New comics this week: House of Mystery Bronze Age Omnibus; Batman by Neal Adams; Batman/Shadow; Guardians of the Galaxy

Our picks this week. Click the links to order discounted items from Amazon.

As one of the most celebrated anthology titles of the Bronze Age of comics, THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY cemented its iconic status in the 1970s under the transformative leadership of editor Joe Orlando, whose impeccable instincts yielded a cornucopia of devilish delights in every intriguing issue.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY THE BRONZE AGE OMNIBUS VOL. 1 collects issues #174-200 of the acclaimed series and features tantalizingly terrifying work from a host of comics' greatest talents, including Bernie Wrightson, Alex Toth, Gil Kane, Marv Wolfman, Wally Wood, Neal Adams, Sergio Aragonés and many more!


Over the years, many artists have contributed to the look of one of the most iconic characters in popular culture: Batman. The most influential and popular may be Neal Adams, who in the late 1960s put the Caped Crusader back in the shadows and updated his image for a new generation of fans. Now Adams' moody tales of the Dark Knight from the early 1970s are collected in trade paperback again, including a team-up story co-starring Deadman and the debut of the bestial Man-Bat. 

Collects BATMAN #219, DETECTIVE COMICS #395, #397, #400, #402, #404 and #407-408 and THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #86 and #96.

From the incredible minds of iconic authors Scott Snyder and Steve Orlando comes the resurgence of a classic noir character. The Shadow was a major influence of the Batman himself and now appears in this incredible six issue crossover event. 

While investigating the murde of a Gothamite, Batman identifies his prime suspect as Lamont Cranston... but there are two problems with that. One, Batman is not aware Lamont's alter ego is the master detective known as the Shadow. Two, and more importantly, Cranston seems to have died over half a century ago!

Collects BATMAN/THE SHADOW #1-6 and stories from BATMAN ANNUAL #1.

A thousand years from now, Vance Astro, Yondu, Martinex and Charlie-27 will rise to free the enslaved planet Earth -- as the Guardians of the Galaxy! Soon, Captain America, Doctor Strange, the Thing, the Hulk and more join the time-spanning heroes in the war to reclaim the future! Threats arise from other worlds -- as well as new allies Nikki and the uncanny Starhawk! But when Guardians and Avengers join forces in the present day, will even the combined might of two millennia be enough to stop the deranged demigod Michael Korvac? Plus: the Silver Surfer, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man and Adam Warlock!

Collecting: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES (1967) #18; MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE (1974) #4-5, #61-63 and #69; GIANT-SIZE DEFENDERS #5; DEFENDERS (1972) #26-29; MARVELPRESENTS #3-12; THOR ANNUAL #6; AVENGERS (1963) #167-168, #170-177 and #181; MS. MARVEL(1977) #23; and MARVEL TEAM-UP (1972) #86.

Written by ARNOLD DRAKE, STEVE GERBER, STAN LEE, ROGER STERN, LEN WEIN, JIM SHOOTER, DAVID MICHELINIE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, MARK GRUENWALD & MORE

Preview: 90th anniversary of "Tintin in the Congo" celebrated with new digital edition


Details:

The second adventure of the little reporter, Tintin in the Congo, is the subject of a new digital edition, closer to the line of Hergé, starting from the original boards completely restored and colorised according to the techniques of the 21st century.

Preview: "Doctor Who" New Year's special

New on Video: Bad Reputation; Love, Gilda

Our picks this week:


Best new comics covers of the week





Time Capsule: Magazine covers from January 1969

Here's how the newsstand looked this month 50 years ago. Stay tuned this week for a look at comic book covers from January 1969, too!


Welcome back and Happy New Year!

Pop Culture Safari is back after a brief Christmas break. Hope it was refreshing for all of you.

We hope you'll continue to join us daily for posts on anything that happens to catch our fancy, whether it's classic comic art, "video finds," news, reviews and our pick of new comics, book and music new releases.

We'll also continue our "Time Capsule" entries - this year focusing on the pop culture of 1969.

One note: Those of you who've been following us on Facebook and Twitter may've noticed those streams have dried up. That's how they'll stay for the foreseeable future. Not only have both of these outlets proven themselves as generally disreputable in the past year, along with indifferent to the privacy of their users, I believe they've made our society not better, but worse. So, the hell with them. I'd rather have fewer regular viewers than continue posting via these outlets.

If you want updates on what's going on here, please sign up for email updates via the form in the righthand column. I won't do a thing with your address. You'll just get updates until you elect to stop them.

Thank you to the many regular visitors to this site. Glad you're still along for the ride. And, to anyone new, welcome here, too. Hope you enjoy it.

Happy 2019! (and 1969!)

Elke Sommer