Dark Horse Previews Picks: July 2021
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Mob Psycho 100 vol. 7
*lets out a long exhale* You can’t imagine my relief when I saw this volume in these solicitations. While vols. 5 & 6 were promptly re-scheduled after the pandemic interrupted Diamond’s schedule last year, and the “Reigen” volume arrived in November, there’s been no word on new volumes of “Mob Psycho” since. I was afraid this meant that the series had been placed on hiatus as so many manga from Dark Horse have in the past once they reach a volume number that is a multiple of three (see also: “Reiko the Zombie Shop,” “Satsuma Gishiden,” “Emanon,” “Drifters,” and “Blood Blockade Battlefront” — though the last two picked up from vols. 3 & 6, respectively, after they received popular anime adaptations).
My guess is that the interruption was partly down to the pandemic and partly down to Dark Horse having to negotiate for more volumes of the series to release. Shocking as it may be, the company only licenses a set amount of volumes of a series for release initially, and then they’ll negotiate for more if the series is successful. While it’s great to see that “Mob Psycho” has been successful enough so far to warrant Dark Horse coming back for more, my hope is that the lengthy wait between volumes hasn’t caused it to be forgotten by its readership. In other words, if you want to read the rest of this series BUY THIS VOLUME WHEN IT COMES OUT!
With that said, let’s take a look at the disturbing trend sweeping through Dark Horse’s solicitations this month…
Black Hammer: Visions vol. 1 HC: I liked the idea behind this miniseries when it was solicited. Mainly because I thought it would be interesting to see if creators like Geoff Johns, Patton Oswalt, and Mariko Tamaki could write “Black Hammer” better than creator Jeff Lemire could. As an eight-issue miniseries, I was also looking forward to seeing the entire thing collected in one volume when it was finished. As you can see here, this isn’t the case. Dark Horse is putting out a 112-page hardcover collection of the first four issues for $25. Were this just an isolated case then I’d just say that I’ll wait for the one-volume softcover edition (or maybe just a digital sale on the single issues) to read it. Except that’s not the case in this round of solicitations.
Overwatch: Tracer — London Calling HC & Young Hellboy: The Hidden Land HC: Here are two more $25 hardcovers with similar page counts (112 and 120, respectively), in the same round of solicitations. It’s enough to make you wonder why the publisher is going so hard for hardcovers here. Until you realize that all three of the collections I’ve mentioned here come from established franchises: “Black Hammer,” “Overwatch,” and “Hellboy.” As the publisher is aware of the fanbase these properties have, it stands to reason that they can make an educated guess about how many fans would shell out for hardcover editions of these stories rather than softcover. Or, more realistically perhaps, how these fans were likely going to read these stories anyway and were going to shell out for them regardless of the price. As for me? You know how I feel about “Black Hammer,” and I really don’t care about “Overwatch.” “Hellboy,” on the other hand, is a series I’ve been reading for years, but I’m not about to pay $25 for a spinoff miniseries about the character’s younger years. The time to get me to pay $25 for a hardcover “Hellboy” story would’ve been during “B.P.R.D.’s” heyday, and that’s long gone now.
So what about a miniseries that doesn’t come from an established franchise?
Dead Dog’s Bite HC: The solicitations for this miniseries from creator Tyler Boss made it sound a good deal quirkier than your average missing girl in a small town story. I mean, her name is Cormac Guffin if that doesn’t give you an idea. Anyhow, I hadn’t heard much of the series beyond its solicitations, so I’m honestly kind of surprised to see it get a $25 hardcover. The fact that it is makes me think that the latter situation I mentioned above is the case behind all these hardcover collections in these solicitations. That the publisher is expecting all of these miniseries to sell a specific amount and raising the price by putting it in hardcover isn’t going to affect sales in a meaningful way. Dark Horse is effectively squeezing its readership for more cash by doing this. It’s something I’d likely be more upset about if I was dead-set on reading these. In the case of “Black Hammer: Visions,” “Young Hellboy,” and “Dead Dog’s Bite,” I think that I can wait until I find these titles on sale somewhere. I mean, I was expecting them to at least be interesting, just not must-reads.
Then there’s the pricing with all of the graphic novellas that Dark Horse is publishing in these solicitations (all of which are in hardcover, with one exception):
Chivalry: $20/56 pages
Critical Role: Mighty Nein Origins—Yasha Nydoorin: $18/56 pages
Dragon Age: Dark Fortress: $20/72 pages
Falconspeare: $18/56 pages
Immortals: Fenyx Rising SC: $13/64 pages
With the exception of “Immortals,” all of these are continuations of existing brands. “Critical Role” and “Dragon Age” let you know this in their titles, while “Falconspeare” is the latest installment in the vampire-hunting adventures of Prof. Meinhardt and Mr. Knox, and “Chivalry” is the latest addition to the “Neil Gaiman Library.” Looking at these, it lets you know that $18-20 is what the publisher sees as the sweet spot for an OGN with a page count between 56-72 pages. “Immortals” likely would’ve fallen in that range had it been in hardcover. However, it’s the first OGN in the publisher’s partnership with Ubisoft and it’s clearly skewing at a younger demographic based on its cover. So it makes sense that it’s getting the softcover treatment since it’s a little less “prestige” than the other titles mentioned here, and it’s likely that parents will be doing the buying for this rather than the kids themselves.
