New This Week: March 8, 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:


There are many good books coming out this week, but for The Pick of the Week I'm going with Jessica Abel's La Perdida collection from Pantheon. I've read the first two (of 5) issues that are included here, and it's very good, presuming you like the slice-of-life/fish-out-of-water angsty indy comics stuff.


In other comics:

Brian Fies's Eisner-winning Mom's Cancer is just now being solicited in the current Previews, yet apparently is shipping this week? Very odd...

AD Vision have a new volume of Cromartie High School (vol. 5).

Aeon have the penultimate issue of Matt Howarth's Keif Llama: Xenotach (#5).

AiT/PlanetLAR have a new Sky Ape one-shot: King of Girls.

Amaze Ink/Slave Labor have a new Lenore collection (vol. 3).

Dark Horse solicited Dare Detectives, vol. 2: The Royale Treatment over a year ago, and now it's finally showing up in stores.

DC have a Birds of Prey collection: Between Dark and Dawn; two Seven Soldiers issues: Frankenstein #4 & Mister Miracle #4; the last issue of Alan Moore's Tom Strong (#36); a couple of OYL titles: Firestorm, the Nuclear Man #23 & Teen Titans #33; and new issues of The Exterminators (#3) and Fables (#47).

IDW have a new issue of Maze Agency (#3).

Illusive Arts havea new issue of Dorothy #5).

Image have adouble dose of Ellis with the fourth issues of both Dawn & Fell; the Socom: Seal Team Seven OGN; the first Rocketo collection (with two issues that apparently will never be published); and new issues of Bomb Queen (#2) & Invincible (#29).

Marvel debut the Fantastic Four: First Family mini; celebrate the 100th issue of Thunderbolts; and have new issues of Powers (#17), The Pulse (#14), and Ultimate Spider-Man (#91).

Moonstone have the Cyclone Bill and the Tall Tales OGN.

TokyoPop have the first volume of Ross Campbell's OEL manga The Abandoned.

Viz have a ton of stuff too (some of which may have reached your store last week...)


You could easily spend of ton of money this week, so good luck with your choosing!

Yet Another Oscar Wrap-up

So... The Oscar telecast wasn't so bad. Jon Stewart didn't bomb outright, and there were a few good bits--I especially like the fake campaign ads--though Stewart was much finnier when he was speaking off-the-cuff than when he was going through the prepared material. Starting the telecast half an hour earlier was a good move--I actually got home before midnight! Too many darn montages though, with no rhyme nor reason for why they were there (or sometimes which movies were included!)

AS far as my picks go, I had 99 points on the Joe Janes Oscar Scoring System*, which wasn't very good, but was enough to tie me for second place at the party. I was 15 for 24 overall, so let's take a look at where I went wrong (based on my picks which I posted yesterday):

Picture
Everybody at the party chose Brokeback Mountain, so it didn't affect my standings, but really I should have seen this one coming. It used to be that Best Picture/Best Director never split, but ever since the Shakespeare in Love/Saving Private Ryan debacle they've done it more often than not, especialyl where there are two movies going neck and neck. But after Crash picked up the Best Original Screenplay consolation prize I figured that Brokeback had this locked up, forgetting that Brokeback took home the other screenplay award.

Supporting Actress
I was counting on the Academy to not go for the obvious and opt for Amy Adams, but they did and went with Rachel Weisz.

Original Song
Okay, the only thing I can think of is that the Academy voters thought it would be funny for Jon Stewart to have "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" (and to his credit, Stewart took the gag and ran with it). This truly was the biggest surprise of the night.

Live Action Short Film
Maybe had I gotten around to watching these on iTunes I would have known better. But at best this is a crapshoot every year, and this year was no different.

Animated Short
Is this the start of a Pixar backlash?

Sound Mixing
This is the other category that surprised me, but I guess the Academy went for King Kong--because if there's one thing that movie did have, it was sound. Lots of it too, all mixed together.

Cinematography
I shouldn't have gone for a dark horse pick, I guess. Plus, I in no way saw coming a Memoirs of a Geisha run at the tech awards.

Documentary Short
See Live Action Short.

Costume Design
See Cinematography. I was right about a period piece winning, I just chose the wrong period piece.


So I don't think I did half bad, but it could have been better. I'll have to wait a whole year to reclaim the travelling Oscar trophy back from Patricia!


(* What, doesn't everyone use the Joe Janes Oscar Scoring System? It's: 15 point for picture; 10 for the acting & directing categories; 7 for screenplays & animated feature; 3 for the shorts & documentaries; and 5 for everything else.)

New Library Comics: Week of February 27, 2006

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


Anderson, Ho Che. Young hoods in love /Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics Books, c1995.

Baker, Kyle. The Cowboy Wally show /New York : DC Comics, c2003.

Benton, Mike. Masters of imagination : the comic book artists hall of fame /Dallas, Tex. : Taylor Pub. Co., c1994.

Crumb, R. The complete Crumb. Volume 14, The early ’80s & Weirdo magazine /Seattle, WA : Fantagraphics Books, 2000.

Diaz Canales, Juan, 1972- Blacksad : Arctic-Nation /Barcelona : Norma Editorial, 2005.

Diaz Canales, Juan, 1972- Blacksad : un lugar entre las sombras /Barcelona : Norma Editorial, 2004.

Eichhorn, Dennis P. The legend of Wild Man Fischer /Atlanta : Top Shelf Productions, c2004.

