Four fishermen. One Diamond shipping list. All the best and most noteworthy new books hitting the shelves this week. It's only here at the Ninth Art Shipping Forecast, available each and every Monday on the World Wide Web and your PDA. Because we care.

Please note that the shipping list sometimes gets things wrong. It still can't tell the difference between a stalactite and a stalagmite, for example.

FISHER PICKS:

MAGIC PICKLE #1 (Oni Press)
Scott Morse's new series from Oni seems a far cry from SOULWIND. It's a four-part series about an American super soldier who just happens to be a pickle. Yup, it's a kid's book, one that will appeal to anyone who reads and adores HEROBEAR AND THE KID. But since so few of you have the excellent taste and good sense to be reading HEROBEAR AND THE KID, let's try another tack. Scott Morse is a very clever writer and one of the industry's most unique artists, and he knows how to entertain you. Give your inner child a wake-up call and let your vegetable love grow.

US WAR MACHINE #1-3 (Marvel Max)
Er... pardon? Presumably it's only actually the first issue that's out this week, and not the first three. It's meant to be weekly, not hourly. Mind you, if anyone can produce an hourly book, it's ELEKTRA artist Chuck Austen, who created this whole series on his computer in, I dunno, a couple of minutes or so, while he was waiting for Netscape to boot up. Quick is nice, but good is better, and retailers scammed into buying the whole series before getting a chance to sell any of it are really hoping this will be good. I'm hoping it will be too, because a weekly black and white comic from a major American publisher is an interesting experiment. I'll wait and see with this one. And, no doubt, three will turn up at once.

BLACK PANTHER #36 (Marvel)
The 35th anniversary of the character, and it's that old saw, the 'set in the future' story. However, when Christopher Priest is writing it, you can usually expect a more intelligent and convention-defying twist. This issue is a 100-Page Monster (not available in Tokyo, where they're not sure they can control it), which means it's packaged with some classic Black Panther stories that may well serve to remind you why the character was out of print for so long. Still, it ought to be a good jumping on point for those of you who kept meaning to buy this book, but never got around to it. Check it out.

CROMARTY PICKS:

ESTABLISHMENT #1 (DC WildStorm)
Well, here it is - Ian Edginton and Charlie Adlard's AUTHORITY spin-off "with a British attitude" starts here. (The amusing thing being, of course, that most of the writers taking part in the Authorityverse have already been British...) I'm really quite torn on this one. On the one hand, it could be an ingenious, bitingly satirical send-up of modern superheroics with a nod to the 60s British surrealist entertainment idiom. On the other, it could be yet another comic trying too hard to cash in on the gullibility of AUTHORITY readers. We shall see.

HICKSVILLE (Drawn & Quarterly)
At last, Dylan Horrocks' Ignatz and Harvey award-nominated HICKSVILLE is heading back to the shelves. Chris Conroy, reviewing this graphic novel for Ninth Art, said: "The atmosphere of HICKSVILLE is more poignant than anything else I have read or seen." Read that review here, and then you can go and buy the book.

DANGER GIRL KAMIKAZE #1 (DC Cliffhanger)
It's official: DANGER GIRL is now a franchise. J Scott Cambell is not, repeat not, working on this comic - so at least there's a good chance this will be the first issue of DANGER GIRL ever to ship when it's supposed to. Instead we have Tommy (SPEED RACER) Yune and Vince Russell, both talents in their own right, but not enough to get me picking this up. Die-hard DANGER GIRL fans, however, will doubtless be queuing round the block.

GERMAN BIGHT PICKS:

HICKSVILLE GN (Drawn & Quarterly)
Do you love comics? Do you love them in that way that makes you want to bury yourself in them and find out every good thing there is to know about them? Then you need to read HICKSVILLE. Immerse yourself in a small town, isolated even for New Zealand, where everyone knows the history of comics in the same way that everyone knows the history of their town. Even the hidden parts. Dylan Horrocks skilfully interweaves both histories to produce an understated mystery tale seen through the eyes of a visiting American journalist. What has Dick Burger - now the world's most successful comic writer - done to earn the rage of his entire home town? HICKSVILLE is distinguished by stylised yet emotive and subtle art, near-perfect characterisation, and a deep love of comics that pervades every page like ink. The first time I read this, it broke my heart.

MAGIC PICKLE #1 (Of 4) (Oni Press)
All superhero comics are born of a combination of brilliant and daft ideas. This may be one of the daftest - the magic pickle, a scientifically built super-soldier (weapon kosher, no less) is left in suspended animation, and, on waking, finds that his secret hideout is under a little girl's bedroom. Circumstance turns then into a team. I loved SOULWIND, but if you found it a little too mystical for your tastes, then MAGIC PICKLE sees Scott Morse steer his comics a little more towards the slapstick style of his animation work. This will absolutely not suck. Trust me.

SLOW NEWS DAY #2 (Of 6) (Oni Press)
I know I recommended the first issue of this, but I have to tell you that it was even better than I thought it would be - and I thought it was going to be great. SLOW NEWS DAY draws the reader into an ordinary life story by sheer artistry. If it weren't bad enough that Andi Watson can conjure beauty from a few brushstrokes, his characterisation is so spot-on you'd imagine he was eavesdropping rather than scripting. There's so much going on under the surface with every character that an immediate re-reading is still rewarding, and the serialised format works with the slow pace of unfolding personalities. You have to wonder how good this guy's going to be a few years from now. If you buy one new comic this week, buy this one.

