Each and every week, I, “Go Patriots!” Henchman 21 and “What trailers are they showing?” Empress Eve read a lot of comics. Seriously you guys, a lot of comics. Maybe too many comics. I mean, it is possible”¦ theoretically. Naturally, we look forward to some more than others. I mean, who doesn’t? So, let’s take a look into the depths of our pull lists, grab some comics, and we’ll let YOU know what the top books to look forward to are for the week of January 28, 2015. Single issues and trades, they’re all here.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh sweet, sweet nectar. These are the weeks that make me love comics oh so much. As I was putting together this list each week, I usually start with a general idea of what books I want to talk about and how many I’ll be writing about on any given week. This week I thought I knew what I was going to write about, but then new books jumped off the release list and demanded that I recommend them to you, and the list just kept getting bigger. There is just such a metric crap load of great books coming out this week that I just can’t wait to tell you about so let’s just get to it and an over-sized The GoD List!

Henchman 21

Casanova: Acedia #1 (Image Comics – $3.99) Casanova is back! I have loved Casanova since it first started as an Image slimline book for the low, low price of $1.99 and I still love it today. It’s my favorite Matt Fraction book with its mix of wild ideas and crazy spy action. It has just always tickled my sweet spot and it helps that it has amazing art by Fabio Moon. Casanova: Acedia is the fourth volume and it finds our out-of-place hero Casanova Quinn lost in Los Angeles with no memory, fighting the criminals who bankroll him while forces from the future try to do stuff. Casanova has always been a little weird but super cool and for whatever reason it is the one of the few books by Fraction that I have connected with. Moon returns with his stylish art and there is also a back up story by Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) with art by Gabriel Ba, and that is almost worth the price of admission right there. It’s been a while since we got our last taste of Casanova, and it tastes so good to have him back.

Criminal, Vol. 1: Coward (Image Comics – $14.99) This is just a re-release of the first storyline of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillip’s Criminal, originally released through Marvel’s Icon line, so there’s no need to double dip if you already own it, unless you need the new cover for some reason. However, for those who have never read Criminal before, you are in for a great crime book full of twists, double crosses, and lots of violence. I’m not sure where I would rank Criminal among the Brubaker/Phillips joints, but it would certainly be towards the top, as the team is just in top form.

Flash Gordon #8 (Dynamite Entertainment – $3.99) Seriously, be reading this book. Flash Gordon has the best female protagonist in comics and I’m not even joking. There is so much to enjoy about Jeff Parker and Evan Shaner’s Flash Gordon. Sadly, this is the last issue by the team, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get pick up all the previous issues and enjoy. Meanwhile…

King: Flash Gordon #1 (of 4) (Dynamite Entertainment – $3.99) There’s a new Flash Gordon mini-series launching this week. This is the follow-up to Jeff Parker’s series, and is the first part of a big event Dynamite has planned for all their King Syndicate series, such as The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Prince Valiant, and Jungle Jim. I’m showing the covers here so you know which is which. This series is being written by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker with art by Lee Ferguson and they’ve got some big shoes to fill. I can guarantee the other Flash Gordon series is great, hopefully this one is as well.

The Dying and the Dead #1 (Image Comics – $4.50) This is one of those books that I added to the list late, but I could not pass up talking about the new series from writer Jonathan Hickman, The Dying and the Dead. Hickman pretty much gets an instant buy on his creator-owned work, thanks to books like East of West and The Manhattan Projects. The Dying and the Dead re-teams Hickman with Ryan Bodenheim, the artist he worked with on Secret, and it looks like this series has a similar vibe as Secret, but more of a fantasy element, maybe. The description of the series is “A murder at a wedding reveals a fifty year-old secret. At great cost, a man with a dying wife is given the opportunity to save her. A lost tribe is reborn in another time. All seemingly disparate events which force relics from the Greatest Generation to come together for one last mission.” The first issue is 60 pages of story for about 5 bucks which is a good value, and Hickman is always worth your time, at least in my humble opinion, so I will definitely be picking this up.

Quantum and Woody Must Die #1 (of 4) (Valiant Entertainment – $3.99) I feel like I don’t talk enough about the books that Valiant releases because they are making some good comics, but I buy them fairly infrequently, so I’m never up to date on them. I should be buying them more often, as they have a lot of great books. And that’s what brings us to Quantum and Woody, which was one of the best comics from Valiant’s original run, and it remains one of their best series today. Writer James Asmus has recaptured the original spirit of the characters while putting his own stamp on it, and this mini-series features art by Steve Lieber, recently of Superior Foes of Spider-Man, and this is a perfect follow-up for him. If you liked Lieber’s work on SFoSM, give Quantum and Woody Must Die a look.

Vertigo Quarterly: Black #1 (DC/Vertigo Comics – $7.99) I bring Vertigo Quarterly: Black #1 to your attention on the off chance that you were a fan of Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth, as there is an all-new Sweet Tooth story in this issue. Vertigo Quarterly is an anthology series that DC imprint Vertigo loves to do from time to time. The central theme of each story in this issue is supposed to tie into one of the four colors that used to make up the comic palette, this time the color is black. In addition to the Lemire story, you get stories by Francesco Francavilla, John Paul Leon, Steven T. Seagle, Teddy H. Kristiansen, and more. Is that worth 8 bucks to you? Eh, that’ll be up to you, but you can’t say I didn’t alert you to new Sweet Tooth.

Munchkin #1 (BOOM! Studios – $3.99) Yes, it’s a comic based on the awesome Munchkin card game. How do they turn a game with no actual characters and just a bunch of goofy monsters and gear into a comic? I have no idea, but it should be fun to find out. I may need to find a print copy just to get the free card that comes with it. Because I’m a child of the 90s and I can’t not buy a comic that comes with a card inside.

Danger Club #6 (Image Comics – $2.99) Holy carp, I didn’t think we were ever going to get another issue of Danger Club, what with issue #5 coming out way back in April of 2013. I’m glad to see it back and if you can find the first 5 issues, I recommend checking them out. Danger Club is like Mark Waid’s Irredeemable, except instead of focusing on what would happen if Superman went bad, this is more about what would happen if Superboy went bad and the Teen Titans had to take him down. But that’s kind of only the start to it. We’ve got at least the next three issues to look forward to and I’m just happy to see more work from writer Landry Walker, artist Eric Jones, and colorist Rusty Drake. It’s always fun when you get a surprise book on your list, but I’m super excited to get back into Danger Club.

Empress Eve

Eye of Newt HC (Dark Horse – $14.95) This hardcover edition from Dark Horse Comics collects the 4-issue miniseries Eye of Newt from Michael Hague, best know for his illustrations for Houghton Mifflin’s 1984 edition of The Hobbit. In fantasy miniseries follows Newt, a young wizard’s apprentice who embarks on a quest through the mysterious Netherworld. The story is a good one and the secret Newt discovers makes a world of a difference when it comes to who will appreciate this tale; on top of that, the art here really shines.