Lewis & Clark: Your deluxe YA-type of bookshelf comic for the week – an 8 1/2″ x 10 7/8″, b&w First Second presentation of a 144-page Nick Bertozzi story of the explorers in the title. Preview; $16.99.

The Smurfs Vol. 5: The Smurfs and the Egg: Your trim vintage Eurocomic-type of bookshelf comic for the week – more Papercutz stuff from Peyo & Yvan Delporte, culled from the early ’60s; $5.99 (softcover), $10.99 (hardback).

Buz Sawyer Vol. 1: The War in the Pacific: Beginning another vintage reprint project for Fantagraphics, this time focused on Roy Crane’s post-Wash Tubbs/Captain Easy series, an initially Naval-themed strip he was given the opportunity to own for himself. I believe this 9.25″ x 9.25″ package is primarily dailies-based, with a selection of the strip’s more comedy-focused Sundays presented as fold-out images. Samples; $35.00.

Popeye Vol. 5 (of 6): Wha’s a Jeep?: Also in reprints, the latest in Fantagraphics’ line of huge E.C. Segar hardcovers. Samples; $29.99.

Popeye: The Great Comic Book Tales of Bud Sagendorf: Also in Popeye, the latest in Craig Yoe’s line of IDW hardcovers, a 176-page collection of comic book-format pieces by the former Segar assistant and eventual successor to the newspaper strip, presumably selected along some ‘best of’ lines; $29.99.

Chi’s Sweet Home Vol. 5: CAT MANGA. From Vertical, now pumped up with Japanese printer/publisher investments; $13.95.

Bokurano: Ours Vol. 3: ROBOT MANGA, IT’S SAD. From SigIkki, which means some content is online; $12.99.

Batman: Time and the Batman: I really don’t know why this collection of (mostly) loose Grant Morrison issues wasn’t redistributed into earlier, more accommodating packages focused on the writer’s run, although it might have something to do with keeping the publisher’s ducks in a row branding-wise. And making extra money. Included is the multi-artist time-travel story from Batman #700, as well as the recap/continuity clean-up issues #701-702, devoted to sorting out/setting up plot points between various storylines – they are quite possibly the most indelicate comics Morrison has scripted in 20 years, and emblematic of the zigs and zags of in-continuity superhero storytelling in the long form. Plus: a Fabian Nicieza lead-in story to the current Batman status quo; $19.99.

Joe the Barbarian #8 (of 8): Also from Morrison — and almost certainly more narratively satisfying — is the delayed conclusion to his fantasy adventure series with Sean Murphy; $3.99.

Wulf #1: While I haven’t been paying close attention, this appears to be the first product of Ardden Entertainment’s revival of the old Atlas Comics brand of the mid-’70s, with Steve Niles & Nat Jones inheriting a barbarian property initially written and drawn by Larry Hama. I’m not sure how much of a reputation (or even recognition) these post-Marvel Martin Goodman-published comics have today; my impression is that many people remember the company for attracting good talent with good pay rates and artwork returns, though the actual comics never managed to run for more than four issues, often getting retooled in the middle.

Generally the first-two Howard Chaykin-fronted issues of The Scorpion are cited as the high point, although in my recent Steve Ditko binge I also plowed through his various assignments with the publisher, including a full, four-issue run on The Destructor (Born of Fury! Sworn to Vengeance!), which actually had a pretty damn amusing first issue, reuniting Ditko with two old cohorts — writer Archie Goodwin of the Warren magazines and inker Wally Wood of assorted Tower Comics projects — for a superhero launch that can succinctly be dubbed ‘violent Spider-Man.’ Seriously, it’s an irresponsible kid whose criminal connections get his beloved elderly relative killed, prompting him to use his science-based sensory powers (a touch of Daredevil’s in there too) to track down and murder everyone responsible. There’s a huge, Batman-like prop factory, a startlingly overt reference to recreational drug use on Our Hero’s pre-reform part, and a very Ditko supervillain in the form of a dude in a ski mask decked out in a moss green suit and hat combo. Mind you, Ditko’s pencils were generally pretty light, even when inking himself, so the super-slick Wood kind of chases a lot of the weirdness out of his style. I mean:

That’s not a very Steve Ditko woman. Anyway, by issue #4 Gerry Conway was writing, Woody was gone, and the Destructor was shooting lasers from his hands in an underground world, because it’s Atlas; $2.99.

Wildcats Version 3.0: Year Two: Getting into some more recent ‘vintage’ superheroes, interested parties will want to know that the collapse of WildStorm has not prevented the release of this extra-fat collection of the remainder of writer Joe Casey’s potential state-of-the-genre work (issues #13-24) heading into the mid-’00s; $24.99.

Herculian: A nice-looking odds ‘n ends collection from Image co-founder Erik Larsen, still one of the most prolific artists of his peer group. Contains various anthology pieces, a 24-hour comic and a few new short stories. Preview; $4.99.

Uncle Scrooge #401: More anniversary stuff from Disney and (ka)[b]oom!, in the form of a one-off collection of a 1995 Don Rosa story, The Universal Solvent. Preview; $3.99.

Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #1 (of 3): Being the first-ever comic book format outing for the popular webcomic from artist Ethan Nicolle, laying down plotlines devised by his six-year old brother Malachai. From Dark Horse, which is also releasing print editions of the web stuff. Preview; $3.50.

5 Ronin #1 (of 5): This is one of those things where Marvel superhero characters are re-imagined in some other kind of story or historical context (17th century Japan this time), here notable for a modular one-character/artist-per-issue setup (Tomm Coker is penciller for issue #1) and the participation of writer Peter Milligan, who might wring some interest from the concept. Note that this is not actually on Diamond’s list, although some sources do list it for release on Wednesday. Preview; $2.99.

Usagi Yojimbo #135: Speaking of Japan, a new issue for Stan Sakai’s funny animal swordsman is always worth a mention. Preview; $3.50.

House of Mystery #35: Aka ‘the one with the guest artist segments,’ here sporting an appearance by Darwyn Cooke; $2.99.

Vampirella Masters Series Vol. 3: Mark Millar: First off, despite the title, this is actually (if perhaps involuntarily) an artist-focused collection, spotlighting posey realist Mike Mayhew’s initial six issues on the 2001 ongoing series iteration of the overdressed heroine. Moreover, the second of two included three-issue storylines represent a rare North American comics appearance for Indigo Prime creator John Smith, one of the most interesting writers of British sci-fi/action genre comics to come of age in the late ’80s. What I’ve read of his Vampirella stuff isn’t the most outstanding of his catalog, mind you, but there’s generally a little sparkle of interest – and some of these comics are oddly difficult to track down. Preview; $19.99.

Hellblazer Vol. 1: Original Sins: And finally, another British writer’s lesser-known work – not Hellblazer itself, no, but the Rick Veitch-era Swamp Thing material that Jamie Delano wrote some of, concerning the conception of Swamp Thing’s child. It crossed over with John Constantine’s then-new series, and so it’s now collected (that’s issues #76 and 77, also written in part by Veitch) in a revised softcover also sporting issues #1-9 of Hellblazer proper. Apparently this is going to start a big new organized collection of chronological Hellblazer trades, which gives me the sinking feeling it’s gonna be a while before the smattering of still-uncollected original run Delano issues (#34-40) are seen in bookshelf-ready format; $19.99.

This is the final story art from the final issue of Roarin’ Rick’s Rare Bit Fiends, #21, a 1996 production of creator Rick Veitch’s King Hell Press. It was the first episode of a project called Subtleman, culled from particular dreams of his — as, to some effect, were all issues of the series — “in hopes of creating some sort of definition as to the size, shape and sounds of the fifth dimensional experience.” That mission statement came at the top of the letters column, and was quickly followed by a more pragmatic, very post-distribution crash wish: “I also hope RARE BIT FIENDS survives long enough for me to finish it!”

But because it did not, this accidentally concluding image carries a powerful metaphoric charge. Veitch, or at least his dream form, embraces all of humanity, knowing well that because this is a dream he is embracing some product of his mind – “That’s me all over.” The song issuing from the Earth is a song seen earlier coming from Dream Veitch’s chest, “this marvelous feeling” he can only know while asleep, that allows him to fly. In his arms, the world — him — becomes a transmitter, blasting a spiritual ecstasy into a void that can only been understood as part of Veitch as well, a universe inside him, ever-changing.

And in the way the frontiers of the planet could not hold Veitch’s being, or his affection, so did the imminent collapse of his comic fail to trap Subtleman, obscure as it became. A second chapter appeared in a 2001 anthology, The Forbidden Book, from a Harrisburg, PA publisher called Renaissance Press. The format, a softcover bookshelf item, was as fitting as that name, Renaissance; historical particulars can vary, but 2001 marked the arrival of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, and with it, gradually, the promise of the bookstore market as a haven for comics deemed otherwise limited in appeal to comic book readers serviced by Diamond, only Diamond, as Veitch impliedly groused.

