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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SEP140451 JACK KIRBY MISTER MIRACLE ARTIST ED HC PI
People in comics don't agree much and there's not one thing on which everyone agrees, but the IDW Artist's Edition line is right up there with being in the same room with Sergio Aragones when it comes to the saturation of a high approval rating. I loved Mister Miracle when I was a kid -- I think it's an underrated book in terms of its attractiveness relative to other 1970s Jack Kirby efforts. I also think the done-in-one stories are a class above some of the others that Kirby did during the decade. I look forward to seeing the original art presented like this.

DEC141305 TUKI SAVE THE HUMANS #3 $3.99
JAN150138 GROO FRIENDS AND FOES #3 $3.99
JAN150118 MIND MGMT #31 $3.99
JAN150312 BATGIRL ENDGAME #1 $2.99
JAN150705 SATELLITE SAM #12 (MR) $3.50
JAN151161 LUMBERJANES #12 $3.99
These are this week's serial comic-book formatted comics that caught my attention. Jeff Smith's Tuki Save The Human seems to have settled into a workable and lively groove at this point, which means at some point I'll be scrambling back to issues #1-2 to figure out something Smith innocuously introduced that's key to the whole damn saga. It's always a welcome week when something feature Groo comes out, and I want to own every comic book that Sergio Aragone's ever done. The Mind MGMT I put there because I've lost track and suddenly it's 31 issues in. I bet that pays off as a long-form work if you've stuck with it. The Batgirl comics is one that features art by Bengal. A dozen Satellite Sam books is an amount about seven more than I thought we'd get. I enjoy the staging in that comics. Lumberjanes is up to issue #12, which is the best possible age for any comic book.

NOV140041 BALTIMORE HC VOL 05 APOSTLE & WITCH OF HARJU $24.99
JAN150099 BPRD HELL ON EARTH #129 $3.50
OCT140012 BPRD HELL ON EARTH TP VOL 10 DEVILS WINGS $19.99
A bigger than usual corner of the right-now market devoted to the Mignola-verse offerings. That is one sturdy corner.

OCT140089 USAGI YOJIMBO SAGA LTD ED HC VOL 02 $79.99
OCT140088 USAGI YOJIMBO SAGA TP VOL 02 $24.99
Another comfortable place within the larger body of comics is that inhabited by Stan Sakai, who recently returned to serial comics. I don't know how you collecte or read Sakai -- I do it in comic book form rather than this collection, despite how fancy it is -- but I urge you to give him a try if you have any appetite for comics that work for children. It may be the last Saturday afternoon on the porch comic I collect.

DEC140476 ROCKETEER THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES TP $19.99
JAN150631 LAZARUS TP VOL 03 CONCLAVE (MR) $14.99
DEC140684 PROPHET TP VOL 04 JOINING $17.99
This is a strong trio of books featuring kind of standard genre material which as become a comics speciality for the last 30 years or so. I think the Prophet collection may be the last in this recent, popular refashioning of that work. The Lazarus book slows things down a bit, which is welcome. I enjoy that book more than I thought I might from its initial description, and a younger, more genre-invested version of me would have loved it to death. There's a lack of emotional order there that I find really appealing.

OCT140911 AVENGERS BY BUSIEK AND PEREZ OMNIBUS HC VOL 01 $125.00
The Marvel high-end books seem to really work these days, even as it's been seemingly difficult for them to find a $9.95-$14.95 price point that works consistently for what they want to do. This work came when I was adult so there's no nostalgic pull here, but a lot of its kid and teen readers are at just the right age to fill their first bookshelves.

JAN150621 SEXCASTLE OGN (MR) $15.99
This one has a long and heroic journey to print, and I would definitely check it out. This is an Image publication of a book that had its fans both on-line and in a Kickstarter-funded edition, which means those coming to it now will probably bring fresh eyes. It's always interesting to see how the second big audience exposure goes.

DEC141033 BIG NATE SAY GOOD BYE TO DORK CITY TP $9.99
Again, I'm not a reader of this series, but it sells extremely well and it's discussed infrequently even by the dessicated standard of widespread talk within comics about comics for younger readers. At some point I'll buy this in big gulps and swallows.

NOV141555 COMPLETE UNFABULOUS SOCIAL LIFE OF ETHAN GREEN GN $24.99
I remember when the movie version of the long-running strip came out a lot of people went scrambling to figure out where the heck it came from that they hadn't seen it before. Even at that point, it'd been around 15-17 years, just in gay, lesbian and transgeder publications. This was a point where common knowledge even for a hardcore comics fans kind of went as far as Alison Bechdel and Howard Cruse and no further. Even doing that research at the time just to locate the strip on my radar led me to only a few comics. I'd welcome a chance to read it all at once, and will scramble for a copy.

DEC141054 PEARLS BEFORE SWINE TP KING OF COMICS $14.99
Potential Reuben winner Stephan Pastis' strip is one of five that should be in every newspaper right now. On a diminished comics pages, it feels like a throwback to the 1980s, at least in terms of consistency and an idiosyncratic approach to art and humor.

JAN150560 CHRONONAUTS #1 CVR A MURPHY & HOLLINGSWORTH (MR) $3.50
JAN150561 CHRONONAUTS #1 CVR B SCALERA (MR) $3.50
JAN150562 CHRONONAUTS #1 CVR C SHALVEY (MR) $3.50
JAN150563 CHRONONAUTS #1 CVR D PANOSIAN (MR) $3.50
JAN150564 CHRONONAUTS #1 CVR E STAPLES (MR) $3.50
JAN150565 CHRONONAUTS #1 CVR F OTTLEY (MR) $3.50
This is the latest of the Mark Millar-written comics series, this time with interior art being provided by Sean Gordon Murphy. Millar's last few efforts have been severely hit and miss, but he seems to get his choice of artists and Murphy can be super-fun. In fact, Murphy may have chosen Milar. I don't know why they do this many comics covers, but I'm sure it provides profits to a few people against system-wide strain. No biggie.

JAN151724 MASTER KEATON GN VOL 02 $19.99
This is the only manga I saw on the list I might check out more closely, mostly because of the presence of a young Naoki Urasawa, on his way to becoming an astonishing, consistently superb cartoonist.

NOV140101 TEX THE LONESOME RIDER HC $49.99
I'm a fiend for later-period Joe Kubert and this effort in the European albums series is one of my favorites. The price point makes me wonder if there was more than one album involved. I can't find a page count anywhere so who knows? I'd sure as hell check out this Dark Horse presentation of this material, though.

JAN151808 PETER BAGGE CONVERSATIONS HC $40.00
Peter Bagge is a great talker that does a lot of interview, so the editing I think would be the thing here; a lot of folks just can't keep up and their interviews suffer for that deference. This is an academic-type book, and hopefully there will be a reappreciation in here that can build to a year long mediation on all things Bagge.

NOV141056 MUSEUM OF MISTAKES FART PARTY COLLECTION TP (MR) $24.00
I'm not sure where I am on what I have of Julia Wertz's and what I don't, but she's a gifted writer supported by an art approach that doesn't get in its way. I wonder if people will read this as 2000s-era nostalgia -- I mean they will eventually, but I wonder if we're there yet. I have a bunch of other copies of books she's done, but I'll buy this one, too.


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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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