NEW COMICS WEDNESDAY- OCT. 21st

Its a pretty slow week coming up for the 21st. It looks like the major publishers are planning on weighing us down with a ton of stuff for the end of the month.

Its an odd week when the biggest books are not Marvel or DC. In fact the biggest seller this week will be Archie #602,the 3rd part of the Archie's future story.This time around we get to see Archie as a dad, as him and Veronica have twins. I still can't get over the number of stores saying that they can't sell this comic. A day doesn't go by that someone new(usually a mom and daughter together) comes in and asks for the most recent issue.

For many young girls, this is their first introduction to the world of comics collecting. They've read Archie comics before, but now are interested in the whole process of bagging and boarding their purchase to keep it in good condition.

I'm not sure what the response to next months issue will be though, as its Betty's turn to marry Archie.

Marvel has been producing all kinds of comics with Noir in the title, but this book is the real thing.

Hard-core crime fiction by some of the biggest names in the business. Brubaker, Azzarello,and Lapham all bring their years of experience to the fore along with some talented newcomers, like Jeff Lemire. When you team these guys up with artists like Sean Philips , Eduardo Barreto and Dean Motter, hey, the book practically screams , BUY ME!

On the main stream end of things, Marvel and DC each have a new issue entry for the week. Although neither one is really an unknown commodity. Azrael#1 is the relaunch of a character that came about as a result of DC thinking it needed to IMAGE up its main characters. A tougher, nastier, grittier Batman was the result, and that person eventually took his own identity as the Sword of Azrael. This new version was introduced over the last year in various Batman stories and was featured in the 2-part Annual crossover the last 2 weeks.

The Dark Reign-List titles have been solid sellers so far, and there's no reason to think that the Hulk entry this week will be any less than a quick mover.

As usual, you can check out the on-line store for more info on these books and a full list of everything else that will be on the shelves here come Wednesday morning.