Friday 23 January 2015

PREVIEWS JAN15 - selected highlights (Last chance!)

by Ben Fardon

In what we're hoping to make a regular feature - time permitting! - I'm going to quickly run through some of the selected highlights from January's Previews that are available to pre-order from Proud Lion.

I'll try to do this earlier in the month in February and from then on, giving you longer to place your orders. For now, I need any orders back by 11:59pm on Tuesday 27th January to definitely guarantee said items if you want anything.

Please email all orders to shop@proudlion.co.uk. Please note that all release dates below are subject to change.



Frankenstein Underground #1 (of 5) is a five issue miniseries written by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola with art from Ben Stenbeck (Baltimore, Witchfinder, Living With The Dead): The Frankenstein creature is alone, abandoned, and wandering underground, where he will discover other strange creatures-and dark secrets to the universe!

In an interview previously posted on Dark Horse's web site, Mignola commented "It’s intimidating as hell to take on an icon like the Frankenstein monster,” said Mignola. “I’m trying to do something that’s true to the origin Mary Shelley created for the creature but also captures a bit of the feel that Boris Karloff brought to the role in the classic Universal films. At the same time I’m throwing the monster into an entirely new environment, so I think the result will be something new. It’s an odd one, but ultimately will add an important new wrinkle to the Hellboy/B.P.R.D. world.”

Scott Allie, Dark Horse Comics’ editor in chief, weighed in on the project by offering that “this version of the Frankenstein monster has the same thirst for knowledge readers will remember from Mary Shelley’s novel. The monster takes the reader through some of the biggest mysteries of the Mignolaverse, shedding new light on important stuff we’ve only touched on before.”

Frankenstein Underground #1 comes out on Wednesday 25th March.




Batman Endgame #40 also comes out on Wednesday 25th March and during that last month of the story there are four additional tie-in one shots:


These books are $2.99 each and will automatically go aside for anyone who has the parent-title on their Reservation Service pull list (i.e. if you get Batgirl monthly you'll get the Batgirl Endgame #1 one-shot too) unless you opt out by Tuesday 27th January.

If you would like any or all of these added to your order, please email me ASAP.

The Endgame one-shots are due out throughout March.



Speaking of Batman, the eagerly anticipated next-gen video game Batman Arkham Knight is currently scheduled for release in June and DC have an official prequel comic starting in March.


Batman Arkham Knight #1 will fill the gaps in between Arkham City and the next chapter of the successful video game franchise: The Joker is dead. Arkham City is closed. As a new day begins, Bruce Wayne finds himself in devastating pain, recovering from his injuries and questioning whether his role as Batman is still necessary to the city's survival. But as the sun rises in Gotham City, dangerous new threats emerge from the shadows.

Batman Arkham Knight #1 comes out on Wednesday 11th March.






Image Comics go from strength to strength with their incredible offerings of late and this month is no exception.

Chrononauts #1 is from Mark Millar (Secret Service: Kingsman) and Sean Murphy (The Wake) and will almost certainly be turned into a movie in the future. Which is ironic considering it concerns time travel: A bromance for the ages! Corbin Quinn and Danny Reilly are two buddies who love to have fun. They're also scientific geniuses. When their research leads them to a time-traveling adventure, will they use their knowledge for the good of all mankind? Or use the space-time continuum for their own ends? This is the story of man's first, televised steps through the time-stream and everything going wrong in the process.

Chrononauts #1 comes out on Wednesday 18th March.

Fans of Trillium and Sweet Tooth will want to check out Jeff Lemire's new title Descender #1 with art from Dustin Nuygen (Lil Gotham): One young robot's struggle to stay alive in a universe where all androids have been outlawed and bounty hunters lurk on every planet. A rip-roaring and heart-felt cosmic odyssey that pits humanity against machine, and world against world, to create a sprawling space opera. Extra-sized first issue. 30 story pages for only $2.99!

Descender #1 comes out on Wednesday 4th March.

There's definitely a science fiction theme to this month's new Image titles which suits me just fine! Next up is Invisible Republic #1Breaking Bad meets Blade Runner. Arthur McBride's planetary regime has fallen. His story is over. That is until reporter Croger Babb discovers the journal of Arthur's cousin, Maia. Inside is the violent, audacious hidden history of the legendary freedom fighter. Erased from the official record, Maia alone knows how dangerous her cousin really is...

Invisible Republic #1 comes out on Wednesday 18th March.


Not to be out done, Becky Cloonan and Andy Belanger are also producing a new science fiction series called Southern Cross that has been eagerly anticipated since it's announcement at the Image Expo last year: NOW BOARDING: Southern Cross, tanker flight 73 to TITAN! Alex Braith is on board retracing her sister's steps to the refinery moon, hoping to collect her remains and find some answers. The questions keep coming though-how did her sister die? Where did her cabin mate disappear to? Who is that creep across the hall? And why does she always feel like she's being watched? Inspired by classic mysteries and weird fiction, SOUTHERN CROSS is a crucible of creeping anxiety and fear as Braith struggles with the ghosts of her past on board a ship that holds secrets best kept buried.

Southern Cross #1 comes out on Wednesday 11th March.

As a big fan of Terry and Rachel Dodson's work together, I have to say that Red One #1 has really piqued my interest: What happens when America's greatest hero...is a Russian Spy? Soviet Agent Vera Yelnikov is sent to 1977 Los Angeles by the Kremlin to become an American Superhero and spread communist values in the land of Uncle Sam in a funky superhero romp straight out of a Tarantino film by TERRY & RACHEL DODSON (Uncanny X-Men, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Harley Quinn) and XAVIER DORISON (Long John Silver, The Third Testament).

Red One #1 comes out on Wednesday 18th March.

And finally, those chaps from the Thrilling Adventure Hour are serving up a new comic Beyond Belief #1It's time to send the little ones to dream land, and set your radio's dial to 'SPOOKY.' Steel yourself for mysterious suspense in...BEYOND BELIEF! Meet Frank and Sadie Doyle, toast of the upper crust! Headliners on the society pages. And oh yes...THEY SEE GHOSTS! Who cares what evil lurks in the hearts of men... unless evil's carrying the martini tray! Based on the hit Nerdist podcast! 

Beyond Belief #1 comes out on Wednesday 18th March.




Never one to rest on his laurels, Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan) is back with an interesting new miniseries called Blackcross from Dynamite Entertainment that sounds like it as potential to be one of the creepier reads of the coming year: All small towns have secrets. All small towns have ghosts. Blackcross, in the Pacific North West of America, has more secrets than most. And it is being haunted by something impossible. BLACKCROSS, a supernatural extension of the PROJECT SUPERPOWERS mythos, is a ghost story about something reaching out from the other side of the night, through the forest and mist of this remote town, to grasp at the hearts of a handful of people who may not find out that they're the targets of a strange killer until it's much, much too late.

Blackcross #1 comes out on Wednesday 4th March.



And that's your lot for this month. Next month will include the chaos that is DC's latest nonsense, Convergence.

Please send any orders back by 11:59pm on Tuesday 27th January to shop@proudlion.co.uk. Many thanks!

Ben Fardon welcomes any feedback on these new Previews highlights articles.

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