Here are my picks for items in the January 2010 issue of Previews. Most of these items will be out in March 2010, unless otherwise noted, because some companies love advanced solicitation.

The big section in this month’s catalog is the listing of books that you will be able to pick up on Free Comic Book Day, which is May 1st this year. The big book this year will be DC’s War of the Supermen #0, which looks to kick off DC’s next big event. Marvel counters with an Iron Man/Thor book written by Matt Fraction with art by John Romita Jr. Fans of David Peterson’s Mouse Guard will want to pick up the Archia book, which will have an all new Mouse Guard story. Red 5 comics is back with another new Atomic Robo story, which will hopefully be as good as last years. Finally, Wizkids! will have a new War Machine figure for their Marvel Heroclix game. All in all, it looks like there will be a nice selection for this year’s FCBD.

The big book from Dark Horse this month is The Guild #1. Fans of the internet series staring Felicia Day will rejoice at this, since its being written by Day herself. The thing that has me interested is the art by Jim Rugg, whose art I’ve enjoyed since reading Street Angel. The only other thing I’ll pick up from Dark Horse will be volume 8 of Conan, collecting the next batch of issues.

Blackest Night #8 brings the event to a close, and fortunately we only have to deal with three Blackest Night issues in March.

The book I’m most looking forward to is First Wave #1. Written by Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets) and featuring art by Rags Morales (Identity Crisis), this book kicks off a new line of DC books focusing on pulp heroes like Doc Savage, the Blackhawks, and The Spirit. The preview art in the Doc Savage/Batman crossover looked great, and I think this is a great fit for Azzarello, so I’m excited for this one.

The most interesting book from DC is Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965, which is written and drawn by legend Joe Kubert (this will be out in May). This is the true story of a group of Special Forces soldiers and what happened on a recon mission. Kubert made his career drawing war comics, and I love military history, so this could be something special.

Finally, DC/Vertigo jumps on the vampire band-wagon with American Vampire. The big news with this one is that it is written by Scott Snyder and a man you may have heard of before: Stephen King. Not to be overlooked should be the art of Raphael Albuquerque, who may have been overlooked on Blue Beetle, but should be seen with this book. And then, if you need to buy it again, there’s a new edition of Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes, this time using the new coloring that was first used in the Absolute edition. Finally, if you need more Green Lantern rings, you can buy a set for $60 which will light up when you put them on your finger. Cause we all need more rings.

Marvel brings us a metric ton of Siege issues in March, ten in total. Marvel’s most interesting book of the month has to be Girl Comics #1, which has a horrible title, but a great line up of some of the best female creators working today.

Next we get the entirely too many Deadpool series, this month clocking in at five. Frank Cho returns to monthly comics with Ultimate Comics New Ultimates #1 which is probably an even worse title than Girl Comics. At least we know it will look pretty good and then be horribly delayed.

Spider-Man fans are blessed with five issues of Amazing Spider-Man in March, all of which continue The Gauntlet storyline, and that’s just fine with me. The X-Men start yet another crossover in March with Second Coming, which will close out the story started four years ago in Messiah Complex, so there’s that if you’re into it.

The biggest book of the month may be the next project from the team that brought us Civil War and Old Man Logan, as Mark Millar and Steve McNiven bring us Nemesis. The text makes it look like this will be very similar to Millar’s Wanted and Kick-Ass, so fans of those two books will want to check this out. I’ll pick it up for McNiven’s art, although I may just wait for the series to be collected. Oh, and Iron Man has a new movie coming out in March, so we get a whole bunch of tie-ins, including The Art of Iron Man 2, a new series titled Iron Man 1.5, written by Joe Casey with art by Barry Kitson, which bridges the first and second movie together, and then a bunch of collections of older stories.

The book I’m most looking forward to from Image is Godland Vol. 5: Far Beyond The Bang, because I love Godland, and it’s been too long since we got a new volume of the series. That’s about it from Image.

As we reach the back section of the book, there are some decent items. First up, from Archaia Entertainment comes The Killer: Modus Vivendi #1. I’m still waiting for the second hardcover of the first series, but if you’ve never read this series before I recommend it. It’s the story of an assassin and what it’s like being him, and the new series looks to pick up where the first one left off. The art in the first series was great, so I expect this one to look good as well. Next up, from BOOM! Studios is The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Vol. 2. This is kind of a recommendation on reputation alone, but the first volume of Don Rosa’s look at the life of classic Disney character Scrooge McDuck is regarded as a modern classic, and I expect volume 2 to be very good. I need to pick both of these volumes up and check them out.

If you didn’t know from Marvel and all their Iron Man stuff, it’s the start of summer movie season (yes, even in March) and we start to see this in a couple of items. First, Dynamite Entertainment brings us a new Green Hornet series. Kevin Smith may not have been able to direct the movie, but he does get to write the comic, which features art by Jonathan Lau. The next movie tie-in is The A-Team: Shotgun Wedding and The A-Team: War Stories: Hannibal, and B.A. I’m sure there will be some people who are looking forward to the movie and will get a kick out of these.

If you’re looking for something a bit more serious you can generally expect Drawn and Quarterly to deliver. This month they give us Market Day, by James Sturm. This is a look at Eastern Europe in the early 20th Century and what life is like for a Jewish businessman. The next item I’ll definitely be picking up is It Was the War in the Trenches from Fantagraphics. You know how I said before that I’m a fan of military history; well this book will scratch that same itch. This book takes a look at World War I from the eyes of the soldiers in the trenches. I’m very excited to read this one.

The last item from this month’s Previews that I want to get is on page 320, and it’s called The Big Lebowski: Dude Abides Kit. For $15 you get an Oriental Rug mouse pad, a severed pinky toe, a magnet that reads “The Dude Abides,” an embroidered bowling shirt patch for The Dude, and a trivia book. I’ll get it for the mouse pad alone.

And that’s what I’m looking forward to. If you want any of these items, don’t forget to let you local comics store know.