On The Shelves: 1/31/07

Reading is fundamental. Don't waste your time reading bad comics out of habit!

My weekly look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 1/31/07. The full shipping list, as always, is available at ComicList.

[NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com]

PICK OF THE WEEK


Why Are You Doing This?

DC COMICS
Batman And The Mad Monk #6 (Of 6), $3.50
Blue Beetle #11, $2.99
Uncle Sam And The Freedom Fighters #7 (Of 8), $2.99

Relatively quiet but solid week from DC as these are three of my current favorites of theirs, two of which will unfortunately be finished by March. The other, Blue Beetle, has sales figures that make me think it won't be around much longer than that. Looks like 2007's "Countdown" will be referring to the amount of time before I'm pretty much back to only having Batman-related titles on the DC section of my pull list. That's pretty sad considering Identity Crisis was one of the things that broadened my list and made me look forward to hitting Midtown as early as possible every Wednesday, not so very long ago. Seems like a lifetime...

DEVILS DUE PUBLISHING
Eberron Eye Of The Wolf Collectors Ed, $5.99

This was a fun peek into the world of Eberron, but a Collector's Edition feels like Devil's Due is milking the magic cow a bit too often.

DIGITAL WEBBING
Digital Webbing Presents #32, $3.99

I didn't realize when I posted about Free Comic Book Day 2007 last week that Digital Webbing's offering was going to include a three-page preview of Joshua Hale Fialkov and Kody Chamberlain's whacked-out Punks! What other secrets do they have that I've overlooked all these years?

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS
Why Are You Doing This GN, $12.95

This must be a re-offering, but whatever the reason, it's a great read. My first exposure to Jason and I immediately became a fan.

MARVEL COMICS
Daredevil #93, $2.99
Essential Ghost Rider Vol 2 TPB, $16.99

Slim pickings from the House of [Running out of] Ideas. Brubaker still has the golden touch, though, and the more I see of the Ghost Rider movie, the more I think it might actually be a fun romp. I'm tempted to pick up the Essential Volume One for shits and giggles.

Magazines
Geek Monthly #2, $5.99

Hmmm... This kind of looks like it wants to be Maxim for geeks, not really my cuppa, but if it's on the shelves, I'll give it a flip-through out of curiousity.

...

That's it? I might not bother stopping in at Midtown this week with such a light haul. That's a recipe for going crazy on TPBs and random shelf-surfing pickups. I think instead I'll finish reading the excellent-so-far Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City, about my all-time favorite team of superheroes, the 1977 New York Yankees!