What do you order from Previews catalog this month?

As wanted to do for a long time, here's finally my list with comments,  starting with late comics ordered last month:

- Silver Surfer Black # 4 and 5 I love this "strange" comic;
- Aliens Rescue #4 (of 4) Cover A De La Torre, the last Brian Wood published comic book   ;
- Spawn # 303 B&W Edition, so far I loved all this black and white interiors of old Spawnie, not only the covers;
and now the "ordered in time" comic books:

- Spawn # 304 B&W Edition comment as above
- Flash # 2 Aquaman # 2 Superman All Giants edition # 1 these are the direct market edition of the 100 pages special, before sold exclusively at Walmart in the States, I have always liked all 100 pages since the Seventies'   ;
- Superman # 18 old Clark Kent reveals secret identity to the world, original Bendis idea.... ;
- the big book Zagor: In the Jaws of Darkness Hc by Epicenter Comics, US Edition of an historic run of a great Italian adventure character, Zagor, published here montly since 1961!
- and now, from the Uk: Marvel Comics Gn Collection Vol. 210 Hc Marvel Masters Bill Sienkiewicz I suspect there will be stories I already own by old Bill but should be a great book nevertheless;
- also from the Uk: Comics Scene vol. 2 nr. 11 I really loved all comic book magazines, this one is slightly improving and even has some Crikey.....feeling, I don't know if the Boss will agree...
- Back Issue # 118 last issue of this Twomorrows mag dedicated to Unpublished Comic Book stories of the big Two and others, I have always liked these arguments, back in the Nineties I remember there was a regular feature in Hero Illustrated magazine, if I remember well...;
- World War 3 Illustrated # 50 Old "Combat" zine WW3 finally comes to fifty, with a Shameless Feminists theme!
and now all the $ 1 reprints;
- The Flash # 164 and Tales of the Teen Titans Annual # 3;
- Omega the Unkwon, Quasar and Nova all # 1, plus reprints from the Avengers (1963) about Mantis, Annihilus, the Super-Skrull plus an old Conan story (!).

That's all for now    and you, what have you ordered in your local comic book shop, and do you still have any standing subscriptions or you just go there and see what is on the racks?

Well, in my case, I really haven't been enjoying the Marvel or DC comic book offerings in a while. (Probably not all that surprising in my case, since in the past I seem to have gone through a few cycles where I get tired of much of their output after 8-10 years and they've frequently cancelled or changed the titles I still would read.) Only things I'm still getting (or plan to get) are a few Hellboy-related books from Dark Horse, and I was HOPING to try the "Miss Fury: Joy Division" limited-/mini-series from Dynamite first solicited for October 2018 but is at present scheduled "In Shops: Jan 29, 2020" on the Previewsworld website. (Still waiting to see if that happens or not.)

I have had a pull list at a comic book store that's sometimes a bit of a pain to get to (especially in winter / bad weather), but I only get there maybe every month-or-two these days. (Another store I had previously been using and was easier to reach because of a highway closed back at the start of 2018.)

Me too through the years I have gone through some cycles when they've frequently cancelled or changed interesting titles I'd had like to read but, as a self proclaimed and recognized nerd , I can't resist when I read "Superman reveals identity" as in upcoming Supes # 18 or to the Giant 100 pages Special I have ordered.

I was wondering MajorHoy, do you have a Walmart near you and if yes, have you ever bought these exclusive 100 pages Dc Giant there?

Barry_Allen wrote:I was wondering MajorHoy, do you have a Walmart near you and if yes, have you ever bought these exclusive 100 pages Dc Giant there?

Answers in order:
1.) Yes, I have a few Walmarts near me, but never usually saw those 100-page DC Giants at those locations. (Not all stores carried them.)

2.) Was tempted to try one-or-two when I first heard about them, but by the time I FINALLY saw one I didn't really have interest in it.

My problem with those was that, unlike those 100-page Super Spectaculars they published back in the 1970s, some of the new stories were written by writers I don't like (Tom King and Brian Bendis) and much of the reprint material was too recent for me and either was from issues I had already read or didn't care about. (Now, if they had gone with more Golden Age or other pre-2000s reprint material, they might have been more appealing to me. But, DC doesn't usually bother to cater to readers with my tastes / interests any more.)

Yes, I have read that not all Walmarts carry them but hopefully not only the biggest ones should have them.
I completely understand your points, I think too that those two are overvalued and mediated writers now and about the reprints contained even in the Dc Previews, the interior stories were not specified so you had to order them....being in the dark!

