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Elfbytes April '07

(Note: this is not your average cut and paste, we actually write this stuff.)

This is for product starting to ship in June.

This months Elfbyte credit goes to James, Ethan, Brock, David & Sar

For your convenience, click links below to jump to a certain Publisher.

Independent Comics | Dark Horse Comics | DC Comics
Image Comics | Marvel Comics | Toys & Stuff

Remember to get your orders in by April 25th!

INDEPENDENT COMICS HIGHLIGHTS

ADHOUSE BOOKS

AVIARY. Written and illustrated by Jamie Tanner. I like the sounds of this one: “Enter the world of the Quiet Bird-Man: a world full of mysterious corporations, foul-mouthed robots, drunken ghosts, amputee comedians, wealthy simian pornographers, and canine scientists.”

ALTERNATIVE COMICS

ESCALATOR GN. By Brandon Graham. From the creator of Tokyopop’s KING CITY comes this anthology of short stories. Very cool, graffiti style art at work here.

AMAZE INK/SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS

BIFF! BAM! POW! #1. By Evan Dorkin. An anthology of superheroes, monsters, monkeys, and the never ending battle between the Good, the Bad, and the Stupid. Hey, does this sound a lot like Marvel Comics?

REX LIBRIS VOLUME 1: I, LIBRARIAN TP. By James Turner. The astonishing story or Rex Libris, head librarian at Middleton Public Library and his unending struggle against the forces of ignorance and darkness.

ARCANA STUDIO

THE ART OF REBOOT. By Dave Roberts & Gavin Blair. Includes drawings from Brendan McCarthy, Scott Lee, Dean Ormstrom, and commentary by Dan DiDio. All of these fine comic book people worked on the show.

AVATAR PRESS

BLACK SUMMER #0 (of 7). Written by Warren Ellis. Illustrated by Juan Jose Ryp. When the political situation in the USA become more than superhuman John Horus can stand, he kills the president, with drastic results. His superhuman contemporaries aren’t so eager to throw the world into chaos, and so an epic superhuman conflict starts to form. Fighting crime means fighting power.

CRECY GN. Written by Warren Ellis. Illustrated by Raulo Caceres. An original graphic novel to kick off Ellis’ second wave of Apparat books! A highly trained but under equipped army invades another country due to that country’s perceived threat to home security. The army conducts shock-and-awe raids designed to terrify the populace. This army is soon driven to ground, and vastly outnumbered. It’s August 26, 1346, and the English army has to stand and fight in Crecy, France.

BALLANTINE BOOKS

FLIGHT VOL 4 GN. Another stunning volume of this anthology series is set to hit the shelves in June!

BANDAI ENTERTAINMENT INC

WITCHBLADE TAKERU VOL 1 GN. By Wasuko Kobayashi and Kondou Kazuma. The proper way to enjoy manga. In black & white and right-to-left! Of course, Top Cow is releasing these in colour and in monthly formats, and so xenophobic perverts will likely prefer that one, but true manga-pervs will flock to this volume.

BOOM STUDIOS

FOUNDATION #1. By John Rozum & Chee. The Past: Nostradamus wrote books predicting the future that made him really rich. The Present: This fortune funds a foundation that prevents his prophesies from coming true! It’s like BPRD meets 24.

NORTH WIND #1. By David DiGillio and Jean-Jacques Dzialowski. Global warming triggered a new ice age. So now we get a new post-apocalyptic story like Mad Max and the Road Warrior.

CTHULHU TALES #1 (2ND PRINTING). By Various. An eclectic anthology of cosmic horror. Tales by Keith ‘52’ Giffen, John ‘Transformers Movie’ Rogers, and Andrew ‘Eureka’ Cosby among others. Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!

CTHULHU TALES: THE RISING ONE-SHOT. By Various. Another reoffering and the sequel to the above title. One of the stories reveals the true horror that lurks within comic book shops (as if you suspected otherwise).

STARDUST KID VOL 1 TP. By J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Ploog. Magic-y goodness from the creative team of ABADAZAD. DeMatteis is also writing WETWORKS this month.

D.E. DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

THE BOYS VOL 1 TP. Written by Garth Ennis. Illustrated by Darick Robertson. The boys are back! Finally! In case you missed the first six issues of the series this is the perfect way to catch up. Find out why this is the series that everyone’s been talking about. Introduction by Shaun of the Dead’s Simon Pegg. Will he comment on how he bares a striking resemblance to one of the main characters?

JUMP ON HERE! THE BOYS #7. By Ennis & Robertson: The Boys are back in town! (A cheesy and predictable line but appropriate nonetheless.) The Boys continue their underground battle against the Supes as Wee Hughie discovers their secret weapon. Though I still don’t believe that this is being published by Dynamite Entertainment, there aren’t any alternate covers.

This issue continues the series where it left off after issue #6, and is sure to be a welcome dose of over the top madness as only Ennis & Robertson can deliver! If you didn’t read this series when it first came out, now is the time to get on board and see what all the fuss is about.

TERMINATOR 2: INFINITY #1. Written by Simon Furman. Illustrated by Nigel Raynor. Why are we telling stories about T2 when there are three movies out? I guess T2 was way better.

NEW BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: ZAREK VOL 1 TP. Written by Brandon Jerwa. Illustrated by Adriano Batista. The origin of Tom Zarek, terrorist and 70s heart-throb!

DEVIL’S DUE

SHEENA #1 of 5. Written by Robert Rodi. Illustrated by Matt Merhoff. The origin of Sheena! How did she come to represent the jungle country of Val Verde? Why does she dress herself in tattered leopard skins?

DO GOODER PRESS

FULL FRONTAL NERDITY VOLUME 1: BIG BOOK OF EPIC FAIL. By Aaron Williams. Comics that make fun of geeks, gaming and E3! Because it takes a really clever person to make fun of fat people in hooded cloaks.

