Inside Joke Theatre - Randy Lander's Blog

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2012-01-23T00:10:00.004-06:00

I was getting a ton of comment spam a while back, so I turned on comment moderation, which is why it's taken some time for comments to show up on posts. I'll try to be more diligent about catching those and publishing them so folks' comments will show up in closer to when they're actually posted.

6. If I Ran DC: The DC Relaunch Re-Imagined

2012-01-22T18:38:00.001-06:00

So... as a thought experiment last year, me and my co-worker and friend Nick Budd, decided to figure out what we would have done if we had programmed the DC relaunch. There were several caveats: First of all, we had to stay somewhat within reality. By which I mean, we assumed that a lot of folks already had contracts with DC, so almost anyone who had been on books before the relaunch and was still on books after the relaunch, we had to use. Also, we couldn't just grab anybody we wouldn't be able to get. Nobody who's a Marvel exclusive, there was no way Mark Millar was going to work for DC, etc.

We also decided to tweak a few big things. For one, we went reboot, not relaunch. We're going with a sort of Brave and the Bold approach, where there's a history, and we'll explore it as it becomes relevant, but we're not assuming that any of the stories previously happened. Basically, unless it's specifically mentioned in the new stories, assume that it hasn't happened. This is a little more flexible than it probably should be, less specific than the "5 year timeline," but it is sort of the opposite of what DC went with, which is "assume it happened unless we outright tell you it didn't."

I also freely admit to nabbing several pitches from DC Fifty-Too and would immediately take Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone up on their plan to do at least 12 issues of a Wonder Woman book anyone could hand to their young girl. Because really, what kind of *idiots* wouldn't take that pitch?

We also each added a new imprint. For me, all-ages. For Nick, a space-themed imprint called Mystery in Space.

This is my half, Nick's half is on his site, Top 5 Comics, or if he doesn't, I'll ask him and post them up here.

Anyway... here are the solicits. Again, just a thought experiment. All art belongs to the artists, is used for illustrative purposes, and doesn't imply any consent toward this article or anything expressed within. If any artists would like me to take the art down (or move the pictures to my own site, rather than linking to the original piece, which I do as a means to send traffic their way and make them aware of the existence of this article in case any of them do have a problem with it), please contact me and I will respond amazingly quickly.

DETECTIVE COMICS #1
Written by SCOTT SNYDER and DAVE BULLOCK
Art and cover by JOCK and FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA and DAVE BULLOCK
On sale SEPTEMBER 7 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Detective Comics gets a new first issue for the first time in almost 75 years! A series of brutal killings hints at an ancient conspiracy, and Batman learns that Gotham City is deadlier than he knew. Plus, in the first in a series of 8-page backup stories by rotating creative teams, DAVE BULLOCK shows us the adventures of Slam Bradley, Gotham's hard-boiled private eye protector of the 1930s!

NIGHTWING #1
Written by ANDY DIGGLE
Art and cover by JESUS SAIZ
On sale SEPTEMBER 14 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Dick Grayson was the first Robin, but now he flies solo as Nightwing, guardian of Hub City! The Question, protector of Hub City, has disappeared, and it's up to Batman's first protege to keep the peace in this corrupt town while finding out what happened to the one man who held the corruption at bay. (Editor's Note: In the new continuity, Dick Grayson is African-American. The Question is still Vic Sage.)

BATMAN #1
Written by PAUL DINI
Art by GREG CAPULLO and JONATHAN GLAPION
Cover by GREG CAPULLO
Variant cover by ETHAN VAN SCIVER
On sale SEPTEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
Arkham Asylum... empty. Gotham's criminals have spread across the United States, creating havoc too widespread for even Batman to deal with on his own. Be here as Batman teams up with a variety of superheroes from across the DC Universe against his most famous foes... and tries to track down the mastermind behind the massive escape. Who benefits from keeping Batman away from Gotham? And what does this have to do with the Mayor's secret "Arkham City" protocols?

BATMAN INC #1
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art by FRANK QUITELY and CHRIS BURNHAM
Cover by FRANK QUITELY and CHRIS BURNHAM
On sale SEPTEMBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Man of Bats. Knight and Squire. Mr. Unknown. Batwing. Black Bat. When crime and terrorism goes international, Batman needs to become an international force. Be here as Grant Morrison explores Batman's army of allies across the globe and their strange foes with superstar artists Frank Quitely and Chris Burnham.

BLACK BAT #1
Written by LISA JOY & TONY DANIEL
Art by TONY DANIEL
Cover by BECKY CLOONAN
On sale SEPTEMBER 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Meet Cassandra Cain. The daughter of a world class assassin, rescued as a girl by Batman and trained alongside Jason Todd, Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown as potential replacements for Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon, Cassandra was given the identity of The Black Bat to become Batman Inc.'s operative in Hong Kong. Now she'll face off against Triads, intelligence agents from around the world and super-criminals trying to infiltrate this high-tech, crime-riddled city of the far east. Brought to you by BURN NOTICE and PUSHING DAISIES writer Lisa Joy and BATMAN artist Tony Daniel, its high octane espionage and action as you like it!

BATWOMAN #1
Written by J.H. WILLIAMS III and W. HADEN BLACKMAN
Art and cover by J.H. WILLIAMS III
On sale SEPTEMBER 14 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
At last! Batwoman’s new series begins, from the multiple award-winning creative team of J.H. Williams III and Haden Blackman!
In “Hydrology,” part 1 of 5, Batwoman faces deadly new challenges in her war against Gotham City’s underworld – and new trials in her life as Kate Kane.
Who or what is stealing children from the barrio, and for what vile purpose? Will Kate train her cousin, Bette Kane (a.k.a. Flamebird), as her new sidekick? How will she handle unsettling revelations about her father, Colonel Jacob Kane? And why is a certain government agent named Cameron Chase keeping tabs on her?

GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #1
Written by PAUL DINI
Art by GUILLEM MARCH
Cover by GUILLEM MARCH
On sale SEPTEMBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and Catwoman have learned that to survive in Gotham City, bad girls have to stick together. But now they're facing a new vigilante, one who seems to have put a special focus on the capers of the Gotham City Sirens. Who is Thorn? And why is she so determined to put these women out of business?

BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY #1
Written by BRYAN Q. MILLER
Art and cover by DUSTIN NGUYEN
On sale SEPTEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
When the Joker's brutal attack put her in a wheelchair, Barbara Gordon thought her life as Batgirl was over. But combining her talent for hacking and information with a cybernetic-interfaced robot from Batman Inc's vault has put her back in the driver's seat, and she's gathered a team of super-operatives that includes Black Canary, Huntress and Starling (Stephanie Brown) to take on the worst that Gotham (and the world) has to offer!

Edge Imprint:

RED HOOD AND THE OUTSIDERS #1
Written by JUDD WINICK & DAVID FINCH
Art and cover by DAVID FINCH
On sale SEPTEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
Jason Todd was training to replace Robin, but his violent methods caused him to strike out on his own with the identity of Red Hood. Now he's gathered a team of fellow outsiders and fallen sidekicks, including Arsenal, Rose Wilson, Grifter (from Wildcats) and Wise Son (from Blood Syndicate) to take on the criminals and terrorists of the world with more final methods than his mentor would have approved of. But is one of his new recruits secretly an operative of Batman Inc.?

WILDCATS #1
Written by PAUL CORNELL
Art by CAFU
Cover by SAMI BASRI
On sale SEPTEMBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
Khunds. Dominators. Daemonites. White Martians. These and more alien races have tried to infiltrate or destroy the DC Universe over the years, but they've always been stopped by the covert action teams of the World War II-era mystery man Wildcat. Now investigative journalist Lois Lane is on the trail of the Wildcats, and she has a major scoop: These alien fighters all share alien origins! Has their protection of Earth all been a scheme to take it for themselves? And if so, what does that mean for Lois, and are they the ones trying to kill her? Join Martian Manhunter, Warblade, Voodoo, Spartan, Starman (Mikaal Tomas), Maxima and Starfire as they battle the risk of exposure and the impending menace of alien conqueror Despero!

D.E.O.: COVERT OPS #1
Written by JOHN OSTRANDER & MARC ANDREYKO
Art by CHRIS SAMNEE
Cover by LADRONN
On sale SEPTEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
The Department of Extranormal Operations has been the government's answers to alien and metahuman threats for over 50 years. Whether it was the work of King Faraday and John Lynch's Team 7 during the Cold War or the more modern operations of Mr. Bones and Amanda Waller, they've been doing the covert work to keep the world safe, as the United States sees it. Now, however, a massive terrorist super-criminal threat is going to force these rival department heads to work together and coordinate all their resources, from Team 7 to Checkmate to the mysterious Task Force X, or else face the destruction of everything they've protected for so long.

SUICIDE SQUAD #1
Written by CHRISTOS GAGE & GAIL SIMONE
Art and cover by NICOLA SCOTT
On sale SEPTEMBER 14 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
Amanda Waller has a deal for the supervillains of Belle Reve. Take on dangerous and probably illegal missions for the government. You'll probably die. But if you don't, you get a few years knocked off your sentence. Bane, Ragdoll, Catman, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang and Scandal have all taken her up on the deal. But several of them have their own agenda, until they find out their last teammate on their first mission: The Joker. And now all their plans and schemes take a backseat to staying alive.

O.M.A.C. #1
Written by DAN DIDIO and KEITH GIFFEN
Art and cover by KEITH GIFFEN and SCOTT KOBLISH
On sale SEPTEMBER 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
The all-seeing Brother Eye satellite has unleashed a new beast upon the DC Universe in this smashing new series! Kevin Kho has become an unwilling participant in a war between Project Cadmus and Brother Eye as he is transformed into the One Man Army Corps known only as O.M.A.C.!

BLACKHAWKS #1
Written by MIKE COSTA
Art and cover by KEN LASHLEY
On sale SEPTEMBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
Welcome to a world waging a new kind of war that’s faster and more brutal than ever before. It’s fought by those who would make the innocent their targets, using computers, smart weapons and laser-guided missiles. The new enemy is hard to find – and closer to home than we think. Between us and them stand the Blackhawks, an elite force of military specialists drawn from special forces around the world and equipped with the latest in cutting-edge hardware and vehicles. Their mission: Kill the bad guys before they kill us.

ALL-STAR WESTERN #1
Written by JUSTIN GRAY and JIMMY PALMIOTTI
Art and cover by MORITAT
On sale SEPTEMBER 21 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T+
Even when Gotham City was just a one-horse town, crime was rampant – and things only get worse when bounty hunter Jonah Hex comes to town. Can Amadeus Arkham, a pioneer in criminal psychology, enlist Hex’s special brand of justice to help the Gotham Police Department track down a vicious serial killer? Find out in this new series from HEX writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, with lush artwork by Moritat (THE SPIRIT)! Future issues will feature 8-page backups by rotating creative teams featuring numerous western heroes, including SCALPHUNTER by THE SIXTH GUN team of Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt, THE KENTS by John Ostrander and Tim Truman and BAT LASH by Mike Carey & Dan Hipp.

Young Justice imprint:

TEEN TITANS #1
Written by ADAM WARREN
Art by PETE WOODS
Cover by PHIL BOURASSA
On sale SEPTEMBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Tim Drake, the newest Robin, has a problem. Students have been disappearing from the Holt Academy for Advanced Learning, Mr. Terrific's private school which also doubles as a secret training center for young metahumans. And Tim is sure they've got an inside man. But he can't handle this problem on his own, and he can't bring in Batman, so it's up to Tim to put together a team of heroes from amongst his fellow students. Fairchild, the statuesque and powerful beauty with self-esteem issues, Kid Flash, the nephew of the Flash whose mouth runs twice as fast as his brain, Aqualad, the protege of Aquaman, Jaime Reyes, the teen with the scarab from the aliens known as The Reach, Connor Kent, the powerhouse clone of Superman who hides more than a few secrets and Grunge, the well-meaning doofus who hasn't quite realized that the '90s are over. Together these young teens will form the core of the Teen Titans in this new series from writer Adam Warren (EMPOWERED, GEN 13) and artist Pete Woods (ROBIN), with covers by lead YOUNG JUSTICE animator and character designer Phil Bourassa!

PREZ #1
Written by JAKE EKISS
Art by STEVE ROLSTON
Cover by CAMERON STEWART
On sale SEPTEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
It's the second decade of the new millenium, and the last place anyone thought there would be a violent youth revolt was the United States. After months of tense political stalemate punctuated by crippling social turmoil, a deal was reached. The minimum age to hold office was lowered, and in 2016, the youngest president ever, 17 year old Alejandra Perez "Prez" was elected to the highest office in the land. With the youth revolt still smoldering, and the country on the verge of schism or collapse, all the weight of our dreams, of our children's dreams, rest on one girl.

STATIC SHOCK #1
Written by SCOTT McDANIEL and JOHN ROZUM
Art and cover by SCOTT McDANIEL and JONATHAN GLAPION
On sale SEPTEMBER 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Virgil Hawkins has a great job at S.T.A.R. Labs, a new mentor in the form of the mysterious Hardware and a new life in New York City after his parents have moved him out of Dakota! But is he ready to take on the new villains who lurk in New York City’s underworld? And just what role did Hardware play in getting Static this new life?

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES #1
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by FRANCIS PORTELA
Cover by KARL KERSCHL
On sale SEPTEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
In the 31st century, the heroic legacy of the DC Universe has been forgotten, as alien overlords The Dominators sweep through the galaxy and Earth struggles under the rule of Xevious Luthor, descendant of one of the worst super-criminals the world has ever known. But industrialist RJ Brande has a plan, and he's calling in heroes from all over the galaxy to take up the heroic banner of the Legion of Superheroes!

KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH #1
Written by DAVE GIBBONS and RYAN SOOK
Art and cover by RYAN SOOK
On sale SEPTEMBER 14 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Raised in the Command D Bunker by Doctor Canus, Kamandi thought he was alone. But when a girl turns up at the Bunker on the run from the slaver tigers of Great Caesar, with a locket that might lead to a colony of intelligent humans in South America, Kamandi must gather his friends and set out on a quest to find out if he is indeed the Last Boy on Earth.

METAL MEN #1
Written by BRIAN CLEVENGER
Art by JAMAL IGLE
Cover by KEVIN MAGUIRE
On sale SEPTEMBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Teenaged geniuses "Doc" Will Magnus and T.O. Morrow have been rivals since kindergarten. The twin terrors of science fairs throughout Ivy City. Now they've turned to robotics. But who will the city choose as its official champion? Morrow's powerful, popular champion The Red Tornado, or Magnus's scrappy underdogs the Metal Men? Either way, the two science teens will be hard at work in the lab, trying to top each other again, and their robotic creations will have to deal with the fallout from experiments gone wrong, as well as the weird science threats of Ivy City and their animosity towards one another.

JIMMY OLSEN #1
Written by NICK SPENCER
Art by RB SILVA & DYM
Cover by AMANDA CONNOR
On sale SEPTEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Jimmy Olsen and his on-again, off-again girlfriend Chloe Sullivan are constantly at odds. About who paid for dinner last, about who won the last argument... but mostly about who's going to get the best stories for Weird Worlds magazine. Join DC's most go-getting young reporters as they seek adventure and good copy in alien worlds, supervillain bases and all across the DC Universe!

All-Ages:

THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM #1
Written by EVAN "DOC" SHANER
Art and cover by EVAN "DOC" SHANER
On sale SEPTEMBER 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED A
Meet the Wizard. Speak the words. Fight evil. SHAZAM! Evan "Doc" Shaner brings you a brand new, all ages take on Captain Marvel, Billy Batson, Dr. Sivana, Tawky Tawny, Black Adam and more!

SUPERGIRL/BATGIRL #1
Written by MIKE MAIHACK
Art and cover by MIKE MAIHACK
On sale SEPTEMBER 14 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED A
Can the same blonde-haired, wonder teen from Metropolis who helped Barbara Gordon finally put an end to Killer Moth's week-long crime spree also be the new popular transfer student at Gotham High? Good thing they have superheroics in common because Babs' and Kara Zor-El's student lives are about to clash.

WONDER GIRL #1
Written by DARWYN COOKE & J. BONE
Art and cover by J. BONE
On sale SEPTEMBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED A
Diana Prince has become one of the world's foremost heroes. A member of the Justice League. But before all that, she was a teenager on Paradise Island and a young heroine newly arrived in Man's World. Join Darwyn Cooke (DC NEW FRONTIER) and J. BONE (BATMAN BRAVE AND THE BOLD) as they show us the early days of Diana's adventures!

BLUE BEETLES #1
Written by MIKE NORTON
Art and cover by MIKE NORTON
On sale SEPTEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED A
Dan Garrett III, the long lost grandson of the original Blue Beetle, thought the scarab (and the legacy of the Blue Beetle) would be his. But when he approached his boss, Ted Kord, about the idea, he found out that Jaime Reyes had already been claimed by the scarab. But when Jaime finds himself in need of a partner, Garrett "borrowed" Kord's Beetle equipment and went to the rescue. Now the two teens, with guidance from retired Blue Beetle Ted Kord, look out for each other and the citizens of Central City!

5. Top 5 Spider-Man Writers

2012-01-21T22:58:00.002-06:00

So I'm just starting into Essential Amazing Spider-Man Volume 10, which is going to be bringing me pretty close to where I started reading Spider-Man when I was a teen. Which means that while I haven't read everything Spider-Man, I'm comfortable saying that I've read about 80% or more of the character's solo titles, and I'm comfortable making this list of my Top 5 Spider-Man writers.

Personal preference, not binding, blah blah, etc.

1. Stan Lee - It's true that when you go back to read some of Lee's early stuff, it can be a bit hokey and overly bombastic, but for me, his Spider-Man stuff holds up better than anything else, even better than Fantastic Four. Maybe that's because Lee and Ditko co-writing had a nice push-pull like you get with a good writer/editor relationship, or maybe it's any of a hundred other possible reasons, but at any rate, the early Spider-Man issues are some of my favorite Silver Age Marvel books.

Spidey's rogues gallery is one of the best in comics, and most of them were introduced during Lee's run. Green Goblin, Scorpion, Kraven, Doctor Octopus, Electro, The Lizard, Mysterio, Rhino, Shocker, Kingpin, The Sandman... a cornucopia of bad guys who remain in use today. Then there are villains who didn't endure, but who were memorable in their time, like Lee's epic about the magic tablet and "The Big Man," and the supporting cast that was established, from Mary Jane to Flash Thompson, Robbie Robertson, Gwen Stacy and of course J. Jonah Jameson, one of the best, love to hate 'em nemesis characters of all time.

In fact, Lee was #2 on this list until I realized just how much of a great foundation he laid for all that came later, and much as I love Stern's take on Spider-Man, it owes a lot to the groundwork from Lee's run.

2. Roger Stern - Stern wrote the perfect Spider-Man for me. Heroic, funny, neurotic, dangerous as hell when his righteous anger got kicked in. He also created one of the best villains of all time, the Hobgoblin, although of course points must be deducted for the lame ending when Stern left the book, and a few more for when he came back a few years later and did a miniseries that further confused the issue and had me thinking "Wait, who was that guy again?"

Stern also wrote "The Kid That Collected Spider-Man" and "Nothing Can Stop The Juggernaut," two of the best Spider-Man stories ever put to paper, and started the maturation of Mary Jane to the point where she became a viable long-term partner for Peter Parker.

3. Gerry Conway - I've never been a huge Conway fan, but when I read his Amazing Spider-Man, I realized how good he could be. If nothing else, the guy gave us the original clone story (which was great, as compared to the '90s clone saga) and the Death of Gwen Stacy, but he also introduced the Punisher and made Harry Osborn the Green Goblin, a notable and important development in that character's history. There were also any number of fun, memorable one-shot stories throughout his run.

4. Peter David - Though he didn't write that many Spider-Man stories due to office politics, Peter David's brief tenure on Spectacular, and his work on Web of Spider-Man, was memorable. The Sin-Eater storyline and all the work he did on Jean DeWolff was probably the best thing to happen to Spidey's police interaction since Captain Stacy, and David's sense of humor, always a prominent aspect of his writing, was a perfect fit for Spider-Man.

In fairness, because his tenure was relatively short, David was able to avoid any handicaps that would move him further down the rank, unlike a few of my honorable mentions (below).

5. Brian Michael Bendis - I know, those of you who know I'm not a huge Bendis fan these days are surprised. But Bendis did the impossible, along with Mark Bagley, and made Ultimate Spider-Man not a terrible idea but a fantastic, modern reinvention of the character. He captured the neuroses and the humor of Spider-Man better than anyone since Stern, he expanded and filled out the character's origin and development as a hero, and while things started to go off the rails after a while, those first 30 or so issues of Ultimate Spider-Man are still some of the best stuff to hand a new reader who wants to try the character out.

In addition, Miles Morales is showing a lot of the same spark of originality that the early Ultimate Spider-Man issues had, and if the character does endure (which I hope he will), Bendis will be responsible for creating what is essentially another viable Spider-Man, more popular and more easily accepted than the only other character folks might accept as Spider-Man, Ben Reilly.

Honorable Mentions:

I'd love to credit Tom DeFalco, whose follow-up to Roger Stern's run was actually pretty true to the tone, especially at first, but his later work on the Clone Saga sort of disqualifies him.

Ditto J. Michael Straczynski, who started off relatively strong, hit on some really nice ideas (Peter as teacher, Aunt May figuring out the secret), but had some not so great ones and of course, bears some of the blame for the terrible One More Day story.

David Michelinie is a writer I've always been fond of, and like him or hate him, you have to admit that Michelinie co-creation Venom is a memorable Spider-foe. He also did great stuff with Silver Sable and Paladin, two characters I really like. But he was working in the '90s, and was drawn into all the terrible storytelling conventions that implies, so at least half his run is pretty weak.

J.M. DeMatteis needs to be mentioned for "Death of Kraven," and indeed some of his '90s and '00s work was pretty solid, but a lot of his Spidey stuff is unremarkable.

Mark Waid is fantastic at Spidey (Check out Amazing Spider-Man #677) but hasn't written quite enough of the character to be an all-time favorite. I'd sure love to see more from him, though.

Dan Slott can be fantastic on Spidey (see Spider-Man/Human Torch) but he's been shackled by the Brand New Day status quo, and seems to just now be fighting his way out of it. If he had his own continuity to work with rather than the one Quesada and company saddled him with, I'm sure he'd be on this list, and I still think he might wind up there.

Next time: Least Favorite 5 Spider-Man writers. Then I might tackle Favorite artists.

4. Favorite Comics of Early January 2012

2012-01-15T22:19:00.005-06:00

OK, so technically I missed the weekly thing by two days. In my defense, time measurement is arbitrary, and if we were using the Mayan measurement method, we'd all be facing apocalypse, so two days late is really pretty minor when you think about it.

At any rate, I figured a quick post about the comics I've been really enjoying for the first couple weeks of January would cover the bases, and as it turns out, there have been some really great comics in the first couple weeks of January. These aren't reviews, just quick thoughts.

Week One:
Action Comics #5 (The lead story was pretty weak, an unfortunate trend in Action Comics ever since #3, but the back-up feature, a short tale of Martha and Jonathan Kent, did it's job quite well)

Animal Man #5 (Creepy horror comics at its best)

Fatale #1 (Brubaker & Phillips never disappoint, and this mixture of crime and Cthulhu is no exception)

Huntress #4 (I've been really enjoying this straightforward superhero story by Paul Levitz, and the artwork by Marcus To is jaw-droppingly beautiful)

Punisher #7 (Rucka's Punisher hasn't been my cup of tea, as I don't really dig the "Punisher as bogeyman" take, but it was great to see him working with Lark again, and Lark's artwork on this one is terrific)

Swamp Thing #5 (Has a great sense of "the heroes are totally screwed" going on, a nice complement to the Animal Man series)

Villains For Hire #2 (Abnett & Lanning continue to show everyone else how to do street-level superheroics... or in this case, super-villains)

Wolverine And X-men Alpha And Omega #1 (I remain uncertain about the wisdom of a spinoff of such a young series, but this feels like a standalone story, with nice art by Mark Brooks and good writing from Brian Wood, and I'm a sucker for alternate future stories, even if this one is purely psychic/imaginary)

Bprd Hell On Earth Tp Vol 02 Gods And Monsters (I'd fallen a bit behind on BPRD, but caught up on the Hell on Earth stuff, and they are definitely still doing some of the best horror/superhero stuff in comics. Gods does some great stuff with Abe and the increasingly unlikable Devon, and Monsters is a great intro for Tyler Crook's art and a nice showcase for Liz)

Week Two:
Activity #2 (Nathan Edmonson's espionage/action book is a great follow-up to Who is Jake Ellis?, and the artwork by Mitch Gerads is stunning. I do wish I could tell the characters apart a little better, but I'm fairly certain that, like Ellis, this will read better in trade)

Amazing Spider-man #677 (One of the best comics I've read in the last several months, as Mark Waid delivers some of the best, funniest dialogue Spider-Man has had in years, tells a great story teaming Daredevil and Spidey looking for the Black Cat, and basically delivers everything he's been delivering on Daredevil but for Spider-Man. Gorgeous art by Emma Rios, too)

Batman And Robin #5 (My favorite of the four Batman books of the New 52, mostly due to the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Damian, and the artwork of Patrick Gleason. Still can't touch the Snyder/Jock/Francavilla Detective run we had to give up, though)

Batwoman #5 (Beautiful to look at, I love the use of Chase and the DEO... but the storytelling is sometimes a little hard to follow, a little too ethereal, and I kind of wish they'd ground it a bit more)

Demon Knights #5 (I'd been slipping on this a bit in the last couple issues, but this issue has some key character revelations and a betrayal that brought me back - still probably an easier read in trades)

Frankenstein Agent Of Shade #5 (Fun little one-off pitting Frankenstein against OMAC. Not up to the standards of the first story arc, but solid enough)

Green Lantern #5 (Surprised how much I'm enjoying this, given that it's got some of Johns's storytelling tropes I don't enjoy, like casual murder and mutilation from the protagonists, but Sinestro and Hal interacting is, it turns out, a lot of fun, and a conspiracy by the Guardians something I'm surprised to actually care about)

Lobster Johnson The Burning Hand #1 (I didn't think I was a huge Lobster Johnson fan, but art by Who Is Jake Ellis's Tonci Zonjic and a fun pulpy tale made this one of my favorite reads of the week)

Resurrection Man #5 (A little bit of origin, a little bit of mystery as to where Mitch Shelley is now, and I'm still very much enjoying this book)

Severed #6 (One of the best horror comics I've ever read. I have literally no idea what's going to happen from issue to issue)

Shade #4 (Great art by Darwyn Cooke, but I feel like the surprise twist villain doesn't make a bit of sense if you examine the story for even one second, which drains a lot of the appreciation from me)

Star Wars Agent O/t Empire Iron Eclipse #2 (Stronger second issue, with a very James Bond feel)

Strange Talent Of Luther Strode #4 (Some big secrets revealed, the stakes get a little higher, and one of my favorite new books of 2011 comes into 2012 looking pretty strong)

Suicide Squad #5 (I've been enjoying this, but with this issue, the book went from casual pleasure to "book I will probably buy in trade" - it's very different from my Squad, the '80s book that is one of my absolute favorites, but it's a good take, and it's clear that the writer gets the concept and isn't afraid to kill off characters in much the same way Ostrander did)

Wolverine And X-men #4 (Another book that crossed the "I'll probably wind up buying the trade" threshold this week, due in part to the change in artist, which I hope is permanent, in part to the young class of characters Aaron has put together, and in part to the fun, quirky tone of the book)

Unwritten Tp Vol 05 On To Genesis (Some big, big revelations in this. I forget how much I love this book until a trade comes out, but every time I read it, I'm reminded that it's one of my favorite Vertigo books, with a lot of ambition and a lot of smarts)

3. The Dans of DC

2012-01-06T19:06:00.000-06:00

This one's kind of a whim post, I admit it. But recently, I picked up the new Chase trade paperback, and was reminded that for a time in the '90s, at least three of my favorite people at DC were named Dan. To specify:

1. Dan Curtis Johnson was the writer and co-creator of Chase. He had a great grip on the DCU, clearly had a plan in mind for Chase to run for many more issues, and it's a shame we never got to see the full extent of his vision. He even used the Starman-esque trick of "Times Past" type stories to show us tales of Chase as a P.I. in San Francisco, he was clearly building up to something with the DEO's "orphanages" where they trained young metahumans they captured, etc.

Unfortunately, while D. Curtis Johnson was one of the most talented writers working at DC in the '90s, his commercial profile never quite caught up to his creative skills and potential, and while I don't know where he is these days, I'd venture a guess that he's making a lot more money and getting a lot more respect in his other field of computer programming. Pity, as I'd love to see him writing for DC again.

2. Dan Raspler was an editor who I first noticed when he was working with John Ostrander on Suicide Squad. He then went on to edit some of my favorite series, including The Spectre and Hitman, and created and wrote Young Heroes in Love, a short-lived series in the '90s that I really loved. I met him on the shuttle bus at the first Chicago Comicon I ever went to (or possibly the second, my memory's a little shaky on that one) and even pitched him a story at one point when I was trying (thankfully, unsuccessfully) to break in as a comics writer.

3. Dan Thorsland was also an editor, and he was notably in charge of DC's horror mini-line in the '90s, including a really fun book about monsters on the run called Scare Tactics. He also edited some of the issues of Chase, and a few other notable books I really liked.

In all three cases, I don't really know where these guys are now. But I do know that if I could trade one of them for DC's current Dan (Didio) I probably would.

Dan Jurgens is the fourth Dan, and while he's hit and miss for me, he's done so much work that I've liked that I will always give his stuff a chance. So while I'm finding his Justice League International really boring, I still look back on his underrated runs on Thor, Aquaman, Captain America and of course the character he created, Booster Gold, and he'll always get a look for me. Unlike the aforementioned three Dans, however, Jurgens is very active in the comics community at present.

2. DVD Overview: Justice League Unlimited Season Two

2012-01-01T21:53:00.004-06:00

After what I think of as the perfect culmination of Batman, Superman and Justice League cartoons in the first season of Justice League Unlimited Season One, I remember being somewhat disappointed in season two. Having now re-watched it, I maintain my opinion that it's considerably weaker than the first season, but I've realized it's still pretty great.

I think one of the big things that hurt season two was the half episode order. Thirteen episodes feels really tight given the amount of story they're trying to pack in here, and it becomes especially notable at the end. The Hawkgirl-Hawkman-Vixen-Green Lantern love quadrangle never quite gets a full resolution, the Martian Manhunter goes down among humanity starts abruptly and doesn't quite have enough time to make his return at the end have quite as much resonance as it could, Grodd's secret society is a great idea but feels like it's over before it really gets started, etc.

However... all of these stories are great ideas, and despite being compressed, they're still really good. In particular, I loved seeing the future Green Lantern/Hawkgirl offspring being addressed. And the plot structure at the outset, where Grodd is going after various artifacts from DC's history, allowing the writers to use the Viking Prince, Deadman and the Warlord, is terrific. In addition, the writers continue to expand across the DCU, so we get a Legion episode, an episode that feels like a lost Flash TV show and a follow-up to Cadmus with Wade Eiling adopting the General identity he took on in Morrison's JLA.