Barry_Allen wrote:Yes, I have read that not all Walmarts carry them but hopefully not only the biggest ones should have them.
I completely understand your points, I think too that those two are overvalued and mediated writers now and about the reprints contained even in the Dc Previews, the interior stories were not specified so you had to order them....being in the dark!

The Walmarts by me aren't all that large (especially the one I normally go to) and were stores that took over spaces that previously had been other chain retailers that had gone out of business back in the late 1990s/early 2000s. The shopping centers weren't built specifically to be Walmart centers, and neither location has an extensive grocery section with fresh meats and produce like some of the larger locations do. They're also in slightly crowded areas where there are many other shopping areas with big box chain stores (and probably higher rents), so it may not be worth it to Walmart to try and build a brand-new, larger store in the area. (Also don't know if/what zoning restrictions they would face if they wanted to try.)
As for where I am, I'm in Connecticut (USA) about +/-an hour or so outside New York City, closer to the coast of the state than the more rural areas that are further inland.

Thank you Major for the detailed explaination, very interesting! I live in a small town of 61.000 inhabitants in the center of Italy, about 280 Km. East from Rome and we have only one very big shopping center that attracts people from all over our valley of about 200.000 inhabitants; the hypermarket inside  belongs to French multinational Auchan, which you can find almost l over Europe, but which completely failed in Italy and now is selling all of them here, also with hundreds of their small chains retailers too, to an Italian big chain of cooperatives  and, as you can imagine, thousands of jobs are at risk now..
We have only one local comic book shop, based in the town old center

Barry_Allen wrote:I live in a small town of 61.000 inhabitants in the center of Italy, about 280 Km. East from Rome and we have only one very big shopping center that attracts people from all over our valley of about 200.000 inhabitants . . .

The town I live in (Weston, CT) is small (population-wise) with roughly 10,000 people, but (according to Wikipedia) is "has a total area of 20.7 square miles (54 km2), of which 19.8 square miles (51 km2) is land and 0.9 square miles (2.3 km2), or 4.39%, is water".
Bordering it are towns with roughly 18,000 and 28,000 people and a small (to me) city with about 89,000 people. In the town where I live, the center of town is a few stores around a parking lot, but there are many more stores along the local highways in the neighboring towns and city. And we're about +/-60 miles (about 100 kilometers?) outside of New York City (border-to-border, I guess).

If you are interested to read here there is the Wikipedia English page about my town; we too have a town near 12 Kilometres with 95.000 people and the regional capital, which is 50 km from here has 102.000 inhabitants.

Barry_Allen wrote:If you are interested to read here there is the Wikipedia English page about my town; we too have a town near 12 Kilometres with 95.000 people  and the regional capital, which is 50 km from here has 102.000 inhabitants.

Our state capitol (Hartford, Connecticut) had a population of 123,400 people back in 2017 and is about 70 miles / 112.6 km away from where I live (according to Google searches), but there are three larger cities in the state that are down closer to where I live.

MajorHoy wrote:
Our state capitol (Hartford, Connecticut) had a population of 123,400 people back in 2017 and is about 70 miles / 112.6 km away from where I live (according to Google searches), but there are three larger cities in the state that are down closer to where I live.

That's interesting to hear MajorHoy, so I imagine in these cities there are several local comic shops you can reach relatively close home...or maybe not now

Barry_Allen wrote:

MajorHoy wrote:
Our state capitol (Hartford, Connecticut) had a population of 123,400 people back in 2017 and is about 70 miles / 112.6 km away from where I live (according to Google searches), but there are three larger cities in the state that are down closer to where I live.

That's interesting to hear MajorHoy, so I imagine in these cities there are several local comic shops you can reach relatively close home...or maybe not now

Well, of those three larger cities closer to me, one comic book shop (the only one in that city at the time) which I use to go to regularly closed back in the start of 2018 (the owner got a real / better-paying job outside of comic books); one in a different city I had sometimes tried didn't always have a good selection of non-DC/non-Marvel comic books and didn't always keep convenient hours; and I'm not usually around the third city, so I'm not sure what they offer.

That is interesting MajorHoy, btw did you know that last Saturday was Local Comic Shop Day, when local comic shops (only the bricks and mortar ones) could get special some variant covers, exclusive formats or early releases of other items. Here's the link to the list of all comics available:
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/11/23/all-items-offered-local-comic-shop-day-2019-lcsd/
but only if your local comic shop was partecipating to this promotion, sort of...

