This Isn’t A Library: Notable Releases Into Comics’ Direct Market



*****

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.

*****

APR150457 BACCHUS OMNIBUS ED GN (MR) $39.99
I very much love the first big Eddie Campbell book that Top Shelf did, the one featuring all of the Alec for the very basic reasons I think there's a bunch of great comics in there. My hopes for the first Bacchus volume are a little less concerned with staggering greatness on every page but also that fun sense of discovery where you look at someone's work in a different way for getting to read a bunch of it at once. Between this book and the Drawn and Quarterly foot-shattering tome, you won't have to leave your hammock until Labor Day.

MAY151059 MOWGLIS MIRROR GN (MR) $8.00
This was the best new comic I've read thus far this year, and it's been a good year for comics. It's even an attractive -- and very affordable for what it provides -- art object. One thing that's great about Olivier Schrauwen's work that's true here is how uncomfortable and unsettling the work; it just doesn't fit within any expectations I have for a comics story. This is a fine follow-up to last year's top-five-of-2014 work Arsene Schrauwen. There's not cartoonist I look forward to reading more right now.

MAR150091 CREEPY PRESENTS ALEX TOTH HC $19.99
I've lost track a bit on the Dark Horse hardcover collections of horror material, particularly on books like this where it's a break from numbered collection. That said, there's no comics artist in history that is more interesting to see work through visual solutions than Alex Toth was, and the Warren work was almost always in the top 25 percent of scripts on which Toth worked. That seems like a nice price point, too.

MAR150022 HIGH CRIMES HC $19.99
This is the collection of the most lauded Monkeybrain serial that isn't Bandette. Happily, it's a very different kind of comic altogether, and I think a collection might actually outperform the serial in terms of putting the names of its creators, Christopher Sebela and Ibrahim Moustafa, on the lips of fans -- they're already on the radar of those who hire and publish. I'm looking forward to reading it all at once, even though that's not a genre in which I normally traffic.

APR150260 BATMAN THE JIRO KUWATA BATMANGA TP VOL 02 $12.99
Jiro Kuwata can be your favorite Batman artist and no one should ever complain to you. I just sort of enjoy these comics for their rambling narrative ease and fun design, as opposed to some sort of accidental disquisition on manga or even as a Batman Object.

APR158516 DARTH VADER #1 GRANOV 4TH PTG VAR $4.99
The fourth printing is worth noting. I'm greatly interested to see how many of the Marvel Star Wars books can make it into a third or four year. They've set themselves quite the task, which is working a very specific conception of Star Wars but also finding enough in terms of the way of rich story that doesn't get boring or it doesn't feel like padding between the "real" stories, the movies. I'm dying to know how it will turn out.

MAY151466 FANTASY SPORTS GN VOL 01 $19.95
I'll look at anything Sam Bosma, and this is I assume a continuation/conclusion of the comics that saw light a few years back as Fantasy Basketball. This is one of those nice-looking Nobrow hardcover, which I'm sure will be hard to miss.

APR150305 WILL EISNERS THE SPIRIT A CELEBRATION OF 75 YEARS HC $49.99
FEB150841 KING SIZE KIRBY SLIPCASE HC $200.00
As is the case with the aforementioned Alex Toth, it's hard not to want every single thing published with work from Will Eisner and Jack Kirby. That Kirby hardcover volume is 800 pages plus of work from a variety of eras and is likely quite something, even if you're like me and prefer to collect him in original comic book form barring some special flourish (like the Artist's Editions size and original art focus). The Eisner seems more like a gift book in that it seems broader than a hardcore reader intended project, more a survey of the character, even, including work down with him by other comics-makers. I'd still look, though, that's for sure.

