THE PULL LIST: What I'll be buying in Nov. 2015

Well, kids, its that time of the month again, time to pore through the latest Previews catalog and place my pre-order at my local comics shop. As those of you who've read this blog for any length of time know, I get me comics from Zimmie's in Lewiston, Maine, where I get a 20 percent discount for pre-ordering my books. The advantage for Zimmie's is that pre-order help shop owner Dan determine with better accuracy what he should order from Diamond, helping to minimize the number of unsold copies he'll later have to dump in the discount bin. The advantage for me is, duh, 20 percent off! However, the disadvantage is that I have to commit to comics based only on some spartan solicitation language and a few clips of preview art. And, if I happen to not like a book when it arrives, I've generally in for three or four issues by that point.

I used to not only pre-order, but pre-pay. I've stopped doing that because . . . well, there's no gentle way to say it — Diamond sucks. Every other week (and this is no exaggeration, it happens literally every other week, at least) books will arrive from Diamond damaged. I've found when that happens and Dan has to place a re-order, I only have about a 75 percent chance of the books ever being replaced. And when the books don't arrive damaged, they don't arrive at all. Almost every week Diamond will short the order, leaving Dan with fewer copies than he actually ordered, or they'll simply send no books at all. There have been times when I've watched Dan open the UPS box, seen there are none of a certain title, and yet Dan has shown it to me listed on the invoice.

So, as they say, pre-ordering comics is an inexact science.

Still, the real trick is staying under budget. The amount I spend on comics each week hasn't changed all that much in decades. Back in the early 1990s, when comics were $1 each, I spent $20 per week on comics. And, up until last year, I was still spending $20 per week. That only changed when Maine instituted sales tax on periodicals and Sainted-Wife Sheila allowed me a raise. So, these days my budget works out to $120 per month. For that princely sum, I will be getting 33 comic books. Here's what they are:

DC COMICS (15 titles)

• Astro City #29 (Vertigo)
• Batgirl #46
• Batman #46
• Bat-Mite #6
• Bizarro #6
• Cyborg #5
• Dr. Fate #6
• Harley Quinn and Power Girl #6
• Justice League #46
• Justice League of America #6
• Prez #6
• Scooby-Doo Team-Up #13
• Starfire #6
• Superman #46
• The Twilight Children #2 (Vertigo)

MARVEL COMICS (nine issues of eight titles)

• All-New All-Different Avengers #1, 2
• Amazing Spider-Man #3
• Doctor Strange #2
• Hercules #1
• Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1
• Ms Marvel #1
• Star Wars #12
• The Mighty Thor #1

IMAGE COMICS (five titles)

• Autumnlands #7
• The Fade Out #11
• Jupiter's Circle Vol. 2 #1
• Nameless #6
• Paper Girls #2

IDW PUBLISHING (five titles)

• Back to the Future #2
• Donald Duck #7
• Mickey Mouse #6
• Uncle Scrooge #8
• Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #725

ARCHIE COMICS (two titles)

• Archie #4
• Jughead #2

DARK HORSE COMICS (one title)

• Rebels #8

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT (one title)

• Will Eisner's The Spirit #5

That all comes to $123.69 retail, or $114.91 with discount. Adding in Maine's 5.5 percent sales tax makes the total hurt $121.71. I went a little over budget, but I'm okay with that as I had to cut 11 issues of 10 titles from my order to get there. Excised off the first draft were:

• DC Comics Bombshells #4 and 5 (DC)
• All-New Hawkeye #1 (Marvel)
• Black Knight #1 (Marvel)
• Vision #1 (Marvel)
• Black Science #17 (Image)
• I Hate Fairyland #2 (Image)
• Stray Bullets: Sunshine and Roses #10 (Image)
• We Stand On Guard #5 (Image)
• Black Hood #7 (Archie)
• Hangman #2 (Archie)

In addition, not even making it to the first draft was Star Wars #13 and the point-1 issue of Amazing Spidey. With the exception of the point-1 issues of the last Amazing Spidey volume that featured Clash, "the amazing sultan of sound," I've never seen much in Marvel's point-1 gimmicks to divert my collecting dollars. In fact, I more often resent Marvel trying to hit me for extra issues of an ongoing title I may be buying that are unrelated to the main storyline. Star Wars I decide to drop because Issue No. 13 is part of a multi-title epic and, already in a position to make cuts, I knew I wasn't going to have room to add two additional titles in Star Wars: Vader Down #1 and Darth Vader #13.

It should also be mentioned that a number of Image launches fail to make the cut. I'm a pretty big fan of Jason Aaron, but I'm also kind of a prude about by comics and don't feel swear words add anything to them. With so many words blacked out of the preview pages of The Goddamned #1 from Image, I decide to pass. Also failing to capture my interest from Image, which lately has followed the Infantino flood-the-market publishing model, is  Huck #1 (though by Mark Miller, only 17 words on three preview pages makes it seem this will be too quick a read for $3.50).

At DC, Vertigo also has been trying to reinvent itself, and I really want to give the imprint a chance, but decide to pass on Jacked #1 (looks interesting, but ultimately too depressing), Red Thorn #1 (solicitation copy just didn't grab me while the teaser image says nothing), Slash & Burn #1 (I didn't think much of the writer's last "hit series," Bodies, which I dropped before it was done), and Unfollow #1 (haven't loved Martian Manhunter by this writer, and thought Royals: Master of War was a real mess). 

