What you've Been Waiting For

You might be thinking, jeeze, Lisa is late this week! And yes, I do usually post this on Tuesday. However, new comics arrive this week on Thursday instead of the usual Wednesday, so my post is technically in sync with my day-before-new-books-arrive schedule.

In this post I take a look at my DCD invoice for this week and discuss some things like what I want to read out of what's shipping, any new and ending mini-series from the Big Two comics publishers, and of course the thing that started it all, the comics that you've been waiting for because it's taken them at least a couple of months to show up since the prior issue.

Before I get on with that, I wanted to post a link for all of you Wonder Woman fans out there. Dallas TX comic book store Zeus Comics, along with Project: Rooftop, had a contest for Wonder Woman costume designs. These are the winners - some are so cool I want t-shirts of them!

Now, back to regularly scheduled programing...

This week I made October 1 my basis for the two-month cut off. Anything coming in this week that had the prior issue come out before October 1 is on here. Everything except All Star Batman & Robin, because that book has actually gotten onto a regular schedule now of every other month.

Deathblow #8 (DC/Wildstorm) and Speak of the Devil #3 (Dark Horse) both had their prior issues come out back on September 26th. Based on when they were ordered, they are probably not late, or at least not very late.

Madman Atomic Comics #5 (pictured) (Image) arrives tomorrow. The last issue of Madman hit comic book store shelves on September 19th. This was ordered in July, so it has most likely gone past its original ship date.

Death Dealer (Frank Frazetta) (Image) #5 is also coming in tomorrow, at long last. We last saw an issue of this nearly three months ago now, on September 6th. This was ordered in June, so again, probably late.

Sensational Spider-Man #41 is part of the One More Day "event" thingy Marvel is doing before they cancel all Spidey books except Amazing. This story was supposed to come out pretty quick, but there have been delays. In fact, Marvel originally planned to have it out when the Back in Black story came out, but it wasn't ready, so they made up the Back in Black story to buy some time, probably for Quesada to get going on the art for the One More Day story. Anyway, Marvel is STILL dragging their feet. The prior issue of Sensational came out back on August 22nd.

Another comic that is arriving tomorrow with the previous issue having arrived back on August 22nd is Sire: Revelations #3. This is a pretty independent book and unfortunately these small press guys pretty much put their stuff out "whenever." But at least they have an excuse - they've got jobs outside of comics to support themselves and their families. The art is pretty cool, by the way.

And here we are at the latest of the late comics. Well, technically it was ordered in September, so it isn't late. But you sure have been waiting a while for it. There has been over a YEAR since the last issue came out! Burlyman Entertainment's Doc Frankenstein #6 comes out tomorrow. Issue #5 came out on August 30, 2006 - yes 2006. I hope each issue is a one-shot type thing because otherwise I have no idea how anyone follows this story with the big gaps between issues.

I also noticed on this week's invoice that there was a long list of Aspen Publishing items being canceled by Diamond. Comics like Soulfire #8 & 9 (Aspen Publishing) that were ordered over a year ago now, as well as collected editions of Fathom and Soulfire. It's a bit unfortunate as these works have a good fan base that has remained loyal in spite of these persistent delays. I have people ask weekly when Soulfire is going to end or when the collected edition of Fathom is coming out. I know Turner had the cancer thing to deal with, so that could be part of it, but if I remember he doesn't do the interior art on this stuff anyway, and he's put out a lot of covers in the past year. Hopefully Aspen will get things back on the rails before fans loose their patience.

Now let's take a quick look at Marvel and DC's new and ending mini-series arriving this week.

Big Two new Mini-series & One-shots

• GEN13 ARMAGEDDON - DC
• MARVEL ATLAS #1 (of 2) - Marvel
• MOON KNIGHT ANNUAL #1 - Marvel
• SUPERMAN ANNUAL #13 - DC
• ZOMBIE SIMON GARTH #1 (of 4) (pictured)- Marvel

Big Two Mini-series Ending

• SUB-MARINER #6 (OF 6) - Marvel
• WORLD WAR HULK FRONT LINE #6 (OF 6) - Marvel

Looks like we're up a few once again. But based on my November orders we did last weekend, things should be slowing down a bit come 2008. As I've said so many times, these publishers should really focus on getting their main titles out on time and having them be of good quality. Then they can put some mini series in, but they shouldn't just throw a hundred things at the wall to see what sticks or use mini-series to fill in things they didn't put into the main title's stories just to sell more comics.

What I'm Reading This Week
ARCHIBALD SAVES CHRISTMAS #1 (pictured) because it looks like fun
CRIME BIBLE THE FIVE LESSONS OF BLOOD #2 (OF 5) because Ruka is a great writer and I enjoyed the first issue
DAN DARE #1 (OF 7) to see what it's like. Ennis talked about this in person at the Diamond Retailer Summit in September and he says it isn't his usual stuff - do not expect Dan Dare to be like Punisher or The Boys!
DEATH OF THE NEW GODS #3 (OF 8)
DOCK WALLOPER #1 (OF 5) because it sounded good when Virgin was pitching it at the summit
JACK OF FABLES #17
SUB-MARINER #6 (OF 6)
TEEN TITANS #53
When I have time... Popgun Vol. 1 GN & IT ATE BILLY ON CHRISTMAS GN (pictured at top)