The Shipping Forecast is Ninth Art's pick of the best and most notable new releases hitting comic stores each week, courtesy of the fishing crew at the Ninth Art lighthouse. Shipping details come courtesy of Diamond. Check out the Diamond website for the latest information, as the list is subject to change.

PLYMOUTH PICKS:

DANCE TILL TOMORROW VOL 5 TP (Viz)
Sex comedy is really hard to tackle in comics these days, but Naoki Yamamoto manages quite nicely in DANCE TILL TOMORROW. Originally serialised in PULP magazine, this seven-volume series mixes family fortunes, the world's worst theatre company, massive inheritances, jealous ex-husbands, premature baldness... and of course, lots and lots of sex. Hysterically funny and wildly unpredictable, there's nothing else quite like it on the market.

SUMMER OF LOVE HC (Drawn & Quarterly)
Debbie Dreschler knows what it's like to be a teenager. Alienation, sexual identity, and unfamiliar situations seem to be the defining moments in SUMMER OF LOVE, when Lily and the rest of her family move to a new neighbourhood. Dreschler's stories are startlingly uncomfortable to read due to the charged emotional content that she invests in every page of curiously muted green-and-brown art. SUMMER OF LOVE is a sharply ironic title for the book, and a better one NOWHERE, the title of the original 5-issue series. The new name sums up everything wonderful and horrible about life.

ULTIMATE X-MEN VOL 2: WEAPON X TP (Marvel)
Rumour has it that the ULTIMATE X-MEN book was created, in part, to have something to read for new fans brought in by the movie. If that's true, then they've succeeded wonderfully with the book - and this second collection in particular. Mark Millar has carefully kept just the interesting ideas from the original incarnation of the book, then jacked up the intensity level a couple of notches. With fast-moving art by Andy Kubert (and friends), you can actually read the WEAPON X story as a sort of sequel to the movie. ULTIMATE X-MEN seems to have gotten lost in the shadow of Grant Morrison's NEW X-MEN revamp, but don't forget about this ULTIMATE adventure; it's just as much fun.

FISHER PICKS:

BASTARD SAMURAI #1 (Image)
Mike Avon Oeming made his name as an artist with his work on POWERS, but this book sees him change tack to become co-writer and inker on his latest creation. With writer Mike Gunter he has set out to tell a three issue Hong Kong action-adventure story about a trained killer entangled in Yakuza death matches on the rooftops of New York. Expect plenty of blood. Oeming's own pencils can be seen in the five page back-up story, but the main art comes from animator Kelsey Shannon, who, judging by the previews, may be the latest in a succession of hot talents to emerge from the animation world. Oeming has promised intense, violent, kinetic action. In an ideal world, there'd be a solid plot as well, but even if there isn't, BASTARD SAMURAI should be a whole heap of fun.

CATWOMAN #6 (DC Comics)
I'm an unrepentant Marvel kid. I've never been able to get in to a second superhero universe. So for me to even read a DC universe book, it has to be something special. Ed Brubaker's CATWOMAN is that something special. It remains the only DCU book I've ever recommended on the forecast, and I'm prepared to give it another push as we enter into the second story arc. Artist Darwyn Cooke has moved on, but Brad Rader is a perfect replacement, maintaining the book's clean animation style. By reinventing Catwoman as an avenger of the downtrodden, Brubaker has made her a far more exciting and intriguing prospect. This is smart, exciting crime fiction with added zips and leather.

VIKING PICKS:

CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 (Marvel)
John Ney Reiber is a writer who's under the radar of most people - he had a great run on BOOKS OF MAGIC for DC/Vertigo, but not much else that's still talked about very often. This is a shame, as his BOOKS OF MAGIC run was excellent. That's why, when I heard he was writing the new Captain America series, I was intrigued. Intrigue turned to a guaranteed sale when John Cassaday was announced as artist for the book. Cassaday irregularly melts eyeballs with his fantastic pencils on Warren Ellis' slow-but-beautiful PLANETARY. A Captain America book in post-9/11 times could be embarrassingly jingoistic or stirringly insightful, and given my enjoyment of Reiber's other work, and given that I feel Captain America is the superhero with the most potential for really interesting stories (he's America!), I'm in on this one from the start.

