This week's comic shop shipment is slated to include the following new titles. Read on to see what comics-blog commentators and web-savvy comic shops are saying about them (more to be added as they appear), check out our previews at the links, and contact your local shop to confirm availability.
(Note that this includes some books that haven't been officially announced as shipping yet — unless we missed it — but we're pretty confident they've shipped over the last couple of weeks and we got tired of waiting to post the blurbs.)
128-page two-color (with some full color) 7.25" x 10" hardcover • $24.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-590-7
"I've wanted a collected edition of Sala's version of Snow White ever since it was released in Fantagraphics' great-looking, but difficult to store Ignatz format. And now I'm finally getting it. Merry Christmas to me." – Michael May, Robot 6
"Prestige treatment for a prestige book" – Bergen Street Comics
"One of the old Ignatz miniseries finds itself collected via Richard Sala's Delphine…" – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal
The Heart of Thomas (トーマの心臓 / Thomas no Shinzō)
by Moto Hagio
528-page black & white (with some color) 7" x 9.5" hardcover • $39.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-551-8
"A very early contender for manga release of 2013 arrives in the form of The Heart of Thomas, a 524-page all-in-one hardcover compilation of a mid-'70s landmark in Japanese comics-for-girls, Moto Hagio's epic of gnawing desire among sparkling schoolboys." – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal
Weird Horrors & Daring Adventures: The Joe Kubert Archives Vol. 1
by Joe Kubert; edited by Bill Schelly
240-page full-color 7.5" x 10.75" hardcover • $39.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-581-5
"Even older (and somewhat differently-themed) comics can be enjoyed in Weird Horrors & Daring Adventures: The Joe Kubert Archives Vol. 1, a 240-page, Bill Schelly-edited ‘best of' collection for pre-Code genre pieces by the late Kubert." – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal
Castle Waiting Vol. 1 (Softcover Ed.)
by Linda Medley
472-page black & white 5.5" x 8" softcover • $24.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-602-7
"A softcover edition drops for Linda Medley's Castle Waiting Vol. 1." – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal
Problematic: Sketchbook Drawings 2004-2012
by Jim Woodring
364-page black & white 5.25" x 8" hardcover • $28.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-594-5
"And then you can just throw finished comics aside entirely in favor of Problematic: Sketchbook Drawings 2004-2012, a 5.25″ x 8″, 364-page collection of Moleskine pieces, 'much of it… too baffling to be harnessed for any practical use,' by the awesome Jim Woodring." – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal
Beta Testing the Apocalypse
by Tom Kaczynski
136-page two-color 6.5" x 9.25" softcover • $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-60699-541-9
"…[T]here are a lot of good books out this week. The new Tom Kaczynski book Beta Testing the Apocalypse comes most immediately to mind…" – Chris Mautner, Robot 6
"Terror of the present, as Tom Kaczynski collects his excellent short stories of uneasy habitation into Beta Testing the Apocalypse, a 136-page softcover boasting substantial a new piece." – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal
"Just read page 1 of Tom @unciv Kaczynski's Beta Testing the Apocalypse published by @fantagraphics Best thing I've read in ages! ONE PAGE!!!" – OK Comics
Jack Jackson's American History: Los Tejanos & Lost Cause
by Jack Jackson
320-page black & white 7.5" x 10.25" hardcover • $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-60699-504-4
"Struggles of the past, as Texas history returns to print in Jack Jackson's American History Vol. 1: Los Tejanos & Lost Cause, the 320-page first of three hardcover volumes set to collect the entirety of the underground pioneer's nonfiction graphic novels." – Joe McCulloch, The Comics Journal