A Cold, Quiet Winter

I feel like the amount of books I'm buying is usually on the upswing by the end of the year, but not this time. Not according to the December solicitations, anyway. More money to spend on gifts for the important people in my life, right?

It also doesn't help Marvel listed a bunch of stuff in November's solicits that's actually coming out in December, then listed a bunch of stuff this month that's coming out in January. Case in point, the second issue of Fantastic Four listed last month comes out in December, and issue 15, which is listed this month (albeit with jack shit for information) comes out in January.

What's coming out that's new? Not a lot. Moon Knight's concluding and Marvel solicited the first issue of Vengeance of the Moon Knight, but it's one of those books coming out the first week of January.

Dark Horse has the first two issues of Borealis, which sounds like a supernatural murder mystery set up in the Arctic Circle. Mark Verheiden and Aaron Douglas as writers, Cliff Richards as artist. The solicit for the first issue interested me, but the second issue dampened that a bit, so we'll see.

Scout Comics has Blood Run by Evan Pozios and Stefano Cardoselli, which is basically extreme car racing/demolition derby. But Cardoselli's art has a lot of energy, so it's probably going to look good. There's also Total Party Killer by David Yu, which is about an "adventurer intern" wondering if all this questing is really what she wants to do. It's an $8 comic, but if Space Outlaws is any indication, it'll be over 40 pages, so, maybe?

Is anything ending in December? As mentioned above, Moon Knight. Uncanny Spider-Man, because apparently it really is double-shipping in November. Also, Ms. Marvel the New Mutant is only 4 issues, so it ends in November. I thought for sure Marvel would milk it for six issues.

So Marvel's section of my purchases is really getting gutted at the end of the year. I've looked at some of those "Gang War" tie-ins, but I don't really want to get wrapped up in some mini-event thing, even though it seems like a story I would enjoy.

What's left to discuss? Fantastic Four will ship at least one issue in December, I'm pretty sure. Coda will be up to issue 4, and Vault's solicits say the same about Lone, but that's not true because I'd forgotten the first issues of Vault's books always ship a month later than what they're originally solicited for. Midnight Western Theater: Witch Trial's up to issue 4, too. And Yen Press is releasing the 4th volume of Apparently, Disillusioned Adventurers Will Save the World. So, "4" is the lucky number in December.

Refusing to conform to this pattern, The Boxer is up to volume 5, and the main character's already won a title belt. Can't say writer/artist JH is wasting any time. And on a side note, I thought Jeff Lemire and Gabriel Hernandez Walta's Phantom Road was going to be a 6-issue mini. In which case, I'd probably buy it in trade at some point. But, as the seventh issue got solicited for January, I guess it's going a bit longer than that. Giving Lemire more issues only encourages him to slow things down, and he doesn't need the encouragement.