Whoo-hoo! Look at that date up there! It's a brand new year, and a brand new Previews to go along with it! Let's dive right in!



I'm skipping name tags from now on, so just remember the black text is me, and the blue text is Travis. That's easy to remember, right?

Dark Horse:

The full solicits are here!

Since this will be either one of the last posts of the year, or one of the first of the new year, I'd just like to say happy new year to everyone, and to thank you for bringing me on this column several months ago. It's been a lot of fun so far!

The only regular pull I'm getting is the latest version of Dark Horse Presents (page 70). It's been good stuff this run. Wish I'd gotten it the last run, but I have grabbed some of the back issues for cheap.

Man, it looks like a lot of stuff from DH this month.

Page 59: The Rook TP 1 - I might go for this, I like time travel stories, and Grant and Gulacy are pretty good.

I'm definitely getting The Rook. I like Grant, I like Gulacy, I LOVE TIME TRAVEL STORIES!!!!!! Actually, as much as time travel makes my brain hurt, the DHP story was pretty intriguing, so I'll have to pick this up.

Everybody loves time travel stories. I actually watched Back to the Future 2 at Thanksgiving and maybe it's just that I have a brain for time travel/multi timeline stories, but I was thinking that it really wasn't that hard to follow. (Speaking of time travel, did you read ... hmm, if you haven't, it might be a spoiler. I'll zip my lip!) (25 May)



Page 59: Death Head is available in trade, 6 issues for 20 bucks. It sounded kind of interesting, but I don't think I've heard much good about it. It did sound like Lot 13 by Niles and Fabry, and in the end that mini wasn't quite good enough.

Death Head just doesn't interest me. So sad! (18 May)

Page 62: Cullen Bunn has a new book, Death Follows, which has a neat looking Bisley cover, and this preview page is ok. I like Bunn, mostly, so maybe I'd go for this.

I'll probably get Death Follows, because I like Bunn, and A. C. Zamudio is quite good and deserves more work. Maybe this will get her a bigger following! (25 May)

Page 63: Colder v3 Toss the Bones is available in trade, and that's how I read it! I'm in! (4 May)

Page 65: The Shadow Glass 1 of 6. I've seen a little of Aly Fell's stuff in Heavy Metal, and it's pretty neat. Not neat enough to get in singles, however, but neat. And yeah, it's magic with a K, but at least it's not magic with a Q at the end ...

Yeah, Shadow Glass sounds okay. Not great, but okay. I might have to check out the trade. (23 March)

Page 66: Dead Vengeance, the Bill Morrison mini, is available in HC, but I'm not sure if it was going to be worth 20 bucks for the collection. I may look for the singles at my local shops, now, instead.

Dead Vengeance will, I assume, be out in a softcover trade after a while, so you can wait for that!

Hmm, maybe, but I'm not going to count on it. Many times my local shop puts together a run of issues and prices the set for about half the cover price, so maybe I'll get it then. (18 May)

I think that's all the books with DEATH or DEAD in them! Is there a theme at DH this month?

Page 69: Rebels TP 1 - well, this is a 10 issue trade for 25 bucks, which is a pretty good deal, but does this mean there's not going to be any more to the series, or what? How has this been? Does it suggest that 'Murrica wasn't given to the earth perfect as is by God? Heathens!

I have a sneaking suspicion that Rebels is coming to an end with issue #10. Wood vaguely mentioned something about it in one recent issue, which took me by surprise because I know he wanted to do a long series. Maybe the sales just aren't there. Next issue is #10, so I guess we'll find out then!

Yeah, I find it hard to believe they're going to continue in singles if the first trade is this big. Perhaps companies are finally deciding to switch to trades for continuing series like this? It IS listed as v1, so that's a possibility. (One series that got cancelled 10 or so years back that may have benefitted from putting out trades regularly instead of just singles was Reign of the Zodiac from Giffen and Doran. I think that would have been a good one in a nice size trade every 6 months to a year.) (4 May)

Page 70: I'm definitely in for This Damned Band TP, which was a cool sounding story of a band that really worshipped Satan.

The five issues of This Damned Band that have come out are pretty good, so the trade is probably a decent bet. (4 May)

Page 70: DHP 20 - hey, when did DH start doing Jem and the Holograms? (16 May)



Page 72: Birrrrrrrrrrd Boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Actually, it looks like it might be good. (18 May)

Page 75: Itty Bitty Hellboy Search for the Were Jaguar TP is offered. Were Jaguar? There Jaguar!

That was painful, even for you. (18 May)

Page 76: Power Cubed TP is available. I will consider this, Aaron Lopresti is pretty good, and it sounded kind of fun. (4 May)

Page 81: Negative Space TP - I like Ryan K Lindsay and Owen Gieni, so I'm in for this. A guy gets interrupted writing his suicide note, plus Lovecraftian madness! Cool! The phrase "sadness artifact" amuses me! (18 May)

Page 83: The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia from the Talbots will probably appeal to you, history guy.

Yeah, I'll probably get it. I know it will look pretty, and who doesn't love stories about French revolutionary feminists?

Dave Sim. Boom! Couldn't resist! (I love Cerebus and Dave Sim, you know this!) (25 May)



Page 84: Possibly the must have of the month: Trump: The Complete Collection: Essential Kurtzman Volume 2 HC (the only Trump I'm choosing this year!). Elder, Davis, Wood, Mel Brooks! It's basically the Playboy version of MAD, and those creators were at their peaks, I'd say. Cool!

