Greetings comic book folk! Comics are back to weekly releases so you will now be getting these updates on a regular basis again (and also a sensible number of books each week!)
Oh and everyone gets a promo for Kirkman's new series Fire Power this week!
If the dead could come back for just one night, would you want them to? That's the question asked in Dead Days #1 (Ryan Parrott, Evgeny Bornyakov), while Devil's Highway (Ben Percy, Brent Schoonover) sees a young man trying to track down her father's killers. In a return to their self-created Biblical era Jason Aaron and R. M. Guera present The Goddamned: The Virgin Brides #1, a new five part mini series.
Spy Island (Chelsea Cain, Elise McCall) is a four-issue special limited series by the creative team that brought you Man-Eaters, about a super-spy with what should be the easiest assignment of her life. Except that it's based on an island just on the tip of the infamous Bermuda Triangle...
Ash and Thorn #1 (Mariah McCourt, Soo Lee) features a pair of old ladies trying to save the world from whatever terrible beasts it throws at them, and from the Grimm Univerise there is the Belle vs Black Knight (Dave Franchini, Michael Dooney) one shot. Meanwhile in Rick and Morty Presents Council Of Ricks #1 (Jake Goldman, Philip Murphy) there are a number of counterfeit Ricks on the loose and causing chaos.
Meanwhile it is all getting a little bit Event Horizon over in Rogue Planet #1 (Cullen Bunn, Andy MacDonald) in which the crew of a salvage ship have to take on unknown horrors in order to get the payload of their lives. Speaking of spooky, Sabrina: Something Wicked #1 (Kelly Thompson, Veronica Fish) sees the return of last years fan favourite series that blends the teenage witch with her grown up Netflix counterpart.
The evolution continues in Dawn of X vol. 6 (Jonathan Hickman, Ben Percy, Matteo Buffagni, Joshua Cassara, more) and also from the X-Universe there is Excalibur (Tini Howard, Marcus To) in which a new Captain Britain appears, and gathers a ragtag band of allies.
Often hailed as one of the greatest Batman stories ever told, Batman: Arkham Asylum (Grant Morrison, Dave McKean) is back in a new edition of the classic hardcover, along with a Crisis On Infinite Earths: Paragons Rising (Marc Guggenheim, Marv Wolfman, Tom Derenick, George Perez, others) deluxe hardcover.
If you're feeling nostalgic we have the Aliens Vs Predator 30th Anniversary Original Comic Series (Randy Stradley, Phil Norwood, Chris Warner) collected in one volume, then there is the All-America Comix One Shot (Joe Casey, Sonia Harris, Dustin Nguyen) reuniting a team from fifteen years ago. If you fancy the idea of throwing fireballs at your enemies, check out Fire Power: Prelude (Robert Kirkman, Chris Samnee, Matthew Wilson).
This week also sees the Hellboy and the BPRD: The Beast of Vargu and Others (Mike Mignola, Scott Allie, Duncan Fegredo, Ben Stenbeck, Christopher Mitten, Adam Hughes) hitting the racks, and high fantasy in the form of Isola vol.2 (Brenden Fletcher, Karl Kerschl, Msassyk) and Jim Henson's Labyrinth Coronation (Si Spurrier, Daniel Bayliss) sees the Goblin King long before Sarah appeared on the scene.
Beautiful art and beguiling story are to be found in November: Vol. 2: The Gun In The Puddle (Matt Fraction, Elsa Charretier). Josie Schuller, lead character in Lady Killer library edition (Jamie S. Rich, Joelle Jones) is a picture-perfect homemaker, wife, and mother-but she's also a ruthless assassin! Then there is Life Is Strange vol. 3 (Emma Vieceli, Claudia Leonardi, Andrea Izzo), the latest instalment of the video-game tie-in.
If you are looking for a longer read, Basquiat: A Graphic Novel (Paolo Parisi) tells the story of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat's life, available in English for the first time is Cuisine Chinoise: Tales of Food and Life (Zao Dao), which showcases the wonderful relationship between Chinese folklore and culture and food. Also out this week, and taking aim at hypocrisy, greed, stupidity, and cultural chaos in the age of Trump, Unpresidented (Kieron Dwyer) features a wide range of sharp-witted illustrations lampooning the bizarre course of American politics and culture since the fateful escalator ride of 2015. Fans of political humour and social commentary should not pass this by.
For manga fans we have Blue Flag vol. 1 (Kaito) hitting the shelf, as well as looking at what happens when your dream life becomes a nightmare in Downfall vol. 1 (Inio Asano), and the search for the Ainu gold moves to a harsh new environment in Golden Kamuy vol. 15 (Satoru Noda).
Transformer: Classic TV Manga hardcover vol. 1 (Masumi Kaneda, Ban Magami) hits the shelves this week, as do volumes 15 and 16 of Tokyo Ghoul (Sui Ishida). Pokemon Adventures: Collectors Edition Vol. 1 (Hidenori Kusaka (A/CA) Mato) sees Red take on a challenger he can't fight alone, and Prince Freya (Keiko Ishihara) has a peasant girl take on the role of Prince in order to save her country from descending into war and chaos. Featuring 130 images collected together for the first time is The Art of Junji Ito: Twisted Visions hardcover (Junji Ito), which also features an interview with the artist and commentary on the pieces included.
Like your characters small, yellow and faintly irritating? Then we have the book just for you - Minions: Paella (Stephane Lapuss, Renaud Collin) is the latest instalment of the movie-tie-in series for younger readers.
Let us know if anything needs adding to pull lists ASAP!