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:

BROOKLYN DREAMS (DC Comics)
I borrowed the original four-volume Paradox Press edition of this book from a friend on the mainland over a year ago, and now I might actually consider giving it back. JM DeMatteis's frank, frustrating and wildly eccentric semi-autobiographical tale of one teen's high school year in early 1970s Brooklyn is a book to treasure. Carl Santini is Jewish-Italian. His father is a brute, his mother is a nut, and Carl is forever on the wrong side of everything. If you're thinking it sounds like a story you've seen told a thousand times before, you've probably never seen it the way animator and underground artist Glenn Barr tells it. Barr's eclectic and evocative artwork has elements of Bill Sienkiewicz, Bill Plympton and Kyle Baker, but there's also a whole heap of weird-ass craziness in here that can only be Glenn Barr. I am hugely excited to see this great tale back in print - and in a single volume too! [Fisher]

ALSO THIS WEEK:

JUNKO MIZUNO'S HANSEL AND GRETEL (Viz Communications)
It is easier to describe Junko Mizuno's style in terms of a pop culture phenomena, which it undeniably is in Japan, than as the extension of one of the many traditions within manga. Mizuno's blocky, yet constantly melting line work is an unmistakable hybrid of Hello Kitty and gore, narratively held together by a deceptively complex net of symbols that transcends the vagary of the avant-garde fringe of shoujo manga (like CLAMP's CLOVER) and charts new territory for storytelling for sequential art in the process. It is fitting that Mizuno's two English-translated works deconstruct and resurrect timeless Western myths, first with CINDERALLA, and now with this week's release, HANSEL AND GRETEL; 152 pages, lovingly coloured like an extended trip on LSD and spine bound for a mere $15.95. [Trafalgar]

SILENCERS #1 (Moonstone)
Well, here's a turn-up for the books - Moonstone, who I heralded in a previous forecast as one of the few brave new publishers coming right out of the gate with original complete works, have now decided to do a monthly serial. And so the wheel turns... SILENCERS is billed as "SOPRANOS meets POWERS", dealing with a group of super-powered people who work for the Mafia, protecting them from the interventions of superheroes. It's also apparently from "the award-winning creators of TRANQUILITY", which I've never heard of myself - but the preview pages at Moonstone's website look rather nice, and certainly reinforce the POWERS comparison. Worth a look. [Cromarty]

BEWARE THE CREEPER #1 (DC Vertigo)
In the early days of the Vertigo imprint, it was common to see a character or concept from DC Comics' superhero books make its way into the mature readers side of the company, often twisted into something similar... yet wonderfully different. Jason Hall (PISTOLWHIP) and Cliff Chiang (JOSIE MAC) are determined to repeat the trick with Steve Ditko's Creeper. With this interation of BEWARE THE CREEPER, though, Hall and Chiang are placing the character in the glamour and mystery of Paris in the 1920s, adapting Ditko's eye-catching design into something that reflects the original but fits a new setting. These two creators have proven in the past to be able to evoke bygone eras in their comics, and they've both got a wickedly dark edge that should help them pull this off. Beware the Creeper indeed... because this one's coming for your wallet, and you won't be happy until it's made you buy all five issues. [Plymouth]

JLA: AGE OF WONDER #1 (DC Comics)
At last this much-delayed Prestige-Format Elseworlds mini-series hits the racks, and by all accounts, it'll prove worth waiting for. The premise is more intriguing than the usual Elseworlds 'What If...' storylines, focusing this time around on a 'Steampunk' JLA, with late 19th-century 'Science Heroes' fighting against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution. The prospect of Lex Luthor working as Thomas Edison's apprentice is a particularly nice touch. Adisakdi Tantimedh turns his skills from independent filmmaking to comics writing, ably assisted by sumptuous artwork and covers from Galen Showman. Here's hoping that the Age Of Wonder is finally upon us! [Finisterre]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR APRIL 16th:

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

DARK HORSE

FEB030030 JUDGE DREDD VS ALIENS: INCUBUS #2 (Of 4) $2.99
JAN030088 OH MY GODDESS #96: PHANTOM RACER (PART 1 OF 4) $2.99

DC COMICS

FEB030156 ADAM STRANGE: THE MAN OF TWO WORLDS TP $19.95
FEB030142 BATMAN: HARVEST BREED SC $17.95
FEB030217 BEWARE THE CREEPER #1 (Of 5) (MR) $2.95
FEB030229 BROOKLYN DREAMS TP (MR) $12.95
FEB030162 FLASH #197 $2.25
FEB030167 GREEN LANTERN #162 $2.25
FEB030171 HERO #3 $2.50
FEB030173 JLA: AGE OF WONDER #1 (Of 2) $5.95
FEB030174 JLA: SCARY MONSTERS #2 (Of 6) $2.50
FEB030175 JSA #47 $2.50
FEB030148 NIGHTWING #80 $2.25
FEB030190 POWERPUFF GIRLS #37 $2.25
FEB030149 ROBIN #113 $2.25
FEB030202 SLEEPER #4 (MR) $2.95
FEB030153 SUPERMAN: METROPOLIS #3 (Of 12) $2.95
FEB030207 THUNDERCATS: THE RETURN #3 (Of 5) $2.95
FEB030208 WILDCATS VERSION 3.0 #9 (MR) $2.95
FEB030182 WILL EISNER'S SPIRIT ARCHIVES VOL 10 HC $49.95
JAN030301 WONDER WOMAN OVERSIZED POSTER $19.95

IMAGE

JAN031312 DARKNESS VOL 2 #3 $2.99
DEC021797 HAWAIIAN DICK #3 (Of 3) $2.95
JUN021387 HELLSPAWN #16 $2.50
JAN031282 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE VOL 2 SANTALUCIA CVR #1 $2.95
FEB031219 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE VOL 2 SANTALUCIA CVR #2 $2.95
OCT021764 SAVAGE DRAGON #106 $2.95
OCT021765 SAVAGE DRAGON VOL 8: TERMINATED HC $28.95
MAY021187 SPAWN #124 $2.50
JAN031313 WITCHBLADE #63 $2.99

MARVEL

FEB031383 CAPTAIN MARVEL #8 (Note Price) $2.99
FEB031398 INCREDIBLE HULK VOL 3: TRANSFER OF POWER TP $12.99
FEB031339 NEW X-MEN #139 $2.25
FEB031404 PETER PARKER SPIDER-MAN VOL 4: TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS TP $11.99
FEB031327 RUNAWAYS #1 $2.50
FEB031350 SOLDIER X #10 (Note Price) $2.99
FEB031384 THUNDERBOLTS #78 $2.25
JAN031589 ULTIMATE ADVENTURES #4 (RES) $2.25
FEB031335 WOLVERINE #189 $2.25
FEB031332 WOLVERINE: XISLE #3 $2.50
JAN031562 X-MEN UNLIMITED #44 $2.50

OTHER PUBLISHERS

FEB031762 ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #142 $3.59
FEB031764 BETTY & VERONICA #187 $2.19
FEB032192 BIG O PART 4 #2 (Of 4) $3.50
FEB032059 BONEYARD #10 $2.95
FEB031831 BRIAN PULIDO'S LADY DEATH #3: A MEDIEVAL TALE $2.95
FEB032194 CHICAGO VOL 2 GN: BOOK OF JUSTICE $15.95
FEB031889 DEMON BEAST INVASION BOOK 2 (A) $16.95
FEB031850 EDGE #13 $7.95
FEB031864 ELVIRA #120 $2.50
DEC022967 JAGUAR GOD: RETURN TO XIBALBA (MR) $3.95
JAN031891 JOHNNY DYNAMITE TP $12.95
FEB032231 JUNKO MIZUNO'S HANSEL AND GRETEL GN $15.95
JAN032318 KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER: LAMBS TO SLAUGHTER GN (MR) $6.95
DEC023245 LOVE HINA ANIME COMIC #7 $13.99
FEB031839 NEGATION #17 $2.95
FEB031847 SIGIL #35 $2.95
FEB032049 SILENCERS #1 $3.50
FEB031848 SOJOURN #22 $2.95
FEB031774 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #122 $2.19
FEB031907 TRANSFORMERS GENERATION ONE VOL 2 #1 (Of 6) $2.95
DEC022741 VAMPIRELLA #18 REG ED $2.99
FEB032229 X 1999 VOL 1: PRELUDE TP 2ND ED $9.95
FEB032230 X 1999 VOL 2: OVERTURE TP 2ND ED $9.95
JAN031919 XIN: JOURNEY/VAMPI: OMEGA PREVIEW ED $1.99

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

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.