Trump does sound neat. I'm such a sucker for collections of old stuff!

And hey, the issue 3 stuff that never came out is probably unpublished prime stuff from these guys, so it's new AND old! (25 May)

Page 85: Walt Kelly's Fables and Funnies is undoubtedly good, but I thought IDW was publishing his stuff. Is his work all public domain now?

I don't know. Perhaps someone in the comments knows! (18 May)

Page 87: I haven't read more than the first volume within The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Omnibus TP 1, but the fourth volume is offered here, and I like what I've read so far, so I'll be getting this. (18 May)

Aren't you getting your Outlander stein or patch (page 88)? Come on!!!!

Ich bin ein auslander! I have no idea what Outlander is, even! Oh, no, wait, I've heard of it. Just don't care ...



DC:

Yep, the full solicits are here!

I like this new look to the Previews book so far, btw. We'll see if it continues to not annoy me.

I don't know what you're talking about with the "new look for Previews." It looks the same as it always has, doesn't it?

Man, do you even look at the book other than the stuff for sale? They have a whole big thing in the front about how they've changed some features and the look of the up front features is different. There's a nice interview with Dan Clowes on the flipside and they have the listings for FCBD already! So much fun if you're missing it!

Features in the front? Why would I look at those?!?!? Let's move on to DC!

Hmm, looks like a bunch of things concluding. Will next month be the new 51?

Issue #50 offers a good "excuse" to up cover prices to $4.99. Will next month see regular series go up to 3.99 in singles? Uh oh!

I fear that DC will jack up the prices. Neither they nor Marvel is doing very well, apparently, so maybe that's what's going on.

Well, the other thing I saw over at Bleeding Cool is that DC may be switching to 2 issues a month shipping, so we'll see if they do that. According to the column by Brian Hibbs at the mothership, though, DC and Marvel both are tanking from their "taking time off" from the regular series (with Convergence and Secret Wars). Maybe too, regular comics readers are wising up that a) singles aren't a very good deal at this point and b) the Big 2 trade just about everything, so we can catch up then. Of course, the Big 2 will be more likely to be skittish about trying new things (like Batgirl, which has been pretty good, but did seem to suffer during the Convergence break) if they have to win big with everything out the gate. The damn movies have raised the expectations too high! Thank goodness for Image and other indie creator owned stuff!

Page 94: Legends of Tomorrow 1 sounds interesting. 4 stories within this book. Firestorm, eh. Metal Men, eh, but Cinar is good. Metamorpho is cool, and again, Lopresti is decent. But ohhhhh, wtf is up with Sugar and Spike? Those fun little babies now grown up? Ugh! But damn, Giffen and Bilquis Evely? She was so good on Shaft! Yes, I actually finally read Shaft! So ... tempting!

Legends of Tomorrow does sound neat. And, you know, about 6 weeks late for the television show's premiere. (9 March)

The only series of the regular DCU that I'm getting is Batgirl. Right now I'm behind on it (what!?!), but briefly looking at the description here (page 99) makes me think that it's a conclusion, possibly of this cool take on Batgirl. Of course I'm behind on reading, but unless they really screwed up (possible!), Batgirl's been a fairly fun book overall. What's this polybag variant crap, though?!

I don't know if the Batgirl creative team is leaving. Issue #50 is a good place to end big stories, so just because that's happening doesn't mean they're leaving. That would suck, though. I know sales are okay, so if they are leaving, it's probably their choice. (30 March)

And HA! The first New 52 book was Justice League, but that book is only up to #49. Oops! (Page 106) (16 March)

I know it's shocking, but that Kelley Jones Swamp Thing cover (page 118) is sweeeeeeet. (2 March)



Elsa Charretier is taking over the artwork on Starfire (page 121). I approve. (9 March)

The only other superhero book I'm getting regularly from DC (like, quarterly or so, it appears) is the Wonder Woman '77 Special, #3 offered here (page 139). The first two were decent, so I'll continue on with these. Especially with Trina Robbins writing a story here! Although, again, why you gotta make all the WW books pricier than all others, DC?

Well, I mean, they are 80 pages long. (30 March)

The only other book I'm getting in singles from DC is the bi-monthly Scooby-Doo Team-Up, #15 with the Flash offered here (page 140). This book is so good! (2 March)



I might have to grab Superman: The Men of Tomorrow, the trade collecting the beginning of Geoff Johns and John Romita's run (page 142). I'll have to think about it!

That is something that mildly interests me, but I'll probably just wait and see if the library gets it. Even blowing the Clark Kent identity hasn't been enough to get people interested in Superman! (13 April)

Page 144: The Elseworlds Batman v1 trade has a bunch of neat stuff in it. However, I have most of the stuff listed. I don't know what Dark Allegiances is (it appears to be a WWII set book by Chaykin, neato), but I think I have all the others listed here. I've even read a lot of them! Dark Joker the Wild has Kelley Jones art, iirc, and it's decent from what I remember - a fantasy type world, I think. In Darkest Knight has Bruce get a GL ring, and it's ok. I haven't yet read Holy Terror or Robin 3000, but I picked up both of them in the last couple years.

