Category: Shipping Lists

Hi there folks. These are the comics that are scheduled to ship to The Beguiling Books & Art in Toronto, Canada this week. These books may not show up at all retailers at the same time, but if you see a title here it’s probably at least worth asking your local retailer about… 

Kind of a small week this week, overall, but there are some really solid books on the list. This looks to be the week that DramaQueen finally starts shipping their manga through Diamond, though due to Canadian customs issues I have no idea if any of their titles besides Audition are going to ship. But as far as graphic novels go, there are a couple of solid, high-profile releases worth noting.

OCT060027 ALICE IN SUNDERLAND GN (C: 0-1-2) 29.95
This is the new graphic novel by Bryan Talbot, but between the digitally painted cover art and the solicitation text that doesn’t actually say anything at all, I have no idea what this is actually going to be. It sounds completely outside of Talbot’s ouevre, at least so far as I’m familiar with it, and at least the solicit text is helpful enough to say that it’s “like no graphic novel before it”, so perhaps I’m not alone in feeling lost. The Beguiling is set to be doing an even with Mr. Talbot in April, which admittedly makes me even more anxious about this one, as we have an awful lot of fans of One Bad Rat looking forward to this new book and I’ve no idea whatsoever if it will appeal…

FEB078049 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER VAR CVR NEW PTG #1 (PP #7 2.99
JAN078263 CAPTAIN AMERICA 2ND PTG EPTING VAR #25 CW 3.99

Just a heads-up, the second printings on these titles are in fact shipping this week. We’re now out of our reorder of Buffy first prints, and probably a day or two away from sold-out on the Captain America #25s.

JAN073666 HOUDINI HANDCUFF KING CENTER OF CARTOON STUDIES HC 16.99
The first ‘work for hire’ from The Centre for Cartoon Studies makes it’s debut this week, a graphic novella on the life of Harry Houdini. Call it ‘confluence’ if you like, but this morning there was a feature on the news about the mysterious death of Houdini, and a new examination of it. Coupled with the popularity of modern day illusionists like David Blaine and Criss Angel, not to mention films like The Illusionist and The Prestige, and I think there might just be a groundswell of interest in this material, so good on Hyperion for being just at the top of the curve there.

The work is illustrated by Nick Bertozzi over layouts from Jason Lutes, and Lutes’ early graphic novel Jar Of Fools features themes of illusion and Houdini, making for a nice companion-piece to this new work. Bertozzi also has a controversial graphic novel named The Salon coming out later this year; my employer has read it and says it’s outstanding. So, confluence being what it is, it looks like a heck of a lot of factors are going to go into making this one a success. Let’s see if I call it correctly or not…

You can see a preview of the Houdini: Handcuff King as Nick Bertozzi’s website, http://www.nickbertozzi.com/comics/houdini/houdini.htm.

NOV063528 OH SKINNAY HC 24.95
I’ve had a chance to see this and it’s a lovely book; a new edition of the original lovingly restored by Drawn & Quarterly. I’ve read about 20 pages and it’s just sort of… lovely. A gentle, affectionate celebration of youth. Also, in the vein of D&Q’s lovely Gasoline Alley reprints, this edition features an excellent afterword on cartoonist Claire Briggs that will be of note to classic cartooning fans. Actually, I may as well just steal the photo from the Drawn & Quarterly blog:

Pictured: Tom Devlin’s hand, Claire Briggs’ book. Photo by Tom Devlin.

FEB070001 PREVIEWS VOL XVII #4 (NET) 4.50
It’s Previews time again… I think I’m going to do a Previews Review on this if it kills me. Hopefully it won’t. As for the covers? Fear Agent and Sinestro Corps. At least one of them is creator-owned…

JAN073851 TACTICS VOL 1 GN (OF 8) 9.99
Giving hope to manga fans, TACTICS is one of the many manga started by ADV and then abandoned after a volume or two, when ADV figured out they didn’t know what the hell they were doing, and now it’s back! From Tokyopop! Rejoice! Maybe ADV will finally drop the license for Yotsuba, and a publisher who actually, you know, publishes, will put out volumes 4 through 6. And maybe a new printing of 1-3… that certainly wouldn’t hurt…

The rest of this week’s shipping list is behind the cut:

Continue reading “Shipping March 28th, 2007”

Hi there folks. These are the comics that are scheduled to ship to The Beguiling Books & Art in Toronto, Canada this week. These books may not show up at all retailers at the same time, but if you see a title here it’s probably at least worth asking your local retailer about… 

…no time right now to do much in the way of commentary on these books, though there are some good ones in there. If things get a little lighter later in the day, I’ll come back and edit this space to include actual recommendations. The full list is after the cut, so click on the link:
Continue reading “Shipping March 21st, 2007”

Hi there folks. These are the comics that are scheduled to ship to The Beguiling Books & Art in Toronto, Canada this week. These books may not show up at all retailers at the same time, but if you see a title here it’s probably at least worth asking your local retailer about…

Jesus H Christ. I usually try and keep the ‘my picks’ section to just five books because otherwise I won’t get this list up until… well, never, actually. But this is the biggest shipping week in recent history, with a truly shocking number of big books as well. I dunno, I hope you all decide to take out second mortgages before coming into the shop this week. But honestly, there seems to be something for more-or-less everyone on the shipping list and that never happens… So without further ado, here we go.

OCT060255 AUTHORITY #2 2.99
The second issue of Gene Ha and Grant Morrison’s Authority is shipping. I don’t know if I ever told you my theory of this incarnation of The Authority. I didn’t read much on it, but I think the idea here is that they’re in “our” world, a world with no superheroes and badly in need of “fixing”. The first issue with it’s murky “realistic” colour pallette, the shocking appearance of the ‘door’, the complete absence of the title characters, it all points to a very different status quo, and really the only one that I could think of that would work. Let’s see if I’m proven right!

DEC062304 CAPTAIN AMERICA #25 CW 3.99
This issue! Something happens but we can’t tell you what! Maybe someone dies! Maybe not! We’ve been letting you down for five years, true believer! Let’s see how far your faith extends.

DEC063562 CASTLE WAITING VOL II #5 3.95
Continues to be strong. Someone mentioned that this volume seemed a little “off” as compared to the first volume, but Castle Waiting has always been a bit wierd in installments, really only garnering any critical acclaim in its (multiple) collected editions. I do think that Linda Medley is one of the few comics auteurs that you could accuse of “writing for the trade” (or gorgeous prestige hardcover as the case may be), but at the same time I very much feel that without the self-imposed deadline of serialization, this material might not ever materialise at all, which would be the real shame. I certainly hope that whatever format Medley and Fantagraphics decide to collect this new material in, that it’s both compatible in both design and formatting with the first hardcover. Mostly because they’re getting close to the point where we could see a collection, what with that first issue having been better than triple-sized.

DEC062306 CIVIL WAR INITIATIVE 4.99
Yeah. I dunno. It’s an interesting concept, but then so was Civil War, and look how that turned out. This one shot sort of… explains… the post-Civil War Marvel Universe in a way that was only hinted at at the end of CW #7. To echo Jeff’s comments over at The Savage Critic, I really can’t see Marvel following this through to its natural conclusion as a publisher, and I don’t think Mark Millar in particular is a good enough writer to pull it off either. His idea of satire being “This is the face of me fucking you in the ass.” Er, yeah.

DEC062361 CRIMINAL #5 (MR) 2.99
Meanwhile: This? Awesome! Buy.

DEC062364 DAREDEVIL BY FRANK MILLER & KLAUS JANSON OMNIBUS H 99.99
Christ almight. Both Marvel AND DC are smart enough to capitalise on that Frank Miller movie coming out, but the company who publishes the book its based on can’t keep it in print. I suppose I could just quit fucking bitching about how stupid this is, but it is honestly shocking and even a little upsetting to me. Dark Horse, where’s the rest of Miller’s catalogue? Martha Washington, Hard Boiled, Rusty & Big Guy… This Is Not Rocket Science.

JAN072346 DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER BORN #2 (OF 7) 3.99
That first issue was alright, actually. Looking forward to #2, and I appreciate that it’s on time too! I did forget to bring a copy to my dad. Maybe I’ll send him the first two, see what he thinks.

