Almost missed it this week, and I don't have time to read it, so how about y'all tell ME what looks good!

It's that time again!

But here's the skinny... I'm in the process of opening my own bookstore! I get the keys tomorrow.

So if I randomly seem to drop off the face of the planet, I'm OK, I'm just trying to get a bookstore off the ground and bookstores are HEAVY!

So here's what looks good:

Amazing Spider-Man Spider-Versity #4 (Of 5) - Like Strange Academy, but with the Spider characters.

Assorted Crisis Events #9 - I actually forgot this was still going! Same author as Absolute Martian Manhunter so maybe there was a conflict there!

Good week for Bad Idea!

Banana Number One #1

Olympus Saga Megalith #0 (Of 4)

Tankers Vs. Ancient Aliens #2 (Of 4)

Dark Knights Of Steel II #1 (Of 12) - The first run was fun, the DC universe reimagined through a King Arthur filter. Hope it works!

Department Of Truth #38

DSTLRY:
A Mischief Of Magpies #1 - Seems like, after a long break, the DSTLRY log jam is lifted!

ElfQuest Hidden Years Gallery Edition HC, $149.99 - Woof. I have a hard time reccomending this for anyone but the hardest hard core Elfquest fans. This reproduces the five issue "Hidden Years" series on full size art pages, with color tests and marginal notes from Wendy Pini... but no text. This is purely an art installation... but if you know the art, you know!

Fear Of Death A Rachel Rising Story #1 (One Shot) - Terry Moore has his own little universe going that most people aren't aware of. Strangers in Paradise is excellent, as is Motor Girl and Serial.

Rachel Rising ran 42 issues and is well worth reading! Rachel Beck wakes up in shallow grave with strangulation marks and finds out technically she should not be alive... And then it gets strange!

Foundations #1 (One Shot) - I have to be honest, I don't actually KNOW anything about this book, but it looks promising!

Ghost Machine:
Rocketfellers #13 - Glad to see this one back, there was a long break after #11.

Grendel Devil's Crucible Sedition #1 (Of 4) - Yaaaaaay! New Grendel book! It's been a minute!

Wagner has been in the middle of a giant epic, it started with the eight issue Devil's Odyssey where Grendel Prime launched into space, then the four issue Devil's Crucible: Defiance showing him returning to Earth.

Sedition is the latest 4 issue arc and is due to be followed by Devil's Crucible: Necrotic.

Space Ghost Volume 2 Annual #1 (One Shot) - Each season of Space Ghost gets bookended by an annual, expect Season 3 any day now!

Wonder Woman #35 - Continuing what I hope is a definitive WW run!

X-Books:

Inglorious X-Force #7

X-Men #33

I'd apologize for losing track of days, but it's going to get worse! 😉

Some good stuff this week!

Bad Idea: Dingoliath #1 (One Shot) - Sounds like a Roger Corman flick with Ray Harryhausen effects!
Hank Howard Pizza Detective The Inside Job #1

Clayface Celebrity Dirt #1 (Of 6) - Probably to tie in to the upcoming Clayface movie - releases 10/23.

DSTLRY:
White Boat #3 - Been a minute! We got White House Robot Romance, City Beneath Her Feet, and now this, back to back to back!

Fire And Ice Darkwolf #1 - One of those weird properties where I'm like "Wait - Other people remember that movie?"

Future Is ****** #15 - weird how it's utopian and dystopian all at once.

Rocketeer Infiltrator #1 - No, it's not Dave Stevens, but who is? 😉

Star-Crossed #1 (Of 5) - New Mark Millar book! Covers by Jae Lee and Stuart Immonen? Yes please!

Witness Point #1 (Of 4) - Nathan Fillion writing a comic? Yes! Please!

X-Books:

Uncanny X-Men #31
Wolverine #23
X-Men '97 Season Two #2

New comic day! New comic day!

Let's see here...

Absolute Martian Manhunter #12 - I believe this is the final issue!

