Yes, tomorrow’s what Wednesdays would always be like in a world without comics: Depressing. I don’t even know if I should get out of bed. New comics won’t be out until Friday this week, due to last week’s holiday. So maybe I’ll have to get out of bed and face the new comic-less Wednesday; I might die if I stay in bed for 48 whole hours without water.
Sigh.
At least it’s only this week. It’s not like comics would be two-days late two weeks in a row, right? Right?! RIGHT?!
Anyway, let’s take a look some of the books that won’t be showing up at your local comic shop tomorrow, after the jump…
Aliens Omnibus Vol. 6: I love these little omnibi Dark Horse has been putting out of some of their more popular licensed comics lately. For slightly less than $25 you can get 376 full-color pages of Aliens-with-a-capital-A stories by the likes of Jay Stephens, Gene Colan, Phil Hester, Eduardo Risso, Mark Schultz, Chuck Dixon, Ian Edginton and Doug Wheatley.
Batman: Cacophony #2: According to retailer and blogger Mike Sterling, who celebrates Ultimate Hulk Vs. Wolverine Day and is thus likely to be in the know, this issue was officially two weeks late last week, which would make it three weeks late when it arrives this week. Certainly not late by Kevin Smith standards, but also not on time either.
Fantastic Four Cosmic Special #1: What’s up with his mysterious $4.99 special? Marvel’s not talking; the cover artist, cost and in-store date are the only info available in the solicit. Weird. At least you know who’s behind Fantastic Four #562 and Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #43; that’d be Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch and Paul Tobin and David Hahn, respectively.
Final Crisis Secret Files #1: There’s not much more info about this book, which was apparently introduced onto the schedule to keep the storyline in fans’ memories while the last two issues get finished up. Grant Morrison and Peter J. Tomasi are listed as writers, Frank Quitely is one of the artists involved, and it will run you $3.99 for 40 pages, some of which are likely ads.
Green Lantern #36: Alright DC, Red and Black I’ll give you—those are pretty cool colors that sound fairly bad-ass when part of a super-person’s name. Blue? Well, at least it’s a primary color. But orange? There ain’t nothing cool about the color orange. So I expect Geoff Johns and the great guest-artist team of Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy to have something of an uphill battle in this issue, picking up where one-shot Final Crisis: Blood Puke left off.
Hot Breath of War: This $13 graphic novel by Trevor Alixopulos “takes seemingly unrelated episodes of life during wartime and entwines them into one narrative,” according to publisher Sparkplug Comic Books, and “is perfect for fans of Joe Sacco or Jules Feiffer.” Preview here.
Incognito #1: Marvel’s Icon imprint adds a new title, this one promising to be “the most insane and evil super-villain comic you’ve ever read!” The real draw here, however, is the creative team: Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, the team behind Icon’s Criminal and WildStorm’s late, great Sleeper. In fact, the premise sounds slightly reminiscent of Sleeper: An ex-supervillain is hiding out in Witness Protection, and starting to chafe under the restrictions of leading an average life.
Punisher War Journal #26: What is The Punisher’s place in the new Norman Osborn-run Marvel Universe? I don’t know yet, but it involves a relaunch of this title as Punisher #1 later this month, and Frank Castle pointing his gun at one of the least popular Marvels of them all on the cover. This issue by Rick Remender, Matt Fraction and Howard Chaykin deals with setting up Frank’s role under the “Dark Reign.” Frank actually has a pretty full week; he’s also starring in the fourth issue of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Punisher: War Zone and in Essential Punisher Vol. 3.
Supermarket: IDW offers a new edition of Brian Wood and Kristian Donaldson’s story of “convenience store clerkette and 16-year-old suburban wise-ass Pella Suzuki,” who finds her self heir to an empire and targeted by hitmen. All 104 pages, including pin-ups and extras, can be yours for $14.99.
December 30th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I still don’t get it. what is with the lateness? why do you need to put out #1 of a 3 or 4 issue limited, noncontinuity series without having #s 2-4 in hand? makes no sense to me.
