Monkey Covers

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

Win Mortimer draws the cover to 1954's Adventure Comics #196, featuring Superboy facing off against the improbably-named Kingorilla.

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

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

100K Contest Winner

The winner of the YACB 100,000th Visitor Free Comic Giveaway Contest--randomly chosen via a die roll out of the 19 entries I received--is Nate Atkinson.

Congratulations to Nate, and thanks to everyone who entered. There will be plenty more chances to win free comics in May when we have our 2nd Annual Free Comic Book Month here at YACB.

Time is Running Out!

There are less than six hours remaining to send in your entry for our 100,000th Visitor Free Comic Giveaway Contest. Don't miss out on your chance to win a bunch of cool comics, all for the cost of a single emai

The official 100,000th visitor hit the site at 5:41pm EST, following a link to the contest from P. Jarvinen's Comic Book Wife blog (thanks for the link!) If this person was you, email me with enough identifying information that I can match you to the site meter (e.g. your ISP and city where you live) and I'll send a special prize your way.

100,000th Visitor Free Comic Giveaway Contest!

Sometime today YACB will have its 100,000th visitor.

To celebrate, I'm offering a special prize package to one lucky YACB reader.

What's in the prize package? I'm glad you asked!


It consists of two graphic novels:

• Sea of Red, vol. 1: No Grave But the Sea by Rick Remender, Kieron Dwyer & Salgood Sam. It features pirates, vampires, and vampire pirates.


• A Trip to Rundberg by Nate Southard & Shawn Richter. It features zombies, zombies, and more zombies.

Plus a set of recent #1 issues of the following comics:

• Fury: Peacemaker #1 by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson & Jimmy Palmiotti


• Generation M #1 by Paul Jenkins, Ramon Bachs & John Lucas


• Jeremiah Harm #1 by Keith Giffen, Alan Grant, & Rael Lyra


• Loveless #1 by Brian Azzarello & Marcelo Frusin


• Planetary Brigade #1 by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, & friends


• Revelations #1 by Paul Jenkins & Humberto Ramos


• Sentinel Squad O*N*E #1 by John Layman, Aaron Lopresti & Norm Rapmund


• Team Zero #1 by Chuck Dixon, Doug Mahnke & Sandra Hope


• Underworld #1 by Frank Tieri, Staz Johnson & Tom Palmer


• Vigilante #1 by Bruce Jones & Ben Oliver

And that's not all--I'm also tossing in a DVD of 10 classic Fleischer Superman cartoons!


What do you have to do to enter for a chance to win this prize package? It's simple!

Just email me with a note saying that you want to enter, and include '100K Contest' in the subject line. That's it! All entries must be received by Midnight tonight (EST). Tomorrow morning I'll randomly choose a name out of the winning entries, and that person will win the prize package detailed above.

Of course, there's some fine print:

* The decision of the winner is solely at my discretion--it will be chosen at random--and my decision is final.

* Only one entry per person.

* All entrants must live within the United States.

* All entrants must be at least 18-years-old.

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


Remember, you have to enter today if you want to win, so enter now!

And thanks to everyone for reading this comic book blog.

Quick Boom! Reviews

Planetary Brigade #1
by Keith Giffen, J. M. DeMatteis, Joe Abraham, Cynthia Martin, Eduardo Barreto, Mark Badger, & Chase Conley.

When I first heard that Giffen & DeMatteis were doing their own super-hero team book, it was cause for excitement. With their recent Not the Justice League stories showing that they still knew how to bring the funny, bringing their brand of humor to a super-team of their own creation seemed like the logical next step. Alas, Planetary Brigade largely disappoints, as this first issue never gels together. Part of the problem is that, unlike in their Justice League work, these heroes are unknown to us. They can't rely on short-hard with the characters' personalities, and there's no humor by playing against type because we don't know what their normal characteriation is supposed to be. The artists involved are all fine in their own right, but smooshing them all together in this comic really doesn't work (especially Mark badger, who I generally like but here seems out of place). I won't give up on this comic just yet due to the track records of the creators, but this comic is on a short leash.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Zombie Tales: Death Valley #2
by Andrew Cosby, Johanna Stokes, & Rhoald Marcellus

I never read the first issue of this two-issue series, but it hardly matters as the comic rapidly brings us up-to-speed with its standard issue zombie plot: all of Los Angeles has been transformed into Zombies, except for a plunky band of misfit teenagers who need to fight to survive and escape. The comic largely survives on the quick characterization work from Stokes and the slightly cartoony artwork from Marcellus. It's mostly well-paced and well-drawn--in other words, a perfectly competent zombie comic. But there are a lot of those around for choosing these days, but if you need even more zombie bashing this prestige-format comic should do the trick.

Rating: 3 (of 5)



(review copies of these comics were provided by the publisher)

Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in?

You scored as Moya (Farscape). You are surrounded by muppets. But that is okay because they are your friends and have shown many times that they can be trusted. Now if only you could stop being bothered about wormholes.

Moya (Farscape)		75%
Serenity (Firefly)		63%
Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)		63%
Enterprise D (Star Trek)		56%
Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)		50%
Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)		50%
Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)		44%
Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)		44%
Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)		44%
SG-1 (Stargate)		44%
Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)		38%
FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)		31%

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

New This Week: February 15, 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 Kid Eternity trade, collecting the early 90s mini-series by Grant Morrison & Duncan Fegredo. Not a major work in Morrison's oeuvre, but still a good story and of interest to those interested in his formative career.


In other comics:

Antarctic Press debut Rod Espinosa's Alice in Wonderland adaptation.

Boom! Studios debut Planetary Brigade.

Dark Horse have new issues of Conan (#25) and The Goon (#16).

DC debut Paul Pope's Batman: Year One Hundred; continue the story of Kal-L in Action Comics #836; and have new issues of Birds of Prey (#91), Hellblazer (#217), JSA Classified (#9), The Losers (#32), Manhunter (#19), Sgt. Rock: The Prophecy (#2), and Testament (#3).

Fantagraphics have two Blab Storybooks: Darling Cheri by Walter Minus and Struwwelpeter & Other Distrubing Tales by Bob Staake.

Heroic debut Roy Thomas' Anthem.

IDW debut Brian Wood & Kristian's Supermarket.

Image have a new issue of Noble Causes (#17).

Marvel have Ed Brubaker & Michael Lark's debut on Daredevil (#82); A big thick Essential Moon Knight vol. 1; and new issues of Runaways (#13), She-Hulk 2 (#5), and X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl (#2).

MR Comics have the second issue of Revolution on the Planet of the Apes.


Which wraps things up for a rather light week. Enjoy!