Good morning, Carol and John’s Shoppers! We’ve got another exciting week of comics, with some big events going on in Marvel, some great storytelling from DC, and some fresh new things in small press. Let’s kick things off.

Marvel Comics

The next big Marvel crossover begins! “First shot fired – Judgment is coming! The Eternals know that the mutants have conquered death. But what are they going to do about it? The oldest immortals on Earth eye up the newest, and the doomsday clock starts to tick toward Judgment Day.” Written by Eternals and Immortal X-Men scribe Kieron Gillen, the news is out that mutants have learned to cheat death and resurrect themselves on Krakoa. It’s rubbed a lot of people in the Marvel Universe the wrong way, but especially the Eternals: immortality is kind of their shtick. A.X.E. Judgement Day officially kicks off next week with #1, but this week’s Eve of Judgement serves as the zero issue. Check out the trailer below for the epic crossover event.

Last year’s inaugural Hellfire Gala event in the pages of X-Men was such a hit that they’re doing another, this time in an oversized one-shot! A new X-Men team is revealed, but there’s also plenty of controversy surrounding this year’s event with the news of the X-Men’s immortality making the front page of the Daily Bugle. Both allies and enemies will have eyes on this year’s Hellfire Gala, serving as the perfect reunion for all the mutants and a great setup for what’s to come.

“An all-new era of Daredevil starts here! After the shocking events of Devil’s Reign, what is left of Daredevil? Who lived, who died, and who is left to pick up the pieces? Chip Zdarsky and his superstar collaborator Marco Checchetto turn their gaze to a future full of peril and pain, in this – the explosive beginning of an all-new era for Hell’s Kitchen’s guardian devil, and the most important Daredevil issue of the year (until next month)!” Zdarsky and Checchetto’s Daredevil run has been one of the most celebrated Marvel series of the past couple of years, and with this new #1 relaunch, there’s no better time to jump aboard.

Everyone’s favorite new Star Wars character makes his comic debut; Din Djarin, the Mandalorian! New this week, Marvel is releasing the comics adaption of the hit Disney+ series with Star Wars: The Mandalorian #1. Relive the hit series in comic form, or experience it for the first time. “But hasn’t everyone watched the show by now,” you say? I don’t think it’s the biggest shop secret that I’m pretty far behind on all the Star Wars and Marvel shows, in that I haven’t seen any of them. I ain’t got time for all that. But now I can read the series, and you can too.

DC Comics

The Justice League is dead! Or are they? Needing the power to fuel his deadly machinations, Pariah has imprisoned the essence of each JL member on custom-made worlds using his dark powers. On this world, and in the first of several Dark Crisis: Worlds Without a Justice League one-shots, Clark and Jonathan Kent will experience a strange new reality where the Justice League never existed. And in a heartwarming twist, Clark will get the chance to watch Jonathan grow up. Written by Tom King (cool) and drawn by Chris Burnham (super cool!), this one-shot is arguably the best issue this week. There are a lot of reasons to pick up this issue, but they had me at Chris Burnham on art. Just ask me about his work on Nameless with Grant Morrison next time you’re in the shop.

John Shearer and Ben have been singing DC Vs. Vampires’ praises, but now all of you and I can get caught up if we weren’t already. DC has been doing reprint collections for current series like Batman Beyond the White Knight, Dark Knights of Steel, and Batman: The Knight, and this week they’ve split DCVV into two with Coffin and Crypt Editions collecting issues #1-3 and #4-6 respectively. Why they didn’t just do a single trade paperback, I do not know, but we’ve got these two great horror movie homage covers instead. The series just came back with issue #7 last week, so now’s the time to put your stake in this series (ahh, see what I did there?).

Small Press

“The hit team behind The Few and Thumbs returns with an all-new wild as hell miniseries! Writer Sean Lewis (King Spawn), artist Hayden Sherman (Wasted Space), and rock-star letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou introduce a world where Deadwood-style Westerns collide with the fantasia of Neil Gaiman in the story of Dirt, a man seeking vengeance for his murdered wife with nothing but a talking vulture to prod him on. Above Snakes is a fast and furious explosion of Western tropes and American vengeance that explores where our rage can take us.” I’m a big Hayden Sherman fan, first with Vault’s Wasted Space, and later with Aftershock’s Chicken Devil, so I’m excited to check out their latest in Image’s Above Snakes.

This next title is something you’d be VERY hard-pressed to find in many other comic shops, if any, at least here in the States. We’ll get local comic creators that come into the shop from time to time looking for us to stock their books, and last week we had Cleveland-native Chad Bilyeu stop in to buy some Paul Grist Kane, but also deliver issues of his series Chad In Amsterdam. Chad’s been living in Amsterdam for ten years but has teamed up with a bevy of international artists (including cherished Gary Dumm!) for a new, modern-age quirky slice-of-life book detailing the atypical adventures and musings of Chad in the Dutch capital. It’s the closest thing readers can get to Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor today but has Chad’s own style and voice that makes it totally his own book. I read all 6 issues available that night after he dropped them off, and I’m stoked for more! You can check out more and follow him online at www.chadinamsterdam.nl. It’s some of my favorite stuff I’ve read all year, seriously.

Along with cool new issues, this week is also a great week to come in and get a head start on back issues before the sale next weekend. From July 21st through the 24th, we’ll have 50% off all back issues and 10% off everything else, along with all of our dollar bins out and in the foyer. You may think to wait until the sale for any wall books you’ve been eyeing up, but they may not be here by then. Just saying. Have a great week and we’ll see you around.