DRAWN & QUARTERLY

SPENT HC. By Joe Matt. Meet Joe Matt and his crazy friends! There’s the chronic masturbator who wonders why he can’t get laid. There’s the obsessive collector searching for toys from his childhood. And the callous son who destroys all the gifts from his adoring mother. And the dude who is so lazy he pees in a bottle rather than walk to the bathroom. It’s like each of Matt’s friends embodies a facet of my own personality.

FANTAGRAPHICS

PALESTINE: THE SPECIAL EDITION HC. By Joe Sacco. A landmark in comics journalism, Sacco journeys to Israel and talks to the people who are getting their houses bulldozed over. This edition includes Sacco’s notes, sketches, photo references and much more.

IDW PUBLISHING

FALLEN ANGEL #17. Written by Peter David. Illustrated by Joey Corroney & Billy Tucci. This series is consistently intelligent and exciting, without resorting to the usual pin-up girl method of story-telling that usually occurs when a title has a strong female lead. This issue is the first of a two-part story featuring Billy Tucci’s SHI, and is sure to be both an excellent story and beautiful to look at.

SPIKE: SHADOW PUPPETS #1. Written by Brian Lynch. Illustrated by Franco Urru. Spike journeys to Japan to fight the new Smile Time! It’s puppet Spike vs. puppet ninjas!

Maybe it’s just me, but this seems like a retroactive excuse for the plush Spike puppet doll that was released a while back. Though it doesn’t matter since there’s a hyphenated word that completely validates this title’s existence: ninja-puppets!

TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE ADAPTAION #1- 4. Written by Kris Oprisko. Illustrated by Alex Milne. Instead of paying for an expensive movie ticket, you can come to Elfsar and watch a two-hour movie split up into four installments that will probably take you about 5 minutes to read. We save you time and money!

THE TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT TPB. Written by Simon Furman. Art by Robby Musso, Nick Roche, M.D. Bright, and Rob Ruffolo. Five one-shots from the Spotlight series are collected into this five-shot. One more and we’d have a Sixshot, the focus of one of the stories. The other characters that get the Spotlight treatment are Hot Rod, Shockwave, Nightbeat, and Ultra Magnus. How did Nightbeat get a one-shot before Optimus?

NEW ENGLAND COMICS

TICK COMIC CON EXTRAVAGANZA #1. By Sean Wang. The Tick attends the Super-Duper Comic Con and meets the actor who will be playing him in a Tick TV series. Will this show be cancelled after eight episodes or does the Fox Network not exist in this comic book universe?

TOKYOPOP

KINGDOM HEARTS II VOL 1. by Shiro Amano. If this is anything like the game, then the first eight volumes will be set in Twilight Town and be SO BORING and the last book will be really fast and full of smacking things with a keyblade.

TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE: REDUX GN. By David Yurkovich. Agent Sweete, a hero comprised of organic chocolate and a member of the FBI’s Food Crimes Division solves bizarre, food inspired crime.

UDON

STREET FIGHTER II MANGA VOL 1 GN. By Masaomi Kanzaki. Now available for the first time, completely uncut and unedited.

VILLARD BOOKS

POSTCARDS: TRUE STORIES THAT NEVER HAPPENED GN. An anthology of stories based inspired by vintage, forgotten postcards. Featuring stories by Tom Beland, Phil Hester, Stuart Moore, Michael Gaydos, Neil Kleid, Robert Tinnell, Rick Spears, Rob G, Harvey Pekar, and more!

VIRGIN COMICS

SEVEN BROTHERS VOL 1 TP. Created by John Woo. Written by Garth Ennis. Illustrated by Jeevan Kang. Cover by Yoshitaka Amano. Six hundred years ago, Chinese fleets set out to reach every continent on the globe. These voyages of discovery were in fact a plot by a powerful Chinese sorcerer to dominate the world. Now, in modern day Los Angeles, the prophecies must be fulfilled, and only seven men with nothing in common must face the son of Hell to save the world.

DARK HORSE COMICS HIGHLIGHTS

PREDATOR OMNIBUS VOLUME 1. By Mark Verheiden, Dan Barry, Chris Warner, Ron Randall, and others. Three graphic novels and several other stories are collected into this 440 page tome o’ Predator. This is a great place to jump in if you ever wanted to start reading the comic universe of the Predators. Check out the adventures of the franchise that made Danny Glover a star.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #4. Written by Joss Whedon. Illustrated by Georges Jeanty, Andy Owens, Dave Stewart, and Jo Chen. Buffy’s eighth season continues in comic book form as Joss Whedon wraps up his first arc! Be sure to preorder if you really want a copy since they’ve been selling out fast.

If you watched the show, you’ll absolutely love this. If you weren’t someone who watched the show, it won’t matter, and you’ll also love this series. It’s one of the hottest comics there is right now, AND it’s really good. What a combo!

FEAR AGENT: THE LAST GOODBYE #1. Written by Rick Remender. Illustrated by Tony Moore. Can there be such a thing as Grindhouse comics? If so, I think FEAR AGENT is one of them. Witness the origin of the last Fear Agent: Heath Huston is a trucker who comes back from long months on the road to find that his home town (and the rest of the Earth) is being attacked by THREE feuding alien races.

JUMP ON HERE! CONAN #41. Written by Timothy Truman. Illustrated by Cary Nord. Rogues in the House part 1. Conan’s only friend is on the gallows. Conan’s girlfriend is getting it on with some other dude. Is Conan going to go into counselling? Or is he gonna get drunk and smash stuff?

