The Shipping Forecast for December 12th

It's two weeks until Christmas. Should you really be spending money on yourself? Hell, yes, especially with comics like GRIP, DISCIPLES, RADIX and X-FORCE on the shelves. Your mum knows you love her. She doesn't need a present.
10 December 2001

Every Monday Ninth Art tells you which books are arriving in US stores the following Wednesday, and, as if that weren't enough, tells you which books to check out! And you can download the shipping list to your palmtop computer! And you can subscribe to the Ninth Art mailing list from the front page, so you'll know when the site has been updated.

The shipping list is subject to change. Check out the Diamond website for the latest updates.

FISHER PICKS:

'NUFF SAID MONTH (Marvel Comics)
Marvel's December gimmick is books with no dialogue, similar to Larry Hama's famed GI JOE Snake Eyes story some years back. When Hama tried to repeat the trick on WOLVERINE, editorial told him to add a voice-over, because readers would be pissed off at how quick the book was to read. How things change.

'Nuff Said month started last week with several books I don't read. This week we get to what I hope will be the good stuff. Christopher Priest's superb BLACK PANTHER has Sal Velluto illustrating an extended fistfight between two martial artists (Panther and Iron Fist). PUNISHER sees Steve Dillon going it alone to show us Frank Castle in downtime. CABLE resolves its Shining Path story in the main feature, and going silent for the back-up strip. Less appealing than these will be the notoriously wordy Chris Claremont struggling to keep it zipped on X-TREME X-MEN. Since that issue is also the conclusion to a storyline, you have to wonder if it's such a good idea for it to be dialogue-free.

X-FORCE #122 (Marvel Comics)
X-FORCE is running late, so this isn't the 'Nuff Said issue. The hype for this issue reads: "The truth about Lacuna is finally revealed... new team members are finally chosen... and a blossoming romance between two X-Forcers threatens to compromise the team itself!" Sounds awfully conventional, don't it? But if you're reading this book, you'll already know it certainly won't be, and if you're not reading this book, you've surely heard the hype by now. For heaven's sake, cave in! The readership of X-FORCE is rising steadily, and it's only a matter of time before Pete Milligan and Mike Allred take over the world. Do you want to be first against the wall when the revolution comes, comrade?

CROMARTY PICKS:

DISCIPLES: WHEEL OF FORTUNE (Image)
DISCIPLES is one of the best new series of 2001. And none of you are buying the damn thing! For shame! This double-sized issue completes the first story arc, promising to deal with the trials of Suzi - a young girl who just might be the most powerful and destructive force on Earth - and the two clandestine groups of modern magicians fighting to control her. Ninth Art conducted an exclusive and revealing interview with the comic's writers, which you can read here - so come on, people! If you have any interest whatsoever in Lovecraft, Chaos Magic or the INVISIBLES, you'll be kicking yourself for months if you don't give this one a whirl.

GRIP: THE STRANGE WORLD OF MEN #2 (DC Vertigo)
Seems an awful lot of people missed the start of this series, which is a shame - anything new from Gilbert Hernandez is at least worth checking out, and GRIP delivers in full. Taking an almost Lynchian approach to the clearly outdated concept of story, Hernandez managed to baffle and confuse just about everyone with the debut of this strange tale, in which a man 'wakes up' in the middle of the street with no knowledge of who he is... and discovers that a number of rather dangerous people seem to be very interested in him. Plus: his skin has a life of its own and is about to go walkies. How can you resist?

KIN VOL 1: DESCENT OF MAN TP (Image Comics)
This book has already appeared twice on the shipping list over the past six months, yet still it hasn't turned up. Let's hope that this time, they really mean it - because I'm still looking forward to it. Gary Frank is an excellent illustrator, and although this is his first attempt at writing a series, don't let that put you off. The series received a lot of praise, and the premise is intriguing - an X-FILES style plot of how man's evolutionary path might have diverged, fractured and become something entirely different... and more dangerous.

PLYMOUTH PICKS:

RADIX #1 (Image Comics)
Ray and Ben Lai entered the comics industry with a bit of a splash as the artists on SIGIL, one of CrossGen's initial titles. When they left the company less than a year later, I figured we'd never see them again. Wrong. They're back with a science-fiction series where utopia has descended on Earth - but no one can remember back more than three years. The interesting premise is helped by the Lais' art looking much sharper than I remember it ever being at CrossGen; clearly their time away from comics has energised the brothers. If everyone got so much better after a brief break, perhaps it's time to start handing out sabbaticals across the industry.