They also made time for some fun one-offs, notably Flash and Lex Luthor getting their minds swapped, and some follow-up from season one with Roulette and her new Metabrawl.

The show did not lack ambition, nor expertise, it just lacked in time to really explore all of the ideas in full.

Still... Darkseid invading Earth, and Lex and Superman teaming up, alongside their respective teams, to defend it? That's a hell of a final episode.

The DVDs have two notable extras, one where the writers, producers and directors discuss their favorite episodes and another where Mark Hamill and series creative personnel discuss the Cadmus arc, although I haven't actually watched either one quite yet.

1. 2012 New Year's Resolutions

2012-01-01T20:29:00.002-06:00

Huh. Been a while. Which leads me to resolution #1 in 2012:

1. Post at least weekly on my blog. My hope is to some kind of weekly comic book post, but I imagine as we start getting into election season I'll get drawn into political blogging, and that despite my outlets of LEOG (that's League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen on Spill.com), TV Dudes & Loose Canon (on Lounge Geeks.com), I'll probably wind up posting on TV and other geeky stuff as well.

What lead me to start resolutions in the first place was my January 1st reorganization/clean-up of DVDs and Blurays, leading me to resolution #2:

2. Watch all of the Blurays and DVDs I have that are sitting unwatched on my shelf. I don't have as many Blurays, but there was a Christmas one or two years back where a lot of stuff wound up going, still wrapped, to the DVD shelf and I never got around to watching it. So the list I have to watch is as follows:

Blurays:
Breaking Bad Seasons 2 & 3 (I've seen the show, but not the special features)
Kick Ass (Saw in theater, but haven't seen since, plus special features)
Kill Bill 1 & 2 (Seen many times, but not special features, and haven't re-watched in a while)
Memento (Haven't seen in quite some time, plus special features)
No Country For Old Men (Re-watch, plus special features)
Rocketeer (Haven't seen in several years)
X-Men First Class (Haven't seen since the theater, haven't watched all the special features)
Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Haven't seen in a while, plus *tons* of special features)

DVDs:
Band of Brothers (Haven't seen in a few years)
Batman Beyond Seasons 1-2 (Re-watch, but I haven't seen since original airing in most cases)
Batman Brave and the Bold Season 1 and Season 2 Part 1 (Have watched parts of these, and seen all of them on original airing)
Blazing Saddles (Still wrapped, so I haven't seen this in a few years)
Breaking Bad Season 1 (Seen the show, but not special features, and want to re-watch anyway)
Casablanca (Still wrapped, haven't ever watched the DVD though I saw it at the Paramount again in 2010)
Chaplin (Never seen, and I'm a Robert Downey Jr. fan)
Community Seasons 1-2 (Have seen original airings, but haven't re-watched, plus there are tons of special features)
Crimson Tide (Still wrapped, so haven't seen in a few years)
Kids in the Hall Complete Series (I've seen a lot of these, but not all of them)
L.A. Confidential (Still wrapped, not sure I've seen this since I first saw it in theaters)
Lost Season 4 (Still wrapped, will probably use this as an excuse to re-watch the whole series)
Manchurian Candidate (2004) (Still wrapped, white elephant gift from a few years ago, never seen)
Monty Python's Flying Circus Box 6 (Still wrapped, may or may not use this as an excuse to watch all the Monty Python I've got)
Natural Born Killers (Never seen, got as a white elephant gift a couple years ago)
North by Northwest (Same)
Police Squad (Still wrapped, saw it when it was on TV, love it, looking forward to the revisit)
Predator (Haven't seen in many years, may or may not watch special features)
Profit Complete Series (Still wrapped, saw a couple episodes back in the day, always wanted to complete it)
Pushing Daisies Season 1 (Still wrapped, have seen all of it's original run, will use this as an excuse to re-watch the whole series)
The Shield Season 5 (Still wrapped, have seen all of the show, might use this as an excuse to re-watch the whole series, one of my all-time favorites)
Wonderfalls (Still wrapped, saw its original run on TV, will probably follow up by Pushing Daisies watch with this)

So... that oughta keep me occupied for a while. And this leads me to #3 on the list:

3. Catch up on all the graphic novels on my to-read pile.

And while I'm at it, resolution #4:

4. Catch up on the novels on my to-read pile.

So that's the catch-up plan. And I plan to continue the Cheers and Terriers re-watch on Netflix. Beyond catching up on my various forms of entertainment, there's the other stuff.

In 2011, I went from 197 lbs. in January to 170 lbs. now. I lost about 18 lbs. from fixing up my diet and exercise (that's good!) and then another 9 lbs. when I had food poisoning that turned into extended stomach nastiness (that's bad!) Leading to resolution #5:

5. Keep my healthy weight, hopefully get back to exercising and eating normally again

Plus, of course, all the usual stuff about being a good husband, dad, boss and friend.

Happy New Year everyone!

TV Fall Preview - NBC Dramas

2011-05-17T15:57:00.002-05:00

To start off with, a reminder of the cautionary words from NPR's Linda Holmes about just how useful any of this speculation will really be. In short, speculating based on upfronts is not much different than throwing a dart at names on a board, in terms of predicting quality and/or success.

Which won't stop me from doing it. While I'm a regular reader of Alan Sepinwall, most of my thoughts are based on this article from NPR's Monkey See blog: new dramas.

This post covers NBC dramas. I may or may not write about ABC, CBS, and FOX shows in later posts.

Awake
Upsides: From the creator of Lone Star. Interesting premise. Great cast. Nice production values.
Downsides: Has "critics' darling, quickly canceled" written all over it
Likelihood of Watching More Than The Pilot: 95% chance I'll watch as much as they air... hope that means more than the two episodes Lone Star got

Grimm
Upsides: Creators from Angel, who know how to handle this kind of material.
Downsides: NBC hasn't done well with genre programming (The Cape, The Event, etc.). This is one of two shows that sounds like it should have just been Fables the TV show
Likelihood of Watching More Than The Pilot: 50%, depending on the execution

The Playboy Club
Upsides: Playboy Club in the '60s? Interesting.
Downsides: Trying to do "Mad Men" on network TV seems like a fool's errand
Likelihood of Watching More Than the Pilot: 50%

Prime Suspect
Upsides: Maria Bello. Show that it's remaking is apparently great source material.
Downsides: It's another cop drama. And NBC's history with British remakes is mixed at best.
Likelihood of Watching More Than the Pilot: 25%, given my general disinterest in cop dramas

Smash
Upsides: I'm not against a musical show, per se.
Downsides: It's just NBC's attempt to do Glee
Likelihood of Watching the Pilot: 25%

TV Fall Preview - NBC Comedies

2011-05-16T19:36:00.003-05:00

*blows the dust off*

Huh. Been a while since I've blogged at all. Will probably be just as long between future posts. But the network upfronts are starting, and while I'm sure we'll cover a lot of this on TV Dudes in the next couple weeks, I had a desire to write about them.

First of all, cautionary words from NPR's Linda Holmes about just how useful any of this speculation will really be. In short, speculating based on upfronts is not much different than throwing a dart at names on a board, in terms of predicting quality and/or success.

Which won't stop me from doing it. While I'm a regular reader of Alan Sepinwall, most of my thoughts are based on three articles from NPR's pop-culture blog Monkey See. One on NBC's new comedies, one on NBC's new dramas, and one on FOX's new shows.

This post covers NBC comedies. I may or may not write about NBC dramas and FOX shows in later posts.

ABC and CBS will come later, and I may or may not write about them, although honestly I don't watch a ton of shows on either network. I definitely won't have anything to say about the CW, which programs at a frequency that might as well be invisible and inaudible to me, as I am not a teenage girl.

NBC Comedies:

Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea:
Upsides: Laura Prepon (pretty and funny), funny title
Downsides: Laugh track, showrunners from Dharma & Greg, I have no idea who Chelsea Handler is
Likelihood of Watching More Than The Pilot: 25%

Bent:
Upsides: Amanda Peet (pretty and funny), Jeffrey Tambor (just funny), executive producer helped run Scrubs
Downsides: Unfunny trailer, boring premise, executive producer also helped run Samantha Who? and Perfect Couples)
Likelihood of Watching More Than The Pilot: 25%

Best Friends Forever
Upsides: Uh... you never know what might be funny?
Downsides: Head writer's list of credits not wildly impressive, don't know the cast, don't care about the premise
Likelihood of Even Watching the Pilot: 25%

Free Agents
Upsides: I love both Hank Azaria and Kathryn Hahn, the leads. The promo image that so offended Linda Holmes kinda cracks me up. The showsrunners include John Enbom of Veronica Mars and Party Down.
Downsides: NBC's track record with comedies is spotty at best
Likelihood of Watching More Than the Pilot: 75%, unless it's terrible

Up All Night
Upsides: Will Arnett & Christina Applegate is a likable pairing. Trailer is funny.
Downsides: Don't know much more about it, and both Arnett & Applegate have had weak sitcoms in the past
Likelihood of Watching More Than the Pilot: 50%

Whitney
I neither know nor care who Whitney Cummings is, and the show looks pretty dull and by-the-numbers.

Blog Recap - January 24th, 2011

2011-01-24T18:25:00.002-06:00

Intro/Random:
On Friday, I took Aaron with me to early breakfast at IHOP. I ate, he picked a little at his pancakes and mostly watched Toy Story 3 on my iPod. Which kept us from having any fits thrown or boredom-induced antics. Technology is cool.

TV:
TV Dudes Episode 114

Wow. Season finale of Mad Men Season Two has some *intense* moments. Probably the best episode of the show I've seen so far.

Anytime I even *think* of Parks & Rec, this song pops into my head. Fair warning, it's that addictive. But funny as hell, I think.

OK, 30 Rock, I totally want a Queen of Jordan spinoff now.

Hey, ABC... a shot of Matthew Perry giving a wry smile is not really selling me on your new comedy Mr. Sunshine. Seriously, you don't even have one good joke for the teasers?

Fringe: If that was the show I had been watching when episode one aired, I would have kept watching it. Time to borrow some DVDs.

Comics:
Cyclops (Archaia) #2: So far kinda familiar corporate/military sci-fi territory disappointing compared to The Killer by these creators.

Dungeons & Dragons #3: Orc kissing, Dwarven murder forts, banter, thoughts on the foolishness of plans & Shadar-Kai. Nice one, Rogers!

Jason Murphy & I talk Heroes for Hire in the second episode of Loose Canon.

Getting a little annoyed seeing the comics bloggerati lumping Borders in with comics retailing and drawing conclusions about retailing as a whole. Borders may sell graphic novels, but they are *not* a comics retailer. They do not do what we do, and our fortunes are only tangentially linked. (Ditto for the death of Wizard magazine, by the way.)

Batwoman #1 orders cancelled. Delayed until April. I know JH Williams' art takes some time, but this kinda thing is gonna kill the momentum.

I love Anne Hathaway, but she hasn't been in any movies I've wanted to see. So this is great news for me. Not so sure about Tom Hardy as Bane... I kinda like Dixon's original take on Bane, and didn't want a skinny, re-invented version, I thought Hardy would make a great Hugo Strange.

DC's new ratings system is very heavily based on videogame ratings... which makes it much more useful than Marvel's arcane system they introduced a few years ago.

Gaming:
On Thursday, my D&D players successfully defeated a Cult of the Dragon Below, found the only Warforged only bar in Sharn and the warforged made new friends and got herself some bling.

Logan Bonner, WOTC designer, analyzes the success of 4E mechanics like Magic Items, Epic Destinies and Paragon Paths... great stuff.

I'm going to miss new minis more than this writer, but he makes some great points about tokens being a bit easier and more affordable. I would have loved to have both options, but this is a good eulogy for D&D minis.

Politics:
This is a brutal takedown of outgoing douchebag Joe Lieberman. And Greenwald's point about Lieberman's support of repealing DADT makes sense, and makes his support much less impressive.

Well, this blows. I know many on the right hate Olbermann as much as I hate Beck, and so I was kinda glad to have him around.

I watch this and I feel like it's not the politicians that matter. Comedy may be what saves the world. The Daily Show has imitators... broadcasting in Iran. *That* is fucking awesome.

Blog Recap - January 17th, 2011

2011-01-17T20:49:00.003-06:00

Intro/Random:
I've given up any pretense that these are weekly.

I *love* the extras on the new Toy Story 1 - Toy Story 3 Blurays.

New Year's Resolutions:
Resolution #1: Don't strangle any bloggers this year. (Note: Good so far.)

Resolution #2: Read more awesome samurai rabbit comics. (Note: Read *all* of Usagi Yojimbo. Every trade in print. So check.)

Resolution #3: Watch a lot more Kids in the Hall in 2011. (Note: Check. Thanks, Netflix!)

Resolution #4: Use all seven words you can't say on TV in a sentence. (Note: Diamond screwed up my comics shipping two weeks in a row. You can bet this was done.)

Resolution #5: Continue to hate Outsourced based on the 10 minutes I've seen of it. (Note: Check.)

Resolution #6: Finally read all of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol before Flex Mentallo comes out. (Note: None yet. But soon.)

Resolution #7: Eat Dim Sum before the end of the year, eat a steak before the end of the week. (Note: Steak accomplished. At Outback. And then again at Texas Roadhouse. Dim Sum is planned for February.)

TV:
The pilot episode of Lights Out is currently available for free, in HD or regular definition, on Amazon Video On Demand. I highly recommend checking it out.

John Landgraf may be the smartest executive in TV right now. It makes me sad that it sounds like they were already writing the obituary for Lights Out one episode in.

I'm not sure it would be possible for me to love Dan Harmon more.

The TV Dudes dropped in on LEOG for the second act here, and it was a lot of fun!

Early into season two of Mad Men, it's still not quite in my Top 5... but I can see why it's so beloved. There's more subtext in this show than almost any other, the writing and acting are incredible.

Finally watched the third BBC Sherlock. Damn, Moriarty is scary as hell.

This was probably my favorite Always Sunny sequence in a very funny season.

If you are not reading Chris Sims & David Uzumeri's weekly recaps of Smallville, you are missing the only good thing Smallville has ever given the world. This one is particularly awesome.

Comics:
Heroes for Hire #2: Fantastic use of lower tier characters, great action, complete in one issue with more arc for future. Near perfect.

Dark Sun #1: The banter's a little forced, but Berting's art is fantastic, and story definitely captures the fatalistic tone of the world.

Who Is Jake Ellis? #1 Very intriguing, great action, Tonci Zonjic art is minimalist perfection. Possible heir to the Milligan Human Target.

Detective #872: Snyder, Jock & Francavilla are doing modern pulp Batman. Love it. New villains, great use of Grayson, Gordon & Oracle.

Thanos Imperative Devastation - Essentially Annihilators #0. And I am just fine with that. More Abnett/Lanning cosmic is always good.

Here's the problem with Doomsday: He's a one-trick pony. And his one trick is killing Superman. Which is a trick that gets old.

So I'm reviewing comics again! Well, sort of. The plan is for this to be a weekly short video with Beau and Jason, posted up on Lounge Geeks. I thought Jason did a nice job editing this together, and don't worry... I promise we'll get more interesting as time goes on. :)

The first LEOG (Best in Comics 2010) I've been on the whole thing for in a long while. Fun, if exhausting to record, hopefully fun (but not exhausting) to listen to.

Top Shelf's 2011 line-up looks *amazing*. New Kids stuff, Gingerbread Girl, another volume of Change-Bots, Korgi & Owly, Infinite Kung-Fu and a new book from Venditti (with art by Mike Huddleston!) are only a few things I'm looking forward to.

Gaming:
Working on the D&D adventure for next week, and my recap notes remind me that my Sharn-based inquisitives bought a crappy rundown bar in a crime-infested neighborhood. This oughta be fun.

Politics:
It Gets Better is a great campaign, and this is a really fun song and video. But the vindictive part of me wants a complementary "It Gets Worse" campaign for the bigots and bullies whose lives are going to get sadder and sadder as the world leaves them behind.

Best of 2010: Books (and Comics)

2011-01-03T19:11:00.000-06:00

1. No Country For Old Men (Cormac McCarthy)
2. Sex, Thugs and Rock & Roll (Edited by Todd Robinson)
3. Road Dogs (Elmore Leonard)
4. Earth: The Book (Daily Show Staff)

Wow, book reading fail. I read four books this year. Three of them were in the crime genre, one was a comedy book. I'm reading through Elmore Leonard's westerns and The Gun, a history of the AK-47, right now, but those are going to have to go on 2011's list. Less "a book a month" that I managed last year and more "a book every quarter."

It's a good thing I'm not ashamed of being a lover of television and comics, because that's where most of my free time was spent.

I wrote up a Top 5 Graphic Novels feature for the Round Rock Leader, but I'm having trouble finding the link at the moment. In the meantime, here's my extremely subjective Top 20 Graphic Novels of the Year:

1. Absolute All Star Superman
2. Chew Omnivore Edition Vol 1
3. Two Generals
4. The Unwritten, Vols 1-2
5. Fantastic Four By Jonathan Hickman Vols 1-2
6. Parker The Outfit
7. Crogan's March (Crogan Adventures 2)
8. Brody's Ghost Book 1
9. Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites
10. Afrodisiac
11. Bloom County: Complete Library Volume 2-3
12. Amulet Book 3
13. The Killer Volume 2
14. Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, Volume 8-12
15. Copper
16. Fluorescent Black
17. Tower of Treasure
18. The Amazing Screw-On Head HC
19. The Coffin
20. Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour

And my even more subjective, relying solely on my aging memory, list of best single issue series of 2010:

Single Issue Top 10:
1. Chew
2. Sixth Gun
3. Unwritten
4. Guardians Of The Galaxy
5. BPRD
6. Dungeons & Dragons
7. Usagi Yojimbo
8. American Vampire
9. Walking Dead
10. Nova

Best of 2010: Music

2010-12-30T20:59:00.001-06:00

1. Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
2. Daft Punk - Tron Legacy
3. Spoon - Transference
4. The Black Keys - Brothers
5. Cage The Elephant (2009)
6. The Golden Hits of Louis Prima
7. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
8. She & Him - Volume Two
9. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009)
10. Weezer - Hurley

I didn't buy a ton of music in 2010, and didn't find a lot that I loved. I bought two Weezer albums (Hurley & Death to False Metal) which were, respectively, disappointing and *really* disappointing. Likewise, the She & Him follow-up, while solid, wasn't as good as their first album.

However, Mumford & Sons was a revelation, and the Tron Legacy soundtrack was as good as the movie was bad. Spoon's latest was a solid offering, and the Black Keys' new album was a good listen as well.

Best of 2010: Movies

2010-12-28T19:41:00.001-06:00

Top 5 Movies of 2010
1. Inception
2. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
3. Toy Story 3
4. Iron Man 2
5. How To Train Your Dragon

I saw only a dozen movies in theaters last year, and I saw about that many this year, too, if you count the viewings at Paramount of classics like Casablanca and The Thin Man movies. My "if you know it's going to be a shitty blockbuster, skip it" philosophy continues to work for me, although I did get suckered in by Tron Legacy. I also saw The Sorcerer's Apprentice, but I knew what I was getting into with that one, and I saw Karate Kid, but that was for Katy, and she liked it and I found it tolerable, at least.

There were disappointments, though. I thought Shutter Island was OK, but probably not worth a theater viewing. Ditto The Good, The Bad and The Weird, which had an *amazing* trailer but I found the story just bewildering, and the action often disappointing.

Overall, though, my top five represents a pretty good series of films, I think. Any of the first three could easily be my favorite movie of the year, and my love for them is separated out by only the barest of degrees. And Kick-Ass just barely misses the cut-off, as does the Spanish film [REC] 2, which is even better than the first one. But I couldn't make room for 10 great movies in 2010 without including movies I haven't seen, so I left it at top five this year. If I'm being 100% honest, [REC] 2 is probably better than Iron Man 2 and How To Train Your Dragon, but I'm much more likely to rewatch the latter two, so the genre (horror, not my favorite) drops it a couple points for me.

On DVD was another story. I saw a couple through Netflix that I missed in theaters: Daybreakers, Hot Tub Time Machine and The Losers. In every case, I was glad I didn't pay theater money to see them. The Losers was the worst of the bunch, I didn't even finish it.

Of course, I missed a few in theaters just because I haven't had time to see them. I wanted to see Megamind, Despicable Me and Due Date, although it sounds like I may have dodged a bullet with that last one. I also wanted to see The Warrior's Way, but I expect it's not as interesting as the trailers make it look, ditto for Machete and Predators.

I am legitimately sad that I haven't made time for Black Swan or True Grit, but I expect I'll see those on Blu-ray in 2011.

On Netflix streaming and DVD, I filled a few holes in my cinematic education, as well as watching a few movies from the last year or two that I'd heard were good. Despite my general disinterest in documentaries, I found both The King of Kong and This Film Is Not Yet Rated pretty compelling, although the latter was a bit too strident in its point of view. When I agree with you and I still find you preachy, that's a problem.

From recent years, I caught Moon (great sci-fi), Black Dynamite (way more funny than I expected), Sunshine Cleaning (disappointing indie-by-numbers), The Goods (hysterical comedy with a great cast, Craig Robinson steals the show as DJ Request) and Cashback (great little British twenty-something angsty romance with a narrative trick I really liked, and guest starring the gorgeous Michelle Ryan).

Going a bit further back, I watched Excalibur (liked it OK, didn't love it), Dr. Strangelove (bizarre and fun, but I probably won't watch it ever again), Donnie Brasco (solid if cliched crime thriller), The Man With Two Brains (one of Steve Martin's weirder and weaker movies, but funny in parts) and Jaws (just as good as everyone always said it was).

Best of 2010: TV

2010-12-27T18:27:00.007-06:00

Top 20 TV Shows in 2010
1. Terriers Season One (FX)
2. Breaking Bad Season Three (AMC)
3. Boardwalk Empire Season One (HBO)
4. Community Season Two (NBC)
5. Treme Season One (HBO)
6. Lost Season Six (ABC)
7. Louie (FX)
8. Parks & Recreation Season Two (NBC)
9. Party Down Season Two (STARZ)
10. Archer Season One (FX)
11. Chuck Season Three and Four (NBC)
12. Rubicon Season One (AMC)
13. Sherlock Season One (BBC)
14. Better Off Ted Season Two (ABC)
15. 30 Rock Season Five (NBC)
16. Cougar Town Season Two (ABC)
17. Modern Family Season Two (ABC)
18. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season Six (FX)
19. The Walking Dead Season One (AMC)
20. Castle Seasons One - Three (ABC)

Favorite Hour-Long: Terriers (FX)
There's no competition here. Boardwalk Empire is close, Breaking Bad is closer, but there was no question in my mind that Terriers was my favorite new show this year. It might be my favorite new show of the past five years. So of course it was under-rated, under-watched and canceled. But it was a perfect single season, which takes the sting out a bit. And Treme was fantastic, although it was early enough in the year that I forgot it in early drafts of this list.

Lost had an ending that I liked quite a bit, and while I understand the disappointment of many, I don't share it. However, while I did enjoy it, looking back, Breaking Bad probably should have topped my 2009 list, and Lost did lose some ground to pretty amazing competition on cable.

Chuck, a consistent favorite, is just outside the top 10. I'm still very much enjoying the show, but it hasn't been as consistently great as it was in season two, which in retrospect was kind of the peak of the show. Rubicon just misses the top 10, largely because of its weak ending, but the rest of the show was really, really good. And Sherlock sits further down than it otherwise might because there were only three episodes, and it honestly feels like cheating to consider it anything but a miniseries.

Then there are the procedurals. TV is lousy with these "formula of the week/weak arc" shows, and I don't have patience for a lot of them. Hawaii 5-0, probably the strongest new network show that wasn't immediately canceled, doesn't make my Top 20... it might squeak into the bottom of a Top 25. I finally started watching Castle, and while I still feel like Nathan Fillion isn't getting to use his full range there, I can now see the appeal. I also continue to enjoy Burn Notice and Leverage, although both can occasionally lapse into basic cable cheesiness, the kind of thing that put me off White Collar and Covert Affairs, and both just missed the cut-off for the top 20.

The Walking Dead sits a lot lower on my list than many critics, but that's because I felt like the 6-episode season was a bit rushed and the characters were more of the USA/TNT caliber than what I expect from AMC. Good, with potential, but not as great as many are claiming.

Doctor Who just barely misses the list, and it would have rated higher had more of the episodes been of the quality of the first episode that introduced Matt Smith, who I think is doing a great job as the Doctor. Despite how much I like him (and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond), the stories have been very standard Doctor Who material for me, not as engaging as Steven Moffat's one-off episodes or most of the other shows he's run.

Also just missing the top 20 cut-off is Dexter Season Five, which had a pretty solid arc with Julia Stiles and a good scenery-chewing villain in Jonny Lee Miller, but was very much in the Dexter formula. I like the show, but I don't love it the way I did in season one.

Best Comedy: Community (NBC)
As with Terriers, there really isn't anyone even close. Much as I loved, and laughed at, Party Down and Archer, Community has shown a willingness to experiment with format that is matched only by how well that experimental spirit pays off in big laughs. One of the most talented ensemble casts on TV, matched with some of the best comedy writing we've seen this decade. And, of course, it's rated much lower than a lot of really poor comedy on TV.

Better Off Ted was another one like that. Great show, got a second season largely due to the strike and the need for fresh content, and was funnier and smarter than most of the comedy on TV. Too funny and smart for the vast majority of the modern sitcom audience, of course.

I don't know how Louie rates, but it almost doesn't matter, because it's so cheap for FX to make. And it's great. Dark, honest and unbelievably funny. I loved Louie C.K.'s stand-up, and I'm glad to see it translated so well into a half-hour comedy on TV.

Parks & Recreation, due to its low ratings, got held back for a midseason launch for its season three. A shame, since after a forgettable first season, it came back strong as one of the funniest shows on network TV, just behind Community, actually. NBC's comedy block is actually stronger than it's been in years, but long-in-the-tooth favorites like The Office and inexplicably green-lit crap like Outsourced keep it from becoming "Must See" again.

Speaking of NBC comedies, 30 Rock has gotten off ratings life support, but has struggled a bit creatively. It's still funny more often than not (unlike say, The Office), but it's only in the past few weeks that it has started hitting its stride consistently again.

More consistent, but alas not as funny at its peaks, is Cougar Town, which I finally gave a shot to despite it's horrid name. I found a fun ensemble comedy that is the heir to Bill Lawrence's Scrubs. Not as funny as Scrubs, unfortunately, but in that same ballpark.

Modern Family is another one that started strong, and had pretty great ratings, but hasn't been as consistent in season two. It's still very funny, though, when it's hitting its stride.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, now in its fifth season, is also uneven, but their boldness in terms of subject matter makes up for one-note characterization. And the occasional highs, like Lethal Weapon Five or the culmination of Dee's pregnancy, or Frank's charity dinner/the Gang lost in the woods episodes, make it worth watching.

Not making the cut is The Office, which had a few really funny episodes but many more that were just really weak, and How I Met Your Mother, which hasn't been consistently funny or clever in a while.

Weekly* Recap - December 27, 2010

2010-12-27T17:41:00.002-06:00

Intro/Random:
God damn, Alamo Drafthouse Butter Beer is delicious.

The newest employee at Rogues Gallery: Mortimer T. Talkingstick

TV:
Neither Community nor Terriers are on AFI's Top 10 TV 2010 list. So I declare it invalid.

Watching Top Chef makes me hungry... but not for anything actually served on Top Chef. Same thing used to happen with Iron Chef. Mine is not a sophisticated palate. Give me comfort food any day.

Chris Schweizer draws the cast of Community... as the Avengers. So very awesome.

Movies:
WTF? Favreau, Fincher and Del Toro, instead of creating projects based on their own ideas, are churning out theme-park-based films for Disney? And Aronofsky is doing Wolverine.... it's all just kinda sad. They may (hell, probably will) produce good movies out of these franchises, but... I wish they'd pull a Nolan and give us their own "Inception" instead.

Happily, I only saw one of these shitty films. I would have made it out at zero, but Craig Robinson and Rob Corrdry lured me into Hot Tub Time Machine. Bastards.

Saw Tron Legacy and... uh... the music is cool, at least. What a disappointment, even with my lowered expectations.

Fiasco:
Another game of Fiasco played. There were no rape yetis this time. There were, however, Were-Seals. From both the KGB *and* the CIA.

After *another* game of Fiasco... I now know who really killed JFK. The mafia was involved... just not in the way expected. Nor did anyone expect the budding transsexual novelist to be the one to make it out the best of any of our cadre of criminally-minded characters.

I *love* Fiasco. And my parents got me the Fiasco T-Shirt (with Mall playset) for Christmas... I'll be playing more in the New Year.

Comics:
Always nice when a customer tells you your shop is the best place he's ever shopped.

I'm way behind in making my Free Comic Book Day plans this year... I started (sort of) at NYCC, but this time last year I think my guest list had pretty much been set. Time to start sending out emails!

Things I'm already thankful to 2011 for #1: New Xombi series by John Rozum!

Christmas:
Pandora Christmas station found a duet on Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Frank Sinatra... and Cyndi Lauper. Well played, Pandora.

Here's a sentence I never expected to post: I just bought tickets for the Austin Ballet Nutcracker performance. Katy was really excited about it, so we did a father-daughter trip on the Thursday before Christmas.

I am now the proud owner of a new iPod and Bluray player, among several other gifts from friends and family. It was a good Christmas. The iPod in particular allowed me to take some video and pictures of the kids getting their Christmas presents.

Also? Turns out a surprising number of people drive between Dallas and Austin on Christmas Day around midnight. And it also turns out that driving from Dallas to Austin with the check engine light on the whole time was *not* tempting fate, as I feared it might be.

Politics:
I *love* when Jon Stewart gets angry. Because this is a total evisceration of the hypocrisy of the GOP. Shame it won't make a tiny shred of difference, because he's just preaching to the converted. (Or maybe it did... everyone started picking up on this story after The Daily Show covered it.)

Other Links:
This Word Lens app is pretty awesome.

Chris Sims digs into Sage Advice for some of the weirdest questions ever asked about D&D. And it's *gold*

No agenda here, I just think it's a funny piece by Ricky Gervais.

I love my city.

Weekly* Recap - December 11, 2010

2010-12-11T20:01:00.001-06:00

*Not really - More like every few weeks

Intro/Random:
Rest In Peace, Leslie Nielsen.

Roku remote broke, after only having it for a month, maybe two. Good news is, there's an iPod app that can sub as a Roku remote. Bad news is, the iPod is usually out of the house with me, and the Roku is mostly for Suzanne and the kids. The other bad news is that the Roku remote was apparently a cheap piece of crap.

Early Christmas present for the gaming group from Chris. Awesome.

The Tron Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk does not disappoint.

Food Blogging:
Apparently it is impossible for my local HEB to keep Sweet Leaf regular flavor tea in stock. Mint, Diet, sure... regular, no.

I have learned something very important today. Potbelly has a sandwich called the Lucky 7 that is the Wreck and the Italian combined. #thisiswhyimfat

One of my New Year's resolutions is to lose (or at least not gain) weight. Another is to make sure and eat at any of the places on this list I haven't been to. For I am large (and getting larger) and contain many contradictions.