THE ART OF MATT WAGNER’S GRENDEL HC. By Matt Wagner. You know, before he was reduced to penciling meaningless Batman books, Wagner used to draw a kickass book called Grendel.

DRAWING DOWN THE MOON: THE ART OF CHARLES VESS HC. By Charles Vess. This is a good book to get for any Neil Gaiman fan, as Gaiman & Vess’s STARDUST is set to hit theatres this summer.

SCREW HEAVEN, WHEN I DIE I’M GOING TO MARS. Written and illustrated by Shannon Wheeler. I’m not waiting until I die. I’m going to Mars after I win the lottery.

FUTURA: THE ART OF R. BLACK HC. By R. Black. An art book featuring graphic design & album covers created for Elvis Costello, GWAR, Ministry, and more.

STAR WARS DARK TIMES VOL 1: THE PATH TO NOWHERE TP. Written by Welles Hartley. Illustrated by Mick Harrison and Doug Wheatley. Jedi Dass Jennir and his pal Bomo Greenbark survived the Clone Wars, but Bomo’s wife and child are missing. The two set out to find them, only to be thrown into more danger, thanks to Darth Vader’s newly formed Empire.

DC COMICS HIGHLIGHTS

AMAZONS ATTACK

AMAZONS ATTACK #3. Written by Will Pfeifer. Illustrated by Pete Woods. Supergirl and Wonder Girl take matters into their own hands!

TEEN TITANS #48. Written by Adam Beechen. Illustrated by Al Barrionuevo. Cover by Tony Daniel. Supergirl and Wonder Girl may no longer be BFF with the Titans! Blondes truly do stick together. No, not in that way you perverts.

Shessh!

WONDER WOMAN #10. Written by Jodi Picoult. Illustrated by Paco Diaz. Cover by Terry Dodson. To save Paradise Island, can Wonder Woman kill again? I'm betting she can in only half the time.

COUNTDOWN

COUNTDOWN #47. Written by Paul Dini & Sean McKeever. Illustrated by Keith Giffen & Al Barrionuevo.

COUNTDOWN #46. Written by Paul Dini, Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray. Illustrated by Keith Giffen & Jesus Saiz.

COUNTDOWN #45. Written by Paul Dini & Tony Bedard. Illustrated by Keith Giffen & Jim Calafiore.

COUNTDOWN #44. Written by Paul Dini & Adam Beechen. Illustrated by Keith Giffen & Carlos Magno.

BLUE BEETLE #16. Written by John Rogers. Illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque. Cover by Cully Hamner. Blue Beetle vs. Eclipso!

CATWOMAN #68. Written by Will Pfeifer. Illustrated by David Lopez. Cover by Adam Hughes. Violence hits Catwoman at home!

DC UNIVERSE

JUMP ON HERE! DETECTIVE COMICS #833. Written by Paul Dini. Illustrated by Don Kramer. Cover by Simone Bianchi. When Zatanna’s former assistant is killed by a trick gone wrong, she turns to Batman for help. They must confront the illusionist Ivar Loxias and a terrifying revelation…

BATMAN: BATMAN AND SON HC. Written by Grant Morrison. Illustrated by Andy Kubert. Batman did a nasty thing with Talia al Ghul and nine months later…

...Uh Oh!

JUMP ON HERE! NIGHTWING #133. Written by Marv Wolfman. Illustrated by Jamal Igle. Cover by Ryan Sook. Before the New Teen Titans formed and after Dick Grayson dropped out of college, he made a fateful decision that changed his life. Find out what that was here. I think it was to become the pimp ladykiller of the DC Universe. You just know that he keeps score.

BATMAN: HARLEY & IVY TP. Written by Paul Dini & Judd Winick. Illustrated by Bruce Timm & Joe Chiodo. Two of the masterminds behind the Batman Animated Series join forces to bring you two cuties wreaking havoc in Gotham City.

THE SPIRIT #7. Written by Kyle Baker, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Walter Simonson. Illustrated by Kyle Baker, Jordi Bernet, Chris Sprouse, and Karl Story. This issues provides three short stories that perfectly illustrate just how great this new series featuring this classic character is. It is well deserving of your attention.

JUMP ON HERE! SUPERMAN BATMAN #37. Written by Alan Burnett. Illustrated by Dustin Nguyen. Variant Cover by Claudio Castellini. Hey look! A decent artist on Superman Batman! This might be worth buying again.

JUMP ON HERE! THE ALL-NEW ATOM #12. Written by Gail Simone. Illustrated by Mike Norton. Cover by Ladronn. New Atom Ryan Choi seeks out old Atom Ray Palmer!

More people should be reading this title; it’s an awesome book with a great writer. This is a chance for people to get on board as this issue should make for a great jumping on point. The search for Ray Palmer begins here! Find out what happened to the poor guy. Last we saw was him shrinking into nothingness after the whole Identity Crisis mess.

GREEN LANTERN: SINESTRO CORPS SPECIAL #1. Written by Geoff Johns. Illustrated by Ethan Van Sciver and Dave Gibbons. Sinestro is a skinny loser who hates the Green Lanterns of Earth. So he started his own club to bring terror to the universe. What a loser.

Would you fear a man with pink skin, a big forehead, and a weedy moustache? You should. Sinestro’s back and he’s in charge of his own corps chosen for their ability to cause great fear. It’s too bad that Batman rejected an offer to join them.

At long last, the Green Lanterns have some worthy adversaries with the creation of the Sinestro Corps, and this special promises to deliver big time on all the things that have been building over the past year in for the Green Lantern Corps.

52: THE NOVEL TP. By Greg Cox. Who knew that 52 needed a novelization? Hopefully it doesn’t take a year to read. I myself prefer all the pretty pictures in the comic book version. Apparently written by the same fellow who wrote the Infinite Crisis novel.

