Don’t Ask! Just Buy It! – June 29, 2011: You Know What They Say About Comedy

Reading Comics author Douglas Wolk runs down the hottest comics and graphic novels coming out this week.

KEY:

* I experience time differently than you do

^ Our story is structurally complex

% And now we fly south

* ^ BATMAN INC. #7

The stop-and-start pace is really starting to be a problem, and I'm going to be surprised if the last three issues actually manage to show up by two months from now. But hey: here's what appears to be the Grant Morrison/Chris Burnham issue initially solicited as #6, with Man-of-Bats and Raven (well, the solicitation said "Red Raven," but maybe someone realized Marvel's got a character by that name). Or maybe it'll end up involving Batman getting a kitten down from a tree instead. Also out this week: a collection of the MorrisonBats spinoff miniseries Knight and Squire, by Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton, which starts out as an affectionate satire of there'll-always-be-an-England culture and gradually curdles into something grimmer.

* INCREDIBLE HULK & THE HUMAN TORCH: FROM THE MARVEL VAULT #1

Jack C. Harris, Karl Kesel and... Steve Ditko? Yes, Steve Ditko. Apparently this Ditko-drawn story has been sitting around unpublished for 30 years now. Kesel also contributes a new framing sequence to Captain America Rebirth #1, which is otherwise reprints of some Stan Lee/Jack Kirby reprints from Tales of Suspense, and is not to be confused with Captain America Reborn.

* ^ LUCILLE

I keep hearing good things about Ludovic Debeurme's big, ambitious graphic novel about Young People with Problems and Hurt Feelings, but have not yet read it. Fun for Francophiles!

* ^ % SIMPSONS SUPER SPECTACULAR #13

Apparently this is a Watchmen parody. I am always, always a sucker for Watchmen parodies. This reminds me, as Comic-Con season is coming up: remember when the Comic-Con registration bag in 2009 has a Mad one-off with a Watchmen parody in it? As far as I know, that thing never appeared in print otherwise, it's drawn by Glenn Fabry, and it's pretty good--have a look.

* % ULTIMATE COMICS X #5

Jeph Loeb and Arthur Adams. They still publish this?

% XOMBI #4

John Rozum and Frazer Irving came up with one of the sharpest, most distinctive-looking superhero comics to have debuted in ages, and... apparently it's a very limited series now, thanks to the DC reboot. Sigh. Whatever happened to the days when Mysterious Suspense or S.W.O.R.D. got four or five years of nonstop commercial support to gradually build up a fan following? Oh wait.