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 four barnacle-bestrewn braggarts will make their picks of the most noteworthy new books hitting the shelves.

Please note that the shipping list is subject to change, but most shipments are now expected to be back to normal despite the recent suspension of aircraft flights in and out of the United States.

GERMAN BIGHT PICKS:

ANGEL AND THE APE #2 (DC Vertigo)
Well, surprise. After varying prediction of "could be awful/could be fun", ANGEL AND THE APE turns out to be fun. Camp, silly, and plenty of cheesecake (but only girls so far), this seems to be hitting all the notes that were promised in CODENAME: KNOCKOUT but which still haven't quite happened in that title. Laugh as a nekkid chick gets her head stuck in high-fashion clothes and walks into her closet door! Groan at the sheer audacity of any writing team that tries to get away with calling one of the characters Detective Komicz! Grimace as you try not to think about what it might be like inside Howard Chaykin's head! There's also a plot about a murder. I suspect this may not matter much.

CUCKOO #12 (Green Door Studio)
Cuckoo, on the other hand, matters a lot. Creator/artist Madison Clell is using the comic book as a way of dealing with and spreading understanding of DID - Dissociative Identity Disorder (also known as Multiple Personality Disorder). This is raw, sometimes disturbing work, but what else should anyone expect from therapy as comics? If you want to know more about DID and want to see just how diverse comics can be in their inspiration and use, then try this as a starting off point. (Note: The cover shown here is from issue eleven.)

HARLEY AND IVY - LOVE ON THE LAM (DC)
Something would have to go very, very wrong for this not to work. Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy have been a great team ever since the animated Batman Adventures put them together. Joe Chiodo is the cartoony cheesecake artist. Judd Winick can do funny. Frankly, Judd Winick can't help doing funny. So now Judd Winick writes and Chiodo paints a book in which Ivy takes Harley out on the town to help her over another in her ever-continuing series of Joker-inflicted broken hearts. Expect wacky hijinks to ensue, big time, and for it to be eye candy while it happens. Probably won't advance the cause of feminism one iota, but hey, just relax and have a laugh.

DOGGER PICKS:

MINISTRY OF SPACE #2 (Image)
It's finally here. And as much as I'd rather not have had to wait so long, at least with this one I know it going to be worth it. Ellis, Weston and DePuy continue their tale of a world where it was the British who got the scientists out of Germany, and the British who first established a space program - but at a price. The tale of Dashwood's obsession continues here, but be warned that this has reportedly been rather under-ordered, so unless you pre-ordered it, you may want to hurry down to the shop to be sure of getting a copy.

QUEEN & COUNTRY #4 (Oni Press)
The end of the first story arc for this title. If you're not already buying this tale of spies and assassins from the mind of Greg Rucka, then I really don't know how to sell it to you, to be honest. This is the harsh reality of international espionage and black operations. None of your feeble James Bond pap here - Rucka and Rolston are giving us real people in all-too-believable situations being faced with hard choices and serious risks. For god's sake, pick this up.

FISHER PICKS:

FANTASTIC FOUR 1234 #3 (Marvel)
Grant Morrison's "definitive" Fantastic four-parter has had mixed reactions. Putting such an avant-garde creator on the daddy of dad-comics has left Morrison fans and FF fans alike a little nonplussed. The book's problem is that Morrison is known as an idea generator, but this book isn't about generating ideas, it's about crystallising them. It's taking the ideas that have been the core of the FF from day one and putting a new coat of paint on them. But what a coat of paint! Jae Lee's pencils and Jose Villarubbia's colours have made this a standout work of art, and this issue, focusing on Johnny Storm, should be a real sight to behold. Yet the fact remains that for anyone who loves the FF, the story offers nothing new, and for anyone who doesn't love them, it offers nothing at all. A noble effort, but flawed. Buy it for the pretty pictures.

NOBLE CAUSES: FIRST IMPRESSIONS (Image)
We've had super-cops, super-celebrities and super-soldiers, and now we're getting super-royalty, courtesy of Jay Faerber, Billy Dallas Patton and Patrick Gleason. For Faerber, who made his name at Marvel, this is a first jaunt into creator-owned comics, and he's opted to stick with superheroes as his vehicle. A riskier idea than you might at first think, as superhero books outside of established universes can be a tough sell. The twist in this book is that this super-family gets treated like the real-life super-families, the Kennedys and the Windsors, with every aspect of their lives pored over in the tabloids, and every sniff of scandal blown up in headline type. Will it work? Here's where we'll find out.

NEW X-MEN #117 (Marvel)
If you're lucky.

CROMARTY PICKS:

AMERICAN CENTURY SCARS AND STRIPES TP (DC Vertigo)
Now this is more like it: when it launched, AMERICAN CENTURY didn't sound at all like a book that would appeal to me. I've heard enough good things about it since (along with a few bad, to be honest) - to think that maybe I should give it a look. And lookee here! A 96-page, full-colour collection of the first four issues for less than nine dollars. It worked for 100 BULLETS, it worked for TRANSMETROPOLITAN - who knows, it could work here. God knows I've spent plenty on trades of books that I ended up hating, so I'll give this a try. Good call, Vertigo.

KIN VOL 1 DESCENT OF MAN TP (Image)
Huh. This should have shipped weeks ago. Why do so any publishers have trouble keeping collections of previously published material on a schedule? I don't get it. Anyway: allegedly very good, X-FILES/PREY style plot. Gorgeous art. Critically acclaimed. Exactly the sort of thing we keep crying out for in comics, so let's buy it and prove them right, shall we?

