New This Week: October 18, 2006

Based on the NCRL list for this week's comics shipping from Diamond, here are a few things to look for at the local comic shop tomorrow:


The Pick of the Week is Thieves & Kings Presents: The Walking Mage, a colorized collection of Mark Oakley's Webcomic featuring Quinton the Mage. At $10 for 64 pages it's a bit on the pricy side, but well worth it I should think.


In other comics:

AD Vision have the eighth Cromartie High School volume.

Antarctic have this year's Gold Digger Halloween Speecial, and a new issue of Ninja High School (#143).

Boom! have another of their re-dialoged What Were They Thinking comics, Monster Mash-Up (featuring more than one story re-written by comics blogging funny guy Kevin Church).

DC have the eagerly anticipated Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall HC OGN; the third New Teen Titans Archive; a new Birds of Prey collection: The Battle Within; a Showcase Presents phonobook collection for Challengers of the Unknown; the Morrison-penned debut issues of the rebooted Wildcats (Jim Lee art) and The Authority (Gene Ha art); the return of Warren Ellis's Desolation Jones (#7) with by Danijel Zezelj ; and new issues of 100 Bullets (#77), 52 (week 24), Birds of Prey (#99), Catwoman (#60), Checkmate (#7), Exterminators (#10), Hellblazer (#225), Shadowpact (#6), and Testament (#11).

Fanfare/Ponent Mon re-offer Jiro Taniguchi's Walking Man, which if you haven't read yet you really should.

Image have new issues of Casanova (#5), Elephantmen (#4), Noble Causes (#24), and the debut of Tabula Rasa.

Lobrau have a new issue of Toupydoops (#4).

Marvel have a new Ultimate Fantastic Four collection (Vol. 6: Frightful); the debut of the new Amazing Spider-Girl comic; the debut of the Dabel Brothers' adaptation of Anita Blake, Vmapire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures; and new issues of Blade (#2), Runaways (#21), X-Factor (#12), and X-Men: First Class (#2).

Oni have a new issue of Queen & Country (#31).

Thrud have the fourth issue of Thrud the Barbarian.


Which wraps up another week of new comics. Enjoy your stack!

Quick Boom! Reviews

The Savage Brothers #2
by Andrew Cosby, Johanna Stokes, & Rafael Albuquerque
Boom! $3.99

With its second issue, The Savage Brothers unfortunately takes a turn for the boring. It's page after page of zombie killing as the titular brothers rescue a woman in distress; and when they're not killing zombies they're acting like pigs. These days if you want to do a zombie comic there has to be more to it then having your characters run around killing zombies, no matter how competently done it is.

Rating: 2 (of 5)



Jeremiah Harm #4
by Keith Giffen, Alan Grant, & Rafael Albuquerque
Boom! $3.99

Rael Lyra is gone from the title, but it maintains the same level of senseless violence as the first Earth-based storyline draws to a close, more or less. Thankfully for the last few pages this title finds a semblance of a plot again, giving the book an interesting direction and the semblance of hope that the title might be worth sticking around for.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



The Black Plague #1
by Joe Casey & Julia Bax
Boom! $3.99

A three way battle breaks out between the mob, a 'science organiation' with designs on world domination (think Hydra), and The Black Plague, a long-thought-dead super villain (in the Batman villain mode--complete with henchmen and a secret hideout). Writer Casey adds in a framing sequence of a retired hero and a retired villain playing chess in the park, and a twist of sorts to the set-up. Bax handles the art chores well. This is a one-shot that serve as a prelude to an upcoming mini-series and should appeal to those of you looking for a slightly different take on the whole super-hero/super-villain thing.

Rating: 3 (of 5)



(review copies of the above comics were provided by the publisher)

Dave's (Half) Dozen: Indy Comics

Continuing my look through the October Previews (for comics supposedly shipping in December), here are a half dozen indy comics that I feel are worth your attention:


DinoWars: Jurassic War of the Worlds #1
(Antarctic, $3.50, p. 222)
Ros Espinosa's latest has a race of intelligent dinosaurs returing to Earth after 65 million years away--and they're pissed!



Cthulhu Tales: "The Rising"
(Boom!, $6.99, p. 248)
The first Cthulhu Tales was a good deal of fun, and there's no reason to expect that this second offering won't be more of the same.



Mr. Stuffins #1
(Boom!, $3.99, p. 250)
Another piece of high-concept pop-action from Boom!: A teddy bear secret agent!



Code #1
(Guardian Line, $2.99, p. 286)
One of three new Christian-themed titles debuting from new publisher Guardian Line this month, Code could be the best of the lot. A baddd-a$$ techno-sage in a trench coat and fedora with a comprehensive knowledge of saced writings. "Evil had best sit down and shut up." Indeed.



Maintenance #1
(Oni, $3.50, p. 309)
Jim Massey & Robbi Rodriguez bring what looks to be a fun comic about a couple of janitors at an evil science think tank.



The 3 Geeks: Jim's Jerky!
(3 Finger Press, $2.00, p. 318)
Rich Koslowski takes a break from 'serious' graphic novels to come back to his original series of three comic-loving guys.



I covered mainstream comics a few days ago. I'll have the collects and graphic novels picks in a day or two.