This week, IDW publishing is releasing the first of two gorgeous hardcover collections of David Boswell's beloved oddball comic,
Reid Fleming World's Toughest Milkman, from the 1980s. If you've never read Reid Fleming and or want to have a nice collection of this seminal humor comic, for a mere $29.99 for 224 pages (and 20% off at
Alternate Reality Comics through Friday, Dec. 24th), you can see what all the fuss is about.
This is the first page of the
Reid Fleming hardcover (the book is in black and white, as it was originally published) and should give you an idea of David Boswell's sense of humor and his character, Reid Flemings, "damn the torpedoes" attitude towards his job and life.
I'd also like to give a roll call list shout out to some other great recent graphic novels that have newly arrived the last few weeks (or that I've gotten back in as a restock because they're so good that they keep selling out):
Dynamic Forces is finally releasing the first volume of the
Vampirella Archives this week, which collects the fist seven issues of this great comic from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Image is releasing a softcover edition of
Viking by Ivan Brandon and Nic Klein, a great crime fiction story set in viking times, with
GREAT art. The ninth volume of the always funny, delightful manga,
Yotsuba, by Kiyohiko Azuma (and you can read any volume onto itself) also arrived a couple of weeks ago. DC released a 500 page black and white
Showcase volume of
Our Army At War and at $99.99 for the who's who of great artists contained within, you'll not find a better deal. This week also sees the release of Bill Willingham's excellent
Fables novel
Peter and Max, which is a good introduction to what
Fables is about (and even more excellent if you're already a fan of
Fables), in a softcover edition. For a great sampling of some of the best comics in the U.S. this past year, the 2010 edition of
Best American Comics came out about month ago, edited by Neil Gaiman. Everyone knows that when Chip Kidd designs a book it's going to be great right? Well a few weeks ago he put together a hardcover volume on
Shazam and it's of course a beauty!
Two Cents Plain is a great new autobiographical graphic novel by Martin Lemelman, about growing up in Brooklyn with parents who survived the Holocaust. Fantagraphics released the second
Steve Ditko Archives, which collects many fantastic early stories by Ditko before he co-created Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. For anyone wanting to read great Thor stories that don't require any knowledge of what's going on in the Marvel Universe, look no further then
Thor The Mighty Avenger by Rodger Langridge and Chris Samnee.
Still available at
Alternate Reality Comics:
Logicomix An Epic Search For Truth,
Acme Novelty Library volume 20 (
Lint),
The Outfit, by Darwyn Cooke, and Gilbert Hernandez'
Chance In Hell. And remember, all of the above and many more great graphic novels / trade paperbacks are
on sale for 20% off through Friday, Dec. 24th!
A couple of weeks ago, a new Osamu Tezuka epic manga graphic novel was finally released in the U.S., called Ayako, a manga that Tezuka did from 1972-1973. Tezuka, often called the god of manga, because he virtually created the comic book art form in Japan back in the 1930s and was extremely prolific. In the U.S. Tezuka is most known as the creator of Astro Boy and Kimba The White Lion (which Disney heavily "borrowed" upon in their Lion King), but he's done comics / manga in all genres, including romance and crime fiction. Tezuka also did a wonderful eight volume manga on Buddha. 