JUSTICE #12. Written by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross. Art by Doug Braithwaite and Alex Ross. Has it been two years already? This twelve part bimonthly series wraps up here. Who will triumph, the Legion of Doom or the Superfriends? Wait, that doesn’t sound right…

BATMAN #667. Written by Grant Morrison. Art by J.H. Williams III. Batman doesn’t just inspire fear in criminals; he also inspires heroic acts from minor characters of the end of the Golden Age of Comics. But whatever happened to those characters in this dark and gritty Modern Age? Marvel at The Legionary! Be thrilled by The Gaucho! Have tea and crumpets with The Knight and The Squire!

BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #6. Written by Andy Diggle. Art by Whilce Portacia and Richard Friend. Okay, I admit that I don’t know what this issue is about but the cover has Batman surrounded by robots or guys in robosuits or something. You so know that he’s going to kick all their asses and leave them in a sparking pile of roboparts.

ACTION COMICS #851. Written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner. Art and cover by Adam Kubert. It’s the trapped in the Phantom Zone, 3D issue of Superman. Again. Hopefully it actually ships this time. The 3D (glasses included!) and standard editions can be ordered separately.

THE AMAZING TRANSFORMATIONS OF JIMMY OLSEN TP. Created by various. Cover by Brian Bolland. Poor, poor Jimmy. He’s gone through so many useless transformations and powers that superdickery.com (an awesome comics site) even has a drinking game based around it. Maybe the reason ‘Jimmy Olsen Must Die’ is so he’s put out of his misery.

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #4. Written by Mark Waid. Art by George Perez and Bob Wiacek. The girl with the shortest skirt in comics teams up with one of the crudest and rowdiest guys in mainstream comics. What’s not to like?

GREEN ARROW #75. Written by Judd Winick. Art by Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens. JUMP OFF HERE! Well, not really but it is the last issue of the series. Green Arrow proposes to Black Canary. Is he ready for the married life or is he just infected by some sort of Bizarro virus?

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #10. Written by Brad Meltzer. Art by Ed Benes and Sandra Hope. Every time I try to think of something to say about this issue I end up being distracted by that cover… The Lightning Saga crossover with the JSA concludes here.

The final chapter of the JLA / JSA crossover will deliver some great super hero crossover goodness, but something tells me this issue is going to be remembered just as much for the “has to be seen, to be believed” Michael Turner cover.

MARTIAN MANHUNTER: THE OTHERS AMONG US TP. Written by A.J. Lieberman. Illustrated by Al Barrionuevo. The Martian Manhunter finds out that he may not be the last of his race after all. So he gets all gussied up in a new costume to look nice for his long lost alien pals.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: BATGIRL VOL 1 TP. Written by John Broome and others. Illustrated by Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, and others. Batgirl bursts onto the Gotham City crimefighting scene! Robin falls in love! Batman gets jealous!

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: MARTIAN MANHUNTER VOL 1 TP. Written by Jack Miller and others. Illustrated by Joe Certa and others. The Martian Manhunter never gets any respect, but he’s so awesome!

CMX

GON VOL 1 GN. Written and illustrated by Masashi Tanaka. Gon is a little dinosaur who wanders from land to land, defending helpless little woodland creatures. It’s told without words and features hyper-detailed art. It’s like a mix between Garfield & Godzilla. GON IS SO AWESOME.

SAMURAI COMMAND: MISSION 1549 VOL 1 GN. Written by Harutoshi Fukui. Illustrated by Ark Performance. A military test accidentally sends a modern-day army back to Feudal Japan. But their actions in the past start having effects on the future, so a second unit is sent back to stop the first one. But the commander of the first unit has a plan: he’s going to use his technology to conquer Japan and alter its destiny…

WILDSTORM

THE HIGHWAYMEN #1 of 5. Written by Marc Bernardin & Adam Freeman. Illustarted by Lee Garbett. Cover by Brian Stelfreeze. Back in the day, Able and Alistair were “The Highwaymen”, lethal couriers who could get any job done. But they are called out of retirement to deliver cargo for a dead President. Can they learn to trust each other again and figure out why everyone is trying to kill them for their cargo?

JUMP ON HERE! MIDNIGHTER #8. Written by Christos Gage. Illustrated by John Paul Leon. Cover by Chris Sprouse. The Midnighter is challenged by Jack Hawksmoor to show a little more humanity. Amused by the dare, Midnighter gives it a try. Of course, he’ll probably still have to kill a lot of people…

GEN 13: BEST OF A BAD LOT TP. Written by Gail Simone. Illustrated by Talent Caldwell & Sunny Lee. Caitlin Fairchild, Sarah Rainmaker, Roxy Spauling, Bobby Lane, and Percival Edmund Chang are five kids who are kidnapped and assaulted by the government and given strange powers. Now these five strangers must join forces to escape the clutches of International Operations and find their place in the world.

STORMWATCH PHD VOL 1 TP. Written by Christos Gage. Illustrated by Doug Mahnke & Matthew Dow Smith. Former StormWatch commander Jackson King must develop new methods of supervillain apprehension and containment on a shoestring budget. Forced to recruit lame heroes and former villains, does his new team stand a chance? Great writing by Gage and KILLER art by Doug Mahnke. Highly recommended.

JUMP ON HERE! STORMWATCH PHD #8. Written by Christos Gage. Illustrated by Andy Smith. Cover by Mike McKone. Pick up the first volume in TPB and then jump on here for StormWatch’s second arc! The loser squad of PHD meet their sister unit, the elite superstar force of StormWatch Prime! Will they get along?

JUMP ON HERE! WETWORKS #10. Written by J.M. DeMatteis. Illustrated by Joel Gomez. Cover by Whilce Portacio. Can a cyborg die? When Mother-One falls victim to a mysterious virus, the strange monster Ab-Death holds the key to her cure, but he must take a journey into the mysterious Deadworld to find the answers.

