Adam Hughes has revealed his cover for the third issue of Fairest, Vertigo’s upcoming Fables spinoff series that will spotlight such female characters as Thumbelina, Rapunzel, Snow White and Rose Red. While the six-issue initial arc, by Fables creator Bill Willingham and artists Phil Jimenez and Andy Lanning, centers on Briar Rose, Hughes puts Lumi, the Snow Queen (previously seen in the background of his cover for Fairest #1) front and center.

Check out the full image below. Fairest debuts from Vertigo in March; the third issue arrives in May.

The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist

It’s time once again for our monthly trip through Previews looking for cool, new comics. As usual, we’re focusing on graphic novels, collected volumes and first issues so that we don’t have to come up with a new way to say, “Batwoman is still awesome!” every month. And we’ll continue letting Tom and Carla do the heavy lifting in regards to DC and Marvel’s solicitations.

One cool change this month and for the foreseeable future: I’m joined by Graeme McMillan who’ll also be pointing out his favorites.

Finally, please feel free to play along in the comments. Tell us what we missed that you’re looking forward to or – if you’re a comics creator – mention your own stuff.

Abrams Comicarts

The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist – I admit, I tend to run hot and cold on Clowes’ output, but I’m a sucker for coffee-table career retrospectives, so the idea of taking 224 pages to look back at his career to date (with, of course, the traditional little-seen artwork and commentary) seems like a must-look at the very least. [Graeme]

Abstract Studios

Rachel Rising, Volume 1: The Shadow of Death – Terry Moore’s latest series gets its first collection and I love the premise of a woman’s waking up in a shallow grave with no memory of how she got there and needing to figure out who tried to kill to her. [Michael]

Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom

Arcana

Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom – I don’t know enough about Lovecraft, but man I love me some undersea kingdoms. [Michael]

Archaia

Cow Boy – As much as I don’t want to stick writer Nate Cosby in an all-ages box, I’m eager to read his and Chris Eliopoulos’ story of a kid bounty hunter trying to bring in his family of outlaws. [Michael]

If nothing else, Nate Cosby’s Twitter feed made me curious about checking out his western collaboration with Eliopoulos, but finding out that Roger Langridge and Colleen Coover were also contributing pushed me over the edge. [Graeme]

I’m Not A Plastic Bag – Color me skeptical but hopeful about Rachel Hope Allison’s ecological debut, even if that title makes me a little nervous. [Graeme]

Archie

Archie #631 – Picks up on that story where Archie and Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats hook up. Look, Archie’s going nowhere with either Betty or Veronica, so I’m rooting for the furry. [Michael]

Stan Lee’s Mighty 7 #1 – At first, finding out that this comic was actually by Tony Blake and Alex Saviuk without Lee was a letdown; until I found out that the comic is actually about Stan Lee, which pushes it into the “This will either be horrendous or bizarrely enjoyable” category. [Graeme]

I’m not sure that I’ve ever unreservedly enjoyed a comic that Stan Lee wrote, much less just came up with the idea for, but I love his persona and putting him in the comic with some superheroes is so crazy it just might work. [Michael]

Crossed: Badlands #1

Avatar Press

Crossed: Badlands #1 and 2 – I’m definitely not a horror fan, but the idea of Garth Ennis’ writing an ongoing biweekly series feels like it’s as good a lure to get me to pick this up as anything else. (I think the plan is to have creators alternate on arcs, with Si Spurrier and David Lapham as part of the alternate writers on the book. That’s a pretty impressive line-up.) [Graeme]

Boom!

Exile on the Planet of the Apes #1 – I’m all for another Planet of the Apes comic from Boom!. [Michael]

More Apes by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman (art by Marc Laming)? This can only be a good thing. [Graeme]

Supurbia #1 – I feel like we’ve seen a few of these “what if superheroes and reality shows were mashed together?” series, but here’s the first of four issues of another one written by former Marvel staffer Grace Randolph. [Graeme]

Kitchen Sink Press: The First 25 Years – Remember what I said about being a sucker for coffee table retrospectives above? That goes double for this one, which has the added benefits of being both cheap (only $15!) and having contributions from Alan Moore and other creators from Denis Kitchen’s vast address book. [Graeme]

Dark Horse

BPRD: Hell on Earth – The Pickens County Horror #1 – I’m all for new BPRD comics, but it’s getting more and more difficult to keep track of everything. Still, I’ll buy a Scott Allie Mignolaverse story any day. [Michael]

Abe Sapien, Volume 2: The Devil Does Not Jest and Other Stories

Abe Sapien, Volume 2: The Devil Does Not Jest and Other Stories - Abe’s my favorite BPRD character, so I feel like this the way I do the previous item: grateful, but also a little saturated. [Michael]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8, Volume 1 – The first ten issues – or two trades, if that’s how your brain works – of the Joss Whedon-led series get an oversized hardcover edition. [Graeme]

Channel Zero – Brian Wood’s breakthrough book comes back into print with this collection of the original series, the Becky Cloonan-illustrated follow-up and material from the awesome Public Domain design book. Jonathan Hickman fans, you should really pick this up. [Graeme]

Manara Erotica, Vol. 1: Click! and Other Stories – Yes, it’s comic porn. But unlike Lost Girls, this is actually sexy comic porn. [Graeme]

Ragemoor #1 – If they hadn’t got me with Richard Corben, they certainly would have with “living castle nurtured on pagan blood.” [Michael]

Avatar: The Last Airbender, Volume 2 – The Promise, Part 2 – Yikes, what a title. I’m still missing Avatar: The Last Airbender though, so this is welcome. [Michael]

Empowered, Volume 7 – Why haven’t I started reading this critical darling yet? I do not know. [Michael]

DC

Batman: Death by Design - Chip Kidd’s writing a Batman book and it’s a real-live, honest-to-goodness superhero adventure. What’s more awesome is that the concept of design plays a large role in the story in the form of a massive reconstruction project in Gotham City. [Michael]

Saucer Country #1

Saucer Country #1 – Paul Cornell + Ryan Kelly + saucer aliens = SOLD. [Michael]

Fairest #1 – Bill Willingham launches a new series about the women of Fables and makes me even less interested in everyone else’s modern updates of fairy tales. [Michael]

New Deadwardians #1 – The solicit opens, “Another vampire/zombie comic? Really, Vertigo?” My sentiments exactly and yet, this one’s illustrated by INJ Culbard whose work I’ve loved on the Sherlock Holmes adaptations he’s done with Ian Edginton. [Michael]

Dominique Laveau: Voodoo Child #1 – It would be redundant to mention that the cover to this is both “striking” and “by Rafael Grampá,” so I’ll just mention the concept, which is also eye-catching. It’s the story of a grad student who also happens to be heir to the Voodoo Queenship of the most haunted city in America, and someone is killing off the royal family. Vertigo was created for stuff like this. [Michael]

Dynamite

Bionic Woman #1 – I had the deepest crush on Jaime Sommers as an 11-year-old. My current crush on Paul Tobin’s writing is slightly less deep, but still significant enough to make me want to read this. [Michael]

I’ve been following Dynamite’s Bionic Man series and surprising myself by digging the hell out’ve it; seeing that this spin-off is being written by the insanely-underrated Paul Tobin was all I needed to convince me to read this. [Graeme]

George RR Martin’s A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1 – For the fantasy fan (or HBO subscriber) in your life, here’s the first quarter of Dynamite’s adaptation of the not-so-cult-anymore novel. [Graeme]

Vampirella: The Red Room #1

Vampirella: The Red Room #1: On the one hand, it’s “monster vs. human cage matches.” On the other, it’s written by Dan Brereton, so it’s probably going to be good fun… [Graeme]

Fantagraphics

Angelman – I’ve not read much by Austrian cartoonist Nicolas Mahler, but I think I’m won over just by the idea of his new book, which satirizes not just superheroes, but the business behind them. [Graeme]

Interiorae – Lovely, lovely art by Gabriella Giandelli in this collection of his Ignatz series. (It’s also in full-color, unlike the original serialization, which is another win.) [Graeme]

I don’t know why it’s taken this long for Fantagraphics to collect the comics that got their cool Ignatz format a few years ago, but I’ll shut up and be grateful. I greatly enjoyed Giandelli’s creepy tale of an apartment building, its residents, the large rabbit who roams its halls, and the creature the rabbit seems to serve. What’s also exciting though is that this means Richard Sala’s Delphine will get a collection too. [Michael]

Humanoids

Monsieur Jean: The Singles Theory – So, so excited for this new book by Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian, making its English language debut in this edition. [Graeme]

IDW

Berkeley Breathed’s Outland: The Complete Collection Sunday Comics, 1989-1995 – The star of this collection of Breathed’s Bloom County follow-up isn’t the title strip, but the reprints of his early, college-era work that’ll accompany them. [Graeme]

Funny Stuff

Funny Stuff By Frank Frazetta – It makes me a bad nerd to admit that I don’t think I’ve ever seen Frazetta’s legendary early comics work, so I’m pretty excited for this oversized hardcover collection, especially to see just how much he… homaged other, more famous strips. [Graeme]

Rocketeer Adventures 2 #1 – Featuring work by Stan Sakai, Bill Sienkiewicz, Marc Guggenheim, Peter David, and Sandy Plunkett. Plus covers and pin-ups by Dave Stevens, Darwyn Cooke, and Art Adams. [Michael]

The first series of anthology tributes to Dave Stevens and his retro creation worked so much more than I’d expected, so I’m definitely up for a second go-’round. [Graeme]

Smoke And Mirrors #1: Mike Costa’s been winning me over every month with his Cobra series, so I’m looking forward to this creator-owned book he’s co-writing about a stage magician who gets trapped in a world where magic has taken the place of science. [Graeme]

Star Trek, Volume 1 – Dear all fellow Trekkies/Trekkers/whatever you want to call yourselves: If you liked the original TV show and also the JJ Abrams movie reboot, you owe it to yourself to check out this monthly series, so grab this collection of the first issues and dig in. [Graeme]

Will Eisner’s The Spirit: Artist’s Edition – Of all the IDW “Artists Edition” books to date, this is the one that just feels like a must-have. Eisner’s Spirit pages as they appeared on his drafting table? I cannot wait to see these. [Graeme]

IDW probably explained the “Artist’s Edition” concept before and I just wasn’t paying attention, but I am now and I finally get why it’s cool to have COLOR scans of original-size black-and-white art so you can see blue pencils, art corrections, editorial notes, and stuff like that. Especially for someone as legendary as Will Eisner.  [Michael]

Saga

Image

Saga #1 – New Brian K. Vaughan. Does anything else need to be said? Oh, alright: FIona Staples on art. Seriously, you guys. [Graeme]

I’d buy a Fiona Staple fantasy epic anyway. That Brian K Vaughan is writing it makes me sigh like a Belieber. [Michael]

Hell Yeah #1: There’s something weirdly fitting about reading a series about the generation who’s grown up with super-heroes that’s created by someone like Joe Keatinge, who’s been around in comics for a long time, and Andre Szymanowicz’ art looks good as well… [Graeme]

The Manhattan Projects #1 – Jonathan Hickman returns to indie roots with the true story behind the atomic bomb. Turns out, Oppenheimer created this rocket ship, but forgot to shield it against cosmic rays… [Graeme]

Mad scientists! By Jonathan Hickman! [Michael]

’68, Volume 1: Better Run Through the Jungle – Mark Kidwell, Nat Jones, and Jay Fotos’ Vietnam War/zombie series is collected. [Michael]

The Walking Dead: Cutting Room Floor – I’m very, very curious about this collection of Robert Kirkman’s handwritten notes about the creation of his hit series. It sounds like a joke, doesn’t it? But it could very well be awesome… [Graeme]

Marvel

Avengers Academy #27 – Guest-starring the Runaways, ya’ll! And Bruiser’s totally punching Mettle cross-eyed on the cover. [Michael]

Savage Beauty

Moonstone

Savage Beauty Limited Edition Hardcover – I’m really curious to see how Mike Bullock’s contemporary, political jungle-girl story turns out. [Michael]

Oni

The Coldest City - If Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy taught me anything, it’s that I’m really not done with Cold War spy stories just yet. This one’s set in Berlin, which is even cooler. [Michael]

I’ve already read this one in galley format, and it is really, really good for those who like the spy stuff (Queen and Country fans, it’s written by Antony Johnston, so you know that it’s great; the art by Sam Hart follows Steve Yeowell’s lead from his early Zenith days, and for those who know my love for that series, there are few higher compliments I can offer). [Graeme]

The Secret History of DB Cooper #1 – Beyond “colorful weirdness and conspiracy-laden Americana,” I have no idea what to expect from Brian Churilla’s new series, and that just makes me look forward to it all the more. [Graeme]

I can’t wait to find out once and for all if Mr James is Doobie Keebler. [Michael]

Atomic Robo: Real Science Adventures

Red 5

Atomic Robo: Real Science Adventures #1 – Eep! An Atomic Robo anthology! Great news for a series whose back-up stories have always been just as entertaining as its lead feature. [Michael]

Atomic Robo returns with an all-new ongoing series?!? Surely this means that Christmas is either not over, or coming early or… well, you know what I mean. Good stuff. [Graeme]

Top Shelf

Blue – I’ve never heard of Pat Grant, the creator of this OGN, but Craig Thompson calls him “the Australian Mark Twain,” which is good enough for me. [Graeme]

Zenescope

The Jungle Book #1: Zenescope get around to “updating” the classic and well-loved story, which is more than likely going to mean adding more cleavage than you would’ve thought appropriate. Welcome to the year 20BOOB, everyone. [Graeme]

Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.

