ERIC'S "SCREW FLOWERS!! APRIL SHOWERS BRING LOTS OF COMICS!" NEWSLETTER VOL. 8 #4 - April 2006

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

Although they usually say that April showers bring May flowers, the comic industry has decided that this year, April showers will bring us TONS of great new comic titles. There just seems to be a plethora of new comic stuff waiting to fall on our heads this April (I just wanted to use the word "plethora" in a sentence) and I couldn't be more excited...

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

Once again, we've got a month of lots of great new choices. There's a new ongoing Wolverine series, there's Ion, a maxi-series featuring the long-lost Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, and lots of other good stuff, but the choice that I think is going to be the comeback of all time (or at least for the month of April) has got to be the return of Moon Knight, Marvel's Batman! I can already tell what everyone's thinking but I've seen some of the stuff in the new comic and I think it's going to rock; it's real dark Frank Miller-Batman type stuff. It's gonna be good.

FEB062001 Moon Knight #1 $2.99 retail

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

HUGE DISCOUNTS AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

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:
FEB060047 STAR WARS REBELLION #1 50% OFF $2.99
FEB060277 AMAZING ADVENTURES OF THE JLA 50% OFF $3.99
FEB060263 CHECKMATE #1 50% OFF $2.99
FEB060273 ION #1 50% OFF $2.99
FEB060220 MAN-BAT #1 50% OFF $2.50
FEB060290 SEVEN SOLDIERS #1 50% OFF $2.99
FEB060316 AUTHORITY MAGNIFICENT KEVIN TP 40% OFF $14.99
FEB060250 SUPERMAN FOR TOMORROW TP 40% OFF $14.99
FEB060341 Y THE LAST MAN VOL 7 TP 40% OFF $14.99
FEB062001 MOON KNIGHT #1 50% OFF $2.99
FEB062055 WOLVERINE ORIGINS #1 50% OFF $2.99
FEB062069 ASTONISHING X-MEN VOL 1 HC 40% OFF $2.9.99
FEB062070 ASTONISHING X-MEN VOL 1 HC VAR 40% OFF $2.9.99
FEB062078 ULTIMATE FF VOL 5 CROSSOVER TP 40% OFF $12.99
FEB062087 WHAT IF MIRROR MIRROR TP 40% OFF $16.99

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

DC STAMPS OUT... WELL... STAMPS.

The U.S. Postal Service announced its plans to release a series of postage stamps featuring DC Comics characters for 2006. There will be 20 different stamps featuring 10 different DC superheroes including the big guys (Superman, Batman, Green Arrow) and a number of different covers. Neato. Too bad you have to mail 'em.

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

Check out Comics NOW! Inc.'s Top-100 on IRX Productions. Download the March 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. (-) All-Star Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder
3. (2) New Avengers
4. (7) Supergirl
5. (4) Amazing Spider-Man
6. (-) Ultimates 2
7. (8) Green Lantern
8. (-) Teen Titans
9. (-) Ultimate Spider-Man
10. (3) Batman

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS
1. (1) Transformers Infiltration
2. (5) Fallen Angel
3. (-) Soulfire
4. (3) Red Sonja
5. (7) Strangers in Paradise
6. (-) Soulfire Dying of the Light
7. (6) GI Joe America's Elite
8. (8) Simpsons Comics
9. (10) Army of Darkness
10. (-) Red Sonja vs. Thulsa Doom

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

DARK HORSE COMICS

ARCHENEMIES #1 of 4

Ethan and Vincent are roommates who don't like each other very much. It also turns out that Ethan is a superhero named Star Fighter and Vincent is a super-villain named Unederlord, but they don't know that about each other. You can see where this comic is headed though, can't ya?
By Drew Melbourne, Yvel Guichet, Joe Rubinstein, Rick Hiltbrunner, and Jim Keplinger.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

DC COMICS

MAN-BAT #1 of 5

Kirk Langstrom is the DC equivalent of Dr. Connors for Spider-Man. Langstrom is a scientist who accidentally turned himself into a were-bat. Batman's enemies love to take advantage of this fact and make him turn into the Man-Bat so he'll chase Batman (see the irony of the names?). This mini-series takes Man-Bat back to his roots where we start again.
By Bruce Jones and Mike Huddleston.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.50 retail.

