Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week.

5. ASTRO BOY VOL 1 & 2
By Osamu Tezuka
Dark Horse
$14.95 | 424 pgs

If you’ve always wanted to try Osamu Tezuka’s classic Astro Boy manga (on which the classic anime from the 1960s was based) then Dark Horse has a treat for you since they’re repackaging the series in a new, slightly more affordable edition. This first book actually collects the first two volumes of this 23 volume series for the price of one. Often called the “Mickey Mouse of Anime”, Astro Boy is actually a lot more like Pinocchio as it’s about a robot boy created by a government scientist in the likeness of his recently deceased son. Created with great powers, Astro Boy fights crime and evil robots while trying to understand what it is to be a real boy.

4. JANES IN LOVE
Written by Cecil Castellucci; Art and Cover by Jim Rugg
DC MINX
$9.99 | 176 pgs

DC’s Minx line, aimed at the growing teenage female sector of the comic reading audience, seems to be doing well since we’ve seemed to have reached the sequel stage of the line. Plain Janes was the first book released under this imprint last year and the same characters and creative team are back for Janes in Love (in fact a third book is already in the works too). The story is about a group of girls (all named Jane) that band together as a sort of grassroots guerrilla organization called People Loving Art in Neighborhoods – or P.L.A.I.N. – that commit “art attacks” around town. If that sounds a little reminiscent of terrorism to you it’s actually intentional as the book takes place in a world that is still a little shell-shocked from a real terrorist attack and could use a little art to relearn how beautiful the world can be.

This series has been praised for its appeal to its target audience and it’s message of spreading creativity. One criticism of the first volume was that some plot threads were left unresolved at the end but that is what this volume is for and the creators promise to pick up on those storylines.

3. BURMA CHRONICLES
By Guy Delisle
Drawn & Quarterly
$19.95 | 208 pgs

Guy Delisle is a French Canadian cartoonist who has made a name for himself by doing graphic memoirs that take place in countries that most people don’t get to visit too often. Previously in Shenzen and Pyongang he wrote about his experience in those countries while working for an animation studio. Now, he uses the opportunity of being married to a member of Doctors Without Borders to write about his stay in another country oppressed by a military regime – Burma.

Delisle tends to focus on the little things he sees in order to paint a thorough picture of life in these countries. Here, during his stay he encounters newspaper censorship, power outages, heroin use and other expatriates like himself getting by in a place that can be hard to get by in.

2. ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #12
Written by Grant Morrison; Art by Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant;
DC Comics
$2.99 | 32 pgs

Usually, I try to stick to recommending stand alone graphic novels or first issues so as to provide a good jumping on point for readers. I don’t think I’ve ever put a final issue of a series in one of these lists but I just have such a man-crush on this book that you’re lucky I haven’t listed all 12 issues here as they came out. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s run on this series has been an instant classic considered by many to be one of the best (if not THE best) Superman stories of all time.

Having faced twelve challenges (and met many variations of himself along the way), Superman squares off against Lex Luthor in this final chapter and it’s a testament to how well this book has been done that I’m not even totally sure he’s going to survive in the end.

1. LOCAL
Writen by Brian Wood; art by Ryan Kelly
Oni Press
$29.99 | 384 pgs

Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly’s excellent 12 issue series, Local, is now collected in hardcover and it might be interesting to see how this reads as a one volume story rather than it’s original monthly short story format. Intended to be a series of stand alone stories that would take place in a different city from issue, showcasing that city’s culture and landscape, the book at some point became a larger story about the life of it’s central character, Megan McKeenan. Each chapter jumps about a year or so in Megan’s life and finds her living in a different city but also in a different emotional place in her life.

The book stands out for a couple of reasons. Wood and Kelly do a tremendous amount of research on their locations (cities such as Richmond, Portland and Brooklyn) and it shows in Kelly’s detailed but expressionistic renderings of the locales. But it also rides on the strength of the Megan character who is a bit polarizing in her appeal. You’re probably either going to love her or hate her but either way that’s the sign of a really strong character.

HONORABLE MENTIONS!

GENE COLAN TRIBUTE BOOK
– This one’s for a good cause. The Hero Initiative reprints some classic Gene Colan work. Proceeds go directly towards helping Colan who has recently fallen ill.

GREATEST HITS#1
– Vertigo does a rare superhero book with some rare interior art by Preacher cover artist Glenn Fabry.

SUPERMAN: KRYPTONITE
– This story never seemed to get much talk when it came in the Superman:Confidential series (probably because of some long delays) but it’s Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale so how bad could it be?

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week. Provided the world doesn’t prematurely end today here’s what’s coming out today.

