How much of a futurist is Tony Stark? Well, his comic book Invincible Iron Man has vaulted up to #500 this month, despite the fact that #33 shipped just last month. This big, fat, $5, 100-page anniversary (?) issue is by the regular team of Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca.

Age of Reptiles Omnibus Vol. 1: Hollywood storyboard artist-turned-comics creator Ricardo Delgado’s epic dinosaur dramas are beautiful to look at and thrilling to read. Dark Horse has three of them, the original Age of Reptiles, Age of Reptiles: The Hunt and Age of Reptiles: The Journey—into a $25, 400-page, digest-sized collection. You can see a preview here.

Fraggle Rock 2 #1: Archaia’s launches a new round of Fraggle Rock comics, this first issue featuring work from Grace Randolph, Chris Lie, Jake Forbes, Mark Simmons, Katie Cook and others. The format remains that of the square-ish Mouse Guard comics…and there’s even a cover by Mouse Guard’s David Petersen. It’s a $3.95 book. You can see a preview here.

Jurassic Park: Devils in the Desert #1: IDW launches thier next four-issue Jurassic Park miniseries, this one written and illustrated by John Byrne. Byrne and dinosaurs sounds like a pretty good combination to me (There’s a mean joke to be made in here somewhere I’m sure, but I don’t wan to make it). It will, of course, be a $4 book. IDW’s original Jurassic Park mini is also available this week. Jurassic Park Vol. 1: Redemption collects Bob Schreck and Nate Van Dyke’s series in a $20, 120-page package…just look for the Frank Miller drawing of a dinosaur eating someone on the cover.

Justice League International Vol. 5: DC’s collections of the Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis run on the company’s Justice League titles have all been well worth reading for those who missed it the first time around. This volume collects the beginning of the second JLI title, Justice League Europe, with art by Bart Sears. Mike McKone and Bill Willingham also contribute some of the art in this $20, 240-page trade.

Justice League of America #53: This is Mark Bagley’s final issue as the regular artist on the ever-troubled JLoA, which can’t seem to keep a creative team together for very long. James Robinson’s staying of course, and will be joined by pencil artist Brett Booth next issue. Bagley’s last issue is the conclusion of the “Omega” storyline.

Memoir #1: This is not actually writer Ben McCool’s unimaginatively titled memoir. Rather it’s a high-concept mystery story about a small town where the entire population loses their memory. Well, the entire town save for one man. Nikki Cook provides the art for this six-issue miniseries, and you can see what it looks like by clicking here.

MySpace Dark Horse Presents Vol. 6: These collections of short comics works are always worth a look, providing a nice, gentle entry point into upcoming and classic Dark Horse comics and franchises, and providing introductions to a wide array of excellent creators. This $20, 170-page trade features work from Jaime Hernandez, Art Baltazar, Evan Dorkin, Andi Watson, Stan Sakai, Gabriel Bá and others.

Nancy In Hell: El Torres’ story about a horror film “final girl” type descending to a strikingly original and imaginative version of hell and trying to fight her way out alongside its founder suffers somewhat from uneven art—Juan Jose Ryp started the miniseries, but others finished it—but it’s well worth a read. Provided you don’t mind a good deal of gore and the over-the-top objectification of the female protagonist (Which, despite her skimpy outfit, is actually pretty conservative compared to, say, an Ed Benes issue of…anything). The trade paperback collection of the four-issue series is $13, and you read a preview of it here.

Rat Catcher: This $20, 190-page black-and-white hardcover from Vertigo’s crime line is written by Andy Diggle and drawn by Victor Ibañez. The title refers to a legendary assassin who specializes in taking down snitches (you know, rats), and the book follows an FBI agent trying to catch the Rat Catcher. Presumably, it’s a game of rat and mouse.

Smurfs Vol. 4: The Smurfette: Papercutz continues its reprint program of Peyo’s excellent Smurfs comics. This 64-page volume, available in $11 hardcover or $6 softcover, features the debut of the first female smurf. I can’t recommend these strongly enough.

Steampunk Palin #1: This latest bit of unauthorized Palinsploitation is about a hot lady who wears glasses but otherwise looks nothing like the former governor of Alaska abandoning her calls to drill here an drill now in order to advocate geothermal steam power. There’s nothing about this comic that doesn’t depress the hell out of me, but I’ve already reached my quota for complaining about it on my home blog. You can see a preview of Steampunk Palin here. Its publisher Antarctic Press also has a book on the shipping lists entitled Time Lincoln: Apocalypse Mao. That one at least has a funny title. Both are $4 books.

Wolverine and Jubilee #1: Wolvie is reunited with his erstwhile sidekick, who is no longer just a teenage mutant superhero, but, thanks to the events in “Curse of the Mutants,” is now a teenage mutant vampire superhero. Kathryn Immonen writes this four-issue miniseries, while Phil Noto provides the art.

Young Justice #0: Animation writers Greg Weisman and Kevin Hopps are joined by comics artist Mike Norton for a new volume of DC’s Young Justice comic, this one based on the cartoon based on the the first volume of the comic. I haven’t seen the cartoon—which seems to have divided commentators somewhat—but I’m really looking forward to seeing Mike Norton art every month again.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 at 2:47 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.