YACB Bulletins

ITEM! Rivkah posts the results of her coloring contest. It's very interesting to see how different color schemes can really influence the character of the drawing.

ITEM! Tom Spurgeon reports over at The Pulse that Sunday Press Books has nearly sold out of its first 5000 copy printing of Little Nemo in Slumberland – So Many Splendid Sundays, even though the book is priced at $120 and was generally unavailable through traditional book outlets. We've ordered one copy for our library, and one of the historical libraries on campus has another.

ITEM! Love Manga asked a bunch of manga companies, creators and bloggers what there favortie manga of 2005 were, and compiled the results.

ITEM! Chris Butcher notes that, with a movie adaptation on the way and interest starting to peak, Frank Miller's 300 is unavailable to retailers, costing retailers and Dark Horse (and Frank Miller) sales. Dark Horse seems to have a history of not being able to keep trades in stock/print and missing out on obvious tie-in opportunities.

ITEM! I'm pretty sure that it's technically out-of-print, but Amazon has 5 copies of Moto Hagio's A, A' available to order. If you're looking for a way to spend those Amazon gift certificates you got for Christmas (or whatever your seasonal gift-exchanging holiday of choice) this would be an excellent thing on which to spend your money. (Thanks to David Welsh for the pointer.)

ITEM! The Pulse profiles Tania del Rio and her work on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Coming from Archie and not from a mainstream manga publisher, del Rio's OEL Manga work doesn't receive the same level of interest as other titles, but for my money she has been turning out consistantly entertaining work and has me interested in a comic that I ordinarily wouldn't care a lick about.

Christmas Covers - December 25

For each day of December until Christmas I've been featuring a Comic Cover Advent Calendar. Just move your mouse over the image to reveal today's special Holiday comic cover. Click on the image to get a larger version.

We finish this season's celebration of Christmas covers with a portrait of Madonna and Child from the cover of 1957's Treasure Chest #234.

We'll be back in December 2006 with twenty-five more holiday-themed covers (and for those of you who have been patriently waiting, we'll be back to Monkey Covers next Sunday!)


(Need some music to get you through the holiday gift unwrapping? Tune in to Yet Another Music Radio for our Holiday Music 2005 mix for over three hours of seasonal songs.)

Christmas Covers - December 24

For each day of December until Christmas I'm featuring a Comic Cover Advent Calendar. Just move your mouse over the image to reveal today's special Holiday comic cover. Click on the image to get a larger version.

Santa is leaving toys for all the good girls and boys on the cover of Dell Four Color #1274.

Come back tomorrow for our last Christmas cover of the season.


Just 1 more 'get-up' until Santa!


(Can't wait for Santa to arrive? You can pass the time by listening to Yet Another Music Radio for our Holiday Music 2005 mix for over three hours of seasonal songs.)


(And don't forget Polite Dissent's comic cover advent calendar and Love Manga's advent calendar manga give-away..)

CBLDF Fund Drive - Goal Achieved!

We've now reach our goal for the Second Annual CBLDF Fund Drive--a whole day early! Ten people have joined or contributed to the CBLDF at the $25 level or higher.

Thanks to everyone who participated--togther we've raised over $500 dollars fo the CBLDF. I'm heading over to their Website right now to make my own $250 contribution.

We'll be back next December to do this again next year.

Have a Happy holiday!

Christmas Covers - December 23

For each day of December until Christmas I'm featuring a Comic Cover Advent Calendar. Just move your mouse over the image to reveal today's special Holiday comic cover. Click on the image to get a larger version.

Rudolph & Santa soar through the winter skies on Sheldon Mayer's cover to All-New Collectors' Edition #C-53.

Come back tomorrow, and every day this month, for a new Christmas cover.


Just 2 more 'get-ups' until Santa!


(Want to brighten up your holiday? Listen to Yet Another Music Radio for our Holiday Music 2005 mix for over three hours of seasonal songs.)


(And don't forget Polite Dissent's comic cover advent calendar; Love Manga's advent calendar manga give-away; or my own CBLDF Fund Drive.)

