May 2001

Selective highlights and researched insights into the most interesting new comics offered in each month's Previews catalog (without spoilers).
About these pages, and other months' books

Super/Action

Humour/Fun

SF

Fantasy

All Ages

Les/Bi/Gay

Smut

Beyond Genre

The theme of the month is TWINS. We have a book created by twin brothers, another story about a pair of apparently identical twin girls, the Wonder Twins (Zan and Jayna) are reprinted, and teasers for seemingly twin projects to produce comics featuring digitally-rendered babes. (And both Wolverine and Beast appearing in two separate X-Men titles each month, maybe they're actually each a set of twins.)

Listings are in reverse order by publisher. Prices and page count are mentioned if it's outside the arbitrary industry "norm" (i.e. 24-32 pages, $2-4). Items I think are especially worth checking out are offset in boxes.

Zeromayo
LIMITED SERIES: Paleo: Tales of the Late Cretaceous is a story by Jim Lawson, about a young female triceratops living in Canada several million years ago. It sounds kind of like the movie Dinosaur, but with a plot. Peter Laird is inking the project, with very nice results; the art is detailed and realistic, so don't expect Teenage Mutant Ninja Velociraptors or refugees from The Land Before Time. It will run 6 issues.

Viz
GRAPHIC NOVEL: Benkei in New York is the first of a series of "noir" graphic novels by Jinpachi Mori and Jiro Tanaguchi, about a Japanese expatriate artist living in NYC... who just happens to really be a professional hitman. As a Japanese interpretation of the "hard-boiled" genre, it sounds like a good read. 224 pages for $17.

Top Shelf COLLECTION: A Complete Lowlife is a compilation of Ed Brubaker's old Lowlife series, which was one of the comics that opened my eyes to the wide variety of non-superhero comics out there, in this case (semi)autobiographical. He only did a handful of issues, and they were sometimes crudely enough done that I guess I can understand why this edition is "revised", but it's definitely worth tracking down... and now you won't have to. 112 pages for $13.

Sirius
LIMITED SERIES: Scary Godmother is a fun all-ages series by Jill Thompson featuring the title character and the cast from Thompson's series of illustrated books. This series is 6 monthly issues of comics.

RPM
NEW ANTHOLOGY: RPM Comics is the work of Rachel Masilamani, featuring a variety of stories on diverse topics, "usually with a humorous twist". Baltimore's City Paper said this was the best local comic book of last year, and the Xeric Foundation considered it worthy of a grant, so now we all get a chance to see it.

Oni
COLLECTION: Land of Nod is a bizarre anthology series of sorts by Jay Stephens, which has featured his TV character Jetcat, the Bug Patrol of Nickelodeon magazine fame, and others. The Land of Nod Treasury is a reprint of the early material (so probably no Jetcat), from back when he was publishing it under the name Sin Comics. 128 pages for $12.

NBM
GRAPHIC NOVEL: No one can accuse Ted Rall of looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. 2024 is a kind of 1984 for the new millennium, a cynical look at where society is headed (or perhaps where it already is). 96 pages in hardcover for $17.
NEW SERIES: On the other hand, Secret Messages is a look back, having fun with the paranoia of the past. It's a follow-up series to Michael Cherkas' and Larry Hancock's Silent Invasion, which stylishly dealt with a conspiracy for an alien invasion of Earth against the backdrop of the McCarthyist 1950's. The first issue was published in an earlier form by Caliber; subsequen issues will be all new, and come out quarterly.

Marvel
Marvel wants money. And it seems they're willing to go to any length to get it, including putting out the kinds of books people seem to actually want. {smile} For example, the whole X-Men line is finally getting overhauled. And Marvel's new publisher and editor-in-chief are committed to producing lots of paperback collections of current material every month, even to the point of retooling the monthly books so they'll read better as collected editions and not just as monthly serials, and so they'll provide regular "jumping on points" for new readers. So this might be a good opportunity to re-evaluate how you buy Marvel comics. (For example, I think I'm going to wait for the first collections of these new X-Men series, and buy those instead.)
NEW CREATORS: Uncanny X-Men will be written by Joe Casey and penciled by Ian Churchill. Although there will be some overlapping characters between the books), each will read independently of the others (at least most of the time). For those looking for their fave mutants, this one has Wolverine, Archangel, Chamber, Nightcrawler, and Iceman. (Jean Grey is just visiting for a lip-clench with one of the above, apparently.)
NEW CREATORS: The implicitly "canny" X-Men title finally gets its own adjective, becoming New X-Men. This one is written by Grant Morrison, who promises big changes, including a bunch of permanent deaths, and penciled by Frank Quitely, who promises changed costumes and new jawlines for all the men. Starring Xavier, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Wolvie (he gets around), Beast, and White Queen.

