Comics and More

Here's the run-down of June release dates for films, books, DVDs and music, as well as my box office predictions. . In Theaters June 5th The Hangover Land of the Lost My Life In Ruins Tennessee . Predictions: 1. Land of the Lost ($49 million), 2. Up ($35 m), 3. Night At the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian ($10 m), 4. Drag Me To Hell ($9 m), 5. Terminator: Salvation ($8.5 m) . In Theaters June 12th Imagine That The Taking of Pelham 123 . Predictions: 1. Land of the Lost ($24 m), 2. Imagine That ($21 m), 3. Up ($19 m), 4. The Taking of Pelham 123 ($16 m), 5. Night At the Museum: Battle of the Smithsoniam ($6 m) . In Theaters June 19th The Proposal Year One . Predictions: 1. Year One ($29 m), 2. The Proposal ($26 m), 3. Land of the Lost ($11 m), 4. Up ($10 m), 5. Imagine That ($9 m) . In Theaters June 26th My Sister's Keeper Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen . Predictions: 1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($91 m), 2. Year One ($14 m), 3. The Proposal ($13 m), 4. My Siste...

Jeff Parker & Kyle Hotz . As part of Norman Osborn's inner circle, Parker Robbins aka The Hood, gets his own mini-series, illustrating how Osborn's favor during his "Dark Reign" is helping the criminal underworld to thrive. But while The Hood's crime syndicate may be getting profitable tips from higher-ups, The Hood is on somebody's radar who's getting very familiar with his habits, and there is more than a little dissension in the ranks, despite The Hood's fine speeches about how they can work together, despite what the police may say in their criminal profile data banks. We also see a little of the human side of Robbins, of his small family away from the street-level violence that is his world. And as a contrast, we see the side of him that is very not human, the demon Dormammu that he harbors, taunting him through supernatural means. The Hood is a complex character, but honestly, the stuff that we see in the main Avengers titles depicts him...

Comics will be arriving in comic shops on Thursday this week due to the long holiday weekend. Here are the highlights... . Pick of the Week . Cursed Pirate Girl #1 (of 3) - Jeremy Bastian's mini-series finally sees the light of day this week, not from Archaia Studios Press as originally planned, but Olympian Publishing. The story, which has gotten great acclaim from creators like Mike Mignola, follows a cursed pirate girl in search of her father, a pirate king, meeting creatures and nasty foes along the way. . Other Noteworthy Releases . 20th Century Boys (Volume 2) Aliens #1 (of 4) Bayou (Volume 1) TP Berserk (Volume 29) Chicken With Plums SC Conan (Volume 7): Cimmeria TP Dark Reign: The Hood #1 (of 5) Dead @ 17 Ultimate Edition TP Dead of Night: Devil-Slayer TP DC Library: Roots of the Swamp Thing HC Elephantmen (Volume 2): Fatal Diseases HC Essential X-Men (Volume 9) TP Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink #1 (of 6) Gravel (Volume 1): Bloody Liars HC Guardians of the Galaxy (Volume 2): ...

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (Volume 1) Motoro Mase . An ikigami is a notice someone gets when they’ve been selected…to die within 24 hours! That’s right. Japan has “been forced” to make everyone participate in a game of Russian Roulette to “increase the quality of life” through the National Welfare Act. A little extreme, but okay. Every citizen is injected with a syringe when they’re young, and between the ages of 18 and 24, a capsule that one in one thousand people are injected with will cause them to die. A very complex process occurs to keep the identity of the people who are to die a secret, but enough notice is given to the individuals going to die that they can spend their last full day as they please. The thinking behind this elaborate plot is to get people to live every day like their last, because no one knows if they are going to be one of the selected to die for their country at a young age. The bright side: the deceased family gets a bereavement package. I’m sure that make...

Here are the highlights of books slated to hit comic shops tomorrow! . Pick of the Week . Dawn: The Worlds of Final Fantasy HC - Dark Horse presents an art book featuring the sketches, paintings and design work of the visionary man behind the first six games in the ever-popular Final Fantasy game franchise: Yoshitaka Amano. . Other Noteworthy Releases . Batman: Mad Love and Other ..... Stories HC Ben Templesmith's Dracula GN Black Panther: Who Is Black ..... Panther TP Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus (Volume 7) TP Captain America #50 Case Closed (Volume 29) Clover Omnibus (Volume 1) Complete Dracula #1 (of 5) Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance #1 (of 6) Goon (Volume 7): Place of Heartache & Grief TP Invincible (Volume 10): Who's the Boss TP Killapalooza #1 (of 6) Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Volume 9) Moon Knight (Volume 4): Death of Marc Spector TP NYX: No Way Home HC Oishinbo (Volume 3): Ramen & Gyoza The Photographer: Into War Torn Afghanistan GN Planet Skaar Prol...

