I understand it all, now.

I'm referring, of course, to what happened to my predecessors for Ninth Art's 'Things to Come'. "It's easy," they told me, "just look through Previews once a month and write up some interesting (or not so interesting) things that you see."

What they didn't tell me, of course, was that after 31 instalments, original author Chris Ekman now sits in a very special room where he can sing, "I'm a little teapot" to his heart's content. It only took one 'guest author' instalment for Matt Fraction, Katherine Keller, Rich Johnston and Ed Mathews to run screaming.

And on just my fourth column, I'm already filled with hate. Yes, hate. Hate for misleading solicitations, and for publishers who seem determined to make their books as hard to order as possible. Hate for Diamond's ugly catalogue and text restrictions, which also make the books they carry as hard to order as possible.

And yet I love you, dear readers, I love you all. (Except for a small handful of you, but you already knew that.) And so, despite the fact that I have to get back up out of bed in just six hours to go run 16 miles, here I am working on this month's instalment of Things To Come. So remember, when you get to the end and say, "That's it?" it's not my fault. It's the comic book industry's fault. They made me hate comics. I'm just an innocent bystander. For you see, I've stripped out all the hated elements of this month's column, and this is one about love and happiness. That's it, just things I love or want to love.

All right, there's a tiny bit of hate. But not much, honest. And now, on with the love. (Next month: more hate. I promise.)

ADHOUSE BOOKS

PINK SKETCHBOOK VOL 2: CHEESE by Robert Ullman and Jay Geldhof
AUG04 2339, p204, $10.00

It's great to find a publisher whose tastes run similar to yours, and that's something I've found with Chris Pitzer's AdHouse Books. There hasn't been a dud book yet, but the real proof of our tastes running parallel is the second instalment in the PINK SKETCHBOOK series, spotlighting Robert Ullman and Jay Geldhof.

Most readers are probably wondering who the heck these people are, but they're two of my favourite artists. Ullman's FROM THE CURVE and GRAND GESTURES comics have a beautiful, smooth and slick ink line running through them, drawing ordinary people with the greatest of ease. Geldhof's art, be it on GRENDEL or THE LOST, has a sharp, angular approach, with really dynamic character designs and ideas that explode off the page.

The idea of a sketchbook focusing on both of these talented artists is brilliant, because as different as they sound, I think people who are fans of one artist will quickly become a convert to the other. I can't wait to get a glimpse into their sketchbooks.

AIT/PLANETLAR

1000 STEPS TO WORLD DOMINATION VOL 1 GN by Rob Osborne
AUG04 2360, p210, $12.95

If the rest of this book is as much fun as the title, I am so there.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS

BARAKA & BLACK MAGIC IN MOROCCO GN by Rick Smith
AUG04 2362, p210, $14.95

I had the good fortune to read an advance edition of Rick Smith's graphic earlier in the year, and let me say that it's fantastic. Smith's story of he and his wife travelling through Morocco is entrancing, as Smith brings across both the similarities and differences between Moroccan and American culture, without ever coming across as condescending or superior (something so many other travelogues fail miserably at).

The art is really sharp, with one of my all-time favourite depictions of music in comics, and all in all it's a great follow-up to his book SHUCK. Hopefully this won't get overlooked in its resolicitation, because it's one of the nicest books from Alternative Comics all year.

AUTOMATON

8-9-3 #1 by Jack Hsu
AUG04 2478, p230, $3.50

Jack Hsu's art on the Xeric Grant winning POPPIE'S ADVENTURES IN PARADISE was really nice, which is probably why his name jumped out at me for 8-9-3 #1. The idea of a Yakuza assassin in Brazil sounds sufficiently odd enough that once I got past the initial, "Where have I heard that name before?" it kept my attention, and the cover looks pretty nice to boot. This has real potential.

