ERIC'S "IT’S 3AM. DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR COMICS ARE?" COMICS NOW! NEWSLETTER VOL. 10 #5 – May 2008

INTRODUCTION
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It’s almost 3am in the morning as I write this. It’s the dead of night. Totally quiet. And there are absolutely way too many titles coming out this month. I’m not kidding. We’re actually going to preview 28 different titles. 28! Holy macaroni! Let’s not waste any time with the intro. Let’s just get to it.

If you’d rather listen to our newsletter instead of read it, here’s our podcast link.

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE
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This may be the most difficult month where I’ve had to pick a favorite title that I’m looking forward to the most. There are simply too many exciting titles coming out. Though I must point out that Scott Kurtz’s spectacular series, PvP, hits its 10th anniversary this month (and celebrates with a special one-shot of 10th-birthday goodness), I feel like I reserve this section for a new title (mini-series or ongoing series). Because of this, I pick DC’s House of Mystery. When a group of five strangers gets trapped in the House of Mystery, and have nothing better to do than sit around and tell stories, I’m intrigued.

MAR080225 House of Mystery #1 $2.99

*** 50%-OFF AT WWW.COMICSNOW.COM ***

DECONSTRUCTING COMICS
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This month, Deconstructing Comics held interviews with Matt Silady of “The Homeless Channel;” Alex Robinson of “Box Office Poison and “Tricked;” and Chris Staros of Top Shelf. The March 10 episode (should be available by the time you read this) will feature Brian Miller from Hi-Fi Studios also the colorist for a lot of books from Marvel, DC, and elsewhere. The March 17 episode (also should be available around this newsletter’s release) will feature another interview; this one with Jason McNamara who wrote books published by AIT/Planet Lar.

It's a constant, consistent, mad demolition of different comics (and
they feature my newsletter!) at Deconstructing Comics. Deconstructing Comics always has a wide variety of comics news as well as their awesome podcasts -
http://www.globalcomics.net/podcast. 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:

MAR080148 Batman Gotham After Midnite #1 $2.99
MAR080208 Casey Blue Beyond Tomorrow #1 $2.99
MAR080135 DC Special Cyborg #1 $2.99
MAR080124 Final Crisis #1 $3.99
MAR080225 House of Mystery #1 $2.99
MAR080129 Rann Thanagar Holy War #1 $3.50
MAR080147 Tor #1 $2.99
MAR080131 War that Time Forgot #1 $2.99
MAR082168 Avengers Invaders #1 $2.99
MAR082180 Guardians of Galaxy #1 $2.99
MAR082185 Invincible Iron Man #1 $2.99
MAR082192 Marvel 1985 #1 $3.99
MAR082216 Newuniversal Shockfront #1 $2.99
MAR082209 Secret Invasion Fantastic Four #1 $2.99
MAR082145 Soleil Sky Doll #1 $5.99
MAR082228 X-Factor Quick and Dead #1 $2.99

40%-OFF TRADE PAPERBACK DEALS:

MAR080221 Astro City the Dark Age HC $29.99
MAR080184 Flash the Wild Wests HC $24.99
MAR080233 Hellblazer Fear Machine TP $19.99
MAR080215 Programme TP Vol 01 $17.99
MAR080192 Teen Titans TP Titans of Tomorrow $14.99
MAR080237 Vinyl Underground TP Vol 01 $9.99
MAR080220 World of Warcraft HC Vol 01 $19.99
MAR080241 Y The Last Man TP Vol 10 $14.99
MAR082251 Daredevil by Bendis Omnibus HC Vol 1 $99.99
MAR082264 Hulk WWH TP $24.99
MAR082271 New Avengers Illuminati TP $14.99
MAR082276 New X-Men by Morrison TP $34.99
MAR082279 Psi-Force Classic TP Vol 01 $24.99

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

Download the April 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 #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. (4) New Avengers
5. (-) Justice
6. (5) Detective Comics
7. (-) Astonishing X-Men
8. (-) Teen Titans
9. (9) Justice Society of America
10. (-) 52 Week

TOP 10 INDEPENDENT COMICS

1. (-) Transformers Escalation
2. (1) Transformers Spotlight Kup
3. (-) Transformers Prime Directive Movie Prequel
4. (2) Transformers Spotlight Target 2006
5. (-) Transformers Cybertron Balancing Act
6. (-) GI Joe America’s Elite
7. (8) Fallen Angel
8. (10) Red Sonja
9. (-) GI Joe Special Missions Brazil
10. (-) Battlestar Galactica