Animal Academy: Hakobune Hakusho (Volume 1) Moyamu Fujino . I haven't really read any ultra-cute girl manga, so I thought I'd peruse the shelf at work and pick one up - this just happened to be the one that I chose - Moyamu Fujino's Animal Academy . It follows a high school girl Neko (whose name means cat) as she makes her debut at a high school hours from her own home, the mysterious Morimori. She doesn't have many options for school (she's not the brightest), so she's really excited to get into this school, and isn't deterred when she's refused admittance upon appearing on school grounds (which is hidden confusingly in a forest). It turns out that this high school is special, as it teaches magical animals how to act human. So long as Neko can keep the secret that she's human, the teachers allow her to stay. The classes are a piece of cake (since she's already human), but it proves harder to keep up pretenses than she expected, especially as she...

. I'm very excited about this piece of news that Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" was renewed for a second season - the show has gotten progressively better as the first season went along and easily became my favorite show of the season about halfway through. For those who haven't seen it, check it out on DVD on July 28th! (Link via Whedonesque )

Century: 1910 Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill . The team of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill reunite for a fourth installment (if including The Black Dossier ) of the league of literary figures gathered to fight evil in the name of the crown. This time around, Mina and Quartermain are accompanied by the gender-shifting Orlando (introduced to us in The Black Dossier ), as well as former thief Anthony Raffles and ghost-finder Tom Carnacki in the latest incarnation of the League at the beginning of the 20th century. This is the first of three issues in the third League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series that will be published by Top Shelf Productions and jump forward in time with new League members. But this does feel very much like its own book, with quite a climax surrounding the death of former League member Captain Nemo and the rise of his successor. But it all begins with a mysterious dream that Carnacki has about a cult that will bring about an apocalyptic event. This threa...

Here are the highlights of books shipping to comic shops in July! . Amaze Ink/Slave Labor Graphics . Gargoyles (Volume 2): Clan Building - I wish this were better, but for die hard Gargoyles fans, this series shouldn't be missed. Includes three unpublished issues. . Archaia Studios Press . The Engineer HC - I read the first issue of this series and it was a pretty neat superhero/sci-fi comic. The entire three issue series is collected here for just $10. . Mouse Guard (Volume 2): Winter 1152 HC - The much-anticipated sequel to David Petersen's Eisner Award-winning series gets collected. As much as I loved the first book, I thought the second book was even better - this is one spectacular all-ages title. . Boom! Studios . The Muppet Show: The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson #1 (0f 4) - Another Muppet Show mini-series from Roger Langridge. The first mini is getting quite a bit of buzz and is a lot of fun. . Buenaventura Press . The Complete Jack Survives HC - Jerry Moriarty's...

Here are the highlights of books shipping to comic shops on Wednesday! . Pick of the Week . Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Adventures (Volume 1): Heroes In a Half-Shell TP - Kicking off The Ninja Turtles' 25th anniversary, Archie will be collecting the much-loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Adventures series, beginning with the mini-series that adapted the first five episodes of the original TMNT cartoon series, with presumably more to come. Following this inital mini-series, the comic went in its own direction and some fan-favorite characters made their appearance in these fantastic comics, like Ray Fillet and the Mighty Mutanimals. On a side note, I've noticed 25th anniversary TMNT action figures that reissue the original run of toys that I grew up on, packaged with the original box art (minus those Turtle Points, and they tweaked some of the characters available on the back to allow for characters added later to be a part of the program). They also come with some of those ori...

It will return next Monday! .

Zeb Wells & Diogenes Neves . I've been reading some of Marvel's reprints of the original New Mutants book ( New Mutants Classic 1 & 2 ) over the past few years now, so I could hardly resist taking a look at the latest attempt to revive the team in the modern world the X-Men live in. The new book is written by Zeb Wells and drawn pretty decently by Diogenes Neves, and so far consists of Magik reappearing from Limbo and her other various adventures (in which she pissed off some of the new younger members of the X-Men, whom she faces immediately upon her arrival in San Francisco) and working with Sunspot, Cannonball and Magma to locate two other members of the original New Mutants team who are out on assignment, and according to Magik (who heard it from a future version of Magma), are about to die. The other two mutants are Dani Moonstar (who is currently without powers) and Karma, and they are dealing with some sort of mutant child with mental powers and, well, there...