NEW CREATORS: X-Force is becoming a whole new series, albeit with the same issue numbering. (The new regime doesn't like the idea of restarting series with new "#1" issues, and are even adding the old numbering to the various series that were restarted at #1.) It features an all-new set of mutants created by writer Peter Milligan and artist Mike Allred, which should ratchet the weirdness and fun scales up a few notches.

NEW SERIES: The Brotherhood is the only truly new series to come out of the X-Men overhaul. It's a look at the terrorist underbelly of the mutant population, the folks who regard Magneto as just a "costumed charlatan". Marvel is being coy about who's writing it (calling her/him merely "X"), but the penciler is Croatian artist Essad Ribic and the inker is the harsh and edgy Kent Williams, which should certainly help give the book an authentic "underground" look.
NEW SERIES: X-treme X-Men is Chris Claremont's X-book (which suggests that perhaps "extreme" has passed its peak of hip trendiness). He gets to work with Storm, Rogue, Beast (also getting around), Psylocke, Bishop, Thunderbird, and a new character named Sage, all on a quest for Destiny's prophetic diaries. The art will be by Salvador Larroca. The first issue will be 48 story pages for $3, future issues will presumably be standard format and price.
COLLECTION: X-Men: Dark Phoenix reprints the classic storyline about Jean Grey's transformation, by Chris Claremont and John Byrne back in their glory days. 192 pages for $20.
NEW ANTHOLOGY SERIES: Well, it's actually a few months old, but wasn't available in comics shops until now. Marvel has acquiesed to fan demand, and is now offering their formerly-newsstand-only Ultimate Marvel Magazine through Diamond (presumably on the same non-returnable terms as regular comics). The magazine features stories reprinted from the three "Ultimate" comicbook series, as well as promotional material for Marvel's other ventures, such as their upcoming movies. 70 pages for $4.
NEW ANTHOLOGY SERIES: Marvel recently announced a new anthology magazine called Marvel Knights Magazine, which reprints stories taken from the various Marvel-Knights titles. So now that they're offering these magazines to comics shops, issue #2 shows up in the catalog. It's 70 pages per issue, this time reprinting issues #2 of Daredevil, Black Widow, and Punisher, for $4.
COLLECTION: The reprint of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's recent Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank series was originally solicited last month but is shipping in May. 272 pages for $25.

COLLECTION: Folks on rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe have been saying for a couple years now that the opening 5 issues of Christopher Priest's Black Panther would be perfect for a single-volume reprint. Marvel agrees. The Client features the painterly art of Mark Texiera and is 128 pages for $15. Note: not shipping until June.

COLLECTION: They're reprinting Grant Morrison's and J.G. Jones' loopy Marvel Boy series about an alien teenager whose spacecraft is shot down by humans. 144 pages for $16. Note: not shipping until June.
COLLECTION: Daredevil: Ninja by Brian Michael Bendis and Rob Haynes is now an 80-page collection for $9. Note: not shipping until June.
COLLECTION: Another classic story being exhumed for a reprint is Spider-Man: The Death of Gwen Stacy... a title which kind of spoils the shock a bit, but I suppose they're going more for people who already know what happens and want to have the story for rereading. By Gerry Conway and Gil Kane. 112 pages for $15. Note: not shipping until June.
COLLECTION: Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt reprints a round-robin story taken from Amazing, Spectactular, and Web of Spider-Man in the late 1980's.
COLLECTION: Not quite as legendary, but another blast from the past (about a decade ago) is Spider-Man: Torment, featuring the first five issues of Todd McFarlane's Spidey series. 128 pages for $16.
COLLECTION: Most of Marvel's upcoming reprints are going to be of recent material, with Peter Parker: Spider-Man being an example of that. This collects a handful of issues of the acclaimed series of the same name, plus a few of the short-lived Webspinners, all by Paul Jenkins, with art by Mark Buckingham, Sean Phillips, and J.G. Jones. 160 pages for $15.

