ERIC'S "STEVEN SPIELBERG TRANSFORMERS, BABY!" COMICS NOW! NEWSLETTER VOL. 8 #9 - September 2006

INTRODUCTION
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It's commmmmmmmmminngg. On July 21st, the first REAL preview for the Transformers movie coming out July 4, 2007 will be shown at the ComicCon. For the moment, you can satisfy your Transformers teaser fix by checking out the official website - http://www.transformersmovie.com. Oh, I can't wait for this one.

Transformers were my favorite toy of my childhood, even more so than the original Nintendo, and they got me into comics. I started collecting comics when I saw Transformers #24 at Waldenbooks for its whopping $0.75 cover price (man, those were the days, thank God for discount comic book stores like Comics NOW!). At any rate, now that the movie is getting further along, I'm just too excited for words. Steven Spielberg is not the kind of executive producer who will sit on the sidelines and let a movie suck so you just know this is gonna rock... At any rate, allow me to calm down and go through what's coming out in September.

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
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There's plenty of good stuff coming out this month but the comic that I keep coming back to is Punisher War Journal. War Journal was an excellent little way for Marvel to tell more Punisher stories back when he was popular in the late 80's and 90's but to bring it back coinciding with the Civil War is just brilliant. And, then, to have the Punisher hunt down registered super-villains and kill them is downright awesome. I can't wait for this comic to come out and that makes it this month's pick-of-the-month.

JUL061988 Punisher War Journal #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:

50%-OFF COMIC DEALS:
JUL060182 Mystery in Space #1 $3.99
JUL060239 Ninja Scroll #1 $2.99
JUL060223 Wetworks #1 $2.99
JUL060220 Wildcats #1 $2.99
JUL061970 Marvel 1602 Fantastic Four #1 $3.50
JUL061988 Punisher War Journal #1 $2.99
JUL062008 X-Men Phoenix Warsong #1 $2.99
JUL062011 Zombie #1 $3.99

40%-OFF TRADE PAPERBACK DEALS:
JUL060233 Desolation Jones TP $14.99
JUL060154 Infinite Crisis Companion TP $14.99
JUL060241 Loeg the Black Dossier HC $29.99
JUL062036 Essential Tales of Zombie TP $16.99
JUL062025 New Avengers Vol 3 TP $14.99
JUL062023 Ultimate Iron Man Vol 1 $14.99

THE BIZ
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FIRST REAL TRANSFORMERS PREVIEW JULY 21ST

As I mentioned in my intro this month, the first real preview for next year's Transformers movie comes up July 21st of this month at the ComicCon. I'm so excited that I have to keep my legs crossed or I just might pee myself.

NEW TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES CARTOON

Fox. July 29, 2006. Not only is there the new cartoon starting on the 29th, but check out ANOTHER live-action movie in the works for TMNT coming out in 2007. At first, I cringed a little at the thought of the 2nd and 3rd movies from the 90's, however this one is actually written by the original creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird so I've got my fingers crossed.

MARVEL MOVIE MANIA

Ghost Rider. Fantastic Four 2. Spider-Man 3. Hulk 2. Iron Man. Need I really say more?

TOP-10 and TOP-100
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Check out Comics NOW! Inc.'s Top-100 on IRX Productions. Download the August 2006's 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. (4) Amazing Spider-Man
2. (1) Justice League of America
3. (2) Batman
4. (3) New Avengers
5. (6) Superman Batman
6. (-) Astonishing X-Men
7. (7) Civil War
8. (-) Justice
9. (-) Ultimate Spider-Man
10. (-) Spider-Man

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS

1. (1) Transformers Stormbringer
2. (2) Transformers Evolution
3. (4) Transformers Generations
4. (5) Red Sonja
5. (7) Fallen Angel
6. (8) GI Joe America's Elite
7. (-) Battlestar Galactica
8. (9) GI Joe Declassified
9. (-) Strangers in Paradise
10. (-) Simpsons Comics

THE GOOD STUFF
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DARK HORSE COMICS

THE RETURN OF THE GREMLINS #1 of 3

You ever notice how Dark Horse just gets some of the strangest comics out there? Roald Dahl, maybe my favorite children's author of all time, created these little creatures during World War II from dubious reasons and now Dark Horse is bringing them back... with a storyline. No, seriously, an actual plot revolving around these little characters. What the heck, huh?
By Mike Richardson and Dean Yeagle.
32 pages. 3-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

DC COMICS

MYSTERY IN SPACE #1 of 8

For some reason, I can't read the title to this comic without thinking of the Muppet Show's "PIGS IN SPACE" with the announcer saying the name of the comic in my head. At any rate, there's a new Captain Comet and he's got some sort of connection to the previous Captain Comet and judging from the art that they've been distributing I'd have to say that the new Captain Comet is bad because it looks like he's shot & killed the old Captain Comet. Whew. That's quite the run-on sentence there, but now I think I'm done summarizing the plot... yay.
By Jim Starlin, Shane Davis, and Matt Banning with Al Milgrom.
48 pages. 8-issue maxi-series. $3.99 retail.

