Welcome to The Forecast. Every Monday, Ninth Art's hand-picked team of crack comic pundits offer a rundown of some of the best, worst and most noteworthy books on the shelves of your local comic shop.

BOOK OF THE WEEK: DESOLATION JONES

With DESOLATION JONES reaching the end of its first story-arc and picking up an Eisner nomination, now's as good a time to return to the scene of the crime.

While it's arguable that when writing and art tasks are performed by a single body you get a purer vision, DESOLATION JONES (DC WildStorm) has proved a fine example of the joys of the division of labour - a demonstration of what you can get when you marry together two radically different creative forces. The overly reductive position of comics into story and art fails, because story is art. A story isn't the same story, in any meaningful way, with a different artist.

The results are compelling. JH Williams' art marries superb draftsmanship with a fractured design sense, which manages to add emotional weight and grounds even the most extreme of Ellis' grotesqueries. (A steel-toothed man who only consumes cows? Completely credible.) Flipping it around, after the metaphysical explorations of PROMETHEA, seeing Williams' design sense applied to a story as sordid as JONES is a revelation.

DESOLATION JONES is works as a PI in LA, which is secretly an open-prison for ex-intelligence community people. He finds things out. Jones is a compelling figure: a broken man who has nothing left but his ability to break men. One of the more memorable vignettes so far has featured him admitting that he's not a smart man, and that his modus operandi is just to torture people until someone tells him something he wants to know. Macho posturing? Not at all. This is done with sadness and resignation. It's a sordid world, yes, and we've all seen Ellis do sordid before. The difference here is that it's sad, beat-down, worn out. There is no glee in this trip to the gutter. Desolation Jones fits LA perfectly, with a skin that matches the endless asphalt, and fired through the Chandler-borrowed structure he's a fine lens for the sort of existential ennui Ellis wishes to explore.

So... the final issue. What happened to the Hitler Porn? Which of the sisters are fucks? Did the Butler do it? All answers herein. The one that won't be answered, we suspect, is the mystery of how Desolation Jones could be nominated for the best serialised story Eisner when the actual story - Made In England - only actually concludes this issue. [Kieron Gillen]

BRICOULERS BLEU

I received a pensions brochure in the post today. It's the latest in a long line of things designed to drive me into the madhouse. As if it wasn't bad enough that I'm almost thirty-one and I haven't started saving for my old age yet - as a part-time nihilist, I'm not convinced I'm going to have one - the people who compiled the brochure included a photograph of my old works canteen... with me in it!

Intellectually, I know it's a six year-old photograph. Emotionally, it's a bittersweet reminder of who I used to be. But on a purely irrational level, it's a peek into a parallel dimension where I decided to stick with the job I was crap at... and was far happier.

Like all good amateur philosophers, I spend too much time alone, shouting at daytime television and grappling with impossible existential quandaries, such as 'Salt and Vinegar or Cheese and Onion?' and, 'Who's hotter: Sarah from DOCTORS or Alex from BRAINTEASER?' There are days when it's all I can do to get out of bed in the afternoon.

I'm not short of inspiration, though: not as long as I have ACTION PHILOSOPHERS (Evil Twin Comics) to read. The latest issue is titled HATE THE FRENCH, and features biographies of such Gallic giants as Jean-Paul Sartre (an existentialist), Jacques Derrida (father of deconstructionism) and René Descartes (gobshite). The title is, of course, ironic, playing off a perceived American antipathy towards all things French, but it's hard not to envy the French for their rich intellectual history. Descartes and Derrida, certainly, have had a truly revolutionary effect on the world as we know it, which is more than can be said for the inventor of Freedom Fries.

ACTION PHILOSOPHERS creators Dunleavy and Van Lente bring a lightness of touch to these biographies that, combined with their cheerfully bonkers sense of humour, provides a grounding in the lives and thoughts of these important historical figures that dry prose cannot match. Latecomers to the ACTION PHILOSOPHERS brand may be interested to know that the first trade paperback arrives in stores in June. [Matthew Craig]

WELCOME TO JERSEY, SUCKA

There are books you know you're going to love, even before you read them. Becky Cloonan's EAST COAST RISING (Tokyopop) is one such book, and I've been eagerly awaiting its debut since I saw some sample art last year. All I can say is: it delivers. The East Coast is flooded, and pirate and merchant ships ply the once (and still) foetid seas of what used to be New Jersey. There are two rival pirate captains, a young boy, a treasure map, and all sorts of Kraken-esque undersea creatures. Crucially, there's lots of hot, hot pirate boys with tattoos. (Hey, any of you boys out there who think I'm totally shallow for mainly being interested in a book for totty reasons - I have only one thing to say to you, and that is: POWER GIRL. So shut up before I pull that suspiciously wrinkled Adam Hughes sketchbook out of your bookcase and thump you across the back of the head with it.)

