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Last week, Top Shelf Productions announced it was struggling to stay in business due to the declared bankruptcy of its book trade distributor. The publisher made an appeal to the Internet comics community, asking that they buy enough Top Shelf books to keep them afloat.

It took less than a day for that objective to be achieved, and Top Shelf is now through the worst of its crisis. It's an amazing result, and the episode has seen interest in Top Shelf's diverse and excellent output increase substantially.

So, if you missed the boat and weren't part of this dramatic turnaround, it's not too late to offer your support, to help ensure Top Shelf's continued survival over the next few months. And instead of ordering direct, you can now take your order to your local comic shop. Top Shelf co-founder Chris Staros told the forecast that readers could now promote publishers like Top Shelf on a local level, "within the community of the local retail establishments".

To that end, in this special edition of the forecast, each of our fisherfolk has picked one of the finest catches from Top Shelf, so when you visit your local comic store this week, you can pick up (or order) a little something extra.

This is the cream of the crop - you can't go wrong with any of these selections.

GERMAN BIGHT PICKS:

BOX OFFICE POISON
An undeservedly obscure series (which, yes, I followed doggedly) collected into one glorious telephone directory of a graphic novel, Alex Robinson's BOX OFFICE POISON is a creation which defies you not to like it. The artwork, with characters drawn like caricatures, may jar some readers at first, but the writing has you hooked quick as anything. Imagine a dystopian take on FRIENDS. A loose group of flatmates, best buddies, employers, spouses, girl/boyfriends, crushes, flings and passers-by are woven into an engrossing tapestry of real life. There are plenty of laughs, dark undercurrents and geek-satisfying details galore. Much like real life, Robinson offers few solid conclusions or satisfying answers. If you take the time to look closely at BOX OFFICE POISON you'll find it difficult to turn away.

DOOT DOOT GARDEN, BIBLE DOODLES
Enough praise has been given to GOODBYE, CHUNKY RICE, so I think it only right to direct your attention to Craig Thompson's two contributions to Top Shelf's 'Small Batch' series. All of the titles in the series are beautifully put together hand-assembled minicomics with screen-printed covers, and therefore lovely objects to have in any case. In the case of Thompson's comics they will also delight those of us who love his one and only major published work, and fill the gap in our craving while we wait for his next book, BLANKETS, to come out. Filled with the products of a fine artistic style and a very odd imagination, both DOOT DOOT GARDEN and BIBLE DOODLES are a delight to read. For completists, DOOT DOOT GARDEN contains a reprint of Chunky Rice's first appearance in comics.

THE SOAP LADY
Not a graphic novel, but an illustrated children's book. Reneé French's art style is detailed, beautiful and slightly disturbing. There is no cute factor to this book at all but there is a moral at the heart of it, as there should be in all kid's books. THE SOAP LADY is about not judging by appearance or being afraid of things that appear strange. It's also about friendship and bubble baths, and owes a small debt to FRANKENSTEIN. One for adults who enjoy a slightly strange read, and for kids who do the same.

VIKING PICKS:

FROM HELL
There's a fairly significant chance that FROM HELL is the best work of sequential art ever produced. For a start, it's written by Alan Moore, widely accepted as the best writer in comics and an obvious genius. Then, it's drawn by Eddie Campbell, one of the most accomplished artists in the industry. And just to put the icing on the cake, it's a fantastically researched horror story, brilliantly told, about the Jack The Ripper murders of 19th century London. When people say 'prove to me that there are comics that are legitimate works of literature', FROM HELL is what you hit them with - although not too hard, as it's about 600 pages long. Fascinating, creepy, and dripping with Victorian atmosphere, FROM HELL should be on everyone's bookshelf.

BACCHUS: IMMORTALITY ISN'T FOREVER
Another Eddie Campbell project, this, though on his own this time. Bacchus is a strange concept - the ancient god of wine and revelry is still alive and well, and wandering around in pubs, drinking with his followers. Fair enough. But then the weird stuff starts up. Campbell uses his obviously immense knowledge of Greek mythology to create a modern-day saga, using characters from Greek myths and continuing their stories through the ages up to the present day, updating them for the modern age. Campbell is an excellent storyteller, and obviously knows a lot about his subject matter. Fascinating, fascinating stuff.

PLYMOUTH PICKS:

SPEECHLESS
Depending on what part of comics you're from, there's a number of places you may have encountered cartoonist Peter Kuper. He's currently writing and drawing "Spy vs. Spy" for MAD MAGAZINE. He had THE SYSTEM mini-series from DC's Vertigo imprint. His art regularly appears as covers for such magazines as Time, The New Yorker and Newsweek. With such a varied career, you can see why Top Shelf's SPEECHLESS coffee table book is something that really has appeal for almost everyone. SPEECHLESS breaks down Kuper's career into major categories; his love of New York (which influences a lot of his work), his autobiographical strips, his covers and interior illustrations for news magazines, his testimony at the Mike Diana trial, adaptations of other works (to name a few)... and a number of wordless stories, both reprinted in and original to SPEECHLESS.