Gagne, Michel, 1965- Zed /Burbank, CA : Gagne International Press, c2002- vol. 1

Goulart, Ron, 1933- Over 50 years of American comic books /Lincolnwood, Ill. : Publications International Ltd., c1991.

Knight, Keith, 1966- The passion of the Keef /San Francisco, Calif. : Manic D Press, c2005.

LaRiccia, Michael V. Black mane /[S.l.] : One Time Press, c2005.

The new comics /New York : Berkley Books, 1988.

Toth, Alex. Toth : "one for the road" /San Francisco : Auad Publishing, 2000.

Yet Another Oscar Picks List

I know you're all just dying to know who I'm picking for winners in tonight's Oscar race, right? Okay, maybe not. But still, I usually finish first or second in our annual picks contest that's been going on for 10+ years now, so even though I haven't seen most of the nominated movies (Oscar and I disagree on what makes for an essential theater-going flick), if you have a contest of your own to participate in, I offer these up as choices:

Picture
Brokeback Mountain, because nothing can stop the momentum of the only one of the nominees this year that has entered popular consciousness (even if few people actually saw it).

Director
Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain. See above.

Actor
A rather weak slate this year, so I'll go with Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote.

Actress
Everyone says it's going to be Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line, and who am I to argue?

Supporting Actor
George Clooney in Syriana, because they'll want to reward him for something.

Supporting Actress
Conventional wisdom says that this is Rachel Weisz's, but this is the one category that typically goes against expectations, so I'm picking Amy Adams in Junebug.

Visual Effects
King Kong. It has a giant monkey fighting dinosaurs, and how can anyone resist that?

Original Screenplay
Aka the consolation prize, so it'll go to Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco for Crash.

Adapted Screenplay
Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana for Brokeback Mountain, because you can't stop the momentum.

Makeup
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, mainly because Cinderella Man and Stars Wars Episode III are fit for an Oscar snub this year.

Art Direction
John Myhre & Gretchen Rau for Memoirs of a Geisha, because it's the kind of movie that usally wins this category.

Original Score
A tough one, actually, so I'll go with the mo' and pick Gustavo Santaolalla for Brokeback Mountain; even though he only wrote about 13 minutes of score music for the movie, it's the only one of the nominated scores where when you hear a few bars you instantly know what movie it's from. Plus the voters will want to reward Santaolalla for having been robbed of a best song nod due to an unfair rules ruling. Plus, the Academy has been snubbing John Williams for many years now.

Oringial Song
"Travelin' Thru" from Transamerica, because the voters like Dolly Parton.

Live Action Short Film
I meant to watch a few of these through iTunes, but never got around to it this week. So I'll pick Ausreisser (The Runaway), for no good reason other than it's a gut pick.

Animate Short
Pixar's One Man Band, because they're Pixar.

Animated Feature
Actually three strong nominees this year, but I'll go with Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Sound Editing
King Kong. Because if there's one thing this movie had, it was sound, and lots of it.

Sound Mixing
Walk the Line, because this category usually goes to musical bio-pics.

Film Editing
A tough one, but Crash, with it's interlocking stories, seems the correct pick.

Cinematography
I'm going for the dark horse pick here: Emmanuel Lubezki for The New World.

Foreign Language Film
Tsotsi from South Africa has gotten the most ink, so since hardly anyone actually goes to see these it'll probably take the statue.

Documentary Feature
Conventional wisdom is to not go with any film that anyone has actually heard of in this category, but I think the trend will be bucked this year and March of the Penguins with waddle away with the golden statue.

Documentary Short
God Sleeps in Rwanda sounds like the title of a film that typically wins this category.

Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran for Pride & Prejudice, because period pieces nearly always win this category.


So those are my picks. We'll know in 11 hours or so how good they are...

Monkey Covers

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

In honor of the Academy Awards ceremony this evening, here's the cover to 1991's King Kong #3, featuring the big ape himself putting the smackdown on a dinosaur. (Peter Jackson's King Kong remake has four nominations this year.)

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

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

YACB Bulletins

ITEM! Cartoonist Jules Feiffer was on the Diane Rehm show on Tuesday morning. He's mostly there to discuss his new kids book, A Room with a Zoo, but he also spends some time talking about his early days as a cartoonist. (Real Audio & Windows Media mormats)

ITEM! The Comic Book Network is holding a V for Vendetta Trivia Contest, where you can win some swag from the upcoming movie by answering a few Alan Moore-related trivia questions.

ITEM! Jessica Abel has revised her Website, and it's worth taking a look. I especially like the illustrations in her gallery that she's done for YM (via Tom)

ITEM! Catherine Leamy, who is fast becoming one of my favorite mini-comics creators, is featuring all through the month of March brand new one-page Invitation to Madness cartoons on her blog. The first one went up on Thursday.

ITEM! Pal Jim Ottaviani is interviewed about Bone Sharps and his other science comics over at Newsarama.

YAFQ: The Ten Best Ideas in Comics

Yet Another Friday Question:

This one is Kevin's fault.

He recently claimed that the three best ideas in comics are:

1. Sole survivor from a doomed planet
2. Gorilla with a jetpack
3. A Nazi made out of bees

My question for you all on this Friday is:

What other ideas would you nominate to be in the Top Ten Best Ideas in Comics?

I've previously made claim to one that I think should be in the Top Ten: A giant ape with Kryptonite eye beams.

So, what are your nominations?