First, an apology. In July, I mocked the title of Troy Little's self-published comic, CHAIROSCURO, because I thought it was a misspelling. An ad for the book in the latest Comics Journal, however, reveals it to be a pun. I feel a damn fool.

In my defence, there was no ad back in the July Previews. Nor was there any information on the web about CHAIROSCURO, Troy Little, or Meanwhile Press. The solicitation consisted of the usual postage-stamp-sized cover reproduction and one sentence of copy.

Gang, you can't count on Previews to do your selling for you. Who's going to preorder a comic based on a single sentence? Unless it's a sentence like "alien sex monkeys have invaded the Vatican, and only the Legion of Winona Ryder Lookalikes can stop them - but will they want to?" I mean.

DARK HORSE

TOO MUCH COFFEE MAN'S AMUSING MUSINGS (SEP010019, pg. 30, $12.95). Shannon Wheeler is never going to be in the top tier of cartoonists, but he has substance, and a sense of twisted logic that is, well, amusing.

Irony Dept.: the Merchandise section features a Chris Ware lunchbox (SEP010061, pg. 43, $19.99), depicting the star of Ware's next serial, Rusty Brown, a pathetic collector of pop culture merchandise. Next month: the Dark Horse Official Chris Ware Mechanical Cat Head.

DC

"So you say you're not getting enough of Millennium City's champion science-hero?" No, I didn't. Who did say that? When last I checked the sales figures, all the America's Best Comics titles were hitting 26,000 or below (except TOP TEN, but that's going on hiatus) and trending down. How are spin-offs, like GREYSHIRT: INDIGO SUNSET (#2, SEP010254, pg. 93, $3.50) and TOM STRONG'S TERRIFIC TALES (#1, SEP010255, pg. 93, $3.50), supposed to solve the problem?

I'm not sure I understand the premise behind TSTT, either. Alan Moore is to write one of the three strips each issue, which is to feature "a grittier tone than found in TOM STRONG." Well, it could hardly be less gritty, I suppose. But still, wasn't ABC in general and TOM STRONG in particular intended as an antidote to grit?

Gilbert "LOVE & ROCKETS" Hernandez, working for Vertigo? No joke: he's doing a miniseries called GRIP: THE STRANGE WORLD OF MEN (SEP010265, pg. 96, $2.50). Don't worry about the 'men' part - it looks to have plenty of kick-ass women, too. (It wouldn't be a Hernandez Bros book without them.) The 'strange world' part is, if anything, an understatement. Click here for a preview.

You have to respect Will Eisner for continuing to create, when he could so easily rest on his mountain of laurels. His new book, NAME OF THE GAME (SEP010232, pg. 90, $29.95), finds him in his favourite milieu, post-war New York City, dealing with familiar themes (whether to assimilate, whether it's better to be a bastard or a victim). Click here for a preview.

Out in softcover is the second PLANETARY collection, THE FOURTH MAN (SEP010250, pg. 93, $14.95), in which Warren Ellis once again gives superheroes and other pulp-derived fictions a good dose of ostranenie. (Ostranenie is a Russian term of literary analysis that means "making strange." Sorry for the jargon, but it's a word we don't have in English and need.) If PLANETARY isn't the cleverest 'ongoing' comics running today, it's in the top five. It's also one of the most beautiful, thanks to the baroque John Cassady and peerless Laura DePuy.

The GEN13 MOVIE ADAPTATION adapts the GEN13 movie (natch), which hasn't been released and may not ever be. Neither may the comic, since the solicitation is now void. Huh?

There's another one of those Paul Dini/Alex Ross books beatifying a DC icon, this time Wonder Woman. Like the others, oversized, and sure to be overpraised.

Things I Don't Understand About Superhero Comics, # 117: Green Lantern and Deadman are considered legitimate vehicles for pathos, while equally dippy characters like, say, the Blue Beetle, are fit only for ridicule. I don't get it. And could everyone please finish grieving Hal bloody Jordan already? He's not even properly dead, is he? (Note to H.E.A.T. members: don't e-mail me with the answer. I don't care.)

