New This Week: November 1, 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 the second volume of Queen Chan's The Dreaming from TokyoPop. Volume one was a perfect blend of gothic wonderfulness, so I"m really looking forward to this next installment (just in time for the day after Halloween--thanks TP & Diamond!)


In other comics:

Abstract have a new issue of Strangers in Paradise (#85).

Antarctic have new issues of Gold Digger (#78) and Ninja High School (#144).

APE Entertainment have a new issue of Athena Voltaire (#2).

Archaia Studios have a new issue of Mouse Guard (#5).

Boom! Do for pirates what they've done for zombies and Cthulhu with Pirate Tales #1.

Dark Horse have the fifth volume of Eden and the third volume of Go Girl.

DC have the fourth Gotham Central collection; the debut of Ennis & Sprouse's Midnighter; the debut of Cooke & Sale's Superman Confidential; and new issues of 52 (week 26), All New Atom (#5), American Splendor (#3), Blue Beetle (#8), Detective Comics (#835), Ex Machina (#24), Jonah Hex (#13), and Justice League of America (#3).

Fantagraphics have Paul Hornschemeier's Let Us Be Perfectly Clear, and a new issue of Tales Designed to Thrizzle (#3).

IDW debut the first volume of their Complete Dick Tracy; a fifth Jon Sable, Freelance collection; and a new issue of Fallen Angel (#10).

Image have the first issue of Nightly News.

Marvel collect Joe Casey & Chris Weston's Fantastic Four: First Family; Start up Spider-Man & Power Pack; and have new issues of Agents of Atlas (#4), Criminal (#2), Irredeemable Ant-Man (#2), and She Hulk 2 (#13).

Oni have a new issue of Local (#7).

Top Shelf have their second Sequential Art Anthology: Science.

TokyoPop have a ton of stuff, including new OEL volumes for A Midnight Opera & Off*Beat; and the fourth and final volume of Telepathic Wanderers.


There's a ton of stuff this week--I hope you got some extra change in your tricks-and-treats bag!

Happy Halloween

(Image from Marge's Little Lulu #178, courtesy of the GCD.)

Quick Halloween Comic Reviews

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #20
by Peter David, Mike Norton & Norman Lee
Marvel, $2.99

Back to the past when Peter Parker was still in high school, that time when he teamed-up with Hawkeye to fight Frankenstein's Monster at a school Halloween party. MAS-M is the Spidey title for those who like their Spider-Man in the classic mode without a lot of continuity bogging him down (and without that silly Iron Spider costume!)

Rating: 3 (of 5)



Gold Digger Halloween Special #2
by Fred Perry & Friends
Antarctic, $2.99

The lead story by Fred is a GD-18 adventure of young Brit & Gina as they start the evening trick-or-treating as a Cylon & Imperious Leader from Classic Battlestar Galactica, and end the night bass fishing. Yeah, bass fishing; you'll just have to read it. The second story by Jessica Moffett has Brit trying on a bunch of cosplay outfits, and might have been more interesting to me if I knew more of the characters she was emulating. The final story by David Hutchinson features his Mischief & Mayhem kids mixing it up with the Peebos during tricks-or-treats. It's rounded out by a variety of pin-ups of varying quality, though Ben Dunn's pic of Gina dressed up as Dr. Who is a winner.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror #12
by Kyle Baker, Terry Moore, & Eric Powell
Bongo Comics, $4.99

Part of the fun of these annual ToH specials is seeing how you favorite comic artists interpret the Simpsons. Unfortunately (and a bit surprisingly) neither Baker nor Moore acquit themselves very well. Their stories are okay, but nothing too special. On the plus side Eric Powell's Simpsons look great and his story has the right tone for a ToH segment. Make this year a 1 for 3 then.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Sabrina, the Teenage Witch #79
by Tania Del Rio with Jim Amash
Archie, $2.25

Sabrina and her other witch friends learn that on Halloween witches are allowed to use their magic freely in the Mortal Realm, just so long as they don't get caught. They decide to go to a haunted house to have a little fun, but when they get tired of standing in the long admission line Salem convinces them to visit a 'real' haunted house instead. The Four Blades plot takes a backseat this issue, and though it looks like none of the overall plot is advanced, based on reading solicits for future issues I suspect that what Salem discovers inside the haunted house may have implications down the line. Tania Del Rio continues to quietly turn in one of the best OEL manga with each issue.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)



52 week 25
by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, Keith Giffen, Joe Bennett, Dale Eaglesham, Phil Jimenez, Pat Olliffe.
DC, $2.50

It's interesting that DC is keeping their weekly 'real-time' series in line with the current time, meaning that if it's Halloween here on Earth Prime it's also Halloween on New Earth. Aside from the wonderful J. G. Jones cover there are only a couple of the scenes taking place during tricks-or-treats in Boston & New York. There's not much here that couldn't have taken place at any other time of year, but the Halloween backdrop adds a nice bit of color. We also get some of the background on why Alan Scott and Michael Holt joined Checkmate, see the Black Adam Family in action, and witness the triumphant return of a classic Wonder Woman villain, whose last-page reveal is a crowd-pleaser.

Rating: 3 (of 5)

New Library Comics: Week of October 23 2006

Here are the comics we added to our library collection last week:


24 seven /Berkeley, Calif. : Image Comics, c2006- vol. 1

Baker, Kyle, 1966- Nat Turner /New York, NY : Kyle Baker Publishing, 2005- no. 1

Baker, Kyle. I die at midnight /New York, NY : DC Comics/Vertigo, c2000.