COLLECTION: The big green guy is getting in on the reprint action as well. They're reprinting Incredible Hulk: Ground Zero featuring a storyline from a decade ago, by Peter David, Todd McFarlane, and Erik Larsen (a set of names you're not likely to see together on the same project again). 176 pages for $18.

COLLECTION: Hulkie's getting a modern reprint as well: Incredible Hulk: Dogs of War, collecting Paul Jenkins' debut run on the series, with art by Ron Garney. Note: not shipping until June.
COLLECTION: Finally, the editor-in-chief has authorised a reprint of his brief run writing Shell-head: The Mask in the Iron Man, in which Tony Stark's armor comes to life and turns against him. By Joe Quesada, with art by Sean Chen and Alitha Martinez. 136 pages for $15.
LIMITED SERIES: Lest we forget, Marvel is also putting out some other books in May, including the start of a three-issue U.S. Agent series by Jerry Ordway.
SPECIAL: Thunderbolts: Life Sentences is a tie-in with the current storyline in the ongoing series, written by Fabian Nicieza and illustrated by Charlie Adlard. 48 pages for $3.50.

Last Gasp
ONE-SHOT: The Coloring Book is a new book by cartoonist-turned-working-artist Krystine Kryttre, telling the humourous, possibly autobiographical story about a graphic artist, in a format designed to mimic that of old coloring books. 24 pages for $6.

Image
COLLECTION: The third volume of Colleen Doran's A Distant Soil (entitled Aria, not to be confused with the comicbook series of the same name) is on the way. It collects issues #26-31 of the series, 164 pages for $17. The first two volumes are also reoffered.
NEW SERIES: As anyone who read Vertigo's Terminal City knows, Dean Motter does retro-futurism well, and Electropolis is his latest venture into that territory. It's about a robotic detective and his human female "assistant" (the real brains of the duo), and sounds like it'll be fun.
NEW SERIES: Randy O'Donnell is the M@n seems like a series from a different era (something Eclipse or First might have published once upon a time), which was probably intentional, trying to recapture the spirit of those days. The hero of this doubly eponymous series is a young superhero fan who finds himself with super powers as the new hero for an alien world. It's written by Tom DeFalco, with pencils by Ron Lim. The first issue also includes a preview of Mr. Right, another new series written by DeFalco, with art by Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema.
SET: You can pick up all three issues of Warren Ellis's and Gary Erskine's recent City of Silence at a slightly reduced price of $7.

Humanoids
GRAPHIC NOVELLA: Ship of Stone is a book by Enki Bilal and Pierre Christin about the people of a fishing village whose town is the target of a new resort development, and the threat this poses to the nearby castle and its mysterious occupant. 60 large-format pages in hardcover for $15.

Harris
NEW SERIES: Digital Vampi is one of two new series debuting in May that promise (according to their publishers) a look at the future of comics. (The other being Crusade's ShiGI) Both feature digitally-rendered images of sexy women, in this case it's Kevin Lau's re-vamped manga-inspired version of Vampirella. I'm not sure what this says about us as a society, but it's definitely interesting.

Five O'clock Shadow NEW SERIES: Tomer Hanuka is a regular contributor to Meathaus (a cool artsy anthology I picked out of the Diamond pile a few months back), including a cover illustration which won him a Society of Illustrators gold medal. Bipolar is a "solo" project - sort of - by him. It's actually a collaboration with his brother Assaf Hanuka, twins who were raised separately, a fact which influences the material in this book. It was previously available through Cold Cut; now it's been picked up by Diamond.

Fantagraphics
COLLECTION: Joe Sacco's Safe Area Gorazde is getting deserved praise for taking the comics medium into new territory (not the Balkans; I mean journalism). But he went there previously with Palestine, exploring the people and their lives in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. It was originally serialised, then collected in two volumes, and now it's being brought together under one cover: 288 pages for $25.
SET: Or, for another look at the Balkans, pick up Psychonaut by Aleksandr Zograf, a native of the region. There were two issues of this title published, which you can get together for $7.45. (Zograf's Life Under Sanctions isn't being re-offered, but it was a one-shot from Fanta that dealt with some of the same subject matter, and worth looking for as a back-issue.)
COLLECTION: Duplex Planet has always been an odd series, even by Fantagraphics standards. Written by David Greenberger, it consists of interviews with residents of nursing homes, embellished and illustrated by various cartoonists. No More Shaves is a "best of" collection, reprinting 144 pages of these remembrances, for $19.

