Previews HYPE: August '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 August that I think may get overlooked or that I'm just plain excited about...

1. Comic Strip/Book Archival Projects - Holy crap!  Just when you thought everything that would ever be worth reprinting had been given the deserving treatment, along comes another round of great titles!  This month:  More John Stanley goodness is The John Stanley Library: Tubby (Volume 1) HC, and from out of last year's Doug Wright: Canada's Master Cartoonist comes Nipper (Volume 1): 1963-1964.  Dark Horse begins to print their expensive hardcover archive collections is affordable softcover editions beginning with Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom Archives (Volume 1) TP (perhaps to get readers onboard with the new material they are printing starring the characters).  Polly and Her Pals: The Complete Sunday Comics (Volume 1): 1925-1927 HC joins IDW's wonderful Library of American Comics imprint while Dick Briefer's Frankenstein HC is being collected under their Yoe Books! line.  More MAD artists are being featured in more afforable formats than the recent Don Martin slipcase collection, comes the much-anticipated MAD's Greatest Artists: Sergio Aragones HC, with an introduction by Matt Groening.  The Smurfs collections that were teased last month with a sample issue are being released this month in The Smurfs (Volume 1): The Purple Smurf GN and The Smurfs (Volume 2): The Smurfs and the Magic Flute GN.  AND Fantagraphics is releasing the next installment of Unexplored Worlds: The Steve Ditko Archives (Volume 2) HC and a biography/art presentation of Fire and Water: Bill Everett, The Sub-Mariner & the Birth of Marvel Comics, both edited by Blake Bell.  Wow.
 

2. A Drunken Dream and Other Stories HC - A collection of short stories of revered shojo manga creator Moto Hagio, during her peak creative period.
 
3. Bone: Taller Tales HC/SC - Collecting Stupid, Stupid Rat-Tails along with all-new material, this will serve as a nice little appetizer for the new Bone material Jeff Smith has coming down the pipeline.
 
4. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (Volume 1) HC - A new collection from Jacques Tardi (West Coast Blues), this is the first in five books featuring supernatural mystery.
 
5. Morning Glories #1 - From Image Comics, a new series about a group of students who enter a top prep school and discover that there is something off about the place, and they're trapped with the brewing mystery.
 

6. Scratch 9 #1 (of 4) - A cute-looking comic about a cat who can summon any of his nine lives to aid him in his task to save his friends (including a sabretooth tiger).
 
7. 7 Billion Needles (Volume 1) - A science fiction thriller manga from Vertical, featuring aliens, possession and genocide.
 
8. Grandville Mon Amour HC - Continuing the story from the acclaimed steampunk graphic novel Grandville, Bryan Talbot's story of anamorphic animals, robots, etc., is sure to be a treat for fantasy lovers.
 
9. Superman: Earth One HC - This is the first in a series of graphic novels reimagining the big heroes of the DC Universe set in its own new continuity.
 

10.  Guardians of the Globe #1 (of 6) - Spinning out of Invincible, a group of heroes scour the Earth for new recruits to join their ranks against evil.
 
11.  Spitfire #1 - I'm cheating and adding one more.  Paul Cornell, who brought Spitfire front and center in the excellent Captain Britain and MI-13, returns to the character in this one-shot taking place with all of the other crazy vampire stuff going on in with the X-Men (Dracula's death (?), vampire-mutants, stuff like that).  Also this month, another MI-13 member gets a one-shot in X-Men: Curse of the Mutants: Blade #1.