Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour: I'm partial to the earlier, funnier stuff

One link: HBO has a comic by Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel called The Birth of Super Ray available for free download as a promotion for their show Bored to Death.  Looks good; I always enjoy me some Haspiel.


Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
By Bryan Lee O'Malley

Is there much to say about this final volume in one of the best comics series of the 21st century?  Everything that could be (and has been) said about the first five volumes holds true here, from the goofy comedy and likeable characters to the video game references and fun action.  There's a nice conclusion to the love story that works as a shutting of the door on this portion of Scott and Ramona's relationship as they embark on the grand adventure of their future together, a nicely hopeful and romantic send-off that should warm the heart of anybody who has ever been in a long-term relationship.  Scott makes the rounds of his ex-girlfriends as he gathers his energy for the final showdown with Gideon, he fights his a doppelganger that represents the mistakes that he wants to forget before realizing that it's part of him, and does more of the growing up that's been nice to see over the last few volumes.  It's good times all around.

So, since that's not much of a critical analysis, here are a few of the things present in this volume that I've really enjoyed about the series:

-Metafiction

I love the way the characters just casually mention that they're characters, or remember stuff that happened in previous volumes.  It fits right in with the acceptance of video game tropes and wacky fantastical ideas as if there's nothing strange about them.  The world of the series is a heightened version of reality, where people have recognizable characteristics and personality traits, but exhibit outsized emotions, break out into fights or songs, and treat it all as perfectly normal.  That's awesome.

-Reader inclusion (culpability?)

The fourth-wall-breaking even goes so far as to draw the reader into the story, as if we are affecting the plot and characters just by observing them.  It's a fascinating idea, a sort of communication directly between the author and the reader, and it's an element of that metafiction that isn't used all that often, entwining all involved with the comic, fictional and real, together.  It's a good example of the inclusiveness that makes the series so enjoyable, rather than a part of a hipster/gamer/comics/manga subculture.  Everyone can get something out of it!

-Odd captions

This is a subset of "metafiction", but I've always loved the goofy captions (if you can call them that; maybe "on-panel text" would work better, since they're often more like descriptive subtitles or non-onomatopoeic sound effects), which seem like part of the video game references but don't always fit into that idiom (unless they're meant to represent a narrator shouting out things like "Scott wins!").  They're another entertaining layer of communication between O'Malley and the reader, even in scene transitions like "Anyway" or "Soonish".

-Cute, slick art that continues to develop new facets

O'Malley's art is always described as "manga-influenced", but that's only part of it.  His characters do have big eyes, but they're different from most of those you see in manga, more round, with thicker outlines and smaller irises.  The face and body shapes are different too, with chins usually being round rather than pointed, and bodies more squat, with thicker feet.  The style is unique to O'Malley, and he draws from all sorts of influences.  That said, there's one moment in this volume reminiscent of fighting manga like Dragonball Z or Fist of the North Star that was pretty great.  The use of bursts of lines (sometimes for speed, but also for energy or emphasis) and lighting effects are really nice here too, as seen in the image above.  It should be fascinating to see what O'Malley will do next now that he's free from the chains of a long-running series and able to go in any direction he chooses.

So, is that it for this volume?  A few notices of neat stuff and a general good vibe?  I hope that's not all that comes across, since I really do love this series, and it's been one of the highlights of the 2000s so far in terms of comics.  As fun as all the fighting and video games and funny lines are, it's the grounding in character that has made it all work, the way the people populating this goofy world, their friendships and relationships with each other, seem real, giving readers an anchor to hold on to in the midst of all the craziness.  Seeing Scott holding down a job and being responsible, having a great time playing music with his band, spending quality time with his friends, and embarking into the unknown with a serious girlfriend is a great jumping off point in a wild journey that, for all its over-the-top fighting and silliness, is a recognizable symbol of the tumultuous years of our youth.  One can only hope that we can all look back so fondly on that time in our lives, remembering the highs and learning from the lows.  Whether we collect coins and extra lives or just hang out in bars and make jokes with our friends while trying to win over our dream girl, we're all human.

Ikigami: Death sucks

Elsewhere: I reviewed the "lost" episode of Dollhouse for the TV of the Weak column at The Factual Opinion.

This is cool: Bryan Lee O'Malley will have this nifty Scott Pilgrim poster for sale at PAX, and hopefully available online afterward. I might have to order one.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, volume 2

By Motoro Mase

I'm still not sure what to think of this series, but it's definitely an interesting one. As we saw in the first volume, the main stories mostly focus on the reactions and decisions of people who know they are going to die, with occasional appearances by Fujimoto, the ostensible main character, to question the morality of the system. In the two stories here, he gets dumped by his girlfriend for always being so morose about his depressing job, causing him to basically threaten to turn her in to the secret police as a "social miscreant", which would lead her to be forcibly reeducated and possibly executed. Orwellian! Later, he seems to have gotten over his misgivings about the system, and he's even impressed by the positive effect a psychological counselor has when a victim becomes upset. But all was not as it seemed; she wasn't being completely honest about her methods. Oh, those totalitarian regimes! Why can't they be based on truth and decency?

As the series progresses, it should be interesting to see Fujimoto continue to question the system, but for now, the series is all about the victims, who are, of course, never deserving of death. Sometimes there's a bit of mystery as to who is going to be targeted for death, as in the first story, which sees an aspiring commercial director abusing drugs to keep his energy levels up. His girlfriend is upset about the abuse, and keeps confronting him about it, but he doesn't listen, choosing to put his career above both their relationship and his own well-being. So which one of them will get marked for death? And will he be able to sacrifice his own goals to be with her? It ends up being an interesting, sad tale, as he learns about how much she really loves him and how it must have torn her up inside to see him destroying himself.

The second story is probably even better, as we see a young screw-up working at a nursing home finally get a sense of purpose when a senile old woman mistakes him for her long-dead husband. He couldn't seem to do anything right, so being able to help her makes him finally feel worthwhile. But his impending departure seems to crush her, so he has to give her some tough love in a very Japanese-seeming scene that emphasizes self-reliance rather than depending on others. It's striking, touching stuff, seeming to reflect the attitude of a nation that had to pull itself back together after being devastated by war.

It's kind of melodramatic stuff, but Motoro Mase makes it work with his detailed realizations of the settings. He's good at giving the characters realistic expressions and filling up the pages with mundane details that really bring the stories to life. And he's got a great sense of pacing too; the first story sees an excellent moment in which the young couple is arguing about the guy's drug addiction, and after she calls him on his failings, he slaps her. A scene of small, mostly background-less panels gives way to a detailed double page spread that seems to freeze the moment as the reality of what just happened sets in:

Mase does that kind of thing really well, and when dealing with such highly emotional stories, he's pretty good at hitting readers right in the gut. I don't know if this sort of thing is for everybody, but if you want to see people struggling with deep subjects of life and death, you could certainly do worse.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe: of High Expectations

One link: Robot 6 posts the trailer to a short film that adapts the first issue of Street Angel.  Fun, or so it seems.  I'm fine with the comic staying as a comic, and a lot of Jim Rugg's artistic flourishes probably won't survive the transition, but I bet that would be a fun project to make.  Maybe the entire thing will get Youtubed at some point, and we can see how well they did.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe (volume 5)

By Bryan Lee O'Malley

Something seems a little bit off about this, the penultimate volume in Bryan Lee O'Malley's immensely popular and entertaining series.  But maybe that's by design.  There's the usual mix of slacker humor, relationship moments, goofy fights against evil exes, and videogame references, all rendered in O'Malley's uniquely exaggerated style (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, I strongly urge you to read the first volume and get hooked like the rest of us), but some of the joy seems to be missing, and the volume as a whole is kind of a downer.  That might be a bit of dramatic structure, setting things up for the climactic final volume, but it also seems like maybe the characters are growing up a bit and are unhappy with the lack of focus in their lives.

The volume kicks off with Scott's 24th birthday, and he declares that he will be "the best 24-year-old...ever!"  But what does that mean?  He has moved to a new stage in his relationship with Ramona now that they are living together, he is working at his new job, and his band is recording an album, but he still doesn't seem to be making any personal progress.  At some point in your life, you've got to stop sitting at home playing games on a cell phone all day, and Scott might be starting to realize that.  The band certainly is, since with a lack of actual performing, the fun seems to have gone out of the endeavor.  And Ramona is troubled, thinking that maybe she isn't meant to be with Scott after all.  The latest evil exes, a pair of Japanese twins, only reinforce that feeling, describing her relationship with Scott as a sort of vacation from her "real life".  If he's going to convince her that that's not the case, he needs to really get things together, even more so than in the last volume, and show her that he's better than the evil guys in her past.

The series has been a lot of fun, but O'Malley seems to realize that early-twenties ennui only goes so far.  You can't stay in that zone of semi-maturity forever, as easy as it might seem, so he's pushing them and us to move forward and grow up.  

Not that you can't still have a good time along the way; there's still plenty of good stuff here, it's just lost some of its luster.  In what seemed like an interesting stylistic choice at first, Scott fights several of the twins' killer robots, but mostly in the background while other characters are talking about unrelated topics:  

But that's a smart move; it would get kind of boring to see fights over and over with little variation, so O'Malley not only changes things up humorously, but demonstrates how tedious the same old thing can get.

Not that this is a tedious volume in any way; instead, it's fascinating to see O'Malley continue to develop his characters and make them feel like real people even though they populate such a wacky, fantastical, somewhat metafictional world.  And the storytelling is as tight as ever, using thick lines that disguise an excellent attention to detail; a favorite moment sees Kim Pine give that telltale grimace that comes after taking a swig of alcohol:  

Really, the best bits aren't the wild action (although what we see of those is pretty great), but the character moments, like Ramona yelling at Scott from the bathroom while wrapped in a towel and dripping wet, or Wallace Wells mock-flirting with Scott while wearing a flowery bathrobe, or Scott freaking out when he finds out that Ramona doesn't really like his band.  That kind of human detail is what makes this series worth following, and all the silly jokes in the world don't add up to much without it.

Ultimately, this volume might differ a bit from the high expectations that preceded it, but O'Malley is showing that he won't just continue trudging along the same path for the rest of his career.  He's dedicated to progressing his characters and his world, to the point that he's going to be bringing it to a close with the next installment.  He's definitely building to an exciting climax, from a dramatic and an emotional standpoint.  One hopes that he'll be able to do so satisfactorily, but there's really no reason to doubt.  Like all the other fans out there, I can't wait to see.

Stay classy, San Diego

Monday finality:

I expect this will be the final parroting of other sites' stories here, now that the con is over and all. But how about this: Neil Gaiman is writing Batman? Da fug? Looks like it's a story called "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?", and obvious homage to Alan Moore's "Whatever Happenend to the Man of Tomorrow?". Andy Kubert on art, so it will probably look like crap. This seems like small potatoes for Gaiman; he's got the literary respectability, so he shouldn't need to bother with lame superheroics. But maybe he had a story he really needed to tell. Me, I haven't been impressed with his recent comics work (although I do love Sandman and pretty much all of his novels), so I doubt I'll bother with it. But who knows, maybe he'll pull something great out of his ass. At least he's probably being paid a pretty penny for it.

Some slightly interesting stuff from the Fables panel: another standalone graphic novel called Fables: Peter and Max, about Peter Piper and the Pied Piper (who are brothers, of course). Illustrated by Steve Leialoha, who I've not really been a fan of on Fables art (I believe he illustrated the first volume, which is the weakest one by a very wide margin). We'll see how it turns out. There's also a spy-themed Cinderalla miniseries, written by novelist Chris Roberson, and a Fables/Jack of Fables crossover called The Literals, which, following the style of superhero comics, also has tie-in issues in both series. I don't know if that's the best idea, but whatever.

Hey, it's the cover of the next volume of Scott Pilgrim!



Supposedly, there was an Oni Press panel in which this book was discussed, but I can't find anything about it on any of the major news sites, so any other news which was announced can go unremarked upon by me.

Apparently Scholastic is doing at least one more volume of Bone collections (colorizations?) after finished volume 9. I assume this would include Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails and Rose, unless there is anything else that I'm not aware of.

Okay, I think that's enough of my blither-blather. I doubt I'll bother doing any more of this sort of "news" writing, since nobody comes here to find breaking stories (at least, I hope they don't). Outside of a couple interesting bits (Darwyn Cooke's Parker books, Viz's Urasawa licenses), there just isn't that much for me to talk about, other than the fact that I wish I could be there. And from the conventions that I've been to, I'm more interested in prowling around artists' tables and meeting creators than hearing company heads inform everybody how excited they are about some upcoming crossover. It's fun to attend a panel and hear a creator talk about their work, but reports on news sites are pretty boring, with factual descriptions of what transpired. "Brian Bendis said that he really likes working with Khoi Pham." "A fan asked what Jeph Loeb's favorite color is, and he sarcastically said 'chartreuse.'" That sort of thing can be enjoyable if you're sitting in the audience, but reading about it is generally pretty damn lame. So in the future, screw it. I can mention interesting news at the top of whatever my next post is, if I feel like it, and I'll limit most convention discussions to ones that I attend. Take that, apathy!

-----

Sunday junk:

There's some interesting stuff from IDW's panel, but nothing that makes me sit up and cheer or anything. They lead off with lots of talk about zombies and vampires (and Ben Templesmith's Welcome to Huxford, which I'm actually looking forward to reading), but then drop some offbeat news, like the collection of a Spanish strip from the 80s called Torpedo, which, from what little information I can dig up on the web, was drawn by Jordi Bernet. There's one or two other notable things, but I'm most interested in Ben Templesmith's The Presidents of the United States, which should make for an interesting comparison to Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey's forthcoming (someday) Action Presidents! Templesmith says he wants to spotlight some of the lesser-known presidents, but look at the sample image:



Yeah, nobody knows about that guy.

Looks like I might actually be interested in a comic from Devil's Due, now that they're going to be releasing books from French publisher Humanoids, including finally finishing the John Cassaday-illustrated I Am Legion. I regret missing out on most of the DC imports of Humanoids books from a few years ago, but that was when I was just getting back into reading comics regularly, and I was less adventurous then. So now I'll hopefully have the chance to check these out.

Here's a summary of Chip Kidd's panel about his Bat-Manga book, with a couple slideshow images. I'm looking forward to checking that one out.

For more stuff about manga, ComiPress has a list of announced licenses, many of which might be interesting, but it's hard to tell until we learn more information. Viz's Shojo Beat panel has some interesting info (I'll have to try to check out the VizBig edition of Fushigi Yuugi, and Blank Slate sounds cool), but maybe only for shojo junkies like me.

For an example of Newsarama's Eisner-winning journalism, check out this interview with Valerie D'Orazio about her upcoming Cloak & Dagger miniseries, in which they mention the art team, but never state who they are. Very helpful guys. I think I'll start apologizing when people offer me congratulations for the award.
-----

Saturday things:

Another example of Vertigo kind of reaching: a new Haunted Tank series, set in Iraq. What's next, a revival of Joe Simon's Green Team, set among the high-stakes world of commodities trading? Hey, I should pitch that to Karen Berger.

Damn, Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba are all over the place lately; they've got a new series called Day Tripper coming out from Vertigo. Other news from the Vertigo panel: Dark Entries, the non-Azzarello Vertigo Crime book, will feature John Constantine (wow, they're really going for something new and different there). After Seaguy 2: Slaves of Mickey Eye, Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart are doing Seaguy 3: Seaguy Eternal (awesome news!). Another Morrison series, War Cop, will be coming out at some point, illustrated by Sean Murphy (I might be one of the last people to know about this).

Eh, I could probably find some other stuff to talk about (like the Eisner award winners; I've already got one congratulations for Newsarama's win), but screw it, I'm tired. And this is all ending up kind of boring anyway. We'll see if I can muster the interest to talk about anything else.
-----

Friday updates:

I don't know If I'll bother with this, but it's at least kind of interesting: Marvel and Stephen King are doing some sort of comics/video/internet/cell phone thing, with art by Alex Maleev that is presented in "pan and scan" format with voiceovers and whatnot. Weird. Sounds kind of dumb, actually, but it's notable that they are trying to tell stories using a new medium. Maybe I'll try to check it out at some point, although I don't have a cell phone that can do that sort of thing.

I don't know why I neglected to mention the Dark Horse horror panel yesterday, maybe because nothing really jumped out at me as especially noteworthy, but there are some interesting tidbits, like the fact that Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba will be illustrating an upcoming BPRD miniseries. That's pretty cool.

Here's some more information about that David Mack adaptation of Philip K. Dick's "The Electric Ant". It sound's pretty cool; I'll be interested to see how well Mack can adapt Dick's style to comics. Lord knows it should be better than the "make it an action movie!" approach Hollywood has usually used. And check out the nice artwork:



Info about the upcoming collection and revival of Dean Motter's Mister X. I've never read that series, but I probably should try it out. It looks cool.

Manga news! CMX has acquired the interesting-sounding titles Genghis Khan and March on Earth. Del Rey has a series called Yokai Doctor, which is a good title, at least. They also announced some cool-sounding non-manga books, like In the Flesh, a story collection by Israeli artist Koren Shadmi, and Life with Dr. Dangerous, by Paul Hornschemier.

More in-depth stuff about the new Ennis/Dillon Punisher miniseries, which sees the return of Ma Gnucci, the mob boss who was dismembered by a polar bear and seemingly burnt to death back in their original storyline. This kind of reeks of trying to squeeze too much lemonade out of a particularly well-worn lemon (that doesn't even make sense). But Ennis should be able to at least make it pretty funny, I imagine.

God, news has to just trickle out in annoyingly minute details, doesn't it? Here's a very slight update on the Vertigo Crime imprint, revealing that the comics will be in graphic novel format, black and white, about 200 pages long. And you can find out the titles of the actual books, for all that good that will do.

There's one worthwhile item in this post about the Image panel, and that's that Darwyn Cooke will be writing and drawing Madman Atomic Comics #14. There, I saved you the trouble of reading through the rest of the dreck. Actually, there's one or two mentions of Invincible and The Walking Dead, and I know those aren't terrible, so I suppose you could read it if you're a Robert Kirkman fan.

Hey, how about this? Viz announced that they finally licensed Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys and Pluto, both of which should be coming out in the US in February. Awesome. That might be the best Comicon news I've heard yet.
-----

Because I feel like it, I'll try to do a roundup of news and whatnot from San Diego as the convention continues. Looking back at the post I did last year, it's interesting to see that many of the announcements didn't bear fruition until right around now, a year later. So let's see what's in store for mid-2009:

The first big news is pretty awesome: Darwyn Cooke will be adapting Richard Stark's Parker novels into a series of graphic novels for IDW. Suh-weet. I'm all over that. I love Cooke's art, and it will be great to see him doing some more serious, adult work.

