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The Forecast for June 2nd 2005
Welcome to The Forecast. Every Monday, Ninth Art's core team of comment writers, the Ninth Eight, will be your guides to the best, worst, weirdest and most noteworthy books on the shelves of your local comic shop. BOOK OF THE WEEK: AGE OF BRONZE AGE OF BRONZE is one of the cruellest books on the market. I first encountered Eric Shanower's beautiful retelling of the story of the Trojan War in 2001, with the publication of the first trade paperback, A THOUSAND SHIPS. Thanks to its intelligent storytelling and exquisitely fine linework, it immediately became one of my favourites, and the wait for the second volume began. Four years later, that second trade paperback is finally here (though the hardback is already available). The first issue of the third story arc also reaches stores this month, so we'll have to be equally patient with volume three. Where AGE OF BRONZE is concerned, you can expect to wait an age between stories. But it's worth it, because work like this really shouldn't be rushed. Shanower has conducted exhaustive research to reconcile different versions of the Troy legend, and he's put still more work into creating a note-perfect visual world. He's creating a masterpiece, and the effort pays off in every page. Shanower is also letting the story itself take its time. The Trojan War is the definitive epic, and it needs room to breathe as the years unfold and the motivations of the enormous cast emerge. Affairs of state are explored alongside affairs of the heart. Acts of war are intertwined with acts of the gods. It's a vast tapestry, and Shanower wants to share every detail. The second volume, SACRIFICE (Hungry Tiger Press), sees the arrival in Troy of Sparta's Queen Helen, to the alarm of the seer Kassandra; Achilles waging war on Mysia; and Agamemnon being called upon to make a terrible sacrifice. And we still haven't got to the actual war. It's frustratingly slow, but hugely rewarding. Where volume three is concerned, I may have to finally switch to buying the issues. [Andrew Wheeler] EMO EAT WORLD I made the mistake of going over to urbandictionary.com to check out what an emo boy actually is when I saw EMO BOY #1 (Slave Labor) in this week's shipping list. God help me, I think I am an emo boy, except for the sweater-wearing part. I like Jimmy Eat World, and apparently they're emo. Emo appears to be caught in the middle of being a good thing and being a bad thing, and I'm stuck being thoroughly confused. I'm assuming confusion is also part of being emo. Emo Boy, the eponymous 'hero' of this new series, wanders through the book (or the first nine pages, previewed here), with an internal monologue made of his own poetry. When his words - scrawled on the wall of a toilet - are read by Billy, the local cool jock, he asks Emo Boy to write lyrics for his band. It's here that Emo Boy meets Jenny, the lead singer, and so the stage is set for some emo angst. It obvious from the writing and press release that aptly-named EMO BOY creator Steve Emond likes to take the piss. Emond notes, "as much [the book] celebrates an emo kid, it sure makes fun of him for it just as much! I get to parody bands and shows, and I get to torture this poor little emo boy endlessly. And he does get tortured". My only problem is with the way the character is drawn: Emo Boy himself looks more nerd than emo, with his big nose and his huge glasses. Unless emo kids are nerds too. I really don't know. I'm so confused. [Ben Wooller] BIG AND CLEVER I love the word "fuck", which means that when I write about James Kochalka's SUPER FUCKERS, this week's new release from Top Shelf, I'm not going to use the asterisk. Frankly, it panders to far too many people for whom pandering should be a bear-related punishment (although, having done some research, it may be named so as to avoid infringing a certain adult movie producer's copyright). SUPER FUCKERS springs from the mind of the indy comics darling behind AMERICAN ELF and MONKEY VERSUS ROBOT, and while it has little to do with autobiography or primates and their wars, it is likely to be supremely enjoyable. As this Newsarama interview attests, SUPER FUCKERS is a light-hearted superhero romp, probably closer in spirit to BIZARRO COMICS than the LEGION OF SUPERHEROES. Kochalka