Welcome to the Shipping Forecast, Ninth Art's pick of the best and most notable new releases hitting comic stores each week. Please note, this week's comics will ship a day late in the US and deliveries will also be delayed throughout the rest of the world due to the New Year public holiday.

COMIC OF THE WEEK:

3X3 EYES: KEY TO THE SACRED LAND TP (Dark Horse)
3X3 EYES is the sort of book that at a casual glance might make you wonder, "How did this title manage to be one of Japan's longest running comic strips ever?" And then you start reading it... and the further you get, the more you understand. 3X3 EYES is a fun supernatural adventure that never rests on its laurels; it doles out information and secrets you'd never expect revealed, and in doing so keeps shifting the storyline in new directions, letting the characters of Pai, Yakumo, and the rest of the cast grow and change. Most importantly, 3X3 EYES is a lot of fun as it unleashes all sorts of strange mythological and fantastic creatures and settings on the reader. With each collection designed to be easy to jump into, now's as good a time as any to give 3X3 EYES a chance. [Plymouth]

ALSO THIS WEEK:

FANTASTIC FOUR: UNSTABLE MOLECULES (Marvel)
This book should, perhaps, have been subtitled 'Just Imagine James Sturm Creating The Fantastic Four'. Sturm, in case you aren't aware, is the Eisner-nominated creator of such graphic novels as the excellent THE GOLEM'S MIGHTY SWING, and when it was announced that he was to do a Fantastic Four miniseries (with art by Guy Davis and Bob Sikoryak working from thumbnails by Sturm), there was considerable reaction among comics journalists on the matter. Aside from the hype, it is ostensibly a 'cartoon biography' about the 'real' Fantastic Four, set against a Cold War backdrop. It seems to be that rarest of creatures - a genuinely cerebral comic from Marvel - so readers expecting indie-style 'Clobberin' Time' may have to wait a while... [Finisterre]

BATMAN: THE GOLDEN STREETS OF GOTHAM (DC Comics)
Normally, one would be well counselled to steer clear of anything with an Elseworlds label. Like any publisher of long-running franchises, DC cherishes its status quo, so little of consequence ever happens in 'The Original Universe'. Elseworlds stories - 'what if's extrapolated from already fictional worlds - should therefore be stories with endings - stories with consequence. So why do so many of them end with some semblance of the DC status quo restored? It seems frustratingly redundant. So why am I recommending an Elseworlds book this week? Well, this one's by Oni stalwart and punka princess Jen 'HOPELESS' Van 'SAVAGES' Meter, and it places an impoverished Bruce Wayne (sorry, Vanekow) in the midst of an intimately researched early 20th century milieu of immigrants, bohemians and union heavies. GANGS OF GOTHAM, if you will. With some impressive art by Cliff Chiang and Tommy Lee Edwards, this could actually be an Elseworlds worth investigating. [Fisher]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR JANUARY 2nd:

Shipping details come courtesy of Diamond. Visit the Diamond website for the latest information, as the list is subject to change.

DARK HORSE

OCT020028 3X3 EYES: KEY TO THE SACRED LAND TP (MR) $13.95
NOV020027 BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #75: FALL FROST (PART 3 OF 6) (MR) $2.99
OCT020021 KISS PHOTO CVR #5 $2.99
OCT020020 KISS RUBI CVR #5 $2.99
SEP020060 LONE WOLF & CUB VOL 28: FALLING TREE TP $9.95
OCT020033 LONE WOLF 2100 #6 $2.99
NOV020035 OH MY GODDESS #94: TRAVELER (PART 4 OF 5) $2.99
SEP020062 SUPER MANGA BLAST #27 (MR) $5.99

DC COMICS

NOV020777 21 DOWN #5 $2.95
NOV020723 BATGIRL: YEAR ONE #2 (Of 9) $2.95
NOV020725 BATMAN: THE GOLDEN STREETS OF GOTHAM $6.95
NOV020750 BIG DADDY DANGER #6 (Of 9) $2.95
NOV020794 CODENAME: KNOCKOUT #20 (MR) $2.75
NOV020717 DETECTIVE COMICS #778 $2.75
NOV020801 HELLBLAZER SPECIAL: LADY CONSTANTINE #2 (Of 4) (MR) $2.95
NOV020763 JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES #15 $2.25
NOV020774 LOONEY TUNES #98 $2.25
NOV020783 ROBOTECH #2 (Of 6) $2.95
NOV020804 SANDMAN PRESENTS: BAST #1 (Of 3) (MR) $2.95
NOV020736 SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #134 (Note Price) $2.75
NOV020772 YOUNG JUSTICE #53 $2.75

IMAGE

NOV021754 FIREBREATHER #1 (Of 4) $2.95
OCT021720 GI JOE #13 $2.95
OCT021756 MICRONAUTS ACROYEAR CVR #4 $2.95
OCT021755 MICRONAUTS KARZA CVR #4 $2.95

MARVEL

NOV022020 ALIAS #18 (MR) $2.99
OCT022042 CAPTAIN MARVEL #4 $2.25
OCT022030 DAREDEVIL #40 $2.99
NOV022062 DAREDEVIL: THE MOVIE TP $12.99
NOV022060 EDEN'S TRAIL #3 (Of 6) $2.99
NOV022038 EXILES #21 $2.25
NOV022055 FANTASTIC FOUR: UNSTABLE MOLECULES #1 (Of 4) $2.99
NOV022057 MARVEL DOUBLE SHOT #3 (Of 4) $2.99
OCT022032 PUNISHER #20 $2.99
NOV022045 SPIDER-GIRL #55 $2.25
NOV022054 THOR #58 $2.25
NOV022039 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #34 $2.25
NOV022026 UNCANNY X-MEN #417 $2.25
NOV022071 WOLVERINE LEGENDS VOL 1: WOLVERINE/HULK TP $9.99
OCT022018 X-MEN UNLIMITED #40 $3.50

OTHER PUBLISHERS

OCT022335 ARCHIE #531 $2.19
OCT022337 ARCHIE DIGEST #195 $2.39
OCT022686 CHIAROSCURO #5 (MR) $2.75
OCT022723 COURTNEY CRUMRIN & THE NIGHT THINGS TP $11.95
NOV022421 FIRST #27 $2.95
NOV022783 INQUISITOR #1 FAN CLUB CVR ED (MR) $5.00
OCT022404 LITTLE WHITE MOUSE: OPEN SPACE #2 (Of 4) $2.95
OCT022571 LUBA'S COMICS AND STORIES #3 (RES) (MR) $3.50
NOV022416 R A SALVATORE'S DEMON WARS: TRIAL BY FIRE #2 (Of 5) $2.95
OCT022827 SHONEN JUMP VOL 1 #2 FEBRUARY 2003 $4.95
SEP021979 SOULSEARCHERS #57 $2.50
OCT022350 VERONICA #135 $2.19

The 9A Lighthouse Crew are Trafalgar, Shannon, Fastnet, Plymouth, Viking, German Bight, Finisterre, Forties, Dogger, Cromarty and Fisher.

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