Previews-o-Rama part 2: The Middle

We continue now with the second half of our monthly stroll through the lastest Previews for items scheduled to come out in August (loosely defined...)


Aardvark-Vanaheim & Win-Mill continue with issue #5 of Following Cerebus, this time looking at the role of editors in creating graphic novels.

Active Images has Joe Kelly & Ilya's Ballast One-Shot, about a contarct killer who goes to work for God.

Amazingly, Alias has decided to stop launching new series. They do have new issues of Penny & Aggie (#4), Opposite Forces (#2), and David: Shepherd's Song (#2), as well as collections of two series that initially appeared when they were publishing through Image: Imaginaries, vol. 1: Lost & Found; and Lullaby, vol. 1: Wisdom Seeker.

AiT/PlanetLAR has a third volume of Mike Brennan's Electric Girl, with over 50% all-new material!

ADV has the third volume of the badass highschool manga parody Cromartie High School.

Rex-Libris #1: "I, Librarian"--a gun- & dictionary-toting librarian who fights evil gods and powerful alien warlords. It's from James Turner & Amae Ink/Slave Labor; how could I possibly pass this up?

Judging by the sample pages, APC's Abiding Perdition looks kind of interesting...

Several interesting things from Antarctic this month: in addition to new issues of Gold Digger (#67), Ninja High School (#131), and Oz: The Manga (#3), there are collections of Rod Espinosa's Chronicles of the Universe: Desperado Brothers & Ben Dunn's Mighty Tiny, a well-done furry comic; MetaDocs, a one-shot about doctors who treat super-heroes from Joe Dunn (M.D.) and Rod Espinosa; and the debut of Jasen Lex's Science Fair.

Arcana has the sixth issue of 100 Girls.

Archie has a new issue of Tania Del Rio's Sabrina (#69).

Checker have a collection of Theodor Geisel's pre-Dr. Suess work: Theodor Seuss Geisel: Early Works, vol. 1

Boom! have a colorized version of Keith Giffen's classic The March Hare one-shot.

A new issue of Dave Roman & John Green's Quicken Forbidden comes out so rarely I usualyl think that it's cancelled, but Crytic Press have issue #13 this month.

D.E. have the first volume of Carlos Trillo & Eduardo Risso's Borderline. I've never cared much for Trillo's writing, but Risso's art is always worth a look.

Devil's Due continue to think that the 80's toy-based comic craze is still in full swing, as they debut G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes: Declassified.


Del Rey have two new manga series: Gacha Gacha & Love Roma; I'd love to be able to tell you more about them, but the descriptions in Previews are so generic as to be worthless.

Drawn & Quarterly have a third issue of Kevin Huizenga's Or Else, the comic where each issue is a different size & shape! Issue #2 was really good though, so this next issue is undoubtedly worth a look.

Fantagraphics go in a somewhat unexpected direction and start up a hardcover reprint series of Hank Ketcham's Complete Dennis the Menace. They also have a Jessica Abel interview in The Comics Jornal #270.

Gemstone's Donald Duck and Friends #331 & Uncle Scrooge #345 both have Carl Barks stories.

Girl Twirl have a new printing of the first Jane's World collection.

GT Labs has Bone Sharps, Cowboys & Thunder Lizards--I gave out 50 free copies of the FCBD preview, so now you're all primed to go buy this, right? They also have a companion book, a previously unpublished autobiography of dinosaur illustrator Charles R. Knight, with illustrations by Mark Schultz (I saw the pencil roughs a couple of months back, and they were looking good.)

I Box have a new issue of Mark Oakley's Thieves & Kings (#47)--is this book back on a quarterly schedule yet?

Graphix/Scholastic have a new OGN from Chynna Clugston: Queen Bee (I wonder what happened to the -Major?)

Warning: Snarky Political Comment ahead:
Heroic Publishing's Flare Adventures #1 features the League of Champions "on a mission... to prevent President Bush from being replaced by an evil demonic duplicate." How exactly would one be able to tell the difference? (C'mon, man, the joke was just lying there--I had to make it!)

IDW have Spike: Old Times, a one-shot written by Peter David--overpriced but I'll probably get it anyway, fanboy that I am. They also have a trade collection of Desperadoes: Banners of Gold, and The Complete Mars collection the entire classic First Comics series by Mark Hempel & Marc Wheatley.

Komikwerks have a new anthology, Thrills & Chills, nicely priced to compete with manga.

Peter David pops up again, this time writing Moonstone's Kolchak Tales: Black & White & Red All Over one-shot.

NBM collect the first three issues of Zorro in a pocket-sized trade.

Oni have the secon dissue of Banana Sundays (monkeys!); Lola, a graphic novella from J. Torres & R'John Bernales; and a second collected volume of Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures by J. Torres & J. Bone.

Renaissance Press finally have a new issue of Jimmy Gownley's Amelia Rules (#14)--resolicited, of course.

Serve Man Press have a collection of Sean Wang's sci-fi adventure series, Runners: Bad Goods.

Puffin have two new adaptations of classic literature in a manga-shaped package: Treasure Island and The Wizard of Oz.

Titan Publishing have Star Trek Comic Classics volume 1: To Boldly Go, a collection of the first six issues of DC's first Star Trek comic series from 1984, by Mike W. Barr, Tom Sutton & Ricardo Villigran. While not quite as good as Peter David's later work on the title, these issues, set improbably between Star Trek II & Star Trek III, were actually pretty good.

Speakeasy have a colelction of Jamie Delano's old Vertigo series, 2020 Visions, with artists Frank Quitely, Steve Pugh, Warren Pleece & James Romberger in tow. Their new series, Rocketo by Frank Espinosa, also looks promising.

Look at all those TokyoPop books! This month's OEL manga debut is War on Flesh, a zombie story by Greg Hildebrandt, Justin Boring, and Tim Smith. Also debuting is Girls Bravo, a 'harem manga' (I'm a bit disturbed that there's now a term for that...); and Off Beat!, a shonen ai series about a 15-year-old genius. Also, Shobei Manabe's existential horror series Dead End returns with a third volume, and OEL manga Van Von Hunter returns for a second volume.

Top Shelf make a series stab for your wallet with Tricked, Alex Robinson's new OGN; and Aaron Reiner's Spiral Bound OGN. They also have the first two Owly valumes available for re-order, just in case you missed them before.

Viz have a lot of new volumes of their same stuff; nothing new really stands out, and you pretty much know by now which of the regular stuff you like by now.

Hiding way back in the Books section is Larry Gonick's The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry (with Craig Criddle), which has actually been out in regular bookstores for a while now. I've only read the first couple of chapters, but so far it looks like the same high quality learning & fun as his previous Cartoon Guides.

Also hiding back in the book section is the third collection of the Unshelved online comic strip: Library Mascot Cage Match. It's a fun comic strip about what goes on in a public library--funny stuff!