Welcome to Down the Line, our monthly look at Previews! Co-written by Randy Lander and Dan Grendell, each Down the Line looks at what’s coming out in comics (and manga) a few months down the road.

This installment covers the May Previews for comics due to ship out July 2008 or later. Remember, especially with the indy books, that pre-ordering is your friend, and the best way to make sure you get the books you want. Thanks to the increasing prevalence of advance solicitation, that some of the books here won’t actually ship until August or later, but the pre-orders are still due by the end of May.

As always, the Previews rundown is in alphabetical order, rather than the order used in the catalog. To facilitate those seeking more information, each entry will include the page number of the solicitation. Dan and I will both offer up a “Top Five Shiny New Things to Watch Out For,” also in alphabetical order, and then we’ll provide a rundown of “Other Stuff That Caught Our Eye.” The focus in this column is always going to be on jumping-on points and new stuff, so if you’re wondering “Where’s Fables?” or something along those lines, we still love it, we just don’t want to keep harping on it.

Randy’s Top Five Shiny Things To Watch Out For:

Antoine Sharpe, The Atheist Vol 2 #1 (Desperado Publishing):
Randy: Phil Hester’s skeptic super-smart hero Antoine Sharpe returns, with a new artist, which hopefully means that it’ll be a bit more regular in publication. Because really, the long gaps between issues were the only flaws in the previous series, which was like reading only the best parts of Global Frequency and The X-Files. The plot of this one involves a southern town where husbands are burying their newlywed brides alive. (page 268)

Dan: As you say, if this can stay on schedule I’ll be all over it. Hester’s writing is just as good as his art.

Halo and Sprocket V.2: Natural Causes TP (Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics):
Randy: I cannot state in strong enough terms how much I love Halo & Sprocket. Unless you hate laughing, you should immediately go to your comic book shop/online purveyor/sleazy street vendor selling comics out of his coat pockets of your choice and preorder this book. It is quite simply the funniest comic I’ve ever read, and it’s cute and smart and features great cartooning as well. (page 206)

Dan: Halo and Sprocket is my favorite humor comic ever. Kerry Callen’s look at a typical younger woman and the angel and robot she lives with is insightful and hilarious. The different ways the three think and how they meet in the middle never fail to crack me up. Seriously, check this out, and track down the first trade too.

Randy: If you need further incentive, you can check out sample strips at Kerry Callen’s Halo & Sprocket website.

The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack HC (Dark Horse):
Dan: The second PBF hardcover looks like it will collect the rest of the webcomic’s run, as well as some extras. This is a damn funny comic, and Nicholas Gurewitch is a great artistic talent. It also looks like the first volume is going out of print, so if you don’t have it, pick it up while you still can. (page 52)

Randy: What the hell kind of plan is it to let the first volume go out of print? And this says it collects the entire weekly newspaper run, does that mean it also collects the first volume, or were those web-only? That would answer the first question, too, if the original book is in this book too. I need answers, damn it!

Either way, though, Perry Bible Fellowship is hilarious, full of strange and imaginative ideas and gorgeous cartooning. It’s so good it even caused Scott McCloud to break out the “F” word for his pullquote, and that dude doesn’t curse anywhere near as much as… well, as we do here at Comic Pants.

Popgun Volume 2 (Image Comics):
Randy: It’s rare to find an anthology where I enjoy like 90-95% of everything in it, but Popgun was that anthology. Gigantic, packed to the gills with talent and cool comics, you can check out my full review if you need details. But the second volume looks every bit as good, with contributions from Dean Haspiel, Jim Rugg (Street Angel), Paul Maybury (Aqua Leung), Jamie Rich and plenty more… all wrapped in an awesome cover by Paul Pope. (page 159)

Too Cool To Be Forgotten (Top Shelf):
Randy: I’ll have a full review of this one soon, but suffice to say that I’ve read it and it’s great. Alex Robinson is one of my favorite graphic novelists, and a new graphic novel from him is an all-too-rare treat. Too Cool To Be Forgotten has Robinson’s trademark wit and skillful cartooning, but the premise is something of a divergence. Basically, a forty-some guy with kids agrees to try one last time to quit smoking by undergoing hypnosis, and finds that he has somehow traveled back in time to become his fifteen-year-old self in high school. It raises questions about what you’d do if you could go back and do it again, knowing what you know now, as well as being an excellent story of a singularly interesting lead character. Sure to make my best graphic novels of the year list for 2008. (page 360)

Dan: This sounds like the plot to a cheesy ’80s comedy to me, but Robinson definitely knows what he’s doing, so I’m curious to give it a look anyway.

Randy: It’s got comedic elements, but it’s mostly a pretty strong dramatic take on the actual psychological implications of revisiting high school, which is where a lot of us had our formative years. It is neither this nor this. Trust me on this one.

