ERIC'S "HEAD COLDS AND SNOW MAKE ERIC A SICK BOY" NEWSLETTER VOL. 8 #3 - March 2006

INTRODUCTION
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Now that we're deep within the depths of the winter season, the infinite oncoming swarms of germs and disease have taken hold of me with a massive head cold the size of Texas. As my doctor prescribes lots of bed-rest and fluids, nothing helps take the edge off the boredom of lying in bed all day like reading tons of new comics. Fortunately, it looks like March isn't going to disappoint with a whole slew of new stuff from all of the big guns.

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
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With such gigantic new series like Ms. Marvel, Squadron Supreme, and Truth Justin & American Way coming out this March, it was difficult to pick from all of the promising new stuff to come up with a pick-of-the-month, however, American Virgin just kept rising to the top. Following a young adult minister who wrote books on how to keep your virginity, American Virgin introduces a number of interesting situations when Adam Chamberlain (e.g. the minister) gets kidnapped by terrorists and, it appears, is forced to have sex with a hot stripper. With hints of Y - The Last Man, this new ongoing series seems to have lots of promise.

JAN060371 American Virgin #1 $2.99 retail

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

HUGE DISCOUNTS AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM
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Aside from always offering 35% off the cover price of monthly comics with no minimum to buy, each month Comics NOW offers incredible deals on some of the newest titles out there. Just point your browser to http://www.comicsnow.com to order any of these titles below at huge discounts or any other comic at least 35% off the cover price.

Here are this month's deals:
JAN060371 AMERICAN VIRGIN #1 50% OFF $2.99
JAN060275 BATMAN SECRETS #1 50% OFF $2.99
JAN060307 BLUE BEETLE #1 50% OFF $2.99
JAN060306 CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN TP 40% OFF $16.99
JAN060357 EX MACHINA VOL 3 TP 40% OFF $12.99
JAN060322 OUTSIDERS CRISIS INTERVENTION TP 40% OFF $12.99
JAN061839 CYBERFORCE #1 50% OFF $2.99
JAN062017 ANNIHILATION PROLOGUE #1 50% OFF $3.99
JAN062023 FANTASTIC FOUR FIRST FAMILY #1 50% OFF $2.99
JAN062040 MS MARVEL #1 50% OFF $2.99
JAN062014 SQUADRON SUPREME 50% OFF $2.99
JAN062100 BLACK PANTHER WHO IS TP 40% OFF $14.99
JAN062097 DAREDEVIL VOL 13 TP 40% OFF $14.99
JAN062101 SQUADRON SUPREME A UNIVERSE TP 40% OFF $24.99

THE BIZ
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SUPERMAN RETURNS... TO VIDEO GAMES

Scheduled for release alongside the movie this summer, Superman Returns, the video game looks like it might actually have some game. Then again, it's far more likely that it will follow the unfortunate series of superhero-movie-games that have come before it. Only time will tell, but so far, I can tell you that its open-endedness (think Grand-Theft-Auto-meets-Superman) is promising as all get-out. Here's hoping!

BATMAN BEGINS 2 -- BATMAN CONTINUES?

Although no solid plans are in effect, Christopher Nolan, director of 2005's gigantic hit, Batman Begins, has pitched sequel ideas to Warner Bros. Rather than copy movies that have come before by using supervillains we've already seen, Nolan has been reported to comment that he'd like to use a previously-unseen-on-the-silver-screen baddy. I fully support this decision. Batman Begins was awesome and neither Ra's Al Ghul nor Scarecrow had been seen on the big screen before.

TOP-10 and TOP-100
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Check out Comics NOW! Inc.'s Top-100 on IRX Productions. Download the February 2006 Top-100 PDF file (it's 8KB!).

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. (1) Infinite Crisis
2. (3) New Avengers
3. (10) Batman
4. (5) Amazing Spider-Man
5. (-) Astonishing X-Men
6. (-) Justice
7. (4) Supergirl
8. (7) Green Lantern
9. (-) JLA
10. (-) Spider-Man

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS

1. (1) Transformers Infiltration
2. (2) Transformers Beast Wars
3. (4) Red Sonja
4. (-) Fathom
5. (2) Fallen Angel
6. (7) GI Joe America's Elite
7. (5) Strangers in Paradise
8. (8) Simpsons Comics
9. (-) GI Joe Special Missions
10. (9) Army of Darkness

THE GOOD STUFF
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DC COMICS

BATMAN: SECRETS #1 of 5

Batman takes on the Joker in an attempt to once again take him down but their entire fight is captured on film. The press goes nuts as, on the film, it appears that Batman is mercilessly beating the ever-living crap out of the Joker. Sure, the dude's killed thousands of innocent people, but that's no reason to punch him in the face, right?
By Sam Kieth.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

