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.
Savage Avengers #1 (Marvel, $3.99): David Pepose, writer of Spencer & Locke and The O.Z., makes his Marvel debut on this new series featuring an eclectic line-up of heroes: Conan, Daredevil, Anti-Venom, Black Knight, Weapon H, Cloak and Dagger. Teaming up with artist Carlos Magno, Pepose describes this as “a sword-and-sorcery riff on The Terminator.” Sounds like fun.
Duo #1 (DC/Milestone, $3.99): This new miniseries from Greg Pak, Khoi Pham and Scott Hanna offers a new take on the Xombi concept, a character from the original Milestone line back in the 1990s. It also marks the debut of the Earth-M line, “a collection of new concepts and characters created by original Milestone co-founder Denys Cowan and current Milestone relaunch shepherd Reginald Hudlin, both inspired by and nestled within the Milestone universe.” It’s about two lovers who end up fused together into one nanobot-powered superhero.
Shadow War Zone #1 (DC, $5.99): DC’s big Shadow War crossover, which features Batman, Deathstroke and Robin, pulls a few more characters into the action in this tie-in anthology one-shot. It features stories about Black Canary, Luke Fox, Talia al Ghul and others, by Joshua Williamson, Ed Brisson, Stephanie Phillips and Nadia Shammas, Otto Schmidt, Ann Maulina, Mike Bowden and more.
Marvel’s Voices: Identity (Marvel, $5.99): The anthology series continues with a focus on Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, featuring stories by Emily Kim, Rina Ayuyang, Sabir Pirzada, Pornsak Pichetshote, Eric Koda, Kei Zama, Creees Lee, Rickie Yagawa and more.
Fables #151 (DC Black Label, $3.99): The popular Vertigo title — hey, it used to have its own conventions — returns under DC’s Black Label imprint for a 12-issue run that picks up with the books’ original numbering. Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham and Steve Leialoha are back with more fairy tale-inspired stories set in the modern world.
I Hate This Place #1 (Image/Skybound, $3.99): Kyle Starks, Artyom Topilin and Lee Loughridge present the story of Trudy and Gabby, inheritors of a farm house that’s home to “a mysterious force that’s attracted ghosts, aliens and all kinds of supernatural beings for decades.”
Wrong Earth: Purple #1 (Ahoy, $4.99): The series of one-shots featuring different creators’ takes on the Wrong Earth concept continues with this new comic by Stuart Moore and Fred Harper, set on a world where the 1980s never ended. Here’s a preview:
Wine coolers, shoulder pads and purple … yep, that’s the ’80s.
The Fox: Family Values #1 (Archie, $3.99): Dean Haspiel returns to The Fox, one of Archie’s many superhero titles, which Haspiel helped redefine starting about eight years ago. This one-shot is actually an anthology, featuring a main story by Haspiel that stars the Fox family — The Fox, Ghost Fox and She Fox. Here’s a preview:
There’s also a new story by Vito Delsante with art by Richard Ortiz, set right before the Fox’s wedding, plus a reprint of a classic Fox story by Alex Toth.
Past the Last Mountain #1 (CEX, $5.99): This geopolitical fantasy comic by Paul Allor, Louie Joyce and Gannon Beck was announced several years ago, but I don’t think it was ever released in print until now. It includes 46 pages of story, if you’re questioning the price, and it’s about a world where the United States has rounded up and jailed all fantasy creatures — at least until a dragon, a faun and troll escape. In addition to the main story, it also includes short stories by Allor and artists Rebekah Isaacs, Chris Evenhuis, Paul Tucker, Joe Mulvey, Becky Jewel, Anderson Cabral and Aaron Houston.
Shaolin Cowboy: Cruel to Be Kin #1 (Dark Horse, $4.99): I reviewed this first issue of a new Shaolin Cowboy miniseries by Geof Darrow just this weekend, so I won’t repeat myself here — instead, how about a preview of the first few pages:
Oh, and bonus … those last two images are the variant covers by Mike Mignola and Alice Darrow (Geof Darrow’s daughter).
The All-Nighter #6 (comiXology Originals, $2.99): The vampires-cosplaying-as-superheroes story by Chip Zdarsky and Jason Loo returns this week for a second season. You can buy it from Amazon starting Tuesday.
Galaxy: The Prettiest Star (DC, $16.99): Jadzia Axelrod and Jess Taylor team up for this new graphic novel featuring a new character in the DC universe — an alien princess disguised as a boy living on Earth.
Swim Team (Harper Alley, $12.99): Johnnie Christmas writes and draws this graphic novel about a middle school girl who is scared of water and ends up stuck in the only elective class that fit her schedule: Swim 101.
The Collected Prairie Pothole (Uncivilized Comics, $6): Uncivilized collects John Porcellino’s Prairie Pothole comics, which ran in the Chicago Reader for 16 weeks back in 2019. Porcellino continued the strips on his Patreon, bringing the total in this volume up to 28 strips (plus some bonus material).
Yellow Cab (IDW, $19.99): French cartoonist Christophe Chabouté adapts French film director Benoît Cohen’s memoir Yellow Cab: A French Filmmaker’s American Dream into a graphic novel. It’s about the career change the director had in 2015, when he gave up the camera to become a New York taxi driver.