So here's the deal. I'm sick. Not just mentally, which you already knew, but physically. A nasty cold is running rampant through my body and thanks to taking a fiendishly high level of medicine I am now not entirely sure if the strange things I see moving out of the corner of my eyes are real or imagined. Either way it's really messing with my head.

But the editors at Ninth Art keep calling me up saying things like, "Where's the column?" and "I hear Chuck Austen is looking for work, you know", so against my better wishes I've propped myself up in a chair and am flipping through the latest Previews for books shipping in November 2004.

Now it could be the cold medicine at work again, but this book just seems to get longer and longer every time I turn a page. It's a little disturbing, although not as disturbing as the "naked Jean Grey as the futuristic Phoenix" action figure that I just saw a picture of in Marvel's supplemental solicitation book. I have a bad feeling that it's not a hallucination at all.

Anyway, I promised last month that this time through I would be mean, but instead you're going to have to settle for loopy. Maybe next month I will be meaner. Honest.

ABIOGENESIS PRESS

STRANGEHAVEN #17 by Gary Spencer Millidge
SEP04 2263, p197, $2.95

Two issues of STRANGEHAVEN in the same year? We must have been very very good indeed. Gary Spencer Millidge's creepy, atmospheric story of a quiet little English village where nothing is as it seems knocks my socks off every time we get another installment. The characters are quirky and intriguing, and Millidge's beautifully realistic art easily explains why we only get one or two issues a year. The solicitation for this issue promises that we'll finally start getting some answers as to why outsider Alex Hunter is now trapped within Strangehaven, but even if it merely said, "Nothing huge happens this issue" I'd be excited, because Millidge is just that good. Easily, one of the best series that you're not reading.

AHOLATTAFUN

PLAQUE X #1 by Steven Aloha
SEP04 2309, p218, $2.95

I can only imagine that Marvel is now kicking themselves for not beating Steven Aloha to the punch by releasing a book about Professor X's evil, mutant plaque that plans on taking over the world, one incisor at a time.

ALTERNATIVE COMICS

STICKLEBACK GN by Graham Annable
SEP04 2317, p220, $6.95

Graham Annable's shorts in GRICKLE and FURTHER GRICKLE hit just about every possible range of emotion, from funny to sad to creepy to anything else you can imagine. He's certainly mastered the art of the short story, and I've wanted to see a longer-form piece from him for a while now. It looks like I'm about to get my wish in the form of STICKLEBACK, about a shut-in who spends his days arranging men constructed out of toilet paper, and what happens when someone tries to suddenly enter the perfectly controlled environment of his apartment. Based on Annable's past works, this should be a real knock-out.

BURLYMAN ENTERTAINMENT

SHAOLIN COWBOY #1 by Geof Darrow, with the Wachowski Brothers
SEP04 2496, p252, $3.50

Geof Darrow is one of the most brilliant artists to grace comics. Of course, that means he abandoned comics in favor of the high-paying world of movies, and who can blame him? The Wachowski Brothers certainly appreciated him a hell of a lot more than the comic book buying public ever did.

Now they're publishing Darrow's new series, SHAOLIN COWBOY, which promises to have the most intricate drawings you've ever seen, and a hell of a lot of violence. To this I say: bring it on. This is going to be amazing and if I don't get at least one stomach exploding, complete with each little piece of flesh zooming off in a different direction and drawn with exquisite detail, I will find myself sorely disappointed based on Darrow's previous books.

DARK HORSE

KINGDOM OF THE WICKED HC by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli
SEP04 0059, p28, $15.95

It's so nice to see that books that I had years ago that have since fallen apart are getting another chance to return to my bookshelf. Caliber Comics published a lot of really interesting series over the years, but for some reason or another the glue in the bindings of their trade paperbacks made them inevitably explode after just one or two readings, and one of those casualties was Ian Edginton and D'Israeli's KINGDOM OF THE WICKED.

