Monkey Covers

Sunday is Monkey Covers day here at YACB. Because there's nothing better than a comic with a monkey on the cover.

Everyone's favorite sailor man offers up some of his tasty spinich as bait to the Queen of the Gorillas on the cover of Popeye #58.

(Standard disclaimer about gorilla queens not really being monkeys applies.)

Image courtesy of the GCD. Click on the image for a larger version.

YACB Bulletins

ITEM! Apparently it's been Batgirl Sketch Week over on LiveJournal, where a bunch of people have done sketches of everyone's favorite crimefighting librarian. Check it out. (link via Heidi)

ITEM! The Diamond December Sales Charts are out, and it's not looking good for any publisher whose name isn't 'DC' or 'Marvel'; 95 of the top 100 books are from those two publishers, leaving the rest of the market to scrable for scraps of readers.

ITEM! Sara Ryan's new YA novel, The Rules for Hearts, is scheduled to be released on October 19th. Circle the date on your calendars now.

ITEM! The Straight Dope covers the history of public libraries in the U.S. (no mention of manga, though!)

Yet Another Friday Question - Your First Comic Purchase

What was the first comic book you ever purchased?

For me it was Marvel Special Edition featuring Star Wars #1, a tabloid-sized collection of the first three issues of Marvel's Star Wars adaptation--the first half of the movie. I only had this first half, so I read and re-read the first half of Star Wars over and over. This of course was way back in the day before home video, so comic book adaptaions were one of the very few ways to relive a movie experience.

How about you--what was the first comic you bought?

Waiting for the Trade

Here are the comic series that I currently wait for the trade to get & read:

Fantastic Four
New Avengers
Amazing Spider-Man
Runaways
Spider-Girl
She-Hulk
Daredevil
Ultimate Fantastic Four
Lucifer
Y, the Last Man
The Losers
Hard Time
Invincible
The Walking Dead
various mini-series from Marvel & Oni

Usually I'm waiting for the trade either because I didn't start reading it in floppies, and once I've started with trades that's the best way to continue; or because I used to read it in floppies but I feel that it reads better as larger chunks.

How about you--what do you prefer to read in trades as opposed to floppies?

New This Week: January 11, 2006

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 probably Seven Soldiers of Victory, vol. 1, by Grant Morrison & a host of artists. Unless of course you've been buying all of the 7S minis all along--in which case your Pick of the Week would be DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore. But then there's a good chance that you already have all of the stuff in that collection too. In which case you may opt for Wrapped in Plastic #75--the final (and oversized) issue of the critical David Lynch fan mag. Of course, you might not be a fan of David Lynch--so perhaps you'll go for the Youngblood Maximum Edition? (just kidding--even if it is completely redialogued by Joe Casey).


Let's see what else may be of interest:

Antarctic have the first issue of Gold Digger Color Remix, presenting the first GD mini in glorious color; and for more glorious GD in color there's the massive Gold Digger Gold Brick, vol. 4 which includes issues #26-50 of volume 3. They also have the first regular issue of Metadocs Type A.

DC have the debut of ElfQuest: The Discovery; 100 Bullets #68, Desolation Jones #5, DMZ #3, and Fables #45.

IDW have Angel: Old Friends #2.

Marvel have The Book of Lost Souls #4, Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four #8, New Thunderbolts #17, and She-Hulk 2 #4.


That's about it--a very light week.

New Library Comics: Week of January 2, 2006

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


Brown, Sam. Amazing rain /Brooklyn, N.Y. : Soft Skull Press ; [Berkeley, Calif.] : Distributed by Publishers Group West, c2004.

James, Dan. The octopi and the ocean /Marietta, GA : Top Shelf Productions, 2004.

YACB Bulletins

ITEM! Ever wonder what happened to ex-Quantum & Woody artist M. D. "Doc" Bright? In addition to illustrating one of the upcoming Untold Tales of the New Universe one-shots, he's created his own syndicated comic strip: Level Path. (via Steve Bennett)

ITEM! "We thought that American television was much better than it actually was because they didn’t send over any of the rubbish!" - Neil Gaiman, in an interview on 92Y Blog (via Tom). This used to be the case with Japanese manga here in the U.S.--until the last couple of years when, desperate for material, the publishers started licensing the cheap crap along with the good stuff, giving us a more accurate look at the range of quality in Japanese comics.

ITEM! Apparently Joe Q thinks that the market can support another ongoing Wolverine series. Because what everyone is clamoring for is another comic starring the most overexposed character of the past two decades.

ITEM! Over at The Great Curve, Tom Bondurant takes the opportunity of the occasion of the end of Superman to take a look back at the 20-year post-Crisis history of the enduring super-hero.

ITEM! The 2005 Nebula Awards preliminary ballot is available--as usual, I haven't read anything on it (yet...)