Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Okay, this is another post for my comics-reading friends. Everyone else can skip this one.

So, as another prompt to post something with some regularity, here's the new stuff I'm ordering from Previews this month:

Curse of Dracula collection from Dark Horse:
I actually have the original miniseries, by Tomb of Dracula creators Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. But I really liked this attempt on their part to revive the magic of that series as a creator-owned book, and hopefully, if sales are good on this collection, we may see more.

Fog trade paperback:
I've never seeen the original movie, and I'm not sure I'm particularly excited about the remake. But the script is by Scott Allie, who I always try to support, unless he's doing something I'm really not interested in, like Titan AE comics or something. And the art looks nice.

Chosen trade paperback:
This collects the miniseries by Mark Millar and Peter Gross that really impressed me with the first issue. I really like the energy in Millar's work, and had been waiting for this for a long time. Hopefully, it'll really come out this time...

Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle from DC:
Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers mega-series hasn't disappointed me yet, and I'll be sticking with it to the end. How nice to see someone who understands that you can create a new superhero series, even one based on an existing characters, and it doesn't have to disappear up its own backside in continuity references.

The Authority: The Magnificent Kevin from Wildstorm:
The Authority, as a series and concept, has long since lost my interest. Garth Ennis' Kev stories, however, are so hilarious and do such a fantastic job at poking fun at these characters, I can't resist. And this one is drawn by Carlos Ezquerra!

Fell from Image Comics.
It's a new creator-owned Warren Ellis series, and it's drawn by Ben Templesmith, and it's only $1.99 an issue. I was already sold, and the fact that it's a detective series, sort of, and that the preview pages I've seen are so great is just icing on the cake.

Black Forest 2: Castle of Shadows from Image:
The first Black Forest graphic novel was great. One of my favorite artists, a WWI setting, and a story that shows that you could do a concept like Van Helsing well. I also liked the creative team's follow-up graphic novel, The Wicked West. Well, here we have a sequel to the first one, with a backup story following up on Wicked West, and at a very nice price.

Long Hot Summer from Image:
Written by the guy who put together Four Letter Worlds, a collection of stories I've raved about previously, nice art, and it sounds like a nice, gentle, romance story, but not too sappy. And, again, under ten bucks.

Sherman's Room (can't be arsed to look up the publisher):
Chris Eliopolous, one of Marvel's number one letterers, has been trying to publish his comic strip about twentysomethings, Desperate Times, for years. A couple of years ago, he announced he was giving up to try to focus on something more commercial. Jimmy Gownley did the same thing, and it resulted in Amelia Rules, and that's not a bad thing. And I like Eliopolous' work, so I'll try this one, too.

Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror from Bongo:
It's got a story by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan (see above) and a story by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson, creators of Swamp Thing. What's not to like?

Giant Monsters from Boom Studios (I think):
I don't get everything he writes, because he writes a lot, but I like most of the stuff I read from Steve Niles. Now he's doing a giant monster comic, and it's only two issues.

Digital Webbing Presents #25:
Only getting this for the Jay Faerber Firebirds story. A friend of mine can't see past the Electrawoman/Dynagirl influence, but I like Jay Faerber's creator-owned projects enough that I'll support almost anything he does for himself. (Less so when he writes for Marvel or DC, but as long as he's doing such a good job doing his own superheroes in Noble Causes, why bother reading anything else?)

Shadowplay from IDW:
It's a horror comic featuring two serials, one written by Buffy actress Amber Benson, the other by original Witchblade writer Christina Z. Benson's not a bad writer, although I haven't read too much that she's written on her own. And the early, Z-penned issues of Witchblade were pretty cool. Even better, the stories are drawn by Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith, who I like. So...

Keep from IDW:
F. Paul Wilson adapts his own WWII horror story, drawn by Mike Mignola clone Matt Smith. I like period horror stories, I like what I've read of Wilson's work, but I haven't read this. A friend of mine raves about it, so I'm going to order it.

Complete Jon Sable Freelance Trade Paperback Volume 3 from IDW:
I love Mike Grell's Jon Sable series. And I want it on my bookshelf. 'Nuff said.

Grimjack: Killer Instinct trade paperback from IDW:
Yes, I bought the miniseries. I still want the book, because I'm getting all the other Grimjack books, and I want them all together on the shelf. (But it's more important to me that there be Grimjack comics at all, which is why I'll keep buying the individual issues, too.)

Complete Clive Barker's Thief of Always Trade Paperback from IDW:
The Thief of Always is probably my absolute favorite Clive Barker book. The art on this adaptation looked really nice. But I had decided to wait for the collection, and here it is.

Lai Wan from Moonstone:
This was sort of a gut-level decision, but the art looked nice on the web site, and the story sounded interesting. And I like CJ Henderson's original stuff.

Vengeance of the Mummy from Moonstone:
It was pretty much the cover art that sold me, although the interior art isn't too bad. (Well, the art, and the fact that Justin Gray, who co-wrote Monolity, 21 Down, The Resistance, and other stuff is writing it.)

McCandles & Company: Insecurities:
I had another McCandles and Company one-shot, which I'm pretty sure was different from this one. I love detective stories--please let it be true that IDW is reprinting Mike Barr's Maze Agency--and this is drawn by Gene Gonzales, who is a particular favorite of mine.

Lost Official Magazine from Titan:
Will it be good like the Alias and Stargate magazines Titan publishes? Or will it be crap like Smallville? Only one way to find out...

Feast of the Seven Fishes:
Another book from the guys who wrote Black Forest (see above). And this one is drawn by Alex Saviuk, who I remember fondly from my youth.

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