Previews-o-Rama part 1: The Front

It's time to go through the latest Previews to discover the good, the bad, and the strange.

Dark Horse

The first two Sin City collections are released in new editions, designed by Chip Kidd. Despite the expense, I'll be looking to get the whole set, so as to make a pretty line-up on my bookshelf.

I've been waiting for the trade on Conan and... I'm still waiting for the trade, as Dark Horse has decided to first collect the series in a hardcover. I'm just not big enough of a conan fan to justify the extra expense.

Peter Bagge has a mini, Apocalypse Nerd, which features his usual losers in a post-apocalyptic scenario.

There's a fifth issue of The Escapist.

The Goon gets a third collected edition.

There's a fourth volume of Samurai Executioner listed, but aren't they already running behind on this?

Shadow Star gets a sixth collection, though I've only read the first two so far...

There's a third Clone Wars Adventures, done in the style of the animated shorts. The first one was fun--better than the Clone Wars stories appearing in the regular comics.


DC Comics

The big item is the Bizarro World collection, where once again 'indy' creators take on DC super-heroes. There are some interesting names involved, including Roger Langridge, Eddie Campbell, Gilbert Hernandez, Derek Kirk Kim, Ben Dunn, and Andi Watson. But it's expensive, so I'm going ot have to think long and hard about this one...

There's a new Catwoman collection. Buy it, dammit.

Nightwing #101 starts "Nightwing: Year One," which looks like it will rewrite the actual Nightwing origin story from New Teen Titans. Why?

Jason Alexander does guest art chores on Gotham Central. Since Michael Lark is rumored to be leaving, maybe he'd make a good replacement?

Scott McCloud writes the Superman: Strength mini; I was excited at first, but the preview pages leave much to be desired. I dunno about this one...

Greg Rucka's first Adventures of Superman arc gets collected. It's been the best of the Superman titles lately, but that's not really saying much now, is it?

Marvel ex-pat Bob Harras writes a new DCU title, Breach; again, the preview pages hurt its chances with me.

Firestorm has Firehawk and Killer Frost, so maybe I'll stick around with this title a little longer.

Plastic Man hits issue #14--every new solicitation is a victory!

Green Arrow gets a new art team: Tom Fowler & Rodney Ramos.

Chaykin's Mighty Love gets a softcover.

In the 'because three people asked for it' department, Seven Soldiers of Victory gets an upscale archives edition. I suppose they're looking towards interest in Grant Morrison's upcoming series, but I still don't see much of a demand for this.

The Incal: The Epic Conspiracy has art by Mœbius, so get off your butts, fanboys, and give it a look.

All of the CMX manga get second volumes--Seeing as these are being released quarterly, wouldn't it make much more sense to stagger them?

Majestic gets yet another series, this time back in the Wildstorm universe but with Superman in tow.

Ex Machina gets an intitial collection, and keeps with DC's policy of offering the first volumes of trades for $9.95. At that price, everybody should get this.

Grant Morrison & Cam Stewart's Seaguy gets collected. This should be another no-brainer.

Speaking of Morrison, the year's best mini, We3, comes to a conclusion with issue #3.

Lots and lots of Hellblazer stuff. For DC's sake, Constantine had better be a smash hit, and even then translation to comic sales aren't guaranteed. Still, at least DC is prepared by having many collections available if demand does hit.


Image

Jim Mahfood's early stuff gets collected in Classic 40 Ounce.

A new anthology collection, Four-Letter Worlds looks to be good, with people like Chynna Clugston-Major, Steve Lieber, Scott Morse, Jeff Parker, J. Torres, Andi Watson, and the multi-talented Amber Benson.

Ovi Nedelcu's Pigtale looks like it could be interesting, because, y'know, talking pigs.

Invincible gets a fourth collection, which is good news for us wait-for-the-trade'ers.

Caliber Comics rises from the grave with a best of Negative Burn anthology. Getting the rights together for this must have taken a good bit of work.

After what seems like ages, Rising Stars finally comes to an end.


Marvel

Greg Land finally gets around to doing some interior work again with X-Men: Phoenix - Endsong. Gee, do you think there'll be a trade?

X-23? Who asked for that?

Combat Zone is subtitled: True Tales of GI's in Iraq. Now, is that 'true tales' as in the Jessica Lynch rescue? Shouldn't something like this wait oh, I dunno, at least ten years or so after the war is over? There's no way these tales can have any sense of perspective, and I imagine that this is just going to smack of exploitation.

Beta Ray Bill gets his own mini with Stormbreaker. It's written by Michael Avon Oeming and drawn by CrossGen ex-pat Andrea Di Vito, so it might be worth pickingup the inevitable trade.

Peter David is back writing Incredible Hulk! 'Nuff said.

And David gets his own Hulk Visionaries volume, featuring his early work with his good buddy Todd McFarlane.

Is The Pulse still bi-monthly? I thought is was going monthly after the first arc was over. Although I guess if Brent Anderson is also drawing Astro City at the same time, bi-monthly is all we can hope for out of him.

Is there really a market for a fifth Fantastic Four comic? (I guess they want to have enough stuff to collect for when the FF movie comes out next year.) And isn't Robert Kirkman strietching himself awfulyl thin these days?

Speaking of movies, lots of stuff available for the Elektra flick.

Peter Millgan comes on board X-Men. I'm sure this won't be at the same high level as X-Statix, but at least Sal Larroca will get a script that's worth of his talents.

Loki gets a hardcover collection, while District X gets a trade.

Marvel Age trades include a second Emma Frost collection and a first collection of Araña (from Amazing Fantasy).


That's it for part 1. Part 2 tomorrow (probably...)