According to convention spokesperson David Glanzer, the show has been keeping a watchful eye on registration, trying to avoid the overcrowding and long lines of previous shows. It won't be the first time the show has nearly reached capacity. “Last year we stopped some registration on Saturday—we never reached capacity, but we're trying to make sure it doesn't happen,” he said.

At press time, Friday and Saturday were very close to selling out before the show opens. Considering that some 120,000 people attended last year, this is some feat. So what are the lucky fans going to see? Movie stars like Clive Owen, Robert Downey Jr., Jessica Alba and Liv Tyler, along with presentations on TV sensations Heroes, Lost, 24 and Battlestar Galactica.

Xeric Grant–winner Haven Britt' offers a dark, unrelenting story of petty drug dealers, spoiled rich kids and a tormented woman on the edge of oblivion in a truly unsettling one-sitting read. Boom has had it with her job—specifically the boss who steals the glory for her work—so she enlists the help of sometimes friend David, a drug dealer whose ambition far surpasses his intelligence, to score her a gun. They intersect paths with Lilly, one of the book's few sympathetic characters, and in a haze of alcohol and a swirl of dark imagery, race toward the events of a night that can only end in tears. There are drug deals in dorm rooms; quiet asides about the torment of being a creative person; and a clipped style of dialogue that suggests Tarantino without the sense of humor. The ending feels inevitable, but does nothing to detract from the tangible sense of menace—chiefly thanks to the scenes involving Boom staged on stunning backgrounds of abstract imagery and inky fury. Typeset lettering and jagged, angular, almost angry thought balloons contribute to the book's singular tone and style. The title belies that the story is told in stunning black-and-white—this story could be told no other way. (July)

There are many who would say that silent horror went out with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and they'd be right. Wordless horror comics have even less of a lineage. A singular exception to this rule is Josh Simmons's malefic and wordless House, coming from Fantagraphics in August. In this black-and-white work, a trio of teenagers meet to explore a massive, crumbling old mansion. The building's best days are behind it, the forest is creeping in to take over and long corridors and dusty ballrooms stretch into the distance.

• 52 Vol. 2 (DC)
• Postcards: True Stories that Never Happened (Random House)
• Pulphope: Art of Paul Pope (Adhouse books)
• Girls Guide to Guy Stuff (Friends of Lulu)
• Translucent Vol. 1 (Dark Horse)
• To Terra Vol. 1 (Vertical)
• Bomb Queen Vol. 2 (Image)
• Dragon Drive Vol. 3 (Viz Media)
• Spiderman Reign (Marvel)
• Crecy (Avatar Press)
• American Virgin Vol. 2 (DC/Vertigo)
• Kashimashi Vol. 3 (Seven Seas Entertainment)
• America Jr. Vol. 1 (Image)
• Puri Puri Vol. 2 (DR Masters Productions)

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