Hi Comic Shop Friends! Just a little bit of shop news:

John will be set up at the next Harper show on Sunday, June 2nd from 10 am to 4 pm, at the Westlake Doubletree.

The next Late Nite Comics will be Thursday, June 20th, 8 pm to midnight! Mark your calendars!

We’re finishing out the month with a fifth Wednesday, so it’s a little smaller, but there are still a lot of great books this week!

MARVEL COMICS

Make sure to let us know which Blood Hunt titles you want added to your pull list, so you don’t miss any! We re-stocked a stack of issue #1s of Union Jack if you missed it last week, and we’re trying to keep all the released titles in stock on the rec wall! Tell us if you’re missing one, and we’ll do our best to get it. (Except for the Red Band Editions of #1 and #2. Sorry, those are unavailable.)

Another solid Blood Hunt tie-in! T’Challa struggles to keep his blood lust in check and protect Wakanda from the hordes of vampires and other dark creatures. But with Blade hounding him to carry out a key mission, and Bast denying T’Challa’s pleas to be freed of the curse, Black Panther may not be able to continue to be the hero Wakanda needs. “It is true that Blade has infected Bast’s line. Yet Bast’s will soon consume his.” Written by Cheryl Lynn Eaton with art by Farid Karami.

It’s the return of the original Midnight Sons, from writer Bryan Hill and artist German Peralta! Danny Ketch, Johnny Blaze, and Victoria Montesi reunite to deal with the vampire threat! Blade’s former ally, Tulip (See the recent Blade series!) seeks out the Midnight Sons for help in confronting one of their own: Blade! He wouldn’t hunt his own people. Not if he had a choice. Or would he? If he truly is what he seems to have become, the Midnight Sons will kill him.

Wolverine and Ghost Rider had encountered a demon, Bagra-Ghul, who had possessed a young boy. Bagra-Ghul was defeated, but not before it possessed Logan, transforming him into Hellverine! The Spirit of Vengeance was the only one who could stop him, locking the demon away. Now it is ready to rise again, but are those hellfire claws being used for good this time, or evil? Hellverine returns in his first solo series from Ben Percy and Julius Ohta! With some Hellraiser Cenobite-esque Project Hellfire soldiers here to bring Hell to Earth! Or as Ben dubbed them, Seal Team 666!

DC COMICS

Worth it alone for the autobiographical story “Spaces”, written by Phil Jimenez, with art by Giulio Macaione, about the worlds of Wonder Woman that shaped him.

I also liked the preview story from the upcoming graphic novel, “The Strange Case of Harleen and Harley”, from writer Melissa Marr and artist Jenn St-Onge, but I’m partial to any comic with a guinea pig and animal rescues!

The rest of the stories span the DC Universe with:

• Starman in “Hello, Spaceboy” written by Al Ewing with art by Stephen Byrne.
• “The Rivers and the Lakes That You’re Used To” with Aquaman and Orion by Ngozi Ukazu. (You’re welcome for the TLC song stuck in your head now.)
• Poison Ivy and Janet from HR take a trip to “Marasmius” from Gretchen Felker-Martin and Claire Roe.
• Natasha Irons works up the courage to face Traci 13 in “Steeling Time” written by Jamila Rowser and art by Oneilljones.
• “Bros Down in A-Town” has Jon Kent and his buds getting together for a night out. Written by Jarrett Williams, with art by D.J. Kirkland.
• Dreamer gets “Lessons in Astral Projection” in Nicole Maines and Jordan Gibson’s story.
• And writer Calvin Kasulke and artist Len Gogou take Circuit Breaker to the “Phantom Rodeo.”

The other Tom King book that I tell you every month you should be reading is here again! No one in Gotham is safe from the Penguin’s wrath, especially not his own children. How far will he go to see them driven beneath him? To regain his empire? How much blood will he need to spill? So much blood. Perhaps even all of the blood.

SMALL PRESS COMICS

If you like 80s high school and skateboard movies, this is the book you should pick up this week! Rick Remender and Brian Posehn co-write a semi-autobiographical, authentic tale of 1980s skater culture, outcasts, and rock. Rick is starting at a new school in the Sacramento suburbs in 1984. Having trouble making friends, he tries to get in with a group of skaters, but they’re dirtbags, so when fellow loner Brian invites him to the skatepark, the two become best friends. Half a look at the culture of California and skateboarding at the time, and half a coming-of-age story with two troubled friends navigating family and school. What other book will give you the facts, like Rush isn’t Satanic because they’re from Toronto? With art by Brett Parson on this seven-issue mini-series.

Yes, I know we can’t get all of the first six issues, and I know that the paperback collection isn’t out yet, but make sure you grab issue #7 of Nights! This is the series that we all love, that I wait impatiently for, and that is difficult to describe without either giving everything away, or not giving enough, but writer Wyatt Kennedy and artist Luigi Formisano are killing it. There are vampires, ghosts, talking animals, 90s nostalgia, young love, strange creatures, and blood, blood, and more blood. Somehow these creators knew what I wanted in a comic without me even knowing, and if I wasn’t already picking it up, the solicit for #7 would have made me think: “ATTENTION: Tonight’s performance of Sweeney Todd has been directed by Rudy Ray Moore and written by Walter Hill. We apologize for the confusion. Ivory’s in trouble, Vince plays a double, and Matt will make you chuckle! A lot of people die in this issue.” Make sure to add the trade to your pull list, especially since they announced there will be a new story in the first volume that will continue only through the trade paperbacks!

For horror fans, especially those interested in the video nasties! Writer John Lees and artist Adam Cahoon’s mini-series is about an eighteen-year-old who still has an imaginary friend, Red Ennis from the Labor Day slasher franchise, who is becoming more and more real. When Thumper and his friends in the local video shop’s Murder Club decide to “remake” a notorious lost nasty for a film festival, the horror becomes real. And it’s not just because a censorship fanatic is trying to stop them. It’s a series about the love of film, the need to create, and friendship in real and imaginary forms. And every fake film title in this book is a movie I would definitely watch. Grab a copy because I follow the writer on Threads, and told him I was putting it in this week’s newsletter because not enough of you took our recommendation when the single issues were coming out!