Rather than flatly recap on everything I've read in the time since my last post and perhaps things that can't easily be found, I thought I'd show where I'll spending my money 'sight unseen' in the months to come. In order of publisher/imprint.
From Vertigo, I've the final 100 Bullets book, having avoided spoilers online. Thinking on it, I've no idea what to expect as I don't feel that the series has been building to a climax so I'm very intrigued to see how the last 12 years or what have you come to a head. You know what you're getting with Risso's art but Azzarello's endings have been pretty varied in success over the years. This has a lot to live up to and the mumblings I've seen online suggest that he pulls it off.
Also from Vertigo come the first two of the Crime Graphic Novel line. The Iain Rankin one I'll wait and see on but the the Azzarello one I will pick up knowing his work of course but also that of Victor Santos, a Spanish artist who while still wearing his influences on his sleeve (Cooke, Muñoz, Timm, Miller) can really tell a story and engage.
The second (and apparently penultimate) Young Liars TP is also coming. While the characters are all pretty unlikable (as you'd expect from Dave Lapham) by the end of the first book I was onboard. I've seen him say that it was always gonna be a slow burn and my lack of monthly support of the book probably contributed to it's demise but some books, full of ads, on shitty paper need the wait. Vertigo monthly books aren't nice objects, and the collections aren't much better but at least they don't have 30% ads. Great covers by Lapham though...
A fill in on Northlanders by the amazing Daniel Zezelj will get snapped up. Brian Wood's work is always readable enough and this book has peaked my interest a little already but from what I've seen this will be the best looking issue thus far. This'll maybe tide me over while waiting for the rest of Warren Ellis' excellent Desolation Jones.
The final part of of the middle chapter of Morrison and Stewart's Seaguy will undoubtedly leave me wanting more as much as the first one did. Of Morrison's trilogy of trilogies from a few years back, while I loved WE3, Vinamarama didn't do much for me but Seaguy blew me away and looked liked a likely candidate for a Big Numbers award for unfinished comic symphonies.
Unbelievably, Spirit #29 will be a one-off story bringing together Dean Motter and Paul Rivoche. While often linked to Mister X together, this will be the longest collaboration between the two that I've seen and one thing's certain, that it'll have lots of gorgeous city and shadows. Rivoche spends most of his time doing distinctive design and background work for animation and I'm always happy to see him in comics.Also Spirit #30 will be by Mike Oeming and I'll be getting that too!!
Following an issue by Paul Gulacy (the previous one he did was great, by the way) the first six parter in the series starts. When they originally talked about this story it was going to be by Rafa Garres but in the end it'll be drawn by Cristiano Cucina who a quick Google image search show looks like a good fit.
DC have got me buying two Batman books a month again having given me a couple of skip months with Tony Daniel comics. Morrison and Quietly are back, doing Batman with no indication of what we can expect. Don't overly care what I get, I'm sure it'll be great regardless of who's Batman, who's Robin etc. Reason to get the issues? This has been set up to be a rotating art team (as opposed to "Quietly as the artist" that we got on the X-Men).
Detective Comics will be nothing if not gorgeous with JH Williams on art with Dave Stewart colours and a Question back up by Cully Hamner. I like Greg Rucka a lot on various things (previous Detective Comics, Gotham Central, White Out) but not enough to swear by (Wolverine, Wonder Woman). Through in Batwoman and the female Question and my doubts increase. Everything to play for...
Got rid of my old Sleeper trades in favour of the new two complete books. If you've not read Sleeper, it's as good as anything else Brubaker's worked on. Great intrigue, character, dialogue and great art by Sean Phillips.
From Marvel, as always, my only interest is in the odd one-shot, fill-in or mini that they've gotten really quite good at. The Trial Of Thor is a great title for a book and makes me think back to John Byrne FFs. Written by Peter Milligan who can be great and drawn by Cary Nord who's work since Conan (always at Marvel) has left me a lttle cold. I don't think people should stick to a genre because they're good at it necessarily, but this will definitely be a return to subject matter which he excels at. Hope Dave Stewart's on colours. We'll see.
Continuing Marvel's 70th Anniversary specials, comes The Young Allies by Roger Stern (who is one of the few 80s writers who I think can still impress) and Paulo Riviera. Riviera has done quie a bit of painted work for Marvel, largely with Paul Jenkins, and didn't do much for me (as painted comics often don't). A couple of months back he did half of one of the large Spier-Man Extras with Zeb Wells. This was all done in pen and ink, a Spidey/Wolverine story that was Zeb Wells great and funny but his art was really gave it something more. Someone to keep an eye on.
Written by Jesse Alexander, one of the Heroes/Lost guys, Sgt Fury will tie-in (hopefully tenuously) to Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Captain America White. I expect to pick that TP up as I think Tim Sale's great and I'll just have to hope the story doesn't get too much in the way (as it did with Catwoman: When in Rome, which was terrible). Back to the book at hand, Sgt Fury will be drawn by John Paul Leon, reason enough for me. After Winter Men, I'll follow him anywhere. I've a list of guys I'll follow onto everything and It feels like its getting shorter. A subject for another post, perhaps.
Fin Fang Four is another outing of a team of various Kirby monsters as a team. Drawn by the great Roger Langridge and written by by Scott Gray, I imagine that the various shorts of this will end up collected in one book but for me it's a bit of an oasis in the midst of all the Civil War/Dark Avengers/Secret Invasion type stuff that I find a real turn off. Genuinely funny, this comic feels like it shouldn't exist but I'll take it while I can.
Wolverine #s73 & 74 are two stand alone issues cut in half split over two issues. A bit annoying as either half of these two would hold up. We get Daniel Way (who's alright) and Tommy Lee Edwards on one half of each and Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert on the other half. Should be good.
Mark Waid is on a three part Spidey story with Mark McKone. McKone doesn't do a massive ammount for me but he's got his own style and can tell a story. The hook for me on this is Mark Waid. He recently did a Spidey two parter with Marcus Martin which was excellent bringing in J Jonah Jameson's dad and a great Peter Parker. I dip in and out of Amazing Spider-Man depending who's on it but lately Zeb Wells, Bachalo, Dan Slott, JR JR, it's worth keeping an eye on.
Lastly, Dark Reign; Zodiac, a three issue mini by Joe Casey and Nathan Fox. At three issues, the chances are that when they collect this they'll stick in some old appearance to pad the book out and thet drives me nuts. As such, I'll get the issues on this. Nathan Fox has a great brush style (influence of Paul Pope in there) and drew the great looking Pigeons From Hell from Dark Horse. Joe Casey has been great for years and his Iron Man enter the Mandarin was excellent. Worth looking at.Well that's it. There's no Dark Horse or Image here, and maybe I'll do that later but that ammounts, more or less, to Joe Kelly at Image and Mignola at Dark Horse.
There are plenty of things like Scalped, Criminal and different minis but I'll push them as they come up.