WILDCATS #1 - 50%-OFF AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM

Jim Lee returns! MOO-HA-HA! To make matters even better, Lee is bringing Grant Morrison with him to the re-launch of everyone's favorite 1990's Image Comics' super-team of sorts. Wildcats returns and this time without the periods (remember "W.I.L.D.C.A.T.S."? Boy did I hate typing that!) At any rate, I couldn't be more excited because if it weren't enough that Wildcats is returning, how about the fact that...
By Grant Morrison, Jim Lee and Scott Williams.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

WETWORKS #1 - 50%-OFF AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM

... Wetworks is back, too!!! Oh, yeah, baby! It's like reliving my undergrad years a second time through! While Portacio (whose name always sounds like an ice cream flavor to me) is returning to bring Wetworks back from the dead, too. Man, what a great month. Two great titles both returning and, get this, Comics NOW is offering 50% off the cover price on BOTH OF THEM!!
By Mike Carey, Whilce Portacio and Trevor Scott.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

SNAKES ON A PLANE #1 & #2

I'm sorry. There are some movie concepts that are just so out there, so over the top, that I can't help but giggle. However, when those movie plots get connected with a movie title that is so unbelievable, I just roll on the floor with laughter. Seriously -- the movie (and comic adaptation) to Snakes on a Plane is about a terrorist who gets on a plane and... wait for it... releases poisonous snakes! Thus, the terrorist creates: snakes on a plane. Good lord!
By Chuck Dixon and Gordon Purcell.
32 pages. 2-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail each.

NINJA SCROLL #1

Ninja Scroll, hugely popular in the anime universe, is coming to comics in an oddly painted-looking form. The storyline's sticking pretty true to form but the presentation of the art definitely makes this anime-based comic very intriguing to me.
By J. Torres and Michael Chang.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

AMERICAN SPLENDOR #1 of 4

Harvey Pekar delves further into comics about real life with this 4-issue mini-series about his relationship with his parents after the events of THE QUITTER.
By Harvey Pekar, Dean Haspiel, Ty Templeton, Hilary Barta, Greg Budgett, and Gary Dumm.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

TRUE STORY, SWEAR TO GOD #1

Okay, so Tom Beland is supposedly writing this story about himself -- he's living on the island of Puerto Rico with the woman of his dreams who he met at Disneyland a year ago and is being pestered by his freelance clients who want him to work more but have yet to pay him. Enter the unbelievable hijinx here.
By Tom Beland.
24 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

THE CROSS BRONX #1

It's yet another noir crime drama from Image. This one brings POWERS' artist Mike Oeming over, which is good, but the storyline is the typical "highs and lows of New York City" with somebody killing dozens of gangbangers (no big loss) and the only key being a girl in a coma. Really.
By Mike Oeming and Ivan Brandon.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

SAM NOIR: SAMURAI DETECTIVE #1

This is one of those comics very much like Snakes on a Plane -- the title really does tell you everything you need to know.
By Eric Anderson and Manny Trembley.
24 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

MARVEL COMICS

BLADE #1

Blade is back. Again. Sigh. Spider-Man gets turned into a vampire, Dracula's running around like mad, and there's a classroom of bloodsucking 4th graders (sounds like my elementary school experience, really).
By Marc Guggenheim and Howard Chaykin.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

1602: FANTASTICK FOUR #1 of 5

It's the 1602 Universe's Fantastick Four. We've got Doom. We've got Shakespeare. We've got 1602.
By Peter David and Pascal Alixe.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

UNION JACK #1 of 4

Union Jack is the oddly-named UK equivalent to Captain America. No matter how many times Marvel tries to make him into an impressive superhero, we always come back to the fact that this guy's name is a nickname for the flag of Britain. It's just really hard to take this dude seriously.
By Christios Gage and Mike Perkins.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

CIVIL WAR FILES

Tony Stark has created the Civil War Files, a series of dossiers covering those heroes who have registered as they should and those who have not.
By Various.
48 pages. One-shot special. $3.99 retail.

PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #1

The Punisher War Journal used to be particularly excellent back in the late 80's and early 90's so I was excited to see its re-release. Now that Civil War is going full throttle, Marvel decided that this was the perfect time to re-release the "War Journal." See the pun? A number of super-villians are now card-carrying members of the registration team so the Punisher decides it's up to him to even the odds a little.
By Matt Fraction and Ariel Olivetti.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

X-MEN: PHOENIX - WARSONG #1 of 5

The Phoenix is back! The Phoenix is back! Okay, now that the surprise is over (there was surprise?), whatever will the X-Men do next?!?!?!?! GASP!!!
By Greg Pak and Tyler Kirkham.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

ZOMBIE #1 of 4

It's Marvel Zombies all over again, only this time told from the perspective of non-super-heroes. Simon Garth is a dude living in upstate New York (I pity the poor guy) and the place is being attacked by zombies (which, seriously, would only be a step up for anywhere in upstate New York). It's up to Garth to try and save the town (which doesn't really matter because it is still upstate New York) by fighting off the attacking the zombies (who are actually good people just trying to end the sad little lives of the people living in upstate New York).
By Mike Raicht and Kyle Hotz.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $3.99 retail.

FINAL NOTES
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There you've got it. Tons of great new comics coming out this month. Tons of movie news. Tons of stuff going on in the comic book industry. Life is good. But, always remember, if your title for your new comic or movie is more complicated than "Snakes on a Plane," apparently you're just thinking too hard. For example, my favorite video games are now called "Things that go Boom" and "Men wearing costumes."

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric Jacobson