The Shipping Forecast for February 18th

Ninth Art hears Paul Hornschemeier's plea of MOTHER, COME HOME, plus there's classic Miyazaki, a trip to Arkham, and a reporter's eye view of the Marvel universe in this week's comics haul.
16 February 2004

Welcome to the Shipping Forecast, Ninth Art's pick of the best and most notable new releases hitting comic stores each week.

COMIC OF THE WEEK:

MOTHER, COME HOME (Dark Horse)
At last, the first collected edition from Paul Hornschemeier, the winner of 2003's Lighthouse award for talent deserving of wider recognition. Somehow we managed to miss this being shipped, but it would be remiss of us to leave you uninformed of its release. MOTHER, COME HOME is not comfortable reading by any means. It starts not long after the death and burial of Mrs. Tennant, mother of the primary narrator Thomas. Very young at the time, Thomas tries to make sense of this with a child's logic, while his father, heartbroken, retreats into himself so far that he is eventually institutionalised. Thomas, excluded from the adult concerns that surround him, plots to save his father. This is a story that travels from heartbreak to heartbreak along paths of twisted logic, illustrated with simple lines and muted colours. A serious and traumatic read, this is nonetheless a brilliant work that should establish Hornschemeier as one of the major talents of the medium. [German Bight]

ALSO THIS WEEK:

NAUSICAA: VALLEY OF THE WIND BOOK 1 (Viz)
There can never be too much Miyazaki. If you saw PRINCESS MONONOKE or SPIRITED AWAY (and if you didn't, get thee to a DVD shop now), you'll know Hayao Miyazaki as the visionary writer/director of these massive hit animes. NAUSICAA (also later turned into an anime) was one of his earliest stories, a manga about a strong-willed young princess who must try to bring peace to warring kingdoms in an Earth devastated by ecological disaster. NAUSICAA has all the charms and wonder of Tolkein's Middle Earth, but without all the boring bits about hobbits. Viz has just re-issued NAUSICAA, and it would make a fantastic present for young female readers - or indeed for any lover of wonderful storytelling. [Shannon]

KANE VOL 1 GREETINGS FROM NEW EDEN TP (Image)
It seems one of the side benefits Paul Grist is enjoying from his move to Image is the reissue of his older works, and thank goodness that KANE is no exception. Criminally (ho, ho) overlooked in the crime comics canon, even older KANE books like this first one remain fresh, innovative and gripping like few others in the genre. Grist takes what could be a hoary bag of clichés (maverick loner cop, corrupt city, plucky new partner, crime boss arch-enemy) and works magic with them, not least with his unfussy but brilliant visual storytelling talents. If you like crime stories, you need this in your library, and that's no exaggeration. This week also sees the first Image collection of Grist's other ongoing series, JACK STAFF, which comes just as highly recommended. [Cromarty]

ARKHAM ASYLUM: LIVING HELL TP (DC)
The Batman franchise has spawned a number of interesting offshoots of late, which are worth picking up even if you haven't bothered with things Bat since DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. First out the door was Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka's GOTHAM CENTRAL, a great little police procedural about the cops who go after super-powered criminals in Gotham City. Second was ARKHAM ASYLUM: LIVING HELL, Dan Slott's six-issue miniseries about Gotham businessman Warren White, who decides pleading insanity to a crime would be better than going to jail for it. Oh, how wrong he discovers this to be, when he arrives in Arkham Asylum, the madhouse where the Joker, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc and other ubervillains have been incarcerated. Of course, the original ARKHAM ASYLUM was Grant Morrison and Dave McKean's moody graphic novel, but Slott is a worthy inheritor of the torch. I've always found stories about villains to be far more interesting than stories about heroes, so I must admit to some bias towards Slott's tale of life in comicdom's most famous loony bin. Then again, it could just be that the voices are telling me to like it. [Shannon]

PULSE #1 (Marvel)
First Newsarama's Michael Doran goes to Marvel (well, briefly), now it's Comicon's Heidi MacDonald who... oh, wait, different PULSE. This one's the new Brian Michael Bendis series, which picks up where Marvel Max's rudeness-friendly ALIAS left off. The hero of that series, retired superhero Jessica Jones, is now adding 'private investigator' to her list of former careers as she joins the staff of the Daily Bugle to work on the paper's new superhero society page, alongside DEADLINE's Kat Farrell, and DAREDEVIL supporting cast member and stalwart Marvel Universe hanger-on Ben Urich. (Willie Lumpkin was unavailable.) It sounds like a terrific conceit for a series, much akin to DC's aforementioned GOTHAM CENTRAL. Unfortunately it means we lose ALIAS artist Michael Gaydos in favour of Bendis's ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN creative partner Mark Bagley. Bagley's not all that accomplished an artist when he only has one title to turn out, so I'm not optimistic about how he'll manage with two. [Fisher]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR FEBRUARY 18th:

