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Yeah!
Move over, Josie and the Pussycats!
At last, a girl-centered comic book that actually appeals to girls (and even their parents)! Co-created by comics living legends Peter Bagge (Hate) and Gilbert Hernandez (Love and Rockets), Yeah! is a unique masterpiece of all-ages fun.
Originally published as a nine-issue comic book series from 1999-2000 by DC's Wildstorm imprint, this all-ages gem (approved by the Comics Code Authority, no less!) is collected here for the very first time.
Krazy (vocals and guitars), Honey (drums) and WooWoo (keyboards) are the members of the pop band Yeah! They've achieved intergalactic superstardom on every planet but their own (Earth), where they live in anonymity and suffer indignities in their home of suburban New Jersey. The girls struggle with bad gigs (struggling to win $200 amateur-night contests despite playing to packed crowds of adoring fans on Uranus), aliens who have crushes on them, and rival boy band The Snobs.
Separately, writer Peter Bagge and artist Gilbert Hernandez have well-deserved reputations as creators of some of comics' most complex female characters, and in Yeah!, they have collaborated to produce a pop-culture, sci-fi, mainstream
comic that finally offers a riotous alternative to the leaden, out-of-touch humor of Archie Comics.
At last, a girl-centered comic book that actually appeals to girls (and even their parents)! Co-created by comics living legends Peter Bagge (Hate) and Gilbert Hernandez (Love and Rockets), Yeah! is a unique masterpiece of all-ages fun.
Originally published as a nine-issue comic book series from 1999-2000 by DC's Wildstorm imprint, this all-ages gem (approved by the Comics Code Authority, no less!) is collected here for the very first time.
Krazy (vocals and guitars), Honey (drums) and WooWoo (keyboards) are the members of the pop band Yeah! They've achieved intergalactic superstardom on every planet but their own (Earth), where they live in anonymity and suffer indignities in their home of suburban New Jersey. The girls struggle with bad gigs (struggling to win $200 amateur-night contests despite playing to packed crowds of adoring fans on Uranus), aliens who have crushes on them, and rival boy band The Snobs.
Separately, writer Peter Bagge and artist Gilbert Hernandez have well-deserved reputations as creators of some of comics' most complex female characters, and in Yeah!, they have collaborated to produce a pop-culture, sci-fi, mainstream
comic that finally offers a riotous alternative to the leaden, out-of-touch humor of Archie Comics.
208 pages, Paperback
First published February 9, 2011
5 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
About the author
Gilbert Hernández
434 books421 followersGilbert and his brother Jaime Hernández mostly publish their separate storylines together in Love And Rockets and are often referred to as 'Los Bros Hernandez'.
Gilbert Hernandez is an American cartoonist best known for the Palomar and Heartbreak Soup stories in Love and Rockets, the groundbreaking alternative comic series he created with his brothers Jaime and Mario. Raised in Oxnard, California in a lively household shaped by comics, rock music and a strong creative streak, he developed an early fascination with graphic storytelling. His influences ranged from Marvel legends Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko to the humor and clarity of Hank Ketcham and the Archie line, as well as the raw energy of the underground comix that entered his life through his brother Mario.
In 1981 the brothers self-published the first issue of Love and Rockets, which quickly drew the attention of Fantagraphics Books. The series became a defining work of the independent comics movement, notable for its punk spirit, emotional depth and multiracial cast. Gilbert's Palomar stories, centered on the residents of a fictional Latin American village, combined magic realism with soap-opera intimacy and grew into an ambitious narrative cycle admired for its complex characters and bold storytelling. Works like Human Diastrophism helped solidify his reputation as one of the medium's most inventive voices.
Across periods when Love and Rockets was on hiatus, Hernandez built out a parallel body of work, creating titles such as New Love, Luba, and Luba's Comics and Stories, as well as later graphic novels including Sloth and The Troublemakers. He also collaborated with Peter Bagge on the short-lived series Yeah! and continued to explore new directions in Love and Rockets: New Stories.
Celebrated for his portrayal of independent women and for his distinctive blend of realism and myth, Hernandez remains a major figure in contemporary comics and a lasting influence on generations of artists.
