FCBM3 Wrap-up

Free Comic Book Month 3 finally wrapped-up earlier this week (I suppose it should be "Free Comic Book Month-and-a-Half"!). Everybody who entered got a free comic! Participation was down this year with only 49 entries; correspondingly, the number of free comics I gave out was also down to just 111. Nearly all of the entires were new people who hadn't entered in previous years.

The postal increase in mid-May was brutal; sure the price of letters only went up a couple of cents, but the price for mailing comic-sized envelopes went up significantly more, and the Media Mail rate went up a whopping 34% (making it usually more expensive than first class for lighter-weight items like comics).

FCBM always brings increased traffic to the blog, and May 2007 was my biggest month yet. However, traffic overall has been way up in 2007, so the bump from FCBM3 wasn't nearly as pronounced as t has been in past years.

Now for my favorite part of the wrap-up, the list of most popular comics that were listed by entrants:

11 people: Fables

6 people: All-Star Superman; Y, the Last Man

5 people: The Spirit

4 people: Astonishing X-Men; Birds of Prey; Daredevil; The Walking Dead

3 people: Amazing Spider-Man; Astro City; Batman; Death Note; Ex Machina; Flash; Hellboy; Incredible Hulk; Invincible; Invisibles; Justice League of America; Justice Society of America; Robin; Runaways; Scott Pilgrim; Spider-Man; Superman/Batman; X-Factor

2 people: Action Comics; All New Atom; Bone; Castle Waiting; Detective Comics; DMZ; Fantastic Four; Fell; Hellsing; Hitman; Manhunter; Marvel Adv Avengers; Marvel Zombies; Planetary; Promethea; Punisher Max; Sandman; She-Hulk; Sin City; Superman; Top Ten; Transmetropolitan; Usagi Yojimbo

Plus another 95 titles listed by just one person each.

Thanks go out to everyone who linked to FCBM3, including: Rob, David, Shane, Johanna, Lyle, and Michael.

And of course thanks to everyone who entered!

New This Week: June 20, 2007

Based on the NCRL, here are some comics you may want to look at picking up at your friendly local comic shop tomorrow:

If you've been paying attention, it will come as no surprise that the Pick of the Week is Yotsuba&! vol. 4 by Kiyohiko Azuma. It's funny, it's adorable, it's smart, it's clever, and it's manga. What more do you want for your $10?


In other comics:

In addition to Yotsuba&!, AD Vision also have the 11th volume of Cromartie High School.

About Comics have Schulz's Youth in hardcover and paperback.

Alternative Comics have a new issue of Hickee (vol. 3 #3).

Amaze Ink/Slave Labor have a new issue of Wonderland.

Antarctic have a new issue of Gold Digger (#86) and the second issue of Gold Digger Peeba Tales Summer Fun Special.

Boom! have trade collections of Hero Squared and Tag.

DC have a second trade collection of Blue Beetle, and a first collection of Stars and Stripe (under the JSA Presents pre-title; it's a great all-ages super-hero title from before Geoff Johns got all dismemberment-happy); and new issues of The Brave and The Bold (#4), Catwoman (#68), Countdown (#45), Ex Machina (#29), Hellblazer (#233), Justice League of America (#10), Legion in 31C (#3), and The Spirit (#7).

Fantagraphics have the second issue of Richard Sala's Delphine.

Girl Twirl Comics have the seventh collection of Jane's World.

Image have a collection of Phonogram and the debut issue of Madame Mirage.

Kenzer & Co. have the eighteenth Knights of the Dinner Table Bundle of Trouble.

Maerkle Press have the fouth issue of the romantic super-hero comedy Love and Capes.

Marvel have the third digest of Jeff Parker's Marvel Adventures The Avengers, which has both the MODOC story and the Ego the Loving Plant story, making it the second-best collection you'll buy this week (after Yotsuba&!, of course). There's also a hardcover collection of Parker's X-Men: First Class; and new issues of Captain America (#27), Marvel Avengers Iron Man (#2), Spider-Man/Fantastic Four (#3--that Parker guy again!), and Ultimate Spider-Man (#110).

