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.

Red 5 led with the best-sellers, making their top titles, Atomic Robo and Neozoic, available for the iPhone back when each issue was a separate app. And Ens says the comics are selling, with both revenues and the number of comics downloaded increasing every month. “In terms of total sales revenue, it’s still small but growing,” he says.

Earlier today, Mark Millar expressed some concern that creators would not make as much money from digital comics. Ens has a different take, and I’m going to quote his answer at length, because I think he nails it:

As I see it, the main advantages of companies creating their own stores are more money and more creative control. The publisher can avoid middleman percentages to Apple or the technology partner. Also, the publisher can avoid having works from other publishers vying for the reader’s attention. Unfortunately, these are advantages for the publisher and not for the reader.

The advantages of using digital distribution partners are numerous. The most obvious is that they specialize in creating and constantly improving a great user experience. Red 5 readers benefit from those improvements. For example, our comics launched on the iPhone, and are now available on the iPad, the Web, PSP and Android devices . . . all with a single purchase.

Similarly, if Red 5 made its own exclusive reader, then our readers would not have a choice if they prefer another approach. By being on multiple platforms, our readers can select the ecosystem they like best.

Finally, we think comic readers ultimately want their collection in one central place. They typically wouldn’t keep their Spider-Man [comics] in one room of the house, Superman in another room and Star Wars in another. Nor would they want to go to one store to buy Batman and a second store to buy Atomic Robo.

Some of the single-publisher apps that cooperate within a larger technology infrastructure have some merit. From a long-term reader perspective, an isolated ecosystem for a single publisher doesn’t seem very user friendly.

Red 5 doesn’t do same-day releases of digital and print comics; they like to give the print comics a bit of a head start. Once that is done, however, they are quite aggressive: Ens says the entire back catalog is available digitally, and the company plans to release all this year’s comics that way too. And they have announced a line of digital-first comics as well.

With regard to piracy, Ens points out that it isn’t much of a problem so far for digital comics. In fact, all the piracy he has encountered so far has been scans of printed comics. He draws two lessons from the music industry: If the demand exists, pirates will fill it, and some people will never pay for their media. In short, he concludes, “The best way to combat piracy is to supply our product in the format the consumers want to see it. Otherwise, their choices are to steal or ignore.”

Ens is pretty sanguine about the future of the direct market; he seems confident that digital and retail can co-exist, and he likes the idea of including some sort of unique code with print comics that would allow the purchaser to download a digital copy.

While creators like Millar may see digital as a step down from their ideal situation, for creative publishers like Ens (and the very media-savvy creators of Atomic Robo, it must be said), it is a step up to a much larger potential audience than the print channels can provide.

Comic-Con International

With all of next week’s Comic-Con International’s panels fully revealed, those of you who are attending are probably putting together your schedule as we speak … but don’t forget to factor in some of the cool stuff that’ll be going on on the floor. Here’s a list of stuff you can do and people you can meet at various booths, with no doubt more on the way:

• Dark Horse Comics will have Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon, Morgan Spurlock, Stan Sakai, Mike Mignola, Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Eric Powell, Joss Whedon, Janet & Alex Evanovich, Felicia Day and more at their booth.

• IDW will host Berkeley Breathed, Peter Beagle, Scott Morse, Steven Niles, Fiona Staples and more at their booth. They’re also holding a Tiger Tea Party.

• BOOM! Studios also released their booth schedule, which features appearances by Mark Waid, Claudio Sanchez, Peter David and Tad Stones, who created Darkwing Duck.

• Fantagraphics has released their booth schedule, along with a list of new books that will debut at the show. These include new volumes of their Peanuts collections, a new Prison Pit book, several Ignatz titles and Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories.

• Drawn & Quarterly also has several new books debuting at the show, including Kevin Huizenga’s Wild Kingdom, Palookaville 20, a new Moomin, Vanessa Davis’ Make Me a Woman and more. Appearing at their both will be Jillian Tamaki, James Sturm, Vanessa Davis and Gabrielle Bell.

• SLG’s signing schedule is also up; they’ll have Ross Campbell, Van Jensen, Dusty Higgins, Greg Weisman and many more at their booth during the show.

• Viz will have Stan Lee and the cast of Vampire Knight at their booth.

• NBM’s booth will feature Mark Badger, Gerard Jones, Richard Moore and more.

• Red 5 Comics (booth 2306) will hold portfolio reviews for artists and will look for creator-owned titles for publishing. They’ll also be selling all current and back issues of Atomic Robo, ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction, Abyss, Neozoic, Box 13, We Kill Monsters and more.

• Visitors to video game maker Ubisoft’s booth can play Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game before it’s released on Aug. 10, as well as Just Dance 2 and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood multiplayer.

• At the Warner Bros. Interactive booth, they’ll have playable demos of the Batman: Brave and the Bold video game and The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest.

• And Capcom’s booth will feature demos of Marvel VS. Capcom 3, Dead Rising 2 and Monster Hunter Tri.