Dan’s Top Five Shiny Things To Watch Out For:

Comic Book Tattoo OGN (Image Comics):
Dan: Over 50 stories by over 80 amazing creators, all inspired by the music of Tori Amos. We’re talking people like David Mack, Carla Speed McNeil, Hope Larson, Jock, Antony Johnston, Colleen Doran, Pia Guerra, Ted McKeever, Ryan Kelly, and tons more. I dig Amos’s music, I love these creators, and the combination of the two should be nothing short of spectacular. From the previews I’ve seen, I won’t be disappointed. (page 146)

Randy: I’m not a Tori Amos fan much, but Image has done some kickass anthologies lately, and the creative line-up here is stunning. Might have to give this one a look.

Liberty Comics: A CBLDF Benefit Book (Image Comics):
Dan: You can’t go wrong with a book like this. It’s for a great cause- the legal protection of comics civil liberties- and features an amazing lineup of creators and stories. There’s new The Boys and Criminal tales by Ennis/Robertson and Brubaker/Phillips, and stories by Darwyn Cooke, Mark Millar and John Paul Leon, and Mark Evanier and Sergio Anagones. You even get your choice between covers by J. Scott Campbell (a sexy Danger Girl) and Mike Mignola (a funny Hellboy). Buy it on principle, enjoy it for the content. (page 158)

Randy: Another great line-up on another promising Image anthology, and even better it’s for a good cause. Plus… Darwyn Cooke? And a new Criminal tale? That’s all you had to say!

Zot! V.1: The Complete Black and White Stories 1987-1991 TP (Harper Collins Publishers):
Dan: Before Scott McCloud was explaining how to understand, reinvent, and make comics, he made his name doing Zot!. A superhero story heavily influenced by manga, I’ve wanted to read this for years and I am extremely excited to finally get the chance. There are also a ton of extras in this book, and at almost 600 pages for 23 bucks, this is a great deal too. (page 306)

Randy: I’ve got the Kitchen Sink editions of Zot!, but Kitchen Sink went out of business before they could publish the fourth and final volume. So I’ve been waiting quite a while to read the end of this story, and I’m excited to see Harper Collins picking this one up. I think (though I’m not sure) that the material in this collection is mostly stuff I’ve read before, but the extras are new, and I’m not really sure… this could in fact be the whole story. It’s just the volume one tag that makes me think otherwise.

Achewood: The Great Outdoor Fight HC (Dark Horse):
Dan: One of the smartest and most consistently funny webcomics around, Achewood has been published in collections before by creator Chris Onstad but it totally deserves a handsome hardcover like this. This particular story is about an event where 3000 people gather on 3 acres for 3 days and fight until the last one stands. When someone falls, he is picked up by a crane. This idea is awesome. (page 51)

Randy: Having never read Achewood, but having had general luck with the webcomics that Dark Horse chooses to collect, I decided to go look up a few of them before responding to Dan.

I think I broke my brain. Achewood is truly bizarre. In a good way.

Nocturnals: Carnival of Beasts (Image Comics):
Dan: I’m always excited to see another Nocturnals book, as infrequent as they are. This one-shot actually has three stories in it, with Brereton going a bit of the Mignola route and writing all three but only painting one. While I’ll certainly admit that disappoints me, as I love his artwork, I’m curious to see what the other two artists, Viktor Kalachev and Ruben Martinez, bring to the table. (page 156)

Randy: I’m cool with that, especially if Brereton can also go the Mignola route in terms of turning out more material, because my biggest frustration with Nocturnals is how rare it is to get any of it. If turning a bit more to just writing and doing covers could mean a series of Nocturnals miniseries, a focus miniseries on Doc Horror or the Raccoon or any of the others, I’d be all over that. I suspect that it’ll still be a rare treat, unfortunately.

By the way, a slight typo would make this the “Carnival of Breasts,” which sounds more like an Avatar title.

Dan: I’m pretty sure “Carnival of Breasts” is the subtitle for Tarot. If it isn’t, it should be.

Other stuff that caught our eye:

The Alcoholic HC (DC Comics/Vertigo):
Randy: New original graphic novel that seems to be a heavily fictionalized autobiography of a “boozed-up, coked-out, sexually confused, hopelessly romantic” novelist with art by Dean Haspiel. Haspiel’s art is what caught my eye, I’m not quite sure I’m in for the story, but I’m curious at any rate. (page 120)

Annihilation Conquest Vol 2 HC (Marvel Comics):
Randy: For my money, the Abnett/Lanning follow-up to the original Annihilation event was actually even stronger than the first Annihilation story. The Phalanx seemed to win the whole thing early on, and there was a great, desperate battle against hopeless odds feel to the series. Can’t wait to sit down and read this whole thing in one sitting. Oh, and Nova gets a volume two collection as well, introducing the awesome future headquarters of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Celestial head/space station Knowhere. Spacefaring awesomeness. (page M88)

Dan: I also thought this was better than the first Annihilation, and given how great that was, that’s high praise indeed.