Bad Idea - Ordained #3 (Of 4)

Batman/Green Arrow/The Question Arcadia #4 (Of 4) - I forgot there was one issue left on this!

Deadman #2 (Of 6) - Love to see obscure characters come back!

DSTLRY - City Beneath Her Feet #3 - OMG! FINALLY!

EC Comics - Cruel Universe 2 #12 (Of 12) Closing another great EC run!

Ghost Machine The Official Guidebook #4 (Of 5) - Handbook to the Ghost Machine universe...

Marvel Swimsuit Special Brand New Beach Day #1 - Always hilarious when they do this. Last year it was ragging on AI generated swimsuit issues.

Mortal Thor #12 - I binged the ones I hadn't read yet, feels like this might be the end of an arc.

Shaolin Cowboy Staying A.I.Live #1 (Of 4) - Geof Darrow is one of those INSANELY detailed artists. This is the latest in the always amazing Shaolin Cowboy line, following on 7 issues from comic publisher Burlyman and 11 from Dark Horse.

Darrow also did the Frank Miller books Hard Boiled and Big Guy and Rusty. He also contributed designs for the Matrix films.

X-Books:
Wade Wilson Deadpool #6
X-Men United #5 (Of 10)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/48800951

I just got an email from dBrand cancelling the Steam Machine companion cube shell.

They posted the rationale on reddit, /r/dBrand but for the good folks who don't do reddit anymore, here's their post:

"RIP Companion Cube

🚨 Announcement 🚨

As you’ve probably noticed, the Steam Machine Companion Cube was eviscerated from our website, YouTube, and other social media platforms last week.

The blunt version is that we made the Companion Cube without a license from Valve. Everyone who purchased a Companion Cube will have their refund issued by end-of-day. Everything else beyond this is just detail. If you want the full story, keep reading.

On November 12th 2025, the day the Steam Machine was announced, we put up a concept render and sign-up page to see if anyone would be interested in a Companion Cube enclosure. It went moderately viral, with over fifteen thousand people signing up to be notified in the first day. In the months that followed, we built the idea into something real without ever asking Valve if we could.

We’re going to regret that decision for a very long time.

Over the next seven months, we poured our souls into this project. More than a thousand hours went into engineering from our industrial design team. Forty-four sets of injection molding tools were developed, one for each of the cube's sub-components. The entire product was redesigned from scratch more than once, just to get the way it cradles the console exactly right. We literally rented out a university campus to film the launch video. By the end, we were losing money on every $99 Poverty Cube sold, but it didn’t matter. This had turned into a passion project for the entire organization.

Unfortunately, being proud of the thing we made did not give us the right to make it.

We launched around 3am on Monday, June 22nd. Overnight, it became the second-fastest selling product in our 15-year history, behind only the Switch 2 Killswitch.

Shortly after, Valve’s legal team reached out. They stated that the Companion Cube is Valve intellectual property, for which dbrand does not have a license. They requested we take down the product and launch film immediately. This was entirely within their rights, and they were direct, fair, and respectful throughout.

We took everything down and made an appeal. We asked Valve whether there was any way to keep the project alive: properly licensed, with their blessing, on their terms. They said no. Given our backwards approach of building first and asking permission later, it was a fair answer.

That’s basically the whole story. We made something a lot of people were excited about, then incinerated our shot at bringing it to market. It’s a hard lesson to learn publicly.

It goes without saying, but we’ll say it regardless: Valve didn’t do anything wrong here. They built a game franchise a lot of people love and they alone get to decide how it’s used.

To everyone who was as excited about this project as we were: thank you, and sorry. Refunds are being issued today. If it hasn’t landed in your account by the end of this week, you know how to reach us.

To Valve: thank you for Portal, and sorry for the headache. We should’ve asked first."

I just got an email from dBrand cancelling the Steam Machine companion cube shell.

They posted the rationale on reddit, /r/dBrand but for the good folks who don't do reddit anymore, here's their post:

"RIP Companion Cube

🚨 Announcement 🚨

As you’ve probably noticed, the Steam Machine Companion Cube was eviscerated from our website, YouTube, and other social media platforms last week.

