New Library Comics: Week of August 8, 2005

Here are the comics we got in for our library collection last week:


Crumb, R. R. Crumb sketchbook. Seattle, WA : Fantagraphics, 1992- v. 1, 2, 5

Crumb, R. The complete Crumb /Seattle : Fantagraphics Books, [1987?]- v. 1, 3-7, 10, 15, 16

Gonick, Larry. The cartoon history of the universe /New York : Broadway Books, 2001- v. 1-2

Griffith, Bill, 1944- Griffith observatory : the classic strips from 1977-1980 : with 16 previously uncollected pages /Seattle, WA : Fantagraphics Books, c1993.

Ryan, Sara. Flytrap episode one : juggling act /[Portland, Or. : Cold Water Press], 2005.

Ryan, Sara. Me and Edith Head /[Portland, Or. : Cold Water Press], c2002.

Strip XEN /Ljubljana : Studioosem, 2004.

FGNW Day 1: District X & Sandman

It's Day 1 of our Free Graphic Novel Week, celebrating one year of Yet Another Comics Blog.

The first graphic novel up for grabs is District X, vol. 1: Mr. M by David Hine, David Yardin, Lan Medina, Mike Perkins, Alejandro Sicat & Drew Hennessy. Marvel describes it thusly:

Welcome to Mutant Town, the dark corner of New York City where the long arm of the law has been severed clean. Here, the mutant population doesn't sport GQ style or champagne dreams. They eke out each day in squalid tenement rows and filthy streets where only one man and one law can be trusted: the X-Man Bishop.

Today's second choice is The Sandman: Brief Lives, book seven in Neil Gaiman's award-winning series, featuring art by Jill Thompson & Vince Locke with Dick Giordano. As a bonus, this volume has been autographed by Locke along with a small head sketch of Dream.

Delirium, youngest of the Endless, prevails upon her brother Dream to help her find their missing sibling. Their travels take them through the world of the waking until a final confrontation with the missing member of the Endless and the resolution of Dream's painful relationship with his son, Orpheum, change the Endless forever.

To enter for a chance to win one of these graphic novels, simply do the following:

Send me an email with your name, your postal address, which graphic novel you want, and a sentence or two telling me why you want it. Please put 'FGNW' and the title of the graphic novel you want in the subject of your email.

You can enter once per day (but only once)--that means that you have to choose which of the two graphic novels you want. Also, you can only win once, so if you are picked you can't enter any more. But you can keep entering each day until you win. (You must be 18 or older and live in the United States.)

Entries must be received by 11:59 pm EDT, and the winners will be announced tomorrow morning. Then I'll announce the next two graphic novels, and this will continue all week.

(Full details, including the fine print, are available here.)

FGNW: Free Graphic Novel Week starts tomorow!

That's right: In honor of my 1st Blogiversary, tomorrow will kick off a week-long give-away of free graphic novels!

Here's how it will work:

Every morning I'll announce at least two graphic novels that I'm giving away for free that day. To enter for a chance to win, send me an email with your name, your postal address, which graphic novel you want, and a sentence or two telling me why you want it. That's it--it's just that easy!

Please put 'FGNW' and the title of the graphic novel you want in the subject of your email.

You can enter once per day (but only once)--that means that you have to choose which of the two graphic novels you want. Also, you can only win once, so if you are picked you can't enter any more. But you can keep entering each day until you win.

Entries must be received by 11:59 pm EDT, and the winners will be announced the next morning. Then I'll announce the next two graphic novels, and we'll continue all week.

Of course, there's some fine print:

* You must be 18 or older, and you must live in the United States.

* Winners are chosen by me, based on whatever criteria I decide to employ that day. All decisions are final.

* If you are chosen to win, your name and entry will be used on this blog for the announcement of winners.

* All of the graphic novels will be registered on BookCrossing, and there may be a registration sticker inside the front cover. In other words, there won't be any collectible value to these--they're meant to be read!

Come back tomorrow morning for the announcement of the first two graphic novels I'm giving away!

Monkey Covers

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

Today's cover is Sky Ape: Waiting for Crime, which I'm assuming is by artist Richard Jenkins.

Strange thing about my copy of this comic: I got it in a trade via BookCrossing, and someone has gone through and used white-out to remove all of the curse words. Now granted, pretty much all of the cursing in here is gratuitous, and honestly I'm not a big fan of gratuitous swearing when a simple $#%@! would work just as well. But still, defacing the text of a comic because you don't like the language used, that's uncool.

As for the comic itself, I liked it, certainly a lot more than I did the original Sky Ape collection. There's still an element of the ridiculous, but the story actually coheres into a narrative that can be followed. The story by Philip Amara, Tim McCarney & Michael Russo finds Kirk Madge, aka Sky Ape, and his crew traveling back in time to stop a group of home contractors from ruining ancient buildings (like pyramids and whatnot) with vinyl siding and hot tubs. It's a bunch of silly fun.

