ERIC'S "IT'S HOTTER THAN MUSTAFAR IN HERE" COMICS NOW! NEWSLETTER
VOL. 7 #8 - August 2005

INTRODUCTION
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First off, let me start this newsletter by giving my extremely in-depth and technical review of Star Wars Episode III: ... blech. Also, Mustafar. Really? A planet named Mustafar? REALLY?!? Okay, now that we've got that out of the way, we can begin talking about forms of media entertainment that have much more realistic art and graphics -- comics!

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
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Yet another easy pick-of-the month. This month's pick is the new Supergirl title from the Batman/Superman series. First off, let me say this - I've never been a big fan of the Supergirls of recent years with their contrived origins and cheesy storylines. This Supergirl is different. She's like the 2005 Mustang -- she maintains the style and grace of the original with a whole lot more sex appeal. I'm all about the new Supergirl and I think everyone else should be, too.

JUN050342 SUPERGIRL #0 $2.99 retail.

** 50% OFF AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM ***

JUN050341 SUPERGIRL #1 $2.99 retail.

** 35% OFF AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM ***

THE BIZ
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BRANDON ROUTH IS SUPERMAN

By now, this is old news, but Brandon Routh will play the next Superman in Bryan Singer's flick. Kate Bosworth will play Lois Lane. I question the choice for Routh, however, I will point out that Bosworth is an infinitely better choice for Lois Lane, if for no other reason than she's far more attractive than ol' Margot Kidder.

BATMAN BEGINS BEGINS JUNE 15

By the time you read this, Batman Begins will already be in the theaters and I'll inevitably be a quivering pile of whimpering jello on the floor over anticipation and excitement of what may be the best Batman movie since 1989.

ALSO... MOVIES MOVIES MOVIES...

Fantastic Four is, of course, coming to theaters near you in July but later on this summer in August is Sky High, the movie incarnation of the 15,000,000 comics about high schools full of super-powered kids. Sky High will feature Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston as parents of kids going to the high school that has Lynda Carter as the principal.

TOP-10 and TOP-100
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Check out Comics NOW! Inc.'s Top-100 on IRX Productions. Download the July 2005 Top-100 PDF file (it's 8KB!) at: http://www.irxproductions.com/comics/jul05top100.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. (-) All Star Batman & Robin

2. (1) Superman Batman

3. (-) Ultimates 2

4. (2) New Avengers

5. (5) Green Lantern

6. (7) Ultimate Spider-Man

7. (6) Amazing Spider-Man

8. (8) Ultimate Fantastic Four

9. (-) Ultimate X-Men

10. (-) Daredevil

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS

1. (1) Red Sonja

2. (3) Fathom

3. (-) Soulfire

4. (-) Army of Darkness

5. (4) Strangers in Paradise

6. (3) GI Joe

7. (5) Simpsons Comics

8. (8) Donald Duck & Friends

9. (-) CSI New York

10. (7) 30 Days of Night

THE GOOD STUFF
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DARK HORSE COMICS

REVELATIONS #1 of 6

Odd that Dark Horse would release a mini-series like this, but it sounds a lot like the NBC mini-series of the same name that was showing on TV from April through the end of May with some slight twists. This time, there's an investigator at Scotland Yard who believes he may be on to some big mystery happening at the Vatican and investigates why they're covering it up... odd.
By Paul Jenkins, Humberto Ramos, and Leonardo Olea.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

AEON FLUX #1 of 4

Aeon Flux started life as a cartoon short as a part of MTV's Liquid Television program back in the 1990s. There were a few key elements to Aeon Flux -- first, she never spoke nor was there ever a large amount of dialogue in the shorts at all. Second, she almost always died at the end of the episode. Well, as always, in favor of exploiting a media icon, the video games and comic books based on this strange character always try to make her more than she was by adding speech and ruining the original idea. Hopefully, this mini-series will be a little better than the rest.
By Mike Kennedy and Timothy Green II.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

DC COMICS

BATMAN: JOURNEY INTO KNIGHT #1 of 12

This new maxi-series is going to explore what Batman was like when he first started fighting crime. Being the massive cynic that I am, I can't help but think the new movie, Batman Begins, might be having just a SLIGHT effect on DC's motivation to get this comic out on the shelves as soon as possible.
By Andrew Helfer, Tan Eng Huat, and Pat Lee.
32 pages. 12-issue maxi-series. $2.50 retail.

SUPERGIRL #0 & #1

Let the heavenly chords ring true! The new Supergirl, first introduced in the Batman/Superman ongoing series, is finally getting her own comic and I couldn't be more excited. First off, this Supergirl has similar origins to the original; no more strange clones or reincarnations in other ladies' bodies, this Supergirl is related to Superman and comes from Krypton... right on! In addition, DC has been so kind as to put the Supergirl saga from the Bat/Supe series into a Hardcover also available this month.
32 pages. Ongoing series $2.99 retail each.

JACK CROSS #1

Imagine a legalized Punisher -- a man who works for the government and does all the dirty jobs that no one else wants to do in an effort to keep America safe for democracy and giant monopolistic globalization engines. Enter... Jack Cross.
By Warren Ellis and Gary Erskine.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.50 retail.

JUSTICE #1 of 12

Alex Ross does it again. Man, can this guy paint! At any rate, he's re-doing the Justice League of America yet again; in this maxi-series, when the JLA bands together to fight crime, they discover that their super-baddy nemeses have figured out the same ball-game and so begins one of the biggest fights in history --- all painted in beautiful Alex Ross style.
By Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, and Doug Braithwaite.
40 pages. 12-issue maxi-series. $2.99 retail.