Working backwards, starting at the books I cut to stay under budget: Hangman was an impulse order last month that I decide I don't have room for this month, due mainly to the new Marvels I added. If I end up liking the first issue, I may back order what I missed. Initially I was going to give Black Hood another try. I ordered the first three issues, but so far have only read the first one, in part because it was a title Diamond kept shorting my retailer on. I finally got the books months after release, and not in the order they were released, but which time I'd dropped the title from my pre-order list. Now, having dropped Hangman, I decide to continue the pass on Black Hood. 

We Stand on Guard is a similar Diamond screw-up. I still haven't got the second issue, while the first, which had to be re-ordered, sits on my desk unread. Screw it. I Hate Fairyland is the same story as Hangman, an impulse order I don't have room in the budget to continue ordering without knowing how much, it at all, I'll like it. Black Science and Stray Bullets I cut, although it sort of kills me to do so, just because they've gotten old. I loved both series once, but the seem to be the same thing every month. I don't mind variations on a theme, or maintaining characters at a certain status quo — genre, escapist fiction sort of depends on that — but Black Science seems to just keep hitting the same plot points without going much of anywhere, while Stray Bullets, tonally, just wears me out. 

Black Knight as been a favorite since I was a kid, but I decided I just didn't know enough about the characters involved to take a chance. Vision also is a long time fav, but I found Tom King's Greyson to be kind of a hot mess and fear more of the same. All-New Hawkeye almost made the cut just because Jeff Lemire's run on Green Arrow was my, to me mind, his best work. Ultimately, however, I decided All-New Hawkeye is probably going to read like Same-Old Ollie. 

I liked the first issues of DC Comics Bombshells, but thought the art in the second issue was pretty weak, while the story wandered from a coherent plot into a seeming attempt to introduce bombshell versions of every DC heroine. The solicitation copy for Issues 4 and 5 makes it seem as if they'll more closely resemble Issue 2 than Issue 1, so I decided to cut my losses. If DC had solicited just one issue for November, I might have stuck it out one more month, but two issues is too big a swing at the budget to resist.

Going back to what I did order, All-New All-Different Archie is, admittedly, an experiment. Given the $4 price point, I'll probably drop the titles in another month or two, once the novelty wears off. The Disney books I really enjoy, however. Yeah, they're "kids books," and just reprints (albeit some published in the U.S. for the first time) but they are clever and a good value. I mean, when a $4 Disney comic takes 20 minutes or more to read, versus the average DC or Marvel book that can be read in about eight minutes for the same price, that's not a hard buying decision at all, really.

The Image books are all books I've been buying for a while, save for Paper Girls, which I decide to keep where other impulse orders from last month were cut simply because I liked the Stand By Me with girls vibe of the initial solicitation.

Although Marvel has a lot of No. 1s on the order, must of the titles are books I was buying previously. I must say, however, I am annoyed that Ms Marvel #1 is a $4.99 book. While it has become one of my very favorite comics on the stands today, it must be said I only every gave it a try because of the $2.99 price point. If Marvel had launched it at the same $3.99 cover price of all its other books at the time, I would have skipped it, I'm sure. Of the two new books, Moon Girl's solicitation art looks just too fun to resist, while Hercules is something I'm completely taking a chance on. I expect to be disappointed, if only because no Herc book could ever live up to the glory of the Bob Layton mini-series from the 1980s, but based on fond memories of those books, I order against my better judgement.

And, finally, DC, the mainstay of my collecting preference for more than four decades. Frankly, I may be over it. The company just isn't producing much that I'm interested it, and only habit keeps my buying many of the titles I order this month. Bat-Mat I would have dropped if it had not been a mini-series. Same with Prez, if it had remained an ongoing, or even a 12-issue series. Dr. Fate I would drop, but I expect it to be canceled soon, so I might as well have them all. And Superman I had intended to drop, but the swap of Howard Porter for John Romita Jr. buys the book one more month. Cyborg really isn't grabbing me and Batgirl has begun to wane, while Batman will probably fall off my list once the Mr. Bloom intro story is over. Oh, and speaking of Batman, Frank Miller's new Dark Knight series will probably top the sales charts by a wide margin. But Miller's last DK mini was no very, very, very awful, there's no way in a hundred hells I'm even going to bother.

With so many DC comics about to end, or teetering on the fence for me, next month could be an interesting one. Might it me the first month since the late 1970s when I actually buy more Marvels than DCs? Come back next month to find out . . . 

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Archie Comics, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Dynamite Comics, IDW Comics, Image Comics, Marvel Comics, The Pull List,

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CAPSULE COMMENTS: For comics on-sale Feb. 4, 2015

Lost job, crashed car, and family health issues have put me a bit behind the eight-ball, at least so far as keeping up with Shanghalla goes. So, I'm taking today off from the world and spending it on comic books, catching up with February reviews, starting first with items released Feb. 4 — or at least those things released that week that made it into my pull file. It was a short week, however, with just six new comics for me. Interestingly, four of the books — Jungle Jim, Ms Marvel, Stray Bullets and Superman — were solicited in the Diamond Previews catalog for release in January. Anyway, here's the run-down:

KING: JUNGLE JIM #1
Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99
[MILDLY RECOMMENDED]

So far, with Prince Valiant yet to be released, this is the best of the King Syndicate books, which is somewhat ironic in that this was the title I also was anticipating the least. This one reads better than the rest, I think, in part because Jungle Jim is less well-known than Flash Gordon, Prince Valiant, The Phantom, and even Mandrake the Magician. As such, writer Paul Tobin was allowed to take great liberties with the character. Here, he is a jungle god on Arboria, a planet within the realm of Flash foe Ming the Merciless. He is apparently able to both control animals and assume their shape, which is, I'd say, a fair leap from his original incarnation.

