ANDY’S PICK :: MIRACLEMAN #1: Short and sweet.  Buy this comic book.  Forget about all the litigious baggage this series carries and revel in a great (not good–GREAT) comic series that changed things up in the superhero world as much as Dark Knight and Watchmen.  This is Alan Moore’s re-imagining the Captain Marvel legend (changed to Marvelman then Miracleman for British publication) tailor made for a modern audience.  I don’t want to give anything away.  Just buy it and make sure you have Justin add MIRACLEMAN to your subscriber pull-list.  The book just gets better and better.  Issues 14 to 16 will take your breath away and then Neil Gaiman takes over and the results are truly sponge-worthy!!  I can’t wait!!!!

RICO’S PICK :: ADVENTURE TIME: The FLIP SIDE: There are a bunch of comics I’m excited about this week. Minimum Wage #1, Black Widow #1, and the conclusion of Fantomex are all worth a look. Adventure Time: The Flip Side features art by Wook Jin Clark (whose awesome OGN MegaGoGo comes out next month!) and it’s written by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover. Check it out!

ANDY’S PICK :: ART OF HARVEY KURTZMAN HC  is a fine career retrospective from Denis Kitchen that is offered again from the good folks at ABRAMS.  The book is subtitled, “The MAD Genius of Comics” highlighting Kurtzman’s role as the creator of MAD Magazine.  That alone would make Kurtzman a first ballot Hall of Famer (no steroids here) , but Kurtzman deserves recognition for developing the Modern War Comic in two famous must-read EC titles Two Fisted Tales and Front Line Combat.  And to add yet another layer to the legacy, with his humor magazine titles Trump and Humbug, Kurtzman unwittingly became the patron saint of the ’60s Underground Comix as well as  Independent Comics publishers that followed in their wake.  It matter not if you know a lot or a little about this talented visionary; this is a terrific book for your library.

JUSTIN’S PICK :: SUGAR BOOGER #1: If the title doesn’t say it all, that cover sure does. Potty humor intersects dark comedy in this technicolor travesty courtesy of Kevin Scalzo and Alternative Comics. I don’t know what this pick says about me as a person (and I’m kinda surprised that title wasn’t taken already), but 28 pages of full color glory await anyone daring enough to take the plunge.

MATT’S PICK :: HELLO KITTY: DELICIOUS: I believe I have a ten-year-old-girl living inside my brain! That is the only explanation I have for my recent comic reading preferences. With that out of the way, I suggest you pick up a copy of  Hello Kitty: Delicious featuring art by Jacob Chabot, Jorge Monlongo, Ian McGinty, and Stephanie Buscema. I agree the stories featured within my not be the most Earth-shattering, senses-reeling prose ever written, but the art may be the most heart-warming, sincere work you see all winter, at least that is my hope. I don’t even like food, but I’m willing to read a book about a kawaii kitty and her just desserts, so there! When you are done with the book, you can pass it on to your niece. Your secret will be safe with me.

SETH’S PICK :: BLACK WIDOW #1:  There are several new Marvel reboots/relaunches coming up in the next few months, and I’m anticipating a good number of them.  We’ll see Felipe Smith and Tradd Moore starting a brand new car-driving Ghost Rider, Jason Latour teaming with Mahmud Asrar on Wolverine and the X-men, Kelly Sue DeConnick returning to Captain Marvel, and Mike Allred on Silver Surfer.  Add to that list this week’s Black Widow #1 by Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto.  Edmondson has a knack for collaborating with exceptional artists, and he’s done it again here.  Who doesn’t want to see Phil Noto illustrate a Black Widow series?  Start the year on a good note with this comic, and don’t forget about those other upcoming debut issues hitting the shelves soon.  

RICO’S PICK :: JUICE SQUEEZERS #1: “Scrawny kids versus giant bugs!” Juice Squeezers is a new 4 issue series by David Lapham and Lee Loughridge. This comic is great for comic readers of all ages interested in deep dark town secrets, great art, appealing characterization and  bug-squashing action!

JUSTIN’S PICK :: SAVIORS #1: It’s a light week this Christmas at the comic book store, with the usual suspects of the Justice League and the Avengers ready to stuff your stockings. But for those of you who like to wander off the beaten path, Saviors is a book that certainly deserves your attention. An unlikely team of fan favorite creators – writer James Robinson and cartoonist J. Bone – craft an interesting tale of small town boredom, fatal acceptance, casual drug use and a weird, alien menace.  Your guide to Passburg is Tomas Ramirez, a prototypical slacker. When his idyllic life suddenly erupts into a bizarre chase, both he and the reader are caught in a literal cliffhanger. James Robinson requires no paltry accolades from a scrub such as I; J. Bone’s art is, as always, a thing of crystalline beauty. A perfect team on a great book, don’t let this gem get lost in the shuffle.

RICO’S PICK :: AVENGERS 24.NOW: New comics will be on our shelves a day early this week since we’ll be closed on Christmas Day. So get in here tomorrow and do some last minute Christmas shopping for friends and family or even for yourself! We promise we won’t be as overcrowded as the mall!

I don’t know what kind of number “Now” is but this Avengers issues is 24.NOW. This issue’s release is accompanied by some great variants. One set featuring X-Men paying homage to classic Avengers covers and the other set showing Avengers paying homage to classic X-Men covers. I just wanted to call attention to these because they’re great looking covers and they would be easy to miss on a holiday week! My favorite is probably the Arthur Adams Avengers #92 homage!

JUSTIN’S PICK :: WORLD WAR 3 ILLUSTRATED #45: I am fascinated by curios. I blame my grandmother, and her dragging me through area Goodwills and the antique shops of Waxhaw on a regular basis. So when a title like “World War 3 Illustrated” crops up in the week’s new offerings, my eyes perk up. The cover only reinforces that curiosity. Upon further investigation, WW3I is a sporadically published political anthology, founded by comic book artists Peter Kuper and Seth Tobocman, and painter Christof Kohlhofer. [1] #45’s theme is the afterlife, and the contributor line-up is a cornucopia of names I don’t recognize (with the exception of Mumia Abu-Jamal), but Peter Kuper’s work is always worth a look, and I won’t mind that cover haunting my coffee table for a couple months.

HONORABLE MENTION :: BUZZKILL #4: I’m aware the year isn’t over yet (at least not in practice; mentally, that’s another story), but I’m calling Buzzkill superhero book of the year. And it rounds out 2013 nicely with its fourth and final issue this month. The creative team fires with a perfect synergy, and the “high concept” doesn’t interfere with the characterization, or dictate the plot. It’s smart, it’s clever, it’s the kind of thing superhero comics need to do more of: short form, dazzling entertainment. Yes, dazzling. There. I said it.

[1] Wikipedia, yo.