Stats Week: 2010 - A Year of Reading Comics

Looks like it's going to be Stats Week here at YACB...

As I did last year, here's a chart showing how many comics I acquired each week, and how many I read each day of 2010:

My comics week starts on Thursday, as that's when the weekly DCBS shipment usually arrives. Each individual item counts as a comic, whether it be a 22 page floppy or a 600+ page graphic novel opus. The 'Roll' column represents the total delta from when I started keeping track (Feb 2009).

Whereas in 2009 I read 102 more comics than I acquired, in 2010 I only read 16 more than acquired. So while I managed to keep pace, I didn't make much of a dent in the backlog.

Ooo, here's a chart graphing the number of comics acquired each week:

Coming Soon: Amazon Combined Charts for 2010

As I did last year, I've compiled statistics for the combined Amazon Top 50 charts that I've been posting throughout 2010.

Soon I'll be posting the results, but to whet your appetite, here are some questions to ponder:

Which of the following was the top graphic novel on the Amazon Top 50 Charts for 2010:

• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
• The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
• Kick-Ass
• Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
• Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
• Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
• Twilight: The Graphic Novel, vol. 1
• The Walking Dead Compendium, vol. 1
• Watchmen

Which of the following was the top graphic novel franchise on the Amazon Top 50 Charts for 2010:

• Batman
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• Green Lantern (incl. Blackest Night)
• Scott Pilgrim
• The Walking Dead

Which of the following was the top DC graphic novel on the Amazon Top 50 Charts for 2010:

• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
• Blackest Night
• Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes
• Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover
• Green Lantern: Blackest Night
• Superman: Earth One
• The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
• V for Vendetta
• Watchmen
• Wednesday Comics

Which of the following was the top Marvel Universe Super-Hero graphic novel on the Amazon Top 50 Charts for 2010:

• Captain America: Reborn
• Marvel Encyclopedia
• Siege
• Thor Vol. 3
• Wolverine: Old Man Logan
• X-Men: Second Coming

Which of the following was the top Dark Horse graphic novel on the Amazon Top 50 Charts for 2010:

• Buffy Season 8, vol. 6: Retreat
• Buffy Season 8, vol. 7: Twilight
• Hellboy Vol. 9: The Wild Hunt
• Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale
• Serenity Vol. 2: Better Days
• Troublemaker Book 1: Alex Barnaby Series 3

Which of the following was the top manga on the Amazon Top 50 Charts for 2010:

• Black Bird Vol. 3
• Bleach Vol. 30
• Hetalia Axis Powers Vol. 1
• Naruto Vol. 47
• Negima! Vol. 26
• Vampire Knight Vol. 9
• Yotsuba&! Vol. 8

Which of the following was the top comic strip collection on the Amazon Top 50 Charts for 2010:

• 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective
• 50,000,000 Pearls Fans Can't Be Wrong
• Bloom County: The Complete Library, vol. 2: 1982-1984
• The Complete Calvin & Hobbes
• The Complete Peanuts Boxed Set 1975-1978
• Dilbert 2011 Day-to-Day Calendar
• The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade: The 11 1/2 Anniversary Edition

Which of the following graphic novels typically assigned as reading in college courses was most popular on the Amazon Top 50 Charts for 2010:

• American Born Chinese
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
• The Complete Persepolis
• Fun Home
• Maus I
• Maus II
• Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
• Understanding Comics
• Watchmen

Which of the following was the top Stephen King-related graphic novel on the Amazon Top 50 Charts for 2010:

• American Vampire Vol. 1
• Dark Tower: The Fall of Gilead
• Dark Tower: The Battle of Jericho Hill
• Stephen King's N.
• Stephen King's The Stand Vol. 1: Captain Trips
• Stephen King's The Stand Vol. 2: American Nightmares

Which of the following was the top Joss Whedon-related graphic novel on the Amazon Top 50 Charts for 2010:

• Angel Vol. 6: Last Angel in Hell
• Buffy Season 8 Vol. 6: Retreat
• Buffy Season 8 Vol. 7: Twilight
• Serenity Vol. 2: Better Days
• Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale

(The answers may surprise you!)


Make your guesses in the comments section of this blog post; I'll pick some respondents at random to receive prizes (e.g. comics!) Let's set the deadline to be Wednesday (Jan 5) at Noon EST. (Please leave some way for me to get in touch with you, like your email or your Website/blog/etc.)

BTW, while the top item is included in the lists for each category, don't assume that the rest of the pick represent all of the top choices. E.g., don't assume because a DC graphic novel isn't listed in the choices for top graphic novel that it isn't the top DC graphic novel. (Did that make sense? I hope so...)

Plans for 2011

(Why don't you click this cartoon and make it larger. Are ya chicken?)

Bizarro is brought to you today by Vintage Eyewear.

Welcome to 2011, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and undecided. It's going to be a fabulous, futuristic year, I can just tell. How do I know? Well, for one thing, 363/365ths of the year is still in the future. What does that tell you?

I'm not one to make new year's resolutions because I drink so heavily that by January 3rd I can never remember what it was that I was going to resolve to do, but here are some things I am looking forward to doing in 2011. I hope you'll join me.

1. Learn to fly. I'm not talking about in a plane –– who can afford all those costly lessons and the big metal machine itself? Not a middle-rate cartoonist like me, I assure you. So I'm going to learn to fly using my mind. Scientists estimate that the average person uses only 10% of his brain. I'm pretty sure I used that much just trying figure out how to set up my Facebook page, but that means I've got 90% of it left to dedicate to flying. I'm going to start working on it tomorrow, which means I'll have to dress pretty warmly.

