Amazon Top 50

It's been a while since I've looked at the Amazon top sellers in Comics & Graphic Novels. I'm going to try to do this every Friday afternoon for the next little bit. All the previous caveats apply.

1. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw
2. Amazing Spider-Man #583 Barack Obama Variant
3. Watchmen (paperback)
4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
6. Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
7. The Joker
8. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
9. Batman: The Killing Joke
10. The Walking Dead, Vol. 9: Here We Remain
11. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
12. Watchmen (hardcover)
13. The Complete Persepolis
14. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
15. Serenity, Vol. 2: Better Days
16. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
17. Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
18. Fables, Vol. 11: War and Pieces
19. Batman: Year One
20. Serenity, Vol. 1: Those Left Behind
21. Batman: Arkham Asylum
22. Wolves at the Gate (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 3)
23. The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes
24. American Born Chinese
25. Secret Invasion *
26. V for Vendetta
27. Crown Of Horns (Bone)
28. The Arrival
29. Watchmen (Absolute Edition)
30. The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale
31. Batman: The Long Halloween
32. Batman: R.I.P. *
33. The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle
34. The Complete Calvin and Hobbes
35. Dream Country (The Sandman, Vol. 3)
36. The Complete Persepolis (Kindle edition)
37. Escape from the Forest (Warriors: Tigerstar and Sasha, No. 2)
38. Alliance (Star Wars: Legacy, Vol. 4)
39. No Future For You (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Volume 2)
40. The Absolute Sandman, Vol. 4
41. The Book of Bunny Suicides
42. Secret Invasion, Book 2 (New Avengers, Vol. 9) *
43. Dark Tower: The Long Road Home (Exclusive Amazon.com Cover)
44. The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America / Cigars of the Pharaoh / The Blue Lotus (3 Complete Adventures in One Volume, Vol. 1)
45. The Long Way Home (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, Vol. 1)
46. Bone: One Volume Edition
47. What It Is
48. American Born Chinese (bargain price)
49. The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll's House
50. The Complete Far Side 1980-1994 (2 vol set)

Items with asterisks (*) are pre-order items.

Comments:
* No, Amazon doens't have copies of the Obama Spider-Man cover for sale; those are all from 3rd party Marketplace sellers. (Prices are going from $6.49 to $200.00)
* Jeff Kinney seems to have a license to print money, doesn't he?
* The Dark Knight halo effect is still in full force.

Back, Sort Of

Sorry for the long delay, boys, girls, and both, but I'm back now and all is well. When I returned a couple of nights ago, my heat was off and the cable and Internet were out. What a thrill.

I managed to get the heat back on that night, but had to wait until this morning to get the cable and Internet back.

I've got some big deadlines to catch up on in the next hour or two, then I will post a full-size, extensive blog for anyone who might still be reading. Until then, I remain your humble servant.

Monkey Covers

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

This week we have a two-fer: Gil Kane's cover to Strange Adventures #64 (1956), and the recolored version from the new Showcase Presents Strange Adventures vol. 1 (2009).

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


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

Friday Night Fights: The Goon vs. The Great Zombie Chimp

From The Goon #1 (1999) by Eric Powell. (click pics for larger)

Ka-Pow? Plop!

DC Quick Hits

* I haven't read a panel of it, but I think that Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves is one of the most awesome titles for a comic ever, because it tells you exactly what to expect: Superman and Batman fighting vampires and werewolves!

* I like that the abbreviation for the "Faces of Evil" quasi-event is 'FOE'.

* Judging by the last page of Justice League of America #28, it looks like the team will finally combat a threat to the Earth. IMHO, the biggest weakness of this title since the relaunch has been that this group of the World's Greatest Super-Heroes has mostly battled internal threats. The JLA should be bigger than that.

* While I thought that the "One World, Under Gog" story from Justice Society ran on way too long, I found the conclusion in issue #22 to be satisfying, especially the fate of Gog and the Ross-illustrated denouement.

Hawah Yee?

Readers, my dear, sweet, innocent, delicious, readers,

I'm far from home at the moment, taking some much-needed time off. If you read my previous posts from the past week or so, you'll see that I'm in Hawaii, where I've been engaged to do a couple of comedy talks about my funny funny eating habits.

To make room in the deadline-riddled landscape that is my daily hell, I had to work 15+ hour days for a week or more and nearly died of death from it. Now I'm in a funky little retro 50s style motel in Maui looking at palm trees outside and CHNW inside, buzzing around the room trying to decide which bikini to wear. Not a bad view wherever I look.

Sorry I won't be posting cartoons until Jan 15. I really enjoy this blog, it's one of my favorite things each day. But as my doctor told me just last month, "If you don't slow down you're going to need a new pair of shoes."

He's from Czech Republic and not all of his sayings translate very well.

Glut?

Here's the Mighty Marvel Checklist for a month in late 1981:



Thirty-four titles for the whole month.

Now in early 2009, Marvel is releasing thirty-one new titles this week (19 comics, 12 collections, not counting multiple cover editions).