This Isn’t A Library: New And 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. But were I in a comic book shop tomorrow I would be crossing off in my bracket the winners and losers among the following:

*****

JAN100072 THE GUILD #1 (OF 3) CARY NORD CVR $3.50
NOV090385 KING CITY #6 (MR) $2.99
DEC090413 ORC STAIN #2 (MR) $2.99
JAN100570 CAPTAIN AMERICA #604 $3.99
JAN100613 UNCANNY X-MEN #522 $3.99
JAN100700 GLAMOURPUSS #12 $3.00
FEB100834 ROBERT JORDAN WHEEL OF TIME #1 $3.99
A bunch of serial comics with interesting things to offer, even if I'm not certain I'd buy any of them were I in the store. The Guild features the unlikely team of Felicia Day and Jim Rugg; King City and Orc Stain are the prime, must appealingly idiosyncratic offerings from the pleasure-from-drawing side of the Image catalog; Brubaker and Fraction offer up solid variations on successful Marvel formulaic approaches in Captain America and Uncanny X-Men; Glamourpuss reaches an unlike 12th issue, and a series adapting Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time begins, which I'm guessing will have to be 15,000 issues long.

DEC090043 BOOK OF GRICKLE HC $17.99
DEC090040 WONDERMARK TP VOL 03 DAPPER CAPS & PEDAL-COPTERS $16.99
Two strong offerings from Dark Horse this month firmly in the alt-comics camp: the vastly under-appreciated Graham Annable, years after a run of mostly great books at Alternative failed to get him all the way over, and the latest in David Malki's successful collections of his webcomic.

NOV090179 NEWSBOY LEGION BY SIMON AND KIRBY HC VOL 01 $49.99
OCT090600 THOR TALES OF ASGARD BY LEE & KIRBY COIPEL CVR HC $29.99
NOV090689 DONALD DUCK CLASSICS HC VOL 01 QUACK UP $24.99
Multiple worthy collections of older material. The Newsboy Legion material is fascinating, much more sophisticated and self-aware just a few years into the superhero genre than I was ever led to belief. Plus you get a Joe Simon introduction instead of mine, which kind of sucked. You can make an argument that the material in the Tales of Asgard collection comprises the third best comic that Marvel made during its 1960s heyday. I also can't recall this material being collected in quite this way before. I have no idea what's in the Donald Duck book, but Barks is always worth checking out.

FEB101095 120 DAYS OF SIMON GN (MR) $14.95
FEB101094 HEY PRINCESS GN (MR) $14.95
Top Shelf's Swedish invasion hits American shores. The first is a book about Simon Gardenfors' attempt to live 120 days away from home without staying in the same place twice, kind of like that recent Ted Rall book with much less creepy. Hey Princess I think is straight-ahead young person autobio of the kind that doesn't come out as much as some rabid critics of anything not in a cape and jockstrap would have you believe.

DEC090958 ON THE ODD HOURS GN $14.95
Another translation from a series of graphic albums featuring stories related to the Louvre, I think Eric Liberge's story is about a man who takes an after-hours job with the museum when it's revealed to him that the work has mythic resonance. Even if I'm not right, I know I'm correctly noting that it sure is pretty.

JAN101198 WACKY PACKAGES NEW NEW NEW HC $19.95
I think this is a sequel to the previous Wacky Packages book, which means more series of these cards that offers up the day-job work of some of the great, later-period underground cartoonists.

JAN101200 ART OF JAIME HERNANDEZ SECRETS OF LIFE & DEATH HC $40.00
I've been dying to get my hands on this book, which seems like it was a delayed a few times announcement to publication. Jaime Hernandez draws like Aaron Neville sings and Usain Bolt runs.

FEB100869 BLACK BLIZZARD GN $19.95
Yoshihiro Tatsumi's crime comic, another one I'm dying to see. It feels like a great bonus release rather than a super-, super-, super-necessary book, which excites me all the more.

JAN100950 COMPLETE PEANUTS HC VOL 13 1975-1976 $28.99
There's a really fine appreciation for Robert Smigel here; funny, too. The work in this period is better than you may remember, and you'll see at least 50 strips you would have assigned to a more obvious "golden period."