Apocalipstix Vol 1 GN (Oni Press):
Randy: Artist Cameron Stewart and co-writer Ray Fawkes present a post-apocalyptic Josie and the Pussycats with the long-awaited Apocalipstix. Previously appearing in an anthology or two, I’ve been anxiously awaiting a full graphic novel of these characters, and now it’s finally here. Oni also offers up new volumes of the trippy horror/adventure comic Last Call from Vasilis Lolos and the funny Maintenance by Jim Massey and Robbi Rodriguez this month. (page 330)

Astro Boy 1&2 (Dark Horse):
Dan: Dark Horse released the entire run of Osamu Tezuka’s seminal manga a few years ago in slim volumes, which is a format I’m not too fond of. They’re re-releasing them now in a heftier format, combining two of the previous volumes into a single book. I like that a lot more. I’m sure they’re putting this back in print because of the upcoming CGI movie, but I really think this series should always be available. It’s manga history. Plus, it’s good. (page 56)

Randy: I actually kind of dug the slim format… I’ve got most of Astro Boy in that format, although honestly I never got around to reading more than a few volumes of it. What I read, I liked, even though it’s some of the weaker Tezuka stuff I’ve read in comparison to his other work. But I don’t have the first five volumes, so I might pick up these newfangled new format versions just to get the series complete and maybe read the whole thing, instead of just a smattering. Because, as you say, it’s good.

Did I just use an entire paragraph to say “Me too?”

Batgirl #1 (DC Comics):
Dan: I’ve been glad to see Batgirl finally getting back to her old personality in the pages of Batman and the Outsiders. The question is, can Adam Beechen maintain what Chuck Dixon is doing? I enjoyed his work on Hench and I understand he was decent on Robin for a time, so I’m certainly willing to give him a shot. His time on Countdown hurts him a bit with me, though. (page 82)

Randy: I think time spent on Countdown hurt everyone. Especially the poor bastards who read it.

The Batman Strikes #47 (DC Comics):
Randy: I have to admit, I’m ashamed it took me this long to realize that Josh Elder, writer of the super-fun Mail Order Ninja, was working on The Batman Strikes comic. The first issue I read by him was #45, featuring Batman and Superman, and it’s a ton of fun. With art by Christopher Jones (whose work I’ve enjoyed since Young Heroes in Love), this is definitely one to keep an eye on. (page 107)

Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! #1 (DC Comics):
Randy: How do you follow up Jeff Smith on Shazam? You get indie favorite Herobear and the Kid creator Mike Kunkel to do an all-ages series using the same characters and continuity. Well-played, DC. With this, the upcoming Supergirl, the Tiny Titans, etc., it seems like the Johnny DC line has got its shit together in a way that the mainstream DC Universe doesn’t.

And yet, the Johnny DC titles don’t sell at all in the direct market. No wonder the companies are getting mixed signals. (page 106)

Dan: Yup, the Johnny DC stuff looks great. Here’s hoping it’s selling elsewhere.

Black Lagoon V.1 (Viz):
Dan: This has all the elements of cool. Mercenaries who work out of a WWII submarine, interactions with the Russian mob, the Chinese Triads, and crazy assassins, and the even a kidnapped Japanese salaryman who has to try to make sense of it all. If I had to guess, this is gonna be a non-stop thrill ride, and parts are gonna make me go “Huh?” but I won’t care because the rest will make me cheer. (page 386)

Randy: This one caught my eye too. Looks like fun action manga.

The Bond of Saint Marcel #1 (Archaia Studios Press):
Randy: Another promising concept from the folks at Archaia, this is about an order of priests who could enslave vampires to do their bidding, and what happens when a 16-year-old girl inherits a family signet ring and the vampire that comes with it. (page 216)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #16 (Dark Horse):
Randy: Joss Whedon returns to writing the Buffy title, and it’s a time-traveling crossover between Buffy, the slayer of the present, and Fray, the slayer of the future! With original Fray artist Karl Moline on art, no less. Before the Buffy series, Fray was my favorite bit of Joss Whedon comics, so I’m excited to see a return to that character, and very interested to see the two very different slayers meet. Plus… time travel! Can Buffy meeting all the other slayers of the past be far behind? (page 30)

Captain America: White #0 (Marvel Comics):
Dan: Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb continue their “color” series books with a new look at Captain America and Bucky back in the day, during World War II. I’m looking forward to seeing Sale’s artwork on this, and those readers who haven’t been happy with the current Cap status quo may enjoy this look at a different time when Bucky was still alive. (page M20)

Randy: Jeph Loeb, currently best known for such dialogue as “A-Bomb hates giant Betty Birdface,” has dropped somewhat in my estimation over the years. However, when he works with Tim Sale, especially on Marvel characters, magic happens, and I happen to love Spider-Man: Blue, Daredevil: Yellow and (to a lesser extent) Hulk: Gray. So a flashback Captain America story by these two sounds great to me, although I’ll be holding out for a hardcover both to match the format of my others and because these projects always, always wind up running late. Still holding out hope for an X-Men: Gold series, even though I know it’s unlikely.

Challenger Deep #1 (BOOM! Studios):
Dan: This is a cool idea. There are pockets of methane encased in thin ice deep in the ocean that are volatile enough to explode in a horrible earth-rending chain reaction if set off. Unfortunately, an experimental submarine is stuck near a pocket of methane ice, and the crew is planning to destroy it to preserve its secrets. Sounds like a good thriller to me. (page 241)

Criminal Vol 3: The Dead and the Dying TP (Marvel Comics/Icon):
Randy: The third volume of Brubaker and Phillips’ crime book Criminal comes out this month. If you haven’t already been sold on this book based on the hype, I don’t know what else I could say to convince you. I’m looking forward to reading this new story in trade, to see all the connections between the self-contained stories. (page M78)

Dugout GN (AIT/Planet Lar):
Randy: Hench, the story of a supervillain henchman, is one of my favorite AIT/Planet Lar graphic novels. This is the same creative team, but it’s a story of a ’60s baseball team playing an exhibition game with their currently incarcerated star pitcher against a prison team. That alone is a pretty cool premise. But even cooler? The whole game is just a cover for an elaborate jailbreak! Sounds different and very fun. (page 205)

Fantastic Four: True Story #1 (Marvel Comics):
Dan: Paul Cornell takes the FF places only Gumby has gone before in this four-issue mini. Somehow, the heroes find themselves inside the stories of classic literature, and you just know this isn’t going to turn out well. Cornell has written some smart stuff, but he’s not boring, and I think this is going to a good mix of smart and fun. (page M23)

Final Crisis: Requiem #1 (DC Comics):
Randy: “A very special FINAL CRISIS one-shot honoring the passing of a great hero who’s been a staple in the DC Universe for years.” God damn it, DC! Death is not that interesting! Stop killing your frikkin’ characters so you can have one-shots mourning them! No wonder Marvel is kicking your ass in market share. (page 73)

Dan: To be fair, it isn’t like Marvel isn’t doing the same thing. It just has whole miniseries devoted to mourning them instead.

Randy: True, but Marvel is more like a maniac with a sniper rifle, picking off targets at random. DC is more like a guy with a machine gun mowing down everyone in sight.

Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge #1 (DC Comics):
Dan: The idea of Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins returning to Flash, even if only for a mini-series, makes me very excited. The fact that it’s Rogue-focused makes me even happier. I just wish it wasn’t a Final Crisis tie-in. Even so, I have faith that it will be cool as hell. Those two have done some of my favorite Flash ever. (page 74)

Randy: I’m nervous because of the recently-developed “Can’t go home again theory” which is backed up by a shocking amount of evidence that nobody has ever come back to a series they were once great on and been as good, much less better, than the original. If anybody has a counter-example, I’d love to hear it in the comments.

However… Ostrander’s recent return to Suicide Squad was almost as good, and I’m hoping that Johns and Kolins can get to that level or even break the general rule. Because these guys did in fact do the best Flash ever, even better than the Waid/Wieringo stuff. And their take on the Rogues was the best as well. Oh, and Kolins’ variant cover for this issue, featuring Captain Cold, is sweet as hell.

Flight Vol 5 (Villard Books):
Randy: Wow, great month for anthologies. The second volume of Popgun, the new Tori Amos based anthology from Image and a new volume of the animator-driven anthology Flight. This book is always, always worth a look. (page 364)

Frank Frazetta’s Creatures #1 (Image Comics):
Dan: I haven’t much cared for the Frazetta books that have come out so far, to be honest, but this one looks like something different. It stars Teddy Roosevelt, for example, fighting aliens and an ancient Mayan demon with his Rough Riders. I smell awesome. It also features Rick Remender on writing and Peter Bergting on art. More awesome. Dare I say it? BULLY! (page 150)

Randy: Bully?

