On The Shelves: 03/14/07, by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Reprinted courtesy of Comic Book Commentary.

Reading is fundamental. Read what you like; don’t waste your time reading bad comics out of habit!

My weekly look at select comic books being released Wednesday, 3/14/07. The full shipping list, as always, is available at ComicList.

[NOTE: Not all of these titles will actually arrive in all stores. If your LCBS offers a pre-ordering service, be sure to take advantage of it. If not, find another one; or try Khepri.com or MidtownComics.com]

PICK OF THE WEEK

Death Comes to Dillinger TPB (Silent Devil)

BOOM! STUDIOS
Tag Cursed Cvr A #2 (Of 5), $3.99

The first go-round was a solid read, but not so much to keep me from waiting for the trade on this one. But does Boom! publish TPBs? Seems they announced a book distribution deal with Perseus (not Diamond!) at WonderCon, so it would appear they’re in their plans, which is a very good thing.

DARK HORSE COMICS
BPRD Garden Of Souls #1 (Of 5), $2.99
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #1, $2.99

While the concept certainly is appealing, the little bit I’ve read of Hellboy has never really grabbed me, but I might give BPRD a try. There’s a brief interview with Mike Mignola in the latest Back Issue (#21: “The Devil You Say Issue!”) that helped pique my interest a bit. *** Buffy, on the other hand, has never appealed to me and I was apparently one of three people not blown away by Whedon’s first arc on Astonishing X-Men. Different strokes, I guess.

DC COMICS
Fables #58, $2.99
Robin #160, $2.99
Teen Titans #44, $2.99

It’s sad how few DC titles I buy these days, but Infinite Crisis and OYL helped pare down my pull list quite a bit. I’m reading Fables in trade, but there’s only one left before I’m caught up and I’m getting antsy! *** Adam Beechen’s run on Robin has been entertaining, as I particularly enjoy his take on the character, in and out of costume, and the supporting cast he’s been developing around him. The overall tone just feels right, with a solid balance of humor and action, and Williams III’s art complements it nicely, particularly with his ability to make teenagers look like teenagers. I’m really looking forward to his taking over Teen Titans from the overextended Geoff Johns.

MARVEL COMICS
Moon Knight #8 CW, $2.99

Is Civil War over yet? Is it safe to come out of hiding? I pretty much chose the third side, isolationism, and skipped as much of Millar’s hamfisted storyline as possible, so was particularly annoyed when it bled over into Moon Knight, however superficially. The good news is it stops with this issue, as does David Finch’s overwrought artwork. Hopefully Charlie Huston can move the character forward now that he’s firmly reestablished in the Marvel Universe, though the post-SHRA setting might prove a bit difficult for the vengeful vigilante.

SILENT DEVIL PRODUCTIONS
Death Comes To Dillinger Coll Ed, $6.99

I missed the final issue of this 2-part story, but the first one, which I loved, was only $2.99, so there better be a lot of extras to justify the additonal $1 for this collected edition. Especially since I noted in my review of the first issue that “it would have made more sense to release it as a giant-sized one-shot.”

Magazines
Back Issue #21, $6.95
Geek Monthly #3, $5.99

Back Issue’s “The Devil You Say Issue!” features articles and interviews on Daredevil, Hellboy, Blue Devil, the never-released Fallen Angels 2, Devil Dinosaur and much more. Michael Eury’s nostaglia fest is my favorite magazine about comics. *** The last issue of Geek Monthly, with Veronica Mars on the cover, simply didn’t have enough of its own personality to stand out in the crowd of general interest magazines. It felt like some of the shows on G4, generic, well-intentioned but quite ready for prime-time.