5. DUGOUT
Written by Adam Beechen; art by Manny Bello
Ait/Planet Lar
$12.95 | 88 pgs

Dugout is a new graphic novel that is apparently seven years in the making from Ait/Planet Lar and the same creative team of the publisher’s 2004 book Hench, Adam Beechen (recently of Teen Titans and other DC work) and Manny Bello.

Set in 1960, it concerns a down and out manager of a pro baseball team who sets up an exhibition game at a prison as a means of breaking his star pitcher out of the clink. This sounds like a fun book that combines two of America’s favorite past times: baseball and sticking it to the warden.

4. THE STAND: CAPTAIN TRIPS #1
Written by Roberto Aguirre-Scassa; art by Mike Perkins
Marvel
$3.99

Marvel has had some pretty good success with adapting Stephen King’s The Dark Tower and their method seems to be to roll out numerous mini-series to tell the story. In fact, there’s another Jae Lee illustrated Dark Tower mini starting this week as well called The Dark Tower: Treachery. The success of that series has led to Marvel adapting one of King’s most powerful and epic novels, The Stand into a series of 6 mini-series. It’s been a good 20 years since I read that novel but I remember being pretty blown away by it and I wasn’t alone as you can find influences from that book in many places, most notably on TV’s Lost.

Written by Roberto Aguirre-Scassa with much input from King himself, this first mini-series introduces the man-made virus nicknamed “Captain Trips” that devastates the world leaving two groups of survivors – one that follows the saintly Mother Abigail and another that is enraptured by the anti-Christ-like Randall Flagg. I can’t imagine this story won’t make for a good comic but it will be interesting to see whether the multiple mini-series format helps make this massive epic more digestible or less, well, epic.

3. SIXTEEN MILES TO MERRICKS AND OTHER WORKS
By Barnaby Ward
Frogchildren Studios
$29.95 | 208 pgs

Barnaby Ward is an exciting new creator who is releasing a collection of work through an animation company that he works for called Frogchildren Studios. Ward’s art is really interesting, showing influences of animation, manga, fashion illustration and European comics. This volume contains various illustrations and some short stories as well as one longer piece which the book draws its title from about a man who walks into an apartment and finds a strange but beautiful girl who leads him into more strange territory.

Check out a preview here at Ward’s website somefield.com

2. OMEGA: THE UNKNOWN HC
Written by Jonathan Lethem; art by Farel Dalrymple, Paul Hornschemeier and Gary Panter
Marvel
$29.99

The indie snob in me wishes that Marvel would do more books like this one. A literary superhero comic put together by an award winning novelist and a team of indie art superstars. This new premiere hardcover collects the recently concluded 10 issue mini-series that re-imagined Steve Gerber’s short-lived cult-classic 1970s comic about a young boy who learns he shares a destiny with a mute super hero from another planet. Lethem, perhaps best known for his novel Fortress of Solitude about a couple of kids growing up in Brooklyn on a steady diet of 1970s Marvel comics, is joined in his first comic outing by artists Farel Dalrymple and Paul Hornschemeier and even a guest bit done by Gary Panter of all people. It all makes for an odd package from a publisher like Marvel.

1. GOTHAM CENTRAL HC
Written by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka; art by Michael Lark
DC Comics
$29.99 | 240 pgs

Funny how it took until Ed Brubaker became an unstoppable superstar over at Marvel for DC to finally start showing some love to his and Greg Rucka’s highly praised but rarely read procedural crime drama, Gotham Central. The book petered out a couple of years back and has only been sporadically collected in trades. This new hardcover collects the first 10 issues which includes the first three story arcs (or cases as we’ll call them here). During it’s run, Brubaker and Rucka would alternate story arcs, cases and even characters with Brubaker handling the GCPD night shift and Rucka the day shift. The highlight of this collection is actually written by Greg Rucka which stars the character who would someday become the Question – Renee Montoya. In this award winning story, “Half Life”, Montoya’s life is turned upside-down when she is outed to her co-workers as a lesbian and gets kidnapped by Two-Face.

The real superstar of this book though is Michael Lark though who turns in some amazing, shadow-drenched artwork that brings the Gotham crime scene alive and makes you feel like you’re watching a great cop show that just happens to be set in Gotham City.

BONUS! Some Honorable Mentions:

Krazy & Ignatz 1943-1944: He Nods in Quiescent Siesta
At long last, the final volume of Fantagraphics’ Krazy Kat reprints.

Prince of Persia
Based on a popular computer game I’ve never heard of but it’s brought to you by the fine folks at First Second who rarely miss a step.

Batman: The Black Glove
Collecting the best part of Grant Morrison’s current run on Batman.

Bad Boy 10th Anniversary Hardcover
The new All-Star Batman and Robin may have been recalled this week but there’s always this old Frank Miller and Simon Bisley book to satisfy your fix.