TRANSFORMERS GENERATION ONE #1 (Dreamwave)
Here's your second chance to check out this unashamedly nostalgic 80s giant robot-fest - two more covers-worth of second printing come out this week. Buzz has been mixed on TRANSFORMERS - I've heard both positive and negative from people whose opinions I respect. Some say the book focuses too much on the humans, some say it's working up from a slow build. Even in spite of all that, nobody has said the art isn't lovely. Can you stand the stigma of being a dirty nerd in exchange for the dubious pleasure of reliving the 80s? The rest of the world's taking that brave step back in time - why don't you?

DOGGER PICKS:

OBERGEIST DIRECTORS CUT TP (Image)
The story of a repentant former-Nazi zombie with massive psychic powers, plucked from death by demons for their own ends, who winds up in a near future America, helping to fight against a political party who aren't a million miles from the regime he used to work for. Sounds utterly deranged, doesn't it? It is. This is by turns mad, exciting, horrifying, grotesque and touching. The art is simply exquisite, and the story is like no other I've read recently. And now it's been collected. If you like your fiction a little weird, there really is very little excuse for not buying this.

COURTNEY CRUMRIN & THE NIGHT THINGS #2 (Oni Press)
If there's any justice in the world, this will wind up on Tim Burton's desk, and Ted Naifeh will be given a lot of money for the film option. This is a perfect spooky kids story in the vein of the something like Burton's NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Naifeh's been working for a long time on goth-comic staple GLOOMCOOKIE, but don't let that put the less black-clad amongst you off - this is extremely good stuff - exactly the right mix of the creepy and the fanciful to really play well for both adults and kids. For more on the book, check out today's Ninth Art interview with Naifeh.

FASTNET PICKS:

ATOMIC CITY TALES VOL 1: GO POWER TP (Oni Press)
Canadian cartoonist Jay Stephens has always been an off-the-wall talent. ATOMIC CITY TALES was originally published back in the mid-1990s by Black Eye, and Kitchen Sink Press published a collected edition and most of a second volume, but since the demise of Kitchen Sink, it hasn't been seen. So hats off, for the umpteenth time, to those people at Oni Press, for reprinting volume one. This is a post-modern take on superheroes, where the cartoonists that create them turn up from time to time, and girls with extraordinary strength sell underarm deodorant; and this collection follows the adventures of a new superbeing 'with rockabilliy good looks and an overabundance of good-time attitude'. This edition has a new cover by Stephens and an introduction by Mike Mignola. Now, lads, any chance of issuing the second volume? You know, the one with the fourth installment that was never published?

Comics shipping in the US on April 24th:

DARK HORSE

FEB020030 STAR WARS EPISODE II ATTACK O/T CLONES #1 (Of 4) $3.99
FEB020032 STAR WARS EPISODE II ATTACK O/T CLONES #2 (Of 4) $3.99
FEB020031 STAR WARS EPISODE II ATTACK O/T CLONES PHOTO CV #1 (Of 4) $3.99
FEB020033 STAR WARS EPISODE II ATTACK O/T CLONES PHOTO CV #2 (Of 4) $3.99
FEB020034 STAR WARS EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES TP $17.95

DC COMICS

FEB020636 AMERICAN CENTURY #14 (MR) $2.50
FEB020576 BATMAN #602 $2.25
FEB020579 BATMAN/DEATHBLOW: AFTER THE FIRE #2 (Of 3) $5.95
FEB020580 BATMAN: GOTHAM ADVENTURES #49 $1.99
FEB020581 BATMAN: IN THE FIFTIES TP $19.95
FEB020584 CATWOMAN #6 $2.50
FEB020639 CODENAME: KNOCKOUT #12 (MR) $2.50
FEB020621 DEXTERS LABORATORY #29 $1.99
FEB020598 FLASH #185 $2.25
FEB020602 GREEN LANTERN: LEGACY: THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF HAL JORDAN $24.95
FEB020607 JIST WITH SCOTT MCDANIEL CREATING AQUAMAN $5.95
FEB020605 JLA #65 $2.25
FEB020611 LEGION #7 $2.50
FEB020613 ORION #25 (Note Price) $3.95
FEB020629 OUT THERE #10 $2.95
FEB020570 SUPERBOY #99 $2.25
FEB020619 WONDER WOMAN #180 $2.25

