Andrea’s Phantom Picks for 03.01.2023

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Hi there Comic Shop Friends!

We’re back from ComicsPro, full of information and ideas! We’re working on plans for Free Comic Book Day, too, inspired by the event, which you’ll hear more about in the future.

We also had some ideas for the Short Box King so that he will be making another appearance soon . . .

Here’s the CNJ team with event organizer Marco (in the middle) with a couple of his behind-the-scenes team, taken at the charity auction.

The highlights for me were the Cartoonist Kayfabe roundtable, and Kyle and I being teamed with friends of the shop from Books with Pictures in Portland, OR, and Laughing Ogre in Columbus, OH. I came back tired and inspired! And now that we’re caught up on sleep, we’re ready for this week’s new releases!

MARVEL COMICS

This limited series is set in different eras of Tony Stark’s life, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Iron Man. Writer Murewa Ayodele and artist Botun Akande tell a new story in each issue with Kaiju battles, alien invasions, rescue missions, and more. This #1 is a dreamy tale of Iron Man fighting the future and a consequence of his choice.

Hiding out in a far corner of deep space, Frank Castle has put his days as Cosmic Ghost Rider behind him and lives a quiet life. Across the universe, Cosmic Ghost Rider is leaving a trail of bodies as a vicious bounty hunter. How are the two connected? How are they having dreams of the other? The start of a shocking, sprawling space saga from writer Stephanie Phillips and artist Juann Cabal, with a backup story written by Phillips with art by Jonaas Scharf.

I wish I had an endless bag of Halloween masks that gave me different powers. Janine Godby does, and now Hallows’ Eve gets her own series, written by Erica Schultz with art by Michael Dowling. She’s on the run from the police, wanted for murder, and now someone else is after her. It could be Maxine Danger, “I don’t feel that I need to explain my love of werewolves to you.” I don’t feel I need to explain my love of werewolves either, and I like where this is going.

DC COMICS

Writer Marguerite Bennett and artist Meghan Hetrick bring the world of Remnant crashing into the DC Universe. Monsters appear in Gotham, and Batman is hunting for whoever brought them into his city. Witnesses say a group of teen girls have been fighting the monsters, but are the four “cosplayers” responsible for the monsters showing up, or are they trying to stop them? What other effects are taking hold around the world with Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang here, and what does it mean for the future of the DCU?

Written by the actors from the new Shazam! Fury of the Gods movie! This 96-page special features stories starring the Shazamily characters written by Zachary Levi, D.J. Cotrona, Faithe Herman, Amanda Diebert, Tim Seely, David F. Sandberg, Scott Kolins, Ross Butler, Josh Trujillo, Grace Caroline Currey, Adam Brody, Kenny Porter, and Henry Gayden, with art by Freddie Williams II, Erica Henderson, Jorge Corona, Scott Kolins, Andrew Drilon, Damian Fulton, Mike Norton, and Scott Godlewski. There are zombies, crocodiles, dinosaurs, glitter land, hanging out with squirrels, and more!

SMALL PRESS

This new miniseries from Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Hernandez Walta is part grindhouse horror, part supernatural fantasy. Issue #1 reads like a cinematic pre-credits sequence and sets up Dom, a long-haul truck driver, as he comes across a car crash and tries to help Birdie. Things take a turn for the weird when they touch an item that may have caused the crash and end up meeting a stranger on the Phantom Road. I am intrigued, especially after that last page.

Another Aftershock 48-page Prestige Format one-shot that is a great contained story, All Night & Every Day from writer Ray Fawkes and artist Andrea Frittella will give you the creeps. It’s been two years since Michaela’s fiancée disappeared, she is grieving, and the last thing she wants is to go out with her friends. But she promised them, and now she’s trapped. Trapped in an endless party, every door leads to another debauched room, and there is no way out, not even through death—an exciting take on coming to terms with loss, truth, and the future.

Cullen Bunn writing a non-horror book? Yep! With art by Mike Deodato Jr., Bunn says in the afterword, “This is an action story – chases, gunplay, fisticuffs, all set against the backdrop of modern-day Moscow.” American professor Randall Crane is called in by the U.S. government to help pull out an old flame, Elena Sidorov, who has information that could cost her her life. She’s not the only one with secrets, though. “How weird can you make it?”