20th Century Boys, Volume 18

Chris Arrant

If I only had $15, I would only be buying one title this week: 20th Century Boys, Vol. 18 (Viz, $12.99). Sorry Americanos, but Naoki Urasawa is delivering a gripping, sprawling drama that most other books can’t live up to. Wait, I’m wrong – I’d buy two comics with a $15 budget this week; I’d snag the $1 The Strain #1 (Dark Horse, $1) for the price point and Mike Huddleston. I’ve read the novels, but for $1 I can’t miss sampling at least the first issue.

If I had $30, I’d be thankful to double-back and first get Uncanny X-Force #18 (Marvel, $3.99). This issue, the finale of the “Dark Angel Saga,” has been a long time coming and I’m excited for the writing, the art and the story itself; and I can’t forget colorist Dean White, sheesh he’s good. After that I’d pick up my usual Walking Dead #92 (Image, $2.99) and then try Ed McGuinness’ new work in Avengers: X-Sanction #1 (Marvel, $3.99). I’m a big fan of McG’s work, but also realize just how different he is than the standard Marvel (or mainstream super-hero) artist in general. I’ve loved his storytelling sense since Mr. Majestic, and will pick up most any of his work without knowing much about the book itself. Next up would be James Robinson & Cully Hamner’s The Shade #3 (DC, $2.99). I’m surprised DC hasn’t done more marketing for this book, especially considering it’s a character who’s never held a series before; they’ve done little-to-any marketing to define just who the character is, relying on his ties to a lesser-selling series that ended ten years ago (no matter how good it was). Getting off my soapbox: those that have been reading The Shade know it’s good. After that I’d round it off with the best looking comic on shelves, Batwoman #4 (DC, $2.99).

If I was to splurge, I’d double-up my J.H Williams 3 fix with the final volume of Absolute Promethea (DC/ABC, $99.99). Although I already own these issues in singles, getting it over-sized and in hardcover is a treat. I’m hoping it also includes some production art or process sketches – I’m a nut for that.

Jim Henson's The Storyteller

Graeme McMillan

If I just had $15 for comics this week, it’d be gone in one fell swoop, with Fables, Vol. 16: Super Team (DC/Vertigo, $14.99) filling that empty void in my heart I’ve had for the last few months as I’ve awaited the latest collection of Bill Willingham’s long-running series.

If I had $30, however, I’d be picking up The Shade #3, Batwoman #4 and Demon Knights #4 (All DC, $2.99) to continue some of my favorite reads from the New 52 set-up, and sampling the much-hyped Avengers: X-Sanction #1 (Marvel, $3.99) to see if the future of Marvel Comics looks significantly different from its recent past (I suspect that it won’t. Spoilers, as River Song would chide).

In the world of splurging, it really has to be Archaia’s Jim Henson’s The Storyteller hardcover for me ($19.95); with a creative line-up including Jeff Parker, Colleen Coover, Paul Tobin, Ton Fowler and more, this is pretty much an all-star must-read for me, and one I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time.

A Tale of Sand

Brigid Alverson

If I had $15, I’d stick to singles. Let’s start with Doctor Who #12 ($3.99), from IDW; it’s a Christmas story by Tony Lee. Sold! Next, issue #2 of P.C. Cast’s House of Night ($2.99), from Dark Horse. Yes, it’s vampires — oh, excuse me, “vampyres” — but Joelle Jones’s art kicks it up a notch, bringing in a sense of energy that pushes the story beyond the usual teen-vampire melodrama. Then just for fun I’ll take Atomic Robo and the Ghost of Station X #4 ($3.50) and Roger Langridge’s Snarked #3 ($3.99). Now that’s a nice stack of comics.

If I had $30, though…the floppies would have to wait, because I’ll be buying A Tale of Sand from Archaia ($29.95). Based on an unproduced film script by Jim Henson, illustrated by Ramon Perez, this book has a lot going for it — the art alone looks fantastic — and I can’t wait to see it.

Splurge: I think I would find it hard to resist the first volume of the Hermes Press collection of My Favorite Martian ($49.99). I loved the show as a kid (although come to think of it, I don’t remember the comics), and I’m hearing good things about Hermes’s production values. And there has to be room in my splurge for vol. 18 of Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, still one of the best manga being published in English.

The Sigh

Chris Mautner

If I had $15: In what must be one of the most notable “gets” in a long while, Archaia picked up the rights to Marjane Satrapi’s latest graphic novel, The Sigh, a seeming Persian-styled fairy tale about love and longing. I really don’t know much about this book other than it’s out, but I’m extremely curious to see what the author of Persepolis is up to now.

If I had $30: I still haven’t gotten the first volume, but new Tezuka is always cause for celebration, so let’s herald the arrival of the second volume of Princess Knight. This brick-sized book collects the remainder of the maestro’s gender-swapping tale of a girl who must pretend to be a boy in order to inherit the throne. I’d also pick up the latest issue of Tales Designed to Thrizzle, because, hey, Michael Kupperman.

Splurge: 500 Portraits is a collection of drawings by the mighty Tony Millionaire of various people, some famous, some not so famous. I’m sure it all will be exquisitely rendered. If I was indeed splurging, this is what I’d go for.

Demon Knights #4

Michael May

If I had $15, I’d grab the latest issues to some series I’ve been enjoying. Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE #4 ($2.99) is my easiest pick. I love that series and I’m even more eager to continue reading it having heard about what Jeff Lemire has planned for the future.  Avengers 1959 #4 ($2.99) puts us into the home stretch on that exciting series and like Chris A and Graeme, I’m very much enjoying The Shade, so #3 ($2.99) is another must-get. Demon Knights #4 ($2.99) also goes on the pile, because I’m growing fond of the characters. It also has a fun, high-concept battle going on; I just wish the story moved faster than it is. Since I’ve got $3 left in my pocket, I’ll give Batwoman #4 ($2.99) a shot to see why everyone loves it.

If I had $30, I’d add Moonstone’s Airboy Presents: Air Vixens #1 ($3.50), because I like Valkyrie (no, not that one; the other one) and Black Angel. The rest of my money would go to Marjane Satrapi’s The Sigh ($10.95), because she’s only ever surprised and delighted me.

There are a ton of items I’d love to splurge on, but I managed to narrow the list to three. I’m reading a lot of old Wonder Woman comics lately, so Showcase Presents Wonder Woman, Volume 4 ($19.99) is a welcome release. But I’d gladly wait on that to get either one of Archaia’s Jim Henson books coming out this week: Jim Henson’s The Storyteller ($19.95) or A Tale of Sand ($29.95). Both sound fantastic, but if forced to choose, I’d grab Storyteller first for its impressive line-up of its own storytellers. In addition to the ones Graeme mentioned above, I’m especially looking forward to stories by Roger Langridge, Marjorie Liu, Ron Marz, Francesco Francavilla, Chris Eliopoulos, Colleen Coover, and Janet Lee.

Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland

Bill Willingham’s Fables original graphic novel Werewolves of the Heartland, originally set to debut this fall, has been officially postponed until Sept. 5, 2012, Vertigo revealed this morning. No reason was given for the delay.

Announced in 2009 at Comic-Con International, the graphic novel follows Bigby Wolf as he searches the Midwest for a new location for Fabletown: “In his wanderings, Bigby stumbles across a small town named Story City, that, amazingly enough, seems to be populated by werewolves. Who are they and where did they come from? They aren’t Fables, but they sure aren’t normal mundys. They seem to already know and revere Bigby, but at the same time they’ve captured and caged him – but why? Unravelling the many mysteries of Story City may cost Bigby more than his life.”

The 160-page book features interior art by Jim Fern, Craig Hamilton and Ray Snyder, and a cover by Daniel Dos Santos.

Fables #108 arrived in stores last week. The spinoff anthology Fairest premieres in early 2012.

Supergirl

Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy at our local comic shop based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a “Splurge” item.

Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.

Graeme McMillan

As we’re heading towards the middle of August, it’s no surprise that curiosity is getting me to pick up more than a few DC books just see how particular series “end;” I’d be getting Justice League of America #60 and Legion of Super-Heroes #16 (both DC, $2.99) anyway, because I’ve been following those series for awhile, but I’m likely to add Batman #713 (DC, $2.99) to the pile as well, if only to see the explanation as to why Dick quits being Batman before the big relaunch. But it’s not all endings for me with my $15 this week; I’d also make a point of grabbing Daredevil #2 (Marvel, $2.99), because the first issue was just breathtakingly good, and the series became a must-read before I’d even reached the last page.

If I had $30 this week, I’d add to my list of DC final issues with Supergirl #67 (DC, $2.99), which Kelly Sue DeConnick has talked up in interviews as being the highpoint of her short run to date and a great capper to the series as a whole. I’d also check in with the third issue of David Hahn’s All Nighter (Image, $2.99), as well as see if Nick Spencer’s Iron Man 2.0 is worth a look with the mini-collection of the first three issues, Iron Man 2.0: Modern Warfare (Marvel, $4.99).

Splurging this week is tough. On the one hand, there’s the hardcover Secret Society of Super-Villains (DC, $39.99), but there’s also the We3 Deluxe Edition with brand new story pages (DC, $24.99) and also a rescheduled release for the Alex Toth book Setting The Standard (Fantagraphics, $39.99). Any one would be good comics, but I’m probably going to plump for the SSoSV. What can I say? Read something as an impressionable pre-teen and it stays with you…

Brigid Alverson

Elephantmen, Book 2: Fatal Diseases

If I had $15, I’d borrow a dollar (or, more precisely, 98 cents) so I can afford my top two picks: vol. 16 of Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys ($12.99), possibly the most awesome manga ever, and Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors #4 ($2.99), continuing the charming and action-packed saga of a school for super villains.

If I had $30, well, call me fickle but I think I’d hold off on 20th Century Boys until next week and pick up the Elephantmen, Book 2: Fatal Diseases ($24.99) instead. I’m still reading the first volume, but I’m intrigued by this quirky comic.

Splurge: The Smurfs book from Abrams looks tempting (I can’t believe I just said that!), but my love of all things retro is going to lead me to Drawing Power: A Compendium of Cartoon Advertising ($29.99) from Fantagraphics instead. And if my splurge could extend to one more book, it would be the seventh volume of the Library of American Comics collection of Little Orphan Annie, a steal at $49.99.

Chris Arrant

Daredevil #2

If I had $15, I’d carve off half of it to get the awesome line-up inside DC Comics Presents Teen Titans #1 (DC, $7.99). Seriously, Bob Haney, Mike Allred and Jay Stephens? They seem ideal candidates for DC’s Retroactive titles; hell, I’d love to see them mastermind more. Next up I would get my two long-term serials, DMZ #68 (DC, $2.99) and Walking Dead #88 (Image, $2.99); both are bleak as hell, but they offer some redeeming qualities in their humanity.

If I had $30, I’d double-back and get a trio of Marvel titles: Avengers #16 (Marvel, $3.99), Daredevil #2 (Marvel, $2.99) and X-Men Schism #3 (Marvel, $3.99). I’m particularly interested in Daredevil #2 to see what Waid, Rivera and Martin continue to do on this; can they keep being as good as #1? Last up I’d get the Image one-shot Deadlands: Death Was Silent (Image, $2.99). I have some serious admiration for Bart Sears, and this is the latest in an all-too-rare fix for that.

If I had a chance to splurge, I’d get the long-delayed 99 Days (DC/Vertigo Crime, $19.99). Writer Mateo Casali and artist Kristian Donaldson are two up-and-comers, and I’m anxious to see more of them. I’ve read the story solicitation but couldn’t tell you what it’s about; I’m buying this strictly for the creators involved.

Michael May

Mr. Murder is Dead

If I had $15, I’d start with Supergirl #67 ($2.99) to finish the fun story Kelly Sue DeConnick’s been telling there. I’d also grab the latest Deadlands one-shot, Death Was Silent ($2.99) by Ron Marz and Bart Sears, as well as Heap #1 ($3.99), because if there’s anything cooler than comics about swamp creatures, it’s comics about Nazi-fighting swamp creatures. To round off the ticket, I’d grab Stan Lee’s Soldier Zero ($3.99) based on Graeme’s recommendation.

If I had $30, I’d put back Soldier Zero for another day and use that money toward Mr. Murder is Dead ($19.95). Artist Brent Schoonover is a friend of mine, but don’t hold that against him. He’s a fantastic artist and the perfect one for this whodunit homage to Golden Age comic strips. And since it’s from Archaia, you know the package is going to be beautiful too.

I have way too many splurge items this week, from the latest volume of B.P.R.D. ($19.99) to the special editions of We3 ($24.99) and Elephantmen Vol. 2 ($24.99). But if I had to pick one thing it would be Tales of the Batman: Gene Colan ($39.99) for the same reason that Graeme’s getting The Secret Society of Super-Villains: ten-year-old me couldn’t get enough of that stuff.