BURLYMAN ENTERTAINMENT

DOC FRANKENSTEIN #1 by the Wachowski Brothers and Steve Skroce
AUG04 2572, p242, $3.50

For everyone who's getting all excited by the publisher name, this is not Geof Darrow's upcoming series for Burlyman Entertainment, it's actually the one by Steve Skroce. Now, I've never read anything by Skroce that made me go "woo-hoo", but the Wachowski Brothers clearly do love Skroce, between his storyboarding of THE MATRIX movies and then publishing his own ongoing series, so maybe they're onto something.

Then again, THE MATRIX RELOADED was two hours of my life that I'll never get back, so for all I know I might be ready to claw my eyes out before this is all over.

COMIC BOOK LEGAL DEFENSE FUND

SPX 2004: WAR TP edited by Greg Bennett, Charles Brownstein, and Chris Pitzer
AUG04 2586, p244, $9.95

In the interest of full disclosure, I was a co-editor for the 2000 and 2003 editions of this anthology. That said, since I had nothing to do with the 2004 book, I can say that I think the SPX anthologies are a tremendous bargain; you always get a lot of really sharp and different stories from all sorts of comic creators here, the price is low, and all the proceeds go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. This year's theme is 'war' and I can only imagine all the different sorts of tactics that each creator used to approach the subject. And oh, what a timely subject it is...

DARK HORSE

MARGE'S LITTLE LULU VOL 1 TP by John Stanley and Irving Tripp
AUG04 0033, p22, $9.95

What amazing timing. Right as the solicitation for the first LITTLE LULU book shows up, John Stanley is inducted into the Eisner Awards' Hall of Fame. I've never read his LITTLE LULU comics, but I've heard them held in such high regard for so long that I'm really quite intrigued to finally see what they're all about.

TALES OF THE VAMPIRES TP by Joss Whedon, Ben Edlund, Jane Espenson, Brett Matthews, and more
AUG04 0037, p25, $15.95

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and ANGEL fans will definitely want to snag this; it's a collection of the TALES OF THE VAMPIRES mini-series where Joss Whedon, a bunch of television and comic writers, and top-notch artists told stories of vampires through the ages. If you took out the framing sequence of future Watchers being trained, you might not even have known the connection to the TV shows, just that it's a extremely strong anthology of vampire stories. It's a nice companion volume to the TALES OF THE SLAYERS graphic novel released a while ago as well.

DC COMICS

MADARA VOL 1 by Eiji Otsuka and Sho-u Tajima
AUG04 0343, p56, $9.95

Well, it was just a matter of time until DC Comics jumped into the manga playing field, debuting their CMX imprint this October. The three debut books all look intriguing, but it's MADARA that's caught my attention the most. Maybe it's Sho-u Tajima being better known as the character designer for the animated portion of KILL BILL VOL 1. Maybe it's the striking cover of the title character. Or maybe it's because the book's about a boy whose body was chopped up by an evil warlord into eight different segments, and with the help of mechanical limbs he's going to find all his missing body parts. Yeah, this is crazy enough for me that I want to see more.

ARKHAM ASYLUM ANNIVERSARY EDITION HC by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean
AUG 04 0345, p58, $29.95

I'm really torn on this. On the one hand, I do love Dave McKean's art and the idea of getting production sketches, behind the scenes glimpses, and more is really interesting. At the same time, though, I always thought that Morrison's script was just all right and not as outstanding as it should have been.

And, let's not discount the fact that I already own a softcover of ARKHAM ASYLUM, so is it really worth buying another copy? I suspect this is going to be something I'm going to have to take a closer look at upon arrival, because it could go either way. Definitely something to keep on the radar, though.

DOOM PATROL #5 by John Byrne and Doug Hazelwood
AUG04 0380, p73, $2.50

Is anyone really buying this? No, really... who's buying this?

HARD TIME TP by Steve Gerber and Brian Hurtt
AUG04 0391, p78, $9.95

I'll be the first to admit that HARD TIME #1's writing left me utterly cold, but I've heard so many nice things about the series since then that I might have to give it another chance in collected form. Since OZ came to an end on HBO there's been a lack of good prison dramas, after all, and Brian Hurtt's art was really quite lovely.

