ERIC'S "ISSUE 100 - WHAT MORE CAN I SAY?"
COMICS NOW! NEWSLETTER VOL. 9 #4 (#100!!!) - April 2007

INTRODUCTION
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to issue #100 of Eric's Newsletter. I started this newsletter almost nine and a half years ago as a way to comedically comment on new titles that are coming out and we've now released 100 consecutive issues without ever missing a single month. Can you believe it? Man, I was so much younger then!

Special thanks need to be given to Nathaniel Wells and the entire Comics NOW!, Inc. (www.comicsnow.com) team as well as Tim Young and his team over at GlobalComics.net (www.globalcomics.net). Right here I'm knocking out issue #100 and I really have no reason to believe there won't be another 100 following. Oh, and let me take this moment to point out that Eric's Newsletter has now outlived a large percentage of new comics that get released each month. NIFTY!

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
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As much as I love to mock it, the Civil War storyline has a done a whole lot for Marvel in the past year or so. The AVENGERS INITIATIVE storyline seems to provide more interesting information on the aftermath of the Civil War and what new superheroes have to do in order to properly accommodate their powers. That makes it our pick-of-the-month!

FEB072119 Avengers Initiative #1 $2.99
*** 50%-OFF AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM ***

COMIC PODCASTS
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Check out this awesome comics podcast online at http://www.globalcomics.net/podcast. There are MP3s of all previous podcasts as well as XML feed links if you'd like to subscribe!

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:
FEB070246 Amazons Attack #1 $2.99
FEB070334 Danger Girl Body Shots #1 $2.99
FEB070270 Doctor Fate #1 $2.99
FEB070306 Legion of Super Heroes #1 $2.25
FEB072119 Avengers Initiative #1 $2.99
FEB072133 Loners #1 $2.99
FEB072143 Nova #1 $2.99
FEB072144 Omega Flight #1 $2.99
FEB072112 Spider-Man Fantastic Four #1 $2.99

40%-OFF TRADE PAPERBACK DEALS:
FEB070329 Alan Moore Wild Worlds TP $19.99
FEB070264 All New Atom Vol 1 TP $14.99
FEB070354 Hellblazer The Devil You Know TP $19.99
FEB070262 Superman Batman vs. Aliens Predators TP $12.99
FEB072206 Daredevil Devil Inside & Out Vol 2 TP $14.99
FEB072191 Eternals By Neil Gaiman HC $29.99
FEB072188 Sensational Spider-Man Feral TP $13.99
FEB072207 Young Avengers Vol 2 TP $17.99

THE BIZ
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SPIDEY'S ONCE AGAIN BACK IN BLACK... AGAIN.

Man, Marvel just can't let Peter Parker live the good life, can they? Beginning with February's comics, Spider-Man's headed back to the black costume which represents everything that just seems to continue to go wrong in his life. Well, Marvel's certainly not content with just letting Spidey don the black suit... there's gonna have to be a reason... and it's gonna be bad. Poor Peter... what the heck, man?

PREACHER HITS THE SMALL SCREEN, HARD

Fresh from the flaming heels of the Ghost Rider movie, HBO has enlisted director Mark Steven Johnson to lead the creative team of Preacher on HBO. Yes, that's right, Preacher is headed to HBO and might be a reason for me to up the ante on my cable bill again. As of right now, they're not releasing any real details about how the casting's playing out which is a shame but we do know that the series will be coming soon... awesome.

FROM LAST MAN TO LOST

Brian K. Vaughan, the writer of Y: The Last Man, announced on his weblog that he's been hired as a writer for ABC's show, "Lost." I've read The Last Man since issue 1 and think that Vaughan's chaotic ongoing writing style has just got to be a fit for Lost. Though I love both products, they both have a tendency to not resolve anything... ever, so Vaughan should fit in just perfectly.

TOP-10 and TOP-100
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Check out Comics NOW! Inc.'s Top-100 on IRX Productions. Download the March 2007 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. (3) Batman
2. (2) Justice League of America
3. (1) Amazing Spider-Man
4. (4) New Avengers
5. (-) Superman Batman
6. (-) Astonishing X-Men
7. (6) Detective Comics
8. (10) Teen Titans
9. (-) 52 Week
10. (7) Superman

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS
1. (1) Transformers Escalation
2. (-) Transformers Spotlight
3. (2) Transformers Movie Prequel
4. (7) Red Sonja
5. (9) Transformers Generations
6. (6) Fallen Angel
7. (8) Battlestar Galactica
8. (4) GI Joe America's Elite
9. (-) GI Joe Declassified
10. (10) Simpsons Comics

THE GOOD STUFF
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DC COMICS

WORLD WAR III PARTS ONE-FOUR

In a desperate attempt to capitalize on the 52 Week and One Year Later storylines, DC Comics is trying to connect them all together in a four-part series that suggests that whatever events happened are leading to World War III, and it's up to the heroes of the DCU to stop it. These four issues will all be released at the exact same time so you can get all caught up on what's next for the DCU in one fell swoop.
By Keith Chmpagne and John Ostrander with Various.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.50 retail each.

