Welcome to the Shipping Forecast, Ninth Art's pick of the best and most notable new releases hitting comic stores each week.

COMIC OF THE WEEK:

HELLBOY WEIRD TALES #1 (Dark Horse)
Dark Horse, adept at making comics out of entertainment franchises, has now turned one of its original comics into a successful franchise, with series creator Mike Mignola heavily involved throughout. WEIRD TALES is the HELLBOY equivalent of STAR WARS TALES, the STAR WARS short story collection which, when it started, was chock full of unlikely and interesting talents (Dave Cooper! Andi Watson! Tony Millionaire!) putting their spin on things. The talents on offer in this premiere issue include a cover and two stories by John Cassaday and one by Andi Watson, with the likes of Gene Colan, P Craig Russell, Roger Langridge and Craig Thompson in the line up for subsequent issues. Now, how good does that sound? [German Bight]

ALSO THIS WEEK:

LONE WOLF & CUB VOL 1 THE ASSASSINS ROAD TP
LONE WOLF & CUB VOL 2 THE GATELESS BARRIER TP
LONE WOLF & CUB VOL 3 FLUTE OF THE FALLEN TIGER TP (Dark Horse)
You don't need to eat this week. Not really. It'd do you good to lose a bit of weight, anyway. And you'd have to be completely mad to miss this. One of the great virtues of the bookshelf form is that there's no rush to buy the books - they're going to be around on the shelves of any sensible shop for a while. And that goes double for these particular books - they're classics, and justifiably so. Not having them on the shelf in a store would be like not having a copy of WATCHMEN in stock. Conceivable, sure, but really very stupid. But, you ask, if they're going to be around for ages, why do I need to go without dinner and rush out and buy them this very week? Because Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's violent multi-volume epic about family honour in feudal Japan really is that good. You're getting another chance to start reading LONE WOLF & CUB at the very beginning. So stop reading this, and go to the shop. Now. [Dogger]

X-STATIX VOL 1 TPB (Marvel Comics)
Sophisticated media satire and genre deconstruction? In an X-book? Yes, folks, it's true - it's X-STATIX. Okay, so the new name of the relaunched X-FORCE is a bit silly, but this is not a title that takes itself particularly seriously. Pete Milligan's wry and intelligent script uses the motifs and conventions of superhero comics to good effect as the freshly-rebranded X-Statix team faces competition from another 'supergroup'. Mike Allred's pop-art-tinged visuals are a treat as well, and really bring the characters to life, from the bullish and brash 'Anarchist' to the pink-and-pimply Brando-alike Guy. So, do yourself a favour and pick up some proper pop thrills - silly name notwithstanding. [Finisterre]

BOOKS TO LOOK OUT FOR:

Because we can't always give you the most up-to-date shipping information, we'll also give you an occasional look at some of the best books that have recently shipped or are expected to ship in the coming weeks.

CHIMERA #1 (CrossGen)
About a year ago, Brandon Peterson announced he was taking some time off of the monthly grind to work on his art style on something requiring a slower pace. If the end result is a book as attractive as CHIMERA, he should do this more regularly. Its blending of traditional and computer-enhanced art puts one in mind of THE RED STAR, and Peterson's clearly having a blast drawing gigantic mechanoid creations on a barren ice planet. Peterson and Ron Marz's story involving genetic fugitives from the Chimeran Empire moves a little slowly at first, but with a 48-page first issue (at no additional cost), they do a good job of setting up the rest of the mini-series. Definitely something to take a look at. [Plymouth]

THE SHIPPING LIST FOR DECEMBER 26th:

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

DARK HORSE

DEC020023 BTVS #54 VIVA LAS BUFFY (PART 4 OF 4) $2.99
DEC020024 BTVS #54 VIVA LAS BUFFY (PART 4 OF 4) PHOTO CVR $2.99
DEC020014 HELLBOY WEIRD TALES #1 $2.99
DEC020018 KISS KOLINS CVR #7 $2.99
DEC020019 KISS PHOTO CVR #7 $2.99
STAR11783 LONE WOLF & CUB VOL 1 THE ASSASSINS ROAD TP $9.95
STAR11929 LONE WOLF & CUB VOL 2 THE GATELESS BARRIER TP $9.95
STAR12325 LONE WOLF & CUB VOL 3 FLUTE OF THE FALLEN TIGER TP $9.95
DEC020021 NEVERMEN STREETS OF BLOOD #2 (Of 3) $2.99
STAR09865 STAR WARS RETURN OF THE JEDI MANGA #1 $9.95
DEC020022 USAGI YOJIMBO #64 $2.99