DEC063983 DEATH NOTE VOL 10 TP (C: 1-0-0) 7.99
What, you thought the manga would take a week off? The manga never stops. Here’s something interesting, we do better with Death Note than we do with Naruto. Why? Because Death Note has not only more cross over potential, but actual cross over with our existing customer base. The people buying Naruto buy a lot of other manga, but generally aren’t picking up much in the way of non-Japanese comics. Death Note, on the otherhand, is manga crack, each chapter ending on a ridiculous cliffhanger, leading up to the ridiculous cliffhanger at the end of each book; that’s something that no comics reader can resist.

DEC063437 DISGAEA 2 VOL 1 GN 9.99
This manga has done surprisingly well for us, thanks to it coming out from a smaller publisher (Broccoli) with less distribution amongst comic and book stores, and the fact that the art is just adorable. Broccoli also released an art-book of the series last week that was really pretty too. I have no idea if it reads well at all. 🙂

DEC063785 DUNGEON PARADE VOL 1 TP 9.95
NBM continues doing God’s own work by releasing brilliant graphic albums from Sfar, Trondheim, et al. If you’re curious, NBM has even put up a preview of the series at their website. This volume features art by Manu Larcenet, whose brilliant Ordinary Victories was also released by NBM a few years back, an unrecognised gem of a book.

NOV063594 EC ARCHIVES TWO FISTED TALES VOL 1 HC (C: 0-1-2) 49.95
I really hope that the market continues to be healthy enough to bear the cost of these reprint projects. Because honestly, I’ve never read almost any of this stuff and I really feel like I ought to.

JAN073894 ESSEX COUNTY VOL 1 TALES FROM THE FARM TP (MR) 9.95
Readers of this blog may remember about a month’s worth of advertisements for this book on the right side of the screen there, so feel free to assume I’m compromised. I’m not though, because while Tales From The Farm creator Jeff Lemire is a friend of mine and a fellow Torontonian, he’s also crafted a pretty excellent graphic novel here, and I’m glad that Top Shelf agreed and picked it up. Lemire’s really good at pacing and mood, and espescially at setting, and if you check out the preview at his site you’ll see what I mean right away. I’m personally unsure about his figure work, not that I think it’s too rough or anything, but I worry that while appropriate for his stories that it’s also a little… uncommercial I guess? I dunno. People like to look at other attractive people, generally, so I always worry that Jeff’s renderings of awkward and gnarled characters will turn people off before they get to the actual story. If that sort of thing is keeping you on the fence about his work, do me (and yourself) a favour and at least check out the preview, I think it’s the kind of thing that readers of quiet, contemplative, small-town set fiction will really enjoy.

DEC060271 EX MACHINA VOL 5 SMOKE SMOKE TP (MR) 12.99
That trade paperback cover is both ridiculous and amazing (see: top). Great reading though, I’m finally caught up on this series and enjoying it a lot. Although this does feature the single most… surprising… full page illustration in a comic from the last 12 months. Enjoy!

SEP062108 FANTASTIC FOUR #543 CW 3.99
This is, I think, an anniversary issue for the Fantastic Four, featuring buckets of guest artists. This issue Paul Pope does a new Human Torch / Spider-Man story, which is always fun, but really I’m only mentioning this at all because I want to show a gorgeous piece of Paul Pope art from the book.

Nice, eh?

JAN073896 JEFFERY BROWNS FEEBLE ATTEMPTS #1 (MR) (C: 0-1-0) 5.00
“Collects some of Jeffrey Brown’s favourite anthology and mini-comics stories,” according to the Top Shelf website. I hope it includes that really good comic he did about Andrew Bird (musician), because despite not really “getting” his music when I first heard it Brown’s story was really compelling, and I want to read it again before settling in with the music. Anyhow, this should be a nice little surprise/bonus for fans of Brown’s work.

JUL063808 KANA DE MANGA SPECIAL SOUND FX (C: 0-1-2) 9.99
This should be a cool little book for manga fans. With fewer and fewer manga being released with translated or re-drawn sound effects, who wouldn’t want to be able to decode their books with a handy guide like this? I also imagine that now that a hand guide to Japanese sound-effects exists, we’ll start seeing a lot more of them in fan and OEL work… Here’s hoping there are no humourous errors in this. I can just see a legion of creators adding in what they think is the sound effect for “crying softly in the rain” and instead using the one for “large boobies bouncing in place”.

