The Beach of the Future: Douglas examines DC's publishing schedule for next summer
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DC's graphic novel catalogue for Summer 2008 lists almost 150 books coming out between May and August. That's a lot for any publisher.
Notably, there seem to be quite a few hardcovers collecting recent storylines; they include Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul, Booster Gold: 52 Pick-Up, Superman: Escape from Bizarro World, All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder vol. 1, The Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood, Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War vol. 2, Green Lantern: Tales of the Sinestro Corps, Justice League of America: The Injustice League, Superman: Last Son, The Flash: The Wild Wests, Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Astro City: The Dark Ages vol. 1, World of Warcraft Vol. 1, The Brave and the Bold: The Book of Destiny, All Star Superman vol. 2, The Death of the New Gods and Metal Men. Some odd choices in there--Booster Gold, for instance, feels like a paperback kind of series to me--but it'll be interesting to see how this pans out.
Showcase volumes, for those who (like me) care: vol. 4 of Superman, vol. 3 of Batman and Green Lantern, vol. 2 of Hawkman, the Atom, the Flash and the Haunted Tank, and vol. 1 of House of Secrets.
A few highlights, month by month:
MAY 2008 Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul: One of ten Batman books coming out to catch the Dark Knight wave. Interesting to see this credited to "Grant Morrison and others," since Morrison is apparently writing exactly one episode of the crossover proper. Jack Kirby's O.M.A.C.: $25 hardcover, described as "a companion to the JACK KIRBY'S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS" series. I wonder if it'll be printed on newsprint, too? That was a weird but strangely effective design decision--the archivist in me howls at it, but that's also the format Kirby's work was created for, and it looks great. The Legion of Super-Heroes: 1,050 Years of the Future: a retrospective anthology commemorating 50 years since Adventure Comics #247. Absolute Sandman Vol. 3: Guess we don't have to wait a year for the next one! Vertigo: First Cut: Five bucks for the first issues of Army@Love, Crossing Midnight, DMZ, The Exterminators, Jack of Fables, Loveless and Scalped. Which suggests they'll all still be running then.
JUNE 2008 All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, vol. 1: Implying that there will be a second volume eventually... Demo: The Brian Wood/Becky Cloonan miniseries, in a single volume from Vertigo. Y: The Last Man Vol. 10: Whys and Wherefores: I'll be curious to see what sort of wrap-up stories there are when this hits, as opposed to when the final issue of the series is published. The New York Four: Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly's Minx book. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier: The Absolute Edition: 99 bucks.
JULY 2008 World of Warcraft vol. 1: I couldn't make it through the first issue, but I know there are some serious fans of the game out there; looks like Walter Simonson's signed on to write the whole first volume, at least. Janes in Love: The sequel to The PLAIN Janes.
AUGUST 2008 All-Star Superman Vol. 2: Well, assuming Quitely can complete three more issues by then... The Spirit Archives Vol. 25: Here's a nice surprise: this volume will reprint the complete run of the daily Spirit strip--initially drawn by Will Eisner (who only drew the first six weeks' worth, but continued to write it for a while), then by Jack Cole, and finally by Lou Fine. I'm crossing my fingers for a book reprinting all of Eisner's post-'50s Spirit stories, but I might be crossing them for a while. America's Best Comics Sampler: A $5 paperback with what looks to be the first issues of most of the non-LXG ABC titles.