Gilbert Hernandez is an American cartoonist best known for the Palomar and Heartbreak Soup stories in Love and Rockets, the groundbreaking alternative comic series he created with his brothers Jaime and Mario. Raised in Oxnard, California in a lively household shaped by comics, rock music and a strong creative streak, he developed an early fascination with graphic storytelling. His influences ranged from Marvel legends Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko to the humor and clarity of Hank Ketcham and the Archie line, as well as the raw energy of the underground comix that entered his life through his brother Mario.
In 1981 the brothers self-published the first issue of Love and Rockets, which quickly drew the attention of Fantagraphics Books. The series became a defining work of the independent comics movement, notable for its punk spirit, emotional depth and multiracial cast. Gilbert's Palomar stories, centered on the residents of a fictional Latin American village, combined magic realism with soap-opera intimacy and grew into an ambitious narrative cycle admired for its complex characters and bold storytelling. Works like Human Diastrophism helped solidify his reputation as one of the medium's most inventive voices.
Across periods when Love and Rockets was on hiatus, Hernandez built out a parallel body of work, creating titles such as New Love, Luba, and Luba's Comics and Stories, as well as later graphic novels including Sloth and The Troublemakers. He also collaborated with Peter Bagge on the short-lived series Yeah! and continued to explore new directions in Love and Rockets: New Stories.
Celebrated for his portrayal of independent women and for his distinctive blend of realism and myth, Hernandez remains a major figure in contemporary comics and a lasting influence on generations of artists.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 10, 2021
There's really nothing wrong with this but with Peter Bagge and Gilbert Hernandez as the creative team, I guess I was expecting a lot more. I realize it's a Josie and the Pussycats homage but most of the time, I thought I'd be more entertained reading Josie and the Pussycats.
February 24, 2012
It's a shame there isn't a clear audience for this book. Bagge says he wrote it for kids, but it straddles the fence between silly Archie-like hijinks, and more teen-or-adult oriented humor, in terms of its sophistication. There's not much objectionable content at all, but it still seems like a lot of it would go over your average kid's head. Still very clever with well-written characters.
September 7, 2011
This is an oddity for both creators, Peter Bagge (Hate) and Gilbert Hernandez (Love and Rockets), an all ages comic that features teenage rockers who travel in outer space!? Inspired by his daughter, Bagge decided to take a stab at writing something that she might be interested in reading, and came up with this book which riffs nicely on Josie and the Pussycats, with Hernandez channeling that Dan Decarlo Archie house style. I can't say this comic is totally successful for hitting the age group it is aimed for, but it is very entertaining, and gives the main cast a nice underdog scenario; the girls in the band Yeah! are popular in outer space, but duds on Earth. There are many jokes that are going to go teen's heads that are pretty funny, and there are loads of really strange characters that could only come out of a non-mainstream creative team. Fun!
August 6, 2011
This book is way more entertaining than it has any business being. It's basically a slightly modernized Josie & the Pussycats, but Bagge and Hernandez do a fantastic job with it. Fun characters, goofy but not dumb humor and just plain ol' good cartooning make it a great title, especially for tween/early teen girls. Or even for the early teen girl you might be hiding inside you. My only worry is that it's not the typical Fantagraphics book, so this one might miss the audience it's written for. Hope I wrong, 'cuz it's a hidden gem.
May 12, 2012
It's about an all-girl rock band called "Yeah!" who are extremely unpopular on earth but adored by alien fans on other planets. Yeah!'s nutcase guitarist Krazy, down-home keyboardist Woo-woo, and hippie drummer Honey deal with skeezy managers, interplanetary romance, and rival rock groups.
This was cute, but ultimately not that compelling. I think that even if I were a tween or teen, which seems to be the target audience for this book, I would have liked reading this - it's about a girl band, how could I resist? - but not be interested enough to go get the next issue.
This was cute, but ultimately not that compelling. I think that even if I were a tween or teen, which seems to be the target audience for this book, I would have liked reading this - it's about a girl band, how could I resist? - but not be interested enough to go get the next issue.
