Monkey Covers

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

Apes and monkeys know kung-fu! It's Bill Alger's cover to Cartoon Network Presents #8 from 1998.

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

Battle of the Century

So I'm flipping through the newest Showcase Presents: Superman (vol. 3) when I come across a story titled: "Krypto Battles Titano." Has there ever been a more perfect idea for a comic story? A dog with the powers of Superman battles a giant ape with Kryptonite vision! I almost don't want to read the story itself, because it cannot possibly live up to my imagination of it...

All a-Twitter

I've finally found a good use for Twitter: I'll be using my Twitter account to post updates on the comics I'm reading, as I read them. Think of them as really-mini reviews. I'm davereadscomics, so feel free to follow my Twitter feed in whatever way you like. You'll also find it in the sidebar of this blog.

Not terribly useful if it's just me, but if a bunch of you start doing the same thing, we can all merge together as a quick source for what's good (and not-so-good) in comics. So if any of you decide to do the same thing, please let me know so I can track you.

Review: Living Statues

Living Statues
by Emily Blair, $3.50

John Martin, a high school art teacher, has brought a group of students to Florence, Italy, on an educational trip abroad. John last visited Florence while in college, but he finds that the present-day Florence doesn't match the city of his memories. His general feeling of ennui moves towards depression as he fixates on one of the "living statues" in the city, a young man who lives in the same apartment complex where John and his group are staying. For John, this young Italian who plays at being Michaelangelo's David (a vastly overrated sculpture, in John's opinion) becomes the symbol of everything that is wrong with contemporary life.

Living Statues is a story about becoming enslaved to memory, living so much in the past that one cannot appreciate the present. Blair unfolds her tale like an onion, and her heavily inky artwork fits perfectly with the story she is telling.

Emily Blair may not produce comics very often (I reviewed her last comic, Soap Opera over two years ago), but when she does it's worth tracking down.

Rating: 4 (of 5)

A review copy of this comic was provided by the creator.

Quick Boom! Reviews

Warhammer 40,000: Damnation Crusade #2
by Dan Abnett, Ian Edginton, & Greg Boychuk
Boom! Studios, $2.99

There's plenty of macho posturing and "glory of war" speechifying in between the battle scenes ehre--it's like 300, in space! Considering how unfamiliar I am with the Warhammer 40,000 game setting I managed to follow the story fairly well, though I suspect if I were a fan of the game and all its offshoots it might resonate with me a bit more. Competently done as a tie-in comic.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Mr. Stuffins #1
by Andrew Crosby, Johanna Stokes, & Lee Carter
Boom! Studios, $3.99

A top secret agent program is "liberated" from the company that created it and ends up getting installed in a child's toy: a robotic teddy bear. The bear becomes a super agent, protecting its owner, young Zach, and dodging the corporate goons who want it returned at all costs. It's a high concept comic and the creators pull it off, packing a lot of story and action into 22 pages.

Rating: 3 (of 5)



Tag: Cursed #1
by Mike Lieb & Chee
Boom! Studios, $3.99

A sequel of sorts to the previous Tag series, this first issue introduces us to Ed, a small town hardware store owner who is also the writer of the "Tag! You're It!!" blog that we saw the characters in the original series refer to. It seems that Ed was once tagged himself, and carries the guilt of having passed on the curse, a guilt that is beginning to manifest through hallucinations. So Ed decides to do something about it. There's a bit too much inner monologuing and set-up for my tastes, but hopefully with that all out of the way things will pick up in the second issue (and maybe a slightly brighter color palate as well--I know it's a dreary horror comic, but it could use a little variation imho).

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Review copies of the above comics were provided by the publisher.

Monkey Covers

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

Superman takes on a gaggle of mind-controlled super-apes on Ty Templeton's cover to Justice League Unlimited #29.

(Standard disclaimer about mind-controlled super-apes not really being monkeys applies.)

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

Quick Top Shelf Reviews

Quick reviews of three floppy/pamphlet comics from the latest box of Top shelf review copies:

Please Release
by Nate Powell
Top Shelf, $5.00

A collection of four short autobiographical stories. The two that are most interesting concern Powell's day job working with developmentally disabled adults. Powell is a talented artist and his sense of design and layout is strong enough to make these potentially navel-gazing and text-heavy stories into works that are visually interesting to look at.

Rating: 3 (of 5)



Feeble Attempts
by Jeffrey Brown
Top Shelf, $5.00

Speaking of navel-gazing, here's a collection of short comics by one of comics' prime practitioners. Unfortunately Brown's chosen style for his autobiographical stories isn't all that interesting, and if you've read one Jeffrey Brown story about how he can't relate to his girlfriend(s) you've pretty much read them all. On the occasions when Brown breaks out of his usual mode and provides us with a super-hero parody or religious commentary the stories become interesting, but they're too few and far-between in this collection.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Superf*ckers Issue 279
by James Kochalka
Top Shelf, $5.00

I know that there are Kochalka fans out there who love this comic, but I really don't get it. A bunch of vignettes about twenty-something super-heroes with foul mouthes making potty and sex jokes. It's kind of like ''The Boys'' without a plot, humor, good art, or anything else worthwhile. Which maybe is the point of the comic, but it's a point I can do without.

Rating: 1.5 (of 5)



Review copies of the above comics were provided by the publisher.