One of my three local Borders stores is closing soon, here in 2011. Nobody talks about big box bookstores as a solution to anything in comics, just perhaps another option, and a limited one at that. The newly transformative, cannot-be-ignored venue is digital, with all of the possibilities it promises; fittingly, last year, Veitch posted the entirety of the story, along with some new content. Each ‘chapter,’ then, straddles a different comics format. But it’s all Veitch, still; as his dream is all him, so is his art, and as his embrace above is an ‘ending’ for alternative, self-published comic books, it also a promise that comics itself will endure so long as the form is navigable.

***

The Hunger of the Seven Squat Bears: A new Yen Press English-language edition of a 2005 fairy story mash-up by Émile Bravo, who is typically worth your attention. I believe he has one more of these projects finished in French. It’s 32 pages, 9.5″ x 7″; $14.99.

DC Comics Presents: Batman – Conspiracy: Being a 96-page J.H. Williams III special for this series of inexpensive, comic book-format collections of older, less heralded comic books, no doubt primed to lead into the April launch of Batwoman. Most of it’s a 1996 Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight storyline (#86-88) in which Williams’ art (inked by then-partner Mick Gray) is just beginning to enter its mature phase, still given to some exaggerated musculature and awkward posing, to say nothing of the riotous cheesecake vamping from a female lead; writer Doug Moench’s Masonic/CIA/mob-tied biker/drug/dirty cop Hollywood murder scenario reflects a pretty common ‘horror’-oriented usage of Williams’ style at that time. Also included is the artist’s 2006 one-issue turn on Detective Comics (#821) — solicited to suggest that Williams was going to be the primary artist to accompany new writer Paul Dini, although he didn’t subsequently turn up until mid-2007 on a Grant Morrison-written storyline in Batman proper — where the intensive stylization on hand completely overpowers a lukewarm mystery script; $7.99.

Seven Soldiers of Victory Vol. 2 (of 2): Williams also looms over this second and final big fat hardcover collection for the aforementioned Morrison’s 2005-06 superhero-evolution-thrives-at-the-margins mega-project, one of the most diversely entertaining treats of mid-’00s genre comics, and I daresay a work that’s only grown in appeal from ensuing years’ hardening emphasis on big ticket franchise character activities, some of it courtesy of Morrison himself; $39.99.

Eerie Archives Vol. 6: But if it’s Moench you’re after, this particular stretch of Warren magazines (#28-31) contained what I believe is his debut as a professional comics writer. With appearances by Pat Boyette, Tom Sutton, Billy Graham, Rich Buckler, Dan Adkins, Jerry Grandenetti, future editor Bill DuBay and others. Preview; $49.99.

John Carter of Mars: Warlord of Mars: And on the other end of the Dark Horse reprints scheme comes a comprehensive, 632-page softcover b&w presentation of Marvel’s 1977-79 Edgar Rice Burroughs effort, Annuals included, scripted at different points by Marv Wolfman, Chris Claremont, Bill Mantlo and Peter Gillis, with pencils by Gil Kane, Dave Cockrum, Carmine Infantino, Ernie Colon, Mike Vosburg, Sal Buscema, Alan Weiss, Walt Simonson & Ross Andru, Larry Hama and a pre-Daredevil Frank Miller. Preview; $29.99.

Giant Size Little Lulu Vol. 3: Oh, I guess this is the third path – an extra-fat softcover collecting various earlier softcovers, in this case vols. 7-9 of Dark Horse’s old b&w Stanley/Tripp compilations. Preview; $24.99.

Vampire Tales Vol. 2: But getting back to b&w horror magazines of the ’70s – searching out Warren originals can be fun, but much of what you’ll find in the rotten, bloated magazine-sized bins of your finer establishments are from Curtis Magazines, i.e. Marvel’s assorted entries in the ’70s b&w sweepstakes, which by 1974 seemed like more of a war for rack space creaking under the burden of fresh-launched content. This is issues #4-7 of an all-bloodsucking series, in softcover; I don’t believe it’s magazine-sized, as are Dark Horse’s and Dynamite’s Warren reprint projects. With stories from Don McGregor, Steve Gerber, Marv Wolfman, Tony Isabella, Chris Claremont and this week’s spotlight talent Doug Moench, and art by Tom Sutton, Esteban Maroto, Billy Graham, Paul Gulacy, Val Mayerik, Alfredo Alcala and Howard Chaykin; $19.99.

20th Century Boys Vol. 13 (of 24): I’m told there’s some pretty nice thriller-ish stuff in this particular Naoki Urasawa release, although I’m so far behind right now I probably won’t know for myself until Billy Bat in finished in Japan; $12.99.

Thor: Godstorm: Last week was Captain America, so now it looks like this other guy’s turn to get a bunch of collections dropped onto the market for movie tie-in money. I suspect the best of the lot will be this hardcover edition of a 2001 battles-with-one-threat-through-multiple-time-periods type miniseries from Kurt Busiek & Steve Rude, bulked up a bit with a pair of 1989 issues from the ongoing series (#408-409) pencilled by Mike Mignola; $19.99.

Crossed: Psychopath #1 (of 6): I can’t say I exactly foresaw this zombie-esque rawbone horror franchise becoming Avatar’s signature brand, but the open-ended nature of its ‘world’ did seem to suggest a means of different writers and artists sliding in and out in a way they couldn’t in something more specifically attuned to a particular writer’s strengths. This is writer David Lapham’s second go, now on more of a ‘crazy guy ruins people’ plot, with art by Raulo Cáceres of Warren Ellis’ Crécy. Lapham has also written a 3D issue for some future date, after which an ongoing series is set to launch with originators Garth Ennis & Jacen Burrows, with Jamie Delano set to join at some future point. Also: Lapham is doing a Caligula comic. Not a movie adaptation, but I’m hoping he keeps the decapitation machine anyway. Preview; $3.99.

American Vampire #12: A one-off issue of this Scott Snyder-written Vertigo project — Stephen King departed a while back — notable for art by the always-interesting Danijel Zezelj; $2.99.

Gødland #34: Being your notification of more from Joe Casey & Tom Scioli. Preview; $2.99.

Walt Disney’s Comics #716: Finally, to return to the theme of comics flux, if in a different manner, witness this latest in the 70th Anniversary-branded Disney comics from Boom!, a Carl Barks special dominated by another Daan Jippes recreation of one of the Good Duck Artist’s latter script-only assignments (1971′s A Day in a Duck’s Life) ‘as if’ drawn by Barks himself in his prime style. I thought this dream seemed familiar! Preview; $3.99.

From "Mr. A: Chapterplay"; art and story by Steve Ditko. I swear this is the last Ditko thing I'll post for a while.

Yeah, I’m still a little woozy from finishing that post yesterday (and I scanned too many images), so let’s get right to the new funnies:

Uptight #4: The newest issue of Jordan Crane’s Fantagraphics comic book, continuing the serials that started off last issue. A guy tries to cope with a woman he possibly only imagines is cheating on him — ambiguity in the visual presentation, I think — while the kid/animal characters from Crane’s The Clouds Above have an adventure in and out of the cooler at school. Big samples; $3.95.

Finder: Voice: Being the first Dark Horse release for Carla Speed McNeil’s much-admired fantasy series — a 208-page b&w softcover — as part of an extensive author-at-Dark-Horse initiative also encompassing a dedicated website and thick new collections of past books, The Finder Library, set to launch next month. Preview; $19.99.

Twilight of the Assholes: Cartoons & Essays 2005-2009: A self-explanatory book of works by Tim Kreider, 288 pages from Fantagraphics. Here’s an interview with the artist. Preview; $28.99.

The Plane Story: I don’t know much about illustrator Kevin Sacco, but this 128-page collection of (I think) autobiographical comics might be worth looking through. Sample short; $19.99.

Captain America by Jack Kirby Omnibus: One of several Captain America books out this week, no doubt slowing getting movie-related produce out on shelves. Some might prefer the Bronze Age-and-after tour of Captain America: Scourge of the Underworld, but I’ll give a little nod to this 568-page collection of Kirby’s 1976-77 tenure as writer/artist of the character. Collects issues #193-214, Annuals #3-4 and the Marvel Treasury release Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, obviously not at Treasury size; $74.99.

Johnny Red: Falcon’s First Flight: Alternatively, you could always go for this 128-page hardcover slice of ’70s British comics from the pages of Battle Picture Weekly, depicting the adventures of an ex-RAF pilot who finds himself flying for Russia. From writer Tom Tully and soon-to-be Charley’s War artist Joe Colquhoun. Introduction by Garth Ennis, who’s also launching his new a-housewife-who’s-kind-of-the-Punisher series Jennifer Blood at Dynamite this week; $19.95.

Alex Toth: The Adventures of Jon Fury… in Japan: Apparently a colored compilation of strips Alex Toth drew for his base newspaper in the mid-’50s while stationed in Japan with the Army, published by storyboard artist and illustrator Paul Power. Includes an interview with Toth, purportedly the last one given prior to his death; $11.00.

Tarzan: The Jesse Marsh Years Vol. 8: Just another U.S. Grant hit of Marsh from Dark Horse, that’s all. Preview; $49.99.

DeadpoolMax #5: There was kind of a lot of plot last issue, suggesting that writer David Lapham probably has some long-view scheme worked up for this series depicting Marvel superhero elements as imagined by mentally damaged special forces personnel on (very) broadly parodic missions. Kyle Baker is the artist. Preview; $3.99.

