Happy November, Comic Shop Friends! Besides the annual day of potatoes and MST3K marathons (commonly known as Thanksgiving), there are a bunch of awesome things happening this month!

First, we will be closed on Thursday, the 27th for Thanksgiving.

Second, we won’t be having a Late Nite Comics in November because we’ll be having a massive Black Friday Sale!

Starting Wednesday, November 26th (Yes, Wednesday!) and running through Sunday, November 30th is our Black Friday Weekend Sale! We’ll have 50% off all back issues! The lobby will be open and full of dollar stock! We’re bringing out over a hundred brand new long boxes of dollar books that have not been out before! Start your holiday shopping for all your comics-loving friends and family!

On Saturday, November 29th from 6pm to 7pm Nate Powell will be signing in the shop! This is a free, open-to-the-public signing in conjunction with Genghis Con!

Nate Powell is a National Book Award-winning cartoonist who began self-publishing comics as an Arkansas teenager in 1992.

His work includes the new graphic novel Fall Through and a comics adaptation of James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me, as well as Save It For Later, civil rights icon John Lewis’ March trilogy and its follow-up Run, viral comics essay About Face, and graphic novels Come Again, Two Dead, Any Empire, and Swallow Me Whole.

Powell’s work has also received a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, multiple Eisner and Ignatz Awards, ALA and YALSA distinctions, the Comic-Con International Inkpot Award, and the CXC Transformative Work Award.

From 1992 to 2010, he performed and toured in multiple underground punk bands including Soophie Nun Squad and Universe, and managed DIY label Harlan Records.

Check out his Instagram!

And check out his books on our Rec Wall now! Grab one before the signing!

Sunday, November 30th 11am to 5pm at the Pivot Art Center it’s Cleveland’s small press and indie comic con! We’ll have a table there to get artists to sign up for our Holiday Art Show, and spread the good word of comics! This is a great local event, so stop out and support Cleveland’s indie arts scene!

Here’s a list of all the events Genghis Con has going on in November leading up to the Con!

Lastly, a reminder that our annual Holiday Art Show that benefits the Cleveland Food Bank is coming up in December, and we’d better see another record-breaking year of covers and donations! With SNAP benefits not being distributed, local food banks need our help more than ever in order for them to help our community!

This year’s theme is “Superheroes in Cleveland”, and you can interpret that however you like. We’ll have blank covers in the shop soon, but start working on your ideas now!

MARVEL COMICS

Hydra is seeking a new weapon to turn the tides of World War II and defeat the Allies, sending Baron Strucker on an expedition to find the fabled city of Atilan. But their search for gods leads them to something far, far worse. It’s Alien Vs. Captain America, so you know what the Red Skull is up to! A nest of xenomorph eggs has found its way to Hydra, and if you cut off one head, an alien will take its place! Can Cap and the Howling Commandos stop this new alien army before World War II turns into War of the Worlds? Or will they learn that in war-torn Europe, no one can hear you scream? Written by Frank Tieri, with chest-bursting art by Stefano Raffaele!

To celebrate Native American Heritage Month, Marvel Voices has an Echo one-shot! When her cousin Celine goes missing in Los Angeles, Echo’s search leads her to a mysterious wellness cult called Wisteria Meadows. As she gets closer to the truth, she discovers a new ability, but will it be enough to figure out who’s behind the cult, and free her cousin? This all-new story is written by Taboo and B. Earl, with art by Jim Terry. This issue also features a Marvel Infinity comic, “Echo: Dream Descent part 1”, by Melissa Flores and Kyle Charles, and a roundtable with the Lakota dub team for the Avengers film.

In the first issue of Imperial, Jennifer Walters made a promise to her cousin to watch over the planet Sakaar and its people for five days. It’s been far longer than five days, and She-Hulk is stuck. She’s used to law and order, but Sakaar thrives on chaos, and with Hiro-Kala dead, and Hulk elsewhere, she’s the only one of the Hulk family left to keep the peace. Seeing a chance to take the throne, there are now multiple parties trying to remove She-Hulk. Can she figure out a way off the planet before one of them figures out a way to off her? Stephanie Phillips and Aaron Kuder welcome you to Planet She-Hulk!