That Elseworlds book should be pretty cool. I own everything listed there, and they're all quite good. Holy Terror, of course, is Breyfogle, and Chaykin's Dark Allegiances is pretty keen. I didn't love Dark Joker - The Wild, but it's not bad, and P. Craig Russell's art on Robin 3000 is very nice. (20 April)

Page 144: Kingdom Come 20th Anniversary Deluxe HC - man, I want to like this more than I do, but overall, I'm cold to this book. The background material fascinated me more than the actual story, so I would have loved to read the Kingdom series that had been proposed (I think both Waid and Ross were going to work on that). I liked the Kingdom stuff that did come out, because I'm a sucker for concepts like Hypertime, and also, Waid and Quitely on Offspring, Plastic Man's son! I wasn't as big on the later Kingdom stuff that Ross did with Johns on the Justice Society of America series from ... jeez, was that almost 10 years ago now?! Wow, I'm babbling! (11 May)

Page 145: DC/DH Aliens TP - I'm not sure what these Batman stories are, but the WildC.A.T.s/Aliens book is collected. I may have to get it just for that.

Yeah, I might have to get it, too. Even though I already have the WildC.A.T.s story in two (2) different formats!!!! (27 April)

Page 145: Hmm, I may need the Superman Man of Steel TP 9. I'm glad they're still collecting the Byrne stuff, even if it appears it's on a glacial pace.

I really have to catch up on Byrne's Superman!!!!! (27 April)

Page 146: Batman Adventures v4 has 11 issues for 25 bucks, and is undoubtedly a good collection, but man, these books collected odd amounts of issues and were priced odd. I think v1 and 2 were 20 bucks each, then v3 was 17 or 18 bucks, I think. Strange. (6 April)

Page 146: Black Lightning TP - neat, collecting the '70s series. Glad they've worked out something with Tony Isabella. Hope they go for the '90s series as well. Issue 5 of that was really good. (6 April)



Page 146: Flash by GMozz and Millar is a pretty good run, from what I have. Not sure if it was more one guy or the other on the writing (I'd guess GMozz on the Human Race part, and Millar on the Black Flash part, just guessing from memory), or if it was an even split, but it's decent stuff. I thought they collected this a few years back?

The Flash trade is pretty good. If I recall correctly, Morrison bailed at the end and Millar wrote the final few issues solo, but I don't know how much they were collaborating before that. But they're still pretty neat-o. (13 April)

Man, if they reoffered Gotham By Midnight V1, I'd get that and V2 offered on page 147. But I'm sure it's good stuff. (6 April)

Page 147: Invasion is collected in a new trade. It's...ok. Art by McFarlane and Bart Sears, if you like that. (13 April)

Page 148: Nightwing TP 4 - Huntress is jutting on that cover. She enters a room before she does, to steal an MST3K joke! But this is the same art shown on the Previews site for the third Nightwing trade coming out this week. WTH? (20 April)



Page 148: Suicide Squad TP 3 Rogues -- ooh, now this I might need. I've gotten a whole bunch of the '80s SS series in back issues, but I think the issues here (17-25 and Annual 1) are ones I didn't get. If I can dig through my stuff in time, I'll see if I need to get this trade! (6 April)

Page 149: Supergirl Silver Age Omni HC - while that Darwyn Cooke cover is very cute, it's still not quite as cute as the original Plastino stuff! Man, that's bound to be good stuff, but I probably won't get a $75 book, especially without knowing how it's bound (see what I did there?). (18 May)

Page 151: Suiciders Kings of HelLA 1 of 6 - did you read the first mini of this? It sounded interesting, but I think they only collected it in HC so far.

No, I haven't read Suiciders yet. Did it get a trade? I didn't see one. It's pretty, though, although it's disappointing Bermejo won't be doing the art on this series.

All I've seen is the HC offered for Suiciders. But that was pricier than I was willing to pay for something I was only mildly interested in. (30 March)

No real surprise, but they cut an issue of page 156's Last Gang in Town (now just 6 issues), and even more cutting, page 158's New Romancer's been cut in half (just 6 issues, not the 12 originally offered). I wanted the trade of both, and haven't gotten it in singles. But as I believe you said once, it's not our responsibility to subsidize DC's (or any publisher's) business model. They should start offering more books like this in trade off the bat, probably, if they aren't going to support them in singles at the length they say they will off the bat.

That's so weird about Vertigo cutting series down. I mean, how can they tell that sales are poor after one issue? Just publish what you say you're going to publish and let the chips fall where they may. It's really dumb to change things up like this. Stupid DC!

Well, they've probably gotten the order numbers from the first 2, maybe even 3 issues, and they can usually tell from the drop off between 1 and 2 how bad it is. I'm actually not surprised that LGIT got cut an issue, because 7 was a strange number of issues to do, and given that some of the DC You stuff, like Prez and Omega Men were played around with, I'm not surprised that New Romancer got cut in half. Unless they're doing like what they claim they're doing with Prez, and having another mini after the first finishes (to get that sweet #1 money!). I just hope they don't do what they did to the mini Insurgent from a few years back, and kill it in the middle of a 6 issue run. I hope that book gets concluded some day! (23 March and 9 March, respectively)

Man, if I were a statue-buying dude, I would get that Power Girl and Mustached Superman on page 163. That thing is absolutely tremendous.

Shouldn't that be Mustachioed? That thing was pretty cool.

I know it's probably "mustachioed," but why? WHY?!?!?!?!?



Page 166: The DC Super Pets plushes are super cute. Ace the Bat Hound and Jumpa, one of WW's kangas. I guess I know what I'll be getting buttler jr for a present! Don't judge me for wanting them for myself!