Terriers Finale:
I *loved* the finale of Terriers. And I was really, really hoping it was a season finale, not a series finale. We did another "commentary" podcast for the TV Dudes, and had a lot of fun talking about the show.

And sadly, the next week, the cancellation notice came down. This blows. It's understandable from a business standpoint, I can't really blame FX for the decision... so I blame everyone out there who has a Nielsen box and didn't watch it. The best show of 2010 gets canceled. Outsourced will probably get a 2nd season. TV, you are a total bitch whore.

Ted Griffin talks with Sepinwall about Terriers, and a key moment that would have been in season two.

There is a Terriers sized hole in my Wednesdays... that will never again be filled

TV:
Sunday is a pretty good night for TV: Boardwalk Empire, Dexter and Walking Dead. And I'm really enjoying that despite having read every issue of the comic, the Walking Dead show has mostly new stories for me.

So OK, there's no denying it now. I guess I'm a Top Chef watcher. Wow, most twenty-something chefs have *no* idea what kids will eat, do they? First episode, I loved Jamie, second episode, I think she's a kid-hatin' wuss.

Yay to Bravo for getting Anthony Bourdain to blog weekly for them. Boo for not having RSS feeds. Also, I'm quite certain Bourdain would be *horrified* by my taste in food, but that's OK... I watch him on TV, I'm not gonna eat with the dude.

The concept's a little... meh - but it's the creator of Better Off Ted making a new sitcom, so that's good news, at least.

In other good sitcom news, Sepinwall has seen all 6 episodes of Parks & Rec Season 3 that will be airing soon and declares it to be good.

Movies:
Brainstorming possible Crocodile Dundee III ideas at work: Explosive Crocodile Nun-chucks to feature, possible title: Outback For Vengeance!

Having reached the halfway point of Annie Hall without anything to show for it other than a desire to strangle Woody Allen, I moved on to Jaws. Which was as great as advertised. Most intense knot-tying scene ever

Comics:
Add to the list of Dark Horse's out-of-print list: Amazing Screw-On Head and Blacksad. Back in print? Only Umbrella Academy. Other publishers are guilty too: New Mouse Guard HC went out of print immediately, and Blackest Night is out just in time for the holidays.

And, of course, Spider-Man Noir has been out of print for months, despite much increased demand related to the Shattered Dimensions game. And despite the second volume, Eyes Without A Face, having just now come out.

Wow, a USA Today story *and* special strip in USAToday Online! This would be *fantastic* promotion if, y'know, the first volume of the Goon hadn't been inexplicably out of print for *months* now.

Previews: The "anticipated run" of Batman & Robin. Not "highly anticipated," but "anticipated." Way to sell excitement there, DC Marketing.

Previews: Deadpool/Cable #26, Wolverine #5.1, Wolverine #1000... Marvel is king of nonsense numbering.

Do people go into Best Buy and ask about the process of buying somewhere else online? Or do just comic shops get this particular joy?

If I had a nickel for every person who wanted to know what their Spawn #1 and Death of Superman were worth, I wouldn't have to sell comics.

Kevin Smith's CBR column is no real surprise. He's never handled criticism well. About as well as he handles writing Batman, actually.

I'm *very* excited to note that DC is finally collecting the Abnett/Lanning Legion Lost series in July 2011. In hardcover, no less! Hope it does well enough that they collect the rest of the series, especially Legion Worlds.

Yay, more cosmic from Abnett & Lanning! Boo, only 4 issues!

The Angry:
I swear, when I first saw this story, I thought it was real.

Because it's not so much more of a reach than their backscatter/fondling choice. This is an awesome choice. Do I get life-threatening radiation or felt up by TSA agents? Even better, next time I fly with my kids, I get to make that choice for them.

New Christmas wish: I wish the Westboro Baptist Church would burn. to. the. fucking. ground. Preferably with the congregation in it.

Part of me wants to be glad the Democrats finally grew a spine. *Most* of me wants to know where it was when this fight would have been helpful, instead of detrimental to actually getting something done.

Weekly Recap - November 27, 2010

2010-11-27T18:33:00.002-06:00

General/Intro:
It is amazing to me every now and then to realize that I have a magic box where I can type in almost any question and get an answer, instantly. Most of these answers are even correct! The rest, of course, come from Wikipedia.

This week's D&D game went great. No character deaths, and they talked their way past a goblin fight, took down a sleazy treasure hunter and got his treasure map *and* avoided being turned to stone by an angry medusa. They also broke another captive's fingers, which I think is going to give them a bit of a reputation in Sharn.

My wife took both kids to the grocery store on the day before Thanksgiving. She may be more of a daredevil than I give her credit for.

I am *far* too excited about .38 Special coming to Rock Band 3 next week.

Everyone should see this: Grandma's Superhero Therapy

Loving Call of Duty: Black Ops so far. The period is one I don't think we've seen a lot of games set in, and the gameplay is in the same mode as the Modern Warfare games I've enjoyed previously.

TV:
Caught up on Boardwalk Empire, and after the cliffhanger of that last episode... I'm wishing I could go on to the next episode immediately. Terriers is still my favorite new show, but Boardwalk Empire is close.

Speaking of Terriers... last time Sepinwall did this, we got two more seasons of Chuck. I hope it works this well for Terriers. Btw, if you have cable and you're not watching Terriers, start. Now.

The more I thought about "Professor Professorson" the funnier it got. #community

Is it me, or is 30 Rock becoming one of NBC's best comedies again? Last week's episode cracked me up repeatedly.

Did they change showrunners on Brave and the Bold? I've been disappointed in every episode of season two thus far.

Last week's episode of The Walking Dead was easily my favorite since the first one. The scene from the final minutes was one of the big shocks on my first read-through of the series, and it was executed very well.

Catching up on Castle, and it looks like David Grae has written most of my favorite episodes. There are plenty I've liked, but all of Grae's have been above-average or better.

Caught up on nine episodes of Dexter Season 6. Still like the show, but you do have to view it with a *huge* suspension of disbelief to get through it. That said, as long as the contrivances in the writing don't bother you, it's a fun ride.

Movies:
So, the Green Lantern trailer. Not as *terrible* as folks were making it sound, but it's decidedly mediocre. Does not have the "must see" vibe that the Iron Man movies did. Actually, not even as strong as the Thor teaser from San Diego.

Whedon brings a little perspective. Yes, the Buffy without Whedon movie is a terrible idea, and yes, everyone involved should probably be a geek pariah for a while, but... it's not life-ending, or even really life-affecting, for most of us. Just another shitty movie we're not going to see in the theater.

I mean, it's not like Zack Snyder wants to cast a complete stiff as Clark Kent and CGI Superman in his increasingly-shitty-sounding Superman movie, right? Wait, what's that?

Thanksgiving Travel Tips (a.k.a. Making Fun of the TSA):
Make sure and flirt with your appointed TSA pat-down specialist. Never break eye contact, and moan suggestively throughout.

Nobody loves pranks more than the TSA. When going through the new body scanner, use metallic tape to create a sign. I suggest "The guy behind me is ticking" or "My other car is a car-bomb."

Remember, it is not inappropriate to ask your TSA pat-down specialist for a "happy ending." It is, however, customary to tip.

It is considered polite to fake an orgasm while your TSA pat-down is going on... no need to make the guy feel bad he couldn't get you there for real. The louder, and more obscenity-filled, the better.

That TSA agent is bound to get bored while fondling your junk. Make sure and tell him or her all about your favorite D&D character while they're doing the pat-down.

It is not technically illegal to bring two large frozen turkeys, one as your carry on, and the other as your "personal item."

Blank keys and fobs reading "Hotel Room #" are cheap. Hand one of them to your TSA agent and say "Meet me later tonight. Bring the gloves."

By The Way, Fuck The TSA:
For fuck's sake, Obama... can you be on the right side on *one* of the easy ones? Just one?

I honestly don't think I'd have the patience or the collected head to do this... but I'm glad somebody does.

SNL addresses the new TSA guidelines

Politics:
Westboro Baptist Protesters get their tires slashed. This makes me laugh with devilish glee. From the article: "Police say that they were unable to find anyone in town willing to repair the vehicle." Karma's a bitch, you hate-mongering bastards.

This is the modern GOP in a nutshell. Argue for "the market" when it comes to everyone else, and "special treatment" when it comes to themselves.

This Daily Show piece was... spectacular. I used to respect McCain, but I've long since realized that he'll say and do *anything* to keep his political power, and any principles he might have had are long gone.

I'm thankful that a jury realized what a scumbag Tom DeLay is. And to make it better, he was convicted in Travis County. Where I live. Hells yeah.

Ebay Time

2010-11-23T16:11:00.002-06:00

Selling a few comics runs off on eBay. One of the side effects of consolidating the office was that I tried to eliminate some of the duplication in my trade and issue collections, and also found a few runs that I liked back when I bought them, but realized I'd probably never read again.

So I'm selling off my Astro City, Captain Marvel (Peter David), Deadpool (Joe Kelly), Green Lantern (Gerard Jones) and Sandman Mystery Theater collections. There will be more at some point in the future, near (if I decide to finish doing the work) or far (if I put it off).

Take a look, bid if you see anything you like, and spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested. I can donate them if I don't get any bites, but I'd rather they go to someone who actually wants them, and yeah, I'd kind of like to make some holiday spending money.

Auction Links

Weekly Recap - November 13th, 2010

2010-11-13T18:42:00.003-06:00

Comics Retailing:
Kind of stunned by the amount of Dark Horse material currently out of print. Dr. Horrible, Serenity Vol 2, Beasts of Burden, Black Lagoon, Empowered 6, Goon Vol 1, Umbrella Academy Vol 1, Buffy Vol 1 & 5, etc. I had actually thought Dark Horse was a comic book publisher. Does it count if you only publish things sporadically every six months or so?

By the way, these are not marginal titles. Especially in the case of Umbrella Academy, Serenity and Dr. Horrible, these are books that sell every week. I know setting a print run isn't easy, but some of these have been out for months. I can forgive temporary print shortages, that's down to guessing and gauging orders, and every retailer knows how tricky that is. What I have a harder time forgiving is taking months and months to reprint key titles.

You know what is in print, right as the TV buzz is at its highest? Walking Dead. And it has *stayed* in print. Image, at least, is doing right by retailers and fans.

This comic about real customers at a comics shop has been making the rounds. Now, most of my customers are great people that I really appreciate. But the rest? There's enough truth in these comics that I laughed. A lot.

Food:
Gypsy trailer picnic was *packed* I got to have a delicious crawfish etoufee pie at Kate's Southern Comfort, and a Cherry Bomb donut from Gordough's, before heading off to work. A touch late because of all the traffic. Gordough's is delicious, but it might not have been the best idea on a mostly empty stomach. I was full/uncomfortable for about half the day.

Kate's, btw, is fantastic. I went back for lunch a week later and had another crawfish pie, as well as the Nak-i-Dish Classic (beef and pork). My friend Jamie got bread pudding, but was too full for most of it, so I got to have a fair bit of that, and it was pretty tasty as well.

I'm getting enough invites to potluck events that I need to come up with some sort of signature side dish I can always make and bring. This is difficult, as my favorite side dishes are mostly potato-based, and fancier, more distinctive dishes are probably for those who like vegetables. (Currently in the running: Spinach dip, artichoke dip, roasted mushrooms from friends, and a potato/green chile/cheese dish that my mom makes)

TV/Movies:
The Halloween episode of TV Dudes, in which I scandalously admit that I love Cougar Town more than Modern Family right now.

I feel like Cougar Town deserves a slow clap for their most recent post-credits sequence, *especially* since they acknowledged the debt it owed to Spaced.

Wow, the new Avengers cartoon is kind of terrible. And Iron Man sounds *exactly* like Jack Black. Weird choice.

"New Winnie the Pooh from Disney" gave me pause, but... this trailer looks pretty great.

Comics:
Evan Bryce is super-talented *and* a helluva nice guy. I've got several pieces from him at the store and in the home office, and recommend everyone get one of his prints.

Read Dungeons & Dragons #1 by Rogers & DiVito, and it's pretty damn good. Bonus points for the game stats and adventure in the back of the variant edition.

Chew #15 - I love this comic book so much, I want to take it out behind the middle school and get it pregnant. #love30rocktoo

Wednesday I got All Star Superman, Two Generals and The Coffin 10th Anniversary HC. Pretty great haul. Two Generals in particular is *gorgeous* and All Star Superman is even better than I remembered it being.

Videogames:
'50s noir detectives in L.A. from the guys who made Red Dead Redemption? I'm in.

Politics:
I'm kinda with Maher on this one. I love Stewart and Colbert, loved the rally, but most of the "left is just as bad" arguments amount to false equivalence. It's not that there aren't crazies on the left, it's that the right has more of them, they're louder, and they're much more prone to inflaming dangerous action against those they disagree with.

If you still think Fox News and MSNBC are identical, just on different sides of the political spectrum, watch this for a key difference.

Weirdly, I think Fox is in the right, though. The left is going into these political knife-fights with one hand tied behind their back and no knife in the other one. If ethics aren't being applied on both side, I'm not sure the moral victory of "We lost, but kept our ethics" are worth it.

I'll say this for Rick Perry... he probably hasn't ever personally murdered any orphans. That we know of.

Full of win.

Weekly (?) Recap - November 6, 2010

2010-11-06T17:54:00.002-05:00

General/Intro:
Whoops. Got a little busy and even the lightweight work of re-posting Facebook took a back seat. I wish I still had blogging discipline (which sounds like something dirty, but isn't) so I could blog regularly like some of my favorite bloggers (Kari of Haiku Mama, Jen of Blag Hag, etc.) I've mentally constructed a half-dozen posts about politics, TV, games but lose them before I get to the computer. But I'll at least try to get back to posting these update things every week.

This is my giant catch-up post. I've added more categories so readers can easily skip the boring parts. Which, in fairness, is probably most of it, unless you happen to be related to me.

Halloween:
Took Katy and Aaron out trick or treating tonight. He was a firefighter, she was a vampiress. Both had a great time, and our neighborhood is really good in terms of folks participating. We could have gone down two or more streets, but the kids were tired (OK, Katy was... Aaron could have kept going all night) and their bags were *packed* with candy.

Home Office Reorganization:
Home office reorganization done, and it only took a month or so. Big 'ol entertainment unit given to friends, computer desk switched, TV trays to replace tables and bookcases bought due to the largess of my awesome parents. This is where a picture would go if I ever took pictures. But trust me, it's spacious and organized and awesome.

NYCC:
My general take? I got tired four hours in, and with a couple bright spot exceptions, probably would have been better off skipping it. The crowds were pretty much San Diego level, without the same amount to do, and the lack of name badges was a *huge* mistake, as I'm sure there were folks I knew from online but just didn't recognize (and vice versa) and so it was all a bit isolating.

Bright spot exceptions? Cajun omelette at Delta Grill, The Jane was a great hotel, had a good time walking around with Chad Thomas, and got to say hi to a few folks I rarely see like Chris Schweizer, Jason Horn and his lovely wife Jessica and recent Austin expatriate Paul Benjamin. On Friday, I went to the NCSoft/City of Heroes party and got to meet old Usenet pal Hosun Lee, and that was a lot of fun, *and* included free rum and cokes. On Saturday, Zack Smith put together a pretty swanky dinner at an italian restaurant with a ton of writers he knew, and that was a fun evening.

So mostly the fun I had was outside the show. Although the Comics Alliance panel was a blast. Oh, and watching cosplayers dance to the Michael Jackson game was endlessly entertaining. And I got my picture taken with a Bolter from Warhammer 40K, which is my new profile picture.

Also, the JetBlue terminal at JFK? Pretty fantastic. Free wi-fi throughout the terminal, plus a place to plug in and order food from the nearest grill, right at the gate! Which was fortunate, since the flight got delayed and I wound up stuck there for about four hours. During which time I watched a lot of Avatar The Last Airbender.

TV:
There are two No Ordinary Family episodes stacked on my DVR, and I gave up on the boring Undercovers and disappointing Running Wilde. Hawaii 5-0 continues to be a pleasant surprise, although my DVR missed an episode and I didn't particularly care. Other than Terriers, Community and Cougar Town, my favorite thing I watched in October was the three seasons of Avatar The Last Airbender Season two on Netflix Instant and Castle Season Two on Netflix rented DVDs.

Here are five reasons to watch Terriers. Number six is "I will be very sad if it doesn't get a second season."

If I didn't already love Community, the Halloween episode would have made me love it. Fantastic, and the equal of last year's "Modern Warfare" episode. If you aren't watching, here's a fun remix to show you what you're missing. And I expected a comedown after the terrific Halloween episode, but this week's episode might have actually been funnier.

Whereas his 10 seconds were hilarious and her moments were mostly painful and unfunny, I move that Scott Adsit be given all the time currently given to Jane Krakowski on 30 Rock. Do I have a second?

Next idea to improve NBC comedies, based on the last two weeks of The Office? Stitch together all the pre-credits sequences, which have been hilarious, into one or two great episodes. With all the extra time left over, run Parks & Recreation Season 3. Boom. You're welcome.

And earlier this week, I watched the new Sherlock Holmes and the first episode of The Walking Dead. It was a *goood* two days for TV.

Second episode of the TV Dudes podcast, covering... well, a lot of stuff actually. Had a lot of fun recording this one.

Episode three of TV Dudes: Rubicon & Mad Men finales!

Episode four of TV Dudes: "Live" commentary for Walking Dead episode one. Probably my favorite show we've done so far.

Movies:
Kind of surprised how happy everyone seems about the news that Zack Snyder is taking on Superman. Isn't conventional wisdom that both 300 *and* Watchmen were terrible films? And isn't his current Owl movie also awful? The Dawn of the Dead remake may have been the anomaly. Although Sucker Punch looks like over-the-top fun, I'll admit.

Comics:
My favorite comics right now? Chew, The Sixth Gun and Unwritten. Hawkeye & Mockingbird is on there, too, but apparently it's transitioning to being part of the Widowmaker miniseries, and then transitioning into being canceled. :(

Hellboy/Beasts of Burden was pretty great. It's gonna help us sell a lot of Beasts of Burden hardcovers to new fans. Or it would, y'know, if Dark Horse had bothered to get the book back in stock at Diamond in time for the one-shot. *facepalm*

Games:
Not surprised, but disappointed, that Rock Band's new website wasn't up in time for the game launch. And it took a while to get the linking even halfway working. Still, for a big overhaul, it wasn't too bad in terms of lateness/functionality problems.

Overall, I love Rock Band 3. Great setlist, took me a while to figure out the new navigation, but now I really appreciate it, and the keyboard is a fun addition, as is the regular use of three vocalists. However... it's gotten a lot harder. I can't play Expert Guitar on a lot of songs now.

The combination of peer pressure, Halloween and the ability to ride one of the horses of the Apocalypse won out over Doors DLC. So I've been playing Undead Nightmare since Halloween. Zombies are dicks!

Politics:
Y'know, if politicians worked even half as hard at doing things in office to benefit me as they do at getting me to vote for them, I might not be so disgusted by politicians in general. The last week before the election, I was ready to start answering the phone "Hello, we voted already! Stop with the damn phone calls!"

Private sector jobs way up, government jobs way down... shouldn't the Tea Party be in love with Obama about now? ;)

When I think of local Texas politicians, I tend to think of right-wing fuckwits who are slowly but surely fucking my state back into the 19th century. It's nice to know there are guys like Joel Burns in office in Fort Worth.

This makes me so remarkably angry. It looks like cowardice, or worse, politics over principle, from the Obama administration. "We want the political points from ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell! And we pinky swear we're going to do it. This isn't like that time 2 years ago when I said I was going to do it and then didn't."

Much as I love it, The Daily Show usually leaves me feeling angry with someone. The Rally, however, left me feeling more optimistic and in a better mood than I went in. And had kickass music by The Roots.

This was a great closing speech that apparently *none* of the 24 hours news networks carried. Gee, I wonder why?

Not depressed by the election results. Mostly because I've been working through the rage and depression over the last two months, when it became incredibly clear what was going to happen.

Weekly Recap - October 2nd, 2010

2010-10-02T19:39:00.003-05:00

Intro/Random (NYCC Edition):
New York Comicon is next weekend... and I really need to do a little planning. I usually over-plan for San Diego, I haven't done much planning at all for this show.

Of course, after posting this I got three separate emails that helped fill up my plans a bit. And now I'm starting to hit a few schedule conflicts. Nothing like trying to schedule panels at San Diego, though.

I'll have two or three dinners while I'm there... need recommendations for good restaurants in New York! Good food, not gourmet food... more Adam Richman than Anthony Bourdain.

...And there is no way on Earth my 11:35 arrival at JFK gets me to the convention center in time for Darwyn Cooke's retailer signing. Damn!

Comics I Read This Week:
Terminator 1984 #1 (The center of this story is a pretty ballsy retcon, but it opens with Whedon addressing the "no more time travel" of Terminator that was ignored in every other project going forward. That, the quality of Whedon's previous Terminator mini and Ben's reaction to the present, a neat little character moment, has me extending a bit of trust)

Chew #14 (The return of Savoy does not disappoint. Nor does the introduction of Tony's crazy ex.)

Comics News:
Huh. Well, it's an unexpected choice, I'll give them that. And a first, right? No one has ever been EiC of both Marvel *and* DC before?

Liefeld's praise for Bob Harras concludes with "Age of Apocalypse, X-Force, X-tinction Agenda, X-Cutioners Song, Gen X, Deadpool. Bob Harras presided over all of these. Good resume." I would guess Harras is probably thinking "Hey, Rob... stop helping."

TV/Movies:
The first TV Dudes audio podcast... introduced in this video teaser.

Great Stephen J. Cannell retrospective by Alan Sepinwall.

Weekly Recap - September 25th, 2010

2010-09-26T17:38:00.003-05:00

Intro/Random:
Playing a little Rock Band, whether singing, drumming or guitaring, always improves my mood, whether I'm in a good mood or bad mood to start with. I should remember this.

I started the home office reorganization on Wednesday, and abandoned it halfway through. These things must be done in stages! Stage 2 has not occurred yet.

On Saturday, my son attached a small bungie cord to my extra Rock Band drums and was jumping down while holding it, saying "Yoinks and away!" Not too surprising, given that he's been watching Daffy Duck's Robin Hood impression at least once a day lately. But funny.

TV/Movies:
Wow, Monday is a crowded TV night all of a sudden. First impressions: Lone Star is a great pilot, the lead has a very Clooney-esque quality and I have *no* idea how they're gonna sustain the cons, but I'm interested in seeing where it goes. (Apparently, it's going into quick cancellation. Ratings were *terrible*)

Chuck came back strong, as always, and remains one of my favorite shows.

Hawaii 5-0: Beautiful to look at, plays like a solid action movie remake of the franchise... and I actually thought O'Loughlin was decent as the lead of the ensemble. I'll keep watching.

Running Wilde: Maybe it was all the bad-mouthing by Fienberg & Sepinwall, but I thought it was OK. Mediocre, sure, but a couple of laughs and I see some potential in the premise.

Undercovers: OK, but both Hawaii 5-0 and Nikita are better action shows among this year's crop of new shows.

Other Links:
I haven't actually read a ton of Pratchett's work. But this story makes it clear that he is awesome.

Not only do they make great music and amazing videos... they're dog lovers. OK Go, you are also awesome.

Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" is a fantastic idea, and should be spread far and wide.

Weekly Recap - September 18th, 2010

2010-09-19T18:12:00.004-05:00

Intro/Random:
Karoake Apocalypse at the Nomad was a blast. Lots of really good singers, great crowd, had fun hanging out with friends. And I sang Ball & Chain and did mostly OK, aside from forgetting to sing "Take Away This Ball and Chain" the last time and having to be prodded by the bass player.

I went to the Nomad twice last week, actually. On Tuesday, I grabbed an Ace Pear with friends and a Funky Monkey at Gordough's.

Also had a great dinner at Frank, followed by Last Starfighter in the park, on Wednesday.

Comics Retailing:
[sarcasm]And as we all know, after the year 2000, nobody ever sold comics again. So all this panic about "August-mageddon" on the comics website is *totally* rational and not at all stupid, half-assed analysis by folks without an actual realistic view of the market.[/sarcasm]

Games:
Rented Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions from Redbox on Tuesday. Played three levels (one Amazing, one Noir and one 2099) and so far... pretty impressed. Neil Patrick Harris makes a great Peter Parker, and it's fun to see more of the 2099 universe. Also, Noir is very much a riff on Batman: Arkham Asylum, complete with stealth and takedowns. Might have to put this on the buy list.

I will most definitely be playing this during Fantastic Arcade. Also? Twisted Pixel, the guys who made 'Splosion Man, have a new game and are Austin-based. I knew neither of these things, and I'm looking forward to interviewing them for the Leader.

TV/Movies:
Rewatched about half of the Star Trek movie on Netflix Instant and... I still don't get it. Yes, the cast is pretty good, yes it's flashy as hell and has some nice set-pieces. But... everyone is so damn smug, the villain is *terrible* (has Bana ever been good in anything?) and the plot is over-complicated and not super-interesting. I don't get the love for this movie.

Yeah, Cartoon Network, that countdown clock for Sym-Bionic Titan running for the entirety of Brave and the Bold's premiere isn't at all annoying. And on a related note, am I the only one who wishes Ross & Waid had never come up with Captain Marvel using his Shazam lightning as a weapon? It's getting really, really old. And was one of a few cliches in Saturday's Brave and the Bold opener, which was awesome in the details but disappointing in the actual story.

Other Links:
Man I wish I could be in Washington DC in October for The Daily Show's Rally for Sanity.

SMBC is hysterical.

Weekly Recap - September 11th, 2010

2010-09-11T19:21:00.002-05:00

Intro/Random:
What does it say about me that I find Jack in the Box's egg rolls superior to most of the veggie-filled, bland egg rolls I've ever had at Chinese restaurants? Am I going to the wrong Chinese restaurants, or is my palette all messed up, or is Jack in the Box that good at egg rolls?

On Monday, a woman brought an entire box of Swedish fish to the store. Not trying to sell anything, just a promotion for Swedish fish. Odd. But delicious! Apparently they're making a big marketing push in Austin.

Don't ever look at Yelp! at around midnight. I was craving Best Wurst, Kebabalicious, Habana *and* Franklin BBQ and none of them were open on Monday night. So I decided to go to Franklin BBQ for lunch on Tuesday. Despite the downpour which flooded parts of the city, still decided to go, and... learned that it is not open on Tuesdays, even when it isn't raining. My buddy Jason and I went to Torchy's instead, which was good, but I'm still craving Franklin.

On Thursday, I had a blast doing Geeks Who Drink with friends at Nomad. We came in fifth, which I blame on sports, elephantitis and the Branch Davidian compound.

Watching Road Runner cartoons with my son... there are worse ways to spend a Saturday morning.

Comics I Read This Week:
Thanos Imperative #4 - The first half of this issue was sheer cosmic action joy, the second half more of that "they're screwed" sense that's pervaded the rest of the series. Loving it, as with all the Abnett/Lanning cosmic stuff, and I hope this isn't the end of it all. If it is, it's a great send-off.

Sixth Gun #4 - Very strong contender for best new title of 2010.

TV/Movies:
More TV Dudes! This time our giant two part Fall TV preview. Part 1 here, Part 2 here.

Watched The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard - This was a lot of fun... great cast. Craig Robinson almost steals the show as DJ Request.

Not quite as impressed with Daybreakers - 2 1/2 stars is probably generous, upon reflection. Not the best movie that could have been made from this premise, but also not the worst. Oh, and weird, weird ending... seems like they went "Hey, we still have a huge gore budget to burn!"

Loved Black Dynamite. Lots of folks do '70s exploitation parody, few do it this well. Hilarious and clever, with lots of great performances.

Sunshine Cleaning I'm a little more uncertain of. I'm not usually a big fan of quirky soul-searching indies, but I thought this was pretty good, if you are into that sort of thing. On reflection, though, I liked it a little less, although I still love Amy Adams.

Finished Castle Season 1. Bring on Season 2! Except that the DVD comes out the day *after* season 3 premieres. WTF kind of planning is that?

I seem to be in the minority amongst my friends, but I thought the pilot for Terriers was pretty frickin' great. Donal Logue was *perfect* for the lead role, the chemistry between him and co-star Raymond James is really strong and the whole thing has a vibe that's James Ellroy meets Elmore Leonard with a very recognizable streak of Ted Griffin's snappy patter and fun set-pieces from Ocean's 11. Highly, *highly* recommended viewing. Daniel Fienberg has a really good review.

Oddly, Alan's "I'm not interested, but it's well done" review has me more excited than I previously was for the new Nikita. Partially because I never watched the USA version, partially because I like the twist of Maggie Q's character (and Maggie Q) and partially because I am super-partial to shadowy spy action stories.

Here, Alan Sepinwall talks Rubicon and why you should be watching one of the best shows on TV. Even if we still don't really know what the conspiracy is about, 3/4 of the way through the season.

Other Links:
This looks very cool... if I was an artist, I'd totally do it.

Awesome mash-up of Matrix and Big Lebowski

Weekly Recap - September 4th, 2010

2010-09-04T18:33:00.003-05:00

Intro/Random:
This week: TV Dudes recording on Rubicon, the Emmys and Community; a game of Fiasco that's half veteran, half newbie (I love seeing people discover this game) set in Gangster London; a second viewing of Scott Pilgrim and the commencement of a new D&D Tomb of Horrors game. Full but promising week.

My son, on the inherent unfairness of Wil E. Coyote v. Road Runner: "Cut that out, Meep Meep!"

Took a nap on Friday. Woke up and the world had exploded with a half-dozen metaphorical fires that needed putting out. I long for the days before adulthood, when days off were a real thing

Anybody else doing Fantastic Arcade? Looks like I'm going to be covering Thursday and Friday at the show to do a piece or two for the Round Rock Leader.

Comics I Read This Week:

GI Joe A Real American Hero #158 (A few confused action sequences, but in general, this is reminding me of post-#50 GI Joe, which is to say it's not the book at its peak, but it has the same no-nonsense action vibe that made me a fan in the first place)

Hawkeye & Mockingbird #4 (Continues to be a book written just for me. McCann has nailed what I like about these two characters, and his secondary characters, from Dominic Fortune to Phantom Rider, are favorites as well)

Hellboy The Storm #3 (Fantastic conclusion to the latest Hellboy series, and I'm especially pleased that we may *finally* see Hellboy back with his comrades at the BPRD)

Young Allies #4 (Coming together nicely... the more extended pacing of "putting the team together" stories these days doesn't always work in the first couple issues, but if you stick around, sometimes you're rewarded with a promising new group. We'll see if this can stick around where things like The Order, Runaways, etc. didn't)

Comics Retailing Thoughts:
This is huge, very good news.

Comics News:
This is a fantastic Batman analysis by Chris Sims. My Batman is the Miller Year One Batman and the Dixon/Grant Batman of the '90s, and I'm not 100% sold on Morrison's take on Batman, and I disagree with some of the assertions he's made, but you have to agree that he's done some of the most thoughtful Batman work of anyone in a long time.