Big Hero 6 #1
Chris Claremont does Japanese superhero teams.

Kick Drum Comix #1
Short stories from Jim Mahfood.

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week. This week new comics are actually shipping on Thursday because of Labor Day but let’s do this today anyway.

5. MARVEL APES #1
Written by Karl Kesel; art by Ramon Bachs
Marvel
$3.99

In case you didn’t know, Zombies are so last year. Same with Pirates. Apes are the new thing now. As someone who has studied the work of both Jane Goodall and Dr. Zaius, I’m a bit turned off by all these bandwagon jumpers that all of a sudden claim to have always been into monkeys. And they’ve only seen Project X once! If you only knew how much time I’ve logged sending letters trying to get BJ and The Bear released on DVD. Or how I drive around town blasting the Stones’ “Monkey Man” from my car stereo. I’m the real deal when it comes to all things simian.

Anyway, so this book looks pretty good. It’s pretty much like Marvel Zombies except instead of Spider-man being undead he’s a monkey. Cool!

4. ROBERTS #1 (of 2)
Written by Wayne Chinsang; art by Erik Rose
Image Comics
$5.99 | 48 pgs

Roberts is a new two issue mini about two old guys that get to know each other while living in a nursing home.

Wait, don’t stop reading! Let me finish.

One guy is the Boston Strangler and the other is the Zodiac Killer. The two serial killers rehash their past glories and then make a bet to see who still has what it takes.

The black and white artwork is by newcomer Erik Rose and judging by this preview on his website it looks pretty good. If you take him for his word, he drew it all using his and writer Wayne Chinsang’s blood.

3. BERLIN BOOK TWO: CITY OF SMOKE
By Jason Lutes
Drawn & Quarterly
$19.95 | 200 pgs

Holy cow! I’ve been waiting half my adult life for Jason Lutes’ second volume of Berlin to come out. Seriously though, when I first started getting back into comics way back in the early aughts, volume one was one of the first graphic novels I tried out. At this point I don’t even remember what the story is about except that it takes place in pre-Nazi Berlin.

If you love period pieces about interesting places set during a crucial moment in its history then you must give this book a try. While it explores the city during the fall of the Weimar Republic it does so through the eyes of two lovers named Kurt and Mathe. It’s the middle book of a trilogy that is turning out to be Lutes’ lifework and a test of patience for tradewaiters everywhere.

2. SECRET SIX #1
Written by Gail Simone; art by Nicola Scott and Doug Hazelwood
DC Comics
$2.99 | 32 pgs

Back during DC’s Countdown to Infinite Crisis, the most surprisingly enjoyable tie-in to that event was Gail Simone’s Villains United which introduced us to an all new version of the Secret Six. Since then there’s been a successful Secret Six mini-series that has now lead to a new ongoing series written by Simone and her Birds of Prey collaborator, Nicola Scott. The Secret Six is a team of super-villains that has had a somewhat revolving cast since it first appeared in Villains United but its mainstays include Deadshot, Scandal, Ragdoll and Catman whose reinvention from lame Wonder Woman bad guy to tough-with-a-sensitive-side anti-hero has made him the unofficial star of this team. Some new members will be added to the team in this series including a mysterious “A-list” Batman villain.

1. LOVE & ROCKETS: NEW STORIES
By The Hernandez Brothers
Fantagraphics
$14.99 | 100 pgs

The Hernandez Brothers have decided to take their long running comic, Love & Rockets, into the potential future of comics by eschewing the floppy format for an annual, 100 page digest of all new material. It seems like a big deal to me when major American comic book creators decides to publish their book in the manga method. Could an annual one-volume Amazing Spider-man in place of the current weekly 22 pagers be far behind? Yeah probably pretty far indeed but trade-waiters and bookshelf owners will be rejoicing in this move by the venerable indie creators. All three brothers – Jaime, Gilbert and Mario – have offerings in this introductory volume. Jaime, though takes up half the book with a new Penny Century story that takes her usual superhero leanings and goes full tilt with it.

If you’ve never read Love & Rockets, this could be a good place to start. Like any good ongoing comic, it’s built on decades of it’s own continuity but it’s not to hard to jump in, get to know the characters and catch up to speed pretty easily.

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week.

5 ACHEWOOD: THE GREAT OUTDOOR FIGHT
By Chris Onstad
Dark Horse
$14.95 | 104 pgs

The cream of the webcomics pile continues to rise to the top where it’s offered book deals and, who knows, maybe movies some day. It’s an interesting experiment in figuring out whether people will pay for what they can get for free and Dark Horse Comics has had some success with that recently thanks to Nicholas Gurewitch’s Perry Bible Fellowship. Will Achewood, a webcomic with almost as big a following, do as well in this market? If you haven’t read it, Achewood is an absurdist strip about a group of anthropomorphic stuffed animals that live together with their owner in a house in the fictional suburb of Achewood. This book collects the popular story arc, The Great Outdoor Fight. The humor of this strip isn’t really for me I think but it has a huge cult following and I’m all for webcomic peeps making money so hopefully people will check this out.

