What makes Monday great? It's the Shipping Forecast, of course! Every week we give you a heads up on the best and most exciting new books winging their way to your local comic book store.

Please note that the shipping list is subject to change. For the latest information, check out the Diamond website.

PLYMOUTH PICKS:

UZUMAKI VOL 1 TP (Viz)
With Halloween finally here, Viz has decided to give their readers a treat in the form of UZUMAKI VOL 1. Currently serialised in PULP magazine, Junji Ito spins a story of a town's obsession with spirals. It certainly sounds innocent enough, until Shuichi's father is found dead, his body impossibly twisted into a spiral. Those who read Ito's TOMIE and FLESH-COLORED HORROR (both recently published by ComicsOne) know that Ito is a master of all forms of horror; not just gore and monsters, but the unknown lurking around the corner, just waiting for someone to take one wrong step. UZUMAKI catapulted Ito to stardom in Japan, and if there's any justice, the same is about to happen here. I can't think of a better thing to read right before going to bed this Halloween.

BONE #45 (Cartoon Books)
Every time someone complains about the lack of good fantasy comics on the market, I want to hit them over the head - preferably with a copy of BONE. Jeff Smith's self-published epic is both a dream and a nightmare rolled into one. We've got a former queen racing cows, unrequited love, the world's most scheming capitalist plunged into his worst rural nightmare, and, at the same time, an ominous hooded figure, dire prophecies, monstrous rat creatures killing everything in their path, and the force of evil known only as the Lord of the Locusts. It's a bizarre dichotomy, but works surprisingly well. BONE #45 may be the early stages of what will eventually be the eighth collection (of a projected nine), but if you enjoy it, you can rest assured that #1-43 are already collected in book format. Now that's service.

RUSE #1 (CrossGen)
There's something wonderfully refreshing about the upcoming release of RUSE. Maybe it's that CrossGen Comics, best known for fantasy and sci-fi comics, is publishing it. Maybe it's that Mark Waid, Butch Guice, Mike Perkins, and Laura DePuy are the creative team. Or maybe it's that I'm a sucker for a good mystery comic. Set in a world not entirely unlike Victorian England, Simon Archard is tired of being the world's greatest detective. There are no more challenges to face. Or so he thought, until he and Emma Bishop find themselves pulled into one impossible case after another... This book promises to be gorgeous, and Archard's sudden renewed interest in his profession has an uncanny parallel to the creative team's sheer excitement over RUSE. If they' channel even a fraction of that into the pages, we're all in for a real treat.

FISHER PICKS:

TROUT #1 (Oni Press)
Trout used to have a strip in ONI DOUBLE FEATURE, which I've never read, but I wish I had, because this sounds like a wonderfully weird comic. In this two-part series, young Trout, a lad living above a turnip factory, has to stop a visiting puppet show from stealing the souls of the locals. TROUT is the work of the uniquely gifted Troy Nixey, perhaps best known for BATMAN: THE DOOM THAT CAME TO GOTHAM, and it looks like being the sort of quirky, well-crafted tale that Oni excels at.

ANCIENT JOE #1 (Dark Horse)
If you're reading MAGIC PICKLE (like we told you to), then you'll want to pick up ANCIENT JOE as well. Once again it's the work of VOLCANIC REVOLVER's Scott Morse, but instead of being a kid's book, ANCIENT JOE sees Morse back in something resembling SOULWIND territory as he dabbles in the realms of myth and mystery. The titular Ancient Joe is a mysterious figure in a tiki mask who spends his time picking fights in the bars of Havana. He may be a man, he may be a god, but he certainly has a good solid uppercut. Morse is a superb and highly original storyteller, and with ANCIENT JOE he may have generated his very own HELLBOY-sized hit property.

BLOODSTONE #1 (Marvel)
Take one obscure Marvel hero that only Roger Stern seems to remember, kill him, retroactively give him a Buffyish daughter, spin her off in her own book, and wait for the TV rights to sell. That seems to be the formula at work here. It's written by the workmanlike team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, and the T&A comes courtesy of Michael Lopez. The story? A perky, pert blonde follows her late father into the monster-hunting business. The solicitations compare the story not just to Buffy, but also to Indiana Jones and Lara Croft - because if you rip off three ideas, no-one can sue! Alex Ross had a hand in the character design, apparently. That man must have a surfeit of napkins.

CROMARTY PICKS:

DELICATE CREATURES (Top Cow)
Living in a lighthouse has some odd side effects, and one of the oddest must surely be that I've never read or watched a single piece of fiction by the prolific J Michael Straczynski, of BABYLON 5, SPIDER-MAN and RISING STARS fame. DELICATE CREATURES is JMS' first foray into illustrated prose, and will be my first encounter with the writer. The watercolour art by Michael Zulli - not to mention the fantasy-genre story - will undoubtedly bring comparisons to Neil Gaiman's STARDUST. We can only hope it's in the same league.

ZERO GIRL TP (DC Wildstorm/Homage)
My esteemed colleague Fisher picked this last week, but it didn't ship. So I'll take the opportunity to tell you about it again, just in case: ZERO GIRL was one of the oddest and most touching stories of this year. Dealing with very real, uncomfortable subject matters (generation gap relationships and school bullying) in a very bizarre and surreal manner (the protecting power of Circles against evil and corrupt Squares), Sam Kieth pulls it all of with confidence. If you miss the 'good old madness' of Vertigo, this is a book you shouldn't miss.

