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: STARMAN

Being a latecomer to the STARMAN mythos, I only started reading around the time the newly collected GRAND GUIGNOL arc began. I knew little of the characters beyond a vague idea of who the lead, Jack Knight, was. That didn't matter. What did matter was the elaborate plotting, the grand scale, and one of the best endings to a series ever committed to four colour glory.

Spinning out of DC's otherwise horrendous ZERO HOUR crossover, James Robinson and Tony Harris took a long forgotten Golden Age hero, the titular Starman, and reinvented him for the Modern Age. Previously a two-fisted scientist in cape and tights, Ted Knight, he was now Ted's grungy, couldn't-care-less son, Jack, a hero who eschewed cape and tights for leather jackets and pants. Over the series, we saw Jack evolve into a son who his father could respect and admire.

By this point in the series, artist Tony Harris had left and been replaced by Peter Snejbjerg After a few art hiccups, Snejbjerg settled into the role quite admirably. There are some truly evocative shots of Jack Knight's home, Opal City, although sometimes it's drowned in the colouring I like to call 'Vertigo vomit'. The covers by Andrew Robinson are almost worth the price alone, painted images so glorious that I'm disappointed to see so little more of his work.

Read in one trade, STARMAN: GRAND GUIGNOL flows far better, with its flashback-present-flashback-present staccato rhythm. It's a trick that could have gone horribly wrong, but with so many players and so many plans in action, it's a clever way to get round the normally boring exposition. If you haven't read STARMAN before, then don't worry. There's lots to admire in this trade. [John Fellows]

TWILIGHT BECOMES HER

Imagine you were a kid who was born into a family of magicians, warlocks, faerie-fanciers and other such practitioners of the uncanny. Imagine if you'd been able to do magic at school. How cool would that have been? Chances are, you'd have followed the lead of Courtney Crumrin.

Crumrin is a great character - completely convincing as a kid, as she's just as likely to be bored, petty, selfish and spiteful as she is to be angelic - and it just so happens she's got knowledge of magic to boot. She's also a great way for writer and artist Ted Naifeh to explore bizarre faerie realms and introduce strange mythical creatures and personalities to the reader. Courtney's curiously featureless face points to the fact that she is a sort of cypher, that the reader is perhaps meant to project themselves into her place.

The COURTNEY CRUMRIN books from Oni Press are great fun, and actually manage to make faeries and their ilk more than just risible pixies - they're genuinely sinister and alien. Courtney's adventures in the latest book, COURTNEY CRUMRIN IN THE TWILIGHT KINGDOM, sees her accompanied by a group of kids in a LABYRINTH-esque mission to find a cure for a transformed classmate. It's well worth checking out, even if you normally prefer poker to pookas or homiez to gnomes - try something a bit more fantastic. [Lindsay Duff]

THE BIG RED BOOK

HELLBOY: ODDER JOBS (Dark Horse) isn't a comic, it's a collection of prose short stories, but that's OK; there's no discrimination here at Ninth Art HQ. Besides, HELLBOY is no a stranger to prose, as author Christopher Golden has written two Hellboy novels in the past, THE LOST ARMY and THE BONES OF GIANTS, and this is the second short story collection. The prose works help expand the world of Hellboy, and although he's a character who works better in a visual medium, they still provide plenty of entertainment.

When HELLBOY the comic moved in the direction of short, self-contained stories, short stories in prose were the obvious way to continue this trend. The move also allows some excellent writers to play about with the big red guy. The first anthology, ODD JOBS, had stories from Nancy A Collins, Steve Bissette and Greg Rucka. ODDER JOBS features stories by HELLBOY movie director Guillermo del Toro, 'urban' fantasist Charles de Lint (SOMEPLACE TO BE FLYING), noted horror writer Graham Joyce, and SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION director Frank Darabont, plus there are interior illustrations from HELLBOY creator Mike Mignola. [Ben Wooller]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR OCTOBER 6th 2004:

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

DARK HORSE

JUN040013 ALIENS VS PREDATOR THRILL OF THE HUNT TP $6.95
AUG040017D CONAN AND THE DAUGHTERS OF MIDORA ONE SHOT $4.99
JUL040052 SUPER MANGA BLAST #45 (MR) $5.99

