Previews-o-Rama part 1: The Front

Yeah yeah, I know that everyone else is already talking about the solicits for November, but I'm still going through the August Previews for items supposedly shipping in October. It's okay, you still have about a week and a half to get your pre-orders in to your favorte comical-book retailer.


Dark Horse

Another Conan mini debuts: Conan and the Demons of Khitai, by Akira Yoshida & Paul Lee. I wonder if Dark Horse is starting to go to the Conan well too often--remember when they had just one Star Wars comic at a time, and it sold like gangbusters, but now they have several series and they don't sell nearly as much?

Good news: Nexus Archives. Bad news: expensive $50 hardcover. Unknown news: Will there be a softcover edition? Wildcard: will this Nexus reprint project get past the first couple of volumes, or will it sputter and die like previous collected series?

Kelley Jones has a new mini: The 13th Son: Worse Than Waiting, which is all monster-on-monster action (no, that *that* way--eww!) I'm sure there will be a trade, as there is with most Dark Horse minis, for those of us who tend to want to wait for such things.

The Goon 25 Cent Comic repritns the original The Goon #1, plus an all new sotry, for just two bits. So go on, buy several for you and your friends! (And Goon fans: don't miss the little half-page Goon strip on page 49 in Previews--apparently to be an ongoing feature.)

It's hard to tell if Eden, the new manga from Hiroki Endo, will be worthwhile or not. It could be just another post-apocalyptic story, but the little art I've seen looks rather nice.

More expensive hardcovers, this time in the form of the second set of Frank Miller's Sin City Library. You know, if I hadn't just dumped a wad of cash on the recent 2nd edition trades, I just might have been insterested in these instead.

Kool: King Kong Chess Set. Not Kool: $475.




DC Comics

Batman in the suburbs, courtesy of Steve Niles and Scott Hampton in Batman: Gotham County Line (a title that, everytime I read it, puts that Willie Nelson/Lee Ann Womack song in my head...) It's a three-issue prestige series, so I'm sure it'll get collected at some point, but whether that's next year or in 2009, who knows?

In All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder #3, "Frank Miller, Jim Lee & Scott Williams continue their striking new vision of the Dark Knight"--funny, I thought it was just a striking new vision of Vikki Vale's ass...

Okay, sure, Arkham Asylum was not the best effort of either Grant Morrison or Dave McKean, but it wasn't that bad and makes for an interesting look at the early efforts of two creators who would go on to big things. It's being reissued in a softcover "Anniversary Edition"--but who the heck releases an Anniversary Edition in honor of the 16th anniversary, except those fascinated by base-2 (or perhaps the same folks in charge of the Image Comics 10th Anniversary hardcover...)

Batman: Underthe Hood gets collected as an inexpensive trade, while Catwoman: When in Rome (by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale) gets collected ina fancy hardcover.

Solo #7 gets taken over by Mike Allred--dig that groovy Dancing Batman cover!

Every single DCU title crosses over with every other title this month--it's the 37-issue Rann-Thanagar Day of OMACs United!

This month's Showcase Presents takes focus on Metamorpho, with 560 pages of black & white silver age goodness.

The Klarion the Witchboy & Zatanna minis come to an end.


Three new CMX manga series debut: Cipher, Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne and Kikaider Code 02--I'd like to see more about Kikaider before commiting, but golly-gee that robot on the cover looks cool.

Captin Atom in the WildStorm Universe? For nine issues? Hmmm...

Astro City: Local Heroes gets collected.

Don't forget to pre-order The Winter Men #3--I'm telling you, there may not be a trade fo this one, especially if the retailers don't order any copies.

Brian Azzarello & Marcelo Frusin's new hard-ass western, Loveless, debuts. you can be nearly certain that there will be a trade of this, so this'll be a case of me getting the first issue and, if it's any good, waiting for the trades.