I also dig Math's (a girl's) tattoos, and the pirate ships, and Mr Snuggles the giant dinosaur sea turtle. This is the thing about EAST COAST RISING: The world is really well thought through, down to tiny details. The adventure is constant and well paced. But due to this, there isn't a lot of time to develop characters. We don't find out much about the rather large cast, or their backgrounds. This is fine, as it leaves Cloonan good reveals for future books, but I would have liked to see an actual character arc or some development. Some dialogue was painfully on the nose, and character reactions seemed dictated mostly by plot necessity rather than personality.

The exception to this was the two bad boys (Deathsnake and Lee/King Cobra), who for me walked off with the book, and I hope we see a lot more of them in the next volume. Archer, the theoretical main character, was a bit dull, and Cannonball Joe (the good guy ship captain) was... a good guy. There isn't much more to say about him. But, whatever, it's Ray Harryhausen, not Bergman. EAST COAST RISING rocked, and book two can't come soon enough. Can't we arrange for AMERICAN VIRGIN to be cancelled so Cloonan has more time to work on EAST COAST RISING? I mean, really people, Stephen Seagle rehashing SAVED versus pirate Jersey boys and sea monsters -the choice is yours! [Alex de Campi]

ABANDONMENT ISSUES

And then there are books you never would pick up at all unless someone thrust a copy into your hands, going "Take! Read!" Such was another Tokyopop OEL, Ross Campbell's THE ABANDONED. Ugly chick on cover plus kind of boring opening plus zombies (so 2004) equals... nah, pass. But, you know how it is. It's raining, it's Sunday, and there's a copy of the book lying around the flat. It's either that, or do some work. I read. Quick synopsis: bunch of fat gothy kids in small-town Georgia hang out, have crushes on members of the same sex (it's all a bit Larry Clark right-on counterculture), and then after a hurricane all the people over the age of 25 turn into zombies. Kids must escape. Carnage ensues.

But unlike EAST COAST RISING, I really got to care about these kids, which I totally didn't expect. The characterisation is strong and appealing; each kid has their own voice and personality, and a tremendous amount of depth. The art also really grew on me - Campbell's control of little moments, expressions and reaction shots, is wonderful, as are his lovingly depicted detailings of zombie gore. It's an odd combination to find in an artist. And dammit, I was really upset when the dying started. The story twists left me gasping with shock in places. Campbell obviously loves him some B-horror, and successfully plays both with and against the genre to manipulate the reader with a story sophistication not often seen in teen zombie slashers. So yeah, Rylie (the heroine) isn't exactly showing her best side on the cover, but give her a chance. THE ABANDONED is one quality little book. [Alex de Campi]

CONTINUITY FREE

In a competitive marketplace, where the sheer volume of promotional material flooding out of the larger publishing houses threatens to drown the voices of smaller creators, independent publishers have to become crafty in the way they market themselves to potential readers.

Generating word of mouth via the message boards and comics blogs can often create instant cult classics, such as Oni Press' SHARKNIFE and SCOTT PILGRIM. Extensive previews of upcoming books on news sites and company websites can also help: everybody loves a freebie, after all. It's not a perfect system - some people won't read comics on their computers, no matter who they come from - but there's little doubt that it's an effective marketing tool. That said, these previews are short and sweet, and with good reason. Who in their right mind would want to pay for a comic that they had already read for free?

In an attempt to poke holes in the conventional wisdom, AiT PlanetLar arch-huckster Larry Young has released two versions of a free PDF preview of the upcoming graphic novel CONTINUITY - a 25-page sample of the opening act, and the complete, unabridged comic. It's an audacious move, to be sure, for it opens the whole work up to critical scrutiny. Fortunately, the novel is really rather good.