(The humour here is in the fact that the Japanese have a sound effect for everything. Just in case the preceeding paragraph made no sense to you.)

NOV063557 LIVING AND THE DEAD GN 9.95
Hey, new Jason! Apparently this is a solid, though unspectacular, addition to Jason’s catalogue, but the time I spend reading Jason’s work is just wonderful, and I’m always looking forward to a new release.

JAN070307 MANHUNTER #29 2.99
This has actually been pretty good. Have I said that already? Anyway, this is one of those “read while exhausted” comics I mentioned a while back, primarily so you don’t really need to think about any of the ridiculous implications of the series in a larger, completely broken superhero universe. Instead, you just get to turn off that part of your brain and giggle at Wonder Woman being unable to deal with Hollywood press. I’m glad to hear that the series got picked up for another go-round, Marc Andreyko’s a good writer who really deserves a steady gig (if anybody does).

JAN072384 MARVEL ZOMBIES ARMY OF DARKNESS #1 2.99
Fuck, will this week ever end? Anyway, the dude from Army Of Darkness fucks up a bunch of zombie super-heroes with a chainsaw. It Sells Itself.

JAN072385 MIGHTY AVENGERS #1 3.99
Finally, it only took 10 years but we’ve got another West Coast Avengers.

DEC063972 NARUTO VOL 13 TP (C: 1-0-0) 7.95
…which isn’t to say that Naruto doesn’t sell phenomenally, amazingly well. It does. A lot.

DEC061863 NAT TURNER BOOK 2 REVOLUTION TP 10.00
The long-awaited conclusion! Nifty! I hope that I don’t get too much blow-back from folks who bought the first two “issues” only to see the series conclude in book format. Because… dude… it’s all comics, you know? Anyway, this is a very good thing to even see in print, let alone the quality with which Kyle Baker constructed it. I hope it gets its due, and that Kyle Baker can get nominated in something other than the “humour” category at the Eisner’s for a change.

JAN070316 SHAZAM THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL #2 (OF 4) 5.99
Quote of the week: “Both signings were crowded, and I think everyone at DC was surprised by the amount of kids that showed up.” That’s Jeff Smith, talking about his signing at the New York Comic Con for the first issue of Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil. I think Tom Spurgeon had something to say about that, but his site is down at the moment. At any rate, yeah, I’m not surprised that DC was surprised, for whatever that’s worth to you.

As to the book itself? Perfect.

DEC060250 UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS #8 (OF 8) 2.99
Last, and probably least of the books listed, is Uncle Sam. I… I’ve really enjoyed this ridiculous farce of a comic. I think anything with Uncle Sam as a superhero character has to be at least a little over-the-top, and this is that in SPADES. So, yeah, nice art, a crazy story, objectionable characters trying to get their shit together, stupid crazy superhero fun like it should be. I have no idea what’s going to happen with these characters next though.

That’s what I thought! Rest of the list behind the cut:

Continue reading “Shipping March 7th, 2007”

Hi there folks. These are the comics that are scheduled to ship to The Beguiling Books & Art in Toronto, Canada this week. These books may not show up at all retailers at the same time, but if you see a title here it’s probably at least worth asking your local retailer about…

Here are my top 5 picks for the week, with the rest of the list behind the cut!

SEP062101 CIVIL WAR #7 (OF 7) 2.99
I don’t know if this qualifies as a “pick” considering it’s primarily morbid curiosity that’s got me anticipating this one. My contention, that they can’t wrap this series up in this issue, is now only 5 days away from being proven correct. I mean, sure, the already-solicited ‘epilogue’ issues sort of gave that away a while back, but… heh… yeah. I mean, Infinite Crisis was a bit of a clusterfuck, but I will be absolutely shocked if this doesn’t blow that out of the water in terms of sheer “We’ve so screwed all this up” power. Luckily, there are also really good comics also coming out this week, so this week’s new comics day is not one comprised solely of schandefreude.

NOV063980 DRIFTING CLASSROOM VOL 4 TP (MR) (C: 1-0-0) 9.99
AHHHHHHHHH! NOOOOOOOOOO! I mean, sure, most comics are lettered in ALLCAPS, sort of giving the impression that it’s all screaming, all of the time. But this one really means it. The premise of Drifting Classroom is, essentially, that this is the worst thing that will ever happen to a group of schoolchildren, and they’re all REALLY UPSET ABOUT IT, ALL OF THE TIME!!! Which is a great and totally fair premise, you know? Honestly, if you haven’t read this, just pick it up. It’s completely insane in the best possible way.

