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



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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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AUG141848 ART OF RICHARD THOMPSON HC $35.00
SEP141875 ART OF THE SIMON AND KIRBY STUDIO $60.00
OCT141839 KIRBY KING OF THE COMICS HC NEW PTG (NOTE PRICE) $45.00
Three books that scream Christmas gift offerings, including a reprint of Mark Evanier's Kirby biography. I don't know anything about the Art Of The Simon And Kirby Studio book, but Abrams does a generally solid job with big books like that one and I'm literally interested in every last speck of information I can glean about Jack Kirby and his professional life, including his fruitful partnership with Joe Simon. That's not to say that Joe Simon isn't an interesting comics figure all on his own. But the shining light of this suite of book would have to be the Richard Thompson, part of the greatest year had by a cartoonist who is no longer working full-time. Thompson's story is becoming as interesting as his work, and the idea of this group of well-wishers and friends and peers gathering around him and getting the word about this quiet giant of cartooning in our midst is one I admire greatly.

JUL141449 INCREDIBLE CHANGE BOTS TWO POINT SOMETHING GN $19.95
Jeffrey Brown's books are a lot of fun, and he's a flat-out prolific cartoonist now. This is is homage series to a certain kind of genre entertainment, as opposed to the Star Wars work he's been doing where the Lucas people have tossed him the actual keys to some of the vehicles in that big garage.

JUL140133 MANARA BORGIAS HC (MR) $59.99
One thing we don't have when it comes to Milo Manara whenever he shows up in archival collections or in superhero comic book cover controversies is a sense of him as an artist right now. The work we see is either commercial one-offs or from much earlier in his artistic lifetime. It's like trying to figure out a film director based on a combination of his '60s movies and commercials he does for Audi. This is work from last decade, so it could be that window we're looking for into what the artist is like closer to the present. I don't know much about it other than that, but I sure as hell would open the book if that price tag didn't mean plastic.

JUL140142 SATOSHI KON OPUS TP $19.99
Although much better known as a filmmaker, the late director of Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika was a full-on manga artist for more than a decade. Opus I recall being a last work, mid-1990s, and not complete. I'm greatly looking forward to seeing it.

JUL140132 TALES OF IMPERFECT FUTURE HC $17.99
This is Alfonso Font, the Spanish illustrator that's about as versatile and solid as three dozen cartoonists of his generation better known to North American comics. I am never more fond of Dark Horse Comics than when they do a book like this one. I think these are short stories from a fruitful magazine period, connected by genre, but I'm going to buy it without looking.

SEP140080 ELFQUEST FINAL QUEST #6 $3.50
OCT140090 USAGI YOJIMBO SENSO #5 $3.99
SEP140729 LAZARUS #13 (MR) $3.50
SEP140533 ODYC #1 (MR) $3.99
SEP140749 SEX #18 (MR) $2.99
SEP140758 TREES #7 (MR) $2.99
AUG140454 TRANSFORMERS VS GI JOE #4 $3.99
SEP141515 STUMPTOWN V3 #3 $3.99
SEP140421 TMNT ONGOING #40 $3.99
Lots of genre comic-book comics, some I'd buy and some I'd probably think about buying before deciding not to. I haven't seen any of the new Elfquest work yet, so it's about time I tracked that down. I don't think I've even read a single review. I don't know if I've read a comic in that overall series since 1992 or so, and then it was intermittent, but that was a giant book for indie comics in the early 1980s and for a lot of us that read comics back then in the middle-school years. I'm glad they're wrapping it up the way they want to. Like that Elfquest series, Senso is also a "last" book but only in that it's set a bit ahead in the future of the narrative. I buy everything that Stan Sakai does. There's a fine group of strong-selling Image serial genre comics there, with the must-see of the foursome the Ody-C work from Matt Fraction and Christian Ward. The rest are books I'm more curious about seeing than convinced I'll pick them up. That's one of the GI Joe books on which Tom Scioli is working, and that sounds like fun. I liked previous iterations of the Stumptown series, so I'd like to see the new one. And the TMNT I looked up because I just interviewed Andrew Farago for his art book and was astonished to see that the new series was up to forty issues. It makes sense, though. I imagine there are a lot of pretty good comics-makers that would enjoy taking a shot at an issue or trade's worth of those comics.

AUG140513 NELVANA NORTHERN LIGHTS HC $39.99
JUL141223 NANCY COMPLETE DAILIES GN VOL 03 LOVES SLUGGO 1949-1951 $39.99
SEP140937 WOLVERINE BY AARON COMPLETE COLLECTION TP VOL 04 $34.99
Another bunch of gift-ready books; it's that season. The Nelvana book I believe to be an IDW printing of the Kickstarter-funded volume; I remember that deal being struck. I think that's valuable history, and IDW has been doing a fine job of taking on projects like this one and sprinkling them into their very effective licensed comics work. The Nancy books are beautiful, and that work is such that it will be pulled from shelves and re-examined years after other collections, ostensibly more exciting this very minute, have worked their way to the sales box. The Wolverine I'm just throwing in there because I like these Marvel projects that collected certain writer runs with certain characters -- it still doesn't make systematic sense how they do their collections, for one thing they could use a perennials program, but I bet this sorting principle makes for a reasonable cohesive, contained read, as much as that's possible anymore.

OCT141546 LITTLE NEMO DREAM ANOTHER DREAM HC PI
This is the big Locust Moon Little Nemo tribute project, phsyically large enough to make for a dozen funny Facebook photos of grown men looking like they've been shrunk to half-size while reading it. I think this kind of book is a perfect gift book, particularly if they do a good job of spotlighting the various artists involved in a way you might scramble to find other work. That couldn't have been an easy project to put together, either, so good for the publishing crew there and congratulations.

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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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