Previews: June 2009

Here are the highlights from the most recent Previews Catalogue. These comics will be coming to comic stores in June!

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Abstract Studios

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Terry Moore's Echo (Volume 2): Atomic Dreams TP - The second collection fro Moore's beautiful superhero comic.
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Archaia Studios Press

After some pretty sporadic publishing during their restructuring, Archaia Studios Press is back in full force this month with some nice new offerings, including some titles we haven't seen for awhile like The Killer.

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Awakening (Volume 1) HC - It's been a year and a half since the first issue of this mini-series came out, but enough of that issue stuck with me to want to check out the collection of the first five issues after all that time.

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Robotika: For a Few Rubles More #1 & #2 Double-Sized - This is the sequel to the great Robotika mini-series. I enjoyed the first issue, but it was so long ago that Archaia is now offering that initial issue with the follow-up for just $4.99. Check out creator Alex Sheikman's site and get a "coupon" with the order codes.

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Some Kind of New Slaughter HC - The award-winning creative team behind The Lone and Level Sands returns with an exploration of the great flood myths.

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Avatar Press Inc

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Anna Mercury 2 #1 (of 5) - Warren Ellis returns to his red-headed beauty for another go of science-fiction adventure.

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Bluewater Productions

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William Shatner Presents Tek War #1 - A new comic book series based on William Shatner's best-selling novels.

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Dark Horse

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Vampires - This one-shot from the Buffy-verse comes to us courtesy of Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos. A consolation prize for what seems to be a month void of Season Eight.

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DC Comics

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Absolute Justice HC - The recent 12-issue series gets the "Absolute" treatment.

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Batman and Robin #1 - Ah, yeah. The team behind the recently wrapped All-Star Superman, and writer Grant Morrison of the recent acclaimed Batman run (which included Batman: R.I.P.) return together on a highly-anticipated project that returns Batman to the DC Universe following his recent death, with the boy wonder at his side.

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Batman: Streets of Gotham #1 - A new forty-page comic series that will feature two stories per issue. One story will be by Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen (of Detective Comics), while the other will be featuring Manhunter! That's right, Kate Spencer is back! Written by Manhunter writer Marc Andreyko, with art by Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight artist Georges Jeanty!

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Emma (Volume 9) - Another manga volume of Emma by Kaoru Mori! This one, like the last, features a story surrounding supporting characters.

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Filthy Rich HC - With 100 Bullets wrapped up, Brian Azzarello is releasing a new graphic novel through Vertigo, featuring the art of Victor Santos.

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Gothan City Sirens #1 - Another new Paul Dini ongoing series set in Gotham! This book features the big three female Batman villains: Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and my favorite Poison Ivy!

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The Sandman by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby HC - The classic Sandman stories are finally collected. More Jack Kirby goodness!

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Digital Manga Publishing

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Swallowing the Earth (Volume 1) - Just keep bringing on the Osamu Tezuka! This time it's not from Vertical, however, so I was a little surprised to see this show up. The series follows the mysterious woman Zephyrus who acts in the name of the fairer sex.

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Fantagraphics Books

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Abstract Comics: The Anthology HC - The name kind of says it all. Featuring the art of Saul Steinberg, R. Crumb, Gary Panter, Lewis Trondheim, James Kochalka, and more!

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The Artist Himself: A Rand Holmes Retrospective - Like the recent Rory Hayes retrospective, here's a look at another deserving artist's work in the field.

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Locas II: Maggie, Hopey & Ray HC - The follow-up to the omnibus Locas collection from a few years back.

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You Shall Die By Your Own Creation! - This collects the rest of Fletcher Hanks' comics that were not in the first I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! collection - making it twice the size of that first book.

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IDW Publishing

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Pebbles (Book One): Pebbles Conquers Camp HC - This is a new all-ages graphic novel series featuring the baby Flinstone character!

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Image Comics

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T.Runt! HC - Utterly adorable! Part of Image's Silverline Books, this all-ages comic features a dinosaur runt of the litter!

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Marvel Comics

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Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon & John Cassaday Omnibus HC - Yep, this is going to be mine. The entirety of Whedon and Cassaday's run on the flagship X-Men title is collected together in one volume with plenty of extras.