MINX

CLUBBING GN. Written by Andi Watson. Illustrated by Josh Howard. Lottie got caught using a fake ID at a trendy London nightclub and as punishment must spend the summer in the boring English countryside with Grandma, where she will narrowly escape romance, solve a murder mystery on the 19^th hole of her grandparent’s golf course.

VERTIGO

JUMP ON HERE! JACK OF FABLES #12. Written by Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges. Illustrated by Tony Akins. What happens when you become the most well-known Fable in America? You get to participate on DANCING WITH THE STARS, I guess…

HELLBLAZER: THE RED RIGHT HAND TP. Written by Denise Mina. Illustrated by Leonardo Manco. Cover by Lee Bermejo. Steve Evans’s just unleashed a horror down on Glasgow, and its residents are tearing each other apart. Steve Evans needs the help of none other than John Constantine. Oops! Steve Evans just burned Constantine alive…

JUMP ON HERE! SCALPED #6. Written by Jason Aaron. Illustrated by R.M. Guera. Cover by Jock. “Casino Boogie” part 1 of 6: With grand opening of the Crazy Horse Casino in full swing, we take a look at Dash Bad Horse’s troubled origin, including how he came back to the Rez to work for Chief Red Crow.

JUMP ON HERE! TESTAMENT #19. Written by Douglas Rushkoff. Illustrated by Liam Sharp. “Mitzrayim” part 1: The modern-day Moses is coming, but it isn’t who temple leader Jake expects…

IMAGE COMICS HIGHLIGHTS

THE ARMORY WARS #1 of 5 Written by Claudio Sanchez. Illustrated by Gus Vazquez. Cover by Tony Moore. Apparently this comic is from the creative minds that brought us “music sensation Coheed and Cambria!” I have no idea who they are. But then, I am an old man, and think that nothing that follows bluegrass qualifies as music.

REPO #1 of 5. Written by Rick Spears. Illustrated by Rob G. The creative team that gave us the unbelievably awesome TEENAGERS FROM MARS bring us a book that is part Lethal Weapon, part Akira, and ALL AWESOME.

THE RIDE: DIE, VALKYRIE #1 of 3. Written by Doug Wagner. Illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze. Cover by Jason Pearson. Hot chicks, a stolen Camaro and lots of guns. Drawn by Brian Stelfreeze, renowned for blowing deadlines. Think all three issues of this will ship on time?

PAUL JENKINS’ SIDEKICK: SUPER SUMMER SIDEKICK SPECTACULAR #1 of 2. Written by Paul Jenkins. Illustrated by Chris Moreno. It’s summer vacation, and while other kids are going out and having fun, Eddie Edison, aka Superior Boy, is once again continuing his quest to be voted into the Council of American Super Heroes (or C.A.S.H. for short).

SAM NOIR VOL 1 TP. Eric A. Anderson & Manny Trembley. Illustrated by Manny Trembley. Collects “Samurai Detective” and “Ronin Holiday” into one stab-happy volume.

PAUL JENKINS’ SIDEKICK VOL 1 TP. Written by Paul Jenkins. Illustrated by Chris Moreno. Eddie Edison lives the American dream. He delivers pizza to pay the bills and goes out at night as Superior Boy, sidekick to the most powerful superhero on Earth. Except he gets no respect. Or busty super-women.

TRUE STORY, SWEAR TO GOD VOL 1 TP. Written and illustrated by Tom Beland. The true-life stories of a freelance artist living in California.

TOP COW

FIRST BORN FIRST LOOK. Written by Ron Marz. Illustrated by Stjepan Sejic. Witchblade is having a baby! It’s the closest thing to sex that some Top Cow fans will ever experience. Except for, you know, all the other T&A books that Top Cow releases each and every month.

TOP COW/MARVEL: UNHOLY UNION. Written by Ron Marz. Illustrated by Michael Broussard. Cover by Marc Silvestri. Witchblade vs. Ghost Rider vs. The Darkness vs. The Incredible Hulk! This also has something to do with “First Born”. Maybe the Hulk is Witchblade’s baby’s daddy?

PLATINUM STUDIOS

THE WEAPON #1 of 4. Written by Fred van Lente. Illustrated by Scott Koblish. Tommy Zhou invented wristbands that create weapons from solid holograms. Except that an evil order of assassins believes that Zhou has stumbled upon a lost martial art, and they’re sending waves of killers after him.

INVINCIBLE #44. Story by Robert Kirkman. Art and cover by Ryan Ottley and Bill Crabtree. The Viltrumites are sending an agent to Earth to make sure that Mark is properly preparing the planet for takeover. Judging by the amount of blood on the cover, they don’t meet on friendly terms.

MARVEL COMICS HIGHLIGHTS

WORLD WAR HULK: HULK WILL EAT YOU

PLANET HULK HC. Written by Greg Pak. Illustrated by Carlo Pagulayan, Aaron Lopresti, Juan Santacruz, Gary Frank, and Takeshi Miyazawa. Cover by Marc Silvestri. Before you guys get all speculator-y and insane over World War Hulk, you might want to pick up this bad boy, which collects the Planet Hulk saga in its entirety.

WORLD WAR HULK #1 of 5. Written by Greg Pak. Illustrated by John Romita. Cover by David Finch. The Incredible Hulk is back on Earth for revenge against the Illuminati. His first target: Black Bolt and the Inhumans. Hulk is going to stir fry the Inhumans and then drizzle them with Black Bolt Bean sauce.