Here I am in this topic with a new list of late comics ordered last month with comments, starting with:

- Dollar Comics Batman #497 £ 0.85;
- Mad Magazine # 11 (Issue dedicated to the "best" of 2019 but is also the first issue after 67 years not to be sold newstands..   )
- Magnetic Press: Infinity 8 # 16 new story arc for this fun Lewis Throndheim series;
- Batman # 84 (City of Bane concludes);
- Legion of Super Heroes # 2 variant ed. New LOSH Series continues, we’ll see as it goes...

And now, for the Dynamite section.... :
- Vampirella # 2 (1969) Replica Edition: I am curios to see how it was the mag when it first came out, also in December Dynamite is soliciting issue # 3 of Replica Edition and also a reprint of issue 1 which, for what I know, wasn't offered in Previews last months;
- Vampirella Tarot Cards Set: I was in doubt about the Red Sonjia tarot set but then decided for forever young Vampi cards...;

- not only Dynamite publishes Black Terror and the other public domain characters but also Ben Dunn’s Antarctic Press will publish in a fascinating old style paper EXCITING COMICS # 6;
- HEAVY METAL #297 CVR C TBD (MR) Grant Morrison edited magazine Christmas Special, doh! ! !  
Next post will contain just ordered in time items!  

And now, for the other items:

- BLACK HAMMER JUSTICE LEAGUE HAMMER OF JUSTICE HC
from Dark Horse Comics: I am really curios to see how Jeff Lemire crossover his creation against the Justice League!
- BATMAN GIANT #3 Re-solicited from last month
- CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS GIANT #2 Re-solicited too
- LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #3 CARD STOCK Variant, new LOSH series continues....;
- SUPERMAN #19 Variant 2nd part of Superman reveals identity..
and now four Dc $ comics:
- THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #197
- BATMAN ADVENTURES #12
- BATMAN HUNTRESS CRY FOR BLOOD #1
- DETECTIVE COMICS #554
The final part of my list in next post below...

- INFINITY 8 #18 (MR) 3rd issue of part 6 of Trondheim series translated in English by Magnetic Press;
- TART #1 NONSTOP ED. This is curious as Tart was a cult Eros Comix comic book at time, now Scout Comics uses the same title for a completely different comic set in the Fifties where a child disappeared and a female demon hunter appears in a remote village...; as with every Nonstop Edition imprint comic book, it will not be followed by other single issues but all the storyline it will be published directly in trade paperback;
- BACK ISSUE #115 Magazine about Jim Starlin and his and other cosmic heroes ;
- Ginseng Roots # 3 Craig Thompson semi-autobio continues...

Well, that's all for now....

It's already time to check December Previews and here are the first items checked:
- The Silver Cerebus one-shot I have ordered in the past several one shots published by Dave Sim after the end of Cerebus and some of them were really nice;
Archie Comics:
- Archie Vs. Predator # 05 cover C Jerry Ordway final issue of this Pop mini-series;
- CarToons Magazine # 20 Fun magazine about car humour;
more to follow...

Barry_Allen wrote:It's already time to check December Previews and here are the first items checked:
- The Silver Cerebus one-shot I have ordered in the past several one shots published by Dave Sim after the end of Cerebus and some of them were really nice;
Archie Comics:
- Archie Vs. Predator # 05 cover C Jerry Ordway final issue of this Pop mini-series;
- CarToons Magazine # 20 Fun magazine about car humour;
more to follow...

CarToons?!?

Man, I remember getting an issue of CarToons Magazine back when I was a kid, back in probably the late 1960s or very early 1970s. I didn't realize it was ever revived again.

In fact, while next issue will be simply numbered # 20, all 2019 issues had a 60th Anniversary (!) claim, so I understand that the mag has a long story   , here are the current series issues:
http://www.cartoonsmag.com/product-category/back-issues/
Also Wikipedia says that:
"Originally published quarterly, in 1962 the magazine became bi-monthly. During some years in the 1970s and 1980s, the magazine published eight issues per year.
In 1975, the magazine underwent a complete overhaul with a new logo, new artists and new features. The late 1970s and early 1980s issues included iron-ons, a feature which ended in 1983, later replaced by a center poster which often was a larger print of the cover art.
The original run of CARtoons magazine folded with the August 1991 issue.
In 2015, Ontario artist Marc Methot successfully filed for the abandoned CARtoons trademark. He resumed publication of the magazine in January 2016 and it continues to be published bimonthly."

