Divining ComicsMarvelous Market: Best New Comics June 17
Comics for all sorts
Did you first get in to comics in the ’80s, ’90s, or ’00s and want the return of classic series from then? We’ve got that. We also have new and interesting ideas unlike anything that has come before and remixes of your favorite characters. Comics, have something for almost everyone.
Hello and welcome to the Marvelous Market, my weekly guide for anyone interested in going to a comic book store today. In addition to a full list of new # 1s and new volume 1s, I’ll be giving you my top 4 recommendations in 4 categories. Like Houston legend Mike Jones rapped, “We’re still tippin’ on four-fours.” I’m going to give you the top four new comics, top four ongoing comics, the top four graphic novels, and the top 4 preorders.
The work going into this curation is made possible by readers like you. For less than the cost of a cup of coffee a month, you can help make this work possible.
New Issue # 1s
CONCRETE: STARS OVER SAND # 1
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The Eisner, Harvey and Reuben Award-winning Concrete is back with a 5-part story of amnesia, wilderness, and suspense.
Concrete has entered the desert and not come back. Larry and Maureen are frantic. Reports come that he is wandering the nearby arid mountains, covered with blood, attacking people. Concrete, lightning-struck, confused, roams a frightening world he can’t understand. Roars tear across the sky. A strange globe rises. His body is sheathed in stone. He thinks he is being hunted. People are a threat.
His journey back to life, and his friends’ dire search against a looming deadline, is as strange and tense as any Concrete story ever told.
HELLBOY IN LOVE: OBSIDIAN # 1
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Anastasia is called to Crete when an excavation team unearths a tomb with striking similarities to the engraved skull stolen from her by a witch in India. The trail for proof of the mysterious Suaren Artea society may not have gone as cold as she thought, but danger still lurks behind every turn.
THE PHANTOM VS. THE RED DRAGONS # 1
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THE PHANTOM MUST DIE!
But how do you kill a Ghost? The Red Dragons are gonna try—and anyone who gets in the way is just collateral damage! When someone in The Phantom’s familiar cowl starts sinking the Dragons’ pirate operations, Princess Sin goes on the warpath. The South China Sea belongs to the Red Dragons—and they’re not afraid of one man in a mask. Not yet. Another thrilling installment in Ray Fawkes’ action-packed adventure with guest artist Lynne Yoshii!
SPIDER-MAN: LONG WAY HOME # 1
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A DARK HOMECOMING AWAITS…
It’s a world before the Punisher. A world where the existence of the Hulk is but a whisper of a rumor. A world where A.I.M. has just developed a Cosmic Cube in the jungles of South America. Frank Castle, Bruce Banner and Peter Parker are all on a mission to keep the Cube out of the wrong hands — including each other’s. In this three-way free-for-all for the power of the cosmos, who will come out on top?
Legendary creators Jonathan Hickman and Adam Kubert team up to tell the grittiest Spider-Man story of the ages!
ONGOING SERIES
ABSOLUTE BATMAN # 21
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SCARECROW’S REIGN OF TERROR CONTINUES! Friends become enemies. Enemies become friends. Final forms are revealed, and Scarecrow’s reign of terror threatens to upend everything.
G.I. JOE # 23
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WHO IS RISK? The secret origin of G.I. JOE’s most unpredictable member revealed! And what will happen when DESTRO and BARONESS meet again?
LOBO # 4
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A BLONDE, A BOUNTY HUNTER, AND A BIG DAWG WALK INTO A BAR… It’s the crossover we planned before you could demand it! Kara Zor-El and Lobo Lo-Bo finally meet again, and this date is going to be one for the record, boo — yeah, we said date, prove us wrong! We’re hearing that the solicit text for the Summer of Supergirl Special proves us wrong… Well, who are you going to believe? Right, yeah, that makes sense… But whose story is going to be more fun? The same story, told two ways? Rushamon to your local comic store, and order them both now!
ODIN # 2
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Robert gave up being Roberto to fit in with his Nazi punk friends. Now those same friends have dragged him to the frozen forests of Norway to summon a “god.” And he may have to give up much, much more before they’re through with him…
The twisted team of JAMES TYNION IV (EXQUISITE CORPSES), MARGUERITE BENNETT (WITCHBLADE), LETIZIA CADONICI (House of Slaughter), and JORDIE BELLAIRE (REDLANDS) continues the most jaw-dropping horror series of the year!
Trade Paperbacks, Hardcovers, and OGNs
THE ART OF STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE – THE MANGA vol. 1 HC
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The first of two volumes collecting the precisely recreated original art from the 1997 manga adaptation of Star Wars: A New Hope, with a new translation taken directly from the lettering on the boards.
In 1977, the world was changed by the release of George Lucas’s seminal science-fantasy epic. Fascinating characters, groundbreaking special effects, and breathtaking action affected audiences in ways that movies never had before and seldom have since.
Twenty years later, renowned manga creator Hisao Tamaki adapted the films in his own singular style that allowed legions of Star Wars fans to enjoy their favorite story in an exciting new way. Now, Dark Horse has unearthed and meticulously reassembled Tamaki-sensei’s original art boards to chronicle and showcase the creation of a unique artifact of popular culture.
The Art of Star Wars: A New Hope — The Manga, Volume 1 collects high-resolution reproductions of Hisao Tamaki’s original, unaltered art. The work is accompanied by an all-new translation of the authentic Japanese lettering, which itself was inspired by the alternate language dub that has been enjoyed by Japanese-speaking audiences for generations. Also included is an in-depth interview with writer and artist Hisao Tamaki.