The blunt version is that we made the Companion Cube without a license from Valve. Everyone who purchased a Companion Cube will have their refund issued by end-of-day. Everything else beyond this is just detail. If you want the full story, keep reading.

On November 12th 2025, the day the Steam Machine was announced, we put up a concept render and sign-up page to see if anyone would be interested in a Companion Cube enclosure. It went moderately viral, with over fifteen thousand people signing up to be notified in the first day. In the months that followed, we built the idea into something real without ever asking Valve if we could.

We’re going to regret that decision for a very long time.

Over the next seven months, we poured our souls into this project. More than a thousand hours went into engineering from our industrial design team. Forty-four sets of injection molding tools were developed, one for each of the cube's sub-components. The entire product was redesigned from scratch more than once, just to get the way it cradles the console exactly right. We literally rented out a university campus to film the launch video. By the end, we were losing money on every $99 Poverty Cube sold, but it didn’t matter. This had turned into a passion project for the entire organization.

Unfortunately, being proud of the thing we made did not give us the right to make it.

We launched around 3am on Monday, June 22nd. Overnight, it became the second-fastest selling product in our 15-year history, behind only the Switch 2 Killswitch.

Shortly after, Valve’s legal team reached out. They stated that the Companion Cube is Valve intellectual property, for which dbrand does not have a license. They requested we take down the product and launch film immediately. This was entirely within their rights, and they were direct, fair, and respectful throughout.

We took everything down and made an appeal. We asked Valve whether there was any way to keep the project alive: properly licensed, with their blessing, on their terms. They said no. Given our backwards approach of building first and asking permission later, it was a fair answer.

That’s basically the whole story. We made something a lot of people were excited about, then incinerated our shot at bringing it to market. It’s a hard lesson to learn publicly.

It goes without saying, but we’ll say it regardless: Valve didn’t do anything wrong here. They built a game franchise a lot of people love and they alone get to decide how it’s used.

To everyone who was as excited about this project as we were: thank you, and sorry. Refunds are being issued today. If it hasn’t landed in your account by the end of this week, you know how to reach us.

To Valve: thank you for Portal, and sorry for the headache. We should’ve asked first."

New week! New week!

A Quiet Place Storm Warning #4 - not generally a fan of licensed comics, but this has been a good run in the Quiet Place universe.

Amazing Spider-Man Spider-Versity #3 (Of 5) - Not the Spider-Verse, but Spiders getting schooled!

More Bad Idea!
Hab #3 (Of 6)

Bizarro Year None #2 (Of 4) - Bizarro Retold!

DSTLRY:
White House Robot Romance #3 - Finally! The story of the whitehouse cook robot falling in love with a secret service robot comes to a conclusion!

Ghost Machine:
Hornsby And Halo #14 - Hey! H&H is back!

Peril Of The Brutal Dark An Ezra Cain Mystery #5 (Of 6) - Gumshoe action mystery!

Rocketeer The Island #4 - Always a hoot!

Summer Of Supergirl Special #1 (One Shot) - No doubt tying into the movie coming out this Friday, 6/26.

Star Wars Galaxy's Edge Echoes Of The Empire #3 (Of 5) - Bringing the Galaxy's Edge park closer to continuity!

Swamp Thing 1989 #3 (Of 4) - Nearly finishing off the banned Swamp Thing run from 1989!

Ultimate Endgame #5 (Of 5) - Capping the Ultimate Universe.

Ultimate Impact Reborn #2 (Of 5) - Or is it? 🤔

Ultimate Universe Finale #1 (One Shot)

Wonder Woman #34 - Love modern WW!

Zatanna (2026) #3 - Latest in the Zatanna minis, always fun!

X-Books:

Generation X-23 #5
Moonstar #4 (Of 5)
Wolverine #22
X-Men #32

I mentioned this one last week because nobody likes a surprise $40 hardcover, but this bears repeating:

X-Men: Elsewhen (Volume 1 of 3) (Hardcover) - Abrams Books

This might be hard to find because it's coming from Abrams and not Marvel and it's a $40 hardcover...

