Monkee Covers

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

Today's cover is Tippy's Friends Go Go and Animal #6, from October 1966. The cover by an unknown artist features Go-Go rocking out with The Monkees.

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

FGNW Day 7: Epileptic & Sky Ape

The the final day of Free Graphic Novel Week, celebrating one year of Yet Another Comics Blog!

Today's first selection is the critically aclaimed Epileptic 1 by David B. Publisher Fantagraphics describes it:

The most acclaimed European graphic novel of the last ten years is finally published in English. The most acclaimed European graphic novel of the 1990s, Epileptic is author David B.'s story of his brother's battle with epilepsy—but it turns into a penetrating and sometimes lacerating self-examination on the author's part, as he delves into his own complex emotions and his family's troubled history, as well as his own youthful fantasy life. Particularly pointed is his description of the family's journey from one attempted cure to another (including acupuncture, spiritualism, and macrobiotic diet), the book is drawn in David B.'s spare but detailed, straightforward but elegant style. We would have called this A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius if it hadn't been taken already.

One of the most extraordinarily well-received graphic novels in France and the winner of the French national cartooning award "Alph'Art," Epileptic will intrigue American readers with its sharp yet (mostly) sympathetic treatment of the '70s alternative-health milieu and its often harrowing depiction of a family under siege by this singular and devastating malady. Co-published with France's L'Association.

The final selection for FGNW is actually *three* graphic novels in one prize package: all three Sky Ape graphic novels published by AiT/PlanetLAR, written by Phil Amara, Tim McCarney & Mike Russo, and drawn by Richard Jenkins.

Sky Ape:

Millionaire. Crimefighter. Big friggin' gorilla. Kirk Madge, a.k.a. Sky Ape, is not your average gorilla with a jetpack. When danger rears its head, this freelance crimebuster doles out ass-whoopings like the President hands out free cheese. Join him as he unravels the secrets of his hazy past! This volume collects the complete sleeper hit comic book series.

Sky Ape: Waiting for Crime:

The millionaire gorilla with a jetpack is back again for a second adventure! The world's hairiest crime-fighter returns in an all-new lip-smackin' adventure! Fed up with saving the world, Kirk Madge - also known as Sky Ape, millionaire gorilla and freelance detective - doffs his jetpack to become a certified public accountant. But as the malevolent force know only as O'Donnelly's Roofing sets the world teetering on the brink of destruction, you can bet it won't be long till Kirk stops crunching numbers and starts bustin' heads!

Sky Ape: All the Heroes:

When the megalomaniacal genius known only as MISTER DOCTOR POWERFUL orchestrates a global prison break, freeing the world's most vile (and, in some cases, inept) super-villains, Sky Ape and his crew must enlist the aid of all the heroes--every last, second-string crime-buster the universe has ever forgotten, including The Swimsuit Bastards, Caibo the Puerto-Rican Snowman and Hall & Oates--to set things right again. To make matters worse, the literature-fueled force Poeticus, the Liberal Arts Robot, threatens to level London, powered by his two-ton chromium fists and unparalleled pomposity. If you're not smiling at the thought of a millionaire talking gorillas wearing a jetpack, you must be an orthodontist, or something.

Now you just knew that I wasn't going to let a Sunday go by without giving away any graphic novels with monkeys on the cover, right? (Yeah yeah, apes aren't monkeys. Deal.)


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. That's it--these are the last free graphic novels. After this, we're done.

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

FGNW Day 6: Winners

The winners for Free Graphic Novel Week Day 6 are:


Mortal Souls goes to Stephen Frug, who writes:

I'd like to read Mortal Souls because I've never read anything by Steven Grant, and I'm always interested in new writers -- and because I just have a thing for zombies (because, y'know, zombies, how can you not?)

Zombies indeed. They're the new monkeys, you know.


Go Boy 7 goes to Daniel Wales, who writes:

I've never read Go Boy 7, but it looks like it is drawn in the manga style. I would like this graphic novel for my collection because I don't have any comics in the manga style yet.

Well, it's not exactly 'manga style,' bu I think that Daniel will enjoy it nonetheless.


Those were the only two entries that I received yesterday! It certainly made the decision easy this time. Se how simple it is to win? Today is the last day of FGNW, and I'll be announcing the offerings later this morning. Do'nt miss out on your last chance to win!

This Week on YAMB

This week over on Yet Another Music Blog:

Not much, as I was busy doing the Free Graphic Novel week here, but I did briefly discuss the soundtrack to Songcatcher, and put together a new program on Yet Another Music Radio: Cover Songs 1, featuring over three hours of 50 different covers songs.

FGNW Day 6: Mortal Souls & Go Boy 7

It's Day 6 of our Free Graphic Novel Week, the penultimate day of our celebration of one year of Yet Another Comics Blog!

