ERIC'S "RABID CHILDREN ON THE LOOSE!" NEWSLETTER

VOL. 6 #7 - July 2004

INTRODUCTION
------------------------

Man, the summertime's here. The weather's nice. Everything seems so beautiful as the kids are out of school and running around like rabid dogs foaming at the mouth and biting at each other's ankles. Wow. That last one's as good a reason as any to stay inside and read comic books! There are a lot of new offerings this month, but as you'll see when you read on, some of them are photocopies of comics being released by other marques -- THIS VERY MONTH. I'm trying very hard to keep my incessant cynicism in check, but I'm not sure if I can do it with the never-ending pile of derivative dribble that seems to crap out of the anuses of ... okay. I calm down. On with the newsletter.

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
---------------------------------------------

Marvel has a new imprint starting this month called Icon. And, in an unbelievably deft move, Marvel was able to steal both Kabuki and Powers right out from under Image's nose. So, they're both getting a reboot this month. I've heard a lot about Kabuki from its diehard fans but I never got into that title too much. Powers, on the other hand, is a spectacular romp through a superhero wasteland that can only be described as "freakin' spectacular." If you haven't read this title before, then now's the time to start. If you are a regular reader -- pay close attention because this one's coming out from Marvel's imprint this month, not Image's.
MAY041705 Powers #1 $2.95 retail.
MAY041706 Powers #2 $2.95 retail.

THE BIZ
------------

GREEN LANTERN GOES BACK TO GREEN! The current Green Lantern series is going to end with issue #181 in September and then Hal Jordan will be resurrected in a five-issue mini-series called Green Lantern: Rebirth starting in October. He's done being the Spectre now, and it's all coming back.

MARVEL REVAMPING -- AGAIN Marvel's going to revamp Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor this summer as well as bringing the New Avengers together in November. There are rumors that Neil Gaiman is going to drop in on Thor and that Warren Ellis is going to take on Iron Man writing duties.

ROUTE 666 GETS 86ED! CrossGen's horror series is scheduled to end in July and, like everyone else, get revamped in August. Go figure.

HUMANKIND ALL HOT AND BOTHERED! Tony Daniel, comic-babe-drawing-artist, is releasing an all new comic book with, you guessed it, another comic book babe in it. Named Humankind, the new comic is scheduled for release this upcoming August which means you should hear more about this next month.

TOP-10 and TOP-100
---------------------------------

Check out Comics NOW! Inc.'s Top-100 on IRX Productions. Download the June 2004 Top-100 PDF file (it's 8KB!) at:

http://www.irxproductions.com/comics/jun04top100.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. (-) Wolverine The End

2. (1) Superman

3. (4) Ultimate Fantastic Four

4. (-) Identity Crisis

5. (5) Superman Batman

6. (3) Astonishing X-Men

7. (6) Spider-Man

8. (8) Amazing Spider-Man

9. (-) Supreme Power

10. (7) Ultimate Spider-Man

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS

1. (1) Transformers G1 Vol 3

2. (-) Transformers Micromasters

3. (3) Transformers Energon

4. (7) Sojourn

5. (6) GI Joe Reloaded

6. (8) GI Joe

7. (-) 30 Days of Night

8. (-) Fathom Dawn of War

9. (-) Negation War

10. (-) Voltron Vol 2

THE GOOD STUFF
----------------------------

DARK HORSE

COMICS FIERCE #1 of 4

Here we go with another psychic profiler working for the FBI story. This time, it's a guy and he's black. And from here on out it's all cliche - the FBI wants him in jail, his special forces group, Razor, is all dead and he channels their spirits to help him fight a Jamaican crime syndicate. Yay.
By Jeremy Love, Robert Love, and Jeff Wasson.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

MILKMAN MURDERS #1 of 4

A different spin of the John Wayne Gacy murders takes center stage with this story. Dark Horse moves everything into the suburbs for a somewhat disturbing tale about serial killing and the American Dream destroyed.
By Joe Casey and Steve Parkhouse.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

BMW FILMS' THE HIRE #1 of 6

Okay, so when BMW released its Z3, it came up with this idea to make short movies based on a guy who would get hired to drive for the crime syndicate (e.g. The Transporter). Now, BMW has decided to go for the vertically-integrated approach by teaming up with Dark Horse Comics to make a comic book with the same concept. Full of BMWs and driving action, this is The Hire. Will it be good? Well... the concept has cars and I like cars so... maybe?
By Matt Wagner.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

DC COMICS

CATWOMAN: THE MOVIE AND OTHER CAT TALES TP

So, Catwoman The Movie is coming out starring Halle Berry, the actress who I can't figure out how she became so very popular since she can't really act. Anyway, the movie's based on Catwoman from Batman and there are two different comic book synopses of the movie. The first is just the movie and runs $4.95. The other is a trade paperback and rings in at $9.95 with stories from the Catwoman comic book series.
By Chuck Austen, Tom Derenick, Adam Dekraker, Jim Lee, Doug Moench, Steven Grant, Jim Balent, Bob Smith, Brad Rader, Mark Lipka, and Dan Davis.
Regular - 64 pages. One-shot special. $4.95 retail. TP - 128 pages. One-shot special. $9.95 retail.

BLOODHOUND #1

Travis Clevenger used to be a policeman (surprise) and his nickname was Bloodhound (wow, didn't see that coming). He received a 20-year prison sentence for killing his partner and is now in his third year, but he has a ... wait for it... gift for profiling super-criminals (see DARK HORSE COMICS for another great profiling story called Fierce also coming out this month). A prison riot happens that's all about killing him and he has to try and survive it.
By Dan Jolley, Leonard Kirk, and Robin Riggs.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.95 retail.

