5. BATMAN: SNOW (DC Comics)
Written by Dan Curtis Johnson and J.H. Williams III ; Art and cover by Seth Fisher
$14.99 | 128 pgs

Artist Seth Fisher was a rising talent in the comics field who tragically died last year in a bizarre rooftop accident in Japan leaving behind a regretfully small body of work. This is one of his last stories, originally printed in the now defunct Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight anthology series. It's a Year One type of story showing Batman still figuring out how best to work with the Gotham police. It also tells a new origin of longtime villain Mr. Freeze.

Fisher's artwork is imaginative and almost too quirky for standard superhero comics. Frankly, superheroes need more of that and Seth Fisher will be missed.

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4. LOVELESS VOL. 2: THICKER THAN BLACKWATER
Written by Brian Azzarello; Art by Marcelo Frusin, Danijel Zezelj and Werther Dell'Edar; Cover by Frusin
$14.99 | 168 pgs

Loveless is a gritty Civil War-era Western written by Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets) and is now into it's second collected volume. Azarello is a master of tough guy dialogue and his style translates surprisingly well to this period piece. Marcelo Frusin's graphically silohuetted figures creates the perfect mood, very similar to the work that Eduardo Risso does with Azzarello on 100 Bullets. The pages shown below are actually by one of the book's guest artists, Werther Dell’Edera, though and is still quite nice.

In this volume, Wes Cutter takes over as sheriff and probably shoots some people.

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3. Alice in Sunderland
By Bryan Talbot
$19.95 | 200 pgs

Bryan Talbot, creator of the much respected sci-fi comic The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, brings us a large, 300+ page graphic novel ostensibly about the city of Sunderland, dreams, Lewis Carroll and Carroll's muse, the "real" Alice. Talbot attempts to tell his story by having it "acted" out in a variety theater style. In comic book form, that means the style of the artwork changes to fit the subject matter of each chapter. So we get a mix of line art, painting, collage, digital art and more.

This should prove to be a challenging but entertaining read. And educational too though the facts of Carroll's life here are generously mixed with surreal fiction. I'm sure Caroll wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

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2. WONDER WOMAN #6 (DC Comics)
Written by Jodi Picoult; Art by Drew Johnson and Ray Snyder; Cover by Terry and Rachel Dodson
$2.99 | 32 pgs

Best selling author Jodi Picoult's last novel centered around a graphic novelist, so having tipped her hand at being a bit of a fangirl, Picoult is now making her first foray into the comics world. Following on the heels of another comics outsider, Grey's Anatomy and The OC writer Allan Heinberg, she looks to try to define the character of Wonder Woman for today's audience. Wonder Woman is a character that never seems to garner a huge audience no matter the creator or the gimmick and mainstream writers getting into comics rarely brings a new crowd to the comics shops (Joss Whedon not withstanding) so I'm not sure that this is going to be too big of a deal. My wife is a huge Picoult fan but she's not about to start reading a Wonder Woman comic. But if Ms. Picoult can generate any buzz about this book look for an upsurge in Wonder Woman movie interest soon.

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1. Houdini The Handcuff King (Hyperion)
By Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi
$16.99 | 32 pgs

Presented by the Center for Cartoon Studies, this bio-graphic novel about a day in the life of Harry Houdini boasts an esteemed collaboration of creators. Nick Bertozzi is a webcomicker who has tackled biographical subjects before with his Ernest Shackleton comic. Jason Lutes has written and illustrated the beautiful and highly regarded graphic novels Jar of Fools and Berlin. And this book is even edited by indie comics creator James Sturm. So basically I'm saying that odds are this is going to be good.