is like that. The $500 is a limited (100 copies) slipcase editions with bookplates signed by the whole crew.

*****

The full list of this week's releases, including some titles with multiple cover variations and a long, impressive list of toys and other stuff that isn't comics, can be found here. Despite this official list there's no guarantee a comic will show up in the stores as promised, or in all of the stores as opposed to just a few. Also, stores choose what they carry and don't carry so your shop may not carry a specific publication. There are a lot of comics out there.

To find your local comic book store, check this list; and for one I can personally recommend because I've shopped there, albeit a while back, try this.

The above titles are listed with their Diamond order code in the first field, which may assist you in finding comics at your shop or having them order something for you they don't have in-stock. Ordering through a direct market shop can be a frustrating experience, so if you have a direct line to something -- you know another shop has it, you know a bookstore has it -- I'd urge you to consider all of your options.

If I failed to list your comic, that's because I hate you.

*****



*****
 
posted 3:25 pm PST | Permalink
 

---

 
Daily Blog Archives
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
 
Full Archives