And also one suggestion for if you can casually drop $100 on comics
Hello, and welcome to the Marvelous Market. If this is your first time here, welcome. This is the log of comics I, Spike Stonehand, the world’s greatest comic critic, am buying this week. Are you considering buying a new comic book for the first time? It can be overwhelming to know what, out of so many options, is worth buying. Have no fear, and follow my lead.
Don’t Miss This
7174 AD # 1
This is a gut feeling. I don’t really know much about the creators or this project. It is described as an anthology of stories new and old from the team of TP Louise and Ashley Wood, and the little bits and bobs seem fascinating. This cover that clearly has notes like if this was a sketchbook or a thumbnail proposal. The title that promises the sci-fi romp of 2000 AD but, like, more future. Just do me a favor and flip through this at your local comic shop. And if you do, let me know how you liked it in the comics.
What Else I’m Grabbing:
Roxxon Presents: Thor # 1
I Heart Skull-Crusher # 2
Helen of Wyndhorn # 2
Ultimate Black Panther # 3
New Number One Issues
Looking to dive into a new series? Here are some new titles starting this week, alongside their basic premise, that you should check out.
Blow Away # 1
Love Me: A Romance Story # 1
Graphic Novels and Collected Editions
I won’t be reading all, or even most, of these. But, they all struck me as having something interesting or worth your time. See if there is something you like and give one of these collected and full stories a try!
Advocate: A Graphic Memoir of Family, Community, and the Fight for Environmental Justice
Born in Texas to Korean immigrants, Eddie Ahn grew up working at his family’s store with the weighty expectations that their sacrifices would be paid off when he achieved the “American Dream.” Years later after moving to San Francisco and earning a coveted law degree, he rejects a lucrative legal career to enter the nonprofit world. As an environmental justice attorney, he confronts the most immediate issues the country is facing today, from the devastating effects of Californian wildfires to economic inequality, all while combatting burnout and racial prejudice. Eddie also reaches a hand back to his parents, showing them the value of a life of service.
The Agency
Skelly’s psychedelic sex romp originally appeared on the web (2014–2107) and was collected in a limited paperback edition — this is a newly expanded hardcover version, featuring an all-new story! In The Agency, Skelly’s agents gather intelligence, meticulously documenting a universe of sass photography, fascist surgery, horny skeletons, yonic portals, thrill-seeking vegetation, and multitudinous wry glances and stammered phrases!
In Perpetuity
The Afterlife is just as the ancient Greeks imagined: an endless twilight where time stands still in perpetuity. For Jim, that means long shifts at a gas station. One day, two criminal shades from Jim’s past track him down for the ability to cross back into the living world. Jim weaves back and forth between the Afterlife and Los Angeles, desperately trying to evade the criminals’ plot, pulled into a web of deceit and murder that reaches across both L.A. and the A.L., and ultimately to Hades himself.
Jurassic League
You know the story: an infant escapes a far-off planet before it explodes and is deposited on Earth to be raised by human parents. A goddess from a lost city defends truth. A Tyrannosaurus rex dons the visage of a bat to strike fear into evildoers’ hearts. This heroic trinity, alongside a league of other super-powered dinosaurs, join forces to save a prehistoric Earth from the sinister machinations of Darkseid. Wait…what? Okay, maybe you don’t know the story. So join us and bear witness to a brand-new—yet older than time—adventure and experience the Justice League as you have never seen them before!
In Perpetuity
Shell Collection is a compendium of comics and drawings from the first 75 issues of Ron Regé, Jr.’s minicomics series, The Shell of the Self of the Senses. In 2016, Regé began this monthly, subscription only series, with circa 100 copies or so published from month to month, in an effort to return to his 1990s self-publishing roots.
Wild’s End Beyond the Sea
Return to a once-familiar world, now occupied by alien invaders! Skipper, Flo, Roddy, Howie, Stevie, and Eddie–our cast of anthropomorphic sailors– are home from their time at sea to face aliens unlike anything seen before! The crew of The Merry Beet hide from the horrors around them, while the familiar and mundane become weapons of terror. They discover a terrifying plan is in the works, and if they can’t put a stop to it, everyone they know will face a fate worse than death… The award-winning creative team of Dan Abnett & I.N.J. Culbard spin a tale of friendship and perseverance in alien-occupied interwar England
If you have $100 to casually drop on comic books
So this was apparently a toy license that actually became relevant to the ongoing Marvel plot? I’ve never read Micronauts or played with the toys. But, I’ve been told by many that this collected edition was one of their Holy Grails of comics. So, if you were a child of the ’80s that now is over 40 years old and dropping c-notes on comic book adaptations of children’s toys, today is your lucky day!
What did I miss?
If there are some great comics, collected or in single issues, that you think I should be reading, tell me about them! And if you do try out any of these series, let me know how you liked them, or didn’t. This is a safe space for haters.
Self-Promotion
If you like the writing I do, thank you! Check out my back catalogue and consider giving me a tip. It will help cover the website costs and also help me buy more comics to write about. You can also buy copies of Divining Comics # 1 print and digital, Divining Comics # 2 print and digital, and Divining Comics # 3 print and digital. The digital versions includes over 75 pages of FREE readable and printable pdfs, so you can print copies yourself and share with all of your friends. Friends don’t let friends go without the best comic book criticism on the web, written accessibly to someone without comics knowledge but in depth enough for an expert to gain insight. I appreciate your support!
If you haven’t already, consider supporting this work at ko-fi.com/spikestonehand. There, you can leave a tip or buy Zine versions of these articles. Doing this helps keep the website going. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky.
Divining Comics 
Leave a comment