This book also does a better job that some of the the others in this new wave of King licensed books in making it clear that all of the characters live in a shared universe, where Ming's attempted invasion of Earth has just occurred, knocking Earth technology back to the start of the 20th century. That's the era, perhaps intentionally, when most of these characters first appeared.

In this issue, a stereotypically spunky Arborian girl, unable to locate Flash Gordon, wants to enlist Jungle Jim in helping to free her brother from Ming's prison. Prince Barin gives her a couple of beast men as her retinue and off they tromp into the forest to find a man who may or may not exist. It's not really clear to me if this version of Jim is still an Earth man. I presume not as he'd hardly have had time since Ming's invasion to travel to Arboria and become a mythological figure to its people.

From there it's a fairly standard search plot, with the company picking up a female village scout along the way, although there is a nice bit of bonding between our spunky lead and her hippo-man companion. We end the issue with the group finding Jim in the guise of a monkey that's been following them. Given that this series is to last five issues, it might've been more interesting if Jim had played the McGuffin a bit longer, or, perhaps even more interestingly, if the group eventually discovered he really is just a myth. But, it is what it is and I have to wonder if this series is fated to jump the shark once Jim emerges from the Jungle for the eventual prison break sequence?

The art by Sandy Jarrell, who also handles the colors, is just a step above serviceable. It's not bad, just bland, and I would have preferred a good inker to really embellish the drawings, most of which are the merest contours, with texture and shadow and definable light sources. Of course, part of the problem is that with a series like this, one really wants someone of the level of the Franks, Cho and Frazetta, or a Mark Schultz.

(Read Time: 10:45)
STORY GRADE: B 
ISSUE SCORE: 66.50
[Cover: 8:0 | Plot: 7.50 | Script: 7.75 | Layout: 6.75 | Artwork: 6.0 | Editing: 5.50 | Colors and Production Values: 7.25 | Dollar Value: 5.0 | Collectibility: 5.75 | The Gosh-Wow Factor: 6.0]

Ms MARVEL #11
Marvel Comics, $2.99
[MARVELOUSLY RECOMMENDED]

There's really not much to say about this issue, except that it's a good example of why I love this title. Basically, Ms Marvel is the hero I want in my comics — someone who is a little bit geeky, like me, but who has a strong moral compass and is always trying to do good. In many ways writer G. Willow Wilson is depicting, different gender and power sets aside, the Spider-Man of my youth. The big exception, of course, is that while this issue brings the concluding chapter of Ms Marvel's first story arc with the defeat of The Inventor, and The Inventor's inventor, after 11 chapters, the typical Spider-Man story of the '70s wouldn't have lasted more than an issue or three.

The art by Adrian Alphona continues to charm. The characters are a little too cartoonish in places, it's true, and the layouts are not always as clear as they could be in battle sequences, but he's given the character and her supporting players a definitive look that's bound to carry over if and when Ms Marvel makes the transition to other media. Ms Marvel is easily in my Top 5 among comic books currently being published.

(Read Time: 9:10, plus 3:40 for recap page/lettercol)
STORY GRADE: A–
ISSUE SCORE: 71.75
[Cover: 6.25 | Plot: 8.0 | Script: 9.0 | Layout: 6.75 | Artwork: 8.25 | Editing: 5.50 | Colors and Production Values: 7.75 | Dollar Value: 6.50 | Collectibility: 7.25 | The Gosh-Wow Factor: 7.00]

NAMELESS #1
Image Comics, $2.99
[RECOMMENDED (UNFORTUNATELY) ONLY FOR ADULTS]

In an increasingly common occurrence, my retailer got shorted on this when it first came out. He had to place a re-order, which finally arrived March 4. However, what finally came in was a second print.  The cover to my copy has an orange tint, as opposed to the green, seen at left. Clearly, my tiny shop in central Maine got its order allocated to a larger customer when advance re-orders came in higher than expected. That's my assumption anyway. Meanwhile, my assumption about the issue itself, as with most things written by Grant Morrison, is that he was strung out on something strong when he wrote it.

The first half of the book is typical Morrison weirdness. There's a nameless man searching Indiana Jones style for a forgotten relic. He's pursued — again Indiana Jones style — by a fish-faced infantry. And he'd captured by a priestess possessed by a parasitic larva. All stuff that would ordinarily peg the gosh-wow meter on my inner 12-year old. However, Morrison's script is so sprinkled with drops from his stream of consciousness as to be, for me at least, off-putting. I have trouble sinking into a story when I have to stop every third panel and wonder, "Now what the HELL does that mean?!" Some fans enjoy that kind of writing. Me, not so much. That's partly because, with Morrison, it always feels so practiced, like he's trying to hit me over the head with the fact that he knows more than he's telling at the moment. But also because, more often than not, it also feels like he's just making shit up as he goes along and, like the last episode of Lost, some plot threads will never be completed.

