1.05.11 Releases

Now, this is the way to start the new year off right. I’m looking forward to Sweets #4 (Image) by Kody Chamberlain. As you’ll recall, this was one of my favorites of 2010, so I’m excited to see it through to the finish line and stick with whatever is next on deck for the innovative creator. It’ll be interesting to see if Robert Kirkman’s novel marketing idea pays off with The Walking Dead Weekly #1 (Image), which begins reprinting the series in full at a brisk $2.99 pace. I’m sure it’s an appealing price point for the throngs of TV fans now jumping on board, but I wonder if an ancillary effect will be slicing into the trade sales. I was excited for a second to see the solicit, thinking it might be a new issue, but alas it’s Captain Swing #2: Chicago Con Edition (Avatar Press) and this is the way to start the new year off wrong. Yeah, don’t print the next issue or anything, just keep milking those reprints and variant editions like it's 1991 and Jim Lee is launching X-Men #1. With a quick check of the web, you can find no less than 7 iterations of the first issue with all of the Auxiliary Editions, Convention Editions, Penny Dreadful Editions, and Wraparound Cover Editions available. There are 6 versions of the second issue, and at least 4 versions planned for the third and fourth issue. I like Warren Ellis too, but is anyone really collecting these with that completist mentality? That’s like 21 different covers for a four issue mini-series, not counting eventual collected editions, probably a softcover and hardcover both. Isn’t this a joke? While I could find all of that information, I wasn’t able to find when the next issue might be out. The first issue was February 2010, while the second didn’t come out until five months later in July 2010. I don’t even remember if the third ever came out, and I was unable to confirm that since every web-site I found indicated that the third and fourth issues would be out in May or June of 2010, curiously wrong when the second issue wasn’t out until July, and Avatar’s site was woefully absent any useful information whatsoever. Weak.