Coming This Week: It's Not In Mint Condition, Vampire Nazis, And The Full Color Quarter Century

Every week I review Diamond's “New Releases” to determine what I’ll definitely be buying sight unseen, what I’m interested in enough to do a quick scan of at the LCS to see if it can win me over, and note any other items that catch my eye. Here’s a look…

Buying:

Wednesday Comics #1 (DC): I’m actually really excited about this. Any chance to see another Paul Pope piece is reason enough for celebration, and the other creators (Ryan Sook! Neil Gaiman! Kyle Baker! Etc.!) don’t hurt either. Aside from content, I think it’ll be fun to hear all the fanboys bitch about how they can’t find mint copies because of all the folds, whine about storage concerns, and wondering if Dan DiDio will make good on his con circuit promises to collect it eventually, and in what format. I’m also interested in DC’s simultaneous syndication of the Superman stories in USA Today and how that’ll resonate with the masses.

I Am Legion #4 (DDP/Humanoids): The fourth of six parts; let's hope DDP can do better with Humanoids than DC did and actually complete this thing. While this has been a pretty interesting horror/war/thriller/procedural mash up, John Cassaday is one of those artists that could probably pencil something called “The Illustrated History of Lawn Clippings in Des Moines Iowa” and I’d be there grinning like an idiot every month waiting to plunk down my four bucks.

Wasteland #25 (Oni Press): Let’s face it, any independent title reaching the quarter century mark is worthy of praise alone, but when it’s something as original and well executed as Wasteland, then celebrated with a double sized, full color, painted issue by the regular series artist, well shit, I'll smack your ass and call you Sally, you need to be there with money in hand. Buy two copies even. What's wrong with you?

Considering:

I’ll probably take a quick scan of Dark X-Men #1 (Marvel) just to get the gist of it since I really don’t feel like getting sucked into another lackluster crossover, BPRD: 1947 #1 (Dark Horse) to see if the Boys from Brazil can sway me into purchasing it, Pixu: Volume 1: Mark of Evil (Dark Horse) to see if Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, and the gang can convince me to part with $17.95, Batman #688 (DC) because I wanna’ check in on Mr. Grayson and see how he’s faring, Red Robin #2 (DC) to see if anything’s changed with Tim, North 40 #1 (DC) to see if Fiona Staples can entice me, and No Hero #6 (Avatar Press) to bide time as I trade-wait this Warren Ellis and Juan Jose Ryp project, and finally inspect the Nobody HC (DC) from Jeff Lemire to see if it lives up to the positive advance reviews I’ve seen online (the mention of “the stuff of a Willa Cather novel” caught my eye since her novel My Antonia is a sentimental college favorite).

Noting:

Of note this week is 100 Bullets: Volume 13: Wilt (DC/Vertigo) in that it's the last TPB collecting this crime opus, it's nice to see DC continue their "What's Next, After Watchmen?" deal (if a bit.. unrelated? convoluted? pick your own pejorative descriptor...) with promotional dollar issues of All Star Superman #1: Special Edition and Tom Strong #1: Special Edition. I noticed Stormwatch: PHD #22 (DC/Wildstorm); is this book still any good? I picked up the first six issues or so then sort of lost interest, wasn't it by Christos Gage or Paul Cornell or one of those second tier guys who are perfectly ok? Lastly, the Rasl: Collectors Edition HC (Cartoon Books) looks interesting, but if it collects just the first three issues like the first trade did, then that seems a little steep for $50.