Hey Comic Shop Friends! Sorry about no newsletter last week, but I’m back to full health now, which is great because there’s a lot going on!

First, thanks for a great Free Comic Book Day! We still have a few titles left from the event that you can pick up. I can’t write anything better than Ben’s thoughts on FCBD, so check out our Facebook page for his post. And there are tons of great pictures taken by shop friend Laura, so check those out too!

Second, speaking of Laura, she has another live Midnight Rental Secret Screening on the 17th, so we’re doing a late birthday celebration for me at the Grog Shop Wednesday night!

Check out Lenora’s Midnight Rental on YouTube too. She’s on the Found Footage Festival’s channel

Third, this Thursday, the 18th, from 8 pm to midnight, is Late Nite Comics! It’ll be Marvel-ous! We’ll have 40 long boxes of new unprocessed Marvel dollar stock on the table, and back issues will be 50% off! (Except for the wall books.)

Fourth, like always, there’s a bunch of new comics!

MARVEL COMICS

The Star, the Icon, the Witch, the Construct, the God, the Engineer, the King. Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa assemble a new team of Avengers! Each has their set of skills, and each has their reason for joining the team when Captain Marvel asks. When Terminus attacks Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S., a new danger appears, one that the Avengers know all too well and that appears in the guise of a friend.

This untold tale of Danny Ketch written by co-creator Howard Mackie, with artist Daniel Picciotto, flashes back to a time when a gang war was brewing. Two brothers try to take over Jimmy-6’s territory, but after a deal with The Broker, they transform into something that threatens innocent people and causes the Ghost Rider to get involved.

DC COMICS

A four-story anthology series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, features writers Tom King, Ed Brisson, Christopher Cantwell, and Dan Mora, with artists Mitch Gerads, Jeff Spokes, Javier Rodriguez, and Dan Mora. “Batman: The Winning Card” is a four-part tale from King and Gerads about the first frightening clash between The Joker and Batman. This book is worth picking up just for this story. It’s creepy and tense, dark and amazing. Then, continuing from the Wildstorm 30th Anniversary Special, Brisson, and Spokes bring in a new StormWatch team to protect the world from the worst of the worst in “StormWatch: Down with the Kings.” In “The Order of the Black Lamp”, from Cantwell and Rodriguez, Superman is sent a decoder ring with a mysterious message, which sends him on a quest to solve a mystery with ties to his past. Lastly, Mora makes his writing debut with a new Batman: Black and White story, “Heroes of Tomorrow”, set in a Gotham City full of cybernetic henchmen of The Joker.

The first of three new Dawn of DC titles this week, Cyborg #1 from writer Morgan Hampton and artist Tom Raney, brings Victor Stone back to Detroit due to a family emergency, but things have changed in the city while he’s been gone. New company Solace is pushing people out of their homes and spreading revolutionary artificial intelligence, and Cyborg knows better than anyone that tech transformation comes at a steep human price.

The Dark Crisis is over, and the Justice League is no more; now the no-longer “Teen” Titans must step up to protect the Earth! Tom Taylor and Nicola Scott bring the Nightwing-led team of Cyborg, Raven, Beast Boy, Starfire, and Wonder Girl out of the shadows to fight giant monsters and stand up to Peacemaker in their first outing. But when they return home, they find Flash, and a new mystery to solve.

Who are The Vigil? Part of DC’s We Are Legends, writer Ram V and artist Lalit Kumar Sharma tell the story of a secret team of metahumans. Shut down by the government and labeled a failure, the team secretly sets up operations under the supervision of Dr. Sankaran, and new recruit Nia Saha. Funded by the mysterious Mr. Lightless, the team is tasked with finding things. “Dangerous things – technology, ideas, stories … that the world isn’t ready for just yet.”

SMALL PRESS

A new Image mini-series premiere from writer/artist Dylan Burnett mixing wrestling and arcade games, with a dash of giant robots. After the mysterious masked Joe saves an arcade employee from back alley bad boys in Infinity City, he sets up house in the Round House Arcade and becomes the hottest player. Everyone wants to challenge him, and no one can beat him. But when another mysterious figure shows up in town to take him down, Joe’s past is closer than ever to catching up with him.

Another Chilling Adventure from Archie Comics, this one follows 14-year-old firestarter Jinx Holliday, who just wants to play guitar in a band with her best friend Danni, but people keep calling her the Devil’s spawn. Now Archie has shown up to ask her to help exorcize Jughead. Can rock ‘n roll save his soul and stop Satan? It’s all up to Jinx now. Written by Magdalene Visaggio with art by Craig Cermak.

Red Room is back! Not for the faint of heart! Banned in 26 countries! Only at comic shops that like to make money! (As Piskor says!) I won’t try to hard sell you on this one, because it is definitely not for everyone, but it’s one of my favorites. We won’t have any on the table, but if you got the last mini-series, you’ll have this one in your file.