The JLA fantasy-style Elseworlds RIDDLE OF THE BEAST will be fully painted, which, as every comic fan knows, is a guarantor of class. But wait, it gets better - each of the 15 (count 'em) chapters will be painted by a different artist! To hell with narrative continuity, this here's art!

IMAGE

"This summer, Top Cow gave you a glimpse of Hell in the most talked about book of 2001, UNIVERSE."

I'm sorry - the most what of what was what?

Right, well, that turns out to have been the prelude to INFERNO. It's debuting with 7 variant covers, the comics equivalent, fittingly enough, of the gate that reads ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE.

Todd McFarlane's comic division has suffered lately. It's been haemorrhaging talent, and it just announced the cancellation of SPAWN: THE DARK AGES. People have speculated that HELLSPAWN, which boasted the triumphant return of Miracleman, would be next to go, and sure enough it's missing this month. Who says there's no such thing as instant karma?

MARVEL

In Grant Morrison's NEW X-MEN, mutants, once a minority, are proliferating so fast that they'll become the majority by around 2030. Looking at the burgeoning X-section, I know where he got the idea. This month there are 20 X-titles, of which 9 are ongoing (I think), 9 are miniseries (I think), and 2 are one-shots. Where are the giant genocidal robots when you need them?

No new titles from MAX this month - they're too busy cramming U.S. WAR MACHINE down retailers' throats. The book's weekly schedule had already obliged retailers to preorder three-quarters of the series before even seeing #1. This month, to make matters worse, along with the series' last issues, the trade paperback is solicited - so retailers will have to order it without knowing how it ends!

Mind you, this isn't aberrant behaviour. This is consistent with Marvel's notorious no-overprint policy. They want retailers to have to order with as little hard information available as possible. Need more proof? Check out their new, infuriatingly coy style of solicitation copy, exemplified by this DEADPOOL blurb: "Could this solicit be any more vague? All we can tell you is that this tale concludes with an ending no one will guess! Or maybe this is all just a bunch of hype designed to make you buy the book!" Naw, you think?

Will it work? Will retailers swallow the hype and buy the books? What a stupid question! Of course they will, just like they did after Bill Jemas said they need IQ tests, and after Joe Quesada said to their faces that they loathe themselves. Marvel has the whip hand, and they're flaunting it. Meet the new boss...

AIT/PLANETLAR / FUNK-O-TRON

I want a moratorium on monkeys in comics. The majors are choked with them (see Dark Horse's PLANET OF THE APES, Vertigo's "adult" revival of ANGEL AND THE APE, IMAGE INTRODUCES' debut serial PRIMATE: THE SWORD OF DARWIN, etc.), and the minors are worse (don't get me started on LIBERTY MEADOWS again). It was Julie Schwartz who discovered that any comic with a gorilla on the cover would sell, and it's a little disheartening that comic fans haven't much evolved in the intervening half-century.

But there are two titles I'll spare from my anti-ape pogrom. The first is SKY APE: WAITING FOR CRIME (SEP011723, pg. 216, $6.95), which is free-association zaniness in the vein of SAM & MAX or THE LAND OF NOD. Sky Ape has his own website. The second is REX MANTOOTH: KUNG FU GORILLA, a series debuting in DOUBLE TAKE #6 (SEP012027, pg. 284, $2.95). It's written by Matt Fraction, founder and former editor of activist comics webzine Savant. Fraction promises what he and all right-thinking folks expect from a good action romp: "Stuff 'splodes, and dudes get kicked." Righteous!

ANTIPODES PUBLISHING

MAUI: LEGENDS OF THE OUTCAST (SEP011767, pg. 224, $8.95) isn't a new book, but it's worth highlighting. It recounts the myth of Maui, the Maori trickster god, and it's quite mad, as trickster tales tend to be. It's well drawn, in a jagged, blotted style that's like a cross between Jose Munoz and Hugo Pratt, and beautifully coloured.

