I missed when the first issue of Ted Naifeh's new book, Princess Ugg, came out before.  Happily plenty of the first issue still on the racks when this weeks issue #2 reminded me.  Naifeh this time goes with a barbarian princess attending a more traditional princess finishing academy...

Knights of the Dinner Table has Bob and Dave scrambling to try and find some advice or secret knowledge from other local G.M.s to give them a shot against Brian and Sara and Carvin' Marvin.  But none of them are willing to break the G.M. code.  At least not until some bets start going down as to which team will come out on top...

I'm not sure I buy into Southern Bastards High School football coach crime boss.  Given how focused he is on coaching when would he find the time to run a crime empire?

When not looking into the family history of Shutter's lead, this issue teaches the reader to never trust a platypus fixer...

New Gods met in the second issue of the Wicked & the Divine; Baal, the Morrigan and Baphomet.  Mentioned but not seen Tara, Woden, Inanna and Minerva.  Adding in previously met Lucifer, Amaterasu and Sahkmet thats Ten out of Twelve...

Rat Queens gives us a look at Hannah's kinder, gentler side.  And bad-ass lady brawler Lola (who I can't recall meeting before).  Also a glimpse at Sawyer's wang...

The Lumberjanes fall into some poison ivy, meet some boy campers and some yetis and finally get a cool, probably magic, bow and arrows...

Two Adventure Time related books.  The first, regular ol' Adventure Time celebrates its 30th issue by making it a MarcelZine issue.  Where Marceline edits a 'zine made up of stories contributed by all her pals.  Adventure Time Banana Guard Academy has Princess Bubblegum opening up the Banana Guard to non-Bananas 'cause she's tired of their being no turnips in the castle fridge for snacking.  Potential recruits include Peppermint Butler, Mr. Cupcake and Treetrunks...

While I do love Skottie Young's drawing on Rocket Raccoon I'm not so sold on his writing.  His Rocket is just so generically aggressively obnoxiously outlaw-ey.  And the revenge obsessed ex-girlfriend antagonist is no great shakes either...

And lastly the new New Warriors get their second enemy group in a Inhuman Supremacist group looking to force recruit Haechi.  'Cause Inhumans are the latest mass-super-power outbreak origin...

And the not-yet-a-team ragtag New Warriors manage to win against the High Evolutionary and Other Dude.  I'm mostly just glad to be able to see more of Manic Pixie Girl Hummingbird and her partner Ultra-Moody Scarlet Spider.  Even at Marvel's stupid $4 price point...

Old Man King Conan continues his flasback tale of middle-aged Deposed Conan.  This time he gets to stab a big-ass snake.  As Conan is wont to do...

Grabbed the 2nd and 3rd issues of Rucka's the Veil.  At the same time as the latest Fatale, which begins its final arc.  If their were more than two issues to go I'd probably be dropping the former.  'Cause it doesn't measure up well...

And look Rat Queens is back already.  I'm glad to see the hiatus between arcs of the best D&D comic was so short...

And a new crime/noir comic from Jason Aaron (and artist Jason Latour), Southern Bastards.  I liked Scalped and its between seasons for Justified so we'll see where they're going with this for a bit...

And a pair of Adventure Time related books.  Adventure Time 2014 Annual by Frank Gibson and Becky Dreistadt presents a birthday tale of Li'l Fiona.  And then more of Adventure Time: Flip Side.  With the Reverse Curse ravaging the Land of Oo, Monkey Wizard continues to refuse to kidnap Art Princess and runs off to be a cowboy...

Hey look, day of comics commentary. Suck it procrastination! Starting with the second issue of Resident Alien. I thought this DHP spin-off would be an ongoing, but it looks like it will only be a 3-issue mini. Four with that zero issue with the collected bits from Dark Horse Presents. With another murder, Harry the Secret Alien looks into local history for a potential suspect. Also the unnamed government forces have found the wreck of his crashed ship. Plus his night nurse looks to suspect there is more to him than is evident. Looks like writer Peter Hogan is trying to cram a bunch of stuff in over a shortened story arc...

Courtney Crumrin and her sort of friend/nemesis run around Goblin Town, meeting up with various and sundry from previous Crumrin forays into the faerie realm. All while being chased by werewolves...

