You’re right, issues 4 and 5 haven’t hit stores yet – 4 was due at the end of February but technical issues kept that from being completed on time. The ship date on issue 5 is the end of April.

The good news is that both issues are completed, in to ASP, and pre-pressed for the printers. Both will actually ship on the same day in April, looking to be the 23rd or the 30th. The better news is that both issues will be available at the New York Comic-Con also!

The hardcover contains the first five issues of the series, which makes up our first half-year in Park Falls and as such all story material for the collection is in, hence the solicit. We’re wrapping up some fun supplemental material as we speak.

Thanks!
- Nick

Hell yes I would buy that variant cover. That would be awesome!

I haven’t given MANHUNTER a try, despite the strong response from its cult following. I’m a horrible person, I know. I plan to remedy that this time around. I’m also picking up FALLEN ANGEL, so I’m going to finally get around to all the “hidden gems” comic books that people have been talking about for years.

Millar will resort to the same old “superheroes in OUR world” routine until people actively force him to stop. It’s the only trick up his sleeve. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I’m not surprised to be surprised by Joe Casey, one of the most inventive guys in comics.

I know you’re not going to pick up X-FORCE, but would you be tempted to buy it if Marvel published half with a “Rush Limbaugh vs. Michael Moore nude jello wrestling” variant cover by Arthur Suydam? Be careful what you wish for.

For the record, I agree that their solicitation of X-FORCE sounds completely repulsive… almost as bad as the reviews I’ve read for FOOLKILLER. Disgusting trash in en vogue these days. Take a look at the 85,342 zombie books being published by nearly every company for proof.

For that matter, anybody who wants a copy, just email me. You have but to ask and you shall receive. And don’t listen to other Dan or even Rantz. The art’s AWESOME.

Seriously, though, one book that deserves to be mentioned is Richard Moore’s Fire And Brimstone #1 that is solicited through Antarctic Press this month. Moore’s Boneyard series for NBM is just brilliant and highly, HIGHLY underrated. I’ll miss Boneyard during his hiatus from it, but I am really looking forward to the first of his new round of side projects. I hope more people pick it up and discover what a fantastic writer and artist he is.

If you want to know a bit of what I’ve done in comics in the past, Indie Spinner Rack has an interview with me on their current Steve Gerber tribute episode (#115), and in this month’s previews I also have the first issue of Vix! from Shadowline/Image which me writing and Matthew Humphreys doing the art.

and then in July is Comic Book Tattoo, which I’m editing/cat wrangling.

-R

Baker makes this work excellently in a very dramatic story that never seems overly theatrical. The only minor beef I had with it is the few panels that I think used some Photoshop fx, they felt out of place with the ‘analogue’ artwork imo. Those are few and far between and I’d definitely recommend this book though.

Hellboy trades always have extra content. I feel like a sucker getting the single issues.

Maybe it’s just the art, but I’m worried that Charlatan Ball might steal Joe Casey’s Godland mojo. He does do great stuff, so I’ll check it out.

“Displaced Persons on page 156 (4 June) sounds interesting. A family history linked to the twentieth century, taking place in 1939, 1969, and 1999, with strange things happening all over. Derek McCulloch, who wrote the very good Stagger Lee, writes this, and although I’ve never heard of the artist, Rantz A. Hoseley, I’m probably going to check this out.”

I got a preview of this (which skipped around a bunch, so I probably didn’t get a good sense of the narrative), and it didn’t seem great. The art kind of left me cold; it struck me as muddled and unexpressive. Hoseley apparently works in the “game industry” and this is his “first long-form graphic novel” after doing some work in the late 80s. It might be disappointing after Stagger Lee, but maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. I hope I haven’t scared you off, but those are my impressions.

If you like Pixie Sticks, you’ll probably like Barry Ween. I think it’s fairly enjoyable.

Thanks for the mention of Yoshitaka Amano’s Mateki: The Magic Flute. I’m obviously biased but I feel that it 128 pages of really amazing Amano art.

Gianluca Glazer
VP Operations and Marketing
Radical Publishing

Winick was never “non-sucky”

You are, literally, the only person I’ve ever heard from that didn’t like Barry Ween.

You = outvoted.

No problem, Peter. I’m going to order it, so I’ll let everyone know what I think!