The big single-issue release of the week is possibly Image Comics' Image United, which brings all but one of the original Image founders (Jim Lee is missing, due to DC Comics commitments, where he's a VP as well as an artist) back together for a mini-series that brings their biggest creations face to face with the newest bad guy around, Spawn. Yes, that Spawn.

But if that's not your style, maybe you'll be more interested in the relaunch of Powers, Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming's police-procedural-superhero-turned-epic, over at Marvel, the first issue of Jericho Season Three from Devil's Due, or my personal favorite, the first issue of an all-new series of The Tick. Spooon, indeed.

This week, however, is all about the collections. Let's start with Incognito, Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips' tale of a supervillain who can't quite bring himself to act normal even though he's in witness protection, which is highly recommended for those who like their superstories to be a little off-kilter.

If you enjoy that, then The Winter Men collects the eponymous series about Russia's supersoldier program, and what happened afterwards with a surprising amount of humor and humanity. But if you're more of a traditionalist, then Flash Vs. The Rogues collects some of the best stories of DC Comics' fastest man alive going up against his most popular villains from the Silver Age to today.

Getting away from superheroes, we come to the three books you owe it to yourself to pick up tomorrow: Chew: Taster's Choice collects the first storyline from John Layman's wonderful future detective series about a man whose taste buds can solve crimes (with art by Rob Guillory), which seems like perfect fodder for Thanksgiving reading... As does Shade The Changing Man, Peter Milligan's classic 1990s series about the insanity of America and true love and hair, which gets a re-released first volume and all-new second volume released this week. Truly a forgotten classic, it's probably the best thing you could pick up this week... even if the start of the first collection is a little rocky.

If you'd like more from your week at your local comic store, check out the official shipping list from Diamond Distributors and see what else is available for yourself. But don't leave the store without Shade and Chew. You can thank me later.

Image revealed their next big project at their Comic-Con panel: Image United, a six issue limited series drawn by company founders Whilce Portacio, Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri, Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, and Todd McFarlane. But the audience seemed less thrilled by the fact that each Image founder will lay out an issue as well as draw their own signature character, than that Robert Kirkman will be scripting. Although enthusiasm in the crowd for the project, scheduled for 2009, was strong, the majority of the questions in the crowd were for Kirkman, and many pleaded for Kirkman to include his popular character Invincible in the miniseries.

When asked if newer characters from Image's long history would be included, Erik Larsen said, "We'll be coming up with new guys, but it's going to be our guys. It would be too much work to try and figure out who else to fit in." The project is exciting, according to Larsen, because “this is really one of the things only we can do. You can’t go to Marvel and get the definitive guys for a crossover—you can’t get Jack Kirby, you can’t get Steve Ditko—but you can get us doing our definitive takes on our definitive characters.”

Despite their own joking cynicism about the possibility of Image United shipping on time—"this is crazy," deadpanned Silvestri behind flashy sunglasses, "how is this ever going to work?"—Kirkman promised this project wouldn't fall behind. “We have dates in mind that we want to hit and we’re going to be working on hitting those dates.”

Other news mentioned at the panel but announced previously included Whilce Portacio drawing Spawn, Darwyn Cooke writing and drawing a full issue for Madman Comics (#14), and a crime book written by Garth Ennis (crime apparently being the new zombies, what with all the announcements of crime projects here at SDCC).

Speaking of zombies, Kirkman mentioned October would be the five year anniversary of Walking Dead, and there would be several events to commemorate the event, including a 2009 calendar, the publication of the fourth volume hardcover, and a book collecting the covers to the first fifty issues. Also, "The Road to Washington," a new story arc would begin that month in the title, with the characters traveling to the nation's capital to discover what's left of the United States.

Between this and the announcement of Image United, fans of the original artists (call them Image zombies) and The Walking Dead (call them Zombie zombies) left excited, but it remains to be seen if even a galvanizing force like Kirkman can keep six creators notorious for blown deadlines and short attention spans on track.