One thing that does surprise me, though, is that this seems to be a regularly sized collection. Based on HARD TIME #1 I'd have assumed that DC was planning on a digest-sized (or if you prefer, manga-sized) format for collections; the word balloons seemed to be geared towards the art being shrunken down, and the whole DC Focus line in general seemed like the sort of books that might do a better job attracting teenagers who aren't so interested in bright spandex costumes.

While I can only theorize on the original plans for HARD TIME, this just seems like a mistake. DC's clearly not adverse to the idea of going for the smaller collections, so what happened? TEEN TITANS: FAMILY LOST by Geoff Johns, Mike McKone, and others
AUG04 0409, p84, $9.95

Like or hate the current TEEN TITANS revamp by Geoff Johns and Mike McKone, I do have to hand it to DC Comics that they're keeping the collections rolling quickly and affordably. It's this attitude towards permanent collections of new work that I want to see more of.

DC COMICS/HUMANOIDS

SON OF THE GUN TP by Alexandro Jodorowsky and Georges Bess
AUG04 0432, p96, $17.95

This is a severely messed up book, and I say that in the most positive way possible. People who think that reading Garth Ennis's PREACHER is about as depraved as a comic should ever get should stay away from SON OF THE GUN, to be honest, because their eyes are going to pop out.

Alexandro Jodorowsky and Georges Bess's story of a baby born with a tail, abandoned, and raised by a gay transvestite midget before becoming a ruthless killer is definitely not for everyone, but I thought the earlier English-language edition of the book was one of the best comics of 2001. So yes, I'm very much a fan. (Those who have read Jodorowsky and Bess's other collaboration, the highly spiritual THE WHITE LAMA, might be a little surprised at how well these creators shift gears.)

DC COMICS/VERTIGO MY FAITH IN FRANKIE TP by Mike Carey, Sonny Liew, and Marc Hempel
AUG04 0458, p115, $6.95

As mentioned above, DC Comics isn't adverse to the idea of smaller digest-sized collections, and MY FAITH IN FRANKIE is a perfect illustration of that. This collection is being printed in the smaller dimensions, and while it's unfortunately losing colour printing in the process, the art from Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel will lend itself nicely to black and white, and Mike Carey's story is an utter delight.

I absolutely adored MY FAITH IN FRANKIE as a mini-series, and now that it's going to be an affordable collection I can't wait for a whole new audience to discover it. Great, great stuff.

SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE VOL 1: THE TARANTULA TP by Matt Wagner and Guy Davis AUG04 0462, p116, $9.95
SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE VOL 2: THE FACE AND THE BRUTE TP by Matt Wagner, John Watkiss, and RG Taylor
AUG04 0461, p116, $19.95

I have a confession to make: I read the first six issues of SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE when they were first published, got bored, and stopped buying it. I'm not sure why it never clicked for me, and friends whose tastes I respect and listen to always talk about SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE as being one of their all-time favourite series, and what a shame it is that we haven't gotten any more collections.

So I'm going to take the SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE challenge. I hereby promise to everyone that I will both buy the new printing of the first collection (#1-4) as well as the new collection (#5-12). That's a full year's worth of issues, and if I don't like Matt Wagner's stories by that point, I figure I've given it a fair shake. If I do like them, though, I hereby promise to write a review either for Ninth Art or iComics.com. Sound fair?

More importantly, though, if you are a SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE fan, the sales of these two collections will determine if DC publishes any more. So if you did like the series (and are shaking your head at me right now for dropping the book after six issues) then preorder the book now. Ask your local retailer to please order them for you, or if they won't cooperate (you know, if they choose to throw away a guaranteed sale), go to somewhere like Amazon or Barnes & Noble as a last resort, but order the book now.

While sales over the course of time can help tip the scales, what matters even more is a large, healthy initial order for the book. If SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE doesn't get that, you might not see any more collections.

(The fact that I have many friends who might go on a homicidal rampage and possibly take out some of that aggression on me if there isn't a third SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE collection has nothing to do with my plea to pre-order. Honest.)