JK Parkin

X-Men Schism #3

I guess I’m the opposite of Graeme in that, with the exception of the titles I was already reading, I find myself less intrigued by what DC is doing this month as storylines are wrapped up in preparation for the relaunch in September. So this week I find myself DCU-less, though there are a couple of Vertigo books I’m considering. In any event, I do know four books I am eagerly awaiting for Wednesday — Captain America #2 ($3.99), Butcher Baker Candlestickmaker #2 ($3.99), Daredevil #2 ($2.99) and X-Men Schism #3 ($3.99). As a longtime fan of Ed Brubaker’s run on Cap, as well as The Boys, those first two were easy. And like Chris and Graeme noted, Daredevil #1 was pretty great, so I’m looking forward to the next issue. Schism actually kinda surprised me; over the last few years I’ve bought the big X-events as trades, usually well after they were over and at a decent discount. I’m an old-school X-Men fan, but in recent years my interest has waned. I ended up downloading the first issue of Schism via Marvel’s iPad app (as it was available on the same day it hit shops) and was really impressed with it.

That eats up my first $15, so if I had $30, I’d also get the weirdest Fear Itself tie-in and possibly one of the weirdest Marvel titles I’ve read in awhile, Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #3 ($2.99). It features Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Nighthawk, She-Hulk, Frankenstein and like 10 different artists doing the art. Well, not really, but so far it’s featured artwork by Ryan Bodenheim (more or less the regular artist, or at least the guy who has drawn most of it so far), Michael Kaluta (he’s also doing the covers), friggin’ Simon Bisley, and this issue will feature Flint Henry. But wait! There’s more — it’ll also include the New Fantastic Four (Wolverine, Spider-Man, Hulk and Ghost Rider) plus the Psycho-Man! It’s been part crazy throw-in-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink fun, part train wreck, but I’m reluctant to look away at this point.

Wow, I kind of went long there, so I’ll be quick and say I’d round out my week with Fables #108 ($2.99), Walking Dead #88 ($2.99) and Avengers #16 ($3.99). And finally, for my splurge, I would probably also go with 99 Days ($19.99).

Jack Kirby

Legal | Marc Toberoff, the lawyer suing Marvel on behalf of Jack Kirby’s heirs, plans to appeal Thursday’s ruling by New York federal judge Colleen McMahon that the Kirby estate had no claim to copyrights on the superheroes Kirby co-created for Marvel Comics. “We respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling and intend to appeal this matter to the Second Circuit,” Toberoff told The Hollywood Reporter. “Sometimes you have to lose in order to win.” [The Hollywood Reporter]

Creators | Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison chat about Supergods, The Sandman, Superman and more. “…when I did comics, it was also a performance,” Morrison said. “It’s like playing live. You don’t get much time to edit; we don’t really do second drafts in our business. I love that aspect of comics, where you could have a Sandman out and people would be talking about it immediately, and we could be responding to things that were happening all around us and it could be published three months later, or two months later, depending on how late we were. It’s not like writing a book, which is over a span of years like building a cathedral. The comic is so instant. That’s why it covers the seismic shifts of culture very, very accurately.” [Shelf Life]

Jellaby

Creators | Jellaby creator Kean Soo talks to Eva Volin about making the transition from electrical engineer to comics creator (with a little help from Scott McCloud), and his newest project. [Good Comics for Kids]

Comic strips | Jay Stephens and Bob Weber, Jr. have stopped producing their all-ages comic strip Oh, Brother!. “I say with deep disappointment that Oh, Brother! didn’t connect with newspaper editors in this current climate of cutbacks and downsizing,” Stephens told his local paper. [Guelph Mercury, via The Comics Reporter]

Publishing | SmarterComics will release a comic adaptation of The 50th Law, a self-help book written by rapper 50 Cent and Robert Greene. [CMU Daily]

Digital | David Brothers looks back at the digital comics announcements made Comic-Con International in San Diego. [ComicsAlliance]

Conventions | Editor Tim Beedle reflects on attending Comic-Con as a freelancer as opposed to a fan, an experience that included selling a copy of Strawberry Shortcake to a porn star and sharing a hotel room with four women, which was not quite as much fun as manga makes it seem. [Words That Stay]

Comic-Con International

Conventions | Applications for exhibitors and Artists’ Alley for the 2012 Comic-Con International in San Diego are now available. Applications for the former are due by Dec. 31, while applications for the latter are due Sept. 23. [CCI]

Retailers | Comic shop Atomik Pop! will close its Norman, Oklahoma, location on Saturday. Its store in Oklahoma City will remain open. [The Oklahoma Daily]

Process | Letterer Todd Klein shows one page from Fables in all its stages, from pencils through finished piece. [Todd's Blog]

Fandom | Casey Putsch, owner of Putsch Racing, has built a turbine-powered Batmobile replica based on the car from Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns films. Putsch used a Boeing turbine engine from a decommissioned military helicopter to build the car, which can reach top speeds between 165 mph and 180 mph. [The Lantern]

Crime | Some of Brent Anderson’s Astro City and Green Lantern art was stolen from his car in San Diego. [The Beat]

Saga

Three down, one to go … here’s a list of the major comics-related announcements made at Comic-Con International in San Diego on Saturday:

• A number of new projects were announced or promoted at Image’s Creator-Owned Comics panel, not the least of which is the return of Brian K. Vaughan to comic books. Vaughan will write a book called Saga, which is co-created and drawn by Fiona Staples. Vaughan told CBR that the book is “an epic drama chronicling the life and times of one young family fighting to survive a never-ending war. 100 percent creator-owned. Ongoing. Monthly. Fiona and I are banking issues now.”

• Image also announced that Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman is collaborating with Charlie Adlard on a new series of graphic novels called Album. The books will be released roughly 18 months apart, 60 pages long, with different themes each year, with the first being Passenger. It’s co-published with Delcourt in France and will be available simultaneously in English and France.

• Jonathan Hickman and Nicky Pitarra will team up for The Manhattan Projects at Image. Hickman is also doing a book called Secret with artist Ryan Godenheim.

• Joe Keatinge and Frank Cho are teaming for a new comic called Brutal. The book stars Stone, a mysterious super-assassin who kills superheroes.

• Jonathan Ross and Tommy Lee Edwards will team up again for Golden Age, an ongoing comic about retired superheroes. Matthew Vaughn is attached to a film version adapting the first six issues. Ross is also working on a “reverse Superman” project called Home Life, about an Earth baby sent to another planet.

• Howard Chaykin’s Black Kiss will return to comics with a new miniseries at Image.

• Fantagraphics announced two major archival collections, the complete Zap Comics and the EC Comics Library.

Cable

• Marvel announced the return of Cable by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness. “Those of you that are longtime X-Men fans – who I have tremendous respect for – when I first started at Marvel back when they were on paper was Cable,” Loeb said at the Cup O’ Joe panel. “He is a character that I love, and like all of you was absolutely shocked and terrified when he went down in Messiah CompleX and the Second Coming storyline.”

• Marvel also announced that their “Point One” issues in November will be stand-alone entry points, but will also set the stage for the next major crossover event next year.

• At the Vertigo: Fables panel, Bill Willingham announced a new Fables spinoff, Fairest. The creative team for the first arc, which will feature Sleeping Beauty, will be Willingham and artist Phil Jimenez.

• Justice League writer Geoff Johns revealed that the League’s mystery lady is Lady Luck.

• The protest against DC’s upcoming relaunch drew very few actual protestors. ComicsAlliance reports only a dozen or so protestors, mostly dressed as the Joker and Harlequin, showed up.

• Legendary Comics announced two projects, a new edition of Paul Pope’s Pulp Hope and a new series by Matt Wagner, The Tower Chronicles.

• Marvel is developing a live-action Mockingbird television series for ABC Family.

• Top Cow chief Marc Silvestri teased a possible Darkness origin story movie.

• The Amazing Spider-Man‘s Rhys Ifans, who plays Dr. Curt Connors, was issued a citation backstage after some sort of incident. Police said it was a “non-custodial misdemeanor arrest.” The movie’s star, Andrew Garfield, popped up at the microphone in the crowd dressed in a store-bought Spider-Man costume.

• Twentieth Century Fox is developing an animated feature based on the Mutts comic strip by Patrick McDonnell.

• Capcom confirmed the characters that were accidentally leaked on one of their servers will indeed be playable characters on the upcoming Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 game. On the Marvel side, the list includes Iron Fist, Ghost Rider, Dr. Strange, Nova, Hawkeye and Rocket Raccoon. On the Capcom side, it includes Strider, Firebrand, Vergil, Frank West, Nemesis and Phoenix Wright.

• Speaking of Marvel vs. Capcom, Udon announced they will create a “book of design and production artwork, as well as all new art pieces” based on the game. They also announced artbooks for the Sengoku Basara game franchise, the Valkyria Chronicles 2 game, and Persona designer Shigenori Soejima. Udon will also publish a two-volume manga for Sengoku Basara.

Bufkin the Hero

If you read Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham’s work on Fables, you know the real star of the show isn’t Bigby or Boy Blue or even Flycatcher — it’s the little winged monkey Bufkin. Buckingham captures his majesty in the above print, which has a very small print run for a very small hero.

Only 25 were created, and five of them will be given away to the winners of the Hero Initiative‘s “Meet Willingham and Bucky on the yacht” auctions. Five fans will get to chat with the duo about Fables, get the print and ask one question that the creators will answer with “no hokum, no equivocation, no bush-beating and no balderdash.”

Another five will be given away at the Fables panel at the San Diego Comic-Con to the folks who ask the five best questions. How the remaining 15 will be distributed has yet to be determined, according to the Hero Initiative’s Jim McLauchlin.

Free Comic Book Day

Retailing | More than 1 million customers visited participating stores on Free Comic Book Day, according to a survey conducted by Diamond Comic Distributors. More than 2.4 million of the record 2.7 million comics ordered by retailers were handed out. What’s more, nearly 54 percent of stores saw higher profits than usual for a Saturday, while more than 37 percent reported higher profits than on a typical Wednesday. [ICv2.com]

Awards | Bob Haney and Del Connell will receive the 2011 Bill Finger Award for Achievement in Comic Book Writing, established in honor of the late writer, considered the “unsung hero” of Batman. Haney, who passed away, in 2004, is best remembered as co-creator of the Doom Patrol and Metamorpho and for his work on DC titles like The Brave and the Bold, Teen Titans and Aquaman. Connell, who began his career at Disney Studios working on such animated projects as Alice in Wonderland and The Three Caballeros, became a prolific writer and, eventually, editor-in-chief at Western Publishing. He also wrote the Mickey Mouse comic strips for more than 20 years. Connell, 94, will accept his award July 22 during the Eisner Awards ceremony at Comic-Con International. [Comic-Con]

Comic-Con International

Comic-Con | Organizers of Comic-Con International met the June 2 deadline to submit an application for a business license in La Mesa, Calif., where the nonprofit group has operated for the past five years. However, a local writer seems bothered that the organization, which lists assets of more than $7 million, isn’t required to pay a fee — $35, plus $3 per employee — for its business license. [Patch.com]

Retailing | A water main next to Mostly Comics in St. Catharines, Ontario, burst last week, damaging an estimated 250,000 back issues stored in the basement. [The Standard]

Conventions | Local newspapers preview the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, which kicks off this afternoon in Alberta, Canada. Comic guests include Neal Adams, Kate Beaton, Amanda Conner, Danielle Corsetto, Geof Darrow, Kathryn Immonen, Stuart Immonen, Scott Kurtz, Jeff Lemire, Francis Manapul, Mike Mignola, Dustin Nguyen, Ethan Nicolle, Cary Nord, Tim Sale, Gail Simone, Fiona Staples and Cameron Stewart. [Calgary Sun, Calgary Herald]

Fables, Vol. 14

Creators | Bill Willingham talks Fables and fairy tales: “With my Elementals series, I was one of the lesser known pioneers (at the same time as Frank Miller with Daredevil and then Dark Knight, and Alan Moore with Marvelman and then Watchmen) of serious, realistic takes on superheroes. As much as I like some of what I did back then, I’ve come to a complete turnaround on my philosophy of what makes a good superhero story. The more we tried to explain how this seemingly impossible thing works, to ground it more in reality, the more power we leached out of the concept. I now feel that superheroes should be treated more like fairy tales and less like science fiction. In fairy tales, someone can do an amazing thing, because the storyteller just said so. In superhero comics Superman can pull a planet through space because the writer and artist just said he could and showed him doing it. Period. Once you try to explain how that’s possible, you rob the storyteller of his authority.” [io9.com]

Creators | A preview of a store signing in Norfolk, Virginia, by FF writer Jonathan Hickman wins for headline of the week: “Human Torch’s killer stops in Norfolk.” [Virginian-Pilot]

Creators | Paul Hornschemeier chats briefly about his new graphic novel Life with Mr. Dangerous. [Speakeasy]

Creators | Peter Hogan discusses Tom Strong and the Robots of Doom. [Omnivoracious]

Creators | Alan Moore discusses his long-discussed 750,000-word second novel Jerusalem: “Any editor worth their salt would tell me to cut two-thirds of this book but that’s not going to happen. I doubt that Herman Melville had an editor — if he had, that editor would have told him to get rid of all that boring stuff about whaling: ‘Cut to the chase, Herman.’” [New Statesman]

Comics | A. David Lewis, a comics writer and doctoral student in religion and literature, discusses his dissertation — it’s about depictions of the afterlife in comics and other pop culture — the rise of Islamic superheroes in Western comic books. [BU Today]

Bill Blackbeard

Passings | Writer, editor and historian Bill Blackbeard, widely credited with saving the American comic strip from the ash heap of history, passed away on March 10 at a nursing home in Watsonville, Calif. He was 84. A lifelong collector of comic strips, Blackbeard founded the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art in 1968, filling the garage and basement with thousands of bound volumes of old newspapers let go by libraries when they converted their archives to microfilm. His collection grew by the 1990s to 350,000 Sunday strips and 2.5 million dailies, which eventually made their way to Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. Blackbeard wrote, edited or contributed to more than 200 books on cartoons and comic strips, including The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics, 100 Years of Comic Strips and Fantagraphics’ Krazy & Ignatz series.