John Byrne had an ICONIC run on X-Men from #108 to #143, nearly 3 years. During that time he drew the introduction of Alpha Flight, the Proteus story arc, the Hellfire Club and Dark Phoenix as well as the two-part Days of Future Past.

It turns out, after he left the book, he kept going! Unable to let the characters go, and these stories have remained unpublished FOR 45 YEARS(!)

Abrams has now completed the work as finished graphic novels and is publishing them as a 3 volume set!

Almost forgot what day it was!

Let's see here...

Amazing Spider-Man #31 - I don't typically buy Spider-Man but this is one of those "Stunning Revelations! Nothing Will Be The Same" kind of issues.

Bad Idea has been on a roll lately!

Olympus Saga Megalith #2 (Of 4)

Concrete Stars Over Sand #1 (Of 5) - Oh, man, Dark Horse is bringing back Concrete!

Back in the day, when Dark Horse was first getting started, they were known for Alien, Dark Horse Presents, Boris the Bear... and Concrete!

Ron Lithgow was an ordinary guy who was kidnapped by aliens and had his mind transplanted into a stony concrete body. Think "Thing" but less orange.

The book is almost meditative. He's not out superheroing, he's just trying to live his new life... in a concrete body.

EC Comics:
Catacomb Of Torment #12 - Pretty sure this is the end of this EC book.

Ghost Machine:
Redcoat #18 - Simon Pure - the immortal Revolutionary War soldier lives on!

Trillion Dollar Kid #1 (Of 2) - No, not Musk!

Wonder Man #4 (Of 5) - Did I miss #3? Feels like I missed #3...

X-Books:
Inglorious X-Force #6

Magik And Colossus #5 (Of 5) - Putting a pin in another one!

Uncanny X-Men #30

X-Men United #4

One to look for NEXT WEEK...

X-Men: Elsewhen (Volume 1 of 3) (Hardcover) - Abrams Books

This might be hard to find because it's coming from Abrams and not Marvel and it's a $40 hardcover...

John Byrne had an ICONIC run on X-Men from #108 to #143, nearly 3 years. During that time he drew the introduction of Alpha Flight, the Proteus story arc, the Hellfire Club and Dark Phoenix as well as the two-part Days of Future Past.

It turns out, after he left the book, he kept going! Unable to let the characters go, and these stories have remained unpublished FOR 45 YEARS(!)

Abrams has now completed the work as finished graphic novels and is publishing them as a 3 volume set!

New Books Wednesday!

Let's see here... Looks light this week...

Bad Idea: Hank Howard Pizza Detective A Slice Of Life #2 (Of 2) - How fun do these sound?

Tankers Vs. Ancient Aliens #1 (Of 4)

Future Is ****** #14 - Really good run...

Jay And Silent Bob Jays Of Future Past #1 - Kevin Smith doing a book for Marvel? With Jay and Silent Bob? Surely nothing can go wrong!

Mortal Thor #11 - Digging the daily driver Thor.

X-Books:
Bishop #1 (Of 5) - Cyclops and Storm ended last week, so time to start up another one!
X-Men #31

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47904525

Good story on Packwood from the biography of Governor Tom McCall, "Fire at Eden's Gate".

Packwood was a first term Senator and McCall was term limited out of the Governor seat and eyeing the Senate:

"Most of all, Packwood promised an ugly, mean battle, the kind that McCall dreaded. And Packwood made sure McCall knew how nasty he would get. He started by publicly boasting that his style of politics would “make the shootout at the OK Corral look like a duck pond pic-nic.” Then he began spreading word that he intended to drag details of McCall’s private life into public view.

McCall’s thin skin had toughened somewhat over the years, but he could not stomach what Packwood threatened. Packwood announced to associates that he intended to make an issue of McCall’s drinking habits. But what worried McCall most of all were Packwood’s threats to drag McCall’s son Sam and the issue of his drug addiction into the race.