Today's first selection is Steven Grant & Phil Xavier's Mortal Souls, a sex & violence filled zombie-noir published by Avatar Press:

From Steven Grant, the man who taught Marvel how to do The Punisher, comes a bloody, bitter mix of crime and horror. Pursuing an unpredictable killer, police detective Eric Sharpe watches his life turn into a waking nightmare when his investigations reveal more than he ever feared--and more than he ever wanted to see.

The second selection is Go Boy 7: Ready Set Go! by Tom Peyer, Jon Sommariva & Kris Justice, published by Dark Horse:

A mysterious plane crash claims the life of Jonny Zero's parents and leaves him critically injured. Enter Professor Zero, Jonny's uncle, who uses his experimental robotic nonplasm to rebuild the boy. Jonny is transformed into Go Boy 7, the human action machine! This collection of the first four issues of the series feature flash-fire action and high sci-fi drama.

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 final two graphic novels for the very last day of FGNW.

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

FGNW Day 5: Winner

The winner for Free Graphic Novel Week Day Five is Kurt Addams, who writes:

I’m putting in a request for Buster's Neighborhood: Kid Comet vs. The Agents of Doom for my soon to be 8-year-old-son CJ because it sounds just like the kind of thing he’d love to read. (Of course I’ll read it too.) Probably a quarter of our conversations start off with, “Wouldn't it be cool if…” and then he launches into a wild tale of spies and superheroes and bad guys.

Kurt, I hope that both you and CJ enjoy this graphic novel!


I had three entries for Buster's Neighborhood, but amazingly no one asked after The Devil Does Exist, making this two days in a row that one of the free graphic novels couldn't attract a single person. Will anybody care about either of the next two selections? I guess we'll find out when I post them later this morning...


Update: TangognaT writes in to say:

If you're still sending away The Devil Does Exist, I'd like to read it. I was going to write in before because I was interested in reading it, but I thought since I have so much manga anyway it would be better for it to be given away to someone else.

So if it is still around and you want to send it along, that would be nifty. But if someone else wants it, that's fine. No worries either way!

It would seem that no one else wants it, so I'll be sending it off to her to her to enjoy.

Previews-o-Rama part 1: The Front

Yeah yeah, I know that everyone else is already talking about the solicits for November, but I'm still going through the August Previews for items supposedly shipping in October. It's okay, you still have about a week and a half to get your pre-orders in to your favorte comical-book retailer.


Dark Horse

Another Conan mini debuts: Conan and the Demons of Khitai, by Akira Yoshida & Paul Lee. I wonder if Dark Horse is starting to go to the Conan well too often--remember when they had just one Star Wars comic at a time, and it sold like gangbusters, but now they have several series and they don't sell nearly as much?

Good news: Nexus Archives. Bad news: expensive $50 hardcover. Unknown news: Will there be a softcover edition? Wildcard: will this Nexus reprint project get past the first couple of volumes, or will it sputter and die like previous collected series?

Kelley Jones has a new mini: The 13th Son: Worse Than Waiting, which is all monster-on-monster action (no, that *that* way--eww!) I'm sure there will be a trade, as there is with most Dark Horse minis, for those of us who tend to want to wait for such things.

The Goon 25 Cent Comic repritns the original The Goon #1, plus an all new sotry, for just two bits. So go on, buy several for you and your friends! (And Goon fans: don't miss the little half-page Goon strip on page 49 in Previews--apparently to be an ongoing feature.)

It's hard to tell if Eden, the new manga from Hiroki Endo, will be worthwhile or not. It could be just another post-apocalyptic story, but the little art I've seen looks rather nice.

More expensive hardcovers, this time in the form of the second set of Frank Miller's Sin City Library. You know, if I hadn't just dumped a wad of cash on the recent 2nd edition trades, I just might have been insterested in these instead.

Kool: King Kong Chess Set. Not Kool: $475.




DC Comics

Batman in the suburbs, courtesy of Steve Niles and Scott Hampton in Batman: Gotham County Line (a title that, everytime I read it, puts that Willie Nelson/Lee Ann Womack song in my head...) It's a three-issue prestige series, so I'm sure it'll get collected at some point, but whether that's next year or in 2009, who knows?

In All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder #3, "Frank Miller, Jim Lee & Scott Williams continue their striking new vision of the Dark Knight"--funny, I thought it was just a striking new vision of Vikki Vale's ass...

Okay, sure, Arkham Asylum was not the best effort of either Grant Morrison or Dave McKean, but it wasn't that bad and makes for an interesting look at the early efforts of two creators who would go on to big things. It's being reissued in a softcover "Anniversary Edition"--but who the heck releases an Anniversary Edition in honor of the 16th anniversary, except those fascinated by base-2 (or perhaps the same folks in charge of the Image Comics 10th Anniversary hardcover...)

Batman: Underthe Hood gets collected as an inexpensive trade, while Catwoman: When in Rome (by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale) gets collected ina fancy hardcover.

Solo #7 gets taken over by Mike Allred--dig that groovy Dancing Batman cover!

