I love my weekly trip to the comic shop. I need my weekly trip to the comic shop. And normally, I devour the books in my pull over the next 24 hours–2-3 train rides and an hour on the couch will do the trick most weeks. But this has been one of those rare weeks where I still  haven’t finished reading my weekly dose…and an even rarer week where I’m okay with that, because I’ve actually been busy working on my own comics for a change.

• >>My copies of Doctor Dremo’s Taphouse of Tall Tales and Short Stories: The Spoils of Crime finally arrived this week, so instead of going to the shop to buy books, I went to sell them. If you don’t feel like waiting for an order from ComixPress.com, check out Cosmic Comics in NYC for a copy of this latest DC Conspiracy anthology.

• >>As for the next DCC Dremo anthology, The Splendor of Romance, I finished up a script for one piece (titled “Love Is A Many Severed Thing”) that will be drawn by my regular Dremo partner, Renzo Ventrella, while Spoils of Crime cover artist Jake “King Ink” Warenfeltz sent me his pencils for another Romance piece I wrote for him. We’re still open to submissions for that book, which is scheduled to be print-ready by February–check out the DCC site for info on how to participate.

• >>My co-editor on the Dremo anthologies, Evan Keeling, has helped revive the  title that “brought me to the show”–Division 18: The Union of Novelty Costumed Performers. Evan had taken on the daunting task of laying out the D18 trade paperback, which will now (finally!) be available for purchase (also via ComixPress.com) by the end of this year.

• >>Finally, a script I started working on at the start of my shitty year (when my dad died in June 08) and started sending around at the end of the shitty year (during my recovery from cancer surgery in July 09) got a nibble from a potential publisher. No jinxes. No whammies. It was just a nibble, not a bite…but sometimes that is enough to warrant a happy dance.

Non-comic distractions this week have included (but weren’t limited to: receipt of my sample of the Book of the Month Club-exclusive 2010 Stephen King Library Desk Calendar, for which I wrote two essays; finalized travel arrangements with former-DM/current-best seller Peter V. Brett for upcoming trip to the Toronto set of Resident Evil: Afterlife (woot!); general social/parental/husbandal duties; and a few headaches at my day job that I refuse to admit could have been caused in part (and just a tiny part at that) by some or all of the above.

So you can see why it has taken me a while to get through Haunt #2 (still Venom by way of Rescue Me) and the latest issue of the drone saga in Amazing Spider-Man (still boring and in need of a new storyline, ASAP).

I picked up Deathlok The Demolisher #1 (of 7), by Charlie Huston and Lan Medina, based 100% on the fact that I used to have a Deathlok action figure that I loved, yet had never read a single Deathlok comic appearance. I figured I owed it to that 4-inch plastic man who contributed to my childhood fun to give his new title a shot. I appreciate the new series’ take on Deathlok’s future setting–a mix between Gamer (a movie I liked) and Starship Troopers (a movie I loved)–but I found that for such a simple premise, this first issue was cluttered, confusing , and dull. Consider the debt paid, action figure.

Books I liked this week:

Captain America: Reborn #4 (of 5) was a great read, as expected, but the book has lost some oomf due to the ending being spoiled by everything from Marvel solicits for upcoming comics to the title itself. Steve Rogers is coming back, we get it, but will there be enough of a twist to how he comes back? I hope for the best, but expects him to just…be back. Poor Bucky-Cap.

Batman: The Widening Gyre #3 (of 6) continues to entertain me, despite my having to look up the word gyre every issue. Some vocabulary words just don’t stick.  The quality of the art has diminished since the first issue (brace yourself for a joke about the book actually being drawn by Walt Flanagan’s dog by #6, if the decline continues), but i’m really enjoying Kevin Smith’s words coming out of Batman and his supporting cast’s mouths. This issue features some great exchanges with the original Robin and a fun, unexpected scene with Aquaman.

Of course, the best book of the week for me is one that actually came out last week–Punisher: The List! In this comic, Frank Castle gets his ass handed to him (literally, though I think it happens off-panel) by Wolverine’s sone and Dark Avenger, Daken. The battle between these two is fantastic–artist John Romita Jr. at his brutal, bloody best. This issue is cover-to-cover action and the stakes are huge. Daken, and by extension, Norman Osborn, should be elevated as serious, badass Marvel villains to be reckoned with after an issue like this, but between the other “The List” one-shots having zero impact and the results of this issue leading directly into the laughable “Punisher: Franken-Castle” storyline, I suspect the whole thing will be forgotten in a few week’s time. But still, as a stand-alone comic, this issue rocked my socks.