Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what’s coming to your local comic shop this week.
I’ve pulled out some of the highlights for this week 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 + Mad Cave + 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 check with your retailer to see what’s arriving at their shop this week.
EC Outlaw Showdown #1 (Oni Press, $8.99): EC Comics goes country, as Oni Press presents EC’s first giant-sized, 56-page special featuring stories set on the lawless frontiers of the Old West. Gunfighters, scoundrels, butchers and bandits draw down on fate itself as John Arcudi, Brian Azzarello, David Lapham, Tony Moore, Ann Nocenti and more rain hellfire and fury from their holsters. This anthology promises new tales of hard-won Western justice along with a remastered and restored story from the EC vaults.
King Spawn #50 (Image Comics, $4.99): Todd McFarlane and Rory McConville celebrate this milestone 50th issue with an oversized story that will cross over into the 50th issues of Gunslinger Spawn and The Scorched. An ancient force, almost as old as time itself, has returned and Spawn is in its sights. The story, split into two chapters per issue, will be penciled by Stephen Segovia and Carlo Barberi.
Speed Racer: Tales from the Road—Two Princes (Mad Cave Studios, $6.99): Mark London, David Pepose and Sebastian Piriz launch an all-new quarterly release featuring one-shot stories that expand the Speed Racer universe. When Interpol sends Racer X on a mission to take down a brutal warlord known only as the Viking, a deadly chase ignites across a shadowy European city. The one-shot also features a Spritle and Chim-Chim backup story where they borrow the Mach 5 for a joyride.
Captain Henry and the Graveyard of Time #1 (Dark Horse, $4.99): Mike Mignola and Bruce Zick team up to explore an uncharted corner of the Hellboy universe in this new four-part miniseries. An intrepid time traveler voyages to a new dimension, but the monsters he finds there may be less of a danger than time itself. Zick, known for his work on Thor and The Atomic Legion, co-writes with Mignola and provides art for this series that expands the mythology of the Hellboy world into the temporal.
Hello Halloween #1 (BOOM! Studios, $5.99): The hit anthology series Hello Darkness gets a spin-off special just in time to haunt your seasonal reading list. Trick-or-treat yourself to a fresh batch of nightmares, like a new Graveyard Club story from R.L. Stine and Carola Borelli, plus stories by Robert Hack, Megan Hutchison, Shawn Patrick Boyd, Elijah Henry and more.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Halloween Special #1 (BOOM! Studios, $9.99): It’s Halloween in Angel Grove, featuring the return of the Pumpkin Rapper and the debut of the sugary Colonel Maize. When the villains capture a bus full of kids and a few of their fellow teammates, the Power Rangers must swap scary stories from their most harrowing missions to keep hope alive. This seasonal anthology features stories by Hyperforce star Meghan Camarena, Sina Grace and more.
Thanksgiving (AHOY Comics, $7.99): We tend to jump from Halloween to Christmas, it seems, forgetting there’s another holiday in there with plenty of terror to pull from in our comics — Thanksgiving! Mark Russell and Mauricet deliver an intense one-shot about the holiday where American families come together until the strain inevitably tears them apart. For one family, the cruel and deadly secret of the Turkeyneck Killer binds them together in the saddest, most shameful way possible. Think your family is dysfunctional? Just wait.
Avatar: The Gap Year—Tipping Point #1 (Dark Horse, $4.99): Ethan Sacks and Salvatore Porcaro deliver a beyond-the-screen adventure filling in the gap year at the outset of Avatar: The Way of Water. After defending Pandora and sending the RDA packing nearly 15 years ago, the Na’vi returned to peaceful lives. Former Marine Jake Sully, now accepted as Na’vi himself, has started a family with Neytiri. Despite more than a decade of peace, Jake knows the RDA isn’t done with Pandor, and he’s proven right as they return in force.