MIDNIGHT NATION #9 (Image Comics)
After a quick breather, J. Michael Straczynski and Gary Frank are back with more of MIDNIGHT NATION, having paused right as things heated up. It's the story of a man who "slipped through the cracks" into a strange twilight version of Earth, and he's finally reached his goal of New York even as he's on the verge of losing his soul forever. After having given up on RISING STARS in disgust, I was genuinely surprised with MIDNIGHT NATION, which has a great mix of action, suspense, drama, and mystery. Frank's got the nicest art at Top Cow these days, and it's wonderful to see it tied to such a good story. Hopefully they'll release a collection of the first six issues soon (it's set to run for twelve); if not, definitely take a look.

BLACK HOLE #9 (Fantagraphics)
Charles Burns is one of those artists who could leave comics in a heartbeat. His works are regularly displayed in fine art galleries across the world, he gets enough magazine, newspaper, and promotional art work that he doesn't need comics at all... and somehow we're lucky enough that he keeps sticking around. BLACK HOLE is a genuinely creepy series about a sexually transmitted plague moving among teenagers, which mutates them in unsettling ways. Each issue stands alone as a documentary of psychological horror. Together, they form part of an even more disturbing whole. Burns certainly knows what he's talking about with contagious diseases; once you read some of Burns's work, you'll find yourself compelled to seek out more.

DOGGER PICKS:

DISCIPLES: WHEEL OF FORTUNE (Image Comics)
I'm fed up to the back teeth of seeing good series get cancelled. I'm sure you are, too. But I'm especially fed up of seeing series like this get cancelled, because there is nothing about this book that makes me think that there was anything standing between it and success but your damn apathy. The art is simple, and attractive, and the story is likewise clear and compelling. This is not challenging, or burningly new, but it is very, very good. And none of you swine bought the first two issues. So go and buy this, and make up for your appalling lapse of taste and judgement.

BLUE MONDAY: ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS TP (Oni Press)
My colleagues and I are always bemoaning the lack of diversity of genres in comics, especially with regards to obvious genres like romantic comedy - which is popular everywhere but comics, and would almost certainly be popular in comics too, if only anyone were doing it. BLUE MONDAY is perhaps leaning substantially more on the side of the comedy than the romance, but still, it's about as close as we're getting. The follow-up series to BLUE MONDAY: THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT, this is Chynna Clugston-Major's return to the same cast of more-or-less normal teenage kids. This is the funnier, more accurate flipside of DAWSON'S CREEK, with the volume turned up on the laugh track.

GERMAN BIGHT PICKS:

HATE ANNUAL #2 (Fantagraphics)
Time was you'd get about four Peter Bagge comics per year, but now that Buddy Bradley's story has meandered to a kind of conclusion we have to take what crumbs of comfort we can in the HATE ANNUAL. If it's like the first annual this should contain some work from the creators who hung around in the back pages of late-era HATE, some of Bagge's self-illustrated essays and maybe just a leeetle bit of the Bradleys. Much, much better than nothing, but it makes me feel nostalgic and old.

INU YASHA VOL 10 TP (Viz)
Girls' manga with a heavy dose of old Japanese legends, mainly demons. It's the regular plot of 'girl falls down well, girl finds herself back in ancient times, people think girl is reincarnation of their late village shaman/priestess, girl frees rather good looking half human dog-demon who's the enemy of her previous self, demon and girl are obliged to go on a quest together to retrieve shards of a mystical jewel which will increase the power of any demons who posess it'. There's unresolved sexual tension, spectacular fight scenes and some genuinely creepy moments. Love BUFFY? Try this.

Comics shipping in the US on December 12th:

DARK HORSE

MAY010023 F5 ORIGIN $2.99
AUG010067 OH MY GODDESS PART XI #3 MYSTERY CHILD PART 1 (OF 8) $2.99
OCT010027 PLANET OF THE APES #4 BLOODLINES PHOTO CVR (1 OF 3) (C: 3) $2.99
OCT010026 PLANET OF THE APES #4 BLOODLINES (1 OF 3) (C: 3) $2.99
SEP010055 SUPER MANGA BLAST #18 (MR) $5.99
SEP010030 SUPERMAN/TARZAN SONS OF THE JUNGLE #2 (Of 3) $2.99
APR010035 TENTH RESURRECTED CVR A #3 $2.99
APR010036 TENTH RESURRECTED CVR B #3 $2.99

