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: STRANGE EGGS

When I was a boy, I used to watch a cartoon called LUDWIG. Ludwig was a morbidly surreal thing, a mechanical egg that would use his myriad gewgaws and contraptions in the pursuit of musical adventures. Here's a brief sample of Ludwig's unique style. No, I don't know what the pervert in the deerstalker is doing there, either.

For those of you for whom Ludwig is scarcely egg enough, Slave Labor Graphics has a chocodooby surprise in store this week, with the release of STRANGE EGGS.

STRANGE EGGS is a 48-page anthology comic that centres on the relationship between two urban urchins, transplanted to the countryside, and an egg-delivering lunatic named Roger Rogers. Each week, Mister Rogers visits the children, Kip and Kelly, and presents them with a novelty egg. One week it might be made of wood, the next plastic, but whatever the material, each egg hatches into a new and wondrous adventure. From cholesterol-seeking nerdroids to evil plastic kittens, Kip and Kelly find that life in the country may well be more than a little...eggsasperating?

Please don't hurt me.

STRANGE EGGS wraps the simple premise of Kids Plus Egg around the creative chops of the best and brightest at Slave Labor Graphics. Contributors to the book include Ian Carney and Woodrow Phoenix, Roger Langdridge, Scott Saavedra, Kerry Callen, Derf, and the delightfully monikered Crab Scrambly. Click here to sample some of the deliciously broad range of artistic styles on offer.

As we have seen in recent weeks, the high-quality anthology comic has returned with a vengeance. What STRANGE EGGS has over such wonderful books as BIZARRO WORLD, FLIGHT and FOUR LETTER WORLDS is a singular premise and an attractive price. If you find that the cost of books in this vein tends to outweigh your willingness to risk disappointment, then STRANGE EGGS might well be the thing for you. [Matthew Craig]

DESOLATELY MAYBE

DESOLATION JONES (DC Comics/Wildstorm) could be the book long-time Warren Ellis fans have been waiting for. Okay, it could the Ellis book I've been waiting for; a book that finally moves away from the tech-driven minis he's been doing for the last few years (you know the ones I'm talking about: a plot that surrounds a singular idea, usually some form of technology, that's already obsolete by the time the comic comes out). Maybe it's a sign that I'm getting on a bit, but I remember when an Ellis-penned story was about the characters.

DESOLATION JONES is, thankfully, an ongoing series, giving Ellis enough room to stretch his wings again. It's an interesting premise: MI6 agent Michael Jones is the survivor of the "Desolation Test", which sounds, to be honest, like he's been strung up in that monkey lab at the beginning of 28 DAYS LATER. Emotionally and mentally scarred by the test, he travels to Los Angeles and becomes, essentially, a spook for spooks.

What makes this comic even more appealing is that Ellis is working with JH Williams III, fresh off PROMETHEA, so you know that all the weird 'fringe' shit Jones is going to explore is going to look appropriately beautiful.

I do have just one teensy, tiny reservation: DESOLATION JONES may herald a reduction of Ellis's tech-fetishism, but given that the blurbs for two of his next projects (FELL and the novel HEART OF AMERICA, respectively) both mention main characters who are "burnt-out private eyes", it looks like he may be starting a 'weird noir' phase. I just hope they leave the mobile phones at home this time. [Ben Wooller]

WE GOT GAME

Since the first Space Invader scurried sideways across the virgin sky of public consciousness, comics has been in trouble. After all, why would you want to read a story when, given 48K and a step-down transformer, you can live it for real?

Comics has done its best to appeal to the video game generation, with tie-ins, licenses and original characters. However, for every SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, there's been a VIDEOMAN, and for every COMPUTER WARRIOR, a QUESTPROBE. In any case, most of the traffic has been to games from comics, rather than the other way around.

Of course, comics and video games are two quite different media, with radically different things to offer the consumer. You wouldn't expect to get much out of playing a JIMMY CORRIGAN video game, after all, and a 500-page graphic novel starring PARAPPA THE RAPPER would be...well, wonderful, actually, but let's not spoil a beautiful analogy.

This week sees two videogame projects making the transition to comics: CITY OF HEROES and MARVEL NEMESIS: THE IMPERFECTS. IMPERFECTS (previewed here) is written by Greg Pak, has art by Renato Arlem, and is a direct tie-in to the upcoming Electronic Arts game RISE OF THE IMPERFECTS, which sees Marvel mainstays fighting a new breed of technological titans for... no particular reason.

Top Cow's CITY OF HEROES is based on the online game of the same name, in which players create their own superhero characters (or skirt close to infringing on the copyright of others) in order to defend Paragon City against a veritable legion of super villains. As this preview shows, the comic takes one of the immutable laws of CofH - that characters don't die, but are removed from the scene of battle and regenerated in a hospital - and chucks it out the window.

