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.

Please note, this week's comics will ship a day late in the United States due to Monday's public holiday.

BOOKS OF THE WEEK: TRICKED/THE KING

It's that time of year again, when Top Shelf cranks out about five great releases in the weeks before San Diego Comic-Con. I think Chris Staros is actually some sort of sadist, because the thing about Top Shelf's Next Big Things for Comicon is that they're always... big. Very, very big.

It's about a zillion degrees in the Comicon hall, it's so huge that you can't see from one end to the other due to the curvature of the Earth (and the hordes of deeply self-delusional cosplayers), and Top Shelf is selling books that are 350 pages long. Can you say pain? You will.

This year's major arm-breaker is TRICKED (352 pages), by Alex Robinson, author of BOX OFFICE POISON (which is a hojillion pages long; Jesus, the Manhattan phone book is thinner). If you liked BOP, you'll like this, as Robinson follows his tried and true method of interweaving the stories of six disparate characters: a reclusive rock star, an obsessive crank, a heartbroken waitress, a counterfeiter, a backstabbing lover, and a lost daughter. (To remind you, BOP was: a struggling comic artist, an embittered and reclusive art legend, a backstabbing girlfriend, a heartbroken writer/bookstore employee, the couple out of The Joy Of Sex, and a fat bird.)

If you haven't read BOP, you're missing out on one of the greatest comics ever, and you need to buy that too (but probably not at the same time, if you want to avoid back injury). Robinson's strength is his absolute honesty toward his characters. There are no contrived happy endings, no easy and convenient plotting. His people act like real people. He's also a dab hand with The Funny, never letting things get too mopey.

Next up is THE KING (208 pages), by Rich Koslowski, author of THREE FINGERS (144 pages - a veritable pamphlet). The principle is simple: Elvis impersonator 'The King' wears a golden helmet on his head and claims to be The God of Song. He becomes the biggest thing in Vegas since, well, since Elvis. A reporter who used to write tabloid stories on Elvis in the 1980s is specifically requested by The King to do an in-depth interview with him.

In any other hands but Koslowski's, mixing kitsch Americana, religion, Elvis and Vegas might come across as shallow and empty. But Koslowski proved himself more than able to walk the razor's edge of intelligent, emotionally engaging satire in THREE FINGERS, his fantasia on the Disney mythos in America. I eagerly await what he'll do with the Presley mythos. [Alex de Campi]

HAPPY HAPPY JOY BUZZARDS

Each year, everyone's always looking out for the next big thing, and this is equally true in comics as it is in music, movies and other media. Even more sought after, though, is the next big word-of-mouth hit. Last year we saw EX MACHINA and STREET ANGEL become cult hits largely through the power of recommendations, message board raves and the simple act of pressing the book into people's hands and saying "read this".

What's surprising about THE AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS is that it hasn't become a similar underground success story. At first glance, you'd think that its mix of cultural references, comic book in-jokes and cartoon humour and logic would have perfectly primed it to take over from STREET ANGEL, but it's fallen instead into the place held previously by books like FINDER - "the best comics you're not reading".

Following a Hanna Barbera-style band (seemingly made up of mix-and-match members of Green Day and Weezer) as they fight ancient forces of evil, go to Hollywood, become gigantic Toho monsters and combat an army of zombies, the Scott Morse-meets-Michael Avon Oeming art and never-less-than-irreverent dialogue makes for a hard-rockin', good-time comic book.

The trade paperback, featuring the first four issues and the epilogue, is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it means anyone who missed the individual issues can get the whole mad saga in one package, and a curse because those people who were buying the issues as it went along will be forced to buy the trade as well if they ever want to see the end of the story (issue four ends on a cliffhanger, which was resolved in a final part made available exclusively online and in the trade paperback).

If you didn't catch the JOY BUZZARDS the first time round, or if you're a regular reader who's willing to swallow the bitter pill of forking out for the same material twice, then this book is highly recommended. Who knows, maybe this is what'll finally give the book the breakthrough it deserves? [Alistair Kennedy]

THING THAT MAKES YOU GO HMM

With the FANTASTIC FOUR movie almost upon us, Marvel are already into their Big Comics Push. And it seems to be going quite well: for those of you with deep pockets, there's the cat-crippling 848-page FANTASTIC FOUR OMNIBUS. For people unwilling to dive into 44 years of back story, there's the quite superb ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR. And for those of you who wish that Reed would give up all that horrid science and become a Mormon, there's even a near-complete collection of Mark Waid's run on the title (Reed Richards meets God, you know. Ain't that neat? No. No, it isn't.)

And if that wasn't enough, there's this: THING: FREAKSHOW, in which Ben Grimm confronts the notion that his physical condition (spoiler: he's orange and made of rocks) is, in fact, psychic payback for Ben being a prat in his youth.

It's an interesting proposition, and one that goes right to the heart of the Fantastic Four. In fact, it's a question that was asked as far back as FF #132, in which Johnny Storm posits that reading comics starring the android Human Torch somehow influenced the powers he received from the Cosmic Rays.

FREAKSHOW is by the FLASH team of Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins, and as you might expect, it's steeped in FF continuity. Kolins' art reminds me of 1990s workhorse Ron Lim, in that his characters tend to be athletic and a bit chinny, but Kolins has an angry, crackling line that I quite like.

