Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 3, Issue 34

It's kind of a strange comic book week, as DC wraps up their current line of books in preparation for next week's much talked about relaunch, which will kick off with the release of only two new books--Flashpoint, issue 5, and Justice League, issue 1.

But we'll talk about all that next week.

In the meantime, my list of things to buy for today is pretty short. I'll flip through a number of the DC books that are wrapping up, but, honestly, I don't really see the point in owning many of them.

I will be buying American Vampire, issue 18, and issue 43 of Brian Wood's excellent Northlanders series, so at least I'm giving Vertigo some love.
It's also a pretty slim week for the independent stuff--Image ships issue 20 of their amazing ongoing, Chew, but other than that, I'll be saving my pennies (read: dollars).

Not to fear, though, as Marvel classes things up with yet another comic book in a plastic bag with issue one of the new Ultimate Comics Ultimates title. Which has seemingly relaunched on an endless loop the past couple of years.

Anyway, you can check out the opening of said comic book over at Bleeding Cool.

I wish they'd stop it already with this plastic bag stuff. It's stupid, frankly, and it does the opposite of everything I've learned in book publishing. People are buying the book blind--and for what reason?

Do they bag the newest Twilight book because someone in the store might flip ahead to the last pages? How about Harry Potter? Certainly all kids did was spoil the ending because the books weren't housed in carbonite on the day they shipped to stores.

Marvel, obviously, has a great product. Stop hiding it behind plastic bags.

And with that incredibly upbeat post, I'm going to sign off for today and look forward to next week's new books. My snarkiness today aside, it's a pretty exciting time to be reading comics.

The biggest news of the year--the DC relaunch--starts next week, which means we'll finally get to see what a year's worth of hype actually has to offer. Things are certainly going to get interesting, and once we get past this week's weird holding pattern, expect Internet buzz to ramp up.

What's more, by the time New York Comic Con rolls around at the end of October, fans will have had plenty of time to check out what the new books are all about. So the DC Nation panels at that particular show are going to be especially intriguing.

Anyway, more about that when the time comes. For now, I'm gonna get a move on. Before I do, though, what are you Waiting for?