Gotham Central V.1: In the Line of Fire HC (DC Comics):
Dan: This gritty drama about Gotham’s cops by Brubaker, Rucka, and Michael Lark was brilliant, and it’s great to see it getting the hardcover treatment. There were a few issues that were never reprinted in the trades, and I’m hoping they collect the entire thing here. (page 102)

Randy: Kind of surprised to see this collected in hardcover. My love for Gotham Central diminished, and I didn’t actually pick up all the trades… but if they actually include the Winick/Chiang shorts that introduced Josie Mac, I’d be very tempted to pick up the hardcovers.

Hack/Slash Annual: Suicide Girls (Image Comics):
Dan: This is a crossover that seems like a no-brainer. Cassie Hack, star of the book, could easily be a Suicide Girl, and from what I hear is actually going to be, with her own spread on the site courtesy of creator Tim Seeley. In this annual, Cassie and Vlad try to stop a slasher targeting SG models, and to act as a lure Cassie poses for the site, and those pictures are actually going to be available to Suicide Girls subscribers. That’s a little creepy, but very smart, and will get the book plenty of…ahem…exposure. (page 275)

Randy: Does it make me a weirdo perv or a completist that I’ve been tempted to get a subscription to Suicide Girls long enough to see all the stuff that Seeley is posting on the Hack/Slash section? Maybe both? At any rate, I’ll hold out, because the story is going to be collected in print form here. This is a perfect outreach to get this book into the hands of alt-cult fans who would probably dig the book, and it’s a pretty decent fit for Cassie and Vlad as well.

Let’s just hope we don’t see the Supergirl Annual: Suicide Girls or Emma Frost Annual: Suicide Girls in the future.

Heavy Liquid HC (DC Comics/Vertigo):
Randy: Paul Pope’s sci-fi story comes back to Vertigo in a $40 hardcover. I loves me some Paul Pope, but I’ve never read this one and I’ve heard it’s one of his weaker offerings. Still, weaker Paul Pope is probably still damn good stuff. I think I’ll hold out for the eventual trade edition, but Paul Pope fanatics will be happy to see this back in print in a swanky hardcover edition. (page 125)

Hellblazer Presents: Chas-The Knowledge #1 (DC Comics/Vertigo):
Randy: An all-new miniseries starring John Constantine’s friend the cab driver! It’s cab drivin’ action like you like it, effendi! The meter is running… for action!

Or that’s how I would have written the solicitation. At any rate, the story of a Brit cab driver doesn’t sound like prime spinoff material, but there’s an interesting notion here, that British cab drivers know an elaborate system of routes and landmarks. I have no idea if that’s based on truth or not, either way it’s a cool idea to extend into a story about that system having sinister overtones. Given how important patterns and such can be in the magic of Hellblazer, this is a clever idea. I find myself weirdly intrigued. (page 127)

Dan: I’ve always liked Chas- he’s Constantine’s one long-time friend that has been shit on over and over but hasn’t died, and isn’t a magician- so I’m not sure how I feel about giving him a magic of his own, intentional or not. Still, I’m in a Hellblazer mood, so I’ll be checking this out.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man #1 (Dark Horse):
Randy: Appalachian folklore? Wow, Mignola’s love for mythology is truly wide-ranging, considering his last collaboration with Richard Corben was based on African folklore. Mignola and Corben together produce great looking, fun comics, and I’m glad to see the two of them collaborating on Hellboy again. Oh, and a new BPRD series from the Mignola/Arcudi/Davis team starts up this month too. (page 34)

The Helm #1 (Dark Horse):
Dan: It’s a new take on the heroic destiny! Matt Blurdy finds an ancient helmet at a garage sale, and it speaks to him in his mind, calling to him…but then it changes its mind. Oops, wrong guy. Matt ain’t having none of that, though. He’s taking that helmet and he’s gonna be a hero! This could be a lot of fun, and Bart Sears is on art, so it should look good too. (page 44)

Hyperkinetic #1 (Image Comics):
Randy: Four bounty huntin’ babes battle giant killer robots and aliens. Not exactly super high concept, but potentially fun with nice-looking art from Matteo Scalera and Oscar Celestini. And Howard Shum, who is writing, has previously done fun action-packed comics with Gun-Fu. (page 152)

I Kill Giants #1 (Image Comics):
Dan: Barbara Thorson, fifth grader and giant slayer, carries a war hammer in her purse and isn’t afraid of anything. Well, that’s what she says, anyway. Is it actually true? What monsters is she really fighting? With writer Joe Kelly, you never know. What really drew me to this book, though, was artist J. M. Ken Niimura, who has a style reminiscent of Fred Chao (of Johnny Hiro). (page 154)

Randy: The art is gorgeous… the story looks damned odd. Kelly’s odd stories are sometimes incomprehensible, but I gotta admire the ambition, and I’ll at least check out the first issue, because I respect ambitious and new ideas.