Schmidt first heard about Packwood’s threats through mutual friends—people Packwood had told probably knowing that they would rush back and tell McCall and Schmidt. At first glance, a threat to bring up Sam’s drug addiction seemed prone to backfire against Packwood. After all, the McCalls had been public about Sam’s problems. But Schmidt saw the significance. Packwood, or someone working on Packwood’s behalf, was preparing to leak to reporters the stories about McCall’s staff’s efforts to hush up Sam’s crimes. More damaging to McCall, however, would be the story of the governor accepting thousands of dollars raised in 1967 by Glenn Jackson and others to pay Sam’s medical bills.

Schmidt heard this threat from a businessman who claimed to have talked to Packwood and, as it turned out, was one of those who had helped pay Sam’s medical bills. The donations for the medical bills had remained secret for seven years. Now, the possibility of its exposure could create severe problems for McCall. After all, the money was ultimately to McCall’s personal financial benefit. If he were dealing with the Oregon press, Schmidt knew he could control the story, portraying McCall as a compassionate father trying to help his son. Outside of Oregon and in the Watergate era, however, the national press was casting about for any hint of scandal. Schmidt knew that the media’s love affair with McCall would sour at the first whiff of fund-raising efforts for Sam. He feared the headlines: “McCall Covers up for Law-Breaking Son,” or “McCall Accepts Secret Payments.” The press that had made McCall a star might as easily rejoice in tearing him down."

Good story on Packwood from the biography of Governor Tom McCall, "Fire at Eden's Gate".

Packwood was a first term Senator and McCall was term limited out of the Governor seat and eyeing the Senate:

"Most of all, Packwood promised an ugly, mean battle, the kind that McCall dreaded. And Packwood made sure McCall knew how nasty he would get. He started by publicly boasting that his style of politics would “make the shootout at the OK Corral look like a duck pond pic-nic.” Then he began spreading word that he intended to drag details of McCall’s private life into public view.

McCall’s thin skin had toughened somewhat over the years, but he could not stomach what Packwood threatened. Packwood announced to associates that he intended to make an issue of McCall’s drinking habits. But what worried McCall most of all were Packwood’s threats to drag McCall’s son Sam and the issue of his drug addiction into the race.

Schmidt first heard about Packwood’s threats through mutual friends—people Packwood had told probably knowing that they would rush back and tell McCall and Schmidt. At first glance, a threat to bring up Sam’s drug addiction seemed prone to backfire against Packwood. After all, the McCalls had been public about Sam’s problems. But Schmidt saw the significance. Packwood, or someone working on Packwood’s behalf, was preparing to leak to reporters the stories about McCall’s staff’s efforts to hush up Sam’s crimes. More damaging to McCall, however, would be the story of the governor accepting thousands of dollars raised in 1967 by Glenn Jackson and others to pay Sam’s medical bills.

Schmidt heard this threat from a businessman who claimed to have talked to Packwood and, as it turned out, was one of those who had helped pay Sam’s medical bills. The donations for the medical bills had remained secret for seven years. Now, the possibility of its exposure could create severe problems for McCall. After all, the money was ultimately to McCall’s personal financial benefit. If he were dealing with the Oregon press, Schmidt knew he could control the story, portraying McCall as a compassionate father trying to help his son. Outside of Oregon and in the Watergate era, however, the national press was casting about for any hint of scandal. Schmidt knew that the media’s love affair with McCall would sour at the first whiff of fund-raising efforts for Sam. He feared the headlines: “McCall Covers up for Law-Breaking Son,” or “McCall Accepts Secret Payments.” The press that had made McCall a star might as easily rejoice in tearing him down."

Things I'm looking at, what's on your list?

Olympus Saga Megalith #1 (Of 4) - Bad Idea is never a bad idea.

Deadman #1 (Of 6) - Deadman is one of those DC characters that rarely gets any love, like The Demon, or Ragman. Boston Brand was an acrobat who was murdered. Now, as a ghost, he has the ability to possess humans and solve crimes. Created by Arnold Drake and the legendary Carmine Infantino in Strange Adventures #205 (1967).