IMAGE

FEB021538 ATHENA INC #1 $2.95
FEB021539 BASTARD SAMURAI #1 $2.95
JAN021552 FELON #4 (Of 6) $2.95
FEB021550 KABUKI VOL 6 SCARAB HC $29.95
FEB021552 KABUKI VOL 6 SCARAB S&N HC $59.95
FEB021555 OBERGEIST DIRECTORS CUT TP $19.95
DEC011523 SAVAGE DRAGON #96 $2.95
FEB021572 TOMB RAIDER #21 $2.50
FEB021578 UNIVERSE #7 $2.50

MARVEL

FEB021924 AVENGERS #53 $2.25
FEB021926 AVENGERS ICONS: TIGRA #2 $2.99
FEB021860 CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 $3.99
FEB021903 DEADPOOL #66 $2.25
JAN021894 ELEKTRA #9 $2.99
FEB021857 HOWARD THE DUCK #4 (MR) $2.99
FEB021923 IRON MAN #54 $2.25
FEB021865 MARVEL KNIGHTS VOL 2 #2 $2.99
FEB021916 ORDER #3 $2.25
FEB021925 PARADISE X #2 $2.99
FEB021893 SPIDER-MAN TANGLED WEB #13: DOUBLE SHOTS $3.50
FEB021921 THUNDERBOLTS #63 $2.25
JAN021929 ULTIMATE X-MEN VOL 2: WEAPON X TP $14.95
JAN021924 UNION JACK TP $11.50
FEB021904 WOLVERINE #175 (Note Price) $3.50
FEB021866 WOLVERINE HULK #3 $3.50
FEB021906 X-MEN EVOLUTION #6 $2.25
JAN025172 X-MEN SAVAGE LAND TP $9.95
FEB021907 X-MEN UNLIMITED #35 $3.50

OTHER PUBLISHERS

FEB022215 ARCHIE #522 $1.99
FEB022216 ARCHIE DIGEST #189 $2.19
FEB022585 ATOMIC CITY TALES VOL 1: GO POWER TP $12.95
FEB022396 BANISHED KNIGHTS #3 $2.95
FEB022715 BIG O PART 1 #3 (Of 5) $3.50
FEB022563F BONEYARD #6 (MR) $2.95
FEB022716 CERES, CELESTIAL LEGEND PART 2 #5 (Of 6) $2.95
FEB022587 COURTNEY CRUMRIN & THE NIGHT THINGS #2 (Of 4) $2.95
FEB022690 DANCE TILL TOMORROW VOL 5 TP (MR) $15.95
FEB022488F DOUBLE TAKE #2 (MR) $2.95
FEB022345F GENERIC COMIC BOOK #7 $1.95
FEB022695 INU YASHA PART 6 #12 (Of 15) $2.95
FEB022643F KODOCHA #4 (Of 5) $2.99
FEB022301 LADY DEATH/CHASTITY/BAD KITTY UNITED #1 $2.99
FEB022302I LADY DEATH/CHASTITY/BAD KITTY UNITED PREMIUM ED #1 $9.99
FEB022645F LOVE HINA #4 (Of 4) $2.99
FEB022367 MERIDIAN #23 $2.95
FEB022565F ODDBALLZ #1 $2.95
FEB022368 PATH #2 $2.95
FEB022313 PURGATORI GOD HUNTER #2 (Of 2) $2.99
FEB022314I PURGATORI GOD HUNTER ALT CVR ED #2 $7.50
MAR022413 RAGNAROK #4 (Of 4) $2.99
FEB022369 RUSE #7 $2.95
FEB022650F SMILE VOL 4 #5 (NOTE PRICE) $5.99
FEB022386F SUMMER OF LOVE HC (MR) $24.95
FEB022387F SUMMER OF LOVE S&N HC (MR) $34.95
FEB025062 TRANSFORMERS GENERATION ONE #1 2ND PRTG (PU#520) $2.95
FEB022391 TRANSFORMERS PX PREVIEW BOOK #1 $3.95
JAN022503F VAMPIRE PRINCESS MIYU ARTBOOK $24.99
FEB022501I VAMPIRELLA #8 LTD CVR ED $9.95
FEB022502I VAMPIRELLA #8 LTD MODEL PHOTO ED $9.95
FEB022500 VAMPIRELLA #8 REG ED $2.99
FEB022230 VERONICA #126 $1.99
FEB022397 WARLANDS: AGE OF ICE #1/2 $2.25

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.