Every single DCU title crosses over with every other title this month--it's the 37-issue Rann-Thanagar Day of OMACs United!

This month's Showcase Presents takes focus on Metamorpho, with 560 pages of black & white silver age goodness.

The Klarion the Witchboy & Zatanna minis come to an end.


Three new CMX manga series debut: Cipher, Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne and Kikaider Code 02--I'd like to see more about Kikaider before commiting, but golly-gee that robot on the cover looks cool.

Captin Atom in the WildStorm Universe? For nine issues? Hmmm...

Astro City: Local Heroes gets collected.

Don't forget to pre-order The Winter Men #3--I'm telling you, there may not be a trade fo this one, especially if the retailers don't order any copies.

Brian Azzarello & Marcelo Frusin's new hard-ass western, Loveless, debuts. you can be nearly certain that there will be a trade of this, so this'll be a case of me getting the first issue and, if it's any good, waiting for the trades.

Speaking of trades, there's actually a third Doom Patrol trade--with the first apeparance of Fl*x M*ntallo (which is spelled with asterisks to keep the Charles Atlas folk from using Google to find out that this is happening). It also will have the debut of my favorite Doom Patrol member ever: Danny the Street--that's not a nickname, he's an actual street: a sentient, tranvestite street. No, really. You can't make up genius stuff like that--okay, Grant Morrison can, but not us mere four-dimensionally-thinking mortals.

Dave Gibbons' The Originals gets a softcover collection.

Following up on Vertigo: First Taste, there's now another $5 sampler, Vertigo: first Offenses, with the first issues of The Invisibles, Fables, Preacher, Sandman Mystery Theatre, and The Sandman Presents: Lucifer.

Oh, and there's a little series flying under the radar called Infinite Crisis, though I doubt you've heard much about it. You might want to be sure to pre-order and let your retailer know that you want it, because he might not order any copies otherwise.



Image Comics

I'll never quite understand why Beckett Comics didn't take off, with their low price-point, quality production, and pretty good stories and art. But now that they're going through Image, maybe folks will give them another chance. You can start with the collected edition of Ruule: Ganglords of Chinatown.

Okay, I like The Walking Dead well enough, but is there really a demand for a The Walking Dead Script Book?

I'm now officially waiting-for-the-trade on Age of Bronze, but those of you buying in floppies will want to be sure to snag issue #21.

I'm pretty much the only person buying Hunter-Killer, aren't I?



Marvel

So, "Spider-Man: The Other" is "the first Spider-Man crossover in five years!"--they could have waited at least five more, as far as I'm concerned. This presents a dilema for me, I really want to read Peter David & Mike Wieringo's new Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man series, but seeing it kick off like this is just annoying.

She-Hulk returns with a new series. I really liked the previous series, though I was wait-for-trading on those, so I'll probably do likewise with the new series.

Now Nick Fury's Howling Commandos just looks to be a howling good time. I'll pretty much grab the first issue of just about anything that Keith Giffen in involved in.

Pretty art by Seth Fisher on the Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan mini; and I'm sure it'll still look good in the trade when it comes, so no need to spend $3.50 an issue just to see it interrupted every page or two by ads.

The Goon creator Eric Powell comes aboard the Mighty Marvel Machine for a special Halloween event, Marvel Monsters, and he's got Steve Niles, Duncan Fegredo, Roger Langridge, Peter David, Jeff Parker, Arnold Pander, and Keith Giffen in tow. Could actualyl be a lot of fun!

Speaking of Jeff Parker, did you know that the Interman creator is writing Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four? No? Well, you should; the man writes a good classic FF.

Power Pack returns in a new mini by the same creative team, Marc Sumerak & Gurihiru, who made the first mini such a joy to read. This time though it's X-Men and Power Pack, so maybe retailes will order it and customers will buy it...

J. Michael Straczynski & Colleen Doran team up for a new ongoing series from Icon: The Book of Lost Souls. I don't even really care what it's about; I'll buy it just for the art by Doran.

Did you forget to order the big ol' Powers hardcover? Don't worry--Marvel forgot to print it! So now they're resoliciting so you've got a second chance.

Although as far as lateness goes, you can't do much better (worse?) than Roy Thomas & Dick Giordano's Stoker's Dracula, thirty years in the making and now in a snazzy hardcover.

Young Avengers cover together in a hardcover collection of the first six issues.

In digest land, you can pick up Adam Warren & Rick Mays' Livewires and Mike Carey & Mike Perkins' Spellbinders in affordable editions.

Double your fun on Daredevil trades, as the Daredevil: Redemption mini and the Decalogue story from the main title both get collected this month.

Supreme Power gets a third trade, collected the last os the Max version of the series. (Presumably the new version will have less profanity and fewer nipples.)

And just to keep you guessing, Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis's The Vision mini from a few years back gets collected, for no discernable reason (unless that is it has something to do with the conclusion of Mouse of Him...)



Okay, that wraps it up for part 1--part 2, the middle, will be along sometime next week...