While it is the night before Wednesday, it is also the night after Memorial Day. In year’s past, that would have meant that comics would have been delayed until Thursday, but Diamond’s new-ish arrangement with comics shops should mean that shops have new books on sale tomorrow as normal. You might want to call ahead to your local shop however to make sure that’s the case before you make a trip.
If you do, and if the new books are there, then these are some of ‘em you should find…
A Bride’s Story Vol. 1: This 190-page, $17 hardcover from Yen Press is the first installment of manga-ka Kaoru Mori’s comic about a 20-year-old’s marriage to a 12-year-old boy from the next village, and their adjustment to their new lives. Mori’s previous series was Emma, so if you liked that, you may like this.
Citizen Rex: This 145-page, $20 hardcover collects Mario and Gilbert Hernandez’s miniseries about a gossip blogger and a robot celebrity.
Comeback Kings #1: Bruce Lee, Jim Morrison, Elvis Prseley, Andy Kaufman and Tupac Shakur are not only not dead, they fight crime together. At least they do in this comic, by Matt Sullivan, Gabe Guarente and Ethan Young. Albert Ching interviewed the creators for the main page a few months back.
Constructive Abandonment: Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber collaborate on a series of paintings with text that achieve something like a fine art Far Side. It’s a $16, 65-page, seven-by-seven hardcover, and you can see a few examples here.
Fear Itself #3: Marvel’s summer crossover, which actually started in spring and won’t wrap up until the fall, will be three-sevenths over with this chapter. Like the preceding one’s, it’s still by Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen, and at the 22-page/$3.99 price point. This week’s tie-ins include Fear Itself: The Deep #1, a sort of story-specific Defenders revival by Cullen Bunn and Lee Garbett. If that’s not enough Fear Itself for you, there’s also Thunderbolts #158 and Herc #4 (For Fear Itself-free Hercules, there’s the fourth and final issue of Wolverine/Hercules: Myths, Monsters and Mutants, a mini I’ve been enjoying)
50 Girls 50 #1: Good good girl and so-so bad girl artist Frank Cho is co-writing and providing covers for this sco-fi series, about a crew of female spacemen fighting their way through the galaxy. Doug Murray co-writes, and Axel Medellin provides the interior art.
Flashpoint #2: It’s a pretty huge week for DC’s summer crossover series. In addition to the over-sized, $4 second issue of the main series by Geoff Johns, Andy Kubert and Sandra Hope, there’s also the debut of four three-issue miniseries focusing on particular characters or aspects of the altered world of Flashpoint: Flashpoint: Abin Sur, The Green Lantern, Flashpoint: Batman, Knight of Vengenace, Flashpoint: Secret Seven and Flashpoint: World of Flashpoint (Previews for all four of them are currently up on the main page). Of those, the best-looking are probably the Batman book, by the 100 Bullets creative team of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso, and Secret Seven, which features among it’s cast the Vertigo version of Shade The Changing Man, smuggled across imprint lines in much the same way as Swamp Thing and Constantine, and obscure ’80s character Amethyst, Princess of Gem World. Secret Seven also boasts the unusual creative team of Peter Milligan and George Perez. That is probably the most times I’ve typed the word “flashpoint” in a single paragraph; I fear I’ll break that record repeatedly in the coming weeks.
Hellboy: The Fury #1: This week’s offering from the Mike Mignola perpetual publishing machine is the first issue of a three-issue miniseries written by Mignola and drawn by his frequent collaborator Duncan Fegredo. As fine as Mignola’s cover for it is, the variant one by Francesco Francavilla is a wonder to behold.
Marvel Zombies Christmas Carol #1: I’m really interested in seeing exactly what this is, since the branding suggests it’s the latest chapter of Marvel’s superheroes-as-zombies franchise, but the solicitation copy and covers suggest that it’s actually a comic book application of the recent prose trend of zombifying, vampirizing or werewolfing up public domain classics. All indications seem to be that it’s more of the latter, based on what writer Jim McCann told Ching in this interview. It’s being drawn by the excellent David Baldeon and features covers by Michael Kaluta. It’s a $4 comic.
Osborn: Evil Incarcerated: I’ve heard nothing but good thinga about Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios’ miniseries about Norman Osborn’s post-Dark Reign life in prison. Does anyone care to add to the praise or contradict it? This is a 130-page, $17 trade collecting their mini, with a bonus story by Warren Ellis thrown in.
Reed Gunther #1: This is a comic book about a cowboy who rides a grizzly bear fighting a giant snake. I assume that’ all you need to know. If not, I can also add that it’s by Shane and Chris Houghton, but, c’mon, a cowboy who rides a grizzly bear fighting a giant sanke!
Shinku #1: Image doesn’t exactly provide a lot of info for this one, but writer Ron Marz tends to be pretty good when it comes to genre action, and artist Lee Moder can be very, very good when it comes to most things. David Pepose interviewed the creators here, and the main site has a preview here.
Static Shock Special #1: Static and Dwayne McDuffie fan Felicia D. Henderson, who is slated to write the upcoming Static ongoing series, is joined by artist Denys Cowan and others for a one-shot paying tribute to the late McDuffie via this most well-known creation.
The Tooth: I’m not really sure exactly what this is, but I know I can’t wait to find out. It’s by Cullen Bunn, Shawn Lee and Matt Kindt and it looks to be a horror-hero comic in the vein of the original Swamp Thing and Man-Thing comics, only instead of being made out of swamp vegetation, this man-monster is apparently a big tooth creature. Not toothy, but an actual tooth. I think. Anyway, it sounds more than weird enough to be intriguing, and Kindt is an artist always worth watching, perhaps especially when drawing something like this, which sounds like a pretty far cry from his work on Super Spy and 3 Story.
