Liveblogging the December 2009 Previews – Part 2

And so it begins… or continues, I suppose. Here’s everything after Marvel.

1:43pm: Actually, scratch “everything” cuz I skipped Wizard. Less said the better.

P184 greets us with some interesting stuff, including new printings of Phil and Kaja Foglio’s GIRL GENIUS volume 1 and volume 3, with volume 1 now in full colour! This will certainly appeal to completists looking to get the whole series, but really I’d just been looking forward to having the series back in stock for a while now. Good news.

Actually, I was just writing my numbers in, and I was ordering like 2 or 3 copies of each, to get them back on the shelf, and I realized that given Diamond’s order minimums and low, low, low stocking levels, this is probably my only kick-at-the-can on these titles without ordering direct. I bumped my order up some.

1:51pm: Amaze Ink / SLG has an interesting new graphic novel, Birdhouse by Vernon White. The premise, a classic fairy-tale evoking modern themes of loneliness and isolation, is effective right in the solicit text. SLG has done up a promo trailer for it as well, which shows off a bunch of the rather nice art:

Original graphic novel, 136 pages for $#10.95. I’d read that.

Also on p186 SLG has the second HAUNTED MANSION collection, which has tons of material that has not seen print yet (or didn’t see print in the Disney version). 128 pages for $10.95.

1:55pm: I rip on Antarctic a lot, like every single month, and their design is only marginally better this time around. But seriously? They are publishing a comic this month called TIME LINCOLN #1, by Gold Digger creator Fred Perry, about the time-travelling adventures of Abraham Lincoln in the hour before his death. Having him meet Obama is vaguely cash-grabby, which puts me off, but the idea is fun and good. The cover’s pretty slick too.

Oo, was just googling for Time Lincoln and apparently the lincoln character on Aqua Teen Hunger Force refered to himself that way… Here’s hoping no one gets sued, eh?

2:01pm: so they’re really milking this Archie-gets-married thing eh? Epilogue issue? What’s really historic here is this is the first time any Archie story has had an epilogue, usually they just end on bad jokes or Christian moralizing.

Wait, it’s the epilogue and 2 other stories… meaning, what? Like 4 pages of epilogue? “How will Archie deal with the events of the last six issues?” We’ll wrap that fucker up just in time to cram 18 pages of status quo back in there.

I can’t wait for the trade!

2:07pm: Meanwhile in the Avatar section, IGNITION CITY, possibly the earliest-announced, longest-gestating of any Warren Ellis series (I seriously remember him talking about it in the early days of the WEF… 10 years ago? More?) gets a collection on p198, with simultaneous SC, HC, and Signed HC released. Thanks Avatar, that is exactly what I want as a retailer, the ability to choose my formats and order accordingly.

Then on p200, we launch into Ellis’ new comic, the Steampunkily named CAPTAIN SWING AND THE ELECTRICAL PIRATES OF CINDERY ISLAND! I’m not one for variants normally, but this one comes with a “Penny Dreadfuls” style variant cover, which is kinda cool, I gotta say. 4 issues, $3.99 each.

2:14pm: Somehow I had missed/forgotten that Bluewater Comics picked up the “Rock & Roll Comics” license. Huh.

2:22pm: Did not get a Christmas Card from Boom this year, so I can only assume I was annoying when I called them out last month for doing $25 hardcovers of 112 pages of Uncle scrooge comics (seriously.). This month they go back to the well on that a couple of times with a Valentine’s Day book and another Uncle Scrooge Book, but on the Uncle Scrooge at least (The Hunt for Old Number One, by Erik Hedman and Wanda Gattino, p210) they’re also offering a simultaneously released $9.99 SC edition, which is really excellent. A big part of the criticism of the Gladstone books is that they were unattractive as children’s entertainment because of the price, at $8 for a slim volume. $25 for a volume double-the-size isn’t any better, and I’m glad to see them doing something about it. We’ll be supporting the soft cover in a big way, to show our preference as a retailer (and put our money where our mouths are).

2:30pm: Sometimes if I don’t have anything nice OR constructive to say I just won’t say anything. Not all the time, but sometimes.

2:32pm: Still love that costume design on DE’s Buck Rogers. Speaking of, I completely forgot to get my dad the first omnibus collection of Garth Ennis’ BATTLEFIELDS stuff. We both really enjoyed Ennis’ WAR STORIES at Vertigo back in the day, and this seems to be a pretty direct continuation of those. I can’t remember if I’ve read any of them or not, or if I’ve just read reviews of them. Weird. Does that happen to anybody else?

