This covers everything that caught my eye in this month's Previews.

 

This mini series ends which means that the hardcover is on it's way. I'm enjoying this series of mini series (in hardcover format). Marvel is getting much more money from me than King did when I read the novel.

 

The next Oz series is coming. I love these books and Young's character designs. I love most of Jae Lee's work, but I have to question Marvel having a Jae Lee variant cover on this all ages book.

 

Page 102: Ultimate Comics Spider-Man Vol 2: Chameleons Premiere HC

Ultimate Spider-Man is the only Spider-Man that I read. I love the concept of Spider-Man, but the current Marvel 616 Spider-Man is not the Spider-Man that I want to read, so I'm thankful for the ever entertaining Ultimate universe Spider-Man.

It's from Soliel. I should have learned to speak French so I could read these books when they are originally released.

 

That's it for Marvel, so let's move on to the main Previews book.

 

If Dark Horse wants me to read Kull, then they are going to have to do much better than the cover by Tim FLEMing. It's not a bad cover (I've seen worse), but there's a disconnect between Kull's face and the rest of the image.

 

I'm getting this largely because of P Craig Russell's art. I'm hoping Dark Horse gets the rest of his body of work back into print (especially the series that were published by them).

 

This TPB is collecting the John Carter stories that were published by Dell and DC in Tarzan and Weird Worlds.

 

DC is putting a lot of the Bat family books in the hands of artists. This one is being written and drawn by JH Williams III. There is a new Batman series by Dave Finch and one by Tony Daniel. There's also Batman/Catwoman by Chaykin and Odyssey by Neal Adams. I'm only interested in this one and the colelcted version of Odyssey.

 

I really curious about how the Spirit co-features will be collected. I hope that DC decides to put them all together in a single black and white collection as they often sound like that would be better than the regular series. In this case, written by Walter Simonson with art by Jordi Bernet.

 

IDW Publishing

I love IDW's reprint projects and I'm glad to see out of print Busiek projects returning.

This covers everything in main Previews as apparently I didn't do it last month and I can't find the Marvel Previews book. Sucks for them, they should go back to being inside the main Previews book.

 

It's a rare month where there is nothing that I'm interested in from Dark Horse. This month is one of those rare months. However, I will mention Beasts of Burden/ Hellboy as a book to watch. I hope that this is collected with the other stories with either of these properties. I'm passing because, I'm not a fan of single issues.

 

Wow, nothing from DC as well. Maybe this is the reason why I forgot this month of Previews.

 

Darwyn Cooke is adapting another Parker novel into graphic novel format. If you like the Hunter, then you should pick this up as well. If you didn't like the Hunter, then you didn't read it.

 

At $60, I'm not so sure that I will be buying this,but Alex Toth's art is pure genius, so I make purchase it at a later date at a reduced price.

 

Image Comics

I only 3 HCs into the Walking Dead, and I hope to catch up with the other 2 volumes before this one hits the shelves. I probably won't, but that's the goal. A friend recently commented that Walking Dead moved to slowly for him to enjoy. If the "monthly" series moves too slow, then I recommend reading it in collected form, so you can get larger chunks of the story at once. I read these in the hardcovers and usually read all 12 issues at once. Yes, that means you have to wait another year to get your next dose of Walking Dead, but there are lots of other books to read in its absence.

 

I'm a process junkie. I like being able to see as much of the creation process as I can, so having a collection of the covers with sketches and commentary really appeals to me. The fact that it's a hardcover making is it even better.

 

I've read the first story arc and I'm unsure about continuing reading this series. Most of my desire to read the series came from the curiosity of Kirkman and McFarlane working together with Ottley and Capullo. The series reads like a Spawn redux, but far more interesting than Spawn ever was. I'm torn because I followed Spawn for 100 issues, but I'm not so sure I want to see a retread of the concept even if written by Kirkman.

 

Remember above when I said I followed Spawn for 100 issues? That's the part of me that wants to continue to buy this series of Spawn hardcovers. I mean, it's a hardcover and it's collecting early Spawn! These are the stories that I read as I was just getting back into collecting comics after a 2 year break. It was Spawn #10 that got me back into comics, so I'm torn here.

 

Savage Dragon is a series that I never question buying. Larsen always delivers something entertaining.

 

If I bought singles Sweets would be on the top of my list. However, I'm waiting on the inevitable collection because with all the press, Sweets is guaranteed to be collected. Kody Chamberlain is a creator to watch.

 

Now we enter the section of PReviews devoted to all the comics not from the top 5 publishers.

Page 225: Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard HC (Archaia)

Archaia collects almost everything it publishes, so it's good to see that this mini series of Mouse Guard stories by other creators is seeing print. I love the concept of having an anthology of stories that center arund being in a tavern telling stories. Did I mention there is a new story in the collection? Even more reason to buy it!