December 31st, 2008 at 5:06 am
Maybe next time you might want to check all the previews available before posting the info? Fantastic Four Cosmic-Size Special is a oneshot by Cary Bates and Bing Cansino; Final Crisis Secret Files appears to have a lead story by Len Wein and Tony Shasteen with a backup by Morrison and Jones; Mahnke’s actually not hitting up Green Lantern #36, regular penciller Ivan Reis is on it (likely to free up Mahnke for the Final Crisis work), and according to DC’s December 2008 solicitations Cacophony #2 was solicited for December 31 from the get-go, so Sterling’s wrong unless you’re simply counting the number of weeks between issues. (It’s nothing new to have a book come out monthly but on different/staggered weeks each month.)
December 31st, 2008 at 5:08 am
Oh, and Green Lantern #36 is dealing with RED Lanterns. Orange is the next arc.
December 31st, 2008 at 8:54 am
To David Uzumeri: The Solicitation copy for GL #36 reads thusly:
“The prelude to “The Blackest Night” continues, building off of FINAL CRISIS: RAGE OF THE RED LANTERNS! Hal and the Green Lanterns venture to the prison planet Ysmault to face the full fury of Atrocitus and the Red Lantern Corps. Meanwhile, the war lights ignite across the universe as the Controllers seek out the Orange Lanterns.”
Caleb’s crack about “Blood Puke” clearly showed that he knew this involved the Red Lanterns, but he also acknowledged what you missed, the Orange Lantern subplot.
As for the Final Crisis: Secret Files info, Caleb likely drew it from DC’s home page which itself does not include that information. And actually, that info, included in the preview Newsarama ran, didn’t even come out, to my recollection, until after Caleb had already written this piece.
December 31st, 2008 at 10:54 am
Maybe next time you might want to check all the previews available before posting the info?
Maybe. I just went with what was at dccomics.com and marvel.com at the time.
I can’t speak for Sterling, but whether Smith’s Batman is late or not depends on how technically you view a month. I believe back in the old, old days, well before I even started reading comics, they were scheduled to come out on certain weeks of a month. So, like, Batman would come out the first week of every month, Hulk the second week of every month, or whatever. Obviously the Big Two’s attitude toward shipping dates has changed, but then, so has the nature of the business, now that comics aren’t newsstand periodicals so much as product for hobby shops.
December 31st, 2008 at 10:58 am
Gosh, Calendar Man and Despair in the same picture1 That’s something you don’t see every day.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:25 am
Of course , in a bizarre twist, the UK had their shipments both on christmas eve last week,and this weeks titles today. I’m looking forward to putting my feet up with a few before heading out into the celebrations tonight.
A big thanks to all the hard working folk at diamond UK.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:51 am
Sorry, going back and reading that I just meant to make friendly corrections, and I came off as a *total* dick, especially not to properly acknowledge the time gap between writing and publication and the fact that not everybody would be reading Len Wein’s blog, which is how I found out about it. Apologies, Caleb.
December 31st, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Apologies, Caleb.
No need; you’re cool. Feel free to correct away.
December 31st, 2008 at 12:54 pm
And I’m just here to say that it appears those of us in Canada once again will get our comics on Wednesday this week, as usual.
I’ve already gotten “the word” from my local comic store that this week’s haul is in and waiting for me. So if you’re in the U.S., watch out for evil Canucks posting spoilers over the next 48 hours!! (I won’t be, as I’ll be picking up the comics on Friday DESPITE them being in today!)
December 31st, 2008 at 1:14 pm
They are indeed, and for reference, the actual contents of the Final Crisis Secret Files:
1. “The Origin of Libra,” by Len Wein and Tony Shasteen. This is most of the issue.
2. “The Words of Lilith,” a one-page text piece by Rucka, Lieber and Trautmann like the ones that kicked off each issue of Crime Bible.
3. “The Anti-Life Equation” by Grant Morrison. A short one-page essay on the Anti-Life Equation and Death of the New Gods.
4. The Secret Files Sketchbook, an addendum to the Sketchbook featuring characters that were spoilers at that time. (Plus a fairly spoilery Mandrakk entry even now, to be honest.)