October 18, 2013
This comic never caught on in its original run, lasting only nine issues, and in the intro to this anthology Peter Bagge, the author, sounds a little surprised that Fantagraphics decided to reissue it. And having read it, I'm a little surprised too. There's really no mystery why it didn't catch on. While it manages to be amusing some of the time, it's pretty lame just about as frequently and it's never very funny. Even the artwork isn't particularly good. Not recommended for anyone of any age.
November 22, 2012
This was fun. Sure, it's bubblegum, but Gilbert Hernandez' drawings are wonderfully trippy: a delight that will keep you turnng the pages. And though thoroughly wholesome, it is always deeply weird.
August 28, 2011
This is one of the best comics I've read in a hot second.
May 20, 2025
This was a slow burn for me. I am a fan of Peter Bagge and of Gilbert Hernández (though I do prefer his earlier Palomar works to his more recent L&R stuff). I read Bagge's intro so I knew what to expect. Nonetheless, the goofy setup (teen rock band is insanely popular on alien planets but disdained on Earth) didn't engage me in the beginning. I read a few chapters then nearly gave up. But I persevered, and I'm glad I did. Yeah! is exactly what Bagge said it is in his intro: a straight humor comic in written and drawn in the vein of Josie and the Pussycats comics circa 1969.
The three main characters are not particularly engaging individually (Krazy is the goth one, except eventually she's not even the goth one; Honey is the leader one, whose childhood friend is the band's rival; Woo-Woo is the "granola" one), but as a group they're fun to spend time with. Their manager, though I think this is unintentional, is a creep: he's in his 40s, looks like he's in his 60s, and--in the flashback "origin" chapters, when the girls are still in high school--he tries to ask Honey on a date. Yuck. The "villains" are mildly entertaining: there's Honey's aforementioned rival, who calls herself the Hellraiser, as well as a band of pseudo-Beatles/Beach Boys types who call themselves The Snobs (one of which serves as Honey's mutual crush, though they both refuse to let each other know how they feel), and the requisite sleazy, big-time music producer.
Then there's the "band in outer space" angle, with lots of silly-looking aliens and over the top shenanigans. Honestly, the earthbound "origin" story is my favorite part of this book. I would've been happier if outer space wasn't involved at all. But c'est la vie. Once I started to just let the story wash over me, I found myself enjoying this series a lot more than when I was judging it.
Bagge's ability to tell a (mostly) wholesome story about talented teenage girls in a rock band surprised me, and Hernández's art is probably the best I've ever seen it. It's a shame this book never found its audience.
The three main characters are not particularly engaging individually (Krazy is the goth one, except eventually she's not even the goth one; Honey is the leader one, whose childhood friend is the band's rival; Woo-Woo is the "granola" one), but as a group they're fun to spend time with. Their manager, though I think this is unintentional, is a creep: he's in his 40s, looks like he's in his 60s, and--in the flashback "origin" chapters, when the girls are still in high school--he tries to ask Honey on a date. Yuck. The "villains" are mildly entertaining: there's Honey's aforementioned rival, who calls herself the Hellraiser, as well as a band of pseudo-Beatles/Beach Boys types who call themselves The Snobs (one of which serves as Honey's mutual crush, though they both refuse to let each other know how they feel), and the requisite sleazy, big-time music producer.
Then there's the "band in outer space" angle, with lots of silly-looking aliens and over the top shenanigans. Honestly, the earthbound "origin" story is my favorite part of this book. I would've been happier if outer space wasn't involved at all. But c'est la vie. Once I started to just let the story wash over me, I found myself enjoying this series a lot more than when I was judging it.
Bagge's ability to tell a (mostly) wholesome story about talented teenage girls in a rock band surprised me, and Hernández's art is probably the best I've ever seen it. It's a shame this book never found its audience.
December 15, 2020
The
Hate
author (Bagge) and drawer and writer of
Love and Rockets
(Hernandez) get together for this tale of a ‘girl group’. Yeah! Is a struggling New Jersey based, low profile three piece pop group, whose manager just happens to have a whole set of off-world links making them the most popular group in the universe, except at home…. But, of course, no-one else knows about off-world travel, so the play parties and work in fast food outlets to pay the bills….
