The Shipping Forecast for January 2nd 2004

Ninth Art wishes you a Happy New Year with its pick of the most promising new titles to kick off 2004. It's a light week, but the promise of giant robots is always enough to lure us out to the store.
29 December 2003

Welcome to the Shipping Forecast, Ninth Art's pick of the best and most notable new releases hitting comic stores each week. Please note that, due to the New Year's Day holiday, comics are expected to ship in the US on Friday 2nd January, and will be subject to further delays outside of the US.

COMIC OF THE WEEK:

GIANT ROBOT WARRIORS GN (AiT/PlanetLar)
Stuart Moore has branched out into writing the sort of books he used to edit for DC (which included TRANSMETROPOLITAN). GIANT ROBOT WARRIORS is a political satire on the whole Weapons of Mass Destruction scenario. A Middle Eastern country has developed its own GRWs, and of course, the USA has to take action. The ensuing conflict leads to some eye-shatteringly spectacular art from Ryan Kelly (previously bestknown for collaborating with Peter Gross on art for LUCIFER). Actually, it's not so much a parody of the political machinations (pun intended) in the Middle East, as a look at the media's approach to covering the situations. [Forties]

ALSO THIS WEEK:

ALICE (About Comics)
Lewis Carroll's ALICE IN WONDERLAND is one of the all-time great children's fantasies, a warped, blackly comical classic that has been loved by generations. It's also host to some of the most famous book illustrations ever to see print - the finely detailed cartoons of Sir John Tenniel. Quite rightly, that hasn't intimidated others from trying their hands at visualising the rich tapestry of Carroll's Wonderland - Carroll himself insisted that Alice could be 're-draped to taste'. So, following in the footsteps of Arthur Rackham and the Disney animators is Lela Dowling, whose version of ALICE was serialised in a comic called THE DREAMERY fifteen years ago. I'm not very familiar with her work, but the samples on her website suggest she's an excellent cartoonist with plenty to offer this wonderful tale. [Fisher]

STARMAN VOL 8: STARS MY DESTINATION (DC Comics)
Yep, it's been a while, but DC's brought back the STARMAN collections with STARS MY DESTINATION. Finishing up the "Jack Knight in Space" saga, James Robinson starts wrapping up storylines left and right with only a year and a half or so to go on the book. It's a reward for readers of the series up until now to finally see how everything connects, and there's some nice art by the always-underrated Peter Snejbjerg. Here's hoping a STARMAN: GRAND GUIGNOL collection shows up soon; Robinson's STARMAN is the sort of series that deserves to be preserved for a long time to come. [Plymouth]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR JANUARY 2nd:

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

DARK HORSE

OCT020030 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #74: FALL FROST (PART 2 OF 6) $2.99

DC COMICS

SEP030292 ASTRO CITY: LOCAL HEROES #5 (Of 5) $2.95
OCT030235 CAPER #3 (Of 12) (MR) $2.95
OCT030239 EMPIRE #6 (Of 6) (MR) $2.50
OCT030241 FLASH #205 $2.25
OCT030244 GREEN LANTERN #172 $2.25
OCT030301 HELLBLAZER #191 (MR) $2.75
OCT030221 NIGHTWING/HUNTRESS TP $9.95
OCT030279 PLANETARY #18 $2.95
OCT030258 REIGN OF THE ZODIAC #5 $2.75
SEP030311 SMAX #4 (Of 5) $2.95
OCT030260 STARMAN VOL 8: STARS MY DESTINATION TP $14.95

IMAGE
OCT031332 BATTLE OF THE PLANETS VOL 1: TRIAL BY FIRE DIGEST SIZE TP $9.99
AUG031200 CASEFILES: SAM & TWITCH #6 (MR) $2.50
OCT031268 GI JOE BADEAUX CVR A #25 $2.95
OCT031269 GI JOE SEELEY CVR B #25 $2.95
SEP031272 GI JOE/TRANSFORMERS MILLER CVR #6 (Of 6) $2.95
SEP031271 GI JOE/TRANSFORMERS NORTON CVR #6 (Of 6) $2.95
SEP031295 PVP #5 $2.95
OCT031292 ROMP ONE SHOT (MR) $6.95
OCT031296 SAVAGE DRAGON VOL 8: TERMINATED TP $15.95
JUN031329 SOUL OF A SAMURAI #3 (Of 4) (Note Price) $5.95
DEC021836 SPAWN #131 $2.95
OCT031304 STREET FIGHTER ANDREWS CVR B #4 $2.95
OCT031305 STREET FIGHTER CHEN CVR C #4 PI
OCT031303 STREET FIGHTER LEE CVR A #4 $2.95

MARVEL

SEP031533 HUMAN TORCH #8 (Note Price) $2.99
OCT031558 KINGPIN #7 (Note Price) $2.99
OCT031560 MARVELOUS ADVENTURES OF GUS BEEZER: GUS BEEZER & SPIDER-MAN # $2.99
OCT031622 SPIDER-MAN LEGENDS VOL 4: SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE TP $13.99
OCT031543 ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #1 $2.25

OTHER PUBLISHERS

NOV031943 ALICE GN $8.95
SEP032291 APE ONE SHOT (MR) $4.95
OCT032087 ARCHIE #544 $2.19
OCT032088 ARCHIE DIGEST #204 $2.39
SEP032190 BRIAN PULIDO LADY DEATH #10 $2.95
OCT032271 CRUX #33 $2.95
JUL032148 DORK TOWER COLL TP VOL 6: 1D6 DEGREES OF SEPARATION $15.99
AUG032349 DRAKE THE DEMON BOX #1 (OF 3) $2.50
OCT032017 GIANT ROBOT WARRIORS GN $12.95
SEP032134 HEROES ANONYMOUS #3 (Of 6) (MR) $2.99
OCT032084 KADE PURSUIT #1 $2.95
OCT032279 ROUTE 666 #19 $2.95
SEP032180 SCION #42 $2.95
MAY002039 STEEL ANGEL KURUMI #2 $10.95
NOV032272 TRANSFORMERS GENERATION ONE VOL 3 #1 $2.95
OCT032110 VERONICA #148 $2.19

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

Ninth Art endorses the principle of Ideological Freeware. The author permits distribution of this article 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.