DOGGER PICKS:

ESTABLISHMENT #1 (DC Wildstorm)
Oh, go on then. THE MONARCHY left me cold, I'm afraid, but this looks different enough to catch my interest. It's being billed as an AUTHORITY spin off, and to be honest, I'm a little confused as to why. It's a superteam that exist in the Wildstorm Universe. That does rather seem to be the end of the links between the two, though. Either way, this looks interesting enough in it's own right - characters clearly sourced from all sorts of classic British TV and film, injected with a certain amount of style. Frankly, the promo poster alone got my interest. So yes, I'm looking forward to this one a lot more than I thought I would be.

SLOW NEWS DAY #2 (Oni Press)
If you've got any taste at all, you'll already have bought something by Andi Watson. You won't need me to tell you about his gorgeous linework and fantastic composition, or his beautiful, touching stories, realistic characters and situations or his fine ear for dialogue. In fact, you won't even need me to recommend this, because you'll have bought the first issue, and will be eager for more. There's no way anyone who bought the first issue wouldn't be. More accessible to an international audience than BREAKFAST AFTER NOON, SLOW NEWS DAY is a story of an American woman who comes to Britain to work on a newspaper, and instead of the Big Paper she dreams of, find herself working on a small regional newspaper - an environment Andi Watson has nailed down pat. Well worth your time.

Comics shipping in the US on September 12th:

DARK HORSE

APR010052 OH MY GODDESS PART X #5 HAND IN HAND (PART 2 OF 2) $3.50
JUL010021 RING OF NIBELUNG GOTTERDAMMERUNG #4 (Of 4) (Note Price) $5.99
FEB010031 SILKE #4 (Of 4) $2.99

DC COMICS

JUL010330 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #596 $2.25
JUL010315 AZRAEL AGENT OF THE BAT #82 $2.50
JUL010368 DANGER GIRL KAMIKAZE #1 (RES) $2.95
JUL010313 DETECTIVE COMICS #762 $2.50
JUL010369 ESTABLISHMENT #1 $2.50
JUL010342 FLASH SECRET FILES #3 $4.95
JUL010324 HARLEY QUINN #12 $2.25
JUL010389 HUNTER THE AGE OF MAGIC #3 $2.50
JUL010345 IMPULSE #78 $2.50
JUN010502 MAD BATHROOM COMPANION #2 TP $9.95
JUL010327 NIGHTWING #61 $2.25
JUL010363 SCOOBY-DOO #52 $1.99
JUL010375 STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION ENEMY UNSEEN TP $17.95
MAY010512 STEAMPUNK #9 $2.50
JUL010336 SUPERMAN ADVENTURES #61 $1.99
JUL010338 SUPERMAN VS PREDATOR TP $14.95
JUL010386 SWAMP THING #19 (MR) $2.50
JUL010395 TRANSMETROPOLITAN #49 (MR) $2.50

IMAGE

JUL011198 GI JOE #1 $2.95
JUL011248 TOMB RAIDER #1/2 $2.95
JUN011344 WARLANDS VOL 1 TP $14.95

MARVEL

JUL011529 BLACK PANTHER #36 (Note Price) $3.50
JUL011501 CYCLOPS #2 $2.50
JUL011531 DEFENDERS #9 $2.25
JUL011491 FURY #1 (MR) $2.99
JUL011532 IRON MAN #46 (Note Price) $3.50
JUL011521 PUNISHER #4 $2.99
MAY011700 SPIDER-MAN VISIONARIES JOHN ROMITA SR TP $19.95
JUN011590 ULTIMATE X-MEN #9 (Note Price) $2.25
JUL011492 US WAR MACHINE #1 $1.50
JUL011493 US WAR MACHINE #2 $1.50
JUL011494 US WAR MACHINE #3 $1.50
JUN011636 X-MEN VIGNETTES TP (C: 2) $16.95
JUL011502 X-TREME X-MEN #5 $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

JUN011912 ARCHIE #514 $1.99
APR012178 HAW GN (MR) $8.95
JUL012062F HEY WAIT (MR) $9.95
JUL012009F HICKSVILLE (O/A) $19.95
JUL012278E INU YASHA PART 6 #5 (Of 15) $2.95
JUN011920 JUGHEAD WITH ARCHIE DIGEST #169 $2.19
JUN011999 LADY DEATHS BLACK BOOK VOL 1 $9.99
JUL012173E MAGIC PICKLE #1 (Of 4) $2.95
JUN011922 PALS N GALS DOUBLE DIGEST #61 (Note Price) $3.29
JUL012277E RANMA 1/2 PART 10 #6 (Of 11) $2.95
JUL011985E SIGIL #16 $2.95
JUL011798F SLOW NEWS DAY #2 (Of 6) $3.50
JUL011986E SOJOURN #3 $2.95
JUN011925 VERONICA #118 $1.99

MAGAZINES

JUL012309 ALTER EGO #10 $5.95
JUL012273E ANIMERICA EXTRA VOL 4 #10 $4.95
JUL012276E PULP VOL 5 #10 (MR) $5.95

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

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.