This Week on YAMB

This week over on Yet Another Music Blog:

I blogged about releases by Jenny Queen & Tristan Prettyman, and debuted the first 'real' program on Yet Another Music Radio: Live Tracks 1, featuring three and a half hours of some of my favorite live tracks.

Our first First YACB Blogiversary kicks off officially on Monday the 15th, but tune in here tomorrow for the announcement of our big week-long give-away event!

Quick First Issue Reviews

Wildsiderz #1
by J. Scott Campbell & Andy Hartnell

Another blogger (sorry, I forget who) descibed this as Saved by the Bell with artificial super-powers, and that pretty much hits the mark. You've got 'Styler the Sk8ter,' 'Kat the Hottie,' 'Bam the Meathead,' ' Zak the Hunk,' and 'Jess the Brain'--all of whom end up with devices (developed by a military contracter) which allow them to form colorful hard-light extensions of their bodies. If you think about the premise too hard (or, really, at all) it will fall right apart, but if you just take it as is and run with it it works. Campbell's art is the same as always, and the hard-light powersactually look kind of cool as rendered by colorist Roger Delgado. I suspect that Campbell & Hartnell actually have within them the ability to do a rather good high school dramedy sans any super-powers, but let's face it, in today's market that's not going to fly for a 32-page full-color glossy from DC.
Rating: 3 (of 5)



Gimoles #1
by Mike Bullock & Theo Bain

Take one part The Smurfs and mix it with the Heat/Freeze Miser parts of The Year Without a Santa Claus and you get Gimoles, a competently done new comic that's strictly for the kids. The Gimoles are little green elves who are resposible for he season fo Spring, but they can't get started because the evil Ichabod Cornelius Frost, lord of Winter, has kidnapped the Groundhog on Groundhog Day, ensuring that his winter-machines can not be turned off. So of course it's up to two young Gimoles to rescue th Groundhog from Frost's ice castle so that spring can come again to the land. The art is a nice style and the story is clear (though it gets a bit too bogged down in exposition in the middle), but it all seems highly derivative. Still, for just 75 cents, you may want to pick up the first issue to see if your kids like it.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Brian Pulido's Gypsy #1
by Brian Pulido & Paulo Siqueira

Actually better than any comic that has seven different covers should be, Pulido's latest comic about hot babes in historical supernatural action is set at the dawn of the industrial revolution as old and new cultures collide. Liza and Antoinette are two hot young sisters who nevertheless are subject to persecution because they're gypsies, despite, you know, their hotness. And of course there's a supernatural threat lurking in the woods. Siqueira makes a valiant effort in the art to represent the period, although he could stand o vary his line weight to give his art an added dimension, and his women all have the same height, body shape and faces, distinguishable only by their hairstyles.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Supergirl #1
by Jeph Loeb, Ian Churchill & Norm Rapmund

One might think that DC would use the occasion of a new Supergirl comic to at least try to produce something that would be of interest to the young female manga kids. But seriously, with Loeb & Churchill spinning this series out of Superman/Batman, can you really expect anything else than a story steeped in DCU continuity and a two-page spread with Supergirl in her bare midriff costume fighting a busty Power Girl? Of course not. This one is strictly for the fanboys. It succeeds in being what it is and what it aims for; while direct market sales will probably be strong, I just think that it's aiming in the wrong direction.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Gødland #1
by Joe Casey & Tom Scioli

Super Cosmic Mind Candy! Scioli made a name for himself by channeling Jack Kirby for his The Myth of 8-Opus, and now he's back with another Kirby riff with writer Joe Casey in tow. Four years ago Commander Adam Archer was in charge of a disasterous Mission to Mars in which although the rest of his crew died, Archer ended up with Cosmic Powers. Now a Cosmic Menace threatens Earth, so it's up to Commander Adam Archer to save us! The story is bold! The art is bold (and looks like Kirby)! Even the color is bold! It's Big! It's Bold! It's Cosmic! (And the bad guy on the last page whose head is a skull floating in a tank of green water? He looks kind of cool...)
Rating: 3 (of 5)

Salon on Finder

Salon's Douglas Wolk discusses Carla Speed McNeil's Finder in general and the most recent volume, The Rescuers, in particular: "Yurts, robot secretaries, and talking dinosaurs." (link via Jumbotron 6000)

Yet Another Fantasy League

If you're like me, not only do you love comics, you also love American football.

Okay, so maybe you're not like me; I've found that the overlap of comic fans and sports fans is rather small...

But I've decided to try creating a Fantasy Football league tied to this blog anyway.

So, I invite everyone reading this blog to join Yet Another Fantasy League for some fantasy football fun.

To join, simply follow this link and register your team. To increase the fun, please choose the name of a super-hero team as your team name. (I've already taken Kickers, Inc.!) If you join, please use the comments for this post to tell us who you are and what your team name is.

Registration will continue until all 12 team spots have been filled, or until August 29 (the date for our autopick draft) whichever comes first.

It'll all be good fun, I'm sure!

This is part of our month-long 1st Blogiversary Celebration. Don't forget to check in here on this blog this coming Sunday for the announcement of our next big giveaway event!