4. TALL TALES
By Al Jaffee
Abrams
$14.95 | 128 pgs

Al Jaffee is known to everyone who’s ever read Mad Magazine as the guy who did those brilliant fold-out cartoons. From 1957-1963 he did an innovative vertical, wordless comic strip for the New York Herald Tribune that is collected here in one volume.

Comedy Central‘s Stephen Colbert provides an introduction for the book which should be worth the price of admission alone.

3. NEW AVENGERS #44
Written by Brian Michael Bendis; art by Billy Tan
Marvel
$2.99

I don’t normally point out the odd issue of an ongoing series unless it’s a good jumping on point or a special stand-alone story. In this case, if you’re reading Marvel’s Secret Invasion series but you’re not picking up all the various crossovers and tie-ins (and seriously how could you – there’s just too many) you might want to check this one out because it looks like it’s going to fill in a big part of the Secret Invasion storyline by showing us how the whole Skrull takeover of Earth came about. Brian Michael Bendis, writer of Secret Invasion, has been setting up threads for this storyline in his books for years and one of the books that this draws heavily on is his Illuminati mini-series which revealed that various events in Marvel history had been secretly orchestrated by a committee of well-meaning but foolhardy heroes.

2. TYPHON
By Various
Dirty Danny Press
$24.95 | 192 pgs

This is yet another anthology book (we’ve had a lot of these this summer) but I happened to browse through this one at Heroes Con and man is it a crazy book. Forty two full color stories from various cartoonists, many of which are relatively unknown but include some names like David Chelsea, Tim Lane (who we saw last week with Abandoned Cars), Victor Cayro , Matthew Thurber, Hans Rickheit and Eric Theriault.

In the tradition of the great underground comic anthologies like Weirdo and Raw, this book allows the artists to do whatever the hell they want and let their ids spill out all over the page. It’s full of graphic sex, gross out humor, weird ideas and cool, modern cartooning from some fresh up and coming talent.

There’s some relatively NSFW previews here at the editor’s blog.

1. FINAL CRISIS: SUPERMAN BEYOND #1 (of 2)
Written by Grant Morrison; art by Dough Mahnke and Christian Alamy
DC Comics
$4.50 | 40 pgs

I know this is the second week in a row that I’ve picked a Final Crisis tie-in as the top book but this one has got alternate-Earth Supermen and a special 3-D section with glasses included! Plus it’s written by Final Crisis writer Grant Morrison and has art by Doug Mahnke who previously collaborated with Morrison on Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein. This two issue mini deals with Superman trying to save Lois’ life after the events of Final Crisis and getting caught up in the even bigger problem of preventing the end of all reality.

By the way, speaking of Grant Morrison, if you’ve never read the greatest Superman book EVER then it’s your duty to disregard everything else on this list and pick up the new trade paperback collection of his All-Star Superman book which also comes out today.

Plus, there’s even more classic Morrison on the shelves with a $30 hardcover collecting the first 9 issues of his run on the relaunched JLA comic from somewhere around 1996. From a historical standpoint, this is a highly influential book that many would say kick started the whole “widescreen” action method of telling superhero comics. Personally, I have trouble getting past the artwork in this one but it’s pretty wild superhero fun, nonetheless.

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week.

5. AIR #1
Written by G. Willow Wilson; Art and Cover by M.K. Perker
DC Vertigo
$2.99 | 40 pgs

The creative team behind the recent Vertigo graphic novel, Cairo, begin a new series about air travel, terrorism and anti-terrorist vigilantes. Blythe, an acrophobic flight attendant (hey it’s a tough economy out there and some people have to take whatever jobs they can find) gets caught up with an organization called the Etesian Front that are taking on some radical means to stop planes from being hijacked by… hijacking planes. Writer G. Willow Wilson has written articles about religion and the Middle East for publications like the New York Times and is now plunging head first in the comics world. She even has a spot at Jason Aaron’s new Vertigo themed blog Standard Attrition. M.K. Perker has a quirky way of drawing people that I think could grow on me pretty easily. There’s a preview here if you’d like to look.

4. MYSPACE DARKHORSE PRESENTS VOL.1
By Various
Dark Horse
$19.95

Either you’re a Marvel person or a DC person. A Mac person or a PC person. A Facebook person or a MySpace person. Since I’m a Facebook guy I never step foot in MySpace so I’ve never seen the free web comics that Dark Horse has been putting out over there. Why get something for free when you can pay for it though? For less than $20 you can get this new collection of the various strips that were put on the Myspace website over the past year. There’s some good stuff here like a new Umbrella Acadamy story by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba. A Joss Whedon story called “Sugarshock” with art by Fabio Moon. A new full color Empowered story by Adam Warren. Plus Mike Mignola, Guy Davis, Eric Powell and more. Can’t beat a lineup like that.

