The Shipping Forecast for July 17th

The last man on Earth. The hippo of the future. The clockwork faery. And other stories. If you're looking for diversity, look no further than the selection box on offer at your comic store this week!
15 July 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.

PLYMOUTH PICKS:

Y - THE LAST MAN #1 (DC Vertigo)
Brian K. Vaughan's managed to apply himself to some extremely diverse stories over the past couple of years with books like SWAMP THING and THE HOOD, so writing a comic about an escape artist who is the last man on Earth shouldn't be too much of a stretch. Vaughan's promising to take this series into some fun places, and Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan's art looks smooth and pleasing. Whatever road you think this is going to head down, I can almost guarantee, Vaughan will keep surprising you along every step of the way.

FUZZ & PLUCK #2 (Fantagraphics)
Ted Stearn's comics are odd, there's no doubt about that. How else can one categorise his stories of a plucked chicken and a ratty teddy bear as they scheme, get abused, and generally go from bad to worse? If Stearn's FUZZ & PLUCK graphic novel wasn't enough for you before, now he has this new mini-series, plunging Pluck into a bizarre gladiatorial combat system while Fuzz is adopted by a rich little girl. Sound strange? You don't know the half of it. Intensely funny and continually surprising, FUZZ & PLUCK is always worth a gander.

DOGGER PICKS:

VOGELEIN #3 (Fiery Studios)
We like VOGELEIN, here at the Ninth Art Lighthouse, and given that we don't normally like pixies, that's saying something. This is the story of an artificial clockwork faery, a small and frightened oddity in what she believes is a normal world, until she encounters a real faery, and discovers that they don't like her very much. The art in VOGELEIN moves from strength to strength, and the narrative is compelling and entertaining, but it's creator Jane Irwin's portrayal of the supporting cast, and her affection for real and natural human lives, that really grounds this book and gives it its rich texture. VOGELEIN is a truly rewarding read; you should be buying this book.

PROMETHEA Vol 3 (DC Wildstorm/ABC)
This is the only series I buy in hardcover. It's the only series I can think of that's beautiful enough and exciting enough that I'm willing to pay the absurd price for a hardcover version, rather than wait six months for the paperback. This collection marks the start of the period when a lot of readers decided Alan Moore was going off the rails, wandering into a self-indulgent discourse on magic. Those readers with the patience to keep reading, however, got to see PROMETHEA really come into it's own, confirming its place as one of the most interesting comics being published today.

FISHER PICKS:

ELEKTRA: GLIMPSE AND ECHO #1 (Marvel Knights)
If you don't know Scott Morse's work yet, you've really not been paying attention. Last week, his MAGIC PICKLE series from Oni hit the stands in digest form. Coming up next month is the trade collection of ANCIENT JOE from Dark Horse. They're both excellent works that deserve your attention, so I have no hesitation in suggesting that Morse's ELEKTRA miniseries will be similarly superb. Morse's fluid and heavily stylised linework is always impressive, and his myth-making approach to even the smallest of stories makes for some fabulously humane tales. The device for this tale of Marvel's lady assassin appears to be blues music. I can't wait to see what he does with it.

HIP FLASK: UNNATURAL SELECTION (Active Images)
Here's a curio. As detailed by Richard Starkings in his Ninth Art interview last year, Hip Flask, the hippopotamus adventurer, was always intended to be a real character, but he was hijacked to become the corporate mascot for Starkings' Comicraft lettering company, appearing on a series of spoof comic covers, leading most readers to assume there would never be a real HIP FLASK comic. Yet here's the first of six one-shots from the former CABLE creative team of Joe Casey and Jose Ladronn, with variant covers by Ladronn, J Scott Campbell, Joe Madureira and Ian Churchill. What's it about? Ladronn calls it "an extraordinary portrait of Man's need to explore beyond the many variables of our existence". Mostly, though, it's a sci-fi series about a hippo.

VIKING PICKS:

STRAY BULLETS #26 (El Capitan)
If you aren't reading David Lapham's Stray Bullets, you have no excuse. Multi-award winning (multi Eisner award winning, at that). Brilliantly plotted. Great dialogue. OK, it's not the flashiest art around, but it's among the best in terms of storytelling. Best of all, every issue of STRAY BULLETS is almost completely self-contained - sure, many of the characters and events follow on, but you can pick it up anywhere and expect to thoroughly enjoy it. If you like crime and you like comics, you've no excuse not to pick up STRAY BULLETS #26, one of the finest crime comics out there.

SONAR / MISSED PICKS FROM RECENT WEEKS

GRENDEL: WAR CHILD TPB (Dark Horse)
Reissued yet again just recently, this one has everything. A massive robot ninja on an anti-grav bike, transporting the true heir to the throne across a post-apocalyptic America. Light sabres used properly (chopping people into tiny pieces). Clans of savage Grendels with bits of metal sticking out of their faces. Pirates. Zombies. Mutants. Vampires. More robots. Alligators. More ninjas. It's LONE WOLF & CUB meets THE TERMINATOR, and if you haven't read it - even if you haven't read any GRENDEL at all - you should pick it up. Creator Matt Wagner is at the very top of his game here. There's almost nothing that could possibly be added to WAR CHILD to make it any better. [VIKING]

Comics shipping in the US on July 17th:

