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.

FASTNET PICKS:

HELLBOY: THE THIRD WISH #2 (Dark Horse)
When I picked the first one of these, I was operating on blind faith in Mike Mignola and his knack of weaving spooky, engaging stories out of fragments of myth and legend. Having seen issue #1, I can now say that this is some of Mignola's strongest work in years. Brilliantly creepy stuff, with talking chickens and lions too. And no sign of Mignola's HELLBOY standards of Nazis, apes, or people falling through floors. Go buy issue #2, and grab a copy of issue #1 while you're at it.

LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN BOOK ONE TP (DC Wildstorm/ABC)
LOEG Book One has been available in a hardback collection for almost a year, but DC has finally relented and made a copy available for all of us without bottomless bank accounts. Well, we fishermen don't make much these days, what with the cod quotas and everything. I don't know what they're hoping to achieve by holding back TPB publication on Alan Moore's ABC work for so long, but it's becoming increasingly annoying. Anyway, LOEG is a wonder - sly pastiches of Victorian pulp heroes, interspersed with Moore's manic eye for detail. Kevin O'Neill's distinctive spiky artwork makes me nostalgic for his work on NEMESIS THE WARLOCK. You'll see very few better collections than this, even though you should have been able to buy it months ago.

GERMAN BIGHT PICKS:

JETCAT CLUBHOUSE TP (Oni Press)
The continuing reprinting of Jay Stephens' early(ish) work carries on apace at Oni, which is a good thing for those of us who had difficulties getting hold of it the first time round. His JETCAT work is more kid-friendly but still endearingly bizarre. There's darker stuff bubbling below the surface of the jollity if you care to look for it, but it's just as easy to take the stories of junior superheroes, eternally-childlike mummies and kid rock stars at face value. Clubhouses, poopy monkeys and that Saturday-morning cartoon frenzy feel in one humble comic.

DARK HORSE MAVERICK: HAPPY ENDINGS TP (Dark Horse)
The annual gathering-together of Dark Horse's top talents has now become so big that it's turned into a TPB. Oh, what a shame. Now we have to look forward to an even larger compilation of new material from such talents as Mike Mignola, Frank Miller, Paul Chadwick and Stan Sakai. Sob sob, boo-hoo, how shall an anthology lover such as myself be able to stand such a concentration of diverse talents under one sturdy cover? There's nothing for it, I'll have to buy the thing, seeing as how it's one of the regular highlights of my comics year. Get a copy for yourself as well, 'cos misery loves company.

FRED THE CLOWN #4 (Hotel Fred Press)
We love this over at the lighthouse. When the communal copy arrives we fight over who gets to read it first and then the losers sit around enviously watching the victor giggling their socks off. How amusing is FRED THE CLOWN? It's damn funny, as we keep telling you. What's it about? A clown, oddly enough. Called Fred. Are you even paying attention? Oh, and there's something about loneliness, pathos and homages to... well, anything Roger Langridge can think of, which is a lot.

FISHER PICKS:

STUPID COMICS #1 (Image)
This is actually the second STUPID COMICS, following on from an earlier collection of Jim Mahfood's newspaper strips from Oni Press. Oni also published the superb GRRL SCOUTS, which was a great showcase for Mahfood's bold, dynamic cartoons and hip-hopper-than-thou characters. However, what was clear in GRRL SCOUTS - and emphatically clear in the first STUPID COMICS - is that Mahfood, though an enthusiastic social commentator, tends to limit his commentaries to some fairly simplistic observations; 'corporations are greedy'; 'young people have a right to self-expression'. It lacks bite, but Mahfood's work is frequently very funny and always wonderful to look at, so I'll still pick this up, though I'll be interested to see if the commentary's any sharper.

WOLVERINE: NETSUKE #1 (Marvel Universe)
While I generally approve of Marvel's policy of paring back the hyperbole on its solicitations, it's not terribly helpful when it's trying to sell me on a new series. Especially when it's an X-MEN mini-series, because we all know the hit rate for those is about one in a hundred. Especially when it's a WOLVERINE mini-series, because the good stories left to be told with that particular character were few enough even before that half-arsed origin story defanged him. The only pointers Marvel has given us for NETSUKE is that it's written and fully painted by ENEMY ACE's George Pratt, and it sees Wolverine in samurai drag. Pratt's artwork looks lovely, so I'll flick through this next time I'm on the mainland. But Marvel, this is a first issue. Give me something to go on.