Second to last issue of Scalped. And its the final confrontation between Dash, Red Crow and Catcher. With Agent Nitz and Dino Poor Bear added into the mix as well...

Fatale starts a brand new arc with a prologue featuring the modern-day obsessive Nic Lash. And the start of a 70s story with Hollywood hedonistic cults, B-list actors and doom bringing Josephine...

Savage Dragon is all alien monsters around the world. I think this is the third or fourth time Larsen's actually used global snap shots as part of an invasion story arc. Also, an Ant cameo? Seriously?

And finally Prophet, with Graham doing the art chores as well as the writing. With lots and lots of glimpses and the many and varied gonzo scifi weirdness of the setting. This book is so hard to capture and yet so very cool...

Got the 2nd Adventure Time with Finn & Jake I missed from a couple weeks ago. With Finn, Jake and an ever growing collection of the land of Ooo trapped in the Liche King's horrible magic bag world. Plus a Marceline helps with laundry story by Lucy Kinsley and a totally adorbs one-page sequence with Marceline and Princess Bubblegum by Zac Gorman...

Daredevil has another crazy good cover to go with its DD vs. Mole Man finish. Which is equally crazy and good on the interior art thanks to the Riveras...

The Unwritten uses its final .5 issue to tell an epilogue that could be a prologue to the next big story arc. With a look at the post-graduate life Daniel Armitage, a lackey of the big conspiracy thing. Which I know had a name but I still can't think of what it was. Or the name I gave them the last time I tried to remember it. So I'll think of them as the Mysterious Editors. At least until I forget again...

And lastly the end of Scalped rushes ever closer. With the body of Diesel turning up and Catcher massacring "wrong-doers" and Red Crow making his own final plans...

Quick post on today's comics. So DC according to this latest issue of the Shade there was no JSA but at least Vigilante and Lady Fatal (seriously?) were active during WW2? Your new reboot continuity makes no sense! And thats ignoring the whole compression of all the Robins over a 5 year period. Oh well, at least this "Times Past" interlude has some fantastic Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone art...

Oh hey, new Lobster Johnson mini. With a plucky girl reporter even...

And lo the Cabal would fight against the new improved mystical might of Tommy in the Unwritten with the power of the unliscensed fanfic?

And Resurrection Man gets an all-new origin. Involving government black ops and Mitch being a giant asshole...

Invincible and his new pal Dinosaurus are still working to make the world a better place. Just in time for Allan the Alien to show up with his plan for the Earth...

And finally Scalped has the FBI making their play against Red Crow while Shunka goes to settle things one last time with Dash...

Punishermax: Kingpin written by Jason Aaron, art by Steve Dillon, colors by Matt Hollingsworth, letters by VC's Cory Petit

Marvel's MAX line is meant to allow them to mature stories. Mature meaning truly gruesome violence and some nudity. The original MAX version of Punisher was Garth Ennis' five, six year run. Stripping away the ties to the super-hero Marvel universe and show-casing the essence of the character. A man whose personal tragedy and loss led to him slaughtering thousands of criminals...

In this volume the title has been taken over by Jason Aaron (Ghost Rider, Scalped) who adds a MAX version of Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin. And he's backed by the pencils of long-time Ennis collaborator Steve Dillon. And there are few artists as skilled when it comes to presenting the over-the-top comedic horrorshow of violence that is Punishermax. Aaron takes a risk by making Frank Castle almost a secondary character in this first arc, concentrating more on the origin and motivations of Fisk. But it pays off in creating a criminal antagonist for the Punisher that you can believe could survive and even best him. At least for now...

Lots of comics for this week. Partly from me deciding to grab the Waid written Daredevil soft relaunch after seeing it praised damn near everywhere. And it really is a great supers comic. Waid manages to move past all the crap and angst of the last 10, 20 years for the character and without any mystic hand-waving or retcons. Plus it helps that pencil and inkers Paolo Rivera and Joe Rivera due a pretty amazing job...

Then its more (of what is hopefully wrapping up) "Fear Itself" cross-over issues. The Thunderbolts A-team is mostly trying to get back on their feat after the possessed Juggernaut delivered ass-kicking. And I like the traitor in the group calling up Zemo for advice on dealing with an attack by Sin's Nazi rocket...

Then the Avengers Academy kids are sent away from the front line to rest up at their school only to have some of the bad guys follow them there. Which given that the evil god things mandate is to create global panic to empower their snake/fear/god/boss/thing, attacking a group of teen-agers in a secret sub-dimensional base doesn't seem to help with that...