It's about a successful writer whose mind is on the verge of cracking, who tries to seek sanctuary in the made-up world of Castrovalva, where the author often retreated to as a child. Now Castrovalva is full of barbed wire and trench warfare, even as its own creator can't escape. It's creepy and beautiful at the same time, and there's something about teddy bears in World War I regalia that is both so right and so very wrong. I don't know who at Dark Horse I have to thank for this coming back into print, but thank you so very much indeed. (Read the Ninth Art review here.)

DC COMICS

SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY TP by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen
SEP04 0304, p63, $19.95

I cannot say enough nice things about SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY. Kurt Busiek's story about a man in the real world named Clark Kent who suddenly finds himself with Superman's powers would have been disastrous in almost anyone else's hands, but his writing brings out the humanity of the character, making him a compelling protagonist whose fears and struggles are nothing short of gripping. Likewise, Stuart Immonen's delicate artwork soars across the page, some of the nicest illustrations I can remember seeing from him. The series fantastic and I am absolutely delighted to see it's getting another chance in collected form. Please, please, buy this book.

KINETIC TP by Kelly Puckett and Warren Pleece
SEP04 0335, p75, $9.95

Oh look, how nice, the KINETIC TP got a spotlight from Diamond. I suppose that's appropriate because, if nothing else, this book is clearly about to vanish into the dark forever. I read the first issue, it was good if a little slow-paced, and I'll bet that in collected form it reads a lot better. But it and HARD TIME are all that's left of the ill-fated Focus line from DC Comics, and unless the initial orders on the collections for those books are fantastic, these books are completely and utterly dead. If you're a fan of KINETIC, now's the time to try and save the book, because I really don't think you're going to get a second chance.

OUTSIDERS: SUM OF ALL EVIL TP by Judd Winick, Tom Raney, and Scott Hanna
SEP04 0338, p76, $14.95
HUMAN TARGET: LIVING IN AMERIKA TP by Peter Milligan and Cliff Chiang
SEP04 0387, p113, $14.95
LOSERS: DOUBLE DOWN TP by Andy Diggle, Jock, and Shawn Martinbrough
SEP04 0391, p114, $12.95
Y: THE LAST MAN VOL 4: SAFEWORD TP by Brian K Vaughan, Pia Guerra , and Goran Parlov
SEP04 0397, p116, $12.95

I just want to point out right now that when it comes to some of its newer books, DC's doing a nice job of getting those collections rolling. All of these collections are between three and six issues behind the monthly book, and I think that's a pretty good balance. If they could catch up on some of their older books (HELLBLAZER leaps to mind, and I'm convinced the lack of timely collections is what killed HUNTER: THE AGE OF MAGIC as well) that would be nice, but right now most of their series past a certain age are positively light-years behind schedule in the collection department. Two steps forward, one step back.

THE INTIMATES #1 by Joe Casey, Giuseppi Camuncoli, and Jim Lee
SEP04 0368, p97, $2.95

Joe Casey deserves a break and I can't think of the last time he got one. His and Ashley Wood's AUTOMATIC KAFKA seemed dead from the moment it hit stores (I'm pretty convinced that myself and nineteen other readers were the only ones who cared when it got cancelled), his fantastic WILDCATS VERSION 3.0 just ended, and his runs on books like UNCANNY X-MEN and ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN seemed to get a lukewarm response at best. (Of course, to everyone who complained about his work on UNCANNY X-MEN, I can only think that you were regretting that grumble when he got replaced with Chuck Austen.)

But this looks like fun, with tomorrow's superheroes going through school to take classes like Secret Identity 101, Morality, and NuPhysics. And of course, having Jim Lee drawn the "comic within a comic" will hopefully give the book a little extra attention. Casey's a sharp writer, and he deserves to have a hit book, so I'm hoping this is going to be it.

DRAWN & QUARTERLY

OR ELSE #1 by Kevin Huizenga
SEP04 2625, p286, $3.50

Or else what?

