Time for another trip through Previews to look for cool, new adventure comics.

Alterna

Sherlock Holmes: The Painful Predicament of Alice Faulkner - There's a surprising amount of Sherlock Holmes stuff coming out this month, not that I'm complaining. In this book, Bret M Herholz adapts William Gillette's 1899 play, Sherlock Holmes, or The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner.

Archaia

The Killer, Volume 3: Modus Vivendi - The next volume in Matz and Luc Jacamon's beautiful and thrilling series about an international assassin.

Aspen

Lady Mechanika #1 - It's with considerable discomfort that I'm interested in one of Aspen's books. The company doesn't have a great reputation for getting issues out on time or even always completing them for that matter. But I could really go for a cool, Steampunk adventure about a cybernetic detective.

Everything else, after the break.

Campfire

Campfire usually has one or two fun adaptations every month, but this time all of their releases are cool. They're doing three novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs (The Lost Continent, The Land That Time Forgot, and The People That Time Forgot) as well as Jules Verne's Master of the World.

Dark Horse

Conan: The Road of Kings #1 - Roy Thomas returns to Conan in this six-issue mini-series. I'm wishy-washy about how much I enjoyed his time with the character at Marvel, so it'll be interesting to see what he does with this.

Robert E Howard's Savage Sword #1 - A couple of ways to make sure your anthology is good are to have all the stories based on Robert E Howard characters and have folks like Marc Andreyko, Paul Tobin, Tim Bradstreet, and Barry Windsor-Smith telling the stories.

Mighty Samson #1 - The post-apocalyptic warrior-hero of N'Yark is a fine addition to Jim Shooter's stable of classic Gold Key characters. Until I get my Thundarr the Barbarian comic, I'll scratch the itch with this.

Age of Reptiles Omnibus, Volume 1 - Collecting everything so far (three mini-series) from Ricardo Delgado's exquisitely detailed dinosaur saga.

Fantagraphics

The Hidden - Richard Sala's latest has eight people stranded in a snowbound diner, telling spooky stories while a dangerous, escaped inmate from a nearby hospital roams free.

Fulcrum

Trickster: Native American Tales - I've always loved trickster stories whether they're about Anansi, Coyote, or Bugs Bunny. This collection - written entirely by Native American storytellers - also features a story with art by Jason Copland (Perhapanauts), a fine artist as well as a pal of mine.

IDW

John Byrne's Next Men #1 - I knew this was coming, but having waited 16 years for it, I'm still having a hard time believing that it's almost here. The only thing more exciting would be for Byrne to return to Alpha Flight.

Doc Macabre #1 - Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson's latest story begins. I need to get caught up on these, but I've enjoyed the ones I've read so far.

Mystery Society, Volume 1 - I also liked the first issue of Niles' Mystery Society, so I'm looking forward to catching up with the rest of the story in this collection.

Wynonna Earp: The Yeti Wars - Beau Smith's modern-day, Western monster-hunter returns just in time to get in the middle of a Yeti-Bigfoot war.

FX2: The Lost Land - I missed the first FX series, but I'm a big fan of Uko Smith's art and Hollow Earth stories in general. This has both. Also Uko showed me some preview pages at a convention last Spring and I've been looking forward to it since. It's going to be a lot of fun.

Image

Marineman #1 - I love the idea of underwater heroes. They rarely meet the full potential of their concept, but I'll always give a new one a look. Ian Churchill's version looks like a nice mix of adventure and humor, plus the main character - Steve Ocean - shares a name with a DJ on the radio station I grew up with, so that's going to make me chuckle a lot.

Firebreather, Volume 3: Holmgang #1 - One day I will catch up with Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn's Firebreather. I like both of those guys' work too much not to.

Mice Templar, Volume 3 #1 - Same with Mike Oeming and Victor Santos. And I'm a big fan of Mouse Guard. It's a shame I'm not more on top of this.

Proof: Endangered #1 - Image sure does have a lot of new stories launching this month of series that I've been meaning to get around to. Here's another one.

Santa Claus vs. The Martians #1 - Ooh. You know what's better than re-visiting this cheesy old movie in comic book form? Giving Santa a bad-ass Father Christmas look and putting the Martians in War of the Worlds-style tripods. Also, having Benito Cereno write it.

Kids Can

Three Thieves, Volume 1: Tower of Treasure - A new series begins about medieval, traveling circus-performers and their quest for treasure, reputation, and the answers that unlock a young girl's mysterious past. .

Lerner

On the Case with Holmes and Watson, Volumes 4 and 5 - Lerner's Graphic Universe imprint adapts two more Holmes short stories: "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" and "The Adventure of the Speckled Band."

Markosia

The Young Sherlock Holmes Adventures - I'm doubtful that I'll enjoy this very much as a Sherlock Holmes story, but I just might like it as a young, Victorian adventurer and his pals vs. a London vampire story.

Marvel

Widowmaker #1 - You know, I'd probably buy this mini-series just for Jae Lee's Black Widow on the covers, but an exploration of the spying side of the Marvel Universe also sounds pretty cool.

Ka-Zar, Volume 1 - I was a fool for not reading Mark Waid and Andy Kubert's run on Ka-Zar back in the day. Time to rectify that. This is exactly the kind of thing I wish Marvel (and DC, for that matter) was publishing more of right now.

Hit-Monkey: Year of the Monkey - Did anyone read these as single issues? I figure it's either going to be fantastic or soulless and calculated. Which is it?

Atlas: Return of the Three-Dimensional Man - The most recent - and sadly, final - installment of the adventures of the world's most awesome super-team is collected.

Gorilla Man - This won't get rid of the pain of losing Atlas, but it'll soothe it some.

Moonstone

Rocket Man: King of the Rocketmen #1 - One of the coolest-looking, classic movie serials ever gets a comic book sequel in Moonstone's Return of the Originals event.

Oni

The Sixth Gun, Volume 1 - The first six issues of Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt's supernatural Western are finally collected.

Papercutz

Classics Illustrated Deluxe: Treasure Island - The best-recognized name in comics adaptations of classic literature has a 144-page version of the Greatest Pirate Story Ever Told.

Undercover Fish

Dracula: The Dead Travel Fast - Ten bucks seems like a lot to pay for a 52-page, black-and-white comic, but I love the idea of retelling the Dracula story in 1931 with Nazis, ghosts, werewolves, and a potential affair between Mina and Quincey P Morris.

Zenescope

Sinbad, Volume 2: The City of the Dead - I didn't care for the rotating artists from issue to issue, but there was nothing wrong with Dan Wickline's fantastically swashbuckling take on Sinbad in Volume 1. I want to read more and now I shall.

What did I miss? Anything you're looking forward to in December?