IDW:

Check out the full solicits here!

I'm getting Haunted Love in singles, because I dig all the Yoe horror and romance reprint books. (Page 200) (30 March)

And I'm getting Jem and the Holograms because of Kelly, and because it's awesome! (Page 196) (23 March)

The Deviations books (pages 168-169) are What Ifs for the IDW licensed stuff, at 4.99 a pop. I wasn't too interested until I saw that Kelly was doing the Ghostbusters one. I'm not sure what it means that a lady-person is telling us that things turn out better when we cross the streams!

Yeah, those "Deviations" might be keen. I assume they'll collect them all in a trade!

Yeah, but I'm not all that interested in most of them. My shop might put them together in a set when they don't sell, too! (2 March)

And the X-Files one (page 168) has Scully teamed up with Mulder's sister. Let's hope there are some deviations in that one! (Chicka chicka bow!) (I hate myself for that!) (23 March)



Page 174: I know the Godzilla series has had the title changed, but it's Fialkov and Churilla on Godzilla, dammit! I'll wait for the trade, but yay! (The picture online says "Oblivion," but the listing in the book says "World's End," so I'm guessing it's Oblivion?)

If you can't get Stokoe to deliver Godzilla comics in a timely fashion, you could do a lot worse than Churilla!

I wonder if he's taking a break from Hellbreak (see what I did there?!) (16 March)

Page 175: Star Trek/Green Lantern crossover trade is probably worth 20 bucks. Plus, I'd get the Paul Pope variant cover art that didn't quite sucker me in for that book!

Page 175: I love the justification in the text for the Star Trek Classic UK comics collection - "Yeah, they pretty much just made all the shit up without making it Star Trek when they did the comics, but that's why you MUST HAVE them, you completist nerds!!!"

If I were at all interested in Star Trek, those two books on page 175 would be really interesting. (16 March and 30 March, respectively)

Page 185: Mars Attacks Occupation is a new mini by Layman and art by Kuhn, and Layman kicked ass on MA before, and Kuhn is a good artist, doing a sweet Frazetta riff on the EC homage cover. I'm in for the trade!

Layman told me about the Mars Attacks series a while ago, so it's neat that it's coming out. And Kuhn is a good artist, so I'm sure this will be fun. (16 March)



Page 188: Sherlock Holmes and the Seven Percent Solution is in trade, with a Kelley Jones cover. Maybe.

I'll probably get that Sherlock Holmes trade. The art wasn't the greatest, but it still sounds neat. (9 March)

Page 191: Top Shelf offers Pirate Penguin vs Ninja Chicken HC 2 - the first book of this was pretty funny stuff, so I might go for this, especially since they reoffer v1 in the book. I read it from the liberry, but now I can own it too! (16 March)

Page 195: Angry Birds Super Angry Birds TP for 10 bucks. I like Parker and Randall, and this might be silly fun. (2 March)

Page 199: The Maxx: Maxxed Out trade has the first 12 issues of the newly recolored Maxx book. Depending on what else I'm getting, it's something I'd like to add to my list. (16 March)

Page 201: Hey, I just talked about Bo Hampton on CBLR, and here he is with 3 Devils, a supernatural western. Cool. I might go for the trade. (23 March)

Page 204: Hmm, I was waiting for the trade of Tet, but that was 4 issues, and it's a $20 trade. I'm thinking I might just get the singles at my local shop. He actually had them all. I'm a little sad I'll miss some of the variant covers, but not 20 dollars sad!

For what it's worth, Tet is really good. Charging 20 bucks for 4 issues (four dollars more than if you bought the single issues, mind you) is insane. I believe the term is "highway robbery."

Cold! But like I said, my shop has the issues, and he might even put them into a set for even cheaper, so that's where I'll get them. IDW usually has all the variant covers in a teeny tiny box on the inside front cover, so I can see the art, kind of, there! (23 March)

Image:

Do you want full solicits? Sure you do!

Well, I'm getting Injection (page 228), Nowhere Men (page 232), Stray Bullets (page 240), and Pencil Head (page 233) in singles. I'm getting some others in singles, but they're on break and I'll have to decide if I want to continue with them in singles. (16 March, 23 March, 2 March, and 23 March, respectively)

Circuit Breaker sounds okay, but for some reason, I don't love Kyle Baker's art. I think it's partly because I don't love his writing, and he usually draws his own stuff, so they're conflated in my mind. But something about it bugs me. It's certainly not bad, but there's something about it that I don't love.

If you haven't ever read The Cowboy Wally Show, you should. One of the great GNs ever. That one doesn't have the sort of digital "fuzz" that I'd say his stuff has had in more recent years, and which I'm not really a fan of either. Also, a lot of his stuff doesn't integrate word balloons in it - the dialogue runs under the panels, a la old timey political cartoons (see You Are Here and his adaptation of Through the Looking Glass). I think that distances me from his work, so while I like his stuff more than you, I can certainly understand your viewpoint.

Yeah, everyone keeps telling me to get The Cowboy Wally Show. Maybe some day ... (16 March)

I'm sure I will love Milligan and Fernandez's The Discipline ... but will I love it in trade or in single issues?!?!?!?