Cruel Universe 2 #11 (Of 12) - Nearing the end of the latest EC comics run!

Ghost Machine The Official Guidebook #3 (Of 5) - Running down the Ghost Machine universe at Image.

Rook Exodus #10 - Speaking of Ghost Machine, it's been a minute since the last Rook book!

It's Jeff Brand New Week #1 - If you have never experienced the unhinged Joy of Jeff, it's never too late to start!

JSA #20 - Gotta be honest, buying out of habit. Doesn't feel like it's going anywhere.

Junk Punch #1 (Of 5) - No idea, but the title and cover are hilarious!

Marc Spector Moon Knight #5

Supergirl Survive #1 (Of 6) - Looks worth a look, building up to the new Supergirl movie.

X-Books:
Cyclops #5 (Of 5) - closing out the Cyclops run.
Storm Earth's Mightiest Mutant #5 (Of 5) - Storm too!
Uncanny X-Men #29
Wade Wilson Deadpool #5
What If...? The Uncanny X-Men #1 - What If Cyclops Stayed With Madelyn Pryor? X-Men Of Apocalypse #4 (Of 4) - Rounding out the throwback title.

Just want a quick gauge of what the group feels about World Cup Coverage before it's upon us.

I get the overall feeling that Lemmy isn't really down for sports coverage in general and there's a large dislike of Fifa in particular.

But if you all want round by round coverage, I'll put up a sticky.

If you say "Not World News", I'll yank any article that gets posted and re-direct them to some sports related community.

Personally, I don't think any sports is "News", but hey, that's just me!

Let's see what's up this week!

Absolute Green Arrow #1 (Of 6) - Haven't been a fan of the Absolute series, but this looks interesting.

Bad Idea - Love a good indie imprint!
Hab #2 (Of 5)

BRZRKR Light Draws Breath #1 - Glad to see BRZRKR back! The novel Reaves tried to pull off just didn't work without the visuals.

https://thebookofelsewhere.com/

Camelot 3000 TP (2026 Edition), $34.99 - This is a blast from the past and well worth reading if you never have. It was one of the original "Maxi-Series" running 12 issues from 1982 to 1985. One of the few books where Brian Bolland contributed interior art as well as covers.

Ghost Machine:
Hornsby And Halo #0
Hyde Street #12
Been a minute on both of these! Where were we again?

Rocketeer The Island #3 - Yeah, it's not Dave Stevens, but who is? Still a sucker for all things Rocketeer...

Swamp Thing 1989 #2 (Of 4) - Continuing the spiked end of Rick Vietch's run on Swamp Thing!

Ultimates #24 - End of the Ultimate universe?

Wonder Man #3 (Of 5)

They started running it at 2:30 PM Thursday so I hit an early show...

Let's be 100% honest, it's review proof. You already know if you're going to see it or not...

It's fun, bigger than the streaming show, but maybe not necessarily as big as one of the franchise films. Not that it NEEDS to be, it's still fun for what it is.

Lots of borrowing from other properties, the opening is pretty much a blatant steal from "Leon: The Professional". They go to a Blade Runner planet and talk to a Blade Runner food vendor.

::: spoiler spoiler There's a cool bit with life size CGI versions of the chess board from Star Wars. :::

::: spoiler spoiler You know the Lone Wolf and Cub trope where dad gets sick and the kid has to take care of them? Yeah, they do that too. :::

::: spoiler spoiler One scene is a direct copy from Apocalypse Now... :::

Overall? I had fun. Will buy it if/when it comes out on physical media.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47188579

Can't say I'm surprised, they ditched all their back issues years ago and seemed more toy and graphic novel centric since then.

Plus Disney snapping up Fox meant they lost the Star Wars, Alien, and Predator franchises which moved to Marvel.

Can't say I'm surprised, they ditched all their back issues years ago and seemed more toy and graphic novel centric since then.

Plus Disney snapping up Fox meant they lost the Star Wars, Alien, and Predator franchises which moved to Marvel.