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 Brian Bolland's cover to 1987's Swamp Thing Annual #3 featuring Congorilla, from a story by Rich Veitch that featured not only Congorilla, but also Angel & Ape and Grodd.

(Standard disclaimer about golden gorillas not really being monkeys applies.)

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

YAMR: Halloween Spooktacular 2006

It's October, and that means it's time for our second annual Halloween Spooktacular on Yet Another Music Radio!

Tune in and listen to more than eighty-five tracks, including music by:

The 5 Browns, 16 Horsepower, Adam Sandler, Aqua, Austin Lounge Lizards, Ben Colder, Bing Crosby with Victor Moore & Boris Karloff, Bob Ridgely, Bobby "Boris" Pickett & the Crypt-Kickers, Bobby Please, The Bonzo Dog Band, Boris Karloff, The Born Losers, Carl Orff, Castle Kings, Charlotte Martin, Chris Kevin & The Comics, Christophe Beck, Chubby Checker, The Crewnecks, Danny Elfman, The Daylighters, Don Hinson & The Rigamorticians, Earl Patterson, The Edgar Winter Group, Edvarg Grieg, Evanescence, Frank Sinatra, The Friars, The Fuzztones, Gene Moss, The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, Inkubus Sukkubus, Jack & Jim, Jack Marshall, Jimmy Dee, Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins, J.S. Bach, John Carpenter, John Ford, John Williams, John Zacherle, Juliana Hatfield, The Keytones, kidneythieves, The Legendary Invisible Men, Leroy Bowman, Little Richard, The Mancini Pops Orchestra, Mark O'Connor, Martinibomb & The Coconut Monkeyrocket, Matt Pond PA, Matthew Sweet, Mike Oldfield, The Modernaires, Modest Mussorgsky, Natacha Atlas, Neko Case, Nicole Blackman & John Van Eaton, North American Halloween Prevention Initiative, Otis Redding, The Phantom Five, Phantom Planet, Poe, Ralph Marterie & His Marlboro Men, Rasputina, Ray Lewis, Roy Clark, Sarah McLachlan, The Scattered Pages, Sheb Wooley, Soupy Sales, Southern Culture on the Skids, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Steve Martin, The Swingin' Neckbreakers, Tarantula Ghoul and The Cryptkickers, The Tarantulas, Tegan and Sara, They Might be Giants, Thought Gang, Vic Mizzy, Vince Guaraldi Trio, & Wojciech Kilar.

Over four-and-a-half hours of music to get you in the trick-or-treating mood!

NaGraNoWriMo

Some of you may be familiar with National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo), where the goal is to write a 175-page (50K words) novel during the month of November.

I've decided that I'm going to participate this year, but with a twist.

I'm turning it into National Graphic Novel Writing Month. I'm going to try to write the script for a 175-page graphic novel (a la a TokyoPop or Seven Seas OEL manga book) during the month of November.

I've never writen a comic script before, so I'm sure that the final product won't be much good. But hey, who knows?! I'm not even sure yet what it'll be about, although I have a couple of ideas. In any event, it should prove to be challenging and illuminating; and maybe even a little fun!

YAFL2: Week 4

Here are the results from Week 4 of Yet Another Fantasy League 2:


Power Pack 69
Kickers Inc. 71

The Defenders 61
www.rickgebhardt.net 74

Delphi Oracles 68
Star City Archers 68

Superteam 27
Flex Mentallo 18


Current Standings:

   Team                 Record  Pct    Points  Streak
   -------------------- ------  -----  ------  ------
1. Kickers Inc.         4-0-0   1.000  295.00   W-4 
2. Flex Mentallo        3-1-0    .750  224.00   L-1
3. Star City Archers    2-1-1    .625  274.00   T-1
4. Delphi Oracles       2-1-1    .625  206.00   T-1
5. Superteam            2-2-0    .500  177.00   W-2
6. The Defenders        1-3-0    .250  256.00   L-2
7. www.rickgebhardt.net 1-3-0    .250  218.00   W-1
8. Power Pack           0-4-0    .000  212.00   L-4

Week 5 Games:

Flex Mentallo
vs.
Kickers Inc.

Power Pack
vs.
www.rickgebhardt.net

The Defenders
vs.
Star City Archers

Delphi Oracles
vs.
Superteam


Good luck to all!


In my other fantasy leagues, I didn't do well. I suffered my first loss in my friends & family league, 96-72, though I remain in 2nd place at 3-1-0. I fell to 2-2-0 in my public league after losing 64-56. And it was another pathetic performance in Pass & Kick, with just 154.50 points.

We're Beta!

