Comics TPBs pimpery

because people have been wondering...

The first Authority vol. 2 trade paperback collection is due out this month. From toonzone's solicitations page:

THE AUTHORITY: HARSH REALITIES
TRADE PAPERBACK

The Authority was formed to fight the fights that no one else could. To set wrongs to right. To build a finer world.

Now, further exploits of this controversial team are collected in THE AUTHORITY: HARSH REALITIES, a 144-page Eye of the Storm trade paperback featuring the explosive first story arc of the new ongoing series (presented in issues #1-4) as well as the stand-alone issues #0 and 5!

In this explosive collection, writer Robbie Morrison and artists Dwayne Turner, Tan Eng Huat, Sal Regla, and Sandra Hope put our heroes through some of their most fiendish adventures yet. From a rogue dimension bent on destroying the planet as part of an elaborate gamble, to an interdimensional corporation that has been strip-mining other realities, the Authority have their hands full like never before!

144-page WildStorm Eye of the Storm trade paperback
Suggested for mature readers
In stores March 24
$14.95 U.S

For those of you who, like me, went to the trouble of collecting the single issues Stormwatch: Team Achilles #9, Sleeper (season one) #3, and Wildcats 3.0 #3.8 in order to get the "Authority: High Stakes" storyline, split across those three issues' back-ups, that WildStorm teased us with while we were all waiting for vol. 2 to debut... yes, that's the same story that WildStorm then put all together and called Authority #0, rather than just putting "High Stakes" out as a one-shot and using the zero issue to go back and give us a backstory tale, or at least something new. (Bitter? Me? Heh.)

Ah, well, at least it looks like WildStorm's learnt their lesson about how it's not nice to abuse their loyal fans... Unlike some TPB collections, this one sounds like it'll actually be complete, as far as it goes (though who knows how many of the covers will be included) and there haven't been any lettercolumns in vol. 2, so TPB buyers aren't missing out on those; and you actually save, at minimum, $3 off the price of buying the individual comics by going for the trade paperback edition, in this case.

It's a good time to get into the Authority.

N.B.: Yes, this is the superhero comic with the out (married -- and well ahead of the trend, too!) gay couple who purposely remind you of Superman and Batman. You want to read it.

while I'm at it...

This is a great time for me to me pimp my other favourite Warren Ellis title, Planetary, since the TPB collecting the three Planetary crossover one-shots is due out -- today! -- according, again, to the solicitations posted by toonzone:

PLANETARY: CROSSING WORLDS
TRADE PAPERBACK

Three stunning stories... three fantastic artists... one brilliant writer. Three PLANETARY crossovers -- each written by Entertainment Weekly’s "It writer" Warren Ellis -- are presented together in PLANETARY: CROSSING WORLDS! This 160-page volume, sporting a new cover by John Cassaday, brings together the following tales:

PLANETARY/THE AUTHORITY, featuring art by Phil Jimenez (WONDER WOMAN, New X-Men) and Andy Lanning, pits the world’s most visible team against the world’s most covert team.

PLANETARY/JLA, featuring art by Jerry Ordway (TOM STRONG), takes place on a world very much like our own, but also very different. On this world, Planetary is not who we know them to be... and neither is the JLA. Or are they?

PLANETARY/BATMAN, featuring art by Cassaday (PLANETARY), brings the members of Planetary to Gotham City on a mission to track down a serial killer. And that’s where they run into a hero who shouldn’t exist on this world: Batman!

Complete your PLANETARY collection with this perfect companion volume!

160-page WildStorm trade paperback
In stores March 17
$14.95 U.S

With the inclusion of more familiar DCU characters (and the Authority!), and a minimum of spoilers for the ongoing series, this book would make an excellent way to check out what Planetary is all about. The individual stories are also, variously, a fun Elseworlds tale (/JLA), a hilarious romp through the many incarnations of the Batman (/Batman), and a must-have for Authority completists.

The first two Planetary TPBs are also being relisted -- All Over the World and Other Stories, collecting issues 1-6, and The Fourth Man, collecting issues 7-12 -- check with your local comix retailer, who should be able to order them for you if they don't have these in stock. A third volume, collecting issues 13-18, is due out soon as well; and the way things are going, it may even hit stores before the long-delayed issue #19.

It's a good time to get into Planetary.

N.B.: This is the series with Elijah Snow and Axel Brass, aka the World's Hottest Nonogenarian Couple -- don't worry, though, neither of them looks a day over 55. You want to read it.