Immortal Iron Fist #17 (Marvel Comics):
Randy: Duane Swierczynski and Travel Foreman take over from Brubaker, Fraction and Aja. Good luck, guys. You’re gonna need it. This has been one of Marvel’s best books, and just kept getting better as the issues went on. The new creative team has to start kicking ass from page one. (page 28)

Jonah Hex #33 (DC Comics):
Randy: Special one-shot that takes Jonah Hex to Canada, drawn by one of my all-time favorite cartoonists, Darwyn Cooke. I’ll definitely check it out, although as with anything he does for DC these days, I’ll do it while thinking “How could you not greenlight his proposed King Faraday series, you assholes!” (page 94)

Journey Vol 1 (IDW):
Randy: Wow, an adventure series about colonial era Fort Miami from William Messner-Loebs? I had never heard of this, but it sounds kind of cool. Adventure in this era is a bit tricky, but it can present great comics, as the Canadian frontier adventure comic Northwest Passage proved. I’m curious to check this out. (page 321)

Kujibiki Unbalance V.1 GN (Del Rey):
Dan: If you’ve been reading the manga Genshiken, about a group of otaku (and you should, it’s funny, fun stuff), you’ll know this name. Kujibiki Unbalance is the manga/anime that the otaku watch and dissect in Genshiken. That makes this a bit meta, but even so, it should be plenty of fun all on its own. (page 266)

Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 (Fantagraphics Books):
Dan: Love and Rockets is back, baby. This time, Los Bros. Hernandez are releasing the book annually, in a 112-page, 6×9 package. The quality is the same, only the timing is different, and count me happy to see more of this. (page 298)

Madman Atomic Comics Vol 1 TP (Image Comics):
Randy: I’ve been waiting for the trade to catch up on the weird, hipster adventures of Frank Einstein, and here it is! Seven issues of Mike Allred goodness, including an issue in which Allred riffed on a number of different art styles to impressive effect. (page 162)

Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes #1 (Marvel Comics):
Dan: I’m totally behind an expansion of the Marvel Adventures line, and the idea of a title dedicated to a varying cast of lesser-known heroes is a cool one. Unfortunately, that isn’t really what this is, as this issue seems to be a spotlight for Hulk, Spidey, and Iron Man; three characters who already have their own solo MA titles. Sure, Hercules kicks it off, but then he leaves. I hope the next few issues are a bit different, and this isn’t some sort of MA Avengers Lite. (page M33)

Randy: Yeah, what Dan said. The notion of seeing the wider Marvel Universe in the all-ages style of the Marvel Adventures books is very promising, especially if they continue to get writers of the caliber of Paul Tobin (writer of this issue), Paul Benjamin, Fred Van Lente and Jeff Parker (and I hear Josh Elder is doing some all-ages superhero writing over at the competition, Marvel). However, I’m a bit bummed if all we get instead is more of the same four or five heroes. Mildly bummed, though, because more all-ages superheroes is a good thing in general.

Magic Trixie Vol 1 TP (Harper Collins):
Randy: Jill Thompson, creator of Scary Godmother, creates a new story about a young witch that looks for all the world like “Young Scary Godmother.” At any rate, Thompson’s beautiful cartooning style and whimsical take on witches, ghosts and goblins is ripe for an all-ages digest series, and I suspect this will do well in bookstores and kids’ sections of comic shops. (page 306)

Dan: Yeah, I wondered about the Scary Godmother resemblance myself, but then I realized it doesn’t matter. If it gets kids reading Thompson’s delightful work, I’m all for it.

The Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics TP (Running Press):
Randy: Hello, what’s this? 450 pages of black and white crime comics including work by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Will Eisner, Alex Toth and work from Dashiel Hammett, Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler? Damn. Crime comics aficionados take note! (page 344)

Dan: That is a lot of crime. I’m gonna have to take this one in doses.

Me & The Devil Blues Vol 1 GN (Del Rey):
Randy: A 500+ page manga about “a bluesman who changed American music forever… and became an American legend.” I have no idea if this is actually biography or fictional, but it’s an unusual genre, and I’m always interested in seeing manga tackle this kind of thing. One of my favorite manga is the political thriller Eagle, so a musical biography sounds right up my alley. (page 266)

Dan: Real or not, this looks damn cool. These kinds of manga always work for me.