WORLD WAR HULK: FRONT LINE #1 of 6. Written by Paul Jenkins. Illustrated by Ramon Bachs. Cover by John Watson. Ben Urich and Sally Floyd chronicled Civil War, and now there’s a new cash-grabbing sales event, I mean – epic drama and genuine story, for them to get involved in. Watch them interview gladiators from outer space for the Daily Bugle. Or something? The Hulk won’t eat the reporters, but use them as toothpicks after eating delicious superhumans.

WORLD WAR HULK: X-MEN #1 of 3. Written by Christos Gage. Illustrated by Andrea Di Vito. Cover by Ed McGuinness. The Incredible Hulk is going to try and pop Professor Xavier’s head like a zit. Only the X-Men stand in his way. Mutants are like candy. Some are crunchy, some are chewy, but all of them are delicious. And I’m betting you that if there’s a Wolverine vs. Hulk fight during WWH, it’s going to be here…

INCREDIBLE HULK #107. Written by Greg Pak. Illustrated by Gary Frank. The Incredible Hulk vs. Hercules! Hercules is so going to die! He will be ground into fine meat, and his loincloth will be used like a gyro wrapper. Delectable!

GHOST RIDER #12. Written by Daniel Way. Illustrated by Javier Saltares. Cover by Gabriele Dell’Otto. Ghost Rider takes on the Incredible Hulk! Ghost Rider’s like spicy food. He’ll hurt going in and he’ll hurt coming out. But nothing can stop the Hulk!

HEROES FOR HIRE #11. Written by Zeb Wells. Illustrated by Clay Mann. Cover by Clayton Henry. The Hulk isn’t going to fight the Heroes for Hire, because the Hulk doesn’t waste his time with LOSERS. Instead, he’ll feed them to his weird alien critters. The Heroes for Hire are the equivalent of Pet Food.

IRON MAN #19. Written by Christos Gage. Illustrated by Butch Guice. Cover by Gerald Parel. The Hulk is willing to bet that Iron Man’s like one of those liquor chocolates. A hard shell on the outside, sweet boozy syrup on the inside. The Hulk can’t wait.

THE INITIATIVE

AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #3. Written by Dan Slott. Illustrated by Stefano Caselli. Cover by Jim Cheung. War Machine and his assault team go after the number one fugitive in the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man.

BLACK PANTHER #29. Written by Reginald Hudlin. Illustrated by Francis Portela. Cover by Arthur Suydam. In an effort to suck up to Marvel fans everywhere, not only is Black Panther tying into Civil War, it’s tying into Marvel Zombies. Next we’ll find out that he’s a mutant so he can tie into X-Events. Oh wait, that’s what his wife is for…Ah Hah!

CAPTAIN AMERICA #27. Written by Ed Brubaker. Illustrated by Steve Epting. Captain America is still dead! None of you bought #24, and none of you are going to buy #26 or #27, so why do you even pretend that you care?

FANTASTIC FOUR #547. Written by Dwayne McDuffie. Illustrated by Paul Pelletier. Cover by Michael Turner. Look! Pseudo-artist Michael Turner is doing a cover that isn’t a variant! Rejoice! And change your pants.

MS MARVEL #16. Written by Brian Reed. Illustrated by Aaron Lopresti. Cover by Greg Horn. Ms. Marvel vs. Wonder Man! They go together like peanut butter and Jelly... They better watch out because the Hulk is hungry.

NEW AVENGERS #31. Written by Brian Michael Bendis. Illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu. Anyone notice that Elektra’s getting a lot of crotch shots lately? I think either Bendis or Yu are too preoccupied with Elektra’s ninja-naughty bits.

You know, you would think that Elektra would have learned her lesson all those years ago and wear some sort of armour in front of her stomach. At least she’s not being stabbed with her own weapon this time. Oh yeah, it’s also a Civil War: Initiative crossover or something.

MIGHTY AVENGERS #4. Written by Brian Michael Bendis. Illustrated by Frank Cho. The Mighty Avengers vs. Ultron!

THUNDERBOLTS #115. Written by Warren Ellis. Illustrated by Mike Deodato. Cover by Marko Djurdjevic. Variant Cover by Simone Bianchi. Norman Osborn is pretty damn crazy. They should’ve renamed this comic “The Osborns” and then Venom could’ve had a spinoff where he is forced to get back into shape, and Moonstone could’ve tried to cover a Madonna song only to be told she has no other talent that being kind of chubby.

NEW WARRIORS #1. Written by Kevin Grevioux. Illustrated by Paco Mednia. Cover by Nic Klein. Wow. As if people couldn’t have cared less before. New New Warriors? Please.

NOVA #3. Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning. Illustrated by Sean Chen. Cover by Adi Granov. Nova returns from space to fight his emo-friend Speedball! I mean, the spiky menace of doom called Penance! Speedball totally listens to Linkin Park now.

OMEGA FLIGHT #3. Written by Michael Oeming. Illustrated by Scott Kolins. The new Guardian is introduced!

The new Guardian cries because he’s not a real Canadian. You’d never see Wolverine get all pouty and weepy like this.

PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #8. Written by Matt Fraction. Illustrated by Ariel Olivetti. White supremacist-Captain America wannabe vs. Punisher-Captain America wannabe!

Punaptain Amerisher brings a gun to a knife fight with the Hate-Monger. They also seem to have a similar fashion sense.

SUB-MARINER #1 of 6. Written by Matt Cherniss & Peter Johnson. Illustrated by Phil Briones. Cover by Michael Turner. It seems like anyone who got five seconds of face-time in Civil War suddenly gets their own book. The Sub-Mariner returns in a new limited series that has Atlantis being blamed for attacking the surface world. All that, and tiny wings on his feet!

