ERIC'S "THIS TITLE HAS NO PIECE"
COMICS NOW! NEWSLETTER VOL. 9 #9 - September 2007

INTRODUCTION
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Wow. It's been a busy month. For one thing, I've relocated all the way across the country from Asheville, North Carolina to the greener pastures of the West Coast in Portland, Oregon. Also, I made it to the Charlotte Heroes Convention (more on that later). Lastly, I saw the Transformers movie (also more on that later). So, we've got lots to cover so let's give it the go-ahead...

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
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This month's pick is JLA Hitman. This 2-issue mini-series brings back Hitman back to the DC Universe. And, talk about the way to bring back the smart-ass, with none other than Garth Ennis writing the story. Yes, this stands to be an excellent mini-series... at least one with a great deal of wisecracking humor!

JUL070236 JLA Hitman #1 $3.99
** 50%-OFF AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM **

DECONSTRUCTING COMICS
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It's a constant, consistent, mad demolition of different comics (and they feature my newsletter!) at Deconstructing Comics (http://www.globalcomics.net). Deconstructing Comics always has a wide variety of comics news as well as their awesome podcasts. There are MP3s available of all previous podcasts as well as XML feed links if you'd like to have an ongoing subscription!

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:
JUL070184 Countdown to Mystery #1 $3.99
JUL070201 Infinity Inc. #1 $2.99
JUL070236 JLA Hitman #1 $3.99
JUL070202 Suicide Squad Raise the Flag #1 $2.99
JUL070200 Wonder Girl #1 $2.99
JUL072150 Captain America Chosen #1 $3.99
JUL072169 Iron Man Enter Mandarin #1 $2.99
JUL072177 Marvel Comics Presents #1 $3.99
JUL072185 Penance Relentless $2.99
JUL072199 X-Men Emperor Vulcan #1 $2.99

40%-OFF TRADE PAPERBACK DEALS:
JUL070246 Creeper Welcome to Creepville TP $19.99
JUL070299 Exterminators Vol 3 Lies of Our Fathers TP $12.99
JUL070247 Flash Wonderland TP $12.99
JUL070305 Jack of Fables Vol 2 Jack of Hearts TP $14.99
JUL070252 Mystery In Space Vol 1 TP $17.99
JUL072239 Captain America Red White and Blue TP $19.99
JUL072231 Daredevil Devil Hell to Pay Vol 1 TP $14.99
JUL072242 Punisher Max Vol 8 Widowmaker TP $17.99
JUL072234 Silent War TP $14.99
JUL072230 Ultimate Spider-Man Vol 18 TP $15.99
JUL072236 Wolverine Origins Vol 2 Savior TP $13.99

THE BIZ
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TALISMAN, THE BOARD GAME, HAS RETURNED!

After a hiatus in excess of a decade, one of the best board games ever, Talisman, has returned! The last version of the game was released by The Games Workshop in 1994. Now, thanks to the efforts of Black Industries, Talisman will finally return to our hands in a few short months. Interested? Comics NOW can fulfill your craving!
JUL074807 Talisman Board Game, retail $49.99.

THE TRANSFORMERS MOVIE IS ALL THAT AND A BAG O' DORITOS!

I have seen the Transformers movie and I have seen that it is good, heard that it is good, and hereby proclaim that it is good. In fact, I'd have to say that it's as good as any live-action Transformers movie could possibly be. Shia LeBouf, not my favorite actor in the world, pulls off the role of Sam Witwicky with true acting talent. His co-star, Megan Fox, is so freakin' hot that it hurts (the scene where she holds Bumblebee's hood open to admire his engine is breathtaking). The robot models are excellent. The fight scenes are a sight to behold. And Peter Cullen, the original voice of Optimus Prime, is absolutely outstanding. This is a great film. If you haven't seen it yet, you owe it to yourself to do so.

THE 2007 HEROES CONVENTION IN CHARLOTTE, NC JUNE 15th-17th

Okay, I’m kind of embarrassed to admit it but I’ve never been to a Comic Convention… ever. I’ve been collecting comic books for well over 20 years and I’ve just never had the excuse, the reason, the ability… whatever to get to one.

On June 16th and 17th I made it to the Heroes Convention down in Charlotte. If you’ve never been to a convention and one happens near you, I highly recommend checking it out. For one thing, the Heroes Convention was only $20 for a 3-day pass which is quite affordable.

I went to several seminars and introduced myself to a number of professionals in the industry (naturally, I left out anything about Eric’s Newsletter for fear that some of the independent publishers might whip out some sort of mystical weapon and beat me with it). The seminars were well worth the entire price of the ticket with the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) throwing some great training seminars.