I'm guessing this is a thematic relative to The Extremist and The Names (which I need to read both!), so I wonder how Vertigo dropped the ball and didn't get this? Maybe he decided not to take it there due to the changes in the line lately. Actually, I was wondering after seeing New Romancer gutted if Milligan was going to do anything at Image, so I guess this is my answer! I almost like Milligan enough to get this in singles, and of the big 5 stuff, I think this is the only thing I'm thinking of adding in singles so far! (2 March)



Page 214 has Power Lines from Jimmie Robinson, about a black guy who gets powers when he goes into a certain white neighborhood. It's timely!

And what's with Circuit Breaker and Power Lines as titles? Both deal with electricity, and both are characters or titles that Marvel published in the '80s. Heck, Kyle Baker even inked Circuit Breaker in the Transformers comic! (9 March)

Man, they're overly optimistic, soliciting 2 issues of Four Eyes? (Page 226)

Yeah, let's hope the optimism is justified! (2 March and 30 March, respectively)

The Rattler gets a print edition on page 243. This is a creepy comic, beautifully drawn by Greg Hinkle, and it's cool that Image picked it up. I've read a digital edition, but I'll be getting the print version!

I really dug his stuff on Airboy, so I'll probably be getting this. Did you ever review this on the blog?

I did review The Rattler. I'll have to link to the review! (23 March)



Page 244 has The Beauty v1 for 10 bucks. This sounded interesting anyway, and I'm a sucker for cheap trades! I guess Haun did Battle Hymn, and that was pretty good stuff. (16 March)

Three issues of Black Magick have come out, yet Image offers the trade on page 245. Yeah, that's wise.

Simon's poisoned you! It's perfectly alright to solicit trades before all the issues come out, dammit!

I don't care if they solicit trades before the issues come out, but doing it when only 3 of 5 are out seems optimistic to me. (27 April)

The Dark Corridor trade is worth a look, even though the final issue of the arc hasn't shipped yet. It's a really good crime comic.

I think the last issue is out this week, too. I fear this may be the only trade, though, as Image usually has V1 attached, but it's probable that this series didn't get enough buzz to continue. It looked and sounded neat from what I saw, and I'll be getting this, I think.

I don't know if that Dark Corridor trade is the only one. Tommaso told me that sales were better than he thought they'd be, and maybe it's something where he'll take a few months off to get another six issues done and then release them with a slightly different name (Dark Corridor 2: Electric Boogaloo, for instance). I hope there's more, because it's neat and it's sprawling, and I doubt if he can wrap everything up in six issues. (2 March)

I might get I Hate Fairyland in trade. It's only 10 bucks, so it's not too big an investment!

I usually get almost any 10 dollar Image trade, so I'll probably get this. I'm more interested in this than Paper Girls (see below). You got #1 of IHF, and liked it, right?

I did not buy I Hate Fairyland #1. I just figured I'd wait for the trade! (20 April)

Should I get Paper Girls? It looks wonderful, but I still have that bad Saga taste in my mouth from Brian K. Vaughan. Although Private Eye turned out to be pretty darned good, so I'm torn!

Chiang will probably swing it so that I get this, as well as it being just 10 bucks, but yeah, I know what you mean about Saga. Also, I was a bad person and flipped to the end of issue 1 of this at the shop, and saw the reveal at the end of the story, and was ... less than impressed. It reminded me in a way of the Marvel 1985 series, somehow. I don't know. Again, though, 10 bucks and Chiang, and I feel a need to support anything newspaper related, even if it's just about delivery people! (13 April)

More 10 dollar fun with Tokyo Ghost v1 on page 251. Remender and Murphy might make this worth a look. I hope! (9 March)

I need to catch up with East of West on page 252. I don't even know where I left off! (30 March)

I'm torn on Nailbiter on page 253. Volume 1 was really good, but volume 2 seemed to lose the momentum and wasn't quite as good, but still decent. I don't know! (6 April)

I gotta read Rat Queens v2 (and v1 again) to see if I want v3 on page 254. It's artistic musical chairs, but it's a book where Wiebe actually seemed to hit the right notes with the writing. (16 March)

Marvel:

Hey, it's the full solicits here!

International Iron Man? Sure, why not? I mean, it could work. Tony Stark as spy? It had to be done!

Bendis and Maleev together again. Someone warm up the copier! I dunno if this is a spy book, though. I think that cover just uses the tropes. The solicit doesn't make it sound like anything very interesting! (16 March)



Waid and Samnee take on Black Widow, which should be keen. It's time to wait for the trade!

Yep, trade wait here too. Eventually I need to catch up with their DD run! (2 March)

In the weird world of lead time, Marvel finally gets around to a Mockingbird ongoing, which sounds pretty neat. Does this mean in another year DC will finally get around to a new Supergirl series?

That would imply they have their shit together! BOOM! But oh, what if the Batgirl team went on Supergirl - that might be awesome. Uh, wait, aren't we in the Marvel section? I don't care about Mockingbird and I don't watch the TV show either, so this doesn't particularly interest me. (2 March)

Page 26 - that cover of Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D. is quite funny.

You are correct, sir! (23 March)



The Captain America 75th Anniversary mag (page 36) should be fun as a freebie, but I liked on the website where the 10 dollar versions said they were freebies in the solicit text. HA! (30 March)

Page 77: Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 6 starts a Howard the Duck crossover and it looks to me like it's a good jumping OFF point. USG has been the only Marvel book that I get in singles, and I guess now I won't be getting any! (30 March)

Oh my glory, the new Miracleman stuff is almost here! (page 90) (2 March)

Man, on page 100, Marvel actually calls the first collection of Iron Man "Reboot." Way to remind people how stupid all this shit is, Marvel!

