Hey everyone, it is assistant editor month. Dirty D is on vacation for this holiday weekend so he left me in charge of picking comics to highlight for FOC.
Well, here is what I have in store for you (as I rush off to the pool with my kids)…..
New Series
BENJAMIN #1
a three-part, prestige format series exploring the hallucinatory second life of a brilliant author who imagined our desperate future but never imagined he’d become part of it . . . More than just a writer, more than just a science-fiction icon, BENJAMIN J. Carp was a cultural revolutionary. Across 44 novels and hundreds of short stories—including the counterculture classic The Man They Couldn’t Erase—Carp pushed the boundaries of literary respectability for the sci-fi genre and his readers’ perception of reality itself . . . until decades of amphetamine abuse and Southern California excess finally ended a mind-bending career that always just escaped mainstream success. He died in 1982. Until 2025 . . . when BENJAMIN J. Carp awakens, alive, in a burned-out motel on the fringes of Los Angeles. He remembers dying. He knows he shouldn’t exist. Is he a dream? A robot? A ghost? A clone? A simulation? In his own time, Carp pondered all of these scenarios intensely through his fiction—and, now, as he treks from Studio City to Venice Beach and onward into the paranoid sprawl of 21st-century Los Angeles, he will be called to investigate his greatest mystery yet: himself. In the tradition of Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly and Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice comes a uniquely fascinating and hilariously deranged excursion into the metatextual nexus where existence and oblivion, past and future, genius and madness, and glitter and grim reality all meet just beyond Hollywood Boulevard . . .
FANTASTIC FOUR #1
Not sure anyone really cares about FF any more, but with the movie coming out soon, hoping FF retools and gets good again.
SPAWN BLOODLETTER #1
Tasha Thornwall is THE BLOODLETTER, mystical mercenary of the world’s secret underground. A former CIA operative forced to live in the shadows after being outed by Al Simmons 10 years ago, Tasha is now out for revenge when she learns Al Simmons is alive as Spawn. The mission to hunt down and kill Spawn begins
Notable Reprints
FANTASTIC FOUR #7 FACSIMILE EDITION
The Fantastic Four are invited to attend a fancy dinner in their honor – but the celebrations don’t last long! Because suddenly, everyone in attendance turns against them ‚Äî branding them as public menaces! What is going on? And what does it have to do with Kurrgo, Master of Planet X? Our heroes will have to journey across the cosmos for answers – and to face their greatest challenge yet! It’s one of the all-time great Marvel comic books, boldly re-presented in its original form, ads and all! Reprinting FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #7. Marvel is reprinting the first twelve issues of FANTASTIC FOUR as they originally appeared!
X-MEN #136 FACSIMILE EDITION
Jean Grey is power incarnate as the Dark Phoenix – and holds the fate of the cosmos in her hands! But the mighty Shi’ar Empire has this intergalactic threat in its sights! As Jean returns to her family on Earth, Shiar Empress Lilandra declares: If the universe is to survive‚ĶPhoenix must be destroyed! But before her Imperial Guard can reach Jean, the X-Men find her first – and so begins their epic rematch with the Dark Phoenix! Can Cyclops reach the woman he loves before she slays everyone else he holds dear? The penultimate chapter of the classic Dark Phoenix Saga is one of the all-time great Marvel comic books, boldly re-presented in its original form, ads and all! Reprinting X-MEN (1963) #136. Marvel is reprinting the complete Death of Phoenix Saga issues as they originally appeared!
First Appearances
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #18 GERARDO SANDOVAL ULTIMATE SPECIAL VARIANT
First appearance and first cover of Ultimate Mr. Negative.
For The Cover
VAMPIRELLA #3 MARK SPEARS FOC
Mark Spears is made for monsters and cheesecake, this one recreates a classic Vampi cover in Spears signature style.
VAMPIRELLA (2025) #3 CVR C MAER
Not often you see a Weird Science cover homage.
Pick of the Week
DEADPOOL #15 MATTEO LOLLI VARIANT
First appearance and first cover of Itto Kurami. Not much info but we have seen jumps in new Deadpool first appearances in the past.