New This Week: August 10, 2005

Based on the NCRL list for this week's comics shipping from Diamond, here are a few things to look for at the local comic shop tomorrow:


The Pick of the Week is Paul Chadwick's Concrete, vol. 1: Depths from Dark Horse, the start of a complete reprinting of the entire Concrete saga (in story chronological order). Finding the original Conrete #1 in a quarter bin back in the 80s was one of the events that led me into the wonderful world of non-Marvel/DC back in the day, and it will be good to have all of this stuff back in print, including the scattered short stories.


In other comics:

Alias have the third issue of Penny & Aggie colorized reprints of the Webcomics.

Arcana have the delayed fifth issue of 100 Girls.

DC have the trade collection of the Adam Strange mini; the debut issues of Supergirl and The Winter Men (buy this--John Paul Leon on art!); and new issues of 100 Bullets (#63), Action Comics (#630), Fables (#40), Majestic (#8), Seven Soldiers: Zatanna (#3), and Villains United (#4).

Fantagraphics have Richard Sala's Peculia & The Groon Grove Vampires (which would have been the Pick of the Week if not for Concrete), and also the first volume of Mome.

Image have the debut of Ferro City and the third issue of Pigtale.

Lightspeed Press have the seventh Finder collection by Carla Speed McNeil: The Rescuers (also a potential contender for Pick of the Week--there's a lot of good GNs and collections this week!)

Lost in the Dark have the debut of Fragile Prophet.

Marvel have a collection of Peter David's return to Hulk: Tempest Fugit; new issues of Captain America (#8), Gravity (#3), Mouse of Him (#5), Incredible Hulk (#85), Kabuki: Reflections (#5), The Punisher (#24), and the first Ultimates Annual; plus a big ol' hardcover collection of the first 18 issues of Runaways.

Speakeasy have the debut issue of Hero at Large.

TokyoPop have the debut volume of the OEL manga Bizenghast by M. Alice LeGrow, which--artwise at least--looks pretty damn sweet.

Top Shelf have a trio of new OGNs: Tricked by Alex Robinson; King by Rich Koslowski; and Spiral Bound by Aaron Renier (which has been good some pretty good advance press). It's great that Top Shelf has several good books coming out, but maybe they could have spread them out a bit more?

Viz have the ninth volume of Banana Fish and the third issue of Shojo Beat.

Review: Periphery #1-2

Periphery #1-2
O-P-P
$3.50 each

Anthologies are notoriously hard to pull off, especially if there's no overriding subject or theme. But with Periphery, publisher/writer/artist Omaha Perez has put togther a winner. Ranging from horror to humor to mythology, over the course of two issues the stories in these two 48-page anthologies never fail to entertain.

Prerz provides the art on about half of the entries; other creators involved are Steve Niles, Brian Horton, Mark Fearing, Eli S. Stone, Richard Raleigh, and Matthew Smith.

Niles is best known for his supernatural horror work for IDW & Dark Horse, but his story in issue #1, "Carsickness," drawn ably by Brian Horton, is a thrilling Tarantino-esque story about a convenience store robbery that goes in unexpected directions, with nary a vampire or werewolf in sight. Issue #1 also includes "The Handsomest Man in the World," A tongue-in-cheek spoof by Stone & Perez; "Closed Case," a two-page solo effort by Horton about a police interrogation with a shock twist ending; "In Deep," by Niles & Perez, about two guys who really can't stand each other who get stranded in outter space; and "The Story of Ganesha" by Raleigh & Perez, which I believe is a retelling of a Hindu myth and is probably the best story of the lot.

Both issues include a "Jerry: Caveman Inventor" story by Mark Fearing; both are quite funny with a wry sense of humor that builds to the end.

Iuees #2 also includes "The Novice" by Matthew Smith & Brian Horton, a mostly-silent tale about an unusual encounter between two warriors in the desert; and "Holmes," a solo effort by Perez (and featured as a flip-book), which reimagines Sherlock Holmes as a drugged-out maniac and Dr. Watson as his supplier-enabler. Of all the stories over the two issues, it is this last that didn't quite work for me, although that may be because I'm not much of a Sherlock Holmes fan so perhaps some of the jokes were lost on me.

Overall though this is a quality anthology, providing plenty of entertainment for your comic dollar, and shows that there's still plenty of life in the comic-sized anthology.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

(Review copies were provided by the publisher. A copy of Cenozoic #1 was also sent, although I reviewed that previously.)

New Library Comics: Week of August 1, 2005

Here are the comics we got in for our library collection last week:


Jarry, Grégory. L'os du gigot : photobiographie /Angoulême, France : ego comme x, 2004.

Kerkoš, Saša. An art of normal, everyday conversation : Harlem story /Celje : Samozal, 2001.

Micol, Hugues. 3 /Paris : Éditiosn Cornélius, 2001.

Peña, Nancy. Le cabinet chinois /Antony France : La boîte à bulles, 2003.

¡Que suerte! : zen mecánico. [Madrid] : [s.n.], [2003?]

Salazar, Souther. Fervler & Razzle /[Los Angeles] : No Questions Asked Publishing ; Crashlander Comix, 2004.

Sury, Caroline. Féroce agenda de Mars /Marseille : Le Dernier Cri, 2004.