The comic art auction was something else; Rosario Dawson (of Clerks 2 and Grindhouse fame) helped with the auctioneer duties. It was apparent that she may have had a beer or two (she came with one) before the show because she was very spicy. My favorite quote from her was: “This title has no piece but I think it should be…” I have to give her some cred, though. She didn’t flinch or anything: she committed to her dyslexic speech patterns and just kept going.

All in all, it was a great time and I believe I may be headed to the San Diego Comic Convention sometime in the near future. Oh, and a special thanks to Daniel Way whose lecture on “How to break into comics the Daniel Way way” was downright fascinating.

TOP-10 and TOP-100
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Check out Comics NOW! Inc.'s Top-100 on IRX Productions.

Download the August 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 #500

"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

"#500" - the issue number that made the Top-10

TOP 10 PREMIERE COMICS
1. (1) Justice League of America
2. (-) Batman Annual #26
3. (-) Astonishing X-Men
4. (5) Superman Batman
5. (4) New Avengers
6. (7) Detective Comics
7. (10) Superman
8. (-) Justice Society of America
9. (-) Action Comics
10.(-) Teen Titans

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS
1. (1) Transformers Megatron Origin
2. (2) Transformers Spotlight Optimus Prime
3. (-) Transformers Beast Wars The Ascending
4. (5) Boys
5. (3) Tranformers Spotlight Target 2006
6. (-) Transformers Beast Wars Sourcebook
7. (7) Red Sonja
8. (8) Fallen Angel
9. (6) New Battlestar Galactica Season Zero
10.(-) Simpsons Comics

THE GOOD STUFF
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DARK HORSE COMICS

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY: APOCALYPSE SUIT #1 of 6

The Umbrella Academy is a group of… kids… with different super-powers who try to protect humanity. They used to work under Dr. Reginald Hargreeves but … something happened… and now they are brought together by their… parent. There’s a lot of unexplained stuff here, but, from what I’ve seen so far, the writing looks good and I would definitely like to see more. I have a hard time explaining it but it really looks good.
By Gerard Way, Gabriel Ba, Dave Stewart, and James Jean.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

GROO: HELL ON EARTH #1 of 4

Groo’s back, byotch! Groo has returned and, for some reason (perhaps global warming), the planet is getting continually warmer. Scary stuff!
By Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragones with Tom Luth.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

LOBSTER JOHNSON: THE IRON PROMETHEUS #1 of 5

Lobster found his launch originally in the comics Hellboy and B.P.R.D. Now, he’s off for his first solo series where he and his team must fight through World War II (yes, he’s another WW2 character… can ya believe it?).
By Mike Mignola, Jason Armstrong, and Dave Stewart.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

CRIMINAL MACABRE: MY DEMON BABY #1 of 4

This is basically Dark Horse’s play on Hellblazer. Not a bad concept, though. Some guy named Cal fights the demons from Hell in an effort to prevent Satan’s constant attempts to create Hell on Earth.
By Steve Niles, Nick Stakal, Michelle Madsen, and Tim Bradstreet.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

DC COMICS

COUNTDOWN TO MYSTERY #1 of 8

The Helmet of Fate has been going around the block lately. There was a fairly convoluted series of one-shots over the last few months where different characters were “blessed” with the helmet for an issue, but it’s finally found its home on Kent Nelson. This maxi-series brings him in
as the new Dr. Fate and he’s got new powers he’s got to try and control.
By Steve Gerber, Matt Sturges, Justiniano, Walden Wong and Steven Segovia.
48 pages. 8-issue maxi-series. $3.99 retail.

WEDDING MADNESS
JLA WEDDING SPECIAL #1
THE GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY WEDDING SPECIAL #1

The Green Arrow and the Black Canary are FINALLY tying the knot. After only 45 years of living in sin, they’ve both decided to finally get married. With the drama that comes with weddings, you just knew there would have to be more than one comic dedicated to telling the story, right?
By Dwayne McDuffie, Mike McKone, Andy Lanning, Judd Winick, Amanda Conner, and Jimmy Palmiotti.
48 pages. One-shot specials. $3.99 retail each.

WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL #1

We reach the end of the “Who is Wonder Woman?” storyline with the annual. Wonder Woman repairs broken bridges and joins up with Donna Troy and Wonder Woman to fight off her new “rogues gallery.”
By Allan Heinberg, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, Gary Frank, and
Jonathan Sibal.
48 pages. One-shot special. $3.99 retail.

