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.

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MAY170648 STREET ANGEL GANG HC $19.99
This is splendid-looking, as is a lot of what Jim Rugg does -- particularly with this character.

MAY170066 BPRD DEVIL YOU KNOW #1 $3.99
MAY170710 SAGA #45 (MR) $2.99
I could find very little in the serial comic book format this time out, but a new BPRD is always welcome by me, and a new Saga is always welcome by comics shops. This was the first Saga I read where I had a hard time remembering some of the narrative through-lines: much more likely a sign of senility on my part than creative decline in the comic book.

MAY170382 TMNT USAGI YOJIMBO CVR A SAKAI $7.99
MAY170383 TMNT USAGI YOJIMBO CVR B ARAGONES $7.99
MAR170064 USAGI YOJIMBO SAGA LEGENDS LTD ED HC $79.99
MAR170063 USAGI YOJIMBO SAGA LEGENDS TP $24.99
I will buy every thing that Stan Sakai makes. I extend this same courtesy to another natural cartoonist, Sergio Aragones, so I'll be picking up at least one variant cover book this week if I can help it.

NOV160071 HOW TO WIN AT LIFE BY CHEATING AT EVERYTHING TP $14.99
I'm not interest in the book, or cheating, but there are illustrations here by the popular proto-comics humor columnist Scott Shaw!. It's been a while since I've seen a lot of his work in one place, so I'd pick up this book in a shop for sure.

MAY171061 CLOUD STORIES GN (MR) $20.00
This is K. Thor Jensen's one-man anthology cycling around the idea of "clouds." Jensen was the youngest member of the Seattle cartooning scene of the 1990s and only rarely releases material so having a full book is great.

JUN171801 HENRY AND GLENN FOREVER AND EVER HC $25.95
JUN171802 HENRY AND GLENN ADULT COLORING BOOK (MR) $12.95
That's another 16 pages of Henry and Glenn material in the latest collection, followed by the latest in the I'm-guessing past-the-crest coloring book trend. I bet a significant percentage of people have tried to color at least one page of one of those books, even if, like me, they're not really coloring people.

MAY170645 SOLID STATE TP $19.99
This is the companion to Jonathan Coulton's new albums, bringing to it the talents of Matt Fraction and Albert Monteys. That makes it the highest curiosity book of the week for those of us lucky to go to stores that carry it.

JUN172265 COMICS ART IN CHINA HC $65.00
JUN172266 COMICS OF CHARLES SCHULZ GOOD GRIEF OF MODERN LIFE HC $65.00
JUN172267 COMICS TRAUMA AND NEW ART OF WAR HC $65.00
Three scholarly books priced for academia. The first one is probably the most interesting, another John Lent exploration of non-Japanese Asian comics. Lent owns that subject matter in English to the point I'm pretty sure he could make up artists and not get called on it for a few years. It's also one of the last areas of comics where I think there are major discovers yet to be made.

JUN172269 JIM SHOOTER CONVERSATIONS HC $40.00
This should be interesting because Shooter's interviews frequently serve a political purpose according to his position on an issue of the time. There's also a wide range of interviews stretching back to his boy-wonder days. Great choice for a volume from this series, although the content may thwart that appraisal.

MAY172122 KIRBY KING OF THE COMICS ANNIV ED SC $24.99
Happy 100th to the King. We're not talking about him enough this month.

APR172092 REED CRANDALL ILLUSTRATOR OF COMICS HC $49.95
I'm happy for every comics biography even when they aren't likely as grand or insightful as work by people like Patrick Rosenkranz and Bill Schelly because I fear a lot of mainstream work is about to fall off a cliff interest-wise, particularly interest in those artists not linked directly to a currently popular super-character. A lot of these artists weren't very well served by coverage at the time they were important figures or immediately after -- Wally Wood's TCJ obit, for example, was 1-2 pages long instead of the 15 it might have been a dozen years later. That price point says fans-only + art book, but it's still nice to have around.

MAY171676 QUEEN EMERALDAS HC GN VOL 02 (OF 2) (C: 0-1-0) $24.99
I don't cover manga very well because I don't read nearly enough of it. I know without reading this specific volume that it's worth picking up because of what seems like so little Leiji Matsumoto available in an easy way to the general public. I hope I remembered to cite the first volume in this column, but probably didn't.

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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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