DC COMICS

DEC030235D ARKHAM ASYLUM LIVING HELL TP $12.95
JUL040665 BEAST TRILOGY CHAPTERS 1 & 2 TP (MR) $14.95
JUL040614 CHALLENGERS OF UNKNOWN MUST DIE TP $19.95
AUG040348D DETECTIVE COMICS #799 $2.95
AUG040413D JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #2 $2.25
AUG040418D LOONEY TUNES #119 $2.25
AUG040372D MAJESTIC #3 (Of 4) $2.95
AUG040401D MONOLITH #9 $2.95
AUG040410D SCRATCH #5 (Of 5) $2.50
JUL040645 STARMAN GRAND GUIGNOL TP $19.95
AUG040460D SWAMP THING #8 (MR) $2.95
AUG040409D TEEN TITANS FAMILY LOST TP $9.95
AUG040444D THUNDERCATS ENEMYS PRIDE #5 (Of 5) $2.95
AUG040465D Y THE LAST MAN #27 (MR) $2.95

IMAGE

AUG041631D BATTLE OF THE PLANETS PRINCESS #1 (Of 6) $2.99
MAY041431D PVP #9 $2.95

MARVEL

AUG041845D ALPHA FLIGHT #8 $2.99
AUG041831D CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON #8 $2.99
AUG041794D EXILES #53 $2.99
AUG041807D HULK AND THING HARD KNOCKS #2 (Of 4) $3.50
AUG041793D JUBILEE #2 $2.99
JUL041975 LOKI #4 (Of 4) $3.50
AUG041822D MARVEL AGE FANTASTIC FOUR #7 $2.25
AUG041820D MARVEL AGE SPIDER-MAN #13 $2.25
APR041691D NYX #5 (RES) $2.99
AUG041777D SABRETOOTH #1 (Of 5) $2.99
AUG041823D SPIDER-GIRL #79 $2.99
AUG041836D THOR #85 $2.99
AUG041811D TOMB OF DRACULA #1 $2.99
AUG041798D ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #66 $2.25
AUG041775D UNCANNY X-MEN #450 $2.25
AUG048042D WOLVERINE #20 VARIANT EDITION $2.25

OTHER PUBLISHERS

JUL042624E ADVENTURES OF LITTLE ARCHIE VOL 1 TP $10.95
JUL043268E ANIMERICA EXTRA OCT 2004 VOL 7 #10 $4.99
APR042308 AP HOW NOT TO DRAW MANGA SPECIAL TP $19.95
JUL042623E ARCHIE DIGEST #211 $2.39
AUG042362F BARAKA & BLACK MAGIC IN MORROCO GN (RES) (MR) $14.95
AUG042375E BEAR VOL 1 TP IMMORTAL $14.95
JUL042627E BETTY & VERONICA #203 $2.19
JUL042909F BLOOD ORANGE #3 (MR) $5.95
AUG042869F BONEYARD VOLUME 3 TP (MR) $9.95
JUL043280E BOYS OVER FLOWERS VOL 8 TP $9.95
AUG042586F CBLDF SPX 2004 ANTHOLOGY $9.95
AUG042378E COCOPIAZO #1 $2.95
AUG042618E COMIC PARTY VOL 3 GN (CPM) $9.99
APR042460 COUPLE VOL 1 GN $9.99
JUN042336F DEADBEATS #67 $2.50
JUL042529F DEMO #10 (Of 12) (MR) $2.95
APR042580 DUEL MASTERS VOL 1 POCKET ED TP $10.95
MAY042788F ERRANT STORY VOL 1 TP (MR) $9.95
JUL042929F FLESHROT TALES FROM THE DEAD HALLOWEEN SPECIAL TP (MR) $6.99
MAY042230E GHOULY BOYS #2 $2.95
JUL042559E GLOOMCOOKIE #21 (MR) $2.95
JUL042530F JAX EPOCH & QUICKEN FORBIDDEN VOL 2 SEPARATION ANXIETY TP $14.95
JUN042114F LITTLE WHITE MOUSE VOL 1 PERFECT COLLECTION TP (RES) $12.95
JUL043295E MAISON IKKOKU VOL 7 TP 2ND ED $9.95
JUL042565E NIGHTMARES AND FAIRY TALES #10 $2.95
MAY042812F PHANTOM #4 $3.50
JUL043074E QUEEN & COUNTRY #27 (MR) $2.99
JUN042741 SHEBA VOL 3 TP (Note Price) $17.95
JUL043270E SHONEN JUMP VOL 2 #11 NOV 2004 $4.99
JUL042634E SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #141 $2.19
JUL042493E STRANGERS IN PARADISE PKT VOL 2 TP $17.95
AUG042623E TREASURE HUNTER BOOK 3 GN $9.99
JUN042528F WORN TUFF ELBOW #1 (MR) $4.95

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.