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: SILENT DRAGON

We can all convince ourselves that we like intellectual comics. "Oh", we say, "I love GOOD-BYE, CHUNKY RICE. And JIMMY CORRIGAN was something special, wasn't it? Pass the EIGHTBALL collection, would you?" Underneath this ostensibly respectable veneer, though, we all secretly know that MAUS would have been improved by the addition of giant mecha, and THE GOLEM'S MIGHTY SWING was sadly lacking in the ninjas department. That's why it's so good to see SILENT DRAGON appear on the scene.

Written by Andy Diggle, one of the best action writers in comics today (as evidenced by his great work on THE LOSERS), and drawn by the superb Leinil Francis Yu, it's an SF action crime story with big guns, big swords and big fights all over the place. Set in a future Tokyo, SILENT DRAGON follows the story of Renjiro, a Yakuza bodyguard who's torn between the demands of honour and the demands of the heart. The first issue puts him in a dangerous place both physically and morally, and how (or if) he survives forms the starting point for a gripping and kinetic adventure tale, taking in holographic demons, gigantic samurai death machines and double-double-crosses.

Leinil Yu has always been a great action artist, from his early days on WOLVERINE through to the BATMAN/DANGER GIRL one-shot, and the art from SILENT DRAGON shows that he's continuing to raise his game. Renjiro's life is a series of conflicts, and it's a tribute to Yu's talent that he's able to put across the internal ones just as well as the external. A lot of superhero comics artists could do worse than to look to Yu for tips on how to achieve detailed, expressive artwork without losing the kinetics that characterises a good fight scene.

SILENT DRAGON is recommended for anyone who likes crazily big fights, tormented characters, gunplay, swordplay and killer cliff hanger endings. And that includes you, ya big faker. [Alistair Kennedy]

¡JOURNALISTA!

Good comics journalism - by which I mean journalism in the form of comics, as opposed to writing about comics - is hard to find. Probably the best example of 'journo-comics' is Joe Sacco. Sacco's eye for detail - not just dry minutiae, but for the subtleties of expression and motivation - would be an asset to any comic, fiction or non-fiction. But books such as PALESTINE carry an intimacy that connects the reader with these important, real-life stories in a unique and powerful way. Which is why it's always nice to see more of them.

COMBAT ZONE is a journo-comic graphic novel from an unlikely source: Marvel Comics. Following the fighting men of the 82nd Airborne over three months leading up to and into the war in Iraq, COMBAT ZONE purports to tell 'True Tales of GIs in Iraq' from the point of view of one of the many embedded journalists covering the war.

COMBAT ZONE was originally solicited as a five-issue monthly miniseries, and the reasons behind its move to graphic novel status (especially in light of Joe Quesada's constant nay-nay-and-thrice-nay-ery on OGNs) are a little cloudy. While it's true that the war in Iraq was and is extremely controversial, it's not like there aren't plenty of books and documentaries on the subject already. In fact, COMBAT ZONE will be author Karl Zinsmeister's second book about the 82nd Airborne's time in Iraq.

It may be that the author of the book proved too controversial for some retailers. Zinsmeister is what Americans call a "neo-conservative" - a right-of-centre political affiliation, rather than something Chris Claremont might invent to revirginise Kitty Pryde - and furthermore, he's the editor-in-chief of a neo-conservative magazine. Such an author is bound to have a polarising effect on potential readers. And unlike other conservative writers, such as ULTIMATE IRON MAN's Orson Scott Card, Zinsmeister's book is on a subject people actually care about. While some retailers (and readers) might welcome such a nakedly partial book, others might see it as jingoistic tripe at best, and propaganda at worst.

I'm honestly not sure what to make of COMBAT ZONE. Previews for the book have been non-existent. Dan Jurgens is the artist on the book, which is a good sign: he's an artist of the John Buscema school, who can turn his hand to anything. It occurs to me that whatever your opinions on the war, everybody deserves to have their story told, fairly and objectively. Whether Zinsmeister can do that remains to be seen. [Matthew Craig]

INDIGESTION

Ye gods, but this comics thing can be a frustrating business. You wait ages for a decent comic to come along, then forget to buy it. Then, just when you've resigned yourself to waiting for the trade, the trade doesn't appear, because some fool has decided that the best format for the collection is... the digest!

Gah! The digest format. Cheap and cheerful, yet entirely wrong for certain comics. For instance: LONE WOLF AND CUB. While I can appreciate the need to make the entire seven hundred and twelve-volume series affordable, there was and is no need to make the individual books unreadable to anyone without a scanning electron microscope. Sometimes, of course, the reduced-size format works. The new SIN CITY trades, which are just under an inch wider and taller than a DVD case, actually look damn good, and thanks to the promotional pricing policies of certain purveyors of premium pulp, I've been able to purchase plenty of 'em in the weeks since the movie came and went.

But cost aside, why would anyone choose to make their comics smaller? It's not like your average comic reader carries around a little Prada handbag, is it? It's not like there isn't room in a briefcase, rucksack or tatty carrier bag for one measly little trade. So why, when cost and portability aren't such an issue - as in the case of this week's single-volume SPIDER-MAN/HUMAN TORCH paperback - would you squish and squash the thing down to digest size?