DC COMICS PRESENTS: BATMAN #1 MYSTERY IN SPACE #1 GREEN LANTERN #1 HAWKMAN #1

This month, DC Comics is headed back into the vaults to pull out a number of #1's to release for extra cash. Ringing in at $2.50 retail each, these comics retell different parts of each of their respective superheroes' comic book lives.
By various artists and writers.
32 pages. One-shot specials. $2.50 retail each.

DOOM PATROL #1 and 2

It's baaaaaccck. DC Comics was running out of superhero teams and created the one they named "World's Strangest Heroes" by making the team composed of super-powered criminals working for the side of good.. They're all back and they've got a bunch of "edgy" new super-heroes.
By John Byrne and Doug Hazlewood.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.50 retail each.

JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE #1 of 12

This maxi-series follows the "elite" team of the JLA. Now, maybe I'm completely misunderstanding the JLA, but I was pretty sure that they didn't just let ANYONE join the main team so why is there an Elite team? Maybe cause DC Comics wants to cash in on the comic property? Hmmmm.
By Joe Kelly, Doug Mahnke and Tom Nguyen.
32 pages. 12-issue maxi-series. $2.50 retail.

THE BOOKS OF MAGICK: LIFE DURING WARTIME #1

Timothy Hunter is back in this new series that brings Gaiman back to DC comics to plot a series with Si Spencer. 19-year old Tim enters a world ten minutes in the future -- an alternate universe where the worlds of Earth and Faerie overlap. It actually sounds pretty good as Gaiman fills up the universe with takes on psychological horror.
By Neil Gaiman, Si Spencer, and Dean Ormston.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.50 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

BRIT: RED WHITE BLACK & BLUE The Brit's back and I seriously couldn't care less. This character was released sometime within the last couple of years with a one- shot comic much like this one. He's seen no action since and it's obvious since the guy's ancient and is trying to act like James Bond. Apparently, Image saw enough sales of the first issue to give it another shot so here we go again. By Robert Kirkman, Cliff Rathburn, and Tony Moore. 48 pages. One-shot special. $4.95 retail.

NOBLE CAUSES #1

They're back. Liz Donnelly is married to a superhero who is part of a superhero family -- and they're all celebrities. The new series kicks off with a murder where the Noble family's friend Krennick is the prime suspect. Lots of other stuff is going on and that's what makes this comic actually worth reading.
By Jay Faerber, Fran Bueno, and Todd Nauck.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $3.50 retail.

SUPERPATRIOT: WAR ON TERROR #1 of 4

Image tries to cash in on the whole "War In Iraq" thing by bringing back their SuperPatriot character from years back. Johnny Armstrong is a super-soldier (ala Captain America) who fought Nazis in World War II and then in the early 1990s, his career came to an end. He's brought back into the mess now as his nefarious nemesis, Baron Blitzkrieg, returns. Man that's cheesy.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.95 retail.

MARVEL COMICS

AVENGERS #500

Avengers, disassemble!? It all starts with this issue when Bendis finally gets his grubby little hands on Marvel's aging superteam, the Avengers. With the help of David Finch, the two are planning the demise of the superteam with the return of an Avenger who was long thought of as dead. Everything is about the change.
48 pages. Ongoing series. $3.50 retail.

ROGUE #1

Marvel tries this old move every few years; Rogue's such an intriguing character that Marvel can't seem to figure out why no one ever buys comics starring her. She's back again and an X-Men mission takes Rogue back to her childhood home in Mississippi where she has to face ... dramatic chords here ... "the demons in her past and a terrible secret that has haunted her family since her birth!" By Rob Rodi, Dante Bastianoni, and Rodolfo Migliari. 32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

LOKI #1 & 2 of 4

If you like Thor, then this is the mini-series for you. If not, then go somewhere else because this ridiculous mini-series tries to retell Asgardian folklore from the opinionated perspective of Loki, the least favorite son. If you're not so big on the whole Greek- Roman approach of Thor (like myself), then you really won't give two shakes of a Balder's Sif over this story.
By Rob Rodi.
32 pages each. 4-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail each.

KABUKI #1

Icon Comics, the newest imprint of Marvel's, has caused an ultimate coup in the comic industry by grabbing Kabuki and Powers from Image comics. Kabuki basically gets a reboot at this point so that Marvel readers can jump on. A former operative for a Japanese agency is trying to start a new life and here's where it all begins... again.
By David Mack.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

POWERS #1 & 2

Icon Comics, the newest imprint of Marvel's, has caused an ultimate coup in the comic industry by grabbing Kabuki and Powers from Image comics. Powers is about two homicide detectives that do something a little different -- they investigate superpower murders. All powers are declared illegal in this alternate universe and Bendis brings it all together with an amazingly well-written and well-drawn perspective that just brings the audience into the story. It's great and this is a good point to start collecting if you hadn't yet.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.95 retail each.

GIVE ME A TIP?
------------------------

Think this newsletter is worth a dollar? Click here to donate.

Thanks to all for your support!

FINAL NOTES
----------------------

So, as the heat beats down on me in my tiny little apartment because the air conidtioning is failing, it occurs to me that I am no longer making any sort of sense. That's a good thing, though, as we've once again reached the end of the monthly newsletter. Whew. That was a close one. As always, remember, if a kid runs up to you foaming at the mouth and there's no sign of Pop Rocks anywhere in the vicinity, run quickly the other way!

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric Jacobson