Previews HYPE: January '10

Diligently wading through the phone book that is Previews Catalogue so you don't have to...here are ten choice books shipping to comic shops in January that I think may get overlooked or that I'm just plain excited about...

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1. Joe the Barbarian #1 - This new Vertigo series by Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy follows a diabetic kid who may or may not be in an insulin-deprived hallucination when he's transported to a land populated by his toys.

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2. Little Adventures In Oz (Book 1) TP - One of my favorite comic book fantasies is being rereleased by IDW in smaller sizes, perhaps to appeal to readers of all-ages books like Bone. These self-contained stories by Eric Shanower are going to be available for $9.99 each, a nice appealing price, so hopefully they will be successful in reaching a new audience.

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3. Donald Duck Classics (Volume 1): Quack Up HC - Boom! Studios is beginning to turn out these classic collections of Disney comics, featuring favorite characters from the entertainment giant. This Donald Duck collection is 112 pages of pure Carl Barks stories.

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4. King Aroo (Volume 1) HC - IDW is really digging out some quality comic strip projects for their Library of American Comics line. This collection contains all dailies and Sundays from the King Aroo strip published between 1950 and 1952. Also available from IDW this month (through the new Yoe Studio! imprint) is the classic Krazy Kat story by George Herriman, Krazy & Ignatz in Tiger Tea HC, featuring Krazy Kat under the influence of a psychedelic substance.

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5. Copper GN - Kazu Kibuishi's popular on-line comic finally sees print in a complete collection. Bits and pieces of the boy and dog adventures have been in Flight anthologies, but here's the definitive edition.

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6. The Newsboy Legion by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby (Volume 1) HC - Continuing their mission to publish classic Jack Kirby comics, DC is releasing this new book featuring comics from Star Spangled Comics.

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7. Excalibur Visionaries: Alan Davis (Volume 2) TP - This makes me happy. One of my favorite comics growing up, and one of my favorite runs on the title, is continuing to be collected featuring some of the very first comics I ever read that still hold up today. Behold the Sat-yr-9 betrayal come to a head!

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8. Blackest Night resurrected comics - During this month only, DC is resurrecting a few of its fan-favorite canceled comics for a single issue, including Suicide Squad, Catwoman, The Atom & Hawkman, The Phantom Stranger, The Power of Shazam, Starman, The Question, and Weird Western Tales, many with the original creative teams. Also available this month, Marvel is capitalizing on Geoff Johns' rise to prominence by publishing some of his old works for their company in the form of Avengers: World Trust HC.

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9. Siege #1 - As Dark Reign comes to its concluding chapter, Marvel's mightiest heroes lay siege to Norman Osborn and his various resources, a rebellion that crosses over into many of Marvel's high profile titles, but the brunt of which will be felt in this four-issue mini-series by Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel.

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10. Tumor HC - From the creators behind the excellent Elk's Run GN, comes a new noir story featuring a man with a mission, whose tumor is also quickly killing him. This was #1 on the Amazon Kindle graphic novel bestsellers list for over two months, and finally sees print thanks to Archaia Studios Press.