2:37pm: Speaking of, on p222 D.E. has an Army Of Darkness Omnibus, collecting 488 pages of comics (including the original adaptation and first 18 issues of the ongoing) for just $30. That’s a steal of a price, and the story still has plenty of fans…

2:41pm: On p224 from Del Rey, we’ve got CLAMP IN AMERICA, featuring the popular manga quartet in a career-history by Shaenon Garrity. Looks like it’s going to be bursting-at-the-seems with illustrations, and Garrity is a great writer so this should be a really solid read for fans of CLAMP but also, really, for anyone looking at getting an inside look at the world of manga. 368 pages, Partial Colour, $24.99.

Also from Del Rey, apparently Peter David and Dan Hipp (Amazing Joy Buzzards) are doing original Ben 10: Alien Force comics? Or are these adaptations of the episodes? Huh. Either way, 176 pages of full colour comics for $7.99 on a can’t-miss, hugely successful kids property? Sign me up!

2:49pm: Monthly Fantagraphics Designwatch: I’m having drouble reading the orange book titles on the blue background on p235, cuz the font is too small.

Monthly Fantagraphics Bookwatch: Wow, some good stuff this month. A sequel to Ho Che Anderson’s SCREAM QUEEN, and Gilbert Hernandez collects a bunch of Fritz strips into one graphic novel: High Soft Lisp. Nice. Oh, and “The Best American Comics Criticism of the 21st Century” which is… well, I can’t wait to see it, anyway.

2:54pm: I realized just after finishing it a few months ago that I neglected to include Graphix’s COPPER by Kazu Kibuishi and MISSILE MOUSE by Jake Parker in this little Previews wrap-up. Let me correct that, if I can, by taking time out to mention that they’re both great books, available now some places (and out soon from Diamond).

Which brings us to p236 and Scholastic Graphix’ SMILE, by Raina Telegemeier. Raina’s a fixture of the small press and indy con circuit, and everyone probably has one of her SMILE mini-comics in their mini-comics box (I assume people keep their minis in boxes…). SMILE is about more than dentistry mishaps (although it’s about that too), it’s also about being young and new schools and earthquakes and growing up and making mistakes. It’s a great coming-of-age story about middle school and dental drama, and y’all should give it a look. 224 pages, Full Colour, $10.99 in softcover, $21.99 in hardcover.

Cute cover too.

3:04pm: So it looks like IDW has picked up the license to Patrica Brigg’s Mercy Thompson series, and they’re doing the follow-up to the first collection. I don’t remember that being reported in the BIG NEWS that D.E. had picked up The Dabel Brothers. In fact I specifically remember reading that everything was going to D.E. I guess press releases don’t dwell on the negative, but wouldn’t this Previews have been OUT at the time? Shouldn’t someone have made a note somewhere in their reportage? Sloppy.

Anyway, Patricia Brigg’s Mercy Thompson: Moon Called #1, $3.99, probably 4 issue miniseries, full colour, p241.

3:11pm: And now courtesy of IDW, here’s the Ghostbusters proton-streaming Cupid:

Heh. From: Ghostbusters Holiday Special: Tainted Love, $3.99, 32 pages, p245.

Hey, look, drawn by Canada’s own Salgood Sam too, how about that. Actually, that cover isn’t, but the book itself is.

3:19pm: NBM is releasing the third in the series of graphic novels produced to celebrate the birthday of the louvre. The next is ON THE ODD HOURS by Eric liberge ($14.95, 72 pags, Full Colour, p256). I thought the first 2 were great stuff, and am looking forward to this one (though I’m not familiar with Liberge’s work, I have to say).

3:21pm: Oh, Canada!

If you somehow missed out on reading Scott Chantler’s epic fable about burly, hairy frontiersmen living in little wood houses together, fuck, GET IT NOW.

Heh, seriously, THE ANNOTATED NORTHWEST PASSAGE great stuff, and the collection features tons of annotations and a bibliography, making it both fun AND educational, but mostly fun. Now in softcover for $15.99, 272 pages, black and white, p257.

3:26pm: Speaking of Oni Press, they have an AWESOME double-page “Valentine’s Day” backlist spread, with a key to which books you should read. A little pink heart “for lovers”. A cracked red heart “for the broken hearted”. A heart behind jail-cell bars “For the truly jilted…”. They recommend Queen & Country for the truly jilted. Brilliant. 🙂

3:34pm: Um… so I skipped to the end. The end of the catalogue is really easy for me to do, because we get Yen and Viz and TOkyopop from other sources with better lead times and comperable/better discounts. So, uh, skip skip skip! But I talk enough about manga anyway, right? You don’t need me telling you to get RESTAURANTE PARADISO by Natsume Ono. Besides I’ll probably tell you that again, later. 🙂

Anyway, that’s it for this month! Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you on the blogosphere soon enough…!

– Chris