3. ABANDONED CARS #1
By Tim Lane
Fantagraphics
$22.99 | 168 pgs

Tim Lane is a fairly new face to the comics world, having appeared in some various anthologies here and there but his first book is a collection of short stories that together aim to examine the theme of “the American mythological drama” by way of cars, carnivals, rockabilly, train yards and of course, Elvis. As the previews will show you, Lane works in a wordy, caption-ific style with black and white artwork that brings to mind Charles Burns pretty readily. If you don’t mind some words mixed with your pictures this looks like it will be an interesting and moody look at Americana in all it’s sordid and noirish glory.

2. SCORCHY SMITH AND THE ART OF NOEL SICKLES
By Noel Sickles
IDW Publishing
$49.99 | 394 pgs

Don’t be ashamed if you’ve never heard of Noel Sickles (I’m sure there are plenty of other things you easily can be ashamed of, GarfieldFan78!) or if you’ve never heard of the aviation-based newspaper strip that this book collects. Sickles only drew the strip for three years and then left comics altogether for the more lucrative and glamorous career of editorial and advertising illustration. However, in those three short years (1933-1936) Sickles revolutionized the world of comic strip art with his cinematic panel compositions and chiaroscuro inking. His work here influenced such greats as Milton Caniff, John Romita, Sr. and even recently Dave Sim. This hefty volume contains Sickles’ complete run as well as some extras like illustrations from Sickles’ non-Scorchy work.

1. FINAL CRISIS: LEGION OF THREE WORLDS #1 (of 5)
Written by Geoff Johns; Art by George Pérez and Scott Koblish
DC Comics
$3.99 | 40 pgs

Of the many Final Crisis spin-offs coming out now, this is by far the most highly anticipated. Written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by George Perez, two men who are both closely associated with Crises of the past, this 5 issue mini-series picks up on threads that have been left hanging from such books as Infinite Crisis, JLA: Lightning Saga, The Sinestro Corps War, JSA, Action Comics and others. It involves the Time Trapper utilizing Superboy Prime to erase Superman’s impact on the universe and three versions of the Legion of Superheroes trying to stop him. Usually just mentioning the Legion is enough to confuse most readers, nonetheless putting all three versions from different continuities into one story. But God put Geoff Johns on this earth to help us understand the DC Universe and it’s convoluted continuity and his mission continues here. If anyone can make sense of the Legion it’s him. If nothing else though at least the artistic presence of George Perez will help lend this book the Crisis Event gravitas it needs.

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week.

5. WELCOME TO HOXFORD #1
By Ben Templesmith
IDW Publishing
$3.99 | 32 pgs

Writer/artist Ben Templesmith brings his blurry and disturbing style to a new horror comic about the inmates of a mental institution/correctional facility. The story follows a new, and quite loony, inmate to the facility and one lone doctor who thinks there’s something up with the facility’s corporate overlords. Templesmith, most recently known for Warren Ellis’ Fell, draws like a children’s book gone horribly wrong so this subject matter should allow him to creep you out pretty sufficiently.

Read a preview here.

4. SPDIER-MAN: KRAVEN’S LAST HUNT
Written by J.M. DeMatteis; art by Mike Zeck
Marvel
$14.99

Marvel has so many Secret Invasion books coming out this week that I don’t even know where to start so I’m just going to ignore them. Hey, remember this series from the 1980s when Kraven the Hunter shoots and buries Spider-man and then runs around with his costume on, impersonating him? This was a dark and kind of scary book for it’s time. It featured stunning artwork by Mike Zeck and a new take on a goofy old Spider-man villain that actually made him seem pretty off his rocker. It’s a story that hasn’t been long forgotten by fans and its success probably spawned a lot of other dark and grisly Spidey stories since then. It gets a new printing this week with a new Zeck cover.

3. DISAPPEARANCE DIARY
By Hideo Azuma
Fanfare/Ponent Mon
$22.99 | 200 pgs

Here’s one that might be a little hard to track down but it really sounds like it might be worth doing so. Acclaimed Japanese magaka, Hideo Azuma, tells a very strange kind of memoir that juxtaposes cute, comical artwork with his own story of dropping out of society after suffering a severe nervous breakdown. The book actually starts with the author waking up in the woods with a noose around his neck after a failed suicide attempt and proceeds to play everything that comes after for laughs. Any memoir you read is basically a fictionalized version of someone’s life but this book goes out of its way to take a disturbing and tragic time in the author’s life and remove as much of the reality from the story as possible so that you’re actually reading the comically unfortunate times of a downtrodden cartoon character who takes to eating garbage on the streets.