Bagge asserts that, unlike Hate this is a straight down the line narrative tale, but he slips in a whole bunch of sardonic asides, while Beto Hernandez has such a distinctive style that I kept seeing the circle around L&R’s Maggie and Hopey in the band’s social world. These combine to make a witty, engaging delight, poking gentle fun at some social types, sharply cutting about aspects of the industry, inventively silly in is off-world ways and a delight to have all 9 of the issues collected into one album. My one major gripe, or perhaps 'bit of learning', is that Bagge doesn't have the subtle grasp of gender and of girlhood that the Hernandez brothers (Gibert and Jamie) show in L&R, weaking the collection. Otherwise, it’s lots of unprepossessing fun.
Bagge asserts that, unlike Hate this is a straight down the line narrative tale, but he slips in a whole bunch of sardonic asides, while Beto Hernandez has such a distinctive style that I kept seeing the circle around L&R’s Maggie and Hopey in the band’s social world. These combine to make a witty, engaging delight, poking gentle fun at some social types, sharply cutting about aspects of the industry, inventively silly in is off-world ways and a delight to have all 9 of the issues collected into one album. My one major gripe, or perhaps 'bit of learning', is that Bagge doesn't have the subtle grasp of gender and of girlhood that the Hernandez brothers (Gibert and Jamie) show in L&R, weaking the collection. Otherwise, it’s lots of unprepossessing fun.
January 8, 2019
I can honestly say this wasn't for me. What was interesting though was the introduction by Bagge where he admits that there wasn't a real audience for the book and that's why it ended. He talked about how they never really found their market and how he was greatly inspired by the Spice Girls and Josie and the Pussycats. When I started reading this book I wanted to be that market and I wanted to see how these inspirations played out, but ultimately I just kept getting annoyed by how overdone every moment was and the gender politics issues. Maybe that is the problem though since he's trying to pay homage to the teenage girl of the 90s he is also revealing how he views teenage girls as being limited. There's tons of stuff to read about how the things teenage girls are interested in are automatically hated and taken less seriously. In this production of a comic for the teenage girl he is reinforcing this idea in how silly and directionless the girls of the comic and the scope of the comic are. So while I was reading that's the only thing I could focus on (or maybe it's the thing that kept me pushing through to the end), because there isn't a lot of substance here. The characters in this comic are very much limited by their gender and their names. Everyone is reduced down to ideas rather than exploring ideas.
March 7, 2018
Alussa vähän turhankin tylsä ja naivi tarina tyttöbändistä, joka lähtee kunnolla käyntiin kun käy ilmi että bändi onkin supertunnettu muilla planeetoilla. Peter Baggen tarinat ovat hyviä ja Gilbert Hernandezin piirrosjälki sopii kokonaisuuteen hienosti. Pidin eniten miltei satumaisesta ja lapsenomaisesta viattomuudesta ja höyhenenkevyistä juonenkäänteistä. Muuten olisi ollut viiden tähden sarjakuva, mutta alun kömpelyys ja hidas käynnistyminen pudottivat tähdet neljään.
April 5, 2018
Throw Peter Bagge, Gilbert Hernandez and DC Comics together in a blender and you get ... a book for preteen girls?! Yeah! are the most popular band in the universe, except on Earth. It's a charming, completely unironic book, a throwback, well drawn, fun script. Definitely for preteen girls, but well crafted.
Alas, Fanta published the trade in b&w. I had the original series from DC in color and it looked even better then.
Alas, Fanta published the trade in b&w. I had the original series from DC in color and it looked even better then.
February 22, 2019
yeah...
November 3, 2022
Flojito
June 9, 2013
This book took me three months to read and normally I read a graphic novel in one sitting. It was a book aimed at young girls about a girl band who were famous in out of space but poor and ordinary on earth. Unfortunately there was little development beyond that concept. It was just all a lot of very similar stories without any progression or character development. There weren't any changes and it all felt a bit superficial. It felt like Peter Bagge was writing what he thought girls would like but had actually no clue as to what that would be. So it ended up being rather vacuous. It was quite fun and Gilbert's art was nice (though being black and white also not really what I would have thought would appeal to a comic like this which seemed to be screaming for lots of colour). I don't think I will be reading anything else by Bagge.
