The Shipping Forecast for May 23rd

The pick of the week's releases from Ninth Art's team of briny seafarers.
21 May 2001

Welcome back to the Shipping Forecast, Ninth Art's weekly look at the latest comic book releases. Every Monday we'll show you the week's shipping list from Diamond, and our three maritime pundits will make their picks of the most noteworthy new books hitting the shelves. Please note that the shipping list is subject to change.

DOGGER PICKS:

FRUMPY THE CLOWN II THE FAT LADY SINGS TP
I recommended this last week, but it seems to have failed to ship. I'm sure it will be just as funny this week as it was last. As I said last time, if you enjoy Winick's BARRY WEEN, you really ought to read this collection of his newspaper strips. They may not be quite as accomplished as his later work, but they're still side-splitting.

QUEEN & COUNTRY #2
Oni Press' first ongoing title, QUEEN & COUNTRY is, on the basis of the first issue, going to be sterling stuff. This is spy games for adults - not your glitzy James Bond glamour and casinos, but tearing across war zones with no back-up, performing the sort of jobs that your own government doesn't even want you doing. Rucka and Rolston delivered us a splendid set up last issue, and I'm eager to see where they go with it.

FISHER PICKS:

ELECTROPOLIS #1
Another book recommended last week that didn't make the shelves. I'm going to keep recommending it ever week until it does come out, though, damn it, because I'm looking forward to it enormously. Dean Motter's beautiful noir-deco artwork and idiosyncratic pulp writing make this one of the most exciting new books of the year so far.

AGE OF BRONZE VOL 1: A THOUSAND SHIPS
And another hotly anticipated book that's been annoyingly delayed. Eric Shanower's epic revisiting of the history of Troy features some of the most beautiful linework around. There aren't enough good history comics around, but AGE OF BRONZE may just be setting too high a standard for others to aspire to.

X-FORCE #116
At what point did it become clear that Marvel really is changing for the better? Morrison taking over X-MEN? Ditching the Comic Code? Cancelling a whole slew of lesser books? Kicking Dan Jurgens off CAPTAIN AMERICA and Howard Mackie off SPIDER-MAN? No, it was the day they announced Milligan and Allred on X-FORCE, that was what clinched it for me. A bizarre new direction (hell, a completely different book, really), and a whole heap of promise. The new X-FORCE could go either way - triumph or travesty - but I've got my fingers crossed for something good.

CROMARTY PICKS:

GOLDFISH THE DEFINITIVE COLL TP
This isn't new (some extra material and cleaned-up lettering warrants the 'definitive' tag), but it's still worth mentioning because damn it, all you people out there who only know Bendis from POWERS or Marvel's ULTIMATE books need to realise how much better this stuff is. GOLDFISH is low-down, smart-mouthed and streetwise. Pick it up this week.

EAGLE VOL 16 THE GENERAL
EAGLE is, to steal a phrase from Scott McCloud, the best book you probably aren't reading. It's 'The Making of an Asian-American President', written and drawn by Japanese creator Kaiji Kawaguchi, and ironically it's better than any political graphic novel I can think of by an American. It's just been nominated for four Eisner awards. Every time you think it's settling down and becoming 'linear' it keeps on twisting. Quite simply, you owe it to yourself to try this book out - there are few to match it right now.

Comics shipping in the US on May 23rd:

MAR010033 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #57 THE GATHERING PART 15 (OF 15) (mature readers) $2.99
MAR010029 BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #33 $2.99
MAR010019 USAGI YOJIMBO #48 $2.99
MAR010394 BATMAN LEAGUE OF BATMEN #2 (Of 2) $5.95
MAR010396 BIRDS OF PREY #31 $2.50
MAR010439 CARTOON CARTOONS #5 $1.99
MAR010445 JEZEBELLE #5 (Of 6) $2.50
MAR010425 JSA #24 $2.50
FEB010447D MONARCHY #3 $2.50
MAR010450 OUT THERE #1 $2.50
MAR010400 ROBIN #90 $2.25
MAR010471 SANDMAN PRESENTS EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT DREAMS BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK $3.95
MAR010406 SUPERBOY #88 $2.25
MAR010407 SUPERGIRL #58 $2.25
MAR010404 SUPERMAN THE MAN OF STEEL #114 $2.25
MAR010434 TITANS #29 $2.50
MAR011304 10TH MUSE #4 $2.95
FEB011246D AGE OF BRONZE VOL 1 A THOUSAND SHIPS TP $19.95
MAR011277 AREA 52 #4 $2.95
MAR011243 BUTCHER KNIGHT #4 $2.95
JAN011250D COW SPRING 2001 $2.95
MAR011285 ELECTROPOLIS #1 $2.95
JAN011221D GOLDFISH THE DEFINITIVE COLL TP $19.95
FEB011275D POWERS #11 $2.95
JAN011241D SHIDIMA ARNAKIN CVR #3 $2.95
JAN011242D SHIDIMA NAMA KEMONO CVR #3 $2.95
JAN011243D SHIDIMA PAT LEE CVR #3 $2.95
JAN011275D SPAWN THE DARK AGES #25 $2.50
MAR011563 DEADPOOL #54 $2.25
MAR011548 TANGLED WEB THE THOUSAND #2 (Of 3) $2.99
MAR011532 X-FORCE #116 $2.25
MAR011825 ARCHIE #510 $1.99
MAR011828 ARCHIE DIGEST #181 $2.19
JAN012101E COFFIN #4 (Of 4) (mature readers) $2.95
MAR011968 CROSSGEN CHRONICLES #3 $3.95
MAR012223 DRAGONBALL VOL 5 TP $12.95
MAR012208 EAGLE VOL 16 THE GENERAL $6.95
MAR011935 ELVIRA #97 $2.50
MAR012127 FRUMPY THE CLOWN II THE FAT LADY SINGS TP (mature readers) $15.95
MAR011955 GEOBREEDERS #27 $2.95
MAR012228 GUNDAM WING EPISODE ZERO #2 (Of 4) $2.95
MAR011908 JADE #2 $2.99
MAR012211 MAGICAL POKEMON JOURNEY PART 4 #3 (Of 4) $4.95
MAR012231 NO NEED FOR TENCHI PART 11 #2 (Of 4) $3.50
MAR012128 QUEEN & COUNTRY #2 (mature readers) $2.95
MAR011969 SCION #12 $2.95
MAR011971 SCION VOL 1 TP $19.95
MAR011887 SIMPSONS COMICS #58 $2.50
MAR011775 STRANGERS IN PARADISE SLIPCASE #1 WITH TRADES $47.95
MAR011888 TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #8 $2.95
DEC002067F THIEVES & KINGS #35 $2.50
MAR011952 TIME TRAVELER AI BOOK 2 SEXY PIRATES (mature readers) $15.95
MAR011841 VERONICA #114 $1.99

The 9A Lighthouse Crew are Trafalgar, Shannon, Fastnet, Plymouth, Viking, German Bight, Finisterre, Forties, Dogger, Cromarty and Fisher.

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