Al Williamson has died

The comics industry lost another legend this past weekend. Artist Al Williamson passed away at the age of 79. Crave Online has posted a short overview of his career.

Recommended Picks for June 9, 2010

Hot Pick!
Batman #700
DC Comics
(W) Grant Morrison
(A) Tony Daniel, Andy Kubert & Frank Quitely
Cover by David Finch

Grant Morrison returns to Batman with this oversized special! And he’s brought an all-star roster of artists along with him including Andy Kubert, Tony Daniel and Frank Quitely to celebrate this milestone 700th issue featuring stories spotlighting each of the Batmen from different eras – Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne. You won’t want to miss this blockbuster story that paves the way for the return of Bruce Wayne and sports mind-boggling covers by superstars David Finch (Brightest Day) and Mike Mignola (Batman: Gotham By Gaslight, Hellboy).

FC $4.99

Recommended Pick!
Hellboy Volume 10: The Crooked Man and Others TPB
Dark Horse Comics
(W) Mike Mignola, Joshua Dysart
(A) Richard Corben, Jason Shawn Alexander, Duncan Fegredo

The Eisner Award-winning miniseries The Crooked Man, by Mignola and Richard Corben, teams Hellboy with a wandering hillman in a devilish tale of Appalachian witchcraft. This volume also includes the rare “They Who Go Down to the Sea in Ships” by Mignola, Josh Dysart (B.P.R.D.: 1947), and Jason Shawn Alexander (Abe Sapien: The Drowning), never before available for purchase; Mignola and Duncan Fegredo’s “The Mole,” from Free Comic Book Day 2008; and Mignola’s most recent solo outing, “In the Chapel of Moloch.”

FC, 160 pages, $17.99

Comics shipping June 9, 2010

PREVIEWSworld.com New Releases

Shipping This Week: 6/9/2010

Every Monday, PREVIEWSworld.com provides a list of comics, graphic novels and other pop-culture merchandise arriving this week to your local comic shop.

Please check with your retailer for availability, as not all new releases may be on sale in all areas at the same time.

DARK HORSE COMICS

NOV090041 BLACKSAD HC VOL 01 $29.99
APR100057 BUZZARD #1 (OF 3) CORBEN CVR $3.50
APR100056 BUZZARD #1 (OF 3) ERIC POWELL CVR $3.50
FEB100014 CHRONICLES OF CONAN TP VOL 19 DEATHMARK $17.99
FEB100044 HELLBOY TP VOL 10 CROOKED MAN & OTHERS $17.99
FEB100024 MASS EFFECT REDEMPTION TP $16.99
NOV090063 OKIMONO KIMONO HC $12.99
APR100009 PREDATORS #1 (OF 4) $2.99
FEB100016 SOLOMON KANE DEATHS BLACK RIDERS #4 (OF 4) $3.50

DC COMICS

APR100170 BATGIRL #11 $2.99
APR100131 BATMAN #700 (NOTE PRICE) $4.99

New Scott Pilgrim Trailer

Friday News Bits: Friday June 4, 2010

• Marvel has released some concept art for the Thor movie.
• A new TV commercial spotlighting the best-selling comic book series FABLES began running over the Memorial Day weekend on BBC America! You can watch the commercial at the Vertigo Graphic Content blog at http://vertigo.blog.dccomics.com/2010/06/01/fables-tv-commercial-see-it-here/.
• AMC has released new Walking Dead pics and videos on their Walking Dead blog.
• According to ICv2 there’s some new casting for both Captain America and The Avengers movie. Hawkeye and Dum Dum have been cast.
• Apparently Frank Miller has started working on a 300 prequel Xerxes.

Spiel des Jahres Nominees

Like board games? The Spiel des Jahres nominees have been announced. This is a prestigious international award for excellence in game design.  The nominees for this year’s award were announced on May 31. The games are:

- Dixit, a humourous bluffing party game.
- Identik, a party drawing game.
- A La Carte, about French chefs creating random dishes.
- Roll Through the Ages, The Dice Game, a dice-game about building Bronze-age civilizations.
- Fresco, in which the players are artists competing to finish the ceiling of a Renaissance cathedral.