APR151047 ARCHIE #1 BLANK SKETCH CVR $3.99
APR151045 ARCHIE #1 BRITTNEY WILLIAMS CVR $3.99
APR151046 ARCHIE #1 CHIP ZDARSKY CVR $3.99
APR151028 ARCHIE #1 COLLEEN COOVER CVR $3.99
APR151037 ARCHIE #1 DAVID MACK CVR $3.99
APR151030 ARCHIE #1 EISMA CVR $3.99
APR151031 ARCHIE #1 FRANCAVILLA CVR $3.99
APR151032 ARCHIE #1 GENEVIEVE F T CVR $3.99
APR151043 ARCHIE #1 GREG SCOTT CVR $3.99
APR151035 ARCHIE #1 HACK CVR $3.99
APR151036 ARCHIE #1 HASPIEL CVR $3.99
APR151027 ARCHIE #1 J SCOTT CAMPBELL CVR $3.99
APR151033 ARCHIE #1 MICHAEL GAYDOS CVR $3.99
APR151039 ARCHIE #1 MIKE NORTON CVR $3.99
APR151038 ARCHIE #1 MORITAT CVR $3.99
APR151040 ARCHIE #1 ORDWAY CVR $3.99
APR151041 ARCHIE #1 RAMON PEREZ CVR $3.99
APR151026 ARCHIE #1 REG STAPLES CVR $3.99
APR151042 ARCHIE #1 RON SALAS CVR $3.99
APR151034 ARCHIE #1 SANFORD GREENE CVR $3.99
APR151044 ARCHIE #1 T REX CVR $3.99
APR151029 ARCHIE #1 TANIA DEL RIO CVR $3.99
Our retailers are too smart now for variant covers to poison direct market retail, so I'm actually happy when they're done occasionally because 1) I can imagine in many cases a comics fan wanting a certain cover and 2) a lot of people I know get an extra gig. This seems sort of silly, though. In fact, I'd sort of argue that if it's going to take stunts like this to get a foundational-shift effort like continuity-style Archie comics going, it may be that more thought needs to be given with how these books are going to be presented in the non-stunt way that will eventually need to sustain the project.

MAY151362 CRICKETS #4 (MR) (NOTE PRICE) $8.00
MAY150084 ABE SAPIEN #24 $3.50
MAY150885 CHEER UP ONE SHOT (MR) $5.00
MAY150502 SAGA #30 (MR) $2.99
MAY150508 WALKING DEAD #144 (MR) $2.99
MAY151468 INVADER ZIM #1 $3.99
If you count the Schrauwen as a comic book, the appearance of Sammy Harkham's latest make this the best alt-comics format week in a few years. As it is, it's a really good one. That's a solid offering from Harkham, in the news this week for the Kramers Ergot Vol. 9 announcement. Cheer Up is Noah Van Sciver's attempt to do a comic a lot like the underground-influenced ones from the 1990s. That should be fun. After that we get the Mignola-verse book, which we always point to not just because I read those comics but because they're consistently available in a way I think makes them really good citizens of the Direct Market. Saga is a big, big seller right now; that's another transitional issue. I bet retailers are happy when that's one on the list because I bet it pulls a few customers into the store that may not show up all that frequently between issues. Walking Dead #144 is another transitional issue as their recent storyline heats up. I think this is where one of their collection series will end, on this issue, and the pay off between issues #145 to #150 should be something considering how they kind of orient that comic towards extra sales. Invader Zim I'm mentioning because I agree with its publisher that there's some potential life in that project, which is 15-20 years old by now.

MAY151447 IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME SWANNS WAY GN $26.95
This is a sizable WW Norton publication of Stephane Heuet's ongoing adaptation of Proust. Adapting Proust always seems to me a slightly more advance way of reading Proust, such are the challenges and rewards there. A brief look over at Jog's description -- I swear I don't do it a lot -- indicates supplementary material out the wazoo.

MAY151201 MOOSE GN (MR) $17.00
This is the Max De Radigues comic which was one of the highlights of the short-lived but still-missed (by me) serial comics clusters phase of Oily Comics' young life. I greatly enjoyed them that way. I believe it was collected for one of the European markets, which is probably the production basis for the way it's going to be presented in this form. You see the effortless-seeming visual appeal in the cover.

MAY151750 HIRSCHFELD CENTURY PORTRAIT OF ARTIST & HIS AGE HC $40.00
One thing on my "I wish comics would do this list" is to lay claim to Al Hirschfeld as a comic-makers in addition to his legendary status as a caricaturist. A lot of his books, and hell, even the theater drawings, can be viewed as comics with the narrative simply being the exploration of the theater world at different stages of its existence. Some of his earlier book projects were even closer to standard-narrative comics that way. As always, it's likely a marvel to look at even if you don't get bogged down in definitional terms.

*****

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.

*****



*****
*****
 
posted 11:55 pm PST | Permalink
 

---

 
Daily Blog Archives
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
 
Full Archives