5. ACTION COMICS ANNUAL #10 (DC Comics)
Written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner; Art by Art Adams, Joe Kubert, Pete Woods, Rags Morales, Kevin Maguire, Eric Wight and Tony Daniel ; Cover by Adam Kubert and Joe Kubert; Variant cover by Gary Frank

I've never been a fan of the annuals that DC and Marvel have historically liked to put out. Since it's hard for them to fit into continuity without disrupting the issue-to-issue flow of the regular series they always feel like a collection of filler. Now I'm not saying this isn't what Action Comics Annual #10 is going to be but DC has assembeld an all-star crew of creators here (including Superman: The Movie director Richard Donner) and are using them to not only catch you up on what's going on in the Superman comics these days but to also give you some glimpses into the coming year of Action Comics. That seems like a really good use of an annual to me. Plus: what a fun looking cover.

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4. ESCAPE FROM "SPECIAL" (Fantagraphics)
By Miss Lasko-Gross

Miss Lasko-Gross' graphic novel debut is a coming of age story showing the grade school years of a girl named Melissa. It promises to be insightful, funny, and kind of gross as you can see by the two pages below.

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3. DMZ VOL.2 BODY OF A JOURNALIST (DC Vertigo)
Written by Brian Wood; Art by Riccardo Burchielli; Cover by Wood

Brian Wood has been getting a lot of attention for his ongoing Vertigo comic about a photo-journalist wandering about war torn Manhattan in a near future where a new Civil War has broken out in America. He deserves it for the design work he does on the book alone. The entire look of the book manages to say "New York" and "third world country" at the same time. This is the 2nd volume collecting issues #6-12 in which Matty Roth, the journalist/protagonist, is permitted to interview the leaders of the Free Armies and we learn a bit more about the nature of the Free States. By the way, the first volume can be picked up for a mere $9.99 if you want to catch up first.

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2. DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER BORN #1(of 7) (Marvel)
Written by: Peter David and Robin Furth; Art by Jae Lee and Richard Isanove

Novelists turning to comic books doesn't always work out as well as you'd hope but don't worry - Stephen King is not really putting pen to paper on this mini-series based on his popular Dark Tower books. He's merely overseeing it. But I think we're still going to get a handful of pages that are illustrated prose rather than sequential art like you'd expect from a novel/comic book hybrid project like this.

The thing is, the guys that are actually doing this book are really talented. Peter David is well known to Marvel Comics readers for his much revered runs on The Hulk and X-Factor. And Jae Lee, teamed with painterly digital colorist Richard Isanove, may well be putting out the work of their careers based on the previews that have been out.

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1. SHAZAM: THE MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL #1 (of 4)
Written by Jeff Smith; Art and cover by Smith

Bone fans have been waiting a long time for this one. The first major post-Bone work by Jeff Smith is this 4 issue prestige format series featuring Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family. There may not be a more perfect DC character for Smith to take on, with his penchant for all-ages whimsy. Unlike, the other current Shazam series that DC is currently running, written by Judd Winick, this book is not looking to fill the Big Red Cheese with post-Inifinite Crisis angst so that he appeals to a modern, adult audience. Instead we're getting stuff like Talky Tawny the Tiger, little Mary Marvel, and clean, bright, kid-friendly art. This is going to be a lot of fun.