DC COMICS

Batman Versus Batman! Get ready for a Knightfight in Joshua Williamson and Dan Mora’s four-issue mini-series that takes Bruce Wayne on an epic journey during the DC K.O. event! If you read DC K.O. #1, you know Batman is out of the tournament, but he has a plan in place to get back in the battle. But that plan isn’t turning out how he had hoped. Finding himself in the future (or is it?) in Gotham (but what Gotham?) he now has to fight someone he thought he knew. For his life! It’s Batman’s greatest fight, as he’s forced to battle an army of Robins and a new Batman. How does this tie-in to the main K.O. battle royale? It’s going to be an interesting story!

Harley and Ivy sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g! But how did they get there? Writer and artist Erica Henderson presents the definitive origin of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy’s relationship! Starting with the first time they met, when Harley was still with Joker, follow along as DC’s hottest criminal duo fall in love! See their first kiss, their first embrace, their first fight, and more! If you love either of them, you’ll love them together!

Starting a new story arc, Al Ewing and Jahnoy Lindsay give us the Absolute origin of Jo Mullein. Starting with her arriving in Evergreen, we learn her deepest secrets and how she came to be the Lantern she is now. And will Jo’s ex-wife decide to help her and Hal, or turn them in?

The battle of Kansas has begun! For six weeks, Lazarus Corp has been attacking Smallville. Trying to protect the small town and the citizens he feels will never fully accept him, Kal wages a desperate fight against Ra’s al Ghul. Ra’s is using everything at his disposal to weaken Superman. Communications have been cut off, but Lois and Jimmy are trying to spread the truth. A few thousand people against all of the Lazarus Corporations might is a one-sided battle right from the start, but Ra’s won’t stop until Kal-El surrenders, and with a secret weapon aimed at Sol, it may not be much longer that Superman can hold out. With that tease in DC K.O. #1, where is Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval’s Absolute Superman story leading?

SMALL PRESS COMICS

R. Crumb is back with his first comic in 23 years! At 81 years old, he’s still raging at the world and himself, and now he’s deep diving into his paranoia. Batshit crazy or true perception – who can tell? Not even the man himself knows! Twelve short comics with a range of topics including: paranoia, questions to god, conspiracy theories, deep state, and the very worst LSD trip he ever took! That happened in Cleveland! This one-shot also features the final Dirty Laundry story, drawn by Crumb and written by Aline Kominsky, one of her last stories. Not for everyone, but this is R. Crumb at peak R. Crumb-ness.

The Crownsville State Hospital sits just south of Baltimore. Now empty and decaying, the institution once housed patients with mental illnesses, and children with chronic medical conditions. Nearly all of the patients admitted died within the asylum, with 1800 bodies still buried on the grounds. Patients were subjected to abuse, confinement, and unethical and involuntary testing and experimentation. The sins of the past don’t stay buried, and in this ghost story mystery, reporter Paul Blairare and detective Mike Simms investigation into a supposed suicide of a security guard at the abandoned Crownsville will unearth those sins. Learning of his mother’s involvement in an experiment with children, Paul is determined to uncover the truth of what happened within the walls of the asylum. Writer Rodney Barnes and artist Elia Bonetti have created an atmosphere of dread, with secrets lurking in the shadows in this suspense and sorrow filled tale of the tortured past of Crownsville’s notoriously segregated, all-Black psychiatric institute. It’s been a while since a book has hooked me so fully with the first issue, and I want to read the whole five-issue mini-series immediately. The creeping dread of real-life horror seeps off the pages. This is my pick for the one book you should pick up this week.

Tim Seely and Stefano Simeone invite you to explore the chilling side of childhood imagination in this dark fantasy adventure. Mariposa Montiel disappeared as a child. Thought kidnapped, she was missing for years, but now she’s returned to Chicago and has become an outcast and the subject of memes. Her tales of a magical jungle land called Mayahuela have made her a joke, and no one believes her until a representative of N.O. Place invites her to join the secret agency. Led by a legend of the Land of Oz, N.O. Place wants to recruit Mariposa, because she’s the only one that can save our world from a black ooze spewing, creeping Lovecraftian nightmare! Mixing classic childhood stories of champions in far away lands with new heroes and legends, this is a great start to a new fantasy tale.