TV/Movies:
The video series I've been doing with Greg & Grant launched for real this last week, with episodes on Summer TV (in two parts), Rubicon (my favorite so far) and The Emmys.

I also chimed in on the League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen podcast on '80s action movies.

And I finally got the Losers from Netflix, watched it and *hated it*. Toothless, by the numbers shitty adaptation of a great graphic novel series. Wasted potential, I got bored enough that I didn't finish watching the last twenty minutes or so.

On the other hand, perhaps my friends were right, and I should have been watching Castle all along. I've been really enjoying the first season DVDs.

Wow, this is pretty awesome. Tons of Iron Giant sketches from various artists. Iron Giant is fantastic, and even better, remains on Netflix Instant Watch. If you've never seen it, check it out.

Other Links:
Finally they add cameras to the iPod Touch. I'm gonna need an upgrade.

Weekly Recap - August 28th, 2010

2010-08-28T18:38:00.003-05:00

Intro/Random:
OK, restaurant owners... I know Pepsi is cheaper, but if you're gonna be a Pepsi place, you can't have your Dr. Pepper tap on the fritz. Because Pepsi is terrible. (Btw, this post drew the most comments of anything I've posted on Facebook in a while. The Cola Wars are alive and well.)

Had a great time recording the '80s action movie LEOG podcast on Thursday.

I hate work crises that I have to deal with on my day off. I hate them more when they're basically of my own creation.

TV/Movies:
Here's my latest new project with Grant Davis & Greg Smith of the LEOG, a video series talking about TV. At least for now, we're calling it the TV Dudes.

Wow, someone actually found a use for the crappy Matrix sequels that is kinda awesome. I give you: Scott Pilgrim vs. The Matrix

The official trailer for The Walking Dead TV series is up, and it looks fantastic.

Caught up on Californication Season 3, and though I was ready to quit about halfway through, I stuck it out. Not sure I'm glad I did. I enjoy the stuff with Hank trying to be a dad and husband, but the "which of these beautiful women will he fuck tonight?" that passed for story in the first six eps was relentlessly stupid, and though there was come come-uppance near the end, I felt that he got off too light for his current sins and was punished too harshly for his older ones.

‎"You could have gotten yourself killed!" "Well, the safety was on the whole time!" Well played, Castle. I will watch more episodes.

Games:
Put in the preorder for Rock Band 3 on Monday. With keyboard, naturally.

Had two no-shows for D&D on Monday, so we played Fiasco instead. Set in Restoration era south, it featured grifters, a secretly gay lumber merchant, his son, the girl he thought he'd knocked up (who was actually in with the grifters), an Army captain, a lot of ether, a renegade bear, a gun-toting, bear-skinning doctor and a bag full of lovingly carved wooden sex toys. As always... fun and very odd game.

Other Links:
Can someone explain to me how The Daily Show is the best source of basic investigative journalism (and by that I mean using the Google) on TV? I mean, this is funny, but it's sad that the major news networks basically cover for each others' incompetence.

It's funny because it's true. It'd be funnier if Rick Perry lost the election to Bill White and stopped being quite so true.

Weekly Recap - August 21st, 2010

2010-08-21T18:32:00.002-05:00

Intro/Random:
I was in a bad mood for about half of this week. I'll spare anyone reading this the re-posting of a lot of my gripey Facebook posts for the week. Instead, I'll post the link to a funny Louis C.K. bit that captured my mood for the week pretty effectively.

Comics Alliance tipped me off to Threadless's $10 sale including the "Every Night I Have the Same Dream" collection, so I got all 4 of the shirts by Tony Moore, Jill Thompson, Art Baltazar and Cliff Chiang for $40! Nice!

It is only laziness preventing me from driving down to Gordough's to satisfy a late night sweets craving, pretty much every night. Which is fortunate, because the same laziness would prevent me from exercising away the damage done by one of their awesome donuts.

Related: Some day I'm going to live in South Austin. And on that day, I'm going to gain an *enormous* amount of weight, living close to Sugar Mama's, Gordough's, Texas Cuban, Franklin BBQ, etc., etc.

Comics I Read This Week:

Chew #13 - Goddamn, this book is good. Another new character introduced, along with forward movement on the various stories, and it's becoming clear that the story has been even more expansive from the start than I imagined... and I imagined quite a bit

GI Joe Cobra #7 - Delving into Serpentor and the Croc Master, and fitting them into the darker tone of GI Joe Cobra, is a strange, but ultimately very satisfying choice by the creative team

Sixth Gun #3 - A little more mythology, a lot more on the characters, some great spooky stuff and spectacular art - this supernatural western is one of my favorite new books

Comics News:
I'm not sure anything could be better than just reading the title... but the strip is pretty funny.

The new Avengers cartoon looks... just terrible. Seriously, especially with that music, it looks and sounds like one of Marvel's shitty '90s cartoons.

TV/Movies:
The Daily Show was really on this week. The Jon Stewart/John Oliver exchange over the "Ground Zero Mosque" was particularly great.

But I was watching Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX, naturally) on The Daily Show and I have two thoughts: A) Why, fellow Texans, did you vote this guy into office? and B) Looking at him, and Michelle Bachmann, what percentage of the House of Representatives is completely batshit insane? 25%? 30%? Is it higher?

It's higher, isn't it?

I hate Scooby Doo. Always have. But Katy's enjoying all the movies on streaming.

Rubicon is quickly becoming one of my favorite shows. Episode four was probably the best one so far.

I disagree with almost everything this guy has to say about why Scott Pilgrim flopped at the box office. But then, I liked the graphic novels and the movie, and so I think his "Hey, just because I hated both, I'm still a neutral observer" opener is kinda bullshit.

Other Links:
Neither of my kids are gamers, and may not be, but if they are, I think this is the 100% correct approach. I had the same "doing it wrong, but it was awesome" experience when I first started playing D&D.

Weekly Recap - August 14th, 2010

2010-08-14T18:51:00.003-05:00

Intro/Random:
I went from toying with the notion of going to New York Comicon on Saturday night to registering as a retailer on Thursday to booking a flight and hotel on late Thursday night. So I'm going to New York Comicon in October!

And just for the record? My NYCC trip, including hotel, flight *and* admission costs considerably less than half what San Diego would have cost me this year. Continuing to not regret the decision to skip Comicon.

Things I learned at Torchy's Tacos on Saturday: A) The Ace of Spades, their taco of the month, is epic and delicious. Jalapeno sausage, brisket, egg, diablo sauce... damn. B) An 8" tortilla is a lot bigger than you might think.

Things I learned on Sunday: Torchy's queso: Spicy, tasty and *probably* not the most nutritious lunch I could have. But the first two outweigh the third.

After my son woke me up at 8 AM on Sunday, I heard a loud crack. That crack? The sound of my tree falling on the neighbor's car. And as I was leaving, several of the electrical outlets weren't working because of some kind of faulty breaker. This pretty much wiped out the money my wife made working extra hours for the last two weeks.

Jury selection result = no jury for Randy. In related news, you know which two streets sound alike but are not the same, and are in fact on opposite sides of downtown? San Jacinto and San Antonio. Guess which one I *thought* the courtroom was on. Narrowly made it to selection on time.

Comics I Read This Week:

Dungeons & Dragons #0 - I've been waiting for this comic for something like 15 years. Nobody has done the license right since DC had it in the late '80s/early '90s, and IDW does exactly what I wanted someone to do. Good art, good writers who get D&D (John Rogers does quippy, fast-paced dungeon crawling, and Alex Irvine's tease of Dark Sun captures everything I would have wanted of that setting. Can't wait to see more.

Hack/Slash My First Maniac #3 - Really digging Seeley's Year One for Cassie Hack, and love that the book is coming out more regularly again

BPRD Hell on Earth New World #1 - Wow, that's a mouthful for a new regular title. New title or no, it's the same book, same writers, same artist, which means it's excellent as always

Thanos Imperative #3 - This is feeling a lot like the culmination of what Abnett and Lanning began back in Annihilation... if this is the end, it's going to be a good one, but I hope they're setting us up for Cosmic Avengers

Comics News:
I'm totally, 100% with Chris Sims on this. Except he's fairer than I would have been. Motion comics are a ridiculous waste of time, effort and money.

TV/Movies:
Hmm... Weeds and The Big C start on Monday on Showtime, but Boardwalk Empire starts in September on HBO. I can't really afford either one, but if I was going to go with one or the other, that's a tough call.

Thought Invention of Lying was funny and clever, and suspect that a lot of the negative buzz I heard was because of its hypothesis that without lying, there's no religion.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is every bit as awesome as you've heard. I think I actually liked it better than the books.

Zombieland is on Netflix Instant Watch! YES!

Other Links:
Louis C.K. is coming to Austin. Giving serious thought to going to the late show on November 19th

I think the science here might be a bit shaky... but the article is funny as hell.

Oh Internet, I love you so. Blackstar Warrior is a must-watch.

Weekly Recap - August 7th, 2010

2010-08-07T17:55:00.003-05:00

Intro/Random:
When a business (usually a restaurant) is showing FOX News, I'm not quite annoyed to go up and ask why (or ask them to change it) but it does usually make me less likely to return. Seriously, folks... even CNN is better, and CNN is shitty as hell.

On Sunday night, I successfully got my iTunes library to recognize almost all of the songs on my external hard drive so that my laptop can play iTunes properly. This doesn't sound like much now, but the amount of work it took made it feel like a triumph of Herculean proportions.

Here's a helpful Google tip: When you're looking for Sugar Mama's Bakeshop, the awesome cupcake place in Austin, be sure you're clicking the right link. Because only one link from a search for "Sugar Mamas" will take you to cupcakes.

Comics I Read This Week:

Captain America #608 - Lots to like here, particularly the art (love Guice's take on Black Widow and Luke Cage in particular) and the new female Beetle. On the other hand, I think Bucky Cap needs to be doing some less personal crime-fighting, because it's getting a little too melodrama that every battle he's ever had is directly related to his personal history. And honestly, while I'm glad to see the Fixer here synced up with the Fixer in T-Bolts, I liked the reformed Fixer, and I'm not wild about him being revealed to be a traitor for Zemo

GI Joe A Real American Hero #157 - I'm enjoying this even more than I thought I might. Hama's got the same touch here that he did on the '80s GI Joe, and the loss of some of the wackier latter-era toys has freed him up to do some of his best work since the first 50 issues of the series, and Padilla is a flashier artist than Trimpe, but with solid storytelling fundamentals to back that up

Hawkeye & Mockingbird #3 - McCann does the kind of writing that Parker, Slott and Gage do at their best, which means it's right up my alley, Lopez is as good here as he was on Fallen Angel... these are my two favorite characters being done extremely right, and it makes me very happy

Hellboy The Storm #2 - A fantastic read, as always. Liked seeing Hellboy catch a bit off what's going on in BPRD as well... it's been long enough, I'd love to see him do at least a guest stint in BPRD again

Thunderbolts #144-146 - Took the time to read the first three issues, and I'm really enjoying Parker's take on the team. It's a nice blend of what Ellis, Diggle, Busiek and Nicieza have all done with the team in the past - still getting used to Walker's take on some of the more familiar characters, but I like his art a lot in general

Young Allies #3 - It took a few issues, but I'm hooked. McKeever's teen (and young twenty-something, in Gravity and Firestar's case?) book is like a new spin on the '90s New Warriors, without being a nostalgia book or another tired revamp, and I'm really digging Baldeon's art, particularly his expressive faces and strong background work

Comics Retailing Thought of the Week:
It's more than a little annoying how many people online think they can do my job better than I can, and are not at all shy about offering up their observations in the snarkiest possible manner. Despite never having worked comics retail, or in many cases worked retail at all, in their lives.

It's a skill set, people. Really. Just because you read (or make) comics doesn't necessarily make you more qualified to sell them, or judge how we do our job based on what little you know of me from online. I'm not saying there are no bad retailers, but there are a lot more good ones that don't get credit for what they do.

Comics News:
Go here to read Erik Larsen acting like a tool

This seems like kind of a gray area. Isn't a fan-film by definition under the copyright of the original work? Dark Horse did the classy high-road thing here, but it seems to me like legally, and you could argue ethically, they're in the right to treat any expanded universe work on Serenity/Firefly as part of that universe, especially if it was put out there on the Internet for fans to enjoy.

Tom Beland is doing sketches again! These are fantastic... two or three friends of mine have gotten them, and I've finally tossed my name in the hat to commission one as well.

This is a really interesting piece, reminding me that right about the time it went out of business, I was really digging a lot of Crossgen's stuff. I'd particularly like to see El Cazador and Way of the Rat back, and a collection of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (or more stories).

Gaming:
So it looks like I'll be having a Rock Band 3 party in late October.

TV/Movies:
I was watching the 30 Rock Live on the season 2 DVDs and... holy shit! It's Donald Glover, playing a bunch of parts! Guess this was during his time as a 30 Rock writer, pre-Community.

Saw Monster House and liked it a lot, especially the first half or so, when it felt like a modern-day take on the '80s kids adventure/horror movie like Goonies.

In case anyone was wondering... Ferris Bueller is still great, 24 years later. Loved seeing it again on the big screen at the Paramount. That said, this, from the Paramount show notes "You have to wonder, if Bueller's smart enough to evade getting caught while playing hooky, why not turn his genius to studying and simply graduate early?" makes me sad, as it suggests that the writer doesn't really remember what it was like to be in high school. Which is key to enjoying Ferris Bueller.

Hot Tub Time Machine, on the other hand, was dumb as hell... but fun.

And this week I'm going to see Inception for the second time on Sunday, and Scott Pilgrim on Thursday.

Other Links:
So... apparently Target is on my "do not shop" list along with Wal-mart. That's a bummer, because I actually do shop at Target from time to time, but not if they're gonna support guys like this. The "we just like his business politics, not his anti-gay politics" defense doesn't do much for me, either.

Oddly, the pro-business Republican platform offends me as much as the anti-gay thing. Because "pro-business" in politics (Democrat *and* Republican) usually translates to "Let the corporations do whatever they want."

The CEO offered up a "sort of" apology this week. While it's nice to see him say he's sorry, but it's a real "non-apology" apology, and doesn't offer anything to make things right. I'm not sure if they can legally ask for the money back, but that's something they should do, publicly, if they want to avoid the heat they're getting.

Of course, on the other side of things, there's Prop 8 getting overturned. Which is awesome.

This is depressing, but Anthony Weiner is my hero.

Weekly Recap - July 31st, 2010

2010-07-31T17:12:00.003-05:00

Intro/Random:
After she became obsessed with the iPhone app "Pocket God" I have introduced my daughter to The Sims. That should keep her busy for a while. (Actually, she got bored with The Sims - too many things to figure out - but she loves Pocket God)

Cleared cached, turned off hardware acceleration, video still choppy on my computer. I believe the problem is "my computer is old" which is harder to fix.

Comics I Read This Week:
Thor Mighty Avenger #2 - Really loving the artwork on this book by Chris Samnee, and the all-ages, new-reader approach to Thor by Langridge is interesting.

Comics Retailing Thoughts of the Week:
Scott Pilgrim Vol 6 sold out in its first week, but Oni and Diamond managed to get it back in print before we sold out at the store... which is not how things usually go with books that sell out fast. Kudos to them for making sure the books are available for sale at the peak of movie interest.

Wish it was common. Because now probably isn't the best time for Thor Volume 1 by Straczynski to be out of print... and it's been out of print for at least a month. And kind of surprised Irredeemable Volume 1 has been out of print this long, too.

Interesting article on the closing of Rocketship. Alex seems very sanguine about the whole thing. If Rogues Gallery ever closes, my exit interview will be insane and no doubt profane.

Comics News:
Talking comics retail with Brandon from Austin Books, Eric from Tribe and the LEOG guys... this was a lot of fun to record, hopefully it's fun to listen to.

Stabbing at increasingly crowded Comicon Hall H. Had to happen eventually.

That said, I'm glad to see Comicon has been going so well for many of my friends, and particularly happy for Rob Guillory and John Layman who are clearly the king and queen of this year's Con. If you discount Oni, Edgar Wright and Bryan Lee O'Malley, who clearly win at Comicon-ing thanks to Scott Pilgrim.

Also out of San Diego, the news that Dwayne McDuffie is helming an animated adaptation of All-Star Superman is spectacularly awesome news.

Alright, Ryan Reynolds... you had me at saying the oath for the little kid. I guess you can be Green Lantern.

Aaannd it looks like I won't be going to Comicon next year, either. Or possibly ever again. It's not that I couldn't get a retailer pass, it's that if it's going to be this crowded, I'm out.

Gaming:
I had to prep and run two D&D games (Chaos Scar and Eberron) this week. Not much Transformers getting played this week... although I did make time for a little single-player Decepticon and a co-op Autobot game.

TV/Movies:
I thought it'd be the Chuck panel, but it turns out this is the panel I'm most sad I missed at Comicon. And clearly, my Comicon interest is actually mostly TV-related.

Watched one of the Cougar Town reruns on the DVR. Alan Sepinwall was right. Against all odds, this show (with the *horrible* name and premise) turned into a really funny comedy about midseason.

Speaking of Sepinwall, here's his interview of Donald Glover & Danny Pudi of Community outside San Diego Comicon.

New episode of LOUIE had Matthew Broderick as a guest star, and he was great. But the opening bit with Louie dealing with a heckler was one of the foulest, funniest, cringe-worthy comedy I've seen outside of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

OK, now I've seen the Thor trailer and... damn. Skepticism gone. That was a pretty damn good trailer.

Other Links:
I love this Bollywood-themed video for The Guild. Maybe even more than "Do You Want To Date My Avatar?"

What we have here is some weapons-grade crazy, folks.

Funniest thing I've seen on the Internet in weeks.

Weekly Recap - July 24th, 2010

2010-07-24T19:07:00.003-05:00

Intro/Random:
Why does Google Ad Words keep suggesting a cell phone snoop to track my two-timing husband? Is it accusing *me* of something, or does it think I'm secretly gay-married to a philanderer?

Mostly not sorry I skipped Comicon this year. Sorry not to be seeing friends, but I think the money savings, and not having to fight the crowds, more than makes up for it.

My Tuesday: Starting to feel the Comicon blues, bummed that my shop didn't jump on the Scott Pilgrim midnight release thing, and my Transformers XBox game won't be here until tomorrow. On the other hand, Texas found my last paycheck from ACC and wants to send me close to $700 in free money. So... on balance? Not a bad day.

Comics I Read This Week:
GI Joe A Real American Hero #156 - Not a fan of the Jugglers or Billy and the ninjas, which dominated too much of the latter half of Hama's run. And COBRA becoming a "Blackwater" type organization is kinda goofy. That said, if you can roll with it, and I can, because I loved Hama's GI Joe, it's a fun return to form for Hama, and the artwork is surprisingly good.

Graphic Novels I Read This Week:
Just Scott Pilgrim Volume 6, actually. Which I thought was really good, maybe not quite great. Volume 4 remains my favorite volume of the series. But the series as a whole is definitely great.

Comics Retailing Thought of The Week:
Talking comics retail with Brandon from Austin Books, Eric from Tribe and the LEOG guys... this was a lot of fun to record, hopefully it's fun to listen to.

Comics News:
Modern Comic covers re-imagined in the Silver Age by Chris Sims. Awesome.

So far, this is my favorite news out of San Diego.

TV/Movies:
Inception was amazing, one of my favorite movies in years. Also gave up some sleep to catch REC 2, and it was also fantastic, better than the first (which I loved.)

Speaking of Inception, Udon Studios has done a pretty decent prequel comic. Which I recommend reading after you've seen the movie.

And this Roger Ebert piece springboards off Inception, but it's mostly about the craft of reviewing and the reactions to it. He also raises the question of whether any movie is universally loved, and a commenter suggests Casablanca. So... anybody out there dislike Casablanca? Because I think that commenter is probably right.

Games:
Started playing Transformers: War for Cybertron this week. It's good, and lots of fun doing the transformations. Love that you can play the whole game as a 3-person co-op. However... the boss battles are frustratingly hard. Not enough to ruin the game, but enough to be annoying.

Rock Band 3 playlist is shaping up nicely

Weekly Recap - July 17th, 2010

2010-07-17T17:39:00.003-05:00

Intro/Random:
Good news from the exterminator... just ants, not termites. And not many ants, at that. Whew!

This week I had mini-churros from Jack in the Box and a Son of a Peach donut from Gordough's. Both were quite delicious in very different ways.

Video is running kinda slow on my computer of late... thinking I need a new system. Also thinking I can't afford said system. I also want an HDTV, an iPhone 4, one of the new XBoxes, a new computer desk and any number of other gadget-y type things I can't afford.

Berkeley Breathed is going to be signing at the IDW booth in San Diego. There's my first slight twinge of sadness I'm not going. On the other hand, knowing I'd probably have to wait in line for hours to get my book signed takes the edge off considerably.

Comics I Read This Week:
Avengers Academy #2 - Not bad. I'm still not really invested in the kids, but Gage is doing interesting stuff with their powers and personalities.

Chew #12 - I continue to love this book. Love the "mistaken page" bit of storytelling this issue, love the Chu/Amelia relationship, love the last page cliffhanger, love Poyo, love the art throughout... just one of my favorite books.

Hack/Slash: My First Maniac #1-2 - A great take on the "year one" story for Cassie Hack. I've long been a fan of this series, and I'm glad to see it getting a new spotlight and a chance for new readers at Image.

Sixth Gun #2 - It was a long wait for the second issue, but totally worth it. Much as I loved Damned, Sixth Gun is even better. Great western/supernatural adventure, love the characters and Hurtt's artwork is fantastic.

Sweets #1 - The book looks fantastic, which is no surprise... the story is expansive and scattered, and it's either going to come together beautifully or wind up being an over-ambitious mess by the end. But there's enough potential in this New Orleans-based crime story that I want to follow up and see which way it goes.

Thanos Imperative #2 - If this is the swan song for the Abnett/Lanning cosmic stuff, they're going out big. So far, it's as good as Annihilation and Conquest. I sure hope these guys are doing the new Cosmic Avengers book, because they've got this stuff down to a science.

Unwritten #15 - Wow, things are happening fast in this book. The literary geography, conspiracy elements and just generally great character interaction make this easily my favorite Mike Carey book, and easily my favorite new Vertigo book since Y and Fables.

Graphic Novels I Read This Week:
Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites
BPRD Vol 13 1947

Reread Absolute Planetary Volume 1 and it was actually even better than I remembered it, Was very pleased with Absolute Planetary Volume 2 as well.

Brody's Ghost Vol 1 - Mark Crilley is *criminally* underrated in the comics industry. He's beloved by those that know him, but too few know him. Akiko, his earlier work, is a masterpiece that can most easily be described as Star Wars meets Wizard of Oz filtered through the sensibilities of Miyazaki. After that, the four part Miki Falls is a wonderful piece of supernatural romance.

And now we have Brody's Ghost, drawing on Crilley's asian influences to create a story of ghosts and psychic power wrapped up in a empowering oneself theme with fantastic characters, beautiful art and a very promising story.

Fans of Jeff Smith or Kazu Kibuishi's work should *definitely* check this out. It's a great opener, I can't wait for more, and I hope more people discover Crilley's work

Retailer Thought of the Week:
Almost as annoying as Marvel/DC's "three Wolverine/three Batman" in one week? The *flood* of long-delayed indie books that inevitably crowds my shelves the week before San Diego. At which point they're all competing much harder for the few indie fans' dollars, just like the Wolverine books compete for Wolverine fans' money.

On the upside, however, the flood of IDW material includes Scott Morse's new Strange Science Fantasy *and* Darwyn Cooke's Man With The Getaway Face teaser.

TV/Movies:
Missed Karate Kid at the Drafthouse, so we went to see it at Tinseltown. I actually saw three movies in the theater this week, which is a bit of a rarity. Saw Karate Kid (better than expected, Katy really liked it), Sorcerer's Apprentice (surprisingly solid little urban fantasy action movie. Would have liked more wacky Nic Cage (TM), but... fun!) and Inception (which I'm actually seeing after I write this recap, but I'm excited for).

Covert Affairs: Interesting opener, love some of the supporting cast, and it does have sort of a low-rent Alias feel to it. Of course, I loved the first couple seasons of Alias, and this is merely OK, but... I'll keep up with it for a few episodes, at least.

Accidentally watched about five minutes of a Castle rerun, including the fun opening sequence. Damn it, I'm gonna have to watch this show now, aren't I?

Does it make me a bad fan that I don't care at all whether Edward Norton is the Hulk or not? I like Edward Norton, but I didn't think he embodied Banner the way Downey Jr. just nailed Tony Stark, and I doubt Banner will be very prominent in the Avengers movie.

Along similar lines, if you think we should cast a wrestler for Thor or Captain America because "they're big enough" we can't have a serious discussion about superhero casting.

Walking Dead on AMC is looking pretty promising. The new cast shot is great, and this interview with Michelle MacLaren is pretty good as well.

Other Links:
My sister writes about their son's autism... and I thought she did an amazing job.

Weekly Recap - July 10th, 2010

2010-07-10T17:26:00.004-05:00

Intro/Random:
It's been a pretty good week. I played D&D in three different games, recorded a LEOG and caught Spy Kids at the Alamo, which let me spend a lot of time with many friends and my daughter. And my son and I spent a lot of Friday and Saturday morning watching Backyardigans on the XBox/Netflix.

Shockingly, the Tuesday & Friday off, work Saturday schedule is, so far, better than having Friday & Saturdays off. Not working all of our slowest days, and working one of our busiest, is better for my mental health.

First Saturday night back at work was not too bad. Nice, busy day, nice quiet night that allowed me to get a lot done. Would have loved to have been busy at night, too, but we had a busy enough day that a quiet night was a good thing, not a bad thing.

Apparently we have termites in the house. Possibly only in my home office, but either way... not thrilled. Exterminator is coming on Tuesday. Think happy, non-termite-y thoughts at us.

The San Diego schedules are being announced, folks are announcing product they'll have there, and aside from a couple minor twinges... I'm pretty OK with not going this year. Realization of how much money it cost and how much hassle it was to get into *anything* last year have soured me a bit. I think it's a good thing I'm taking this year off. Also, Fred Phelps and his gang of loons are headed to San Diego, and since it's been a lifetime dream of mine to stomp one of those fuckers to death, it's probably best I'm not being presented with the temptation.

Comics I Read This Week:

Avengers The Children's Crusade #1 - It's not a bad read, and I really liked the Heinberg/Cheung run originally, but... it feels dated, given how much has changed since Civil War, etc. More importantly, it's rooted in the Avengers Disassembled stupidity, which means every page or so is slapping me in the face with the out-of-character behavior the various Avengers (especially Scarlet Witch) have been engaging in. Solidly done, clearly not for me.

Hawkeye & Mockingbird #2 - The WCA codenames are a bit goofy, but in an '80s way I appreciate, and in every other way, this book is being written just for me. McCann broadcasts his last page reveal a bit much, and it's a little darker than I'd like in a book that I want to be kind of caper-y and fun, but overall, I'm really enjoying this.

Hellboy The Storm #1 - I love the new status quo for Hellboy, I love Duncan Fegredo's art and I loved the fight scene that closed out the book.

I Zombie #3 - This has a really weird vibe, an unusual cast and of course, spectacular art. I'm digging it so far.

Shadowland #1 - I've been enjoying Diggle's Daredevil, but I've lost interest in the last couple issues, and I'm really not sold on Shadowland. The writing felt a bit clunky, and I really don't like the moral relativity the Avengers have developed since Bendis relaunched them, and I *really* don't like the new "Do what we tell you or we'll shut you down" arrogance they've had since he relaunched them again. But the biggest problem? Can someone honestly tell me why killing Bullseye, who is an unrepentant mass murderer that they can't keep imprisoned for more than a week, is a bad idea? This is Daredevil's big break with heroism? Sorry, I don't see it.

Steve Rogers Super Soldier #1 - This new spy Cap just doesn't feel like Steve Rogers to me, and I can't stand that no one at Marvel thought to give him an actual job title instead of just "Top Cop of the World and Commander of the Mighty Avengers," both of which are meaningless. That said, if I just view it as a superhero-tinged spy/action book, it's a pretty solid read.

Thor The Mighty Avenger #1 - A continuity-free new Thor series, starting from the beginning in an "Ultimate" type of way (modernizing his origin and his supporting cast) by Roger Langridge & Chris Samnee? Yes, please! Fantastic stuff.

X-Women #1 - Damn near unreadable with the Claremontese, but beautiful to look at.

Young Allies #2 - The "Heroic Age" still has an awful lot of civilian deaths for my tastes, but I really like Gravity and Firestar, and this book is reminding me a bit of what a revamped, new take on the '90s New Warriors would look like, and that's no bad thing.

Retailer Thought of the Week:
Had somebody get kinda surly with me this week because we sold out of Shadowland #1 first day. Now I get that selling out of one of Marvel's big books on the first day seems like an inconceivable error, like I must not have any idea what I'm doing, but here's the thing: It was one of over 75 books we ordered this week. Not including graphic novels and other merchandise, just single issues. We got maybe two or three wrong and sold out too early. I would *love* to be perfect. I hate selling out of stuff too early and I hate having to turn someone away without being able to buy what they want... but asking me to have perfect 100% ordering just seems a bit much.

Games:

My Monday D&D group saw them facing down gnomes, bandits, a swordmage and a couple halfling warlocks... not to mention wraiths and the half-mad betraying half-elf warlock who hired them... before turning into an aberrant creature of darkness and trying to murder them all.

Started playing Brutal Legend, which I got for my birthday from my friend Jason, and I'm really enjoying it thus far. Pretty funny writing and voice-acting, solid gameplay.

I was thinking of trading in some old games to get the new Transformers War on Cybertron game, which has been getting amazing reviews, but 8 XBox 360 games would net me about $20 in trade credit at Gamestop. Yeah, that's why I pretty much don't trade in games.

New Red Dead Redemption DLC! Multiplayer Poker, Liar's Dice & Horse Racing! New characters! New weapons! Zombies! Hell yes!

Damn it Bioware, I can't afford to buy a new computer! And I don't have time for a new MMO! But you're going to make me do it, aren't you?

Roger Ebert can't resist poking the bear further, in regards to videogames. Ironically, whenever Ebert writes about videogames, I think of a Twain quote: "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." How the guy can be so smart, observant and thoughtful on so many subjects and just pig-headedly, willfully and *loudly* ignorant about videogames is frustrating to me. (I have been reliably informed that this is not actually a Twain quote, even though it has been attributed to him... still, the quote seems apropos)

TV:

Louis CK - Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy from Conan O'Brien and The Poker Scene from Louie Episode 2

It turns out that I have an opinion on Blue's Clues. The ones with Steve are better than the ones with Joe. And I'm as shocked that I have an opinion on that as anyone.

Netflix decided that Starz canceling Party Down wasn't enough of a kick in the teeth for fans

Regarding Texas Heat:
Having mowed the yard and taken the kids to Amy's for ice cream & playground time on Tuesday, I can confirm: It was super-fucking hot out. You won't get that kind of measurement from our weather people, but you should. Texas heat should be measured not in degrees, but by how many times, on average, you mutter "FUCK! It's Hot!" while outside.