Speaking of "shit," it seemed odd to me that the word was spelled "shite" in the first half of the book, then "shit" in the back half. Knowing Morrison, I wondered at first if that was on purpose and, once I noticed the change, I went back to verify if it had been spelled differently in captions and word balloons. Maybe, I thought, because Morrison's stories always require more deciphering that should be necessary, that's a clue to something. But, no. it was used the same way in both captions and word balloons. It was just the British spelling in the first half of the book, then the American way at the end, as if Morrison — I see no editor listed on the book — decided, what the hell, might as well spell it the American way for the American audience, and never went back and edited the first few pages.

Of course, there was no good reason for the word "shit," to appear at all in this book, regardless of spelling. Nor "fuck." And certainly not "cunt," even once, let alone three times. This could have been an awesome all-ages book but for the language. It would have been just as easy to get across the uncouth nature of Mr. Nameless with a few less vulgar euphemisms, dashes in place of some letters, or even symbols to indicate swearing. And doing so, in my ever so humble, would have done nothing to insult the integrity of Morrison's writing.

Chris Burnham's art is very nice, and rather reminiscent of Frank Quitely here. Although he seems to lose interest in the latter half of the book. Just as Morrison's work, both plot and script, grow more conventional toward the end of the issue — turning into a story about an imminent impact from an asteroid that just happens to have a three-mile-long glyph exactly like the one on the temple Nameless raided —Burnham's layouts become less bold, his drawings more static. But maybe that's some sort of meta-textual commentary. With Morrison, you just never know.

(Read Time: 10:50)
STORY GRADE: B
ISSUE SCORE: 72.75
[Cover: 8:50 | Plot: 8.0 | Script: 6.75 | Layout: 8.0 | Artwork: 9.25 | Editing: 3.25 | Colors and Production Values: 8.50 | Dollar Value: 6.25 | Collectibility: 7.25 | The Gosh-Wow Factor: 7.00]

STAR WARS #2
Marvel Comics, $3.99
[ARTISTICALLY RECOMMENDED]

The best thing that can be said about this new Star Wars series is that writer Jason Aaron successfully captures the "sound" of the various characters, while artist John Cassaday absolutely nails their likenesses. Darth and the droids are pretty easy to depict, of course, but it's impressive how Cassaday makes Han, Luke and Leia look exactly like Ford, Hamill and Fisher, and not just occasionally in a panel that could have been taken from a movie still, but in each and every shot, from every possible angle. So, bravo there!

The drawback is that, at seven minutes, this book is a quick read for $4 and, as such, I'll probably drop the title before long. Frankly, there's not much plot here. Basically, the whole issue is our heroes trying to escape from the failed raid on Cymoon 1, the Empire weapons factory they landed on last issue.

There are neat bits, of course. This series takes place immediately after the movie I still refuse to call Episode IV: A New Hope, and Arron shows us, canonical or not, our heroes' introduction to AT-AT walkers and the 74-Z speeder bike, making it clear the tech was known to the rebels before The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. There's also a cool bit in this issue where Vader "borrows" a storm trooper's helmet after getting his own knocked off by Han. Still, the action passes quickly in only a few moment's of story time. This would be an amazing few minutes in a Star Wars movie, but therein lies the problem. What Aaron has done here is produce a few really great pages of a movie script. But comics are not movies. Although both are visual storytelling mediums, they each have their own requirements as an entertainment product. Aaron is not to be blamed. For decades comics book creators have gone beyond Eisneresque adaptations of cinema techniques to full-on imitation of film and television methods. That's led to a decompression of the storytelling such that it now takes six months of more to tell s single story in comics. It must be remembered, however, that while a visual medium, comics are, at their heart, a participatory reading experience, not a viewing event. When a comic book does not have a satisfying beginning, middle and end the reader can enjoy in a single sitting, that comic is something of a failure, no matter how expertly it apes how stories are written and directed for the movies.

So, that's my soapbox. What we get here is a great script, and great art, that will undoubtedly be great when collected into a trade paperback. But based solely on how much story we get in this issue, it is not a great comic book.

On a side note, the bit with C-3PO trying to sound tough as he walked down the Millennium Falcon's gangplank, only to drop his gun, was a fun bit that had a very Firefly vibe to it. To my mind, it sort of gave a feel for what the coming round of Star Wars sequels might have been like if directed by The Mighty Joss. It would be cool to see Arron conscripted to write a Serenity series for Dark Horse Comics. Still, keeping with Star Wars for a moment, it would be nice for once to see 3PO do something other than get broken into bits and carted off by scavengers and soldiers. I hope Aaron will allow him to be a hero at some point before I decide this series is not worth $4 a pop and bail.

FWIW, I couldn't find a cover of this issue anywhere online that would format correctly, so that's why there is no image for this section.

(Read Time: 7:00, plus 0:25 for recap page)
STORY GRADE: B–
ISSUE SCORE: 73.25
[Cover: 7:0 | Plot: 6.25 | Script: 8.75 | Layout: 8.25 | Artwork: 9.50 | Editing: 5.25 | Colors and Production Values: 8.50 | Dollar Value: 4.0 | Collectibility: 8.0 | The Gosh-Wow Factor: 7.25]

STRAY BULLETS: SUNSHINE AND ROSES #1
Image Comics. $3.50
[BRUTALLY RECOMMENDED]

Since its return from hiatus, David Lapham's Stray Bullets has run hot and cold for me. Some issues have seemed insightful, if grotesquely blithe, divinations into the human condition. Others, like this issue, seem like so much snuff porn. Truly, Lapham is the Quentin Tarantino of comics.

