Winter Weather Advisory in Effect for Tuesday and Wednesday

*I was out driving yesterday, and what a blast! By which I mean my heart almost blasted out of my chest thanks to the sheet of black ice the highway had the temerity to transform into. I guess rolling whiteouts and 50 mph wind gusts don't mix, especially below zero. I only lost control once, though, and thereafter vowed never to leave my bedroom again. I'm sure the office will understand.

On the same road, 100 or so miles north, there was a 68-vehicle pileup. Cars. Trucks. Tractor-trailers. A hydrogen peroxide tanker, which luckily didn't breach.

Bed. Yes.

LAST WEEK'S REVIEWS:

Wasted #1 (Nov. 07) (recreational misadventures from Scotland)

and, in another place,

Infinity Inc. #6

*Oh, there's a new Dark Horse Presents out online, with a lil' Manga by Gilbert Hernandez, fun and games from Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá, and more. I'm putting up a link because I know I always forget to check back every month...

*More Marvel stuff catches the eye than usual -

THIS WEEK IN COMICS!

Reich #1: I've heard a lot of nice things about this pamphlet-format project from Elijah J. Brubaker, a serious-minded comics biography of Dr. Wilhelm Reich, he of the Orgone sex energy. Sample pages here. Only $3.00. It appears publisher Sparkplug already has the next two issues ready for sale online, if Diamond's service isn't tickling you.

Jellaby Vol. 1 (of 2): A new project from Flight assistant editor Kean Soo. Or, at least new to print; this story of a young girl and a monster pal has been running online since 2005, but now Hyperion Books for Children is releasing a 160-page color tome (over half of it all-new) at the magic price point of $9.99 (hardcover also available for $18.99). There's still 62 pages online, if you want a big sample.

The Next Issue Project #1: Fantastic Comics #24: Truly, the potential for trainwreck fascination runs high with this new Image endeavor, creating Golden Age-proportioned 'next issues' for long-dead series, with a crew of veteran writers and artists utilizing public domain characters for new stories. The showpiece for this 64-page debut (tackling the 1939-41 Fox Comics anthology) will doubtlessly be Joe Keatinge's & Mike Allred's homage to Fletcher Hanks' Stardust the Super Wizard, but Erik Larsen, Bill Sienkiewicz, Fred Hembeck, Ashley Wood, Tom Scioli and others are in on it too; as you can see, some adopt 'period' styles, while others work modern. Will the novelty be worth your $5.99?

Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front: For those itching after that gigantic Fantagraphics brick of Willie & Joe comics, this week brings the relief of Todd DePastino's Mauldin biography, published by W.W. Norton. Is this even out in bookstores yet?

ClanDestine Classic: In case last week's revival lit your burning spirit, Marvel now has a hardcover collection of what I think is all the major past material for creator/writer/penciller Alan Davis' strange family. Your fee nets you the Marvel Comics Presents debut (#158), Davis' run on the 1994-95 The ClanDestine title (issues #1-8) and the two-issue 1996 continuation X-Men and the ClanDestine. All for $29.99.

Dominion: Conflict 1 (No More Noise): What does Masamune Shirow love? Not finishing series! How far did Dominion get? This far! Now smaller, reading from right to left; $14.95.

B.P.R.D. 1946 #2 (of 5): More of this.

Ghost Rider #20: Now written by Jason Aaron of Scalped and The Other Side (and that one issue of Wolverine), with art by Roland Boschi. Here are pages. Oh, did I just mention Wolverine? Aaron's starting a run on that too, with this week's #62.

Punisher War Journal #16: The first outing for new regular artist Howard Chaykin, also of 'that one issue of Wolverine' fame; I've fallen way behind on this book, so I'll just jump back on now. It's two months of side-stories, then the reintroduction of Jigsaw. Matt Fraction is the writer. Also in Castleville this week is The Punisher MAX: Force of Nature, a one-shot by prose writer Duane Swierczynski (who's relaunching Cable next month with Ariel Olivetti, formerly of... Punisher War Journal) and artist Michel Lacombe. All your Punisher preview needs are somewhere behind here.

Fantastic Four #554: Being the start of writer Mark Millar's and penciller Bryan Hitch's (and inker Paul Neary's) follow-up project to The Ultimates, a 16-issue Marvel U extravaganza divided into a quartet of 4-issue stories, each focusing on one member of the venerable team, and apparently their romantic lives. As such, this first segment introduces an ex-girlfriend of Reed Richards (quoth Millar, "What kind of girl would give a geek like Reed an erection?"), and I think some kind of utopian parallel Earth. Maybe? Preview here, and at the prior link. I actually do think the Big! Big! stylings of this creative team might be a decent match for the title, although the combo effect of 'Ultimates team' and 'Millar returning to semi-frequent comics after Civil War' would probably lock in the same massive sales if this was Royal Roy.

Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure: And in other FF news, here's a $4.99 one-shot approximating the original plan for Fantastic Four #103 before co-creator Jack Kirby left; bits of his art were recycled into a flashback sequence in the John Buscema-drawn issue #108 (also included as a bonus), but now inker Joe Sinnott has filled out the original art, and Stan Lee appears to have scripted the whole thing anew. It looks like Marvel's abandoned its earlier idea to produce an alternate version with Kirby's pencils fancied up via digital effects and colors, which could have been sorta neat, like SRL reanimating a rabbit. Preview here; I really hope Stan the Man inserts footnotes like this everywhere, gradually building up to a Masamune Shirow-like schizo-crescenso of obsessive detail. That would really pop.