The great comics giveaways

It's shaping up to be the Year of the Comics Contest, with Comic Book Galaxy and Polite Dissent now offering some pretty good, and pretty fun, giveaways.

Comic Book Galaxy is focusing its attention on the blogger-adored Street Angel, offering a chance to win autographed sets of Issues #1-5 of the series, plus the original minicomic. An identical set will go to the store where the winner buys his or her comics. Plus, the grand-prize winner (and the shop) will get a one-of-a-kind piece of Street Angel original art. Entering is simple: Just email the required contact information no later than Feb. 28. Complete contest details can be found here.

Meanwhile, at Polite Dissent, Scott is pushing the Nikolai Dante: The Romanov Dynasty trade paperback in a contest that requires a little ... imagination. There are three avenues you can take to win: "Quality," in which you're asked to create a tale of a Russian noble using four of six narrative elements -- a bottle of vodka, a river otter, a copy of The Annotated Alice in Wonderland, an ice cream sandwich, Spiro Agnew, and the island sounds of Don Ho; "Quantity," in which you must use as many items as you can from Scott's Big List (which, of course, includes Hawk & Dove and Brother Voodoo); and "Pure Luck," which entails just emailing your contact information. Complete details can be found here. Deadline is Jan. 31.