There’s also just a little bit of price creep that I can spot here. Over a year ago, Dark Horse released “Snow, Glass, Apples” from Colleen Doran as part of their Neil Gaiman Library for $18. I heard that it was pretty successful, but this latest NGL addition from Doran clocks in at $2 more. From here, it looks like a “success tax” as it’s not hard to imagine those who shelled out for “Snow” and liked it, shelling out for this one as well. Myself included. This will be Doran’s third contribution to the NGL after “Troll Bridge” and “Snow” and those were two of the Library’s better installments. Also, I’ll be picking up “Falconspeare” since I liked the previous installments and its price hasn’t changed.
So, out of all of these hardcovers being solicited, I’m set to buy… two. I realize I’m just armchair quarterbacking the publisher’s efforts here, but it’s hard to see this plan working out for them. Only Marvel and DC can really squeeze their fans like this because they’re banking on the fact that their audience loves their characters and really want to know what’s going to happen to them. The characters Dark Horse is trying to do this with don’t quite have the same legacy appeal and it’s easy to see series like “Dead Dog’s Bite” being passed over entirely because of its price. I’d like to see them go back to putting most of their new collections in paperback, but that’s likely only going to happen if this new hardcover initiative doesn’t produce the expected revenue. We’ll know about that in several months’ time just by checking how much of the publisher’s output winds up being hardcover-first.
With all of this being said, you might be wondering if there are any softcover or floppy offerings from the publisher worth noting this month. Quite a few more actually:
Bankshot: Writer Alex De Campi and artist Chriscross’ miniseries about a modern-day Robin Hood who is betrayed and is now out for revenge. This was originally set to be published last year… so you can probably guess why it’s being re-solicited now. I was onboard with checking this out when it was originally announced, and I’m still looking forward to doing so when it finally arrives.
Fear Case: Matt Kindt’s latest sees him paired again with his “Grass Kings” collaborator, artist Tyler Jenkins, for the story of the titular object. It has traditionally appeared throughout history at sites of great tragedy and destruction and whoever comes into contact with it must pass it on within three days or face deadly consequences. Sooooo… it’s like a chain letter in “case” form. Got it. I’m pretty sure that Kindt has more to offer here than my summation, but if there’s a good time for him to put out a new collection, this is it. Assuming that people make the connection that he’s the guy who actually wrote “BRZKR” and not Keanu Reeves.
Groo Meets Tarzan #1 (of 4): Years ago, Grook teamed up with Conan in a crossover that I never thought I’d see happen. It resulted in a crossover that was deeply underwhelming as there was less teaming up, or even fighting against, than I was expecting, with a good portion of the crossover’s length being dedicated to creators Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier horsing around in the context of the story. Now they’re back, with Tom Yeates as well, for a team-up with “Tarzan.” It’s been a good long while since we’ve had a new “Groo” comic, so I’ll pick up the collected edition to let Dark Horse know to keep them coming. I will, however, keep my expectations low for this one.
Halo Graphic Novel: This was originally published by Marvel as their initial offering after acquiring the “Halo” license. Whatever rights they had to it must have finally expired and now Dark Horse can finally republish it. It was a pretty good anthology, featuring contributions from Simon Bisley, Tsutomu Nihei, and Moebius. My “Halo”-loving days are over, but I can recommend this to anyone who’s still invested in the franchise today.
Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: The Secret of Chesbro House #1 (of 2): Big Red works with a psychic to clear a haunted house for auction and things go wrong. As stock as that premise sounds, there haven’t really been a whole lot of “Hellboy vs. Haunted House” stories during the character’s lifetime. Also, this features art from Vertigo and “Sandman” veteran Shawn McManus, so it ticks all the right boxes to make this sound like one of the Mignolaverse’s better recent offerings.
Masters of the Universe: Revelation #1 (of 4): This is being billed as the official prequel to the upcoming Netflix series from Kevin Smith, who is also co-writing this with fellow Executive Producer Rob David, and Episode Writer Tim Sheridan. If you read that and thought that Sheridan did all the writing while Smith and David sat around and “executive produced” then I wouldn’t blame you. I’m also betting that you already know whether or not this miniseries is for you even before I mention that “Crimson Lotus” artist Mindy Lee is drawing everything.
Savage Hearts #1 (of 5): Launching one miniseries last month wasn’t enough for writer Aubrey Sitterson. Now he’s back with another, with artist Jed Dougherty. “Savage Hearts” is billed as a romantic comedy… set in a Hyborian-esque jungle! Which means that the romantic partners involved are a female barbarian with a broken heart and a lonely beastman who talks to dinosaurs! Sure, why not. The setting and characters alone are a refreshing change from the kinds of rom-coms I usually read about. It’s also worth mentioning that the single issues of “Savage Hearts” are coming with a print-only backup story from Sitterson and artist Goran Gligovic called “No Kings, No Masters.” Without knowing anything else about it, I don’t think I’ll be missing much if I skip it and wait for the collected edition of this miniseries.