WILDSIDERZ #1 of 5

Errr... I feel as though I've already talked about this one even though it's quite possible that I haven't... very strange. Anyway, J. Scott Campbell, creator of the unbelievably oddball-yet- innovative Danger Girl series, has decided to try his luck a second time by creating a super-team of five young people who develop powers by using animalistic abilities. Strange, but it looks good, even though I feel as though I've talked about it already...
By J. Scott Campbell and Andy Hartnell.
40 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

THE WINTER MEN #1 of 8

Not sure about this title by I feel it has potential. So, here's the premise: after the cold war, what happened to all of Russia's super-soldiers? The first comic follows Kris Kalenov who's a war hero that eventually went to the mob to become a rent-a-cop after the jobs went away. One day, he's investigating a kidnapping and comes in direct contact with his past ... the whole I-was-a-teenage-super- soldier thing. See? Potential.
By Brett Lewis and John Paul Leon.

TOP 10: BEYOND THE FARTHEST PRECINCT #1 of 5

Of course, it's a mini-series. Don't get your hopes up! Top- 10 was one of the most intriguing future-based cops-with- superpowers series that I'd ever read, and, for some reason, it just completely disappeared from the shelves. This mini- series picks up 5 years after the last issue (in the characters' lives and quite possibly in real life) to show you what's been going on since the SMAX mini-series.
By Paul DiFilippo and Jerry Ordway.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

ANT #1

Image's catch-phrase for this comic is "She's back!" When did she leave? Did she leave? Did ANT actually exist as a comic before? When will she leave again? At any rate, Hannah Washington woke up one day in a mental asylum to discover that she really was insane, and now she's trying to figure out why she wants to climb up walls and dress as a giant ant.
By Mario Gully.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.95 retail.

DUSTY STAR #1

Imagine cowboy science fiction, if you will, and that's what Dusty Star looks like. It's the wild west with robots and flying ships. Hopefully, it won't be the Wild Wild West... ugh.
By Andrew Robinson and Joe Pruett. 32 pages. Ongoing series. $3.50 retail.

FERRO CITY #1

It's Bladerunner meets I, Robot, meets A.I., meets...heck. It's a robot story. This cop has the Medusa Key, which could enable millions of sentient robots to have the freedom of choice. The mob is after him. There ya have it. Maybe it's not as deep as all those movies...
By Jason Armstrong.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.95 retail.

THE NECROMANCER #1

So, leave it to Top Cow to take a fantasy character that literally raises the dead and pulls energy off the living into a teen drama ala Dawson's Creek. So, Abigail Alstine is a totally hot 17-year-old high school student who's also incredibly smart (aren't they all?) and she's slowly discovering that she has strange powers.
By Joshua Ortega, Francis Manapul, Kevin Conrad and Brian Buccellato.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

MARVEL COMICS

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #1

Marvel's bringing back annuals. Good for them. This issue will introduce the Ultimate Inhumans. Crystal, superhot elemental type, jumps into the fray as FF's newest member. Unlike most annuals, what happens in this issue will actually have events that play out in the regular book.
By Mark Millar, Jae Lee, and Greg Land.
48 pages. One-shot. $3.99 retail.

ULTIMATE X-MEN ANNUAL #1

Juggernaut comes back in an effort to get, of course, the Gem of Cyttorak, which will make him truly unstoppable. Rogue and Gambit have are the only ones in his way, and, just like UFF annual, events in this comic are supposed to shake up the main series.
By Brian Vaughan, Tom Raney, and Stuart Immonen.
48 pages. One-shot. $3.99 retail.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1

Errr... a little bit stranger than the other two, in this annual, Spidey ends up with a new girlfriend and fights some people. Yeah... that's it. By Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Brooks, and Mark Bagley. 48 pages. One-shot. $3.99 retail.

ULTIMATES ANNUAL #1

Nick Fury is the kind of man who knows not to put all of his eggs in one basket, so, of course, when it comes to creating a superteam, he's not just satisfied with having the Ultimates... he's creating others...
By Mark Millar, Steve Dillon, and Bryan Hitch.
48 pages. One-shot. $3.99 retail.

MARVEL 1602: NEW WORLD #1 & #2 of 6

It's baaaaaaack. New World features, well, the New World, as it continues where the other 1602 left off with the characters relocating to the United States. In this mini-series, David Bruce Banner and Peter Parquah will become the Hulk and Spider- Man... woo-wee!
By Greg Pak, Greg Tocchini and Sergio Toppi.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail each.

WHA... HUH?

Back again. Resolicited, this comic features Bendis and a number of other writers answering questions no one asked.
By Various.
48 pages. One-shot. $3.99 retail.

MEGA MORPHS #1 & #2 of 4

Man... sometimes the cross-capitalization and synergistic possibilities of comics and other lines of products, toys in this case, are enough to make me absolutely puke. ToyBiz is releasing a new line of transforming robots that look like Marvel superheroes so Marvel has created a comic book based on these toys suggesting that Tony Stark created these giant robots so that the superheroes could pilot them into dangerous situations they wouldn't normally want to get into. I know... I'm scared, too.
By Sean McKeever and Lou Kang.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

FINAL NOTES
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I'm happy as a clam to see that the comic book industry is back in the throes of new comics. Granted, there's always lots and lots of crap that comes out, but it always ends up getting flushed down the toilet just as it deserves. New comics equates to new ideas equates to the changing of an industry, and change is good. As always, remember, some new titles may be crappy, but paper shredders are fun!

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric Jacobson