On racks tomorrow for New Comic Day, a great big serving of the Cosmic Jack Kirby’s Fourth World from DC. Oh yeah…

… and there’s a lovely, big deluxe hardback collection of Bill Willingham’s tales from the brilliant Fables, Bad Doings and Big Ideas:

And I notice the new editions of Neil Gaiman’s superlative Sandman reaches volume seven with the Brief Lives chapter, Dream and Delirium on a road trip… It still has a scene that’s stuck in my head since I first read that issue years ago, very simple but oh so effective, Dream, despondent,having just granted his long-suffering son Morpheus the merciful death he craves. His poet son’s blood drips from Dream’s snow-white skin and as it touches the earth it becomes flowers… A single scene broken into several small segments, like frames from a film, suggesting time and movement and emotion while remaining still. Simple but so effective work from the wonderful Jill Thompson that’s stayed in my head for oh so many years and I still find subtly powerful.

And on a totally different note, I love this Hawkeye portrait on the cover of the West Coast Avengers collection out this week. It’s the big, cheesy grin and that wink, swerving pretty close to superhero camp, hard to look at it and not smile back;

On shelves this very day, a stonking big omnibus of Shannon Wheeler’s Too Much Coffee Man. I was a huge fan back in the day, very happy to see this huge collection finally hitting the racks this week. Pick up a copy, pour yourself a big, ‘ole cup of Java and kick back for a read!

(Too Much Coffee Man by and (c) Shanon Wheeler, published Dark Horse)

(cover to Love From the Shadows by and (c) Gilbert Hernandez, published this week by the lovely Fantagraphics mob. Love the small hardback format and the semi pulp 50s style cover work; below; interior pic from the book, again (c) Gilbert Hernandez)

(page from Bulletproof Coffin, by and (c) David Hine and Shaky Kane, published Image)

(I’m your worst nightmare, I’m a duck with a gun… cover art for Marvel Zombies 5, art, as always for this series, by the great Arthur Suydam, (c) Marvel Comics)

There’s a real blast from the past this week too, with this 50th anniversary collection of strips from the long-running British boy’s comic Victor, home to Braddock, Tough of the Track and Gorgeous Gus among others. Sudden nostalgic sigh for that now gone era where literally millions of British school kids would be reading this and its sister publications each and every week…

(a page from I Flew With Braddock, proper old school boy’s wartime adventure from the Victor, (c) DC Thomson)

And I can’t resist sharing another of this week’s new releases with you, because it is from the wonderful Lynda Barry via the lovely folks at Drawn & Quarterly, the near-sighted monkey returns with Picture This. Go on, you know you want to pick this up…

(Picture This by and (c) Lynda Barry, published Drawn & Quarterly)

For some reason (maybe simply the pretty colours exciting my inner child) I really like the cover for Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps, which is hitting shelves today. Nice, simple, colourful, effective. And it makes me want to wear my power ring.  (cover art by Dave Gibbons and Rudolfo Migliari, (c) DC Comics)

(cover to Batman & Robin Deluxe Edition: Reborn, art by Frank Quitely, (c) DC Comics)

And there’s the very first issue of Brendan McCarthy’s Spider-Man: Fever in at last and it looks absolutely fabulous. You know you want them. Your Friday just got better. “Something for the weekend, guv?” as they used to say.

(cover art for Spider-Man: Fever #1 by Brendan McCarthy, (c) Marvel Comics)

And if you want something away from the Big Two, how about this lovely hardback edition of James Sturm’s Market Day, fresh in from the lovely folks at Drawn & Quarterly? Spoiled for choice for good titles this week…

How utterly, gloriously gorgeously 1930s pulp sci-fi is this? IDW’s lovely hardback collection of the late Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer. I just saw some heading for the shelves – if you’re in that last minute panic of present purchasing, may I humbly point you towards this wonderful collection? I’d be more than happy to have that under my tree. And in case you needed a reminder of just how fab Dave’s artwork was, here’s a sample from the collection; you can almost imagine the old Republic serial style end credits “how will our daring hero get out of this deadly situation? Tune in next week for the Astounding Daredevil Heroics of The Rocketeer!”

(all art (c) the estate of Dave Stevens, published IDW)