On the Shelves: 3/7/07

Reading is fundamental. Read what you like; don’t waste your time reading bad comics out of habit!

My weekly look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 3/7/07. The full shipping list, as always, is available at ComicList.

[NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com]

PICK OF THE WEEK

The Living and the Dead
DARK HORSE COMICS
Star Wars Legacy #9, $2.99

Legacy has replaced Conan, which I still enjoy, as my favorite licensed comic. NOTE: For context, it should be understood that I consider all of Marvel and DC’s spandex titles to be licensed comics, too.

DC COMICS
Detective Comics #829, $2.99
Helmet Of Fate Zauriel #1, $2.99
Jonah Hex #17, $2.99
Shazam The Monster Society Of Evil #2 (Of 4), $5.99
Uncle Sam And The Freedom Fighters #8 (Of 8), $2.99

I’ll have to revisit the Helmet of Fate: Black Alice issue sometime in the near future, because it was the most interesting of the one-shots so far, but overall, this has to be one of the more pointless series of stories I’ve ever read. I can’t imagine what the payoff will be, or how it’s all supposed to add up to buzz for the ongoing series, though. *** While I enjoyed Jeff Smith’s fun take on the Big Red Cheese, it wasn’t so good that I can’t skip the pricey serial format and wait for the trade. *** Palmiotti and Gray continue to deliver the off-kilter goods in Jonah Hex, and among the announcements coming out of NY Comic Con was the great news that there’s more Uncle Sam… coming, though it might be via Countdown, which isn’t so great.

DEVILS DUE PUBLISHING
GI Joe Dreadnoks Declassified Sauve Cvr A #2 (Of 3), $4.99

I totally punked out on my decision to shift to GI Joe to TPB-only after the recent price increase to $3.50, and the first issue from the new creative team, focusing on Baroness, was actually pretty good. The Declassified stories have been consistently good reads, too, so I guess Devil’s Due maintains a hold on their small slice of my personal market share.

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT
Lone Ranger Directors Cut #1, $4.99

Anyone out there who’s not a Cassaday sycophant who thinks this is worth picking up? I’m curious, but haven’t been moved yet to jump on the bandwagon.

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
Living And The Dead GN, $9.95

I’ve mentioned this in the past, but there’s something odd about the fact that I consider myself a Jason fan, have positively reviewed a couple of his books in the past (The Left Bank Gang was among my Best of 2006), and yet am always surprised to see a new release from him pop up on the shipping list. I know I’m not necessarily part of Fantagraphics’ target readership (though I probably am, more than either of us might realize) but with as many blogs and comics’ Web sites I scan daily, it absolutely baffles me that is the first I’m hearing of this latest release. Anyway, this is apparently a sequel to You Can’t Get There From Here, which I haven’t read yet, so I’ll be picking both of these up tomorrow.

IMAGE COMICS
Bomb Queen III #1 (Of 4), $3.50
Dynamo 5 #1, $3.50
Nat Turner Book 2 Revolution TPB, $10.00

Image titles are few and far between on my mental pull list these days, never mind my actual list, but the first two issues of Nat Turner were amazing and a great pickup for the publisher. Dynamo 5 seems like it might be good, too, though the $3.50 price tag gives it a really short leash and will have to make an immediate impression on me. Bomb Queen, OTOH, doesn’t interest me at all, but I like Jimmie Robinson so I’m glad to see it’s found an audience and is selling well enough to survive in the otherwise barren wasteland that is the Shadowline imprint.

MARVEL COMICS
Captain America #25 CW, $3.99
Civil War Initiative, $4.99
Criminal #5, $2.99
Fantastic Four #543 CW, $3.99
Hulk And Power Pack #1 (Of 4), $2.99
Incredible Hulk #104, $2.99

Like DC’s One Year Later, while I wasn’t thrilled with how they set the table, I am curious about what Marvel’s serving up post-Civil War, so there will be some sampling in my future as Dwayne McDuffie on Fantastic Four and Dan Slott on an Initiative ongoing have some appeal. Hopefully it plays out better than OYL, which resulted in more drops than adds for me.

NBM
Dungeon Parade Vol 1 TPB, $9.95

I think Midtown got this a week early, as I’m pretty sure I flipped through this last week, and it looked interesting, but not enough for an impulse buy. A couple of good reviews might do the trick, though.

RANDOM HOUSE
Persepolis The Story Of A Childhood SC New Ptg, $12.95

The Persepolis movie is nearing completion, so it seems Random House has smartly released a new edition of the book. If you haven’t read it yet, you should, because it’s very good.

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