Monkey Covers

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

A golden monkey reads the news on Steve Lafler's 1987 cover to Out the Next #1.

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

New Library Comics: Week of March 12, 2007

Casas, Mariano. Historias de Mariano : una inquietante recopilicion de algunas historias que fueron verdad y otras que no /Mariano Casas, 2006.

Cat Chow. Struggles, triumphs, and tender moments of Cat Chow : A B C. /[United States?] : Cat Chow, c2006.

Entrialgo, Mauro. Drugos el acumulador /Barcelona : Ediciones la Cupula, c2003.

Johnson, Dave. The Johnson sketchbook /[United States?] : Atomeka, c2004- vol. 1

Mackey, James T. Pfc. Ernest J. Mackey, A. F. 15343898 : 1603rd A. B. G. 1603rd M/S Sqdn. : A. P. O. 231 % Postmaster : New York, N. Y. /[United States] : A.L.F.T., c2005.

Morrison, Grant. Doom patrol : magic bus /New York : D.C. Comics Inc., c2007.

Solís, Fermín. El año que vimos nevar /Bilbao : Astiberri, 2005.

Vanyda. The building opposite /[London?] : Fanfare ; [Spain?] : Ponet Mon, c2006- vol. 1

Chris Ware Animation

Cartoonist Chris Ware animates a segment on the premiere of the new This American Life television show tonight. Don't have Showtime? Watch Ware's segment here.

(via TV Squad)

YACB Bulletins

ITEM! There's still time remaining to enter TangognaT's Free Manga Contest; but hurry, entries are due by midnight the 22nd.

ITEM! Opening chapters of the comics blogosphere's favorite OEL whipping child, Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes, are available as a free podcast.

ITEM! If you're at the Boston Zine Fair this coming weekend you'll be one of the first to get the new issue of Cathy Leamy's Geraniums and Bacon; if not, you'll have to wait a little while longer to order it through her Website.

I'm Back

Completely off-topic post:

I spent the last couple of days at the University of Minnesota at the CIC Library Conference: "Getting in the Flow."

The good: Meeting interesting colleagues at other institutions. Many engaging speakers.

The bad: No free time, so I wasn't able to check out any of the fine Minneapolis comic stores or the famous DreamHaven books.

The ugly: The Minneapolis weather. My cell-phone getting stolen (I hope whoever took it really enjoyed the $5 of free calls they got before I reported it stolen. You should have taken my gloves and ear-muffs, as you would have gotten more use out of them!)

Proof I was at the conference:



(I talk with my hands a lot!)

That was actually take 2. Take 1 was much better, but they had to redo it because of sound issues :(

Regular comic-related blogging will return shortly.

EDIT: Other cool thing: flying through O'Hare on the way back home, we taxied past the new Airbus A380. It's big...

Coming in July from GT Labs

Pal Jim Ottaviani has two new books coming out in July:

Levitation: Physics and Psychology in the Service of Deception is about the development of one of the most dazzling illusions performed on stage. It has art by Janine Johnston.

Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love is the story of a rogue psychologist's experiments into the nature of the mysterious emotion. It has art by Dylan Meconis.

Both books--part of a series of graphic narratives about the science of the unscientific--will retail for $11.95, and will surely be available from all fine booksellers and enlightened comic shops.

Missing Manga

MangaCast's list of on hiatus/abandoned/canceled manga is interesting, and in places a bit sad.

While many of the titles are no big loss for not finishing, there's some real quality work scattered throughout the list.

We all know of course what a crying shame it is that ADV isn't publishing any more volumes of Yotsuba&! And I'd really like to read the remainder of Blue Inferior.

CPM's list is nearly as long as ADV's; I think they're out of the manga biz all together, so fans of the popular Slayers may never get to see the end of that manga.

At Dark Horse, both The Legend of Mother Sarah and Shadow Star deserve to continue; strangely enough, both Mother Sarah and 3x3 Eyes have both been abandoned twice, as they were originally being published in comic-sized floppy format back in the day.

DMP's abandonment of Bambi and Her Pink Gun is a shame, but not surprising given that the nihilistic manga had a hard time finding its audience. Maybe DMP will make enough money from their Yaoi lines to be able to publish a quality title with a low readership that can take the time to find its legs.

And then there's Viz. Even the premiere manga publisher can't seem to find an audience for many of its oldest titles, like Area 88, Bio-booster Armor Guyver, and Pineapple Army, which were all initially published in floppy back when today's manga kids were still in diapers. The real surprise though is that Rumiko Takahashi's Urusei Yatsura and Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack are on the list; when the works of two manga masters cannot continue, there is something deeply wrong.

All hope is not lost; there's always a chance that some of the missing titles may be continued, or even picked up by another publisher. This is what happened with the original abandoned manga title, Lone Wolf & Cub — after disappearing for year when First Comics folded, it was eventually picked up and finished by Dark Horse.

So let's all hope for a few resurrections!