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.

VIKING PICKS:

PLANETARY/JLA (DC)
New Planetary! Admittedly, it's not Planetary proper, but still, it's got the gang in it, and it's written by Warren Ellis, and that's good enough for me. Jerry Ordway takes over the pencilling duties on this prestige format one-shot, and preview images have shown the art to be bloody gorgeous, even if I have no idea what's going on. It involves the JLA and Planetary, and there's a fight between Jakita Wagner and Batman. That's all I know, and it's all I need to know.

NEW X-MEN #132 (Marvel)
No more Igor Kordey! Yeah, I know Kordey has turned up some good stuff elsewhere, but his work on NEW X-MEN has made me want to slit my wrists with a fishhook. It's the brilliant Phil Jimenez for a couple (I believe) of issues, and Jimenez is one of the best artists around, so somebody wrestle the fishhooks out of my hands. Oh look, I've cut myself anyway. Before I bleed out my last, I should point out that NEW X-MEN has crept up on me slightly. I was idly reading it, month to month, not really paying any attention, but last issue I noticed that it's actually really rather good. If you were coasting before, not really reading it, just buying it because it's Morrison, take heed. Morrison is quietly changing superhero comics in this title, and now the art's going to be top-notch for the forseeable future, nobody's got a good reason not to be buying it.

FISHER PICKS:

SKREEMER (DC Vertigo)
People who came to Peter Milligan through his Marvel work have an awful lot of catching up to do - except that there's sadly very little work currently available for fans to catch up with. ENIGMA and HUMAN TARGET are very definitely worth a look, though, and this pre-Vertigo six-issue series also belongs on your 'Must Read' pile. A gangster story set in the near-future, it centres on families and friendships torn apart by ambition and the desperate need for survival. With brash illustration from Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon, it's a bombastic morality tale that I'm enormously happy to see back in print. Let's hope this and the forthcoming JOHNNY NEMO trade from Cyberosia are just the start of the Milligan back-catalogue revival. SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, anyone?

NEW X-MEN #132 (Marvel)
You can't have failed to notice the date of this week's comics. One of the only books that seems bold enough to face the subject of last September 11's terrorist attacks is NEW X-MEN. (One might be inclined to arch an eyebrow at the release of SHIELD: AMERICA'S FIRST PATRIOTIC COMIC BOOK HERO, though.) In fact, this issue sees Morrison return to the scene of his eerily timely massacre of the population of Genosha, but the parallels are so clear as to be directly mentioned in the solicitation copy. There are very few writers with the sensitivity to handle a story like this one, but Grant Morrison is certainly smart enough that the results should be worth reading. Art comes from Morrison's old INVISIBLES collaborator Phil Jimenez.

PLYMOUTH PICKS:

CATWOMAN SECRET FILES #1 (DC)
CATWOMAN writer freely admits he's never read any of DC's "Secret Files" books. Instead, he took the name of CATWOMAN SECRET FILES and decided that he'd just do what it sounded like to him. The end result? Expect a lot of mysteries unearthed, both looking into Catwoman's past and setting up her future. And of course, it wouldn't be part of the new CATWOMAN without the new, slick art style that's become its signature... in this case, provided by the talented Michael Avon Oeming, Cameron Stewart, Eric Shanower, Cliff Chiang, and Mike Manley. Sounds like a tasty catch to this fisher.

CERES, CELESTIAL LEGEND VOL 2: YUHI TP (Viz)
It's your sixteenth birthday, and what was supposed to be a big family party for you and your twin brother has just gone horribly wrong. You're the reincarnation of Ceres, a celestial being that is the ancestor of your entire family. You've got immense powers... which might be the only thing to save you, because now your extended family is trying to kill you, using every resource at their disposal. Your only allies are mysterious and untrustworthy at best. And you're just a sixteen year old girl. So of course, in Volume 2 of CERES, CELESTIAL LEGEND, things get worse. Yu Watase's 14-volume epic is continually full of twists and turns you never see coming, and what starts out as a sweet, innocent story gets progressively darker and grimmer as things progress. It's not too late to take a look for yourself and see just what you're missing.

ROSETTA COMICS ANTHOLOGY GN (Alternative Comics)
It's always heartwarming to find so many good comics anthologies hitting stores. Take ROSETTA from Alternative Comics. Most anthologies have one or two "big names" to anchor the book (and being in the shipping business, we understand the need for a strong anchor), but when you've got Nick Bertozzi (THE MASOCHISTS), Ivan Brunetti (HAW!), Greg Cook (CATCH AS CATCH CAN), Renee French (THE SOAP LADY), Tom Hart (HUTCH OWEN), Miriam Katin (DRAWN & QUARTERLY), James Kochalka (MONKEY VS ROBOT), and Danijel Zezelj (SANDMAN: THE CORINTHIAN) all in one book... well, that's not a strong anchor, that's an amazingly strong book through and through. We at the lighthouse can't wait for its arrival.