Comics shipping in the US on September 4th:

DARK HORSE

JUN020014 DARK HORSE MAVERICK: HAPPY ENDINGS TP $9.95
JUN020018 HELLBOY: THE THIRD WISH #2 (Of 2) $2.99
JUL020052 OH MY GODDESS PART XII #3: LEARNING TO LOVE (PART 3 OF 3) $3.50

DC COMICS

JUL020218 21 DOWN #1 $2.95
JUL020189 BIG DADDY DANGER #2 (Of 9) $2.95
JUL020239 CRUSADES #19 (MR) $2.95
JUL020161 DETECTIVE COMICS #774 $2.75
JUL020190 DOOM PATROL #12 $2.50
JUN020424 GREEN ARROW #16 $2.50
JUL020194 HAWKMAN #7 $2.50
JUL020201 JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES #11 $2.25
JUL020202 LAB RATS #6 $2.50
JUL020231 LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN BOOK ONE TP $14.95
JUL020214 LOONEY TUNES #94 $2.25
STAR15907 RESIDENT EVIL CODE VERONICA VOL 1 TP $14.95
JUL020204 SPECTRE #21 $2.75
JUL020179 SUPERMAN #186 $2.25
JUL020208 YOUNG JUSTICE #49 $2.75

IMAGE

JUN011311 HELLSPAWN #13 $2.50
JUN021389 LIBERTY MEADOWS #27 $2.95
JUL021205 STUPID COMICS #1 $2.95
JUN021443 WORLD CLASS COMICS #1 $4.95

MARVEL

JUL021463 ALIAS #14 (MR) $2.99
JUL021493 EXILES #17 $2.25
MAR021691 MUTANT X FUTURE SHOCK #1 $3.50
JUN021736 NEW X-MEN #131 $2.25
JUN021752 PUNISHER #15 $2.99
JUL021484 SPIDER-GIRL #51 $2.25
JUL021525 THOR #54 $2.25
JUL021478 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #26 $2.25
JUL021489 UNCANNY X-MEN #412 $2.25
JUL021501 WOLVERINE: NETSUKE #1 (Of 4) $3.99
JUL021499 X-MEN ICONS: CHAMBER #2 (Of 4) $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS

JUN022559 BASTARD #9: VAMPIRE (PART 1 OF 2) (MR) $3.95
JUN022337F BATTLE POPE: WRATH OF GOD #2 (Of 3) (MR) $3.50
JUN022018 BETTY & VERONICA #179 $1.99
JUN022021 BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #109 $3.29
JUL021864F CIVILIAN JUSTICE #1 $3.99
JUN022451 DECOY #2: STORM OF THE CENTURY (Of 4) $2.95
JUL021951E FORGE #6 (Note Price) $11.95
JUL022108F FRED THE CLOWN #4 $2.95
JUN022436 JETCAT CLUBHOUSE TP $10.95
JUL021952E MERIDIAN #27 $2.95
JUN022569 NEON GENESIS EVANGELION PART 7 #4 (OF 7) $2.95
JUN022570 NEON GENESIS EVANGELION PART 7 COLL ED #4 (Of 7) $2.95
JUL021955E PATH #6 $2.95
AUG021944 PATH VOL 1 TP: CRISIS OF FAITH $19.95
MAY021729 POP GUN WAR #4 $2.50
JUL021958E RUSE #11 $2.95
JUL021960E SCION VOL 3 TP: DIVIDED LOYALTIES $15.95
MAR025136 SHIDIMA COLLECTED VOL 1 TP (PU#526) $9.95
JUN022440 SHOT CALLERZ #3 (Of 4) (MR) $2.95
JUN022574 SILENT MOBIUS PART 11 BLOOD #2 (Of 5) $2.95
JUL021939E SLAYERS SPECIAL BOOK 1 TOUCH OF EVIL $15.95
JUN022026 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #114 $1.99
JUL021763F SUBWAY SERIES GN (MR) $9.95
MAY021734 TERRY MOORE'S PARADISE TOO #9 $2.95
JUL022216E VICTORIAN #15 $2.95
MAY022007 WARLANDS AGE OF ICE #7 $2.95
JUN022452 ZENDRA VOL 2 #2 WINDMILLS OF THE WORLD (Of 6) $2.95
MAY021873 ZOMBIE COMMANDOS FROM HELL #2 (MR) $2.95

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.