Back in the days when I bought that issue of CarToons, which was back before I regularly started buying superhero comic books, I would also sometimes get copies of the various Charlton Comics car-themed comic books like Hot Rods and Racing Cars, Drag N' Wheels, World of Wheels, and an issue of Grand Prix.

Wow! While I don't have many Charlton comic books, I have a fondness for the history of that company, since it was founded in 1945 by Italian immigrant John Santangelo, Sr. who came to USA in 1926 from Abruzzo, a region adjacent to mine and, as long his publishing house was active, he employed many Italian seasonal workers whom he called from his native city and surroundings, to give them work in times of greatest need.

Sure Charlton had a great output of titles, I had forgot about these series, thanks MajorHoy,
I love these Grand Prix (formerly Hot Rod Racers, as stated there...) covers, they give a sense of fun!




Also, I had bought the issue of Comic Book Artist dedicated to Charlton and some issues of very interesting prozine Argo Press' Charlton Spotlight in the past, too bad last issue (number 9, that is) came out in 2015, with nothing thereafter!

Back on topic, here's other comics from this month Previews :

- Antarctic Press: Exciting Comics # 07 (new adventures of public domain characters by Ben Dunn old publishing house);
- Clover Press: The Spirit 80th Anniversay b&w cover Graphic Novella - let's try this one, with 10 Eisner stories you can't go wrong;
- DC Dollar Comics: Batman # 386 (1st Black Mask, Tom Mandrake art), 567 (first Cassandra Cain as Batgirl), The New Teen Titans # 2 (George Perez art, first Deathstroke!), the Flash (1987) # 1 (the start of a great series by Mike Baron and Butch Guice!);
- Cinefex # 139 the 40th anniversary issue;
- TMNT Usagi Yojimbo Tpb Expanded Edition, who doesn't love Stan Sakai samurai rabbit, crossovered (again) ) with the Turtles? I have to figure why it is "Expanded" but the tpb it's cheaper than the Italian edition, so...
Plus some late orders for:
- American Mythology AM ARCHIVES ZORRO 1958 DELL FOUR COLOR #882 A nice Zorro reprint from the Dell Comic Era;
- Antarctic Press: Planet Comics # 01 (new series for these public domain characters by Ben Dunn 35 years old niche publishing house);
- Tarot Witch of the Black Rose - Jim Balent always nicely drawn series will reach issue 120, more than 20 years in publishing (since it's bi-monthly but often quaterly) still with the original price of $ 2.95!

Again back on topic, here's some comics from this month Previews, let's start with the cheaper ones:

- DC Comics: Dollar Comics: these $ 1.00 reprints are multiplicating every month, there are reprints of Batman # 428, Justice League # 1 (from the 1987, 2001, 2006 series), Robin # 1 (1991), Swamp Thing # 57 (from the Alan Moore run) but there are also the
Dc Giants: Aquaman # 3, Superman # 2; Titans # 1 and From Beyond the unknown # 1

- Marvel: True Believers: Empyre one shot $ 1.00 reprints: these ones reprints Avengers (1963) # 19, 89, 133, Fantastic Four (1961) # 257, 357; Giant-Size Avengers # 4, the Savage She-Hulk # 1 from 1980!

- FCBD 2020: well, this month you can order all the items from the next Free Comic Book Day if you want to be sure to catch them, including a Cinch Bag (!) and a Best of 2000 AD # 0 from Rebellion, I have ordered the usual DC, Dark Horse, Idw, Drawn and Quaterly, Fantagraphics and Marvel ones.
More info in next connection!

Well, not this month but last month I ordered, from the Previews Uk catalog, among the other ones, also these "different" items:

- DC Graphic Novel Collection Vol. 155 Sword of the Atom (I ordered it for reasons, let's say so, historically sentimental...)
- Marvel GN Collection Vol. 250 Thanos wins
- Scary Monsters Magazine # 123
- History of Comics vol. 08 Hc 1991 from the late Comics Scene Uk Magazine guys and also
- Some low cost reprints from Aspen Comics: Artifact One # 0, Dellec Primer, Overtaken # 1
- Eek Halloween (!) Special One Shot
- Meanwhile # 10