Good morning, Carol and John’s Shoppers! Summer is in full swing and it’s gonna be a HOT one today. What better way to cool down than to stop by, enjoy our air conditioning, and check out the great new comics we have this week. There are a lot of options this week, especially for anybody looking to check out some new small press, so let’s see what’s good.

Small Press

We at the shop have been waiting for this one for a few months now since it was first announced; new from shop favorite Daniel Warren Johnson, it’s Do A Powerbomb! Perfect for fans of pro-wrestling, and even for non-fans alike, Powerbomb is The Wrestler meets Dragon Ball Z. The story follows Lona in her efforts to fill in the boots of her mother, Yua Steelrose, who many regard as the best there ever was. But Lona will get wrapped up in a mysterious wrestling tournament, hosted by a necromancer, and will have to prove her mettle against the most dangerous wrestlers she could possibly imagine. You may recognize Daniel Warren Johnson from titles like Wonder Woman: Dead Earth (awesome!) and Beta Ray Bill (just as awesome!), but his indie titles like Murder Falcon and Extremity are where DWJ really gets to let loose. Do A Powerbomb is the next big passion project from DWJ and the next big Image title you won’t want to miss out on.

“From the creative team of Gideon Falls and Primordial comes the first book in a bold and ambitious new shared horror universe! When a geologist is sent to a remote lighthouse to investigate strange phenomena, he finds a seemingly endless pit in the rocks. But what lurks within and how will he escape its pull? The Passageway is the first of a dozen new interconnected projects making up The Bone Orchard Mythos from Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino!” This creative team is one of the best in comics today, rivaling even the great Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. It’s fitting that they get their own line of original graphic novels just like the latter, and it all starts this week.

Artist Jae Lee is back with his first small press title since 1994 in this lofty seven-issue miniseries Seven Sons. “Delph, a young man who may be the Second Coming of Christ, runs for his life as he attempts to learn the truth behind his existence.” The elevator pitch for this one is The Fugitive meets the Book of Revelation. Seven identical twins are born from seven different virgin mothers on every one of the seven continents, and all but one are brutally killed. But one of those six dead might have just returned. Jae Lee’s artwork is astounding as always, and there’s an intriguing story being developed. I’m excited to learn more about this new world in Seven Sons.

“Mitchell Moss is about as regular as it gets. He’s married with two children and co-owns a successful chain of Memphis Hot Chicken restaurants. It’s not the life that screams hero/vigilante… until he discovers that his business partner is in bed with the mob and owes them $2 million. Unfortunately, Mitch is ill-equipped to be a badass – he’s just a guy who makes really good chicken. Can he protect his family from cold-blooded gangsters? Absolutely not. But maybe the Chicken Devil can…” This four-issue series from Aftershock was REALLY GOOD and not a lot of people read it when it was coming out in single issues. There are some really neat twists and turns in this series, plenty I wasn’t expecting, and has a wild ending. Hopefully, there is more to come, but this is an awesome trade paperback on its own. Maybe if we sell enough, they’ll fast-track a volume 2… BUY IT.

Marvel Comics

“The twentieth century was a draw. The twenty-first will be played for keeps.” Spinning out of the events of Captain America #0, Steve Rogers Cap is back in his own series with Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty. Cap’s shield is one of the most iconic symbols, not just in the Marvel Universe, but in our universe too. But there’s a secret behind the shield that will change everything. This is definitely Steve’s book, with Bucky playing a role, and a nice Dimension Z shoutout as well. This is the start of a new and exciting Captain America run, written by the team behind the latest Kang miniseries and drawn by Marvel Stormbreaker Carmen Carnero.

DC Comics

Chip Zdarsky seems to have been killing it on every title he’s been working on recently, and finally, one of his first forays into the DC Universe is collected in the Justice League: Last Ride TP out this week. After a great tragedy, the Justice League is broken and scattered, with the Trinity of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman no longer speaking, let alone working together. But with the galaxy’s biggest murder trial set to begin, an even greater threat looms that could destroy everything. This was a great seven-issue miniseries written by Zdarsky that seems to just be the beginning of things for Chip at DC. Similarly, to Chicken Devil from Aftershock, this series flew under the radar for a lot of folks, so now’s the time to check out this underrated series in full. Justice League fans will love it, this is how the movie should’ve been.

Comic fans are feeling the Sandman hype after the release of the trailer just last week, and the awesome Sandman back issue collection we got in at the shop too (good timing!). While Neil Gaiman’s Sandman wrapped up years ago, in the pages of Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country written by James Tynion IV and drawn by the wicked Lisandro Estherren, the dream lives on. This series has been great, as is typical from Tynion these days, with some creepy and terrifying characters and things going on in this book. This week sees issue #3 come out, and if you haven’t given this series a shot yet, we have copies of #1 and #2 back in stock as well. I don’t know anything about Sandman, but I’m still really digging this new series, and I think you will too.

That’s just a sampling of what’s new and good in the shop this week. Take it easy this week, we hope to see you around.