Viz have a ton of manga, including the debut of Gin Tama and the 30th(!) volume of Inu Yasha.


Go, buy Yotsuba&! You won't be sorry!

New Library Comics: Week of June 11, 2007

Here's a list of the comics we added to our library collection last week:


24 Hour Comics Day highlights 2006. /Thousand Oaks, Calif. : About Comics, c2004-

C'est bon anthology. /Malmö, Sweden : C'est Bon Kultur, 2004- nos. 1-3, 6

Hernandez, Jaime. Maggie and Hopey color fun / by Jaime Hernandez. /Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics Books, c1997.

Howarth, Matt, 1954- Keif Llama : gas war /Portland, OR : Oni Press, 1999.

Howarth, Matt, 1954- This is heat /Langhorne, Pa. : Howski Studios, 1983.

Jim (Seattle Wash.) Jim. /Agoura, CA : Fantagraphics Books, 1987- vol. 2 no. 1

Magnus, 1939-1997. Lo sconosciuto /Bologna [Italy] : Granata Press, 1991- nos. 1, 5, 15

Mineshaft. /Brattleboro, VT : Mineshaft, c1999- no. 19

Mod wheels. /Poughkeepsie, N.Y. : Western Pub. Co., 1971-1976. no. 12

Mome. /Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics, 2005- Spring 2007

Myron Moose funnies (1971) Myron Moose funnies. /Los Angeles, Calif. : Myron Moose Comic Book Works, 1971-1973. no. 2

Soda, Masahito. Firefighter! : Daigo of Fire Company M /San Francisco, CA : VIZ, c2003- vol. 1

Stack, Frank. The new adventures of Jesus : the second coming /Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics, 2006.

I want to drop Green Arrow, but DC won't let me!

I've been reading Green Arrow on autopilot for some time now. With last week's end to the regular series I figured it would be a good place to stop, especially since I think that the upcoming GA/BC wedding is coming off as forced and completely ignores 25 years worth of character evolution with both Ollie & Dinah.

But then I see that Andy Diggle & Jock are doing the GA Year One mini-series. Certainly I can't pass up Diggle & Jock working together again! Fine, says I—I'll just read the mini and call it quits.

But now DC announces that the artist on the new Green Arrow & Black Canary series will be none other than Cliff Chiang. Curse you, DC—you know that I cannot pass up anything drawn by Cliff Chiang!

But if Chiang ever leaves as the regular artist, I swear I'm dropping the book...

FCBM3 Day 40 Redux

Bill Doughty informs me that's he already has Runaways, vol. 5, which was chosen for him in day 40 (rats--I almost made it entirely through FCBM3 without giving someone something they already had!) So instead I'll be sending him issues #8-9 of Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe, featuring the histories of India and China respectively.

Runaways, vol. 5 will instead go to Edgardo Ortiz Guzman, whose initial entry was received in early June and had been deemed too late. But it's Edgardo's lucky day! His five comics that he likes are:

1. Y, the Last Man
2. Ex Machina
3. Superman/Batman
4. Rising Stars
5. Robin

Final FCBM Statistics:
49 entries
111 free comics sent
0 days remaining

Monkey Covers

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

Here's Bob Oksner's cover to the very first issue of Angel and the Ape from 1968. I hate it when my Go-Go Girls go missing!

(Standard disclaimer about sitar-playing apes not really being monkeys applies.)

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

FCBM3 Day 40

The third annual YACB Free Comic Book Month concludes with day forty!

The final selected entry is from Bill Doughty. The five comics that Bill likes are:

1. All Star Superman
2. The Spirit
3. Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
4. All-New Atom
5. Just about anything from Jeffrey Brown

For Bill I have the fifth collected digest volume of Runaways by Brian K. Vaughan, Adrian Alphona & Takeshi Miyazawa.

Bill's comic should be in the mail within the next week. Enjoy!


Current FCBM Statistics:
48 entries
109 free comics sent
0 days remaining

We're done! I'll be back in a few days with the traditional FCBM wrap-up. Thanks to everyone who entered!