AMAZONS ATTACK #1 of 6

Alright, so the Amazons were driven to the Realm of the Gods during the Infinite Crisis storyline and now they're back... and attacking America, for some reason. Super-hot women with swords beating the hell out of innocent American citizens? I'm oddly annoyed and intrigued at the same time. What's that all about?
By Will Pfeifer and Pete Woods.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

DOCTOR FATE #1

We couldn't see this one coming at all, could we? I mean, they've only been doing this massive maxi-series of The Helmet of Fate. No one could possibly predict that DC would be trying to bring back the character in a new ongoing series, right? Okay, well, here it is. Kent Nelson is Doctor Fate and we're back for an all-new go round at the character. Maybe it'll stick around this time?
By Steve Gerber and Paul Gulacy.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

DANGER GIRL: BODY SHOTS #1 of 4

It's funny how Danger Girl never can seem to stick around for an ongoing series. The one time they tried it WAAAAAAAAY back when I first started writing this newsletter (holy crap, huh) they had an issue every 4-6 months. Not exactly ongoing. They've changed their tactics to try and release periodic mini-series and I guess that's a better approach. In this one, the girls try to... well... save the world. Basically, it's James Bond with chicks. Stick with it if you're interested.
By Andy Hartnell, Nick Bradshaw, and Jim Charalampidis.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

FRANK FRAZETTA'S DEATH DEALER #1 of 6

After years of Frank Frazetta creating these amazingly dark images of a spooky man with big axes and armor on horseback, Image has decided to run with it and try to create a storyline to back it up. Unfortunately, Frazetta will only be doing the covers of the comics so here's hoping that Nat Jone and Jay Fotos can pull off interior art worth mentioning, right?
By Joshua Ortega, Nat Jones, and Jay Fotos.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $3.99 retail.

ALIEN PIG FARM 3000 #1 of 4

Eerrrrrm... strange. A race of pig-eating flesh-gnarling aliens attacks Horton County, Kentucky so Johnny Ray and his brother Elvis have to kick some strange alien ass and take names. Such a weird concept and name for a comic that I just have to tell it like it is... I can't even mock this one.
By Todd Farmer, Don Marquez and William Stout.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

UNRAVEL #1 of 4

Yet another police drama where everything the lead character thinks s/he knows turns out to be a lie. In this case, our lead character's name is Lindsey Shaw and she gets herself into a situation where only some dude with amnesia can save her butt.
By Dan Wickline and Homeros Gilani.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

MARVEL COMICS

CIVIL WAR: THE CONFESSION

The fog of war is finally burning off and we may actually be seeing a resolution. Yeah, I know, I can't believe it either. The Confession brings two of the Marvel heroes "most affected by the shocking conclusion of the war" back together for a final discussion. Apparently, the conversation that they have "will set the course of the Marvel Universe for years to come." Pretty dramatic, but, then again, it is Bendis writing it, so, of course it's going to be dramatic.
By Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev.
32 pages. One-shot. $2.99 retail.

AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #1 of 6

More fallout from Civil War follows here. People with developing superheroes are just trying to have a good time and "the man" keeps bringin' 'em down. Seriously, though, not much to tell you about this story except that it's more of the same that we've seen for awhile now.
By Dan Slott, Stefano Caselli, and Jim Cheung.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

LONERS #1 of 6

Darkhawk, Turbo, Ricochet, Green Goblin, and Lightspeed all want to stop being superheroes after spending their time in the issues of RUNAWAYS. However, they can't do it without help. So, believe it or not, they're signing up for a self-help group in an effort to overcome their addiction to being superheroes.
By C.B. Cebulski, Karl Moline, and Jason Pearson.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

NOVA #1

Wow, now here's a character who's had more ongoing series than any other one that I'm aware of. Unbelievable. Nova's a really cool character with powers that enable him to become invincible and fly at great velocities. Oddly, no matter how many times Marvel desperately attempts to reboot this series, it always ends in tears. Will this one end the same way? Statistically speaking, it's virtually a sure thing.
By Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Sean Chen, and Adi Granov.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

OMEGA FLIGHT #1 of 5

Can you see the pun? You might have to want it. The super-team's got "Flight" in the title so you've got to figure that they're hailing from our neighbors in the Great White North. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's Canada's newest superteam -- Omega Flight (instead of Alpha Flight. Alpha... Omega... get it?) Anyway, they're back again only this time it's just for a mini-series.
By Michael Avon Oeming and Scott Kolins.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

FINAL NOTES
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And there we have 100 issues of Eric's Newsletter in the can. Thanks to all my loyal readers who continue to make writing this goofy newsletter worthwhile each month. I promise to continue to provide a completely unbiased, unauthorized review of what's new in the comic book industry, where it's going, and what else is just too exciting not to mention in a monthly e-newsletter. See you guys and gals next month!

And, always remember, 100 issues, baby. 100 issues.

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric Jacobson