Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics Wednesday, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital. And yes, with DC’s announcement last week that they plan to return to a Wednesday release date for their comics every week, I am proactively changing the name of this feature back to its original moniker — even if the change won’t occur until July.
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 + IDW + Dark Horse + more)
- Lunar Distribution (DC + Image + more)
- Diamond’s PreviewsWorld (BOOM! + Dynamite + more)
- ComicList (Pretty much all of the above)
- Amazon/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 Sword of Conan #1 (Titan, $6.99): Titan revives the magazine-sized, black-and-white title that Marvel published from 1974 through 1995. The stories were “untethered from the bounds of the restrictive Comics Code Authority” at the time and featured more adult-oriented stories than its sister publication, Conan the Barbarian. This first issue includes contributions from John Arcudi, Patch Zircher, Jim Zub and Max Von Fafner, including a new Solomon Kane story.
Amazing Spider-Man #44 (Marvel, $4.99): The Gang War crossover that’s run through the Spider-Man titles comes to an end this week, as the two Spider-Men, Spider-Woman, She-Hulk and more face off with Madame Masque in a story by Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr.
Spider-Punk: Arms Race #1 (Marvel, $4.99): The band is back together for another Spider-Punk miniseries, as Cody Ziglar and Justin Mason reunite for more of Hobie Brown’s hijinks.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora #1 (Dark Horse, $3.99): Ray Fawkes and Gabriel Guzman present a six-issue miniseries that ties into the video game of the same name. It features different characters from the films, and introduces So’lek, one of the key characters from the game.
What If? … Venom (Marvel, $4.99): Jeremy Holt and Jesus Hervas kick off a five-issue miniseries that’ll show what might have happened if Venom had infected different characters besides Peter Parker or Eddie Brock — including She-Hulk, Loki and Moon Knight.
Women of Marvel (Marvel, $5.99): This year’s anthology, released to coincide with Women’s History Month in March, includes stories by Gail Simone, Celeste Bronfman, Erica Schultz, Nao Fuji and more, featuring Scarlet Witch, Invisible Woman, Madame Web and Black Widow.
Giant-Size Fantastic Four (Marvel, $6.99): Fabian Nicieza and Creees Lee pit the Fantastic Four against Natlus, an ancient ruler of Atlantis, in this giant-sized issue that celebrates the 50th anniversary of Marvel’s Giant-Size line from back in the 1970s.
Working Class Wizards #1 (Band of Bards, $4.99): Nick Goodwin, Chuck Satterlee and Chris Benamati head back to 1976 for the story of a heavy metal musician who sings about fantasy creatures and finds himself fighting the real thing.
The Cold Ever After (Titan, $19.99): Jeremy Whitley and Megan Huang combine Arthurian fantasy with a dose of detective noir in this new graphic novel about a former warrior pulled back into service by her queen when a princess goes missing.
Hound (Mad Cave Studios, $19.99): Sam Freeman, Sam Romesburg and Rodrigo Vazquez are the creative team for this horror graphic novel about a World War I soldier assigned to a company that has formed a dangerous, deadly cult.
The N Word of God (Fantagraphics, $29.99): Iconographer Mark Doox explores ideas around race and religion in this graphic novel that “explores the story of Saint Sambo and Black existential wonder through the prism of his Byzantine and early Italoreligious style.”
Whistleblowers: Four Who Fought to Expose the Holocaust to America (Dark Horse, $19.99): Rafael Medoff, co-founder of the David Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, and Dean R. Motter, creator Mister X, present the true story of four men who risked their careers and their lives to confront the unfolding Holocaust prior to World War II.
Tihku (Living the Line, $20): Kutikuti, an association and collective of comic artists living in Finland, presents this anthology of stories about Nordic introspectiveness, occult pocket watches, suburban drifting, untamed forests and butterfly appreciation.
Mickey’s Craziest Adventures (Fantagraphics, $22.99): This new Disney collection from Fantagraphics is presented as a “lost” volume from the 1960s that never saw publication, but is actually an all-new story by Lewis Trondheim and Nicolas Keramidas. It features Pete and the Beagle Boys stealing Uncle Scrooge’s money bin, as Mickey and Donald pursue them across the world (and even into space).
Influenca (Silver Sprocket, $16.99): Jade LFT Peters writes and draws this story set two years after the apocalypse — or seventh apocalypse, actually. It’s about zombie hunters who post about their lives and their hunts online, and told through the lens of interviews, social media posts and nostalgic reminiscing — basically a “day in the life” feature set at the end of the world.
A Simple Truth (SLG, $14.95): Kevin Sacco, the creator of Josephine, returns with a new graphic novel about a couple “wanting a child and willing to go to any lengths to get one, but their path takes them on a dreadful journey that pulls them away from all that is familiar into the uncharted waters of international adoption.”