DC COMICS

DEC020727 BATMAN #612 $2.25
NOV025077 BATMAN DOUBLE FEATURE $3.95
DEC020735 BATMAN GOTHAM ADVENTURES #59 $2.25
DEC020738 CATWOMAN #16 $2.50
DEC020788 DANGER GIRL 3D $4.95
DEC020781 DEXTERS LABORATORY #34 $2.25
STAR17300 FABLES LEGENDS IN EXILE TP $9.95
DEC020791 GLOBAL FREQUENCY #5 (Of 12) $2.95
DEC020761 GREEN ARROW #21 (RES) $2.50
DEC020765 GREEN LANTERN THE POWER OF ION TP $14.95
DEC020817 HELLBLAZER #181 (MR) $2.75
DEC020769 JLA #78 $2.25
DEC020770 JLA THE SPECTRE SOUL WAR #2 (Of 2) $5.95
DEC020775 LEGION #17 $2.50
DEC020792 OUT THERE #16 $2.95
DEC020793 RESISTANCE #6 $2.95
DEC020750 SUPERGIRL #79 $2.50
DEC020748 SUPERMAN #190 $2.25
DEC020749 SUPERMAN #190 SPECIAL EDITION (Note Price) $3.95
DEC020778 TITANS #50 $2.75
DEC020824 VERTIGO X PREVIEW (MR) $0.99
DEC020801 WILDCATS VERSION 3.0 #7 (MR) $2.95
DEC020779 WONDER WOMAN #189 $2.25

IMAGE

OCT021717 ATHENA INC CVR A #5 $2.95
OCT021718 ATHENA INC CVR B #5 $2.95
JAN031319 BATTLE OF THE PLANETS #4 (O/A) $2.99
DEC021847 BATTLE OF THE PLANETS #7 $2.99
STAR13073 CLERKS THE COMIC BOOK TP $10.95
DEC021790 GI JOE BATTLE FILES #1 (Of 3) (O/A) $5.95
NOV021760 GI JOE FRONTLINE #4 $2.95
FEB031216 KORE CAPULLO CVR #1 $2.95
FEB031215 KORE SEELEY CVR #1 $2.95
DEC021814 MICRONAUTS #5 $2.95
DEC021823 PARADIGM #6 (MR) (Note Price) $2.95
DEC021841 RISING STARS BRIGHT #1 (Of 3) $2.99
DEC021830 SAMMY TOURIST TRAP #1 (Of 4) $2.95
SEP021207 SAVAGE DRAGON #105 $2.95
NOV021789 TOMB RAIDER #27 $2.99
NOV021788 WITCHBLADE #62 $2.99

MARVEL

DEC022077 AGENT X #8 $2.25
DEC022079 AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #50 $2.25
DEC022097 AVENGERS #64 $2.25
DEC022086 DAREDEVIL #44 $2.99
STAR14120 DAREDEVIL LEGENDS VOL 3 MAN WITHOUT FEAR TP $16.95
NOV022015 ELEKTRA #20 $2.99
DEC022096 FANTASTIC FOUR #66 $2.25
DEC022065 HULK WOLVERINE 6 HOURS #3 (Of 4) $2.99
STAR16747 MARVEL ENCYCLOPEDIA HC $29.99
DEC025159 MARVEL MUST HAVES ULTIMATE VENOM (PU#560) $3.99
DEC022105 PARADISE X RAGNAROK #2 (Of 2) $2.99
DEC022084 SPIDER-MAN PETER PARKER #53 $2.25
STAR16120 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN VOL 2 TP $12.99
DEC022067 ULTIMATE X-MEN #29 $2.25
DEC022074 WEAPON X #6 $2.25
DEC022124 X STATIX VOL 1 TP $11.99
DEC022076 X-MEN UNLIMITED #42 $3.50
DEC022072 X-STATIX #8 $2.25

OTHER PUBLISHERS

DEC022463 ARCHIE #533 $2.19
DEC022979 BASTARD #15 UNDEAD PART 1 (OF 5) (MR) $3.95
DEC022981 BATTLE ANGEL ALITA LAST ORDER PART 1 #6 $2.95
DEC022469 BETTY & VERONICA SPECTACULAR #59 $2.19
DEC022567 BRATH #1 $2.95
DEC022419 CHARM SCHOOL #7 (MR) $2.95
NOV022291 COURIERS GN $12.95
DEC022976 DRAGONBALL PART 6 #2 (Of 8) (Note Price) $3.50
DEC022596 ELVIRA #118 $2.50
DEC022417 HIGHWAY 13 #9 $2.95
DEC022471 LAUGH DIGEST #182 $2.39
DEC022572 MERIDIAN #33 $2.95
DEC022818 MOONSTONE NOIR MYSTERIOUS TRAVELER (MR) $5.50
DEC022832 ODDBALLZ #6 $2.95
DEC022573 PATH #12 $2.95
DEC022577 RUSE #17 $2.95
DEC022643 SANDSCAPE #2 $2.95
DEC022822 SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERIES VOL 1 TP $18.95
DEC022539 SIMPSONS COMICS #79 $2.50
NOV022268 STRANGERS IN PARADISE VOL III #56 $2.95
DEC022644 TRANSFORMERS ARMADA #8 $2.95
DEC022475 VERONICA #137 $2.19
NOV022532 WEASEL CURR PRTG #2 (O/A) (MR) $4.95

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.