ERIC'S "OCTOBER IS FOR ZOMBIES"
COMICS NOW! NEWSLETTER VOL. 9 #10 – October 2007

INTRODUCTION
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Whew. What a month. So, still in Portland. Chillin’. Stalking Dark Horse Comics headquarters. Playing with my iPhone (yep, gave in to the hype and it was the best freakin’ $600 I’ve spent in a long time… now if it would just stop crashing). Checking out comics, oh, and the freakin’ Simpsons movie. Man, that was a surprise. Let’s get to it, right?

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
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I can’t believe it but my recommendation this month is an Image Comics
title called “The Sword” that’s rumored to be a mix between Kill Bill (meh)
and Highlander (hell, yeah). I’m more than intrigued, I’m picking it as my pick-of-the-month.

AUG071971 Sword #1 $2.99
*** 35%-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:
AUG070309 Authority Prime #1 $2.99
AUG070205 Batman and the Outsiders #1 $2.99
AUG070215 Gotham Underground #1 $2.99
AUG070207 Green Arrow Black Canary #1 $3.50
AUG070213 Metamorpho Year One #1 $2.99
AUG070306 Midnighter Armageddon #1 $2.99
AUG070230 Simon Dark #1 $2.99
AUG070328 Vinyl Underground #1 $2.99
AUG072274 Foolkiller #1 $3.99
AUG072222 Howard the Duck #1 $2.99
AUG072242 Marvel Zombies 2 #1 $2.99
AUG072249 Omega Unknown #1 $2.99
AUG072271 X-Men Die By the Sword #1 $2.99

40%-OFF TRADE PAPERBACK DEALS:
AUG070308 Ex Machina Vol 6 Power Down TP $12.99
AUG070273 Green Lantern Corps Darker Shade of Green TP $12.99
AUG070313 Midnighter Vol 1 Killing Machine TP $14.99
AUG070283 Showcase Suicide Squad Vol 1 TP $16.99
AUG070264 World War III TP $17.99
AUG072305 Black Panther Four Hard Way TP $13.99
AUG072290 Fallen Son Death of Captain America TP $19.99
AUG072311 Immortal Iron Fist Vol 1 TP $14.99
AUG072291 Spider-Man Back in Black HC $34.99
AUG072310 X-Factor Vol 3 Many Lives of Madrox TP $14.99

THE BIZ
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SIMPSONS MOVIE ACTUALLY GOOD!

Okay, so I was a Simpsons Skeptic. Why the heck should I spent nearly $10 to go see a movie in the theater based on a TV show that I watch at home?! At least the Transformers movie was going to have swearing, right? So, I go see The Simpsons Movie and lemme tell ya, the first joke Homer tells is worth the price of admission… absolutely awesome. The animation was something else, too. It’s as good as a Simpsons movie could ever be. Very well done, guys, now let the show die before you make it whimper slowly from existence, please?

APPLE IPHONE, BUGGY BUT GOOD!

Okay, so maybe this has no place in the newsletter but the Apple iPhone got a whole lot of buzz. Not owning a smartphone nor an iPod, I picked one up when I moved out here (had to switch providers anyway because mine didn’t exist on the West Coast). The iPhone does everything it’s supposed to. If I could just get it to stop crashing all the time, life would be REALLY good.

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

Download the September 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

TOP 10 PREMIERE COMICS

1. (1) Justice League of America
2. (2) Batman
3. (3) Amazing Spider-Man
4. (5) Superman Batman
5. (4) New Avengers
6. (6) All-Star Batman & Robin
7. (-) Justice Society of America
8. (7) Detective Comics
9. (-) Uncanny X-Men
10. (-) Countdown

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS

1. (-) Transformers Devestation
2. (1) Transformers Megatron Origin
3. (-) Transformers Beast Wars The Ascending
4. (5) Boys
5. (7) Red Sonja
6. (-) Transformers Best of UK Dinobots
7. (8) Fallen Angel
8. (9) GI Joe America’s Elite
9. (-) Simpsons Comics
10. (6) Battlestar Galactica

THE GOOD STUFF
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DARK HORSE COMICS

LIVING WITH THE DEAD #1 of 3

I feel like it’s a bad sign when even zombie comics get old. I mean, how many times can you really tell a story about people barely surviving a global catastrophe where everyone else gets turned into zombies? Even the comedic tales?! It’s been done, right? Well, Dark Horse is trying again with the tale of Straw & Whip, two morons who survive the plague only to have to figure out what to do afterward.
By Mike Richardson, Ben Stenbeck and Richard Corben.
32 pages. 3-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

THE BADLANDER #1 of 4

Another zombie movie. This time, some supernatural killer ghost outlaw guy named the Badlander who just can’t killed and is trying to kill the living dead that are being controlled by the “sinister Bog Witch.”
By Kevin Ferrara.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

DC COMICS

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #1

Holy reboots… err… Batman. Didn’t Batman and the Outsiders JUST start two issues ago?! Well, we’re at it again. The Outsiders are starting up all over with Batman at the helm (again) leading them to victory over whoever it is they do battle with now.
By Tony Bedard, Koi Thurnbull, and Art Thibert.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

GREEN ARROW / BLACK CANARY #1

Nothing’s hotter than a married crime-fighting duo, right? Right?! Who’s with me? *crickets* Okay, well maybe DC doesn’t have the right idea for what’s hot but I do enjoy a good Black Canary story and I sometimes enjoy a good Green Arrow story so maybe we’re off to the races…
By Judd Winick and Cliff Chiang.
40 pages. Ongoing series. $3.50 retail.