CHECKMATE #1

So, if you've read anything from the DC Universe over the last couple of years (particularly any of the Batman series), then you've read about this new super-secret-spy agency named Checkmate that is really pretentious and thinks it's all that and a bag of chips. This is going to be their series.
By Greg Rucka and Jesus Saiz.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

CRISIS AFTERMATH: THE BATTLE FOR BLUDHAVEN #1 & #2

As is the case with any massive maxi-series in any of the big comic publishers, the end of the series only signifies the beginning of all of the mini-series that spawn out of it. The first of these is The Battle for Bludhaven which investigates what will happen to the city after it was virtually nuked in Infinite Crisis #4. The government has its own superheroes guarding the city and lots of strange stuff goes on there. What will happen next?
By Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, and Dan Jurgens.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

ION #1 of 12

Kyle Rayner, the Green Lantern who disappeared into the depths of the universe quite some time ago, is returning with many more super-powers than his ring originally gave him. Except, he also seems to have, well, lost his mind a little bit.
By Ron Marz and Greg Tocchini.
32 pages. 12-issue maxi-series. $2.99 retail.

SEVEN SOLDIERS #1

The mini-series of Seven Soldiers have been going on for what feels like years now and finally the ongoing series from Grant Morrison is being introduced with this first issue. Is it the next superteam or the end of the road for the Seven Soldiers? Judging from the fact that this series isn't limited in the number of issues, I'm assuming we'll see another ongoing series from this storyline.
By Grant Morrison and J.H. Williams III.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

EX MACHINA SPECIAL #1 of 2

Mayor Hundred returns again after his series has run out. For those who didn't follow along the first time through, Mayor Hundred has the ability to speak with machines. This special follows the origin of his mysterious archenemy, Jack Pherson.
By Brian Vaughan, Chris Sprouse, and Karl Story.
32 pages. 2-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

SKYE RUNNER #1

Okay, so this girl's name is Skye. She's the daughter of a king and she always wanted to be a knight. Instead, she's had to be a Runner (though there's little explanation on what this is) until one fateful day where she can be something else. You can see where the name for this one came from, can't you?
By Allen Warner, Ale Garza and Richard Friend.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

BITE CLUB: VAMPIRE CRIME UNIT #1 of 5

The characters of the original Bite Club are back... at least those that are still alive after the first round was over. A drug-addicted stripper is murdered and Miami's Vampire Crime Unit investigates. Thus, the story begins here...
By Howard Chaykin, David Tischman and David Hahn.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

BOOK OF SHADOWS #1 & 2 (of 2)

Here goes with the explanation of this one: there's a girl who's scared and a goddess of blood and death fighting against an army of shape-shifting bad guys, demons, and other strange creatures trying to throw Earth back to the dark ages.
By Mark Chadbourn and Bo Hampton.
32 pages. 2-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail each.

MARVEL COMICS

MOON KNIGHT #1

Marc Specter was once the Moon Knight. His god, Khonsu, gave him the power to be the Batman of the Marvel Universe. But he took it away. Specter wants to be the Moon Knight once again and, trust me, we all want him to be the Moon Knight, too. Hopefully, Khonsu will hear all of our prayers and make Moon Knight stick around for awhile.
By Charlie Huston and David Finch.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

ANNIHILATION
NOVA #1 of 4
RONAN #1 of 4
SILVER SURFER #1 of 4
SUPER-SKRULL #1 of 4

The Annihilation mini-series all start here with all of the above beginning in April.
By various.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail each.

WOLVERINE: ORIGINS #1

Wolverine's been able to figure out who he is and now he's pissed off. Oddly, I can't blame him. His first attack of revenge is going to be to go after the government, but they've got someone who they think might be able to fend off Wolvie's attacks.
By Daniel Way, Steve Dillon, and Joe Quesada.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

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

And so ends fair April. The comics will be showering upon us soon enough so I can't wait. Lots of good stuff equals lots of new attention to the industry equals lots more good stuff.

And, remember, if the comic you're reading isn't very good and April is showering on you, you can always use the comic as an umbrella.

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric Jacobson