DOGGER PICKS:

WAR STORY: D-DAY DODGERS (DC Vertigo)
The second of Garth Ennis' WAR STORIES arrives. This one's focusing on some of the forgotten soldiers of World War II - those fighting in Italy, rather than France or Germany. After ENEMY ACE: WAR IN HEAVEN and WAR STORY: JOHAN'S TIGER, you've probably got a good idea of whether or not Garth's war stories are for you, but if nothing else, this might be worth looking at to gain some perspective into a part of the Second World War that's not often mentioned in history lessons.

UZUMAKI VOL 1 TP (Viz)
I love Viz. They allow me to buy the products of a healthy comics industry. The Japanese comics industry has the breadth of audience to produce a huge variety of titles, including the works of Junji Ito, a very, very fine horror writer. I'm not sure there's any horror being published in the western market to equal his deeply, deeply disturbing story of people in a small Japanese town being warped and deranged by spirals. In all seriousness: if you are fan of horror in any way, you cannot afford to let this pass you by.

Comics shipping in the US on October 31st:

DARK HORSE

AUG010020 ANCIENT JOE #1 (Of 3) $3.50
JUL010035 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #60 SECRETS (3 OF 4) (MR) $2.99

DC COMICS

AUG010204 ACTION COMICS #784 $2.25
AUG010206 BATMAN #596 $2.25
AUG010265 BOOKS OF MAGIC VOL 7 DEATH AFTER DEATH TP (MR) $19.95
AUG010240 DEXTERS LABORATORY #26 $1.99
AUG010207 JLA #59 $2.25
AUG010233 JLA INCARNATIONS #6 (Of 7) $3.50
AUG010205 JOKER LAST LAUGH #5 (Of 6) $2.95
AUG010256 PROMETHEA #17 $2.95
AUG010208 ROBIN #95 $2.25
AUG010276 SWAMP THING #20 (MR) $2.50
AUG010209 TITANS #34 $2.50
AUG010278 WAR STORY D DAY DODGERS (MR) $4.95
AUG010260 ZERO GIRL TP $14.95

IMAGE

JUL011251 DELICATE CREATURES HC $16.95
MAY011385 FATHOM KILLIANS TIDE #4 $2.95
SEP011098 GI JOE #2 $2.95
AUG011128 KABUKI VOL 2 DREAMS HC ED $24.95
JUN011340 POWERS ANNUAL #1 $3.95
JUL011221 SHIDIMA NAMAKEMONO COVER #0 $2.95
JUL011220 SHIDIMA PAT LEE COVER #0 $2.95
AUG011144 UNIVERSE #3 $2.50

MARVEL

AUG011458 100 GREATEST MARVELS #3 $7.50
AUG011469 AVENGERS #47 $2.25
AUG011448 BLOODSTONE #1 $2.99
JUL011505 BROTHERHOOD #5 $2.25
AUG011439 GHOST RIDER HAMMER LANE #5 $2.99
JUL011503 NEW X-MEN #118 $2.25
AUG011446 SPIDER-MAN TANGLED WEB #7 GENTLEMANS AGREEMENT $2.99
JUL011573 SPIDER-MAN TANGLED WEB TP (C: 2) $15.95
AUG011470 STARTLING STORIES BANNER #4 $2.99
AUG011414 US WAR MACHINE #8 (MR) $1.50
AUG011430 WOLVERINE #169 $2.25
JUL011576 X-FORCE NEW BEGININGS TP (C: 2) $12.95
AUG011432 X-MEN UNLIMITED #33 $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

AUG012136 AMELIA RULES #3 $2.95
AUG011833 BAD KITTY MISCHIEF NIGHT #1 $2.99
AUG012008 BATTLE POPE PRESENTS ST MICHAEL #2 (Of 3) (MR) $2.95
AUG011753 BETTY & VERONICA #168 $1.99
AUG011754 BETTY & VERONICA DIGEST #125 $2.19
JUL011908E BONE #45 $2.95
JUL011799E COMIC BOOK HEAVEN VOL 2 #5 $1.95
JUL011973F DARK ANGEL #29 $2.95
AUG011827 EVIL ERNIE RETURNS #1 (MR) $3.99
AUG012050 FUTABAKUN CHANGE VOL 5 GN $15.95
AUG011758 JUGHEADS DOUBLE DIGEST #81 $3.29
JUL011975F LODOSS WAR CHRONICLES HEROIC KNIGHT #13 $2.95
AUG012209 MAGICAL POKEMON JOURNEY PART 5 #4 (Of 4) (C: 3) $4.95
AUG011913 MERIDIAN #17 $2.95
JUN012320F MURCIELAGA SHE BAT FLIPBOOK #1 (Of 3) $2.95
AUG011986 MURDER ME DEAD #9 (MR) $4.95
JUL011978F PRINCESS PRINCE #12 $2.95
AUG011843 PURGATORI MISCHIEF NIGHT #1 $2.99
AUG012211 RANMA 1/2 VOL 18 TP $15.95
AUG011914 RUSE #1 $2.95
AUG011761 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #103 $1.99
AUG011694 STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL III #44 $2.95
AUG012101 TROUT #1 (Of 2) $2.95
AUG012202 UZUMAKI VOL 1 TP $15.95
JUL011802E WITCH #2 (MR) $2.95
MAY011983 ZOOMS ACADEMY FOR THE SUPER GIFTED #2 $3.50

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.