Amazon Top 50

Here are the Top 50 Graphic Novels on Amazon this morning. All the previous caveats apply.


1 (N). 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (And Other Useful Guides)
2 (-1). Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5: The Ugly Truth
3 (-1). Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book
4 (-1). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
5 (+5). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
6 (-). Dork Diaries (Kindle edition)
7 (+2). Diary of a Wimpy Kid Box of Books
8 (-4). Daytripper
9 (-4). Dork Diaries 2 (Kindle edition)
10 (+1). Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Boxset
11 (+3). Big Nate: From the Top
12 (-5). The Thanos Imperative *
13 (-5). Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale
14 (+3). Dork Diaries 2: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl
15 (+3). Walking Dead Volume 13
16 (-1). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
17 (-1). Batman: Time and the Batman
18 (+12). Fables Vol. 15: Rose Red *
19 (+1). Batman: Year One
20 (+19). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
21 (+14). V for Vendetta
22 (N). Batman Beyond: Hush Beyond
23 (R). The Walking Dead, Book 1
24 (R). Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
25 (-13). Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne
26 (R). Identity Crisis
27 (+5). Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life
28 (-5). The Walking Dead, Book 6
29 (-16). Watchmen
30 (-3). The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel
31 (-6). Scalped Vol. 7: Rez Blues
32 (R). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
33 (+9). Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
34 (+3). Walking Dead Volume 12
35 (+9). Fables Vol. 14: Witches
36 (+5). Scott Pilgrim Volume 5: Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe
37 (-8). Scott Pilgrim, Vol 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
38 (+8). Batman: The Killing Joke
39 (R). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
40 (N). Skullkickers Volume 1: 1000 Opas and a Dead Body *
41 (-22). Superman: Earth One
42 (+1). The Walking Dead, Book 2
43 (-19). Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
44 (-4). Odd Is on Our Side
45 (-7). The Walking Dead, Book 5
46 (-24). All Star Superman, Vol. 2
47 (-14). Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
48 (N). Captain America Lives Omnibus *
49 (N). Big Nate Boredom Buster: Super Scribbles, Cool Comix, and Lots of Laughs *
50 (-). The Walking Dead, Vol. 9: Here We Remain


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

N = New listing appearing on list for first time
R = Item returning to the list after having been off for 1 or more weeks


Commentary:

* In a shocker, the Oatmeal collection 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth debuts at #1 on the chart (and is #41 overall). An amazing feat to debut at #1, especially for a property with no tie-in to other media.

* The last time a non-Wimpy Kid book was #1 was a Scott Pilgrim volume in August 2010. The last time a non-WK non-SP book was #1 was Troublemaker in June 2010. The last time a book debuted at #1 was the Twilight Graphic Novel in January 2010.

* Other debuts this week are Batman Beyond: Hush Beyond at #22; Skullkickers at #40; Captain America Lives Omnibus at #48; and Big Nate Boredom Buster at #49.

* Dead Watch: Just seven Walking Dead collections in the top 50 this week, though the Compendium hops up to #5.

* I have no idea why the Identity Crisis hardcover shows up out-of-the-blue at #26. Sometimes the charts are just weird...

Project IITS Update

Hey folks,

I promised I'd give an update with a few details on the Project IITS, uh...project. The game stars Kayli, of course, and while it was the intent to feature her prominently for the game, I'm a great believer in allowing gamers to create their own persona within the world we want them to spend a great deal of time in. The scope of the project has scaled back and forth a few times but we needed a Kayli character in any version. For the game, I felt a smaller, cuter Kayli was more appropriate so we needed to re-imagine her a bit to fit into the game world. Below is the dynamite little package that we came up with:


While our readers will surely recognize Genevieve's distinct touch and style, I needed someone to create Kayli in 3D for the game. I was lucky enough to catch a former co-worker of mine, Mark Kobrin, in between gigs (he is now in NZ working at WETA Digital, no less) and he banged out a great 3D Kayli for me. Here's the result:


Given that Genevieve has been so busy, I've had to look elsewhere for some help in doing some concepts for environments that will later be turned into digital versions. My friend and former co-worker, Brandon Luyen (who is an instructor at the Academy of Art University in S.F.), suggested that a former student of his might be a good fit for the general style of the game and I contracted Cecilia Wong to do a few pieces for Project IITS...here is a re-imagined "Gordo's Island" that will be one of the set pieces for the game:


Hope y'all enjoyed this tiny taste of the Project IITS game. Thanks again to all our faithful readers for continuing to believe in IITS, supporting Genevieve and I, and spreading the word.

- Joseph

Tezuka's Notebooks

Last week at the library we received our copy of Tezuka Osamu sōsaku nōto to shoki sakuhinshū (手塚治虫・創作ノートと初期作品集), a reproduction of several of Osamu Tezuka's hand-drawn notebooks. As you might expect, the whole package is gorgeous. It's going straight down into storage for safe keeping, but I managed to snap a few photos:

New Library Comics: February 2011

Here's a list of the comics we added to our library collection last month:


Brave old world nos. 1-3  / New York, N.Y. : DC Comics, 2000.

Ciencin, Scott. Silent Hill omnibus / San Diego, Calif. : IDW, 2010

Costa, Ben. Pang : the wandering Shàolín monk (vol. 1) : refuge of the heart. / [n.p.] : Iron Crotch University Press, 2010

De Haven, Tom. Our hero : Superman on Earth / New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, c2010

Edington, Ian. Hellgate. London / Milwaukie, Or. : Dark Horse, 2007.

Ellis, Warren. Global frequency nos. 1-12 / La Jolla, CA : WildStorm Productions, 2002-2004.

