Diamond’s Previews catalog for books shipping in February 2010 is out, so I’ll take you on my monthly walk-through of the comics that caught my attention.

Honestly, not a whole lot grabbing me this month, which seems to be a mild theme lately. But there are still enough titles to gobble up my limited comics budget for the month.

Drawn & Quarterly’s John Stanley Library project continues, with a second collection of Stanley’s delightful tales of a little monster who just wants to go to school and make friends. Needless to say, he doesn’t quite fit in at home in Monsterville. Melvin Monster vol. 2 is $19.95 for 112 pages.

An otherwise slow month for me is almost single-handedly blasted beyond budgetary means by Fantagraphics’ bevy of offerings: Cathy Malkansian’s new book, Temperance, sounds terrific. I missed her first comic, but I hope to correct that this time around. Any comic that attempts to tackle the drive for enemies and war in humankind is worth paying attention to for its sheer gall if nothing else.

Kim Deitch, one of the most imaginative, creative and perpetually trippy cartoonists in comics history, has a new collection. The Search for Smilin’ Ed promises to uncover more aspects of 20^th century pop culture while offering a bizarre and mind-bending journey through human experience. This title is probably the #1 must-have of the month, and an early contender for some Best of 2010 lists (like mine).

From Fantagraphics’ reprint section, Roy Crane’s Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips vol. 1 should be hitting shops. I swear they solicited this a while back, so hopefully we’ll actually see it this time. I’m looking forward to it. Two new Love and Rockets collections are also hitting stores. My one complaint about these repackagings of old L&R material is that I’m sometimes unsure of what stories are in what volumes. The Gilbert book here, The High Soft Lisp, is a Fritz-focused edition, obviously, but I’m not 100% sure if the material has already been part of the Luba or Palomar hardcovers. The solicit promises new material, so you can add The High Soft Lisp to my list though. From Jamie, the new edition of Penny Century compiles the previous volume of the same name and the delicious Whoa Nellie trade into a single book, matching the format of the recent reissues. Yeah, it’s a redundant purchase for me, but I like the format and I like condensing books into as few covers as possible. I’ll take one.

But Fantagraphics isn’t the only publisher with an offering I noticed. IDW’s previous attempt to collect the acclaimed GrimJack comics series didn’t get very far with me. Despite its legendary status, I found the comics only a slice above good, and the hefty price tag on each volume wasn’t justified. The new GrimJack Omnibus, bringing together eight back-up stories that ran in Starslayer and the first thirteen issues of the proper series, provides the huge page count (400!) and affordable price ($24.95) that I look for in my trade paperbacks. Trade paperback division at comic book publishers, take note!

World War 3 Illustrated #40 ships from Top Shelf, edited by Seth Tobocman, and featuring the theme “What We Want.” Some of today’s best political cartoonists offer constructive theories on what can be done to improve existing conditions throughout the world.

From Dark Horse Comics, The Book of Grickle looks interesting and offbeat. That certainly rates a page-through, and I’ve searched a long time for Jerry Robinson’s The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art. A revised edition, chronicling strip art from 1895 to 2010, is scheduled to hit stores, advance solicited for April. That’s a definite, must-have.

I’ve been somewhat wary of the direction of the Superman titles, but Superman: Codename Patriot will probably get a look. I’m similarly unsure, but certainly tempted by the ginormous Wednesday Comics collection; with contributors like Kyle Baker, Joe Kubert, Walter Simonson and Paul Pope, and well received serials such as Supergirl and Kamandi, I’m intrigued. Maybe not quite $50 worth of intrigued, but we’ll see…

Supporting the NextWave: Agents of H.A.T.E. Ultimate collection serves two purposes for me. One, it’s a good comic – I borrowed it from the library when it was in two separate trades. Two, it supports my contention for thicker trades. Being a Howard Chaykin fan, I’m slightly interested in Dominic Fortune, but unlikely to actually buy this one.  Here’s hoping the library comes through on this one.

So there will be comics in 2010, which means that the comics industry has officially lasted about forty years longer than expected. Lucas has party favors. Here’s a look at some of the comics that will kick off the end of the century’s first decade, courtesy of Diamond’s Previews catalog.

Ever since it was announced that BOOM! obtained the Disney license, I’ve been hoping for some Carl Barks-centric trade paperbacks. Well, I kind of got what I wanted. Donald Duck Classics vol. 1: Quack Up is credited to Barks, and certainly will merit a flip-through. But let me clarify: I’m hoping for 100% Barks-created Uncle Scrooge collections!

I’ve been digging on Jason’s comics a lot lately, as anybody who reads my “It Came From the NYPL” series should know. Almost Silent is nearly 300 pages, in hardcover, of Jason’s superb comics, compiling four classics (none of which I’ve read yet) into one convenient volume. More pages, better price, I’m going to finally buy a Jason comic!

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Diamond Previews, if you’re not in here, you’re probably not in most comic shops and probably off the radar of the average comics reader (well, you’re probably off that radar anyway, but that’s another discussion all together). Let’s talk about some of the most interesting titles in the most recent, December-shipping catalog.