This volume offers fans an opportunity to revisit the classic adventure through new eyes and in a fresh voice. Join Dark Horse and Lucasfilm to explore the creative journey of a novel view of a galaxy far, far away.
MOTHER PLEASE DON’T GIVE BIRTH TO A MONSTER TP
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MOOOO! Lord Momon cries out, ready for her meal. MOOOO! Baby sister cries out, miserable and cold. As a young teen, sweet Miki learns the bizarre truth about her family: for centuries, they have harnessed half-cow, half-human beasts known as “kudan” for their wealth and power. And soon, another shall be born. The hour approaches. Her mother moans in pain as the contractions begin. But all poor Miki can plead is MOTHER, PLEASE DON’T GIVE BIRTH TO A MONSTER! Published in 1988 at the end of the classic era of horror manga, MOTHER, PLEASE DON’T GIVE BIRTH TO A MONSTER is a revolting and zany tour de force by the incomparable Shirakawa Marina. The author’s last published graphic novel, this manga marks the ultimate elaboration of Shirakawa’s creepy, crackpot synthesis of Japanese history, legend, and the occult, as made famous in his cult favorite UFO MUSHROOM INVASION.
Never before reprinted even in Japan, and with an essay about Shirakawa’s mysterious life and career, MOTHER, PLEASE DON’T GIVE BIRTH TO A MONSTER is the eighth volume of Smudge, a line of vintage horror and dark fantasy manga curated by award-winning historian Ryan Holmberg and published by Living the Line.
NANCY FOR ALL SEASONS TP
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Our second volume in a new series collecting Ernie Bushmiller’s timeless and beloved Nancy! Who’s lit now, Sluggo?
Nancy is an American icon. She’s timeless. She’s a meme. The world-famous artist Andy Warhol once painted her portrait. She’s been on a postage stamp. To this day, when you look up “comic strip” in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, it shows a Nancy comic by Bushmiller! As another famous cartoonist once put it, “It’s easier to read a Nancy comic than it is to not read one.”
Nancy, along with on-and-off again boyfriend Sluggo, deliver absurd laughs panel after panel, all rendered in Bushmiller’s chiseled cartoon perfection that feels untethered to time or place. An acknowledged masterpiece of humor and cartooning, Nancy’s brand of lowbrow absurdism and unexpected visual delights have held sway over generations of early readers, artists and celebrities, to say nothing of its impact on American culture as a whole! Bushmiller created Nancy from 1938 to 1982, and in recent years, interest in his work has surged to a fever pitch.
Jam-packed with over 300 comic strips from the years 1951–1952, Nancy For All Seasons features a fresh and contemporary new design that will entertain all ages.
SANFORD GREENE’S 1000 HC/TP
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From the Eisner winning creators of Bitter Root. Set in a modern world of aliens, warlocks, zombies, and ancient beasts, 1000 follows Dragon Son – a supreme entity who’s abandoned all creation as he struggles to return to his true Dragon form by completing one thousand acts of repentance. Son is joined by five other agents who are charged with secretly policing the world and keeping civilization from crumbling completely.
1000 first premiered as a webcomic and won the 2018 Ringo Award for Best Webcomic. This deluxe edition collects the entire run of the webcomic with additional behind the scenes content.
Preorders on Final Order Cutoff
ACROSS THE WILDEST SEA TP
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A story about how entering adulthood can feel like being lost at sea.
Abandoned in the middle of the ocean by her parents to learn to fend for herself, Léonie must find dry land. She meets Balthazar, a teenager whose canoe is taking on water, and Agathe, who lets herself be carried by the current and no longer has any hope of landing. They join forces to find a shore. A metaphorical story about the transition from adolescence to adulthood.
BADROCK # 1
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THE YOUNGBLOOD FAVORITE GETS HIS OWN SOLO SPINOFF SERIES. The youngest and most dynamic member of the world’s greatest super squad blasts off in his own solo spotlight! When Badrock’s mom is abducted, he is forced to submit to the demands of her mysterious abductors.
THE LUCKY DEVILS HC
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A dark, hilarious satire about the struggle to do good in a world that makes it so easy to be bad, The Lucky Devils is an examination of everything that makes humanity both grand and terrible from two of comics’ most unique storytellers.
The Lucky Devils is a tale of two ordinary, good-hearted, 20-something Chicagoans who begin working with the devils on their shoulders in an attempt to fix their broken lives. It works beyond their wildest dreams, and in time they become two of the most powerful people on earth. While they fully intend to use that influence to make the world a better place, we all know what they say about the road to Hell…
For fans of their previous bestselling collaborations like Curse Words and Eight Billion Genies, stories like Lucifer or The Good Place, or tales where ordinary people’s lives intersect with the supernatural — this new series is sure to delight readers looking for a fantastical new read.
Collects issues #1-9.
NANO # 1
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Sana is a bad-ass operative of the underground organization The Order. She and her longtime comrade, Lukas, have been assigned to Nano, a mega-city run on prison labor and roiling from blackouts. While Lukas is tasked with infiltrating Nanocorp’s secretive research facility, Sana’s mission is something she’s never trained for: playing the doting wife of Lukas’s cover. In her guise as a middle school P.E. teacher, she’s forced to cool her jets and teach 8th graders stretching, while Lukas puts himself in danger. But when the signs are unmistakable and Lukas’s mission is clearly going sideways, Sana can no longer sit on the bench.
What did I miss?
If there are some great comics, collected or in single issues, that you think I should be reading, tell me about them! And if you do try out any of these series, let me know how you liked them, or didn’t. This is a safe space for haters. If you enjoy this service, please share this article on social media or tell someone that you know reads comics about it.
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