This Isn’t A Library: Notable Releases To The 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.

*****

MAY130984 SCIENCE FICTION GN (MR) $18.00
Well, it isn't last week, but last week was stuffed with comics -- in part, I'm guessing, from a desire to have stuff out for Comic-Con International, but maybe I'm wrong. Lot of interesting books this week, though. Science Fiction is Joe Ollmann's latest, once at D+Q and now at Conundrum. Ollmann is working a very peculiar stretch of artistic territory in his works, and this one may be the oddest of all: the story of a relationship slowly crumbling around the pressures of one participant believing they were abducted by UFOs. If you go to the comic looking for one-off, idiosyncratic artistic experience, you don't have to go much further than this one this week.

MAY130401 SATELLITE SAM #1 (MR) [DIG] $3.50
MAY130018 47 RONIN #5 $3.99
MAY130036 ABE SAPIEN #4 NEW RACE PT 1 MAX FIUMARA CVR $3.50
MAY130010 CATALYST COMIX #1 (MR) $2.99
MAY130019 MISTER X EVICTION #3 $3.99
APR130425 AGE OF BRONZE #33 [DIG] $3.50
APR130960 ADVENTURE TIME FIONNA & CAKE #6 MAIN CVRS $3.99
This summer has been really good for high-end genre comics in the classic comic book format. Writer Matt Fraction is having a heck of a summer between the super well-liked latest issue of Hawkeye and the first issue of a series with artist Howard Chaykin. I wondered out loud a few weeks ago how well those two would mesh -- I always get the sense of Fraction figuring out his artists a bit on project, while Chaykin tends to crush things right out of the gate. They have worked before, though. That's a Stan Sakai comic book right underneath that one, and a Mignola-verse effort next. The Catalyst book is the Joe Casey-led revamp of a bunch of Dark Horse superhero titles -- Joe Casey does consistently interesting work in that genre these days, and I'm interested to see how he plays with a bigger canvas. I always look at a Mister X book, and ditto anything in the Age Of Bronze series from that nice man Eric Shanower. I didn't mean to add the Adventure Time-related comic, but what the hell.

NOV120017 AXE COP TP VOL 04 PRESIDENT WORLD $12.99
I haven't read a bunch of the Axe Cop stuff, but I know a lot of folks swear by it, an it's of course a charming story. These comics collection have done pretty well for Dark Horse in their generally underrated little line of comics they do that appeared on-line first.

FEB130040 USAGI YOJIMBO LTD HC VOL 27 TOWN CALLED HELL $59.99
When summer hits I always thinking about doing a Usagi Yojimbo re-read, and I end up getting that done about one of every four years. I only go up through about 10 or 12 volumes, though. There are so many volumes now, I could spend a summer just reading what I haven't quite caught up to yet except for occasional dips into the serial comic book.

NOV121176 GREEN EGGS AND MAAKIES HC (MR) $19.99
More lovingly drawn Tony Millionaire madness. I'm fond of any book that's formatted in a way that it's hard to sort of read it on your lap; there's something very humorous about that, a book that's aggravating to even read. It looks great at that size, though.

FEB131128 GRAPHIC CANON TP VOL 03 HEART OF DARKNESS TO INFINITE JEST $44.95
I really didn't think much of the first two books I've read, although maybe they have some sort of academic role to fill that would provide with a different context in terms of understanding what these books are supposed to do. There are also always a few cartoonists I love in these books.

MAY131085 JOHN STANLEY LIBRARY NANCY HC VOL 04 $29.95
You had my money at "John Stanley."

MAY130983 PAUL JOINS THE SCOUTS GN $20.00
This is a bit like under-appreciated comics week, so of course a volume in this measured, extremely pleasurable comics series comes out. I haven't always loved every book, but each one is immensely fun to read.

APR131262 STAR REACH COMPANION SC $27.95
It's rare that one of these specific-history books attracts my attention, but I'd love to know more about the overground period more generally and this anthology specifically.

APR131393 TASCHEN SILVER AGE OF DC COMICS 1956 - 1970 HC $59.99
I haven't read the first DC-related Paul Levitz book for Taschen, let alone made plans for this one, but I'm interested in the subject matter and the production vales so I would of course give it a thorough looking-over. Certainly there are few writers, if any, as focused on that area of comics history as Levitz, and none have his pedigree.

FEB131020 DISNEY MICKEY MOUSE COLOR SUNDAYS HC VOL 01 CALL WILD $29.99
I've had a fun time reading all of the Disney stuff that Fantagraphics has put together thus far, but I had a blast with this one: color work, all working out of very strange rhythms, lovingly presented and contextualized. There are so freaking many decent to great strip collections now, but that doesn't mean we should fail to appreciated individual effort on their own merit. I lost a whole Saturday afternoon in this book, an it was a fine, fine day.

*****

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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