Sorry, stupid joke, but it's also a rather stupid title. On the plus side, though, it's by Kevin Huizenga, whose SUPERMONSTER mini-comics were fantastic and who I like to think finally broke through into a larger audience with his stories in DRAWN & QUARTERLY SHOWCASE Volume 1. Those who liked Huizenga's stories there will be thrilled to know that these are in the same vein, with his protagonist Glenn Gagnes moving through a life of suburbia that's hard to quantify. Huizenga's got a beautifully understated art style and I think his writing quietly sneaks up on readers and sucks them in. D&Q publishing a new ongoing series is a little surprising but I'm certainly not complaining.

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

WHAT'RE YOU LOOKIN' AT? SC by Johnny Ryan
SEP04 2686, p300, $16.95

A fine question. Why are people paying attention to Johnny Ryan's pale imitation of Ivan Brunetti at his filthiest? Brunetti has genuine talent and charm even as he's being amazingly revolting. Ryan seems to have only gotten the revolting part down. Next, please.

I BOX PUBLISHING

THIEVES & KINGS TP VOL 5: THE WINTER BOOK by Mark Oakley
SEP04 2756, p311, $16.95

There are some creators who were certainly influenced by the works of others. Then there are those who don't just wear their influences on their sleeve, they seem to be almost possessed by them. To anyone who's ever read Mark Oakley's THIEVES & KINGS, I think it's safe to say that Oakley really, really, really likes Dave Sim's CEREBUS. The art is very different from Sim's (Oakley's art reminds me a lot of some styles of manga, although with THIEVES & KINGS now running for almost ten years, it's not as if he's jumping onto a bandwagon), although like Sim he's fond of the pages of text being inserted into the story with art surrounding them.

Unfortunately, he and Sim both turned their books from something I used to enjoy reading issue-by-issue into a book where each new installment had me scratching my head, finding the previous half-dozen issues, and having to re-read them all again to figure out what's going on. It's a complex book involving royals, reincarnations, shadow realms, and more, and while it's quite intriguing it really does read much better as a series of collections. So for those who haven't read THIEVES & KINGS, the trade paperbacks are fantastic and yes, yes, yes, read them. Just understand that buying it in single issue format may turn out to be an exercise in futility.

IDW PUBLISHING

30 DAYS OF NIGHT RETURN TO BARROW TP by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith
SEP04 2760, p314, $19.99

One of the things I liked so much about the original 30 DAYS OF NIGHT was that Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith managed to create a terrifying, claustrophobic story, with humanity trapped in a town cut off from the rest of the world, without sunlight for a month, while vampires slowly invade. It's a feeling that was unfortunately missing from the sequel, DARK DAYS, which traded the dark and cold of Barrow, Alaska, for the hot and sunny environment of California. This third volume moves back to Barrow, and I can't help but think that this is a good thing. If Niles and Templesmith can recapture the fright of the original mini-series, I'll be one happy camper indeed.

IMAGE COMICS

AMERICAN FLAGG VOLS 1 & 2 TP by Howard Chaykin
SEP04 1521 and SEP04 1522, p132, $19.95 each

Well, I feel old now. I read a friend's AMERICAN FLAGG issues a decade ago, and the book was already considered "old" even then. Now, they're positively prehistoric. Consider this the unveiling of a museum exhibit, then, where you get to discover why so many people adore Howard Chaykin as a comic book creator. Through the haze of my cold medicine I can remember AMERICAN FLAGG as being a pretty sharp satire on politics, plus a lot of gratuitous sex that Chaykin's so good at. Oh, and there's definitely a cat involved. I think the cat might have been smarter than the rest of the cast, but that could be a hallucination. Either way, I'm buying. (And kudos to Image Comics and Dynamic Forces that if you want the hardcover, it only costs ten dollars more than buying both softcovers.)

MINISTRY OF SPACE TP by Warren Ellis and Chris Weston
SEP04 1539, p147, $12.95

Ah, MINISTRY OF SPACE. I know there are a lot of people who for whatever reason fell away from the series when behind-the-scenes production problems meant that there was an unavoidably long gap between the second and third issues. For them, this is a second chance. I can't help but think that read as a whole, without losing momentum, Warren Ellis's story is going to feel a lot stronger and more concise. Of course, having Chris Weston and Laura Martin's artwork in a permanent, bookshelf edition is going to also catch a lot of people's eyes (and wallets), so no matter what the attraction we all win.

