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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JUN151311 HIP HOP FAMILY TREE GN VOL 03 $27.99
This is a surprisingly solid week once you get past a lack of knock-you-out hits up top. The headliner is the third volume of Ed Piskor's Hip-Hop Family Tree history, which depending on your age and interest in hip-hop is at very least a humbling exercise on how you sort memories in a linear fashion once you get older: very, very poorly. I asked Piskor where he's going to end the volumes, and I liked his answer enough it's made me keep up on the volumes as they come out rather than huge gulps of it later on.

JUN150051 ELTINGVILLE CLUB #2 $3.99
JUN150068 ABE SAPIEN #25 $3.50
JUN150531 ODYC #6 (MR) $3.99
JUN150532 PHONOGRAM THE IMMATERIAL GIRL #1 (MR) $3.99
JAN150718 VELVET #11 (MR) $3.50
JUN150539 WALKING DEAD #145 (MR) $2.99
JUN151447 KAIJUMAX #5 $3.99
JUN150167 DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS #1 $3.99
There's a lot here that's interesting. Eltingville Club is Evan Dorkin's last show at those characters, once about the funniest satire of that milieu going. There's your Mignola-verse comic right after, and Matt Fraction's admirable take on the Odyssey after that. Phonogram was the first place that creative pair found a voice so I'm interested to see if new material sounds settled or stange. I'm not sure Ed Brubaker's found the right pacing on his Velvet as of yet, but Steve Epting's art is as good on this kind super-spy material as I imagine anyone's might be. Walking Dead is curiously paced right now, like there should be more story between now and whatever horrble outcome writer Robert Kirman and artist Charlie Adlard have cooked up for #150. Love the fact that Zander Cannon's monster comic is already at a fifth issue. And then there's the Bombshells comic, which I'd love to see a print copy.

APR150064 HELLBOY AND THE BPRD 1952 TP $19.99
JUN150535 SATELLITE SAM TP VOL 03 LIMESTONE CAVES OF FIRE (MR) $14.99
I can't imagine that's the first time that a 1952 Mignola-verse book has been collected, but I don't follow the series that closely and I favor the comic books to the trades. The Satellite Sam is the last in this cycle; it moves to the west coast and a different genre of show last night out. I'm glad that's collected because I want to read a bunch of it at once. Finding the individual issues when I've had the impulse has been difficult, so messy is my collection.

JUN150841 SHIELD 50TH ANNIVERSARY BY KIRBY AND STERANKO POSTER $8.99
Hardly a word in the above I don't favor.

JUN150934 CALVIN & HOBBES AUTHORITATIVE HC $29.99
JUN150935 CALVIN & HOBBES ESSENTIAL HC $29.99
JUN150936 CALVIN & HOBBES INDISPENSABLE HC $29.99
These are three Calvin & Hobbes book under the old way of collecting them -- I think these were the names for the double-beck connections they startted about seven or eight0

JUN151061 INK FOR BEGINNERS GUIDE TO GETTING TATTOOED $4.00
This is Kate Leth's range of basic advice on getting tattoos. I can't imagine this hasn't done well already, and seems like in comics shops would be an easy sale all summer long.

JUN151496 JUDGE DREDD AMERICA TP $18.99
You had me at "Dredd."

MAY158382 JEFFREY JONES IDYL IM AGE HC $39.99
MAY158383 JEFFREY JONES IDYL IM AGE SC $24.99
MAY151087 ART OF MOUSE GUARD 2005 - 2015 HC $59.99
JUN151349 MARK SCHULTZ STORMS AT SEA ILLUS NOVELLA HC $24.95
Thesre are all fun artists, particuarly Jones, but also Schultz and even Petersen. Mouse Guard always seems like a perenially under-rewarded series given its general high quality and the number of fans it has. I assume that the Idyl release is the same book from 1975. Forty years ago. That was actually a really dark time for comics, which is what makes me think gives comics that survived that era a distinct sheen no matter what we think of them now.

JUN151569 LITTLE NEMO BIG NEW DREAMS HC $16.95
JUN151570 WINDWILL DRAGONS LEAH & ALAN ADV HC $18.95
MAY151489 SMURFS GN VOL 19 JEWEL SMURFER $5.99
MAY151490 SMURFS HC VOL 19 JEWEL SMURFER $10.99
This is a bunch of kids' stuff, of a high quality. The Little Nemo is a smaller-sized sampler of the anthology with "dreams" in the title. It both smaller in terms of strips selected and smaller physically. I would have been the target audience for this book a terrifying 41 years ago. The Dragons is a sequel to the Secret Of The Stone Frog that was a risk for TOON because of its size, as I recall. I assume everything worked out. I'm listing the latest Smurfs because I like the Smurfs book but mostly to note that I remember a couple of kids needing to get a couple of years older to read this series and now they're pretty much too old. Time flies.

MAY150887 IT WILL ALL HURT #3 (MR) $8.00
It's light enough on big books that I like that I'll pick a book with big pictures: Farel Dalrymple is in a very good place drawing-wise right now. I hope this Alternative Comics consortium approach is working in terms of driving shop attention to some of these very intriguing books available in that section of the catalog.

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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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