Fanboy COLLECTION: If you've never read The Copybook Tales, consider yourself lucky. That's because you can buy the new complete collected edition without agonising over the fact that you already have some of the material it contains. {smile} Me, I already have nearly all of it, and have to decide between duplicating the mini-comics and standard-sized issues in order to get the new material in this volume, or missing out. As much as I wish J. Torres and Tim Levins well now that they've both managed to "break in", I almost wish it hadn't happened, so they would've done more Copybook issues. The book is 240 pages for $19, and well worth it.

GRAPHIC NOVELLA: White Rain is the story of two girls, identical except for the numbers on their foreheads, and with no memory of who they are or how they came to be in the maze where they find themselves. Written and illustrated by Yoshitoshi ABe using only pencil and zipatone (pre-printed sheets of dot and line patterns, used for producing textures and shades in black and white print). 40 pages for $5.

F.52 Diffusion-Galerie
COLLECTION: John Porcellino creates mini-comics, in a very simply-drawn style with an interesting perspective on growing up. King-Cat Collection is either an original graphic novel or a collection of material from his mini-comic of the same name, published by B.ü.L.b. Comix of Switzerland. I haven't been able to find out anything more about it than that (such as to confirm the page count which seems a bit low for something this price, even an import), except to confirm that there is an English edition in addition to the French-language one.
IRREGULAR ANTHOLOGY: Spoutnik isn't in English (it's in French), but a translation booklet is included with it. It's an anthology of stories by European creators, 160 pages for $13.

Epoch
NEW SERIES: The Door by Rick Lundeen looks like it could be a fun time-travelling story, involving a wacky scientist, an ostrich, a pretty girl, and a mysterious fourth member of the Temporal Investigation Squad.

El Capitán
COLLECTION: Another Stray Bullets collection is now available from David Lapham. Volume 5 reprints issues #17-20, 132 pages for $12.

Dork Storm
COLLECTION: The Nodwick Chronicles reprints the first six issues of the ongoing series by Aaron Williams, featuring the adventures of the hapless luggage-bearing companion of three medieval adventurers. 160 pages for $16.

DC Universe
LIMITED SERIES: JLA: Incarnations is a 7-issue series looking back at the various versions of the Justice League over the decades, hopefully reconciling their publishing history with revamped DC history. It's written by John Ostrander with pencils by Val Semeiks. The issues are each longer than a usual monthly issue.
GRAPHIC NOVEL: Willworld is a story about the early days of Hal Jordan's career as a Green Lantern, in a training/initiation on a surreal world that tests his abilities and his values. It's written by J.M. DeMatteis (so it could be either very good or very didactic), and illustrated by Seth Fisher (so it should be interesting to look at, at the least). 96 pages in hardcover for $25.
GRAPHIC NOVELLA: Superman: Where Is Thy Sting? is also by J.M. DeMatteis, with the same caveat applying. It's about Death's attempt to get at Superman (which seems a bit problematic because it doesn't look like the character of Death that DC fans know and love), and Superman's contemplation of the possiblity that he might outlive everyone on the planet. It's illustrated by Liam Sharp. 64 pages for a more modest $7.
REPRINT: The Atom Archives reprints the early stories of the Silver Age Atom, Ray Palmer, including his origin and appearances by Snapper Carr, Jason Woodrue, and Chronos. The stories were written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson (a pretty solid, even legendary team). 224 pages in hardcover for $50.
REPRINT: The Brave and the Bold Annual is one of DC's fake 80-Page Giants, assembling a variety of stories as they might have been packaged in 1969. $6.
COLLECTION: The promo article about the upcoming Super Friends! collection says, "And if you grew up watching their Saturday morning adventures on TV, then you're probably humming the show's theme song as you read this." I was. This book features a several stories from the comicbook series based on the show, written by E. Nelson Bridwell and Alex Toth, and illustrated by a bunch of classic 1970's artists. 176 pages for $15.