Monster In the City Kean Soo . This is the sequel to Kean Soo's Jellaby graphic novel from last year . The character appeared in the Flight Explorer anthology as well, and the big purple guy's fast become one of my favorite all-ages comic characters. That being said, I was a bit disappointed in the second volume. The same things that I loved about the first book were present in this one: great cartooning, characters with real-life issues that aren't afraid to show a little emotion, nice dialogue and I still love that purple toned coloring throughout the entire graphic novel. I also like those little scenes that Soo pauses on, pacing it just perfectly where he can frame a particularly beautiful image, like when Portia is on the swing ride at the carnival at the end of chapter seven. Very nicely done. One thing that I found lacking this time around, however, is that charm and innocence that came from Portia's initial discovery of Jellaby and her "secret...

Here are the highlights of books arriving in comic shops tomorrow! . Pick of the Week . League of Extraordinary Gentlemen III - Century: 1910 - Easily the most exciting release of the week (and one of my most anticipated comics of the year), Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill return with a new chapter of the League! . Other Noteworthy Releases . Air Gear (Volume 12) Alias Ultimate Collection (Book ..... One) TP Astro City: The Dark Ages Book ..... Three #1 (of 4) Atomic Robo: Shadow From ..... Beyond Time #1 (of 5) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight #25 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight (Volume 4): Time of Your Life Cameron and His Dinosaurs GN Captive Hearts (Volume 4) Cerebus Archive #1 Classic G.I. Joe (Volume 3) TP Creepy Archives (Volume 3) HC Dragonball VizBig Edition (Volume 4) Essential Spider-Man (Volume 9) TP The Eternal Smile GN Fairy Tail (Volume 6) Final Crisis Aftermath: Run #1 (of 6) Fing Fang Four Return #1 Flash Presents Mercury Falling TP Freakangels (Volume 2) ...

Hot Gimmick VizBig Edition (Volume 1) Miki Aihara . I'm really digging these fat collections of manga. There haven't been too many occasions where I've wanted to pick one up (the only other one I've purchased was Kiyohiko Azuma's Azumanga Daioh Omnibus ), but my recent brush with Miki Aihara compelled me to grab this one. There's something about a thick book of comics that excites me, whether it's a Marvel Essential full of material that's probably not really worth collecting or some amazingly long-running media tie-in from Dark Horse like the Aliens Omnibus , having so many comics in one book is quite appealing whatever the material, perhaps just because you can sit down and read a huge chunk of a series at once (and there has to be something to a series that's gone on for so long, right?). Anyways, the first volume of Hot Gimmick VizBig Edition collects the first three volumes of Miki Aihara's very popular shojo manga. Like with Tokyo Bo...

Gene Luen Yang & Derek Kirk Kim . The Eternal Smile is a new graphic novel from First Second Books that collects three short stories by American Born Chinese 's Gene Luen Yang and Same Difference and Other Stories ' Derek Kirk Kim, both of whom won quite a bit of recognition for their previous works. . The first story collected in this book is "Duncan's Kingdom." This story follows the knight Duncan as he tries to win the hand of the princess of his kingdom by bringing back the head of the frog king who killed his king. Things aren't what they seem in this story (as is the case with all of the stories in this collection), as Duncan finds something out-of-place hidden in the frog king's palace. I was surprised to see that this story had been published previously by Image Comics in 1999. I rather like this story quite a bit - it was easily my favorite of this collection - but have no recollection of hearing about this book in the past. Ah well. I love...

Here's the run-down of May release dates for films, books, DVDs and music, as well as my box office predictions. . In Theaters May 1st Battle For Terra Ghosts of Girlfriends Past X-Men Origins: Wolverine . Predictions: 1. X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($108 million), 2. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past ($20 m), 3. Obsessed ($14 m), 4. 17 Again ($7 m), 5. The Soloist ($6 m) . In Theaters May 8th Next Day Air Star Trek . Predictions: 1. Star Trek ($121 m), 2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($50 m), 3. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past ($13 m), 4. Next Day Air ($8 m), 5. Obsessed ($6 m) . In Theaters May 15th Angels & Demons . Predictions: 1. Angels & Demons ($85 m), 2. Star Trek ($69 m), 3. X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($24 m), 4. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past ($8 m), 5. Next Day Air ($5.5 m) . In Theaters May 22nd The Brothers Bloom Dance Flick Night At the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Terminator: Salvation (Thurs May 21st) . Predictions: 1. Terminator: Salvation ($92 m), 2. Angels & Demons ($45...