Various DC K.O. Tie-Ins (DC, $3.99-$4.99 each): As the DC K.O. tournament erupts and Earth’s transformation grows more dire, several titles dive into the chaos. In Flash #26, Mark Waid, Christopher Cantwell and Vasco Georgiev send Wally and Impulse racing through time as Impulse’s terrible idea—Impulsepoint—threatens to wipe out everything unless the Flash can catch up. Justice League Unlimited #12 finds Mark Waid and Dan Mora sending the “Terrific Ten” — Mr. Terrific and several time-displaced heroes — on a do-or-die mission to the heart of darkness at Earth’s core to unravel a mystery involving a Terrifictech device. And in Superman #31, Joshua Williamson and Mora reveal how the Heart of Apokolips’ origins are tied to Krypton as Superman continues his battle with Darkseid’s Legion.
X-Men: Age of Revelation various titles (Marvel, $3.99-$4.99 each): We’ve made it to week three of Marvel’s latest X-event, Age of Revelation, as the entire X-Men line is temporarily replaced with three-issue miniseries set 10 years in the future — a future where the Heir of Apocalypse, now known as Revelation, has created a mutant nation and all sorts of trouble. And it’s not just impacting the X-Men, as you’ll see with the addition of a Spider-Man title to the line this week. We’ve also got a new take on Wolverine, an adult Kid Omega and Book of Revelation, which will take us deep into Revelation’s heartland.
War Wolf #1 (Mad Cave Studios, $4.99): Steve Orlando and Marco Perugini deliver a story about a hero built on a lie. After security guard Thomas Bruin fends off an alien invasion, he goes from nobody to Earth’s greatest hero, rising from celebrity to congress to head of the planet’s first orbital security force. But only Bruin knows his great victory is a lie, and when the aliens return to Earth stronger than ever, Bruin has no choice but to be the hero he’s fooled the whole world into thinking he is.
Savage Sword of Conan: Reforged #1 (Titan Comics, $9.99): The classic B&W Savage Sword of Conan returns in full color. This four-issue series revitalizes Marvel’s 1970s/80s black-and-white magazine with vivid, all-new color restorations, bringing new depth and intensity to Conan’s celebrated adventures. This first issue features two Roy Thomas-written stories: “Tower of the Elephant” featuring art by John Buscema and Alfredo Alcala, and “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter” by artist Barry Windsor-Smith.
9 Times My Work Has Been Ripped Off TP (Drawn & Quarterly, $18.95): New York Times and New Yorker illustrator Raymond Biesinger shares more than 20 years of experience navigating the least glamorous aspects of the creative industry in this elegantly illustrated guide. From chasing down a concert promoter for payment on a $50 Megadeth poster design to confronting a government agency for stylistic theft, Biesinger revisits some of the most unforgettable moments in his career with candor and humor. This portable guide tackles the ever-present question of what to do when your work has been exploited, making it essential reading for every creative person from the earnest novice to the seasoned professional.
Cat Mask Boy TP (Nakama Press/Mad Cave Studios, $10.99): Linus Liu delivers a kinetic journey into 1970s Hong Kong following Tiger, a seven-year-old who prefers being clever to working hard, gets terrible grades and dreams of being a superhero. When his report card somehow ends up in one of the most dangerous areas of Hong Kong, Tiger must dive into the twisting chaos and shadowy street corners of the Walled City armed only with his homemade cat mask and determination.
Electric Cowboy (Silver Sprocket, $14.99): Debut author ansel kite weaves a story of identity and love in this time-travel romance. Alfie and Caroline are celebrating, because tomorrow they’ll restart the electric dynamo at the core of the enormous red desert planet they’re orbiting, creating a habitable planet for humankind. But when Alfie awakes the next morning, Caroline is nowhere to be found. Alfie descends to the barren planet and discovers a tear in the spacetime continuum, allowing them to clamber into Caroline’s memories in search of her. As they chase an elusive Caroline through time, they receive more questions than answers.
The Space Between the Trees (Titan Comics, $19.99): Aurora Award winner Norm Konyu creates a paranormal thriller set in an eerie and extraordinary forest. Meera and Mark, an ordinary couple searching for a new home, find themselves lost after an accident. The house hunters become the hunted as they must navigate a labyrinth of time and space surrounded by towering trees with unusual qualities. Konyu, the creator of A Call To Cthulhu, The Junction and Downlands, brings his mastery of animation and graphic storytelling to this tale where time is fluid and every turn brings a new nightmare.