It's a great summary of Kuper's work to date, and presents it in such a way that those unfamiliar with parts of his career find themselves continually informed and enlightened. SPEECHLESS was Top Shelf's first hardcover book, but you'd never know it from the strong production design. SPEECHLESS is a rare book that can be appreciated both by lovers of the comic art form, and art in general.

FASTNET PICKS:

ALEC: THE KING CANUTE CROWD
Eddie Campbell's long-running autobiographical comic kicks off here, with our young hero - pseudonymously-named Alec McGarry - having just moved from Glasgow to Southend-on-Sea to operate a guillotine in a sheet metal works while deciding what to do with the rest of his life. I originally picked up this book because I knew of Eddie Campbell through FROM HELL, and because I knew the area where it's set. But I soon found - as will any other reader - that this is one of the most affecting pieces of autobiography in the comics medium. It's funny, it's moving, it's slightly scary at times - Campbell can be excoriatingly honest about his own failings, especially in relationships - and, most of all, it's universal. This is a book about what happens to groups of close friends, and you'll almost certainly recognise yourself in its pages. Campbell makes the ordinary extraordinary, and his art style - evolving here but instantly recognisable in its inky scratchiness - seems to evoke the subtlest of emotions.

STRANGEHAVEN: ARCADIA
I don't know what they put in the water in Southend-on-Sea, but it works. Gary Spencer Millidge is another resident of this slightly seedy slice of the Essex Riviera, and in STRANGEHAVEN, he's created one of the most striking and haunting comics around. The title refers to a small, pretty town in Devon that becomes a haven for Alex, a schoolteacher who crashes his car while on a holiday to recover from his recent divorce. But the longer he stays in the town, the stranger it gets. Some residents claim to be Amazonian Indians or aliens, others are bafflingly friendly, still others are bafflingly unfriendly, and the local secret society (one part Masons, another Ku Klux Klan) is taking weirdness to an alarming level. STRANGEHAVEN taps into the same rich vein of English rural sinisterness as THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN or THE WICKER MAN. Millidge's art mixes photography-based pencils with sequences in painted greytones. STRANGEHAVEN isn't the fastest-moving work in the world, but it'll stay with you like the ghost stories you heard when you were a kid.

DOGGER PICKS:

THE HIGHBURY WORKING
As well as putting out some of his comics work, Top Shelf also act as a distributor for Alan Moore's audio work on the RE: label. Moore does what might be described as performance poetry from time to time, working with Tim Perkins to create a blend of spoken word and music that is an absolute delight to listen to. This piece is a story of one of London's suburbs, picking up a theme that Moore has expounded in more than one interview, the idea that everywhere is ripe with story, myth and fable, if one only looks hard enough. If you enjoyed the strange occult connections that Moore drew across London in chapter five of FROM HELL, then you'll love hearing him do the same on a smaller scale, with greater depth, on this CD.

ANGEL PASSAGE
The second of Moore's audio works from Top Shelf, this is a poetic look at the artist William Blake. First performed as part of a larger celebration of Blake's life and work, this is a work that takes one of England's greatest artists, and examines him as an ordinary man, and in doing so, reveals him for the visionary he was. If THE HIGHBURY WORKING is a study of myths in a physical place, ANGEL PASSAGE is an examination of myths as they attach to a human being, and a fascinating one at that. Moore's affection for his subject shines through, resulting in a biography that no-one should be without.

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Finally, this week's shipping list. There's not much of note this week, so it's a perfect opportunity to pick up an extra trade or two!

Shipping details come courtesy of Diamond. Check out the Diamond website for the latest information, as the list is subject to change.

GERMAN BIGHT PICKS:

DUMPED (Oni Press)
Andi Watson again, Oni again. I swear I'm not on commission. This here is Oni's first original graphic novel, produced in association with the Turin Biennial arts festival. It's in the same vein as BREAKFAST AFTER NOON, a slice of life story about romance, rejection and the habit of hanging on to old things. Apparently a little lighter in tone than the decidedly downbeat dissection of love on the dole that was BREAKFAST AFTER NOON, DUMPED offers the usual absurdly high standard of comics that we've come to expect from Andi Watson. You should all know how I feel about that already.

FASTNET PICKS:

THE SANDMAN PRESENTS: THE THESSALIAD #4 (DC Vertigo)
Bill Willingham and Sean McManus's twisted little tale comes to a conclusion here, and another Sandman spin-off defies expectations. This has been a treat, from Willingham's sparky take on the murderous witch Thessaly, to McManus's appealingly cartoony artwork, and the team's sense of fun with mythology, both traditional and Gaiman-derived. If you haven't been reading it, this'll be too late for you (and why weren't you reading it? We've been recommending every issue!), but if you have, you won't want to miss this.