DEL REY

OTHELLO VOL 1 GN by Satomi Ikezawa
AUG04 2630, p250, $10.95

I must admit that I got really excited when I first saw this solicitation, because I immediately assumed that it was a direct adaptation of William Shakespeare's OTHELLO. The original play is a wonderfully dark exploration of love and jealousy, and after reading Antony Johnston and Brett Weldele's fantastic JULIUS from Oni Press, I'm all about the Shakespeare adaptation.

Unfortunately, this is actually a comic from Japan about Yaya, the nicest girl in school who's treated horribly until a new personality, Nana, surfaces and starts kicking butt. Doesn't sound nearly as exciting, and if you were planning on pre-ordering thinking you'll get to revisit Othello, Desdemona, and Iago, you're going to be sorely disappointed. (Apparently creator Satomi Ikezawa is a former winner of the Kodansha Manga of the Year award, but I still think that Shakespeare would've kicked Ikezawa to the curb if they'd been given the chance to square off against each other.)

DRAWN & QUARTERLY

BABEL #1 by David B
AUG04 2677, p274, $9.95

I'm not really sure what to make of this. I really enjoyed reading David B's autobiographical EPILEPTIC (aka L'ASCENSION DU HAUT-MAL), about growing up in the shadow of his brother's epilepsy. But a 32-page book for $10? I'm not sure I'm that much of a David B fan to make that plunge blindly. With a less-than-impressive cover, what could've been a "must buy" has slipped into the "maybe, if I get to see more first" category.

DINOSHIP

CRATER KID TP by Marty Baumann
AUG04 2737, p288, $14.99

First the bad news: the CRATER KID collection does not contain Marty Baumann's excellent use of flat colours that went with the original online comic strip, as the book is printed instead in black and white. Now for the good news: it's a CRATER KID collection! Hurrah! I always liked this back-to-basics, Western-in-space comic strip; Baumann clearly meant for it to be an all-ages story that appealed to everyone, and hopefully a print edition will get it places that the web didn't (as strange as that may sound).

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

HANGING OUT WITH THE DREAM KING, edited by Joe McCabe
AUG04 2748, p289, $17.95

For die-hard SANDMAN fans, this book of interviews with Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Charles Vess, P Craig Russell, Bryan Talbot, Jill Thompson and all other "major SANDMAN artists" sounds like a must. The Comics Journal has always proven to have some fantastic interviews, so for Fantagraphics to publish this book as well makes me hope that it's up to those same high standards. If nothing else, with 280 pages of interviews it's going to keep whomever you give it to busy for quite some time.

I BOOKS

MISTER X VOL 1 TP: WHO IS MISTER X? edited by Dean Motter and Paul Rivoche
AUG04 2804, p301, $17.95

It's time for another confession. I've never read MISTER X aside from one story in an anthology. The involvement of Dean Motter and Paul Rivoche in the design and look of the character sounds really promising, though, and the line-up of creators represented here it outstanding: Motter, Rivoche, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, Neil Gaiman, and Dave McKean. Honestly, I don't see how I can go wrong by reading this book.

MARVEL COMICS

SENTINEL VOL 2: NO HERO TP by Sean McKeever and Udon Studios
AUG04 1826, pM43, $7.99

One of the high points of Marvel's "Tsunami" launch of books was Sean McKeever and Udon Studios' SENTINEL, a charming little story about a lonely kid and the broken, genocidal robot he finds and begins to repair. McKeever's THE WAITING PLACE proved he knows how to write high school students, and Udon Studios' art had a slick, almost animation-style quality to it.

Naturally, it was cancelled in 12 issues. Now it's got a second life as a pair of digest-sized collections, and supposedly if sales are good we'll get more original stories, straight to digest format. Now I'm not holding my breath, but that would sure be nice. And either way, for $8 a pop you can't go wrong with SENTINEL.

AVENGERS #503 by Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch
AUG04 1830, pM46, $3.50

Am I the only one who finds it more than a little odd that three months after being reset back to its previous numbering (so after #84 was published, it jumped back up to #500), AVENGERS is now ending and restarting with an all-new AVENGERS #1? Why don't they just admit they want the artificial sales boosts and go the MILK & CHEESE route where the second issue was MILK & CHEESE'S OTHER #1, the third was MILK & CHEESE'S THIRD #1, and so forth? (And then hand out signs saying, "I'm a big sucker for 'milestone issue numbering'" for people to wear while they're at it?)