CONTINUITY is a sci-fi drama in the vein of TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED or THE TWILIGHT ZONE. The book centres on Alicia, a pregnant teenager whose shaky grip on reality is matched only by reality's shaky grip on itself. As the world falls apart around her, Alicia seeks sanctuary with a bereaved mother, who soon becomes witness to the girl's confessions.

The script by Jason McNamara (LESS THAN HERO) has a constant sense of desperation about it, the depth of which is gently ramped up throughout the story, only peaking in the last few pages. The excellent pacing is matched by the strength of characterisation: Alicia is motivated by a combination of unreasonable adolescent guilt and a frustration with life's inequities. While the metaphorical structure of the story (and, indeed, the ending) may seem a little predictable to rapacious weird fictionauts everywhere, CONTINUITY will have a broad appeal to anyone for whom life is less than a bed of roses.

The art on CONTINUITY is provided by McNamara's long-time collaborator Tony Talbert. The story alternates between stark brutality and bittersweet humanity, and Talbert captures them both with the same firm, inky line. Talbert's art is strongly reminiscent of Rick Veitch (BRAT PACK, RARE BIT FIENDS), which is somehow fitting, given the story's constantly evolving, nightmarish urban backdrop. Alicia is presented as a desperate middle-class faux-punk, resembling an indie movie ingénue with a hellacious crack habit. And there are moments of onomatopoeic layering in the opening pages that borrow from Geof Darrow's HARD BOILED, serving to immerse the reader in the unfamiliar landscape from page one.

CONTINUITY is a powerful piece of urban horror, turning teenage angst into creeping Armageddon. It remains to be seen whether PlanetLar's marketing gambit will result in increased sales. The original 25-page preview was enough to convince me to buy the novel when it goes on sale in June. But if you want to spoil the ending for yourself, then there's always the full free download. Either way, CONTINUITY is a great comic, and not to be missed. [Matthew Craig]

DMZ, YEAH YOU KNOW ME

Vertigo, in its own cart-before-the-horse-spraying-shit-at-the-wall-to-see-what-sticks style, has yet again tried to launch a whole new load of Number Ones onto the market. After they experience a success, the line seems to run wildly in that direction and OKs a load of comics that really don't deserve it.

But in amongst all these wild and varied choices, there will always be one or two successes - and DMZ is the latest. Taking the high concept approach of Y THE LAST MAN, the hyper-detailed urban combat of THE LOSERS, and the gritty multiple-story-lines of 100 BULLETS, it actually learns from their success rather than wildly mimics them.

Telling the story of a civil war ridden America, where Manhattan has become a war-zone, our protagonist is the only freely operating journalist inside this dangerous ex-cityscape, Matty Roth. Whilst textually operating inside Wood's comfort zone of anti-establishment posing and the black and white cityscape of New York, DMZ builds to become a multi-character dissertation on living in a warzone. You can see Wood stretch his narrative skills every issue to become the kind of writer he always promised to be.

Wood is joined for art duties by Riccardo Burchielli, a relative newcomer to American comics, but one who boasts the technological detail of Colin Wilson with the slurred Euro-lines of Vertigo stalwart Marcelo Frusin. Some have complained about the lack of detail in Burchielli's art, but where he excels is in creating atmosphere, as evinced by last issue's depiction of a snow-covered Central Park. To help Burchielli out with deadlines and to keep his artistic oar in, Wood does the odd-splash page in every issue - a treat for long-time Wood fans like myself.

DMZ deserves to succeed, because it's a good comic - and I mean that in both the sense of it being a good story and a good example of the form. It's anti-establishment, it's visually gorgeous, and it has a great concept driving it. [John Fellows]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR APRIL 12th 2006:

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

DARK HORSE

FEB060079 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #112 (MR) $2.99
FEB060077 BPRD UNIVERSAL MACHINE #1 (OF 5) $2.99