The Street Angel creative team, Brian Maruca and Jim Rugg, have a new 100-page hardcover, Afrodisiac, coming from Adhouse Books. I’m not really a big fan of pastiches of old exploitation films, as this appears to be, but Street Angel was a blast, so this is definitely a book to keep an eye on.

Bob Burden Studios solicits both Flaming Carrot Collected vol. 2 and Mysterymen Adventures vol. 1. Neither are really my thing, but Burden’s earned a pretty solid following and hopefully readers notice these two items. Along similar “not for me, but FYI” lines, Collins Design has a 1280-page (!!) compilation of every KISS comic of all time, titled (obviously) KISS Compendium. Gene Simmons writes the forward. Comics from Marvel, McFarlane, Dark Horse and more included within.

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Man, I remember being in college and being so new to comics that everything excited me, even the books I knew weren’t really that good. There was always another creator to discover, a tidbit of real or fictional history to uncover, something to make me want to peek inside nearly any cover.

Now, I’m just a sad, old bitter man, apparently, because I can barely find ten books in the entire Previews catalog that appeal to me at all, and several of those aren’t quite “Holy crap, I gotta have ‘em” type books. November, the oft acknowledged but never purchased “I guess if it’s a slow month, I’ll look at those” grade of book appears to be the highlight of the month.

Here’s the drill: I read Diamond’s Previews catalog, the primary (in many cases, only) source of comics for your local comic shop, so if a book’s not in here, it’s sadly going to be overlooked by most comic shops in America. I’ll point out the books that catch my eye.

Muppet Show: The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson collects Roger Langidge’s four-part serial. It’s Roger Langridge, so it’s gotta be pretty good, although his first Muppet Show book has so far eluded my budget. But hey, slow month!

I’ve so far only dipped my toes into John Porcellino’s work, and I can see where he’s going, but so far, nothing I’ve read has quite meshed with my own tastes. His latest, Map of My Heart, is from Drawn & Quarterly. I’m actually happy to have an excuse to prioritize more Porcellino; I’ve been wanting to for quite some time now.

Fantagraphics has Dash Shaw’s new book, Unclothed Man in the 35^th Century A.D. I’ll read this one.

The Art of Ditko, from Craig Yoe and IDW, has some appeal. Probably more of a “hope it comes to the library” book than a buy-book, but I’d like to check out a nice selection of Steve Ditko comics.

Along similar lines, TwoMorrows is publishing Sal Buscema: Comics’ Fast and Furious Artist, featuring art and an extensive interview. Man, I love Sal’s work. Sign me up; the interview content pushes this past the Ditko book.

At Dark Horse, my days as a Star Wars fanboy are pretty long past now, but I did enjoy the Tim Zahn novels way back in the day. The Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy compilation of Mike Baron adaptations of Zahn’s novels may get a page-through. Although I probably have the original collections around here somewhere. I should dig ‘em about and read a little before committing any cash.

Nothing at all at Image, and only a few marginal titles from DC and Marvel interest me. Fantastic Four Visionaries: Walter Simonson vol. 3 is … well, it’s Walt, and I love Walt’s stuff. ‘Course, I still haven’t read vol. 2. One of these days… Batman: The Cat and the Bat sounds like a lark, but more of a library rental. Probably the same with Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom, which got mediocre reviews but I dig Supes and the old Kirby Fourth World stuff, and Graymiotti’s written some fun stuff.

And … that’s it. Like I said, not much grabbing me this month. Anybody see anything I’m missing?

I think I missed last month (again) with this column, so my apologies for that. I know you’re all waiting with bated breath to know what comics I might buy, taste-setter than I am.

Let’s get right into it, starting in the back as I like to do.

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For the past months, I’ve been walking through the monthly Previews catalog from Diamond Distributors to spotlight some of the more interesting and more inane comics that might’ve slipped past your attention. I admit, it’s gotten a little tedious for me, so I’m going to try injecting a little more of myself into this month’s article and see how it goes. I’m only listing books that actually caught my attention, briefly why, and handicapping the chances of myself actually purchasing said book. Also, a caveat that I’m a trade-waiter, so if you don’t see your favorite serial here, it doesn’t mean I’m ignoring it. I’m very anxious for Dark Horse to collect Citizen Rex, for example, but it won’t be mentioned elsewhere in this article.

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Time, dear readers, to explore Diamond’s expansive Previews catalog for comics theoretically shipping in July 2009.

Glamourpuss #8 from Dave Sim is available through Aarvark-Vanaheim.

AC Comics has an omnibus edition of the first nine issues of Femforce from 1985, which I’ve never read but has been around for over twenty years, so it must have some fans. Amaze Ink/SLG ships Gargoyles vol. 2: Clan Building, with several issues of unpublished material.

Archaia Studios is apparently off life support, with the second Mouse Guard collection, Winter 1152 available in hardcover.

If you’re trade waiting, Roger Langridge’s The Muppet Show gets collected by Boom in July. Same with Mark Waid’s first Incredibles miniseries and Boom’s initial Cars series.

Big Questions #12 from Anders Nilson and John Stanley Library: Nancy vol. 1 highlight Drawn & Quarterly’s offerings.

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