Mercifully Light on the Christmas Money

*It was Wednesday today?

LAST WEEK'S REVIEWS:

Reptilia (Kazuo Umezu from IDW)

Percy Gloom (a release from earlier this year that's worth a look)

and a movie review for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

*Comics are out in US stores on Friday, I believe. Last wave of the year, and kinda light.

THIS WEEK IN COMICS!

ACME Novelty Library #18: Oooh, just made it! No introduction is necessary to Drawn & Quarterly's yearly edition of the venerable series, this time a 56-page, 10.8" x 8.1" hardcover collecting installments of Chris Ware's Building Stories -- aka: 'the one with the apartment building' -- although not the New York Times material that ran a while back. It goes for $17.95.

Berlin #14: But D&Q isn't done with the long-running series for this week, no sir! A friendly old pamphlet-format issue of Jason Lutes' perpetually ongoing historical fiction epic is waiting for you at the $3.95 price point.

Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story: I've been told about this one from a few sources - it's (as far as I know) the English-language debut of Swiss writer/artist Frederik Peeters, whose sci-fi series Lupus won an Angoulême "Essentials" prize this year for its fourth and final volume. This, however, is a 2001 autobiographical work about a romance with an HIV positive woman, which Bart Beaty considered for over half a decade to be the one French-language comic that needed to be translated to English. Houghton Mifflin publishes the 192-page tome for $18.95. French-language samples here. Odd that I haven't been hearing more online.

My Inner Bimbo #3 (of 5): Quicker than it took last issue. More gender identification jollity from Sam Kieth & Josh Hagler.

Daredevil by Frank Miller Omnibus Companion: Tortured as the title may be, this $49.99 brick does collect a nice stack of tangential Miller material, including the 1986 graphic novel Daredevil: Love & War, with artist Bill Sienkiewicz (if you missed it in the Daredevil/Elektra: Love & War hardcover from years back, where it was paired with Elektra: Assassin, the best comic that ever bore Frank Miller's name), and the 1993-94 miniseries Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, with artist John Romita Jr., which began life (I believe) as a screen treatment, and probably now resembles a typical back-to-basics project by a big creative team. Other stuff also included, like some Spider-Man comics. Oh, this is also the week where Spidey marries the devil or something! I wonder what color the devil's gown will be...

Dan Dare #2 (of 7): Buying.

Batman #672: In which writer Grant Morrison sorta shrugs away from that crossover (as much as he can) and gets back to the business of multiple Batmen running around. Guest star: Bat-Mite. Penciller Tony Daniel also continues. Plenty of things to pick up - next issue, for instance, will apparently wrap up Morrison's Batman subplot from 52. Also out on Bat-shelves is a hardcover collection of early Tim Sale-illustrated stories, Tales of the Batman: Tim Sale.

The Punisher MAX #53: So what's in the bundle?

Satchel Page: Striking Out Jim Crow: This is the second book to come out of Hyperion's collaboration with the Center for Cartoon Studies (the first being Jason Lutes' & Nick Bertozzi's Houdini: The Handcuff King), another 96-page biographical piece, this time a wide-ranging look at the life and times of famed pitcher. James Sturm writes and provides layouts, with Rich Tommaso as artist. Both hardcover and softcover editions are available, for $16.99 and $9.99. Lots of preview art at the official site.