This guy's a tool. "I have to say, it's about 80 right now and perfectly comfortable." Yeah, well, it's usually a hundred here in Texas, and we need our goddamned A/C! Most of his "Republican victories are due to air-conditioning" type points feature spotty logic, as well.

Other Links:

I Love The Onion

Weekly Recap - July 3rd, 2010

2010-07-03T17:45:00.003-05:00

Intro/Random Stuff:
*blows out the cobwebs*

Stepped away from the blog again. I've been posting quite a bit on Facebook, occasionally on Twitter, but I've gotten really bad about blogging. However, my work schedule has changed, so I'm going to try and make Saturday night a night to write a weekly post from now on. It will be a potpourri of random topics and links, and will hopefully be of interest to some of you.

For an example of the kind of random stuff that will usually be in this section, apparently I type about 89 words per minute. I am reasonably informed that this is my super-power, and as a super-power, it is quite lame.

I make no promise that I will actually do these weekly. Or that they'll be even remotely interesting. But I do promise to try.

Comics I Read This Week:
Batman Beyond #1 - I really liked this in terms of writing and art, but was disappointed in the plot. Specifically, given how fresh Batman Beyond was (and I'm one of those people who *loved* the cartoon), I was bummed to see the plot focusing heavily on old Batman villains. Especially given the reveal about the modern-day villain making the transition to "Beyond." I won't spoil it, but I've hated the character since his inception, and really didn't want to see him again in the main Batman books, let alone in the future book.

Captain America #607 - It's weird to me that Zemo/Fixer are in heavy use simultaneously here and in Thunderbolts, and I actually prefer Fixer redeemed as opposed to Zemo flunky mode, and it's a little annoying to me that Bucky Cap keeps getting set up by his foes to look/act stupid. All of that said, after a brief hiatus of reading this inspired by my intense dislike of Reborn, I'm back reading this and it's still the same great action-adventure/espionage book that it's been since Brubaker took it over.

Secret Avengers #2 - Liked this one too... not as much as the first issue, which I loved, but it's a very un-Brubaker type book in terms of tone and style, while maintaining the usual Brubaker quality of writing. The tonal shift from espionage to localized sci-fi threw me, and I'm not at all sold on Deodato's somewhat-bland "space" costumes for the characters, but there's more to like here than not. And I like seeing the Avengers having some action, rather than just talking all the time.

Comics News:
Spider-Man Cast, Randy Doesn't Care: Snoooorreeee. So they're starting him as a college student? What exactly was the point of re-booting the franchise? Are they going to do the origin movie *again*? Not surprised, but this has moved the movie pretty firmly into "who gives a shit" territory for me.

Videogames:
Ever since completing the story of Red Dead Redemption, I've been going back from time to time to complete Outfits, Strangers, Challenges, etc. But every time, I seem to devolve into murderous rampages. I don't know if this says something about me, Red Dead Redemption, or both. But I have been playing a lot of Red Dead Redemption, and I love the new free co-op missions.

Having finished the single player mission, however, I have to say: Much as I love the game, the storytelling is abysmal. You're railroaded into doing or turning a blind eye to horrible things, and you're never really given the chance to get any revenge. And the ending, while thematically appropriate to the story they're trying to tell, just enraged me and left me with a "Well, then what was the goddamned point!?"

I don't regret playing it or anything, because the gameplay is so good, and some of the supporting characters are fun, but maybe I've been spoiled by the branching gameplay of Mass Effect and games like it where your actions actually impact upon the game, rather than leading to the story the designers wanted to tell, no matter what your character does.

Credence Clearwater Revival Comes to Rock Band - Finally!

TV:
Finally caught the preview of Rubicon on AMC... it's really slow, has a '70s film style pacing to it... but I dug it, and can easily see it becoming as good as their other shows.

And with that, HBO, I bid you adieu until Treme comes back or Game of Thrones comes on. I'm just not willing to pay money every month for sexy vampires, even with Anna Paquin. Treme was great, though.

Party Down Cancelled - Not surprised, but sad. Both seasons available for viewing on Netflix Instant Watch, and I can't recommend it highly enough. From several of the writers of Veronica Mars, starring Mars and Apatow alum. Here is a sample, very funny, clip from the final episode.

Louis C.K. interview - Louis C.K.'s stand-up (Chewed Up is available on Netflix Instant Watch) is hilarious, and his new show, Louie, on FX, is a pretty good translation of his sense of humor into a weird stand-up/sitcom/skit show.

Other Links:
This is a masterpiece of a negative review of the film Grown-Ups

Karaoke Apocalypse at the Nomad - Karaoke with a live band. Awesomly fun.

I'm Not Sure I Have The Willpower to resist buying Dr. Seuss Converse All-Stars - I've worn pretty much nothing but Converse All-Stars since college, and I love Dr. Seuss. These might be the only thing that could top my cool Scott Morse custom-painted Converse.

RPG DNA

2010-06-09T01:22:00.003-05:00

Inspired by a post from Chatty DM at Critical Hits, I'm procrastinating on one comics column, one gaming recap and a couple other blog posts (not to mention watching Party Down or playing Red Dead Redemption) to write up my own hazy-memory-fueled tale of how I came to play RPGs on a weekly basis.

The Beginning
I don't remember the magazine, but I must have been about 10 or so when I first encountered Dungeons & Dragons. There was an article about this new game being played, and they had custom dungeon terrain, painted miniatures and colorful dice. I didn't know what D&D was... but I wanted to find out.

Eventually, I must have picked up the red box, the D&D Basic Set, probably the 1981 revision, that tracks pretty well with the timeline. I would eventually, through my own money to some extent but mostly through gifts from family, get the Blue Expert Set, the I-don't-remember-the-color Companion set and the Black Masters set. I never bought Immortals, because by that time I had moved on to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

I'm fairly sure the first folks I played with were friends whose names I can't really remember. I think one of them was named Walter. I know we traded off being DM, and that I made up dungeons full of traps and monsters on graph paper. I know that our characters were 100th level or so, which was of course not even remotely in the rules. And I'm pretty sure that, given a fondness for ninjas spurred by the kid pop-culture of the day, my guy used "numchuks" and shuriken, despite being a cleric.

I picked up Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1st Edition) and played it with, again, friends I barely remember.

High School
Shortly before high school, we moved to Denver, Colorado, and I made my first set of friends who would becoming gaming buddies. Guys I knew all the way through college, some of whom I still know on Facebook today, even if I haven't seen them in person for well over a decade.

We played D&D, but high school was also where I started to branch out. A lot. Twilight 2000, the game of near-future war. Top Secret, TSR's spy game. Star Frontiers, TSR's sci-fi game. R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk. Shadowrun. A *lot* of West End's Star Wars. GURPS, including a memorable space game that started after play rehearsal (yep, I was in theater) and included anywhere from 4-10 people, depending on who showed up. I never played Traveller, but that GURPS Space game was oddly close to it. One guy played a rich bastard who owned the ship, and his motley crew included a psionic healer (played by the first girl I'd gamed with, Sabina, who would later be part of my double-date to prom, her dating my friend Doug and me taking my friend Shane after my friend Chris dumped her and my brief girlfriend... uh - I'm gonna say Becky? - dumped me just before prom), a squirrel alien scout (played by my aforementioned friend Doug), a space marine and I don't even remember what else. I do still remember one of my favorite lines from the game, when Doug's alien had been rendered unconscious, nobody from the ship knew this, and Rick (the guy playing the ship captain) was threatening to use the ship's nuclear weapons on the planet if they didn't get what they wanted. That line? "I sure hope I'm not on this planet when it blows up... that'd suck!"

College and Superheroes
I'm sure I played other games in high school, and I know that heading into college, I had begun playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons second edition, which was published the year I graduated. However, I can't really recall any of the games or characters from AD&D. When I think of gaming in college, I think of Champions. I had never played the venerable superhero game, despite a love of superhero comics that began when I was about 13 years old.

My friend Kurt, together with his roommate and mine, and a few other friends, started playing Champions 3rd Edition, the one with the cool George Perez cover. Our group was named Wildside, and my character, Golden Dragon, a superstrong guy who started out an ex-Yakuza assassin and eventually became a bit of a Superman noble type (with an un-Superman bad temper) remains one of the most memorable characters I played. That campaign ran for about four years, with different players joining in and out, and each of us playing different characters. In that time, I played Golden Dragon, Argent (a British superspy with an energy rifle, nanites in his blood and some weird pouch thing on his costume, an odd combination of influences from Liefeld, the Valiant comic Bloodshot and James Bond), Black Dragon (Golden Dragon without his powers, using a set of power armor built by one of his allies) and Platinum, Golden Dragon's kung-fu, chi-using, Iron Fist ripoff of a son from the year 2020.

Good times.

Post-College
It's not an exaggeration to say that most of my post-college friends come from gaming. The jobs I had before foolishly embarking on a career in comics retail included working at Austin Community College when I was the only guy under 35 in the whole department and working at a New York dot.com where I was the only guy not in his early twenties and unmarried. I didn't really form any lasting friendships there. I have some friendships formed from comics and the Internet (yeah, yeah, NERD! Shut up) and I met my wife through a combination of both on the Strangers in Paradise mailing list, but my friends are mostly gamers. Or became gamers shortly after meeting me.

When I first came to Austin, I did the "Looking for group" posting. That is a rough time in most gamer's lives, meeting people who may share your hobby but may be nothing like you otherwise. There were awkward having to kick somebody out of the group times, awkward trying to put together a group from the players you liked in the group without bringing along folks you didn't, etc.

But for a time, I had a pretty stable group, and we played Champions. I was DMing, having picked up a fair amount of tips and tricks from Kurt, my college DM, and we actually continued in the world that Wildside inhabited. In fact, I kept in touch with Kurt, and characters from his game would occasionally crossover into mine for cameos, and vice versa. Me in Austin, him in Colorado.

There were a lot of different Champions games with different characters and a few varying players. Eventually, when I left for New York, I didn't have anybody to game with, and I didn't have time with a new wife, a new and very busy job and a completely new city. I visited one gaming store once while there, but there was a period of about a year and a half where I didn't game at all, and honestly, I didn't really miss it. I was too busy going out drinking and partying on weekends on the company's dime. Gee, I don't know why we didn't get more funding. ;)

The Return
When I got back to Austin, I hooked up with the old gaming group, which was still mostly together, and played some Champions again. I also started working at the local comics and games store, and there met some new folks, and put together a new group. Which eventually became my regular group, with some changes, and the old group mostly went different ways. I don't see most of those guys that often, although they're mostly Facebook friends now too.

Working at a game store, and eventually owning a game store, I meet a lot more gamers. I don't tend to game with customers, if only because I know so many gamers now that I never have room in my games. There are exceptions: One of my best friends is someone who I met when our families shared an apartment on the beach for a weekend trip, but who I really became friends with after inviting her and her husband into a D&D 4th Edition game, and who I would never have really known to invite into that game if she hadn't been a customer at my shop. One of my other circles of friends, the League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen, came about because I became friends with another customer, and he's someone I've gamed with occasionally, and who has now become a member of one of my regular groups. And I have four employees, and I game regularly with three of them, and have gamed from time to time with the other one when he's not running his own games. So certainly the store has to take some blame/credit for the amount of/quality of gamers and games I know.

These days, I'm in four regular games. More than I've ever been in my life, even though as a dad and business owner, I'm busier than I think I've ever been, save maybe that year or so in New York.

One of them began life as D&D 3.5 in Eberron, ran until about level 10, took a break and came back at 10th level in 4th Edition. It's the longest-running campaign I've ever run, and I really love it. Another started as 4th Edition D&D, and became a different game (with the same characters) set in Eberron a few months ago, and I get to run in that one. Both of those are in the 13th-14th level area now, and they rotate playing on Fridays. It's not *quite* a weekly game, due to busy schedules, but I game more weeks than I don't.

The other two are new, and have only had two sessions each. One is a game I'm running in the D&D 4th Edition Chaos Scar setting from Dungeon, and it's with three people I've never played with before (one of whom has never played an RPG, and another one of whom hasn't played since 2nd edition) and two friends I don't get to play with enough. It's going to run maybe once a month, and because of that, we're doing a sort of house-rule experience where they gain a level every adventure or two, rather than on the slower scale D&D 4.0 provides.

The other is one I'm playing in, a D&D 4th Edition Forgotten Realms game where I'm playing a Genasi Swordmage. It's funny, because before 4th Edition, I hated Forgotten Realms, Genasi and Swordmages, but I love my new character and I'm kind of digging the Forgotten Realms setting so far. Like my Chaos Scar game, there have only been two sessions, but we're hoping, once schedules calm down a bit, to play that one bi-weekly.

Then there are the one-off games of Savage Worlds (and Deadlands), Fiasco, etc., etc. And I didn't even mention the various smaller games I've played, like Spycraft or Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play or Dark Heresy, or bought and never played, like Dragonstar or Rogue Trader.

I turn 40 in April of next year, and much to the delight of the 20-year-old brain in my aging body, I don't see gaming stopping anytime soon.

(I've turned comments off because I was getting nothing but spam, but if you've got responses, or your own Gaming DNA stories, email 'em to me and I'll link them here or in a new post. Or respond on Facebook if you're one of my Facebook friends, because this should get posted as a "Note" there.)

Weekly Comics for May 12-19, 2010

2010-05-20T01:47:00.002-05:00

American Vampire #3 (Fantastic stuff, I'm very much enjoying both stories, although Snyder's lead story is head and shoulders above King's back story)

Girl Comics #2 (Amazing artwork on this one from Colleen Coover, Jill Thompson, etc. Really dug the Shamrock and Inhumans stories, too)

Origins Of Marvel Comics #1 (One- or two-page origin stories with unbelievable artists. The choices for who gets origins seem a bit random, but there's a lot of good stuff here. A pleasant surprise)

Enter The Heroic Age #1 (Wasn't crazy about the Black Widow story, but every other one in here I really liked, and I *loved* the Hawkeye/Mockingbird and Thunderbolts stories)

Daytripper #6 (Depressing, but still gorgeous)

Unwritten #13 (Another promising new story starts, and this is by far my favorite new Vertigo series, even over Sweet Tooth and American Vampire)

Why I Loved This Week's Lost (But Understand Why You Might Have Hated It)

2010-05-12T01:46:00.002-05:00

Seems like Lost has been getting more and more divisive with the fans as it nears its conclusion. And this week's episode, which features none of the main characters in anything but a tiny cameo role, really pissed some folks off. For me, I thought it was as good, and as important, as the Richard Alpert-focused Ab Aeterno.

Spoilers, obviously.

There are still a *lot* of unanswered questions. And I think it's clear, with basically four and a half hours left, that we're going to have unanswered questions. Probably some big ones. And while I'm a bit worried we'll get the "It was all God, OK?" crap ending like Battlestar Galactica, causing me to recant any love I had for the series, it's a mild worry.

There were so many great thematic parallels going on in this week's episode that answered questions about why things on the island have been they way they've been. Echoes of things in past episodes. Like:

*Raised by another. Obviously, that's a big one. If Janney's unnamed mom hadn't dashed the brains out of the real mom with an "I'm sorry," the whole thing with Jakob and Smokey never happens. Maybe the Well of Souls remains unguarded from the corruption of man, etc. but most of the bad things that have happened to the characters we care about on the island never come to pass.

*Crazy moms in the jungle. Janney's character is the beginning of the archetype for Rousseau and for Claire.

*Black and white. They've been hitting this one pretty hard all season, but clearly Janney set up the dichotomy early, dressing the infants in black and white and introducing them to the game, playing them against each other to determine which was better suited as the guardian of the island.

*"You're special." Walt's specialness eventually disappeared down the memory hole, Aaron's specialness became less of an issue too now that he's back on the mainland being raised by Grandma, but there's still Ben, plus the "special" implied by being a candidate, and it's clear that such a thing either began here, or was being carried forward here. The notion of special children with a destiny, and what happens when they either fulfill it or rebel against it, has been part of the island's DNA from very early on.

There were also concrete answers to "Who are Adam and Eve in the cave?" which was never a mystery I really cared if they solved, but it was nice to get a concrete, emotionally resonant answer. And a pretty good explanation of who and what Smokey is, even if there are some pretty major gaps left to explain *exactly* what happened when Jakob pushed his brother into the golden light. And what exactly the argument is between Smokey and Jakob about people, whether they're good or bad, and why Smokey and Jakob can't kill each other.

So... lots of answers, great acting, and some nice thematic resonance with what Lost has always been about. Great episode for me.

That said... this whole season has been stop and start, pacing-wise, and they've wasted a lot of time on side stories that had little to no impact on anything, and this episode, like the Desmond episode, would have been just as effective three or four episodes in, when there was still plenty of time to explore the ramifications. As is, it does look like the last few episodes are going to have either an unfortunate breakneck pace or they're going to leave out a lot of the moments and answers we've all been waiting six seasons for.

Weekly Comics for May 5, 2010

2010-05-10T00:07:00.004-05:00

Or, as we call it around these parts, "the weekly comics that nearly killed Randy." Seriously, flooding in Tennessee and incompetence on the parts of some members of Diamond and UPS led to me driving to San Antonio unexpectedly on Thursday so I could get my comics a day and a half late. After two competitors in town had gotten theirs practically on time.

Not my best week ever. But a good week for comics, as it turns out.

Captain America #602-604 (Lost interest during Reborn, but finally decided to give this one another look, and I like the updated Watchdogs. Still unconvinced bringing Steve Rogers back was a good idea, but the Bucky/Falcon stories continue to be pretty strong)

Demo Vol. 2 #4 (Another great one-off from Wood and Cloonan. This is actually a stronger series than the first one, and I loved the first one)

Hellboy in Mexico (Hellboy and Mexican wrestlers battle vampires, witches and the Devil in '50s Mexico. Written by Mignola, art by Corben. And it's actually *more* awesome than that sounds)

I, Zombie #1 (Fantastic artwork by Allred, and an intriguing, funny premise from Chris Roberson. Fans of Dead Like Me or True Blood should give this a look... as should anyone else, really - it's a great Vertigo launch for $1)

The Killer Modus Vivendi #1 (Reminiscent of the excellent first issue of the original series, as the Killer comes out of retirement and gets involved in something political, big and dangerous)

Orc Stain #3 (Stunning artwork on this one, and Stokoe is really creating an interesting world with his grungy orcs)

Sweet Tooth #9 (The origin of Jefferd continues, and it's as heart-breaking as his betrayal was at the end of the first arc)

Weekly Comics for April 28, 2010

2010-05-04T02:03:00.003-05:00

Usagi Yojimbo #128 (Another great one-off story with Usagi as he travels around the country and meets a family... the Usagi/kid thing has been getting more focus since the introduction of Johtaro, and I find that really interesting)

The Terminator #2 (Really enjoying this so far... great art, compelling characters)

Marvel Zombies 5 #2 (The series is increasingly less about zombies and more about weird C-list characters working for A.R.M.O.R. - and I am totally OK with that)

The Guild #2 (Fun, great art by Rugg, interesting look at the early days of these characters)

GI Joe Cobra II #4 (Not as strong as the opener, but still really good)

A-Team War Stories Murdock (In a similar vein, not as entertaining as the Hannibal one-shot, but kinda fun)

Weekly Comics for April 21, 2010

2010-04-22T01:33:00.003-05:00

American Vampire #2 (Really good second issue. Snyder's main story is the best of the bunch, with King's flashback a little weaker, but the art is good throughout. At this point, I definitely see myself picking up the trade.)

Nova #36 & Guardians of the Galaxy #25 (I think Marvel just stealth-canceled two of my favorite books. Still, three years and two years respectively is a good run for cosmic superheroes, and it's all culminating in a big universe vs. Thanos story, so I can't complain too much. The Realm of Kings stuff was too disjointed and unfocused, as compared to War of Kings and Annihilation, but the conclusion makes me more likely to pick everything up, if in fact it all gets collected)

Also bought: Bloom County Vol 2 HC, RASL Vol 2 TP, Sandman Mystery Theatre Vol 8 TP

Weekly Comics for April 7-14, 2010

2010-04-14T20:42:00.002-05:00

Sweet Tooth #8 (Still loving this series, and I love that it's still in the setup phase, so there's plenty of mystery but also enough solid material to keep me interested)

Demo Vol 2 #3 (Strangely upbeat for a Demo story, a great visual bit that could only really work in comics the same way... Wood/Cloonan are an amazing team)

Marvel Zombies 5 #1 (Caught up on Van Lente's Marvel Zombies, and it's solid, entertaining stuff. This new inter-dimensional exploring anti-zombie task force has potential to be the most fun yet)

BPRD King of Fear #4 (Fantastic post-apocalyptic and pre-apocalyptic stuff, and Davis's work continues to be breath-taking. That fallen BPRD helicarrier is amazing)

Daytripper #5 (Loved the story, will definitely pick up the trade at this point, but... some of these are getting really depressing)

Daredevil #506 (Not sure I'm buying the big twist, but I continue to like seeing Murdock deal with the politics of the Hand)

Chew #10 (Wraps up the second story arc, and like Sweet Tooth, I love how much we've got but also love that it feels like there's a lot more story left to tell)

Unwritten #12 (Reminiscent of #5, my favorite issue of the series, this is a standalone in a Winnie the Pooh/Wind in the Willows style story)

A-Team War Stories Face (None of these one-shots have lived up to the fun of the first one, Hannibal, but this was kind of fun, and I'm itching to see Bradley Cooper play this role in the film)

Iron Man Legacy #1 (Given the success of Invincible, I'm not sure folks were clamoring for a second Iron Man title, but this is a pretty good first issue. I particularly liked Tony's war suit)

Iron Man Noir #1 (Seemed a weird call at first, but I loved this adventurer take on Tony, which is part Rocketeer, part Indiana Jones and all written by one of my new favorite writers, American Vampire's Scott Snyder)

Super Heroes Marvel Adventures #1 (Must be an Iron Man movie coming, huh? Given that this story focuses much more on Invisible Woman, and Iron Man's on the cover. This is a weird mix, a little like The Authority or The Ultimates in dealing with the dangers of super-powered beings, and a little Stan Lee in its team dynamics and personal stories. It's a strange team, a strange foe and a strange tone, but... I like it)

A Fiasco - Revenge & Murder in Suburbia

2010-04-07T20:29:00.004-05:00

I recently had a chance to play the storytelling RPG Fiasco, "a game of powerful ambition and poor impulse control" from Bully Pulpit games. It's heavily inspired by Coen Brothers films, but any out-of-control, often darkly comical ensemble cast story can be seen in the gameplay, and quotes from True Romance, Three Kings and even Office Space show you some of the range the game has.

It comes with four "playsets" that you use to build your story: A Nice Southern Town, The Old West, McMurdo Station Antarctica and the one we used, A Suburban Community. You can get a lot more details about how the game works from these two excellent articles at Gnome Stew reviewing the game and then providing an example of play. The above is all just context for my write-up of the game we played.

Our Characters:
1. Petrov, First Generation Ukranian Immigrant

Who is a cousin of

2. "Tim," a.k.a. Yuri, a Mob Informant in Witness Protection

Who is the bookie for a gambler known as

3. Jackson, Owner of a Failing Car Dealership

Who was a drunk driver that killed Petrov's wife

The characters were quick ideas from each player, and the relationships are part of the setup of the game. The other part of the setup included coming up with these three elements, each tied to a relationship:

1. Jackson's Need to get respect from himself by standing up for himself at last, tied into his relationship with Tim

2. Petrov's Unsavory Object of Night-Vision Goggles and Flexi-Cuffs, tied into his cousin Tim

3. Tim's Location on Red Bud Cort, a van with no tires surrounded by rotting newspapers, that was tied into his relationship with Jackson (possibly an old car he bought off Jackson's lot, although we never quite established this)

With these details in mind, we set out taking turns, creating the six scenes that formed the First Act. Dice are used to determine how each character is doing... sort of, but I'm leaving that part out as I don't recall the exact apportionment of dice, and we also discovered later that we hadn't quite done it right, using the mechanics for Act Two for both acts. It still worked out, though we'll definitely use the right rules next time out.

Scene 1 was a flashback to one year ago, the night Petrov's wife died. Two cars are slammed into each other, a dead woman sits in the passenger seat with a nine-iron (or possibly a seven-iron, there's some debate about that) in her chest, and her husband, Petrov, is kicking the living snot out of Jackson, the thoroughly drunk driver who just crashed into them.

As the two of them battle, Petrov yelling and cursing and Jackson feebly defending himself, insisting that he's not drunk, a cop pulls up, takes one look at the scene and just keeps on driving.

Scene 2 takes place a year later. Because the cop drove away, and because Petrov nearly killed Jackson, the case never went to trial. Jackson plead out, and got off without any jail time. But the local news had a field day, and Petrov has been picketing his car lot, and as a result, Jackson's business is in the toilet, even though he's legally in the clear.

Petrov, angry and bitter, is on the phone with his cousin Tim. He suggests that he needs to get revenge. They need to kidnap Jackson's wife for ransom and then kill her (it was at this point that Jackson's player realized he had a wife.) "Do you still have those old nightvision goggles?"

Scene 3 involved Jackson and Tim on the phone, and Jackson trying to get an extension on his loan. He had "a whale" on the line to buy a Cadillac, and once that sale went through, he could pay off all his gambling debts. Tim, hearing Jackson's wife nagging him on the phone, wondered if he had any life insurance, which put a nasty idea into Jackson's head. He suggested that he and Tim meet at a bar later to talk about it.

Scene 4 was a solo scene of Petrov, fumbling around in the dark with the night-vision goggles, and generally proving himself to be a violent amateur. This does not bode well.

Scene 5 involved Tim going out to his van, to find that it was pristine on the inside, covered in plastic wrap and full of sharp knives. Tim was clearly a much more professional killer than his cousin.

Scene 6 involved Jackson talking with his insurance agent, a genial fellow who agreed to let Jackson pay off the higher life insurance premiums after he landed "the whale" even though he'd put the paperwork through now. All Jackson had to agree to was getting a blood sample from his wife (for medical checks) and picking up $10 grand in "hail insurance" for the cars on the lot.

That was act one, and then came The Tilt. The elements added were Mayhem (Cold-Blooded Score Settling), Paranoia (Somebody is watching, waiting for their moment) and Guilt (Visit from perhaps unofficial authorities). The story more or less suggested itself from there.

Scene 1 began with Petrov killing Jackson's wife. He was supposed to kidnap her, but his need for vengeance overtook him, and the result was a bloody massacre at the Jackson house. He ended up with a body in three pieces and blood everywhere. (Mayhem)

Scene 2 saw Petrov rolling up in his car to Tim's van. Tim was livid when he saw that Petrov had brought him a thoroughly trackable dead body rather than a live woman they could ransom, but he had a larger problem. An FBI agent, agent Carver, who had been watching for some time (Paranoia) came up on the two men and wondered "Well, what do we have here?" (Guilt)

Scene 3 began again with Petrov, running across a field, and we didn't know from what, but he was still covered in blood, terrified and carrying Jackson's. Wife's. Head. He reached the highway and thought he was safe, and tried to flag down the oncoming car.

Only problem being, the car was being driven by Jackson, roaring drunk after having missed his meeting with Tim. He crashed right into Petrov, knocking him onto the side of the road, and his wife's head bounced right off the windshield. He was too drunk to be sure what he saw, but he knew one thing: The last time he stopped in a situation like this, he very nearly got killed for it. So he kept on driving.

Scene 4 was Agent Carver walking up to Petrov, broken and bleeding but still alive. "Petrov, it just ain't your day." He took his pistol and shot Petrov in the head.

Scene 5 was a flashback to a few minutes earlier, as Agent Carver explained the deal to Tim and Petrov. He had a tap on Tim's phone and an eye on his van, and now he wanted the life insurance money. Only problem being, when there's a murder, there had to be a murderer. He pointed his gun at Petrov, saying sorry, as Petrov took off running.

Scene 6 found Jackson returning to his home to find it covered in blood. Tim and Agent Carver showed up to explain what had happened, and Jackson managed to stand up for himself and demand half of the insurance money, because without him, there was no deal. They got a blood sample from the copious amount available on the walls, floor and curtains and went about their grisly business.

Aftermath: At the end of the game, we rolled the dice we'd gotten in playing our scenes. Petrov, fittingly, wound up with a result that indicated he had probably died. Tim wound up in the same place he had been, which is to say he wound up moved into witness protection in a different town, still running small-time gambling. And Jackson? He made out the best. He got his half of the insurance money, Petrov's murder helped him win back a little public sympathy and it looked like he might pull his car dealership out of the tailspin. The only hitch was, though the life insurance had gone through, the hail insurance hadn't, and a huge hailstorm had wiped out most of his inventory, so most of his money was going to have to go to fixing up the cars he had.

Next up for us is trying out Lucky Strike, set in a World War II basecamp in France.

Weekly Comics for March 31, 2010

2010-04-03T17:13:00.002-05:00

Terminator #1 (A pleasant surprise, this was a really good story about the early days of the human vs. Terminator war by Zack Whedon, with very nice art by Andy MacDonald.)

GI Joe Cobra II #3 (Starting to lose track of the characters and plot, think I might switch to trades on this... still really enjoy it, just think I'll enjoy it more in bigger chunks)

Usagi Yojimbo #127 (Usagi runs across a new character who is at a similar crossroads to the one he had when he first became a ronin. Another interesting story showing that Sakai will probably never run out of Usagi tales to tell)

Also bought: Pluto Vol 8, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3

Weekly Comics for March 17-24, 2010

2010-03-24T16:22:00.005-05:00

American Vampire #1 (Great opening issue, with really good artwork in two different styles from Rafael Albuquerque and Scott Snyder actually steals the show from Stephen King, but both segments of the story are strong. Another solid launch from Vertigo, which is on a bit of a streak lately.)

The Guild #1 (They had me at Jim Rugg, and his art doesn't disappoint. But the story is fun, too, no surprise that it fits seamlessly into the style and continuity of the Guild webseries given that it's written by Felicia Day, who acquits herself fairly well in the transition from writing for screen and writing for comics.)

Orc Stain #2 (I love this book. Spectacularly beautiful, and the fantasy world by way of orcs is a lot of fun.)

Guardians of the Galaxy #24 (Still think Craig's art is out of place on this book, but it's growing on me, and really enjoying the build-up to the next big cosmic epic. Abnett & Lanning haven't let me down yet.)

A-Team War Stories: Hannibal #1 (Mildly cheesy, but a fun standalone action story set during the Iraq War and starring Colonel "Hannibal" John Smith. Dixon was the perfect choice to write this one.)

Robocop #3 (OK, I think this is where they lost me. I might need to read the whole arc again to see if it sticks with me, but I've lost a lot of the story/character threads and so this issue didn't connect.)

Also bought: Robotika Vol 2, The Killer Vol 2, Wondermark Vol 3, Mysterius the Unfathomable

Weekly Comics for March 10, 2010

2010-03-10T19:17:00.003-06:00

The Unwritten #11 (Fascinating story about a bit of literature & film I was unfamiliar with, this book reminds me a lot of all the things I liked about Sandman)

Batman & Robin #10 (The writing on this is Morrison at his most scattershot, wild ideas sometimes landing and sometimes going off wild, but while it may not be his most coherent book, it remains exceptionally readable. Far below All-Star Superman and his New X-Men run as far as his superhero work, at least for me, but I must admit I love the freshness he's bringing to it. And Andy Clarke, stepping in on art, does an able job of filling the big shoes Cameron Stewart left for him.)

