2015 Reading Challenge Book 060 YEAH!

TITLE-Yeah!
AUTHOR-Peter Bagge
FORMAT-Trade paperback
FIRST TIME READING-No
PRICE-$12.50

I am sure even amongst the hardcore comic geeks reading my blog this comic is almost unknown. Written by Peter Bagge of HATE fame,and with artwork from Gilbert Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame. Yeah! is the story of an all girl rock band. Yeah is made up of three young adults. Who are trying everything they can to become a famous rock band. But there is a twist,on Earth they are unknown. But all through out the universe they are the biggest band ever. Yeah I know it sounds strange. But it works.

This series only lasted 9 issues. Published under DC comics Homage imprint. It started not long after Bagge's underground comic hit Hate had ended. Hate was Bagge's semi autobiographical story of a young man that in 1990 moves from suburban New Jersey to Seattle. Right before the grunge explosion happens. The series while one of my favorite comics,was not a book you would let anyone under the age of say 15 read. And Gilbert Hernandez was known for his work on another underground comic fave,Love and Rockets. Which like Hate was not an all ages comic. So when word got out that two legends of the 80s/90s underground comic scene were teaming up I was excited. Then when I found out they were doing an all ages comics I was intrigued. But I think cause of the two creators reputations is why this series was a huge bomb. Talking to various comic shop owners,most of them either ordered one copy each month of Yeah if they even  ordered a copy. The shop I went to only ordered 3 of each issue. One for me,one for the owner and one to put on the shelf. He ordered one copy of any all ages comic. Because he wanted to make sure if any kids came into the shop he has comics for them.

It is hard for me to objectively critique this series.It is in my top 5 non-superhero comics.And I am a huge fan of Peter Bagge. So I am going to instead review this trade. I got a few complaints. First off the series was in color. But this trade is b/w. And I know I say all the time that b/w reprints of color comics doesn't bother me. With this series it does. The color really made the artwork stand out. So being in B/w it feels a little flat. My other issue is that starting with the 2 or 3rd issue of the series there was a letters page. Where each letter that got printed was answered by Crusty,who is YEAH! manager. So unlike lots of letters pages the ones in YEAH! were actually part of the story. Yeah I know I am just nitpicking. But my love of this series is huge. And I think that in the future it has a chance of becoming a huge hit.

YEAH! gets a 4.50 outta 5.