Previews

Warren Ellis is having a crack at reimagining the Project Superpowers universe, and Blackcross #1 hits in March. We've had an advance peek and it's not what might be expected, with a strong horror bent. Here's some brand new pages of Colton Worley's art to give you a taste, as well as variant covers by Jae Lee, Declan Shalvey and Tula Lotay.

Speaking of AdHouse, a second printing of Jim Rugg's classic Street Angel is out today, the story of a homeless girl who fights crime while riding around on her skateboard. It was action packed, sad and beautiful. Originally appearing in 2004, this book was, along with Scott Pilgrim, an early adapter of the "new mainstream" esthetic whereby comics broke out of both superhero and autobiographical tropes to reach a new, younger audience growing out of the manga boom. Originally published by Slave Labor the book had a cult following beforei being released by AdHouse last year. And now its in its second printing. Rachel Edidin has an overview of the book here. The new edition has a pink pages and purple ink, making it perhaps the most perfect Street Angel edition of all. And just because I can here's a preview:

CCS just keeps turning out interesting new cartoonists. Sophie Goldstein is a recent grad whose works defies easy categorization, except to say that she's got a great line and a keen eye, she writes stories and anything can happen. And now AdHouse is bringing out The Oven by Goldstein in April. It's set in a totalitarian future where "dwindling resources have driven the human race into domed cities where population controls are strictly enforced. When a young couple goes looking for an anti-government paradise in the desert they may have found more than they bargained for."

By Davey Nieves As Aspen Comics announced towards the end of last year the Fathom universe’s anti-hero Kiani would get a new volume in her...

One of the more offbeat titles of the Image Renaissance. THE HUMANS by Keenan Marshall Keller (Galactic Breakdown) and artist Tom Neely (Henry and Glenn Forever) will be collected in March at the popular $9.99 price point. Set in 1070 Bakersfield, it's about a gang of bikers who are...apes. It's biker exploitation action as you like with added MONKEYS.

As you may recall, several new lady members of the Spider-verse awe swinging your way in the coming days. One of them is Cindy Moon, a young woman who was bitten by the same spider that bit Peter Parker! Wow can you believe that happened!!! She was hidden away fro years but now her powers are on display and has her own comic book, by Robbie Thompson and Stacey Lee with variant covers by Dave Johnson, Lee and Scottie Young

If nothing else, Archaia's new horror series Plunder has the best named team in comics, Swifty Lang and Skuds McKinley. "Hey have you seen Skuds and Swifty?" is what everyone will be saying at Comic-Con 2015. The book arrives in February, and offers us a tale reminiscent of both Captain Phillips and The Thing.

Eric Heisserer aims to tell a tale in the tradition of Arthurian legends and Star Wars. With artwork by Felipe Massafera (Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors, Captain Midnight), Shaper looks to carve a niche for itself in the rich tapestry of sci-fi adventure.

Valiant has their own plans to build on their popular Valiant Next initiative

This preview of the new Richard Corben book from Dark Horse came in my email yesterday to promote the FOC of the book—the last day that retailers can adjust orders. So I missed posting it when it would do any good (I was in meetings and on deadline yesterday). But perhaps consumers will be interested as well! Corben is a powerhouse of the first wave of self-publishing and "ground level" publishing in the 80s, and he's still rocking out with the art.

Yep it's part three of our annual look at the year coming and going. My trip to Angouleme in 2014 enabled me to add more international participants to the survey, so look for some perspective the global comics business and even a wee Joann Sfar preview in the answers below. Part One and Part Two of the survey can be found here.

At the summer Image Expo one of the most notable announcements was Tooth and Claw by Kurt Busiek and Ben Dewey. Not only did it mark the return of Busiek with a new comic for the first time in years, but Dewey's art looked amazing. The story involves high fantasy, with animal protagonists and Game of Thrones level intrigue. The first issue is on sale today in a bargain format: just $2.99 for 40 pages of story. As you can see from the preview pagesk, this is one spectacular comic. One of the best things comics do is world-building and this looks to be a strong examples of that by Busiek and Dewey.