ALPHA FLIGHT #8 by Scott Lobdell and Dave Ross
AUG04 1845, pM54, $2.99

Since Marvel doesn't normally tell people when a series' final issue rolls around these days, I'm going to lay a wager that next month's Previews will not have an ALPHA FLIGHT #9. Low sales plus a two-part story in a day and age where Marvel seems to demand six-part stories equals cancellation in my devious little mind.

BEST OF WOLVERINE VOL 1 HC by Chris Claremont, Barry Windsor-Smith, Frank Miller, and more
AUG04 1856, pM65, $29.99

OK, I'm impressed. This is a really good collection of WOLVERINE comics, thanks to the inclusion of Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's WOLVERINE mini-series and Barry Windsor-Smith's WEAPON X. Of course, there's the obligatory introduction from THE INCREDIBLE HULK #181, plus a Claremont/Windsor-Smith collaboration from UNCANNY X-MEN #205, and the "Greg knows nothing about this" CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL #8. Even if the last one turns out to be a dud, the rest of the stories were really quite good. Well done, Marvel.

ONI PRESS

LOVE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE VOL 1 GN by J Torres and Eric Kim
AUG04 2893, p318, $5.95

J Torres writing a quarterly romance comic is something that goes right onto my "must buy" list. I love the fact that while it's quarterly - each instalment is 72 pages so really that's just like getting three-issue collections every three months. I love the fact that it's written by Torres, who proved to me with books like DAYS LIKE THIS that he can do "real world" comics and make them interesting. The advance art looks really lovely; I'm not sure where they found Eric Kim but I hope he sticks around. Best of all, $5.95 a pop? How can you go wrong? Everyone should buy this comic.

TOKYOPOP

CARDCAPTOR SAKURA VOL 3 GN NEW PTG by CLAMP
AUG04 2956, p330, $9.99

This is the series that forced me to re-evaluate the comic collective CLAMP's books, and in a good way. Sakura's a young girl who accidentally released the Clow Cards (similar to Tarot cards) into the world, where each one has hidden itself into a form related to the card's meaning. As Sakura tracks each mystical card down, she has to use the abilities and powers of the ones she's already reclaimed to outsmart the new find.

At a glance it's a series aimed at children, but the reality is that there's a lot of relationship material on display that is definitely anything but juvenile. In the same way that the HARRY POTTER books have grabbed the attention of adults everywhere, CARDCAPTOR SAKURA truly is a series for all ages.

PLANETES VOL 4 GN by Makoto Yukimura
AUG04 2974, p336, $9.99

In a perfect world, we'd get a new volume of PLANETES every month. Of course, that perfect world would also mean that Makoto Yukimura could somehow write and draw 200 intricately crafted pages every month. Since he can't, I'll be satisfied with getting a new volume every now and then. PLANETES is a near-perfect series of books, bringing to mind humanity's need for exploration and self-betterment, coupled with the grace of space travel and the excitement of garbage collecting. (All right, perhaps the lack of excitement of garbage collecting.) Starting with small stories and slowly increasing in scope as the main characters' worlds expand, PLANETES moves in an orbit entirely of its own.

TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS

BIGHEAD GN by Jeffrey Brown
AUG04 3100, p348, $12.95

Jeffrey Brown scares me. After his no-holds-barred autobiographical books UNLIKELY and CLUMSY, he skewered himself in the hysterically funny BE A MAN, where he rewrote his earlier stories so he would "be a man". It was a deftly funny parody, so the idea of him doing a superhero parody in the form of BIGHEAD promises to me that it's not going to be like any other parody we've ever seen, and in the best way possible. Brown's evil and twisted little brain hasn't done me wrong so far.

Greg McElhatton writes reviews for iComics.com, and has also written for anthologies, magazines, web sites, and technical manuals.

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.