February 20, 2013
This book was aimed at tween/teen girls, telling an intergalactic story of a rock band down on their luck. I have no idea what tween/teen girl would read this because there's almost a complete lack of boy bands, choreographed dance moves, and sparkling-ness. However there might be some guys out there who long for a girl rocknroll band to hang out with, or even people (guys and girls) who are in bands themselves. Bagge's dialogue isn't as raw as his work from Hate!, though it speeds along funnily. Gilbert Hernandez's art is stellar and thankfully doesn't try to be anything that might really appeal to tweens like manga, color bursts, or elaborate action scenes. Cool, black and white, and brilliant.
September 19, 2020
1Buscando probar algo distinto al tono transgresor y radical de su aclamada serie Hate, el historietista Peter Bagge se atreve con un giro al humor blanco, juvenil y de vieja escuela en YEAH!, serie que aborda las desventuras de un trío musical femenino muy popular en la galaxia... y absolutamente desconocido en el planeta Tierra. Rock'n'roll, ciencia ficción y situaciones que recuerdan a Josie and The Pussycats in Outer Space (1972) marcaron un título ameno que tomó desprevenidos a los fans del autor; más aún con el aporte del también independiente Gilbert Hernández en labor. Solo nueve números alcanzó la propuesta editada bajo alero DC/Homage, quizás incomprendida por lectores que esperaban la habitual ración transgresora del tándem creativo. En mi caso, valoro el intento.
July 27, 2011
So I was about to say that Yeah! is essentially Josie and the Pussycats in space, but it turns out that there was a cartoon series of Josie and the Pussycats being tossed up into space. So there's that.
Yeah! is imperfect, and Peter Bagge admits as such in the beginning notes. It only lasted 9 issues, had trouble finding an audience, and I can kind of get it. It's a little too cute, a little too overdone. With that said, if we look past that a bit and not hold it up to Bagge's other work in comparison, it's a fun little romp. So I enjoyed it for what it was - it's not life-changing, but not everything has to be.
Yeah! is imperfect, and Peter Bagge admits as such in the beginning notes. It only lasted 9 issues, had trouble finding an audience, and I can kind of get it. It's a little too cute, a little too overdone. With that said, if we look past that a bit and not hold it up to Bagge's other work in comparison, it's a fun little romp. So I enjoyed it for what it was - it's not life-changing, but not everything has to be.
March 18, 2025
The pairing of Peter Bagge with Gilbert Hernandez was a promising one. Unfortunately, the results are a little disappointing. Hernandez delivers with fun, kitschy, retro illustrations. Bagge's storytelling is also at times those things, but one is left with the suspicion that a less retro story line might be more engaging. Part of the disappointment may be that an all-ages comic is harder to please an adult reader and Bagge, as he semi-seriously admits in his introduction, doesn't meet the challenge.
unfinished
October 20, 2011A "I can't finish this trainwreck". Josie and the Pussycats in space? With Archie-esque drawings and overly cutesy girl rockers? Who is the target audience for this? It's too dumbed down for adults, yet to mature for children. I can't imagine teens would like it either. It was so bad I could not bring myself to finish it.
December 20, 2015
Written by Bagge rather than Beto but the sensibilities are very close to the early 'pro-solar mechanic' issues of Love and Rockets or some of Los Bros less mainstream excursions such as ' Rocky', with aliens, rocketships and telekinesis helmets accepted as everyday elements of the wacky adventures. I rather liked that and Beto's art, which is nice and loose in a good way, but that's about it.
Read
July 29, 2011A fun all ages book about an all girl band is, erm, a lot of fun. This volume collects the whole series, but sadly is B&W instead of the wonderfully bright colours of the original publication. Too bad,
June 20, 2011
Despite Gilbert Hernandez' awesome old-school illustrations, this was basically just a Josie and the Pussycats rip-off.
May 4, 2017
busy art crowds out the fun girl band premise
January 23, 2012
I only read this because of Gilberto Hernandez - I wish there was more of his substance in here, along with the cartoon spark.
September 2, 2014
Not the best thing Peter Bagge or Gilbert Hernandez have ever done, but if you miss reading Archie or Josie and the Pussycats, this would be a fun read.
Read
December 30, 2013For kids.
September 2, 2016
Uhhhh pretty freaking weird
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews