Comic Book Resources

Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs | What Looks Good for September

Time again for our monthly trip through Previews looking for cool, new adventure comics.

Archaia

Days Missing: Kestus #1 – Last week we talked about Days Missing and how it was going to change formats to tell a longer-form story in the next volume. That starts here.

Mouse Guard: Black Axe #1 – David Petersen returns to the series. I want to say what I’m most looking forward to about that, but just realized how spoilery that would be. If you haven’t read Mouse Guard yet, you’re missing out. It’s the new Bone.

Dark Horse

Serenity: Shepherd’s Tale – I miss Firefly. Can we please go back to calling the series Firefly? This title sounds like it’s going to be about New Age meditation when it is in fact about a kick-ass bounty hunter in space.

After the break: Robots fighting monsters, freaks (and a gunslinger) fighting nineteenth-century serial killers, chain-smoking chimps, a Frankenstein pop-up book, and more adventurers than you can shake a mummy at.

The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects – If you’ve never read The Amazing Screw-On Head, you’ve missed Mike Mignola’s most glorious work to date. President Lincoln enlists a mechanical man with a screw-on head, his manservant Mr. Groin, and a dog named Mr. Dog to defeat a megalomaniacal zombie and an evil turnip. No lie.

Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities and the Ghastly Fiend of London #1 – When last we saw the supposedly-dead outlaw and his gang of traveling freaks, they’d just defeated Dr. Frankenstein and his foul creations. This time they’re up against Jack the Ripper.

Dynamite

Vampirella Archives, Volume 1 - I’m torn about this one. On the one hand, it’s classic Vampirella by the likes of Archie Goodwin, Frank Frazetta, Neal Adams, and others and I’ve always wanted to read that stuff. On the other hand, it’s fifty freaking dollars for a black-and-white book. On the other other hand, it’s close to 400 pages of material, which makes me much less torn, so on the list it goes. Still, gonna have to save up for this one.

Graphix

The Good Neighbors, Volume 3: Kind – The conclusion of Holly Black and Ted Naifeh’s awesome trilogy about evil faeries trying to invade our world and the one half-faerie girl who can stop them. I gushed on the first two volumes here and here.

Marvel

Girl Comics and a buttload of other collections – Is it just me or is Marvel really ramping up their collection output again? In addition to Girl Comics, I want Heralds, Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers: Unleashed, two new Marvel Adventures collections, an Incredible Hercules one, and Black Widow: Deadly Origin. Some of these are hardcover and some are soft, but that’s the largest group of Marvel collections I’ve wanted in a single month in at least a year. DC only has a couple for me this month: Legion of Three Worlds and the latest Wonder Woman.

Moonstone

Return of the Originals: Battle for LA – I’ve been looking for to this resurrectiony team-up of classic Pulp heroes for a while. It comes in two versions: a $10 black and white softcover version and a $34 color hardcover one with an extra Spider story. That’s steep, but I may have to bite the bullet and get the fancy one.

Oni

Guerrillas, Volume 1 – Chain-smoking chimps fighting in the jungles of Viet Nam sounds too good to be true. Did anyone read the series? I’ve been waiting for this collection, so I don’t know how good it is. I mean, it’s Oni and I tend to trust them, but how can this possibly be as cool as I imagine it being?

Red 5

Atomic Robo and Other Strangeness – The World’s Greatest Robotic Adventurer fights vampires, giant monsters, and a mad scientist who also happens to be a dinosaur. Which, by my calculations, makes this the World’s Greatest Comic Period. At least until Amazing Screw-On Head goes monthly, and then we’ve got a rumble.

SLG

Bird-house – Though I love heart-wrenching tales of isolation and longing for a better life, I don’t usually talk about them in this column. This one’s set in a fairy tale world though and promises a castle, an idyllic little town, and an assassination attempt.

Tundra

Alison Dare collections – Tundra’s re-releasing both Alison Dare books, Little Miss Adventures and The Heart of the Maiden. I don’t know how I’ve missed these before, but I’m getting them now. Imagine if Lara Croft and the Golden Age Blue Beetle had a kid and James Bond was her uncle. That’s what this is about.

Universe

Frankenstein pop-up book – I don’t know if it’s any good or not. I just know it’s a Frankenstein pop-up book and that I have to have it.

WCG Comics

Rob Hanes Adventures, Volume 0 – Thinking about last week’s article again, Rob Hanes Adventures is another great example of a series of stand-alone adventures, each featuring the same characters, but in multiple genres: from Jungle Adventure to Cozy Mystery. Since this volume contains the earliest stories and I came late to the series, I’m not sure what all’s in here, but I’m going to find out.

And that’s it for me. What are you looking forward to?