The black and white artwork looks great, as you can see in this preview at the publisher’s website.

2. A TRESURY OF 20TH CENTURY MURDER VOL. 1: THE LINDBERGH CHILD
By Rick Geary
NBM
$15.95 | 80 pgs

Somehow I never knew about Rick Geary and his awesome idea of chronicling all the great murder cases of the Victorian era in comic form. He did numerous volumes of his A Treasury of Victorian Murder books but apparently ran out of cases because now he’s started with a new Volume 1 that begins tackling 20th century cases. The first case on his list is the mysterious abduction of Charles Lindbergh’s baby in the 1920s. This was a case that got the Jazz Age equivalent of wall-to-wall breaking news coverage and captured the hearts of Americans. Geary gets into every little detail and outlines all the crazy events that came about as authorities and the Lindbergh family tried in vain to find their missing child.

You can preview the first couple of pages here.

1. MIDDLEMAN COLLECTED SERIES INDISPENSABILITY COMPENDIUM
Written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach; art by Les McClaine
Viper Comics
$19.95 | 336 pgs

Again, I’m going to have to plead guilty on having never heard of this series until today. Nor did I know there was a TV show based on it that runs on ABC Family. Although if you put a gun to my head I doubt I’d be able to even find ABC Family in a timely fashion on my DirectTV channel guide. Anyway, I’ve heard a lot of great things about this series. There have been three volumes published so far and they are now collected in this comprehensive package. Written by one of the Lost writers, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Middleman is a superspy comedy about an organization of “Middlemen” that for centuries have been “fighting evil so that you don’t have to”. Wendy Watson, a young struggling artist, gets recruited into the organization as a sidekick to the latest Middleman and finds herself fighting mad scientists, genetically engineered monkeys, and Mexican wrestlers while also having boyfriend, roommate and mom troubles. The art is cute and very much in the Viper Comics style and the story is so full of pop-culture references you’ll need to read some Joss Whedon or Brian K. Vaughan to unwind a little afterwards.

Read some previews of the various volumes this book collects here.

Every Wednesday we run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week.

5. NYX: NO WAY HOME #1
Written by Marjorie Liu; art by Kalman Andrasofsky
Marvel
$3.99

The original NYX series was an interesting disaster that started life as a Brian Wood project about teenage mutants living in New York City and later became a Joe Quesada written book that featured breakout visuals by then newcomer Josh Middleton. It made a big splash at first but a few issues in things fell apart, issues stopped coming out in a timely fashion and the series was quickly canceled. Now, years later, a new mini-series launches featuring the same lead character, Kiden Nixon, and is once again set in Manhattan but this time set in the current Marvel landscape that only contains less than 200 lonely and paranoid mutants.

The new book is written by New York Times best selling author Marjorie Liu (the Dirk & Steele series) and has some really nice art by Kalman Andrasofsky who’s work can be seen at his blog here.

Preview the first few pages of the book here.

4. FINAL CRISIS #3
Written by Grant Morrison; art by JG Jones
DC Comics
$3.99

DC’s weirdly somber summer event comic continues with it’s third issue. A lot of people were turned off by the quiet start this book had but things are ratcheting up quickly as we build towards the day that Evil wins (whatever that really means). If you’re a Grant Morrison fan you’ll be pleased to know that the writer is building his own subset of continuity within the larger DC Universe framework as this book has more to do with his excellent Seven Soldiers series than with anything else that is really going on in other DC books right now. This issue even boasts an appearance by Frankenstein and the agents of S.H.A.D.E. Oh yeah, and did I mention Barry Allen is coming back from the dead (or the future or something) this issue?

3. CROSSED #0 (of 9)
Written by Garth Ennis; art by Jacen Burrows
Avatar Press
$1.00

Frequent collaborators Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows introduce their new horror series with a ten page 0 issue (issue #1 comes out in October) this week. The story is about an apocalyptic plague that takes over the world and, rather than turn people into zombies, turns them into…well, into into Garth Ennis characters – violent, immoral, raping and murdering maniacs. The last thing comics needs is another zombie apocalypse so this could be a welcome change.

In the zero issue we’re introduced to a small band of survivors on the run from the transformed, who are recognizable by a bloody cross that appears on their face. Since this is the writer of Preacher and the creative team behind Chronicles of Wormwood – a very weird take on Jesus and Satan – expect some Catholic themes to poke through here. Oh and also expect a lot of disturbing and most likely, offensive, carnage to ensue.

2. SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE SEASON TWO #1
Written by Terry Moore; art by Craig Rousseau
Marvel
$2.99

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane is a series that the cynical critic in me would think wouldn’t work because of the transparency of Marvel trying to tap into manga’s ever growing teenage girl audience by giving them something teenage girls still don’t really want – superheroes. But a strong creative team can work wonders and that’s why the last run on this title garnered such a avid fan base. Writer Sean McKeever, with artist Takeshi Miyazawa for most of the run, proved to be very adept at delivering an enjoyable teen drama/comedy focused around a teenage version of longtime Marvel character Mary Jane Watson. Now, with a new mini-series, Marvel continues to seem to be doing this right by bringing in Strangers in Paradise creator Terry Moore as the writer. As Mary Jane starts another year at school she has a lot to be angsty about – trouble with
her superhero boyfriend, her ex-boyfriend, her mom and everything else I guess. High school can be rough, you know.

1. ARMY@LOVE: THE ART OF WAR #1 (of 6)
Written by Rick Veitch; art by Gary Erskine
DC Vertigo
$2.99

Rick Veitch’s Army@Love is probably my favorite new Vertigo series but like a lot of books I like it doesn’t sell all that well. I guess that might explain it’s recent move to a seasonal approach of mini-series rather than an ongoing book. Season 2, a 6-issue series, begins this week and it’s a great place to start if you’re curious about the series. Veitch’s Joseph Heller-like satire on the war against terrorism in the Middle East is raunchy, smart and LOL funny. Not to mention it’s probably a lot more spot on than you’d even think. Especially with recent news that NATO was hiring form Coca-Cola marketing people to help improve their image. That’s like something right out of this book.

By the way, the most recent trade paperback collection of this series hit the stands last week so there’s that too.

Every Wednesday I run down the 5 most interesting comics or graphic novels coming out for the week. This week is a bit of an odd one. You’ll see why.

5. BATMAN: GOING SANE
Written by J.M. DeMatteis, Eddie Campell and Daren White; Art by Joe Staton, Bart Sears and Steve Mitchell
DC Comics
$14.99

If you’ve just seen The Dark Knight, then you’re probably going to be one of two minds on the matter of the Joker. Either Heath Ledger’s performance is going to make you hungry for all things Joker or it was the be-all and end-all and he has effectively closed the door on all other iterations of the character, whether in film or comics. Well, if you’re nothing like me than you might be clamoring to read this collection of a Joker story that was originally published in the comic Legends of the Dark Knight a few years ago. After seemingly killing Batman, the Joker has to move on with his life and that means a backward slide into sanity. It’s an interesting concept that builds on the dynamics of that classic antagonistic relationship.

4. ME AND THE DEVIL BLUES VOL 1
By Akira Hiramoto
Del Rey Manga
$19.95

This week’s head-scratcher is a manga about the life of legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson. Except that since virtually nothing is really known about Johnson’s life the story focuses on the idea that he once sold his soul to the Devil and runs wild from there, even having Johnson meet up with gangster Clyde Barrow of Bonnie & Clyde fame. Just the idea of a Japanese writer/artist portraying the life of an African American blues musician in 1920s America would be interesting enough but throw in Satan and some other bizarre elements and things could get really out there.

3. NEVERLAND
By Dave Kiersh
Bodega
$6.00

Dave Kiersh ruminates on life, love and Long Island in this short but densely cartooned 32 pager. Kiersh has an interesting child-like style that works well for a story that jumps into a Peter Pan inspired fantasy sequence but that also tackles both the physical and emotional landscape of living in suburbia: water towers, cicadas, strip malls, listening to bad radio and hooking up in the back of a car.

You can preview the book here at Kiersh’s website.

2. FANTASTIC FOUR: TRUE STORY #1
Written by Paul Cornell; art by Horacio Dominguez
Marvel
$2.99

Okay, maybe this is actually the oddball pick of the week. The Fantastic Four journey into the world of Fiction and meet up with Willie Lumpkin, Dante and the Dashwood sisters from Sense and Sensibility? Huh. It’s a new mini-series written by Paul Cornell, popular British writer of various Dr. Who novels, the recent critically acclaimed Wisdom series for Marvel and the current Captain Britain and MI:13 series. English majors are going to get a kick out of this series especially but, really, who wouldn’t get a kick out of seeing Ben Grimm interact with some Jane Austen characters?

1. POPGUN VOL. 2
By Various
Image Comics
$29.99

Last week was the big week for anthologies but this one probably tops all of those anyway. The second volume of this hip anthology – or “graphic mixtape” as editors Mark Andrew Smith and Joe Keatinge like to call it – features eye-catching work from people like Jim Rugg (again with Afrodisiac which we saw in last week’s Meathaus anthology), James Kochalka, Paul Maybury, Dean Haspiel, Erik Larsen, Ryan Ottley, Joelle Jones and of course this very appealing cover by Paul Pope.