Recommended Picks for June 2, 2010

Hot Pick!
Avengers Prime #1
Marvel Comics
(W) Brian Michael Bendis
(A/Cover) Alan Davis
Variant Cover by Marko Djurdjevic

The Heroic Age Is Here!

They were friends, brothers and teammates through all of Marvel’s greatest adventures, but recent events turned them into the bitterest of enemies. In the wake of the Siege of Asgard, Thor, Iron Man and Steve Rogers are brought together on the same side once more — but these great heroes can’t truly trust each other yet. They better start soon because something only the Big Three can handle is tearing their world apart. This all-new, grand and dangerous adventure will catapult our heroes into the explosive Heroic Age and will unite comics legend Alan Davis with Avengers scribe Brian Bendis for the very first time.

FC $3.99

Recommended Pick!
DMZ VOL. 8: HEARTS AND MINDS
Written by BRIAN WOOD
Art by RICCARDO BURCHIELLI & RYAN KELLY
Cover by BRIAN WOOD

Matty Roth redefines his role in the DMZ, rolling with a private security force and self-defined mandate to heal the city. But is this the start of a brand-new day – or will this “Rise of Matty” end with the fall of just another petty warlord? Collects DMZ #42-49!

FC 192pg. $16.99 US

Comics shipping June 2, 2010

PREVIEWSworld.com New Releases

Shipping This Week: 6/2/2010

Every Monday, PREVIEWSworld.com provides a list of comics, graphic novels and other pop-culture merchandise arriving this week to your local comic shop.

Please check with your retailer for availability, as not all new releases may be on sale in all areas at the same time.

PREVIEWS PUBLICATIONS
APR101681 GAME TRADE MAGAZINE #124 PI

DARK HORSE COMICS

FEB100015 CONAN THE CIMMERIAN #21 KOZAKI PT 3 (OF 3) $2.99
FEB100013 CONAN TP VOL 08 BLACK COLOSSUS $17.99
FEB100041 JET SCOTT GN VOL 02 $34.99
JAN100176 MADE WITH 90% RECYCLED ART TP $10.99
APR100027 SERENITY FLOAT OUT ONE SHOT #1 FRANK STOCKTON CVR $3.50
APR100026 SERENITY FLOAT OUT ONE SHOT #1 JO CHEN CVR $3.50
FEB100063 STAR WARS LONG TIME AGO OMNIBUS TP VOL 01 $24.99

Secret Avengers #1

Secret Avengers #1
Marvel Comics
(w) Ed Brubaker
(a) Mike Deodato
FC 32 pgs w/ ads $3.99 US / Higher In Canada

The second of Marvel’s relaunched Avenger titles debuted this week. Ed Brubaker is tackling this title instead of Brian Michael Bendis (who writes almost all the flagship Avenger titles) or even Dan Slott who was writing The Mighty Avengers before the new Heroic Age began. It seems like an odd but welcome choice.

This team of Avengers is run by Steve (formally Captain America) Rogers who is now running S.H.I.E.L.D. / H.A.M.M.E.R. or whatever they’re calling it now. Steve has put together a team of Avengers to covertly tackle various problems before they become problems. The team, it seems, will be a rotating cast of heroes depending on the mission but for starters the team is Steve, Black Widow, Valkyrie, Beast, Moon Knight, War Machine, The Irredeemable Ant Man and Nova. Ant Man seems like an odd choice considering he was just on the Thunderbolts but he kind of works here, especially given the covert mission statement.

Rogers’ organization has discovered that another Serpent Crown has been found and it’s currently in the hands of the evil corporation R.O.X.X.O.N. It’s funny how these evil corporations in comics are always dealing with things like evil magic crowns or cubes but they never seem to do something really evil like dump gillions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. I’m just saying. Apparently R.O.X.X.O.N. found the crown on Mars and there seems to trouble brewing there.

This was a pretty good first issue. I like the idea of the team but I’m always wary of Brubaker handling super-hero team books. I was never all that enthralled with his run on X-Men. Brubaker has always better with more down to Earth super-heroics (Daredevil, Captain America, I’d love to see him tackle the Punisher) but this series is intriguing enough that it might work in his favour. (Shane Hnetka)