MAY063337 LOCAL #8 (OF 12) (MR) 2.99
After an unfortunate extended absence, we’ve got a new issue of Local next week. Issue #6 marked a real turning point for both the lead character and the series, and issue #7 was a “fill-in” of sorts, featuring a different character and perspective. So I’m really curious to see what happens this issue, and where the series goes from here. I also hope that the series ships a bit more regularly through it’s conclusion, although I’m not holding out a lot of hope at this point. 

NOV063982 NAOKI URASAWAS MONSTER VOL 7 TP (C: 1-0-0) 9.99
Hey, Monster‘s shipping this week too! Awesome! I think I’m still a volume behind though, I gotta find me some manga reading time. Maybe after I finish reviewing Casanova. Anyway, apparently in this volume Johann does something creepy. It’s exactly what I was hoping for!

DEC060238 SPIRIT #3 2.99
And the third issue of Darwyn Cooke’s Spirit as well, bang on time. That’s awesome. I thought that second issue was absolutely incredible, and beautiful. Not much more to say than that.

Guess I’m just not that wordy this week. Still, some good comics in there and lots of stuff that just squeaked past without a mention, so check out the full list by “reading the rest of this entry…”. See ya soon with my Casanova #4 review, if everything goes according to plan.
Continue reading “Shipping February 21st, 2007”

Hi there folks. These are the comics that are scheduled to ship to The Beguiling Books & Art in Toronto, Canada this week. These books may not show up at all retailers at the same time, but if you see a title here it’s probably at least asking your local retailer about…Here are my top 5 picks for the week, with the rest of the list behind the cut!

DEC060180 BATMAN #663 2.99
Hey, Grant Morrison’s back! And he brought the painterly stylings of John Van Fleet with him! It’s sort of like a wierdo homae to ARKHAM ASYLUM or something. Ooo, I hope I just ‘called’ that before anyone’s had a chance to read it. Grant Morrison does Arkham Asylum revisited in one issue? No? The reason I say that is because it’s Batman versus the Joker and… you know what? If I were describing this to someone it would sound just like any other Batman comic book from the last 40 years. But actually reading it? It’s pretty great. If superhero comics were consistently this good I’d just stop ragging on them altogether. But then I was an Arkham Asylum fan.

OCT061867 CASANOVA #7 (MR) 1.99
It’s Casanova week, so how could Casanova #7 not be one of my picks? It couldn’t, that’s how! Oh, and it’s officially Casanova Week now because a freelance job kicked my ass on Sunday and there’s no way I can write two reviews a day between now and Wednesday. Anyway: VERY LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS. You really oughtta be reading this, you know. The issues are still available in better comic stores everywhere…

NOV061852 GODLAND #16 (NOTE PRICE) 0.60
Note Price indeed! The fine folks in charge of Godland and Image Comics have decided that they’re gonna drag you on board this critically acclaimed over-the-top Kirby tribute, and I figured I’d do my part to help. So I ordered like a hundred copies of this, and I’m going to give one away to any of our pull-file customers who’ve picked up their comics in the last two weeks. Sort of a thank you folks, here have some more. We’re also totally stocked up on the first two trade paperbacks. Now ask yourself, are you doing your part to support G0DLAND?

OCT063407 KRAZY & IGNATZ 1939-1940 BRICK STUFFED WITH MOOMBI 19.95
I’m just maintaining my indy cred by mentioning this, I can’t really get into Krazy Kat. But lots and lots of you like this a lot, so I figured I’d mention it here.

NOV062314 NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE #12 2.99
DEC062381 NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE VOL 1 THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT 14.99
For the purposes of our list, this counts as one item. NEXTWAVE ENDS THIS ISSUE! Easily Marvel’s best comic, and a bright spot in Marvel’s publishing schedule for the last year or so. Good stupid fun with the kick and ‘splode. The first trade paperback is worth your fifteen bucks.

Alright, check out what ELSE is coming out this week…
 

Continue reading “Shipping February 14th, 2007”