The Shipping Forecast for April 7th

Vintage Vertigo creators Milligan and McKeever share their latest subversive offerings, summer comes early with Allison Cole, and Warren Ellis flips out with a WildStorm double header at the comic store this week.
05 April 2004

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

SHIPPING THIS WEEK:

RED/TOKYO STORM WARNING TP (DC WildStorm)
Ellis has done four mini-series for DC thus far - two sci-fi, and two modern action thrillers. So, if they have to be bundled together, one would expect them to be bundled by genre. Yet DC have produced two collections with one sci-fi and one modern action piece in each, presumably to force fans with different tastes to buy both collections - which is a pretty rough way to treat their customers. The stories in this collection play against each other in more ways that genre. RED, with Cully Hamner is the stronger of the two, a well executed action piece about a retired CIA assassin who takes up arms against his former masters. Were it a slim collection of this alone, I'd have no hesitation in recommending it. TOKYO STORM WARNING with James Raiz, on the other hand, is a far inferior giant robot story. On a writing level, it's decent enough, Raiz was not the right artist for the job, since he provides no sense of scale - and let's face it, people don't come to giant robot stories for the quality of the writing. [Dogger]

NEVER ENDING SUMMER (Alternative Comics)
Most of us probably think of a "never ending summer" as too good to be true. Judging from the pre-release material, this new graphic novel from Allison Cole (more famous in comics for her silk-screened mini comics) says yes, it is too good to be true, and just when is it going to end? Billed as autobiographical, this slice-of-life story deals with Cole's increasing sense of ennui as her boyfriend disappears to Australia for an ever-increasing period of time, she loses her job at the comic store, and all her friends' relationships rapidly break down. Drawn in Cole's trademark childishly simple style, NEVER ENDING SUMMER looks to be one of Alternative's more interesting and unique offerings in a while. There's a short preview available online at Cole's website. [Cromarty]

HUMAN TARGET STRIKE ZONES TP (DC Vertigo)
Peter Milligan was one of the outstanding creators of the Vertigo line in its earliest days, with titles like ENIGMA, FACE and SHADE. Then there was THE MINX, a series about millennial angst that was cancelled before it ever reached the millennium, and since then, Milligan's been less of a presence on the line, finding greater success in the X-Men family of all places. However, he did have a minor hit in 1999 with the original HUMAN TARGET mini, which was followed up by HUMAN TARGET: FINAL CUT, so it's no surprise that Vertigo and Milligan have played safe with an ongoing series. To be fair, the character of Christopher Chance - a man who adopts other people's identities for money, but is in danger of losing his own - fits perfectly with Milligan's major preoccupation with the nature of 'self'. This book collects the first five issues, and it's smart, sophisticated stuff, let down only by Javier Pulido's pencils, which look increasingly rushed as the book progresses. [Fisher]

ENGINEHEAD (DC Comics)
Just from the title, I was thinking this sounded like a Ted McKeever book. His work is strewn with humans with machine parts, and he does it so well. Someone at DC obviously thinks the same way. I imagine the conversation went something like, "We need someone to illustrate a series called Enginehead" "Call for McKeever!" The eponymous character is made up of half a dozen other characters from the DCU in some sort of amalgam of supporting casts, including Automan, Rosie the Riveter, Emil Hamilton, Dr Cyber, Brainwave, and a new character called Ford Corrado. Writer Joe Kelly has his creation as not quite the usual thoughtless superhero, blundering around, saving people and interfering with the laws of cause and effect. Instead, his hero asks himself, "What will happen if I save that one life?" Since I'm inclined to sit here and complain about the lack of originality in superhero books, it's only fair that I praise those who try something different. [Forties]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR APRIL 7th:

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

DARK HORSE

FEB040025 BPRD A PLAGUE OF FROGS #2 $2.99
DEC030060 HELLSING VOL 2 TP $13.95

DC COMICS

FEB040292 AUTHORITY VOL 2 #11 (MR) $2.95
FEB040226 BATMAN CITY OF LIGHT #7 (Of 8) $2.95
FEB040218 DETECTIVE COMICS #793 $2.95
FEB040254 ENGINEHEAD #1 (Of 8) $2.50
FEB040260 HARD TIME #3 $2.50
FEB040309 HUMAN TARGET STRIKE ZONES TP (MR) $9.95
FEB040270 JLA VOL 13 RULES OF ENGAGEMENT TP $12.95
FEB040272 JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES #30 $2.25
JAN040252 LOBO UNBOUND #6 (Of 6) (MR) $2.95
FEB040288 LOONEY TUNES #113 $2.25
FEB040276 MONOLITH #3 $2.95
FEB040313 MY FAITH IN FRANKIE #4 (Of 4) (MR) $2.95
FEB040278 PLASTIC MAN #5 $2.95
FEB040293 RED TOKYO STORM WARNING TP (MR) $14.95
FEB040295 ROBOTECH INVASION #4 (Of 5) $2.95
FEB040314 SANDMAN PRESENTS THESALY WITCH FOR HIRE #3 (Of 4) (MR) $2.95
FEB040249 SMALLVILLE TP $9.95
FEB040245 SUPERMAN BIRTHRIGHT #9 (Of 12) $2.95
FEB040315 SWAMP THING #2 (MR) $2.95
FEB040317 Y THE LAST MAN #21 (MR) $2.95

IMAGE

FEB041314 FRANKENSTEIN MOBSTER CVR A WHEATLEY #3 $2.95
FEB041315 FRANKENSTEIN MOBSTER CVR B ORDWAY #3 $2.95

MARVEL

FEB041584 ALPHA FLIGHT #2 $2.99
JAN041530 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #506 (#65) $2.25
JAN041548 AVENGERS THUNDERBOLTS #2 (Of 6) $2.99
FEB041603 CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON #2 $2.99
FEB041570 ELEKTRA #35 $2.99
NOV031553D ESSENTIAL PUNISHER VOL 1 TP $14.99
FEB041588 EXILES #45 $2.99
FEB041621 MARVEL AGE RUNAWAYS VOL 1 PRIDE AND JOY DIGEST TP $7.99
FEB041620 MARVEL AGE SENTINEL VOL 1 SALVAGE DIGEST TP $7.99
FEB041618 MARVEL AGE SPIDER-GIRL VOL 1 DIGEST TP $7.99
FEB041559 MARVEL AGE SPIDER-MAN #2 $2.25
FEB041619 MARVEL AGE SPIDER-MAN VOL 1 DIGEST TP $5.99
FEB041582 NEW X-MEN #155 $2.25
FEB041616 PUNISHER THE END #1 ONE SHOT (MR) $4.50
FEB041597 SPIDER-GIRL #72 $2.99
FEB041635 SPIDER-MAN DEATH OF CAPTAIN STACY TP $12.99
FEB041615 SUPREME POWER #9 (MR) $2.99
FEB041611 THANOS #9 $2.99
FEB041604 THOR #77 $2.99
FEB041577 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #56 $2.25
FEB041580 UNCANNY X-MEN #442 $2.25
FEB041562 WOLVERINE #13 $2.25
DEC031579D WOLVERINE THE END #3 (Of 6) $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

DEC032049 A SORT OF HOMECOMING #3 (Of 3) $3.50
OCT032652 AMELIA RULES SUPERHEROES #2 (Of 6) $2.95
DEC032509H AMELIA RULES WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY TP $14.95
APR032082 BONE #54 $2.95
DEC032298 BRATH #13 $2.95
DEC032372 DUEL MASTERS #4 $2.95
DEC032754 FUSHIGI YUGI VOL 2 TP 2ND ED ORACLE (RES) (Note Price) $9.95
DEC032418 GHOSTBUSTERS LEGION DAN BRERETON CVR #1 (Of 4) $3.50
DEC032417 GHOSTBUSTERS LEGION REG CVR #1 (Of 4) $2.95
FEB042285 GI JOE FRONTLINE VOL 3 TP HISTORY REPEATING $9.95
JAN042126 JUGHEAD #157 $2.19
JAN042128 LAUGH DIGEST #192 $2.39
DEC032044 NEVER ENDING SUMMER GN (MR) $11.95
APR042302 POTLATCH #3 $6.95
JAN042799 SHONEN JUMP VOL 2 #5 MAY 2004 $4.99
MAR042324E SIMPSONS BIG BRATTY BOOK OF BART SIMPSON TP $12.95
OCT032768 SPACE COWBOY 2003 $4.95
JAN042009 STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL III #64 $2.95
FEB042308 TRANSFORMERS ARMADA MORE THAN MEETS EYE #2 (Of 3) $4.95
NOV031986E TUPELO #4 (MR) $2.95
JAN042750F VAN HELSINGS NIGHT OFF $12.95
FEB042297 VOLTRON VOL 2 #4 $2.95

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

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