And while it may not be the most original concept ever printed - 'holy grim 'n' gritty, BatDude067! Superheroes are vulnerable people, too' - the script and art, by Mark Waid and David Nakayama respectively, look first rate. I don't think it's a coincidence that the preview pages evoke the spirit (and aesthetic) of Kurt Busiek's ASTRO CITY: it suggests to me that there will be an emotional core to CITY OF HEROES that's actually worth investing in.

As comics and games move closer together - with games that look like comics, and comics that can be read on the screens of portable gaming devices - it may be that the unique capabilities of both are lost in the struggle for the almighty dollar. That said, as long as videogames can offer us the heady thrill of making Venom smack Spider-Man into an open sewer, and comics can offer us the existential torment of Peter Parker explaining the resultant stench to his wife, I don't think anybody has any cause to hit Reset just yet. [Matthew Craig]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR MAY 11th 2005:

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

DARK HORSE

MAR050056D BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #101 (MR) $2.99
MAR050042D CONAN & THE JEWELS OF GWAHLUR #2 (OF 3) $2.99
JAN050062 USAGI YOJIMBO #83 $2.99

DC COMICS

MAR050393D AQUAMAN #30 $2.50
MAR050366D BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #191 $2.50
MAR050430D BATMAN STRIKES #9 $2.25
MAR050396D BREACH #5 $2.50
MAR050463D DESOLATION JONES #1 (MR) $2.99
MAR050477D FABLES #37 (MR) $2.50
MAR050376D GOTHAM CENTRAL #31 $2.50
MAR050408D GREEN ARROW #50 (NOTE PRICE) $3.50
MAR050480D HELLBLAZER RED SEPULCHRE TP (MR) $12.99
JUL040695 HELLBLAZER SETTING SUN TP (MR) $12.95
MAR050411D JSA #73 $2.50
MAR050455D JUDGE ANDERSON VOL 1 ANDERSON PSI DIVISION TP $14.99
MAR050466D MAJESTIC #5 $2.99
FEB045207 METABARONS VOL 3 POET AND KILLER TP $11.95
MAR050487D MNEMOVORE #2 (OF 6) (MR) $2.99
MAR050380D NIGHTWING #108 $2.25
MAR050421D RANN THANAGAR WAR #1 (OF 6) $2.50
MAR050441D SCOOBY DOO #96 $2.25
MAR050454D SINISTER DEXTER VOL 3 SLAY PER VIEW TP (MR) $19.99
MAR050390D SUPERMAN THE WRATH OF GOG TP $14.99

IMAGE

MAR051733D CITY OF HEROES KEOWN CVR #1 $2.99
MAR051732D CITY OF HEROES MIGLIARI CVR #1 $2.99
MAR051734D CITY OF HEROES PEREZ CVR #1 $2.99
SEP041538 KANE VOL 4 39TH TP $16.95
FEB051598 PVP #17 $2.95

MARVEL

FEB051889 ARANA HEART OF THE SPIDER #4 $2.99
JAN051856 ASTONISHING X-MEN #10 $2.99
FEB051899 CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON #14 $2.99
MAR051897D DISTRICT X #13 $2.99
MAR051934D EXCALIBUR #13 $2.99
FEB051903 FANTASTIC FOUR #526 $2.99
MAR051929D GAMBIT #10 $2.99
MAR051917D MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #3 $2.50
MAR051952D MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN VOL 3 THE LAST STAND TP $9.99
MAR051872D MARVEL NEMESIS IMPERFECTS #1 (OF 6) $2.99
MAR051903D MARVEL TEAM-UP #8 $2.99
MAR051884D MARY JANE HOMECOMING #3 (OF 4) $2.99
MAR051939D PUNISHER #21 (MR) $2.99
MAR051938D PUNISHER CELL ONE SHOT (MR) $4.99
MAR051957D PUNISHER MAX VOL 3 MOTHER RUSSIA TP $14.99
MAR051916D TALES OF THE THING #3 (OF 3) $2.50
MAR051876D ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #77 $2.25
MAR051936D X-MEN THE END HEROES AND MARTYRS #3 (OF 6) $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

FEB052568 BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #133 $3.59
MAR052899F DEATH & CANDY #4 (RES) (MR) $4.95
FEB053141 EXCEL SAGA VOL 12 TP $9.99
FEB052856F LIVING WITH ZOMBIES #2 (MR) $2.50
MAR052547E STRANGE EGGS #1 $3.95
FEB052573 VERONICA #161 $2.19

The Ninth Eight are Matthew Craig, John Fellows, Kieron Gillen, Alistair Kennedy, Zack Smith, Andrew Wheeler, Ben Wooller and Bulent Yusuf.

This article is Ideological Freeware. The author grants permission for its reproduction and redistribution 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.