Last night I upgraded this blog to Blogger Beta. Y'all shouldn't notice too much difference; unfortunately, Beta won't improve the quality (or frequency) of my postings. But now I have tagging ability, and I'll be adding them soon (although with over 1100 posts to tag it might take me a while...)

New This Week: October 4, 2006

Based on the NCRL list for this week's comics shipping from Diamond, here are a few things to look for at the local comic shop tomorrow:


The Pick of the Week is the first issue of Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips' Criminal, bringing both creators back to the type of comics they do best: crime noir.


In other comics:

Ape Entertainment have the 3rd issue of Horrorwood.

DC have the hardcover collection of Infinite Crisis; the first volume of the Emma manga; and new issues of 52 (week 22), The All-New Atom (#4), American Slendor (#2), Battler Britton (#4), Boys (#3), Detective Comics (#824), Jonah Hex (#12), Justice League Unlimited (#26), Winter Men (#5), and Y, the Last Man (#50).

Fantasgraphics have the sixth volume of The Complete Peanuts (1961–1962).

IDW have a trade collection of Spike vs. Dracula; and new issues of Fallen Angel (#9) and Spike: Asylum (#2).

Image have new issues of Elephantmen (#3) and Rocketo (#12).

Marvel have the debut issue of Vaughan & Martin's Doctor Strange: Oath; the debut of Kirkman & Hester's The Irredeemable Ant-Man; and new issues of Agents of Atlas (#3) and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (#13).

Pantheon have Marjane Satrapi's new GN Chicken with Plums.

Thrud Comics have the third issue of Thrud the Barbarian.

TokyoPop have the monthly end/beginning-of-the-month drop of titles, one or more of which may interest you more than they do me.

Viper have the final issue of Villains (#4).

Viz have the fourth volume of Nana.


AS usual, another good week of new comics; enjoy yours!

New Library Comics: Week of September 25, 2006

Here are the comics we added to our library collection last week:


Blain, Christophe. Dungeon, the early years /New York : NBM Pub., 2005- vol. 1

Boring, Justin. War on flesh /Los Angeles CA : Tokyopop, c2005- vol. 1

Bruel, Nick. How to be a real good cartoonist! /Woodside, NY : Syncopated Comics, [2003]

Buronson, 1947- Strain /San Francisco, CA : Viz Communications, c1998- vol. 4

Cotter, Joshua W. Skyscrapers of the midwest /Kansas City, MO : Thank the Machines, c2003- no. 1

Crypt of horror /Longwood, Fla. : AC Comics, c2006- vol. 2

Daydreamer, Jennifer. Anna & Eva /Marietta, GA : Top Shelf Productions, c2004.

Katsura, Masakazu. Video girl Ai /San Francisco : Viz Communications, 1999- vol. 1

Koike, Kazuo, 1936- Offered /[S.l.] : ComicsOne, c2001. vols. 1-2

Koike, Kazuo, 1936- Wounded man : the white haired demon /Fremont, CA : ComicsOne Corp., c2001- vol. 1

Koslowski, Rich. The King /Marietta, Ga. : Top Shelf, 2005.

LeGrow, M. Alice (Marty Alice) Bizenghast /Hamburg ; Los Angeles : Tokyopop, c2005- vol. 1

McCallum, Pat. Twisted Toyfare theatre : the best of twisted toyfare theatre /Yorktown Heights, N.Y. : Wizard, c2003-. vol. 1

Mori, Jinpachi, 1958- Benkei in New York /San Francisco, Calif. : Viz Communications, [2001]

Ottaviani, Jim. Bone sharps, cowboys, & thunder lizards : a tale of Edwin Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the gilded age of paleontology [Free Comic Book Day edition]/Ann Arbor, MI : G.T. Labs, [2005]

Phillips, Joe. Tales from the House of Morecock /Berlin : Bruno Gmunder, c2005- vol. 1

Rege, Ron. Stop thinking, start sleeping : stop sleeping, start living : 2-5-97, 2:30 AM Plymouth MA /Oakland, Calif : Buenaventura Press, 2006, c2003.

Ryan, Johnny. Blecky Yuckerella /Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics, 2005.

Sakurazawa, Erica. Angel nest /Los Angeles, Calif. : Tokyopop, c2003.

Sato, Rob. Burying sandwiches /Los Angeles, Calif. : The Author, c2005.

Taniguchi, Jiro. The times of Botchan : first volume /Tokyo : Fanfare/Ponent Mon, c2005- vol. 2

Tezuka, Osamu, 1928-1989. Adolf : a tale of the twentieth century /San Francisco, CA : Cadence Books, c1995.