The FANTASTIC FOUR movie will probably make a mild splash at the box office. The characters don't have the cultural currency of other superheroes, and memories of their "thematic descendants" THE INCREDIBLES are still fresh. That said, only a cynic would deny that Marvel has just about got it right with respect to having a reasonable selection of comics on the shelves. The only thing (or Thing, even) that could possibly make me happier would be to see Evan Dorkin and Dean Haspiel's NIGHT FALLS ON YANCY STREET receive the same treatment. [Matthew Craig]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR JULY 7th 2005:

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

DARK HORSE

APR050035D USAGI YOJIMBO #85 $2.99

DC COMICS

MAY050220 AQUAMAN #32 $2.50
MAY050273 AUTHORITY HUMAN ON THE INSIDE SC (MR) $17.99
MAY050196 BATMAN DARK DETECTIVE #5 (OF 6) $2.99
MAY050203 BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #193 $2.50
MAY050222 BLOOD OF THE DEMON #5 $2.50
APR050313D CATWOMAN WHEN IN ROME #6 (OF 6) (RES) $3.50
MAY050225 DC SPECIAL THE RETURN OF DONNA TROY #2 (OF 4) $2.99
MAY050292 DEAD BOY DETECTIVES DIGEST (MR) $9.99
APR050371D ELFQUEST THE GRAND QUEST VOL 9 TP $9.99
MAY050227 FIRESTORM #15 $2.50
MAY050205 GOTHAM CENTRAL #33 $2.50
MAY050277 INTIMATES #9 $2.99
MAY050256 JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #11 $2.25
MAY050264 LOONEY TUNES #128 $2.25
MAY050279 MATADOR #3 (OF 6) $2.99
FEB050339D OCEAN #6 (OF 6) $3.99
APR050384D ROGUE TROOPER VOL 2 FORT NEURO TP $17.99
MAY050248 SON OF VULCAN #2 (OF 6) $2.99
MAY050247 SPACE GHOST TP $14.99
MAY050211 SUPERMAN THAT HEALING TOUCH TP $14.99
MAY050303 SWAMP THING #17 (MR) $2.99
APR050387D TRANSGENESIS 2025 VOL 1 ANCESTOR PROGRAM TP (MR) $17.99
MAY050280 TWILIGHT EXPERIMENT #6 (OF 6) $2.99
MAY050254 VILLAINS UNITED #3 (OF 6) $2.50
MAY050305 Y THE LAST MAN #35 (MR) $2.99

IMAGE

APR051665D AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS VOL 1 TP $11.99
MAY051543 ARMOR X #4 $2.95
APR051657D BATTLE POPE COLOR #1 $2.95
MAY051529 BONEREST #1 (MR) $2.95
MAY051530 GROUNDED #1 (OF 6) $2.95
APR051668D RIDE VOL 1 TP $9.95
MAY051577 STRANGE GIRL #2 $2.95
MAY051539 WILDGUARD FOOLS GOLD #1 (OF 2) $3.50

MARVEL

MAY051786 AMAZING FANTASY #10 $2.99
MAY051769 DAREDEVIL VS PUNISHER #1 (OF 6) $2.99
APR051973D ESSENTIAL DAREDEVIL VOL 1 TP NEW PRINTING $16.99
APR051972D ESSENTIAL IRON MAN VOL 1 TP NEW PRINTING $16.99
MAY051806 EXILES #66 $2.99
MAY051739 FANTASTIC FOUR HOUSE OF M #1 (OF 3) $2.99
JAN058162D HOUSE OF M CASSADAY VARIANT COVER #3 (OF 8) $2.99
MAY051738 IRON MAN HOUSE OF M #1 (OF 3) $2.99
MAY051792 MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #5 $2.50
MAY051783 MARVEL TEAM-UP #10 $2.99
MAY051766 SHANNA THE SHE DEVIL #6 (OF 7) (MR) $3.50
MAY051760 SPIDER-GIRL #88 $2.99
MAY051761 SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED #10 $2.99
MAY051828 THING FREAKSHOW TP $17.99
MAY051752 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #79 $2.50
MAY051742 UNCANNY X-MEN #462 $2.50

OTHER PUBLISHERS

APR042966E ALICE 19TH VOL 5 JEALOUSY TP $9.95
JAN052630E ARMY OF DARKNESS SHOP TIL YOU DROP DEAD #4 $2.99
JAN052633J ARMY OF DARKNESS SHOP TIL YOU DROP DEAD FOIL #4 PI
APR052640E BETTY & VERONICA #210 $2.25
APR053057F BLACKPOOL #1 $2.95
APR052555F CUTE MANIFESTO TP $19.95
MAY052435E DEAD EYES OPEN #1 $2.95
APR052762F ELVIRA #146 $2.50
MAY052515E FATHOM #2 $2.99
SEP048103E HANA KIMI VOL 3 GN $9.95
APR052643E JUGHEAD AND FRIENDS DIGEST #3 $2.39
JAN052628E MU MARK LEE CVR A #4 $2.95
JAN052629E MU MINWOO HYUNG CVR B #4 $2.95
SEP032578E NARUTO VOL 2 TP $7.95
APR052573E NIGHTMARES AND FAIRY TALES #13 (MR) $2.95
APR052646E PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #95 $3.59
MAY052447E SILENT DANCE GN $14.95
MAY052516E SOULFIRE DYING OF THE LIGHT #0 $2.50
MAY052517E SOULFIRE DYING OF THE LIGHT SIGNED ED #0 $19.99
MAY053049F THE KING GN $19.95
APR053087F THE NORM #9 $4.95
JUN053269F TRICKED GN $19.95

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.