It’s time to look through the newest edition of Previews, to see what’s coming our way in August.
Dark Horse
I got really excited to see that there was a new Beasts of Burden one-shot coming out in August, until I read that it’s just reprinting the three stories that have shown up in Dark Horse Presents, which I’ve already read. Still, if you’ve never checked out Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson’s series about dogs that fight the supernatural, you really need to. It’s a beautiful comic, and this one-shot would be a good place to start.
I’m curious about Michael Avon Oeming’s The Victories, but his last series at Dark Horse, Rapture, was a disappointment. I think I’ll trade-wait this one.
Carla Speed McNeil’s most beloved Finder arc, Talisman, is being republished as an oversized hardcover this month. This is a little strange, as Dark Horse just reprinted this story in the second Finder Library not that long ago, but since this is the type of graphic novel you’ll want to lend to friends to read, I guess it deserves the special treatment. This story, about the power that a book can have over a person growing up, and influence them throughout their lives, blew me away when I read it, and is some of the best of McNeil’s Finder work, all of which is very, very good.
DC
Are you one of those comics fans who have grown nostalgic for the 90s? Just look at the cover to The Savage Hawkman #12; it should cure that. It would appear that Hawkman is fighting against a midget circus contortionist who has some kind of growth condition in his upper left arm, and who is wearing one of the early costume designs for Deadpool that had been rejected. It’s 1996 all over again!
I have nothing else to say about the New 52 this month – it feels like the whole line is simply holding its breath until September’s ‘zero issue’ event or whatever it is that’s supposed to be happening. Is it the wrong time to make predictions about which titles are going to be cancelled? I’m going to suggest that I Vampire, DC Universe Presents, and Captain Atom are done, just based on their solicitations.
I like the idea of Prince of Cats, Ronald Wimberly’s graphic novel that reimagines Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as a hip-hop sci-fi story focusing on Tybalt, the leader of the Capulet crew, but have to wonder if this might not be too precious. Apparently it’s all written in iambic pentameter. Is that a draw? I liked Sentences, the graphic novel that Wimberly did with rapper MF Grimm a couple of years ago, so I’ll probably check this out.
Vertigo needs to launch some new titles soon. iZombie, Scalped, and Spaceman are all finishing up in August, and I haven’t heard of much announced to replace them yet. It looks like in September I’ll be buying less Vertigo titles than at just about any point since the imprint was started.
IDW
It has been ages since I’ve bought an IDW series, but the company’s wares are looking better lately. I’m still pretty intrigued by John Layman and John McCrea’s Mars Attacks, and now there’s a new Rocketeer series, Cargo of Doom, by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee. Unlike many readers, I find the Rocketeer a very boring character, but when handled by these two, the book should be good. I think I’ll trade-wait both of these books though, as their price is kind of high.
What I won’t be able to wait for though is Godzilla: The Half-Century War, by James Stokoe. Stokoe is a comics genius, caught somewhere between Geof Darrow and Brandon Graham, and his Orc Stain is one of the most visually stunning comics I’ve ever read. I hate Godzilla, but this should be awesome.
Image
Lately, with every new issue of Previews, there’s been a new Image series I’ve wanted to buy, but not this month. Their new offerings are Black Kiss, a new Howard Chaykin series (I can’t stand Chaykin’s art or writing), a new series starring It Girl from the Atomics (I like the creators, but I got really bored of the last Madman series, and decided I was done with the property), Think Tank, which sounds interesting and has a good artist (Rahsan Ekedal) but a writer I’ve never heard of (Matt Hawkins) and a $4 price tag, and Harvest, which also sounds good, but is written by AJ Lieberman, whose Cowboy Ninja Viking I ended up hating. So nothing new for me this month.
The first of the new Prophet trades comes out in August, with a $10 price tag for six issues. These are some of the best six comics I’ve read in years, and at that price, you’d be a fool to not get this. It’s worth it for the art by Simon Roy and Farel Dalrymple alone, without even reading the brilliance of Brandon Graham’s stories. Seriously – get this.
So if Haunt #24, which was solicited for March isn’t out yet, why are Image pushing #29 for an August release? It’s like it’s the new Elephantmen. (I love both these books, but I’m just saying….)
Marvel
It’s kind of exciting to see that the Guardians of the Galaxy are on the cover to Avengers Assemble #6. It’s too bad that the cover is drawn by Mark Bagley though, as it’s a pretty awful cover. Also, why is Peter Quill blond? And alive? I would love to see Abnett and Lanning get ahold of these characters again.
So it looks like Kieron Gillen is off Journey Into Mystery, which is now part of a crossover with Thor written by Matt Fraction. That means I’m off JIM. I hope Gillen comes back when this story is done, as his take on Loki has been wonderful.
I was looking forward to reading Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Captain Marvel comic, and was willing to add it to my pull-file, even though I have no idea what Dexter Soy’s art looks like. However, as Marvel is double-shipping it this month, I’m just not going to bother. Maybe I’ll stick with it if the first issue is great.
A new Hawkeye series by Matt Fraction and David Aja? Sold, even if I don’t particularly like this character all the time.
First X-Men is a new mini-series by Neal Adams (with Christos Gage), featuring a team of X-Men that takes place before Xavier gathered his first team. It features Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Magneto, as well as two other characters from the cover. I figure it will be about as terrible as Batman Odyssey and Adams’s DHP strip Blood. Maybe it will be worse, but I won’t be there to find out.
Hey – a new Gambit series. In the solicitation text, the people who write these things promise that there won’t be any Bella Donna in this issue, but that probably just means that they are saving her for the second or third issue. They’ll have to use her quick, as I imagine this title won’t be around past #8. Do people actually still like Gambit? Why? Whhhyyyyy?
Marvel is double-shipping Wolverine, by Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi. Anyone willing to think it’s going to actually happen? Anyone think it’s going to be any good?
Speaking of double-shipping, Marvel is doing it like crazy again this month. I’m pre-ordering 22 Marvel books, but only 15 separate titles (once again, I count Fantastic Four and FF as the same title, because it is). I want to point out to the fine people at Marvel that if they didn’t do things like this, I would probably be buying Dark Avengers, Captain Marvel, Hulk, Captain America and Iron Man/Namor, Punisher, X-Men Legacy, Age of Apocalypse, or some of the $3.99 titles I’ve dropped like the Avengers books, or Brian Wood’s X-Men. But apparently they think the math is in their favour…
Dog Year Entertainment
I bought the second issue of Foster at TCAF, and I can’t recommend this series enough! This is a very cool series about a city where a secretive group of Neanderthal-like creatures have always lived in secret, and now they are coming after a young boy, and his neighbour has to figure out what’s going on. Very gritty art by Noel Tuazon, and some very strong writing from Brian Buccellato. Check this out!
Oni Press
There are few comics series more addictive than Ross Campbell’s Wet Moon, a series about emo and goth-y kids in their early 20s. It sounds like something I would hate, yet I find the book utterly magnetic, and I can’t wait to read this new, sixth volume.
Top Shelf
Jeff Lemire has a new graphic novel, Underwater Welder, coming out in August. Lemire has become one of the darlings of the New 52, but his best work so far has been in his quiet, introspective graphic novels that explore familial themes. This looks like a spiritual follow-up to the Essex County trilogy, with it’s story about an underwater welder in Nova Scotia who fears his impending fatherhood. I know this is going to be one of the more talked about literary comics of the year.
So, what would you buy in August Were Money No Object?