Funnier yet is that they misspell the artist's last name in the Comicosity pull quote! (6 April)

Page 105: the Ms Marvel MMW has Avengers 200, so I guess that really confirms the Legend as false from the other week at CBLR! (13 July)

Page 109: I'm considering the All New All Different Avengers trade, because I did like the FCBD story and Waid is always good. (20 April)

Aw, man, the first Deadpool trade of the new series is 25 bucks for 6 issues and the Spanish one that came out last week, but the website had listed it as 16 bucks. Weak! (20 April)

I might have to get Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos in trade on page 118. We shall see! (13 April)

Um, how did House of M fit into Civil War at all? (page 120) (30 March)

Those coloring puns and references in the Color Your Own Civil War solicit text are painful (page 123) Coming from me, that's saying something! (6 April)

Page 128 has the Captain America Epic Collection: Man Without a Country by Waid/Garney. This is pretty good stuff, but I wonder, like I believe our pal Rene said in comments on the Cap stories countdown, if it just looked so much better than a lot of the other '90s crap from the time. I think the story was pretty good, the art...good but not great, maybe.

I actually think the Waid/Garney run on Captain America is really overrated. Maybe because it's a reaction to the rest of the '90s stuff, but I just wasn't impressed. It's just okay. (13 April)

Page 134: Marvel Firsts 1990s trade - all the stuff that's been clogging up back issue bins for the last 20 plus years, in one 35 dollar trade! (20 April)

Page 134: Infinity Watch trade. OK, I know with the movies any of the Guardians related stuff is getting traded, but why god why collect this stuff? Again, it's been clogging up back issue bins for years! (23 March)

I've enjoyed the Black Panther by Christopher Priest collections, and the third one is on page 135, with issues ... #36-49 and #57-58? What happened to issues #50-56?

One would assume that Priest didn't write those ones now, wouldn't one? Jeez. OK, I'll look it up! Huh. I'll be damned! Priest DID write those stories, but DIDN'T write 57 and 58. The story from 50-56 involves a new Panther and is more of a crime story that sets up the last arc of that series, also written by Priest. WTF, Marvel?

I WOULD have looked up that Black Panther stuff, you know! I just thought you might know, with your vast knowledge of comics in your brain! (6 April)

And just want to say that the Michael Cho Thor and Ant Man posters on page 141 look pretty dang cool.



Let's take a look at the back of the book!

If you read the features in the front of the book, you'd see that Fantagraphics's FCBD offering is a Love and Rockets Sampler, and you'd know that Los Bros are switching to doing L&R in a quarterly comic format (again!) come this summer. YAY! (page 41)

And by damn, is this really going to be the 15th year of FCBD? I did some of my own comics for what I guess was the first one. If you have a copy, you own gold, my friends! But I need to get going on my own comics in 2016. This will be my year, I know it!

According to the interview with him on page 265, Cliff Chiang went from editorial work at Disney Adventures magazine to Vertigo. Because that seems to be a logical progression!

Jim Ottaviani and Leland Purvis are back with another historical graphic novel about a scientist, this time with The Imitation Game from Abrams Comicsart, which is about Alan Turing (page 266). Ottaviani always writes interesting stories about science-y stuff, and Purvis is a good artist, so this should be nifty.

Yeah, I think I have Pubo by Purvis, and I think he's drawn at least one other Ottaviani book. Ottaviani always does cool stuff that I should buy more of! And Turing was important in two books I read recently, Speak and The Violent Century, though the names of the authors of both have slipped my mind! (23 March)

Action Lab gives us ... Action Lab. Oy. (page 268) (23 March)

I was waiting on a trade of Tomboy (page 272), the teen girl vigilante book, although I will check and see if my local shop puts it in a nifty set! (30 March)

Clusterf@#k on page 279 from Alterna sounds interesting. Two P.I.s are pursued by all kinds of monsters and the government. Oh dear. Could be fun.

Yeah, it sounds like it'll be good. I may be in! (30 March)



From Alternative (page 279), we've got Bartkira, Akira done Simpsons style, with money going to charity, which might be an ok book; the pretty good creator Zack Soto's new book Power Button #0, which sounds like his version of Rom; and a relist of Rich Tommaso's Clover Honey, to go with the Dark Corridor trade I'll probably be getting. (30 March for all)

Rebel Angels gets resolicited on page 279 from SLG. It's JAMES TURNER!!!! So it will be awesome.

Even though heathen that I am, I've only read one issue of Rex Libris, I know this to be true! (30 March)

American Gothic Press got the rights to Lost in Space and are adapting "lost" (HA!) episodes to comics format. I wonder if they'll also reprint the Innovation stuff. I think Bill Mumy himself co-wrote some of that! (page 280) (9 March)

I got the first issue of Ghost Wolf from Amigo, but for some reason I forgot to get the other issues, although issue #1 was pretty good. So now we get the trade on page 282. Yay!

Did the other issues even come out? Who knows with Amigo, right? Burrrrrrrrrn! But yeah, I'll be getting this, because I'm in for pretty much anything Amigo puts out. I have an issue of Ghost Wolf from before Amigo (I assume it's the same thing from El Torres), and I'll take a look at it before the due date on the book, I hope. I hope they get around to putting out those last few issues of that one Rogues! series, too. (30 March)

Also on 282 from Amdale Media is Comic Fandom Quarterly #5, with a Matt Wagner interview. Might be worth a look. (Cue tom asking about Mage 3!) (30 March)

Mercury Heat volume 1 is on page 294 from Avatar. This has been pretty good so far - I know I'm in the bag for Kieron Gillen, but it's still pretty neat.

