Yes, I am looking forward to Seven Soldiers Zatanna 1. Why do you ask? I’ve been enjoying these books so far, but this is the first one where I’m already fond of the lead character. I’ve liked Z since she joined the Justice League way back in the 160s. (That costume with the elf boots and the ponytail, though… honestly. DC had a chance to feature two fishnets-wearing heroines in one book and they biffed it.) I had a lot of fun catching up with some of her early appearances in JLA: Zatanna’s Search. And one of my favorite comics has to be Paul Dini’s Zatanna: Everyday Magic. For previews of Ryan Sook’s lovely art, click here.
All in all, it’s shaping up to be a nice week at the comics shop, with a good mix of material. (For my tastes, at least.)
I’ll probably get the second half of DC The New Frontier at some point. I liked the first, though I don’t feel any particular urgency to finish it. Still, it’s on the “to buy sometime” list.
The Comics Journal 267 arrives with a look at the late, great Will Eisner.
Dan Slott and Paul Pelletier join forces to ruthlessly mock the Marvel Universe (I hope) in the first issue of G.L.A. (Preview pages here.) After She-Hulk and Spider-Man/Human Torch, I’ll try pretty much anything Dan Slott writes.
At long last, the second half of “Kindaichi the Killer” (Kindaichi Case Files Vol. 11) arrives from Tokyopop.
In other news, The Comics Shrew made an excellent point in the comments section of a recent posting about Manhunter:
“DC is stacking the deck against the title by not releasing a trade until September/October 2005, closer to when a second collection should have been due. I’ve said elsewhere: considering how many of the recent crop of new titles — Bloodhound, the Monolith, Firestorm, etc. — are failing or have fallen, perhaps DC should do with the main imprint what they do with Vertigo and Wildstorm and issue taster-sized trades of the first arc. I’ve gotten several folks into Books of Magick and Ex Machina that way.”
I can’t argue with the wisdom of that. I felt the same way when Marvel took so long to put out a She-Hulk trade, when the book’s one- and two-issue arcs would have made it easy to put out a collection quickly and take advantage of critical buzz. Loss leaders, people. They make sense.