Human Target: Second Chances: Because a television show kind of is a second chance for a comic! This is the second latter-day extra fat collection of Vertigo comics written by Peter Milligan, concerning a man of fluid identity. Collects issues #1-10 of the 2003-05 ongoing series, which is to say the 2004 trades Strike Zones (art by Javier Pulido) and Living in Amerika (art by Cliff Chiang); $19.99.

Detective Comics Classics: Finally, here’s an inexpensive little collection of ’60s and ’70s Batman comics that used to be a pack-in bonus for action figures. With Gardner Fox & Frank Springer, soon-to-be Star*Reach publisher Mike Friedrich & Gil Kane, and an Elliot S! Maggin/Mike Grell story summarized at the Comic Book Database as “Benedict Arnold returns from hell to battle Batgirl and Robin and the American spirit,” which is certainly better than I could do; $5.99.

From "Mysterious Suspense" #1, Oct. 1968; art and story by Steve Ditko, dialogue credited to D.C. Glanzman

“Hello, this is Chris Ware, listen, I’m stuck in a Charlton comic… no, LISTEN, I am trapped inside a late 1960s Charlton comic book, ’67, ’68… the same way it happens every time! Every fucking time! It is absolute hell in here, the paper quality is garbage, the coloring is off-register… no, no I’m subsisting on onion gum and trick black soap. Yes, I’ve built mighty astronaut muscles in double quick time, can we just… Steve Ditko. D-I-T-K-O, I think it’s a superhero thing, everybody’s talking about ethics. Look, you’ve gotta hurry, I – I think I’m a self-portrait. Wha- yes, I’ll hold, thank you.”

***

(I do believe Jordan Crane’s Uptight #4 is set to show up at some stores this week — ‘some stores’ meaning Midtown Comics in NYC — despite its absence from Diamond’s nationwide list, so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested in continuations of both the serials from issue #3.)

On the Line: A 6″ x 6″, 48-page Image collection of artist and type designer Rian Hughes’ comic for the Guardian newspaper (written by Rick Wright), apparently informed by the sharp-angled stylings of Gene Dietch. I primarily recall Hughes’ comics work for the clean line-type work in the Grant Morrison-written Dare (and the other materials collected in Knockabout’s Yesterday’s Tomorrows collection), so this should be neat to see. Samples here (scroll down); $12.99.

Mid-Life: This is a new semi-autobiographical work from Joe Ollmann and publisher Drawn and Quarterly, as showcased in Tom Spurgeon’s interview with the artist a few days ago. A man remarries and has another child in middle age, leading to much stress and some infatuation. Preview; $19.95.

Psychiatric Tales: Eleven Graphic Stories About Mental Illness: This is a new U.S. edition (published by Bloomsbury USA) of a 2010 Blank Slate Books collection of comics by Darryl Cunningham, focused on true tales from working in a psychiatric ward and the artist’s own experiences with depression. Samples in this Bart Croonenborghs review; $15.00.

Leonard Starr’s Mary Perkins, On Stage Vol. 8: Covering the period from May 5, 1966 to November 19, 1967. Covering it with DRAMA. Introduction by David Apatoff; $24.95.

The Original Johnson Vol. 2 (of 2): From IDW and ComicMix comes the second half of Trevor Von Eeden’s comics biography of boxer Jack Johnson – I don’t think any of this particular material was released online, as was the first 100+ pages of the project; $19.99.

The Secret History Omnibus Vol. 2: In case you’ve been waiting on the hardcover collections of this Jean-Pierre Pécau-written immortals-navigate-world-history series, published in English by Archaia, here’s your second shot. Compiling issues #7-14, corresponding to one original album each, with a whole lot of art by the redoubtable Igor Kordey. Tome 21 is due in France next week, so expect another one of these bricks soon enough; $34.95.

Genkaku Picasso Vol. 2: Just about everybody appeared to dislike vol. 1 of this Usamaru Furuya youth manga series, but – ahh, I thought it was all right. Part if it was I just enjoyed the game Furuya — of Short Cuts and the upcoming Lychee Light Club, along with several considerably more ambitious and well-regarded scanlated works — appeared to be playing with his lead artist character’s appearance, adding lucrative ‘feminine’ design tropes in a manner that makes him look as ugly as his defiantly standoffish attitude to basically everyone. Also, he keeps a dead would-be girlfriend in his pocket like an otaku fetish doll, except when diving into people’s minds to solve their personal problems, a feat accomplished in reading their psychologies like early 20th century editorial cartoons and monkeying with the non-labeled component parts to some occasionally useful effect. I mean, it’s certainly not a Best of 20XX contender, but as an eccentric, faintly self-effacing take on a pop comics premise it’s got some daffy entertainment value; $9.99.

Bakuman Vol. 3: On the other hand, I didn’t keep up with this world-of-manga-creation series from the creators of Death Note after vol. 1 (review here), but just the other day I was gently urged to give it another shot, on the basis that vol. 2 evidences a considerably more shaded aspect of the vehement popular-success-at-any-cost focus and rampant, defiant chauvinism of the opening chapters, complete with the introduction of an even less overtly pleasant writer/artist rival for the series’ teenage creative team. Now I’m even farther behind; $9.99.

Slam Dunk Vol. 14 (of 31): I mean, it could be some of the commentary I got on that review was spot-on — and since I don’t read ahead in scans, basic structural information is probably going to be more accurate than anything I can guess — and Bakuman is basically a sports manga of a fairly orthodox character, only with ‘making comics’ as the sport and, impliedly, the young sportsmen in the lead picking up some character-building lessons as they grow into men via organized conflict. I’ll also add – here’s one of the great sports manga of the ’90s; $9.99.

Biomega Vol. 5 (of 6): And rounding out the Japanese week, Tsutomu Nihei nears his end; $12.99.

Creepy Archives Vol. 9: In which, oddly enough, this Dark Horse series of Warren magazine reprints (#42-45) begins to line up temporally with Dynamite’s similar, younger line of Vampirella magazine reprints, seeing an influx of Spanish artists from the Selecciones Illustrada studio begin to arrive on the scene. With Richard Corben, Tom Sutton, Frank Brunner, Dave Cockrum, Mike Ploog, Rafael Auraleón, Felix Mas, Luis García, Jose Bea and others. This volume appears to feature an introduction by Richard Arndt, whose bibliographic lists of b&w horror magazines and early independent comics series are utterly invaluable; $49.99.

DC Universe Legacies #9 (of 10): I haven’t kept up on this summary-of-continuity-as-it-stands series from writer Len Wein – it’s ‘common man throughout fantastic history’ device just hasn’t been clicking with me. Still, there’s been some nice art scattered around from the likes of Joe Kubert and Frank Quitely, and this issue’s got a backup story from Bill Sienkiewicz; $3.99.

Deadpool Team-Up #885: Likewise, this particular Deadpool comic has art from Philip Bond. Uh, there isn’t really eight hundred Deadpool comics out there – for instance, this week there’s a Wolverine #1000 anthology comic, and an issue #5.1 which I believe indicates a ‘stepping aside’ to allow new readers an opportunity to get acquainted. Preview; $2.99.

SpongeBob Comics #1: The editor of this United Plankton Pictures anthology comic (distributed by Simpsons specialists Bongo) is Chris Duffy, who put together a pretty impressive slate of artists for Nickelodeon Magazine back in the day, so you might want to keep an eye on it. Debut contributors are James Kochalka, Hilary Barta, Graham Annable, Gregg Schigiel and Jacob Chabot; $2.99.

Here we see Steve Ditko in as close to a conciliatory mood as his solo work tends to get. It’s part of a Heads strip from the 1985 comic Charlton Action: Featuring Static #11, an all-Ditko special facilitated in the twilight of the Charlton press with editor Robin Snyder. As part of its introduction to the Ditko Series, “a view of art, man, and life, a look at values, conflicts, right and wrong, and justice,” the artist’s Heads — at least as prominent to me as his hands, because what is the Avenging World if not wrinkled with the sweat and agony of compromised individual principles? — seems content at the moment to merely suggest possibilities, with the idealistic middle head, though closest to Ditko’s own disposition, given a kind of daffy eyes-to-heaven grin. Nonetheless, the rest of the issue proves an adequate guide to the artist’s preferences.

Of course, the main event of the comic is The Armed Man, the first chapter of Ditko’s Static, which was retitled, recolored, relettered and slightly rewritten from its original 1983 debut in Eclipse Monthly, from which Ditko had taken the serial following editorial disagreements. Charlton had long provided a venue for Ditko’s work, and by ’85 working without the Comics Code seal in place and was willing to support creator-owned content, which fit Ditko’s purposes. Personally, I found Static to be the least interesting content of the issue, but it’s undeniably a major work, Ditko’s Watchmen, in that its various characters stand for distinct philosophies prone to addressing the superhero as metaphor, here for Justice.

Granted, unlike in Watchmen, these philosophies are detailed at some length via sometimes multiple speeches per chapter, across modular confrontations with equally metaphorical villain threats; I tend to prefer Ditko as he works now, collapsing a type of editorial cartooning into a short-form superhero style that charges seemingly every mark on the page with meaning, playing across brief stories evocative of Golden Age, pre-WWII genre stuff. Static seems entirely too weighted down by the comparative ‘realism’ of Ditko’s art and the density of his language, although the case could be made for the visuals-as-visuals being more pleasing on their own.

I was drawn more to the issue’s backup materials, like The Beginning, a visually dense 12-16 panels-per-page space opera that sees a heroic captain trapped in a chamber with an experimental living universe. He emerges as a starry superhero not unlike Captain Atom, a Charlton character and the first superhero Ditko originated (in 1960, with writer Joe Gill). By ’85 the Charlton superheroes had already been taken to DC, and had appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths that year. Naturally, Captain Atom and his confined origin would also form the basis for Dr. Manhattan of Watchmen, and so Ditko’s earlier revision — ironically produced in a fully creator-owned capacity which Watchmen famously lacked — stands as something of a totem for Justice and proper superheroic behavior in the face of a collapsing Charlton and darkening superhero landscape. It can still be a Beginning, you see.

Still, my favorite thing in the issue is Pet Monster, a fusion of Ditko’s pre-Code informed suspense/horror approach with the same idea of Justice as present in the rest of the comic. Above is a memorably grotesque moment, as the mad scientist who unleashed a ravenous creature on the family of the corrupt Mayor who wrecked his life — the politician’s son had killed the scientist’s son and wife in a hit and run incident, and so he ruined the wife’s reputation to place the blame on her — reveals how he tore his own guts out to become a machine. To look at it in an ’80s blood and thunder sense, a post-Watchmen sense, you might think of the scientist as an anti-hero, a flawed man attacking the system in a cruel manner.

This would not be in concert with Ditko’s ideas. He does not care for “the anti-anything ones” suggested up top. A is A, and the scientist is Bad, as is essentially everyone in the story. But by the end, the crucial final speech is given by the sheriff, the potential hero who reflects on his own failings that necessitated this chaos. The anti-hero is only the breakdown of heroism itself. The idea would have traveled anyway, but Static in particular eventually picked up and moved to Renegade Press in b&w the next year, and finished itself off in ’88 as published by Snyder & Ditko themselves, away from the sticky trends of corporate genre mechanics.

***

Also sticking around:

Scenes from an Impending Marriage: This one’s made the rounds at festivals and the like for a little while, but it’s new to comics stores – a small (4.25″ x 5.5″, 56-page) b&w hardcover collecting vignettes on topics leading up to artist Adrian Tomine’s wedding, originally given out privately in minicomic form in 2007. Accordingly, its lightness of tone and style is most directly reminiscent to some of the comedic bits in Tomine’s early minicomics collection 32 Stories, content which I’ve occasionally heard people wishing for. Preview; $9.95.

Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts: I was not aware this wasn’t yet available in comics stores through Diamond, but now I guess it is. A 1,526-page stack of wordless full-page images and supplementary materials from the Library of America, covering Gods’ Man (1929), Madman’s Drum (1930), Wild Pilgrimage (1932), Prelude to a Million Years (1933), Song Without Words (1936) and Vertigo (1937). A pair of hardcover volumes in a slipcase, 8.5″ x 5.5″, with nine essays by Ward and introductions by editor Art Spiegelman. Samples; $70.00.

Pandora’s Eyes: Being a new English-language release for Milo Manara, of several look-at-whatever-he-does lists, covering a 2007 album done in collaboration with screenwriter Vincenzo Cerami, of various Roberto Benigni vehicles, which naturally(?) suggests Benigni’s connection to Federico Fellini in his final film, The Voice of the Moon, and thereby Fellini’s collaboration with Manara on Trip to Tulum. However, this seems to be going in more of an orthodox sexy thriller direction, with an obligatory gorgeous, troubled woman kidnapped by sinister forces. An 8.5″ x 10.8″ hardcover from Humanoids, 64 pages in color; $19.95.

Daytripper: Probably the most widely acclaimed Vertigo release of last year — the serialization of which, in the interests of full disclosure, I fell off of about halfway through — in which Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá examine several dispersed segments from the life of a man, contextualized as alternate moments leading up to his death. Introduction by Craig Thompson; $19.99.

Fall Out Toy Works Vol. 1: Tiffany Blues: One of the odder East-West fusion projects of late, this is a collection of an Image series based on concepts from the band Fall Out Boy, written by Brett Lewis (of the very nice fantastical crime comic The Winter Men) as a man-android romance and drawn by assorted artists (Sami Basri, Hendry Prasetyo and the Singaporean/Indonesian Imaginary Friends Studio) in a glossy cartoon screen capture style that brings to mind Image’s anime-informed comics scene of the late ’90s; $16.99.

Little Lulu Vol. 26: The Feud and Other Stories: Another 200-page color slab of Stanley & Tripp from Dark Horse. Chris Mautner put out a nice overview of Stanley’s work the other day, if you missed it. Preview; $14.99.

Black Jack Vol. 13 (of 17): The 296-page latest in Vertical’s line of episodic super-surgeon fantasies from Osamu Tezuka, always a welcome presence. In case you didn’t hear, the publisher has recently announced a new (if considerably shorter) Tezuka serialization effort for later this year: the influential girl-targeted supernatural cross-dressing fairytale saga Princess Knight, to be presented in two volumes apparently culled from the earliest, three and two-color version of the material presented in the magazine Shōjo Club, 1953-56, which would be a departure from the 2001 Kodansha International edition of the series, which was derived from a later b&w revision; $16.95.

Blade of the Immortal Vol. 23: Scarlet Swords: Continuing Hiroaki Samura’s edged weapon mayhem series, currently up to vol. 27 in Japan, although owing to the Dark Horse edition’s roots in comic book serialization/subsequent collection, I don’t think the English editions quite line up (the cover to this volume is the cover to the Japanese vol. 22, for example). Preview; $19.99.

Vampirella Archives Vol. 2: From Dynamite, but basically the same as the Dark Horse compilations of vintage Warren material (i.e. Creepy and Eerie). Covering issues #8-14, which saw associate editor Archie Goodwin attempt to impose some measure of seriousness and continuity onto the title character, while the various Spanish artists who’d give the magazine its visual identity began to trickle in, particularly defining character artist José Gonzales. With Tom Sutton, Billy Graham (who became editor during this span of issues), Wally Wood, Jeff Jones, Barry [Windsor-]Smith, Neal Adams & Steve Englehart (the latter as the former’s art assistant, although he’d be writing Vampirella soon enough), Dave Cockrum, Frank Brunner, Mike Ploog, Sam Glanzman, Jose Bea and Esteban Maroto. Samples; $49.99.

Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever #1 (of 5): Another extended Hellboy universe series, the second in this particular 19th century-set subcategory, now featuring the art of EC/Warren veteran John Severin, which alone is worth a page through. Written by Mignola and John Arcudi. Preview; $2.99.

Hellboy: The Sleeping and the Dead #2 (of 2): Meanwhile, the main series continues to occupy itself with small stories from assorted guest artists, Scott Hampton in this case. Kevin Nowlan is due for something in April, sometime after which the main-main series ought to resume with Duncan Fegredo, and then Mignola himself is going to draw some stuff, I believe. Preview; $3.50.

Captain America: Hail Hydra #2: In which WWII rages, and Tom Scioli draws. Preview; $2.99.

Batman: Odyssey #6 (of 13): The first phase of this Neal Adams thingy concludes with Batman and the sometimes-possessed Joker tumbling into Arkham Asylum, because really – how couldn’t they? Note that issue #7 is still due next month, phase or unfazed; $3.99.

Superman 80-Page Giant 2011: A grab bag of new standalone Superman family shorts, noteworthy for the front-of-Previews writing debut of cartoonist and writer-on-comics Abhay Khosla, who is of course affiliated with a website to which I am a very occasional contributor, so CONFLICT OF INTEREST, etc. It’s a Jimmy Olson short, drawn by Andy MacDonald, and the subject of an interesting process essay; $5.99.

The Strange Case of Edward Gorey: Finally, your book-on-comics for the week – a newly expanded hardcover edition of Alexander Theroux’s 2000 profile of the famed author and illustrator. From Fantagraphics, 168 pages. Excerpt; $19.99.

Just a collection of faces by Roberto “Magnus” Raviola, from Catalan Communications’ 1987 edition of The Specialist: Full Moon in Dendera, one of the later (1982) installments of the artist’s Lo Sconosciuto, your typical international man of danger. By that time, the Unknow(n) title character had moved to the back of his own stories, functioning in Dendera as a Golgo 13 type of character who zooms in and out of the action, finally shooting a bunch of people to resolve the ambling plot. So, mostly, it’s an excuse for Magnus to draw a number of smooth, detailed, splendid characters discussing ancient Egyptian art and culture, and engaging in extremely dense political games. Maybe Catalan felt it gave the work more of a ‘literary’ quality – or maybe that was all they had access too? Mostly they published albums of Magnus’ erotic Necron series, leaving the Specialist rather unique indeed.

And:

Stigmata: Yes, Diamond didn’t list Fantagraphics’ stack of releases last week, but here they are now, so take a look at your shop if you didn’t see anything last time. I’d be particularly interested in this new edition of a 1998 piece by the great Lorenzo Mattotti and writer Claudio Piersanti, looking to be a real fever of lines in the service of hardscrabble living. Preview; $19.99.

FUC_ __U, _SS__LE: Blecky Yuckerella Vol. 4: The final collection of Johnny Ryan’s four-panel weekly sunshine, and a remnant of the artist’s interest in pursuing formerly mainstream avenues of cartooning, from magazine gags to comic strips to self-contained humor comics, and inhabiting them with his specific style. Samples; $11.99.

King of the Flies Vol. 2 (of 3): The Origin of the World: But then, there’s always this Burnsian delve into the weird everyday. I liked this review of vol. 1 by Ng Suat Tong. Preview; $18.99.

The Complete Bad Company: This also showed up at Midtown last week, but I figured it’d pop in with Diamond before long – apparently a comprehensive collection of the much-admired Peter Milligan/Brett Ewins/Jim McCarthy series (1986-2002), 320 pages of Krool future conflict among freak soldiers from the pages of 2000 AD; $19.99.

Saga of the Swamp Thing Book 4: Being Vertigo’s latest hardcover collection of ’80s Alan Moore material, from back when booting the Comics Code seal resulted in not the designation of a ratings system but a declaration of Sophisticated Suspense. More pertinently to the content, this stretch of issues (#43-50) sees Moore’s enthusiastic weaving of various & sundry DCU elements into an individualistic mechanism smash headlong into its monied cousin of the day, Crisis on Infinite Earths, a massively less delicate iteration of shared universe danger that basically foretold how Moore’s own role in popularizing the superhero revamp impulse would be popularized in the future. “You shouldn’t have come here” indeed! Wraps up both the American Gothic storyline and the participation of artist Stephen R. Bissette (save for in Moore’s concluding issue #64 later on), with Stan Woch & Ron Randall handling a good portion of the visuals. John Totleben tackles an entire issue (#48) himself, as he occasionally would for the remainder of Moore’s run, while Rick Veitch takes over as regular penciller in the next volume; $24.99.

The New York Five #1 (of 4): Meanwhile, in contemporary comic books Suggested (I presume) for Mature Readers, Local collaborators Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly appear at Vertigo for some slices of life among urban women living together and looking for something(s). Preview; $2.99.

Off Road: Sean Murphy is becoming increasingly recognizable for assorted projects cropping up at DC/Vertigo — he’s the artist on Grant Morrison’s Joe the Barbarian, which is where I suspect a lot of readers were introduced to his work — so here’s a new IDW edition of the artist’s 2005 debut graphic novel, originally published by Oni in the flush of bookshelf works appearing via the heyday of OEL manga, though not everything looked especially manga-like. I understand it’s a possibly allegorical romp about male friends confronting their lives while attempting to extract a jeep from a swamp. Preview; $17.99.

Serial: Apparently a new crime comic drawn by Michael Golden, released in a signed edition under the auspices of Eva Ink, although I’m not sure if another version is or has been available. FBI partners face a serial killer and duality, written by Mitch Brown; $16.99.

The Killer Vol. 3: Modus Vivendi: Following up from last week, here’s the newest Archaia Studios Press hardcover collecting super-assassin material by Matz and artist Luc Jacamon, which I believe covers vols. 6-8 of the French albums, bringing English readers right up to date; $24.95.

Magneto #1: Ah, this is the one in the bag where She-Hulk murders Willie Lumpkin, right? Wait, no – this is a supervillain comic written and drawn by Howard Chaykin, which is always worth noting. Preview; $2.99.

The Boys: Highland Laddie #6 (of 6): I’m kind of fascinated with how this Garth Ennis-fronted series occasionally splits off into side-series that serve to dole out information I presume the folks in charge don’t want to spend six months sorting out, although they also don’t necessarily want to upset the issue-by-issue pacing. The solution, it seems, is to declare a miniseries every so often that really serves to snap the larger series into a biweekly format, albeit with different artists and alternating storylines. They appear to be folded back into the ‘main’ series when collected as books, lined up as just another numbered volume of The Boys. Anyway, this and last week’s proper issue #50 will hone your sight onto the series’ endgame, set for issue #70, though a third and final breakaway miniseries is still upcoming. Preview; $3.99.

glamourpuss #17: In which events occurring on the date of Alex Raymond’s death are further detailed, while John F. Kennedy appears elsewhere; $3.00.

Walt Disney’s Comics #715: Continuing a number of anniversary-related releases from the ongoing Disney series (currently at Boom!) with something I don’t think we’ve seen much of before – one of Danish artist Daan Jippes’ recreations of late period Carl Barks stories — i.e. the material he wrote (and I think thumbnailed) for other artists in the late ’60s and ’70s — drawn according to Barks’ scripts in a very Barksian manner. This one’s a Junior Woodchucks story, Life Saver, originally from 1969. Don Rosa’s in here too. Preview; $3.99.

From Creepy #64; art by Howard Chaykin, words by Rich Margopoulos

Yes, comics are always racing to your friendly local merchant, but some arrive faster than others! For example, apparently Midtown Comics in NYC is expecting a whole stack of Fantagraphics releases this week, including the Lorenzo Mattotti-drawn Stigmata and vol. 2 of Pirus/Mezzo’s King of the Flies, but Diamond doesn’t have them listed for this week. As a result, you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled – you never know what might turn up.

I’ve been reading a stack of new Steve Ditko comics lately — you might say I am Paying Attention — but I don’t want to comment until I’m done, so let’s go right into the new releases:

The Smurfs Vol. 4: The Smurfette: Being the latest in NBM/Papercutz’s line of vintage materials by Peyo & Yvan Delporte, this time featuring a 1967 piece which I don’t believe has ever been released in the U.S., although an English translation was produced for the U.K. market in the late ’70s. It’s another farcical sprawl of social commentary — or at least that’s how it sounds to one American who hasn’t yet had the pleasure of reading it — focused on male reactions to feminine beauty. Preview; $5.99 ($10.99 in hardcover).

Denis Kitchen’s Chipboard Sketchbook: This is from Boom! Studio’s ‘literary’ comics imprint Boom! Town, which from its start last year seemed oddly poised with an eye toward reissues and merchandise, and I think has since faded from visibility. This is its newest release – a 128-page collection of back-of-notepad doodles by the Kitchen Sink Press founder, edited by Greg Sadowski (recently of the Fantagraphics anthologies Supermen!: The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941 and Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s) with comments by the artist; $19.95.

Starman Omnibus Vol. 6 (of 6): Concluding DC’s application of the hardcover omnibus format to a well-remembered recent(ish) longform series from writer James Robinson; I think this effort might be best remembered for juggling all the various tie-ins and spin-offs and crossovers and peripheral materials a successful superhero series tends to spawn into an organized presentational whole, although at this point it’s pretty much a straight shot through issues #61-80, primarily sporting art by Peter Snejbjerg, with contributions by Paul Smith and Russ Heath. Do note, however, that the 2010 one-off revival issue #81 — itself a tie-in to the recent Blackest Night crossover mega Event — is also included, with art by Fernando Dagnino & Bill Sienkiewicz, potentially providing a coda on the transient finality of shared universe superhero properties, even in world fit for bookshelves; $49.99.

B.P.R.D.: Plague of Frogs Hardcover Collection Vol. 1 (of 4): But hey, why leave the fun to the half-century-and-running crowd? The generally very good Mike Mignola-created B.P.R.D. series recently added a new subtitle (Hell on Earth) to its most recent storylines (New World and the currently running Gods), seeking to distinguish the material from the prior status quo, which now seems to be grist for the omnibus mill.

Still, this 408-page maiden volume serves an additional purpose – collecting various and sundry materials, 1998-2004, accounting for the first three B.P.R.D. softcover books, it neatly groups together all of the various small experiments and not-always-satisfying digressions that marked early attempts to expand Hellboy into a series of series. Mignola doesn’t even participate in some of this stuff — including a story by genuine shared universe superstar Geoff Johns — although the best in show sees him teamed with artist Ryan Sook (and two co-writers, Christopher Golden & Tom Sniegoski), for a hollow earth episode that sets in motion the general escalating conflict of the series at large. By the end of the volume, Guy Davis is in place as the series’ primary artist, though Mignola’s plotting remains intent on poking at background mysteries established in Hellboy; it won’t be until the second omnibus and the arrival of co-writer John Arcudi that the series begins to click as its own entity. Even then, B.R.R.D. was a slow cooker, and maybe huge chunks will serve it well in building effect; $34.99.

Age of Reptiles Omnibus Vol. 1: AND THAT’S NOT ALL! Here’s a 400-page softcover collection of wordless dinosaur comics by Ricardo Delgado, created between 1993 and 2010 – kind of an odd, honking, crashing, observational thing that Dark Horse has revisited seemingly whenever a new set of issues is complete. Worth paging through if you come across it. Samples; $24.99.

Myspace Dark Horse Presents Vol. 6: But getting back to the frailty of contemporary comics publication, this softcover anthology volume memorializes the final bow for Dark Horse’s online effort at funnies in the short form, with entries by Jaime Hernandez (very much in the superhero mode of the early Love and Rockets Vol. 3), Graham Annable, Jason Little, Matt Kindt, Larry Marder, Stan Sakai, Evan Dorkin & Hilary Barta, Gabriel Bá, Scott Morse, Andi Watson and others. Note that Dark Horse Presents will return as a print format comic book later this year, Concrete and all; $19.99.

