Poyo's Spec and Drek for September 5th, 2018

Hopefully everyone survived the 5th Wednesday last week. This week brings us a bit more but from my initial check on new books, it’s hard to tell if there will be any winners this week.

But that won’t stop me from picking a few, either to read, collect or possibly make you some money.
DC/Vertigo Pick
Seems like it’s been since forever the last time we saw a new Vertigo book.
This pick is the pick because there’s really nothing else out from DC to pick. That’s just a shame too. We got a Batman book hitting shelves but I’ve actually lost interest since the whole proposal issue. Then only to see Catwoman leave Bruce standing all alone at the altar.
So this weeks pick is Border Town #1. Seems interesting enough to check out. If done right, it could be a good read but I’m not anticipating that this will be a spec hit or heat up. I’d be surprised if it does.
Marvel Pick
Cates is back with a Thanos one-shot.  So this weeks Marvel pick goes out to the Mad Titan in Thanos Legacy #1.
Already being limited to 1 per customer at Midtown, do we have another surprise character in this issue? Or will it result with just some awesome story writing?
There’s only one way to find out and that’s pick it up and read it. But don’t go heavy on this one, I expect there will be plenty of copies (particularly since they have such high ratio variants) for everyone but also don’t get caught sleeping, even a huge print run could result in making a few bucks off this if you plan to buy more than a handful.
Only go after the higher ratio variants if you can grab them for cover or for cheap.
Indie Pick
Guncats #1, this book actually hit the shelves at one of my local shops today. Midtown and a few others solicit this for the 5th of Sept as it’s release date.
So I’m not sure if it was a Diamond shipping mistake or what, but I was an idiot and set it back down on the shelf forgetting to pick back up again to at least check out by reading a bit of it. I guess I was confused as I didn’t know about it either since it wasn’t on my list of books to check out.
But now that I got more information on this book, my indie pick goes to Guncats #1 from Action Lab Comics. I did skim the pages and the art was decent but not usually the style I really enjoy but I’m hoping the story is much better.
Small Publisher Pick
This next pick is about a character that has actually been around for quite some time, Elric. I think his first appearance was back in 1961, from the story The Dreaming City.  The new series, Elric The White Wolf #1 is described as:

The gorgeous comic adaptation of Michael Moorcock’s world-renowned cult fantasy saga, acclaimed by the public, critics, and Moorcock himself!

A year has passed since Elric left Imrryr, his palace and his throne, leaving behind a heartbroken Cymoril. For a year he has walked the Young Kingdoms, under the distant gaze of his protector, Arioch. A year since he traded his skills as a wizard and fighter to the highest bidder, forging, in each battle, the legend of the albino warrior whose Black Sword terrifies the bravest of warriors. Today he is no longer Elric de Melnibone, the four hundred and twenty-eighth Emperor of the people of R’lin K’ren A’a. Today, the Young Kingdoms know him as the White Wolf.

Already selling out at Midtown, I expect smaller print runs and with fans of the books from Moorcock, could see some slight demand for these but it’s hard to tell with these books from Titan.

Now on with the dreaded “avoid” pick, every writer and artist worst nightmare when it comes to selling their hard work.
United States vs Murder Inc. #1. Yes, I said it. Avoid this book.
Long ago, when I was really getting into comics again, I picked up this very book that was being put out by Marvel’s Icon publishing label. What I didn’t anticipate is a book that I’d never see the end of. It took like 3 years for them to finally just cancel this book along with his Powers book.
Some say it was Marvel, I think it was just Bendis or a possible a mixture between Marvel and Bendis. But honestly, can we just be done already? Is Bendis really this hard up on getting this book out to the masses to read? I’m gonna pass.
I have a feeling this won’t last long but maybe I’ll be proven wrong. Maybe DC is putting much more faith into Bendis giving him creative control of his ideas and their own books for that matter. I just know the books he has taken over for DC haven’t done as well, at least in my opinion. Sales don’t mean everything you know but when Bendis actually wrote in Nuclear Man in a recent Superman title, I just laugh at the absurdity of his writing. It’s pretty sad that even my wife, who read his Jessica Jones title, said his writing was awful after she was a fan of the show before the comic.