As we enter the week of Christmas, things start slowing down, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be without a new set of comics to read by the Yuletide fireplace. Here’s a look at what’s arriving in comic shops, bookstores and on digital this week.
If you’re wondering what to get this week, check out a few recommendations below. ComicList has this week’s list of new comics arriving in stores, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.
Brian Michael Bendis, John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson wrap up their run on Action Comics and the Superman titles with this week’s issue #1028. It promises to bring together and tie up on threads from many of the Superman titles of the last couple years, including Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, Superman, Legion of Super-Heroes and Justice League, which Bendis will move on to in March.
This earns an easy “This looks fun” designation, if only because it re-teams Tim Seeley and Mike Norton, who worked together on the Image series Revival. AlterNation: The Hide Hybrids is a graphic novel based on a toy line created by Panda Mony Toys, which have an interesting approach to things. The story is about a team of “cryptid-heroes,” called GK Delta, who have a traitor in their midst and end up fighting one of their own.
Our own Shane Bailey read a review copy of The Picture of Everything Else and talked about it in our What Are You Reading? column this past weekend., saying a lot of nice things about it and ending with “it’s a beautifully written, beautifully illustrated, beautifully lettered complete package that satisfies, delights and shocks.” It’s written by Dan Watters, who also writes Home Sick Pilots, which saw its debut last week from Image Comics and was one of the better debut comics I’ve read in awhile. So yes, I’ll be checking this one out as well, and if you missed Home Sick Pilots, please grab a copy of it, too. You won’t regret it.
The Seeds, an excellent miniseries released by Berger Books and created by the superstar team of Ann Nocenti and David Aja, finally concludes this week with the release of a trade paperback collection. This will include the finale, which was never released as a single issue. This one comes highly recommended, based on the previous issues, and I’m glad we’re going to get to see the conclusion.
The year might be ending, but crossovers never die. This week brings new issues of three currently being run by the big two, including a Black Adam Endless Winter special (not to mention a tie-in issue of Justice League Dark), a Dark Nights: Death Metal The Secret Origin special that pits Superboy Prime against the Darkest Knight, and the second issue of King in Black, Marvel’s Venom-centric crossover event.
By Crom, Marvel celebrates 50 years of Conan in comics with this oversized anthology special, King Size Conan. It features stories by Roy Thomas, Chris Claremont, Kurt Busiek, Pete Woods, Jesus Saiz, Steve McNiven, Steven S. DeKnight, Roberto de la Torre and, doing his first story ever for Marvel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman.
The early ’80s Heavy Metal film featured a story about Taarna, the last of a race of aliens who fought a chaos god named Kako. Now Heavy Metal is reviving the character in a new miniseries, Taarna: The Last Taarakian, by Stephanie Phillips and Patrick Zircher., with an outstanding cover by Christian Ward.