Forward Thinking: Image Comics for June 2006

What's that? Image Comics solicitations for June 2006 came out a week ago? Balderdash! As far as Michael May and Kevin Melrose are concerned, they were just released. Yes, just now.

THE WALKING DEAD, BOOK 1 HARDCOVER

Kevin: In December, we saw the Deluxe Volume 1 hardcover, collecting the first 24 issues of the survivalist-zombie series. Now Kirkman & Co. offer a smaller, more affordable volume with the first 12 issues. For the die-hard Walking Dead fan, there's a limited, signed-and-numbered edition for $59.99. I like the cover, all black and white with splashes of red.

CASANOVA #1

Kevin: Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba follow in the footsteps of Fell with Casanova, a sci-fi/espionage series that breaks away from the usual $2.99 price point. Just $1.99! I've been looking forward to this one.

Michael: Yeah. I would've bought Fell for $3, but I'm good and in love with the format now, so it's going to be very interesting to see if it can be duplicated. And then duplicated again and again. I'd love for this to be the start of a revolution.

THE CRYPTICS

Kevin: I absolutely love Ben Roman's cute-but-troubling I Luv Halloween, so I'm happy to see the artist teaming with Steve Niles on this one-shot. The concept -- classic monsters as suburban kids -- doesn't do much for me, but I'll pick it up for Roman's art. Maybe the story will surprise me.

Michael: I agree about Roman's art. His designs on these characters make me want to jump up and down and clap my hands in glee, but no one needs to see that. I'm totally biased when it comes to Steve Niles, so I expect to like the story too.

PAUL JENKINS' SIDEKICK #1 (of 5)

Michael: I loved Chris Moreno's stuff on Monkey in a Wagon vs. Lemur on a Big Wheel. Superhero comedy isn't my bag, but I'll check this out for Moreno.

UMBRA #1 (of 3)

Kevin: I took note of this miniseries after reading the Newsarama interview with creators Steve Murphy and Mike Hawthorne. It's a police procedural, set in Iceland, with promises of strange skeletons and general weirdness. What more can you ask for? Oh, yeah, 52 pages.

Michael: I've got some friends with anxiety disorders (and some others with drinking problems, but that's a whole 'nother thing), so I'm curious to see how that's portrayed and how it affects this story. Hmm. Come to think of it, I've got friends from Iceland too. I'm just full of personal connections to this book.

THE AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS, VOL. 2, AND FEAR AGENT, VOL. 1, TRADE PAPERBACKS

Kevin: The first volume of Mark Smith and Dan Hipp's Amazing Joy Buzzards was loads of fun but, for some reason, I didn't return for the second miniseries. I also missed the boat on Rick Remender and Tony's Moore's Fear Agent, which gets its first collection this month. Now's my chance to play catch-up.

Michael: Fear Agent is running late, which makes me skeptical about the tpb coming out on time, but it's worth picking up once it does. It's pulpy sci-fi with heart.

THE RED DIARIES TP

Michael: This is how not to write solicitation copy. It's all concept and nothing else. Yeah, the idea of Marilyn Monroe's having secret diaries that blow the whistle on the whole JFK/Cuban Missile Crisis thing is a good one. But tell me something about who the leaking of those diaries affects. Not a single character from the story is mentioned here.

Kevin: Good-bye, Norma Jean.