LA-based John Pham, known for his contributions to MOME and his Epoxy minicomics, has a new series of original graphic novels due from the publisher starting with Sublife, the story of the unusual inhabitants of a grimy, Los Angeles neighborhood: two white supremacist brothers with a dog they've trained as a weapon, a landlord who never leaves her attic bedroom, and her son, who insists on wearing a sheet over his head all the time. Each volume of the planned GN series will contain several stories by Pham.

Following up her Eisner-nominated Tales of Woodsman Pete, Lille Carré returns with The Lagoon, a surreal tale about a family that has varying reactions to the song of the movie menace the Creature from the Black Lagoon. According to publicity manager Eric Reynolds, "The book was influenced by the films Creature from the Black Lagoon and Night of the Hunter, but reads more like the gothic, family narratives of Flannery O'Connor or Carson McCullers."

Basketball-obsessed manga superstar Inoue (Vagabond; Slam Dunk) returns with a series about wheelchair basketball. Nomiya is a young thug recently kicked out of high school who yearns to play basketball. When he meets the wheelchair-bound basketball prodigy Kiyoharu Tagawa, the two begin hustling pickup games at local outdoor courts. In the meantime, Takahashi, the newly appointed captain of Nomiya's former school basketball team, is hit by a car and paralyzed from the waist down. This first volume feels less dynamic than Inoue's previous manga series, and it would have been a better idea for Viz to follow Del Rey's example and simultaneously release volumes one and two for readers to get a better foundation for the story. Inoue's illustrations are consistently gorgeous—volume one features ink watercolor paintings of his characters. His sense of action and drama is solid, but this opening book feels as though Inoue is figuring out how to get the different parts of his story to fit together fluidly—something to be remedied by volume two. Those who enjoyed Inoue's other famed basketball manga, Slam Dunk, and anyone moved by triumph over great obstacles are encouraged to give it a read. (July)

The season of tent-pole summer comics releases is here, with Marvel and DC Comics battling for fan affection with Secret Invasion and Final Crisis, respectively. But this year, indie publisher Top Shelf is throwing out its own big summer book, though it's the antithesis of the aforementioned superhero battles. In July, Top Shelf will release Too Cool to Be Forgotten, the latest graphic novel by Alex Robinson, the story of a middle-aged man who undergoes hypnosis to try to curb his smoking, only to wake up back in 1985 and stuck in his high school years.

• Faker (DC/ Vertigo)
• Nixon's Pals (Image)
• Howard the Duck: Media Duckling (Marvel)
• Hunter's Moon (BOOM! Entertainment)
• All We Ever Do is Talk About Wood (Drawn & Quarterly)
• In the Small (Hachette Book Group)
• The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career GuideYou'll Ever Need (Penguin Group)
• Kaze no Hana (Yen Press)
• Magical JRX Vol. 2 (UDON Entertainment)
• Kieli Vol. 1 (Yen Press)
• Speed Racer Vol. 1-2 Box Set (Digital Manga Publishing)

• Eisner Awards Nominees
  
• NYAF Dates Changed
  
• Lulu Awards at MoCCA
  
• ABC Events At BEA
  
• Villard to Publish "Unique" GN
  
• Death Note Movie
  
• Last Sam and Max Episode