DARK HORSE

APR020076 WHAT'S MICHAEL?: A HARD DAY'S LIFE TP $8.95

DC COMICS

MAY020205 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #606 $2.25
MAY020247 AUTOMATIC KAFKA #1 (MR) $2.95
MAY020191 BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS #31 $2.50
MAY020248 ESTABLISHMENT #11 $2.50
MAY020266 FABLES #3 (MR) $2.50
MAY020218 FLASH: TIME FLIES $5.95
MAY020221 GREEN LANTERN #152 $2.25
MAY020202 NIGHTWING #71 $2.25
MAY020234 POWER COMPANY #6 $2.50
MAY020258 PROMETHEA BOOK THREE HC $24.95
MAY020275 TRANSMETROPOLITAN #58 (MR) $2.50
MAY020277 Y - THE LAST MAN #1 (MR) $2.95

IMAGE

MAY021166 GI JOE #8 $2.95
APR021448 TOMB RAIDER JOURNEYS #5 (Of 12) $2.95

MARVEL

MAY021467 ALIAS #12 (MR) $2.99
APR021717 CAGE #4 (MR) $2.99
MAY021520 CAPTAIN MARVEL #34 $2.50
MAY021507 DAREDEVIL #35 $2.99
MAY021508 ELEKTRA: GLIMPSE AND ECHO #1 $2.99
MAY021468 HOOD #3 (MR) $2.99
MAY021515 INFINITY ABYSS #3 (Of 6) $2.99
APR021794 MARVEL MASTERWORKS: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL 2 HC $49.99
MAY021541 MIGHTY MARVEL POSTER SPIDER-MAN BLUE #2 $5.95
MAY021542 MIGHTY MARVEL POSTER SPIDER-MAN BLUE #3 $5.95
MAY021481 NEW X-MEN #129 $2.25
MAY021498 SPIDER-MAN: BLUE #3 (Of 6) $3.50
MAY021497 SPIDER-MAN: PETER PARKER #46 $2.25
MAY021496 SPIDER-MAN: QUALITY OF LIFE #3 (Of 4) $2.99
MAY021512 THOR #51 $2.25
APR021790 THOR: THE DEATH OF ODIN TP $12.99
MAY021482 ULTIMATE X-MEN #20 $2.25
MAY021483 UNCANNY X-MEN #409 $2.25
MAY021534 X-MEN AND SPIDER-MAN: THE SAVAGE LAND TP $9.95

OTHER PUBLISHERS

MAY022358 ALL NEW TENCHI MUYO PART 1 #3 (Of 5) $2.95
MAY021800 ARCHIE #525 $1.99
MAY021804 ARCHIE DIGEST #191 $2.19
MAY021961 BARCHETTA VOL 1 #1 (MR) $2.95
MAY022359 BASTARD VOL 1 TP (MR) $14.95
APR022249 DF LADY DEATH DARK ALLIANCE GOLD FOIL CVR #1 $16.99
MAY022016 DFE BATTLE OF THE PLANETS ALT CVR GOLD FOIL ED #1 $14.99
APR022330 DOUBLE TAKE #3 $3.50
MAY022364 DRAGONBALL Z VOL 9 TP $12.95
APR025200 DREAMWAVE FALL 2002 PREVIEW BOOK (PU#530) $1.00
MAY021920 ELVIRA #111 $2.50
MAY021962 ESP VOL 1 #1 $2.95
MAY021963 ETERNAL MIRAGE VOL 1 #1 $2.95
MAY021964 EXTREME VOL 1 #1 $2.95
MAR022215 FUZZ & PLUCK #2 (Of 4) (MR) $4.95
MAY021766 GLOOM COOKIE #13 (MR) $2.95
MAY021762 HALO & SPROCKET #2 $2.95
MAY022326 HAPPY #2: ELEPHANT, BUNNY & CHICKEN (MR) $3.50
MAY021745 HIP FLASK: UNNATURAL SELECTION $2.99
MAY021965 INTO THE STORM VOL 1 #1 $2.95
JUL012278E INU YASHA PART 6 #5 (Of 15) $2.95
MAY021903 LADY DEATH: DARK ALLIANCE #2 $2.99
APR022135 LADY DEATH: GODDESS RETURNS #2 $2.99
MAY021940 LODOSS WAR: DEEDLITS TALE VOL 1 TP CHOICES $15.95
MAY021966 MOON VOL 1 #1 (MR) $2.95
MAY021947 MYSTIC #26 $2.95
JUN022174 MYSTIC VOL 3 TP: SIEGE OF SCALES $15.95
APR022004 PATTY CAKE & FRIENDS VOL 2 #6 $4.95
MAY021968 PSI VOL 1 #1 (MR) $2.95
MAY021759 QUIT YOUR JOB GN NEW PRTG (MR) $6.95
APR022005 RANDY THE SKELETON TP $12.95
MAY022223 SIDEKICKS: THE SUBSTITUTE ONE SHOT $2.95
MAY021878 SIMPSONS COMICS #72 $2.50
MAR022201 STRAY BULLETS #26 (MR) $3.50
MAY021992 TRANSFORMERS GENERATION ONE #4 $2.95
MAR021946 VAMPI #19 REG ED $2.99
MAY021815 VERONICA #129 $1.99
MAY022121 VOGELEIN #3 (Of 5) $3.00
MAY021948 WAY OF THE RAT #3 $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.