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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FEB161503 HIGHBONE THEATER HC $34.99
I can't stop reading this book, the latest bit of madness from the great Joe Daly. I think it's about twenty-something aimlessness, guy culture and the way 9/11 haunted every damn thing in the world for a few years, but I'm not sure. He has a Chester Brown meets Basil Wolverton feel to his artwork, where I would have fun looking at anything he draws and am particularly pleased by his grotesques.

FEB160424 APOCRYPHA NOW HC $19.99
This is Mark Russell and Shannon Wheeler's follow-up to their previous tag team against God and propriety. I have not read a page, although I'm sort of dying to.

JAN160179 WALT KELLYS FABLES AND FUNNIES HC $49.99
Yeah, sure, Walt Kelly. I like looking at it, you like looking at it, and we all recognize the beauty of the visuals when they're show to us. Kelly's second-rung work by virtue of having done all-timer Pogo is going to be better than the primary expression of many a cartoonist. That price point is impressive, but I'd definitely look this over in a store.

JAN160134 BPRD HELL ON EARTH TP VOL 13 END OF DAYS $19.99
JAN160160 ITTY BITTY HELLBOY SEARCH FOR THE WERE JAGUAR TP $12.99
My brother and I go back and forth on how to collect Hellboy, and I have to admit that maybe we made the wrong choice in going with the comic books. That trade program for these books has the same relentless quality of most folks' comics-publishing strategies, and there's much less fuss in that you don't have to remove trades from the little baggie-things.

MAR160486 COMPLETE CHESTER GOULD DICK TRACY HC VOL 20 $39.99
FEB160448 MICHAEL WM KALUTA COMP SKETCHBOOKS HC $49.99
This pair fell together by accident, but they're two things I like a lot that I haven't had a specific compulsion to buy the last decade or so. I'm in the minority on the necessity of having Gould's work, although I enjoy what I read very much. I have a ton of fantasy art books almost on a purely nostalgic track, and while this might be that I think it might satisfy the same itch. I don't have a lot of sketchbooks proper, though.

FEB120395 WALLY WOOD GALAXY ART AND BEYOND HC $29.99
FEB161494 WALLACE WOOD PRESENTS SHATTUCK HC $24.99
Wally Wood is the patron saint of comics suffering. I'm familiar with the work in the Galaxy book and enjoy it very much; I'm not familiar at all with the Shattuck work but I have that book on my desk and have been enjoying it during reboots and computer delays. Some days I think our compulsion to reprint will be the strangest thing about the first forty years of this rebirth for comics, the 1985-2025 period. But damn, do I enjoy it.

FEB160687 LAZARUS HC VOL 02 (MR) $39.99
MAR161471 BOYS CLUB GN (MR) $19.99
Two more things I enjoy from very different perspectives are the very TV-show like action adventure Lazarus and Matt Furie's stoner comics. The world that Greg Rucka and Michael Lark have created in Lazarus is basically Occupy Nightmare Scenario #15, but they've found a nice balance between fun political tweaking and lean-and-mean TV-style don't think about it fight and intrigue comics.

MAR161406 CLUB LIFE IN MOOMINVALLEY GN $9.95
FEB161665 PEPLUM GN $24.95
Okay, that's enough of that. I got nothing. The big connection is that I desperately want both of these. Everything Moomin must be mind, and that's one of the great Blutch works. New York Review Books has been quietly killing it in its first several initial months. I do wonder after the ceiling of some of these projects sales-wise, but it's not like I'll be loudly complaining.

MAR160570 INVINCIBLE #128 $2.99
NOV150826 KARNAK #4 $3.99
JAN160133 BPRD HELL ON EARTH #141 $3.50
MAR160085 USAGI YOJIMBO #154 $3.99
A strong week in stand-alones brings with it a relatively light week of comic books, although your tastes may vary in a way that this is the grandest week of the year in this format. I still read Robert Kirkman's superhero story although it's lost some narrative propulsion for me. I can't put my finger on how or why, though. Karnak is writer Warren Ellis' nasty little joke on multiple decades of comic book kung fu masters and the physical devastation they bring; I believe this is a second issue for the artist Roland Boschi, who should be settling in. There aren't a lot of comics that can function within that particular style, but this is one of them. There's another Mignola-verse work, while Stan Sakai continues his proud march into every cartoonists' Hall of Fame there is. I've read every issue.

MAR161304 20 X 20 TWENTY YEARS OF CONUNDRUM PRESS GN $20.00
All hail Andy Brown: a quiet, dignified publishing neighbor in a country best known for being a nation of quiet, dignified neighbors. I like the concept here, which is turning each year to a creator published in that year. Conundrum's journey from a personal project, to a 'zine culture driven house to its full embrace of graphic novels. Nice Jillian Tamaki cover. Lots of photos.

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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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