The Middleman Collected Series Indispensability Compendium SC (Viper Comics):
Dan: If you missed out on Middleman the first couple times around, you’re in luck. All three volumes are collected in this single volume. I love this series, about Wendy Watson, frustrated art student and apprentice to action hero the Middleman. It’s funny, exciting, and smart, and I dig Lee McClaine’s art style. If you’ve never read any Middleman, check it out; for twenty bucks, you’ll get a ton of great stuff. The comic is also being made into a TV show, due out on ABC sometime this summer. (page 364)

Mini-Marvels: Rock, Paper, Scissors Digest (Marvel):
Randy: It’s always seemed a minor travesty that Chris Giarrusso’s cute and funny Mini-Marvels strips weren’t available on a regular basis. Finally, Marvel is rectifying this with a digest, and I hope it includes all the very fun one-page bits he’s been doing in the Marvel Adventures books and some of the other Marvel comics spoofing various events. Plus, it’s direct market exclusive… suck it, bookstores! (page M96)

MySpace Dark Horse Presents V.1 (Dark Horse):
Dan: I’ve been reading this online, and for the most part quite enjoying myself. Joss Whedon’s Sugarshock was a hell of a lot of fun, there were great Fear Agent, Empowered, Umbrella Academy, and Sock Monkey stories, and an issue devoted entirely to a Goon tribute tale. This is definitely worth picking up, or at least checking out online if you don’t feel like ponying up for it. (page 50)

Randy: There’s a pretty wide variety of cool stuff on MySpace Dark Horse Presents, and this is definitely worth picking up. But I’m still holding out hope for collections of the original Dark Horse Presents, preferably in a big ‘ol Essentials-style collection series, too.

Neil Gaiman’s Coraline GN (Harper Collins Publishers):
Dan: I’ve read this novella, and quite enjoyed it. It’s a creepy little story about a girl who steps through a door in her house and finds another house, with a new set of parents, who don’t want to let her go back. Gaiman converts his book to graphic novel format here, with P. Craig Russell doing the art, and with that pairing this can’t help but be brilliant. (page 306)

Randy: Haven’t read the novella, but as you say, a Gaiman/Russell pairing can’t help but be good.

Nothing Nice to Say (Dark Horse):
Randy: Another webcomics pick from Dark Horse, and another winner. Nothing Nice to Say seems to be especially good if you’re a fan of punk music (and I am, albeit pretty casually), and Mitch Clem’s work reminds me of early work from Steve Rolston. The selections I read were damned funny. Check it out here and see if you agree. (page 53)

Patsy Walker: Hellcat, Agent of the Initiative #1 (Marvel Comics):
Dan: I have a lot of fondness for Hellcat from her days in the Defenders, plus she’s, you know, Satan’s daughter-in-law. That makes me a sucker for this mini where she has joined the Initiative and goes to Alaska to protect it from, I dunno, oil spills or something. (page M40)

Pilot Season (Image Comics/Top Cow):
Randy: Another potentially strong set of offerings from Top Cow’s “Pilot Season” concept this month. Jonathan Hickman creates another intriguing sci-fi offering about a human soldier in an extraterrestrial Special Ops unit operating at the center of the known universe and Jay Faerber (Dynamo 5) writes a story about a modern city where the Greek Gods are still worshiped and still intervene in mortals’ lives. Both sound potentially good. (page 182)

Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives TP (DC Comics/Vertigo):
Dan: This trade has been a long time coming. I suppose it’s Brubaker’s popularity that has brought it about now, but honestly I don’t care, I’m just glad to see it. This mini tells the story of ghost schoolboys Edwin and Charles from Sandman and their first detective job, and I remember enjoying it quite a bit. Bryan Talbot and Steve Leialoha did the artwork, and it looked great. I’m looking forward to this. (page 124)

Randy: You know I’m in this book? Well, my namesake anyway, I don’t actually appear on-panel. My former reviewing partner Don MacPherson is, too. He guest stars as a corpse. Anyway, great story from the early Vertigo days of Brubaker with terrific artwork.

Dan: I didn’t know that. Never mind what I said before; it can’t have been that good then.

Secret Invasion: Front Line #1 (Marvel Comics):
Randy: Is it too much to hope that this series reveals that Ben Urich and Sally Floyd are skrulls? (page M47)

The Spirit Vol. 2 HC (DC Comics):
Randy: DC collects the remainder of Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone’s all-too-brief Spirit run in hardcover, along with the post-Cooke issue which actually had some pretty good talent on it as well. (page 100)

Skrulls vs. Power Pack #1 (Marvel Comics):
Dan: Skrulls have impersonated Power Pack and begun a crime spree across the universe, leaving the kids to pay the price: a trip to the reform-school planet. It’s up to Franklin, his annoying robot, and the Smartship Friday to bust them out so they can clear their name. I suppose if Skrulls and Power Pack have to mix, this is a good way to do it; the fun way. (page M41)

Squadron Supreme 2 #1 (Marvel Comics):
Dan: Now that Ultimate Power is over, Squadron Supreme is back, this time with Howard Chaykin as the writer. With Nick Fury left behind on the Squadron’s world and new heroes showing up, anything could happen. Still, I have to wonder how much losing JMS will hurt this series. (page M55)

Randy: Not as much as the decision to take it out of the MAX line in the first place, losing what a lot of its readers dug about the series. Plus, if it’s not MAX, how is Howard Chaykin going to work in all the blowjobs and sex? More seriously, taking Nick Fury out of the Ultimate universe to try and rejuvenate the lame-duck Squadron Supreme seems like a really, really bad idea.