*****

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 didn't list your comic here, that's because I am in the grips of March Madness. Go, Northern Iowa!

*****


 
posted 11:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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



*****

Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's 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. But were I in a comic book shop tomorrow I would be quite surprised, as the nearest one is two and a half hours away. But I would pick up and look at all of these comics, for sure.

*****

[Once again, the Diamond list is not up. I'll use Brian Hibbs' again for continuity -- it's pretty good, and roughly close to the parts of the overall list in which I'm interested for this feature.]

AIR #18
No one that bet against this book is winning that initial bet, not at this point.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #603
DIE HARD YEAR ONE #6
INCREDIBLE HERCULES #141
INVINCIBLE #70
MARVELS EYE OF CAMERA #6 (OF 6)
JOE THE BARBARIAN #2 (OF 8)
I think this is the group of mainstream comics my reading on-line would indicate have their critical supporters, and that I enjoy when I get to read them. Robert Kirkman's Invincible is about to enter into an extended issue of run of super-mustachioed dastardly deed and lots of limbs being pulled off. The Joe The Barbarian comic is the Grant Morrison room-as-setting fantasy I haven't seen yet. I'm looking forward to catching up with those Chaykin Die Hard comics at some point, and I'm thinking that issue of Captain America is going to be scrutinized more closely than usual after the Tea Party nonsense with #602. That'd be cool if the Red Skull was in disguise doing production touch-ups at Marvel.

MAGOG #6
I still can't get over the fact that there's a comic book called Magog.

ALMOST SILENT HC
This looks like the book of the week to me: a collection of a bunch of Jason's work in a more standard-sized $25-range bound hardcover package. I really like the little, stand-alone books when it comes to Jason's work, but it's really, really good comics no matter how it's put together.

JACK STAFF TP VOL 04 ROCKY REALITIES
I generally enjoy these, although I tend to have no idea what the hell is going on. I think this may be a re-run.

NAOKI URASAWA 20TH CENTURY BOYS GN VOL 07
I would have guessed this was out already, but at any rate that's a fine series. I'm a bit behind.

BONE HANDBOOK
Jog has this coming out this week, from Midtown's list. This is one of those about-the-comic sourcebooks, and likely something I'll own sooner or later.

*****

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 didn't list your comic here, I think I should be graded on a curve.

*****


 
posted 10:00 am PST | Permalink
 

---

 


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



*****

Here are the books that make an impression on me staring at this week's 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. But were I in a comic book shop tomorrow I would forget to write something in here until eight hours after I initially posted it.

*****

SEP090028 BPRD 1947 #5 (OF 5) $2.99
SEP090030 HELLBOY WILD HUNT #8 (OF 8) $2.99
All the Mignolaverse titles are ending! Okay, these two are. More on the way, I'm sure. This is an interesting corner of the comics publishing world.

JUN090047 INSOMNIA CAFE HC $14.95
This is where it kills me not to have a local comics shop, as a edition of MK Perker's comics seems to me exactly the kind of thing I'd want to hold in my hands before even thinking of buying it. It might be awesome, I don't know.

SEP090115 BATMAN AND ROBIN #6 $2.99
SEP090346 WALKING DEAD #67 (MR) $2.99
Morrison and Kirkman, these are the two mainstream serial comic book that pop out at me. These would likely end up in my bag no matter what else I bought, although you have to remember that my main mission when going into comic book shops tends to be procuring Marvel and DC comics. The others I get through other channels.

SEP090803 HOT POTATOE HC (MR) $39.95
Tom Devlin e-mailed substitution jpeg power activate!

AUG091207 PEANUTS 60TH ANNIVERSARY BOOK $75.00
Various Peanuts books of this type were a big, big deal in my household as a kid, so I feel the nostalgic pull of this one.

AUG090884 PIM & FRANCIE IN GOLDEN DAYS HC $28.99
The book of the week, by the great Al Columbia.

AUG091003 YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY HC $18.95
This is Ted Rall's book where he bangs like 10,000 chicks.

*****

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 didn't list your comic here, that's because I don't really care for you.

*****


 
posted 10:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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