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.

*****

OCT100016 BPRD PLAGUE OF FROGS HC VOL 01 $34.99
Reformatting this particular, recent, rich source of genre comics makes more sense than usual, as there's just a ton of material there. The only strike against it is that I think it works so well as serial comics and as inexpensive trades that I wonder if it can work even half as well in a third format.

OCT100063 MYSPACE DARK HORSE PRESENTS TP VOL 06 $19.99
SEP100254 STARMAN OMNIBUS HC VOL 06 $49.99
Two final collections of comic-book efforts that seem a long time ago now, and one really is: the initial burst of on-line comics from Dark Horse through collapsed and still somehow collapsing social network/entertainment hub MySpace, a bright light of 1990s play-with-formula superhero comics in its last sustained charge right up until the end.

JUL100771 SECRET HISTORY BOOK 14 (MR) $5.95
OCT100767 CYCLOPS #2 (MR) $3.95
Two French album series in serial American comic book form. My love for Secret History's daffy formula of rigorous self-reference, killer art, and loopy historical footnoting should be well-known by now. Cyclops is a science fiction effort from the Killer team about privatized soldiers that film their adventures for public consumption; it clips right along, although it's not as atmospheric as I prefer my science fiction. It seem as if it's performed on sets.

NOV100552 INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #500 $4.99
If, like me, you only occasionally dip into the superhero comics for a sense of what's going on and how that going on is being executed, this is one of the comics that says "buy me." Writer Matt Fraction usually does a nice job when allowed to relax into more pages.

NOV100985 SMURFS GN VOL 04 SMURFETTE $5.99
NOV100986 SMURFS HC VOL 04 SMURFETTE $10.99
NOV101012 ASTERIX TP VOL 01 ASTERIX THE GAUL $9.95
More Smurfs and another go-round with Asterix. The Smurfs material is hitting with some families I know, even if it's published at a digest size that strains the eye muscles of bedtime story-reading daddies.

NOV100860 BOYS #50 (MR) $3.99
Yeah, I would have lost a bet on this one making it to #50. It's not that I doubt the skill of its creators or that there's an audience for this kind of super-nasty satirical mayhem, but it's the kind of approach that usually leads to burnout somewhere between issues #20 and #30.

OCT101182 DOROHEDORO GN VOL 03 (MR) $12.99
The best translated manga series with a book out this week.

AUG100879 DENIS KITCHEN CHIPBOARD SKETCHBOOK HC (MR) $19.95
NOV100830 MICKEY MOUSE #304 $3.99
Two from Boom!, the first from its tentative group of alt-comics titles, the second its reconfiguring of its Disney comics to include more classic material.

NOV100903 MY NEW YORK DIARY GN (NEW PTG) $16.95
If you don't have this, you need this -- a seminal and extremely entertaining alt-comics work.

*****

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 on me. I apologize.
 
posted 10:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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