This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new title. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about it (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the link, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.

Castle Waiting Vol. II #18
by Linda Medley

24-page black & white 6.75" x 10.25" comic book • $3.95

"I do believe Castle Waiting Vol. II #18 wraps up the current storyline for Linda Medley’s long-running fantasy comic..." – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal

"If I had $15, I’d keep my purchases solely to Castle Waiting #18, the final issue in Volume 2 of Linda Medley’s slow-moving, but charming fantasy series. I don’t know if Medley is planning on a Vol. 3 or not — I hope so — her cast has grown on me and I want to continue to learn more about them." – Chris Mautner, Robot 6

Let's face it, if you're reading our new hardcover collections of Hal Foster's Prince Valiant, you know that every volume is a must-have, but our latest, Vol. 6, is a particular can't-miss. In it, Val and his new bride Aleta travel the New World (beating Columbus, and even Leif Ericson, by centuries) from Newfoundland to Niagara Falls and are joined by a bouncing baby Prince — that's right, it's the birth of Arn! This volume also features some of our most spectacular bonus features ever, including a double-sized fold-out of a strip hand-colored by Foster. You can get it in January (and we'll have more extensive previews by then); pre-order is open now and you can read a 12-strip excerpt, all right here.

Shipping from our mail-order department and arriving in comic shops tomorrow:

Castle Waiting Vol. II #18
by Linda Medley

24-page black & white 6.75" x 10.25" comic book • $3.95

The conclusion to Castle Waiting Volume II! The castle folk prepare for winter as Dr. Fell surprises everyone with a previously hidden talent, and the exasperated poltersprites move to claim the Keep as their own.

"Castle Waiting creates a vibrant fantasy world not unlike The Lord of the Rings' Middle-earth but with a focus on the lives of women.... Fun to read and look at, Castle Waiting will enthrall fantasy readers of both genders." – Time

Read the first 3 pages below (click images for larger versions):

Weird Horrors & Daring Adventures: The Joe Kubert Archives Vol. 1
by Joe Kubert; edited by Bill Schelly

240-page full-color 7.5" x 10.75" hardcover • $39.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-581-5

Ships in: December 2012 (subject to change) — Pre-Order Now

Joe Kubert sealed his reputation as one of the greatest American comicbook cartoonists of all time with the four-color adventures of Sgt. Rock of Easy Company, Enemy Ace, and Tarzan, all done for DC Comics during the 1960s and 1970s (themselves already the subject of archival editions)... but he had been working in comics since the 1940s. In fact, young Kubert produced an exciting, significant body of work as a freelance artist for a variety of comic book publishers in the postwar era, in a glorious variety of non-super hero genres: horror, crime, science fiction, western, romance, humor, and more.

For the first time, 33 of the best of these stories have been collected in one full-color volume, with a special emphasis on horror and crime. The Kubert work in this book is that of a burgeoning talent attacking the work with tremendous panache, and in the process, developing a style that became one of the most distinctive in the medium.

Since these stories were written and drawn in the pre-Comics Code era, they are more thrilling, violent and sexy (by contemporary standards) than much of his later, Code-constrained work. And just the titles of the comic books from which these stories are taken are wonderfully evocative of a bygone era of four-color fun: Cowpuncher, Abbott and Costello Comics, Three Stooges, Eerie, Planet Comics, Meet Miss Pepper, Strange Terrors, Green Hornet Comics, Whack, Jesse James, Out of This World, Crime Does Not Pay, Weird Thrillers, Police Lineup, and Hollywood Confessions.

As with Fantagraphics’ acclaimed Steve Ditko and Bill Everett Archives series, Weird Horrors and Daring Adventures boasts state-of-the-art restoration and retouching, and an extensive set of historical notes and an essay by the book’s editor Bill Schelly, author of the Art of Joe Kubert art book and Man of Rock Kubert biography.

22-page excerpt (download 14.9 MB PDF):

Video & Photo Slideshow Preview (view in new window):

Don your finest potato sack, put the nearest container on your head and get ready for the January arrival of Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 2, the second hardcover collection of Michael Kupperman's cult-smash humor comic! Join Snake 'n' Bacon, Twain & Einstein, Quincy M.E., Jungle Princess and a cast of dozens more on an absurd journey through history, to the moon and into your dreams! This volume collects issues 5-8, plus a full issue's worth of brand-new never-before-seen material. See for yourself why Conan O'Brien says Kupperman has "one of the best comedy brains on the planet right now." Read a 16-page excerpt and pre-order your copy (with a money-saving deal on a set of both volumes) right here.

Nobody can ever accuse Johnny Ryan of slacking. Prison Pit Book 4 is still warm on the shelves and already Johnny has turned in the cover art for Book 5, which won't be out until Fall of next year. What is that floating death head tank thing? Who are those guys? What kind of crazy shit is gonna happen in this one? WHAT KIND???

Uncle Jim takes you on a narrated tour through his upcoming book Problematic: Sketchbook Drawings 2004-2012 (due next month) and shows off a few of the original Moleskine notebooks from which the drawings in the book were taken, describing it all in his inimitable style. Hey, this means I don't have to shoot the usual preview video of the book — although in a bit of a switcheroo, Jim has loaned us 4 of his sketchbooks for us to shoot and upload video of those (they're just sitting around in my living room right now, no big deal, PLOTZ), so stay tuned for that!

Jaxon - drawn to the task from Telebob on Vimeo.

If you'd like to know more about Jack Jackson before digging in to our forthcoming volume Jack Jackson's American History: Los Tejanos & Lost Cause, this short video documentary created by Bob Simmons is an excellent primer. (Hat tip to Patrick Rosenkranz for pointing it out to us a ways back.)

Hot pixels! Paul Hornschemeier just revealed the cover art for Forlorn Funnies Vol. 1, the first volume of his new one-man anthology series which we have the pleasure of bringing to you in September of next year. (You may remember it was originally announced for Fall 2010, but then Paul got busy with little things like getting married, moving, becoming a dad, doing artwork and animation for an IFC show amongst other projects... stuff like that.) For several months now Paul has been revealing work-in-progress glimpses (along with sketchbook artwork) on his Tumblr blog, so head over there for a taste of things to come.

It's our great privilege to be bringing you a "lost" comics masterpiece of the 1990s in a new, definitive, remastered, expanded hardcover edition. 7 Miles a Second is the memoir of renowned artist, writer, filmmaker and activist David Wojnarowicz, from his youth husling on the streets of Manhattan to his battle with AIDS in adulthood, drawn by James Romberger and colored by Marguerite Van Cook. Alternately lyrical and harrowing, blending gritty realism with elements of surrealism and psychedelia, it's been called "revelatory," "revolutionary" and "a cult classic"... and now it can finally be seen the way it was always intended. This book should be available in January, and it looks like we'll be able to offer an exclusive signed bookplate, possibly with brand new art, to our mail-order customers. Stay tuned for details and more extensive previews; read a 7-page excerpt and pre-order your copy right here.