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Captain America #600 - 104 pages of Cap goodness with a new Brubaker issue, as well as an essay by Joe Simon, contributions from past creators, a classic Cap story and a photo gallery, all for $4.99.

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Captain Britain and MI-13 Annual #1 - Hurray! I've been holding my breath for this day, especially since it's been teased in the ongoing Captain Britain and MI-13 book - Meggan returns!! Or does she? This issue sees Captain Britain's wife struggle to escape Hell and is a "key part" of the recent "Vampire Nation" storyarc.

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Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia - The first Avengers/X-Men crossover in fifteen years? It seems like we would have been seeing a lot of these, but I guess not. This probably leads into the Dark X-Men that Marvel has been teasing lately. I guess Emma Frost isn't keeping the mutants in check like she promised Osborne...

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Dark Reign: Lethal Legion #1 (of 3) - It seems not all villains are "good enough" to be allowed free reign in Norman's new world order. This team of villains' villains consists of characters like Grim Reaper and Absorbing Man.

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Dark Reign: Zodiac #1 (of 3) - Joe Casey and Nathan Fox are bringing us this new mini, featuring a supervillain unwilling to roll over for Osborne.

Golden Age Marvel Comics Omnibus (Volume 1) HC - A new omnibus featuring a treasure-trove of Golden Age superhero comics, including those featuring Sub-Mariner and the original Human Torch.

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Essential Thor (Volume 4) TP - This rounds out Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's amazing run on this title (and brings on a group of new talent).

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Excalibur Visionaries: Alan Davis (Volume 1) TP - I am SO excited about this. I was waiting and waiting for more Excalibur Classic volumes (even though the last volume contained some pretty atrocious stories - stuff that would not be able to be published today), but it looks like Marvel decided to skip over more crappy material and get right to the good stuff. This is Alan Davis' return to the title, where he wrote and drew everything, adding new characters and getting pretty creative with some cool storylines. This also contains some of the very first superhero comics I ever read, so I'm particularly looking forward to this.

*** Pick of the Month!***

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Hercules: Prince of Power Premiere HC - With a successful ongoing currently going, some classic Herc stories are begin collected here for the first time.

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The Irredeemable Ant-Man TP - I kind of liked this series, and here's the entire twelve issues featuring the little perverted back-stabber. This character's now part of the new Thunderbolts lineup.

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Kick-Ass HC - All eight issues of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.'s original superhero book is collected.

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Miss America Comics #1 70th Anniversary Special - Some obscure characters from Marvel's past are getting reprinted for Marvel's 70th anniversary, including Miss America. Also, look for Young Allies Comics #1 featuring Bucky and Toro.

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Power Pack Classic (Volume 1) TP - Sure, why not? The latest comic to be a part of Marvel's "Classic" line of superhero reprints.

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Runaways #11 - Kathryn Immonen (of the recent excellent Patsy Walker: Hellcat mini-series) takes over writing chores on Runaways!

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X-Men Forever #1 - I didn't realize that this was going to be an ongoing. But that is one classic lineup, including my favorite: Kitty Pryde! For those who don't know, this is Chris Claremont's vision of the X-Men if he'd never left the titles in the 90's.

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X-Men Origins: Gambit #1 - A one-shot exploring the origin of the Cajun mutant. You can thank the new movie for this one.

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Sunday Press Books

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Queer Visitors From the Marvelous Land of Oz HC - This hardcover collects rare Sunday comics from Oz creator L. Frank Baum, and Walt McDougall, as well as all of the episodes of Scarecrow and the Tinman by the illustrator on the Oz books, W.W. Denslow, and comics by John R. Neill.

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Tokyopop

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Fruits Basket (Volume 23) - Will Tokyopop be able to survive without Fruits Basket? We'll find out soon enough, as this is the final volume of the highly-successful shojo title.

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Top Shelf Productions

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Welcome To Forest Island HC - The first art book produced featuring the art of Bwana Spoons, the innovative jack-of-all-trades artist.

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Villard Books

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Flight (Volume 6) GN - The latest volume in the fantasy anthology hits stores!

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Yen Press

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Cirque du Freak: The Manga (Volume 1) - The popular teen series is translated to manga! Lots of monsters and whatnot in this series soon to be make into a film.

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Misc.

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Crazy Hair HC - A new children's picture book by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean!