ERIC'S "APRIL SHOWERS COMICS UPON US ALL!"

NEWSLETTER VOL. 6 #4 - April 2004

INTRODUCTION
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Woo-hoo! Although last month was a bit of a slump-time for comics, it looks like the industry's turned it all around for April. We've got a whole bunch of new comics coming out from everybody -- a new Spider-Man title, some neat stuff from DC, Strykeforce is back in Image, even Dark Horse is getting into the action with some long-MIA titles like a new Shi mini-series. Talk about kickass!

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
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Once again, I'm going to be accused of bowing down before to the big titles, but I gotta say that Marvel's Marvel Knights' version of Spider-Man is the title that's got my willies in a twist this month. What is shaping up to be one of the hardest looks at what Spidey goes through whenever he fights on the street and how the hatred of a city can exist is presented straight out in the first issue. I'm impressed, and you know how much Marvel needs to do to actually impress me.

FEB041561 Spider-Man #1 $2.99 retail.

THE BIZ
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MARVEL GETS A BIG HEAD THIS SUMMER! Well, maybe not exactly, but finally Marvel is bringing back the big summer stories of years past. It used to be that Marvel would really shake things up (e.g. clones and time travel assassins) and this summer promises to be the same. Although there's not a whole lot of news, there are big hush-hush meetings about a large story that may drastically change the Marvel Universe.

ALL LIT UP IN THE CITY IN BLACK AND WHITE Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon are back this July for a huge- ultra-super-maxi-series called City Lights that's being scheduled for 20 issues. It will take a semi-autobiographical look at Ennis' life growing up in Northern Ireland and definitely something completely different from our usual Preacher fare.

THE FIRE STORMS AGAIN Firestorm is scheduled to come back this May and I couldn't be happier. Firestorm experienced a short but intense popularity in the early 1980s that not only included his comic book series but also a shortlived cartoon series. Dan Jolley and ChrissCross are teaming up to bring Firestorm back and DC has admitted that they're moving the storyline to the front of the stack with a likely May release. Woo-hoo!

TOP-10 and TOP-100
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Check out Comics NOW! Inc.'s Top-100 on IRX Productions. Download the March 2004 Top-100 PDF file (it's 8KB!) at: http://www.irxproductions.com/comics/mar04top100.pdf

It's Comics NOW!'s very own Top-10 and Top-100 lists. This list is based on the internal sales quantities of the titles with Premiere being the big guns who pay the extra bucks to be listed first in the ordering system: Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics, and Marvel Comics. The Independent list is everyone else, all those pea-shooters who no one really pays attention to... or do they?

Here's an example of how to read the format:

1. (3) The Amazing Eric Comic

"1." - the place of the title in the list this month

"(3)" - where the title was LAST month ("-" if it wasn't)

the title - this one should be pretty obvious

TOP 10 PREMIERE COMICS

1. (4) Marvel 1602

2. (2) Ultimate Fantastic Four

3. (7) New X-Men

4. (-) Superman Batman

5. (6) Batman

6. (9) Amazing Spider-Man

7. (10) Ultimate X-Men

8. (5) Ultimate Spider-Man

9. (-) Supreme Power

10. (-) Uncanny X-Men

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS

1. (1) Transformers G1 Vol. 3

2. (2) Transformers War Within Vol. 2

3. (3) Transformers Energon

4. (-) Transformers Armada

5. (4) Sojourn

6. (6) GI Joe

7. (7) GI Joe Reloaded

8. (5) Frank Miller's Robocop

9. (-) Cerebus

10. (-) Voltron Vol. 2

THE GOOD STUFF

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DARK HORSE COMICS

SHI: JU-NEN #1 of 4

Shi's 10 years old. Man, talk about developing early! This hot, little ninja/samurai/painted-face woman has been around since 1994 and in order to celebrate, Billy Tucci is bringing her back for an all- new mini-series where Shi (Ana Ishikawa) returns to Japan to try and stop a war between the sects of Kyoto and Nara Sohei.
Written and drawn completely by Billy Tucci.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

EL ZOMBO #1 of 3

Okay. It's one of those comics that I look at and laugh at the concept but am totally drawn in by the art. A kind of Don Bluth looking thing crossed with the Maximo videogames from the PS2 makes this comic interesting to look at. Unfortunately, the story itself is somewhat cliche -- "the unlikely friendship between a temperamental undead wrestler and an equally difficult 10-year-old girl from East L.A." Um... right.
By Kevin Munroe, Dave Wilkins, and Tony Washington.
32 pages. 3-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

STEVE RUDE'S THE MOTH #1

So, The Moth's back. Never heard of him? Me, either. This is one of those Dark Horse projects that's so underground that almost nobody really knows about it (or what's come before). Don't worry, I'm sure that just by writing this, I'm going to get at least a couple fans to write back and tell me how great the moth is and how Rude is the best artist in the world, but, hey, live and die by comics, right?
By Steve Rude and Gary Martin.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

DC COMICS

BATMAN: HARLEY & IVY #1 of 3

So, it's another mini-series with Harley-Quinn and Poison Ivy. Hold your breath, though, 'cause this time it's done by the same creators of Batman: The Animated Series. Wait. Haven't we seen this several times before?! I'm pretty sure. And why is it that everytime Harley and Ivy get together, it's always more of an exercise in comedy rather than what a homicidal maniac and an expert in chemicals could do to a large population of unsuspecting idiots? Just once, I'd like to see a comic that made these two do something really, really bad instead of being like Pretty Woman meets Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.
By Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, and Shane Glines.
32 pages. 3-issue mini-series. $2.50 retail.

ENGINEHEAD #1 of 8

Six heroes meld together into one machine-based super-hero called Enginehead in this 8-issue maxi-series. It's set in a town named Irontown (but, of course!) where the six people try to figure out what sort of "noble purpose" Enginehead will have. I'd suggest that their first course of business would be to figure out a better name than Enginehead, but who am I to argue in the face of superheroism?
By Joe Kelly and Ted McKeever.
32 pages. 8-issue maxi-series. $2.50 retail.

FRACTION #1

Four big bad-asses from Philly find the parts to a hardened super-powered battlesuit and split the parts between them, each getting a different strength. Of course, the guys who created the suit want it back and there's the rub. Sounds like it might have a little promise, actually.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.50 retail.

BITE CLUB #1 of 6

So, what if the Sopranos were all vampires? Wouldn't that be totally cool? And maybe, we could make the cast of the West Wing all werewolves... or something. Well, Vertigo's bringing us the first one, at least (wait a little while on the second). Bite Club follows a cartel made of vampires. The leader gets murdered and his youngest son, who's a priest and (surprise) doesn't want it, inherits the entire cartel.
By Howard Chaykin and David Tischman with David Hahn.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.95 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

NYC MECH #1

It's New York with robots. Well, at least I'll give Image a little credit for something a little different. In fact, it's really different. There isn't a whole lot else to the plot except that it's a New York populated with robots. It's almost like making a comic book about New York populated with humans. Whatcha gonna do, I guess?
By Miles Gunter, Ivan Brandon and Andy MacDonald.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.95 retail.

DARKNESS/HULK

It was bound to happen... um... maybe... I guess. Darkness and the Hulk meet and get into a fight. Surprise. But, I guess this just continues the theme that I was talking about last month -- why is it always so-and-so AND who's-it-whatsisit instead of VERSUS? Oh, well a question about comics that will remain unanswered until the end of time, I suppose.
32 pages. Oneshot. $2.99 retail.

STRYKEFORCE #1

It's back. Strykeforce, Top Cow's superhero team made up of outlaws-for-hire, has returned to the universe in order to wreak havoc everywhere -- and solve crimes. Strykeforce has been renowned for its character development in the past, and it looks as though Faerber is taking the same approach to this time around the block. Morgan Stryker is a dude who assembles a team of superheroes-for-hire. Here we go again.
By Jay Faerber, Tyler Kirkham, Marlo Alquiza, and Brian Buccellato.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

MARVEL COMICS

SPIDER-MAN #1

The only news coming out of Marvel this month is really, really big news -- the Marvel Knights version of Spider-Man is finally coming out, and, just like every MK title that's come before, it promises to truly shakeup the Spider-Man persona. What can I say but kickass! I have to admit, I love the Marvel Knights approach to things and I'll give credit where credit is due -- go Marvel go!
By Mark Millar and Terry Dodson.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

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FINAL NOTES
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There you have it. A beautifully sculpted thing of... uh... beauty. Another Eric's newsletter closes and it looks like 2004 is turning it around to be one of the biggest years for the comics indutsry. Not only are we seeing a lot of new titles coming out, but with a huge influx of comic movies, things are shaping up for the entire mess as a whole. Yee-haw!

As always, remember, if everyone hates you and nobody loves you then you may as well go eat worms.

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric R. Jacobson

Eric's Newsletter and IRX Productions are copyright © 1999-2004 to Eric R. Jacobson