ERIC'S "WHO NEEDS A VALENTINE? I'VE GOT COMICS!" COMICS NOW! NEWSLETTER
VOL. 10 #2 – February 2008

INTRODUCTION
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Although while I’m writing this right around the winter holidays, February is the launch date for the comics I’m talking about here and it makes me think of that horrendous Hallmark™ holiday, Valentine’s Day. The winter holidays and Valentine’s always remind those of us (like myself) who are single of how pathetic and lonely we are. Well, I say, “NO MORE!” Down with your pre-printed, pink, posey-covered, puke-fest of cards and candy – if I’m going to have to spend Valentine’s Day alone (again) then I’m going to do it reading about ass-kicking super-mutants beating the ever-living crap out of couples in love. On that note…

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
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It shocks me a little to say this, but in choosing the “pick-of-the-month” I was torn between the comic I ended up selecting, Kick-Ass, and, believe it or not, a relaunching X-Men title! The newly-rebooted X-Force comic has a concept that’s incredibly intriguing; an X-men team designed around the concept that certain enemies need to be dealt with in a more permanent fashion than just punching them around a bit. However, X-Force has been rebooted more times than I can keep track of so my pick of the month is KICK ASS, a comic that touts itself to take over realistic superheroes at the point where most comics think it’s too far over the line. With titles like Boys out there, that’s quite the claim to make, but I have to admit that it’s got my attention.

DEC072235 Kick Ass #1 $2.99 retail

*** 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:

DEC070276 Astro City The Dark Age Special #2 $3.99
DEC070197 Booster Gold #0 $2.99
DEC070225 Countdown Special OMAC $4.99
DEC070260 Tiny Titans #1 $2.25
DEC072051 Urban Monsters #1 $3.50
DEC072179 Clandestine #1 $2.99
DEC072234 Criminal 2 #1 $3.50
DEC072231 Dead of Night Featuring Man-Thing #1 $3.99
DEC072182 Fantastic Four Lost Adventure #1 $4.99
DEC072185 Immortal Iron Fist #1 $3.99
DEC072235 Kick Ass #1 $2.99
DEC072232 Punisher Force of Nature $4.99
DEC072208 Thunderbolts International Incident #1 $2.99
DEC072221 X-Force #1 $2.99

40%-OFF TRADE PAPERBACK DEALS:

DEC070243 Batman Lovers and Madmen HC $24.99
DEC070297 Fables 1001 Nights of Snowfall SC $14.99
DEC070292 Faker TP $9.99
DEC070283 Highwaymen TP $17.99
DEC070284 Stormwatch PHD Vol 2 $17.99
DEC072277 Moon Knight Vol 2 Midnight Sun $14.99
DEC072258 Ms Marvel Vol 4 Monster Smash $19.99
DEC072270 Spider-Man Back in Black TP $24.99
DEC072272 Sub-Mariner Revolution TP $14.99
DEC072269 Ultimate Spider-Man Death of the Goblin $14.99
DEC072276 X-Men Supernovas TP $29.99

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

Download the January 2008 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

TOP 10 PREMIERE COMICS

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

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS

1. (1) Transformers Devastation
2. (-) Transformers Spotlight Blaster
3. (3) Boys
4. (2) Superpowers
5. (-) Red Sonja
6. (5) Transformers Best of UK Dinobots
7. (6) Angel After the Fall
8. (7) Fallen Angel
9. (9) Simpsons Comics
10. (10) New Battlestar Galactica Season Zero

THE GOOD STUFF
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DC COMICS

BOOSTER GOLD #0

There are several characters across the comic book universe from all of the major publishers who just refuse to die. Booster’s one of those golden oldies (pardon the terrible pun). He’s a football player from the future who accidentally gets sent back to the 20th-21st century. Not an amazing origin by anyone’s standard, but he still maintains enough popularity that DC reboots the heck out of his series. This #0 issue attempts to once again recap Booster’s origin and also bring him up in a confrontation with Parallax (Hal Jordan).
By Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz, Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

THE PERHAPANAUTS ANNUAL #1

Image is advertising this series as “the most popular book you’ve never heard of.” Well, that’s definitely an accurate description for me – I like to think of myself of fairly “in-the-know” when it comes to the comics industry seeing as how I’ve been following it semi-professionally for the past decade, however I’ve never heard of the Perhapanauts. A quick Google search reveals that Image might actually not be lying about this one. It’s got a little bit of a following. Worth reading? Well, it’s another team-based superhero book mixed with a little BRPD and a little Hellboy. If that sounds good, then you should check it out.
By Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau.
32 pages. Annual. $3.50 retail.

GUTWRENCHER #1 of 3

Sometimes there are certain storylines that I read the synopsis and get blown away by the complicated nature. Take Gutwrencher – a hiker is bounding around rural New England where he gets infected by an ancient curse that will make him be overwhelmed by bloodlust if his soul is not pure. To make matters worse, it’s only days before his 10-year high school reunion. Will he kill all of his old classmates or will he be able to control himself? I often have this argument with myself and I’m not even infected by some ancient curse!
By Shannon Eric Denton, Steve Niles and Keith Giffen.
32 pages. 3-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

URBAN MONSTERS #1

Okay, so take the rule I was just describing in the “Gutwrencher” description and apply it here: “four monster buddies have hijacked a classic T-bird and are high-tailing it from New York to Hollywood on a quest for fame and fortune.” Really. I mean, what can I say about that? It is what it is, I suppose.
Will Wilson and Tone Rodriguez.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $3.50 retail.

MARVEL COMICS

CLANDESTINE #1 of 5

The Destine family is a group of super-powered individuals that has remained hidden among mankind for centuries until the activities of one of the youngest ones brings attention to them. Can Rory Destine help the fact that he wants to be a costumed crimefighter? After all, he does live in the Marvel Universe, right? The question is – what is going to be brought to the family’s doorway now that their existence is shown?
By Alan Davis.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

X-FORCE #1

The X-Force relaunch (again for the… what… 3rd time? 4th time?) actually seems a little more intriguing than it has been in the past. Cyclops has started to realize that some enemies need to be dealt with “permanently” and that the rest of the X-Men shouldn’t ever know about it. Wolverine, Warpath, X-23 and Wolfsbane make up the new X-Force team (apparently, your name needs to start with a “W” or an “X” or else you can’t be on the team this time around).
By Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost and Clayton Crain.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

KICK-ASS #1

“The greatest super hero comic of all-time is finally here.” I am definitely intrigued by the concept of this book – “the comic that starts where other super hero books draw the line.” The fad of creating “realistic” superheroes has intrigued me since Image first launched its books and showed the world that comics can take a less “Technicolor” approach to things; realism is neat and this book is making big promises in that regard. Time to wait and see.
By Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

FINAL NOTES
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February comes to us and although there wasn’t a ton of new stuff coming out, many of the new series that are getting launched seem to be of a higher caliber of quality than some of the other months we’ve seen recently. I’m excited with all of the good stuff there is to read and can’t wait for March, either!

As always, remember, Valentine’s Day is crap. Yep, I’m not eloquent, well-written or unique with this month’s “remember” comment, but, then again, neither is a pre-printed greeting card.

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric Jacobson

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