On the Shelves: 12/7/05

Support GOOD Comics! Try something new EVERY month!

It's the home stretch for 2005! My weekly look at select comic books being released tomorrow, 12/7/05. The full shipping is list 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]

AIT/PLANETLAR
Demo Collection TPB, $19.95

Not to beat a dead horse but... [kick]

AMAZE INK (SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS)
Vaistron #2, $2.95

Andrew Dabb is a very sick man, but the first issue, which I was sure wasn't going to be up my alley, was kind of intriguing, so I'm not sure what that says about me...

DARK HORSE COMICS
Conan & The Demons Of Khitai #3 (Of 4), $2.99
Penny Arcade 1X 25 Cents, $0.25

I've heard good things about this Penny Arcade, but know nothing about it. $0.25 issues are smart marketing.

DC COMICS
Batman And The Monster Men #2 (Of 6), $2.99
Gotham Central #38, $2.50
Jonah Hex #2, $2.99
Team Zero #1 (Of 6), $2.99
Vimanarama TPB, $12.99

After buying Batman #647 last week only for the Vs. card inserted in it, and finding the story therein to be a decent read (relative to my extremely low expectations), I must balance the scales by recommending Batman And The Monster Men #2 to all who are reading this. #1 was everything All Star Bat... should have been, if it were actually about Batman and not Robin. No idea what this Team Zero is, but Vinamarama was an entertaining read -- the first Morrison I really liked -- and probably works better in trade format.

DEVILS DUE PUBLISHING
Forgotten Realms Dark Elf Exile Seeley Cvr A #2 (Of 3), $4.95
GI Joe Americas Elite #6, $4.50

Licenses I love.

IDW PUBLISHING
Karney Vol 1 TPB, $19.99

I won't do the $3.99 floppies (actually, another problem I have with IDW's comics is they're NOT floppy; I hate those stiff covers of theirs) but I'd consider a trade and saw some decent writeups on this one. Anyone out there read it?

IMAGE COMICS
Fell 2nd Prtg #1, $1.99
Fell 2nd Prtg #2, $1.99
Looking Glass Wars Hatter M #1 (Of 4), $3.99
Nyc Mech Beta Love #4, $2.99
Spawn #151, $2.95
Walking Dead Script Book #1, $3.99

If you're not reading Fell, you're wrong. Pick up the reprints of the first two issues and get onboard. I had a review copy of Hatter M #1, which I found moderately entertaining, but The Pickytarian, who reviewed it for Buzzscope when I couldn't get to it, was less impressed with it. Spawn #150 was a nonsensical mess with some of the ugliest, indecipherable art this side of Wolverine: The End, so I'm off that bandwagon pretty quickly. Kirkman's really milking his 15 minutes, isn't he? Good for him!

KYLE BAKER PUBLISHING
Nat Turner #2 (Of 4), $3.00

Thought I'd missed this, and went through my pile of recent comics looking for it, trying to decide whether or not it should make my Best of 2005 list. I have no doubt that the collected edition will land it on my 2006 list.

MARVEL COMICS
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #3, $2.99
Powers #15, $2.95
Spider-Man Black Cat Evil That Men Do #4 (Of 6), $2.99

Despite Dan's bringing me up to speed last week with his coverage of the Clone Saga and speculation on its tie-in to "The Other: Evolve or Die", I'm still not interested. And I still think this was a really dumb way to launch his third ongoing series, one I might have checked out otherwise. Kevin Smith returns to comics, finally, and I still find it funny that when I first started buying comics again, back in 2003, I picked up the first three issues thinking they were new. Silly rabbit.

TETRAGRAMMATRON PRESS
Caveman Robot #1, $2.50

Best Title of the Week. I might even give this one a look out of curiousity.

TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS
Surrogates #3 (Of 5), $2.95

I liked the first issue a lot, but #2 is buried somewhere under my to-read pile. Have a feeling I just might wait until it's done and read them all straight through. Do-it-yourself trades!

UDON ENTERTAINMENT
Street Fighter II #1 Alvin Lee Cvr A, $3.95
Street Fighter II #1 Ed Mcguinness Cvr B, $3.95

Considering the amount of GI Joe on my pull list, I'm probably a hypocrite for saying this, but why is this being published? Who buys it?

VIZ MEDIA LLC
Shonen Jump Jan 06 #37, $4.99

NOTE TO SELF: Buy the damn thing this week!

WIZARD ENTERTAINMENT
Inquest Gamer #129, $4.99

I caved last week, and bought a copy of the last issue because of a comment that said Scrye was a bit too focused on collecting cards vs. playing them. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it the way I used to enjoy Wizard, before I knew better. Does the gaming scene have a similar split in it, with fans of, say, Lunch Money, hating on Inquest Gamer for covering too much Magic, Pokémon and Vs.?