We shouldn’t just collect or flip books, we should also read them. A good story can make your purchase well worth the money spent if you ask me. After all, we buy books to read for entertainment right? Even if you can’t flip them, reading is just as rewarding.
We tend to focus on mostly the floppy copies each week and kind of ignore the trades and hardcovers that come out week after week.
These can be one off books, collected editions or special editions. I go into these picks of mostly just the solicitations provided from the publishers. These are the ones that caught my attention for this upcoming week.
I think all the old EC comics and stories is what everyone who’s reading comics should read at some time in their life. The collected editions make it easy to read because old golden and silver age EC books are not cheap, particularly if you plan on reading them.
Ec Johnny Craig Woman Who Loved Life HC
This collection gathers all of Johnny Craig’s stories for War Against Crime and Crime Patrol plus his earliest outings for EC’s terror triumvirate-Crypt of Terror, Haunt of Fear, and Vault of Horror.
Also included are all of stories that Craig and Al Feldstein collaborated on under the pseudonym ‘F.C. Aljon’ plus two stories reprinted for the first time in more than 70 years: ‘Moon Girl,’ and ‘Zombie Terror,’ both scanned from the original art. Twenty-six stories in all, with essays and commentary by EC experts.
This next pick I actually obtained a digital review copy that I hope to find time to read.
But it’s still going on my picks this week cause the story seems interesting. War time action drama, it doesn’t get any better than this.
An artist, forced to paint swastikas on train cars for the Nazis during the Holocaust, has become an unlikely vigilante in pre-Cold War Europe.
Alongside his army companion, Bruno, he hunts down the criminals responsible for murdering his wife, his family, and his people.
SIMON SAYS is one part action-adventure, one part crime-noir and all high-stakes drama!
We certainly love our dystopian future stories. This next pick is nothing ground breaking but still worth checking out, particularly since the artwork was painted.
Sounds like a story though where those in control are trying to bring back the dark ages.
In 2026, humanity is spurred onward to destruction by radical fundamentalists. Nike, Amir, and Leyla, three remarkable Yugoslav orphans, join hands to survive a world that seems determined to wipe out thought, science, culture and memory.
This haunting, prescient masterpiece is beautifully painted by award-winning creator Enki Bilal, famed artist for Heavy Metal Magazine, The Nikopol Trilogy, and Exterminator 17.
I’m not a big believer of reincarnation or past lives but reading about them is usually entertaining with thoughts of what could have been. This Old Souls feels like it could be a great read so it’s on my to check out list.
Chris Olsen has a good life. He has a regular job, a wife and daughter who love him, and a promising future. By any measure this is a good life, but it isn’t his first.
When a troubling encounter with a homeless man triggers something inside Chris, memories of his past lives bubble to the surface.
A lost Chinese boy, a wailing grandmother, and a love so powerful it never left his soul-all compete for his attention. As Chris sinks deeper into the seedy and seductive world of ‘grave robbers,’ vagrants known for their ability to relive their former lives, he discovers that he must find closure to a tragic episode in his past without losing himself in the process.
That’s it for this week for the trades and hardcover picks.