I want to thank Dustin and the crew for inviting me to join the Heroes blog. Each Wednesday I’m going to run down the 5 most interesting comics and graphic novels that will be hitting the shop. Please feel free to add a comment and either wholeheartedly agree with me or tell us what you’re excited about picking up this week.

5. UNCANNY X-MEN #500
Written by Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction; art by Greg Land and Terry Dodson
Marvel
$3.99
Fresh off their acclaimed run on Iron Fist, Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction take over the flagship X-men title with it’s landmark 500th issue (500? Why does that make me feel old?). Brubaker and Fraction have a lot of plans for the series and will be setting up a lot of future story lines with this issue. The first order of business is getting the team set up in their new hometown of San Francisco. As the writers have described in numerous interviews, San Fran is a logical place for mutants to hang out because it’s a town where anyone can just let their freak flag fly. The fan favorite writing team is also joined by a new art team that consists of a couple of other popular guys in the comics world right now: Greg Land and Terry Dodson. Between the new status quo and the top notch creative team this is probably the most interested I’ve been in checking out an X-men book since Grant Morrison ended his run.

There’s quite a few variant covers for this one including the Alex Ross one shown here. Check them all out plus a preview of the interior art here.

4. WAR HEROES #1 (of 6)
written by Mark Millar; art by Tony Harris
Image Comics
32 pgs | $2.99

Writer Mark Millar takes a break from all the work he’s been doing in the Marvel Universe to get back to doing the type of creator-owned work that he’s had some success with in the past (after the success of this summer’s Wanted, everything this guy does is probably going to get optioned by Hollywood now). Teaming with artist Tony Harris (Ex Machina, Starman) on this new 6 issue mini-series, Millar introduces us to an America that has gone down the tubes after devastating nuclear attacks by Iraqi insurgents. In order to regain the global advantage it has recently lost, the government begins giving superpowers to all of its soldiers.

If you were a fan of Millar’s paramilitary take on The Avengers in The Ultimates then you’re sure to love this and since it’s published by Image, independent of Marvel’s corporate censorship, there’s nothing holding back Millar’s more controversial and R-rated tendencies.

Here’s a preview of the first issue and an interview with Millar himself.

3. APOCALIPSTIX VOL.1
Written by Ray Fawkes; art by Cameron Stewart
Oni Press
144 pgs | $11.95

A book about a girl rock band traveling around a post-apocalyptic landscape being chased by mutants and pirates in between gigs doesn’t really sound like something I’d usually like* but it’s possible I’m just biased on this one since I’m a sucker for Cameron Stewart’s artwork (Seaguy, The Other Side, Catwoman). With his crisp, Bruce Timm influenced style that gives him a knack for drawing really cute girls this is basically a book that just lets him do what he’s good at and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Here’s a preview of all the apocalyptic goodness and check out the new Apocalipstix website here.

*Actually all those things are totally up my alley

2. MEATHAUS SOS
By Various creators
Nerdcore
272 pgs | $30.00

Meathaus is a collective of New York based artists that came out of The School of Visual Arts and, though many have pretty notable careers on their own right now, every once in a while they get together to put out an anthology of really nice looking art comics. This latest volume contains new work from folks like: James Jean (he of the Fables covers); Jim (Street Angel) Rugg introducing his newest character, Afrodisiac; Dash (Bottomless Belly Button) Shaw does the weird The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D.; plus Tomer and Asaf Hanuka (of Bi Polar fame), Brandon Graham (of King City fame) and veteran animation legend Ralph Bakshi (of Cool World and Fritz the Cat fame) all lend some work to the book.

Here’s a preview over at the Totally Nerd Core website.

1. AMERICAN FLAGG! Vol. 1
By Howard Chaykin
Image Comics
440 pgs | $49.99

There’s a lot of pricey offerings this week but this one I think is totally worth it. American Flagg! fans have been waiting years for a nice collection of Howard Chaykin’s groundbreaking political sci-fi sex comedy. Featuring recolored artwork, an introduction by author Michael Chabon and a brand new story by Chaykin, this hardcover volume justifies it’s fifty dollar price tag. American Flagg! was a book that was truly ahead of it’s time when it was first published in the mid 1980s. Not only because of Chaykin’s sophisticated artwork and storytelling style but the ideas presented itself seemed to eerily predict our own future: a collapsed Soviet Union, American society revolving around super-malls and basketball, lingerie as outerwear, media saturation, the mainstreaming of pornography and more. The only things we’re still wating on is talking cats and the U.S. government to relocate to Mars.

I’d put this series in my top 5 all time favorite comics so I’m hoping this book will look great and will lead to more collections of the rest of the series.