This Isn’t A Library: New, Notable Releases Into The 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.

*****

APR171238 KING CAT 77 $5.00
John Porcellino's mini-comics master series slipped back into Direct Market distribution a few issues ago -- my memory is that it was briefly available this way a while back, but this could even be a first time thing. It's a really good issue, with a bunch of high-energy short comics about the natural world as encountered by the cartoonist. Paired with the great #75, it paints a picture of a revitalized cartoonist with plenty to say. I hope that's the case: the comics world is better with an invigorated John Porcellino on point.

JAN170390 DOOM PATROL THE SILVER AGE OMNIBUS HC $99.99
It's a pretty good week for comics of a bunch of different types, so of course my old-man eyes are drawn to a standard DC archival project collecting a bunch of their old Doom Patrol comics. The thing is, I've never read a lot of this stuff, and I've had it recommended to me not as great comics but as quirky and compelling ones. I'd look!

APR170815 HEAD LOPPER #6 CVR A MACLEAN $5.99
MAR170740 BLACK MONDAY MURDERS #6 (MR) $3.99
APR170827 INVINCIBLE #137 $2.99
My brother and I are both infatuated with Head Lopper, which we enjoy as an atmospheric, fantasy goof with great setpieces and a jaunty tone. I've been reading a bunch of Jonathan Hickman to the point that when I saw him at Heroes Con I gushed more than usual. I think he's an interesting talent in the world of independent/mainstream comics, and most of the books he's done over the last five years have a lot to recommend them. Black Monday Murders uses a lot of text and symbolic language, which makes the comics sequence punch and disarming. Invincible continues its crimson-masked victory tour with a sprawling inter-galactic epic meant to wrap up the majority of its foregrounded plotlines. It's to the comic's credit that a bunch of basic outcomes are still on the table.

MAR170628 LEANING GIRL TP (IDW ED) $29.99
FEB170489 LOST PLANET HC $29.99
FEB170492 RED RANGE A WILD WESTERN ADVENTURE HC $19.99
FEB170486 ROCKETEER HIGH FLYING ADVENTURES HC $39.99
These are the reprints that stood out for me this week. Leaning Girl is IDW by way of its partnership with Schuiten/Peeters focused Alaxis Press, and is one of the more elegant looks in that collaboration's sprawling efforts. Lost Planet is Bo Hampton doing 1950s science fiction comics to the point they're printed in some odd way that was only done at the time -- I always look at Bo Hampton. Red Range is Joe Lansdale paired with the mighty Sam Glanzman, who never cheats on the page. That Rocketeteer book I think is a big collection of the immediate post-creator efforts, with an all-star lineup of the last 30 years of mainstream to indy talent. I have little to no interest in making that kind of work part of my diet at the serial comic level, as my interest in the concept ended with the originator, but I'd take another look at it bundled together in one place.

APR171740 NEW LOW GN JOHNNY RYAN (MR) $19.99
FEB171648 ZANARDI HC $29.99
MAR171796 IN THE PINES 5 MURDER BALLADS HC (MR) $24.99
Strong week from Fantagraphics, including a bunch of Vice work from the super-smart and leans-to-extreme-outcomes Johnny Ryan. I always like how immediately Ryan shoves his characters into dismaying circumstances. The Zanardi work was titanically important to adult-sensibility comics in its original market and promises realistically portrayed stories of teenager troubles in the late '70s and early '80s, all the teens I stared at and watched from my percn on the stairs until I became one myself. Looks super-pretty, too. I'm in the middle of reading Erik Kriek's well-conceived volume of adaptation of murder ballads; they could be lying to me that murder ballads is really a thing, but if it isn't it should be.

APR171754 PRINCE VALIANT HC VOL 15 1965-1966 $34.99
I clapped my hands like a simpleton when I got a copy of this latest Prince Valiant work. I adore the boys' adventure elements of Foster's work, and this Arn-driven revisitation to some Valiant/Aleta stomping grounds provides a lot of that kind thing. Like I really liked this Viking Hall that has this humiliating nighttime door where you have to enter in a non-defensible crouch. Give me details like that and I would have read it for 100 years or whatever in my newspaper, too.

APR172172 DOROHEDORO GN VOL 21 (MR) $12.99
APR172173 MASTER KEATON GN VOL 11 URASAWA $19.99
APR172166 GOODNIGHT PUNPUN GN VOL 06 (MR) $24.99
That's three super-solid, appealing series by cartoonists of significant interest. I think the latter two are late in their runs. I've come around on the Urasawa work, which carves out its own place in your brain.

APR171772 INDEH STORY OF THE APACHE WARS TP $14.99
I've heard more about the publicity for this comic due to its pedigree as work originating with the author/actor Ethan Hawke, but Greg Ruth has done a lot of well-received work in a quiet way and I'd like to see the actual work to figure out how he's done with this particular story.

APR172280 PERSPECTIVE IN ACTION SC $22.99
David Chelsea doing one of the things David Chelsea does best: communicate issues of drawing and presentation to a reader ready or at least desirable of master-class type teaching.

FEB171592 KITARO AND THE GREAT TANUKI WAR $12.95
I quite liked this little Shigeru Mizuki work, from his long-running and popular series of monster-focused adventures. I liked how crazily this story careened towards despair and places of hopelessness, and how things offscreen would both not come through and succeed spectacularly. I want to read more.

*****

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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