BLUE BEETLE #1

The ruthless murder of the original Blue Beetle jump-started the current Infinite Crisis running through the DC Universe and, of course, left a gaping hole for the overhauling of one of my favorite B-grade superheroes, the Blue Beetle. He returns, but the big question is, who's behind the mask.
By Keith Griffen, John Rogers, and Cully Hammer.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

AMERICAN VIRGIN #1

Adam Chamberlain is 20 years old, a minister, and a best-selling author because he's started the U.S. on this national virginity campaign. Right. At any rate, Adam is kidnapped and plummetted into a personal and social exploration of different facets of the human existence. In other words, it's just like Y - The Last Man with about as much sex.
By Steven Seagle and Becky Cloonan.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

TRUTH, JUSTIN AND THE AMERICAN WAY #1 of 5

The god of all things funny, Scott Kurtz (he writes PvP, if you don't know, and if you haven't been getting it, stop reading this and go buy all of the copies you can lay your hands on), is writing an all-new comic about a guy who's supposed to get married but finds a super-suit which totally and completely changes his life... of course. Oh, and it's funny.
By Scott Kurtz and Aaron Williams with Guiseppe Ferrario.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

DOLL AND CREATURE #1 of 4

Religion's been outlawed in the future. A new drug called grey matter transforms all of its addicts into undead creatures called Hydes. A strange creature named Gristle emerges to hunt down the Hydes and free society from them. There ya have it. Nothing like yet another post-apocalyptic storyline to drag you down, eh?
By Rick Remender and John Heebink with Mike Manley.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

RETRO ROCKET #1 of 4

Retro Rocket is just that, a retro reject from a bygone era. All of the new automechs that are available literally run circles around him. In other words, this is a Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer for the robotic age. An alien attack renders all of the new automechs useless so the only hope for all of mankind is the one mech that was headed for the junkyard, Retro Rocket... away!
By Tony Bedard and Jason Orfalas.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

CYBERFORCE #1

Cyberforce returns. When an alien menace sets its sights on Earth, the team must reform to help defend the innocents on the planet from the imminent destruction that is headed our way. Yet, all is not normal for the team and lots of changes are underway.
By Ron Marz and Pat Lee.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

RISING STARS: UNTOUCHABLE #1 & #2 of 5

Laurel Darkhaven is recruited into the CIA as an assassin right out of high school at age 18. This mini-series follows her tale as an agent with telekinetic superpowers.
By Fiona Avery and Brent Anderson.
32 pages. 5-part mini-series. $2.99 retail.

MARVEL COMICS

SQUADRON SUPREME #1

Here it is, the ongoing series. We've been waiting for this moment for years now. Hyperion and the rest of the characters introduced in Straczynski's amazingly well-crafted maxi- and mini-series over the last few years come to fruition with this new ongoing title. I can barely contain myself.
By J. Michael Straczynski and Gary Frank.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

ANNIHILATION: PROLOGUE

This comic is going to be a massive preview issue for everything that will be happening in the Marvel Universe cosmos over the next year. If you're interested in any of the following characters, I recommend this comic: Nova, Silver Surfer, Thanos, Drax the Destroyer, Ronan the Accuser and/or the Super-Skrull. If you're like me, this kind of storyline dulls the hell out of you -- avoid it.
By Keith Giffen, Scott Kolins, and Ariel Olivetti.
48 pages. Oneshot special. $3.99 retail.

FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST FAMILY #1 of 6

A recap origin story of sorts -- the Fantastic Four were made the way they were in a space/dimensional time-traveling kind of way; everyone knows this. But what happened when the rocket crashed? What happened the days immediately following the event? That's what this mini-series seeks to answer.
By Joe Casey and Chris Weston.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

MS. MARVEL #1

For the first time in more than 20 years, Ms. Marvel is finally starring in her own ongoing series. The big question is exactly how long this ongoing series will last, but that's being cynical.
By Brian Reed and Roberto De La Torre.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

NEW AVENGERS ILLUMINATI

Straight from the New Avengers, there is a hidden story deep within the annals of Marvel history of a supergroup that no one knew about. According to Marvel, this comic acts as a prologue to not just one but two entirely different blockbuster events scheduled to happen this summer. Intrigued? Sadly, so am I!
By Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev.
48 pages. Oneshot special. $3.99 retail.

FINAL NOTES
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That wraps up our March issue of comic-reading goodness. As promised, tons and tons of great new stuff is scheduled to come out to keep you off the streets and inside reading. YAY!

And, remember, if you're sick and bed-stricken this winter season and run out of comics to read, you can always create another edition of Snot Rockets for Dummies.

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric Jacobson