Is It Wednesday Yet?

Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #1

New comics this week!

On my pull list:

• Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth #1 (of 3) (Dark Horse)
• Sweet Tooth #19 (Vertigo)
• Astonishing Thor #3 (of 5) (Marvel)

By now you've probably heard of Axe Cop, the webcomic written by a six-year-old and drawn by his 30-year-old brother. A few months ago, Dark Horse published a trade paperback collection of the strip. Bad Guy Earth, however, is all new material produced specifically for print. Ethan Nicolle spent a whole month at play with brother Malachai to come up with the plot and waited until the whole story was written down before he started drawing it. It'll be interesting to see how this affects the storytelling, compared to the webcomic's more stream-of-consciousness randomness. Preview.

It seems that every month, Jeff Lemire doesn't something with Sweet Tooth that he's never done before. This time, he opens up the door to his fictional universe and lets a few guest writers/artists play in it. These are Matt Kindt, Nate Powell and Emi Lenox. Which makes this an absolute must buy! Do you hear me? Even if you don't usually read this book, do not pass this one up! Preview.

Also noteworthy:

• Joe the Barbarian #8 (of 8) (Vertigo)
• Carbon Grey #1 (Image)
• Herculian #1 (Image)
• Intrepids #1 (Image)
• Captain America and Falcon #1 (Marvel)
• Emma #1 (of 5) (Marvel)
• Marvel Zombies Supreme #1 (of 5) (Marvel)
• Taiko GN (Marvel)
• Bodysnatchers #1 (of 6) (GG Studio)
• Chaotic Soldiers GN (Arcana)
• Styx & Stone #1 (Bluewater)
• Unimaginable GN (Arcana)

I totally missed the boat on Joe the Barbarian, the critically acclaimed mini-series by Grant Morrison and Sean Murphy, but I've nevertheless been eagerly awaiting the long-delayed final issue, because the sooner it comes out, the sooner the trade paperback collection will follow, and I'll finally be able to read it. Well, here it is at long last.

Lots of new stuff from Image this week. Carbon Grey and Intrepids look like new ongoings, although Image has a habit of sneakily turning those into mini-series after a few issues have already been solicited, so who knows? Herculian, meanwhile, looks like a hodgepodge of collected material from Erik Larsen in a 48-page Golden Age sized volume. You can find previews and more info for all of these on Image's website.

Captain America and Falcon is a one-shot which I think possibly ties into Fear Itself. I'm not sure. But I might get it anyway, because Rebekah Isaacs does the art. Written by Rob Williams. Preview.

Takio is a new all-ages graphic novel by Bendis and Oeming. It looks great! Preview.

Bodysnatchers is a "story with retro-sci-fi flare and a visionary dystopian saga" by Italian writer and artist Pasquale Pako Massimo. I can't seem to find much more information about it online. Other than the solicitation text and low-resolution jpegs of the cover, I can't seem to find any promotional material for this title online. I don't really understand why some smaller publishers have almost no web presence. Maybe they don't want to sell any comics. In any case, I haven't pre-ordered this so I doubt my store will have a copy.

The graphic novel Chaotic Soldiers, meanwhile, has a whole website devoted to it and you can read the full first chapter of the graphic novel for free on it.

Styx & Stone is a new horror series, not to be confused with the Marvel characters of the same name. Bluewater usually puts out crappy Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga comics, but this actually looks like it could be okay. There's a preview here and a review here.

There's a preview for Unimaginable here.

Finally, Wulf is part of the relaunch of the Atlas line of comics from the 1970s. The new series is written by Steve Niles with art by Nat Jones. Find out more here.