Yeah, the FCBD preview was probably the best FCBD book of this year (however, it WAS a dull year overall), and I've been waiting for the trade. (30 March)

I dig Arytom Trakhanov's art, so Turncoat on page 308 from Boom! is tempting, but I'll probably wait for the trade.

Yeah, loved his stuff on Undertow, but trade waiting is the way I'm going in 2016! (16 March)



I'm going to wait for the trade of the Baker Street Peculiars (page 311), which sounds like a fun take on Sherlock Holmes from Roger Langridge. Turns out the housekeeper was the real Holmes all the time, and she's got to work with young detective wannabes on a case! Cute! (9 March)

The entire 8-issue trade of Cluster is on page 313. This was pretty good - it didn't exactly end the way I thought it would, which is always nice, and the art was really nice. So there's that!

Cool. The only thing is that it's a bit of a pricey trade, but then, if I do get it, perhaps it will persuade Boom! to do more of their 8 issue books in one trade. One can only hope! I do like Brisson's stuff a lot, though. (13 April)

Page 313 also has Augustyn and Ramos on Out There, which I believe Wildstorm put out back in the day. I have no idea if it's any good, but at least the characters eyes seem to mostly be in the right spots on the cover! His art can be creepy that way! (30 March)

Page 314 has Ufology trade, which sounded ok but I'm not sure about Tynion IV yet, and Oh, Killstrike from Max Bemis, where a '90s anti-hero gets brought to life. So meta! I may go for one or both depending on what else I get. (20 April and 23 March, respectively)

Page 315 has my must have newer book for the month with Giant Days v2. Holy god, that first volume was one of the best comics I've read in ages! Possibly my favorite book from this year (if we say Jem was my favorite reboot/licensed book of the year and this my favorite wholly new book, I'm satisfied with going that far!). Volume 1 is offered again here, so if you missed out, GET IT! (6 April)

Chapterhouse has a few things on page 325. The title of All-New Classic Captain Canuck makes my head swirl with contradictions. I'm lulled back with dreamy Jason Priestley on the cover of the regular Captain Canuck 10. And Pitiful Human Lizard is a pretty good book, judging from just the first 2 issues. The first trade is offered here. Probably worth a look, if you like awkward dudes trying to do good! (16 March. 23 March, and 9 March, respectively)



Page 327 has the CBLDF Defender #5, talking about diversity in comics, a worthy topic. Have any issues past #1 come out, though? I only got the first one. (30 March)

ComicMix has on page 327 Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet, a comic strip that started online in '96. Oooh, 20 year old jokes about dial up! Does it come with an AOL CD? (30 March)

Dynamite has a new version of Vampirella on page 328. That new outfit is actually pretty cute, and looks good no matter who is drawing it. Story sounds decent as well. (2 March)

Speaking of Vampirella, on page 332 and 333 we have Jose Gonzalez Vampirella Art Edition HC, which is super pricey, but hey, it has about a dozen stories "in their completion." How about in their entirety, Dynamite solicit text writer? (27 April)



I'll have to pick up the trade of Blackcross on page 338. The single issues looked pretty good.

It did look neat, but my shop has the singles in one of those nifty sets I keep talking about, so I'll probably get that. Dynamite usually has the variant covers shown on a page in each of their books, so I can see them all teeny tiny that way! (30 March)

Delete, a story from Devil's Due/First about the government deleting memories and the girl who has witnessed by a young girl, is by Palmiotti and Gray, so it will probably be pretty entertaining (page 346).

Yeah, sounds very trade worthy! Especially since the single issues are 4.99 a pop! Holy shit! (2 March)

I don't know anything about Public Relations (also from Devil's Due), but the trade is on page 346. It's a fantasy series by Matthew Sturges, Dave Justus, and David Hahn, which means it might be decent, but we'll see.

What I saw about it (regular guy is the son of a king in a fantasy realm, iirc) sounded neat, and flipping through it, I thought it looked good, so I probably will get this trade! (9 March)

I'm also interested in Four Norsemen of the Apocalypse on the same page from the same publisher. Sounds like it could be funny stuff, and hey, it's narrated by God! (23 March)



Wow, that Star Wars art on the GN cover of the Disney/Lucasfilm adaptation is ... odd. (page 351)



Dover has good stuff again on page 355, although I think I saw that the Sam Glanzman's USS Stevens HC will be resolicited at a higher page count and price, but you can order his A Sailor's Story again. I hope Drew Ford will come around and confirm this for us (and also let us know what town he found old comics as a kid, as mentioned in the intro to The Magician's Wife!). Also, while he's reading this, might I suggest more Jeff Nicholson comics (Colonia, Father and Son, Ultra Klutz), anything that was featured in Cerebus Preview, Stig's Inferno, or the (I believe) Innovation book Straw Men, by RA Jones and Rob Davis, IIRC. Just to suggest some more cool comics to collect!

Also on page 355 from D&Q is the Birth of Kitaro, which sounds like fun monster manga! The other Kitaro book they have is offered again on page 356 as well. D&Q also feature Julie Doucet books and Lynda Barry books. I can definitely recommend the Barry books, and Doucet's stuff is very interesting looking! (30 March)

That Dynamic Forces Neal Adams Batman/TMNT cover on page 359 is pretty cool looking!