THE GOOD STUFF
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DARK HORSE COMICS

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL #1 & 2

There comes a moment in my life where I’m a little confused about different comics that I’ve written about. For instance, I feel as though I previewed the new Indiana Jones movie adaptation in a previous newsletter (maybe even LAST newsletter), and, yet, here is Dark Horse soliciting it again. Only… this time… in two parts. Seriously. Very confused. At any rate, this is the adaptation of the upcoming summer blockbuster that’s just bound to be a hit.
By George Lucas, Dave Koepp, John Jackson Miller, Luke Ross, Fabio
Laguna, Dan Jackson, Drew Struzan and Hugh Fleming.
56 pages. 2-issue mini-series. $5.99 retail each.

DC COMICS

DC UNIVERSE: ZERO

In a desperate attempt to get the audience to care about Final Crisis, DC is releasing the Zero title (the beginning of the Final Crisis and beyond) for a mere 50 cents. Apparently, everyone else in the comic-reading audience is very similar to me – apathetic to a point where we literally couldn’t care less. I mean, we could try really, really, really hard to care less, but I’m pretty sure none of us could. Sorry, DC, you’ve beaten the ever-living tar out of us over this storyline.
By Various.
32 pages. One-shot special. $0.50 retail.

FINAL CRISIS #1 of 7

It’s the third and final chapter in the Crisis trilogy. I’m exhausted
just writing the description. Evil super-villain Libra is assembling a big
group of baddies to try and destroy the Multiverse. I’m really tired of writing the word Multiverse. I’m really tired of reading the world Multiverse. I’m really just tired.
By Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones.
40 pages. 7-issue maxi-series. $3.99 retail.

THE HUNTRESS: YEAR ONE #1 & 2 of 6

Holy Female-Green-Arrow-in-a-Purple-Suit, Batman! I thought the Huntress was relegated to D-list superhero fame over in the Birds of Prey title (is that still around?). But, no, here we are with a 2-issue mini-series recapping the origin of Helena Bertinelli (a.k.a. The Huntress).
By Ivory Madison, Cliff Richards and Art Thibert.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail each.

RANN/THANAGAR: HOLY WAR #1 of 8

If you’re a big fan of the galactic space war storyline with multiple planets going head-to-head with strange cultures and odd religions, then this is the title for you. Rann and Thanagar are two planets that are locked in a deadly war. There’s a religious cult on Thanagar while the people of Rann worship Lady Styx (do you think she performs “Mr. Roboto?”). This war brings about a whole bunch of DC cosmic heroes that no one pays attention to, really, including Adam Strange, Comet, Starfire, Hawkman, Starman, Chief Justice Max (who?), Tigorr (again, who?), the Weird, and, apparently, many more.
By Jim Starlin, Ron Lim, and Rob Hunter.
40 pages. 8-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

THE WAR THAT TIME FORGOT #1 of 8

An Air Force pilot is trying to get back to Hawaii to warn everyone
about the planned attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II when his plane
crashes on an island. It’s like Lost… only not. A large number of soldiers from different time eras are on the island including a number of prehistoric dinosaurs. It’s like Lost meets Turok with some Stargate thrown in for good measure. It’s a recipe for dinner. Maybe.
By Bruce Jones, Al Barrionuevo and Jimmy Palmiotti.
32 pages. 8-issue maxi-series. $2.99 retail.

DC SPECIAL: CYBORG #1 of 6

Vic Stone (a.k.a. Cyborg) is back for his own little mini-series. It’s
hard to tell whether or not anyone really paid attention to this character. In the 1990s, he was a leader of the Teen Titans (sometimes when Nightwing was nowhere to be found) and basically looked liked an over-developed robot-guy (thus, the name Cyborg). He was never really significant (mainly because he was over-developed, in my opinion). He’s got some ghosts in his past, and this title seeks to investigate them.
By Mark Sable, Ken Lashley and Jonathan Glapion.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

TOR #1 of 6

Tor lives in a prehistoric world (wait, wasn’t this just talked about two titles ago?) where he’s trying to answer the all-encompassing question: what are we, as a race, doing here? In the meantime, he has to avoid getting eaten by dinosaurs. Food for thought.
By Joe Kubert.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

BATMAN: GOTHAM AFTER MIDNIGHT #1 of 12

This is a neat concept – the more macabre case files of the Batman. This maxi-series seeks to investigate what happens when the Batman encounters creatures of the night that defy explanation. Also, Batman will have run-ins with the Scarecrow, and a group of creatures that only come out at night to prey on Gotham’s citizens. Cool, man.
By Steve Niles and Kelley Jones.
32 pages. 12-issue maxi-series. $2.99 retail.