Dorohedoro Vol. 3: An ongoing manga choice – this rough, horror-tinged fantasy extravaganza from Q Hayashida. Online for now, so you can confirm the presence of multiple injuries to the eye; $12.99.

Cyclops #2 (of 8): I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when Archaia Studios Press started really getting noticed for its releases of mainline French comics in English, but I imagine the seeds were planted in mid-2006 when the publisher began serializing The Killer (Le Tueur), a crime/assassin series from writer Alexis “Matz” Nolent and artist Luc Jacamon, subsequently collected into various hardcover volumes (the third, due very soon, should bring American readers up to date with the European material). This is the pair’s other creation for French publisher Casterman, a recently-concluded sci-fi/action thing with the very Heavy Metal premise of a man caught up in a privatized war that’s also a reality television show. Be aware that Jacamon departed the series halfway through; artist Gaël De Meyere should be taking over with issue #5. Preview; $3.95.

The Secret History #14: Meanwhile, a second Archaia-published French series rounds out the material necessary for a second fat compilation of material, due in March. It’s post-WWII shenanigans among very old beings, illustrated by Igor Kordey and written by Jean-Pierre Pécau. Preview; $5.95.

DeadpoolMax #4: At this moment in time, all-American superhero comics don’t look any odder than this David Lapham/Kyle Baker project. This is another issue, guest starring fellow Rob Liefeld memory Cable. Preview; $3.99.

The Invincible Iron Man #500: Big round superhero number, written by Matt Fraction with multiple artists for various segments. Nathan Fox is among the number, for those who enjoyed his Fluorescent Black or various Marvel appearances. Preview; $4.99.

Mickey Mouse and Friends #304: This is the ostensibly ongoing Disney mouse series, currently housed at Boom!, which looks to be starting up a tour of various noteworthy stories throughout franchise history. Chief among the kickoff exhibits are a pair of Floyd Gottfredson pieces from 1932 (a Sunday page, I believe) and 1944 (The Pirate Ghostship, written by Bill Walsh), for those who simply cannot wait for the Fantagraphics Gottfredson reprints to launch later this year. Preview; $3.99.

Creators of the Superheroes: Your book-on-comics of the week (History Dept.), a Hermes Press collection of interviews with and commentary on Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson, Jack Kirby and Will Eisner – there’s probably some significance to the Spider-Man cover I’m missing, but Stan Lee and/or Steve Ditko do not appear to be involved. From Thomas Andrae, recently of the Feral House essay/reprint collection Siegel and Shuster’s Funnyman (and previously of the Bob Kane autobiography Batman & Me); $39.99.

Creating Comics!: 47 Master Artists Reveal the Techniques and Inspiration Behind Their Comic Genius: Your other book-on-comics of the week (Current Affairs Dept.), a 176-page Rockport Publishers compilation of (apparently) craft or process-minded interviews, put together by Judith Salavetz & Spencer Drate. The rather diverse list of subjects includes Paul Gulacy and Michael Cavallaro (who also provide the introduction), with Jeffrey Brown, Michael Golden, Paul Pope, Jim Steranko, Ben Marra, R. Sikoryak, Amanda Conner, Josh Neufeld, Glenn Head, Danny Hellman, Sara Varon, R. Kikuo Johnson, Ward Sutton, Mark Texeira, (Hooded Utilitarian columnist) James Romberger & Marguerite Van Cook, (Comics Comics contributor) Dash Shaw, and quite a few others. Maybe worth a peek; $30.00.

Above we see last weekend’s reading material, Mike Howlett’s The Weird World of Eerie Publications, a 2010 Feral House release focused on the one of the shadiest corners of the b&w horror magazine scene of 1965-83. It’s a breezy piece of fandom enthusiasm, heavily illustrated; the meat of the book, for me, comes in a single 85-page chapter toward the end that walks you person-by-person through every artist that ever worked on Weird or Witches’ Tales or Tales of Voodoo or any of the rest, doling our their backgrounds and explaining their approaches.

The vast majority of the Eerie Pubs stories were either retouched, gored-up reprints of pre-Code comics or remakes of pre-Code comics — ‘scripted’ by handing the artists photocopies of the original stories and asking them to accommodate the same narration and dialogue — which isn’t exactly a recipe for critical adulation, so I suspect a bunch of Howlett’s information will be new, particularly concerning the large contingent of Argentinian artists on the payroll. But even more interesting to me was the information on the all-important Eerie Pubs cover art, which was my first exposure to the stuff, via a gallery included on one of Something Weird’s dvds a few years back.

Indeed, Howlett’s interest in the material is not unlike that of a dedicated exploitation movie enthusiast, thrilled by the shameless money-making antics of bullshit magnate Myron Fass (NSFW – and boy, who would ever name a magazine FLICK, as if it’d look like “FUCK” on the newsstands, gosh that’s silly!) while working through the actual magazines’ tendencies to fail to credit artists or ruthlessly slice ‘n dice and recycle material. Like a low-budget movie crew happening upon a prime, cheap location, the acquisition of a big cache of Johnny Bruck cover art from German sci-fi paperbacks would prompt the Eerie crew, in 1971, to not only launch a pair of similarly cheap sci-fi comics magazines but make over the existing horror lineup in sci-fi style, perhaps until the stash ran low. Sizzle before steak, etc.

Yet the lingering style (by which I mean the cover style) of the Eerie Pubs didn’t come from Bruck, or moonlighting Selecciones Ilustradas artist and Warren contributor Fernando Fernández, or Argentine artist Oscar Antonio Novelle, whose work is detailed for the cover seen up top – no, I agree with Howlett that the ‘face’ of Eerie was one Bill Alexander, perhaps the most prominent black artist of the b&w horror magazines, albeit in terms of works displayed rather than credit given, which really made him nearly invisible.

As you may know, the Eerie Pubs typically eschewed the stately menace of the Warren and Skywald covers in favor of blood-spattered mayhem; when I first saw some of these things I couldn’t believe they were from the late ’60s/early ’70s, and were actually displayed on newsstands somewhere. These days I’m more taken with how cartooned they are, though it’s important to note that Alexander was effectively following the style set down by originating editor and Human Torch creator Carl Burgos, who’d also worked with Fass on (among other things) the notorious M.F. Enterprises iteration of Captain Marvel. His was a straightforward approach:

After that came maybe the best-known of the Eerie Pubs artists, well-known Jack Kirby inker Chic Stone, which exhibited a more uninhibited approach to covers and interiors:

Alexander, as Howlett notes, was also an experienced collaborator, having drawn cartoon art for records published by Roy Milton and co-created the Bronze Bomber, a black superhero character, for the Los Angeles Sentinel, with the somewhat better-known artist Gene Bilbrew (of the Eisner studio, for a while). Both men also produced fetish comics for Irving Klaw, and Alexander set out on a long career of producing cover illustrations for smutty paperbacks. He also succeeded the late Bob Powell on a comics feature for Fass’ men’s magazine Jaguar — at this late point in his life, Powell is maybe best known for M.F. Enterprises’ short-lived teen comic Henry Brewster — and instituted his own spicy Mary Worth parody in the like-minded Poorboy. It goes without saying that these comics seem strongly influenced by contemporaneous works in Playboy, particularly the Kurtzman/Elder Little Annie Fanny, which ties neatly into Fass’ own publishing origins with the Mad knockoff Lunatickle.

Howlett additionally notes that Alexander brought a certain sense of humor to his many Eerie covers, and I’d have to agree – even in this, his first work of the type (June ’69), those wagging monster eyeballs and the terribly surprised look on the male head are pretty funny. But it also reminds me of something else, something even odder and gorier and even more (potentially) mysterious and (definitely) memorable happening at almost exactly the same time, halfway across the world.

Yes! Of course! It’s Tony Wong, Hong Kong manhua kingpin, here seen via the early days of his still-going Dragon Tiger Gate (aka: Oriental Heroes) series, established in 1970 under a title typically translated to English as Little Rascals. Or, if you’re like me, whenever you see one of these covers you wave your fist in the air and shout “You rascals!”

I’ve always preferred the theatricality of all this spraying blood, and if I had to make a choice I’d go with Wong’s distressingly cute cartoon kid figures – it’s disgusting, but energetic too, deliberately using horror imagery as a means of raising the visual and (I guess) narrative stakes of the series’ no doubt extensive combat action. Amusingly, these covers landed Wong into some oddly pre/post-Code trouble with HK authorities, eventually beginning his own newspaper as a means of circumventing content regulation, not unlike the way Mad and Creepy and the Eerie Pubs presented themselves as magazines to evade the Comics Code. Still, it appears that the sheer aplomb of those early covers never quite returned.

