June 2016 Pre-Order Picks: ARCHIE, AVATAR

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Continuing a new feature, as we peruse the monthly PREVIEWS catalog and highlight some books we feel are worthy of your attention.

Your local comic shop depends on your pre-orders to make sure they have the books you want when you want them. Since business reality makes it impossible for a local comic shop to order some of everything, they depend on the comics readers to tell them what they want to see.  It’s a dice roll for them every month.  Won’t you help with the odds by at least telling them what you want to buy from them in two months?  Please give it a try.  We’ll do our best here to help you with those selections, from a BC Refugees point of view.  Not objective, but absolutely subjective.  

ARCHIE COMIC PUBLICATIONS  page 276  http://archiecomics.com  

ARCHIE #11:  If you have been following the Archie revival, then you already have this on your pull list at your local comic shop.  However, if you have yet to experience the youthful exuberance and angst (of course!) that scripter Mark Waid brings to this title then you need to sample at least one issue. The old school magic is back. Since we’ve also enjoyed the scripting on this title for the last ten years, we can now have it both ways.

From the catalog:  "Archie and Jughead have been playing their instruments in Archie’s garage for a while, but now it’s finally time for them to take their talents elsewhere.  Veronica suggests that the two form a ban — assuming, of course, that she gets to be their lead singer.  This bothers Betty since music was a deep connection that she had always shared with Archie — so she’ll just have to form her own rival band."

BETTY & VERONICA #2: Writer/artist Adam Hughes style has always been a favorite of ours, so we feel confident suggesting this title even though we haven’t received our copy of the first issue yet.

From the catalog;  The battle no one expected hits its peak as Betty and Veronica declare all-out war on each other.  It’s a battle of benefits as Betty tries to raise money to save Pop’s, while Ronnie’s staging her own competing fundraisers in a move to destroy Betty’s efforts.  All bets are off as the girls go from best friends to cutthroat competitors."

AVATAR PRESS page284

http://www.avatarpress.com

If you enjoy the work of edgier creators like Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, David Lapham and others, and would like to see them at their edgiest, unleashed, unrestricted best - - - then Avatar Press is the imprint of choice.  They have published some of the best and boldest that these creators are capable of.  Not to mention the no-holds-barred illustrations.  Case in point is this anthology series spearheaded by Alan Moore as well as a chilling H.P. Lovecraft update from the prolific (of late) Mr. Moore.

CINEMA PURGATORIO #4:  

From the catalog:  “Sitting in the theater of Alan Moore’s imagination you begin to notice some rather disturbing things.  The floors are wet and the seats are tacky and have a noticeable smell of rot.  A female usher walks down the aisle dragging a limp leg and shining a muted yellow beam filled with dust and debris into your eyes as she  asses.  You catch glimpses of seedy characters and acts happening around you  But the lights have gone down and the show is beginning  Enjoy a front row seat to the biggest names in comics delivering their finest works, all in luscious black & white  This issues continues Cinema Purgatorio by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill, A More Perfect Union by Max Brooks and Michael DiPascale, Code Pru by Garth Ennis and Raulo Caceres, Modded by Kieron Gillen and Ignacio Calero, and The Vast by Christos Gage and Gabriel Andrade."

PROVIDENCE #10:

                                          From the catalog: “The end is near . . . can you feel it?  All is revealed in this issue and Robert Black undergoes the most startling of transformations  Robert Black has experienced the world beneath the layer we see in our daily lives.  And one cannot look into that abyss without it looking back at your very soul.  Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows have created something we have never seen before.  A fully realized masterpiece that embraces the true horrors of H.P. Lovecraft and delivers a one-of-a-kind slow burn horror that will leave you forever scarred by its insidious nature. "