Monday, June 14, 2004



DC in September: DC Comics has released its solicitations for September. Highlights include:

* "War Games" continues to have its way with the Batman titles as DC desperately tries to make Hush into a Major Villain in Gotham Knights.
* Batman in the Eighties trade paperback collects nine classic stories by the likes of Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, Michael Golden, Alan Davis, Klaus Janson and George Perez.
* Gotham Central #23 finds the Gotham Police Department sucked into "War Games."
* Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale team up for Catwoman: When in Rome #1, the first of a six-part series that spins off The Long Halloween. Let's hope it makes more sense. The duo's first collaboration, Challengers of the Unknown Must Die, also gets collected, with bonus material.
* The long-promised Superman: True Brit hardcover by Kim "Howard" Johnson, John Cleese, John Byrne and Mark Farmer finally appears on Oct. 13.
* Andy Diggle and Pascal Ferry's eight-issue Adam Strange miniseries debuts.
* Darwyn Cooke's DC: The New Frontier and Judd Winick's Caper wrap up.
* DC pulls the plug on Fraction and Touch, the first of the ailing Focus line to fall.
* Green Lantern also gets put on ice, just in time for the return of Hal Jordan.
* Teen Titans #16 and Teen Titans/Legion Special make way for the new Waid/Kitson Legion of Super-Heroes. What's the record for the number of cancellations and relaunches? Surely, Legion has to be the reigning champion.
* The Beyond the DC Universe titles take some interesting turns, with the debuts of The Batman Strikes!, Justice League Unlimited, Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer, and The Will Eisner Companion hardcover.

Comics Continuum doesn't have the Vertigo titles, so let's jump to Toon Zone for those:

* DC releases the Animal Man: Deus Ex Machina, Doom Patrol, Vol. 1: Crawling From the Wreckage and Doom Patrol, Vol. 2: The Painting that Ate Paris trade paperbacks.
* Bite Club wraps up with yet another lovely Frank Quitely cover.
* Hellblazer #200 features the all-star lineup of Steve Dillon, Marcelo Frusin and Leonardo Manco.
* Jill Thompson's The Little Endless Storybook is re-released Nov. 3 as a deluxe hardcover.
* Dave Gibbons' The Originals is released on Oct. 6 as a 160-page hardcover.
* Richard Corben fills in as guest artist on Swamp Thing #7.