Likewise, even by 1970 Alexander’s work had become a bit toned down; Howlett wonders if Fass’ distributor hadn’t been expressing concern about the cover content, and notes the occasional occurrence of robot-like gears in Alexander’s work, replacing entrails. I see this as something of a joke, in that much of Alexander’s Eerie Pubs cover work is joking; often, the action is set in some kind of workshop setting, presented and decorated as if the characters are on stage, performing some kind of grotty burlesque for our pleasure, comedic signs hanging in the background. When an axe splits a body, revealing steel stuff, it draws yet more attention to the artificiality of these activities, which maybe Alexander hoped to emphasize – the artifice inherent to whipping up cover art that, unlike his record cartooning, typically didn’t have a damn thing to do with the reprinted/remade contents of whatever issue it landed on. It’s irreverent, but toward the Eerie Pubs themselves.

Oh, sure, maybe I’m stretching. But:

Ah! Nearly a decade prior to Larry Flynt — although Fass had already worked with Al Goldstein at that point — and with a firmer backing of Kurtzmanian satire! Obviously you’ve noticed that much of this art revolves around acts of violence inflicted on women, typically beautiful, typically unclad. I’m mixing metaphors, but here Alexander boils it down, maybe utilizing a bit of that career-long appreciation for the female form to demonstrate the workaday mechanisms of selling those magazines, hyping that gore. His tenure in horror comics ended in 1974, and he continued to work in sex and bondage-themed art until the mid-’80s, at which point nobody seems to know where he went. If his Eerie Pubs work is any indication, we can safely presume he kept his eyes open.

***

Also creeping into your line of sight:

Dodgem Logic #6: DATELINE: INTERNET – ALAN MOORE SHOCK MACHINE SHELLS COMIC PROVINCE TO RETURN FIRE OF GNASHING TEETH! WELL GO FUCK YOURSELF RIGHT BACK TRUE BELIEVER CAUSE NOW THE SORCERER OF SCANDAL IS FIGHTING MAD WITH AN XMAS HAMPER OF BITTER FRUIT AND DODGEM LOGIC IS HERE TO STIR THE UPCHUCK! NAMES ARE NAMED AND HEADS WILL ROLL AS AUDACIOUS AL SMASHES THE COMIC BOOK TREND – “I DON’T NEED TO STICK MY HEAD IN A SEWER TO KNOW IT STINKS!” EXTRA: AVIAN FLU ALIENS SIGN SEX MANIAC SEWER KING FOR SKIZZ MOTION PICTURE! MARVEL WRITER IN BEARD PLUGS SHAME! COLOR MOB HIT PIX AND TRAFFIC CARNAGE! RECORD REVIEWS!

And while everything above is an obvious lie, do note that this new-to-America issue of the Moore-fronted magazine project — distributed by Top Shelf — does promise a photo feature on “The possibility of Life on another World” with text by the Magus himself, while the great Iain Sinclair pops in for a feature of some sort; $7.00.

B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth: Gods #1: Just the start of another episode for the Mike Mignola/John Arcudi/Guy Davis series, among the most reliable in serial genre comic book entertainment. This one promises to bounce around in time among characters, perhaps in the manner of The Universal Machine, still my favorite of the series’ storylines. Preview; $3.50.

Casanova: Gula #1: Beginning Marvel/Icon’s full-color, hand-lettered, more-stuff-in-one-issue representation of the second storyline for Matt Fraction’s signature creator owned work, which I don’t believe has ever been collected from its initial 2007-08 Image run. Fábio Moon is now the artist, and there should be some extras as well. Preview; $3.99.

The Savage Dragon #168: I do believe this concludes the current storyline for Erik Larsen’s superhero smasher, generally worth dropping in on; $3.50.

Batman: The Joker’s Asylum Vol. 2: Finally — and yeah, I didn’t find an awful lot to interest me this week, I’m afraid — a collection of villain-themed comic book one-offs from a while back, notable for a Mad Hatter story with art by Keith Giffen & Bill Sienkiewicz (written by Landry Quinn Walker), in case you haven’t seen the issue itself. It looks like this; $14.99.

As mentioned a few days ago, redoubtable L’Association co-founder Patrice Killoffer has recently enjoyed a second North American release for Q4 2010, following NBM’s publication of vol. 3 of Dungeon: Monstres, which collected his 2004 contribution to the sprawling franchise created by Joann Sfar and fellow L’Association progenitor Lewis Trondheim. This one’s a newer work, and not a comics job – it’s one of a series of illustrations created for The Man Who Refused to Die, a novella by Belgian writer Nicolas Ancion, published near-simultaneously in French and English (translated by Paul Buck & Catherine Petit) as part of publisher Dis Voir’s line of Illustrated Fairy Tales for Adults. It’s the second entry in the series, after The Adventures of Percival from artist Nicolas de Crécy and writer Pierre Senges (whose work Killoffer has also illustrated, in the 2004 Verticales release Géométrie de la poussière).

I can’t say it’s a very good book — feel free to skip this paragraph if you don’t want the mystery ruined — although Killoffer’s work is often quite nice. The plot concerns your typical doomed noir-ish private detective, investigating the possible sexual abuse of his great-grandmother at her nursing home, only to stumble into a terrible plot to surgically prolong the lifespan of extremely rich men, apparently based upon actual research by one François Taddei, who is credited accordingly. Everyone winds up either dead or immobile, with their minds digitized and left to collect dust with the rest of the world’s prolific and ignored digital detritus, still the closest possible thing to eternal life.

It’d have made a decent enough late-period short serial in Eerie, and maybe a fine Killoffer comic, but mostly we’re left with the artist’s lovely full and double-page spreads of gurgling entrails and swirling amoebae and dense metal piping – lavish spaghetti & meatball renderings of How Things Work, stripping away the skin of a few more straightforward illustrations of people gesturing in rooms. Oddly, it reminded me of another transformation from last week, one less depictive than housed in the comics form, and tangentially concerning another rebellious group of seven comics artists who came to define the 1990s, and comics of the future as well.

Yes, as with every edition of this column, I’m alluding to Batman. The above image is from the November one-off Batman: The Return, pencilled by David Finch, a popular current superhero artist who cut his teeth at Image co-founder Marc Silvestri’s Top Cow Productions; he works in a muscled, gnarled style not unlike a lot of superhero artists drawing from early ’90s superhero origins or influence; it’s still a particularly popular look at DC, where Jim Lee — whose own Image-spawned studio, WildStorm, just recently closed up as part the DC’s corpus — remains one of the most reliably popular talents around.

You can be forgiven for setting Finch aside while reading the comic, though; in keeping with genre stratagems, Batman: The Return was positioned as a sort of state-of-Batman address, announcing the primary continuity focus of the Batman line for the immediate future via writer Grant Morrison’s notion of the World’s Greatest Detective franchising superhero operations across the globe. Amusingly, the comic neglects to mention which series will specifically be continuing the main action of the plot, but it’s not a big deal or anything – DC is well aware that anybody inside a comic book store reading a superhero comic of this type knows damn well what to do, which is to follow the writer onto his next project of the line (Batman, Inc.), since this type of line-guided plotting is effectively a writer’s and editor’s game, and the disposition of today’s superhero comics is to frequently assure the reader of the import of any given action on the shared universe in which the superheroes reside, and which superhero comics provide momentary windows onto. The effect is rarely perfect, but it’s the most reliable means of assuring the financial support of readers, and arguably the most unique characteristic of the corporate-owned superhero genre, with protagonists’ histories stretching back deep into the 20th century.

This doesn’t provide for a lot of focus on artists, you’ll notice. Finch did not join Morrison on his new series. Instead:

Batman: The Dark Knight #1 arrived last week, pencilled and also written by Finch. It’s unique among DC superhero books in that it’s a high-profile launch of an in-continuity ongoing series starring a major property that’s leaning primarily on the art for its immediate sales appeal – while it ‘happens’ at the same time as Morrison’s series, for now it seems primarily self-contained, seeing Bruce Wayne as Batman cracking cases and skulls in Gotham City. Fascinatingly, it looks a bit different from the art in the Morrison (writer-)driven Batman: The Return. Most obviously, there’s a different colorist: Alex Sinclair as opposed to Peter Steigerwald, who generally favored dark blacks contrasted with brighter reds and oranges, or whites. Sinclair has a number of approaches he’s used — his digital fuzz background work with Frank Quitely was a point of some contention among readers in early issues of Batman & Robin — but here his night colors have a lot of blue, with shiny, radiant elements scattered throughout.

Crucially, it’s basically the same approach he’s used with Jim Lee on his own hugely successful Batman projects, such as the Jeph Loeb-written Hush storyline or Frank Miller’s notorious All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder. Moreover, Finch is being inked on Batman: The Dark Knight by Scott Williams, Lee’s frequent collaborator. Looking at the first image, inked by Matt “Batt” Banning or Ryan Winn, you can see more pronounced black outlines and heavier character blacks. Williams gives a somewhat rounder look to Finch’s pencils, which blended with Sinclair’s colors makes the whole thing look… not entirely unlike Jim Lee, pretty much.