COLLECTION: Wonder Woman: The Gods of Gotham is a quickie reprint of Phil Jimenez's first four issues on the series, featuring a team-up of Diana and Batman, leading a small band of their allies against a trio of Batman villains possessed by malevolent Greek gods. 96 pages for only $6.

DC: Vertigo
NEWLY ONGOING SERIES: The Sandman Presents was originally going to be an umbrella for Sandman-related mini-series, but they've decided to make it a regular monthly. It will still feature rotating creators doing short story arcs or one-shots, but with each following in the monthly schedule directly upon the one before... making it a lot like the original format of The Dreaming, before they gave that series a regular creative team and some ongoing continuity. {shrug} Anyway, the first issue is a one-shot written by Bill Willingham with several artists, each illustrating a short piece. The title is Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Dreams But Were Afraid to Ask and it's taking a tongue-in-cheek approach similar to the Woody Allen movie about sex. This issue is 48 pages for $4; presumably later issues will be standard size and price.
COLLECTION: Devil in the Gateway is the first of what may be (if the buzz I've been hearing about the quality of the series is any indication) an ongoing series of reprints of Lucifer by Mike Carey. It collects the original limited series and the first four issues of the ongoing series.
COLLECTION: A decade ago, before the Vertigo imprint was created, one of DC's then-uncommon paperback collections reprinted the first 9 issues of Grant Morrison's and Chas Truog's Animal Man. It's been out of print for years, but now it's back, making it easier for people to sample the beginning of Morrison's still-acclaimed run on the series. 240 pages for $20.

DC: WildStorm
NEW SERIES: Out There is a new project by Humberto Ramos, with writing assistance from his Crimson collaborator Brian Augustyn. It's about a quartet of normal kids (the brain, the jock, the cheerlader, and the malcontent) who find themselves thrown together to fight the terrible secret behind their seemingly-perfect hometown... a little less dark than their last project, but not without a bit of conflict.
COLLECTION: Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority, by Mark Millar and John McCrea, is being reprinted in a single handy volume, 120 pages for $15.
LIMITED SERIES: Star Trek: Divided We Fall features characters from both The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, leaning more toward the latter, set in the timeframe after the cancellations of the two series. The story revolves around a civil war on the Trill homeworld, drawing both Jean Luc Picard and Ezri Dax into the conflict.
COLLECTION: Astro City: Tarnished Angel collects the most recent story arc from Kurt Busiek's and Brent Anderson's top-notch superhero series, about the super-villain Steeljack, who's just been released from prison and wants to go straight, but finds that more difficult than he'd anticipated. 224 pages for $20.

Dark Horse
LIMITED SERIES: Star Wars: Infinities is kind of an Elseworlds/What-If approach to the Lucasverse. The first such story is a four-issue tale based on the premise that Luke Skywalker missed the shot that took out the Death Star at the end of A New Hope. Written by Chris Warner with pencils by Drew Johnson.
LIMITED SERIES: Conqueror Worm is the latest Hellboy story by Mike Mignola, in which our friend the demon teams up with Roger the Homunculous to investigate the Nazi space program. 4 issues.

Crusade
NEW SERIES: The second of the digitally-rendered-women series debuting in May is ShiGI, a preview of which is being offered for $5. (They hint that the actual comics will be less expensive than those done in traditional media.) The title is a play on "CGI", which in this case is short for "computer generated images". Some of the issues are going to be taken from the storyboards of a series of computer-rendered video movies, with some additional work to make them more presentable as comics. It's an interesting approach, though I have to say I'm a little concerned about some of Billy Tucci's comments, which make it sound like the use of a digital model for the figure means that the art is "already done". Working with digital media is still art, but if it's done hastily or cookie-cutter style, it tends to be poor art, just as surely as hasty drawings are. For example, the 100% symmetry of the model's face in one shot is a little creepy. And I also have to poke fun of the advert copy, which refers to this new version of Shi as "a heroine for the twentieth century".

CrossGen
COLLECTIONS: Crossgen is rounding out their first set of paperbacks with collections of the first story arcs of Scion and Meridian. The former is written by Ron Marz, about a young prince whose sigil of power prompts a war, forcing him to make choices about his involvement in it. The latter is by Barbara Kesel, about a teenage girl who finds herself bearing the mystic sigil and thus the responsibility of protecting her city from conquest. Each book is 192 pages for $20.