RING OF ROSES TP by Das Petrou and John Watkiss
SEP04 1542, p149, $12.95

I'll admit it, I have mixed memories about RING OF ROSES from back when Dark Horse originally published the mini-series in 1992. I don't remember thinking at all highly of Das Petrou's story involving a 1991 where the World Wars never happened and the Catholic Church had slowed scientific advances to a standstill. Specifically, I remember thinking "this is more boring than watching paint dry".

What I do remember thinking was incredible, though, was John Watkiss's art. We don't see much of Watkiss these days, but his designs are incredible, and for that alone I feel like I need to give RING OF ROSES another chance. I'm twelve years older, after all, and perhaps that's all I needed to really appreciate this book. Or, maybe it really is mind-numbingly boring and age had nothing to do with it. I really can't recommend buying this book blindly, but do take a look once it's released and decide for yourself. That's what I'm going to have to do.

MARVEL COMICS

NEW AVENGERS #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch
SEP04 1723, pM1, $2.25

When Joanna Lumley and Gareth Hunt show up, don't say I didn't warn you. More importantly, Wolverine Count: 1.

PULSE #6 by Brian Michael Bendis and Brent Anderson
SEP04 1733, pM15, $2.99

Wolverine Count: 2. (Based on the cover, at any rate.)

MARVEL TEAM-UP #1 & 2 by Robert Kirkman and Scott Kolins
SEP04 1737 & SEP04 1737, pM19, $2.25

Wolverine Count: 3 and 4.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #7 by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday
SEP04 1743, pM23, $2.99

Wolverine Count: 5. Isn't he getting tired yet? I know I am. (But I'm not getting tired of ASTONISHING X-MEN, which is fantastic stuff. Well done to everyone involved; cancel the other X-MEN books and just publish this one and let everyone concentrate on the one that's knocking it out of the park every month, to use an old baseball cliché.)

WOLVERINE #22 by Mark Millar, John Romita Jr, and Klaus Janson
SEP04 1744, pM24, $2.25

Wolverine Count: 6, although to be fair, it would be more shocking if he weren't here.

UNCANNY X-MEN #452 by Chris Claremont and Andy Park
SEP04 1747, pM27, $2.25

Wolverine Count: 7.

X-MEN #164 by Chuck Austen and Salvador Larroca
SEP04 1750, pM29, $2.25

As Marvel's experiment of "just how long can we get people to buy X-MEN comics written by Chuck Austen?" comes to a conclusion (the answer: more than anyone ever humanly thought possible)... Wolverine Count: 8.

X-FORCE #4 by Rob Liefeld w/ Fabian Nicieza
SEP04 1758, pM33, $2.99

Wolverine Count: 9. I can only hope that "the evil of the administrator" has something to do with Wolverine putting too many hours on his time cards and accounting wanting to talk to him about it. Or maybe he's asked if he can please get the hell out of this horrible comic.

ULTIMATE X-MEN #53
SEP04 1761, pM36, $2.25

Wolverine Count: 10, and by this point the poor guy must be ready to commit suicide before he appears anywhere else. And that's not even counting ULTIMATE NIGHTMARE #4, which mentions the Ultimate X-Men appearing so there's a good chance that he's there, too. For Pete's sake, Marvel, give the guy a rest. There really is such a thing as too much of a hit character.

SPIDER-MAN: INDIA #1 by Jeevan J King, Suresh Seetharaman, and Sharad Devarajan
SEP04 1768, pM43, $2.99

Will this be a big hit in most of the world? Of course not, I can already hear the scoffing. But there's a chance that it will succeed quite well in India, and of course that's the whole point of the book. It's not going to be a guaranteed hit even there, as the time that manga artists in Japan created a Japanese edition of Spider-Man certainly proved, but I think it's got a fighting chance now that Spider-Man is such a recognizable character thanks to two hugely successful movies. We're very much not the audience, though.

