There aren’t as many comics as for DC and Marvel, but I thought I’d have a try at the Image comics for May, found here at CBR, especially after getting a taste for it in this post. Here we go:

Shadowhawk #1. Does the world really need more Shadowhawk? When was the last time this was an ongoing concern? I can vaguely remember reading a Giffen & Grant take on this, but even they couldn’t get me interested in the character.

Talking of Keith Giffen, he has a new limited series, Common Foe, starting this month. Time was, I’d try almost anything by the Giff, but he’s only co-writing, and it doesn’t jangle any bells for me, but your mileage may vary.

Felt: True Tales of Underground Hip Hop. This could be an interesting experiment from Jim Mahfood – Lord knows he goes on about hip hop enough in his other books, so a book attempting to visualise an album into comic strip format is novel, if nothing else.

I point out Hero Camp, only because I don’t think that anyone else outside the US have summer camps (correct me if I’m wrong) where parents ship off their kids to get them out of their hair for three months.

Scott Kurtz has a 16-page, 50-cent primer, PvP #0, for his enjoyable PvP series, in the same vein as the recently solicited Invincible #0, so those guys must share ideas when they’re working on their new book together. I already get the book, as well as regularly visit the site, so I don’t need this intro, but it’s good to see that Kurtz is trying to keep it accessible, which it is, as it doesn’t have a lot of history required to enjoy the strips.

Burglar Bill continues from Paul Grist, but I’m not reading it anymore and feel a little guilty. I’ve been reading Kane since it came out (and miss it, looking forward to the graphic novels) and the sporadic Jack Staff, but I didn’t dig on this new series at all. I don’t know why I feel guilty, but I do.

Invincible keeps on keeping on. The word on the blogosphere for this series is good, but I’ve never tried it. I think it’s the tag of good, old-fashioned superhero comics that might be putting me off. I tried some Kirkman in the form of Battle Pope; it was okay, but not enough to make me run out and try his other stuff, which might be a lack of experimentation (or funds) on my part.

I can’t believe there’s a comic book called Night Club; it just sounds so … silly, and not in a good way. Maybe I just have negative connotations of night clubs in my head which I can’t shake when I hear the words, but it just makes me imagine a comic book full of men in white suits, women with bad hair, glittery disco lights and girls dancing around their handbags.

Is there any reason for Spawn to still be going? In the Smith/Quesada instant messenger transcript, Smith said that McFarlane told him he didn’t want to draw anymore. And he seems to be more interested in making money via the toys section of his business (this month, you can get basketball dolls, sorry, I mean, action figures, as well as action figures of Elvis, soldiers and fairy tales, you lucky people).

Hunter-Killer continues, with Marc Silvestri still drawing the interior pages, despite initial rumours from Rich Johnston that caused Mark Waid to write on a CBR forum about him.

Has anyone ever read any of the spin-off series from Rising Stars? I remember there was another one before this Voices of the Dead limited series, but damned if I can recall what it was (or bother to Google it to find out). I know I’m not the audience for it; I’ve been enjoying Rising Stars for the most part, despite the trouble with artists and the delay caused by Top Cow selling off the rights without letting JMS know, even if it’s not as great as it could be, but why would I want to see someone else play with a fraction of the story which is supposed to be this epic from the mind of one person? Isn’t that like someone doing, I don’t know, Rorschach: The Crazy Years after Watchmen?

Finally, I had to mention Top Cow Art: The Coffee Table Collection, just because it makes me chuckle that they’d do it in the first place, and describe it as ‘Creamy goodness’ in the process. 276 full-colour pages for $24.99 to chart the history of Top Cow comics. Shouldn’t this be a hardback, and a large one at that, to qualify as a Coffee Table Collection? Just curious.

Well, all finished, more or less. Still don’t think I’ve quite got the hang of this yet, but it was fun (for me, at least). Bring on the Marvel Solicitations!