New Trades out 17/09/14

AVATAR PRESS

Gravel is one of the lesser known titles from the glory days of Warren Ellis birthing books like a rabbit. Returning now under the superb penmanship of Mike Wolfer who did a great job on Avatar's Stitched, firstly on art duties for Garth Ennis and then taking over as write on volume 2. This book collects #1-4 as well as a reintroduction to the main man Bill Gravel. Hopefully this will mean an omnibus in the offing as the original series can prove difficult to complete in trades. As for the story itself? Well it had me at "SAS Combat Mage."

Gravel Combat Magician Volume 4 TP 

BOOM! STUDIOS

Sons Of Anarchy Volume 1 TP 

DARK HORSE COMICS

Authentic Accounts Of Billy The Kid's Old Timey Oddities Omnibus TP
Complete Silencers TP
Ghost Volume 2 The White City Butcher TP
Leaving Megalopolis HC
Red Moon HC Savage Sword Of Conan Volume 17 TP

DC COMICS

Something a little bit different from DC this week. Batman Unwrapped: The Court of Owls collects issues #1-11 in artists pencil form and extras of what is, in my opinion the best title from the New 52. I've already got the trade but I'll be tempted to get this just for the beauty of it.

Astro City Through Open Doors TP
Astro City Victory HC
Batman Unwrapped The Court Of Owls HC
Forever Evil Arkham War TP
Godzilla Awakening TP
New Teen Titans Volume 1 TP
Superman Wonder Woman Volume 1 Power Couple HC
Toe Tags Featuring George Romero TP
Unwritten Tommy Taylor And The Ship That Sank Twice TP

IDW PUBLISHING

Transformers Phase One Omnibus TP

IMAGE COMICS

Image don't often roll out deluxe editions but today sees the release of the Blue Estate hard cover. Featuring #1-12 an alleged bonus features I can't find any info on. Let us know in the comments if you picked this up.

Blue Estate The Graphic Novel HC
Peter Panzerfaust Volume 4 The Hunt TP
Undertow Volume 1 Boatman's Call TP

MARVEL COMICS

(Original 96 cover.)

A few Marvel Now titles finally make it to paperback this week, as always costing way too much. I mentioned a few weeks ago the infinity omnibus featuring all the Avengers tie ins so make sure you check that out before going for individual trades. The Adventures of Cyclops and Pheonix is an impressive collection that I'm surprised didn't get a release around AvX. It includes: Adventures of Cyclops and Pheonix #1-4. Askani'son #1-4. Phoenix #1-3. X-Men Book of Askani and material from Marvel Valentine Special.

Avengers Volume 4 Infinity TP
Indestructible Hulk Volume 3 S.M.A.S.H. Time TP
Sub-Mariner And The Original Human Torch TP
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man By Brian Michael Bendis Volume 5 TP
Uncanny Avengers Volume 3 Ragnarok Now TP
Uncanny X-Men Volume 4 Vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. HC (Premiere Edition)
X-Men The Adventures Of Cyclops And Phoenix TP

Todays New Trades 09/10/2013

Pretty quiet week across the board but still some great books out. The second Mind MGMT hardcover from Dark Horse is my pick of the week. The first volume was beautifully packaged and the two together are going to look great on my shelf. I'm struggling to find what is collected in the latest Star Wars: Wild Space omnibus but it's advertised as being full of hidden gems and never before collected material.

If you ran out to buy the Court of Owls TPB with the mask last week then good news! Batman Volume 2 is out today. Collecting #8-11 and annual #1 of what is, in my opinion, the best title from the New 52.

A very licence driven week from IDW including New reprintings of Transformers and TMNT, new My Little Pony (the I mentioned it!! Happy??) but there's some new original material as well in the Form of Zombies vs Aliens spin off Colonized.

Over at the always intriguing Image Comics there's first volumes for Greg Rucka's Lazarus and Ryan Browne's God Hates Astronauts which features the brilliant blurb. "I don't want to oversell what Ryan has accomplished here, but I gave God Hates Astronauts to a blind man and he regained his sight." - Jonathan Hickman

Busy week for Jason Aarron at Marvel with Thanos Rising getting a paperback release and Volume 2 of his brilliant run on Thor: Godbomb coming out in HC. Although I have already bought and read the Panini reprint for a fraction of the price so as always make sure you shop about.




