5. SORROW #1(of 4)
Written by Rick Remender and Seth Peck
Art by Francesco Francavilla
Image Comics
32 pgs | $2.99

The town of Sorrow, Nevada had their population reduced to zero back in the 50's due to nuclear testing gone bad. Now, four young travelers get stranded and find that the story about what happened to the residents of Sorrow is not quite true.

Written by Rick Remender, who is on a roll these days with his modern takes on pulp fiction tropes like his sci-fi adventure Fear Agent and illustrated in classic, eerie black and white by Francesco Francavilla. The preview images look very David Lynch and are pretty creepy.

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4. SENTENCES: THE LIFE OF M.F.GRIMM
Written by Percy Carey; Art and Cover by Ronald Wimberly
DC Vertigo
128 pgs | $19.99

Percy Carey started out as a child actor on Sesame Street and grew up to be the rapper M.F. Grimm. After a gang shooting cost him the use of his legs, Carey started over but never gave up. Now, he's telling his life story in a new graphic novel beautifully drawn by Ronald Wimberly. Carey's story aims to be brutally honest in portraying the real story of life in the hip-hop world.

NY magazine's blog, Vulture, has been running a pretty extensive preview of this book that you can see here.

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3. LOBSTER JOHNSON: THE IRON PROMETHEUS #1 (of 5)
Written by Mike Mignola; Art by Jason Armstrong
Dark Horse Comics
32 pgs | $2.99

Lobster Johnson first appeared in the Hellboy comic Box Full of Evil and has been a favorite of Hellboy fans ever since but is only now starring in his own mini-series. A vigilante believed by the public to be only a fictional pulp comics character, Johnson fights gangsters, Nazis and paranormal beings in the 1930s. In this series he even takes on cannibals and a yeti!

Hellboy and Lobster Johnson creator Mike Mignola writes this 5 issue mini-series while Jason Armstrong handles the art in a manner very evocative of Guy Davis, the regular artist on the other Hellboy spin-off series, BPRD. The big appeal to the Hellboy universe is Mignola's vision and the atmosphere of the world he has created here and this looks to continue building on that.

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2. LUCHA LIBRE #1
story JERRY FRISSEN, art BILL, GOBI, FABIAN M, WITKO, TANQUERELLE, cover BILL
Image Comics
48 pgs | $5.99

Making its debut here in the states is a book that has had a lot of success in Europe and much success around the world as a line of toys. Based on the Mexican professional wrestlers known for wearing colorful masks, The Luchadores Five are aged wrestlers who have taken to protecting their East L.A. neighborhood from werewolves, tiki warriors, ninja cheerleaders and Frenchmen.

This new ongoing series is an anthology containing multiple stories each issue. The main story in particular looks like it will have some really fun art - part Manga, part Lucha Libre.

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1. LAIKA
by Nick Abadzis
First Second Books
208 pgs | $17.95

It wasn't that long ago that I previewed a new graphic novel about the first monkey in space. The trend continues as we see the fictionalized story of the first dog in space. Laika was actually the first animal of any kind to rocket from the earth, launched by the Russians in 1957 on Sputnik 2. Nick Abadzis takes her story and turns it into a heartfelt tale of an abandoned puppy who grows up to be Earth's first space traveler. The artwork is cute and the story should be moving.