• AMC has several Walking Dead-related activities scheduled. Attendees will have an opportunity to get “zombified” by visiting The Walking Dead booth and putting themselves into a zombie scene from the series via a touch screen and AMC will email the photo to them. AMC will also distribute limited edition “The Walking Dead” series posters from Drew Struzan, and will have series buttons on hand. And an autograph session will take place with Andrew Lincoln, Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies, Frank Darabont, Robert Kirkman, Greg Nicotero and Gale Anne Hurd in the Image Comic Books booth.

40th Anniversary Souvenir Book

The 2009 San Diego Comic-Con is less than a month away, with preview night kicking things off on Wednesday, July 22. If you are a publisher, creator, retailer or any other kind of exhibitor who would like to let folks know about any special plans you have for the show (panels, signing schedules, exclusives, debuts, etc.) drop me an email and I’ll run it here.

Also, to the right is the 40th anniversary souvenir book cover, featuring art by the great Rick Geary. Comic-Con debuted it on their Twitter feed, where they’ve also been announcing panels and auctions for membership badges.

Publishers | Red 5 Comics will be at booth S-9 in the small press area, with the creators of We Kill Monsters, Neozoic, Atomic Robo and Afterburn available for signings.

Books | Scott Morse says he’ll have about 100 copies of The Ancient Book of Sex and Science, which sold out before its release after being mentioned on BoingBoing. He’s also taking orders for a signed and numbered edition, which he’ll bring to the con if you order one.

Exclusives | Becky Cloonan will have a set of four silkscreen prints at the con, limited to 100 “signed, numbered, stamped and enveloped” copies.

I asked if she and the 5/Pixu crew had another book planned for this year, but she said they’ve all been so busy they haven’t been able to do one. She also said she’ll have a big announcement at the con, and she’ll have a table with with Brian Wood, Cliff Chiang and Jill Thompson.

Mini-comics | According to Ben Towle, J Chris Campbell of Wide Awake Press is putting together a Michael Jackson memorial mini-comic to sell at the con, which will feature stories and pin-ups of the King of Pop.

Panels | The Crogan Adventures creator Chris Schweizer sent over a list of panels he’ll be at this year, providing more pieces in the ever-growing Comic-Con schedule puzzle:

THURSDAY, JULY 23:
3:00-4:00 Oni Press: Panelmonium 2009-Often imitated but never duplicated, get up close and personal with trend setting indie comic powerhouse Oni Press. Join in the Q&A with your favorite Oni creators including Ross Campbell (Wet Moon), Jamie S. Rich (You Have Killed Me), Greg Rucka (Whiteout), Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim), and Chris Schweizer (The Crogan Adventures). Get sneak peeks at upcoming Oni projects, news on Oni Press fan initiatives, free Oni comics, prizes and more! Guaranteed by Oni Press’ totally biased employees to be “the most fun you’ll ever have at a panel.” Room 10

Crogan's Vengeance

SATURDAY, JULY 25:
5:00-6:00 Graphic Novels: Sense of History-There’s a wonderful world of history awaiting you in numerous graphic novels available now. Whether it be real life stories adapting historical events to the comics form, or fiction taking place in a specific time, these practitioners of the historical graphic novel are all presenting work at the top of their form. Moderator Randy Duncan (co-chair of the Comics Arts Conference) talks to Comic-Con special guests Rick Geary (Treasury of XX Century Murder: Famous Players), David Petersen (Mouse Guard), and Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo), plus Jason Lutes (Berlin), Chris Schweizer (Crogan’s Vengeance), and Eric Shanower (Age of Bronze), about their individual takes on history. Room 8

SUNDAY, JULY 26:
10:00-11:00 Kids’ Graphic Novels- What’s new and wonderful in the world of comics and graphic novels for kids in 2009? Moderator Robin Brenner, creator and editor-in-chief of NoFlyingNoTights.com highlights the works of panelists Lewis Trondheim (Tiny Tyrant), Gene Yang (American Born Chinese), Derek Kirk Kim (The Eternal Smile), Eric Wight (Frankie Pickle and The Closet of Doom), Chris Schweizer (Crogan’s Vengeance), Jennifer Holm (Babymouse), and Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Lunch Lady), who all recommend other great titles. Room 3

2:00-3:00 Kids Write!-Kids, join creators Chris Giarrusso (G-Man), Chris Schweizer (Crogan’s Vengeance), Eric Wight (Frankie Pickle), and Gene Yang (American Born Chinese) as they draw the story you tell! Moderated by Cory Casoni (Oni Press). Room 30CDE

Panels | Mark Evanier lists all the panels he’ll be moderating at this year’s con, including a spotlight on comics legend Gene Colan.

Exclusives | The Comic-Con official website posted a whole bunch of exclusives that’ll debut at the show, including Avatar comics, Dark Avengers minimates, a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man bank, signed and numbered copies of The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke and more. Hasbro has a cool Invaders action figure boxed set (right) and a black-and-white Captain America that look like they’re worth checking out. I also like the Peanuts shirts and the Astronaut Snoopy figurine.

Movies | Footage from Matthew Vaughn’s big screen adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s Kick-Ass will debut at the con.

Television | The Sci Fi Channel has announced their line-up of panels, which will include one devoted to Caprica and Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. They’ll also be showing episodes of Warehouse 13 and Eureka.