Comics shipping in the US on April 10th:

DARK HORSE

JAN020020 BTVS #43 DEATH OF BUFFY (PART 1 OF 3) ART CVR $2.99
JAN020021 BTVS #43 DEATH OF BUFFY (PART 1 OF 3) PHOTO CVR $2.99
JAN020521 STAR WARS RETURN OF THE JEDI MANGA #1 (Of 4) (STAR09865) $2.50
JAN020045 SUPER MANGA BLAST #20 (MR) $5.99

DC COMICS

FEB020589 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #603 $2.25
FEB020637 AMERICAN CENTURY VOL 2: HOLLYWOOD BABYLON TP (MR) $12.95
FEB020578 AZRAEL: AGENT OF THE BAT #89 $2.50
FEB020572 BATGIRL #27 $2.50
FEB020597 DEADMAN #5 $2.50
FEB020600 GREEN LANTERN #149 $2.25
FEB020633 GREYSHIRT: INDIGO SUNSET #5 (Of 6) $3.50
FEB020585 HARLEY QUINN #19 $2.25
FEB020642 HUNTER: THE AGE OF MAGIC #10 (MR) $2.50
FEB020569 IMPULSE #85 $2.50
FEB020609 JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES #6 $1.99
FEB020627 KINDRED #4 (Of 4) $2.50
FEB020610 LAB RATS #1 $2.50
FEB020573 NIGHTWING #68 $2.25
FEB020612 POWER COMPANY #3 $2.50
FEB020631 ROBO DOJO #3 (Of 6) $2.95
FEB020645 SANDMAN PRESENTS: THE THESSALIAD #4 (Of 4) (MR) $2.50
FEB020624 SCOOBY-DOO #59 $1.99
FEB020617 SUICIDE SQUAD #8 $2.50
FEB020647 TRANSMETROPOLITAN #55 (MR) $2.50

IMAGE

FEB021549 IMAGE INTRODUCES: CRYPTOPIA #1 $2.95
FEB021557 RADIX #3 $2.95

MARVEL

JAN021913 AVENGERS #52 $2.25
JAN021868 BEST OF SPIDER-MAN HC VOL 1 $34.95
FEB021914 BLACK PANTHER #43 $2.50
FEB021899 CABLE #104 $2.25
JAN021921 ESSENTIAL MARVEL TEAM UP TP $14.95
FEB021912 FANTASTIC FOUR #54 (Note Price) $3.50
FEB021915 IRON MAN #53 $2.25
FEB021868 SPIDER-MAN THE MOVIE TP $12.95
FEB021917 TASKMASTER #3 (Of 4) $2.99
FEB021913 THOR #48 $2.25
FEB021890 ULTIMATE MARVEL TEAM UP #15 $2.25
FEB021895 X-FACTOR #1 (Of 4) $2.50
FEB021900 X-TREME X-MEN #12 $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

FEB022123 JUST A PILGRIM: GARDEN OF EDEN #2 (Of 4) $2.99
FEB022714 BASTARD!! #5: NINJA!! (3 OF 3) (MR) $3.95
JAN022642F COWBOY BEBOP #4 (Of 4) $2.99
FEB022584 DUMPED GN $5.95
FEB022356 FORGE #1 $9.95
FEB022642F GUNDAM WING: ENDLESS WALTZ #2 (Of 5) $2.99
JAN022221 JUGHEAD #143 $1.99
JAN022222 JUGHEAD WITH ARCHIE DIGEST #174 $2.19
FEB022644F LOVE HINA #3 (Of 4) $2.99
FEB022696 MAGICAL POKEMON JOURNEY VOL 5: GOING COCONUTS TP $13.95
FEB022355 NEGATION #5 $2.95
JAN022224 PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #66 $3.29
FEB022709 POKEMON ADVS VOL 5: MAKING WAVES TP $13.95
FEB022649F RAGNAROK #3 (Of 4) $2.99
FEB022694 RANMA 1/2 PART 11 #2 (Of 11) $2.95
JAN022225 SABRINA VOL 2 #31 $1.99
FEB022362 SIGIL #23 $2.95
FEB022363 SOJOURN #10 $2.95
JAN022159 STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL III #48 $2.95
FEB022724 VAGABOND PART 1 #6 (MR) $4.95

The 9A Lighthouse Crew are Trafalgar, Shannon, Fastnet, Plymouth, Viking, German Bight, Finisterre, Forties, Dogger, Cromarty and Fisher.

This article is Ideological Freeware. The author grants permission for its reproduction and redistribution by private individuals on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice.

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