Earth Wind Fire and Water

Bizarro is brought to you today by Maui Dude.

This is my last day in Maui, CHNW and I are taking an overnight plane to Austin, Texas where we will visit my daughters and attend the wedding of the elder one on Saturday. This is my first shot at being father of the bride, I hope I don't mess it up. I haven't used a shotgun in years.

So much for my plans to blog every day while I was here. There was just too much to do to get motivated to make time for it. The snorkeling is best early in the morning when the water is most calm, then the rest of the day we puttered around the island doing various things. A couple of mornings ago we swam with giant sea turtles and a couple of octopuses in the morning, then drove up to the summit of Haleakala, the dead volcano that makes up the larger part of the island, in the afternoon. The summit is 10,023 feet above sea level, which made my head 10,028 feet 8 inches above the ocean. This is several thousand feet above the clouds, so it is identical to the view out of a commercial airliner, but you're outdoors. The landscape is lunar, of course, all volcanic rock with a few small, dry plants poking out here and there. It was around 80º on the beach when we started the drive but at sunset on the crater's rim it was about 38º with a 40mph wind. I don't know the mathematical formula for figuring wind chill, but it was about as cold as we've ever been, even though we were wearing jackets, pants and hats. Very surreal.

Downloading and resizing the photos is something I've not gotten to yet, but I'll post some later.

FCBM6 Day 3

It's day three of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our next selected entry is from Billy Hogan. The five comics that Billy listed are:

1. Superman
2. Legion of Super-Heroes
3. Powers
4. Planetary
5. Echo

And his other thing of interest is the new JJ Abrams Star Trek film.

For Billy I have all four issues of Adam Cogan & Ryan Cody's Villains series.

For Billy's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Star Trek Halloween comic.

Billy's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
6 entries
13 free comics sent so far
28 days remaining

FCBM6 Day 2

It's day two of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our second selected entry is from Marc Diefenderfer. The five comics that Daniel listed are:

1. Amazing Spider-Man
2. Scott Pilgrim
3. The Unknown
4. Ex Machina
5. Y, the Last Man

And his other thing of interest is Alfred Hitchcock movies.

I think that Marc will enjoy the first issue of Jonathan Ross & Tommy Lee Edwards' Turf with its Jazz-age gangsters, vampires, and aliens. I'm also sending him the first issue of Morrison & Quitely's Batman & Robin, just because it's awesome.

For Marc's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Popeye Halloween comic.

Marc's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
5 entries
8 free comics sent so far
29 days remaining

FCBM6 Day 1

It's day one of the Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

Our first selected entry is from Daniel Monson. The five comics that Daniel listed are:

1. Invincible
2. Girl Genius
3. Questionable Content
4. Fables
5. Least I Could Do

And his other thing of interest is Sci-Fi & Fantasy novels.

I think that Daniel will enjoy the first four issues of Rocketo by Frank Espinosa:

For Daniel's bonus comic, I'm sending him the Popeye Halloween comic.

Daniel's comics should be in the mail within a week. Enjoy!

There's still time to send in your entry for the YACB Free Comic Book Month; details are here.

Current FCBM Statistics:
5 entries
5 free comics sent so far
30 days remaining

Amazon Top 50

Here are the Top 50 Graphic Novels on Amazon this afternoon. All the previous caveats apply.