Criminal The Sinners #5 (Actually upbeat, as far as Criminal endings go, which means its still dark and gritty and riveting)

BPRD King of Fear #3 (Man, these poor guys can't catch a break. No matter what they do, somebody is destined to end the world.)

Daytripper #4 (Slice-of-life tales, beautifully illustrated, with a touch of tragedy and a surprisingly familiar ending motif... great read.)

Also bought: Modern Masters Guy Davis, Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade

STAPLE! 2010

2010-03-07T22:45:00.002-06:00

As I write this, the last thing I have to do to declare the book closed on STAPLE! 2010 is see Guy Davis safely back home and then get all the new books I picked up for the store logged back into the inventory. So as of tomorrow afternoon, STAPLE! 2010 will officially be over for me.

It was a great year, at least on my end. Good attendance, great fans, and everyone I talked to seemed to have a good time. Chris Schweizer (of Crogan's Adventures) and Chad Thomas (of Archie's Sabrina comics) both stayed at my place, and I had a great time hanging out with them. Also helped work Guy Davis's table, and Guy is about as nice a guy as you will ever meet.

The four of us went out to Chuy's for lunch on Friday, where Guy was amused by the "big as your face" burrito and the dinosaur sign over the restroom caught Chris's eye, leading to a brief dinosaur meme at live art on Saturday. We also stopped by Book People and went out to the UPS store so Chris could get some prints done, and then of course there was the Austin Books pre-party.

I know I own another shop in town and shouldn't say anything too nice about the competition, but... damn. Austin Books really is a spectacular comic shop, and being there gives me feelings of envy and inferiority every time. Which is a pretty high compliment, given that I think Rogues Gallery is a pretty kickass comics shop. As always, got to check in with a ton of people who I don't see often enough, and though I had to pass up an invite for LEOG post-party fun and an invite to grab dinner with Kristian Donaldson, Nick Derington and some other friends because I was too damn tired, it was a good time.

STAPLE! itself went really smoothly for me. It was tiring, as I spent most of my time at Guy's table, helping out with sales and chatting with fans in the always long lines to see him. He did free sketches for tons of folks, we sold out of the Marquis and Guy's awesome sketchbooks, and had a good time talking to Paul Maybury and Jason Horn, both of whom shared table space with Guy at one time or another.

I did get out to buy a few things. Picked up the collection of Let's Be Friends Again, Yehudi Mercado's cool-as-hell looking graphic novel Buffalo Speedway, Monica Gallagher's Boobages & Bonnie N. Collide Books One and Two and Chad Townshend's newest sketchbooks. And I was given some cool stuff, including a couple badass prints by Evan Bryce, a Sabrina page from Chad Thomas, Chris Schweizer's Crogans & Smokers of the Marvel Universe prints and the last sketchbook Guy had before we sold out.

Franklin Barbecue for dinner. It is easily the best barbecue I've ever had. Went again for lunch the next day. Will definitely be going again. Soon.

Got quite, quite drunk at the Live Art event. Didn't buy any live art as a result, bummed I didn't get the Guy Davis piece but somebody else nabbed it first. You can follow things I may or may not have said on Nate Southard's Twitter. I don't *think* I wanted to fuck a werewolf, but I'm not entirely sure at this point, to be honest.

Sunday was barbecue again, with Chris S., Chad, Guy, Uncle Staple!, Leo McGovern (of Antigravity Magazine in New Orleans) and Toby Craig, and then took Guy up to visit Rogues Gallery. Then, after a relaxing afternoon, got out to see Shutter Island at the Alamo Drafthouse with Kristian and my friend Jamie.

Fun weekend. Tiring, but I'm not exhausted, which is good, because I've got to do inventory prep and then inventory and then new comics day at the store. And then prep for my D&D game on Friday.

Then I can start planning more for D&D Encounters at the store, finalize all the stuff I've been working on for Free Comic Book Day and get everything lined up for the April New Orleans trip. Oh, and I've already got some ideas for who we should invite to STAPLE! 2011, but I'm afraid if I say the words STAPLE! 2011 to Chris right now, he'll snap and kill me.

Weekly Comics for March 3, 2010

2010-03-03T17:25:00.002-06:00

Milestone Forever #2 (Damn, that was great. A terrific cap to a universe that has been waiting for its ending for far too long, and a new beginning, if DC is smart enough to give McDuffie the hands-off approach and marketing support to do it. Even though they probably won't, though, this was a great reminder of how much I loved Static & Hardware in particular and Milestone in general.)

Chew #9 (Continue to love this book as it builds its cast, expands on its story and makes me laugh, month after month.)

Demo Vol 2 #2 (Wow. Creepy. And effective. Loving Demo Vol 2 as much as, maybe even a little more, than the original.)

Sweet Tooth #7 (As bleak in its way as Walking Dead, and just as gripping, but with a smaller, more manageable cast. Loving this book.)

Girl Comics #1 (Bit of a mixed bag, writing-wise, but has some gems, and some great art throughout, and is worth it for the "posies" panel in Valerie D'Orazio's story and the Colleen Coover intro pages alone.)

Weekly Comics for February 24, 2010

2010-02-24T17:14:00.003-06:00

Usagi Yojimbo #126 (Funny story, with another great monster from Japanese mythology used in an unconventional way. Also, unrelated to story, wish I had $400 to buy those Roku statues on the back. Droool.)

Robocop #2 (Still a nice blend of the satirical style of the '80s movie with updated issues for the '00s, plenty of action and ultra-violence as well. A good sequel to the first movie.)

GI Joe Cobra II #2 (More of a great dark crime take on G.I. Joe undercover and Cobra's inner workings from Gage, Costa and Fuso... they even managed to make Dr. Mindbender work in this grittier context.)

Joe the Barbarian #2 (Reminding me of Seaguy. Which is to say, beautiful to look at, intriguing, but I have no freakin' idea what's going on most of the time. But I enjoy it despite that.)

Batman & Robin #9 (Damn, this book is odd. Having fun with it, though.)

Tales of the Dragon Guard #1 (Spectacular artwork, really interesting take on dragons, plus violence and boobs.)

Irredeemable #11 (Waid is deliberately drawing out the suspense on Bette Noir's secret, and it is *killing* me. In a good way. Also, it becomes increasingly clear that Plutonian has been a monster from a very early age.)

Incorruptible #3 (Max Damage reminds me of a more sociopathic Holden Carver from Sleeper, Jailbait is a great, hilarious sidekick and the whole flipside to Irredeemable has proven to be just as good as Irredeemable itself.)

Atomic Robo Revenge o/t Vampire Dimension #1 (As strange, and as good, as all of the Atomic Robo series have been thus far.)

Also bought: Classic GI Joe Vol 7, Incredible Hercules: Sacred Invasion HC

Weekly Comics for February 17, 2010

2010-02-22T11:24:00.002-06:00

Finally got around to reading comics for this week, and I'm still behind, need to read Incorruptible #3, Joe the Barbarian #2 and the new Atomic Robo, plus 28 Days Later and some other Boom! stuff I've gotten behind on.

Incredible Hercules #141 (The whole "Assault on New Olympus" thing has been hit and miss for me, and I miss the more confident, assured Amadeus Cho - this whole story has been a touch dark and full of "look! It's a twist and a crazy status quo change!" for me. I'd rather have Hercules dressed as Thor sleeping with blue elf girls, honestly. Still good, but falling short of the great where it was.)

Guardians of the Galaxy #23 (Love the story, especially like the Guardians playing secret service to Blastaar and Crystal. The art... Wes Craig is a very good, stylish artist, but his style is a bad fit for this particular book. I hope to see more of him, but I don't think he works here.)

Daredevil #505 (Continuing to love this. Very Kill Bill O-Ren Ishii styled with Daredevil in Japan, and I like exploring the structure of the Hand. I dig Marco Checchetto's art, too)
Also bought: Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys Vol 7, Starman Omnibus Vol 4

Weekly Comics for February 10, 2010

2010-02-11T01:23:00.003-06:00

Choker #1 (Well, that was damned odd. Beautiful to look at and certainly intriguing, but odd. Recommended for the Fell crowd, definitely.)

Tails of the Pet Avengers (A fun one-shot throughout, but the Colleen Coover penned and drawn Ms. Lion short is the best thing I read this week. So much fun.)

BPRD King of Fear #2 (Damn, Liz is getting scary. And I'm loving Bruno, and hope Kate comes around to his charms. Also, ghosts and monsters.)

Batman & Robin #8 (I'm starting to think I'll like this a lot better in a collected format, the bite-size story chunks just aren't satisfying enough to me.)

S.W.O.R.D. #4 (I'll be sad to see this one go. This issue was a bit down from the rest, but it's key to moving everything into place for the end of the story.)

Daytripper #3 (Gorgeous, great reading as always)

Unwritten #10 (Love to see Tommy Taylor taking a bit more control, love some more hints of what's going on with the meta-fiction, love the ghost of Nazi Germany and... wow. That ending. What is going to happen next? One of my absolute favorite books at the moment.)

Weekly Comics for February 3, 2010

2010-02-03T17:30:00.004-06:00

Criminal The Sinners #4 (Another dark, twisted, gorgeous looking issue of the best crime book this decade... and maybe the previous one, unless you measure it against other Brubaker/Phillips stuff)

Demo Vol 2 #1 (Wow. Every bit as good as I remembered it being, and that's based not on distant fond memories but a recent re-reading of the Demo trade. Sure to be one of my favorite series of 2010)

GI Joe Origins #12 (A darker-than-usual take on the origin of the Baroness, courtesy of Andreyko and Templesmith. How long have they been doing this series as one-shots focusing on different characters with different creative teams? Because that interests me quite a bit)

Sweet Tooth #6 (Second story arc starts off well, as we get a little more background on the mysterious Mr. Jepperd and see that he's had his own share of tragedy)

Milestone Forever #1 (Damn, this made me want to drag all my old Milestone books out and re-read them. I'd clearly forgotten where the status quo left off, but minor details aside, it was good to see all these characters again)

Also bought: Wizard's Tale HC, Crogan's March

Weekly Comics for January 20-27, 2010

2010-01-26T19:49:00.005-06:00

Joe the Barbarian #1 (Slow paced opener, but fantastic art, and I'm certainly interested in seeing where it goes)

Irredeemable #10 (I'm completely hooked on this now, can't wait to find out more of the secrets that lead up to this point)

Incredible Hercules #140 (The Assault on New Olympus story has been fantastic thus far, maybe not quite as good as the Thorcules story, but pretty close)

RASL #6 (Jeff Smith writes and draws a primer on the life and history of Nikola Tesla? Yes, please.)

GI Joe Cobra II #1 (Dark as hell, but also the best of the new IDW GI Joe comics. It's not the regular tone I'd like for GI Joe, but I love it as a Cobra book. Only problem is, a lot of the folks who'd enjoy it for it's gritty undercover vibe will never read it because it says GI Joe on the cover)

Robocop #1 (I always lose interest in these licensed comics, but Rob Williams, Fabiano Neves and Dynamite offer up a slick Robocop sequel here that dodges the suckiness of the other two movies, adds the economic meltdown of the '00s to the '80s political parody of the original movie and has plenty of cool action to boot. Surprisingly, one of my favorite reads in a really good week of comics)

Detective Comics #861 (Goddamn but Jock is a fantastic artist)

Guardians of the Galaxy #22 (I've lost interest in Nova until the Sphinx story is over, and I'm kind of bored with the other Realm of Kings tie-ins, but this one, with it's space megachurch of evil zealots and great superteam banter/action, continues to be one of my favorite Marvel comics)

Batman & Robin #7 (After the long wait, this was a little disappointing. Morrison's storytelling is choppy (where the hell did Batwoman come from?), not helped by the balloon placement fuck-up, leading to sort of a good-but-not-great vibe from me. Beautiful Cameron Stewart artwork, though)

Daredevil #504 (I love that Diggle has maintained the dark, Murdock is up against horrible odds and has to make terrible choices vibe while making Daredevil more of an active protagonist than a victim. And I'm digging the art by De La Torre/Hollingsworth. Daredevil continues to be one of Marvel's best books)

Chew #8 (Wondering how much of this story was a result of Layman wanting to put "King of Cocks" on the cover, because that cracked me up. Anyway, fantastic as usual, best new book of 2009 and in the running for best series of 2010 already)

Also bought in the last two weeks: Pluto Vol 7, Afrodisiac HC, Return of King Doug HC

Weekly Comics for January 13, 2009

2010-01-13T22:31:00.003-06:00

Daytripper #2 (Slice-of-life tales with a touch of magic from Brazil by Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon. Beautiful to look at, mesmerizing to read, as good as their work on De:Tales and other projects they've done together)

Orc Stain #1 (Spectacularly beautiful to look at, and fun take on fantasy with orcs as protagonists)

S.W.O.R.D. #3 (This is a fantastic book about aliens in the Marvel Universe that far too few people are reading. Love the artwork, love the characters, love the dialogue. Kieron Gillen is going to be a name people are tossing around with Warren Ellis in a year or two, and this may wind up a forgotten gem. Read it now so you'll look smart then.)

The Unwritten #9 (Wow. After last issue, I thought they might, but I'm still surprised they went there. Dark issue, but really interesting and compelling as well)

Weekly Comics for January 6, 2010

2010-01-06T20:22:00.002-06:00

BPRD King of Fear #1 (Spectacular artwork as always, fun to see Bruno again and I love the bureaucratic/political interference from the government.)

Mass Effect: Redemption #1 (Interesting enough, but a little hard to follow. Then again, I haven't finished the first game, or indeed played it in a long while, so maybe I'm just not remembering enough about the world. Not real friendly to those who don't already know the world and its characters, though.)

Stumptown #2 (Really liked it, but the outside factors of a two month wait for the issue (with no explanation) and seeing it turned from an ongoing to a four-issue mini have me disappointed more than anything. I thought this was going to be a favorite new series in 2010, something to stand with Criminal, but that's clearly not going to be the case.)

Sweet Tooth #5 (Wow. Brutal ending to the first arc, and Lemire's artwork continues to impress, especially the unconventional staging of the big climactic fight scene with Jefferd and the militia.)

Also bought today: Young Avengers HC, Thor Ages of Thunder HC, Missile Mouse Volume 1, Kazu Kibuishi's Copper, The Unwritten Vol 1 TP

Best of 2009: Books

2009-12-31T22:59:00.000-06:00

I had set a goal to read at least one book a month this year, and I managed it. Barely. Next year I want to read at least that many, hopefully more.

Favorite Book: The Kid by Dan Savage
1. The Kid by Dan Savage (Plume)
2. The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family (Dan Savage)
3. The Road (Vintage Books)
4. Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life (Scribner)
5. The Great Derangement (Matt Taibbi)
6. A Feast For Crows (George R.R. Martin)
7. The Switch (HarperTorch)
8. Savage Season (Black Lizard)
9. Inside Straight HC (George R.R. Martin)
10. Dreams of My Father (Barack Obama)
11. Patriot Acts (Bantam)
12. Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me (Grand Central)
13. I Am America: And So Can You! (Warner Books)

Best of 2009: Movies

2009-12-30T18:02:00.000-06:00

Top 10 Movies of 2009
1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Up
3. Sherlock Holmes
4. Zombieland
5. Where The Wild Things Are
6. District 9
7. The Hangover
8. (500) Days of Summer
9. Avatar
10. Watchmen

I saw only a dozen new movies in the theater this year: Up, Inglourious Basterds, District 9, Where The Wild Things Are, Public Enemies, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Watchmen, Star Trek, Zombieland, Avatar and Sherlock Holmes. I thought two of them were terrible (although I suspected one of them was going to be going in), I was disappointed by one of them (Star Trek... I know, I know! Shut up!) and I was reasonably happy with the rest. I even liked Watchmen (I know, I know! Shut up!) I took a pass on G.I. Joe and Transformers 2, and I think my new "If you know it's going to be a shitty blockbuster, even if it's based on something you have nostalgic love for, take a pass" philosophy will serve me well going forward.

As far as favorite movie of the year, though, it's easy to get down to the top two. District 9 and Where The Wild Things Are were both very good, but each had its issues that keep it from being "Best Of" material. Zombieland was great, but in the end, it's really not much more than an American Shaun of the Dead. The top two, though? That's a really tough choice. It's between Up, another masterpiece by Pixar, and Inglourious Basterds, another fun, violent, self-indulgent flick from Tarantino. I know that the unanimous choice there would be Up, as some folks outright disliked Basterds or hate Tarantino, but the only one I saw twice in the theater was Inglourious Basterds, so I think I've gotta give that one the nod.

I also saw a bunch of older movies for the first time this year. I really enjoyed The Scottish werewolves vs. soldiers movie Dog Soldiers, the Oscar-bait tale of life in Indian slums Slumdog Millionaire, the dumb comedy Tropic Thunder, the Beatles tribute Across The Universe, the Spanish zombie flick [REC] (and it's American remake, Quarantine), the suspense thriller Zodiac (best Fincher movie since Fight Club) the strange con man movie The Brothers Bloom and the "magicians are bastards" The Prestige.

I loved Big Lebowksi, which I finally saw, and I'm glad I held out for the big screen. Saw it at the Paramount here in Austin, and it has gone from "I really need to see that" to "one of my favorite movies" with just one viewing. Other movies I saw that had their moments but weren't quite all there were Choke and The Bank Job. Oh, and I saw Gran Torino and found it vastly overrated.

Best of 2009: TV

2009-12-30T12:01:00.000-06:00

Top 20 TV Shows in 2010
1. Lost Season Five (ABC)
2. Breaking Bad Season Two (AMC)
3. Chuck Season Two (NBC)
4. Modern Family Season One (ABC)
5. Burn Notice Season Two & Three (USA)
6. Flight of the Conchords Season Two (HBO)
7. Spectacular Spider-Man Season Two (DXD)
8. Community Season One (NBC)
9. The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season Two (FOX)
10. Torchwood: Children of Earth (BBC)
11. The Office Season Five & Six (NBC)
12. Batman The Brave and the Bold Season One (TOON)
13. Better Off Ted Season One (ABC)
14. Leverage Season Two (TNT)
15. Party Down Season One (STARZ)
16. 30 Rock Season Three & Four (NBC)
17. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season Five (F/X)
18. Weeds Season Four (SHO)
19. Parks & Recreation Season Two (NBC)
20. Better Off Ted Season One (CBS)

Favorite Hour-Long: Lost (ABC)
There are four strong contenders in this category: Chuck, Breaking Bad and Lost, with Burn Notice as a dark horse candidate. And while the performances and sheer gutsiness of Breaking Bad tempts me, my favorite hour-long, and honestly my favorite thing on TV, is Lost. It's ambitious, but shows signs of the showrunners knowing that they need to have a satisfying ending for that ambition to mean anything. In contrast to Battlestar Galactica, which after that bullshit finale, I wish I could un-watch. It's got some of the best writing on television, elevated well above the usual quality we get in genre TV into award-worthy territory. The writers are tackling complex concepts like time travel and quantum physics (OK, magic) in a way that makes it approachable but not dumbed-down, and the characters are so compelling that you care as much about their small stories as you do the big mythology. Add in one of the best casts of actors on TV and just generally exquisite production values, not to mention that they've done this for five seasons now and aside from some arguable hiccups in the middle seasons, it's never been anything less than great, and I believe Lost will be one of those "Best of TV" shows for a long, long time.

Unless they fuck up the ending. Then I take it all back and give the nod to Breaking Bad.

I also really like Dexter, although ever since season two, it's settled into something of diminishing returns for me, and I really liked Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but it's cancellation keeps it from nudging up beyond "what could have been" territory, even though I'll definitely re-watch both seasons on DVD from time to time, as it's a solid offering, even with it's non-ending ending. Dollhouse might have made it on if every episode was like "Man on the Street" or "Epitath One" but most of it was disappointing, and I remain somewhat bitter that it got to stick around despite its downward spiral when Sarah Connor didn't, even though it was on a creative upswing.

Oh, and there's Leverage, which is just a ton of fun, and White Collar, which is usually decent and may someday be as good as Leverage if it grows some balls and learns how to better utilize its great cast.

Best of 2009: Comics

2009-12-30T00:00:00.000-06:00

Top 20 Comics of the Year:
1. Chew
2. Incognito/Criminal: The Sinners
3. The Umbrella Academy Dallas
4. BPRD Black Goddess
5. Hellboy The Wild Hunt
6. Beasts of Burden
7. Usagi Yojimbo
8. Incredible Hercules
9. Batman and Robin
10. The Unwritten
11. Sweet Tooth
12. The Muppet Show
13. GI Joe Cobra
14. BPRD 1947
15. The Unknown
16. Nova
17. Guardians of the Galaxy
18. Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye
19. Agents of Atlas
20. Marvel Adventures Spider-Man

Top 20 Graphic Novels of the Year:
1. Parker: The Hunter (IDW)
2. Rocketeer Deluxe Edition (IDW)
3. Bloom County Complete Library Volume 1 (IDW)
4. Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, Volume 1-5 (Viz)
5. Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 1-6 (Viz)
6. Amulet Book 2 (Scholastic)
7. Scott Pilgrim Vol 5 (Oni)
8. Johnny Hiro (Adhouse)
9. Mouse Guard Winter 1152 HC (Archaia)
10. The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack (Dark Horse)
11. Hellboy Library Edition Volume 2-3 HC (Dark Horse)
12. Immortal Iron Fist Omnibus (Marvel)
13. Criminal Deluxe Edition (Marvel)
14. Starman Omnibus Vol 2-3 (DC)
15. Empowered, Vol. 5 (Dark Horse)
16. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (Pantheon)
17. RASL Vol 1: The Drift (Cartoon Books)
18. Pixu: The Mark of Evil (Dark Horse)
19. TMNT Collected Book Vol. 1 (Mirage)
20. Tiny Titans Vol. 1-2 (DC)

Favorite New Comic Of The Year: Chew
At the moment, my "buzz book" is Andy Diggle's run on Daredevil, which at three full issues into its run, is looking like a further evolution of the good work done on the book by Brian Michael Bendis and Ed Brubaker. And while I've lost interest in the past few months, early on this year I was quite into Mike Carey's work on X-Men Legacy. In similar "not new number one but new creative team" books there's Marvel Adventures Spider-Man by Paul Tobin and several different artists, which synthesizes some of the best aspects of the Spectacular Spider-Man TV show, Ultimate Spider-Man and Tobin's own touches to become easily the best Spider-Man book on the shelves. Then there's the new Morrison Batman & Robin, which hasn't been perfect but has been damn good, and the Vertigo resurgence with the two must-read books, The Unwritten and Sweet Tooth. Those two in particular were real front-runners for this category. And Stumptown had a great debut, but with only two issues released in 2009, it's too early to call it the best new book of the year.

But the book with the most novel premise, not to mention providing a consistently excellent read with each issue, is Chew. John Layman's been toiling in the trenches for some time now, turning out quirky gems like Army of Darkness vs. Marvel Zombies and Puffed, but his new creator-owned Image series is far and away the best thing he's written. It's funny and strange on the surface, but there's plenty of world-building, plot detail and character development to go with it's "That is such a strange concept, I've got to read it" hook. And artist Rob Guillory has a fresh look that instantly grabs the eye, not to mention storytelling chops rarely seen in a debut. Together, these two put together the best new comic of the year.

Favorite Ongoing Series: Incredible Hercules
Pretty much everything in the ongoing series category is Marvel, with two exceptions. RASL, by Cartoon Books, is a notable exception. It ranks lowest on my list, however, not because of the quality but because of the frequency. Jeff Smith was putting out biggie-sized issues on a quarterly basis, and I was happy with that, it seemed to be a schedule he could meet. He announced this year that he was going to put out smaller issues, but bimonthly, and I knew that probably wasn't a great idea, and indeed, the flow of issues has pretty much stopped. This is a constant frustration for me as a fan and a retailer, as it makes it really hard to sell indie series, when so many of them disappear or become even more inconsistent in their scheduling, and it hurts the ability of new indies to sell as well. Folks fear getting burned again, and I can't really blame them.

Deep breath. That rant aside, the flipside of that is my other non-Marvel pick for ongoing series, Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai. Consistently on schedule, consistently excellent.

My other favorite series contenders are Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova and Agents of Atlas, and of course my winner, Incredible Hercules. None of them register very high on the Top 100, sadly.

Favorite Mini-Series: Incognito
1. Incognito
2. Criminal: The Sinners
3. The Umbrella Academy Dallas
4. BPRD Black Goddess
5. Hellboy The Wild Hunt
6. Beasts of Burden
7. The Muppet Show
8. GI Joe Cobra
9. BPRD 1947
10. The Unknown
11. Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye
12. New Avengers: Reunion (Marvel)
13. Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter (Marvel)
14. The Incredibles Family Matters (Boom!)
15. War of Kings (Marvel)
16. Atomic Robo Beyond the Shadow of Time (Red 5)

Neglected Blog

2009-12-20T01:40:00.003-06:00

Huh. There are some cobwebs around here, aren't there?

Most of my blogging time has moved over to Facebook and Twitter, and the rest of it? That's gone to my increasingly busy schedule. For example, here's this week:

Sunday - Potluck/gift exchange with friends
Monday - Dinner with family, late showing of Avatar
Tuesday - Lunch with family at Torchy's (?), work
Wednesday - Insanely busy last new comics day of the year
Thursday - Hopefully insanely busy Christmas Eve at the store, then Christmas Eve with the family
Friday - Christmas Day and all that entails
Saturday - Work day, catching up on missing Friday work

And that's just the big stuff, it doesn't count all the smaller stuff. And it seems like every week has been like this for months. So... blogging probably won't get any more frequent here, but I'm going to try to at least have a Best of 2009 post ready for January, I've been working on that one in my copious free time.

Weekly Comics for November 25, 2009

2009-11-26T00:27:00.002-06:00

Didn't get a chance to read everything I wanted to, notably Beasts of Burden, but here's what I did read this week:

Chew #6 (Fantastic start to the new story, surprising and pleasing return of a character I really liked in the first issue, fantastic artwork and great comedic timing as usual - Best new book of the year? Yep.)

Criminal Sinners #2 (Loving the return of Tracy Lawless, and the murder mystery he's investigating is an interesting one)

Incredible Hercules #138 (I need to read the rest of Assault on New Olympus, but I got enough to enjoy this, which was a lot of fun. References to Ocean's 11, Ghostbusters and Harryhausen along with the Avengers battling a corporation made up of Greek gods and titans makes for good times)

Guardians of the Galaxy #20 (I miss some of the characters, but I admire Abnett & Lanning for being unafraid to mess with the status quo, and I love what they're doing with the rift, Knowhere and the Church of Universal Truth. I've always wanted a superhero sci-fi book like this, I just didn't know it.)

Weekly Comics for November 11 & November 18, 2009

2009-11-11T17:15:00.007-06:00

I have been really neglecting this blog of late. Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 absorbed a lot of my free time for November so far.

Daredevil #502 (Damn. Diggle's run so far is fantastic)

Hellboy The Wild Hunt #8 (Great finale, and I'm really enjoying what Mignola and Fegredo are doing with the characters)

Unwritten #7 (Hasn't hit the heights of #5 again, but is a really good read, reminiscent in quality and world-building of what this team did on Lucifer)

Batman and Robin #6 (Not a fan of Tan's artwork, but in general, still really into this book)

S.W.O.R.D. #1 (The art is gonna turn some folks off, but I love it, a perfect fit for Gillen's quirky take on sci-fi in the Marvel Universe. I hope this book sticks around, because I thought the first issue was a blast)

Realm of Kings Imperial Guard #1 (Not a huge fan of these characters, and without the rest of the Realm of Kings cast involved, I find I don't care much about who is running the Shi'ar)

Marvel Adventures Superheroes #17 (A fun relaunch of sorts for the all-ages Avengers)

X-Men Legacy #229 (Emplate = bleh. Acuna's art not my favorite. But I'm still liking this book, mostly due to Carey's take on Rogue. I wish it weren't getting dragged into the orbit of the other X-books, I liked it better when it was out there on its own)

Realm of Kings (Wow, did not expect that. Cthulhu-tinged Avengers vs. Quasar? Surprisingly fun)

Weekly Comics for November 4, 2009

2009-11-05T10:54:00.003-06:00

I missed reading comics last week, so this is sort of a catch-up post with this week's comics as well.

Sweet Tooth #3 (We see the extent of the post-apocalyptic world for the first time. I'm really loving this new Vertigo book)

Nova #31 (The Darkhawk revamp didn't work as well as the Nova one, but I did like seeing him guest-starring, and I love the new status quo for the Worldmind, Nova Corps and it's new drill sergeant)

X-Men vs Agents of Atlas #2 (Fun, although between this and Assault on New Olympus, it felt like there was a lot of reading other comics I wasn't interested in to keep up with Agents of Atlas and Incredible Hercules, which I am)

Superman World of New Krypton #9 (In the immortal words of Willow from Buffy: Bored now.)

Guardians of the Galaxy #19 (Not digging the art, and... did they just kill off a bunch of great characters, or is there a restoration coming?)

Nova #30 (The old Nova's new role is something I like, and I also like the resolution of the Ego story)

Batman Brave and the Bold #10 (Fun little story with the Atom and Batman battling it out, kaiju monster style)

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #55 (I'm an issue behind, but this was another great one, with a fun take on Captain America... Tobin is *killing it* on this book)

Detective Comics #858 (The origin of Batwoman... dark as hell, but well-written. And I loved the more conventional art style used by JH Williams III here, as much as I love his usual style)

Stumptown #1 (This one has been getting a lot of well-deserved praise on the Internet. It might be Rucka's best book since Whiteout or Queen & Country, it's got a lot of influence from Criminal, and I loved it. One of my favorite first issues of the year)

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 10/28/09

2009-10-24T19:01:00.002-05:00

1. Blackest Night #4
2. Green Lantern #47
3. Blackest Night Titans #3
4. Batman #692
5. Star Wars Legacy #41
6. New Avengers #58
7. Detective Comics #858 (tie)
7. Anita Blake LC Executioner #1 (tie)
8. X-Force #20
9. Ultimate Comics Avengers #3
10. Teen Titans #76 (tie)
10. Nova #21 (tie)
10. Guardians Of Galaxy #19 (tie)

Tied for 11th: Incredible Hercules #137 & Worlds Finest #1

Amazing Spider-Man benchmark = Tied for 11th

Not much commentary this time, and it's a week late to boot. I think I'm going to put this on hold for a while... it's not offering up a lot of new information at this point. I might try to figure out some other similar feature, or I might not. I have noticed that Twitter & Facebook has more or less taken over for blogging.

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 10/21/09

2009-10-17T15:41:00.001-05:00

1. Blackest Night Superman #3
2. Stand Soul Survivors #1
3. Justice League Of America #38
4. GI Joe #10
5. Dark Avengers #10 (tie)
5. Dark Wolverine #79
5. X-Men Legacy #228
6. World Of Warcraft #24
7. Mighty Avengers #30 (tie)
7. Amazing Spider-Man #609 (tie)
7. Dark Reign The List Hulk (tie)
8. Thunderbolts #137 (tie)
8. Invincible #67 (tie)
9. Ex Machina #46 (tie)
9. Wolverine Origins #41 (tie)
10. Batman Streets Of Gotham #5 (tie)
10. Invincible Iron Man #19 (tie)
10. Deadpool Merc With A Mouth #4 (tie)
10. Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #46 (tie)
10. Supergirl #46 (tie)
10. Power Girl #6 (tie)

Tied for 11th: Batman Confidential #35, Hellblazer #260, Resurrection Vol. 2 #4, Outsiders #23, Superman Batman #65 and Transformers Tales O/t Fallen #3.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

Benchmarking once again against Amazing Spider-Man, which this week comes out tied with two other titles for #7. It generally sits at around the #7-8 mark, and it's placement a little higher on the chart helps tell me that this is another smaller week for comics, in terms of general interest.

It's also more of a Marvel week than DC this time out, which used to mean a bigger week, but right now, that's not really the case. Dark Reign The List, Dark Avengers, Dark Wolverine and Mighty Avengers are all shipping, and they do respectably well in terms of staying in the top 10, but I know from recent experience that shelf sales for these books is down. While the hardcore Marvel fans are still on-board, the casual DC & Marvel fans are starting to gravitate to buying more DC off the shelf. Or at least, anything DC with Blackest Night on it, as Blackest Night Superman is far and away the top preorder, and probably the top seller, for this week.

Justice League also gets a boost from anticipation for James Robinson's run, as many folks seem to be enjoying Cry For Justice. I'm not one of them, and it's pretty clear Robinson's Justice League isn't gonna be for me, but I'm glad to see the book sliding up on the charts again. I also find it interesting that Supergirl and Power Girl are tied, because it tells me that DC still doesn't know what to do with Supergirl. Because no matter what you think of Power Girl, it's hard to deny that Supergirl is the original, and should be selling better than the Earth-2 version. Maybe DC should have put Palmiotti and Connor on Supergirl regularly, instead of just for the short-run Wednesday Comics?

Weekly Comics for October 14, 2009

2009-10-15T00:29:00.003-05:00

Hellboy The Wild Hunt #7 (Really digging the use of Arthurian myth in conjunction with Hellboy, and the art, as always, is phenomenal)

Incredible Hercules #136 (Possibly the funniest fight scene I've ever read. And quite possibly my favorite book Marvel is publishing right now, at least when Hercules is the lead feature)

Red Robin #5 (Not as good as the previous issue, but a solid outing. Lucius Fox having a daughter weirds me out, even though he's the right age and seems like the kind of guy who would have a family)

Uncanny X-Men #516 (Tired of Magneto reforming. Tired of Magneto, actually. I like the Fraction X-Men, but it really does feel like nobody wants to evolve the X-Men concept like Morrison did, and so it's stuck in speeds that range from terrible nostalgia to pretty decent nostalgia)

The Unwritten #6 (Some weird narrative tricks that left me a bit bored, but the actual story of Tom Taylor in prison was really good)

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 10/14/09

2009-10-10T15:51:00.000-05:00

1. Green Lantern Corps #25
2. Blackest Night Batman #3
3. Uncanny X-Men #516
4. Batman #691
5. Detective Comics Annual #11
5. Red Robin #5
6. Fables #89
7. Deadpool #900
8. Batgirl #3
9. Action Comics #882
9. Enders Game Command School #2
9. Incredible Hercules #136
10. Secret Six #14

Tied for 11th: GI Joe Origins #8, Hellboy Wild Hunt #5 & PS238 #41.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

Amazing Spider-Man didn't come out this week, but if it had, it would be tied for spot #10, an indicator that there a lot of better-selling books this week. There aren't as many ties, so it's not a huge week of best sellers, but when I look at the top 8 and see that six of the nine books in it are either Batman or Blackest Night related, it tells me two things: 1) The momentum in superhero comics is pretty squarely on DC's side right now and 2) It's going to be a pretty good week for sales.

Also? The big Batman revamp that DC has done has paid off huge, and I'm afraid that just like Marvel's decision to return Steve Rogers in 2009, the decision to bring back Bruce Wayne in 2010 without even seeing how the revamp sells is jumping the gun and undercutting themselves. Certainly I'm shocked to see a Batgirl series and Robin series selling this well.

Deadpool and Uncanny X-Men are Marvel's representatives in the top 5 this week, with Incredible Hercules and Ender's Game Command School their other representatives in the top 10. Hercules is a bit of an anomaly, in that we're all huge fans, because it's such a great book. Ender's Game is a licensed book that doesn't sell many shelf copies, and that's fine with me... I sell it to be a good retailer, not because I'm any particular fan of noted homophobic crazy person Orson Scott Card.

I have to admit, I expected a bit of a drop for Fables after the big issue #50 - I know that my own interest has dropped off a bit, and I haven't read it for several issues - but that hasn't happened. Instead, the book remains one of our best sellers, both in single issues and trades. We got behind this book early on and it remains our best-selling trade series, just a tiny bit ahead of The Walking Dead.

Weekly Comics for October 7, 2009

2009-10-07T14:33:00.002-05:00

Batman and Robin #5 (I wasn't expecting to like this once Quitely left, but I liked Morrison's take on Jason Todd, and I like seeing him match wits with the other former Robin, and I like the new Scarlet and the new villain. Good stuff)

Criminal: Sinners #1 (Spectacularly good, among the best first issues of an arc that the book has had, and it's great to see follow-up to the Lawless story. One nitpick: I wish writers would stop drawing so many names from pop culture... I love 30 Rock too, but Scotty "The Collector" Adsit drew me right out of the book)

Daredevil #501 (Diggle is off to a great start. I think he's got Daredevil running some sort of scheme, and things aren't as they appear... if I'm wrong and it's just that he's gone over to the dark side, I don't know if I'll be as happy, but I don't think I'm wrong. And either way, it's great writing and art)

Strange Tales #2 (Pretty great, for the most part. R. Kikuo Johnson's Alicia Masters story, Jhonen Vasquez's MODOK and the Rugg/Maruca Brother Voodoo are particular highlights. On the other hand, I continue to not get the appeal of Tony Millionaire)

Superman World of New Krypton #8 (The Thanagarian/Kryptonian match-up sounded like a great idea, but it's merely so-so. This book is good, but I wish it were consistently great)

Sweet Tooth #2 (Fantastic second issue, Lemire is doing beautiful work and has a setup that is slow and deliberate without being boring or too obtuse. With this and Unwritten, Vertigo monthlies are back on my radar again)

X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas #1 (I kind of enjoyed Jeff Parker's take on the Fraction-era X-Men more than I've been enjoying the Fraction version of late, and I loved seeing them match wits with the Agents of Atlas)

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 10/7/09

2009-10-03T15:56:00.002-05:00

A much smaller week than last week, judging not only by the position of my benchmark book (see below) but the lack of any notable "big seller" books in the top 10.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Buffy The Vampire Slayer #29
2. Batman And Robin #5
3. Angel #26
4. Batman Annual #27
5. Astonishing X-Men #31
6. Deadpool #16
6. Justice League Cry For Justice #4
7. Amazing Spider-Man #608
7. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #3
8. X-Men Vs. Agents Of Atlas #1
9. Witchfinder In The Service Of Angels #4
9. Boys #35
9. Cable #19
9. Dark Reign List Secret Warriors #1
9. Star Wars Invasion #4
9. Superman World Of New Krypton #13
10. Daredevil #501
10. Irredeemable #7
10. Batman Confidential #34

Tied for 11th: Incredibles #1, Jack Of Fables TP, Vengeance Of Moon Knight #2 and Warlord #7.

Once again benchmarking against Amazing Spider-Man, which sits at #7 just like last week, this is another really light week. There are no Blackest Night books, and the biggest books are licensed sellers like Angel and Buffy. Warren Ellis has two long-delayed books, Astonishing X-Men and the fabled final issue of Planetary, but those probably aren't destination books like the last issue of Old Man Logan was, and even Batman and Robin is slipping a little bit with the loss of Frank Quitely. My guess? A lighter-than-usual Wednesday.

I've always known Deadpool was popular, but I'm still surprised at how well that book is selling, both to subscribers and off the shelf, and Justice League Cry For Justice seems to have scratched the Justice League itch a lot of fans were feeling. I wonder how that will transition over with Robinson (and many of the Cry For Justice characters) moving over to the main Justice League book.

Buffy and Angel continue to sit comfortably near the top, but their shelf sales have dropped by at least 75%. These books, once blockbusters in their own right, are selling pretty much to the diehards now.

Weekly Comics for September 30, 2009

2009-10-02T16:00:00.003-05:00

Between new TV starting up again, borrowing Arkham Asylum, a fairly light comic book week and a variety of other stuff, I didn't have any time to read comics last Wednesday, but I've caught a smattering in the last couple days. I need to catch up on my Boom! reading, as they had a couple of books this week I really wanted to read.

GI Joe Cobra Special (Really great coda to the GI Joe Cobra story. I'd love to see an ongoing exploring this grittier battle between GI Joe and Cobra, maybe switching POV between Cobra and GI Joe, from this creative team)

Usagi Yojimbo #123 (A bittersweet, very effective story going back to Usagi's origins and once again playing off Sakai's fondness for down endings with a touch of hope for everyone but Usagi - fantastic issue of the book)

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 9/30/09

2009-09-26T16:14:00.001-05:00

Two Blackest Night tie-ins, including Green Lantern, the second anchor for the series, bodes well for the week. There are also a surprising number of mid-list sellers from DC and Marvel, as evidenced by the fact that counting ties, my top 10 this week has nearly 30 items on it. After doing this for a little over the month, it seems to me that when there are fewer ties and fewer titles, it means there's a larger week, with more legitimate big sellers and less mid-list books.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Green Lantern #46
2. Blackest Night Titans #2 (tie)
2. Thor #603 (tie)
3. Dark Tower The Fall Of Gilead #5
4. Star Wars Legacy #40
5. X-Force #19 (tie)
5. Justice League Of America 80-Page Giant (tie)
5. Knights Of The Dinner Table #154 (tie)
6. Teen Titans #75
7. Amazing Spider-Man #607 (tie)
7. Thunderbolts #136 (tie)
7. Wolverine Weapon X #5 (tie)
7. Gotham City Sirens #4 (tie)
7. Superman #692 (tie)
7. X-Factor #49 (tie)
8. GI Joe Cobra Special #1 (tie)
8. Hulk #15 (tie)
8. Justice Society Of America #31 (tie)
8. Aliens #3 (tie)
9. Jack Of Fables #38 (tie)
9. Marvel Zombies Return #5 (tie)
9. Runaways Volume 3 #14 (tie)
9. Wonder Woman #36 (tie)
10. Astro City Astra Special #1 (tie)
10. Batman Widening Gyre #2 (tie)
10. Punisher Annual #1 (tie)
10. Usagi Yojimbo #123 (tie)
10. X-men Forever #8 (tie)

Tied For 11th: Boys Herogasm #5, New Mutants #5, Secret Warriors #8 & Terry Moores Echo #15.

Wednesday Comics is gone, so for now, I'll be benchmarking numbers against Amazing Spider-Man, which is another relatively consistent weekly book. However, Spider-Man doesn't sell as well as Wednesday Comics did, so it's probably not quite as effective a measurement.

At any rate, last week's Amazing Spider-Man sat at #8, this week it's at #7, which gives the impression of a slightly lighter week than last week. Green Lantern sits comfortably atop the charts, and comfortably ahead of Blackest Night Titans, which has pretty respectable preorders, and both have great shelf sales. Blackest Night is selling, for us, like Civil War did, making it the most successful event for DC or Marvel in the last three years.

Even with JMS leaving, the relaunched Thor continues to do well. Shelf sales have dropped pretty significantly, but it still sells better than Thor ever has for us. The "put them on the shelf" strategy is a great one, judging by the success of Thor and, prior to that, Kevin Smith's Green Arrow and it seems like one DC should have followed with Flash or Hawkman, for instance. If Marvel and DC would occasionally "rest" their characters by putting them away for a year or two and then giving them a high-profile relaunch, I suspect they'd see bigger sales from their big icons. You can't do it with Superman or Spider-Man, obviously, but the second-tier A-listers? Definitely could benefit from such treatment.

As always, licensed books have high preorders, lower shelf sales. Dark Tower, once a huge hit for us, now sells almost entirely to preorders. Star Wars Legacy, on the other hand, has pretty decent shelf sales and sells well enough to match up with higher tier Marvel and DC books, even more than three years in. The further you get down our preorder list, the likelier it is that the majority of those sales come from preorders. That's not always true, for example Batman Widening Gyre sells a lot more copies off the shelf than it does in preorders, and Aliens does quite well over time on the shelf, but in general, everything at the #7 spot and below on this chart doesn't sell a ton to casual customers.

Our anomaly this week is again, due to the GI Joe love in the store, the high ranking of GI Joe Cobra. Most stores also wouldn't find Knights of the Dinner Table in their top 5, but: A) we're a gaming store as well and B) That one only sells one copy over preorders from the shelf. Sometimes zero copies over. So it's high ranking is a bit illusory.

Weekly Comics for September 23, 2009

2009-09-23T17:23:00.004-05:00

28 Days Later #2 (Dug the second issue as much as the first, a good zombie/action thriller for those finding Walking Dead a touch too slow-paced)

Guardians of the Galaxy #18 (A weaker issue, a little silly and disjointed, with art that is not really a fit for the book)

Incredible Hercules #135 (Still mostly wish Cho was in a backup, because the Hercules-Thor story is fantastic, but this was a really solid issue)

Monsters, Inc. #2 (Another fun trip into the Monsters, Inc. universe)

Nova #29 (A lighter story after the long Worldmind/Ego arc, with a cheesy space bounty hunter that makes an interesting foil)

Uncanny X-Men #515 (Really? Mutant island? Again? The San Francisco X-Men was such a great status quo, it's a shame that the tired Dark Reign story blew it all up. This story is all about Cyclops trying to make the best of a bad situation... I can't help but feel that's what Fraction is trying to do that as well. Land's porno-referenced art isn't helping matters)

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 9/23/09

2009-09-19T16:55:00.002-05:00

It's another relatively light week, although there are representatives from both Blackest Night and Dark Reign, as well as the long-awaited conclusion of another late Mark Millar book (Old Man Logan this time), so it's going to be a satisfying book for a lot of folks, I'd guess.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Blackest Night Superman #2 (tie)
1. Uncanny X-Men #515 (tie)
1. Dark Reign List X-Men (tie)
2. New Avengers #57
3. Detective Comics #857 (tie)
3. Anita Blake Laughing Corpse Necromancer #5 (tie)
4. GI Joe #9 (tie)
4. Justice League Of America #37 (tie)
4. Wolverine Old Man Logan Giant-Sized #1 (tie)
5. Wednesday Comics #12
6. Conan The Cimmerian #14 (tie)
6. Guardians Of Galaxy #18 (tie)
6. Nova #29 (tie)
7. Enders Shadow Command School #1 (tie)
7. Incredible Hercules #135 (tie)
8. Amazing Spider-Man #606 (tie)
8. Invincible #66 (tie)
8. Superman Secret Origin #1 (tie)
9. Immortal Weapons #3 (tie)
9. Wolverine Origins #40 (tie)
10. Supergirl #45 (tie)
10. Superman Batman #64 (tie)
10. Marvel Zombies Return #4 (tie)

Tied for 11th: Halo Helljumper #3, Hellblazer #259, Doctor Who Black Death White Life & Power Girl #5.

This is the last week for Wednesday Comics, which means: A) It's the first weekly book we haven't been left with tons of on the shelf - because of the limited run, it never had a chance to lose momentum as fast as 52, Countdown and Trinity did and B) I need to find a new benchmark against which to compare preorders.

But for this week, Wednesday Comics is again the benchmark. Last week it was ranked #8, this week it's #5, which gives the general impression of a lighter week. Blackest Night again tops the preorders, and the majority of the orders for Blackest Night Superman are for All Blackest Night. In fact, the Blackest Night Superman has more than twice as many preorders as Superman, the highest-selling Superman book. We're pulling Superman: Secret Origin #1 for all of those subscribers, and we'll see how many wind up wanting it. Given that it's Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, we're betting it'll be a significant percentage, and that it will do well on the shelf as well.

Dark Reign The List is not really moving the needle. It's doing OK, but it's clear that in terms of momentum, DC's event Blackest Night is doing much better than Marvel's scattered deliberate non-event Dark Reign. I can't help but think that if Dark Reign had been a six-issue miniseries with the premise of "Norman Osborn vs. the now illegal heroes in the Marvel Universe" it would be selling a lot better, and probably pushing the tie-ins better as well. The Dark Reign The List X-Men one-shot this week is being pulled for our Uncanny X-Men subscribers, and I wouldn't be surprised if several of them are put back on the shelf. Uncanny X-Men, however, is holding up nicely in sales... it didn't really gain any readership from the Dark Avengers crossover, but it's a solid seller anyway.

Our anomaly this week is probably that due to overwhelming GI Joe love, that book charts pretty high in our top 5 chart.

Runners is Back!

2009-09-17T04:10:00.000-05:00

This is a press release I got from Sean Wang... before I run it, let me just say that I've been reading RUNNERS online since he began reposting the original story (with commentary on many of the pages), and I couldn't be more excited to see it return. If you haven't checked it out yet, go and do so as soon as possible.

The eagerly-anticipated new story arc of the sci-fi adventure comic RUNNERS starts this September at www.runnersuniverse.com. Sean Wang’s acclaimed action-comedy about alien smugglers continues as a FREE webcomic and follows the first story, RUNNERS: Bad Goods, which has recently been posted online in its entirety.

In the new FULL-COLOR story, RUNNERS: The Big Snow Job, hard times have fallen on Roka Nostaco and the smuggling crew of the Khoruysa Brimia. Tired of scraping by on small-time runs for petty criminals, they take on a big job to get back into the top tier of mob-level work. But high pay comes with high risk, and if the freezing climate of Planet Ciceron doesn't kill them, the hostile native population might. Assuming they don't all kill each other first! Success could put them back on track, but are they in the driver's seat or just pawns in a much bigger double-cross? The new story arc begins September 3, with new pages posting twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays.

As with the first story, Wang will continue to include commentary with the new series online. “When I started posting Bad Goods, I decided to add notes, trivia, and behind-the-scenes info to almost every page as an incentive for readers to check it out even if they had already picked up the graphic novel,” says Wang. “Everyone seems to really love the commentary aspect of the online content, and I really enjoy doing it as well, so the new story arc will also run with plenty of behind-the-scenes info and trivia!”

To celebrate the start of the new story arc, Wang is also offering a special deal on the original issues of the first arc. At www.runnersuniverse.com, readers can pick up a set of all five original issues for just $5 (not including shipping). “While the Bad Goods graphic novel is also still available at its regular price,” explains Wang, “I thought the $5 issue set might be a nice, cheap way for new readers to get the whole first story before jumping into the next one. And while the entire story is available online, I know some people still like to have physical copies to read.”

“Along those lines,” continues Wang, “the second series will be collected into graphic novel format eventually, since I still love print comics myself. But the collection won’t come until after it finishes posting online, so readers should definitely check it out there in the meantime. It’s free, it’s color, it’s alien smugglers in space! Plus commentary! What more could you ask for?”

The complete Runners series can be read online at: www.runnersuniverse.com.

Weekly Comics for September 16, 2009

2009-09-17T01:03:00.002-05:00

Agents of Atlas #11 (A rushed conclusion makes me wish they could have gotten twelve issues, but it's still pretty solid... I'll definitely pick up the Agents of Atlas collections)

Batman and Robin #4 (I miss Frank Quitely... this is OK, but I'm beginning to realize that as much as I love Morrison's take on Superman, I'm not sure I'm in sync with his take on Batman)

Beasts of Burden #1 (One of my favorite comics of the year, with beautiful art by Jill Thompson, a nice story of humor, pathos and the supernatural from Evan Dorkin... expect to see this at the Eisners next year)

Brave and the Bold #27 (A little hokey, and doomed due to: A) no new #1 and B) Straczynski isn't gonna have time to stick around that long, but a good solid single issue story with really nice art. Old school in all the right ways)

Captain America Reborn #3 (We're more than halfway through and I remain pretty convinced that bringing Steve Rogers back is a huge mistake. I really enjoyed the Falcon/Bucky/Thunderbolts stuff, but all the flashbacks to Steve "unstuck in time" bored me)

Dark Reign The List Daredevil (Otherwise known as Daredevil #500.1. Diggle's first run at the book, and damn... it's great. I'm a little troubled at seeing another moral character give up his morals, but DD's been through a lot, and he's always been a little brutal, a little pulp, so I can sort of buy it. And besides, it's a fantastic read)

X-Men Legacy Annual #1 (This book continues to surprise me by making characters I absolutely hate interesting. This time out, it's Generation X villain Emplate. Best X-Men book on the stands by a wide margin)

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 9/16/09

2009-09-12T15:56:00.002-05:00

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 9/10/09

Despite the two big "summer" events (Blackest Night and Dark Reign) just now hitting their stride, it seems like we're out of the big summer week pattern. There aren't a ton of books this week, but there are a lot of books folks seem to be anticipating.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Blackest Night #3
2. Batman And Robin #4
3. Thor Annual #1
4. Angel #25
5. Captain America Reborn #3
6. Dark Avengers #9 (tie)
6. Dark Wolverine #78 (tie)
6. Fables #88 (tie)
7. X-Men Legacy Annual #1
8. Wednesday Comics #11 (tie)
8. World Of Warcraft #23 (tie)
9. Mighty Avengers #29 (tie)
9. Action Comics #881 (tie)
9. Batgirl #2 (tie)
10. Amazing Spider-Man #605 (tie)
10. X-Factor #48 (tie)

And Tied For 11th Place: Agents Of Atlas #11 & Ex Machina #45.

Wednesday Comics has become the benchmark to measure preorders, and by that measure, this week is definitely bigger than last, as Wednesday Comics is at #8 instead of #6. In addition, the numbers of preorders up at the top are significantly higher... Blackest Night is probably our highest preorders of the moment, and Batman and Robin might be #2, amongst everything we sell. Thor and Angel are both high up on the preorders, but their shelf sales have plummeted. Also this week, Thor and X-Men Legacy are annuals, which tend to sell less than the main book. I wouldn't be surprised if some of our regular subscribers to those titles decide to pass on the annuals.

Dark Reign The List Daredevil doesn't chart here, even with Daredevil orders figured in. Despite the long-standing quality of creative teams on Daredevil, it's still a niche book for us, and the Dark Reign List hasn't really gained event status. One could argue that the strong showing of Dark Avengers and Dark Wolverine is an argument for Dark Reign bringing in some interest, but honestly I'm not sure how much the Dark Reign story has to do with the popularity of Wolverine, and you probably could have gotten the same sales results by putting Bendis on a relaunched Thunderbolts based on Warren Ellis's revamp, which is essentially what Dark Avengers is.

No huge sales anomalies this week, I don't think. The World of Warcraft books may do slightly better for us because of our gaming crowd, and X-Factor is in the top 10, which I think is not where you'd guess based on its placement in the Diamond Top 100, but other than that I think the sales are in-line with general trends.

Weekly Comics for September 10, 2009

2009-09-11T11:39:00.005-05:00

BPRD 1947 #3 (Otherwise titled, "How not to fight vampires" - nice creepy scenes in this one)

Hellboy The Wild Hunt #6 (Well, that's a pretty notable revelation about Hellboy's origin... one I like a lot, too. And Fegredo's art continues to amaze)

Incredible Hercules #134 (One of the funniest (and most fun) comics I've read all year, Herc in Asgard is turning out to be one of the best stories this very good book has seen)

The Marvels Project #2 (Should work, but I'm just not feeling the vibe. Think I'm out)

Models, Inc. #1 (Not as fun as I'd hoped, but it's still kind of fun seeing these various model characters together, and it's a different type of comic than the one Marvel usually produces)

Nomad #1 (Giving Rikki Barnes a new spin, this is good solid superhero stuff with very nice artwork)

Red Robin #4 (Seems to be back on track after last issue, and I like that Red Robin is actually making progress in his search)

Superman: World of New Krypton #7 (It's a really good read... not sure it's worth derailing the rest of the Superman books without their main character, but I'm liking this one)

The Unwritten #5 (Wow. A great standalone featuring Rudyard Kipling and Samuel Clemens, a really scary spotlight on the bad guys of the book and a further underscoring that it's much more ambitious than "What If Harry Potter was a real boy?" Loving this book, the best thing Vertigo has produced in years)

War of Kings Who Will Rule (Nice coda to the War of Kings stuff, and it definitely feels like they've handed the entirety of Marvel space over to Abnett and Lanning, which I heartily approve of)

Hold On... It's Gonna Get Bumpier From Here

2009-09-11T02:08:00.003-05:00

I took the Disney/Marvel news in stride. It was a shocker, sure, but as a fan of comics, and a retailer of comics, I truly believed (and still do) that we're more likely to see positive ramifications rather than negative in the direct market, and any changes we do see probably won't roll downhill to us for at least two years.

I would have had the same reaction to Warner Brothers restructuring DC Comics. It's all corporate BS, about where the money goes, and I don't have enough money to invest in a decent HDTV, much less a giant conglomerate that makes dog food, missile guidance chips and comic books. So what do I care where the money's going?

But the announcement that gave me pause, that gave me that "oh shit" reaction everybody else had when they decided that a Disney-fied Marvel was gonna end their MAX line tomorrow and put Mickey Mouse in the Avengers, was the announcement that Paul Levitz was stepping down as President of DC Comics.

Others, notably Kurt Busiek and Brian Hibbs, have covered what exactly Paul Levitz has done for comics in the last three decades or so. Some (some might call them judgmental, sanctimonious assholes, but not me, I'm a diplomatic kinda guy) have taken this as a chance to get the knives out and vent anger at Levitz over perceived failures. Never mind that many of them are not even remotely his failures, and most of the failures Levitz had were being over-cautious, something that our always-on-the-brink-of-collapse industry could probably use a little more of, rather than less.

But the point is this: Paul Levitz is the best friend the direct market had at DC, with only Bob Wayne even remotely in the running. (And hopefully Bob will stay where he is, because Lord knows we're gonna need the advocates with the new status quo).

Disney buying Marvel? Eh. Time Warner restructuring DC to maximize movie/videogame/Slurpee synergy with its comics characters? Whatever. Motion comics? Seriously, have you seen those? They're about as much of a threat to comics as pogs were. The Kindle? Online comics shops? iTunes for comics? All manageable, worth keeping an eye on, but nothing that seems likely to utterly shake the direct market and the way comics are currently delivered.

Paul Levitz no longer at the head of DC?

Well honestly, that just scares the shit out of me.

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 9/10/09

2009-09-05T14:35:00.004-05:00

The date is for Thursday, not Wednesday, due to the Labor Day holiday. Btw, just for the record, the one-day delay that we occasionally get for comics usually winds up costing us a not-insignificant chunk of money. I don't know if this is universal, but it's been true of all three of the shops I've worked at.

This week is technically, in terms of volume and money, a smaller week than last week, but because it features several "big" books like Green Lantern Corps, Dark Reign The List, the finale of the Dark Avengers/Uncanny crossover, Red Robin, Ultimate Avengers and the long-awaited seventh issue of Kick Ass, I expect it will be a better new comics day than last week, even with the Labor Day delay. We shall see.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Green Lantern Corps #40
2. Blackest Night Batman #2
3. Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-men Exodus
4. Red Robin #4
5. Dark Reign List Avengers
6. Wednesday Comics #10
7. Ultimate Comics Avengers #2
8. Thunderbolts #135 (tie)
8. Enders Game Command School #1 (tie)
9. Incredible Hercules #134 (tie)
9. Kick Ass #7 (tie)
9. Marvel Zombies Return #2 (tie)
9. Amazing Spider-Man #604 (tie)
9. Secret Six #13 (tie)
10. Hellboy Wild Hunt #6

And Tied For 11th Place: Adventure Comics #2, BPRD 1947 #3, Superman World of New Krypton #7, Titans #17 & War Of Kings Who Will Rule.

To compare again to last week: The biggest number for last week is the #3 slot this week, and there are a lot more titles below 11th place this week than there were last week.

Also of note, four of the books in the top 10 are boosted by having event tie-ins, whether that event is Blackest Night, Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men crossover or the new Dark Reign The List. Our actual numbers for The List are our Dark Avengers numbers, as we're pulling the Avengers issue of The List for all of those subs. Same characters (Hawkeye/Bullseye), same writer (Bendis) and an important tie-in to the Dark Avengers continuity. Some may put it back, but I'd bet on 90% of the people we pull it for wanting it.

This week, the line between what sells on the shelf and what pre-sells is straighter than usual. The first discrepancy between the number of subscribers and the number of books on order is Wednesday Comics, which sells a large percentage to preorders and has a lot less shelf sales than the others. Everything else in the top 7, I'd guess those will be our top 7 sellers in single issues for the week. I would also guess that the highly anticipated Kick-Ass will be much higher on the sales chart than #9, maybe even in the top five, bumping one of my top 7 preorders down a slot.

If we have a sales anomaly this week, it's probably how well we do with Thunderbolts, which owes to our appreciation for the Warren Ellis relaunch and the work of Andy Diggle. And though it just barely didn't make the chart, we have a lot of preorders for Amulet Volume 2, by Kazu Kibuishi. I know I'm excited to finally get my hands on that one as well.

Weekly Comics for September 2, 2009

2009-09-02T00:20:00.003-05:00

Agents of Atlas #10 (Terrific, maybe the best the book has been since it launched. I'm loving the Terror of the Jade Claw arc)

Batman #690 (I've been enjoying this, but thought this was a weaker issue, and the action scenes were kind of meh)

Chew #4 (Just keeps getting weirder... and I just keep loving it more)

Dead Run #4 (Still great art, nice action, but I'm a little disappointed in the happy ending, which feels tonally inconsistent with the rest of the book)

Incognito #6 (Finishes strong, and though it's not up there with Sleeper for me, it's a great read. I'm really looking forward to the return of Criminal, though)

Sweet Tooth #1 (A fantastic opener, moody and engaging with beautiful art by Lemire. I thought this might be a little weird and off-putting, but instead it's strange in a very compelling way)

Strange Tales #1 (Some funny stuff, some nice art... the Paul Pope story is the standout, but Dash Shaw's "poison soup" gag is what made me laugh the loudest)

Witchfinder #3 (I'm still liking it, but it's more in that Abe Sapien/Lobster Johnson realm, not as must-read as BPRD and Hellboy itself for me)

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 9/2/09

2009-08-28T16:37:00.003-05:00

A much, much smaller week this time out... not much from Marvel or DC's big crossovers (Dark Reign and Blackest Night, respectively) and not many "heavy hitter" books. My favorite new book of the year (Chew) is shipping this week, though.

