Previews-o-Rama part 1: The Front

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


Dark Horse

Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan, & Dracula reunite with The Curse of Dracula graphic novella.

If you haven't read any of Eric Powell's The Goon, you may wish to look into The Goon: Fancy Pants Edition, which reprints early Goon stories in chronological (rather than publication) order.

Rick Geary has a new hardcover novella, Craven, a historical bio-comic about a pre-WWI scoundrel/renaisance man.

Mark Millar & Peter Gross's Chosen is collected, for those of you who like your retelling of The Book of Revelations with extra sodomy.

The second Busiek/Nord Conan volume, The God in the Bowl and Other Stories, is now available in softcover.

Bob Fingerman brings his brand of comix to Dark Horse with the novella You Deserved It.

CrossGen fans may want to check out the collection of Samurai: Heaven and Earth by ex-CG'res Ron Marz & Luke Ross.

Little Lulu: Letters to Santa would appear to have some christmas-related content.

Oh My Goddess! gets what I think is its third edition, this time reading backwards like all good manga do, and there's an eighth volume of Koike & Kojima's Samurai Executioner.


DC

Josh Middleton draws Shazam/Superman: First Thunder, so at least we know it'll look good.

Zatanna guest stars in Adventures of Superman #644, but alas it's the mind-wiping Z from Identity Crisis and not the cool Ryan Sook-drawn Z from Seven Soldiers.

The unnecessary Waid/Yu Superman origin retelling Superman: Birthright gets collected in a trade. You'd be better off spending your $20 on the far superior Superman: Secret Identity trade by Busiek & Immonen, conveniently offered as a Star of the Month right next to it in Previews.

You know, with the 45% discount from DCBS, I'm almost tempted to get the Crisis on Infinite Earths Absolute Edition deluxe oversized hardcover slipcase set. Almost.

Geof Johns & Dave Gibbons co-write the Green Lantern Corps: Recharge mini.

Green Lantern: Rebirth gets a hardcover collection.

Kamandi Archives? So Kamandi gets the deluxe archives treatment, while New Gods got a cheap black & white reprint? Okay...

Busiek & Garney's entertaining JLA: Syndicate Rules story gets a trade collection.

Plastic Man is still being published. Vootie!

DC finally decide to make use of their huge backfile of comics in inexpensive collections: Sgt. Rock and Swamp Thing get full-color digest-size collections, while silver age Superman & Green Lantern are offered up in Essentials B&W style. (Although I wonder how well Green Lantern will work without the color...)

Seven Soldiers: Guardian comes to an end, and Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle begins, with sure-to-be-nice art by Pasqual Ferry.

After the way Bruce Jones's Hulk just petered out and went nowhere, I find it hard to work up much excitement for his Vigilante mini.

A third collection of George Perez's classic Wonder Woman stories sees the light of day with Beauty and the Beasts.

DC jump on the Cinemanga bandwagon with Justice League Unlimited: Jam-Packed Action, adapting episodes of the tv series.

There are two new CMX titles, Chikyu Misaki and Pieces of a Spiral, but it all looks hopelessly generic.

Robbie Morrison, fresh off of driving The Authority into the ground, takes on Wildcats in Wildcats: Nemesis.

Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra give us more mayhem with a new Kev mini: The Authority: The Magnificent Kev.

Speaking of Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra, their old Helix Bloody Mary series get collected.

Wait-for-the-traders will be happy to see new collections of Ex Machina & Sleeper.

The Winter Men continues with a second issue--remember folks, if you don't buy it, there may not even be a trade...

A History of Violence gets a new edition, just in time for the Hollywood movie.

Michael Wm. Kaluta is the guest artist for Lucifer #66. When you're going to have fill-in art, this is the way to go!

Harvey Pekar surprisingly brings his newest project to DC with The Quitter, drawn by Dean Haspiel.

Otherworld comes to a premature end with an Act 1 as Phil Jimenez goes off to draw a little indy book called Infitite Crisis.

the craptacular Bat-story of the 90's comes to toyland with the Batman Knightfall line of action figures. IIRC didn't Joey Q design that Az-Bat costume? So will Marvel's EiC be getting royalties?


Image

Warren Ellis & Ben Templesmith's Fell is a new ongoing, so it'll be hard fo rhte final issue to be delayed for 6 months...

Beckett comics come under the Image banner with the Ronin Hood of the 47 Samurai GN.

Hey look, it's another Invincible collection: The Facts of Life. Cool.

It's unclear if the Saint Germaine: Shadows Fall trade is new material or a reprint of the old Caliber series.


Marvel

Hey look at all the Mouse of Him crossovers, freeing up your regular buys so you can try out some nice indy comics this month--thanks Marvel!

Garth Ennis & Clayton Crain have a wait-for-the-trade ready Ghost Rider mini. When's the Nic Cage movie coming out?

Richard Morgan returns with a new Black Widow mini, and the Sean Phillips inked by Bill Sienkiewicz art could make for an interesting combination.

Wovlerine #32 features sure-to-be-good art by Kaare Andrews, but I question whether Mark Millar is capable of the degree of sensitivity required to write a story about Logan in a WWII concentration camp.

Paul Jenkins & John Romita, Jr. have a new Sentry mini, which will probably be worth reading when it gets collected a few months from now.

Mike Avon Oeming & Scott Kolins save the trademark with the Thor: Blood Oath mini.

The Giffen/Dematteis/Maguire Defenders continues with a third issue.

Supreme Power takes a hiatus, but is replaced by two minis: Hyperion and Nighthawk.

Reginald Hudlin & John Romita, Jr.'s Black Panther gets a hardcover collection with Who Is the Black Panther.

The Marvel Digests are where the action is, as Runaways, Mary Jane and Spider-Girl all get new affordable small-size trades.

More classic Peter David Hulk stories come your way with a second Hulk Visionaries: Peter David volume.


That's it for the front of the catalog. Part 2, the middle, will be along shortly...