The Shipping Forecast for April 4th

Angels, robots, pixies, mutants, criminals and spies. But enough of the strange hallucinations plaguing the Ninth Art Lighthouse crew - here are their picks for the most interesting comics on sale this week.
01 April 2002

The Shipping Forecast is Ninth Art's pick of the best and most notable new releases hitting comic stores each week, courtesy of the fishing crew at the Ninth Art lighthouse. Shipping details come courtesy of Diamond. Check out the Diamond website for the latest information, as the list is subject to change.

Please also note that due to the Easter holiday, this week's comics will arrive in US stores on Thursday, April 4th and in UK stores Friday, April 5th.

GERMAN BIGHT PICKS:

HALO & SPROCKET #1 (Slave Labor)
An angel, a robot and a young single woman share a flat. The angel approaches life through spirituality and metaphysics, the robot approaches it through logic and the woman goes through life as erratically as any other mere mortal. 'Philosophy lite' is an odd concept for a comic, but I have high hopes that HALO & SPROCKET will work. Creator Kerry Callen's artwork is fresh and simple, using confident brushwork and grey tones to illustrate a tight script. Sample the preview and find out whether the glass is half full or half empty. Or not.

JAMES KOCHALKA'S SKETCHBOOK DIARIES VOL 2 (Top Shelf)
Every now and again I get my copy of the first year's SKETCHBOOK DIARIES down from the shelf and dip in to while away a little time. More often than not I find I've actually whiled away a large chunk of time, it's so absorbing. Every day, Kochalka chronicles part of his life that day in a four-panel comic. The reader is party to everything, from philosophical musings on nature to drunken benders and the consequent hangovers. You accept this as an accurate reflection of life, even though Kochalka draws his wife and himself as pixies and one of his friends as a talking dog. Ranging from angry to whimsical, always with an underlying seam of self-awareness, the mood of SKETCHBOOK DIARIES draws you in and keeps you there. This is "throwaway" work to be treasured. Highly recommended.

PLYMOUTH PICKS:

DETECTIVE COMICS (DC)
Who'd have thought it? DC Comics has finally perfected the multi-title crossover story with their 'Bruce Wayne: Murderer' and 'Bruce Wayne: Fugitive' storylines. Yep, that's right; each title is still perfectly comprehendable by itself, though people can buy additional parts if they want... but don't have to do so by any stretch of the imagination. Sooner or later, someone was going to have to get it right. Of course, add in Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber providing compelling drama and mystery into DETECTIVE COMICS these days and that's just icing on the cake.

MUTIES #3 (Marvel)
Lately it seems like Marvel's been learning of the alternative comics market and plumbing its depths for creative talent; one of their better "discoveries" has to be the existence of Dean Haspiel. Hapsiel's rugged art is the perfect choice for this tense political story, with the attention focused on the human condition and reactions, not eye-popping superpowers. Karl Bollers' MUTIES mini-series has quietly snuck onto the market with a sharp take on the idea of mutants, logically examining how the world would react to mutants in their midst; if you don't pick this up now, you'll be kicking yourself in six months when everyone's talking about "the best book you've never read".

VIKING PICKS:

STRAY BULLETS VOL. 6 TP (El Capitan)
Well, aren't I the avant-garde one this week. Nary a cape in sight. But I will make the supreme sacrifice of picking up an indie title when it's as brilliant as STRAY BULLETS. I bought the first book a while ago, and within two weeks I'd purchased the next four. STRAY BULLETS is a series of short crime vignettes - sometimes directly related to previous stories, sometimes tangentally related, sometimes not related at all. And they're brilliant. Each one is a solid story, detailing one of David Lapham's well fleshed-out characters and believable situations. The art is subdued but clean, and the storytelling is flawless. Really, you could do a lot worse than picking this up.

MODERNTALES.COM (N/A)
An odd recommendation this week, as ModernTales.com is not technically on the shipping list, but it is comics, and good ones at that. ModernTales.com is a low-fee ($2.95/month, $29.95/year) subscription website containing boatloads of strips by some of the better indie and online comic creators. Scott Kurtz, the man behind the incredibly funny PVP Online, a strip about a group of people in a computer gaming magazine office, has his original creation WEDLOCK on the site. Lea Hernandez (RUMBLE GIRLS, KILLER PRINCESS) is also on the list of contributers with her webcomic NEAR-LIFE EXPERIENCE. There are many others - these are just the two that caught my eye. Go and see for yourself.