DC COMICS

OCT010562 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #599 $2.25
OCT010554 AZRAEL AGENT OF THE BAT #85 $2.50
OCT010594 DEADMAN #1 $2.50
OCT010551 DETECTIVE COMICS #765 $2.50
OCT010625 FOUR WOMEN #3 (Of 5) (MR) $2.95
OCT010572 GREEN LANTERN #145 $2.25
OCT010623 GREYSHIRT INDIGO SUNSET #3 (Of 6) $3.50
OCT010631 GRIP THE STRANGE WORLD OF MEN #2 (Of 5) (MR) $2.50
OCT010559 HARLEY QUINN #15 $2.25
OCT010635 HUNTER THE AGE OF MAGIC #6 (MR) $2.50
OCT010571 IMPULSE #81 $2.50
OCT010601 JIST WITH JERRY ORDWAY CREATING THE JLA $5.95
OCT010575 JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES #2 $1.99
OCT010558 NIGHTWING #64 $2.25
OCT010611 SCOOBY-DOO #55 $1.99
OCT010579 SUICIDE SQUAD #4 $2.50
OCT010607 WILL EISNERS SPIRIT ARCHIVES VOL 6 HC $49.95

IMAGE

OCT011551 BANISHED KNIGHTS ALVIN LEE CVR #1 $2.95
OCT011555 BANISHED KNIGHTS HOLOFOIL CVR #1 (Net) PI
OCT011552 BANISHED KNIGHTS PAT LEE CVR #1 $2.95
JUN011325 DISCIPLES: WHEEL OF FORTUNE $4.95
OCT011561 GO GIRL #5 $3.50
JUN011294 KIN VOL 1 DESCENT OF MAN TP $17.95
OCT011469 MIDNIGHT NATION #9 (RES) $2.50
OCT011573 RADIX #1 (Of 6) $2.95
OCT011579 TEKKEN FOREVER CRUZ CVR #1 (Of 4) $2.95
OCT011578 TEKKEN FOREVER DIAZ CVR #1 (Of 4) $2.95
AUG011150 WITCHBLADE #52 $2.50
JUL011241 ZORRO THE DAILIES TP $18.95

MARVEL

OCT011884 BLACK PANTHER #39 $2.50
OCT011855 CABLE #100 (Note Price) $3.99
SEP011459 ELEKTRA #5 $2.99
OCT011845 FURY #4 (MR) $2.99
OCT011887 IRON MAN #49 $2.25
OCT011888 MARVEL POSTER BOOK WINTER 2001 $3.50
OCT011879 PUNISHER #7 $2.99
SEP011448 X-FORCE #122 $2.25
OCT011856 X-TREME X-MEN #8 $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

OCT012690 BASTARD WIZARD #1 (Of 2) (MR) $3.95
SEP011771J BETTY #107 (Net) PI
SEP011772 BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #126 $2.19
SEP012004F BLACK HOLE #9 (Of 13) (MR) $4.50
OCT012606 BLUE MONDAY ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS TP (MR) $11.95
OCT012714 DRAGONBALL PART 4 #5 (Of 10) (C: 3) $2.95
OCT012716 DRAGONBALL Z PART 4 #13 (Of 13) (C: 3) $2.95
OCT012342 ELVIRA #104 $2.50
OCT012443 FLIRT GN (MR) $12.50
AUG012162 GIRL GENIUS #5 (Note Price) $3.95
SEP012010F HATE ANNUAL #2 (MR) $4.95
SEP012135 HOPELESS SAVAGES #4 (Of 4) $2.95
OCT012711 INU YASHA VOL 10 TP $15.95
SEP011774 JUGHEAD #141 $1.99
SEP011776 JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #82 $3.29
OCT012608 KILLER PRINCESSES #1 (Of 3) (MR) $2.95
SEP011920 MAXION #24 (MR) $2.95
OCT012720 MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM 0079 VOL 1 2ND ED $9.95
AUG012163 MURCIELAGA SHE BAT FLIPBOOK #3 (Of 3) $2.95
OCT012382 NEGATION #1 $2.95
OCT012710 RANMA 1/2 PART 10 #9 (Of 11) $2.95
OCT012385 SIGIL #19 $2.95
OCT012386 SOJOURN #6 $2.95
SEP011711 STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL III #45 $2.95
OCT012225 THE LAB #1 $3.50
SEP011742 VAMPI #13 REG ED $2.99
SEP011743I VAMPI #13 DLX ED $9.95

MAGAZINES

OCT012693 ANIMERICA EXTRA VOL 5 #1 $4.95
OCT012689 ANIMERICA JANUARY 2002 $4.95
OCT012738J COMIC SHOP NEWS #756 (Net) PI
SEP012318F GAMES UNPLUGGED MAGAZINE #13 $2.99
OCT012696 PULP VOL 6 #1 (MR) $5.95

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

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.