That being said, if you’d like to follow my recommendation for this book you may pick up a copy of Daredevil Volume 1 here or you can pick one up at the shop and we can rap about its terrificness sometime.  Either way, Messrs. Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and Marcos Martin have crafted a swell book for Marvel’s Mr. Magoo and it would behoove you to give this superlative work a chance.

Punisher #1 Writer: Greg Rucka Artist: Marco Checchetto

For Frank Castle death comes easy…life is where things gets complicated. As New York City’s body counts continue to rise, the city’s streets are teeming with more methodical criminals than ever and a police force doing it’s best to keep its head above water.

The Punisher has returned to serve his own brand of justice with everything’s he’s got… but can he survive the darkness stored in his own arsenal? Plus bonus pages exploring some of the new personalities in Frank’s life…and how closely intertwined living is with dying.

This coming Wednesday Marvel’s Uncanny X-Force Volume 1 The Apocalypse Solution hits the shelves.  Written by Rick Remender and illustrated by Jerome Opena, so you know its got the Matt D approval.  You’ll see me pushing their Fear Agent, or Punisher regularly.

When the singles of this came out people were in here rabidly eating them up.  Gone by Thursday night the latest.  When asked for  back issues I would have to ask the person “Where have you been?.. . Man.”   Every one loves a new X-Book.  Not only does this have some of the most beautiful art I’ve seen in modern comics, this one is easily accesible by guys like me who have a hard time following X-Books. I’m not totally lost because I haven’t been reading all 17 different X-Titles coming out each month.

I like comics that only need one book on the shelf to get the point across, thats why I read stuff like Punisher and Fear Agent in the first place.  Gimme a comic with one guy up against everyone in a no win situation over one with a team beating on one dude any day.  But we can trust our buddy Rick to do a heck of a job writing a sick and twisted team book easy enough for new comers to enjoy yet involving current X-Universe stuff to keep hardcore fans pleased.   So thats the X-Scoop on this X-Trade that you can order from our X-Web Store, or buy in our X-Store on X-Wednesday.

Did I mention it has Deadpool in it.

Meet Casanova Quinn: prodigal son of a law-and-order family hell-bent on keeping the world safe and sound, now blackmailed into betraying his father and the international law enforcement organization he controls.  LUXURIA collects the first volume of CASANOVA as its titular star transforms from devil-may-care thrill-seeker into the most dangerous man in the world.  What happens when the ultimate player gets played?

Gorgeously re-colored and re-lettered by hand, this staggering psychedelic spy-fi epic is collected for the first time as it was meant to be made.  By the Eisner award-winning team of Matt Fraction (INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, THOR, UNCANNY X-MEN), Gabriel Ba (UMBRELLA ACADEMY, BPRD: 1947), and Fabio Moon (DAYTRIPPER, SUGARSHOCK). With all-new, all-different, never-before-seen bonus material!

Easily one of my favorite comics in years, Casanova is one of those rare books I get a absolute thrill out of selling to newbies and well-read comic fans alike.  Mind-bending, genre-bending, funny, sleek, sexy… it’s light years ahead of much of what the medium churns out these days.

Enjoy!

This week’s floppy for the frugal is Daredevil Reborn #1 for 50% OFF.

Written by Andy Diggle
Art by Davide Gianfelice
Cover by Jock
The apocalyptic events of SHADOWLAND have left the once-proud legacy of Daredevil in tatters. Now, far from the mean streets of Hell’s Kitchen, a new evil is rising, and the only man crazy enough to face it is a man with nothing left to lose. The road to Hell was paved with good intentions, but the long road to redemption is the far harder path…

We are selling this issue  for just $1.99 until 11:59pm EST on January 12th.

This week we’ve got the first issue of Ben McCool and Craig Rousseau’s new Captain America mini-series, Korvac Saga.  You can get your copy for $1.64 by mail-order on fpnyc.com from now through Wednesday December 8th at 11:59 EST, or in-store on the day of release.

Here’s Marvel’s solicitation for the book:

Captain America: Proud member of the Avengers, but he’s a man out of time, frozen for decades and unaccustomed to modern life.  Can the Sentinel of Liberty learn to fight alongside heroes 60 years younger than him, and why does Cap feel a strange connection to the man named Korvac?  Ben McCool (Choker) brings you an epic tale ten centuries in the making!

Previous entries featuring Ben McCool: SDCC: “Choker” announced

Saturn and Titan, dolled up for Halloween

Brian Wood talks Northlanders: The Plague Widow at the DC/Vertigo blog.

Marvel is looking for interns.

Superman: Earth One profiled in The New York Post.

Eddie Campbell video from Italy in 2009, via the Forbidden Planet International blog.

Toy customizer extraordinaire John Mallamas  interviewed at MTV Geek.

The Walking Dead premieres on AMC this weekend and this morning Zombies took Manhattan.

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Redemption:  The sequel to one of the most ambitious SF cinema flops of all time is expected to become one of the biggest films of all time.

What’s happening to my special purpose?  Action Flick Chick as The Baroness NYCC

Vanity: Jeff Ayers on Jeff Ayers’ job. 26 minutes of me pontificating upon the vagaries of NYC comic retail on the hottest day in recorded NYC history. In reality I know the difference between Detective Comics #27 and #37 and tensile and tactile.  Saw a doctor and got rid of it.

Lord loves a workin’ man:  Grant Morrison on Twitter.

When you’re rich and famous you’ll send me a postcard:  Thank you, Messrs. Gaiman and McKean for all the conversation pieces you’ve provided me throughout the years.  Thank you DC for changing The Sandman’s trade dress all old-timey and shit.

Don’t trust whitey:  Comics cover price = $2.99?

As reported by Deadline, Marvel Studios has commissioned Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer,  writing team behind 2011′s CONAN, to write a Dr. Strange film.

Marvel Studios has hired Conan scribes Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer to write Dr. Strange, marking forward progress on a long-gestating superhero property which will likely be among the first Marvel films generated under the Disney banner.

If green-lighted further down the chain (and there’s no guarantees there, as Stephen Strange’s possible big-screen adventures have been in development hell for nigh on two decades) this may be one of the first, if not the first, Marvel Studios films produced under the Disney banner.

Why should Dr. Strange fans be excited and/or scared?

Excited because Messrs. Donnelly and Oppenheimer are two very very “IT” genre screenwriters right now, their stars ascendant with not only CONAN looming, but also the forthcoming DYLAN DOG (starring Brandon Routh), and credits on an UNCHARTED film and an early draft of COWBOYS & ALIENS.

Scared because Dr. Strange seems a strange choice (pun intended) for a feature film in this era.  Iron Man and Hulk and Thor and Captain America and The Avengers have all the whizzbang action and ‘splosions the folks pony up twelve bucks to see these days.  Dr. Strange’s adventures are ethereal and mind-bendingly psychedelic- not exactly typical fare for the target popcorn crowd .  However, CG effects and the now-ever-present possibility of 3D make such a film an intriguing film if well-written.

Scared also because the writing team have screenplay credit on SAHARA, one of the worst films of the 21st Century.