EAGLE VOL 20 SOMEONE YOU CAN TRUST (Viz)
Every month, I look at the sales charts for TPBs/graphic novels. And every month I cannot fathom why this book isn't selling as well as something like LONE WOLF & CUB. EAGLE can be bombastic and occasionally simplistic, sure - but the "speech politics" aren't what make this book so good. It's the demonstration of how much ruthlessness is necessary to survive in politics; the cautious love story between two of the main characters; the gulf of life experience that separates father from son. This is why you should be reading this book.

Comics shipping in the US on September 26:

DARK HORSE

JUL010030 BTVS #37 FALSE MEMORIES (3 OF 4) $2.99
JUL010031 BTVS #37 FALSE MEMORIES PHOTO CVR (3 OF 4) $2.99
JUN010015 OUTLAW 7 #1 (Of 4) $2.99
JUL010047 SUPER MANGA BLAST #16 (MR) (Note Price) $5.99

DC COMICS

JUL010384 AMERICAN CENTURY SCARS AND STRIPES TP (MR) $8.95
JUL010383 ANGEL AND THE APE #2 (Of 4) (MR) $2.95
JUL010314 BATMAN #595 $2.25
JUL010360 CARTOON CARTOONS #7 (RES) $1.99
JUL010367 CYBERNARY 2.0 #3 (Of 6) $2.95
JUL010340 FLASH #178 $2.25
JUL010343 GREEN ARROW #8 $2.50
JUN010503 GREEN LANTERN OVERSIZED POSTER BY ALEX ROSS $19.95
JUL010325 HARLEY & IVY LOVE ON THE LAM $5.95
JUL010346 JLA #58 $2.25
JUL010347 JLA INCARNATIONS #5 (Of 7) $3.50
JUL010351 LEGION WORLDS #6 (Of 6) $3.95
JUL010373 OUT THERE #5 $2.50
JUL010376 TALEWEAVER #1 (Of 6) $3.50
JUL010354 TITANS #33 $2.50

IMAGE

JUN011294 KIN VOL 1 DESCENT OF MAN TP $17.95
MAY011386 MAGDALENA BLOOD DIVINE TP $9.95
JUL011200 MECH DESTROYER #4 $2.95
APR011351 MINISTRY OF SPACE #2 $2.95
JUL011210 NOBLE CAUSES FIRST IMPRESSIONS $2.95
JUN011302 RISING STARS VOL 2 TP $19.95
JUN011342 SAVAGE DRAGON #89 $2.95

MARVEL

JUL011540 AVENGERS #46 $2.25
JUL011506 DEADPOOL AGENT OF WEAPON X #2 $2.25
JUL011524 FANTASTIC FOUR 1234 #3 $2.99
JUL011537 INCREDIBLE HULK #32 $2.25
JUN011588 NEW X-MEN #117 $2.25
JUL011514 PETER PARKER SPIDER-MAN #35 $2.25
JUL011541 STARTLING STORIES BANNER #3 $2.99
JUL011515 TANGLED WEB #6 FLOWERS FOR RHINO PART 2 $2.99
JUL011538 THOR GODSTORM #1 (Of 3) $3.50
JUL011494 US WAR MACHINE #3 $1.50
JUL011508 WOLVERINE #168 $2.25
JUL011510 X-TREME X-MEN SAVAGE LAND #1 $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

JUL011831E ARCHIE DIGEST #184 $2.19
JUL012088F BATTLE POPE PRESENTS ST MICHAEL #1 (Of 3) (MR) $2.95
JUL012289E CERES CELESTIAL LEGEND #4 (Of 6) $2.95
JUL012106F CUCKOO #12 (MR) $3.00
JUL012123F DAHLIA VAMPIRE #5 (Of 6) (MR) $2.95
JUL012275E EAGLE VOL 20 SOMEONE YOU CAN TRUST $6.95
JUL011794F FOOT SOLDIERS VOL 2 TP $14.95
JUL012122F FUTABAKUN CHANGE VOL 7 #2 (MR) $2.95
JUL012294E GUNDAM WING EPISODE ZERO #6 (Of 8) $2.95
JUL012009F HICKSVILLE (O/A) $19.95
JUL011837E JUGHEAD #140 $1.99
JUL011915E LADY DEATH LAST RITES #1 (Of 4) $2.99
JUL011976F LODOSS WAR DEEDLITS TALE #2 $2.95
JUL011989E MERIDIAN #16 $2.95
JUL012298E NEON GENESIS BOOK 6 #3 (Of 4) (Note Price) $3.50
JUL012299E NEON GENESIS BOOK 6 COLL ED #3 (Of 4) (Note Price) $3.50
JUL012301E NO NEED FOR TENCHI PART 12 #2 (Of 6) (Note Price) $3.25
JUL012125F OGENKI CLINIC VOL 8 #2 (A) $2.95
JUL012177E QUEEN & COUNTRY #4 (MR) $2.95
JUL011840E SABRINA VOL 2 #24 $1.99
JUL011890F TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #10 $2.95
JUL012124F VAMPIRE PRINCESS YUI VOL 3 #2 $2.95

MAGAZINES
JUL012272E ANIMERICA VOL 9 #11 $4.95
JUL012315J COMIC SHOP NEWS #745 PI
JUL012356F GAMES UNPLUGGED MAGAZINE #11 $2.99

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.