2. Write, produce, direct and star in an Academy Award winning film. This is something I've been wanting to do since I was a kid. I'm not getting any younger, so this is my year. If you're a member of the academy, please vote for me next December or whenever it is that that happens.

3. Invent teleportation. I think this could be big. For years, people have been complaining about how crappy the airlines have gotten, well wouldn't it be cool if we didn't need them at all? We could just push a little pocket remote or something and appear wherever we wanted to like magic? I think it would really catch on. Of course, those of us who have learned to fly with our mind might still take that option from time to time if the weather is nice and we want to see the sights.

4. Clean my motorcycle. I ride my motorcycle all the time in good weather and I kind of neglected keeping it clean and shiny last year. I'm going to keep up with that in 2011.

5. Change some football rules. I like to tape football games (college and NFL) and play them back while I'm inking and coloring cartoons. It's mindless entertainment, something I don't really have to watch all the time, I can just look up when I hear the announcers getting excited. But some of the rules need changing. One is that if you act too much like an orangutan, you get thrown out of the game and can never play again. I don't like it when somebody makes a good tackle or scores a touchdown, then beats his chest and bares his teeth and stomps around like King Kong. It's just not good sportsmanship. I say, let your skills do the talking and skip the drama. This new rule will put an end to that.
Another is that if a referee makes a bad call and they don't reverse it after I see the slow motion replay, they get fined. While I'm at it, I'll make it so the money they pay comes to me.

I think that's all I am planning for the new year but it is after noon so I'm pretty drunk, so who knows, I may be forgetting something. If you've made resolutions for the new year, make sure it isn't to join a gym and get in shape, because statistics show that the gym will be super crowded by people like you for the first couple of months, then you and everyone else will stop going but you'll have to send money to the gym every month for a long time. That's their secret business plan. For the rest of the year you'll not only hate yourself for being out of shape, but also for being $? a month poorer. A better way to stay in shape is to steal someone's purse three times a week. It encourages you to run like hell and you'll make a few bucks each time.



















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Monkey Covers

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

Blue Devil takes on Gorilla Grodd while the rest of the Rogues look on from the mirrors on Paris Cullins & Gary Martin's cover to Blue Devil #30 (1986).

(Standard disclaimer about intelligent gorillas bent on world domination not really being monkeys applies.)

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

Winter Covers - December 31

Archie Andrews scopes out girls at a New Year's Eve party on the cover of Jughead with Archie Digest #97 (1990) by Dan DeCarlo & Rudy Lapick.

We've hope you've enjoyed our month-long celebration of comic book covers!

(2009: Batman: The Long Halloween #4)

Happy New Year

Amazon Top 50

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


1 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5: The Ugly Truth
2 (+1). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
3 (+20). Dork Diaries (Kindle edition)
4 (+25). Dork Diaries 2 (Kindle edition)
5 (+11). Walking Dead Volume 13
6 (-2). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
7 (-5). Dilbert: 2011 Day-to-Day Calendar
8 (-1). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
9 (+5). Odd Is on Our Side (Kindle edition)
10 (-). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 2: Scott Pilgrim Versus The World
11 (-3). Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Boxset
12 (+5). The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
13 (-2). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness
14 (-1). Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
15 (-). Scott Pilgrim Volume 5: Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe
16 (-7). Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale
17 (-5). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
18 (+16). Walking Dead Volume 12
19 (+2). Fables Vol. 14: Witches
20 (-14). Diary of a Wimpy Kid Box of Books
21 (-16). 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective
22 (+16). The Walking Dead Volume 11: Fear The Hunters
23 (+24). The Walking Dead, Vol. 10: What We Become
24 (+18). The Walking Dead Book 5
25 (+18). The Walking Dead, Vol. 9: Here We Remain
26 (+5). The Walking Dead, Book 6
27 (+13). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
28 (+4). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
29 (-2). The Walking Dead Book 2
30 (N). Dilbert: 2011 Wall Calendar
31 (-9). Superman: Earth One
32 (R). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
33 (+6). Big Nate: From the Top
34 (+2). Odd Is on Our Side
35 (-). Tron: Betrayal
36 (R). Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
37 (R). Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
38 (N). Star Wars: Legacy Volume 10 - Extremes
39 (-20). The Walking Dead, Book 1
40 (R). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
41 (-4). Watchmen
42 (-17). V for Vendetta
43 (+1). The Walking Dead Book 3
44 (R). Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight Volume 7: Twilight
45 (R). Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
46 (-13). Serenity, Vol. 2: Better Days
47 (R). Blackest Night
48 (-20). Superman: Secret Origin
49 (R). Green Lantern: Blackest Night
50 (-30). Dork Diaries 2: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl


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:

* The Wimpy Kid slips again this week on the overall chart--down to #19, but of course that's still plenty good enough to stay at #1 on the overall chart. Number two on the comics chart, the Walking Dead Compendium, is at #138 overall.

* The big news is the sudden surge of Kindle editions of The Dork Diaries up to #3 & #4. The Kindle edition of Odd Is on Our Side also cracks the top ten at #9. No other kindle comics make the list though, which speaks to either a lack of available comics on the Kindle and/or poor categorization by Amazon.

* The other big story from the chart is the wild swings, both up and down, for many items, led by The Walking Dead.

* Dead Watch: Despite the surge up for some collections, there are only ten Walking Dead books on the chart this week, as a few fell down to just below the cut-off point (They would be #51, 52 & 54).

* Only two new items this week, the Dilbert Wall Calendar and a Star Wars: Legacy collection.

* The bottom of the comics list this week is #1,808 overall.