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: BIRDS OF PREY

Gail Simone's first BIRDS OF PREY paperback, OF LIKE MINDS, was a real breath of fresh air: a smart, funny action comic that stuck two manicured fingers up to all the misogyny and testosterone and the middle-aged male fantasy that dogged superhero comics in 2004. SENSEI AND STUDENT (DC) collects Simone's second BIRDS OF PREY story, and follows Black Canary, Oracle and The Huntress (please give her a new costume, DC) as they come into conflict with such villains as the deadly martial artist Lady Shiva and the lunatic mercenary Cheshire. A fishnetty flashback to the days of the original Black Canary, as drawn by Michael Golden, serves as counterpoint to the occasionally cheesecakey Ed Benes art.

BIRDS OF PREY is one of those series that slip under the fanboy radar, thanks in part to the prejudices of the readership and to the promotional attention given to more high-profile fare. I promise you: look beyond all that, and you'll enjoy BIRDS OF PREY every bit as much as I do. Simone's depth of character, her seat-of-the-pants action scripting, and Benes' ever-improving art make BIRDS OF PREY the sort of comic to remind you why you ever bothered reading superheroes in the first place. [Matthew Craig]

LE SCI-FI

If you've felt like you'd enjoy some bonkers science fiction comics written by the undisputed master of that genre, then you're in luck! Alessandro Jodorowsky, the eccentric multilingual polymath with a particular talent for excruciatingly bad dialogue, created THE INCAL, an integral part of his own 'Metabarons' universe, along with cult French artist Jean 'Moebius' Giraud some years ago, and DC/Humanoids are now reprinting it for a new generation to enjoy, starting with THE EPIC CONSPIRACY.

It can be an acquired taste, this particular brand of cosmic space opera lunacy, but nobody does it better than Jodorowsky. Not to say that it's perfect, though; the dialogue is indeed enough to make you wince in places, or at the very least shudder at words like 'paleo-' and 'techno-' being endlessly overused as prefixes. Still, it's a prime piece if European sci-fi comic history, and as such, well worth investigating. [Lindsay Duff]

BLOODY HELL IN HOLLYWOOD

To tie in with the launch of the CONSTANTINE film, there are five - count 'em, five> - HELLBLAZER trades coming out in just three weeks. The good (or bad) news is, four of them are eminently skippable.

We'll start with the weak and defenceless: CONSTANTINE: THE OFFICIAL MOVIE ADAPTATION. They get the whole movie into 64 pages, which gives you an idea of how much plot the film has. Steven Seagle writes, Ron Randall and Jimmy Palmiotti draw, and they just can't spin this manure-covered straw into gold. Skip it.

Also skip CONSTANTINE: THE HELLBLAZER CONNECTION, which is just the adaptation plus odds and sods singles. If you're even vaguely tempted to buy it only for the rare Gaiman HELLBLAZER story, 'Hold Me', just walk on by and pick up the vastly superior collection of Gaiman comic miscellany. Issue #11, the Newcastle issue, is also available in the far superior RARE CUTS collection (see below), and as for the inclusion of the first issue of Garth Ennis' DANGEROUS HABITS arc... well, you'd be better off buying the DANGEROUS HABITS trade.

Next is VERTIGO SECRET FILES: HELLBLAZER, a 48-pager with two stories by Brian Azzarello (a fantastic noir writer but one who visibly struggled with handling the character of Constantine) and Jamie Delano (who defined the character, but whose track record on it was deeply erratic). The stories must be pretty short, as they also promise interviews with HELLBLAZER creators, a HELLBLAZER timeline, and a dossier of character information. It's the sort of thing you can get at Straight To Hell for free. Skip it.

This week brings us RARE CUTS, a singles collection, featuring the classic Newcastle story and some fine work by Garth Ennis and Grant Morrison. This is the book to pick up if you don't already have these titles. The Newcastle issue is one of Delano's best moments on the book. Buy it. Oh, this also reprints all the extra timeline info and character stuff from VERTIGO SECRET FILES: HELLBLAZER.