Fantagraphics has the new Daniel Clowes book, Patience on page 360, and a new Ditko reprint book as well. I'm kind of cold on Clowes, and I'm not buying the Ditko books unless and until I know he's either making money off them or was offered money and turned it down. What say you Gary Groth?! (30 March)

I will say that Fantagraphics has, on page 361, Jack Jackson's American History: Los Tejanos and Lost Cause, which I haven't read, but anything else of his I have read has been amazingly good, so I'd say this is probably a damn good book! History!

It's pretty good. Not great, but pretty good.

Yay! More Delilah Dirk on page 363 from First Second! The first story was quite good, so I'm looking forward to this new one!

Yeah, I guess I did read v1 from the library, but it's been awhile. I was amused! And the new book's about 100 pages more! (9 March)



I liked what I saw when I flipped through Humbug (451 Media Group, page 366), but that damn ad that was on this site was annoying because it said "sprirtual." ARGH! (16 March)

Guardian Knight offers the first trade of Gears and Bones on page 369. I got the first 2 issues of this, and it was ok, but the panel to panel continuity wasn't the greatest, and I didn't get into the characters enough to care to get more. If you like rough and tumble pirate (I think?) giant rabbits fighting other animal-y guys, this may be the book for you! (16 March)

Page 376 gives us a Humanoids book you might like, Marshals. A samurai/police/steampunk manga style sci-fi tale sounds pretty good, and it's a sizeable book as well. I may even try it! (30 March)

Page 386: New York Review Comics gives us Agony by Mark Beyer, which I assume is either a collection or reworking of the odd Amy and Jordan comics that appeared in RAW magazine. It's interesting stuff, to say the least, and it's a book that might make my final list. He did a story with Beardy McGrumpypants as well, The Bowing Machine! (23 March)

Oni has a couple of neat things. Page 388 has Another Castle 1, which looks neat, although Princeless called and wants its concept back. Oh snap! I'll wait for the trade! And on page 392, there's a softcover of Mermin v1, which looked cute from what I've seen of it. (2 March and 11 May, respectively)

Page 393 has Oh, Hell from Overground, about a kid sent to a boarding school in Hell! (23 March)

Same page has Overlook give us Tales of the Smiths: A Graphic Biography, and I guess that's Morrissey in the artwork? (2 March)

The Only Living Boy on page 394 from Papercutz sounds interesting. A boy is trapped on a dangerous planet and has no idea how to get home. David Gallaher and Steve Ellis are a good team, so this might be keen.

And they're really nice guys, too (met them at a couple of shows). I still haven't picked up the original version of this they did, but maybe they'll still have it at an upcoming show! But I'll probably get the SC of this (SC and HC offered here, yay!) (30 March)

Page 396: Rebellion/2000AD offers Goldtiger Poseidon Complex TP, which the Previews spotlight writeup talks about it being a not-real comic strip that should have existed in the '60s. It's got Jimmy Broxton art, and he did Knight and Squire, right, so I may go for this. (30 March)

Page 398: Scout gives us Henchgirl #5, which is the next issue in the run, and where I need to start reading it again. If you read my post on it, you know it's good! (30 March)

Neil Gibson and Casper Wijngaard have Tabatha on page 400 from T-Pub, about a thief who finds himself in a house that's not quite empty as he expects. This sounds keen, and those are some good creators, so I'll probably get this.

Just goes to show thievery gets you nowhere! I may try this. (16 March)

Valiant gives us a new Archer and Armstrong book, A + A, on page 432. I'm going to get the trade because the writer, Rafer Roberts, is pretty damn good. Seek out his book Plastic Farm. I got it at a con, I guess the same year FCBD started, probably, and it's a really weird, really good book. However, it's been awhile since I've read it, so I can't remember why I liked it so much exactly. It's good, that's why! So I'm glad he's getting a bigger profile. (16 March)

They also have, on page 441, the deluxe HC of Book of Death, and it doesn't have that extra story that I would have thought they'd include. So I won't be springing for this! (30 March)

Viz has Goodnight Punpun v1 on page 443, a manga about a boy depicted as a cartoon bird, and his life. Sounds weird but good. (16 March)

Page 457: Zenescope has Satan's Hollow, which features an evil entity called the Shadowman. Does Valiant know about this? (23 March)

TwoMorrows as usual has some cool mags out, in particular (on page 470) Back Issue 88, featuring Marvel and other '70s magazines (Hatcher will like that!), and Comic Book Creator 12 discusses Kirby and Howard Cruse, with a cover by the Dude of the Fourth World!

Back of the back features "Lady Thor" on page 502, but I thought we weren't calling her that? Especially for a statue that's part of a Femme Fatales line! Of course the Thor in that line is a lady!

Page 515 has Dorbz (little figures) of the Walking Dead, and it's a happy zombie!

Page 516 - that Daredevil Pop! figure of Wilson Fisk is totally Bendis, isn't it?



Page 554 gives us the Freddie Mercury at Wembley figure that we've always wanted!



Page 568 gives us something that disturbs even me, with an anime "hugging pillow case" for $180. Oy. "Mom, don't wash my pillow case, you'll make my girlfriend fade!"



And on that disturbing note, I conclude!

Thanks for reading, everyone! I hope you have a groovy time checking out everything in Previews!