Starcraft Frontline Vol 1 (Tokyopop):
Randy: I love Starcraft. I wasn’t wild about Tokyopop’s Warcraft manga, which didn’t really seem to capture the vibe of that universe, but this anthology manga has stories by Paul Benjamin, Simon Furman and Josh Elder, so I’m guessing I’ll find at least a few stories I like in the mix. (page 350)

Storming Paradise #1 (DC Comics/Wildstorm:):
Randy: An alternate world where the atomic bomb wasn’t dropped on Japan, and so the American army has to invade the Japanese mainland to have the bloody confrontation that some have always insisted would result if we hadn’t nuked Nagasaki and Hiroshima? I’m not 100% convinced either way on that long-lived argument, but this sounds weirdly like Dixon’s right-wing politics making their way into comics, which is a rarity… he usually keeps them pretty separate. Dixon and Guice on a World War II book should be interesting, but the propaganda-cover poster (complete with politically incorrect “Hey Tojo!”) and general vibe are just… a little weird. Basically, kind of surprised to see Wildstorm putting this out, it’s way out of their usual purview. Given that their usual purview is low-selling books about superhero characters nobody cares about, though, that could be a good thing. (page 113)

Suicide Squad: From the Ashes TP (DC Comics):
Randy: Just barely skirting the “can’t go home again” comics theory, Ostrander’s return to Suicide Squad was actually pretty good. The whole Rick Flag story that was the spine of the thing was an unfortunate misfire, but if you ignore that for the most part, it reads like a pretty decent return to the squad. Enough to make me wish Ostrander was either getting a Squad ongoing or taking over Checkmate. (page 101)

Dan: This had some pretty strong moments, but you’re right, the whole Flag plot just didn’t do it for me. More and more I’m wondering if Suicide Squad was just a product of its time.

Randy: An awesome product of its time.

Titanium Rain #1 (Archaia Studios Press):
Randy: 2030. Global war. And Titanium Rain is the story of a U.S. Air Force pilot who apparently is part of an experimental biotech program to bond with his plane. The solicit namechecks Ghost in the Shell and Blackhawk Down, which sounds like an incongruous mix, but at any rate, the notion of a cool comic that actually does near-future warfare stuff and cool plane dogfights is intriguing. I’d be more excited if they’d said it was a blend of Tom Clancy and Top Gun, though. (page 216)

True Believers #1 (Marvel Comics):
Dan: Not all superheroes fight crime with fists. Some use information; in this case, the True Believers keep other heroes and powerful groups in line by broadcasting to the public any not-so-heroic acts, like fight clubs, lies, and conspiracies. Who has more secrets than superheroes? I find it a little hard to believe that these guys can do this more than maybe twice before they are shut down by someone, but this should be an interesting read. I also fully expect Randy to hate it for de-heroizing superheroes. (page M58)

Randy: No, that’s why I hated New Avengers, Nextwave, X-Men: Deadly Genesis, Civil War… yeah, you’re right, I’m gonna hate this.

More seriously, I’ll wait and see… if it’s all about discovering that Captain America used to be a wife-beater, then yeah, I’ll hate it. If it’s new characters using information and blackmail to bring down bad guys, that’s kind of interesting. My guess is that it’ll instead be somewhat bland and inoffensive, based on the general workload of writer Cary Bates and artist Paul Gulacy.

Universal War One #1 (Marvel Comics/Soleil):
Randy: A squadron of criminals investigates a mysterious wall that has bisected a universe in the middle of a galactic civil war. Decent premise, beautiful art from French publisher Soleil. (page M6)

Dan: Sweet. More European comics.

Wildcats: World’s End #1 (DC Comics/Wildstorm):
Dan: After Number of the Beast, it looks like things may settle down in the Wildstorm Universe, at least enough for the relaunch of a book or two. The Morrison/Lee series appears to be dead, and this one features a bit of an old-school team: Grifter, Zealot, Maul, Spartan (in his old costume), Ladytron, and Warblade. At least, that’s who the preview art shows. I’d like to think Voodoo is around somewhere. (page 110)

Randy: snoooooorrrrreeee… whu-? Oh, sorry, you said Wildstorm and I nodded off.

ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction #1 (Red 5 Comics):
Randy: Honestly? I was won over to this one by the title. But the concept, about air-dropping zombies that expire when daylight hits them into hotzones, is kind of fun too. (page 342)