Sadly, this issue has a sense of things happening because that's what the plot requires, and people getting blown away because that's what the reader expects. It's kill and re-kill to the point where I've starting to forget who's who. In some ways, this book has started to become a parody of itself. There is an interesting and tense bit in which Skottie and Kretchmeyer engage in a standoff, each with a gun to Amy's head, but even that, for some reason, feels to me more imitative of Pulp Fiction, than inspired by it.

Worse, the attempt to stay on a regular schedule of 28 pages per month is making the work suffer. Stray Bullets has always had the look of an art student's sketchbook to it, and that's been part of its unique charm. But several panels, and even a couple of entire pages, in this issue look particularly rushed, as if said art student was late for class, or stoned, or, most likely, both. Anyway, there are still a lot of fans of this book, but issues like this, in which the violence seems to exist only for the sake of violence, makes me wonder if SB's time has passed, making it part of a grim 'n' gritty zeitgeist better left to the 1990s.

(Read Time: 21:50)
STORY GRADE: C+
ISSUE SCORE: 68.25
[Cover: 7:25 | Plot: 8.0 | Script: 7.25 | Layout: 8.50 | Artwork: 6.25 | Editing: 6.75 | Colors and Production Values: 5.0 | Dollar Value: 7.0 | Collectibility: 6.50 | The Gosh-Wow Factor: 5.75]

SUPERMAN #38
DC Comics, $4.99
[BARELY RECOMMENDED]

So, yeah . . . whatever. The Johns/Romita Jr. collaboration comes to a whimpering conclusion that's far more interesting in terms of what it promises for future stories than how it wrapped up this one.

This arc is the perfect embodiment of what I complained about in the Star Wars commentary above. The story begun by Johns and Romita in Issue #32 has taken seven issues (released over more than eight months) to tell. And yet, this tale of Superman's forth-dimensional reverse doppelganger hasn't really contained more than three or four issues worth of actual plot. Hell, back in the Mort Weisinger era, this story would have been told just as, if not more memorably in a single 12-page back-up story.

I also have to say I've been a little disappointed with John Romita Jr.'s work. He's a good artist, with very strong storytelling skills in the layout department, but his style just is not well suited to Superman, in my opinion. I felt when reading this issue how I imagine comics fans must have felt in the 1970s when Jack Kirby came over to DC. As I read each issue in this arc, I kept finding myself hoping that, with the next issue, someone would bring in Jose Luis Garcia Lopez to paste new heads on Superman and the other main characters.

Superman's new power, unveiled here, is interesting, and a logical extrapolation of how Superman's powers have been explained post-Byrne. Cool ideas, if not concise plots, have always been Johns' strong suit. That said, I don't expect Human Bomb-Superman to last any longer than Electric Blue-Superman, which (fool me twice) got a lot more coverage in the mainstream press. I am, however, gratified to see Johns put a lot of things back where they belong with this issue. Although I came of age during an era when Clark Kent was a TV news anchor, he really belongs at the Daily Planet, and the whole Jimmy the Billionaire thing was an amazing transformation that played out for far too long.

Finally, while it makes perfect sense in the New 52 universe — in which Clark and Jimmy are far closer to being peers than they ever were in the Silver or even Bronze Ages — for Superman to reveal his secret identity, I have to wonder how that will play out. Well-meaning Jimmy is bound to spill the beans at some point, and that can't go well, which may be why the last panel of this issue, even though it's an unnecessary double-page horizontal spread, is my favorite.

(Read Time: 9:00, plus 1:15 for promo pages)
STORY GRADE: B
ISSUE SCORE: 64.50
[Cover: 4.25 | Plot: 6.75 | Script: 7.25 | Layout: 8.25 | Artwork: 6.75 | Editing: 4.75 | Colors and Production Values: 6.50 | Dollar Value: 4.0 | Collectibility: 8.75 | The Gosh-Wow Factor: 7.25]

STAT ATTACK!
TOTAL RETAIL COST: $22.45

MY COST (retail - 20% LCS discount + 5.5% ME sales tax): $18.53

COVER PRICE

High: $4.99 (Superman #38)

Average: $3.74

Median: $3.75

Low: $2.99 (Ms Marvel #11, Nameless #1)

PRODUCT PAGE COUNT

High: 40 (Superman #38)

Average: 30.67

Median: 28 

Low: 28 (Ms Marvel #11, Nameless #1, Star Wars #2, Stray Bulletts: Sunshine and Roses #1)

STORY PAGE COUNT

High: 30 (Superman #38)

Average: 24

Median: 23

Low: 20 (Ms Marvel #11, Star Wars #2)

STORY COST (price/story page count)

Best: 19.95¢/page (Star Wars #2)

Average: 15.77¢/page

Median: 15.79¢/page

Worst: 12.46¢/page (Nameless #1)

STORY READ TIME

High: 21:50 (Stray Bullets: Sunshine and Roses #1)

Average: 11:10

Median: 10:55

Low: 7:00 (Star Wars #2)

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE (price/story read time)

Best: 57¢/minute (Star Wars #2)

Average: 37.64¢/minute

Median: 34.87¢/minute

Worst: 16.03¢/minute (Stray Bullets: Sunshine and Roses #1)

PANEL AVERAGE (panels/story pages)

High: 7.29/page (Stray Bullets: Sunshine and Roses #1)

Average: 4.94/page

Median: 4.62/page

Low: 3.53/page (Superman #38)

WORD AVERAGE (words/story pages)

High: 

Average:

Median:

Low:

ADVERTISING PERCENTAGE (total pgs inc. covers/(ad pgs - house ad pgs))

