Comics and More

Here is the book you should pick up at the comic shop this Wednesday... The Freddie Stories Lynda Barry

New comics come out tomorrow!  Here's my pick for what to grab at the comic shop... MAD: Artist's Edition HC Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood, Basil Wolverton & Others 

These are my favorite comics of 2012, including manga, superheroes, graphic novels, reprints, etc. I try to be as true to how I feel about a book as possible when ranking them, which is why it may seem odd for some to see a superhero title hardly anyone read rank over an acclaimed graphic novel. If I enjoyed my experience of reading it more, it was placed higher on my list. I did feel odd including a book like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Deluxe Edition , since the comics are fairly recent, and it's not like people couldn't get their hands on it, unlike something like Carl Bark's Uncle Scrooge comics, which really needed to be collected. It felt more like I would be ranking its new packaging more than anything, so I left things like that off of my list (even though I enjoyed it a lot). Anyways, these are my favorite twenty comics of the year. I hope you enjoy my list, and hopefully check out some books that may have eluded you. Honorable Mentions All

Of the new books coming to comic shops tomorrow, here's my pick... Fables (Volume 18): Cubs In Toyland TP Bill Willingham & Mark Buckingham 

I loved the following comic book issues, but none of them sustained the quality I'd have hoped as the year went along and so none of them placed in my best of the year list.  I can't ignore them completely, however, because I loved the individual issues, so I decided to just give a little nod to these books in this post...   Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred #1 David Hine & Shaky Kane     Fairest #8 Lauren Beukes & Inaki Miranda   Fatale #1 Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips   Mining Colony X7170 (From the pages of Kramer's Ergot 8 ) Johnny Ryan    Prophet #21 Brandon Graham, Simon Roy & Richard Ballermann   Saga #1 Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples 

Of the new books coming to comic shops on Wednesday, here's my pick... Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers (Volume 1) TP Steve Gerber, Chris Claremont, Gerry Conway & Various 

2012 saw a lot of great manga, with fun new series debuts, and excellent volumes of ongoing titles.  It's always hard to narrow down my favorites to just ten books, but I've done just that in the following list.  So, in my opinion, these are the best manga that the year had to offer... 1. Soulless ( Gail Carriger & Rem ) - Adapted from the novels by Gail Carriger, by artist Rem, Soulless follows Alexia Tarrabotti, a preternatural in a Victorian Era London populated by vampires and werewolves, as well as humans. Preternaturals are rare, but the gift that Alexia has makes her a formidable opponent, as well as a target, as she has the ability to make a supernatural being completely human for as long as she touches them. And while that is certainly a cool part of the story, and comes in to play quite a bit, it's really the relationship between Alexia and the sexy werewolf Lord Maccon that is the thrust of this story.  This series is action-packed, funny and sexy

Personal Demons Tom & Nimue Brown I was really looking forward to this graphic novel release from Archaia Entertainment , since I love these sort of Gothic supernatural comic books, and since the last webcomic from this genre that they chose to put into print, the excellent Gunnerkrigg Court , fast became one of my favorite series of all time.  So, yes my hopes were high for this book, which is perhaps why I felt a little more let down than usual when I read this book that was frankly, unremarkable.  The story follows Salamandra, a little girl who wields powerful magic, and is brought to an orphanage, where she is lonely and finds herself caught up in the supernatural goings-on of Hopeless, Maine.  Salamandra's backstory isn't fully explained, but the hints we've been given about it are rather ominous, and we get glimpses of things like demons that her parents left behind.  Unfortunately, Salamandra is just sort of boring, and no other characters are really flushed

New books come out to comic shops today.  Here's my pick this week...   Fatale (Volume 2): The Devil's Business TP Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips

Going forward, I will be putting out these posts featuring my picks for each month, books I wish to highlight from Previews Catalogue .  And weekly, I will only be highlighting one book.  For January, these are the books that caught my attention... Young Avengers #1 - Kieron Gillen has quickly become one of my favorite writers over the past few years, and I love Jamie McKelvie's art, so this book is kind of a big deal in my book, especially as Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung haven't given up the reins on Young Avengers since they first created it, until now.  Gillen and McKelvie also created a fantastic comic together a few years ago called Suburban Glamour , so I'm happy to see them working together on this project. Knights of Sidonia (Volume 1) - The creator of Biomega returns with a new manga series, this one a hard science fiction space comedy. Uncanny X-Force #1 - Uncanny X-Force relaunches as Rick Remender leaves the title that propelled him to fame.  Welcome