After last week’s necessary, but not terribly exciting introductory column, I wanted to hit you with something more thoughtful than a review of the indie solicits for January. But, most of them just came out in last week’s Previews and I want to stay timely, so here we are. Flipping through all the non-DC/Marvel stuff in the catalog, this is the stuff that caught my attention in a positive way. There were a couple of head-scratchers that rubbed me the wrong way, but I resisted snarking about them because there’s enough good stuff that I’d rather spend the energy on.

Just so you know, the stuff I talk about below isn’t everything that I think is going to be good in January. In addition to this list, there are other books that I’ve been reading and enjoying on a consistent basis, but couldn’t think of anything more intelligent to say about them other than, “This is still a good series that I like.” They’re all more than worthy of mentioning though, so here they are: Conan, Samurai: Heaven and Earth Volume 2, Criminal Macabre, The Goon Noir, Elephantmen, Phonogram, Strange Girl, Witchblade, Freshmen II, Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, The Phantom, and Wasteland.

Now for the new stuff.

Dreamland Chronicles Volume 1 tpb (Blue Dream Studios): If you ever had wonderfully vivid dreams as a kid about fantastic places, you’ll love Dreamland Chronicles’ story about a college student who not only discovers that his dreamland is real, but develops a way to travel to it and re-visit the people he dreamed about all those years ago. It’s a marvelous adventure story wrapped in nostalgia for childhood lost.

Bone Volume 5: Rock Jaw: Master of the Eastern Border full color hardcover (Cartoon Books): It’s always worth mentioning whenever a new, full-color, hardcover volume of Bone comes out. As good as the original issues were, this is the way it needs to be read.

Conan and the Midnight God #1 (Dark Horse): A follow up to the Age of Conan comic by the creative team of Violent Messiahs. I’ve never read Violent Messiahs, but Tone Rodriguez’s preview art on Conan and the Midnight God makes it worth checking out.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (Dark Horse): The fantasy craze builds momentum as Dark Horse releases this trade collection of the out-of-print, four-issue mini-series from several years ago. Adapted by Howard Chaykin and Mike Mignola from Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar series, this is a great opportunity for people like me who missed it the first time around.

The Living and the Dead gn (Fantagraphics): What could be better than a horror story featuring Jason’s anthropomorphized characters? Well, it could be about the Frankenstein monster, rather than zombies, I guess. But that just reminds me that I really want to read Jason’s You Can’t Get There from Here, which is about the Frankenstein monster. Once I’m done with that, I’ll be back for the zombies in this volume.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between #1 (IDW): A large part of my brain keeps screaming that no one’s ever been able to make a really good Star Trek comic. But the small part that I can’t shut up whispers persistently that I really miss these characters and want to spend some time with them again. Gonna have to check it out.

30 Days of Night: Spreading the Disease #2 (IDW): 30 Days without Niles. But, dude, I’ve talked with writer Dan Wickline about his plans for this and it’s going to be huge. It’s also nice that it’s going to be a hefty, five-issue series after the shorter series and one-shots recently in the 30 Days world.

Pieces for Mom: A Tale of the Undead (Image): I’m a huge fan of Steve Niles’ stuff anyway, but I’m especially looking forward to this one-shot illustrated by Andrew Ritchie (Fused Tales, Cthulhu Tales). Ritchie’s stuff is the most genuinely disturbing work I’ve ever seen. The solicitation for Pieces for Mom describes his art as something “that will literally crawl under your skin.” I’m not arguing.

Kana’s Island #1 (One Room Hut): Between Lost and Boom!’s X Isle, I’ve rediscovered my love for island adventure stories. This one is all-ages, but there’s nothing wrong with that as long as it’s good. A Russ Manning nomination this year tells me that it’s not going to suck. Definitely worth looking into.

Death Comes to Dillinger Collected Edition (Silent Devil): I knew from the first issue of this two-issue mini-series that I was going to have to buy the trade when it came out. Still didn’t keep me from buying the second issue as soon as it hit the stands. This was just one of those rare books that I want on my bookshelf, but didn’t want to wait that long to read. It’s cool, touching, deadly, and beautiful all at the same time. If you missed the series, don’t make the same mistake with the collection.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 10:02 am and is filed under Comic Books, Dark Horse, Fringe Benefits, Image, Independent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.