11.14.12 Shipping Report

It’s a huge week for me, and leading the pack is THE MASSIVE #6 (Dark Horse) from Brian Wood and Garry Brown. I’ll leave it at that for now, because I’ve got an in-depth advance review of the issue that I’ll be posting late Sunday night or early Monday morning, so check back for that! Brian Wood also has CONAN THE BARBARIAN #10 (Dark Horse) coming out the same day, with artist Declan Shalvey helping to continue Conan's adventures with Belit. MIND MGMT #0 (Dark Horse) is also hitting the shelves from Matt Kindt and this is, I believe, a collection of prequel-style shorts that may have appeared in Dark Horse Presents and elsewhere. I won’t purchase it, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t going to thumb through BATMAN #14 (DC) to see how Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo follow up last month’s cliffhanger. I’m finding that a couple of the Bat Family Titles (basically just this and Batwoman) were the hardest things to give up in the great Marvel & DC Purge of 2012, in favor of near-exclusive creator-owned purchasing. Speaking of Batman, there’s also the BATMAN ARKHAM CITY: END GAME #1 (DC) project coming out. It’s something something video games, but I’m only curious about it because it has art from the great Jason Shawn Alexander. Though, I’m not sure if I’m $6.99 curious. I’m also looking forward to PUNK ROCK JESUS #5 (DC/Vertigo) from Sean Murphy, which is quickly nearing the end of this terrific mini-series. As for collected editions, there’s the final volume of one of the best comics, like, ever with SCALPED VOLUME 10: TRAILS END (DC/Vertigo). See how it all ends for Dash Bad Horse, Lincoln Red Crow, Carol, and all the cast. Fans of this series will be going crazy; it’s LOCKE & KEY: OMEGA #1 (IDW), which is essentially the final volume of Joe Hill’s comic book opus (barring another edition of collected one-shots and miscellany). I’ve been reading the series in trades, but I decided to jump on singles for the final push. Speaking of creator-owned efforts, I’m curious about GREAT PACIFIC #1 (Image). The general high concept is a little reminiscent of a few other books coming out right now, and I never quite fully warmed to Joe Harris’ writing after trying his Spontaneous mini-series at Oni Press, but as a new Image book set in one of those near-future worlds I so adore, I’ll give it a look. SAGA #7 (Image) is also hitting the shelves and even though I don’t think it deserves *all* the hype it’s getting, it’s fun enough. Lastly, I’m looking forward to THINK TANK #4 (Image) from Matt Hawkins and Rahsan Ekedal, which is shaping up to be one of my favorite series of 2012, marrying smart scripting, morally ambiguous black and white art, and real-world technology in a compelling package.