What you've Been Waiting For

Welcome one and all to another edition of "What You've Been Waiting For." My weekly analysis of our Diamond invoice. In this post I'll share what comics we're getting in that have gone longer than seven weeks between issues. Some of them are late, some are not.

I also discuss what mini-series from Marvel and DC are starting and ending for the week. And finally, what I'm planning to read out of this week's new comics. Ready? Here we go...

This Week's Long Awaited Comics

This week my cutoff date is August 1st. Only one comic was under the wire this time: Supernatural Origins #5 (DC). For some reason this series has experienced gaps longer than 4 weeks between the last few issues.

There are three comics coming out this week that had their prior issues come out on July 25th: Really Late (All Star) Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder #7 (DC); Deathblow #7 (DC/Wildstorm); and Speak of the Devil #2 (Dark Horse). This is a big improvement for Jim Lee with AS Batman & Robin TBW - as fans know, there have been one-year gaps between issues. Azzarello, the writer on Deathblow, has been running a bit late on 100 Bullets too. I'm wondering if he's working on a novel.

Superman Confidential #6 (DC) comes out tomorrow. This is another one of those DC books that has story lines all switched around because of lateness issues. This story is not the one originally solicited in Previews. Instead it "now will feature the story that had been scheduled for issue #7, written by Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin with art and cover by Koi Turnbull and Sandra Hope. In this story, the first chapter of a two-part tale, the fate of Metropolis is at stake when Superman gets mixed up with Lori Lemaris!" DC, in an attempt to keep comics from getting obscenely late, has been doing these issue and story arc jumps on several comics including Action Comics, Superman, Wonder Woman and this one. While it is nice that they're trying to keep the comics from getting too late, it seems to hurt sales almost as much when people can't follow the story arcs because they keep getting split up. The prior issue of Superman Confidential came out on July 11th.

Robert Kirkman - his Walking Dead is super hot, but his other comics like Invincible and Astounding Wolf-Man just don't seem to have a whole lot of readership, at least not at my store. All of these comics seem to have delay issues as well. This week Astounding Wolf-Man #3 (Image) comes out. The previous issue hit shelves on July 5th.

Astro City: The Dark Age Book Two #4 (DC/Wildstorm) is hitting shelves at long last. The last issue of this one came out on April 25th 2007. Anyone who reads this in single-issue format knows all about the between issue delays on these.

And this week's latest of the late comics, having gone so long between issues that someone could have gotten pregnant when the last issue came out and the baby would be ready to be born any second by the time this issue hits shelves. Savage Dragon #132 (Image) was ordered back in November of 2006 and is coming out this Wednesday. We received the previous issue waaaayyyy back on December 28th, 2006.

No late Marvel comics this week. But DC sure has a few. Then again, DC has way more comics coming out this week than Marvel does.

Marvel and DC comic mini series & one shots that are starting and ending

This week's ending minis for the Big Two:

• Umm... None

This week's starting minis and 1-shots from the Big Two:

• DEMONS OF MERCY #1 (OF 7) – MARVEL

• FRANKLIN RICHARDS MONSTER MASH – MARVEL

• IRON FIST ANNUAL #1 – MARVEL (pictured)
  

• MARVEL ZOMBIES BOOK ANGELS DEMONS & MONSTROCITIES – MARVEL

• PUNISHER MAX ANNUAL #1 – MARVEL

• UNCLE SAM & THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS #1 (OF 8) – DC

• WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL #1 - DC

So that's NONE ending and two new mini-series starting plus a bunch of one-shots. So, this week we're up another 2 comic series.

Most of the one-shots can just go over the regular issues they tie into, so those aren't quite so bad. With the exception of the Iron Fist Annual. The regular issue of Iron Fist is also coming out today - so displaying both new comics is much more difficult. I don't know WHY publishers do this. It is bad enough when Justice League and JLA Classified and Justice Society and JSA Classified all come out on the same day. But when you have two issues of the same comic book come out on the same day - that's just foolish. Similar thing happened last week when Jungle Girl #0 and #1 both came out on the same day. We didn't sell many #0's until we sold out of #1's, even though #0 was much less expensive - WHY? Because we put #1 on top of the pile and people didn't get that there would also be another new issue of the same comic behind that one. Only when we told people that there was also a #0 issue did they even look at it. I'd rather have a one-week gap between them than have them both come out the exact same week. PUBLISHERS, ARE YOU LISTENING???


What I'm Reading This Week:
52 AFTERMATH THE FOUR HORSEMEN #2 (OF 6)
ANNIHILATION CONQUEST STAR LORD #3 (OF 4)
COUNTDOWN 31
COUNTDOWN TO ADVENTURE #2 (OF 8)
CRIMINAL #9
GEN 13 #12
IMMORTAL IRON FIST #9
IMMORTAL IRON FIST ANNUAL #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #13
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #9
SUB-MARINER #4 (OF 6)
TEEN TITANS #51
WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL #1
WALKING DEAD VOL 7 THE CALM BEFORE PAPERBACK (pictured)