THE LOST BOYS: REIGN OF FROGS #1 of 4

Wow! I didn’t even know this one was coming! This summer, there’s
going to
be a sequel to the 1980s film, The Lost Boys, which had Keifer Sutherland as the big, bad vampire leader setting out to kill a pair of teenage brothers staying at their grandfather’s house. Weird, man. This comic mini-series seeks to tell the story of what happened between the original movie and its sequel.
By Hans Rodionoff, Joel Gomez and Don Ho.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY #1

It’s a remake of an old classic DC comic series. Five strangers get trapped in the House of Mystery. They all have different reasons that they got stuck there, but none of them can escape. There’s no television, newspapers or books. Stories become the only thing that provides entertainment while the five suspect they may be trapped there for eternity (or, at least, until they die). Each ongoing issue promises to have new stories from each of the five individuals as well as their own origins and attempts to escape.
By Matthew Sturges, Bill Willingham and Luca Rossi.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

IMAGE COMICS

FIREBREATHER #1

And the reboots begin, yet again, over at Image Comics. Supposedly back by popular demand, we have an all-new monthly title starring Firebreather; a teenage kid who just wants to be normal in high school but his dad is a giant monster that destroys cities.
By Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

ALETHIA #1 of 3

Thea is an adrenalin junky. Then, mythological gods kill her boyfriend destroy her town (for no good reason, it seems). What else is there for a girl to do but try and exact some revenge, right?
By Bob Lefevre.
32 pages. 3-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

GEMINI #1 of 5

Dan Johnson is a special secret agent named Gemini for a nefarious organization. What makes this title different is that Dan doesn’t even realize that he’s Gemini. Errm. What?
By Jay Faerber and Jon Sommariva.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

PRETTY BABY MACHINE #1 of 3

It’s like Nine Inch Nails’ first album, Pretty Hate Machine, except it makes babies. Wait. It has nothing to do with that. It’s about Baby Face Nelson and Machine Gun Kelly back in 1933 when Al Capone tried to kill them.
By Clark Westerman and Kody Chamberlain.
32 pages. 3-issue mini-series. $3.50 retail.

WILDGUARD: INSIDER #1 of 3

Todd Nauck created an Internet comic strip starring reality-star superheroes. This series tries to take readers behind the scenes by reprinting his Wildguard Internet comic strips in paper format for the first time. At least, for the first time at Image.
By Todd Nauck, Steven Sanchez and Justin Peterson.
32 pages. 3-issue mini-series. $3.50.

PVP 10TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

PVP is one of my favorite titles, if not my most favorite. Scott Kurtz is a comedic genius bringing all that is geeky from around the geek-universe, and presenting it in a format that’s so great it makes me laugh out loud with each issue. Unbelievably, Kurtz has been at this for 10 years and, surprisingly, has yet to take his life. He celebrates his ongoing success with this, the 10th anniversary of PVP. We love you, Scott. Keep up the spectacularly good work.
By Scott Kurtz.
48 pages. One-shot special. $4.99 retail.

MARVEL COMICS

SKY DOLL #1 of 3

There was a title from Image a while ago called Aphrodite something. There was a number after Aphrodite that I can’t remember. In it, a hot female cyborg assassin named Aphrodite would perform hits and then not remember it. Sky Doll is like that except the hot female android has no rights and only exists to serve the State. Her name is Noa. And Sky Doll. It’s complicated. Anyway, she meets these two missionaries that are supposed to help her escape.
By Barbara Canepa and Alessandro Barbucci.
64 pages. 3-issue mini-series. $5.99 retail.

AMERICAN DREAM #1 & 2 of 5

American Dream tries to balance the real-world and the superhero world while her fiancé gets kidnapped by a terrorist. That’s quite the sentence.
By Tom Defalco and Todd Nauck.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail each.