DARK HORSE COMICS

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 9 Volume 4 Welcome To The Team TP
Chronicles Of King Conan Volume 6 A Death In Stygia And Other Stories TP
Colder TP
Creepy Archives Volume 17 HC
Mind MGMT Volume 2 The Futurist HC
Star Wars Ewoks Shadows Of Endor GN
Star Wars Omnibus Wild Space Volume 2 TP
Trigun Omnibus Volume 1 TP
UXB HC

DC COMICS

Batman Volume 2 The City Of Owls TP
I Vampire Volume 3 Wave Of Mutilation TP
Intensely Dumb MAD TP
Lucifer Volume 2 TP

IDW PUBLISHING

Colonized TP
Danger Girl Trinity TP
G.I. JOE Special Missions Volume 1 TP
Jinnrise Volume 1 TP
Kill Shakespeare Volume 3 The Tide of Blood TP
My Little Pony Animated Volume 1 The Magic Begins TP
Tales Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 3 TP
Transformers Classics Volume 6 TP

IMAGE COMICS

God Hates Astronauts Volume 1 TP
Lazarus Volume 1 TP

MARVEL COMICS

Avengers Kree Skrull War TP
Dark Tower The Gunslinger The Man In Black TP
Iron Man Armored Vengeance TP
Thanos Rising TP
Thor God Of Thunder Volume 2 Godbomb HC
X-Men Storm By Warren Ellis And Terry Dodson TP

Top Selling Trades. September 2013

1. East of West Vol. 1 TPB (Image)

2. Justice League Vol. 3 HC (DC)
3. Star Wars Vol. 1 TPB (Dark Horse)
4. The Walking Dead Vol. 9 TPB (Image)
5. The Walking Dead 100 Project TPB (Image)
6. Justice League Vol. 2 TPB (DC)
7. Saga Vol. 1 TPB (Image)
8. Saga Vol. 2 TPB (Image)
9. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Vol. 2 TPB (IDW)
10. Superior Spider-Man Vol. 1 HC (Marvel)

You have to wonder at what point will Marvel and DC stopped being referred to as the big 2 and incorporate Image into the big 3. With a collection of Walking Dead covers selling considerably better than anything from Marvel and they've published around 50% of the top selling trades consistently every month. 

Without getting into the wider argument of quality of books produced by other publishers, it's worth considering how much Image's pricing policy affects peoples purchasing. Saga and East of West are not only the two best books on the list, they also are the two cheapest, with the first volumes RRP being just £7.50.

I've been meaning to pick up Dark Horse's new Star Wars title, based on the original script and written by Brian Wood, this is a really strong entry. I also had no Idea Geoff John's Justice League was so popular so perhaps I should revisit it as well. The time has come for me to stop glossing over My Little Ponies success as it's constant chart appearances can no longer be put down to a fluke and it's legions of fans are not going to rest until it is number one. Congratulations IDW.

Todays New Trades 03/10/13

Not much out this week but there's still loads to talk about. DC release The Court of Owls arc, the first 7 issues of the New 52 Batman and includes a white PVC owl mask. Pretty sweet deal for £15.

Also at DC, JLA Earth 2 from superstar Scottish creators Morrison and Quitely gets a new deluxe hardcover featuring a new cover by Frank Quitely, plus previously unpublished sketch material and more.

The first volume of Image's Non Human is out, a bit pricier than Image's usual v.1's, especially for 4 issues but I'm led to believe the sketchbook and bonus material is going to be excellent. The second Skullkickers omnibus Collecting SKULLKICKERS #12-23, including the five 'unbooted' issues Uncanny, Savage, Mighty, All-New Secret and Dark Skullkickers Dark. (still giggling at these.)                
Marvel's march in to the OGN market continues with Avengers: Endless Wartime by Warren Ellis and Thor Season One. The season one books are really well packaged in my opinion but never worth the price to established readers, I wouldn't even recommend a new ready pays £20 for a slim HC.

I will finish off with two great Omnibus from Marvel. Firstly a book which I constantly recommend, Hickman's Fantastic Four, gets it's first oversized collection. Right now you can get it all 800 pages on Amazon for £35 (RRP £75) if you have been putting off reading this title for some insane reason, you're never going to get a better chance than this to pick it up cheap.  Collecting: Dark Reign: Fantastic Four 1-5, Dark Reign: The Cabal, Fantastic Four 570-588, FF 1-5

The second omnibus I wanted to mention is the oversized Halo HC, I've read some of the books including and personally loved Van Lente's stuff. Collecting: Halo: Uprising 1-4, Blood Line 1-5, Helljumper 1-5. Depending on where you buy from it might still work out cheaper to buy the 3 individual trades so be sure to check them out first.




