In the debut issue of Joe the Barbarian we meet Joe Manson. His mother constantly berates him to get his head out of the fantasy world of his sketchbook, and like many geeky adolescent boys he gets bullied at school.

One Model Nation, an original graphic novel from Image, has a lot of cooks in the kitchen, and even the “who’s who” is a little muddied. “C. Allbritton Taylor” is also known as Courtney Taylor-Taylor, lead singer of The Dandy Warhols. Credited as “historian” is Donovan Leitch, of Nancy Boy, Camp Freddy, and some movie acting roles. The two are co-credited as coming up with the original concept as well.

One of the most underappreciated Batman stories is also one of the foremost examples of the superhero genre. That distinction belongs to Batman: The Cult: a miniseries created by writer Jim Starlin (Adam Warlock and the Infinity Watch, Captain Marvel), horror illustrator Bernie Wrightson (House of Mystery, Swamp Thing), avant-garde colorist Bill Wray (Punisher, Wasteland), award-winning letterer John Costanza (Swamp Thing), and the iconic editor Dennis O’Neil (Batman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow).

This lame crossover trade paperback collects the Deathtrap storyline, and includes Teen Titans Annual 2009, Titans #12-13, Teen Titans #70 and Vigilante #5-6. Writers Sean McKeever (Gravity, Sentinel, Terror Titans) and Marv Wolfman (Blade, The Tomb of Dracula) do little to rectify the creative funk this once-thriving second-tier series is in at the moment.

Juggernaut-scribe Geoff Johns (The Flash, Green Lantern) and former film executive Jeff Katz (Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash) inject a ton of cheeky humor and witty plotting into Booster Gold’s second time traveling volume (finally available in paperback). The big thrill of reading Blue and Gold (issues #0, #7-10, and #1,000,000) is seeing artist and Booster creator Dan Jurgens (Death of Superman) return not only to Michael Jon Carter, but his lesser known 1990s creations.

Writer Brett Lewis and artist John Paul Leon have created a ripping yarn in The Winter Men. It’s a shame that this critically acclaimed, yet poor selling WildStorm mini-series slowly leaked out its five regular issues plus an over-sized special over three years. The woes of a protracted print schedule may of hindered this series but that type of gradual build is almost necessary for such an engrossing and dilapidated tapestry of post-Soviet life.

Successful art engenders powerful emotion in its observers. How do I know that Al Columbia’s Pim & Francie is an amazing work of art? Because it seriously made me feel ill. Uncomfortable.

The Fir-Tree is Lilli Carré‘s sometimes enchanting graphic interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic Christmas tale. (Read the original here.) The meteroic graphic novel artist/author also penned Nine Ways to Disappear, The Lagoon, and Tales of Woodsman Pete, and she contributes to This American Life.

Rac Shade, the madness-powered changing man, returns in another collection of the prototypical Vertigo series, building on the good base that was established in volume one.