DC COMICS

FEB060328 100 BULLETS #71 (MR) $2.75
FEB060315 ALBION #4 (OF 6) (RES) $2.99
FEB060327 AMERICAN VIRGIN #2 (MR) $2.99
JAN060288 BATMAN DARK DETECTIVE TP $14.99
FEB060223 BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #203 $2.50
FEB060298 BATMAN STRIKES #20 $2.25
FEB060229 BATMAN YEAR ONE HUNDRED #3 (OF 4) $5.99
FEB060317 CAPTAIN ATOM ARMAGEDDON #7 (OF 9) $2.99
FEB060264 CRISIS AFTERMATH THE BATTLE FOR BLUDHAVEN #1 (OF 6) $2.99
JAN060355 DESOLATION JONES #6 (MR) $2.99
FEB060329 DMZ #6 (MR) $2.99
JAN060344 ELFQUEST THE GRAND QUEST VOL 14 TP $9.99
FEB060331 FABLES #48 (MR) $2.75
FEB060266 FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN #24 $2.50
FEB060269 GREEN ARROW #61 $2.50
FEB060302 HI HI PUFFY AMIYUMI #3 (OF 3) $2.25
NOV050302D KIKAIDER CODE 02 VOL 2 (MR) $9.99
FEB060325 MAJESTIC #16 $2.99
JAN060323 SHOWCASE PRESENTS TEEN TITANS VOL 1 TP $16.99
FEB060234 SUPERMAN #651 $2.50
FEB060306 VS (VERSUS) VOL 1 $9.99
FEB060324 WILDCATS NEMESIS #8 (OF 9) $2.99

IMAGE

SEP051671 DISTANT SOIL VOL 4 CODA LTD ED HC (RES) $29.95
FEB045201 MAGE VOL 1 THE HERO DISCOVERED TP $29.99

MARVEL

FEB062006 ANNIHILATION SUPER SKRULL #1 (OF 4) $2.99
FEB062045 CABLE DEADPOOL #27 $2.99
FEB062047 EXILES #79 $2.99
FEB062014 FANTASTIC FOUR FIRST FAMILY #2 (OF 6) $2.99
FEB061991 FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #7 $2.99
FEB062086 IRON MAN DEMON IN A BOTTLE TP $24.99
FEB062026 MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #11 $2.99
FEB062028 MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX RESTRAINING ORDERS ARE FOR OTHER GIRLS $2.99
FEB062024 MARVEL SELECT FLIP MAGAZINE #11 $3.99
FEB062022 MARVEL TALES FLIP MAGAZINE #10 $3.99
JAN068206 MARVEL ZOMBIES 2ND PTG VAR #4 (OF 5) (PP #708) $2.99
FEB062029 MS MARVEL #2 $2.99
FEB062049 NEW X-MEN #25 $2.99
FEB062050 SON OF M #5 (OF 6) $2.99
FEB062041 THUNDERBOLTS #101 $2.99
FEB061984 ULTIMATE EXTINCTION #4 (OF 5) $2.99
FEB061986 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #93 $2.99
FEB041625 ULTIMATES VOL 2 HOMELAND SECURITY TP $17.99
FEB062053 UNCANNY X-MEN #472 $2.99
FEB062081 X-23 INNOCENCE LOST TP $15.99
FEB062080 X-MEN COMPLETE AGE OF APOCALYPSE EPIC BOOK 3 TP $29.99
FEB062060 X-MEN THE 198 #4 (OF 5) $2.99
FEB062085 YOUNG AVENGERS VOL 1 SIDEKICKS TP $14.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

FEB063027F ACTION PHILOSOPHERS HATE THE FRENCH $2.95
JAN042801 ANGEL SANCTUARY VOL 1 GN (MR) $9.95
JAN062854 ARCHIE #565 $2.25
JAN062857 ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #169 $3.59
NOV053052F BLUESMAN VOL 1 GN NEW PTG $6.95
JAN063177F BONEYARD #21 $2.95
NOV043066E CERES CELESTIAL LEGEND VOL 10 TP $9.95
FEB063186F COMPLETE OMAHA THE CAT DANCER VOL 3 TP (A) $12.95
APR042994 FUSHIGI YUGI VOL 3 2ND ED DISCIPLE TP $9.95
MAR063070E FUTURAMA COMICS #25 $2.99
OCT032796 INU YASHA VOL 7 2ND ED TP (STAR20271) $8.95
DEC052765 MAGIC WHISTLE #10 (MR) $11.95
FEB062820 NIGHTMARES AND FAIRY TALES #16 (MR) $2.95
OCT052934 RUMBLE PAK VOL 1 TP NEW PTG $5.95
FEB062915F TAILS #3 (OF 3) (MR) $2.95

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.