Today, we’re taking a stroll through the newest issue of Previews. Just in case you’re not familiar with it, Previews is published by Diamond, the distributor that brings all your favorite comics from the printer to the shops you frequent every Wednesday. Previews is Diamond’s monthly retail catalog, typically intended for retailers but frequently used and referenced by … well, just about everybody in the industry. So I’m going to flip through the 400+ page catalog and mention a few projects that caught my eye.
First, Joe Simon hand-picks The Best of Simon & Kirby, a 320-page hardcover from Titan Publishing. $40.00 gets you superheroes, western action, chilling horror, romance and gangs of young children in politically correct, derring-do adventure. I joke, but it’s Simon and Kirby, gang. I’m jazzed. TwoMorrows gets into the Kirby love with The Collected Jack Kirby Collector vol. 7, a book-form edition of four issues of their loving magazine. Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Jeff Smith and Mark Hamill are among those interviewed. Vanguard also resolicits Joe Simon’s autobiography, The Comic Book Makers.
Bryan Lee O’Malley’s long-awaited 5th Scott Pilgrim book, Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe drops. Which reminds me that I still haven’t read vol. 4 yet. Oni Press publishes.
On page 208, Archie Comics has Sonic Universe #1 and Sabrina vol. 2 #100. Honestly, I have absolutely no clue if kids today care a whit about these two properties any more, but a creative revamp for Sonic and 100 consecutive issues for Sabrina is worth noting.
Gemstone has one of the month’s highlights, the fourth volume of the EC Archives: Weird Science series, plus the usual assortment of Uncle Scrooge and Disney comics. Gemstone’s also touting the return of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. Personally, I’ve never been one to sum up my collection’s worth, but if you are, this book’s your bible.
If you think comics are getting to expensive in their present 32-page format, Avatar releases The Art of Paul Duffield, a 16-page sketchbook from the artist of FreakAngels, for $3.99. I don’t read online comics as much as I should, so I haven’t read the series, but FreakAngels fans be aware. The trade paperback of Garth Ennis’ Streets of Glory is also offered from Avatar. Two more Garth Ennis books can be found from Dynamite, which gives us collections of Battlefields: The Night Witches and an omnibus hardcover of the Dan Dare series originally published by Virgin Comics. Also from Ellis, who continues to branch out with smaller publishers, is Hotwire: Requiem for the Dead #1 from Radical Publishing. Under-rated Steve Pugh handles the art for Warren.
Three Rivers Press has 08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail, which misses the chance to actually use the name of either candidate – Barack Obama or John McCain – in the title. Michael Rowley and Dan Goldman do the honors in this 160-page journalism comic. Appearing to be less even-handed in its approach, Bluewater Productions solicits Female Force: Sarah Palin. $3.99 for a world of political pain. I’ll let you fill in your own supervillain punchline.
Simon and Schuster continues to delve into the graphic novel market, with the biography Before They Were Famous: Babe Ruth, and the apparently humorous tale of adolescent ennui (as a friend says, comics are about pure fantasy or exactly what you know) Sunny-Side Down.
Jeff Smith produced an attractive Rasl print to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. You can find it on page 230. It’s a good cause, says pimpin’ Mike.
Veteran Legion of Super-Heroes (among a zillion other things, but I know him best from Legion) artist Greg LaRocque returns to comics with The Dreaming #1, published by his own Exile Studios.
As usual, Fantagraphics has a two-page spread of comic book goodness: Humbug, a 480-page hardcover of the legendary Harvey Kurtzman humor mag produced after Kurtzman split from Mad; a treasury of Tony Millionaire’s Maakies strips (Drinky Crow’s Maakies Treasury); anxiety and drug-fueled coming of age (A Mess of Everything, by Miss Lasko-Gross); more Mome; more Comics Journal (best of year issue); and another collection of pin-up artwork.
Carol Lay has a new book, following up on this year’s terrific reprint Goodnight, Irene. The Big Skinny: How I Changed my Fattitude is one of those potential crossover books I get excited over. Lay’s upbeat, delightful cartooning should make the saga of her quest to get down to her ideal weight a blast, and hopefully it’ll get a nice bookstore push with fad diets, weight loss plans and all that jazz continuing to occupy the minds of the world’s most obese country. Villard publishes The Big Skinny. Villard’s other February offering, In the Flesh, from new cartoonist Koren Shadmi, looks like the book Villard wants to push. The solicit’s comparison to Dan Clowes – great, great artist, but the unending portraits of sad-sack, obnoxious losers get tiresome – turns me off, personally.
Oh, and in the front of the catalog:
Dark Horse: Dames, Dolls and Gun Molls, by Jim Silke and Robert A. Maguire, a historically presented selection of pulp magazine covers and artistry done by Maguire, should be a treat for fans of pulp art; The Adventures of Blanche, by always-excellent Rick Geary; The Dylan Dog Casefiles, collecting the translations of the Italian comic originally put out by Dark Horse a dozen or so years ago (Brandon Routh’s signed on to star in the movie adaptation, the solicit reminds me); Turok: Son of Stone Archives collects the old Dell Comics that inspired the Valiant comics and the video games; and the expansion of the Hellboy universe continues with Tim Lebbon’s (non-graphic) novel The Fire Wolves.
DC: Neil Gaiman’s “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader” is in February’s Batman #686 and Detective #853. Adventure Comics #0 is the lucky one-millionth reprint of Adventure Comics #247, the debut of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Only $1.00 gets you in on the ground floor of a house built, rebuilt and unbuilt more than any other in comics history. Absolute Superman: For Tomorrow is on the schedule. I kind of liked the story, but not for $75. James Robinson’s first Superman arc gets hardcover treatment (Superman: The Coming of Atlas), with the one and only Jack Kirby Atlas story tossed in for good measure. Showcase Presents Ambush Bug gives us a low-scale reprint of basically every Giffen Bug story, plus some other Bug stories. If only I didn’t hate the Showcase/Essential format so much… Appropriately, 100 Bullets ends with issue 100. Air gets a first trade paperback, so Vertigo can figure out how much rope to give the monthly series. Paul Pope’s brilliant 100% gets a hardcover treatment. I’ll stick with my softcover, but thanks. And, finally, new editions of Transmetropolitan start rolling out, with vol. 1: Back on the Street.
Image: Man of Action Studios try to hit shops en masse to give each other a little lift – Steve Seagle’s Soul Kiss #1 (of 5), Joe Kelly’s Bad Dog #1, Duncan Rouleau’s The Great Unknown #1, and a “definitive” hardcover of Joe Casey’s Codeflesh (with a new story) are all scheduled. Derek McCulloch, whose Stagger Lee was one of the best comics of the last couple years, has a new book (resolicited), Displaced Persons. If it’s half as good as Stagger Lee, Displaced Persons is going to be a must-buy. Ted McKeever Library: Metropol collects the entirety of McKeever’s industrial-age battle between Heaven and Hell.
Marvel: The first The Stand hardcover tries to capture some bookstore marketplace with Stephen King’s name prominently on the cover; most of the Ultimate Universe titles end, apparently destroyed by the fury of Ultimate Hulk vs. Ultimate Wolverine’s arrival in stores; and Captain America fights V for Vendetta.
