Tuesday, January 23, 2007

What you've Been Waiting For

Here they are, this week's comic books that have had a bit of a gap between issues. Maybe they're late, maybe they just come out every few months by design. But one thing's for sure - you've gone over a month between issues.

At first I thought that maybe there weren't going to be any to list this week, since I got all the way to the letter "D" before I had a later book pop up. But once I got that first one, there were plenty to follow.

Three comics coming in tomorrow had almost two months exactly between the issue coming and the last issue seen: Dwight Albatross Goon Noir #3, Drain #2 and Futurama Comics #29 each had the previous issues release on 11/22. These, being published by indie publishers, could more than likely not be late, since it is not unusual for these types of books to only come out every other month. Drain does appear to be the one most likely to actually be late, since we ordered it in October, while the other comics were ordered in November.

Moon Knight #7, published by Marvel, is a Civil War crossover. While I'd like to blame the Civil War delays for the fact that this has taken a while to come out, I am recalling that this book has often been a bit slow releasing. Issue #6 came out 11/15.

Samurai Heaven and Earth II #2, published by the other biggie, DC Comics, also had the issue previous come out 11/15.

If I had a dollar for every time someone came in over the past month and a half and asked me, "When's Eternals #6 coming out?" I'd have close to $50 by now. Yes, Eternals #6, published by Marvel, is FINALLY supposed to arrive. It was originally ordered in September - meaning it should have released in November. But, of course that wasn't likely, since #5 was also late--arriving 11/8/06. And, the series isn't done - they added an extra issue on. When will that final issue arrive? Wait and see! (wait being the operative word)

Mouse Guard's final issue releases this week. I met the creator at the Baltimore con and he said he was quite surprised at the success his comic book has attained. In fact, last week Diamond Select announced that they'll be making "collectible toys" based on characters from the comics. Issue #5 arrived a while ago: 11/1.

Tag #3 is also the final issue of a series. This comic met with some controversy as the writer was accused of having stole the idea from someone else. At any rate, it's been a good 3 months since we saw issue #2: 10/25.

Grimm Fairy Tales is an unusual comic with a small but loyal following. The first issues came out pretty regularly, then the first graphic novel came out, and then somewhere the wheels seem to have fallen off and the comic became later and later. Issue #9 came out 10/11, and #10 should finally hit shelves tomorrow.

Zenoscope publishes Grimm, and it also publishes this other late comic book: Se7en. That concerns me because it resembles the pattern of other new publishers that pop up one year and then disappear a year or two later. They put out a few books, they come out regularly, they announce a few more, then suddenly the issues start running later and later and then one day I see on Newsarama.com or some other site that they've declared bankruptcy or aren't paying people. Se7en #1 came out 9/20 and #2 is finally coming this week. Just as a side complaint on this comic - they call each issue something slightly different. For example, this issue is actually titled Se7en: Greed #2 and last issue was Se7en: Gluttony #1. Top Cow is doing a similar thing with it's new Darkness comic, calling the first issue Darkness Level 1 and the second issue Darkness Level 2 and so on. DC has the Helmet of Fate series, each with a separate name instead of just Helmet of Fate #1, #2... CLEARLY the people naming these comics have never had to order them and maintain any kind of inventory cycle on them. My computer thinks that each issue is a completely separate comic book so I have to undergo a lot of work to see how many we ordered of the previous issue, how many of that we sold, and who, if anyone, pre-ordered the first one wanting the entire series. Every time this happens I growl!

OK, enough on that side rant. The latest of the late comics I'm getting in this week is Dragon's Lair #2 (of 4). I can't even look it up in Previews to remind myself what it's about, since we ordered it in July and we only keep Previews catalogs for 6 months. Issue #1 came out 8/30/06.

This week I'm reading:

52 Week 38
Civil War The Return
Criminal #4
Deadman #6
DMZ #15
Fables #57
Fallen Angel #12
Silent War #1
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #14
X-Factor #15

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