Baladi. Frankenstein : now and forever /London : Typocrat, c2005.

Baumann, Suzanne. 48 hours of pure entertainment! /Hamtramck, MI : S. Baumann, c2004.

Baumann, Suzanne. As eavesdropped-- /Hamtramck, MI : S. Baumann, c2003- nos. 1-2

Baumann, Suzanne. Cleopatra's hats /Hamtramck, MI : Fridgemag, c2001.

Baumann, Suzanne. The moldy bagels /Hamtramck, MI : S. Baumann, 1998.

Campbell, T. A history of webcomics : "the golden age" : 1993-2005 /San Antonio, TX : Antarctic Press, c2006.

Carre, Lilli. Tales of Woodsman Pete : with full particulars /Marietta, Ga. : Top Shelf, c2006.

Cater, Donovan. Null and void /Muskegon, Mich. : Donovan Cater, 2005.

Davis, Andrew. Billy Clockout : I walk the line /Greensville, SC : Wide Awake Publications, c2002.

Davis, Andrew. Hillbilly Clockout : plummet /Greensville, SC : Wide Awake Publications, c2003.

Davis, Andrew. Hillbilly Clockout : sellout /Greensville, SC : Wide Awake Publications, c2003.

Expo 2001 /[Bethesda, Maryland?] : The Expo, c2001.

Fish, Tim, 1970- Cavalcade of boys /Los Angeles, CA : Poison Press, 2006.

Huey, Debbie. Bumperboy and the loud, loud mountain /Richmond, Va. : AdHouse, 2006.

Huizenga, Kevin, 1977- Ganges /Seattle, WA : Fantagraphics, c2006- no. 1

Igort, 1958- Baobab : a graphic novel /Seattle, WA : Fantagraphics Books, c2005- no. 1

Keenspace spotlight 2003. /Temple City, CA : Keenspot Entertainment, 2003.

Langridge, Andrew. The louche and insalubrious escapades of Art d'Ecco /Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics, 2006.

Le Tendre. The Riege master /New York : Nantier-Beall Minoustchine, c1988.

Lockley, Walt. The death of Antisocialman /Hamtramck, MI : Not Available Comics, c1990- nos. 1-3, 5-10

Nilsen, Anders Brekhus, 1973- Monologues for the coming plague /Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics, 2006.

Oda, Hideji. A patch of dreams /[S.l.] : Fanfare/Ponent Mon, c2006.

Sandlin, David, 1956- Alphabetical ballad of carnality /Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics, 2006.

Todd, Mark, 1970- Whatcha mean, what's a zine? : the art of making zines and mini comics /Boston : Grafia an imprint of Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Weisbrod, Aaron. Knee deep in the dead and other tales of terror /Morristown, TN : Funnel Cloud 9, c2005.

Monkey Covers

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

Uh oh! It looks like Sheena is in trouble of the cover to Jumbo Comics #99. Not only is she facing down a mean skeleton-carting gorilla in front of her, but it looks like there's another gorilla sneaking up behind her. Good thing she's got that knife!

(Standard disclaimer about skeleton-toting gorillas not really being monkeys applies.)

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

Too Many Comics

There are, I think, too many comics these days.

By that I don't mean that there's just too many in raw number of titles, although a look through the massive Previews tome that comes out each month shows that is a problem as well.

No, I mean that there are too many comics that I want to read. Too many original graphic novels. Too many manga paperbacks. Too many super-hero comics that serve as 'comfort food'.

This is ably illustrated by my growing Too Be Read pile, which now takes up three short boxes of comics and well over 100 graphic novels, manga & collections sitting on bookshelves. (Not to mention all the comics in the library that I could read if I had the time!)

It didn't use to be this way. Back in my college days I'd buy maybe 8-10 comics a week, and over the course of one or two evenings get them read. But today there are not only comics to buy--and more of them--but also a plethora of comics in book format.

I think it's a combination of several factors: the increase in the number of formats; a general increase in the amount of quality items available; too many other options for my time (including blogging about comics instead of reading them); and an increase in disposable income, so I can buy more comics than I have time to read.

Does anybody else have this problem, or is it just me?

New This Week: October 25, 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 today:


The Pick of the Week is Seven Soldiers #1, finally bringing to conclusion Grant Morrison's epic interlocking mini-series. With the series being true-to-form though, some comic shops may not be getting this until next week...


In other comics:

Boom! have the second issue of Tag.

DC have collections for American Virgin and Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes; a Showcase Presents for The Phantom Stranger; Richard Donner's debut on Action Comics (#844); and new issues of 52 (week 25), Jack of Fables (#4), Planetary (#26), Secret Six (#5), Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes (#23), and Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters (#4).

D.E. have the first issue of Classic Battlestar Galactica. You remember, when Starbuck and Boomer were both dudes and they had that poor monkey in a robot dog suit.

Fantagraphics have the second issue of Linda Medley's new Castle Waiting series.

IDW have the Angel: Masks one-shot and the collected edition of Supermarket.

Image have a collection of the second Hawaiian Dick series; and new issues of Gødland (#13) and Negative Burn (#5).

Marvel have new collections for Daredevil and Runaways; and new issues of Captain America (#23), Daredevil (#90), Nextwave (#9), Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane (#11), and Ultimate Spider-Man (#101).

NBM have a color edition of the first Cryptozoo Crew volume.

Vertical have Osamu Tezuka's Ode to Kirihito--over 800 pages by one of the best cartoonists ever.


Okay, that's plenty of comics for you!