Stuff Doin'

*Various projects simmering, including a fun(?) new thing that'll be popping up very soon. The only toll is on my precious instant gratification. To wit:

LAST WEEK'S REVIEWS:

Final Crisis #7 (of 7) (thank heavens we can all agree on something)

Plus!

Oishinbo A la Carte Vol. 1 (this is a popular manga about food, although you shouldn't really put it in your mouth, particularly if you're reading it in Barnes & Noble)

At The Savage Critics!

*Links Dept: David Brothers of 4th Letter is running another Black History Month series this year - one post per day for the whole of February. Personal experiences will be mixed with thoughts on today's comics, particularly the character sprawl of Marvel and DC. I like what I see so far - check back often.

*Fresh items, coming up -

THIS WEEK IN COMICS!

Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5 (of 6): Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe: Oh yeah, yeah, just the latest installment in possibly the alternative pop comics series of the first decade of the 21st century in terms of sheer grasp of the zeitgeist. No introduction needed. From Oni, as always; $11.95 for 192 pages. Be aware that one of creator Bryan Lee O'Malley's favorite old-school manga series is also around this week, with VIZ's Knights of the Zodiac Vol. 25 (of 28). Coincidence? Yes.

The Big Skinny: How I Changed My Fattitude: An autobiographical piece by veteran cartoonist Carol Lay, tracking her long quest to hit her target, and showing you how it's finally done. All in color, from Villard; 208 pages, $18.00. Preview here.

I Saw You... Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections: Being a new anthology of short funny comics inspired by authentic posts on Craigslist, edited by The Fart Party's Julia Wertz. Full list o' artists here, including the likes of Peter Bagge, Tom Hart, Keith Knight, Gabrielle Bell, Jeffrey Brown, Shannon Wheeler, Sam Henderson, Aaron Renier, Ken Dahl, Elijah Brubaker, Austin English, Shaenon Garrity and many more. From Three Rivers Press; 192 pages for $12.95.

Slam Dunk Vol. 2 (of 31): Hell yeah, I've been waiting for more crazy ass basketball juvinalia from Takehiko Inoue - gets you feeling like high school again (lust, hitting, etc.). A mere $7.99 for 200 pages. Vol. 1 was great.

08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail: All the Campaign 2008 books? Like, the mature ones - the tell-alls, the detailed surveys, the investigations? They're gonna be so awesome. This particular one is characterizing itself as a 'diary,' so I'm expecting something a little more off-the-cuff, or at least as off-the-cuff as a 160-page comic drawn in a realist b&w style can get. From Michael Crowley, a senior editor at The New Rebublic, and Dan Goldman, artist of the noted webcomics Shooting War (released in print in 2007) and Yes We Will. A $17.95 Three Rivers Press softcover; big preview here.

The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Vol. 6: God, IDW got six of these out? Good on them. It's another 344-page, $29.99 block of cop funnies, this one ranging from July 1939 to January 1941. Do note that this is the final volume in the current format; vol. 7 will see the project shift to join the rest of IDW's newspaper reprints in the Library of American Comics format, which looks to basically up the dimensions and add another $10.00 onto the price.

Indiana Jones Omnibus: The Further Adventures Vol. 1: Hey, Dark Horse has an idea - when you run out of stuff to collect, just press a little further back. As such, this latest 368-page, $24.95 color brick collects a bunch of old Marvel comics, including the 1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark movie adaptation by Walt Simonson, John Buscema & Klaus Janson, and issues #1-12 of the subsequent The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones ongoing series, featuring scripts by John Byrne, Dennis O'Neil, Archie Goodwin & David Michelinie, and art by Byrne, Terry Austin, Howard Chaykin (just before American Flagg! started up), Gene Day, Ron Frenz & more. Preview here.

Parasyte Vol. 6 (of 8): Nothing fancy here - just more terror of the flesh and alien mutations from Hitoshi Iwaaki, a man who's won your trust.

Agents of Atlas #1: All-new, all-ongoing, all-return-of-the-well-respected-revival-of-mid-century-Marvel-heroes-from-writer-Jeff-Parker. Get ready for throwback attitudes in the modern Marvel U. Artists Carlo Pagulyan & Jason Paz will strive to bring you the robots and apes of your dreams; preview here, which you've already seen most of if you read basically any Marvel comics in January. Note that Parker also has the debut of his latest old-timey X-Men project this week, the four-issue X-Men: First Class Finals with artist Roger Cruz. Have a look. All these comics are $3.99, by the way.

Jersey Gods #1: I don't know much about this new $3.50 Image series from writer Glen Brunswick (a movie producer whom I mostly remember as co-writer of John Romita Jr.'s 2004 The Gray Area miniseries); it's something to do with a girl who marries a Kirby-type cosmic god, to comedic results, I think. But boy, Dan McDaid's art sure looks nice.

Madman Atomic Comics #13: Allred. Also of the Jersey Gods cover art, actually.

The Sandman: The Dream Hunters #4 (of 4): Oh that P. Craig Russell.

The Boys #27: Just the latest chapter in the 'Hughie Joins the Dirty X-Men' saga, running until issue #29. Preview.

I Am Legion #1 (of 6): Oh wow, remember this? It's John Cassaday's French comic, which managed to get its 2004 debut album released in English (albeit in scaled-down Prestige Format) during the short-lived union of DC Comics and European publisher Les Humanoïdes Associés. Written by screenwriter and comics scribe Fabien Nury, it had something to do with vampires and mind control among the Axis and Allies in 1940; it's been a while. Anyway, the DC/Humanoïdes thing fell apart, although the series kept going in France until its third album in 2007. Now Devil's Due is bringing the whole thing back to America as a $3.50 pamphlet-format miniseries, which will still be small, but at least complete. Sneak a peek.