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The Forecast for May 26th 2004
Welcome to The Forecast. Every Monday, Ninth Art's core team of comment writers, the Ninth Eight, will be your guides to the best, worst, weirdest and most noteworthy books on the shelves of your local comic shop. BOOK OF THE WEEK: HOW LOATHSOME This glorious series was thankfully accorded the collection it deserves courtesy of NBM last week - a sumptuous digest hardback edition, with freshly recoloured (or should that be 're-sepia-ed'?) internal art and an extremely reasonable price tag of $18.95. It's the content that makes it such good value. While lurid tales of 'gender outlaw' Catherine Gore's adventures involving drugs ingested, fetishes indulged and genders inverted may not be to everyone's taste, the characters are vivid, recognisable, and bursting with personality. Sure, you may think them to be horrible, horrible people, but they are authentic and recognisable. There are no safe two-dimensional archetypes here. Tristan Crane and Ted Naifeh's story manages to portray the dark world of alternative culture without dwelling on sordid details or dismissing it all as either kitsch kinkiness or devilish deviancy, and it carries a black and vital sense of humour throughout. Naifeh's art is a suitable mix of wiry, scratchy lines and velvet pools of ink, although now it has a lovely washed-out quality due to the sepia colours. Loathsome is probably the last word that should be used to describe this collection. [Lindsay Duff] MY SECRET WAR'S NO SECRET ANYMORE Remember SECRET WAR #1? It came out from Marvel about three months ago. Nick Fury plus secret ops team comprised of Marvel's biggest anti-hero heroes vs Bad Guys. Or at least that's what it said on the tin, and what we'll theoretically get once Bendis actually finds the gear marked 'plot' and engages it. Bendis writes extremely clever dialogue - and boy, does he write it. Lots and lots of it, covering up all of Gabriele dell'Otto's lovingly rendered, fully painted art. So much dialogue that in SECRET WAR #1 they added a 5-page script at the back for an extra scene that added nothing to the overall story. In fact, that's the big problem with SECRET WAR, and Bendis in general when he's rushed. Despite the forest of speech balloons, the plot of SECRET WAR #1 was so thin that Steranko could have fit it in one page, with room left over for random op-art designs and a gratuitous pic of Valentina in a bikini and white go-go boots. Issue #2 will be worth picking up for Gabriele dell'Otto alone, but for those who missed #1, here's a Steranko-style recap:
THEY ARE LEGION The most frequent lament that I hear from people who don't read DC's THE LEGION is that they wish the series were collected in trades. Well, good news. Although THE LEGION isn't being collected in trades any time soon, the current series is winding down with the promise of starting anew in the fall, as a result of some "big plans" DC have for the title, and this at least should provide the perfect jumping-on point for new readers. In the interim, expect to see the kind of loose and accessible fare available in a long-running title that's about to take a breather. While this is generally the point in a series when new readers run as far away from a title as possible and old readers curse themselves for their investment in the series, there's also a bittersweet kind of pleasure in savouring the last few issues of a much-loved series that's winding down. And yet, starting it over again feels a little like an acknowledgement of how maligned the series has been since Superboy was rendered obsolete during CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. Here's hoping that DC can get THE LEGION on its legs again. The first and most important step - more important than ending the current series - might be to collect some of the relevant back issues in trades to grab the attention of new readers. [Frank Smith] THE SHIPPING LIST FOR MAY 26TH 2004: Shipping details come courtesy of Diamond. Visit the Diamond website for the latest information, as the list is subject to change. DARK HORSE MAR040038D CONAN #4 $2.99
DC COMICS MAR040279D BATGIRL #52 $2.50
IMAGE MAR041430D DARKNESS VOL 2 #11 $2.99
MARVEL MAR041647D ASTONISHING X-MEN #1 $2.99
OTHER PUBLISHERS APR042815 ALONG THE CANADIAN #2 (Of 6) $2.95
The Ninth Eight are Matthew Craig, John Fellows, Kieron Gillen, Alistair Kennedy, Zack Smith, Andrew Wheeler, Ben Wooller and Bulent Yusuf. 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. Back. |