 

I'll buy anything from Jamar, but give me a story about the inner city with Jamar urban cartoony style and I'm sold. I saw the original art to this book last weekend at Baltimore Comic and I can't wait to read this. I think we will see comparison's to MF Grimm's Sentences novel almost immediately.

 

As long as Dynamite and Dark Horse are reprinting this Warren magazines in magazine hardcover format I will be buying them.

 

Take the Care Bears make them dysfunctional and place them in a zoo, and you'll have the Bear Nuts. I follow the web comic online and I'm a bit curious why the book is so late in being distributed to comic book stores as Volume 2 is on it's way already.

 

Page 284: Xenozoic: The Complete Collection TP (Flesk)

If this was in hardcover format, I would be buying it. I think Xenozoic Tales is one of the best creator owned pulp-influenced, sci-fi stories in comic book format. However, i already own the 2 TPBS that Dark Horse made several years ago that collected the entire series.

 

Set in the future divided between utopia and dystopia, I'm looking forward to this "bio-punk" graphic novel. There is so little cyberpunk in comic book format, so I'm always interested in well done cyberpunk.

 

and with that, I'm done... until later this week when I get to this month's Previews.

This covers everything in Previews.

 

Page 10: Sky Doll : Lacrima Christi #2 (of 2)

For me, Soleil is still Marvel's best line. I've yet to be disappointed in one of their hardcovers. I imagine that these 2 issues will be reprint with the previous 2 issues mini series.

 

I'm really curious to see this. I'm even more curious to see how this is going to be collected. I have to constantly remind myself that Karl Kesel is not the same person as Karl Kerschl.

 

This series is still going with no signs of cancellation. I've very happily surprised because hopefully I'll get at least one TPB of one of my favorite WCA couples.

 

I didn't realize that this was a mini series. The only reason I'm even mentioning this books is because Pacheco drew Steve's head really small.

 

Secret Invasion is now collected, so now I'll be able to make some sense out of what's going on. Why is Mockingbird alive and not a Skrull. I'll probably have to grab a Seige HC as well,

 

Husk Premiere HC

2 Soliel HCs this month means $45 leaving my pocket.

 

and that's all for Marvel previews.

There are covers with 9 Daredevil, 9 with Spider-Man, 9 with Wolverine, 6 with Iron Man and 5 with Deadpool. Remember when did Deadpool, Iron Man and Daredevil were B characters?

 

 

And now on to the main Previews book.

 

Page 26-27: 1 for $1 Program

Dark HOrse has 6 books that it will be making available for $1. the only one of the 6 that I;m interested in and haven't read is Usagi Yojimbo. The only other that I havne't read is Aliens Vs Predators and I have no intentions to read it.

 

Page 33

Conan Volume 9

Originally, I had my doubts about how far Dark Horse would go with the Conan reprints from Marvel. There's only about 30 more issues with Buscema art. I'm along for the long haul, but they stories and art  do start getting weaker with Thomas and Buscema gone.

 

Allie won me over with the first Kane series from Dark Horse, so I'm along for the ride now.

 

Moon and Ba won me over with Daytripper and now I'll read anything by the 2 of them almost sight unseen.

 

One of the best comics to come from Sirius Entertainment was Scary Godmother. Sirius hasn't produced much since Drew hayes death and I feared that this book was be lost. It's great to see it being reprinted and hopefully we'll see new stories from Jill Thompson.

 

 

Page 68: Superman: Earth One HC

I had high hopes for DC's Earth One line of original graphic novels, but I have little interest in Superman and even less interest in Superman at 132 pages for $20.

 

There seem to be a lot of unfinished covers on DC books this month. This book is notable because it features an Adam Hughes Supergirl/Batgirl story.

 

This is not so much a Superman story as it is a story about Lex Luthor. Joker by the same team was a solid story so I'll try this one as well.

 

Astro City is a celebration of super hero concepts told from different vantage points. I'd loved almost every single issue, so it's time for me to start collecting this series once again and enjoy all this stories anew.

 

I go through these books as  soon as they come in. This is one of my favorite series of HCs. I still wish DC would give Transmetropolitan the same treatment.

 

I don't know a fantasy fans who isn't waiting to pick up this comic. I just hope IDW does a good job with the license. This is fertile ground for so many stories that I'm sure we'll see many D&D books rolling out soon. Andrea DiViro formerly of CrossGen's First and Brath is a good choice as the artist. He's grown much stronger as an artist while at Marvel.

 

Page 155: Sword of Dracula

I guess IDW printed a lot of these back in 2005 because they are soliciting the book again. Oddly enough there is nothing noting that it's an older book. I remember thinking it was expensive in 2005. I thought the original price was $19.99, but now it's $14.99, so I could be remembering incorrectly. The concept is Dracula with more control over blood and essentially a terrorist that Ronny Van Helsing must stop. I suspect this is a primer for new Sword of Dracula material.

 

Brief aside... 

IDW seems to be following in Dark Horse's tracks. They've been extremely successful with licenses and creator owned material.

 

Page 168-171: Guardians of the Globe #1