Numerous obituaries and reminisces have appeared since yesterday, most notably from R.C. Harvey, Tom Spurgeon, Jeet Heer, Dylan Williams, ICv2.com, and Dan Nadel, who collected a handful of tributes. [The Comics Journal]

Borders

Retailing | The bankrupt Borders Group, the second-largest book chain in the United States, is investigating whether any of its customers’ personal data was exposed on a website that purportedly contained information about its loyalty program. The website, which has been taken offline, reportedly published a searchable database of information associated with Borders Rewards, which has more than 41 million members. The site was apparently set up by the marketing firm that helped the bookseller design and implement the program. [AnnArbor.com]

Retailing | Judith Rosen surveys independent bookstores in New York, and finds things are better than one might expect. [Publishers Weekly]

Creators | Danny Graydon talks with Fables writer Bill Willingham about the origins of the Vertigo series, collaborating with Mark Buckingham, the forthcoming original graphic novel Werewolves of the Heartland, and the title’s enduring appeal: “It’s a story in which you can understand what we’re trying to do in a single line – characters you know from fairy tales in a modern setting – so it’s available and open to people who wouldn’t be inclined to pick up a brand new series. The other thing is that we have been blessed with a fanatical and evangelical readership. They put these things in the hands of their non-comic book reading father or mother or girlfriend and what have you and say ‘This is why I love comics’ and a lot of people get attracted to the series that way. [Danny Graydon, via Forbidden Planet International]

Creators | Paul Morton interviews Shaun Tan. [The Millions]

Crime | A man was wounded Sunday in Columbus, Ohio, after a shotgun being used as a prop in an amateur Spider-Man movie fired, striking him in the leg. No charges were filed. [WBNS-10TV]

The Unwritten, Vol. 2: Inside Man

Finalists have been announced for the 2011 Hugo Awards, which recognize the best in science fiction and fantasy.

Presented annually since 1955 by the World Science Fiction Society, the Hugo is among science fiction’s most prestigious awards. This year’s winner will be presented Aug. 20 in Reno, Nevada, during Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention.

The nominees for best graphic story are:

• Fables, Vol. 14: Witches, written by Bill Willingham; illustrated by Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Jim Fern, Craig Hamilton and David Lapham (Vertigo)
• Girl Genius, Vol. 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse, written by Phil and Kaja Foglio; art by Phil Foglio; colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
• Grandville Mon Amour, by Bryan Talbot (Dark Horse)
• Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel, written and illustrated by Howard Tayler; colors by Howard Tayler and Travis Walton (Hypernode)
• The Unwritten, Vol. 2: Inside Man, written by Mike Carey; illustrated by Peter Gross (Vertigo)

This is the third year for the graphic story category. Girl Genius won the award the two previous years.

The full list of nominees can be found on the Renovation website.

Dark Horse Presents #1

Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy on Wednesday based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on what we call our “Splurge” item.

Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList if you’d like to play along in our comments section.

Chris Arrant

If I had $15, the first pick this week would be the relaunched Dark Horse Presents #1 (Dark Horse, $7.99). As a reader of the title in all its previous incarnations, I have a love for the format but also a desire to see them improve on it; editor Mike Richardson seems to have the right mix of big names and up-and-comers to make this work. Second up would be DMZ #64 (DC/Vertigo, $2.99), and this issue is the final issue in the “Free States Rising” arc and the first real sit-down between Matty and Zee in ages. Third would be Rick Remender’s covert ops squad Uncanny X-Force #8 (Marvel, $3.99). At first glance I question why I like this so much, but when I think about it, it becomes easy: I enjoy Remender’s storytelling, the artists they’ve had and the fearless nature to dig up some classic concepts from early 90s X-Men comics and general Marvel U stuff.

If I found $30 in my pocket instead of $15, I’d double back and pick up a pair of Invincibles: Invincible #79 (Image, $2.99) and Invincible Iron Man #503 (Marvel, $3.99). I really enjoy what these two teams are doing: carving out long expanding story-arcs that can only happen with long-term teams like these two have been fortunate enough to have. Third would be Jason Aaron and Daniel Acuna’s Wolverine #8 (Marvel, $3.99); although Daniel Acuna is known as a more glossy artist akin to Ed McGuinness meets Alex Ross, I think he really bucks that with the story arc he’s working on here. Lastly would be Avengers #12 (Marvel, $3.99) -– it really blows my mind that Bendis and Romita can do such a throw-back classic Avengers story and still keep the high sales going. I’m not complaining -– I love these stories as much as I love Avengers comics of lore, but they never sold this well.

For my splurge, I’d get the 2000 AD Pack Mar 2011 ($25). These are originally sold weekly in the UK, but for U.S. distribution Diamond has them sold in monthly bundles like this. I’m not a regular reader of the progs, but I like to drop in from time to time and… well, this is one of those times.

Graeme McMillan

Legion of the Damned

Weirdly enough, if I had $15 this week, I still wouldn’t be able to get the two comics I really want this week. Let’s make that happen by stealing a dollar from the Schroedinger’s Cat me that has $30 for a second so that I can grab both Dark Horse Presents #1 (Dark Horse, $7.99), the new take on the classic anthology, and DC Comics Presents Legion Of Super-Heroes: Legion Of The Damned #1 (DC, $7.99), the collection of the “Zombies In Future Space!” storyline from a few years ago that launched the Abnett/Lanning/Oliver Coipel-era of the franchise; I read the latter part of that run, but have always been curious about the never-before-collected opening. Now is my chance!

If I had $30, I’d wonder why another me stole a dollar earlier on, but I’d move on and pick up the first issue of Matt Sturges’ new Doctor Who: A Fairytale Life (IDW, $3.99) to get myself in the mood for this weekend’s return of the show to BBC America (Seriously, I cannot wait) and a couple of Marvel oddities: Spectacular Spider-Man #1000 (Marvel, $4.99) — a home for unused inventory stories, perhaps, but I like Spider-Man and anniversary issues, even fake ones like this — and the Marvel Backlist Reading Chronology #1 (Marvel, $1.99), in which Marvel apparently admits that its backlist needs a score card to keep straight.

Splurgewise, there’s some good material out there (Martian Confederacy Vol. 2? The new Dan Clowes, “Mister Wonderful”?), but my heart belongs to the new Astro City collection, Shining Stars (DC, $24.99). I was a latecomer to Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson’s love letter to superheroes and superhero comics, but that doesn’t mean I love the series any the less. I’m really looking forward to this one.

Chris Mautner

Tubby

If I had $15:

I’d also grab a dollar from Graeme’s alternate universe self and pick up a copy of Tubby Vol. 3: The Frog Boy ($15.99). Taking money from a theoretical version of Mr. McMillan may seem unfair, but I’m pretty ruthless when it comes to getting my hands on some John Stanley.

If I had $30:

Dan Clowes’ Mister Wonderful ($19.99), the collected version of the lovelorn misanthrope story he did for The New York Times, looks pretty nifty and was the talk of MoCCA, so that would probably be my first pick. I’d also at least flip through the latest volume of 20th Century Boys ($12.99), The Klondike, Zach Worton’s debut graphic novel about the Yukon gold rush back in the early part of the 20th century ($24.95), and Girl and Gorilla ($10.99), Maddy Flores’ book about … well, it’s there in the title, isn’t it? Actually, I’d probably just nab more cash from Earth-2 Graeme, since he’s apparently rather flush with cash in that universe.

Splurge:

It’s not a splurge for me since I already own them, but if you want to dip your toe into Robert Crumb waters, Fantagraphics has new editions of Vol. 13 and 15 ($19.99 each) in their Complete Crumb line. Both feature some really great works by the master. As for myself, I normally wouldn’t splurge on something like Archie: Seven Decades of America’s Favorite Teenager ($49.99), but since Graeme’s footing the bill, I’ll indulge.

JK Parkin

Fables #104

Unfortunately I have some bad news for Earth-1 and Earth-2 Graeme, assuming they were both interested in Legion Of Super-Heroes: Legion Of The Damned #1 … per an email this morning from one of the retailers where I get my comics, apparently the chapters were printed in the wrong order and it won’t be out until May 11.

With my own $15 I’d first grab the new Robert Kirkman/Jason Howard all ages title about a boy genius and his best friend, Super Dinosaur #1 ($2.99). I’d follow it up with Fables #104 ($2.99), which continues the Super Fables storyline. Greg Pak is having a lot of fun with the de-powered Silver Surfer, and I’m having fun reading it, so I’d grab issue #3 ($2.99). And lastly, two current favorites, Legion of Super-Heroes #12 and Zatanna #12, both $2.99, would round it out, leaving me just a few pennies to donate to Earth-2 Graeme, who likely could use some financial help after all the money that’s “disappeared” from his wallet lately.

If I had $30, I’d also get Amity Blamity ($10.95), the new graphic novel by Mike White. That leaves room for one more book, so I figure why not try out 68 #1, the new zombie comic from Mark Kidwell and Jay Fotos.

Splurgewise, there’s lots to choose from; I’d probably get both The Martian Confederacy: From Mars With Love ($15) and the Mr. Wonderful collection ($19.95).

Michael May

Sigil #2

If I had $15:

I’d start with the Marvel Backlist Reading Chronology ($1.99) because it’s cheap, because I’m the kind of nerd who enjoys reading things in order (though I suppose that describes most of us), and because when I switched from periodical issues to collected editions, I did so haphazardly without a real plan. That means that I’ve missed a lot of stuff I’d like to read and appreciate Marvel’s coming up with an aid to help me correct that. It would be nicer if it was free, since it’s essentially a catalog, but I’m not going to gripe about paying $2 for almost 100 pages of reading suggestions.

Next I’d get Sigil #2 ($2.99), which re-introduces El Cazador to comics readers and Skaar: King of the Savage Land #2 ($2.99) for obvious reasons. Switching over to Image, I’d also add Super Dinosaur #1 ($2.99) to see if it’s more than just a fun concept and ’68 #1 ($3.99) because I enjoyed the Viet Nam/Night of the Living Dead-prequel one-shot and think there’s enough there to explore that world some more.

If I had $30:

I’d add Amity Blamity, Volume 1 ($10.95) because it’s about a little girl who – with her pet pig – has to save her moonshining uncle from genetic mutation at the hands of “strange forest critters.” It’s probably wrong that the most attractive part of the story for me is the idea of the girl and her pig as ‘shine-runners. I’d read it just for that. Lurkers in the woods are bonus.

Splurge:

Like Graeme and Chris, I’m looking forward to Dark Horse Presents #1 ($7.99), but the price tag makes it a splurge item for me. I don’t think it’s over-priced – $8 for 80 pages is a good deal – but the extra pages and color print aren’t necessary. I’d rather have the old format. Still, that’s an impressive line-up of creators and the DHP name sets a high bar for expectations of quality, so I imagine that I’ll regret it if I leave the store without this.

Fear Itself #1

Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy on Wednesday based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on what we call our “Splurge” item.

Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList if you’d like to play along in our comments section.

Graeme McMillan

There comes a time when curiosity overwhelms common sense, which is why if I had $15 this week, I’d pick up Fear Itself #1 (Marvel Comics, $3.99). I’m not sold on the series, as much as I love crossovers – Immonen on art is a big draw, but Fraction has been very uneven recently for me – and, despite some of the reviews I’ve read, I’m hearing word that it’s more of a case of “You’ll like this if this is the kind of thing you like” book than a home run. We’ll see. I’m much more excited about Nate Simpson’s Nonplayer #1 (Image Comics, $2.99); the previews look amazing, and everyone I know who’s read a preview copy has only had glowing praise for it. I’ll also be picking up the second (and final) issue of IDW’s crossover event Infestation ($3.99), as I want to know how the whole thing ends up, and the spoilers for Brightest Day #23 (DC Comics, $2.99) make that a must-have, too, even if it’s more for “They’re doing WHAT?” reasons than genuine excitement.

If I had $30, I’d use that leftover dollar from my $15 and grab the latest Fables trade, Vol. 15: Rose Red (DC/Vertigo, $15.99). It doesn’t feel that long since the last collection, but I am not complaining: I love me some Fables.

Splurgewise, it’s a week of many choices for me. If I hadn’t received a preview copy of Vertigo’s Aaron and Ahmed HC ($24.99), I would’ve been sorely tempted, and IDW’s new edition of Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen’s Superstar: As Seen on TV ($14.99) is calling out to me, as well. But ultimately, the lure of the Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack HC (Dark Horse Comics, $24.99) is too strong. I love love love Nicholas Gurewitch’s funny, unsettling and occasionally beautiful strip, but never bought any of the previous print editions. Somehow, an almanack sounds like just the right thing to remedy that oversight, don’t you think?