AVENGERS/INVADERS #1 of 12

Often, there is a storyline so convoluted and complicated that it almost defies description. There was a group of superheroes in World War II called the Invaders that was made up of Captain America, Bucky, the Human Torch, Toro and the Sub-Mariner. This original group gets transported to the Second World War in the future where they encounter not one but two teams of Avengers. Tony Stark has to figure out what’s going on when he meets the Steve Rogers from the previous era while the Invaders need to try and convince everyone else that they really exist. Whew. That’s quite the mouthful and a whole lot more complicated than I feel like it needs to be.
By Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, and Steve Sadowski.
32 pages. 12-issue maxi-series. $2.99 retail.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1

This is a spinoff of Annihilation: Conquest. It feels like there are a bunch of cosmic storylines floating around from the major premiere publishers this month. In Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova and everyone else must try to protect the universe from strange gods and monsters that want to destroy us all.
By Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, and Paul Pelletier.
32 pages. Ongoing series. $2.99 retail.

IRON MAN: VIVA LAS VEGAS #1 of 4

Tony Stark goes on vacation in Vegas after he’s rundown from running his big company. Naturally, he hooks up with a gorgeous archaeologist who’s discovered a fifty-foot dragon statue that invites hundreds of lizards to attack Las Vegas. Of course. It’s Vegas. Anything goes.
By Jon Favreau and Adi Granov.
32 pages. 4-issue mini-series. $3.99 retail.

MARVEL 1985 #1 of 6

I have a hard time understanding this one. Okay, so the description from Previews is: “the most powerful super-villains in the Marvel Universe gather their might to wreak havoc on the one place they’ve never before set foot-YOUR WORLD! As mankind’s enemies cut a swath of destruction with unprecedented ferocity and ruthlessness, the fate of the planet rests in the hands of one person: Toby, a 13-year-old boy who holds the key to uniting his comic-book idols, the Marvel Heroes!” Ummmm… what?
By Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $3.99 retail.

SECRET INVASION: FANTASTIC FOUR #1 of 3

The Skrulls are attacking and start by targeting the Baxter Building because there’s a whole bunch of advanced technology and weaponry in there (stupid Reed Richards with his whole “I’m a scientist, I need to experiment” crap). They attack. The Fantastic Four defends. Hilarity ensues.
By Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Barry Kitson.
32 pages. 3-issue mini-series $2.99 retail.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI: 13 #1

Captain Britain and MI: 13 have to stop the Skrulls from invading Britain. Those cursed Skrulls. It’s like they’re everywhere creating havoc and Marvel comic mini-series!
By Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk.
32 pages. Ongoing series (?). $2.99 retail.

NEWUNIVERSAL: SHOCKFRONT #1 of 6

Warren Ellis created newuniversal with four different characters with virtually limitless power: Starbrand, Nightmask, Justice and Cipher. Now, they’re about to learn that they are not alone.
By Warren Ellis and Steve Kurth.
32 pages. 6-issue mini-series. $2.99 retail.

GENEXT #1 of 5

What if the X-Men Universe aged in real-time? It’s been 30 years since the creation of the X-Men so what would it be like? I mean, Cyclops and Jean Grey would be nearly 50 (making Jean Grey not at all hot). Inevitably, they would have had children. Who would they be? Where’s Magneto and Professor X? Those two turkeys would be 80. Would they be fighting in the nursing home? Would Professor X be able to eat solid foods? Chris Claremont seeks to answer those questions and more.
By Chris Claremont and Patrick Scherberger.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $3.99 retail.

ANGEL: REVELATIONS #1 of 5

The X-Men Angel has probably one of those most difficult mutations next to Nightcrawler’s: big ol’ wings. It’s not like Angel can really hide those things. This mini-series tells the origin of Angel back when he was just Warren Worthington III at a prep school. He was hot and popular and then he starts to grow wings. I mean… wings. That would kinda be lame.
By Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Adam Pollina.
32 pages. 5-issue mini-series. $3.99 retail.

FINAL NOTES
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Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many new titles and mini-series in the near-decade that I’ve been writing this newsletter. I’m utterly exhausted. I’m drained. I must admit that I’m also excited. There’s an absolute ton of good stuff coming out in May. In fact, I may have to skip eating just so I can afford all of the titles that are coming out.

As always, you know what’s better than just one or two titles coming out in a month? Five million new titles coming out in a month – that way if there’s a pile of garbage in there, you can sift through it and find the good stuff.

And, as always, thank you for your business!

Eric Jacobson

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