High: 18.75% (Star Wars #2)

Average: 9.31%

Median: 10.60%

Low: 0% (Nameless #1, Stray Bullets: Sunshine and Roses #1)

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Capsule Comments, DC Comics, Dynamite Comics, Image Comics, Jungle Jim, Marvel Comics, Ms Marvel, Nameless, Star Wars, Stray Bullets, Superman,

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CAPSULE COMMENTS: Flash Gordon #3 (2014)

Flash Gordon #3 

Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99, 32 pages

Released: June 25, 2014

Story Grade: A

Issue Score: 81.50*

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

[no title] 

(20 pages / 86 panels / 1,359 words / 11:15 read time)

Writer: Jeff Parker

Artist: Evan Shaner 

Colorist: Jordie Bellaire

Letterer: Simon Bowland

Editor: Nate Cosby

I absolutely adore this title. And the funny thing is, the first issue was a complete impulse purchase. I was waiting in line to buy my comics at Zimmie's, in Lewiston, Maine, when I saw the cover of the first issue, the one with the swinging-from-the-maws-of-a-tyrannosaur image by Gabriel Hardman. Well, buddy, that cover did exactly what a comic book cover is supposed to do — it all but compelled me to pick it up and take a look. Now, if the artwork inside by Evan Shaner had been anything less than terrif, I'd have put it right back down. But Shaner's work has such an old-school charm to it that I was instantly enchanted, and I have not been disappointed with any issue since.

That said, this one does have a couple of minor issues. Mind you, these are not criticisms. They're more akin to not being able to help noticing the one tiny flaw in an otherwise flawless diamond. For one thing, Shaner's art, to my mind, calls out for old style brushwork. And maybe he does use a brush, for all I know. Still, this issue looked to be inked largely with a pen, and had the feel to me of being a bit rushed, as though Shaner was struggling to get the pages done on time, and had largely resorted to using micron markers. A few of the panels, especially in the big fight scene also had a "first draft" feel, as if they had been finished direct from a preliminary stage. But, of course, "rushed" in this sense means "still looking better than 95 percent of what else is on the stands," so don't get me wrong. 

My other issue is probably just me being stupid. Still, I did not get in the last issue that the chosen of Aboria were being turned into animals. My impression was that turning them into mindless beasts meant creating monsters of s sort, not a process of anthropomorphism. So, I started this issue thinking the same thing, and my eye saw the slave in the first panel as just some guy with long hair and a scraggly beard. Thus, I was a little confused when we started to have animal men in the arena, perhaps, in part, because I passed over them when shown in silhouette in the prison scene, not recognizing them there for what they were. So, when lion-man showed up to help Flash in the big fight, referencing his earlier rescue, I actually turned back to page one to realize, "Oh, look, same guy. My bad."

My only other question mark is about the beast-making process. I seem to recall from Issue 2 that Ming is making mindless, easily controlled soldiers out of the Aborians. However, those who were fully converted have all of their faculties here. Perhaps being made into an animal man just makes you an asshole? I dunno.

At any rate, it doesn't really matter. The artwork in this book is so amazing, the dialogue so witty and sparkling, the adventure so high and the villany of Ming so . . . well, um, villainous, that Flash Gordon is about my favorite comic currently being published. 

I can give no higher compliment that this: When I read this comic, my inner 12-yea-old, otherwise long dormant, sits up and takes notice, becomes WIDE awake, and is ready to have some fun. And isn't that what comics are all about?

One final note — I'm not sure what timeframe Flash and his pals come from in this version of the story. Maybe it was said in the first issue and I forgot. Anyway, Zarkov mentions Muhammad Ali, so clearly it's not the 1930s anymore. 

  

*[COVER: 8.0 — PLOT: 7.75 — SCRIPT: 9.75 — LAYOUT: 8.75 — ARTWORK: 9.0 — EDITING: 7.75 — COLORS/PRODUCTION: 8.0 — DOLLAR VALUE: 6.25 — COLLECTIBILITY: 7.0 —GOSH-WOW FACTOR: 9.25] 

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Basic Reviews, Dynamite Comics, Evan Shaner, Flash Gordon, Jeff Parker,

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THE PULL LIST: For September 2014

Oh, good Lord, what a disaster of an order this is going to be. 

You see, there's a notice in Diamond Distribution's Previews catalog that says the Future's End editions of regular titles from DC Comics were advance solicited in May. Yeah, I knew that, but the notice goes on to say that retailers had to order those books by May 29 and that any orders placed after that date "cannot be guaranteed." 

I get that DC is trying to avoid the cluster caused by last year's crop of 3-D covers (which were pretty cool, if not necessarily worth the extra dollar), but I did not think to place my order for September books back in May, assuming at the time that they would be solicited again in this month's catalog. Well, no dice. In fact, the books are not listed at all. So, what's a poor fanboy to do? Well, I scrounged up the solicitations online, but have decided to largely skip the books, since I am not buying the Future's End weekly series anyway. Instead, this month will be largely dedicated to experimenting with books from other companies that I have never been able to fit into my budget. How that will that affect my pull list next month, and in months to come, remains to be seen.