Dan Slott's story is hardly aimed at the same young novice readership as MARVEL ADVENTURES. Neither is it aimed at the TokyoPop/manga crowd: Ty Templeton's art, while fantastic, is appropriately traditional: each chapter is set in a different era, from Lee/Ditko/Kirby to the present day, and the art changes to mirror the times. It appears as if SPIDEY/TORCH, with its strong emphasis on the long history between the characters, is aimed squarely at the veteran readership.

So why, when all the other FANTASTIC FOUR tie-ins, from the overpriced THING: FREAKSHOW to the retro FANTASTIC FOUR/SPIDER-MAN CLASSIC have been in the regular comic-sized format, is this one in the smaller format? Answer: because it's the only one I'm buying. And because the world hates me. Goddamnit. [Matthew Craig]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR JULY 27th 2005:

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

DC COMICS

JAN040261D (USE
MAY058168) TEEN TITANS A KIDS GAME TP $9.95
MAY050271 ASTRO CITY THE DARK AGE #2 (OF 16) $2.99
MAY050197 BATMAN DARK DETECTIVE #6 (OF 6) $2.99
MAY050262 CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #11 $2.25
MAY050202 CATWOMAN #45 $2.50
MAY050274 CITY OF TOMORROW #4 (OF 6) (MR) $2.99
MAY050226 DOOM PATROL #14 $2.50
MAY050229 FLASH #224 $2.50
MAY050294 HELLBLAZER #210 (MR) $2.75
MAY050236 JLA CLASSIFIED #10 $2.99
MAY050237 JLA CYBERFORCE $5.99
MAY050240 KINETIC TP $9.99
MAY050242 LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #8 $2.99
MAY050295 LOSERS #26 (MR) $2.99
MAY050298 NEIL GAIMANS NEVERWHERE #2 (OF 9) (MR) $2.99
MAY050207 NIGHTWING YEAR ONE TP $14.99
MAY050243 OMAC PROJECT #4 (OF 6) $2.50
MAY050302 OTHERWORLD #5 (OF 12) (MR) $2.99
MAY050244 OUTSIDERS #26 $2.50
MAY050283 PROMETHEA BOOK 5 HC $24.99
MAY050281 SILENT DRAGON #1 (OF 6) $2.99
MAY050210 SUPERMAN BATMAN #21 $2.99
MAY058168 TEEN TITANS A KIDS GAME TP $9.99
MAY050257 TEEN TITANS GO #21 $2.25
MAY050209 YEAR ONE BATMAN RAS AL GHUL #2 (OF 2) $5.99

MARVEL

MAY051756 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #522 $2.50
MAY051765 BLACK PANTHER #6 $2.99
MAY051824 COMBAT ZONE TRUE TALES OF GIS IN IRAQ VOL 1 TP $19.99
MAY051770 DAREDEVIL VS PUNISHER #2 (OF 6) $2.99
APR051978D ESSENTIAL SPIDER-MAN VOL 4 TP NEW PRINTING $16.99
APR051979D ESSENTIAL WOLVERINE VOL 1 TP NEW PRINTING $16.99
MAY051819 EXILES VOL 10 AGE OF APOCALYPSE TP $12.99
MAY051772 FANTASTIC FOUR #529 $2.99
MAY051776 GIANT SIZE SPIDER-WOMAN #1 $4.99
MAY051768 HERCULES #5 (OF 5) $2.99
MAY051821 HOUSE OF M EXCALIBUR PRELUDE TP $11.99
MAY051777 HULK DESTRUCTION #1 (OF 4)(MR) $2.99
MAY051778 MACHINE TEEN #3 (OF 5) $2.99
MAY051795 MARVEL HEROES FLIP MAGAZINE #2 $3.99
MAY051796 MARVEL SELECT FLIP MAGAZINE #2 $3.99
MAY051743 NEW X-MEN #16 $2.99
MAY051808 NEW X-MEN HELLIONS #3 (OF 4) $2.99
MAY051802 NIGHTCRAWLER #8 $2.99
MAY051788 OFFICIAL HANDBOOK MARVEL UNIVERSE AVENGERS 2005 $3.99
MAY051748 PULSE #10 $2.99
MAY051747J PULSE HOUSE OF M SPECIAL ED #1 PI
MAY051784 RUNAWAYS #6 $2.99
DEC041799D RUNAWAYS VOL 3 GOOD DIE YOUNG DIGEST TP $7.99
MAY051779 SPELLBINDERS #5 (OF 6) $2.99
APR051955D SPIDER-MAN HUMAN TORCH IM WITH STUPID DIGEST TP $7.99
MAY058106 ULTIMATE IRON MAN 3RD PRINTING #1 (OF 6) $2.99
MAY051800 X-MEN #173 $2.50

OTHER PUBLISHERS

APR052818F ANTIQUE BAKERY GN VOL 1 $12.95
APR052820F BAMBI & HER PINK GUN GN VOL 1 $12.95
APR053083E BEOWULF #3 $2.99
AUG032482F COMPLETE BALLAD HALO JONES HC $29.95
MAY052505E JUGHEAD #167 $2.25
MAY052397E NOTENKI MEMOIRS SC $9.99
MAY052508E TALES FROM RIVERDALE DIGEST #4 $2.39

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.