BOOM! STUDIOS

Suicide Risk Volume 1 TP

DC COMICS

Batman The Court Of Owls Book And Mask Set HC
Earth 2 Volume 1 The Gathering TP
Earth 2 Volume 2 The Tower of Fate HC
Fables Werewolves Of The Heartland TP
JLA Earth 2 Deluxe Edition HC

IDW PUBLISHING

Chilling Archives Of Horror Volume 4 Jack Cole's Deadly Horror HC
Doctor Who Series I Winter's Dawn Season's End HC
G.I. JOE The Complete Collection Volume 3 HC
Judge Dredd The Complete Carlos Ezquerra Volume 2 HC
Miss Fury Sensational Sundays 1941-1944 HC

IMAGE COMICS

Age Of Bronze Volume 3.B Betrayal Part Two HC
Carbon Grey Volume 2 Daughters Of Stone TP
It Girl And The Atomics Volume 2 The World Is Flat TP
MacGyver Fugitive Gauntlet TP
Non-Humans Volume 1 Runaway American Dream TP
Skullkickers Treasure Trove Volume 2 HC

MARVEL COMICS

Avengers Endless Wartime HC
Dark Tower The Gunslinger Last Shots TP
Fantastic Four By Jonathan Hickman Omnibus Volume 1 HC
Halo Oversized Collection HC
Supercrooks TP (resolicited)
Thor And The Mighty Avengers
Thor By Walter Simonson Volume 2 TP
Thor Season One HC (Premiere Edition)
What If AvX TP
Wolverine Blood Wedding TP

Mini Trade Reviews

Avengers Arena. Volume 1. Kill or Die
#1-6
Written by: Dennis Hopeless
Art by: Kev Walker.

This was the ugly duckling of the otherwise super stylish Marvel NOW! Relaunch. Very few people had anything nice to say about it based solely on it's premise. Fortunately for the non believers this book very quickly realised it's potential, action packed and full of drama, AA is the first Teen Hero book I've enjoyed since Runaways and Hopeless manages to take a pretty over the top character like Arcade and turn him into a right creepy and sinister bastard.


The Strange Talent of Luthor Strode. Volume 1. 
#1-6
Written by: Justin Jordan
Art by: Tradd Moore.

In a similar style to Kick Ass, this story of geeky kid turned reluctant hero has it all, sex, ultra-violence and adorable Bromance. It also has possibly my favourite origin of super powers I've ever read. Jordan does a great job creating these believable teens and their nemesis is one scary dude. The artwork is incredible and beautifully coloured,  the fight scenes in particular make this book worth every penny. The ending sold me volume 2 instantly,  and I definitely didn't cry :-)

The Walking Dead volume 18. What comes after.
#103-108
Written by: Robert Kirkman
Art by: Charlie Adlard.

I'm really struggling to keep going with the Walking Dead, after devouring the first 17 volumes it seems like very little has changed through 100 issues. The story just seems to constantly cycle between strikingly similar status quos and now any new bad guy that is brought in always just pales in comparison to the Governor. There's going to have to be the mother of all twists to get me back on board.

Happy. Volume 1.
#1-4
Written by: Grant Morrison
Art by: Darrick Robertson. 


Grant Morrison uses up comics yearly quota of the word cunt. Darrick Robertson art is phenomenal, perhaps even his best yet from an already impressive career. 

Defining Trades

Defining Trades (In which I choose a book that best portrays a favourite character. That one title where the writer absolutely everything you love about them.

Seeing as every other article on the Internet right now is about Superman I thought we would start with that other great symbol of American pride and culture, Captain America.

Book: Civil War.

Written by: Mark Millar
Art by: Steve McNiven

This was a tough one because Brubaker, hands down writes the best Cap and there's been plenty of times in his history when he has turned his back on the American government.

Steve Rogers had really stalled as a character after the millennium under writers like Goeff John's on Avengers. Mostly he just stood about giving team members stern telling offs while they stood about admiring the shit out of him.

It wasn't until Bendis came along with New Avengers and used Cap as the constant around which to build his team, that Steve started to have a personality again in my opinion. Originally both Tony Stark and SHIELD were against the idea but with. Cap's persistence with new members and unwillingness to even consider SHIELD's opinion he forged ahead and was easily one of the coolest things about that run.

Civil War was the first book I read in which I actually cheered cap on. From the moment he turned his back on Maria Hill, ordered the soldiers to stand down and made a ballsy escape from the helicarrier (currently in the air!) He fought so many epic fights and spend much of the event looking like shit. It gave the writers a valid excuse to write Captain America as a war time character, something that has only been achieved before with flashback stories. We get to see Steve use his espionage skills and lead the troops. I also really liked how Millar deescalated the situation, with Steve realising for the first time that he was fighting against the will of the American people, It seems one of few sensible options available.

So yeah, new to Cap and want to see him at his (what is in my opinion) best? Pick up Civil War.