SHE-HULK VOL 1: SINGLE GREEN FEMALE TP by Dan Slott and Juan Bobillo
SEP04 1814, pM79, $14.99

I've heard nothing but great things about Dan Slott and Juan Bobillo's work on SHE-HULK. So of course, it's been sold out at the publisher level since day one. Still, if this is half as funny as people claim it is, it's a riot, and I do look forward to finally being able to see what all the fuss is about.

NBM

HARDY BOYS #1 by Scott Lobdell and Lea Hernandez
SEP04 2806, p324, $2.95

I don't know if anyone else remembers the last time someone tried to revive the characters of the Hardy Boys. There was a new series of books about a decade ago where they blew up Joe's long-running girlfriend, and it had them constantly swept up into '90s style spy stories. You'll note that the series is no longer around.

Why? Because the Hardy Boys (as well as Nancy Drew) are old and not-cool in the eyes of younger readers. They're characters that are mocked by kids, and the idea of getting Scott Lobdell and Lea Hernandez to create new HARDY BOYS comics just seems like a misguided attempt to make them cool. Drawing Frank and Joe Hardy in a manga-influenced style doesn't make the characters cool, it just makes them look like they're trying too hard.

And horse thieves? Kicking off the book with the Hardy Boys tracking down horse thieves? I'm not saying that blowing up the Hardy Boys' girlfriends is the right path to go down, but at least it's a little more pulse-pounding than horse thieves. (Even more boringly, the book also promises to show that the boys are adept at computer hacking. Here's a hint: nothing makes a comic grind to a halt faster than showing characters hack into computers. Dullsville.) This series just looks like the sort of things that parents might buy for their children, but that will then gather dust.

ASTRONAUTS OF THE FUTURE TP by Lewis Trondheim and Manu Larcenet
SEP04 2808, p324, $14.95

Hurrah! Rescued from the pages of ODDBALLZ (which I'm pretty sure absolutely no one read but me) is ASTRONAUTS OF THE FUTURE, where Lewis Trondheim and Manu Larcenet have two kids convinced that the world has been taken over by robots. Or was it aliens? Alien robots? Robot aliens? Well, someone's definitely taken over the world and that's the important thing, because they need to be stopped. This is fall-over-laughing funny and the fact that it's now in full colour is an added bonus.

HOW LOATHSOME by Ted Naifeh and Tristan Crane
SEP04 2814, p324, $13.95

OK everyone, this is your third and final chance. If you missed the mini-series and the hardcover collection, now we've got a softcover of HOW LOATHSOME, Ted Naifeh and Tristan Crane's story of gender outlaws who tear up the town in their own, unique style.

HOW LOATHSOME is one of the most gripping books I've read in a long time; Catherine Gore is an entrancing protagonist, and while I don't think there's anyone in the real world quite like Catherine, I think that everyone male, female, gay, straight, or any part in-between will find pieces of themselves in her. Weaving between reality and stories-within-the-story, HOW LOATHSOME is a triumph for everyone involved.

ONI PRESS

AWAKENING GN by Neal Shaffer and Luca Genovese
SEP04 2825, p326, $9.95

Neal Shaffer proved to me with ONE PLUS ONE and LAST EXIT BEFORE TOLL that he knows how to write "quieter" stories. His scripts aren't in your face and relying on shock treatments to get your attention, but ones that creep up on you inch by inch, until you've been hopelessly pulled into the story and there's no turning back. Now that he along with artist Luca Genovese have a horror graphic novel about a girl at boarding school who's having visions of the target of a killer, well, I can just imagine how terrifying this is going to be. Shaffer's understanding of psychological turns and twists is very good indeed, and I think he's perfectly suited for this sort of book. Prepare to be scared.