AVATAR PRESS

Alan Moore's GLORY debuts with 7 variant covers. I'll say no more.

DRAWN & QUARTERLY

D&Q offers only a new issue of Joe Matt's autobio comic, PEEPSHOW #13 (SEP011955, pg. 270, $3.95). In a shocking departure, Matt kvetches to his pals Chester Brown and Seth, frets about pornography, and again fails to mature. You see how those long gaps between issues keep the writing fresh.

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

It might as well be 1993 at FBI, given this month's lineup: Charles Burns, Chris Ware, Peter Bagge, Los Bros Hernandez. Still, though it's a safe month, it's a solid one.

Burns' BLACK HOLE (#9 of 13, SEP012004, pg. 280, $4.50) is basically like a body horror version of Dazed & Confused. Burns manages to get closer to the truth about adolescent anxiety by deploying strange, irreal elements (weird mutations, hallucinations, overt symbolism) against a realistic backdrop. The high-contrast, inhumanly precise artwork suits the story perfectly. BLACK HOLE is frequently cited as one of the Best Comics You're Not Reading - rectify that, okay?

Following fast on the success of the complete JIMMY CORRIGAN, Fantagraphics presents QUIMBY THE MOUSE (hardcover: SEP012006, pg. 282, $24.95; softcover: SEP012007, $14.95), a bookstore-friendly repackaging of ACME NOVELTY LIBRARY #2 and #4.

The book consists mainly of two kinds of strips: The 'Quimbies the Mouse' strips, in which Quimby has sprouted an extra, frequently invalid head and torso; and the 'Sparky' strips, in which Quimby has an abusive relationship with Sparky the helpless cat head, playing off Krazy Kat in much the same way that CORRIGAN played off Charlie Brown.

Formally, these strips are the most inventive in American comics, bar none. A page might have 325 panels, or just one, or nothing you could properly call a panel at all. Ware's notoriously mind-bending flowcharts are represented in force.

But mere cleverness, I hasten to assure you, is not the point. People get the impression from the layouts and the pared-down, diagrammatic drawing style that the strips are bloodless and cold, but nothing could be further from the truth. These strips sting, because they reveal how easy it is to inflict pain without even thinking about it. If the words "I'm just feeling a little boxed in, that's all" mean anything to you, you'll have no trouble relating to QUIMBY THE MOUSE.

The HATE ANNUAL collects what little cartooning Peter Bagge has been doing since the end of HATE itself. Issue #2 (SEP012010, pg. 282, $3.95), here ahead of schedule, includes a new HATE-based short story and a bunch of comics journalism pieces from the sadly defunct Suck.com. It's no substitute for a regular dose of Bagge, but any Bagge is welcome.

Information on all the aforementioned cartoonists is available at www.fantagraphics.com.

HEADLESS SHAKESPEARE PRESS

Headless Shakespeare presents a new book by Rick Geary, BLANCHE GOES TO PARIS (SEP012054, pg. 288, $4). It's the third in a series, and it finds "pianist Blanche Womack... rubbing elbows with the likes of Hemingway, Picasso, & Stein... and assisting in a spot of international intrigue. All this while she's trying to secure a regular concert gig!" I've never heard of this series before, but I'm willing to take a chance on anything by Rick Geary (also known for his TREASURY OF VICTORIAN MURDER), whose work is always well-wrought and quirky, in a deadpan way.

HEAVY METAL

Heavy Metal has hired Zen masters to write its solicitation copy, it seems, for we are told of the next issue only that it is "unparalled [sic] by none." Take that koan and meditate on it.

HUMANOIDS PUBLISHING

THE CRUISE OF LOST SOULS (SEP012064, pg. 288, $15.95) is the latest book in the Nikopol Trilogy by the acclaimed European team of writer Pierre Christin and Moebius-ish artist Enki Bilal. For further explanation, see www.humanoidspublishing.com.

