Yes, my LCS also told me that new comics will show up on Friday (of Christmas week), but he'll be sitting on comics for 2 days to make sure he releases the new comics for sale that Friday (and he's not willing to risk selling them early because the nearby stores will narc on one another).

Thoughts on this weeks comics:

After reading the latest issue of Nova, let me just say that any comic that features a talking Cosmonaut dog who is head of security for a city inside the head of a dead Celestial automatically gets a score of +47 on the Awesometer.

Also, Dwayne McDuffie is writing the best FF stuff in at least 15 years, and Marvel is a fool to throw him overboard for Millar and Hitch.

The ending of the Captain Carrot miniseries sucks. Is there anyone who would pay money for a Captain Carrot comic who would enjoy that ending?

Bat Lash is gorgeous and well-written.

How long is McDuffie's run on JLA slated to be?

I believe he's the regular writer on JLA, so he's on the book for as long as he and DC both want him to be.

Did he get taken off the book, or did he leave on his own accord? Either way, the Waid/Weiringo FF run is one of my favorite pure comic stories ever. Were you a fan of that run, and say McDuffie's run is that much better. Or are you one of those weirdo's who didn't like the Wairingo run on FF?

Haven't read it yet, but i'm just that it's the last issue.

I've been OD'ing on DC (and GL). GL rocked. Johns is great and the art was FANTASTIC (kudos EVS if you're reading this ). I still have Countdown: Arena to read, but i'm still trying to figure out how Monarch became more powerful than multiple Supermans, Batmans, etc. I was also disappointed they spent so little time on Piper (and Trickster ) during this week's Countdown.

I think stuff like Planet Hulk and Sinestro War work better because they're more self contained and they have a single writer directing traffic. When you have all these big events, you usually have multiple writers, crossover into lots of books, and then the following happens:

1. The main "event" miniseries tries to encapsulate all the important events. However, usually this comes across as a jumble of things happening with little cohesion, as things are fleshed out in the regular monthly books

2. The monthly books are a mess. The writers have to sidetrack from whatever stories they were writing to fit the event in. Often, if you're collecting the miniseries and the monthly, there's enough overlap that you feel like you're reading stuff twice. If you're reading only the monthly, you'll get no resolution to what's going on.

The Sinestro War crossed over into Supergirl (I think, they didn't explicitly say) and Teen Titans, and as I'm backlogged on Green Lantern, I had no clue what was going on.

Fuckin' A Awesome!!! I'm such a HC junky.

JLA VOL. 1: THE DELUXE EDITION HC
Writers: Grant Morrison and Mark Millar
Artists: Howard Porter, Oscar Jimenez, Don Hillsman, John Dell, Chip Wallace, Ken Branch and Anibal Rodriguez
Collects JLA #1-9 and JLA SECRET FILES #1
$29.99, 256 pages

Hopefully they print it on good stock.

I didn't really care for that run (although to be fair, I only read up through the Dr. Doom storyline). My favorite FF runs are Lee/Kirby, Byrne, and Simonson.

That is quite cool as I love the Morrison - Waid run on JLA. But ten issues seems a tad bit shy of normal for a deluxe HC. I'm guessing that has more to do with them not wanting to chop up the storylines than wanting to hold back issues.

But given that every single Fantastic Four writer after Byrne and before/since Waid sucked major league balls, you have to respect his work. It was a great work and it was a shame that he got the shaft the same way he did on Captain America. Marvel really blows sometimes.

This week:

Walking Dead is becoming too predictable and is really losing it's steam. It used to surprise me almost every issue but it's become really tiresome as of late. The pacing is really off too. It seems like there are issues filled to the brim with wordy chatter, and some issues just fly by with action and splash pages. This comic needs to learn balance.

Green Lantern: Talk about a great ending. Although, someone should tell DC that they're going to be about 6 years too late for the zombie comic fad.

If you thought Ultimates 3 was bad, this may make you laugh a bit

http://www.4thletter.net/?p=746

it's the ultimates edited for comedy sake. pretty funny.

I can't wait for the Sinestro Wars TPB - I picked up GL#25, and the book was too fucked up for me to enjoy - I mean that literally - half the pages were creased/torn with the art all smeared - it was basically damaged in printing and you wouldn't be able to tell if you didn't open it up, but since it's sold out, I couldn't get a replacement. Am I supposed to leaf through every book I buy now?

And really, I think the book actually picked up some steam after the Doom story.

Even though it was weird, since it didn't vibe with the regular FF book, I liked 4 (or Four) as well. I didn't buy for a second that the FF were broke, but they did some cool stuff in that book. Some nice focus on Sue, showing how badass she could be. Not the best stuff in the world, but enjoyable.

Doesn't your store have a return/exchange policy?

Yeah, I love Waid and 'Ringo, but I didn't enjoy a big portion of their FF run... mainly the disfigured Reed story and how out of it he seemed to be. Still, it got me to read FF for the first time in ages.

I loved the Waid/Ringo run just because of how fun and lighthearted it was. It really reminded me of the Lee/Kirby days.

I wasn't a big fan of the Marvel Knights FF title though. It was just trying way too hard to generate substantial family drama. It also had a real "been there, done that" feel to it. I also really don't like Steve McNiven's art.

Check out the Simonson run. There's one TPB out and hopefully more on the way. The issue where Reed and Doom fight each other while travelling through time (#352, I think) may be the greatest single issue of any comic ever.

They're sold of of it, so no possibility for an exchange, but they would offer my money back, but for $3-4, it's not worth the hassle. I'm just peeved because this happens on way more books than it should, at least for me it seems like it does.

That may very well be, but Waid/Ringo and Four were the first time I actually ever read FF, so it was all new to me.

I keep meaning to go back and do the Byrne run. I hear that's amazing.

Best Fantastic Four story since since the original Lee/Kirby days.

Sessa knows what he's talking about. It's a mini though. I LOVE meaty runs on a comic. It's nice to look back and have 60+ good issues of a comic to read through sometimes.

Excluding the Simonson run then . Yes, i've read it, and yes, I agree that it was a great issue. However, the slew of writers on the title - Jeph Loeb, Chris Clairmont, JMS (this one was especially bad).

Ultimate Fantastic Four was okay, I liked how modern it was and true-to-life. I also liked how overpowered the FF seemed in that series. I think Planetary had a lot to do with that. Fitting, since Warren Ellis was on both books.

I saw a huge stack of GL #25 at my back up LCBS on Monday. I'm looking for GL Corps #19. My main and back up store are out of it so I'll have hit my backup's backup.