Absolute Green Lantern: Rebirth:

Clean thoughts, chums!

Archie #608: This is the first part of a two-part Archies/Josie and the Pussycats crossover, in which possible future player Archie Andrews, who has been marrying girls left and right lately, hooks up with Valerie from the Pussycats.

The Art of P. Craig Russell: Not quite comics, but definitely of interest of a lot of comics fans, The Art of P. Craig Russell is a 260-page art book devoted to the comics creator, illustrator and fine artist’s career, including never-before-published material. IDW has it at two price points—$80 for a signed copy, $50 for an unsigned one.

Blackest Night Director’s Cut: I can’t think of anything more annoying than adding the film term “Director’s Cut” to the title of a comic book. Like all of the Marvel “Director’s Cut” books of the past, this isn’t anything like a director’s cut of a movie, and not simply because there are no directors in comics or that comics aren’t cut (edited) the way films are. Additionally, it’s only 80-pages long, so it certainly isn’t a different version of Blackest Night, as the title implies, unless they “cut” the hell out of the hundreds of pages that comprised the actual event.

A more fitting name, given the contents, would be Blackest Night Bonus Features, if they really wanted to go with the film metaphors. Because apparently that’s what this $6 book will include. From the solicitation:

With the creative minds behind BLACKEST NIGHT as your tour guides, you’ll marvel at hidden Easter eggs and meanings throughout the series in our director’s commentary section. Discover shocking scenes that were left on the cutting room floor including actual script pages that were never drawn. Be astonished at incredible never-before-seen designs from the best-selling event!

See? Bonus features.

Captain America: Who Won’t Wield The Shield #1: If this stars everyone except Bucky Barnes, it’s going to be a loooong book. Stuart Moore, Matt Fraction, Jason Aaron, Brendan McCarthy, Joe Quinones and Mirco Pierfederici put together a trio of short stories starring some very unlikely, underused characters. And, as mandated by law, Deadpool.

Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 5: So who guest-stars in this issue, aside from the Justice League and the Justice Society? Let’s just check in with the crowded George Perez cover:

Just about everyone, apparently, including Jonah Hex’s horse. This $20, 175-page helping of old school JLA/JSA, multi-Earth crossovers is written by Gerry Conway, drawn by Dick Dillin, Perez and others and features the Fourth World crossover and the history-spanning one. Pretty good stuff, drawn pretty well.

Elephantmen #25: Richard Starkings’ sci-fi epic of men with animal heads hits an anniversary issue. Art by Moritat. Congratulations, Elephantmen.

Firestar #1: Apparently as part of its year of the woman promotion, Marvel’s go ta couple of random one-shot featuring some pretty random superheroines. Former Avenger and Amazing Spider-friend Firestar gets a solo spotlight, provided by Firestar fan Sean McKeever and must-watch up-and-comer Emma Rios, and Thor supporting character Sif gets a very timely comic of her own by Kelly Sue Deconnick and Ryan Stegman. They’re $4 books, but trade-waiters be warned, as one-shots, it’s unclear where or how these will eventually end up in a less insidiously priced format.

Greetings from Cartoonia: Well this sounds interesting. A Stripburger-produced and -published, Top Shelf-distributed anthology in which twelve European cartoonists take “objects of inspiration” from one another’s homelands (with those objects being as widely defined as animals, car models, mythology or architecture), and then use it as the starting point for a comic set in that country. It’s 220 pages for $20.

Marvel Her-Oes #1: It’ up to writer Grace Randolph and artist Craig Rousseau to redeem the worst title for a comic book I’ve ever heard. Are they up to the task? We’ll find out this week when their miniseries reimagining a handful of minor Marvel heroines—The Wasp, She-Hulk, Namora and others—as highschoolers debuts. Here’s hoping…

Human Target #1: This week in Comics You Should Almost Definitely Buy Based On Price Alone there’s the first issue of Peter Milligan and Edvin Biukovic’s Human Target: Chance Meetings miniseries (Which is available in trade, along with another Milligan-penned Human Target series, should you like what you read here) for only one amero, and New Avengers #1, the first issue of Brian Michael Bendis’ still ongoing run on the franchise, surely one of the past decade’s biggest sales success stories (That issue was penciled by David Finch). So that’s 44-pages of Big Two comics you can score this week for half the price of an issue of Ultimate Comics Avengers or fifty-cents less than Tiny Titans (which, by the way, is also out this week, featuring Trigon pushing Kid Devil in a baby carriage on the cover).

Kato Origins: Way of the Ninja #1: That sounds much better than Kato Origins: Way of the Chauffer. This week’s new Green Hornet series is by writer Jai Nitz and artist Colton Worley. I’m not sure which of the continuities this fits into, but it’s a murder mystery set in the 1940s, and looks pretty good. It’s a $4 book.

Showcase Presents: Dial H For Hero: This 290-page collection of stories from House of Mystery is a steal at $10—Artist Jim Mooney and others playing with one of the neatest of Silver Age concepts, a magic alien dial that transforms ordinary teenage drip Robby Reed into completely different, original superheroes (Well, I think he turns into Plastic Man in one story) in every adventure. This is honestly the superhero book I’m most excited about this week.

The Spirit #1: If I were Mark Schultz and Moritat, I’d be awfully nervous about following Darwyn Cooke’s sensational run on Will Eisner’s costumed crimefighter, but then, if I were Mark Schultz or Moritat, I’d be either a hell of a writer or a hell of an artist, so maybe I’d be worrying over nothing. This is part of DC’s insanely optimistic First Wave line expansion, a $4 book featuring the Schultz/Moritat lead story and, perhaps more interstingly, a Dennis O’Neil/Bill Sienkiewicz back-up feature. The back-up slot will go to different creators each month, making this book a bit like the old Batman: Gotham Knights, which had a regular creative team on the lead story, and rotating, A-List contributors doing black-and-white Batman stories in the back.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at 2:40 pm and is filed under 'Twas The Night Before Wednesday. 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.