drops us into the thick of the action - issue #1 is actually issue #271 - giving the reader the semblance of history, if nothing else. While preview material is limited, SUPER FUCKERS looks likely to go beyond Kochalka's trademark flat coloured line art, incorporating photography, amongst other things, to tell the story of a superhero club more concerned with their next Beerlympics than with saving the world. A thought occurs: with all these alternative, independent, straight-acting, subversive and downright oddball superhero projects on the shelves just now, you'd think that Marvel and DC would do the decent thing and give up their copyright on the word "superhero". After all, while DC can almost claim to have invented them, and while both companies can claim to have epitomised and revolutionised the concept at one time or another, it has been a very long time since superheroes were the sole province of the Big Two - in comics or out. Maybe people would get away with calling them Super H*roes. Or maybe not. [Matthew Craig] THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO 'MMM...' In case you weren't entirely sure, the year is 2005. No, not 1995. Nor even 1985. But 2005. Time is ever flowing into the future; we have phones that can access the internet, record short films and even make phone-calls, and we have planes that fly into space, so you not only get a wonderful view, but you may gain super-powers. We are at the apex of modern society. There's no more modern than now. And now. And now. And yet sometimes I have to look up at the forlorn 'Kitten In A Sock' calendar above my computer to check what year it really is. And those sometimes are usually right after reading any DC or Marvel press release. The year of the Big Summer Crossover has arrived! Marvel's rule under the - now seemingly wonderful - stewardship of Bill Jemas was 'no crossovers', but now they're back with a vengeance. Of course, it makes perfect sense; Marvel can afford to go back to old, inferior ways now that the forward-thinking approach has got them out of bankruptcy. They're Jim Carrey after ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, deciding he really just wanted to make Farrelly brothers films after all. Maybe it's also partially a reaction to DC's mega-ulti-preludilicious summer event INFINITE CROSS-OVERS. Each is trying to gain the spotlight, each is trying to one-up the other, each is like a warring sibling trying to convince their mother it was the other who ate that last cookie. So - the story! Yes, you remember those don't you? The bits in between the ass-rape and the objectification of women and slaughter of z-listers and the general destruction of a once-fun industry... The story for this little hootenanny involves the threat presented by crazy mutant Wanda Maximoff. An insane, reality-altering gypsy sounds like a terrifying opponent to me - the world will have to forsake cold, hard cash and only trade in clothes pegs! Argh! Will the Old X-Men and the New Avengers defeat her before she can alter the world for good? With Olivier Coipel providing the art, HOUSE OF M should at least be pretty. And if you don't buy it, you won't know what to bitch about all summer. Oh, and if you do buy this mini, you might also want to check out the twelvty-hundred accompanying minis, like HOUSE OF M: HULK, HOUSE OF M: MOON KNIGHT and HOUSE OF M: BURT KWOUK. [John Fellows] ALSO OUT THIS WEEK... The trade collection of Morrison and Quitely's bravura mini-series WE3 is due to arrive in North American stores this Wednesday. Click here for Ninth Art's full review. THE SHIPPING LIST FOR JUNE 2nd 2005: Shipping details come courtesy of Diamond. Visit the Diamond website for the latest information, as the list is subject to change. DARK HORSE MAR050046D CONCRETE HUMAN DILEMMA #6 (OF 6) (MR) $3.50
DC COMICS APR050326D AQUAMAN #31 $2.50
IMAGE APR051664D AGE OF BRONZE VOL 2 SACRIFICE TP $19.95
MARVEL APR051888D AMAZING FANTASY #9 $2.99
OTHER PUBLISHERS MAR053298E ANGEL SANCTUARY VOL 8 GN $9.99
The Ninth Eight are Matthew Craig, John Fellows, Kieron Gillen, Alistair Kennedy, Zack Smith, Andrew Wheeler, Ben Wooller and Bulent Yusuf. Ninth Art endorses the principle of Ideological Freeware. The author permits distribution of this article 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. Back. |