Each Wednesday we run down what’s new and fresh at the store. I’m actually out of town right now and was going to skip this week but there is so much great stuff coming out that I couldn’t pass it up.

BERNIE WRIGHTSON’S FRANKENSTEIN
Written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley; art by Bernie Wrightson
Dark Horse
$29.95 | 256 pgs

WARNING: NOT A COMIC. Still, it’s got famed comic artist Bernie Wrightson illustrating Mary Shelley’s prose. Wrightson originally did these illustrations back in the ’80’s for a printed portfolio and there was briefly a version of the art and prose together that is now long out of print. In addition to the original novel you get 47 incredible black and white bull page illustrations. Plus it’s overized and has a intro by Stephen King. Happy Halloween!

TOKEN
Written by Alisa Kwitney; Art and cover by Joëlle Jones
DC MINX
$9.99 | 176 pgs

Although DC decided to kill Minx, their young adult lined aimed at the teenage girl market, there’s been a final spurt of releases recently in order to get out some already solicited books. The last of them is Token and it is one that I, myself, was most looking forward to since it featured artwork by newcomer Joëlle Jones (12 Reasons Why I Lover Her) whose expressive, animated linework is a pleasure to look at and perfect for Minx’ target audience.

Set in South Beach in the 1980s, this tale of romance and culture clash is about a young Jewish girl who meets a Spanish “old soul” named Rafael.

JOKER HC
Written by Brian Azzarello; Art by Lee Bermejo and Mick Gray;
DC Comics
$19.99 | 128 pgs

Brian Azzarello who is known for his stylish crime comics like 100 Bullets, brings his noirish flair to Gotham City with a graphic novel that seems to pull some inspiration from the superhero/crime hybrid film that we call The Dark Knight. Much like the Lex Luthor: Man of Steel mini that this same creative team brought us a few years back, this book stars the bad guy, in this case The Joker, in an attempt to get at a new definitive take on the character. A tough objective when, for good or bad, even the cover draws comparisons with the definitive take given us by the late Heath Ledger.

Even if you take this as a cynical attempt at drawing close to the cinema version of the character you have to be intrigued by what a writer like Azzarello whose skills lie with rhythmic dialogue and gritty violence will do with this story.

SPEAK OF THE DEVIL HC
By Gilbert Hernandez
Dark Horse
$19.95 | 128 pgs

Gilbert Hernandez has been rolling out an interesting spin-off of his Palomar stories from Love & Rockets that started with the graphic novel Chance In Hell and continued with this six issue mini-series from Dark Horse. At one point in Love & Rockets, chesty and lispy Fritz had a brief career as a B-movie actress. Well, why not do graphic novel adaptations of her entire filmography, right? This one is about a young girl who takes to wearing a devil mask and runs around peeping into the bedroom windows of her neighbors and even her own father and stepmother.

BAT MANGA SECRET HISTORY OF BATMAN IN JAPAN SC
By Chip Kidd, Saul Ferris and Geoff Spear
Pantheon
$29.95

Apparently, in 1966 during the Bat-mania generated by the popular TV show of that time, Batman was licensed to the Japanese magazine Shonen King to produce a bunch of Batman manga. Translated and published in the West for the first time, this collection of stories by Jiro Kuwata is designed and edited by Chip Kidd and, like many Kidd projects, is accompanied by nice photographs of kitschy vintage toys.

The stories themselves feature Batman and Robin fighting mutant dinosaurs and aliens and the undead and other things like that. So basically if you’ve been thinking that Grant Morrison’s current run on the main Batman title doesn’t go far enough with it’s unearthing of 50s and 60s era Bat-zaniness than this book is going to blow your mind.

FRANKLY, ALL OF THIS STUFF IS JUST AS GOOD:

TRAVEL SC
Picturebox gives us a new wordless graphic novel by manga creator Yuichi Yokoyama about three men travelling on a train. This one is all about the beauty of architecture, design and scenery.

OR ELSE #5
The last issue of Kevin Huizenga’s Or Else was an oddball masterpiece and I expect more of the same from this issue. This collection of minis includes tales of religious fanaticism, household insects, and things to do on Tuesdays.

BOURBON ISLAND 1730 GN
Lewis Trondheim releases yet another graphic novel with First Second Books, this one involving pirates and ornithologists in search of secret treasure and rare dodo birds. Oh and they’re all anthropomorphic animals.

MCCAIN THE COMIC BOOK
OBAMA THE COMIC BOOK
If you’re one of those mythical “undecided” voters who somehow have not made up their mind with less than a week to go before the election than maybe reading these new comic biographies about the two candidates will help steer you in one direction or the other. This is actually the second set of Obama and McCain comics to come out in the last couple of months so someone out there must think this is a good idea.

Seriously though, make up your mind and get out there and vote.

KILL YOUR BOYFRIEND NEW PTG
A new printing of a somewhat obscure Grant Morrison and Philip Bond work from the mid ’90s about teen sex and rebellion in middle class England.

GARTH ENNIS BATTLEFIELDS: NIGHT WITCHES #1(of 3)
A new Garth Ennis war comic published by Dynamite (who also put out his excellent The Boys series). This is the beginning a three part story about female Soviet bomber pilots during WWII.

EMPOWERED TP VOL 04
A new volume of Adam Warren’s highly addictive and highly cheesecakey satire of cheesecake in superhero comics.

ASTONISHING X-MEN GHOST BOXES #1
A one-shot to fill in some gaps in Warren Ellis’ ongoing Astonishing run. This one has artwork by Alan Davis and Adi Granov.

HELLBOY IN THE CHAPEL OF MOLOCH ONE SHOT
As a special Halloween treat, Hellboy creator Mike Mignola has chosen to write and draw his first Hellboy story in 3 years. This one takes place in a spooky Eastern European chapel and is sure to look great.