Michael May

If I had $15:

Nonplayer #1

I’d join Graeme in picking up the gorgeously fantastic Nonplayer #1 ($2.99) and add to it Skaar: King of the Savage Land #1 ($2.99), ’cause I love the Savage Land. I’d top off my pile with Graphic Universe’s Chicagoland Detective Agency, Vol. 2: The Maltese Mummy ($6.95), partly because I like the creators – Trina Robbins and Tyler Page (Stylish Vittles, Nothing Better) – but mostly because it combines four things I also like: teen sleuths, a talking dog, film noir and of course mummies.

If I had $30:

I’d add My Boyfriend is a Monster, Volume 2: Made for Each Other ($9.95), part of Graphic Universe’s attempt to get their fair share of that sweet Twilight action by combining young romance and horror, only in a way that looks much more palatable than the thing it’s cashing in on. This volume combines teen love with the story of Frankenstein, and I’m always interested in a new take on Frankenstein.

Since I still have $7 in my pocket, I’ll also get Image’s noirish (or as noirish as a book with ninjas and hippies can be) Blue Estate #1 ($2.99). I’d also come to Solomon Kane: Red Shadows #1 ($3.50) for the Guy Davis cover, but plan on staying for the story. I haven’t checked out the Solomon Kane books yet and am eager to find out what I’ve been missing.

Splurge:

The Chaos War collection ($19.99) is a true splurge, because I really only want it for issue #5, the return of Alpha Flight, and don’t want to buy just that single issue to stuff in a box in the closet. If I’m going to have it, I want it sitting on the bookshelf next to the eventual collection of the upcoming AF mini-series that it leads into.

JK Parkin

Blue Estate #1

If I had $15:

There are several new series competing for my cash this week. First up is Nonplayer #1 ($2.99), “the next Image Comics classic,” according to Andy Khouri at ComicsAlliance. This book came up at the panel I was on at WonderCon this weekend (which I will hopefully find time to talk about before next year’s WonderCon) and Simpson was at the Image table selling advanced copies and signing and all that good stuff. It looks pretty amazing. Next would be another new Image title, Blue Estate #1, which I haven’t seen as much about, but I like the premise and it looks like fun. The new Herc ($3.99) series has Fred Van Lente, and a depowered Hercules, and … yeah, I’m sold. And finally, Fear Itself #1 ($3.99), as I like Fraction’s work on Iron Man and Thor and hopefully on this as well.

If I had $30:

Then I’d add Chew #18 ($2.99), one of the best books around. Jonah Hex #66 ($2.99) features some stellar artwork by Fiona Staples. I’m digging Annihilators, both in terms of the main story and back-up, so issue #2 goes in the cart for $4.99, and I’d round it out with Love & Capes: Ever After #3 ($3.99), a perpetual favorite.

Splurge:

There are a few good things worth highlighting this week, one being Aaron and Ahmed ($24.99), the new graphic novel from Vertigo. Reunion ($19.95) is something I already picked up at WonderCon, and finally, Happiness is A Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown ($19.99) is exactly the kind of book I’d buy for my Peanuts-loving relatives (of which I have many).

Every week, I get an e-mail from comiXology listing all of its new issues for the week, but the order seems to be somewhere between alphabetical and random. Viz Media also does a nice job of letting me know what’s new on its app. Graphicly sends a chatty e-mail featuring a couple of titles, but the company doesn’t put them front and center in its app, so I have to go looking for them (and it’s not the most intuitive interface). And while I know the iVerse folks have been busy, they don’t update their blog or (as far as I can tell) send out e-mails. This is all my way of saying that while the following may seem heavy on comiXology content, that’s not because I’m biased — it’s because comiXology has more titles and is doing a better job of promoting them.

That said, I thought it would be helpful to sift through this week’s offerings and pull out some good weekend reading.

A couple of classic series are debuting on comiXology this week. Having attended both the Vertigo panel and the Bill Willingham spotlight panel at C2E2, I was interested in seeing more of Fables, so it’s a happy coincidence that Jack of Fables #1 is up there for free. It’s just as clever as the main series, and Tony Akins’ supple penciling is a treat for the eyes. (One of the things I enjoy about Fables is that there is plenty of eye candy for the ladies as well as the guys.) Sometimes the free samples are kind of mingy, but not here: This is the whole first issue of Jack of Fables, and if that whets your appetite, Issue 2 is up there for $1.99.

Also new this week, although, sadly, not free, is Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s Batman and Robin. The first six issues, comprising two complete story arcs, are up this week.

For less than a buck you can jump in to the Archie Marries Veronica saga with Archie #600, which kicks off the first story arc (in the second—spoiler alert!—he marries Betty). Oh, and here’s that Wonder Woman #600 that Tom was just talking about.

There were three same-day-as-print releases this week, Walking Dead #83, World of Warcraft: Curse of the Worgren #5, and Jughead #206. Also, they are offering half off on Elephantmen comics.

Finally, here’s a comic that’s a little offbeat: Sherlock Holmes: The Painful Predicament of Alice Faulkner, by Bret Herholz and Rori Shapiro. It’s from Alterna, and done in a sort of Edward Gorey style, which fits the subject matter rather nicely. At $1.99 for 130 pages, it’s a real bargain if that’s your cup of tea.

Viz gets ahead of the day-and-date game by releasing the fourth volume of Bakuman this week, a week ahead of the print release. Created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata (Death Note), this is the story of two would-be manga creators, and with its clean-lined style, it’s a nice read even if you’re not a fanatical manga fan. (You can check out the first chapter for free at the publisher’s website.) Also new on the app this week are Vol. 19 of Naruto, Vol. 19 of One Piece, Vol. 11 of Bleach, and a handful of others, skewing heavily toward shonen action series.

Over at Graphicly, the newsletter was promoting Ryan Cody’s Icarus, but there is only one issue up so far (Robot 6 began serializing Icarus just this week). This week’s featured comics are a decidedly mixed bag: Archie and Friends #153, Incorruptible #15, and the Bluewater Oprah Winfrey bio-comic. I think the Archie and Friends, with its demonic Reggie face dominating the cover, would be my pick from that bunch. There are also three very indy-ish comics up there for free: Bondage #1, Think Weasel #1, and Warlash: Dark Noir #1.

On iVerse’s Comics + reader (sorry, no links as these are not posted on its website), this week’s new comics include two issues from IDW’s Infestation crossover series, Star Trek: Infestation #2 and Transformers: Infestation #2. Also worth a look: Kill Shakespeare #9, which is leading up to a major story twist the creators have promised in issue 10, and Pocket God #6, just because it’s so cute.

Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Vol. 1

Telltale Games is set to announce an agreement with Warner Bros. Interactive to develop video games based on Fables, the acclaimed Vertigo series created by Bill Willingham, All Things Digital reports.

That’s in addition to the earlier rumored games based on AMC’s wildly popular Walking Dead, itself an adaptation of the Image Comics series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard.

The San Rafael, Calif.-based Telltale has created episodic games based on CSI, Wallace & Gromit and Jeff Smith’s Bone. It’s now working on series for the Jurassic Park and Back to the Future franchises. Details of the Fables and Walking Dead games are slim — what you’ve read is all that’s been revealed — but more information should be announced after Telltale’s presentation wraps up later today in San Francisco.

Debuting in 2002, Fables centers on characters characters from folklore and fairy tales who live in exile in modern New York City and elsewhere in the “mundane” world. It’s a premise that certainly lends itself to Telltale’s brand of episodic games.

Update: IGN talks briefly with Kirkman, who says The Walking Dead game will fall “within the comic book world.” Telltale also has released promotional art by Adlard, which you can see after the break.

Update 2: Telltale has made the official announcements about both games. Read the press releases below.

Telltale Games and Robert Kirkman Announce Partnership Bringing The Walking Dead to Gaming

First games in exclusive multi-year, multi-platform, multi-title partnership for groundbreaking series to release Q4 2011

SAN RAFAEL, Calif.–Telltale Games and Robert Kirkman today announce a long term agreement to produce games based on The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead is an epic drama where personal trials are magnified against a backdrop of moment-to-moment survival. As a zombie epidemic of apocalyptic proportions sweeps the globe, the dead are rising to feed on the living. The living are changed by the overwhelming realization that those who survive can be far more dangerous than the mindless walkers roaming the earth. In a world ruled by the dead, the survivors are forced to finally begin living.

“We have been fans of The Walking Dead for years. As a narrative-driven company, we really appreciate Robert Kirkman’s masterful craftsmanship in every story,” said Telltale CEO Dan Connors. “Fans of the franchise are going to be really excited by how we deliver this in the games.”

Published by Image Comics, The Walking Dead comic series earned the 2010 Eisner award winner for Best Continuing Series and is consistently atop the New York Times best-seller list. The television series made its television debut on Halloween 2010 on the AMC cable network and immediately became the most-watched drama series in cable’s history with 18-49 year olds, attracting over 6 million viewers. The television series has earned nominations for numerous top industry awards, including Golden Globes®, Writer’s Guild and Director’s Guild honors.

“The folks at Telltale Games are a great choice for bringing The Walking Dead to life as interactive entertainment,” said The Walking Dead creator/writer Robert Kirkman. “They care as much as I do about the story and characters while seamlessly weaving that into the games they build. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am ecstatic to work with the same people putting out the coolest Jurassic Park game ever.”

The multi-year, multi-title agreement covers PC, Mac, console, handheld, mobile and social gaming media.

Telltale has opened up registration to sign up for timely information and updates at http://www.thewalkingdeadgames.com. Telltale will release additional information on The Walking Dead games in the coming months.

Telltale Games and DC Entertainment Partnering to Create Games Based on Bill Willingham’s ‘FABLES’

SAN RAFAEL, Calif.–Telltale Games, a leading digital publisher, today announced an exclusive multi-platform worldwide publishing agreement with DC Entertainment to create games based on writer and creator Bill Willingham’s award-winning comic book series FABLES. All upcoming games are licensed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

A consistent New York Times bestseller, FABLES is one of DC Comics’ longest-running series published under its Vertigo imprint. The series received over a dozen Eisner Awards including Best Writer, Best New Series, and numerous wins for Best Serialized Story, and was a 2009 Hugo Award nominee for Best Graphic Story.

FABLES imagines that all the characters from the world’s most beloved storybooks are real—real, and living among us, with all of their powers intact. From Snow White and the Big Bad Wolf, to Goldilocks and Little Boy Blue, these beloved characters are alive and well—but they’ve been exiled from the land of fairy tales. Escaping the mysterious Adversary, they have relocated to a magically camouflaged New York City neighborhood known as Fabletown. To survive in the mundane world, the Fables will have to fight for their happily ever after.

“Bill Willingham’s FABLES brings everything we look for in a property to bring to episodic gaming,” said Dan Connors, CEO of Telltale Games. “Strong, iconic characters, deep, nuanced story arcs, and rich, fully realized worlds. This is a series that will work extremely well for the cinematic style of adventures that Telltale delivers.”

“FABLES is one of the cornerstone series of DC’s Vertigo imprint thanks to Bill Willingham’s excellent writing and Mark Buckingham’s gorgeous art,” said Geoff Johns, Chief Creative Officer, DC Entertainment. “At its heart, FABLES is a captivating serialized story built in a new, yet familiar universe, one that will translate to a great episodic gaming experience.”

Telltale has opened up registration to sign up for timely information and updates at http://www.ttgfablesgames.com. Telltale will release more information on the FABLES project later this year.

Deadpool Team-Up #886

Hello and welcome to a special “birthday bash” edition of our weekly “What Are You Reading” feature, where the Robot 6 crew talks about what books we’ve read recently. Usually we invite a special guest to share what they’ve been reading, but since today isn’t just an ordinary day for us, we thought we’d invite a whole bunch of special guests to help us out — our friends and colleagues from Comic Book Resources, Spinoff and Comics Should Be Good!

To see what everyone has been reading, click below …

*****

Brigid Alverson

Fables Deluxe Edition Hardcover, Vol. 1

I’m trying to catch up on some of the books I missed during the long stretch of my life when I was away from comics, so this week I picked up the first volume of Fables. I like the idea a lot—taking the characters of fairy tales and children’s literature and putting them into adult situations—and the stories are interesting enough to keep me reading. The art bothers me a lot, though. The character designs are fine, but the different elements of each panel don’t work together to create a coherent space. Snow White’s office for example, is in a vast room filled with all sorts of clutter—a flying ship, a toppled column, a suit of armor—but it’s as if every piece was drawn separately and then pasted down, like a Coloforms kit. It’s not as obvious in other parts of the book, but that early scene made me aware of it. Also the characters in this first novel don’t wander far from standard stereotypes—the icy executive woman, the bad boy, the slut, and of course Prince Charming. That’s the cost of using fairy tales as your source material, but I hope the characters develop a bit more complexity. Anyway, it’s a very witty take on the topic and the stories are fun to follow, so I’ll be sticking with it.