Hmm, this Monkey Cover entry has managed to turn into a quick review. So: Rating: 3 (of 5).

(standard disclaimer about apes not really being monkeys applies)

Click on the image for a larger version.

(Be sure to come back to this blog later today for our big First Blogiversary Give-Away Announcement!)

This Week on YAMB

This week over on Yet Another Music Blog:

I blogged about releases by Jenny Queen & Tristan Prettyman, and debuted the first 'real' program on Yet Another Music Radio: Live Tracks 1, featuring three and a half hours of some of my favorite live tracks.

Our first First YACB Blogiversary kicks off officially on Monday the 15th, but tune in here tomorrow for the announcement of our big week-long give-away event!

Quick First Issue Reviews

Wildsiderz #1
by J. Scott Campbell & Andy Hartnell

Another blogger (sorry, I forget who) descibed this as Saved by the Bell with artificial super-powers, and that pretty much hits the mark. You've got 'Styler the Sk8ter,' 'Kat the Hottie,' 'Bam the Meathead,' ' Zak the Hunk,' and 'Jess the Brain'--all of whom end up with devices (developed by a military contracter) which allow them to form colorful hard-light extensions of their bodies. If you think about the premise too hard (or, really, at all) it will fall right apart, but if you just take it as is and run with it it works. Campbell's art is the same as always, and the hard-light powersactually look kind of cool as rendered by colorist Roger Delgado. I suspect that Campbell & Hartnell actually have within them the ability to do a rather good high school dramedy sans any super-powers, but let's face it, in today's market that's not going to fly for a 32-page full-color glossy from DC.
Rating: 3 (of 5)



Gimoles #1
by Mike Bullock & Theo Bain

Take one part The Smurfs and mix it with the Heat/Freeze Miser parts of The Year Without a Santa Claus and you get Gimoles, a competently done new comic that's strictly for the kids. The Gimoles are little green elves who are resposible for he season fo Spring, but they can't get started because the evil Ichabod Cornelius Frost, lord of Winter, has kidnapped the Groundhog on Groundhog Day, ensuring that his winter-machines can not be turned off. So of course it's up to two young Gimoles to rescue th Groundhog from Frost's ice castle so that spring can come again to the land. The art is a nice style and the story is clear (though it gets a bit too bogged down in exposition in the middle), but it all seems highly derivative. Still, for just 75 cents, you may want to pick up the first issue to see if your kids like it.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Brian Pulido's Gypsy #1
by Brian Pulido & Paulo Siqueira

Actually better than any comic that has seven different covers should be, Pulido's latest comic about hot babes in historical supernatural action is set at the dawn of the industrial revolution as old and new cultures collide. Liza and Antoinette are two hot young sisters who nevertheless are subject to persecution because they're gypsies, despite, you know, their hotness. And of course there's a supernatural threat lurking in the woods. Siqueira makes a valiant effort in the art to represent the period, although he could stand o vary his line weight to give his art an added dimension, and his women all have the same height, body shape and faces, distinguishable only by their hairstyles.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Supergirl #1
by Jeph Loeb, Ian Churchill & Norm Rapmund

One might think that DC would use the occasion of a new Supergirl comic to at least try to produce something that would be of interest to the young female manga kids. But seriously, with Loeb & Churchill spinning this series out of Superman/Batman, can you really expect anything else than a story steeped in DCU continuity and a two-page spread with Supergirl in her bare midriff costume fighting a busty Power Girl? Of course not. This one is strictly for the fanboys. It succeeds in being what it is and what it aims for; while direct market sales will probably be strong, I just think that it's aiming in the wrong direction.
Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Gødland #1
by Joe Casey & Tom Scioli

Super Cosmic Mind Candy! Scioli made a name for himself by channeling Jack Kirby for his The Myth of 8-Opus, and now he's back with another Kirby riff with writer Joe Casey in tow. Four years ago Commander Adam Archer was in charge of a disasterous Mission to Mars in which although the rest of his crew died, Archer ended up with Cosmic Powers. Now a Cosmic Menace threatens Earth, so it's up to Commander Adam Archer to save us! The story is bold! The art is bold (and looks like Kirby)! Even the color is bold! It's Big! It's Bold! It's Cosmic! (And the bad guy on the last page whose head is a skull floating in a tank of green water? He looks kind of cool...)
Rating: 3 (of 5)

Salon on Finder

Salon's Douglas Wolk discusses Carla Speed McNeil's Finder in general and the most recent volume, The Rescuers, in particular: "Yurts, robot secretaries, and talking dinosaurs." (link via Jumbotron 6000)