Merchandise | Cartoon Books has three new Bone shirts that they’ll be selling at Comic-Con. Or you can buy them now online.

Movies | Speaking of Bone, there will be a screening of The Cartoonist, the documentary about Jeff Smith, on Friday at the con.

Movies | King of the Hill and Office Space creator Mike Judge will show footage from his next movie, Extract, on July 25 at the con.

Movies | Comic-Con has released the schedule for their International Independent Film Festival, which will run all four days of the con. You can find it here.

Atomic Robo: Dogs of War #1

Atomic Robo: Dogs of War #1-5
Written by Brian Clevinger; Illustrated by Scott Wegener
Red 5 Comics; $2.95/issue

One of the things I loved most about the first Atomic Robo series was that each issue stood on its own and told a different story from the others. Nikola Tesla’s greatest creation could fight giant ants in one issue and mummies in the next. You just never knew what you were going to get.

It was the perfect format for a monthly serial. In a time when I almost always wait for the collections on independent books, Atomic Robo made me excited to tune in each month for the next installment. There was no incentive to hold off and read the story all at once later on. It was all about instant gratification.

When I heard that the second mini-series, Dogs of War, was going to be more of a serialized story, I was worried that it would lose some of that spontaneity that I’d loved so much the first time around. It didn’t though. Dogs of War focuses on Robo’s service fighting Nazis in WWII and the stories are connected, but there’s still a great deal of variety from issue to issue. There’ll be a little more flow in the eventual collection than there was in the last volume, but it’s still very much an instant gratification kind of book.

Atomic Robo: Dogs of War #2

The first two issues form one story. Robo is part of the US 45th Infantry that took Sicily’s Scoglitti Beach in 1943, but what history doesn’t tell us is about Hitler’s walking tanks that were there to defend the island. Robo spends a couple of issues fighting these primitive, but tough Nazi mechs and gets his metal butt handed to him in the process.

I read an interview with Brian Clevinger once – or maybe it was a blog post – where he talked about the balancing act he had to play between showing plenty of Robo action and not having him single-handedly defeat the Nazis at every turn. While Atomic Robo isn’t a serious exploration of the horrors of war, Clevinger wanted the honor and sacrifice of the real soldiers who fought in WWII to have their due. And he does a fine job of that.

By making these walking tanks – the Laufpanzer – so nasty, Clevinger makes sure that Robo needs plenty of help fighting them. He can’t be a one-man military division; he’s got to act as part of a unit. Fortunately, Clevinger’s talented enough to show that with humor and style. There’s a real sense of poignancy about the soldiers that grounds the series without ever weighing it down.

For the most part, Robo leaves his unit behind in the third and fourth issues. He and another soldier are on a mission to bring in Otto Skorzeny, the commander of the Laufpanzers, and to learn the whereabouts of the remaining tanks. What Robo and his partner don’t realize is that Skorzeny has met up with an evil genius named Dr. Vanadis, a woman who herself is being pursued by a British agent/adventuress known as the Sparrow. When both Robo and the Sparrow try to take their prey on a train rushing through Croatia, the two “allies” stumble over each other and need to learn to work together. Need to, but that’s not saying that they ever succeed.

Robo vs. the Sparrow

As anyone who reads my other blog knows, I’m a huge fan of women characters who kick butt. Add the Sparrow to that list. My only disappointment though – and it’s a major one – is that Sparrow and Robo never get along well enough to get their act together. That’s not a weakness in the storytelling. Clevinger obviously means for it to happen that way and he took the more difficult road in making the Sparrow so likable. He could easily have made her a strident bitch so that it would be obvious who we’re supposed to root for. But I liked both of these characters so much that I wanted them both to succeed. I wanted them to be friends. When they didn’t like each other, it was like having to stand back helplessly and watch two of my pals fight.

The final issue in Dogs of War takes place more than a year after the first. Normandy has been successfully invaded, but the Nazis are still pushing on with their Weird War initiative. Trying to put a stop to that, Robo leads a British Commando force in an attempt to shut down a devastating weapon that could destroy all of Britain from an island in the English Channel. When they get there, they find Skorzeny ready for them and Robo is captured. The rest of the issue is about Robo’s being rescued by an awesomely talented, but hilariously incomprehensible Scot commando.

"Did you hear that?"

So the issues are connected, yes, but they also make up three different stories with very different feels. And each issue also has a short back up story in which Robo fights various giant creatures (specifically: a crab, a mummy, and a robot), one of Robo’s modern-day co-workers reluctantly takes a vacation and ends up having a sweet, butt-kicking time, and we see a modern-day epilogue to the Robo/Skorzeny conflict. And there are pin-ups. Pin-ups of Robo fighting dinosaurs, hooking up with Prohibition-era robo-dames, and posing (tastefully) in the nude.

It’s a brilliant, worthy sequel to the first mini-series. I’ll be buying it in its collected edition, but I’m not at all sorry I nabbed it as it was coming out. And that’s not common for me. I have no doubt I’ll be buying the next mini-series in both formats as well.

Five out of five incomprehensible Scots.

What?