All I know about the "Omnibus" vs. "Absolute" format is that Absolutes are slipcased and larger than a typical comic book, while Omnis are the same size as comics. There are more pages (I think) of Starman to collect, tho, since there were a couple annuals and other specials, and a crossover with The Power of Shazam. He also appeared prominently in JSA, maybe those issues will be included.

As for women sending in their faces, I missed that issue but that doesn't surprise me either. While I'm sure Tarot has a large male readership for the obvious reasons, most people don't realize what a large female readership it has. Most seem to come from the pagan/wiccan community and many write in to the book about how Tarot represents a power fantasy for them much like how Batman or Superman serves the same thing for a lot of men. It would seem to go against conventional wisdom about the typical audience for what is essentially a T&A book, but the Balents (to their credit) really seemed to have tapped into something...

So...Captain America is dead, Spider-Man is a thirty-year old schoolteacher living with his aunt, the Hulk is bright red and not Bruce Banner, the Avengers are currently Wolverine, Spider-Man, Power Man, Iron Fist and Doctor Strange, and I couldn't even tell you what the **** is up with the X-Men right now. Anyone get the feeling that Marvel's not exactly going for the "casual fan" these days?

As for the other stuff, I am extremely excited about both the Starman Omnibus and the second Question trade. For Starman, I sold my individual issues a few years ago thinking I would just replace them with the trades. Only to find out that the trades...skipped issues. Dammit. After much smacking of palm to forehead, I can now make up for my mistake by getting the hardcover collections which will collect EVERYTHING, even the Hellboy crossover. As for Question, I'm just pleasantly surprised to see DC bringing another volume out. I was worried we would get Volume 1 and then DC would just forget about it. An amazing series that deserves more attention paid to it for being one of DC's best mainstream series to come out of the post-COIE era.

Something I think is also worth mentioning is the M Hardcover being solicited by Abrams Publishing on page 201. You get Jon J Muth's gorgeously illustrated comic adaption (done in mostly photorealistic paint and charcoal drawings) along with a DVD of the 1931 Fritz Lang film. It's a haunting story about the search for a child killer in depression era Berlin, with an especially creepy Peter Lorre playing the killer. I've been waiting years to get a nice collection of the M mini, which Eclipse published back around 1990 before going under.

My understanding is that there will be 6 "Omnibuses" for STARMAN, but there will be 4 "Absolute Editions" of SANDMAN.

The first few chapters act as a prequel to the rest and have a slightly different tone so if they don't initially grab you, still stick at it.

Serenity was a box office failure. It did clean up on DVD, though, if that counts.

Waid is officially done with Flash. Peyer is the new writer, for real. When was the last time a Peyer title lasted any substantial length of time, though...?

Did Noble Causes get a new logo, or have I just been out of the loop for too long? Either way, it looks snazzy, as do the new character designs.

I totally want Casey's Nixon to team up with Codeflesh and clean up the streets of LA once and for all.

Captain Carrot looks a lot like the Quik Rabbit..hmmm...

I'm one of the nerds salivating over that Darwyn Cooke book. Its all original work, and my guess is that he told DC he's leaving and DC roped him back in with a promise to return to the New Frontier Universe, as his old New Frontier projects were denied. Probably because it might tread on the toes of such additions to graphic novel culture as 'Lord Havok and the Extremists'.

And Cinebook is soliciting a bunch of cool european comics this month, including France's sales champ Largo Winch! Since Okko and The Killer seem to be getting a lot of attention (if not sales...) lately, I thought it was worth mentioning.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

I had no idea they were doing an Army of Darkness/Xena crossover, but it has to be awesome. Right? I need to see Ash meet Autolycus.

Also, can't wait for that OMAC hardcover. Mmm. My prayers are answered.

Michael-- how can anyone not like Darwyn Cooke's art? Agh. I am stunned. Urk... going dark...

I've never picked up The Order either, mainly because I reflexively avoid anything tied in to the Civil War/Initiative BS. Nothing about it has motivated me to even flip through it in the store.

I'll probably pick up the Starman Omnibus too. For one thing, although I have all the trade paperbacks, not all of the original issues were collected in TPB form. And it's always nice to have a great comic book collected in hardcover. So I'm down with that.

Castle Waiting is a fun book. However, I think the collection being solicited is undersized (maybe 6x9) like the first one was, which these days is enough to dissuade me from buying a collection. Why would I want to buy a collection in which the art is even smaller than it was originally printed in? (I had similar frustrations with the recent Finder collection and the Boneyard color collections - the small size lost me as a customer for those collections.)

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Horse-Heroes-Omnibus-1/dp/1593077343/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199149584&sr=8-1

X was one crazed out killing machine. You can look here for his Wiki entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_%28Dark_Horse_Comics%29

I liked it back then and enjoy it now... nice to see all the older DHP comics get this treatment. I'm sure Ghost and Barb Wire will eventually come down the pipe.

Hope that helps

Ash and Xena doesn't seem so bad. If only for the potential comic moment of Bruce Campbell meeting himself. Since Army of Darkness and Evil Dead seem to be two seperate licenses (as Dark Horse is doing the former and not Dynamite), I wonder how long before they decide to do an Ash Vs. Ash book?