WONDER GIRL #1 of 6

Wonder Girl is back, finding her new entry into the DCU through the Wonder Woman Annual #1 and Amazons Attack! We need another blonde girl with super-powers in the DCU… Supergirl just wasn’t pulling her weight anymore!
By J. Torres, Sanford Greene, and Nathan Massengill.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

INFINITY INC. #1

You know you love Steel. Everyone loves him. He was the best character since… well… since all of the other characters that came from the whole Superman Returns storyline, right? Well, he’s back and on the Infinity, Inc. team.
By Peter Milligan and Max Fiumara.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

SUICIDE SQUAD: RAISE THE FLAG #1 of 8

Rick Flag Jr. returned in the Checkmate storyline so, of course, you just knew we’d have to encounter the story in another Suicide Flag
mini-series of some sort. Rick Jr.’s return has thrown the whole mess up in arms, all the way to causing a new Suicide Squad to be created.
By John Ostrander, Javier Pina, and Robin Riggs.
32 pages. 8-issue maxi-series. $2.99 retail.

JLA/HITMAN #1 of 2

If you’re like me, you thought Tommy Monaghan was a funny character. Depending on who wrote him, he was interesting to read and quite entertaining. If Garth Ennis was writing him, you just knew it was going to be good. Well, he’s back… for the moment… in a short 2-issue mini-series where he needs to decide whether or not to help out the JLA with the problem they’re experiencing on the moonbase. And Ennis is coming with him.
By Garth Ennis and John McCrea.
48 pages. 2-issue mini-series. $3.99 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

THE MICE TEMPLAR #1

It’s the Knights Templar, with mice. Get it? Yeah, okay. So, there’s this little mouse named Karic who doesn’t believe the Mice Templar were ever real. One day, he and his family get enslaved by the rat masters, so he needs to get up his gumption and become a Mouse Templar. Go Karic, go!
By Brian Glass and Michael Avon Oeming.
56 pages. Ongoing series. $3.99

SPAWN: ARCHITECTS OF FEAR #1

Wait for it – another new Spawn series! The Horsaak-El is this living weapon created by these hardcore Angel types and, surprise, it’s gotten out of control. For some reason, the Angels (who live in the Castle of Architects) can’t retrieve the weapon themselves and need Spawn to do it. Do you remember a time where Spawn had a countdown clock for how much power he used, but one issue it just kinda went away? Whatever was the explanation of that? Ahhh… yes… Spawn. The comic with great art and a storyline with more loose ends than the entire X-Men Universe.
By Arthur Claire and Aleksi Briclot.
56 pages. Ongoing series. $6.99 retail.

LUCHA LIBRE #1

It’s the first ongoing comic series based on the wrestler-themed toy line. Because you knew you wanted it.
By Jerry Frissen, Bill, Gobi, Fabien M., Witko, and Tanquerelle.
48 pages. Ongoing series. $5.99 retail.

MARVEL COMICS

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE CHOSEN #1 & 2 of 6

David Morrell, creator of Rambo, is taking on Captain America to the tune of Spider-Man: Reign. The storyline chronicles the last days of Captain America, and, if it’s anything like Reign, should be pretty darn good.
By David Morrell and Mitch Breitweiser.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $3.99 retail each.

IMMORTAL IRON FIST ANNUAL #1

The Book of the Iron Fist contains all of the martial arts moves of every man and woman to ever hold the mantle of the Iron Fist, except for the Golden Age Iron Fist and the current one. Danny Rand, the current Iron Fist, wants to discover why this has never happened so he begins to investigate the life of his predecessor.
By Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Dan Brereton and Howard Chaykin.
48 pages. One-shot special. $3.99 retail.

IRON MAN: ENTER THE MANDARIN #1 of 6

Iron Man’s movie comes out next summer so this mini-series tries to capitalize on the wherefores and whythous of the Mandarin. Of course, the Mandarin is a truly golden age baddie, but we’re bringing him back for the movie. Here’s hoping that the new Iron Man movie is more than just The Rocketeer for the 21st century.
By Joe Casey and Eric Canete.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

PENANCE: RELENTLESS #1 of 5

Penance is Robbie Baldwin. He used to be a hero but now seems to be the most hated man in America as he’s blamed for the disaster at Stamford. Naturally, this is enough to drive anyone insane and Baldwin is no different. This mini-series investigates Baldwin’s descent into madness.
By Paul Jenkins and Paul Gulacy.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

PUNISHER MAX ANNUAL #1

Oh no! The first Punisher Max Annual and it’s not written by Garth Ennis! This does not bode well. The self-contained story is that Punisher kills this guy’s gang (Tommy “Mad Dog” Schultz) but one dude escapes (Eddie Gands). Punisher is hunting him and Gands has to run and run in order to get away. But, after all, who does really get away from the Punisher after all, right?
By Mike Benson and Laurence Campbell.
48 pages. One-shot special. $3.99 retail.

FINAL NOTES
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It's been a heck of a month, but, have no fear, we'll be back next month covering all of the news from the comic industry that's worth talking about.

As always, if you get bored of comics, play Talisman. Man, do I love some Talisman.

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric Jacobson

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