5. GARY PANTER
By Gary Panter
Picturebox
$95 | 688 pgs

Remember when comics were only 10 cents? Well now they're $95!!! Well this one at least. Granted it's a nearly 700 page, hardcover, 2 volume, slipcased book showcasing the entire career of illustrator, artist and punk comic legend Gary Panter. Known for his scratchy, DIY style which has appeared as editorial illustrations in various national magazines as well as in the set designs for the Pee-Wee's Playhouse TV show, Panter's comic contributions date back to his entries in the famous comix anthology RAW. His work is not for everybody but if you really are into him then $95 may not seem like much to drop for everything he's done.

Watch and listen to Panter himself talk about the book.
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4. HOUSE OF MYSTERY #1
Written by Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham; Art by Luca Rossi; Cover by Sam Weber; Variant Cover by Bernie Wrightson
DC Vertigo
$2.99 | 32 pgs

This week seems to be the week DC Comics decided to raid their own closet of long forgotten titles and toss them out onto the market to see what sticks. They tapped legendary artist Joe Kubert to revive his own caveman comic Tor. They've suddenly remembered The War That Time Forgot . But the one with potentially the most legs is the return of their classic horror anthology House of Mystery.

Written by the writers of Vertigo's successful Fables franchise, Bill Willingham and Matt Sturges, this new series focuses on a group of strangers stuck in a supernatural bar trying to figure out how and why they are there. Each issue will also feature a backup story (written by Willingham) that tells the backstory of one of these characters.

Art on the main story is by Luca Rossi while the backups will be done by a variety of top level artists like Jill Thompson and Bernie Wrightson. Plus, there's that beautiful and eerie cover by Sam Weber which is calling to me from my dreams to buy this.

There's a multi page PDF preview of the first issue over at the DC Vertigo site.
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3. LIFE SUCKS
by JESSICA ABEL, GABE SORIA & WARREN PLEECE
First Second
$19.95 | 192 pgs

LITTLE VAMPIRE
By Joann Sfar
First Second
$13.95 | 96 pgs

Apparently it's "Vampire Month" at First Second publishing and this week they're releasing two vampire themed books though both are very different and aimed at very different audiences.

Life Sucks is a teen romance comedy about a bummed out Stop & Shop worker who's in love with a chick who doesn't even notice him. Then his boss turns him into a vampire. With an appeal toward a teen and slightly older market, this book sports some really slick Love & Rockets style artwork.

Meanwhile famed French cartoonist Joann Sfar (no stranger to First Second's publishing catalog) offers a 3 story collection of cute tales featuring a Little Vampire who goes to school, gets picked on by bullies, makes friends, and helps out dogs. Sfar can do it all but he especially excels when he's writing for the kids so this should be fun.

Extensive previews for both books here and here

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2. COLOR OF RAGE
By Kazuo Koike and Seisaku Kano
Dark Horse
$14.95 | 416 pgs

This book breaks this week's format of grouping things together (even the Panter book contains two volumes). Oh wait, it's about two slaves who escape from a slave ship and must flee while chained together. Okay there's still some sort of togetherness theme to this column.

The two slaves - one Japanese, one African American - end up in an isolated Japanese village where a big black man is looked at as a bit of a novelty. Since this is a mature readers book lots of violence and sexy time ensues.

Some nice black and white artwork from manga pinup artist Seisaku Kano that you can preview here.

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1. IRON MAN: VIVA LAS VEGAS #1
Written by Jon Favreau, art by Adi Granov
Marvel
$2.99 | 32 pgs

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN#1
Written by Matt Fraction; art by Salvadore Larocca
Marvel
$2.99 | 32 pgs

What do you get when you cross Iron Man with Swingers? Well, the Iron Man movie, I guess, but Swingers/Iron Man director Jon Favreau is also writing an Iron Man comic now with Adi Granov (who did some design work for the movie) and it takes place in Vegas. Sure to be money.

But, if seeing the movie this weekend got you so jazzed up that you want to buy TWO Iron Man comics you should absolutely pick up the #1 issue of the new ongoing series written by new Marvel go-to guy Matt Fraction. It sounds like it hits on all the points that people coming from the movie directly to a comic would expect to see including - the son of Obadiah Stane!

Previews here and here.