This Isn’t A Library: 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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JAN151442 COMPLETE EIGHTBALL HC BOX SET ISSUES 1 - 18 (MR) $119.99
This is almost certainly one of the half-dozen must-haves of the year, the comic-book formatted issues of one of the great series of all time, featuring the work of Daniel Clowes. The packaging is super thoughtful and thought out, and of course the comics are great. It's nice to be reminded as we become more of a graphic novel culture how many short comics are in here and how many hit hard. It's also hilarious to learn that everything that Clowes wrote about Dan Pussey, which was a feature his editor Kim Thompson apparently loved leading Clowes to make more of them than he might have otherwise, was true except for the final fade into obscurity. It's all NYT obits now.

FEB150911 CLOVER HONEY 20TH ANNIVERSARY ED GN (MR) $14.95
This week's argument for feeling really old, this is Rich Tommaso's career jumpstarter (after the Eros title Cannibal Porn. As I recall, it was early enough in the big book era that a talent as young as Tommaso doing a standalone without serializing first was considered a very strange thing. It was also one of the early recipients of a television development deal -- that's my memory, anyway -- and one can see the appeal this might have had in that medium. Expanded and revised.

FEB150051 AW YEAH COMICS TP VOL 02 TIME FOR ADVENTURE $12.99
This is a second volume of the kids comics by those nice men that do tiny versions of DC superheroes as comics and are also retailers. It's not something I'm interested in now, but they're very snappy, cute comics and I've seen plenty of kids devour them like Edmund Pevensie pounds down Turkish Delight.

APR150038 GROO FRIENDS AND FOES #6 $3.99
Everything Sergio Aragones does is important and if that encompasses something to buy, I will buy it.

APR150041 USAGI YOJIMBO #146 $3.50
FEB150045 USAGI YOJIMBO TP VOL 29 TWO HUNDRED JIZO $17.99
Double ditto Stan Sakai and his Usagi Yojimbo books, a book for children (well, whose audience includes children) that has a quality to the cartooning that interests me enough I'm a reader. I buy these in comics form in chunks when I'm able, but the trade series is where most people should start. While some people may not want to read the entire saga, I can't imagine too many folks not having some fun dipping into the series and experience what he does with tone and mood and pacing.

APR150066 BPRD HELL ON EARTH #132 $3.50
APR150313 ASTRO CITY #24 $3.99
APR150183 BLACK CANARY #1 $2.99
APR150189 DR FATE #1 $2.99
APR150199 MARTIAN MANHUNTER #1 $2.99
APR150205 PREZ #1 $2.99
MAR150572 LAZARUS #17 (MR) $3.50
APR150167 JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1 $5.99
APR151230 LUMBERJANES #15 $3.99
APR150682 TREES #10 (MR) $2.99
APR151621 KAIJUMAX #3 $3.99
This is a fairly extensive list of comic book format comics for the week. We have your Mignolaverse comic right up top, mostly because Dark Horse is listed first of all the big publishers. Astro City is now two dozen into this latest iteration; that's a comic I also do in big chunks as I'm able to find them at slightly less than full price, but it strikes me as working the same basic vein of material the much lauded 1990s iteration of the title did. What follows is four well hyped comics from the DC running soft reboot. I think Prez is the most interesting choice there: it seems the least DC superheroish title and the most like kids literature hits more generally. I enjoy that Lazarus book when I see it; it reminds me of the Vertigo series of the 1990s in a good way, even though I wasn't always a reader for those titles. The JLA book I'm just pointing out the price point. Lumberjanes is still early on enough in its run that you can catch up with only a little effort, but that won't be true forever. Trees has been for me the most interesting of the recent Warren Ellis genre books: there's a real slowness to those early issues that reminds of recent prestige TV. And finally, you have Zander Cannon drawing monsters, so you want that.

APR151507 COMPLETE CRUMB COMICS TP VOL 16 1980S MORE STRUGGLE $19.99
FEB151419 COMPLETE PEANUTS HC VOL 23 1995-1996 $29.99
MAR151350 EC GRAHAM INGELS GRAVE BUSINESS & OTHER STORIES HC $29.99
Two books from two of Fantagraphics' strongest reprint lines. I know the Peanuts is past this point; not sure about the Crumb. Crumb's work in the 1980s was also sort of a running soft reboot. I can't tell with the EC stuff if I'm just not into horror comics or if there's something about their plan to reprint by author that makes some volumes less interesting. I want them all on my shelf, and find this strategy so much better in so many artists' cases, but I'm not sure if a few of them I make little to no attempt to read.

APR151602 DUNGEON MONSTRES GN VOL 05 MY SON THE KILLER $14.99
NBM finished the main Donjon series translations, but there are still some of the periphery albums to come. This one features work by Blutch, Frédéric Bézian, Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar (the later two writing), and those are some pretty gigantic names, or at least the three I know are. I will own this book.

MAR151400 REDHAND DLX HC (MR) $34.95
Started by one creative team (including writer Kurt Busiek) and concluded by another, this is a kind of European genre comic we don't see a lot of in North America these days, or it's at least a kind of book to which less attention might be paid than is warranted. I would certainly stop and look at this were it to appear in my comic book shop, although that's a price point that might exceed my enthusiasm for such series.

DEC141505 COLLECTED POEMS HC THEROUX $39.99
I very much liked Theroux's work with Edward Gorey and Al Capp as subject; could not penetrate the novel that Fantagraphics subsequently published but that is totally me. His prose indicates a love for words and an economy of use that might make him a very good poet. God bless Fantagraphics for publishing something this decidedly uncommercial.

FEB151449 SUMMIT OF GODS GN VOL 05 $25.00
APR151804 FRAGMENTS OF HORROR HC JUNJI ITO (MR) $17.99
APR151803 MASTER KEATON GN VOL 03 $19.99
This is an extremely deep week for potentialy compelling work, and even includes three manga works from artists I don't have to explain or contextualize: Jiro Taniguchi (with the last volume in that series), Junji Ito and Naoki Urusawa (art only, but still). The Ito I can imagine being someone's first or perhaps even only purchase this week, dependent on taste and the number of books they choose to keep; I think that's all short stories, and Ito is a formidable talent whose work really shines in bursts like that.

APR150986 ME LIKES YOU VERY MUCH GN (MR) $14.00
Someone should correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this work has been around for direct order for a little while and this is more just the book now being available to Direct Market comics retailers. This Hic & Hoc published work spotlights webcomics from Lauren Barnett.

FEB150457 LOAC ESSENTIALS HC VOL 07 TARZAN ORIGINAL DAILIES $29.99
FEB150109 EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN HC $19.99
FEB150110 EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN LTD HC $49.99
FEB150111 EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS TARZAN OMNIBUS TP $24.99
It's highly unlikely we'll ever be as crazy about Tarzan as people 70, 80, 90 years ago were crazy about the guy, but people used to say that about Sherlock Holmes and there's like six of him running around right now. The choice here is the LOAC Essentials book of dailies from a specific Hal Foster year. Foster's work was fascinating on that character even if you don't see it in the context of the forthcoming, legendary Prince Valiant run. The originals are ridiculous, too, if you ever get the chance.

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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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posted 11:55 pm PST | Permalink
 

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