FASTNET PICKS:

QUEEN & COUNTRY VOL 1 (Oni Press) Oni Press has published so much good material over the years, it seems strange that Greg Rucka's QUEEN & COUNTRY is their first ever continuing series. The story centres around British secret service black-ops specialist Tara Chace, her colleagues and superiors, and the fallout from a bloody operation in Eastern Europe. Rucka combines the thorny geopolitics of assassination and subversion with the equally lethal office politics of government ministries, and pulls off a trick which defeats many other writers - creating characters and situations who don't come from the same country as him. Chace and co are convincingly British, from their speech patterns to their downbeat sarcasm. And he knows how to rack up the tension, too. Steve Rolston's art is cartoony, which at first sight seems unsuited for such gritty work, but it's clear and expressive, which works well against the convoluted storyline and pays dividends in the action sequences. This is terrific stuff - when we say that we want to see more diverse comics, this is the sort of material we mean.

Comics shipping in the US on April 4th:

DC COMICS

FEB020577 BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #154 $2.25
FEB020640 CRUSADES #14 (MR) $2.50
FEB020574 DETECTIVE COMICS #769 $2.50
FEB020596 DOOM PATROL #7 $2.50
FEB020604 HAWKMAN #2 $2.50
FEB020628 HIGH ROADS #1 (Of 6) $2.95
FEB020622 LOONEY TUNES #89 $1.99
FEB020586 ROBIN: YEAR ONE TP $14.95
FEB020646 SCI-SPY #3 (Of 6) $2.50
FEB020616 SPECTRE #16 $2.50
FEB020588 SUPERMAN #181 $2.25
FEB020593 SUPERMAN & SAVAGE DRAGON: CHICAGO $5.95
FEB020567 YOUNG JUSTICE #44 $2.50

IMAGE

JAN021542 ARIA: A SUMMER SPELL #1 (Of 2) $2.95
FEB021547 GI JOE #5 $2.95
DEC011517 RED STAR GOSSETT CVR #8 $2.95
DEC011518 RED STAR RODRIGUEZ CVR #8 $2.95
JAN021572 TOMB RAIDER: JOURNEYS #3 (Of 12) $2.95

MARVEL

FEB021855 ALIAS #8 (MR) $2.99
JAN021913 AVENGERS #52 $2.25
FEB021909 DEADLINE #1 (Of 4) $2.99
NOV011868 DR STRANGE: A SEPARATE REALITY TP $19.95
JAN021921 ESSENTIAL MARVEL TEAM UP TP $14.95
FEB021896 EXILES #12 $2.25
FEB021861 MARVEL KNIGHTS DOUBLE SHOT #1 (RES) $2.99
FEB021908 MARVEL MANGAVERSE #1 $2.99
FEB021894 MORLOCKS #1 (Of 4) $2.50
FEB021897 MUTIES #3 $2.50
FEB021886 SPIDER-GIRL #46 $2.25
FEB021887 SPIDER-MAN: PETER PARKER #42 $2.25
FEB021888 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #21 $2.25
FEB021898 UNCANNY X-MEN #405 $2.25
JAN021924 UNION JACK TP $11.50
NOV011863 UNIVERSE X VOL 1 TP $24.95
JAN021883 X-FORCE #126 $2.25
JAN021885 X-MEN UNLIMITED #34 (NOTE PRICE) $3.50

OTHER PUBLISHERS

JAN022216 ARCHIE AND FRIENDS STARRING JOSIE & PUSSYCATS #56 $1.99
JAN022214 ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #133 $3.29
JAN022217 ARCHIES WEIRD MYSTERIES #20 $1.99
FEB011927 BAD KITTY #1 (O/A) $2.99
JAN022218 BETTY #111 $1.99
DEC012256 DEADBEATS #52 $2.50
FEB022354 FIRST #18 $2.95
FEB022183 HALO & SPROCKET #1 $2.95
JAN022299 HAUNTED #4 (Of 4) $2.99
JAN022673F JAMES KOCHALKA'S SKETCHBOOK DIARIES VOL 2 $7.95
FEB022348 MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO BOOK 3 (MR) $15.95
JAN022533F MR NIGHTMARE'S WONDERFUL WORLD VOL 1: TP GODS MUST BE CRAZY $18.95
FEB022353 MYSTIC #23 $2.95
JAN022564 QUEEN & COUNTRY VOL 1 TP (MR) $11.95
JAN022428 STRAY BULLETS VOL 6 TP (MR) $14.95
OCT012452 SUCKLE: THE STATUS OF BASIL TP NEW PRTG (MR) $14.95
FEB022390 TRANSFORMERS GENERATION ONE CHROME CVR #1 $5.95
FEB022199 VAMPI #18 REG ED $2.99
DEC012117 VAMPI #16 REG ED $2.99
NOV012121 WITCH #3 (MR) $2.95

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.