Next week there's Mike Carey's OGN, ALL HIS ENGINES. Carey's HELLBLZER has never worked for me. Unable to bring out the humanity in these characters and thus the horror and tragedy that can exist in small, everyday occurrences (the strength of Ennis', Delano's and Ellis' runs), Carey has been forced to resort to greater and greater destruction to raise our pulses at all. Your best bet is to buy RARE CUTS and DANGEROUS HABITS, and stay away from the rest of the hellblaz-o-rama. [Alex de Campi]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR JANUARY 12th 2004:

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

DARK HORSE

NOV040038D BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #97 (MR) $2.99
JUN040024 SHI JU NEN #3 (Of 4) $2.99

DC COMICS

NOV040347D 100 BULLETS #57 (MR) $2.50
NOV040251D ACTION COMICS #823 $2.50
NOV040348D ANGELTOWN #3 (OF 5) (MR) $2.95
NOV040257D AQUAMAN #26 $2.50
NOV040239D BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #187 $2.50
NOV040294D BATMAN STRIKES #5 $2.25
NOV040263D BIRDS OF PREY SENSEI AND STUDENT TP $17.95
NOV040258D BLOODHOUND #7 $2.95
NOV040350D FABLES #33 (MR) $2.50
NOV040247D GOTHAM CENTRAL #27 $2.50
NOV040271D GREEN ARROW #46 $2.50
NOV040268D HARD TIME #12 $2.50
NOV040309D INCAL VOL 1 THE EPIC CONSPIRACY TP (MR) $19.95
NOV040275D JLA #110 $2.25
NOV040330D JOHN CONSTANTINE HELLBLAZER RARE CUTS TP (MR) $14.95
NOV040278D JSA #69 $2.50
NOV040316D MAJESTIC #1 $2.95
NOV040244D NIGHTWING #101 $2.25
NOV040301D SCOOBY DOO #92 $2.25
NOV040293D WONDER WOMAN BITTER RIVALS TP $12.95

IMAGE

OCT041553 DARKNESS SUPERMAN #1 (Of 2) $2.99
JUN041408 WANTED #6 (Of 6) (MR) $2.99
JUN041409 WANTED SGN #6 (Of 6) (MR) $19.99

MARVEL

NOV041830D ARANA VOL 1 HEART OF SPIDER DIGEST TP $7.99
NOV041790D AVENGERS EARTHS MIGHTIEST HEROES #5 (OF 8) $3.50
NOV041796D CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON #11 $2.99
NOV041784D DISTRICT X #9 $2.99
NOV041840D DISTRICT X VOL 1 MR M TP $14.99
NOV041820D GAMBIT #6 $2.99
NOV041808D MARVEL AGE FANTASTIC FOUR #11 $2.25
NOV041781D MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 #14 $2.99
NOV041841D MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 VOL 2 STUFF OF NIGHTMARES TP $13.99
NOV041778D MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #10 $2.99
NOV041795D MARVEL TEAM-UP #4 $2.25
NOV041797D NEW THUNDERBOLTS #4 $2.99
OCT041735 NEW X-MEN #8 $2.99
NOV041794D PULSE #7 $2.99
NOV041802D SHE HULK #11 $2.99
NOV041769D SPIDER MAN HUMAN TORCH #1 (OF 5) $2.99
NOV041788D STORMBREAKER THE SAGA OF BETA RAY BILL #1 (OF 6) $2.99
NOV041825D THE PUNISHER #16 (MR) $2.99
NOV041803D THOR SON OF ASGARD #12 $2.99
NOV041765D ULTIMATES 2 #2 $2.99
NOV041762D X 23 #1 (OF 6) $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

OCT048048 AFTERMATH BLADE OF KUMORI #2 2ND PRTG $2.95
NOV042563 ARMAGEDDON VOL 2 GN (MR) $9.99
OCT042759F CANDYAPPLEBLACK #7 (Of 7) (MR) $3.50
SEP042530E CAPTAIN CANUCK UNHOLY WAR #3 (OF 3) $2.50
JUL042535F ESCALATOR GN (MR) $12.95
NOV042293 FULL METAL PANIC MANGA VOL 7 TP $9.99
OCT042694F GHOSTBUSTERS LEGION #4 (Of 4) (RES) $2.95
OCT042695F GHOSTBUSTERS LEGION BRERETON CVR #4 (Of 4) (RES) $3.50
OCT042413 LAUGH DIGEST #199 $2.39
NOV042290 LOUIE VOL 4 THE RUNE SOLDIER MANGA TP $9.99
NOV042566 NAMBUL WAR STORIES VOL 3 GN CONFLICT (MR) $9.99
NOV043038 NO NEED FOR TENCHI VOL 2 2ND ED TP $9.99
NOV042567 OVER THE RAINBOW GN (MR) $9.99
OCT042404 RED STAR PRISON OF SOULS LTD HC VOL 3 $49.99
OCT043063 SHONEN JUMP VOL 3 FEB 2005 #2 $4.99
DEC042458 SIMPSON COMICS BARN BURNER TP $14.95
SEP042590J STREET FIGHTER CVR C POWER FOIL #12 PI
OCT042416 VERONICA #158 $2.19

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.