YACB Bulletins

ITEM! Over at The Absorbascon, Scipio continues his fascination with the Detroit-era JLA in The Real World: Detroit.

ITEM! According to an analysis by John Jackson Miller, the Diamond-serviced direct market in 2005 saw a 7.3% overall sales increase compared to 2004; which, despite all the nay-saying about what's wrong with the industry, strikes me as a rather healthy increase. Most of that increase came from GN sales, although comic floppies also showed a slight growth. Of course, it remains to be seen if the current practices by Diamond and the big-time publishers can sustain this level, and what effect these practices will have on smaller publishers.

ITEM! The new PW Comics Week has an article about Fanfare/Ponent Mon's literary manga line: "Nouvelle Manga Comes to the U.S.". I read Jiro Taniguchi's Walking Man this weekend and thought it was fantastic--just the sort of thing I want to see more of in my manga.

ITEM! I finally got the new update to my parents' lighthouse site loaded: a trip to Bois Blanc Island and Straits of Mackinac that they took back in August.

Hal Jordan: Badass

Let's face it: considering that he wears on his finger the Most Powerful Weapon in the Universe, Hal Jordan is way too often depicted as an ineffectual boob, like when he gets knocked unconscious by sticks of wood.

But sometimes the editors remember that Hal is wielding that cool ring and depict him on covers as the badass he should most righteously be:



No blonde-haired Robert Redford wannabe in a rejected Robin costume is going to take Hal's job--even if he was there first!




Take that, you blonde goateed hippy! (Hal doesn't like guys with blonde hair...)




That's two--count 'em--two badass power rings!




Back to just one ring, but he's leading the charge with a bunch of badass orc-wannabe Anti-Green Lanterns!




Hal's too much of a badass to care what his woman wants!




Beware my Power, b*tch!




Hal's not taking any crap from a bunch of short blue guys!




That's right--a whole planetoid made of Kryptonite. Hal could kick Kal's ass anytime he wants just by thinking about it!




Hal's not going to take any smack from smack--and he's not going to let his friends forget it!




Hey kid--Hal used to fly those things when you were in diapers. Punk!




Still not taking any crap from the blue guys!




He's a frickin' Shogun Warrior!




Strong and silent--lets his blonde haired hippy friend do all the talking!


So there you go. Hal Jordan, being a badass. Although it seems that in so many of those he's being mind controlled...

My Day is Now Happy

The DC Solicitations for April(-ish) are out today, and what do my eyes see?

Showcase Presents Haunted Tank!

Written by Robert Kanigher
Art by Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, Irv Novick, Jerry Grandenetti, and Jack Abel

Circle May 17 on your calendars now!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Superman!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Superman!

1. It is impossible to fold superman more than seven times.
2. There are roughly 10,000 man-made objects the size of superman orbiting the Earth!
3. If you break superman, you will get seven years of bad luck!
4. It's bad luck to put superman on a bed.
5. Superman can sleep for three and a half years!
6. The average human spends about 30 days during their life in superman.
7. Superman is the only king without a moustache on the standard pack of cards.
8. The International Space Station weighs about 500 tons and is the same size as superman!
9. Four-fifths of the surface of superman is covered in water.
10. American Airlines saved forty thousand dollars a year by eliminating superman from each salad served in first class.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

New Library Comics: Week of January 9, 2006

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


Barry, Lynda, 1956- One hundred demons /Seattle : Sasquatch Books ; [Berkeley, Calif.] : Distributed by Publishers Group West, c2002.

Kubert, Joe, 1926- Yossel : April 19, 1943 : a story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising /New York : Ibooks : Distributed by Publishers Group West, c2003.

Ottaviani, Jim. Dignifying science : stories about women scientists /[Ann Arbor, MI] : G.T. Labs, [2003]

Ottaviani, Jim. Fallout : J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, and the political science of the atomic bomb /Ann Arbor, MI : G.T. Labs, c2001.

Ottaviani, Jim. Two-Fisted science : stories about scientists /Ann Arbor, Mich. : G. T. Labs, 2001.

Paper Rad, B.J., and Da Dogs /New York : PictureBox, 2005.

Voltaire, 1967- Deady : the malevolent teddy /Unadilla, N.Y. : Sirius, c2004.

Zaben, Andrew. Tuesday and Thursday /Bayside, N.Y. : All Effort Comics, 2002.

MLK Day

Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story comic book from 1956. Click to read the whole comic online, courtesy of Ethan Persoff.

Monkey Covers

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

Everyone's favorite sailor man offers up some of his tasty spinich as bait to the Queen of the Gorillas on the cover of Popeye #58.

(Standard disclaimer about gorilla queens not really being monkeys applies.)

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