Boom! Studios has a new deal with Disney/Pixar to do stories spinning off from their movies (and also The Muppet Show. Weird). I'm surprised there hasn't already been an Incredibles comic book, since that's obvious, but their other stuff should lend itself to the medium as well. We'll see how it goes. Here's the original story, and here's an interview with editor Paul Morrisey. And an interview with Boom! EIC Mark Waid, who mentions that Roger Langridge might be involved with the Muppets book.

Vertigo, which seems to be flailing around for some sort of identity, is launching a new imprint, Vertigo Crime. Starting sometime next year, the first two books will be written by Brian Azzarello (cool!) and Ian Rankin (who?). Why couldn't these have been plain old Vertigo series? Huh.

CBR has an interview with Gerard Way, mostly talking about the upcoming second volume of The Umbrella Academy. There are some interesting tidbits of information, and some boring talk about a movie adaptation (it works best as comics; why worry about adapting it to film? Oh, right, money). If you're a fan (of the comic, or his band, you weirdos), check it out.

Looks like that's all for now, but I'm sure I'll have more to add soon.
-----

I don't know if this is really comics news, but Virgin is doing some sort of multimedia project with Grant Morrison called MBX, based on the Indian epic Mahabharata. It includes animation and video games, but who knows if there will be any comics involved. If it's anything like Morrison's awesome Vimanarama, I'll be glad to check it out.

Here's an interview with Guy Davis about The Marquis. I've never read that series, even though I dig Davis's art. I'll have to try to check it out sometime.

More to come soon, I'm sure. I'll eventually start sticking updates at the top of the post, but it's still too small and too new for that.
-----

Lots of boring news about the X-Men and Green Lanterns and crap like that. Meh. But I was interested to see a new Agents of Atlas series from Jeff Parker and some as-yet-unnamed artist. Here's a kind of in-depth article about it. I don't know if I'll want to read it, what with my current antipathy toward superheroics, but I'm definitely more interested in that than whatever's going on with Wolverine.

Other possible stuff of interest from Marvel: a David Mack-drawn adaptation of Philip K. Dick's "Electric Ant" (with Paul Pope on covers!), and Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon doing a six-issue weekly Punisher: War Zone miniseries, which is supposed to be more along the lines of their humorous, satirical Punisher work, rather than the more adult MAX series.

Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together: 9999 experience goes a long way

That's right, I'm lucky enough to have read the new Scott Pilgrim book before it hits the stands. You may all bask in my glory. And if you want, you can read my review of The Expendable One volume 2: The Boob Versus the Boobs over at Silver Bullet Comics (quick summary: it's not good). Okay, on with the main event:

UPDATE: I've removed some images (due to spoilers) at the request of Oni Press and Bryan Lee O'Malley, but hopefully the review still makes sense. Sorry if it impairs readability for anybody.

Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
By Bryan Lee O'Malley



I haven't reviewed any of the previous Scott Pilgrim volumes, because the most recent one came out before I started blogging. But I'm a big fan of the series, and I love the way Bryan Lee O'Malley combines goofy humor, video game references, over-the-top action, and genuine characters and relationships into a satisfying, enjoyable whole. This volume is no exception; it sees Scott facing relationship problems with his girlfriend Ramona, the possible loss of the apartment he shares with his friend Wallace, the prospect of getting a job, shakeups in his band (the wonderfully-named Sex Bob-Omb), and two people trying to kill him. One of those is a strange Asian man who keeps attacking him with a samurai sword, and the other is the next of Ramona's evil ex-boyfriends, who, in a major twist, [SPOILER here! Highlight to read inviso-text] is a girl! The way O'Malley depicts Scott processing this information is laugh-out-loud hilarious [end SPOILER].

So it's an excellent volume of a consistently good series, but since I tend to overanalyze stuff, I'm trying to figure out what it is that's so damn great about it. Part of it is O'Malley's skillful cartooning; the characters are so expressive with their big eyes that it's easy to get caught up in what they're feeling:



Of course, expressive eyes are nothing without good writing, and O'Malley has a great affinity for dialogue and characterization. Scott is funny and relatable because he's kind of naive, often surprised by the stuff going on around him (the character-related stuff, that is; he takes the fantastical fights and video game paraphernalia like save points in stride). I love the way he is amazed that one guy his friends know has a car. All the other characters bounce off Scott in fun ways; Stephen Stills and Kim Pine (his bandmates) kind of put up with him, acting aloof and overly cool. His roommate Wallace seems kind of protective, like an older brother. And Ramona is kind of withdrawn, but she really seems to care for Scott and enjoy being around him. They make a good couple, and it's fun to hang out with the gang:



O'Malley is also great with timing, especially the comic variety. Whether it's Scott going to work:



Or reacting to some good news:



It's all paced perfectly, and it reads really smoothly, adding to the enjoyable experience. And the dynamic comics "effects" he uses add a lot of punch to scenes like the one where Scott sees [SPOILER again! Highlight to read inviso-text, and click here for the image] Ramona talking to the girl who is trying to kill him [end spoiler], or when he runs to reunite with a special someone:



And don't forget the action! This volume is a bit lighter on the fights than the previous ones, but the ones that make the cut are awesome. Really, I could just open the book to a random page and find stuff worthy of pointing out; the entire thing is nonstop fun, just as Pilgrim fans expect. If you haven't read the series before, well, this isn't the place to start, but you should run out and get the first volume. You'll soon be hooked. If you're a longtime fan like me, this will not disappoint. Now if only O'Malley could get these things out more often than once a year...

The book comes out next week, on November 14, and it's supposedly slightly longer than previous volumes (216 pages) at the same price of $11.95. Get it!

Thanks to Oni Press for the review copy.

This week looks like a money-saver

In that there's not much that I expect to buy. But first, some news via Chris Butcher:



That's right, Scott Pilgrim volume 4 is finally coming out! Bryan Lee O'Malley says on his site that it's solicited this month for September. Awesome!
-----

Okay, on to:

New comics this week (Thursday, 5/31/07):

Note that stuff shows up on Thursday this week due to Memorial Day.

Punisher Presents Barracuda #4

I've been enjoying this series. I think it is going to end and set up Punisher #50, or some upcoming storyline. But it's been good and self-contained so far, and I hope it will stay that way. I'll probably end up getting the various Punisher MAX volumes eventually anyway.

Silent War #5

I haven't been reading this series, but I think I might have to get the collection just for Frazier Irving's art. The story might also be okay. After reading Gutsville #1 (review forthcoming), I'm really digging Irving. He's awesome.

Boys #7

Ah, this series returns, under a different publisher (Dynamite). I enjoyed the first six issues, although I recognize that they're not the best thing Ennis or Robertson have done. We'll see how it goes. I'll probably keep reading, unless it gets really bad, which I doubt will happen.

Boys vol. 1

And here's the collection of those first six issues, for those who haven't read it and want to. Like I said, it's not the greatest thing ever, but it's worth checking out if you're an Ennis fan.

Hellboy Darkness Calls #2

The first issue was good, and I'm on board for the rest of the miniseries. Not much else to say.

Shaolin Cowboy #7

Wow, it's always a surprise when a new issue of this series shows up. I love it, but it seems to be on the same schedule as All-Star Batman and Robin. I think the last issue ended with the Cowboy in the bowels of a giant lizard with a city on its back, about to fight a monster lady or something. And there was that cool bit where he cut a shark in half (lengthwise) with his chainsaw-ended bo staff. Who knows what will happen next; part of the best thing about this series is its unpredictability. I expect awesomeness, and I doubt Darrow will disappoint.

Shiny Beasts GN

This isn't on my shop's shipping list, but Midtown Comics lists it. I might have to special order it. Oh yeah, it's a collection of various Rick Veitch strips from the 80's that he did for Epic, I think. I've been anticipating it ever since I heard about it. Should be cool.
-----

And I think that's all. Hey, check back tonight for reviews of last week's comics, I think.