New books are out today. People have been talking about the girth of quality comics out this week, but I suppose I have to disagree. Not much interested me this week, but a few things caught my eye:

This week's All New Atom looks like the first Countdown crossover for the new series. I've really been enjoying this book, in spite of the last two issues being fairly weak in comparison. Personally, this might be some of Simone's best work, simply because she's reached the point where she's ready to stretch herself, once again, as a writer. Every few years she gets a bit too comfortable, and while this may chalk up to some excellent Birds of Prey books, it certainly doesn't always mean other good titles from her. But she's a decent writer, and every once in a while she goes out on a limb and tries something new. More often than not, these "new" things turn out to be excellent superhero comics. I'm excited for this issue.

$1.99 issue of Invincible. I've loved this book from the beginning, and in spite of some weaker patches, the book has maintained a level of quality unseen in most mainstream superhero titles. This issue is being advertised as "New Reader Friendly". Not sure what that means, but having flipped through the thing, it doesn't look like it'll be another recap issue like the 99 cent one. It looks like there may be some recap, but also bits of new information.

Warren Ellis's Black Summer #0 comes out today. As Ellis pointed out on his website and on his BAD SIGNAL mailing list, this is chapter 1 in the story. It's not a prologue and it's not an introduction per se. It's the beginning of the story, and apparently, a necessary component in understanding everything. To be honest, I'm not too interested in this book, but considering the cover price, I figured I'd try it out.

Oh, and Eddie Campbell's Black Diamond Detective Agency is out today from TopShelf Books. Do yourself a favor and buy this. I'm pretty excited, since,outside of From Hell, I haven't read too much of his straight fiction. Everything I've read from him has had tinges of autio-biography, if not being completely auto-biographical. My roommate still has all the issues of Bacchus and I've been meaning to read that stuff, but I have developed a bit of a back-log in my reading list. But this is something I'm just going to devour the second I get home.

Almost forgot to mention MPD Psycho, which is a manga anyone with even a passing interest in the form should read. Craziness. Scantilation copies of this have been floating around the web & torrent trackers for a few years now, so if you haven't read any of it yet, now is your chance to read it. You have no more excuses. Also, everyone should see the Takeshi Miike film adaptation of this book. Not because the manga is good, which it is, but simply because Miike is amazing.

That's it for now. Might write more on these books later, after I've actually read them.

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