Comics shipping in the US on September ???:

DARK HORSE
JUL020032 BTVS WILLOW & TARA WILDERNESS #2 (Of 2) $2.99
JUL020033 BTVS WILLOW & TARA WILDERNESS PHOTO CVR #2 (OF 2) $2.99

DC COMICS
JUL020180 ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #608 $2.25
JUL020164 AZRAEL: AGENT OF THE BAT #94 $2.95
JUL020167 BATGIRL #32 $2.50
JUL020163 BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #159 $2.50
JUL020175 CATWOMAN SECRET FILES #1 $4.95
JUL020240 FABLES #5 (MR) $2.50
JUL020241 FILTH #4 (Of 13) (MR) $2.95
JUL020225 GEN 13 #1 $2.95
JUL020173 GOTHAM GIRLS #2 (Of 5) $2.25
JUL020193 GREEN LANTERN #154 $2.25
JUL020176 HARLEY QUINN #24 $2.50
JUL020223 HIGH ROADS #6 (Of 6) $2.95
JUL020243 HUNTER: THE AGE OF MAGIC #15 (MR) $2.75
MAY020229 JIST WITH JOHN CASSADAY CREATING CRISIS $5.95
JUL020195 JLA #71 $2.25
JUL020198 JLA: DESTINY #4 (Of 4) $5.95
JUL020231 LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN BOOK ONE TP $14.95
JUL020177 NIGHTWING #73 $2.25
JUL020224 PLANETARY/JLA: TERRA OCCULTA $5.95
JUL020226 POINT BLANK #2 (Of 5) (MR) $2.95
JUL020206 POWER COMPANY #8 $2.75
JUL020216 SCOOBY-DOO #64 $2.25
JUL020251 SKREEMER TP (MR) $19.95
JUL020228 STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION: THE GORN CRISIS TP $17.95
JUL020229 STORMWATCH TEAM ACHILLES #3 (MR) $2.95
JUN020467 TOM STRONG'S TERRIFIC TALES #4 (RES) $2.95
JUL020252 VERTIGO POP: TOKYO #3 (Of 4) (MR) $2.95

IMAGE
MAY021167 GUARDIAN ANGEL #2 (Of 4) $2.95
JUL021190 PARADIGM #1 $3.50
MAY021184 POWERS #23 (MR) $2.95
DEC011529 SPAWN #119 $2.50
MAY021194 TOMB RAIDER VOL 3: CHASING SHANGRI LA TP $12.95

MARVEL
JUL021528 BLACK PANTHER #49 $2.50
JUL021514 CALL OF DUTY: THE PRECINCT #3 (Of 5) $2.25
JUN021772 HOWARD THE DUCK TP (MR) $14.99
JUL021527 IRON MAN #59 $2.25
JUL021487 NEW X-MEN #132 $2.25
JUL021497 X-MEN UNLIMITED #38 $2.25
JUL021492 X-TREME X-MEN #18 $2.99

OTHER PUBLISHERS
JUL021762F A FINE MESS #1 (MR) $3.50
MAY022260 AMELIA RULES #7 $2.95
JUN022013 ARCHIE #527 $1.99
JUL021799E ARCHIE AMERICANA SER BEST OF 40S VOL 2 $10.95
AUG021838 ARCHIES CLASSIC CHRISTMAS STORIES VOL 1 $10.95
JUL021715E BEAUTIFUL KILLER #2 (Of 3) $2.99
JUL022329E BIG O PART 2 #3 (Of 4) $3.50
AUG021800 BIPOLAR #3 $2.95
MAY022217 CASTLE WAITING #15 $2.95
JUL022331E CERES, CELESTIAL LEGEND VOL 2: YUHI TP $15.95
JUN022451 DECOY #2 STORM OF THE CENTURY (Of 4) $2.95
JUN021981 DORK #10 $2.95
JUL022356E DRAGONBALL Z PART 5 #9 (Of 12) $2.95
JUL021949E EDGE #6 (Note Price) $11.95
JUL021950E FIRST #23 $2.95
JUN022439 HOPELESS SAVAGES: GROUND ZERO #3 (Of 4) $2.95
JUL021947E IMMORAL ANGEL VOL 3 TP: SUFFERING AND SACRIFICE (A) $16.95
JUN022023 LAUGH DIGEST #178 $2.19
JUL022357E MEDABOTS PART 3 #3 (Of 4) $2.75
JUL021953E MYSTIC #28 $2.95
JUL022339E PROJECT ARMS PART 1 #1 $3.25
JUL022040F RAISIN PIE #1 (MR) $3.95
JUL022340E RANMA 1/2 PART 11 #7 (Of 11) $2.95
JUL021761F ROSETTA COMICS ANTHOLOGY GN (MR) $19.95
JUN022015 SHIELD: AMERICA'S FIRST PATRIOTIC COMIC BOOK HERO TP $12.95
JUL021917F SOULSEARCHERS #56 $2.50
JUN022231 TRANSFORMERS GENERATION ONE #5 $2.95
JUL022345E VAGABOND #11 (MR) $4.95
JUL022343E VAGABOND VOL 3 TP $12.95
JUN022025 VERONICA #131 $1.99
JUL022216E VICTORIAN #15 $2.95
JUL021963E WAY OF THE RAT #5 $2.95
JUN022452 ZENDRA VOL 2 #2: WINDMILLS OF THE WORLD (Of 6) $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.