Publishers

While you may be in full-on holiday panic mode, there's always spring...and Halloween. Next spring's Courtney Crumrin, Volume 1: The Night Things, Special Edition will see the sardonic young monster-hunter in color for the first time. Ted Naifeh's all ages gothic waif is one of the first -- and the best -- of this sub-genre of comics, and it looks great in color by Warren Wucinich.

Publisher of the Year candidate Drawn & Quarterly has finally broken the seal on literary comics going digital with a two book deal with Kobo Vox which will see Chester Brown's LOUIS RIEL and PAYING FOR IT released. According to associate publisher Peggy Burns, the deal is non-exclusive, and next year will see more titles and platforms for D&Q. Literary comics publishers Fantagraphics and D&Q are along the last holdouts among publishers going digital -- partially due to their authors' ambivalence (or dislike) of the platform -- so even this tiny toe-dipping into the digital world represents a big step forward. In this case, Chester Brown actually encouraged the move -- and it doesn't hurt that Kobo is, like D&Q, a Canadian company.

Image Publisher Eric Stephenson gives another one of his candid, informed reviews -- one of the bonuses from Image's solidified spot as the #3 publisher is Stephenson's increased profile. And even though Image is riding the Walking Dead Wave to increased performance all around, there is always room for improvement, he says, with a new issue of CHEW unavailable from Diamond a week after release and limited support for all-ages material:

Looking for a last minute giftable? B&N is selling The Walking Dead Compendium, Volume 1 for $29.99 -- half of the regular $59.99 price -- but only until 2:59 am December 20th, so don't dawdle. At 1088 pages, this collection of the first 48 issues of THE WALKING DEAD have proven a great entry point into the world of Rick Grimes vs the Zombies -- even at that price it's a consistent bestseller.

Amazon has the deets on GET JIRO!, the graphic novel brainstormed by master chef Anthony Bourdain, co-written with Joel Rose and drawn by Langdon Foss. it sounds a little like our dream of an American version of IRON WOK JAN has finally come true.

With the March (issue 7) solicitations out, we have a little better idea of what the first round of changes for the New 52/DCnU are. Some of these departures are thought to be the writer choosing to leave (Simone, Brandon) and some appear to be the writer getting the quick hook (Cornell, Gates). When these change decisions were made, there has been history of collected edition sale and it may be a little early to judge digital sales. (Do we know what happens to sales when the titles drop to $1.99? This is new enough, you'd really like to see more than 2-3 months of digital sales before trusting it.)

Don MacPherson gathers the evidence "for".

These are being removed left and right -- but luckily the trailer will be officially released on Tuesday. Until then we'll have to make do with these handheld versions.

"Top Shelf", indeed! Next year will see some amazing titles, and this year, there's fun stuff, as well as some quality reads. What caught your eye?

Lots of interesting stuff from Image! Some are all ages (so read them before you give them to a child, just to make sure they are age-appropriate!), some are "mature reader" (MR).

Comics from Europe! The latest offerings from Cinebook and Humanoids! Darwin! Mœbius! Milo Manara's Golden Ass! Zombies! John the Baptist!

Marvel is expanding its new reader-friendly line of graphic novels with some strong creative teams and some characters who seem to be ripe for Hollywood development.