TOKYOPOP

KINDAICHI CASE FILES VOL 10: KINDAICHI THE KILLER PART 1 by Kanari Yozaburo and Sato Fumiya
SEP04 2905, p346, $9.99

Forget bringing back the Hardy Boys, this is the sort of detective story that's going to pull in the readers. KINDIACHI CASE FILES is a great series of stand-alone adventures of a high school student who might just be the greatest detective of all time. Unfortunately for everyone around him, he gets to prove it all the time because people seem to keep dying in mysterious ways. These are a real blast and deserving of a lot more attention than they actually get.

TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS

HUTCH OWEN: UNMARKETABLE GN by Tom Hart
SEP04 2964, p358, $14.95

Most people say "Fight the Man!" and then go buy new brand-name sneakers. Hutch Owen, on the other hand, lives that fight. Tom Hart's most famous character has a great combination of humour and furious indignation tied up in him, even as he continues his never-ending battle against corporate America. A book like HUTCH OWEN certainly has the potential to turn preachy, but Hart keeps just the right level of amusement in the stories that it never does. HUTCH OWEN's first collection was a real riot, and I expect nothing less for this one.

VERTICAL

TEZUKA'S BUDDHA VOL 5: DEER PARK HC by Osamu Tezuka
TEZUKA'S BUDDHA VOL 6: ANANDA HC by Osamu Tezuka
SEP04 2982 and SEP04 2983, p361, $24.95

BUDDHA is rapidly becoming one of my favorite series by legendary comic creator Osamu Tezuka, as it tells and elaborates the life of the Buddha. Tezuka's storytelling is amazing, both in its writing and how the art moves across the page. There's such a wide range of emotion on display in these books, and the extra characters that Tezuka's added into the mix just draw me further and further into the story. Now I'll admit that a small part of me wants all eight volumes to be published already so I can see the image that the spines of the books create when put together (it's great having a series of books designed by Chip Kidd), but even more important is just reading the next volume. Great stuff.

VIZ

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO TP VOL 1 by Hayao Miyazaki
SEP04 3007, p364, $9.99

I've never really understood the appeal of cine-manga, where it's a comic created by using still images from an animated movie. None the less, they seem to be pretty hot, and another Hayao Miyazaki movie is getting the cine-manga treatment in the form of MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO. If this means more kids discover the joys and wonders of the Catbus (if you're thinking of a big bus in the form of a cat, you're not too far off) then I guess I can't complain, but I still really don't get this.

PHOENIX TP VOL 2: FUTURE (Second Edition) by Osamu Tezuka
PHOENIX TP VOL 5: RESURRECTION by Osamu Tezuka
SEP04 3010 and SEP04 3009, p364, $15.95

Apparently it's Tezuka month, since not only are we getting new volumes of BUDDHA, but another volume of Tezuka's PHOENIX epic, as well as a reformatting of the one volume that wasn't published in the same dimensions as the others. PHOENIX is about the legendary bird and its appearance in critical moments of humanity's evolution. The series jumps back and forwards in time, with the first volume taking place during the dawn of humanity, while the second one is at humanity's end in the distant future. With each new instalment the past and future edge closer together, with connections between the different books beginning to form.

It's a wonderfully ambitious project, and while each book stands more or less on its own, it's even better if you read multiple volumes to start getting a glimpse at the bigger picture. Between PHOENIX, BUDDHA, and the already-published-in-English ADOLF it's easy to see just why Tezuka is considered the grandfather of all Japanese comics.

SENSUAL PHRASE VOL 5 TP by Mayu Shinjo
SEP04 3012, p366, $9.95

I can't think of a better way to round off this month's Things to Come than with another volume of SENSUAL PHRASE, the rock-and-roll love story featuring a lyricist who's falling for the flamboyant sexpot lead-singer of the band Lucifer... and their rival band, Jesus. Sounds crazy? It is, but it's also a deeply erotic series. Not in gratuitous sex scenes or the flashing of naked bodies, but in the lustful song lyrics, or the situations that our poor heroine finds herself placed in. You don't have to have sex or nudity to have a sexy story, and that's just what SENSUAL PHRASE manages to do. I've never seen a more apt usage of the word "sensual" than this, and it's not just the cold medicine talking. This is hot stuff.

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.