And finally Heroes for Hire is split between Elektra and Shroud fighting piles of no-name goons controlled by the Purple Man and Paladin and Gargoyle and the fall-out from possessed Thing's attack on Brooklyn...

Leaving Marvel first up is more of Son of Dragon in Savage Dragon. Also some checking in with creepy couple Angel-2 and Mr. Glum. And a back-up feature about Vanguard...

So apparently Scalped will be closing up in nine issues with #60. Which explains all the game-clearing going on. You've got Red Crow burning, in some cases fairly literally, his criminal associations. And the severely wounded Bad Horse and Falls Down crawling out of the hospital to go after Chaser. And even the blowhard Sheriff whats his face looking to reinvent himself as an actual cop...

iZombie has, well, pretty much everyone meeting up due to the ongoing zombie rampage. Well not the vampire collective, though they were in last issue. And mummy dude and ghost girl are kind of off to the side doing something or other. But Gwen and her monster hunter boyfriend and Kid Wereterrier all end up in a giant clusterfuck with the government sponsored monster team and lots of zombies AND even more members of the monster hunter group. And its got Grampa Chimp and Spot's friends battling zombies while looking for Spot as well...

Secret Six comes to a close with this issue. And I kind of wish that Simone had gone for a real bloodbath as the Bane led Six face off against damn near every hero on the planet. I'm going to miss this fucked-up family. Though the cover where the core Six are stealing the literal title on their way out is nice...

And finally I've got the DC Comics Presents the Metal Men 100-page thing that got recalled a couple weeks back. Which is all lots of Keith Giffen written and Kevin Maguire drawn wacky robot adventures. Except for the first story which is Bob Haney and Kevin Maguire bringing the pure Silver Age crazyness...

Shorted at my shop again. This time on the new Empowered one-shot. Now I have to wait a week, maybe two for them to get me a copy. This is growing..annoying. I really don't want to have to scan the upcoming month or two's releases just to make sure I can remain loyal to my chosen store and still get the book I want...

I'm also a bit disappointed by Knights of the Dinner Table again. Other than a nice bit involving Nitro trying to get his daughter into gaming the various strips mostly feel like they're meandering and not advancing the major plot lines...

And a final bit of disappointment in that Annihilators turns out to be a 4-issue mini, meaning only one story arc for both half-books. Though I have to say the Skottie Young cover with Groot and Rocket Raccoon is just crazy sweet...

( No seriously, look at that )

I'd have more to say about the events in Scalped and the Unwritten but I'm too distracted by those stupid mini-comic ads for the "Super 8" movie. I actually have some interest in the movie, but those damn things are such a giant story break to all the books they've been shoved into...

Savage Dragon continues to follow Malcolm Dragon, with this issue also featuring new villain Thunderhead, son of Skullface...

A couple of finales this week. Starting with the 2nd volume of Incognito. Which has a much more noir ending this time around. And also what seems almost like metatextual commentary from one character...

Jack of Fables also comes to a close with issue #50. With Willingham and Sturges delivering a fairly disappointing Kill Em' All ending. I don't know why I expected more, but I did...

The latest Scalped checks back in with Carol and Dino and seems to be all set-up for later, possibly for a big, bloody final arc...

Knights of the Dinner Table continues the Poker Game of the Giants story with the UT+1 and Johnny K. Sadly nothing really for any of the other groups, including getting back to the Gary Jackson/Hard8 crew stuff...

ANd Savage Dragon continues even with a lack of Dragon, concentrating still on his kids Malcolm and Angel. Also I do like the back-up by Jason Thibodeaux, which has the pair in much more realistic looking high-school setting and character depictions...

Another light pull this week with only three titles. Starting with Kirkman's spin-off series Guarding the Globe. Where the Global Guardians go to an art show and later fight a Stonehenge monster. And we get a look at their villainous counterparts in the Order...

The Thunderbolts go up against some rampaging monsters from Monster Island alongside new member Hyperion. Sadly none of the giant beasts advancing on Japan are the original Big G. 616 Marvel could use the King of Monsters...

And Scalped begins a new arc, with Chief Red Horse facing an unexpected challenge to his political position. One he can't solve with violence or cash...