October 22, 2013
This Isn’t A Library: Notable Releases To The 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.
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JUL131200 BETTY BLUES HC $18.99
This is not a week at the comics shop for me, at least not in terms of lots of new comics specifically hitting my natural consumption nerve endings. There are some quality works out, though, and I'm sure that for someone out there, maybe even someone reading this, it will be the best new comics day of the year. NBM has been publishing Renaud Dillies for a while, and while I think this is older work -- from the first few years of a career that I believe is somewhere in the 12-15 years range at present -- it is very accomplished and super good-looking.
JUL131262 NEMESIS THE WARLOCK DEVIANT ED HC (MR) $48.00
This is a collection of the colored version of the Pat Mills/Kevin O'Neill
2000AD feature, one of the more memorably stylish comics of the 1980s. I greatly enjoy O'Neill's work and there are serious people that know a lot about comics that will sit across a table from you holding with beer in hand and argue that Mills is the best mainstream comics writer of the last half-century.
AUG130060 DARK HORSE PRESENTS #29 (MR) $7.99
JUN130031 HELLBOY MIDNIGHT CIRCUS HC $14.99
The latest from the Mignola-verse is a trade this time around, and it continues to be amazing to me just how many issues of
Dark Horse Presents there have been in this new, slightly more expensive iteration. I don't always like the bulk of the work in that publication but clearly there are people that love it all and I can always find something intriguing there.
AUG130074 CONAN PEOPLE O/T BLACK CIRCLE #1 $3.50
AUG130312 VERTIGO ESSENTIALS THE SANDMAN #1 (MR) $1.00
JUN130349 ROCKETEER SPIRIT PULP FRICTION #2 [DIG/P+] $3.99
AUG130800 DAREDEVIL #32 $2.99
AUG130762 INFINITY HEIST #2 $3.99
AUG130765 INFINITY HUNT #3 $3.99
This is all the serial comic book work of the adventure or costumed genre variety that didn't fit into another category. It's a light enough week I would probably cast a wider net than usual in checking out what's there -- I would make note of the Vertigo $1
Sandman book if only that it means new
Sandman is imminent. I have a soft spot for those titles that Marvel and DC do that are direct variations of their ongoing events that aren't explicitly tied into a specific character or property. For some reason, those tend to get the fun artists and looser storylines. The
Rocketeer/
Spirit work isn't really in my wheelhouse but there was an interesting piece somewhere --
TCJ? -- that argued that these comics are better than the Dave Stevens original works
as comics, and are thus worthy of attention. I'm not sure that's true -- sometimes what I like about a comic is the awkwardness or it being ill-suited for a specific kind of comics-reading experience -- but it's an argument that would drive me to the latest work.
AUG131222 GARTH ENNIS ERF HC (MR) $14.99
This is the Garth Ennis kids work, and I believe was kickstarted at some point, either generally or some component of the final result. I don't see a lot of work funded that way on these lists -- they tend to be very small press, and tend to focus on hand sales and pre-sales as enabled by the crowd-funder. Anyway, Ennis, is building a really interesting career if you look at the breadth of it and see it in the context of his specific milieu, so I pay attention to everything he releases.
JUL130972 BLAKE & MORTIMER GN VOL 15 SECRET O/T SWORDFISH PART 1 $15.95
JUL130974 LARGO WINCH GN VOL 07 GOLDEN GATE $11.95
JUL130975 LUCKY LUKE TP VOL 37 FINGERS $11.95
JUL130977 THORGAL GN VOL 11 INVISIBLE FORTRESS $11.95
JUL130978 VALERIAN GN VOL 04 WELCOME TO ALFLOLOL $11.95
The $11.95 price point was odd enough it drove my attention to this week's suite of European albums brought to this market, and I throw in the
Black and Mortimer as well. These are all solid series for their respective target audiences, sturdy and well-crafted but ultimately never something that sticks with me. I've never seen one in a store, so if yours carries them, count your blessings.
AUG130687 BOUNCE #6 (MR) [DIG] $2.99
AUG130711 SATELLITE SAM #4 (MR) [DIG] $3.50
AUG138284 SEX CRIMINALS #1 2ND PTG (MR) $3.50
AUG130714 SEX CRIMINALS #2 (MR) [DIG] $3.50
AUG130505 VELVET #1 (MR) [DIG] $3.50
AUG130504 PRETTY DEADLY #1 (MR) [DIG] $3.50
This is the other short list of serial genre comic books out this week, a stronger list and one consisting solely of offerings from Image Comics: the latest Joe Casey oddity, this time with artist David Messina and designer Sonia Harris, the Matt Fraction/Howard Chaykin early TV-related series, the first two issues of writer Fraction's collaboration with Chip Zdarsky, the premiere of the Emma Rios/Kelly Sue DeConnick western, and the Ed Brubaker/Steve Epting team-up on a spy story that both functions as a spy story and as commentary on its tropes. The Brubaker/Epting is the big hitter here, or at least that's my guess: they did a lot of
Captain America comics together, and Epting's depiction of an action scene involving a New York City elevated train was a show-stopper that drove attention to that effort as much as Brubaker's surprise end-of-issue plot twist.
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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.
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posted 9:40 pm PST |
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