Speaking of trades, there's actually a third Doom Patrol trade--with the first apeparance of Fl*x M*ntallo (which is spelled with asterisks to keep the Charles Atlas folk from using Google to find out that this is happening). It also will have the debut of my favorite Doom Patrol member ever: Danny the Street--that's not a nickname, he's an actual street: a sentient, tranvestite street. No, really. You can't make up genius stuff like that--okay, Grant Morrison can, but not us mere four-dimensionally-thinking mortals.

Dave Gibbons' The Originals gets a softcover collection.

Following up on Vertigo: First Taste, there's now another $5 sampler, Vertigo: first Offenses, with the first issues of The Invisibles, Fables, Preacher, Sandman Mystery Theatre, and The Sandman Presents: Lucifer.

Oh, and there's a little series flying under the radar called Infinite Crisis, though I doubt you've heard much about it. You might want to be sure to pre-order and let your retailer know that you want it, because he might not order any copies otherwise.



Image Comics

I'll never quite understand why Beckett Comics didn't take off, with their low price-point, quality production, and pretty good stories and art. But now that they're going through Image, maybe folks will give them another chance. You can start with the collected edition of Ruule: Ganglords of Chinatown.

Okay, I like The Walking Dead well enough, but is there really a demand for a The Walking Dead Script Book?

I'm now officially waiting-for-the-trade on Age of Bronze, but those of you buying in floppies will want to be sure to snag issue #21.

I'm pretty much the only person buying Hunter-Killer, aren't I?



Marvel

So, "Spider-Man: The Other" is "the first Spider-Man crossover in five years!"--they could have waited at least five more, as far as I'm concerned. This presents a dilema for me, I really want to read Peter David & Mike Wieringo's new Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man series, but seeing it kick off like this is just annoying.

She-Hulk returns with a new series. I really liked the previous series, though I was wait-for-trading on those, so I'll probably do likewise with the new series.

Now Nick Fury's Howling Commandos just looks to be a howling good time. I'll pretty much grab the first issue of just about anything that Keith Giffen in involved in.

Pretty art by Seth Fisher on the Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan mini; and I'm sure it'll still look good in the trade when it comes, so no need to spend $3.50 an issue just to see it interrupted every page or two by ads.

The Goon creator Eric Powell comes aboard the Mighty Marvel Machine for a special Halloween event, Marvel Monsters, and he's got Steve Niles, Duncan Fegredo, Roger Langridge, Peter David, Jeff Parker, Arnold Pander, and Keith Giffen in tow. Could actualyl be a lot of fun!

Speaking of Jeff Parker, did you know that the Interman creator is writing Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four? No? Well, you should; the man writes a good classic FF.

Power Pack returns in a new mini by the same creative team, Marc Sumerak & Gurihiru, who made the first mini such a joy to read. This time though it's X-Men and Power Pack, so maybe retailes will order it and customers will buy it...

J. Michael Straczynski & Colleen Doran team up for a new ongoing series from Icon: The Book of Lost Souls. I don't even really care what it's about; I'll buy it just for the art by Doran.

Did you forget to order the big ol' Powers hardcover? Don't worry--Marvel forgot to print it! So now they're resoliciting so you've got a second chance.

Although as far as lateness goes, you can't do much better (worse?) than Roy Thomas & Dick Giordano's Stoker's Dracula, thirty years in the making and now in a snazzy hardcover.

Young Avengers cover together in a hardcover collection of the first six issues.

In digest land, you can pick up Adam Warren & Rick Mays' Livewires and Mike Carey & Mike Perkins' Spellbinders in affordable editions.

Double your fun on Daredevil trades, as the Daredevil: Redemption mini and the Decalogue story from the main title both get collected this month.

Supreme Power gets a third trade, collected the last os the Max version of the series. (Presumably the new version will have less profanity and fewer nipples.)

And just to keep you guessing, Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis's The Vision mini from a few years back gets collected, for no discernable reason (unless that is it has something to do with the conclusion of Mouse of Him...)



Okay, that wraps it up for part 1--part 2, the middle, will be along sometime next week...