Manga-wise, I read the first chapter of Mizuki, a shoujo manga that Digital is publishing on their eManga site. It’s a pretty standard story about a girl who transforms into a devil to fight ghosts; as she is in high school, she tries very hard not to transform because her friends are frightened and revolted by her other form (they don’t know it’s her) and she doesn’t want to scare off the guy she has a crush on. That’s a pretty transparent metaphor for teenage life, and I can see why a book like this would have some appeal for the young-adult crowd. The art is not very distinctive but it is nicely done; I’ll be sticking around for chapter 2 of this one.

Sean T. Collins

Oh, sweet Christmas break! I did a ton of cramming to be properly equipped for doing Best of 2010 lists and now I can kick back and catch up on my prose reading. Right now I’m working my way through an old favorite fantasy series, Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising Sequence. Re-reading it for the first time in years, I’m struck by how much of it is basically info-dumping, yet somehow its tale of the eternal, Arthurian conflict between the Dark and the Light in Britain and Wales still feels immediate and epic.

But there have been plenty of comics on the docket as well. Click the links below for full reviews!

H Day

* H Day by Renee French (PictureBox): French’s elliptical, silent tone poem about her struggle with migraines and ants is a fantastic showcase of her considerable gifts as a crafter of images.

* I Want You #2 by Lisa Hanwalt (Pigeon Press): Body horror, gross-out humor, and insanely detailed drawings of horses and birds and stuff. It’s quite a combo.

* Boy’s Club #4 by Matt Furie (Pigeon Press): Another uproarious installment of Matt Furie’s chronicle of the unrepentant dude-dom.

* Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines (AdHouse): Despite its rapturous reception elsewhere and my sympathies for its subject matter of animal rights, I found this graphic novel a classic case of reach exceeding grasp.

* The Wrong Place by Brecht Evens (Drawn & Quarterly): Evens uses color like you’ve rarely seen elsewhere to tell the tale of two friends, one a livewire and one a wallflower, and their shared social scene.

* Big Questions #15 by Anders Nilsen (Drawn & Quarterly): The decade-in-the-making conclusion to Nilsen’s haunting series about a flock of birds who were tragically ill-equipped to deal with the incursion of humanity into their world offers no big answers.

Timothy Callahan

The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, by J. W. Rinzler
I’ll admit that the combination of the leaden prequels and video-gamish Clone Wars theatrical release nearly killed my interest in anything Star Wars-related. But I used to be a total Star Wars geek, even going so far as to submit a Star Wars RPG adventure to West End Games in the mid-1990s, though my adventure was rejected because it (a) wasn’t very good, and (b) had what the editor called an “inappropriate title” for something in the Star Wars line. The title? “Attack of the Energy Beasts,” a purposely goofy classic sci-fi homage. I guess, when the second prequel title was announced, years later, that editor probably realized his mistake. Or he said to himself, “Yeah, Lucas doesn’t get it, either.”

Anyway, Rinzler’s massive “Making of…” tomes are the kinds of things that can rekindle interest in that far, far away galaxy. This book focuses on Episode V, of course, and it not only has fascinating behind-the-scenes photographs, and a compelling overview of the struggle to make the movie at a time when no sequel had ever made as much as the original film (Godfather II only did half as well as the original, for example, and that was the best sequel ever made), it also has a great sequence which transcribes a day in the directing life of Irvin Kershner, based on a recording of that day’s events leading up to the famous Han Solo in carbonite scene. Kerhner was wearing a mic all day for another “Making of…” project being completed at the time, and the transcription of the on-set script revision and fragile egos of the performers is a clear look at what really happened when the cameras weren’t looking. The whole book is a pretty great, and engrossing, read.

Captain America #613 by Ed Brubaker, Butch Guice, and Friends
I read ten to twenty new comics every week, so why single out this one? Because sometimes I forget how good Brubaker’s Captain America can be, and this was a particularly good reminder of what has been one of the best mainstream superhero comics of the past five years. From Guice’s chiseled artwork (best embellished by Stefano Gaudiano) to the sometimes dynamic vividly nightmarish layouts to the rapid cross-cutting between Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, and the daughter of the Red Skull, this looks to be a comic that’s back on track after a year of slightly disappointing issues (though by the high standards of Brubaker’s Captain America, even weaker installments are better than most). I liked this one a lot.

The Art of Jim Starlin, by Jim Starlin
Quite early in my comic book reading days, I picked up a copy of Dreadstar and Company #2, which reprinted the second issue of the Epic Comics series focusing on Dreadstar’s blind female compatriot, Willow. It was a shocking issue back then, and rereading the entire Dreadstar saga these days, trying to follow along with CBR’s Chad Nevett in “Dreadstar December,” has reminded me how much I’ve always enjoyed Jim Starlin’s work. I’ve been devouring his other comics, and I have an essay on Gilgamesh II that I keep promising to write.

Jim Starlin’s art book, which features highlights from his career and a lengthy retrospective written by himself, is a good primer on the man’s career and it’s also a good reminder of all the projects he’s tacked over the years. It doesn’t go into nearly enough detail about the conflicts he’s had with various publishers (he frustratingly hints at juicy stories of poor treatment by the Big Two, but politely declines to name names or provide specific blow-by-blow accounts), but it does show Starlin to be a man who has always been ahead of the curve, trying to do his own thing in an industry that wants bland conformity.

Timothy Callahan writes the regular column When Words Collide, as well as reviews for Comic Book Resources. He does a lot of other stuff online, too, even talking about comics on the Splash Page podcast with CBR’s Chad Nevett.

Josh Wigler

Morning Glories #2

It’s probably no accident that the books I’m enjoying the most these days are coming from Image Comics, given the fact that I’ve covered the Image beat on CBR for the better part of two years now. But that’s just the state of things, I guess — it’s a good time to be a comics fan, and an especially great time for Image’s creative output.

The two books at the top of my buy pile every month are Chew and Morning Glories, and not just because I’m running monthly columns on them (though that certainly doesn’t hurt). With Chew, John Layman and Rob Guillory are constantly evolving the story of FDA agent Tony Chu in exciting new directions, almost effortlessly taking the series from its initial premise of a guy who gleans psychic impressions from the things he eats to it’s current end-of-the-world-by-fiery-alien-sky-writing status quo. There’s no telling where the book is going to go next, which is exactly why I love it so much.

Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma’s Morning Glories is entering the new year in great shape as well, with the first arc officially concluded in last month’s breathtaking fifth issue. Having already read this month’s installment a couple of weeks early, I can already tell you that Morning Glories is off to an excellent start in 2011. I can also say with no bullshit that this series is one of the most consistent edge-of-your-seat reads you’ll find anywhere in comics today. If you’re not picking Morning Glories up already, do yourself a favor and dive in while it’s still early — trust me, you don’t want to miss this boat.

Some other current favorites include:

- Artifacts … the best event series of 2010, trucking strong into 2011 thanks to Ron Marz and the enormously talented people at Top Cow.

- Orc Stain … I’m pretty sure James Stokoe couldn’t make a bad comic if he tried, certainly not when crafting the disturbingly detailed world that “Orc Stain” inhabits.

- Proof … recently relaunched with a new number one, but it’s the same hairy Sasquatch you know and love.

- The Walking Dead … as the world wakes up and smells the coffee thanks to the hit AMC series, the rest of us already know how amazing this series is thanks to the increasingly devastating monthlies. After eighty issues, Kirkman is still at the top of his game and showing no signs of slowing down.

That’s barely scratching the surface of what I’ve been reading and loving lately, and judging by what’s on the horizon in 2011, the new year should be an equally crowded one. Here’s hoping, at least!

In addition to covering Image for CBR, Josh also can be found blogging regularly for Spinoff. He also writes for MTV and ComicsAlliance.

Ryan K Lindsay

Franken-Castle

Franken-Castle
It’s a concept nearly everyone scoffed at and while many enjoyed it just as many would never admit that it was fun. I missed the boat but that only means I get to enjoy it in one big HC instead. While the end of the tale may have lost its way, the start of this strange monster filled romp by Remender and Moore was one of my picks for comic of the year. A shame not enough agreed with me and it missed out on a mention on the CBR Top 100. I absolutely loved the art and the writing here and while it wasn’t really the Punisher I kind of dug that about it. It wasn’t afraid to try something new and completely succeed in totally new ways.

I can only imagine what a youth would make of Franken-Castle if s/he found it squirreled away at home (which is the optimal way for every generation to discover comics). The sensational art by Tony Moore is something indeed and matched with Rick Remender cutting loose in a way that the Big Two just don’t do enough is the sort of mind-expanding four colour drug that every formative stage should be exposed to. This is comics the way I always imagine them through the magical and misty lens of the golden years of my youth. There should be more titles out there like this.

Secret Dead Men
I love Duane Swierczynski. I’ll just come out and say it, I think he’s a damn fun writer. I really liked his Immortal Iron Fist Run and I would have loved to see him do just a bit more on Black Widow. But the man also writes novels and very good ones so I’m slowly catching up on them all. I recently finished The Wheelman, which is a stellar heist story, and I’m now elbows deep in Secret Dead Men, which is about a sort of wandering PI who collects souls and stores them in his brain. It’s the sort of zany idea that must be read to be believed, and once you’ve read enough Swierczynski you will become a believer. I have no doubt.

Proof
John Prufrock is a very cool character. A Bigfoot (perhaps the Bigfoot) who works for a shadowy government agency tracking down other cryptids. It’s a perfect high concept but shocking in that the execution is actually better than you think it might be. There’s erudition to the words, and beauty in the art, and a certain spirit between the panels that just makes you fall completely into the world created. This is a title you can get lost in.

I initially picked this title up in trades but I’ve switched to floppies for the new relaunch and I’m glad I did. The latest issue was a whole barrel of cool and I’m so very glad I don’t have to wait months between my Proof fixes. This comic deserves to be read by more people so become the next one and pick up a trade, or the latest #1 issue, today. You won’t regret it.

Ryan K Lindsay is a weekly reviewer at CBR. He is also a staff writer for comic news and reviews site The Weekly Crisis. He also runs a comic scripting challenge site called thoughtballoons where each week a character is picked and every member of the site must write a one page script about that character (and play-at-home scripts are encouraged in the comments). He’s also been known to throw a think piece up at Gestalt Mash and is hoping one day to have his many comic pitches drawn by people with pencils.

Greg McElhatton

All Clear

All Clear by Connie Willis: I’ve been a fan of Connie Willis’s writings ever since I first picked up a copy of Doomsday Book, back in the day. The second half of what was supposed to be a single novel (but so big it got split into Blackout and All Clear), it feels like it’s the final word on her time travel novels. A book about World War II is rarely cheerful, but this one pulls your heartstrings with both despair and hope. It’s a book I was a little unsure of early on, but it comes together beautifully for a strong conclusion.

Justice League International Vol. 1-4 by Keith Giffen, J.M DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire, Ty Templeton: I have a confession to make–aside from the odd issue here and there, I’ve read almost none of the “classic” Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire JLI. I recently went on a binge and read all four collections to date, and unsurprisingly I loved them. Sure, I could’ve done without the inevitable line-wide crossover every five or six issues, and the rotating door of cast members is a little hard to keep track of at times, but it’s still a lot of fun. Looking forward to picking up Volume 5 shortly!

Voodoo Heart by Scott Snyder: I’m about halfway through this collection of short stories, and if there was any doubt that Snyder’s adept at multiple genres (he’s already proven that by writing both American Vampire and Detective Comics with completely different voices), this should seal it. The opening story (“Blue Heron”) about a man chasing a zeppelin across the country to catch the love of his life will hook you, and three stories later the quality hasn’t dipped. Really looking forward to sitting down with the rest before long.

Greg McElhatton writes reviews for CBR and Read About Comics, and also has a fun personal blog.

Kiel Phegley

X'ed Out

Over the past few weeks, my reading has been divided up on two very specific categories. First up, I’ve been going back over a ton of great comics while working on CBR’s top 100 of the year list. Aside from some of the books I wrote up for the countdown including Brandon Graham’s King City, Hope Larson’s Mercury and Mike Dawson’s Troop 142, I’ve been going back over the big books of the year like Wilson an X’Ed Out as well as some killer stuff that didn’t quite make my top ten or the top 100 including Jason Lutes’ latest issue of Berlin and Kathryn and Stuart Immonen’s Moving Pictures. And in case you’re wondering, my #1 book of the year was totally Love & Rockets New Stories #3. That one has been banging around my brain box since the moment I first picked it up. We live in an age of wonders.

The other stack of stuff I’ve been tearing through are a slew of novels I have to read for my upcoming residency as an MFA student at Hamline University. My program is in Writing for Children and Young Adults, so my required list is a metric ton of middle grade and YA prose with a few picture books thrown in. I’ve read Jack Gantos’ Joey Pigza Swallowed The Key, Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak and Deborah Heiligman Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith. Most importantly for the comic folks out there, I’ve been asked to re-read Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese because, get this, Yang will be at Hamline next week while I’m in my first residency to give us students a workshop in writing and graphic novels and what not. How rad is that?

Kiel Phegley is the news editor for Comic Book Resources, and one of the folks I should probably thank more often for all the help he gives us. Check out his interview with The Comics Reporter.

Brian Cronin

The last five comic books that I read were Deadpool Team-Up #886, a well-told action story by Shane McCarthy and Nick Dragotta featuring Iron Fist. Dragotta’s art was fantastic and McCarthy had a lot of funny dialogue.

Secret Warriors #23

Secret Warriors #23 was the rare issue that gives you an extreme amount of singular character development while still moving the over-arching plot along. Great job by Jonathan Hickman, and it is awesome that Alessandro Vitti is going to finish out this series on art.

Justice Society of America #46 was an intriguing look at the idea of a superhero team devoting itself entirely to one city and not letting ANY crime occur. Meanwhile, Marc Guggenheim and artist Scott Kolins do strong work in establishing the mysterious villains in the comic as a formidable and scary threat to the cast of this book. One drawback in the issue to me was a scene featuring Obsidian that did not ring true to me.

Hulk #28 was another entertaining issue by the impressive duo of Jeff Parker and Gabriel Hardman. Hardman has not had a bad issue yet, and Parker gives him a lot of really cool stuff to draw in this issue (and the previous issues, as well).

Finally, Flash #8, by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins, was an effectively eerie look at the origin (or should I say originS) of the Reverse-Flash. Seeing him cruelly change time around himself makes him a rather terrifyingly disturbing creature.

That’s my list!

Brian Cronin runs our sister blog, Comics Should Be Good! and was part of The Great Curve team way back in the day, before we were ever Robot 6. He’s also an author.

Alex Dueben

Apollo’s Angels

Apollo’s Angels by Jennifer Homans. Writing about comics and art has its challenges, but it’s a cakewalk compared to writing about dance. For centuries, the only real record we have of dance has been through writing. The facility with language required by good dance writers is part of what I love about the genre (sometimes more than dance itself) and as I think and write more about the history of comics I know that Homans’ cultural analysis and history of ballet is something that’s going to stick in my head for some time to come. This is the gold standard of arts writing.

Berlin: City of Stones and Berlin: City of Smoke. I’ve been meaning to reread the first volume and read the second one of Jason Lutes’ epic series ever since I picked it up months ago but I wanted to read through it all in one sitting and finally got a chance this week. I can’t help but feel that like Love and Rockets, the problem isn’t that we love the series any less or that the quality has dropped – it’s better than it’s ever been – the problem is that we’ve run out of adjectives to describe it. There’s nothing new to say. How many times can we say it’s a brilliant piece of work and one of the greatest comic series ever?

Bad Machinery: A Feral Flag Will Fly. I picked up this limited edition book of the beginning strips of John Allison’s new comic at Webcomics Weekend and hadn’t gotten around to reading it. Part of the problem with buying the books of webcomics is that I’ve already them, which means they drop to the bottom of the pile quickly. The truth is that I love Bad Machinery. I think it’s Allison’s best work. And it was great to OD on the comic for an afternoon without staring at the screen.

The Butterfly Mosque. G. Willow Wilson is best known to comic fans for her graphic novel Cairo and the series Air. This new memoir will likely change all that. It’s a beautiful book that I can’t recommend highly enough, detailing Wilson’s conversion to Islam and her time in Cairo, falling in love and her young married life. Wilson conveys the culture she found herself a part of and the essential separateness that one feels in a culture unlike that which one is born and raised in. Through it all there is a greater understanding and love.

Alex Dueben writes about the kinds of comics that I know Sean and Chris dig for CBR.

Sonia Harris

The Essential Moon Knight

The Essential Moon Knight Vol 1 & 2
by Doug Moench, Bill Sienkiewicz and others
Love Bill Sienkiewicz, I have ever since New Mutants and then Elektra Assassin. Because of his genre-altering work , I thought it would be interesting to see how his style evolved. This book definitely show his early work, you can see the change and watch him move towards something more communicative. Still, his line is always characteristic, easy to spot even when he’s trying to hide his inherent craziness. To be honest, I’m not reading the words, I’m just in it for the art. I might go back and read them if I get stuck in bed sick one day or something, but there isn’t a lot of draw.

http://www.freakangels.com/
by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield
I tried reading this online when it started, but the short episodes meant that I couldn’t really get into it. Then I forgot about it for a few months and came back with plenty of story unfolded. Elis writing a screwed-up, post-apocalyptic London is very compelling, especially with a dysfunctional, neo Village of the Damned (but nice, sort of) angle. Duffield’s art is quite lovely, and it’s become one of the few comics that I don’t mind reading online. Having said that, it does look good in print – the colors sort of do slightly better things in print – but knowing that it is up online, how can I wait all those extra weeks for the book?

Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity
by David Lynch
A funny little, chunky, blue book. Although I read sequentially, it would be a great book to dive into at any point for inspiration, a sort of random divination kind of a thing, to set the mood for a project or day. David Lynch talks gently about his creative process and the role transcendental meditation plays in that (which may or may not be your cup of tea, but I think it is interesting, regardless.) He’s very candid, talks openly of his feelings about major projects, which is really interesting to me. He discusses about how some films are made, what it means to him, and what he intends in making them… It’s nice, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of his films. The book is less dry than that, more an aspirational piece for the creative mind.

Sonia Harris writes for Comics Should Be Good every wednesday and sometimes writes convention coverage for CBR.

James Hunt

Hopeless Savages: Greatest Hits

1. Hopeless Savages: Greatest Hits – Jen Van Meter, Christine Norrie et al.
Many of my favourite creators have admitted being influenced by Hopeless Savages, so when the omnibus edition came out recently, I took that as my “now or never” moment to see it for myself. Working through the book, I’m not sure I’ve been entirely won over by the “punk family” premise, but the characters are lovingly-crafted and it’s easy to see why it had such an impact on those who read it.

2. Generation Hope – Kieron Gillen, Salvador Espin.
With its central theme of teenagers accepting themselves as mutants, Generation Hope feels more like the X-Men than any other X-Book does right now. I’ve loved Gillen’s work ever since the days of the original Phonogram series, and this is no exception. The market might feel a little over-saturated with mutant titles, but this had an incredibly strong launch, and it’s a series that I’m looking forward to seeing more of in 2010.

3. The Fabric of the Cosmos – Brian Greene.
Sometimes it’s good to get away from fiction and be reminded that actually, the universe we live in is strange enough even without superpowers and cosmic beings. I figure if I can understand DC continuity, quantum physics shouldn’t be much harder to grasp, and Greene’s informative yet approachable style keeps me from feeling overwhelmed by the hard maths – just when you think it’s getting a bit too complicated, out come The Simpsons references.

James Hunt reviews comics for Comic Book Resources.

Greg Hatcher

Well, to be honest, what I’m reading is usually listed right there in the column every week. But today we have….

Crossovers: The Secret Chronology of the World, volumes one and two, by Win Eckert. This is kind of the ultimate continuity-geek book, working out the chronology of every single literary crossover ever, including comics. It might be a little uber-nerdy for some folks but I’m pretty nerdy and I think it’s great fun. I’m a Wold Newton guy from way back, I bought Philip Jose Farmer’s biography of Doc Savage new off the stands back in the seventies, so this is totally my thing.

Coils, by Fred Saberhagen and Roger Zelazny. Picked this up on a whim not too long ago, on one of our bookscouting road trips. A man discovers that his memories are false computer implants… when he tries to discover the truth his fiancee is kidnapped and the chase is on. Sort of a cross between The Bourne Identity and Total Recall.

The Liberty Project by Kurt Busiek and James Fry, collecting their short-lived comics series from Eclipse way back when. I remember this series fondly from the 1980s and it’s nice that it’s back in print again.

Greg Hatcher can be found writing every week for Comics Should Be Good!

Shaun Manning

20th Century Boys

20th Century Boys vol. 12

I’ll admit that I thought 20th Century Boys went off the rails a bit when the “New Book of Prophecy” was introduced, but volume 12 reveals a bit more about the origins of this second deadly tome and ties together a lot of really fascinating threads. Urasawa is utterly brilliant, managing to string out the big reveal of the Friend’s identity for a full twelve volumes and keep things interesting at every step of the way.

Doctor Who #1

I got a preview copy of the new IDW series starring the Eleventh Doctor, and this standalone issue was a hell of a lot of fun. Basically, the TARDIS is infected with every spam email Rory has ever received and brings to life the various charlatans and con men embodied in each. The 419 man is a special treat. My only gripe is that it drives me nuts when recognizable entities like Facebook are tweaked just to avoid naming them directly, and there was a bit of this.

Shaun Manning covers Dark Horse, BOOM! and a lot of other comic news on CBR.

Chad Nevett

Invisible

I got some really cool books for Christmas and have been reading those, prose and comics alike. On Wednesday, I had a bunch of time to kill and wound up reading all of Invisible by Paul Auster in the process. It’s not dissimilar to his other books with a narrative within the narrative presented to us by a friend of the original author. I find Auster’s prose engaging and it always makes me want to write. It’s writing that requires you to be active and read between the lines. He’s also a writer I love just for the fact he’s almost at the point where he’s releasing one novel each year.

I arrived home from the holidays to find a shipment of comics I bought, including Jack Cross #1-4 by Warren Ellis and Gary Erskine. It’s one of the rare recent Ellis-penned minis that I hadn’t read and I missed getting a copy of the recent DC reprint. It fits nicely into his larger body of work with his interest in intelligence work. The protagonist is an interesting fellow with his idealism and pacifism in the ‘real’ world, but his utter brutality when he’s called on to do a job. It’s a cynical book, but definitely one for the Ellis fans.

And, finally, just today, while at work, I read Parker: The Outfit by Darwyn Cooke (on lunch and during breaks, of course). I picked this up during the week with a gift card and loved it. Much more of a COMIC adaptation of the prose than The Hunter was. Cooke is more playful and inventive here, willing to change up styles and storytelling approaches when it suits him, not just during the heist scenes. It’s a shame we’ll have to wait until 2012 for more.

Chad Nevett talks about comics in several different places around the web — at his personal blog GraphiContent, at Comics Should Be Good!, as a reviewer for Comic Book Resources and on the Splash Page podcast, with Mr. Callahan. He also writes about wrestling for 411mania.

Smile

Happy holidays and welcome to What Are You Reading? Today’s special guest is Caanan Grall, creator of the webcomic Max Overacts and the Zuda strip Celadore.

To see what Caanan and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …

*****

Tim O’Shea

Thunderbolts #151

In Thunderbolts #151, writer Jeff Parker accomplishes two things I did not think were possible:

1) Gives Ghost a backstory that makes me interested in the character
2) Rattles the unflappable Moonstone

Parker is one of the top three writers at Marvel presently working.

I’ve not read any of David Liss’ past prose or comics work, so I had no idea what to expect in the first installment of Black Panther: The Man Without Fear (aka Daredevil #513). I am unwilling to commit to the series with this first installment, though I’m unabashedly intrigued by the core premise (Black Panther sans his wealth/advanced technology) becomes Hell’s Kitchen main protection. Liss does a solid job of laying down a foundation of a premise, but artist Francesco Francavilla does not provide the spark to make the art engage me.

After interviewing Avengers Academy scribe Christos Gage last week, I was struck by the number of readers (in our comments section) who mentioned it was their favorite series of the Avengers franchise. After some consideration, I have to agree with them. The redemption (or whatever one considers it is) of Hank Pym is examined front and center in issue #7.

Chris Mautner

Things I’ve read:

Nipper 1963-1964

Nipper 1963-1964 by Doug Wright. Utterly charming, inspired cartooning, done with a sharp eye for detail and drawn enough from real life to make it seem utterly familiar without ever being bland or too cute for words. Guaranteed to knock the socks off ya.

Eden by Pablo Holmberg. Holmberg has a nice, simple, thin-lined style, but this collection of four-panel strips is just too terribly twee for me to appreciate. It’s like John Porcellino or James Kochalka’s work, but without any of the bite or self-deprecation that makes the more precious moments worthwhile. File under “trying too hard.”

Fuc* **u *ss **le by Johnny Ryan. The fourth and final collection of Blecky Yuckarella strips. As with Ryan’s more recent work (including the just released New Character Parade) the jokes become have become more outrageous, absurd, disturbing and just plain odd. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends upon your appreciation for Prison Pit, not to mention your appreciation for Johnny Ryan’s comics in general. Me, I thought it was swell.

Odd Is On Our Side by Fred Van Lente, Dean Koontz and Queenie Chan. Even the addition of a smart writer like Van Lente can’t make me appreciate this contrived, tiresome series about a boy who solves murders with the help of dead people. Everything about it just rings false with me, from the set-up to the dialogue to Chan’s stiff art (though, to be charitable, she’s improved considerably since the last Odd book). For Dean Koontz fans only I suppose, wherever they may happen to be.

Sean T. Collins

With LOVE AND ROCKTOBER in my rear-view mirror at long last, I’m catching up on some of the more prominent releases from the last quarter of 2010. Click the links for full reviews!

If ‘n Oof

If ‘n Oof by Brian Chippendale (PictureBox): Chippendale’s latest is a breeze to read — every page is a splash page! — which suits its rollicking action-movie buddy-comedy sci-fi tone…at least until that haunting ending kicks in.

X’d Out by Charles Burns (Pantheon): Burns refines his already emotionally rich and unnerving approach to surrealism to a now-laserlike focus in this story of a young punk artist haunted by dreams and memories he can’t control, throwing in stunning color work to boot.

Ex Machina Vol. 10: Term Limits by Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris (DC/Wildstorm): I always preferred this to BKV’s other long-running high-concept science-fiction series Y: The Last Man, but this final volume threw me, with strange art hiccups from the normally consistent Harris and an ending that depended on our attachment to Mitchell Hundred, a character who ideologically and emotionally has always been something of a cipher.