Encyclopedia of comic books and graphic novels / Santa Barbara, Calif. : Greenwood, c2010

Englehart, Steve. Big town nos. 1-4 / New York, N.Y. : Marvel Comics, 2001

Fulp, Charles. Harry Johnson : and the case of the Crabbes nos. 1-2 / [S.l.] : Fulp Fiction, Inc., c2004

Furman, Simon. Starcraft / La Jolla, CA : Wildstorm, 2010

Gallardo, Adam. 100 girls nos. 1-7 / [United States] : Arcana Studios, 2004-

Gen 13 (La Jolla, Calif. : 2002) Gen 13. nos. 0-16 / La Jolla, CA : WildStorm Productions, 2002-

Harmon, Paul. Mora nos. 1-4 / Berkeley, Calif. : Image Comics, 2005-

ICandy. nos. 1-3  / New York, NY : DC Comics, c2003-c2004.

Johns, Geoff, 1973- The vision nos. 1-4 / New York, NY : Marvel Entertainment, 2002-

Johnston, Antony. Dead space : salvage / San Diego, Calif. : IDW, c2010

Kanan, Nabiel. Now & then / Derby, United Kingdom : New Flame Publishing, 2003

Krueger, Jim. Galactic. nos. 1-3 / Milwaukie, Or. : Dark Horse Comics, 2003.

Labelle, Simon, 1958- Le suicide de la déesse / [Montréal] : Mécanique générale, c2010

Leblanc, Samuel, 1982- Parfum de lilas / [Montréal] : Mécanique générale, c2010

Manga : an anthology of global and cultural perspectives / New York : Continuum, 2010

Manga and philosophy / Chicago : Open Court, c2010.

Michael Moorcock's multiverse. nos. 1-12 / New York, N.Y. : DC Comics, 1997-

Mishkin, Dan. Creeps. nos. 1-3 / Orange, CA : Image Comics, 2001-

Nelson, Arvid. London falling / Hamburg ; Los Angeles : Tokypop, 2008

Oprisko, Kris. Metal gear solid : omnibus / San Diego, Calif. : IDW ; London : Diamond [distributor], 2010.

The rise and reason of comics and graphic literature : critical essays on the form / Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., c2010.

Searle, Ronald, 1920- St. Trinian's : the cartoons / London : Penguin Books, 2008.

Shelton, Daniel, 1965- Ben : à deux, c'est mieux! / Montréal : Les 400 coups, c2010.

Siu-Chong, Ken. Wages of sin / Richmond Hill, Ont. : Udon, c2009

Sonic the Hedgehog archives. vols. 1-3 / Mamaroneck, NY : Archie Comic Publications, [2006]-

Speers, Megan, 1986- Wanderlust : a story told in 50 wood engravings / Erin, Ont. : Porcupine's Quill, c2010

Starlin, Jim. Infinity abyss nos. 1-6 / New York, NY : Marvel Comics, 2002

Storrie, Paul D. Robin Hood and the minstrel / Calumet City, IL : Moonstone and Paul D. Storrie, c2001

Tadano, Nobuaki. 7 billion needles. Volume 2 / New York : Vertical, c2010

Van Ness, Sara J. Watchmen as literature : a critical study of the graphic novel / Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., c2010.

X-Factor (New York, N.Y. : 2002) X-Factor. v.2 nos. 1-4 / New York, NY : Marvel Comics, 2002


As always, this listing is available as an RSS Feed.

Monkey Covers

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

Peter Panda helps a monkey get coconuts down from a tree on the cover of Peter Panda #3 (1953).

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

Long Time No Post!

Hey Folks,

Sorry for the extended silence, I feel bad for keeping everybody in the dark for so long but there really hasn't been a lot going on with Islands in the Sky for awhile. First the bad news, Genevieve and I have no IITS related shows currently planned for 2011. We're currently taking a bit of a break from the comic project but are collaborating on a few other smaller projects here and there...if we feel there is potential interest among our IITS readership regarding these other projects, we'll post the info here.

The good news is, neither of us have given up on IITS...but it's just a matter of the planets aligning correctly for Genevieve and I to find the time to get back to the comic. In regards to the comic, we were originally going to do a direct sequel to the first issue we put out but decided to reboot the series midway through. We're simply not capable of putting out a regular book so we've decided to put out a "one shot" IITS graphic novel that will give readers a complete story. Rebooting the story requires quite a bit of work in terms of figuring out what format we want the book to be and most importantly, coming up with a great story from start to finish. This is all on me and it will take awhile for me to put together the original storyboards for the book. I think the first step is to contact some printers about the technical aspects of the book type we want but I've been putting that off. When there is progress on the storyboards...I'll let everyone know here.

The other good news is that I'm currently working on an indie video game project that I've codenamed: Project IITS. As some of you may know, Islands in the Sky started off as a video game idea that was a natural evolution of game ideas that, as a game designer, I've developed over the course of several years. Now, I know a video game isn't of much interest to those of you simply wanting more of the comic but I love comics AND video games and I'm doing my best to be true to the feel of the IITS world and its characters. This post is already getting TLDR so I'll save some of the details about the game that I can share in the next post...probably a few days from now.

For all of you who still hold out hope that we're nearing the completion of a second book, thank you for keeping up the faith...we will do our best not to let you down and want to make sure that the IITS graphic novel will meet and exceed all your expectations.

- Joseph

Penthouse ComiX (Nov-Dec 1995)

Penthouse ComiX (Nov-Dec 1995)
English | PDF | 83 pages | 41.8 MB
Download MIRROR #1

Download MIRROR #2