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.

*****

JUL131134 HIP HOP FAMILY TREE GN $24.99
AUG131305 PEANUTS EVERY SUNDAY HC 1952 - 1955 $49.99
Fantagraphics is in the midst of a very successful crowd-funding campaign, and at its heart is the good will they've accumulated over the year through publication of high-end comics. The first volume of Hip Hop Family Tree features Ed Piskor's work that's been seen in a ton of places most prominently Boing Boing; the first volume of Peanuts Every Sunday features color versions of the first several years of Sunday for that all-time, pantheon-level comic strip. I want both and you should, too.

SEP131142 SHOWA HISTORY OF JAPAN 1926 -1939 TP $24.95
AUG131367 VINLAND SAGA GN VOL 01 $19.99
JUL130090 LONE WOLF & CUB OMNIBUS TP VOL 03 $19.99
AUG131417 GOLD POLLEN AND OTHER STORIES HC (MR) $27.50
Manga is a weak area for me, but this seems a very strong week, with two high-end arts titles from Drawn and Quarterly and Picturebox as well as the first volume of a well-regarded, mainstream-oriented action/adventure/historical-fiction title and the latest in a presentation of an action classic that has performed extremely well on these shores. This week, you could buy just these three books and have an excellent week at the store. And be sort of broke.

JUL130028 COLOSSAL CONAN HC $150.00
"Colossal Conan" is fun to say, and the character has enough of a rich pedigree in comics I'd look at a deluxe presentation of any of that work. This is the first 52 issues of the Dark Horse relaunch, which puts a bit of pressure on the per-book presentation here. I'm slightly under-read with those comics, but I liked okay some of the issues I read in I think the #30s.

SEP130037 RESIDENT ALIEN SUICIDE BLONDE #3 $3.99
SEP130303 ASTRO CITY #6 $3.99
AUG130423 ROCKETEER SPIRIT PULP FRICTION #3 [DIG/P+] $3.99
I didn't see a whole lot on this week's list in the way of genre-oriented serial comic that piqued my interest. I enjoy that Resident Alien series when I see it, kind of a Longmire with a geeky looking (and illusion maintaining) little green man in the place of a burly Australian actor. Kurt Busiek's work is always worth a look. The Rocketeer/Spirit comic I will admit being of primary interest because of a recent TCJ post saying those post-Stevens comics have worked better as comics than the original material. I pretty much reject the premise of that outright -- not because I love those Rocketeer comic but because I think comics has a range of effects that doesn't favor a more purely "comics-like" approach over any other -- but it put these comics on the mind.

JUL130078 SABERTOOTH SWORDSMAN HC $17.99
This is a berserk-looking thing that came out from Dark Horse, lauded by high-end practitioners of quirky mainstream-acceptable comics like Mike Allred and Brandon Graham.

AUG131153 OTHER STORIES AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON GN $18.00
If you go to the comics shop and buy new work by cartoonists with whom you are slightly to all-the-way unfamiliar, this can bolster your Ed Piskor version. Also, let me thank you, because you are a better person than most. We're starting to get books from CCS graduates that left the placed after 2010, which is slightly terrifying.

AUG131656 SQUARED AWAY DOONESBURY COLL HC $25.00
This is the latest bunch of comics from Garry Trudeau, someone I will always read and one of the three strips in the paper right now to which people are playing slightly less attention now than they will when those cartoonists are done. I like the looks of these book, and how they show off Trudeau's sort of unlovely but wholly serviceable art.

SEP131200 TUNE GN VOL 01 VANISHING POINT $16.99
I think this is a re-release in advance of the comedic science fiction series' second volume, but I'd also read in a few places that the second volume might be out.

SEP131404 WALLY WOOD EERIE TALES OF CRIME & HORROR HC NEW PTG $39.95
SEP131405 WALLY WOOD EERIE TALES OF CRIME & HORROR SC NEW PTG $24.95
Wally Wood Wally Wood Wally Wood... always Wally Wood, the great broken saint of North American mainstream comic books.

SEP131201 ADVENTURES IN CARTOONING CHRISTMAS SPECIAL $9.99
These sprightly instructional books have apparently done very well, although with no help from me. I mean, they're sort of ruthlessly not the kind of thing in which I'm interested, so that's okay. But hey, new one.

SEP131462 ART OF RUBE GOLDBERG HC $60.00
JUL130989 ART OF SEAN PHILLIPS HC (MR) $39.99
I like them both! The more significant of those artists has a more expensive price tag, which isn't how comics usually works.

SEP131464 CHESTER BROWN CONVERSATIONS HC $40.00
I don't always care for these conversations books, although between the work that's owned by Fantagraphics over which I have no control and some work I've let into these books in various moments of weakness I've certainly participated in my share. Chester Brown is a fine interview and a great cartoonists, so I'd certainly look.

JUL130077 BANDETTE HC VOL 01 PRESTO $14.99
JUL130741 DELUSIONAL HC $24.95
Because I couldn't find two good cover images over a certain size for this week's manga offerings, I thought we might end on a pair of cartoonists -- and one other comics-maker -- I think of when I think of the rich Portland cartooning sign. Both comics should work their way on some of the more idiosyncratic top 10 lists, or at least those that embody a stricter-than-usual approach to the representative area of interest. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much in that Farel Dalrymple book -- he did Delusional, while Presto is the first from a webcomics series by Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin -- was comics as opposed to art. Not that I ever object to looking at Farel Dalrymple art.

*****

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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