KNOCKABOUT with RIP OFF PRESS

No creation from the '60s underground has had the longevity of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and for good reason - Gilbert Shelton is one of comics' master comedians, and the strips are hilarious whether or not you can tell Acapulco Gold from Toledo Window-box. It isn't said what material FREAK BROTHERS COMPLETE EDITION VOL. 1 (SEP012084, pg. 292, $32.99) collects, but at a whopping 432 pages it promises to be essential.

Note: Over in Rip Off's own section, FFFB #11 has been reissued in a black & white edition. This means there are no longer any colour FFFB strips in print. Let's hope the next collection includes color - Shelton's satirical tour de force 'The Idiots Abroad' really needs to be seen in its full glory...

NBM

I know Eisner's the master of compressed storytelling, and I know that of all the literary classics, MOBY DICK (softcover: SEP012110, pg. 297, $7.95) most dearly needs editing. Still, my rule of thumb is that a comic adaptation should at least be as long as the Cliffs Notes. Click here for a preview.

Nabiel Kanan's latest book is a political thriller called THE BIRTHDAY RIOTS (SEP012115, pg. 297, $14.95). I know Kanan only from his series EXIT, which would have been a nice character piece if the plot hadn't kept intruding. But his design sense was excellent, and it was clear he had a lot of potential. Because of that, and because I'm a political junkie, this book has my attention. Click here for a preview.

TOP SHELF

In a generally conservative month, Top Shelf stands out.

Glenn Dakin was a comrade of Eddie Campbell in the early days of the British mini-comic scene, and they're said to have heavily influenced each other. ABE VOL. 1: WRONG FOR THE RIGHT REASONS (SEP012217, pg. 312, 14.95) is his major American debut.

When Alan Moore has an idea that comics aren't ready for, he puts it into a performance art piece. HIGHBURY WORKING (SEP012219, pg. 314, $20) is a CD of one of those pieces, previously difficult to find in America. Billed as a "beat séance" (though it's a bit more techno than beat jazz), it's an occult rehabilitation of an unfashionable London suburb, which climaxes in the triumphal summoning of the Angel Highbury, "crushingly beautiful, and there because we say she is."

You may suppose this CD to be of limited interest if you are a materialist and or a person with little emotional stake in unfashionable London suburbs. Don't worry. This is Moore in raconteur mode, regaling us with anecdotes about Crowley, Coleridge, freak shows, amphetamine-crazed soccer teams, and suicidal studio wizards. The style's the thing, and Moore's in high style, ably supported by the music.

TYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHERS

Tyndale presents the first two volumes in their comics adaptation of the LEFT BEHIND series of novels. For those of you not au courant with the fundamentalist lit scene, LEFT BEHIND details the tribulations that are to follow once all true Christians get hoovered up in the Rapture. As is mandatory in Rapture fiction, the Antichrist, a charming, cultured European with a goofy name (here, Nicolae Carpathia - others are Stone Alexander, Adrian Romulus and Count Tor von Eisenhalt), has risen to become head of the UN (or EU) and promptly institutes a One World Government. From there on, belated converts are scorned and persecuted marvellously through sheaves and sheaves of undistinguished prose.

You're probably asking yourself: How big an audience could this dangerous nonsense possibly have?

The first book alone has sold 5 million copies. There are 8 books total, with a 9th forthcoming and no end in sight. There are guides by the authors explaining Bible "prophecy," companion series aimed at kids, and scads of merchandise. You can find all this junk prominently displayed at your nearest megamart. Or, in a few months, at your local comics shop.

This is too depressing to end even one of my columns... so, on to...

BOOKS

GIL KANE: THE ART OF THE COMICS (SEP012387, pg. 336, $29.95) surveys the career of an artist and thinker far finer than the comic book industry ever deserved. THE GREAT WOMEN CARTOONISTS (SEP012388, pg. 336, $24.95) is yet another attempt by Trina Robbins to expand the comics canon, and good on her for it. And underground legend Spain Rodriguez illustrates SHERLOCK HOLMES' STRANGEST CASES (SEP012390, pg. 336, $17.95).

Chris Ekman is a political cartoonist.

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.