What I'm Buying This/Next Week...

And here's the mother load week I've been fearing the last two weeks. The bolded titles are the actual 'new releases', and the unbolded titles are my reorders in pursuit of comics I should have read by now.

ACHEWOOD: THE GREAT OUTDOOR FIGHT, by Chris Onstad; So at this point Achewood has been so built up for me that this first book collecting (I guess) the "Great Outdoor Fight" story better rock my fucking ass, or I'm going to start a murderin'! I really hope this isn't a case of people talking about it to keep up indie hipster cred or something...I really want this to be good, and hope it delivers.







ALIAS THE CAT, by Kim Deitch; One of the first books that came down to the recommendation of Chris Ware in Hignite's IN THE STUDIO. Apparently I've been missing out on Deitch's stuff, so...again, a blind purchase, but readily available and at a good price.














AMAZING REMARKABLE MONSIEUR LEOTARD, by Eddie Campbell; Sure to be another in the long line of Eddie Campbell books that I haven't actually finished reading, besides FROM HELL.













DON'T CALL ME STUPID, by Steven Weissman; Been wanting to get this for a long time, and Diamond finally let it be known it was in print (or in stock anyway) in their warehouse after the massive Fantagraphics restock this month.







EC ARCHIVES WEIRD SCIENCE Vol. 1, by various; The first of many purchases of the EC Archives...decided to start here to try to reignite my interest in the sci-fi comic I was thinking about last month, and I already have the first volume equivalent to CRIME SUSPENSTORIES and VAULT OF HORROR in softcover. I'm actually sort of looking forward to reading that George Lucas introduction...













HERBIE ARCHIVES Vol. 1, by Shane O'Shea and Ogden Whitney; I am getting the feeling that this collection is actually going to really popular due to Dan Nadel's ART OUT OF TIME exposing people like me to how awesome this is, a lot of people remembering how much they loved it, and Alan Moore recently saying Herbie is his favourite superhero.













JIMBO IN PURGATORY, by Gary Panter; Another test run with a creator I've no previous experience with, and going on the high recommendation of many individuals I respect.
















LAST LONELY SATURDAY, by Jordan Crane; I recently saw the cover to UPTIGHT #3, remembered I already owned his CLOUDS ABOVE, and realized I should track down his stuff sooner than later (just ordered UPTIGHT #2 off his website, and UPTIGHT #1 from a guy in England). This looks like a smaller effort, but it will be interesting to see his earlier stuff (and see how much further I have to go before I should think about publishing anything).










MONSTER Vol. 16, by Naoki Urasawa; a quick inspection of my bookshelf indicates I somehow missed Vol. 15. Probably didn't notice because I'm now at least five volumes behind here (which sounds like it happens a lot with other people when it comes to manga), but I'm sure the quality can't be blown too much with only two volumes remaining. What I'm jazzed for is that Urasawa's TWENTIETH CENTURY BOYS and PLUTO are going to be published simultaneously from Viz starting in February. Jurassic Park!








THE NUMBER 73304-23-4153-6-96-8, by Thomas Ott; Yes, another blind purchase from a more recent creator whose works I've seen in Previews enticed me but I held off waiting for reviews.














POWERHOUSE PEPPER, by Basil Wolverton; There isn't too much Wolverton material available save this, so...giving it a whirl!








PREMILLENIAL MAAKIES, by Tony Millionaire; I've been wanting this to come back in stock with Diamond for years, ever since Cory and Dan Wong had theirs and I was never able to get reorders. But soon, It Will Be Mine. Looking at the dimensions of this book though, I'm wondering how comics shops actually display this, as I don't recall seeing it anywhere.


TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE #4, by Michael Kupperman; Apparently most of the US got this last week, which is just one of those funny things about Fantagraphics/Diamond and Canada. Typically have to wait one week longer than elsewhere for new books to come in. Weird anecdote though! The other week I got in a reordered copy of JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL Vol. 2 HC. I swore I was suppose to have two on order (one initially, and one someone requested), but figured it was me misremembering. Only on the following invoice, the Initially ordered copy was shipping...meaning the reordered copy was received a week earlier. I guess just one of those strange warehouse hiccups (except this one was in the favour of somebody).



TRUTH SERUM: THE LONELY PARADE, by Jon Adams; I talked about this a month ago, and am glad it is coming in sooner than later (though perhaps a week later would have been nicer on my store credit and wallet. Some really funny stuff that I'm amazed no one really talks about...







WHERE DEMENTED WENTED: THE ART AND COMICS OF RORY HAYES, edited by Dan Nadel and Glenn Bray; Falls into the same camp as TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE, I think I and Western Canada are receiving this a week late.








Also this week of note: Mark Waid's (and my) last issue of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, new Ed Brubaker CAPTAIN AMERICA, Richard Corben draws CONAN THE CIMMERIAN, Geoff Johns' LEGION OF THREE WORLDS (which looks pretty exciting as far as these things go...until Super'man' Prime tears someones face off), and the first issue of MAX PUNISHER sans Ennis (hope you remembered to tell your retailer to cancel this off your file/pull list!)

A question to my readers: would you like for me to also include the prices of these books? Unless it would be a complete surprise or utterly exorbitantly, I can't see why it really matters. When I see Brian Hibbs complain about a $3.99 price tag on a JSA Annual, I can't help but start thinking one of us is out of touch.

-Jarrett