EVERYTHING ELSE

X-MEN: ENDANGERED SPECIES ONE-SHOT. Written by Mike Carey. Illustrated by Scot Eaton. Cover by Marc Silvestri. The Astonishing X-Men, X-Factor, and the New X-Men suddenly realize that mutants are now an endangered species. I think they’re going to start having sex with as many people as possible to jump those mutant birth numbers a little. This one shot serves as a prequel to the next crossover, which is being told as back up stories in the regular issues. Those backup crossovers are a prequel to a real crossover, set for the fall.

JUMP ON HERE! X-MEN #200. Written by Mike Carey. Illustrated by Humberto Ramos & Chris Bachalo. Variant Cover by David Finch. Blinded by the Light 1 of 4. The X-Men bicker amongst themselves and fight other mutants! It’s the same story over and over. The first Endangered Species backup story is featured in this issue as well

ULTIMATE X-MEN #83. Written by Robert Kirkman. Penciled by Pascal Alixe. Cover by Yanick Paquette. This is like that scene in X2 kicked the butts of all those secret service agents in the White House. Only this time he’s going after the X-Men. Something tells me that they won’t be going down quite as easily.

JUMP ON HERE! UNCANNY X-MEN #487. Written by Ed Brubaker. Illustrated by Salvador Larocca. The Extremists 1 of 5. The X-Men return from space and proceed right into the sewers to investigate attacks in the Morlock tunnels.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS VOL 2 #1. Written by Jeff Parker. Illustrated by Roger Cruz. Cover by Eric Nguyen. The early days of Mutant Fun are back in an all new ongoing series. Guest-starring the Invisible Girl!

DAREDEVIL: BATTLIN’ JACK MURDOCK #1 of 4. Written by Zeb Wells. Illustrated by Carmine Di Giandomenico. It’s a story about Daredevil’s pappy! He was a boxer, don’t ya know. Luckily, the brain damage suffered by getting punched in the face a lot didn’t transfer down to his son.

JUMP ON HERE! CABLE DEADPOOL #41 & 42. Written by Fabian Nicieza. Illustrated by Reilly Brown. Cover by Skott Young. Fractured 1 & 2 of 3: Cable just got the crap kicked out of him by something-or-other, and Deadpool drops in to cheer him up. Or stab him.

MYSTIC ARCANA: MAGIK. Written by Louise Simonson & David Sexton. Illustrated by Steve Scott. Cover by Marko Djurdjevic. It’s like ANNIHILATION, only for magic-type heroes. They’re all trying to keep this crazy Egyptian priest from coming back to life. In this issue, they’re looking for the Sword of Bone.

JUMP ON HERE! IMMORTAL IRON FIST #7. Written by Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction. Illustrated by Travel Foreman. Iron Fist is cool. Who saw that coming? And you know how they made him cool? They turned him into Buffy the Iron Fist: Into every generation, a Fist is born. In this issue, meet Wu Ao-Shi, a pirate queen who was the first female Iron Fist.

This stand alone issue highlights one of the previous Iron Fists: an ass-kicking, martial arts, pirate queen from the past. Do you really need anything more in a comic?

AVENGERS CLASSIC #1. Written by Stan Lee & Dwayne McDuffie. Illustrated by Jack Kirby, Mike Oeming, and Kevin Maguire. Cover by Arthur Adams. Reprints classic Avengers stories from the sixties, because apparently all we want to do is relive some crusty glory days that we can’t bring ourselves to admit are over and move on with our lives and tastes in pop culture. Suit yourselves.

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST PROLOGUE. Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning. Illustrated by Mike Perkins. Cover by Aleksi Briclot. Hey there’s a new Quasar! And he’s got lumps in the front! Oh wait, New Quasar is a She-Quasar. When in doubt, and sales are low, add boobs, and start printing fanboy dollars.

MYTHOS: SPIDER-MAN. Written by Paul Jenkins. Illustrated by Paolo Rivera. Just in time to cash in for the Spider-Man 3 money, here’s a Spider-Man one shot for no reason!

JUMP ON HERE! SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #38. Written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Illustrated by Lee Weeks. Cover by Clayton Crain. Eddie Brock is no longer Venom. He lost the symbiote and with it, any chance of really getting even with Peter Parker. Except he happens to be at the same hospital where Aunt May is being cared for. He doesn’t need an alien symbiote to hold a pillow over that old bag’s face!

This issue contains even more blatant cross promotion for the Spider-Man 3 movie, with an appearance by Eddie Brock, the original Venom.

SILENT WAR #6 (OF 6). Written by David Hine. Penciled by Frazer Irving. Cover by John Watson. Blackbolt better destroy those S.H.I.E.L.D. spaceships quickly if he wants to meet up with the Hulk in time for his smackdown in the World War Hulk title.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #110. Written by Brian Michael Bendis. Illustrated by Mark Bagley. This title has consistently been pure joy for Spider-Man fans. This is artist Mark Bagley’s final issue on the title, and wraps up the current “Ultimate Knights” story line.

DABEL BROTHERS

ANITA BLAKE, VAMPIRE HUNTER: GUILTY PLEASURES VOL 1 HC. Written by Laurell K. Hamilton. Adapted by Stacie Ritchie & Jess Ruffner-Booth. Illustrated by Brett Booth. Which are sexier: Vampires or Elves? This book thinks vampires, but fat people in hooded cloaks keep walking into the store and telling me that elves are sexier. I can’t decide.

HEDGE KNIGHT II: SWORN SWORD #1 of 6. Written by George R.R. Martin. Adapted by Ben Avery. Illustrate by Mike S. Miller. Variant Cover by Leinil Yu. Hooray! The next chapter in Martin’s Hedge Knight series. I will again take this time to recommend the fantasy series “A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE” for your enjoyment. Yes, there are no “pictures”, but it’s an amazing fantasy series.

MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVELS

KILLRAVEN PREMIER HC. Written and illustrated by Alan Davis. Don’t know and don’t care, but it’s one of these old 70s things that people cling to like a security blanket. So here you go, ageing fanmen!

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS HC. Written by Jeff Parker. Illustrated by Roger Cruz. Cover by Marko Djurdjevic. Go back and relive the early days of everyone’s favorite mutant teens. You know what would’ve been awesome? A series that chronicled the missing years when the X-Men comics were all reprints. They could’ve called it the Hidden Years or something.

IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN VOL 1 DIGEST. Written by Robert Kirkman. Illustrated by Phil Hester. Some jerk got the Ant-Man suit and is using it to make himself rich and spy on girls in the shower, which, let’s be honest, is what we’d all be doing if we had the chance.

CIVIL WAR: IRON MAN TP. Written by Brian Michael Bendis, Daniel & Charlie Knauf, and Christos Gage. Illustrated by Alex Maleev, Mike Perkins, Patrick Zircher, and Jeremy Haun. Cover by Adi Granov. Collects Iron Man #13-14, Casualties of War, and the Confession. Iron Man pisses off everyone, takes over the superhuman world, and then cries a lot.

CIVIL WAR: MARVEL UNIVERSE TP. Written and illustrated by lots of talented people. This book answers the really important questions of Civil War: Which side is Howard the Duck on? Is it a good idea to use psychopathic killers as government agents? Is She-Hulk still a good lawyer if she’s on the side that violates the rights of every American super-hero? Collects: Choosing Sides, The Return, She-Hulk #8, and the Initiative.

BULLET POINTS TP. Written by J. Michael Straczynski. Illustrated by Tommy Lee Edwards. It’s like a What If story meets a Year One story. Or like Kingdom Come in reverse: It’s Marvel, set in the past, and drawn by a guy that isn’t a whiny, hypocritical douchebag (that’d be Alex Ross).

TOYS & MISC. HIGHLIGHTS

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: MODERN MINIMATES SERIES 2 TWO-PACK. Love the TV show but can’t stand the major cliffhangers at the end of each season? Pick up some Minimates to act out your own conclusion. The two-packs this wave include Admiral Adama/Col. Tigh, Boomer/Cylon Centurion, and Baltar/Caprica Six. The variant is the Gina version of Six. Here I was hoping for Adama with moustache.

CLASSIC MARVEL FIGURINE COLLECTOR MAGAZINES. The latest wave of hand-painted metal figurines (and their accompanying magazines) is available for preorder. The latest characters to get this treatment are Elektra, The Human Torch, Emma Frost, and Vision. Also, be sure no to miss limited edition Thanos figure.

DC HEROCLIX: LEGION OF SUPER HEROES STARTER SET & MARVEL HEROCLIX: AVENGERS BOOSTER PACK. If you’ve ever thought about getting into Heroclix then these sets are a great way to jump aboard. The game is going through a bit of a change for its fifth anniversary. The Legion starter will have all the latest rules and the Avengers expansion will be the first set to fully use them. Now an important message for existing players. The booster packaging has gone through a bit of a change so be careful with your ordering. Boosters now contain 5 figures instead of 4 (and there’s a proportional increase in price). A brick is now made up of 10 boosters, not 12. A case is comprised of 2 bricks. Plus there are only 60 pieces to collect in a set instead of 96. What does this mean for you? A brick will contain roughly the same number of figures for roughly the same price, but don’t expect that ordering a case will get you 4 bricks.

STAR WARS POCKETMODEL TCG. How in the name of Jabba the Hutt did Wizkids manage to share the Star Wars license with Wizards of the Coast?! Maybe George Lucas got their names confused. This game is like the Pirates game in that you assemble your starships and have them duke it out, only this one has a collectible card component as well. Can be bought in Power-Up Pack (starter set) or Booster pack form.

AQUAMAN #54 POSTER Illustrated by Terry & Rachel Dodson. Aquaman is looking pretty cool on this poster, but what makes this image really stand out are the numerous mermaids that surround him, as only the Dodsons can illustrate.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: SHIELD T-SHIRT Cap’s classic shield symbol on a navy blue background. All you need to add is the black arm band and you’ll be able to mourn the fallen son appropriately.

WOMEN OF THE DC UNIVERSE: BLACK CANARY BUST This continues the line of busts (no pun intended) of some of DC Comics’ greatest heroines, as designed by Adam Hughes.

KOTOBUKIYA LUKE SKYWALKER VS DARTH VADER: RALPH MCQUARRIE VERSION VINYL MODEL KIT – 30TH ANNIVERSARY LIMITED EDITION. Thirty years have passed since A New Hope premiered in theaters and George Lucas has made toys and statues of just about every character. It’s time to base some on the original concept art. This dynamic fight scene is based upon some of Ralph McQuarrie’s original designs of Luke and Darth Vader. This Vader doesn’t need a chest plate full of buttons to be evil, though Luke comes with a Stormtrooper-esque breathing mask and backpack.

SUPERMAN: LAST SON ACTION FIGURES. Kneel before ZOD! These figures are taken from the current Richard Donner and Geoff Johns story arc in Action Comics. Featuring the modern designs of Zod, Ursa, and Bizarro. Plus some guy named Superman.

SPAWN 2.5-INCH KUBRICKS. Who’s a cute little Hellspawn? Yes you are, a-cootchy-cootchy-koo. Spawn and his buddies get the adorable treatment in this brand new line of Kubrick figures.

SPAWN 2.7” BEARBRICK COLLECTION. The only thing cuter than a Kurbrick Spawn is a Bearbrick Spawn. Beware his necro-teddy bear power.

Please note:
All mages of upcoming products may be prototypes and are subject to change before shipment.

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