Obviously it’s still David Finch, pencilling, sure, but Lee’s collaborators draw out more of the Image-honed influence in Finch’s style, and while I don’t know anything about anyone’s intent at DC — once again, Santa failed to stuff my stocking with psychic powers, the fat red fuck — it can’t be unbeneficial in today’s superhero environment to emphasize Finch’s like-minded aesthetic with a popular, influential peer. “Jim Lee” is an artist, yes, but also brand, a look – money-wise, he might be an ideal form of superhero art, certainly something preferable to a lot of DC readers. But he works a lot with Williams in particular, to the point where he doesn’t entirely look like ‘himself’ without the inker present; excuse the drama, but Williams is a bit like an Eve grown from Adam’s rib, a contributor to “Jim Lee” who potentially can being a bit of the style to others, directly from the source rather than received influence.

In corporate comics, dependent on the division of labor that emphasizes the roles of “penciller” and “inker” and “colorist,” this is an interesting potential, especially when working to sell a comic away from the dominance of a “writer” who manages the line’s direction. It’s a mechanic of the form as provided by the production particulars of the superhero scene.

As for Finch-the-writer, I was mostly struck by how little in Batman: The Dark Knight is specific to the superhero genre anymore in terms of plot action. Batman is investigating a missing persons case, and it proceeds essentially like a television cop show, with vigorous interrogations occurring in an alley with a crocodile-skinned guy rather than in a dim room, but to much the same effect. Of course, Batman started out as a variant on dark pulp heroes and their own mysteries, and what we see now is maybe the legacy of writers like Ed Brubaker and Brian Michael Bendis mixing police procedural elements into the brew – but while earlier works might have followed Gotham police on duty, here it’s mixed right into Batman for a mainstream-minded product proceeding as expected from popular sources, but with superhero characters that’ll assure superhero fandom attention.

It makes you a bit more appreciative of Morrison, who at the very least tries to spin metaphor from the genre-specific material he’s confronted with, like long character histories and mad spin-off franchising. Finch, meanwhile, apparently intends to push his series in more of a supernatural direction soon, which is another long-running Bat-trope. They’re all kind of long-running now.

More imminently:

Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie Vol. 6: Punjab the Wizard: Grab those bootstraps, it’s time for yet more frolicsome calamity from the funnies of yore. This one covers most of 1935-36, including the famed Eli Eon storyline in which various societal, political and media forces sabotage a miracle formula’s potential to benefit humankind. From IDW, with contributions by Jeet Heer, also of this website; $49.99.

Gantz Vol. 15: Continuing the series even English publisher Dark Horse has taken to calling “a guilty pleasure for many readers” in its solicitation materials, although I see it as more of a throwback to an earlier point in manga (and Dark Horse) history where bloody, visually dense manga were promoted for their similarities to North American comics, if a bit less restrained in terms of content. Speaking of restraint, the first of two Gantz feature films is opening in the U.S. on January 20th as a one-night special in a couple hundred theaters; I imagine concessions to the immediacy of live action will be made. Preview; $12.99.

Twin Spica Vol. 5 (of 16): Don’t ask me why this sweet ‘n sensitive young-folks-look-to-go-to-outer-space series from Vertical seems to show up at the same time as Gantz. Maybe they’re destined to be together; $10.95.

Death Note Black Edition Vol. 1 (of 6): More in line with Gantz is this massively popular 2003-06 series from Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata (currently of the young manga artists self-reference drama Bakuman), a largely bloodless and gleefully ice-cold exercise in nihilistic suspense thriller plot games. See a young man pick up a supernatural notebook that lets him kill anyone, however he wants, within the helpful confines of certain rules! Gasp at how those rules pit him against one or more eccentric boy detectives! Swoon at the irrelevance of morality and the social contract in favor of futile world-making power games and abstracted intellectual challenges! There is no sympathetic god in the sky! Political progress is illusory! All that can be done to relieve the smothering ennui of contemporary existence is to leer at the spectacle of the powerful and cruel temporarily prodding the mewling human flock toward absolutely no substantive end. Now in a larger, thicker, less expensive form. I said a lot more here; $14.99.

World War III Illustrated #41: On the other hand, you could always cast your New Comics Day lot with this venerable forum for aggressive action, this time focused on human positioning in the Food Chain that sustains us. With Peter Kuper, Seth Tobocman, and many others over 128 pages. Distributed by Top Shelf; $7.00.

Classics Illustrated Vol. 12: The Island of Dr. Moreau: Being the latest in NBM’s bookshelf-ready revival of the vintage funnybook compression line (via their Papercutz imprint), worth highlighting for the presence of artist Eric Vincent of Alien Fire. Steven Grant scripts the 56-page package. Preview; $9.99.

House of Mystery #33: One of the odder-structured Vertigo series, in that it leaves room for a guest artist’s contribution somewhere inside I think every issue. I haven’t kept up with the ongoing story, mind you, but note that the always-interesting David Lloyd is up this time; $2.99.

Sweets #4 (of 5): Finally, in case you were wondering — and gosh, why wouldn’t you be? — there are police procedural comics I happen to enjoy reading, such as this Image project from writer/artist Kody Chamberlain, set in an gold-baked New Orleans beset by the elusive murderer’s peril that crime comics feed upon. Preview; $2.99.

From "MOON?Subaru Solitude Standing"; art by Masahito Soda.

Yes, time is running out for 2010, and panic seems a natural enough reaction. Do you have money left after the holidays? Not me. Luckily, there’s not much in the way of comics due either, though a few standouts are notable. Let’s be both lazy and industrious and get right to them:

Crickets #3: Being the latest comic book release by Sammy Harkham, now self-publisher of an oversized 48-page showcase for self-contained material, some of it published online by Vice. The showpiece is Blood of the Virgin, a fascinating stretch of time from the life of a 1970s exploitation movie studio functionary, constantly seeing his desires swapped out like spicy footage cut from one picture for the benefit of another. Smartly detailed, keenly observed lit comics stuff. Note that the serial from issues #1 and #2 does not continue. I reviewed it here; $8.00.

Bigfoot: The second Drawn and Quarterly edition of work by Quebec-born Pascal Girard, following last year’s English-language publication of Nicolas, his autobiographical account of familial grief. Everything is reversed in this, a fictional, full-color 48-page hardcover album (10.1″ x 7.6″) concerning a young man’s unhappy coping with his unwanted status as subject of an internet video fad, among other teenage hazards. Preview; $19.95.

The Man of Glass: Nothing like the delayed reaction of UK-published comics arriving via Diamond several lunar cycles later. A 48-page color from Danish artist Martin Flink, following a boxer down a purportedly lyrical road to ruin. From Accent UK. Video preview; $5.95.

The Bulletproof Coffin #6 (of 6): Meanwhile, David Hine & Shaky Kane polish off their 2010 by beckoning comic book ultra-collector Steve Norman — a man more literally prone to seeing bits of his life replaced by his most beloved gobs of sensational culture — toward a climactic meeting with their own withered alter egos. Yet the elusive Kane in particular seems hardly less agile from his absence, in or out of the story itself. Preview; $3.99.

EmiTown Vol. 1: I don’t know a lot about this, but it’s a 400-page(!) Image collection of sketchbook diary comics by Emi Lenox, a Portland-based webcomics artist — the webcomic being, I believe, the sketchbook diary — working in a smooth, versatile manga-informed style; $24.99.

John Carter of Mars: Weird Worlds: In which the magic of media licensing results in Dark Horse dropping a 112-page softcover collection of early ’70s DC comics pertinent to the Edgar Rice Burroughs creation of the title (and a brief boom of interest in pulp-originated characters at the publisher; see also: Michael Wm. Kaluta on The Shadow). Marv Wolfman writes, with Murphy Anderson & Gray Morrow drawing a backup serial from Joe Kubert’s Tarzan of the Apes (#207-209, 1972), and Anderson continuing the story into the newly-launched Weird Worlds, after which additional stories were drawn by Sal Amendola and a young Howard Chaykin (#1-7, 1972-73). Chaykin’s own Ironwolf would take over Weird Worlds for its final three issues, not collected here but easy to find in a 1986 DC one-off, if you’re so interested; $14.99.

DC Comics Presents: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1: Ah, but DC is perfectly capable of printing its own inexpensive compilation of materials it didn’t initially handle. Witness this 96-page comic book-format package of materials from issues #1, #2 and #7 of the mid-’60s Tower Comics science hero team series, certainly featuring art by co-creator Wally Wood and at least soliciting turns by Gil Kane and Steve Ditko, although I presume there won’t be enough room to actually include all of the contents of every issue; $7.99.

Hellboy: The Sleeping and the Dead #1 (of 2): Beginning what I think is going to be an array of guest artist-driven short projects for the venerable Mike Mignola creation, here with the participation of Scott Hampton. Still to come is the second half of the current Mignola/Duncan Fegredo series (Hellboy: The Fury), after which creator/writer Mignola plans to return to art duties for the central story. Preview; $3.50.

Elephantmen #29: More from Richard Starkings’ reliably odd anthropomorphic-and-dangerous sci-fi series, I think featuring some work by Marian Churchland; $3.50.

Drew Friedman’s Sideshow Freaks: Finally, an appropriately tangential but no doubt comical book to round out this week of reflection – a suite of 50 color portraits of renowned human oddities by the great illustrator. From Blast Books (a fine publisher of alternative manga in the ’90s, counting Suehiro Maruo’s Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show and Hideshi Hino’s Panorama of Hell among its projects, along with the seminal anthology Comics Underground Japan); $19.95.