YAFL: Quarterfinal Results

Results of Quarterfinal Playoff Games:

1. Power Pack 71
8. www.rickgebhardt.net 41

4. B.P.R.D. 55
5. Inferior 5 plus 6 74

3. Kickers Inc. 80
6. Danger Unlimited 85

2. Nine Pound Hammers 64
7. Tomorrow Syndicate 51


Semifinal Games:

Championship Bracket:

1. Power Pack (11-4-0)
vs.
5. Inferior 5 plus 6 (8-7-0)

2. Nine Pound Hammers (11-4-0)
vs.
6. Danger Unlimited (8-7-0)


Consolation Bracket:

4. B.P.R.D. (8-7-0)
vs.
8. www.rickgebhardt.net (7-8-0)

3. Kickers Inc. (9-6-0)
vs.
7. Tomorrow Syndicate (7-8-0)


Good luck to all (and don't forget about Saturday games!)


In my other leagues, I won my consolation bracket game in my public league 77-60, and scored just 168.25 points in my pass and kick league (still in last place). I also got trounced 7-1 in my basketball league.

Quick Christmas Comic Reviews

The annual Marvel Holiday Special anthology is a mixed bag: "Christmas Day in Manhattan" by Mike Jenkins and Mike Carey does nothing for me. The story for "Moleman's Christmas" isn't much to speak of, but it has great fun art by Roger Langridge. The best of the lot is the Jeff Parker-written "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santron," an Avengers Christmas party gone horribly and humorably wrong, drawn by Reilly Brown & Pat Davidson, and worth the price of admission on its own.

Rating: 3 (of 5)



I can't put my finger on what seems wrong with Paul Dini's Jingle Belle: The Fight Before Christmas. The art is good, the writing is fine, but it just seems to be missing some of the spark and life of previous Jingle Belle outings. There are three stories here, with art from Stephanie Gladden, Jose Garibaldi, and J. Bone. Maybe there's just a bit too much someness in the stories by now?

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



Veronica #166 features three stories, all drawn ably by Dan Parent. The first, "A Dickens of a Tale," is a riff of sorts on A Christmas Carol, with holiday spirits visiting Veronica in her dreams to try to get her to change her spoilish ways. Graig Boldman's story "Garment Lament" is not holiday-related; Mike Pellowski's "Party Time" has Veronica feeling unfulfilled by holiday shopping, so she decides to throw a party instead. I've always found a comic featuring the self-centered Veronica to be a tough sell, and for Christmas stories that goes doubly so. As a foil for Betty for Archie's attentions she works well, but on her own it's difficult to empathize with a spoiled rich teenager.

Rating: 2 (of 5)



Betty and Veronica #213 has four stories--all by Kathleen Webb, Jeff Shultz & Al Milgrom--(plus a one-page filler), three of which are Christmas-related. The formula is in full effect here: Veronica is rich and spoiled, Betty is lower-middle-class and wholesome, and for some reason the two of them remain friends. IN other words, it's pretty much what you'll expect from a Betty & Veronica comic, with some holiday settings thrown in.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)



The Justice League Unlimited cartoon is perhaps the best ever animated super-hero show, and the comic book based on the cartton version of the Justice League is a welcome companion. Justice League Unlimited #16 is a Christmas-themed issue by Adam Beechen, Carlo Barberi & Jim Royal that find the junior members of the league assigned to monitor duty on Christmas (along with Shayera keeping an eye on them). A crisis erupts, of course, with a super-villain escaping prison to try to visit his kid on Christmas. This is a good solid holiday super-hero tale that gives some of the minor ADCU (Animated DC Universe) characters a chance to take center stage. (For all of you out there complaining that the regular DCU is too dark, why aren't you buying the ADCU titles?)

Rating: 3 (of 5)



The high-energy seizure-inducing Teen Titans Go! cartoon has never appealed to me, and despite my usual admiration for J. Torres, Todd Nauck & Lary Stuckers comic work, I have to say that this high-energy faux-manga issue-long fight scene in a mall at Christmastime from Teen Titans Go! #25 leaves me with the same impression. I did like the little chibi gag strips that showed up at the bottoms of some of the pages though--that gave the entire enterprise a sense of fun.

Rating: 2 (of 5)




Dan Slott revisits his chararacters from this year's darkly humorous GLA mini in the GLX-Mas Special. He's joined by a number of artists--Matt Haley, Geroges Jeanty & Drew geraci, Ty Templeton, Paul Grist, Mike Kazaleh, and Mike Wiering & Karl Kesel--to tell a series of stories and vignettes about the group of well-meaning but hard-luck heros as they try to cope withe the holiday season. It is alternately funny, wistful, melancholly and insightful--easily the best holiday-themed comic of the year. Hopefully we'll see more GLX at some point in 2006.

Rating: 4 (of 5)