CRIME BIBLE: THE FIVE LESSONS OF BLOOD #1 of 5

See? It’s the 5 lessons of blood and it’s a 5-issue mini-series. It’s as if they planned it out this way intentionally. The Question is following this “Monk of the Dark Faith” trying to save the life of some author writing about the Dark Faith. What’s the scoop? Only the mini-series will reveal the truth.
By Greg Rucka and Tom Mandrake.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

METAMORPHO YEAR ONE #1-2 of 6

It’s the story no one’s been waiting for – the true origin of Metamorpho, everyone’s favorite multi-colored superhero who’s able to turn himself into things that you see in Warner Bros. cartoons like anvils… and hammers…and stuff.
By Dan Jurgens and Jesse Delperdang.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

GOTHAM UNDERGROUND #1 of 8

Batman and all of our favorite Gotham City heroes deal with Gotham City when all of the evildoers disappear. Someone’s going to rise up as the new leader of the Underground but just who will it be, eh?
By Frank Tieri and J. Calafiore.
32 pages. 8-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

MIDNIGHTER: ARMAGEDDON #1

Midnighter’s back! Midnighter’s back! Wait. Didn’t he already have his own series? When did that get canceled? What’s happening here? Why am I
so confused?!?!
By Christos Gage and Simon Coleby.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

THE AUTHORITY: PRIME #1 of 6

The Authority and StormWatch are totally going to fight over the stuff that StormWatch finds in this bunker. It’s going to be SO cool but you’ll have to buy the comic to find out exactly what’s going to go down.
By Christos Gage and Darick Robertson.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

THE SWORD #1

The thing that makes me sad about Image Comics is that, quite often, the comics that are the most intriguing are the ones that aren’t well-described. The instant Image describes a comic too well, you start thinking, “Oh… so it’s just like comic X or comic Y…” Well, The Sword is about a college student named Dara Brighton whose life gets destroyed when 3 strangers knock on her door looking for, you guessed it, a sword.
By Joshua Luna and Jonathan Luna.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

BRAWL #1 of 3

… and this is exactly the type of description I’m used to. Brawl is about a
fight between Billy Dogma and Panorama. There you go.
By Dean Haspiel and Michel Fiffe.
32 pages. 3-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

CRAWL SPACE: XXXOMBIES #1

Crawl Space is trying to be a new Tales from the Crypt. This first storyline is about a team of XXX movie producers who go away for a movie shoot only to return to find that L.A. has been over-run by zombies. I guess it is October. That does explain the zombie stories, doesn’t it?
By Rick Remender, Kieron Dwyer and Tony Moore.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

GUNSLINGER #1 of 4

Frank Timmons is running around in Arizona in 1873 and accidentally releases 117 dead killers from Hell. Now that’s a whoops. Because he’s a former soldier and lawman, Timmons chases them around the countryside trying to send them all back.
By Shannon Eric Denton, Jeff Mariotte and John Cboins.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

LAZARUS #1 of 3

You’d think with a name like James Lazarus, the dude might think he’s in for a somewhat strange life, right? Well, not so much. James is on the run because of his girlfriend (who’s some doctor) and gets run off the road and left for dead. And then he comes back to life. Ouch.
By Juan Ferreyra and Diego Cortes.
32 pages. 3-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

PROOF #1

Ginger Brown is an FBI agent whose job it is to hunt down mysterious creatures so that she can provide, well, proof of their existence. See where the comic’s name comes from?
By Alex Grecian and Riley Rossmo.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

MARVEL COMICS

DARDEVIL ANNUAL #1

The Black Tarantula gets released from prison and this is a bad week for Daredevil; he’s got the flu, man, and his radar power doesn’t work. Well, for most normal super-powered blind guys, that would be a problem, but I guess DD’s gonna go out and do his thang anyway.
By Ed Brubaker, Ande Parks and Roy Allen Martinez.
48 pages. Oneshot annual. $3.99 retail.

HOWARD THE DUCK #1 of 4

Good lord. He’s back. What started as a comic and then became a crazy 80’s movie returns to comics. Howard the Duck is, well, a duck… except he acts just like humans. Strange.
By Ty Templeton and Juan Bobillo.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

MARVEL ZOMBIES 2 #1 of 5

Okay, now THIS is a zombie story I can get on board with. I’m not sure why, but Marvel Zombies are my favorite zombies of all so to see that 40 years have passed after the zombies have come home is an interesting concept. What’s going to have changed by the time they come back? Nifty!
By Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

FOOLKILLER #1 of 5

Okay. So, dude kills fools, yo. Well, it’s not quite like that. Imagine what would happen if you took the diabolic nature of The Joker and mixed it with the hardcore lethality of the Punisher. You’d get Foolkiller… supposedly. If done right, this character has a lot of promise. Basically, he kills the bad guys in the same way that they committed their crimes – a vigilante artist, if you will. I’m intrigued.
By Gregg Hurwitz and Lan Medina.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $3.99 retail.

FINAL NOTES
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Looks like October’s going to be a month ripe with killers, comics, and zombies. Did I mention zombies? Lots and lots of zombies. At any rate, at least we’re still pumping out the new stuff here and there, right?

As always, Halloween means zombie comics. ZOMBIE COMICS!!!

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric Jacobson

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