1 (+1). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
2 (-1). Kick-Ass
3 (+3). Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Volume 1
4 (+9). Wilson
5 (+18). Instructions *
6 (+1). Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5 *
7 (N). Invincible: The Ultimate Collection Volume 5
8 (+1). Batman and Robin, Vol. 1: Batman Reborn
9 (-1). The Losers: Book One (Vols. 1 & 2)
10 (+7). Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour *
11 (+4). The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
12 (-). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 2: Scott Pilgrim Versus The World
13 (-3). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
14 (-3). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 6: Retreat
15 (+11). Y: The Last Man, Vol. 3 (Deluxe Edition) *
16 (-2). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness
17 (+2). Scott Pilgrim, Vol 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
18 (+18). Bloom County: The Complete Library, Vol. 2: 1982-1984 *
19 (+3). Scott Pilgrim Volume 5: Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe
20 (+15). The Boys Volume 6 SC
21 (+18). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
22 (+23). Asterios Polyp
23 (-3). Watchmen
24 (+10). The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 (Vol. 13)
25 (+12). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
26 (N). Power Girl: A New Beginning
27 (-11). Batman: The Killing Joke
28 (+3). The Walking Dead Volume 11: Fear The Hunters
29 (N). Absolute Green Lantern: Rebirth
30 (-5). Rough Justice: The DC Comics Sketches of Alex Ross
31 (+17). V for Vendetta
32 (N). Realm of Kings *
33 (-). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
34 (R). Planetary Vol. 4: Spacetime Archaeology
35 (-8). The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel *
36 (N). The Flash: Rebirth *
37 (N). Tsubasa 26
38 (+4). Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover
39 (+10). Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
40 (R). Incognito
41 (-3). Batman: Year One
42 (R). Irredeemable Vol 2
43 (N). Green Lantern: Blackest Night *
44 (-16). Serenity, Vol. 2: Better Days
45 (R). The Complete Far Side 1980-1994 (2 vol set)
46 (N). Black Bird, Vol. 4 *
47 (-26). Yotsuba&!, Vol. 8
48 (R). The Long Way Home (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8, Vol. 1)
49 (-31). Dark Tower: The Fall of Gilead
50 (R). Mercy Thompson: Homecoming




Items with asterisks (*) are pre-order items.

N = New listing appearing on list for first time
R = Item returning to the list after having been off for 1 or more weeks


Commentary:

* I have no idea what happened to the first three Wimpy Kid volumes, which have mysteriously disappeared from the graphic novel bestsellers list. We'll see next week if it's a temporary glitch or what...

* The latest Invincible Ultimate Collection debuts way up in the top ten. It's a big week for super-hero debuts, with Power Girl, Absolute Green Lantern: Rebirth, Realm of Kings (benefit of a minor pricing glitch earlier in the week), The Flash: Rebirth, and Green Lantern: Blackest Night all making debuts this week. The latest volumes in the manga series Tsubasa & Black Bird also debut.

* Incognito hops back up onto the list, probably due to its being optioned for a film a couple of days ago.

* Remember the comparisons to last week are for a Saturday, so take them with a larger grain of salt than usual.

The Sixth Annual YACB Free Comic Book Month!

May is rapidly approaching, so it's time for the Sixth Annual Free Comic Book Month!

May 1 is Free Comic Book Day, but here at YACB one day isn't good enough. For the sixth straight year, we'll be giving away free comics every day of May!

That's right, free comics! Each day of May I'll pick someone to receive a free comic, taken from my personal collection: duplicates, things I have in trades, and other stuff. My goal is to match up people with a comic that they haven't read but that they may like. My tastes are wide and varied, so chances are I have a comic for you.

And by free I mean free. Really. No cost, no shipping & handling, all free.

Here's what you need to do to enter:

By email (superman@umich.edu), send me the following:

* Your name
* Your postal address
* Titles of five comics that you like
* One other thing that you like (a book, a movie, an activity, etc.)
* Please include 'FCBM' in the subject line

That's it! For every day of May I'll choose at least one entry and try to match up that person with a comic, then I'll mail the comic to him or her. It's easy, and it's free!

(Note that once again this year I'm adding one more piece of entry data: something other than a comic that you like. I hope that this will make things a bit more interesting and help me better in fitting you with a comic.)

Last year I gave away 76 comics to 31 different people!

Of course, there are a few restrictions:

* You must be 18 or older (by entering you assert this to be true)
* You must live in the United States
* You may enter at any point during May, but only one entry per person.

And a little bit of fine print:

* Persons receiving comics are chosen by me, based on whether I feel I can provide a comic to you
* Even if you've entered in previous years, you're welcome to enter again
* I'll try my best, but there's no guarantee you'll actually like the comic I send
* All winners will be announced here on Yet Another Comics Blog (please let me know if you don't want your real name used)
* At least one winner will be selected each day, but it may take me a few days to get to the post office, so please be patient
* I will not use your address to spam you, nor sell or give your information to others

But wait, there's more!

Each person who has a free comic chosen for him/her will also receive a copy of the 2009 Halloween ashcan edition of either Popeye or Casper/Little Lulu or Star Wars. (Let me know if you have a preference, though no guarantees; and if I go overboard again his year and run out I may substitute something else.)

That's right, two free comics! How could you ask for anything more?

So what are you waiting for? Send in your entry today!

Watercolor Wednesdays

A new strip is coming soon...