This doesn't measure sales, just pre-sales, as we see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
2. Batman
3. All Blackest Night
4. Deadpool
5. Justice League Cry For Justice (tie)
5. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (tie)
5. Wednesday Comics (tie)
6. Marvel Zombies Return
7. Agents Of Atlas (tie)
7. Exiles (tie)
7. Immortal Weapons (tie)
7. Northlanders (tie)
8. All BPRD & Hellboy (tie)
8. Boys (tie)
8. Cable (tie)
8. Incognito (tie)
8. Invincible Iron Man (tie)
8. Star Wars Invasion (tie)
8. Supergirl (tie)
9. Batman Confidential (tie)
9. Doctor Who Ongoing (tie)
9. Irredeemable (tie)
9. Resurrection (tie)
10. Chew (tie)
10. DMZ trades (tie)
10. Ghost Riders Heavens On Fire (tie)

And Tied For 11th Place: Army Of Darkness #24, Authority #14, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep #3, Jonah Hex #47 & The Good The Bad & The Ugly #3.

Last week was a much bigger week... in fact, the tie for 11th place numbers last week were the same as the numbers for the number 5 slot this week. And two of the 11th place-holders this week actually have *zero* shelf sales, as they've sold so poorly over the last couple years that we've had to cut them back to subscriber-only and special-order books.

As with last week, the licensed books have higher preorders and lower shelf sales. This wasn't always true of Buffy, but it has become so in the last few months. We sell 50% less of that book now than we did at its outset. However, even after more than two years of sales, the book continues to sell better than any other licensed book we've ever had.

I generally just include the "all" numbers in with the totals, but I thought it'd be interesting to see that this week, the third place number is "anything with Blackest Night in it" (even the final issue of a miniseries not a ton of folks have been following, although in fairness, I expect a fair amount of those to go back to the shelf) rather than any specific comic. Judging by the sales, "Event fatigue" is not as prevalent as many might claim. My theory is that "event fatigue" should more accurately be called "buyer's remorse" as it doesn't really stop folks from buying (and being excited by) the next big event. And in many cases, those who gripe about event comics will also reminisce fondly about Civil War, Final Crisis and other events later on.

No real anomalies for us this week. We sell fairly well on Incognito, Northlanders, Agents of Atlas, which I think of more as "buzz" books, but I believe those are holding up relatively well on the sales charts as well nationwide.

Weekly Comics for August 26, 2009

2009-08-26T17:12:00.002-05:00

28 Days Later #1 (I was not a fan of the movie sequel 28 Weeks Later, but I would have been if it had been more like this comic. The art is terrific, the new characters interesting and it's a good sequel to what happened in the movie.)

Avengers The Initiative #27 (Needs more New Warriors, less D-grade Dazzler bad guys and random invasion of the extradimensional Civil War prison. Remains a very uneven book, occasionally very good but often just mediocre)

Batman and Robin #3 (Undeniably well-executed, but not engaging me on that gut level this issue. It may be the incoming art change already dampening my enthusiasm for the book)

Beta Ray Bill Godhunter #3 (Solid wrap-up to a very impressive miniseries, looking forward to S.W.O.R.D. and Gillen's Thor)

Dead Run #3 (I've got a big fondness for post-apocalyptic stories, and this is a good one. This time out, it's the post-apocalyptic settlement and its bizarre laws, and I liked Cosby's version of this post-apocalyptic trope)

Detective Comics #856 (The art is gorgeous, I like the character and the supporting cast, but I have absolutely no idea what's going on here, and after three issues, I feel like I should)

Guardians of the Galaxy #17 (War of Kings ripples nicely here, as it did in Nova, and allows Abnett and Lanning to set up another interesting story going forward)

Incredible Hercules #133 (I like Cho, but I really missed the Hercules replaces Thor story in this issue - a split story format would probably have been better)

Incredible Hulk #601 (I've sort of tuned out of Skaar and Hulk, but I wanted to see what Pak would do with the character. I like this new de-Hulked Banner, who reminds me of the West Coast Avengers incarnation of Hank Pym, but I honestly couldn't care less about Skaar at this point)

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #54 (Pure joy in Spider-Man form, Tobin has always been doing good stuff on Marvel Adventures but setting up a continuing status quo has raised the book to a new level. Best Spidey on the stands? Quite possibly)

New Mutants #4 (Good God, we're still fighting Legion, one of the most boring characters in the X-Universe. Decent, but my enthusiasm is wavering)

Nova #28 (The resolution of the expansive Nova Corps story is a satisfying evolution of the status quo, the fights are fun and Abnett and Lanning continue to define Marvel's space characters in the most interesting way I've seen)

Underground #2 (Some really tense, claustrophobic action and some of the most believable crime drama I've seen in comics - definitely worth checking out when it hits, this was an advance look)

Unknown #4 (Really strong ending, and I'm glad that we're going to get a sequel to one of the best detective stories I've read this year)

Usagi Yojimbo #122 (A nice self-contained tale of Usagi finding shelter and helping out those who need him. You'd think this kind of thing would get it old, but it never does)

How Can She Be A First Grader Already?

2009-08-25T22:37:00.002-05:00

First day of first grade. And before we know it, Aaron will be getting bigger and going to school too.

Top 10 Preorders at Rogues Gallery 8/26/09

2009-08-22T16:59:00.005-05:00

Not sure if I'll maintain this as a weekly thing or not, but I thought it was interesting to look and see how many subscribers had preordered on various titles, just to gauge relative interest levels.

1. Green Lantern #45
2. Batman And Robin #3
3. Dark Avengers #8
4. Dark Tower The Fall Of Gilead #4
5. Blackest Night Titans #1
6. Star Wars Legacy #23 (tie)
6. New Avengers #56 (tie)
7. Detective Comics #856
8. Dark Wolverine #77 (tie)
8. Anita Blake LC Necromancer #4 (tie)
9. X-Force #18
10. Deadpool #14 (tie)
10. Flash Rebirth #4 (tie)

And Tied For 11th Place: Guardians Of The Galaxy #17, Nova #28, Teen Titans #74 & Wednesday Comics #8.

In general, higher preorders means higher sales, but not always. Licensed books like Anita Blake, Star Wars Legacy and Dark Tower won't sell that much higher than their preorders, at least at this point in their run, although Dark Tower in particular was a sales-off-the-rack monster early on. Green Lantern, Dark Avengers and Blackest Night Titans all benefit from huge interest in their crossovers.

The order numbers on Green Lantern and Batman and Robin are pretty much identical, and will more than likely generate strong shelf sales and eventually reorders.

Guardians and Nova are probably the anomalies for my shop, as I expect they're much lower on the charts than the others here at most stores across the country, judging by the sales charts posted on ICV2 and The Beat.

Weekly Comics for August 19, 2009

2009-08-19T22:47:00.003-05:00

Batgirl #1 (Thrilled with who's behind the cowl. The actual issue is merely OK, it has some clunky writing and art at times, but I'm happy enough with the reveal to keep reading)

Brave and the Bold #26 (Xombi was one of my favorite Milestone books, a Vertigo-esque gem that far too many people missed. I'd love to get some new stories, and this is a good start, with Xombi's creator returning to write him teaming up with the Spectre against a serial killing ghost)

Monsters Inc. #1 (This is written by my good friend Paul Benjamin, but if I didn't like it, I would have just quietly not mentioned it here. Fortunately? I *loved* it. He and Amy Mebberson really capture the vibe of the movie and the status quo at the end, it's a fun done-in-one story and as good a comics sequel to Monsters, Inc. as the Waid-penned Incredibles comic is to The Incredibles)

The Unwritten #3 (Missed this one last week. And it's great. Carey and Gross have reminded me why I loved so much of Vertigo's output up until recently, and I hope that this is a big success.)

X-Men Legacy #227 (Great issue. If you'd told me that the X-Book most like the X-Men that I loved would feature Rogue, Gambit and Whedon's Danger robot, I would have told you you were crazy, but this is just a great X-Book, and a really good single issue of it)

Wednesday Night Linkblogging

2009-08-19T22:18:00.004-05:00

Project Waldo: Nate Simpson liveblogs creating a comic. And it's *gorgeous* (hat tip to Brandon Graham for the link)

Cameron Stewart earns free drinks with an iPhone and some of his art used without permission

Greg Rucka talks with Laura Hudson about Stumptown, one of my most-anticipated series of 2009.

Marvel 70th Anniversary/Cover Meme from Stuart Immonen, via Graeme McMillan - and there goes the rest of my night

Cool? Zombie bar opens in Minneapolis. Cooler? (for me) My sister, brother-in-law and nephews live there. So this is definitely on the menu for a visit at some point.

Don't be a mean GM. Legally, it can have consequences. Like hammer face-beatings, apparently.

Funny... and yet...

2009-08-18T00:14:00.002-05:00

It'd be a lot funnier if I didn't think so many people across the country actually, un-ironically, believe this.

From Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone:

What I Learned On My Summer Vacation

Barack Hussein Obama, natural born Kenyan socialist, usurper of the American presidency and “Trojan Horse of Islam,” possessed of a “deep seated hatred of white people” and with the aid of his media “brownshirts,” is embarking on a Nazi-styled eugenics campaign to grant “death panels” the authority to “pull the plug on grandma” and “redistribute the wealth” otherwise required to sustain her “unproductive” life as “reparations”. Failure to halt his “government takeover” — with assault rifles if necessary — will lead inexorably to future generations having to “wait in line for, I dunno, toilet paper.”

New movie from Richard Kelly

2009-08-16T20:33:00.002-05:00

Try to forget Southland Tales

Is it cynical of me to think that 99% of the time, this movie ends really early? "You'll be given a payment of one million -- wow, you pushed that button fast."

Weekly Comics for August 12, 2009

2009-08-12T20:51:00.003-05:00

Batman #689 (Great use of the new Batmobile, and I'm digging the Two-Face/Penguin turf war and the look at Dick Grayson as a different kind of Batman)

BPRD 1947 #2 (Gorgeous art, creepy settings, great characters... BPRD is great as always)

Days Missing #1 (A compelling little sci-fi thinkpiece by Phil Hester... the lettering is sometimes hard to read, but I like this opening issue quite a bit)

Hellboy The Wild Hunt #5 (Hooray! The hiatus is over, the punching of bad guys commences again and Duncan Fegredo's artwork is magnificent)

House of M: Masters of Evil #1 (In general, I care so little about what happened during House of M, but as long as Christos Gage is writing these, I'll be reading them. This time, we see what happens when the non-mutant bad guys organize)

Incredible Hercules #132 (Hercules joins up with the Asgardians, and it's a ton of fun to read)

The Killer #9 (Beautifully illustrated, hauntingly captivating, this remains a favorite. The life of a professional killer as I've never seen it done before)

Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #4 (Good conclusion to a really fun miniseries, and it looks like there's more coming next year)

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #53 (Paul Tobin relaunches the book, in a way, with a brand new supporting cast member, the addition of Gwen Stacy, a nifty use of an unexpected X-Men character and terrific art by Mateo Lolli... check it out if you're not digging the Amazing stuff, or hell, even if you are)

Marvel Adventures Super-Heroes #14 (Featuring Hawkeye (not Ronin), so I picked it up, and Tobin and David Baldeon don't disappoint. The Hulk robber trick is a neat idea, the Blonde Phantom a good co-star and it reads like a fun issue of Marvel Team-Up)

Red Robin #3 (After really enjoying the first two issues, this one was a bit of a let down, and the artwork looked extremely shaky)

Robotika: For A Few Rubles More #1-2 (Great futurepunk samurai/western fiction with stunning artwork, glad to see this one back on track)

Ultimate Comics Avengers #1 (It's got all the usual flaws of Millar's work, but all the strengths as well, and when that includes great action sequences with Carlos Pacheco art, and it all takes place in the nihilistic Ultimate universe, I can enjoy it quite a bit. The Red Skull twist doesn't bother me either, as I prefer my Ultimate universe different from the mainline, and this is definitely different, and an interesting take on Cap's nemesis)

RIP John Hughes

2009-08-07T01:01:00.001-05:00

John Hughes was a *huge* influence on me as a high schooler. I'm pretty sure he was the first filmmaker I recognized by name. It would be years until I realized how much of a fan I was of James Cameron, John McTiernan, Ridley Scott or even Martin Scorsese. But I knew who John Hughes was after I went and saw Breakfast Club (as part of a double-feature, at a drive-in, along with Beverly Hills Cop) with my older cousin Cindy in California, who was awesome for taking me and my sister to see those movies when we were young teens.

I had seen Sixteen Candles before that, of course, but it was never my favorite of Hughes's movies. It remains the one I've only seen a couple of times, whereas I know Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Planes, Trains and Automobiles by heart.

After Planes, Tranes and Automobiles, Hughes directed She's Having a Baby (pretty terrible, as I recall), Uncle Buck (watchable but forgettable) and Curly Sue (haven't seen, but I hear... not great things). Still, five of the most formative comedies of my youth in four years (1984-1987)? Not bad.

And that's only the stuff he wrote *and* directed. Among the stuff he wrote, we've got Mr. Mom, Vacation, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful. It's true that as time went on, he started doing increasingly worse sequels to Vacation, then birthed the horrible Beethoven and Home Alone series, and his work in the past few years has included Flubber and Maid in Manhattan, so... in all honesty, the odds that he was ever going to make another movie I wanted to see were shockingly low.

But the guy's work was hugely influential on me as a teenager, and a half-dozen of his movies remain some of my absolute favorites.

I took dates to see Ferris Bueller, Some Kind of Wonderful and Pretty in Pink. I barely remember the girls... but I still remember the movies.

Weekly Comics for August 5, 2009

2009-08-05T17:08:00.004-05:00

Agents of Atlas #9 (I've been enjoying the Dark Reign Agents of Atlas, but these last couple issues seem to have kicked into the same gear I enjoyed in the miniseries, and the "Terror of the Jade Claw" has real potential)

Captain America Reborn #2 (It's well-crafted and all, but the "unstuck in time" stuff with Steve Rogers seems a jarring fit with the world Brubaker has created, and I find myself increasingly tuning out of the book)

Chew #3 (Amelia Plintz is another great character with another weird "power" and Chew continues to look like the book to beat for the "Best New Title of 2009")

Superman World of New Krypton #6 (There's a reverse Star Trek rule going on with me and this book... I like the odd-numbered issues, and I'm a little cooler on the even numbered ones)

War of Kings #6 (Another big setup for more cosmic Marvel stuff done very well by Abnett, Lanning and company)

Witchfinder: In The Service of Angels #2 (Like somebody mixed up the best parts of British Victorian adventure and Hellboy... good stuff)

DOOM!

2009-08-04T21:41:00.004-05:00

Is anybody else feeling like maybe the world is in a death spiral of doom and gloom?

In the past few weeks, several of my friends have lost their jobs. Great jobs, jobs that they loved, and jobs that they were great at and worked hard at. Meanwhile, the shitheels who got us into this mess are making huge bonuses and continue to run the government.

I know of several friends who are dealing with the insanity of our current health insurance "system" and yet it seems that actual reform is being tied up by a congress largely bought and paid for by the various health insurance lobbies.

And pretty much every day, someone is posting on the Internet about how the direct market, the industry that *I work in*, is either dead and/or dying.

Combine with all the usual human foibles and bullshit that shows up daily on the news, and I'm even finding it hard to laugh along with The Daily Show and The Colbert Report anymore. These days, it's more like dark humor about how fucked up the whole thing has gotten.

I would like for a lot of really good things to happen to the various people in my life, and a lot of very bad things to happen to the corrupt mother-fuckers who run our country (and the corporations who own them). Just putting that out there for the universe to process.

Sketches from San Diego 2009

2009-08-03T00:56:00.006-05:00

Not too many sketches this year, but the ones I got I'm very happy with. The first three are in Katy's new sketchbook, started at San Diego last year.

Mark and Abby from Love and Capes by Thom Zahler:

Hawkman by Chris Giarrusso:

Bone (and Ted) by Jeff Smith:

This one is the lone addition to the theme sketchbook this year. I'm a big fan of Ullman's work, and I hadn't ever met him, so it was a really pleasant surprise to see him in Artist's Alley. Not only is this a great sketch, I also picked up his hardcover full-color artbook Atom Bomb Bikini, which I highly recommend. You can see more from Rob at his website.

Pirate Girl by Rob Ullman:

And this was the lone addition to my regular sketchbook. I forgot to buy Samnee's sketchbook from him when I got this, and never ran into him at the show again.

Iron Fist by Chris Samnee:

Weekly Comics for July 22 & July 29, 2009

2009-07-28T21:02:00.004-05:00

Aliens #2 (Nice art, interesting characters, I like this version of Aliens so far)

Avengers Initiative #26 (Wow, this was a really cool issue showing not only how the Initiative is transitioning into the Dark Reign era, but doing cool stuff with the New Warriors, Tigra and other characters who have most recently been screwed up in various Marvel issues)

Brave and the Bold #24-25 (Good to see the Milestone characters again, with Matt Wayne doing a great job on Holocaust and Static and Adam Beechen nailing the aggressive Hardware)

Dark Reign Young Avengers #3 (It's taking a while to get to the point, but the journey's pretty enjoyable. Maybe Cornell is the guy to take up the reins of Heinberg's abandoned characters)

Detective Comics #855 (I'm not sure I know what's going on with the cults and hallucinations, but it's beautiful to look at and intriguing to read)

Guardians of the Galaxy #16 (Kind of weak art, but a solid issue that brings the old Guardians and the new Guardians together, has some good cosmic action and some nice time-travel headache-y stuff)

Incredible Hercules #131 (I liked a lot of this underworld story, but I was disappointed by what seemed like illogical, out-of-character behavior for Amadeus Cho in the name of moving him off to the side)

Nova #27 (The Worldmind story dragged on a bit long, but the War of Kings tie-ins have rejuvenated the book, and I love that the Robbie/Richard Rider story has gone in unexpected directions)

San Diego 2009 Day 5

2009-07-27T13:43:00.003-05:00

The final day of San Diego Con 2009 was the longest day of the show for me. I haven't stuck around on Sunday before, and after doing it once, I don't think I'd do it again. Not that there weren't some high points, but in general? Huge pain in the ass.

I woke up late (which in San Diego translates as 8 AM. That sound you hear is the laughter of my friends and family, who know that I usually don't wake up before 11 AM at home - usually after) and decided to get on the Internet for a bit before going down to the convention hall. Packed up my bags, got ready to go, and then checked in on Faceook, Twitter, email, etc. This meant foregoing the Spectacular Spider-Man panel, but I figured I probably wouldn't be able to get into the room anyway.

So I went over to Anthony's Fishette at around 10:15 to grab a lunch of clam chowder, and then headed out to the convention center. I had really intended to see either the Comics & Graphic Novels For All Ages panel or the Kids Write Comics panel, but a variety of things cropped up and I couldn't make the time work. I did, however, get to say hi to Carla and Lance Hoffman, which was something I didn't think I'd get a chance to do, and also got to check in and do some graphic novel recommending with Alan Sepinwall. I'd always rather catch up with Internet friends in person rather than do almost anything else at Comicon, so I don't regret the trade-off.

After that, I picked up my sketch from Chris Giarrusso for Katy's sketchbook, went and got her sketch from Thom Zahler (I would have gotten in trouble if I hadn't gotten it, and it's beautiful, she's going to love it) and then just kind of wandered for a while. Bought Dustin Nguyen's Batman Beyond print and thanked him for helping out when I was a sponsor of Project: Rooftop's Batman contest, then bought Ryan Kelly's X-Women print. I left these prints and my poster tube in my friend Paul Benjamin's room, but hopefully he's bringing it with him to the airport.

Went out to dinner at The Field with Paul Benjamin and Alan Porter, which was a delight, and we helped Paul brainstorm off the gem of his *genius* idea for one of my favorite obscure Marvel characters. It was a lot of fun. Oh, and I got the "Boxty Sampler" at The Field, which was delicious but way too much food. I definitely liked the Rasher and Cheese Boxty best.

The girl next to us, part of a couple, asked where we were from, and when we told her Austin, she said something like "I thought so. You're too nice to be from L.A." We thought that was kind of hilarious, and had lovely chat with her and her boyfriend, and found out they were thinking of moving to Austin. Exchanged some info in case they needed any help with the move.

Oh, also at The Field? Irish folk dancing on the bar to various comic/geek songs, like the Imperial March, with the girls and guy dressed up in comic book/videogame t-shirts. It was a lot of fun, and maybe my favorite meal of the convention.

Of course, as we were getting ready to pay, the power went out. It was kind of dark and the A/C very noticeably had shut down. I felt really bad for the folks working there, but our hard-working waitress got our bill divided amongst our three credit cards manually, and we headed back to the Hyatt.

Or rather, Alan and Paul did, I went to get my luggage so I could leave in in their room, which is how I managed to lose my poster tube.

Short version of the night is that I wound up going out to La Puerta for their half-price drinks night with the Spill crew, Geoff Sebesta and Tom Galloway. Long version? Ask me in person and I'll tell you a little story.

Walked a few miles with Geoff out to his place, long walk but it was a nice night, crashed out on his couch, woke up early (8 AM) and headed to the airport via bus. Figured I'd check my luggage, hang out and write using wi-fi, maybe head back into town to meet up with Paul and grab a meal before we both headed back to the airport.

Except that apparently Southwest only checks baggage two hours before a flight, and my flight wasn't until 2:45. And then some kind of fire somewhere outside or in the terminal caused them to evacuate my portion of the airport. After some hassles, though, I managed to settle into the Yan-Can asian restaurant near a power outlet and fire up the wi-fi, and catch up on various things, including writing this Con report.

It was, overall, a pretty good Con. Got to spend some time with friends I rarely see, made a couple good plans for store events with some creators, met Felicia Day (!), Jim Shooter (!!) and some of the cast of Chuck (!!!), picked up a few sketchbooks and graphic novels (much more restrained this year, though) saw a few good panels and had some good meals.

I also experienced huge frustration with the lines and the crowds and occasional dick behavior, and generally realized that when I'm not reviewing, the Con is a very different experience. It was fun, but it was expensive and a bit of a hassle, and I think that on balance, it's probably time to give it a rest for a year or two. I've been dying to go to Heroes Con, and it really sounds like I missed a great one in 2009. Of course, I've been saying for the past two or three years that I'm going to skip San Diego next year, and I always change my mind, so we'll see what happens.

San Diego 2009 Day 4

2009-07-26T11:53:00.001-05:00

So I went to bed, mildly drunk, at about 3:00 AM the night before. Panel for Chuck, which I desperately wanted to get into, was at 10 AM, so I had set my wake-up call for the demonic early hour of 7:15. I woke up at 6:30, decided there was no point in sleeping in for maybe another 15 minutes if I could get back to sleep at all, and got up to get showered, dressed and on my way before the wake-up call came. A quick danish and tea downstairs and I walked over to the Con.

I got in line for Ballroom 20, and it was not a small line. I figured getting there a little over two hours before the panel would get me in, but you never know when it comes to Comicon. After an hour or so in line reading Toupydoops: The Early Years and Least I Could Do Volume One, my friend Tess came to join me in line. She knows a bunch of the Chuck guys since the show she works on (Ellen) is across the lot, and she had promised to try and introduce me to Zach Levi, Adam Baldwin, etc.

After some nerve-wracking moments where we weren't sure if they'd opened the hall or not, at 9:30 they finally opened the doors and not only did we get in, we got seats about six rows back from the front. Tess was looking around for a show PA or anyone she knew, but she couldn't find them, so we resolved to see if we could rush up after the panel or maybe find the cast at their autograph session later.

The panel was fantastic. Jeffster opened with a live set of "Fat Bottomed Girls," there was a great clip reel to open and a fun skit with Chris Fedak, Josh Schwartz and Zachary Levi, and the whole panel was just a lot of fun. You can get a pretty good sense of it from looking at the tweets of TV critic Daniel Fienberg (@hitfixdaniel) or Mo Ryan (@moryan) or by checking out their recaps of the panel.

After the panel, we rushed up, Tess managed to catch Zach's eye and he seemed very happy to see her, but we were down and they were up and there was no crossing the security. So she headed for the black curtains at the back where friends, family, etc. were going back to see the cast. I followed, figuring security would stop us. They didn't. Act like you know what you're doing, apparently, and you're golden.

So I'm backstage, waiting for the cast and some of the writers of Chuck to pass through. First thing that happens is that Sarah Lancaster and Ryan McPartlin (Ellie and Awesome) come off the stage, and as he comes down, Ryan gives me a big grin and a pat on the shoulder with a "How's it going?" or something similar that was just so perfectly Captain Awesome. Then Chris Fedak came down, and Tess introduced me, and she also introduced me to Zach Levi. I believe all I could manage was "Big fan." She also introduced me to Adam Baldwin, who I already have a huge amount of love for thanks to Firefly. He was as gracious and nice (and tall!) as could be, and even extended a friendly invite to come out and visit the set. It was mostly a conversational thing, and I doubt he'd remember or that I'll be able to take him up on it, but it was definitely appreciated.

After the panel, I grabbed my re-entry pass for Ballroom 20, and Tess and I went down to The Guild signing at the California Browncoats so she could give Felicia Day her card and offer web/post-production assistance. We were waiting in line, and someone came up to tell us about buying prints to get signed, and I asked her if we could just step in and meet Felicia, as Tess was on the Ellen show and wanted to offer help. Turns out the person talking to us was Kim Evey, producer on The Guild, and she pulled us aside so Tess could meet Felicia afterward. Both Felicia and Kim seemed very interested in Tess's offer, and it was pretty much a great morning for both of us.

I knew there was no way I was getting into Hall H for Iron Man 2, so it was back to Ballroom 20 to sit through Futurama and Simpsons so I could catch the screening of the new V. The Futurama panel, made up of Matt Groening, David X. Cohen and several writers, and it was pretty clear this was a last-minute change from the planned "cast and writers" panel. It was a little stilted and awkward, and for a casual Futarama fan like myself, kind of a waste, actually.

I ducked out of the Simpsons panel after getting my re-entry ticket again. Sorry, Simpsons fans, but that show has been on way too long. Grabbed a pretzel dog (not as tasty as I'd hoped, basically just a second-rate version of Einstein's yummy bagel dogs) for lunch, then headed back in for the last twenty minutes or so before the V panel started.

By this point, my three and a half hours of sleep was catching up to me, and when V started out and was disappointing, I decided about 30 minutes in that it was time to bail on the original plan. V is co-executive produced by a writer/producer from Angel and the creator of The 4400, and I'm sad to say it's much more like The 4400. In that it's watchable (especially if you have had more than three hours of sleep), but the dialogue and moment-to-moment writing is bland and predictable. Morena Baccarin, Elizabeth Mitchell and Alan Tudyk are fantastic, but what they were being given to do was... not.

And so, I headed back to the hotel to grab a quick nap. Managed to run into my roommate, Bob Greenberger, and chat with him a bit, which was fortuitous, as our schedules had been keeping us pretty much separate except for when one or both of us was sleeping. Had a quick dinner at Anthony's Fishette of fried shrimp and headed back to the Con, planning to catch the Myth Busters and Watchmen panel.

As a side note, the first part of the day was a great success, but in retrospect, I should have bailed out right after talking with Felicia and Kim and headed back to the hotel. That way I could have seen the "Comics with a sense of history" panel that I *really* wanted to go to, and I probably would have gotten into the Myth Busters line early and actually gotten in.

Yep, when I got back to the convention center, the line for Myth Busters and then Watchmen (same room) had been capped, which was a first for me at Comicon. I've waited in lines and not gotten in, but never been told that I couldn't get into the line. Quite honestly, I prefer finding out before I line up, so this was ideal, except that it meant not getting to see the live Watchmen commentary. (By the way? 2 hours early for the Watchmen panel, which was not enough time to get in. Crowds at San Diego are out of control.)

So I went to my backup plan, the Weeds panel over at the Hilton Bayfront. The Bayfront is a beautiful hotel, and I love their bar and their Indigo ballrooms. If Comicon is smart (and every indication is the folks running it are very smart), they'll do more programming over there next year. Anyway, prior to the Weeds panel was, apparently, the Troma Roast of Lloyd Kaufman. It was surprisingly funny, even though I've never seen a Troma film.

The Weeds panel was fairly low-key, just creator Jenji Kohan and actors Hunter Parrish and Justin Kirk, but it was fun anyway. The moderator was kind of terrible, but once they opened it up to questions, the thing got more lively, and I was surprised and pleased to learn about the existence of "Andy University" shorts on the Showtime website. (Sorry there aren't any links in here, I'm trying to knock this out and get to the Sunday part of the show.)

After that, headed out to the Marriott bar to go to the Spill.com party, which was a lot of fun. Talked TV, comics and the show with a variety of people, including my friend Geoff Sebesta, who I'm staying with tonight, and who had a very cool meeting with author David Gerrold that could turn into something really exciting for him.

From there, it was over to the Hyatt to meet up with Tess, and I spent the rest of the night chatting with her and other folks. I stumbled back home, a little too drunk, about 2:30 AM and went right to bed. Miraculously, there was no hangover in the morning.

Final day of the Con beckons... have to go!

San Diego 2009 Day 3

2009-07-25T04:49:00.002-05:00

Woke up around 8:45, grabbed a shower and a Danish (separately, not together) and headed out to the show.
The first shuttle was full, but the next one showed up less than five minutes later and got me to the convention center a little after 10. The Brave and the Bold panel was packed, and The Guild panel had a huge line, so I headed for the Con floor.

I swung through the small press area and bought a few things, including a sketch and books by Rob Ullman and the Toupydoops Early Years collection.

Stopped by the Dark Horse booth to tell the Star Wars Adventures guys how much I liked their work and lucked out that the Indiana Jones Adventures guys were there as well. I had hoped to catch the Adam Warren signing, but I needed to get over to Jeff Smith's booth to get a signed copy of his new children's book, Little Mouse Gets Ready. I also "had" to buy two T-Shirts and the cool plastic figures of the Bone cousins.

Dropped by the Oni booth to say hi to Chris Samnee and get a quick Iron Fist sketch. Forgot to buy his sketchbook, but that'll have to buy that on Saturday.

After that, it was off to a quick interview for a documentary about Gramt Morrison, and then a break from the Con to grab a "Bourbonzola" burger at the Rock Bottom Brewery.

I headed back to the Convention center for the most frustrating experience so far, trying to get into the damn Joss whedon panels. After waiting for an hour in line and realizing I wasn't getting in, and seeing tweets from folks who had, I was feeling particularly small and annoyed.

I enjoyed the Darwyn Cooke and Wednesday Comics as an alternative to the packed media panels, and got to say hi to Robot 6's JK Parkin, though.

I spent the last couple hours going through Artists Alley and the videogame side of the hall before meeting up with some friends for dinner at a delicious place whose name I've blanked on.

After that, through the miracle of text messaging, I managed to hook up with some friends at the Hilton bar. I talked to my friend Alice, who I haven't seen in years, then joined up with Cyrus and Leon of Spill.com. We made plans to go to a cheaper bar as soon as we could tear Boom! Marketing genius Chip Mosher away from the bar. These plans were quickly abandoned when we found out Chip was talking to Jim Shooter.

Shooter held court for an eager audience, and I basically got to spend three hours hearing comics industry stories fromthe guy who is most responsible for my even reading comics. So that was pretty cool.

Finally, tired and aware that I had to be up in less than 5 hours if I wanted to get into the Chuck panel, I took a mostly empty shuttle back to my hotel.

Note: This report was written while mildly drunk on my IPod, so any typos or weirdness can be blamed on one or both of those factors.