DC COMICS

Astro City #15, $3.99

Bodies #3, $3.99

Booster Gold: Future's End #1, $3.99

Justice League: Future's End #1, $3.99

Justice League United: Future's End #1, $3.99

Multiversity: The Society of Super-Heroes... #1, $4.99

Scooby-Doo Team-Up #6, $2.99

Notes: I drop all of my regular titles, keeping only Justice League for the event month, and that only because Wildfire is on the cover. I also add Justice League United, even though I've recently dropped the regular title, because of the Dawnstar appearance. Even when pushing back against event month foolishness, I love me some Legion! I also decide to try the Booster Gold one-shot, since time travel is his milieu, and rumors are this issue will lead into a new regular series, which I'd likely buy anyway. I was going to try the Earth-2 special, on the assumption that it will feature story beats likely to play out in the upcoming weekly series that has been rumored to be in the works. However, I have no clue who the listed writer might be and the solicitation is all about Mr. Terrific while the cover features Lois Tornado. So, I back off, fearing a FUBAR of other-wordly proportions. 

I also add in the Scooby-Doo book, which I buy when the budget allows, depending on who the gang teams up with. This Super Friends cross-over is getting tantalizingly close to the team-up I REALLY want to see: Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog! 

Still, I'm pre-ordering just seven DC titles this month, down from 13 last month and the fewest DC Comics I will have purchased in any one month in more than 40 years of collecting.

MARVEL COMICS

Amazing Spider-Man #1.5, $3.99

Amazing Spider-Man #5, $3.99

Daredevil #8, $3.99

Fantastic Four #10, $3.99

Fantastic Four Annual #1, $4.99

Ms Marvel #8, $2.99

Rocket Racoon #3, $3.99

Savage Hulk #4, $3.99

Silver Surfer #7, $3.99

Thor: God of Thunder #25, $4.99

Notes: Unfortunately, Marvel does not benefit from my own personal DC Implosion, as my net number of titles from them drops from 12 to 10. Despite having room in my monthly budget due to the DC cuts and the end of Original Sin, I just can't seem to find any Marvel's I'm interested in, other than the ones I'm already buying. The company's solicitation magazine is such a jumbled fudge factory of X-Men and Avengers that it makes me nauseous just to look at it. It's a shame, too. Marvel really should have seen what was coming from DC and counter-programmed a ton on first-issue launches this month to lure dissatisfied fans from the Distinguished Competition. I suppose that's maybe what The Death of Wolverine is supposed to be, but I'm so super-saturated on Wolverine I have a hard time caring. Plus, I don't for a second think Marvel is going to let Logan stay dead for long. For that reason, the solicitation really just reads like I'm being sold a bill of goods. Pass. 

That said, I do stick with Fantastic Four, which I had been thinking of dropping, and even add in the annual, against my better judgement. I have to admit, I'm really only sticking with the book because I expect to see it canceled soon (if rumors of the fight over movie rights pan out) and I kinda want to see how it all plays out. I almost re-add All-New Invaders, which I recently dropped, because the last issue I pre-ordered was pretty decent. However, I decide to leave the title on month-to-month status, reviewing each issue on the stands before purchase rather than committing to it in advance.  

Oh, and I drop All-New X-Men. I don't hate Miles Morales. I just don't really know him, having never read the Ultimate book beyond the first few issues. However, his appearance signals that All-New is venturing further and further away from what I bought into the title for, which was the adventures of the original X-Men. I wasn't wild about X-23 joining, and I'm less enamored of non-mutant ( I assume) Miles on the roster. His membership feels like a stunt just to cross-promote his new book. Also, this title has always had kind of a plodding plot and I buy it mostly for Stuart Immonen's art, and since he's not on this issue . . . 

IMAGE COMICS

Black Science #9, $3.50

Copperhead #1, $3.50

Fade Out #2, $3.50

Jupiter's Legacy #5, $4.99

Manifest Destinty #9, $2.99

Stray Bullets: Killers #7, $3.50

Notes: I add Copperhead even though there are some layout problems with the sample pages as previewed in Previews. But the art is otherwise generally okay, and since before Firefly I was a sucker for sci-fi cowboys. Of the other #1s, and Image lately has had 4-5 every month, Roche Limit looks to be a paean to "rich people suck," Larfleeze Hates Astronauts looks too weird and The Further Adventures of Tabitha Stevens just does't seem to be something that's aimed at me. 

I considered adding books that have been praised online by fans which I missed out on, such as Chew, Saga, and The Manhattan Project, as well as the various Mark Miller titles, but decide each is too deep into serialized stories for me to ever catch up. 

Of my other regular Image buys, there appears to be no Real Heroes this month. I'm still waiting to get a copy of #3 as all issues sent to my local shop arrived damaged. Meanwhile, I'm overjoyed to see a new issue of Jupiter's Legacy solicited, although I don't expect to see it actually released until sometime next March.

DARK HORSE COMICS

One for $1: Ghost #1. $1

The Goon: Occasion for Revenge #3, $3.50

Groo vs. Conan #3, $3.50

Prometheus: Fire and Stone #1, $3.50

Notes: Not a ton that appeals to me among the Dark Horse solicits, I'm afraid. However, the preview of Prometheus looks interesting, so I bite. I missed the movie, so I'll have to seek that out before this issue arrives. I figured, what the heck, at $1 I'll give Ghost a try. I assume that like previous titles in the One for $1 line, this will reprint the debut issue of Ghost's current regular series, now up to #8, but the solicit makes it seems as if this will be original material. We'll see. I considered re-adding Captain Midnight, which I recently cut, but decide to keep it on month-to-month status off the stands, if my shop has any copies left over when I get there. They only order a couple of issues beyond pre-orders, and I think I was the only customer who had it on a pull list.