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

DARK HORSE

DEC030039 GOON DH ED #5 $2.99
NOV030041 INVINCIBLE ED #4 (Of 4) $2.99

DC COMICS

DEC030249 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #625 $2.25
DEC030235 ARKHAM ASYLUM LIVING HELL TP $12.95
DEC030238 BATMAN ADVENTURES #11 $2.25
DEC030233 BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHTS #50 $2.75
DEC030241 BATMAN ROOMFUL OF STRANGERS $5.95
DEC030297 BIONICLE TP $12.95
DEC030242 BIRDS OF PREY #64 $2.50
DEC030301 COUP DETAT WILDCATS VERSION 3.0 #3 (Of 4) (MR) $2.95
DEC030259 DC THE NEW FRONTIER #2 (Of 6) $6.95
DEC030314 HUMAN TARGET #7 (MR) $2.95
DEC030270 ICANDY #6 $2.50
DEC030298 KAMIKAZE #5 (Of 6) $2.95
DEC030318 LUCIFER #47 (MR) $2.50
DEC030281 OUTSIDERS #9 $2.50
DEC030294 POWERPUFF GIRLS #47 $2.25
DEC030247 ROBIN #123 $2.25
DEC030286 ROSE AND THORN #3 (Of 6) $2.95
DEC030255 SUPERMAN SECRET IDENTITY #2 (Of 4) $5.95
DEC030289 WONDER WOMAN #201 $2.25
DEC030290 WONDER WOMAN GODS AND MORTALS TP $19.95
DEC030291 ZERO HOUR CRISIS IN TIME TP NEW PRINTING $17.95

IMAGE

DEC031320 GRRL SCOUTS VOL 2 WORKS SUCKS TP $12.95
OCT031276 JACK STAFF VOL 1 EVERYTHING USED TO BE BLACK & WHITE TP $19.95
NOV031264 KANE VOL 1 GREETINGS FROM NEW EDEN TP $11.95
JUL031225 SAVAGE DRAGON VOL 9 WORLDS AT WAR S&N HC $34.95
JUL031223 SAVAGE DRAGON VOL 9 WORLDS AT WAR TP $16.95
JAN031303 SPAWN #132 $2.50
JAN041323 SWORD OF DRACULA #3 $2.95

MARVEL

DEC031565 CAPTAIN MARVEL #20 $2.99
DEC031558 DAREDEVIL #57 $2.99
DEC031561 ELEKTRA #33 $2.99
DEC031576 EXILES #43 $2.99
DEC031551 FANTASTIC FOUR #510 (#81) $2.25
OCT031581 NEW MUTANTS #9 $2.99
DEC031574 NEW X-MEN #153 $2.25
DEC031618 NEW X-MEN VOL 6 PLANET X TP $12.99
DEC031556 PULSE #1 $2.99
DEC031602 RUNAWAYS #12 $2.99
DEC031593 SPIDER-MAN AND DR OCTOPUS NEGATIVE EXPOSURE #5 (Of 5) $2.99
DEC031578 UNCANNY X-MEN #440 $2.25
OCT031568 WEAPON X #18 $2.99
DEC031584 WOLVERINE #11 $2.25
DEC031582 WOLVERINE CAPTAIN AMERICA #3 $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

OCT032023 8 1/2 GHOSTS ONE SHOT $3.95
OCT032269 ABADAZAD #1 $2.95
OCT032635 ANGELS WING #7 (Of 7) $7.95
DEC032180 ASPEN SKETCHBOOK $2.99
DEC032160 BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #122 $3.59
DEC032041 DEMO #4 (Of 12) (MR) $2.95
DEC032469 DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #313 $2.95
DEC032265 ELVIRA #130 $2.50
DEC032092 EVENFALL VOL 1 TP LAY ME DOWN $9.95
DEC032750 EXCEL SAGA VOL 5 TP $9.95
DEC032752 FIREFIGHTER DAIGO OF FIRE COMPANY M VOL 6 $9.95
DEC032351 GI JOE POSTER BOOK $4.95
DEC032355 GI JOE VOL 4 ALLIANCES TP $14.95
DEC032356 HEDGE KNIGHT COLLECTED EDITION (RES) $8.95
DEC032043 HI HORSE OMNIBUS VOL 1 TP (MR) $11.95
DEC032722 JENNIFER DAYDREAMER #2 ANNA AND EVA $4.95
DEC032300 KISS KISS BANG BANG #2 $2.95
DEC032759 KNIGHTS OF THE ZODIAC VOL 2 GN $7.95
DEC032551 KOLCHAK TALES OF NIGHT STALKER #2 (MR) $3.50
DEC032359 KORE VOL 1 TP $14.95
DEC032467 MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS #262 $2.95
DEC032764 NAUSICAA OF VALLEY OF WIND VOL 1 TP 2ND ED $9.95
DEC032094 PIRATE CLUB #1 $2.95
DEC032769 PLEASE SAVE MY EARTH VOL 3 TP $9.95
DEC032772 REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA VOL 2 TP 2ND ED (RES) $9.95
DEC032773 REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA VOL 3 TP 2ND ED $9.95
DEC032771 REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA VOL 5 TP TO BLOSSOM $9.95
DEC032232 SIMPSONS COMICS #91 $2.99
DEC032309 SOJOURN #32 $2.95
DEC032165 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #133 $2.19
DEC032360 VOLTRON VOL 2 #2 $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.