This Isn’t A Library: New, 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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FEB161497 5000 KM PER SECOND HC $22.99
I have this book on my desk. It's super gorgeous. My brother is visiting and he snatched it up to read first and enjoyed it very much. This was a big award winner in Europe a few years back -- it's almost several years back at this point -- and a I recall is not autobiography but starts with some autobiographical grounding before going off in new directions.

FEB160736 BLACK PANTHER #1 $4.99
FEB160842 BLACK WIDOW #2 $3.99
FEB160573 DARK CORRIDOR #7 (MR) $3.99
JAN160607 PROPHET EARTH WAR #3 (MR) $3.99
FEB160612 WALKING DEAD #153 (MR) $2.99
FEB160561 WICKED & DIVINE #18 CVR A MCKELVIE & WILSON (MR) $3.50
FEB160562 WICKED & DIVINE #18 CVR B MCKELVIE & WILSON (MR) $3.50
FEB160436 AMAZING FOREST #4 $3.99
FEB160041 BALTIMORE EMPTY GRAVES #1 $3.99
JAN160136 LOBSTER JOHNSON FORGOTTEN MAN ONE SHOT $3.50
JAN160235 BATGIRL #50 (NOTE PRICE) $4.99
Big week for pamphlet comics. The Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brian Stelfreeze and Laura Martin Black Panther has a chance to be good. Coates is a talented writer that always does the work, has a really intriguing and idiosyncratic love for culture which should fold itself into the character, and Marvel has surrounded him with veterans. I always liked that character, too. Great basic design. Black Widow is the other Marvel comic I'd pick up this week. Rich Tommaso's Dark Corridor ends with #7; he's off to She-Wolf. I've been putting aside the Prophet: Earth War material until I had a few issues, so I should be devouring that soon. Walking Dead continues its latest storyline with a more recent and very popular character taking center stage again. The Wicked + The Divine is in that sweet spot for comics where it's fervently liked but not in such a broad fashion that its adherents become sick of it quickly and move on to something else. I don't see why they can't stay in that place for a long while. Amazing Forest is the beautiful every-issue-a-different-artist book, and I enjoyed the first three. There are two from the Mignola-verse including a Lobster Johnson one-shot that's sure to look great, and finally, there's good ol' Batgirl, the superhero with the most compelling post-New 52 character development journey.

FEB160652 WICKED & DIVINE HC VOL 01 YEAR ONE $44.99
This is lovely-looking enough that two people commented on it at the coffee shop. One thought it was a book of spells, which intrigued me because I sort of see creators Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie as counter-intuitive creators of the Gene Colan variety. Like Colan's primetime mainstream work at Marvel, the style and look and tone of the books that they do in this series and others is completely different, to its credit. There are a lot of young people that will have positive, formative experiences with this trade.

OCT150280 ABSOLUTE TRANSMETROPOLITAN HC VOL 02 (MR) $125.00
DEC150368 SWEET TOOTH DELUXE ED HC BOOK 02 (MR) $29.99
OCT150968 DAREDEVIL BY FRANK MILLER OMNIBUS COMPANION HC NEW PTG $100.00
This is three different approaches to collecting mainstream-published material designed for an elite customer. It's all admirable work, too, that I own in some form or another. I always think of prestige collection as a game that almost comes down to selling one-to-one, and with the margins, it really works out.

DEC150215 WONDER WOMAN EARTH ONE HC VOL 01 $22.99
I'm a big fan of the Wonder Woman character in a way that seems slightly out of step with the way the character is utilized by its publisher and their corporate owners. I just sort of like all the stuff about the character, from Wonder Tot to Etta Candy to the "building women's shelters" phase. I think almost all of it works. That's not an insult directed at passionate fans, I'm just lucky enough that my interest in the character manifests itself in a more way. I have almost no interest in this book, though, at least not on its surface. Grant Morrison is a primetime comics creator with a mixed record when it comes to reinterpreting these kinds of characters. I'm sure I'll catch up to it.

FEB161705 ODYSSEY OF SGT JACK BRENNAN GN $19.95
I'm super-curious about this one, a retelling of The Odyssey with a framing sequence of US marines by an author with whom I'm unfamiliar from a major publisher of major comics (Pantheon). This is part of the reason why brick and mortar comic shops are so, so important.

FEB160836 AMADEUS CHO GENIUS AT WORK TP $7.99
I would imagine this is work about the new bearer of the Hulk powers cherry picked from previous appearances, but not a ton of them at that price. I haven't caught up with the Hulk material, but I liked the character just fine in the Hercules run they did. I'm always glad that a new group of kids will be able to see themselves in a superhero, because that was super-easy and always fun for me when I was younger and those comics were the world.

OCT151303 WHISPER CAMPAIGN TP $50.00
This is related to monies being raised for the artist Norm Breyfogle after a stroke hit the side of his body with which he practiced his craft. Whisper was an early major character in 1980s independent (genre comics from non-mainstream publishers) comic books. I wish the project and its target beneficiary all the luck in the world.

FEB161666 HILDA & MIDNIGHT GIANT TP $10.99
This is a paperback of the visually impressive, well-liked book by Luke Pearson, which I would say is about a half-decade in our rearview window as a hardcover. You should want them all.

FEB160984 RACHEL RISING #41 $3.99
FEB161275 REGULAR SHOW #34 $3.99
JAN161234 ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK #16 $3.99
FEB160358 STAR TREK ONGOING #56 $3.99
FEB161611 KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #230 $5.99
The slack-jawed dope part of me spends an awful lot of time on these lists consistently amazed by how many comics of certain titles have been published. Some of that is how I impressed or surprised I am that a certain title reaches certain numbers, but a lot of it is that I'm older now, so entire worlds of comics delight their fans and provide employment for artists and writers without my taking notice of them. I promised one day I would just keep track of which comics brought in a low whistle that way, and the above tis the result.

FEB161842 BIRDSONG STORY IN PICTURES HC $12.95
FEB161843 REAL POOP ON PIGEONS HC $12.95
Two from Toon. Birdsong isn't just thematically pair-able with the one with the word "Poop" in the title, it's one of those Toon Books where we get another book from a not-always prolific cartoonist snuck in through the side door. In this it is cartoonist and comics educator James Sturm, working in a form of visual storytelling with which I was unfamiliar before picking up his book.

JAN161942 ALTER EGO #139 $9.95
JAN161944 BACK ISSUE #88 $8.95
DEC151090 BLEEDING COOL MAGAZINE #21 (MR) $5.99
Three comics magazine I try to read whenever I see them, while Jog tells me in his superior comics-out column that the latest issue of the CBLDF magazine Defender is out as well. The Fund-related one is a freebie. I probably still get the most out of Alter Ego of the three here, but if you count Defender that's the one into which I place the most value.

FEB162034 SETH CONVERSATIONS SC $25.00
This is another one of the artists interview compendia, which I rarely enjoy but now take some comfort in that some of the on-line material will be saved that might go away forever otherwise. I think Seth asked that I submit one of our interviews for the book, and I'm guessing if this had been done I would have complied.

FEB161059 CHAINMAIL BIKINI ANTHOLOGY OF WOMEN GAMERS (MR) $20.00
The final stage in a popular Kickstarter project is that we all notice when copies make it out into one of the key secondary marketplace for them. In this case it's Chainmail Bikini, an anthology of comics about female gamers, and the secondary market (sort of like for gaming once upon a time) is the comic book shop. There are a lot of interesting cartoonists involved with this one, and I would buy a Hellen Jo covered book if the interiors were just a series of insults flung at me, one a page.

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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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