Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital this week.
I’ve pulled out some of the highlights below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:
- Penguin Random House (Marvel + graphic novels + manga)
- Lunar Distribution (DC + Scout + more)
- Diamond’s PreviewsWorld (IDW + Image + Dark Horse + many more)
- ComicList (Pretty much all of the above)
- comiXology/Kindle new releases (digital comics)
As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So always check with your comics retailer for the final word on availability.
Rogues #1 (DC, $6.99): Joshua Williamson has all sorts of big-budget event comics lined up at DC this year, but for this miniseries with artist Leomacs, coming from DC’s Black Label imprint, he focuses in on The Flash’s Rogues Gallery for a different sort of story. It’s set 10 years after the rogues disbanded, as Captain Cold brings them together for one more heist — he wants to rob Gorilla Grodd.
Venom: Lethal Protector #1 (Marvel, $4.99): Venom co-creator David Michelinie returns to the character for a new miniseries that shares its name with the very first Venom miniseries from back in the 1990s. The comic is set in that era and feature artwork by Ivan Fiorelli
Wolverine: Patch #1 (Marvel, $3.99): Speaking of “set in that era” — something Marvel has really gravitated to in recent years — this new miniseries by Larry Hama and Andrea Di Vito features, you guessed it — Wolverine in his Patch identity, back when he lived and worked in Madripoor. It also features Nick Fury, so maybe it should have been called “Patches”?
Trial of the Amazons: Wonder Girl #1 (DC, $3.99): The Trial of the Amazons event continues into this two-issue miniseries starring Wonder Girl, written and drawn by her creator, Joelle Jones. This chapter focuses on Cassie Sandsmark, the other Wonder Girl, trying to help out Wonder Woman with her investigation as Yara Flor, also Wonder Girl, competes in the big contest.
We Have Demons #1 (Dark Horse, $4.99): Scott Snyder’s multi-title deal with comiXology made headlines last year, and part of the announcement involved Dark Horse publishing print versions of the comics — not collections, like they do with most of the comiXology titles they publish, but single issues. This week brings to first comic from that deal, the excellent We Have Demons #1 by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, Dave McCaig and Tom Napolitano. If you haven’t read the title on comiXology — or even if you have, but you suddenly finding yourself preferring print after the launch of the new comiXology experience — here’s your chance to buy a copy.
Ghost Cage (Image Comics, $5.99): East of West co-creator Nick Dragotta teams with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles writer Caleb Goellner for this three-issue series. “When his megacorp power plant falls under attack by terrorists, the super-scientist who revolutionized and controls all energy on Earth sends his ultimate creation (and an adequate employee) in to destroy his most monstrous secrets.” Each issue will run 44 pages with screen-toned black and white art.
Armorclads #1 (Valiant, $3.99): This new series co-written by JJ O’Connor and Brian Buccellato with art by Manuel Garcia and inks by Raül Fernández is about “warring nations in a different solar system” who battle each other while wearing advanced exoskeletons known as “Armorclads.”
Secret Passages (Top Shelf, $19.99): To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with this book or its creator, Axelle Lenoir, before seeing the solicitation copy that totally won me over:
Ever since my cosmic twin disappeared, nothing makes sense anymore. Friends, work, life-well, you get the picture.
For all of five minutes I thought therapy might be the answer. But then I remembered: I’m a cartoonist. Why waste a skilled professional’s time when I could just spend 10 years of my life making an autobiographical comic and call it a “voyage of self-discovery”?
So here it is: the opening chapter of my life. It’s 1985 in a small Quebec town called Notre-Dame du Lac. We’re going to get to know a little girl who enjoys chatting with the forest (that’s me!), a younger brother with demonic tendencies, a tyrannical older brother, and two marvelous parents who may or may not be aliens.
And please, PLEASE, take my advice, dear reader. If you ever find yourself in the midst of an existential crisis, don’t make a comic about it. See a therapist instead. Much love!
Chivalry (Dark Horse, $19.99): Colleen Doran once again adapts a Neil Gaiman short story into a graphic novel — in this case, “Chivalry,” from the short story collection Smoke & Mirrors. It’s a pretty fun story about a woman who buys the Holy Grail at a second-hand shop and the knight who hopes to win it from her.
My Badly Drawn Life (Fantagraphics, $22.99): Italian cartoonist Gipi is back with this autobiographical tale, where as a young adult he “grapples with sexuality, insecurity, deception, depression, drug use, fading friendships and the capricious cruelties of the world as he struggles to determine whether his life is worth living.”