And oh yeah, one last LOVE AND ROCKTOBER review–

Love and Rockets: New Stories #1-3 and “Dreamstar” by Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics/Dark Horse): Beto’s ingeniously intertwined contributions to the latest incarnation of Love and Rockets (and to MySpace Dark Horse Presents) comprise a complex, unforgettable career peak for an artist whose career is festooned with them.

JK Parkin

As I mentioned earlier this week, I thought Vertigo and the creators of Fables #100 really blew the roof off for their big anniversary issue. I thought the duel was well handled, the main story sent off in a completely different direction than I expected and all the extras, from board games to short stories, really made the 100 plus pages something special.

With the end of the year approaching and Kiel contacting us about CBR’s annual best-of-the-year list, I’ve been catching up with and re-reading a bunch of comics from this year. This week I’ve hit American Vampire, Morning Glories, Scarlet, the Sixth Gun, Fantastic Four and Acme Novelty Library, with Wally Gropius and a re-reading of Duncan the Wonder Dog on deck, and hopefully time for Orc Stain and Joe the Barbarian again before I make my final list.

Caanan Grall

Mal and Chad

First, I want to say to the Robot 6 guys, thanks for having me! Second, I only get to a comic shop once every few months when I can make it to Halifax, so I’m not exactly up to date on the periodical comic world.

Living in the middle of nowhere, I have finally taken to the web for some of my comic fix, and boy, why did I wait so long? I’ve been going through Mal & Chad from the beginning and while I’m not very far along, so far it’s a real charmer, with Mal being a very earnest young genius in hiding, pretending he’s normal to stay near his lady love, Megan, and Chad being his actual talking dog (as in, not imaginary, Mal made him able to talk) and together they get into mischief and ponder the world. There is a collection coming later next year which I will be all over.

Also, on the web, I read That Monkey Tune, which I first learned of at NYCC this year. It’s an old school type comic strip – about monkeys! – with retro stylings, and blends a nice mix of character comedy, with irony-laden cynicism about modern society and pop-culture trends (without being too specific, which I like.)

Cleopatra in Space by MIke Maihack is also a fantastic webcomic I keep up with. It’s a fun, energetic ride, and the addition of colour really makes it pop.

In the print world, by far the best thing I’ve read recently is Smile by Raina Telgemeier. It’s a coming of age type story centered around Raina losing her two front teeth in an accident, but it’s the way it’s told that is truly remarkable. Each page is essentially a one page gag. They all string together to tell a complete story of course, but you could take each page on its own too, and get a complete vignette. It’s over 200 pages so that’s a LOT of vignettes! An absolute achievement in storytelling.

Being a massive Roger Langridge fan, and enjoying Chris Samnee’s art on The Mighty, I also recently picked up the first five issues of Thor: The Mighty Avenger. I have never read Thor before, I don’t care for Thor. Never have. Having read these comics though, now I do. Which just goes to show what the right creative talent can do with any characters given to them. Great fun.

Fables Puppet Theatre

The Fables crew and Vertigo really knocked one out of the park last week with Fables #100, the mammoth-sized anniversary issue that included a 62-page main story (the bulk of which was an awesome battle of magic and mayhem between Mister Dark and Frau Totenkinder), several back-up stories, a board game and a do-it-yourself Fables puppet theater. If you enjoyed that last one but weren’t sure how to proceed with turning the 2-D comic page into a 3-D theatre, artist Mark Buckingham shows you how to do it over on the Vertigo blog. Get yourself some color copies of the pages (so you don’t have to tear apart the book itself) and some card stock paper, grab some glue and scissors, and go to town.

Thor: The Mighty Avenger

Welcome to our weekly “Food or Comics?” feature, where we set certain hypothetical spending limits on ourselves and go through the agony of trying to determine what comics come home for Christmas dinner and which ones stay on the shelves, sitting cold and lonely through the holidays. So join us as we run down what comics we’d buy if they only had $15 and $30 to spend, as well as what we’d get if we had some “mad money” to splurge with.

Check out Diamond’s release list for this week to play along. Because of weather issues, shops on the West Coast won’t be getting everything; Brian Hibbs has a list of what to expect in his store in San Francisco, which should give you an idea of what is and isn’t showing up out here.

Brigid Alverson

If I had $15…

No question, I’d get the first trade of Thor: The Mighty Avenger ($14.99). Back when I read superhero comics, The Mighty Thor was one of my favorites, and I’d love to revisit the character without getting tripped up by all the continuity I missed. This series has gotten great word-of-blog, particularly since it was canceled, and that has me curious as well.

If I had $30…

I’d take a chance on an odd little book in this week’s ComicList that sounds absolutely fascinating: Edible Secrets: A Food Tour of Classified U.S. History ($10). It’s a nonfiction book that chronicles the different way food pops up in politics and espionage, drawn from declassified intelligence documents, organized graphically, and illustrated by Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole). It sounds truly awesome, and at ten bucks, it’s affordable, too.

And then I’ll steal $5 from the week’s grocery money so I can buy the first volume of Kamisama Kiss, by Julietta Suzuki ($9.99). I really liked her first series, Karakuri Odette, and this new one, about a girl who unwittingly takes the place of the deity in a local shrine, sounds like a Japanese version of The Santa Clause—she has to adapt to a new life, with unforeseen dangers and a bit of romance.

Splurge…

So many choices this week! The best splurge, to me, is a big, colorful collection of classic comics. There’s the second volume of The Phantom Complete Newspaper Dailies, from Hermes Press ($49.99); the fourth volume of the Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery Archives, from Dark Horse ($49.99); and the first volume of IDW’s Polly & Her Pals Complete Sunday Comics ($75). Of the three, Polly looks like the most interesting, and it’s the one I’m least familiar with, so that’s my splurge.

Little Lulu’s Pal Tubby Volume 2: The Runaway Statue and Other Stories

Chris Mautner

If I had $15:

I’d steal another dollar from my kids’ piggy bank (I have no shame) and get Dark Horse’s second Tubby volume, The Runaway Statue, as I’m pretty much sworn to purchase every John Stanley book that comes out the gates. I think I’ve written it down in blood somewhere.

If I had $30:

I’d steal another two dollars and get Who Will Comfort Toffle, the latest Moomin children’s picture book from Drawn and Quarterly’s kids’ line. It’s not as visually inventive as their first offering, The Book About Moomin, Myble and Little My, but hey, it’s a Moomin book. It’s still loaded down with charm and grace.

Splurge:

At $75 it’s definitely a splurge item, but IDW’s latest classic comic-strip collection Polly and Her Pals Complete Sunday Comics Vol. 1: 1925-1927 is a must-buy for any serious fan of ye olden comics. Creator Cliff Sterrett was at the top of his game here, offering one stunning and visually inventive strip after another, each heavily influenced by the art deco movement going on around the same time. I have the earlier Kitchen Sink volumes of this work and they’re really wonderful things to behold (so long as you’re wiling to ignore some of the sexism and racism that was ever-present in that era). Anyone who enjoys just pure, devil-may care cartooning will want to check this out.

Graeme McMillan

Fables #100

Thanks to even more strange weather affecting comic deliveries here on the West Coast, I feel like all of this week’s choices should be prefaced with “If this makes it to my local store.” And it’s not even that cold here in Portland! It’s like all of the drawbacks of winter, but none of the benefits! Or something. That said, if I had $15, I’d put my first $9.99 towards Fables #100 – which may or may not be on the final list – because, even though I follow the series in trades, the 100-page package filled with short stories, prose by Mark Buckingham (illustrated by Bill Willingham!) and a board game seems too much fun to turn up first time around. After that, my love of the season takes over and pushes me toward the DC Universe Holiday Special 2010 ($4.99). Ho ho how could I resist?

If I had $30, I’d check out some first issues: Chris Roberson’s new Stan Lee-created series for BOOM!, The Starborn ($3.99), the debut of supernatural rock’n'rollfest 27 from Image ($3.50), and the sorta-kinda spin-off from Jim McCann’s already-missed Hawkeye and Mockingbird, Widowmaker #1 ($3.99). While I’d love to add Dynamite’s Project Superpowers Xmas Special ($5.99) – I do love those holidays, remember, and have an unspoken love for Alex Ross’ golden age-recreation series – it won’t fit into my remaining $3.50, so instead I’ll pick up the seventh and sadly penultimate issue of Thor: The Mighty Avenger ($2.99). You won’t regret getting the trade, Brigid; Chris Samnee’s art is worth that price alone.

Splurging, it’s a very obvious choice this week: The Spirit Collectors Set ($39.99) is a must-get; collecting the entire eight-issue Kitchen Sink “New Adventures” series from the 1990s, it’s got favorites like Paul Pope, Kurt Busiek, Eddie Campbell, Neil Gaiman and all manner of fine folk giving their take on Will Eisner’s most famous creation, and it’s stuff that hasn’t been seen in far too long. If you need more reason to pick it up, it also has a post-Watchmen collaboration between Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons…

JK Parkin

Northlanders #35

If I had $15:

At the top of my stack this week would be two Vertigo titles — Fables #100, which Graeme mentioned above, and Northlanders #35, which reunites the Demo team of Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. That puts me at roughly $13, which caps me out for this first tier.

If I had $30:

I’d also grab the last issue of IDW’s Mystery Society ($3.99), a fun little series that I caught up with recently on my iPad, and the newest issues of Thor ($3.99) and Thor: The Mighty Avenger ($2.99). That leaves me with roughly $6, so let’s grab the second issue of Superboy and Justice League: Generation Lost #15, each of which is $2.99.

Splurge:

For my splurge items this week, instead of buying for myself, I’m going to plan ahead and buy some Christmas presents. I think my brother would dig Irredeemable, so I’ll grab the latest trade for $16.99, while my younger brother would likely enjoy Orc Stain, so let’s grab the first trade for $17.99. Finally, my nephew recently got in trouble at school because reading Bone “interfered with math time,” and that’s the kind of behavior I feel like I should be rewarding. So I’ll grab him the three Usagi Yojimbo trades from Dark Horse. He’s almost ten, so they should be age appropriate.

Diamond Comic Distributors

Retailing | Rich Johnston confirms that Diamond Comic Distributors is developing a digital comics service that, in the words of a company representative, “will be entirely focused on driving sales of digital comic-related content through brick and mortar comic book specialty retailers.” No details were made available, but an official announcement is expected “in the near future.” In the meantime, Johnston gathers initial reactions from several retailers. [Bleeding Cool]

Publishing | Amit Desai, who has worked at Warner Bros. since 2004, has been named as DC Entertainment’s senior vice president, franchise management: “In his new role, Desai will develop and implement the individual franchise plans for Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, The Flash, MAD Magazine, Vertigo titles, and other DC properties. This will include driving wider cross-promotional support across all Time Warner divisions.” [press release]

Publishing | Alex Segura, former publicity manager at DC Comics, has been hired by Archie Comics as executive director of publicity and marketing. [press release]

Eisner Awards

Awards | The judges have been announced for the 2011 Eisner Awards: Ned Cato Jr., Comic-Con International board member; Karen Green, Columbia University’s graphic novel librarian; Andrew Helfer, veteran editor and writer; Rich Johnson, co-founder of Yen Press and former vice president of book trade sales for DC Comics; and Chris Powell, general manager of Lone Star Comics/mycomicshop.com. [Comic-Con International]

Conventions | Evan Dorkin and Brian Heater wrap up Saturday’s Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. [Livejournal, The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | Nathan Wilson begins a three-part interview with Paul Levitz about the new book 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking. [TCJ.com]

Creators | Mike Mignola is featured in the first installment of the Los Angeles Times’ new video archive “The Signature Series.” [Hero Complex]

Fables #100

Creators | As Fables marks its 100th issue, Bill Willingham discusses the series’ appeal, and its future: “I’ve been asked, ‘Why doesn’t Fables come to an end the way other Vertigo books do?’ — this question implies that you get a stronger story if you set a horizon line. My reply is, ‘Fables comes to an end all the time.’ There’s been many stories throughout the series — both epic and small — that have come to an end. My hope is that I won’t get bored writing this book, and that I’ll be able to do it for a long time to come.” [io9.com]

Creators | Deborah Vankin briefly spotlights Kate Beaton. [Hero Complex]

Creators | Web Behrens talks to Batwoman artist Amy Reeder about being offered the series with J.H. Williams III: “At first, I thought it would be a bad idea. I figured he’ll just make me look bad, since his art is so good. Really! I thought, ‘I’m just asking for trouble.’ But then I keep saying, ‘I love a challenge.’ I want to do more with my art, and this is the way to do it.” [Time Out Chicago]

The Goon: An Irish Wake

Creators | John Geddes interviews Eric Powell about The Goon: An Irish Wake, a two-part story appearing on usatoday.com as part of the DH:HD program. [USA Today]

Creators | Kill Shakespeare collaborators Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery have been getting loads of press for their IDW Publishing series.  [AOL News]

Comics | Scott Allie, senior managing editor of Dark Horse, sits down for a video interview to discuss the developments in Buffy the Vampire Slayer #39. [TFAW.com]

Comics | Ben Morse looks at seven important X-Men stories. [The Cool Kids Table]

Comics | Five absurd ways comic books have resurrected dead superheroes. [Cracked]