DYNAMITE

Flash Gordon #5, $3.99

Flash Gordon Annual 2014, $7.99

Note: As much as I love, Love LOVE, Dynamite's Flash Gordon series, $7.99 for a 48-page comic is a really, Really, REALLY bad deal. If I was not so enamored of the regular title, and if this was any other month, I would not even consider giving this the green light. Here's a suggestion guys, try selling some advertising.

I had ordered Bob's Burger's last month, but that was mostly on a lark and I don't expect much from the book, so I don't bother to pre-order #2. If the debut issue is great, I may re-add the title and/or pick up later issues off the stands.

ARCHIE

Sabrina #1, $3.99

Afterlife with Archie #7, $3.99

Note: You'll notice that all of Archie's regular 32-page books, even the ones aimed at kids, go up to $3.99 this month. Had Afterlife with Archie launched at that price point, I would not have taken a chance on it. And it's only because it's so good that I continue with it at this price. Sabrina gets on the pull list solely on the strength of Afterlife, and because of this month's DC purge. 

BONGO

SpongeBob Comics #36, $2.99

Note: A couple of week's ago was a short one for me. Not many items off my pull list shipped that week and a few I was supposed to get were either shorted by Diamond or arrived damaged. So, with money in my pocket I had planned to spend anyway, I searched the stands for an impulse buy, eventually settling on a SpongeBob comic (#33) released the previous week. Jerry Ordway on a SpongeBob story?! SO much fun. So, I decided to pre-order the last chapter of Ordway's five-part tale. Now I just need to find #32, and make sure I don't miss #34-35!

BOOM!

George Perez' Sirens #1, $3.99

Note: It's George Perez. 'Nuff said.

Extended errata: I really wanted to order something from IDW, but just could not find anything that pushed my buttons. Sadly, most of the company's licensed titles are of properties that reached their peak popularity when I was either an adult, or into my later teens, so there's little of the nostalgia factor to lure me in. So, here's a hint IDW, go out and work a deal with Sid and Marty Krofft. Imagine Electra-Woman and Dynagirl by Kevin Maguire, Land of the Lost by Frank Cho, H.R. Pufntuf by Scottie Young, The Bugaloos by Mike Allred, or Sigmund and the Sea Monsters by Eric Powell. YES! YES!, YES! YES! and YES!

On another note, I only WISH I could afford some IDW offerings, such as Superman: The Golden Age Sundays, Will Eisner's The Sprit Artist Edition, and Puck: What Fools These Mortals Be.

Out of the rest of what's in this month's Previews, DC continues to make missteps, IMHO, with its Earth One line. The Teen Titans all grew up together in Oregon now?! I get that it's hard to reboot a team all at once that originally formed over a period of time, and it's especially hard to re-imagine the Titans sans Robin, who doesn't exist yet on this particular Elseworld, I believe. But really, this solicitation reads more like, Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating the Teen Titans. I like Jeff Lemire, and I adore the Dodson's, but this one's not for me.

Of the independent publishers, some things that caught my attention, but just missed making the cut for my $100 monthly budget — I actually went a little over, at $103.40, post discount, which will come to $110.51 with Maine state sales tax — include the following:

• Number One #1, $3.99, from Aazurn Publising
• Kevin Keller #15, $3.99, from Archie (just for the awesome Days of Future Past cover)
• The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror #20, $4.99, from Bongo
• Wild's End #1, $3.99, from BOOM
• Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor #6, $3.99 from Titan (Weeping Angels!)
• Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor #1, $3.99, also from Titan
• The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage #1, $4.99, from Valiant. 

I should also mention that I took a hard look at former Valiant/Acclaim properties published by the new Valiant, as well as the one's owned by Dell (Dreamworks now?) published by Dynamite. But while some look interesting, I just couldn't find the dollars to work them into my pre-order. The same goes for Dark Horse's "final" Elfquest title, although that one catches my eye based on the original WaRP issues from years and years ago and is only hobbled by subsequent Elfquest books put out over the past couple of decades.

I'll also mention that two of Robert Kirkman's books were on the first draft of this month's order, but (common refrain) had to be cut to make budget. I almost ordered my first issue of The Walking Dead ever, having been all but ignorant of the comic until the TV show. Issue #131 promises that, "A journey begins," and that seemed a good jumping-on point. I also was going to go ahead and add Outcast, which I had previously passed on, simply because of recent sales reports -- I can't resist lemminging in with the crowd, I guess. Probably just as well that I did not order it, however. My local shop got shorted on #1, so who knows when or if I'll ever see that. The same thing happened with Manifest Destiny #1, which I did pre-order. By the time Diamond got around to fulfilling the order from my shop the series was on #6 and what I got of #1 was a fourth print! 

Finally, let me mention that I thought about filling in the jettisoned DC titles with a graphic novel, before ultimately deciding to stick with "floppies." Among the books I considered were:

• The Rise of Aurora West, $9.99, from First Second Books
• The Wrenchies, $19.99, also from First Second
• Shoplifter, $19.95, from Pantheon
• Sugar Skull, $23, from Pantheon
• The Chimera Birgade, $9.99, from Titan
• The New York Four, $19.99, from Dark Horse

Okay, that's it for Septemeber comics. Now to await what wonders will come our way in October!

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Archie Comics, Bongo Comics, BOOM Comics, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Dynamite Comics, IDW Comics, Image Comics, Marvel Comics, The Pull List, Thought Balloons,

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