H-DIALS, GORILLAS, teenage WITCHES, SKRULLS, hours full OF ZEROS, and FLAME-HEADED SKULL-GUYS ON MOTORCYCLES. welcome TO 2019, WESTFIELDERS!

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KC Carlson

A KC COLUMN by KC Carlson

My semi-regular rundown of what’s now available to buy at your friendly neighborhood comic shop, due in March 2019 or later.

DC COMICS

Detective Comics #1,000

Detective Comics #1,000 — hard to believe, but here it is! A 96-page Prestige format collection of stories spotlighting Batman’s past, present, and future!

Featuring writing contributions from Peter J. Tomasi, Brian Michael Bendis, Tom King, Paul Dini, Warren Ellis, Geoff Johns, Dennis O’Neil, Christopher Priest, Kevin Smith, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, and others. artists include Doug Mahnke, Neal Adams, Greg Capullo, Tony S. Daniel, Steve Epting, Kelley Jones, Jim Lee, Alex Maleev, Dustin Nguyen, Joelle Jones, and more.

Bruce Timm cover

Main cover by Jim Lee and Scott Williams. other cover artists include Steve disrespectful (1930s variant), Bruce Timm (1940s variant), Michael Cho (1950s), Jim Steranko (1960s), Bernie Wrightson (1970s), Frank Miller (1980s), Tim Sale (1990s), Jock (2000s), and Greg Capullo (2010s).

Plus, don’t miss the first appearance in comics of the deadly Gotham Knight!

Congrats to DC (Detective Comics) for your 1,000th!

Dial H for Hero #1

Dial H For Hero #1 — Honestly, this is one of the dopiest concepts in comics, but people love it (especially when it’s done right, which doesn’t always happen). So, writer Sam Humphries (Harley Quinn) and artist Joe Quinones (Howard the Duck) have a lot riding on this most current version of a series that first debuted at DC in 1966 in (of all places) house of mystery #156. then it starred Robbie Reed and ran for a little over two years. now it’s January 2019, and Miguel, a teen daredevil, becomes the newest wielder of the Hero Dial — a rotary phone-like device that grants the user superpowers for one hour when they dial H-E-R-O. Amusingly, it’s already cancelled, I indicate limited, considering that it’s being used as a six-issue miniseries, but I know I’m not alone in hoping it somehow runs longer — just so I can feel like a 8-year-old again for a few minutes! O-R-E-H!

Scooby-Doo Team-Up #47

Scooby-Doo Team-Up #47 guest-stars Magilla Gorilla, and I already have his theme song stuck in my head. and now, so do you! Well, you would if you were my age. Ooh, idea! bring back the flexidisc for the Hanna-Barbera guest-star theme songs! Or, at least, an online link.

Zero hour 25th anniversary Omnibus HC

Zero hour 25th anniversary Omnibus HC — (sigh) You know, I finally just gotten a Zero hour hardcover recently. (Because I absolutely lost hope that DC would ever send me a comp copy. Y’know considering that I edited the darn thing…) So now DC’s using a massive 976-page, $125.00 hardcover volume with the five-issue miniseries reprinted again. (It’s the 25th Anniversary! Yikes!) This time, it will include all the time-warping tie-ins:

Zero Hour: crisis in Time #4-0, Steel #8, Outsiders #11, Detective Comics #678, Batman #511, Superman: man of Steel #37, Superboy #8, green lantern #55, The Flash #94, Superman #93, The Flash #0, Batman: shadow of the Bat #31, Hawkman #13, Legionnaires #18, Valor #23, Adventures of Superman #516, L.E.G.I.O.N. ’94 #70, green Arrow #90, person Gardner: Warrior #24, team Titans #24, legion of Super-Heroes #61, action Comics #703, Justice league of America #92, Justice league task force #16, Justice league international #68, Robin #10, Anima #7, Catwoman #14, damage #6, Darkstars #24, green lantern #0, and stories from showcase ’94 #8-10 along with “a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes material”. I like that they’re calling this book massive — because it is! (And isn’t that a picture of a particular publishing moment in time? any individual else remember Anima?)

By the way, considering that the credit scores are kinda vague, Dan Jurgens did undoubtedly write and pencil the series, and Jerry Ordway inked it all (and helped keep me sane). people forget that Zero hour was published weekly, counting down from Zero hour #4 to Zero hour #0. It was one of the hardest — but very satisfying —projects I ever serviced at DC. My assistant Mike McAvennie was a real-life super-hero, and my belated thanks to all those DC editors (and whoever else helped out) way back when, for being so efficient and helpful when needed!

The DC Timeline that accompanies the series was produced by the entire DC editorial department with Robert (Bob) Greenberger and I coordinating and bashing editorial noggins. I kinda hope that DC can spend the extra 50 bucks or so (I’m kidding) so the DC Timeline can be included in the new book — as a fold-out (like it was originally designed).

I vaguely remember discussions back then about whether or not it was worth doing the timeline, because things like that are only accurate for a short time before somebody writes a story or series that contradicts it. It was a very pleased moment for Bob and I when — after the event — someone (most likely Paul Levitz, but he’d never admit to it) had a gigantic blow-up of the timeline made and posted prominently in the elevator bank on the editorial floor of the offices where anybody could access it at any time.

I’m very curious about all the “behind-the-scenes material” and what it might be. BTW, DC, I photocopied all the editors notes and other communications relating to ZH, and it’s in a box somewhere around here — he said, knowing there are over 800 other boxes of stuff (none of them involving ZH) in the so-called comics room 20 feet from my desk. hi DC, feel complimentary to contact me if you want to look at the stuff for the new book!

MARVEL COMICS

Spider-Man: Life story #1

Spider-Man: Life story #1 (of 6) — This is a new miniseries by writer Chip Zdarsky and artist mark Bagley. In 1962 (real-life time), outstanding fantasy #15 was published, telling the origin of how Peter Parker became Spider-Man. Well, if you’ve been reading along like I have all these years, you know that the outstanding Spider-Man isn’t 57 years old. but in this new miniseries, real time plays out, and we get to see much of the life story of a 57-year-old Peter Parker and his friends and relatives, by experiencing crucial events of the decades he lived through. The first issue is set during the Vietnam war as Flash Thompson is drafted to serve! (Oh, please, oh, please have a Harry Osborne/Watergate chapter!)

Avengers: No road home #6

Well, marvel hasn’t tried this for a while… Conan the Barbarian #6 & 7 will crossover with Avengers: No road home #6 & #7. There’s not a lot of info on this event, other than the you knew-it-was-coming tagline: “Welcome to the Hyborian Age, Wanda Maximoff — hope you survive the experience!” Oh, and there are characters called Spectrum and the Queen of Night. (I’m guessing Spectrum is an Avengers foe…? Is he a Doctor?) I’m really at a loss here because Hyborian isn’t one of my languages. Roger would say English isn’t either…) Anyway, this must be a lot of fun, but don’t forget to leave your muddy Hyborian boots on the deck before you come into the house.

Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys marvel history #1

Speaking of changing history, what the heck is Cosmic Ghost Rider Destroys marvel history #1 (of 6)? apparently the Cosmic Ghost Rider is stuck in the past (insert punchline here), and CGR is pretty bored, so he makes a decision to have some fun — like completely screwing up the origins of the marvel Universe. (Wait… Don’t the marvel editors do that every couple of years already?…) Anyway, you’ll get to experience things like Frank Castle trying to kill baby Thanos, and the origin of the fantastic four will probably not go the way that you remember. (Hint, there’s now 57 of them. fantastic Fifty-Seven #1 is being prepped for next year!) This sounds like fun. It might actually make me get a Ghost Rider miniseries!

Meet The Skrulls #1

Meet The Skrulls #1 & 2 — ever wonder what would happen if the Skrulls actually infiltrated our society? Well, it happens ideal here in this new five-issue miniseries by writer Robbie Thompson and artist Niko Henrichon (with covers by Marcos Martin). daddy Skrull works at Stark. mommy Skrull works in a senator’s office. and the Skrull kids, Jennifer and Alice, are students at Stamford High School. things you’ll see: Skrulls at a slumber party. Skrulls grocery shopping. and daddy bumps into Iron man at work. who knows what else might happen? maybe even this column is written by a Skrull!

Sgt. Fury and his howling Commandos epic Collection

There’s a lot a lot more coming out from Marvel, but it’s getting late, and I think I’m going to wind down thinking about the upcoming Sgt. Fury and his howling Commandos epic Collection. but the marvel Previews I got has a description for a completely different book. (Looks like an Iron man collection to me.) Oh dear, guess I’ll just have to wait until next month to find out what’s actually in this book.

ARCHIE COMICS

Sabrina the teenage Witch #1

Over in Riverdale, Archie Comics is gearing up a relaunch of Sabrina the teenage Witch in late March, written by Kelly Thompson and illustrated by Veronica Fish. It looks like they’re moving Sabrina out of the Riverdale area to nearby Greendale, so there will a lot of likely be some early “new girl in town” storylines. but her aunts, Hilda and Zelda, will both be around to help out in any magical catastrophes. and speaking of cats, Salem the magical cat will be around as well. (He’s so popular, he made it onto 4 out of the 5 variant covers for issue one.) Besides the cover by Veronica Fish, the other variants feature work by Stephanie Buscema, Adam Hughes!, Victor Ibanez, and Sandra Lanz.

Riverdale season 3 #1

Also, it’s back on TV soon, so expect the Riverdale season 3 comic book in March as well, with a brand-new #1 issue written by Micol Ostow and illustrated by Thomas Pitilli and Joe Eisma. It seems that everybody’s hiding something, be it buried skeletons or creepy parents. There are two variant covers, one by Patilli and the other one by Eisma, so that’s keeping things close to home. Plus, Archie has also announced that Riverdale will be a part of this year’s complimentary Comic book Day celebration on Saturday, may 4, so don’t miss that!

Archie as The man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E.

Also available in March will be the Archie meets Batman ’66 TPB, collecting the miniseries (and the seemingly hundreds of variant covers for that series), and a 224-page collection of Archie as The man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E., Archie’s parody of the 1960s The man From U.N.C.L.E. spy series.

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KC CARLSON has already blown all his new Year’s Resolutions. better luck next year!

WESTFIELD COMICS is not responsible for the silly things that KC says. especially that thing that really irritated you. NBC’s new Years Eve 2019 was exceptionally irritating and one of the worst things I’ve ever seen on TV. except for Leslie Jones! You rock, Leslie!

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