I've seen the future, brother

The Upcoming Comic Book Releases List. at least.

The final issue of TRANSMETROPOLITAN ships, before everyone on the planet had an opportunity to edit the book. Did go through, what, four? Five? And two different imprints. It's also good, but since I'm reading it, obviously that's the case.

There's also the DV8 Neighborhood Threat TPB:

Be aware right now that for DV8 The Series to work honestly, DV8 will frequently have to be a very ugly book.

New York stories would involve interaction between DV8 and the ordinary people of Manhattan.

These “ordinary people” would well be the most corrupt and evil sonsofbitches you’ve ever even imagined. One difficulty with this title is that the protagonists, whom we have to feel some kind of empathy for, are utter frigging monsters. Therefore, we have to make them look good -- or at least better -- by playing them off against complete scum.

We’re talking about corrupt cops, child pornographers, pushers, serial killers, baby food poisoners, paedophiliac rapists... you kind of get the idea, right? We can also throw plenty of weird stuff in there too -- alien implants, schizophrenia induced by CIA radio beams, weapons testing on oblivious innocents (my favourite “real-life” example of which was CIA men releasing a cloud of LSD gas upon San Francisco from a bridge, and watching as the wind changed and blew it all out to sea...), all that good shit.

The keyword is sleazy. This is not good wholesome entertainment.

That's from the original treatment. Unfortunately for those of us not looking for wholesome entertainment, some of the issues were heavily re-written, causing the writer to bail after 6 or 8 issues, depending on how you count. Art is by Humberto Ramos, one of the few Milestone graduates. Insert racial conspiracy theory here.

Randy Lander has a few words about the book, if you're interested.

There's also League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, both the Book One TPB, and Vol II #3 (Of 6). Although Jess Nevins' Annotations aren't necessary, they do add levels which would be missed by us ill-read products of the American public school system. F'r instance, in the first issue:

Page 3. Panel 1. I'm afraid I'm going to have to spoil the identity of "Wilhelmina Murray" at this point, so if it's surprises you are after, read no further.

"Wilhelmina Murray" is in fact Mina Harker, of Bram Stoker's Dracula. "Murray," in the novel, was Mina Harker's maiden name, and "Mina" is short for Wilhelmina. In Dracula Mina Harker was the wife of Jonathan Harker, the putative protagonist for the novel; they, along with Dr. van Helsing, came into conflict with the vampire, and eventually triumphed, although not before Mina was bitten by Dracula and forced to drink his blood. At the end of the novel, however, she was again human, and with Jonathan and their son seemed to be a family. Clearly something happened between then (1897) and the current time to cause Mina to divorce Jonathan.

Panel 3. It may be that Bond's "ravished by a foreigner" is a reference to Mina's being bitten by Dracula, although knowing Moore's work it's something more intricate.

I already have the single issues for the first volume, which had one of the best letters pages in comics. Probably not included in the tpb, which is a shame, really.

All Dicey Comics (or two sublabels, rather), and all British writers. Me? Snob?