Comics One
Depending on your tolerance for reading comics on a computer vs. on paper, you might want to visit the Comics One web site, where they sell downloadable versions of these books and quite a few others (all of which require the free Adobe eBook reader) at a fraction of the cost of the printed versions. For example, you could buy one of the electronic volumes as a low-cost trial, to see if you'd be interested in buying the paper versions.
NEW SERIES: Kazan is a series by Gaku Miyao about a boy warrior searching for his childhood friend on a desert planet. The first of three volumes so far is being offered through Diamond this month; it's 188 pages for $10. It's $3 for the downloaded version.
LIMITED SERIES: Maico 2010 is a four-volume series by Toshimitsu Shimizu about a sexy female android, the woman who created her to boost the ratings on her radio station, and a bizarre love triangle that develops. The volumes range from 153-209 pages. The first is being offered this month through Diamond for $10; they're $3 each, downloaded.

Comic Library Intl
COLLECTION: Stardust and Thor are an intrepid superhero and his dopey puppy, the creations of George Broderick, Jr.. They've appeared in Broderick's Comics Library International series stories which are now being collected. 128 pages for $13.

Bud Plant
GRAPHIC NOVEL: Chris Staros lists Silent City by Russian illustrator Erez Yakin among the 192 best comics in the industry in "The Staros Report". Unfortunately, I can only find the list, not my copy of the report itself, so I can't tell you exactly what's so great about it. It was a very early work by the illustrator of Paradox Press' The Remarkable Worlds of Phineas B. Fuddle, about a revolutionary boy in a barren industrial city. Bud Plant is offering this formerly-$25 104-page book (originally published by Kitchen Sink) for $11. Note: the book will still have the original cover price on it, so check with your retailer to make sure you get the book at Bud Plant's suggested price.

BlindWolf
ONE-SHOT: Captain Camel and the Space Chicken is a new book from Art Baltazar, featuring 64 pages of wacky outer-space adventures for $7.

Big Hairy Ape
SET: Steve Mannion produced three theme books over the past several months: Strange Pirate Tales, Strange Fairy Tales (not about me, by the way) and Strange Battle Tales. They average 40 pages, with multiple stories in each, offered now in a set for only $8. He's a talented artist, though his apparent penchant for cheesecake might be a little off-putting to some.

Astonish
NEW SERIES: Zoom's Academy for the Super Gifted is a new series for all ages by Jason Lethcoe from the publishers of Herobear and the Kid. It's about a 13-year-old girl who learns from her dad that she has super powers, and goes to the school mentioned in the title

Antarctic
COLLECTION: If the first 600-page Gold Brick collection of Gold Digger issues wasn't enough for you, the good news is there's a second one coming, collecting the second 25 issues of Fred Perry's popular, long-running series. $50.

Amaze Ink / Slave Labor
COLLECTION: The mini-series Rare Creature by Kelley Seda is being reprinted in one 96-page volume for $13.
GRAPHIC NOVEL: I remember seeing Phoenix Square previously and being interested in it. It's a story by Paul Barlow set at what we used to call "the turn of the century" (1900) about a man and his sister, who move into an estate where they encounter a variety of unusual and vaguely macabre fellow residents. 200 pages for just $17.

Alternative
SPECIAL: Slowpoke: Cafe Pompous is a Xeric-funded collection of Jen Sorensen's strips (ranging from 1 to several pages) featuring bored Little Gus, the man-stalking Drooly Julie, and proper Mr. Perkins, among others. 64 pages for $6.

AKF
LIMITED SERIES: Lint McCree Mysteries: Shadows Within Shadows is one of a series of stories about the retired guardian of New Mecca... who can't seem to stay retired, digging for the answers to the mysteries the police cannot solve, aided by a decorated - but dead - Vietnam vet named Sam Normal. Nate Piekos. Part 2 will be solicited next month.

AAA Pop
COLLECTION: The third volume of Mike Allred's The Atomics King-Size Giant Spectacular is called Worlds Within Worlds Within Worlds Within Worlds and reprints #9-12, at an affordable $9 for 96 pages.

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