Comics Stuff - Monthly Update for October
This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, listing my Current Favorite Monthly Titles, which is my counterpart to Current Favorite TV series, as well as my five favorite first issues of the month and my ten favorite graphic novel reads of the month.

A couple things of note in how I organize these things, for those who care. These listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. I've narrowed it down to five or ten, beyond that is further narrowing of which one I liked best than I want to do on a monthly basis, at least right now. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. And thirdly, I was pretty strict on the monthly series, in that it has to be a series that is solicited and actually printed monthly (for the most part, at least), and it has to be either ongoing or a long ongoing (at least 30 issues, which means Seven Soldiers just barely qualifies) instead of a limited series. This is primarily why, for example, Young Avengers (irregular schedule), Solo (irregular schedule) and Gravity (limited series) didn't make the list. In each case, I've provided a link for the listing, usually to one of my reviews (for further info on my opinion), but in the case of the monthly books and books I haven't reviewed, I've provided links to official publisher or creator sites or the best source of info I could find relatively easily. Oh, and the numbers in parentheses on the monthly titles is their latest ranking on the Diamond Top 300. Not a good month for my favorite titles. All of them are down somewhere between 6 and 35 spots. Except The Goon, which apparently didn't ship an issue in August (and should thus technically fall off my Top 10 monthly series, but it's my blog, my rules). But the good news is, there's two issues of New Avengers and two issues of House of M at the top! Feh. I hate you, comics market.

Finally, the updates are for the month of September... October just barely started. So all my favorites will be anywhere from a week to a full month old, but these are meant to be sort of "standing" preferences anyway.

Weekly Comics to Come - October 5, 2005:

ALREADY READ:
Conan The God In The Bowl And Other Stories Hc (The second collection of the terrific Busiek/Nord Conan)
Fog Tp (A standalone story that tells a tale of an earlier "invasion of the Fog" from the one being told in the new movie. Writing by Scott "Devil's Footprints" Allie, takes place in post Civil War San Francisco)
Mary Jane Vol 2 Homecoming Digest Tp (The second Mary Jane series, defying low sales, gets a digest collection, and that makes me happy)

HAVEN'T READ:
Aeon Flux #1 (The art on this one looked pretty nice, and I'm always up for a good action/sci-fi comic)
Amazing Fantasy #13 (This series is selling really poorly, a shame since Marvel is introducing some interesting new characters in its pages. I believe this one is the first of "Vegas," a new hero based in Texas. Yeah, it seems counter-intuitive to me too... but still interesting!)
Conan & The Demons Of Khitai #1 (Still wary of writer Akira Yoshida, whose Marvel work has been disappointing, but curious to see a King Conan tale after becoming a fan of Dark Horse's version of the barbarian)
Fantastic Four Iron Man Big In Japan #1 (Looks like fun, with quirky artwork by Seth Fisher and a story by Zeb Wells, who I think, along with Dan Slott, is writing what I want to see out of Marvel's characters)
Fell #2 (Really enjoyed the first issue of this one, looking forward to more)
Gotham Central #36 (The latest, possibly concluding, chapter in the murdered "Robins" story)
Grounded #3 (I'm enjoying this tale of a normal kid at a school full of superheroes. Great artwork)
Marvel Monsters Devil Dinosaur (I've only read a few preview pages in the back of some of Marvel's titles, but there's great talent on these Marvel Monsters specials, and they look like a lot of fun)
Quitter Hc (Harvey Pekar and Dean Haspiel... been waiting to read this one since it was announced, and the pages I saw in San Diego looked fantastic)
Showcase Presents Metamorpho Vol 1 Tp (DC's Showcase line is beautifully designed, and this is the first of their weirder, off-the-beaten path collections. Me, I'm hoping for collections of stuff like Viking Prince and Warlord)
Spellgame #1 (Dan Mishkin's new story of magic in Las Vegas)
True Porn 2 (Really enjoyed the first volume of this anthology, looking forward to reading the second)
True Story Swear To God #15 (The latest chapter in Tom Beland's story of adjusting to life in Puerto Rico)
Usagi Yojimbo #87 (The latest chapter in the "Mother of the Mountains" story, which has been great so far)
V For Vendetta New Edition Hc (I have Watchmen already, so the Absolute Watchmen HC out this week would be kind of silly, but I don't actually own V For Vendetta, so this might be a good time to finally add it to the collection)

I Am Weak - Part Two:
HBO is not the only thing I have been wanting but holding off on for quite some time. In fact, there are probably a number of such things. One of them, I gave in and bought last week.

See, I had an interest in the PSP even when the rumors started. I've only ever had a Gameboy (first generation) in terms of portable consoles, but I enjoyed it when I had it, even if I've never really sought out another one. I don't travel all that much, so I don't really *need* a portable game console, but I wanted one. Especially when I started hearing about and seeing the PSP.

Still, the "don't really need it" factor was winning out. I managed to resist when one of my customers brought his in and showed off how cool the games looked and how sharp the screen was for movies, despite being so small. However, a combination of a bit of money (earmarked for a new laptop that I decided I didn't need) and my friend Tess buying one and showing it off finally broke my will. I'll tell you what the last straw was: She had Burnout: Legends, which is more or less a port of Burnout 3 (one of my absolute favorite PS/2 games) onto the PSP. That was it, and I went and bought one.

Haven't had the chance to use it much yet, but I still love it.

Just in case he's reading my blog:
I was much amused (in a pissed-off sort of way) to read a letter from confessed "anti-homosexuality" conservative Aaron Gore of Middleton, Rhode Island in the latest Young Avengers. Usually folks try to dance around it, saying "I'm not anti-gay, I just don't want it in my comics," but Gore has the... well, let's go ahead and call it balls to come out and admit that he's a bigot, even if he doesn't see anything particularly wrong with it.

What amuses me is that Gore has blinkered himself by saying that "it is not as if Heinberg has made a plain show of support for the lifestyle in the book" and that Gore could view it as a flaw in the characters, rather than a support for the homosexual "lifestyle."

Which amuses me because Heinberg *is* gay, so I suspect that he might come down on the "pro" side of things. And Gore is just doing his best tap-dance to convince himself that he can read the book because it's not saying gays are OK in any way.

I love Young Avengers, but I'm finding the letter column to be as thought-provoking and entertaining as the rest of the book. I especially have to give credit to Heinberg for running letters from the "other side," as it were, without just ridiculing him (he's a better man than I am, clearly), but I was particularly moved by the story of a gay man who helped his nephew recover from an attempted suicide with the help of Young Avengers issues.

Long story short: Read Young Avengers. Not just because it's great, but because it's doing something important in the world of superhero comics.

Metti-Publisher Round 2:
I got *slightly* less of a butt-kicking in round two, but I'm still a big 'ol loser when it comes to fantasy publishing. I was up to #226 from #235, and Augie was still one slot below me, although Nate passed me by and wound up at #219. I'm third in my league, behind Jason James (Ranked #2 across the entire game) and Steve Rolston.

I'm not sure I'm really into this style of fantasy publishing. It's too much based on the numbers, and so if you just nab, say Brian Michael Bendis and Geoff Johns in the early going, since they've got numerous top books, you can pretty much mop the floor with your opponents. I mean, my second round team had the artist on the #1 book, and I was #226, because I didn't have one of the big two or three writers who handle multiple books.

Not saying there's anything wrong with the Metti-Publisher, just not sure it's a game that's for me. I do too much obsessing over the Diamond Top 300 anyway.

Hurricane Season - The Aftermath:
The hurricane weather in Austin included perfectly sunny skies and a mild increase in wind. So... not so much a problem. This was a pretty good indicator, though, of how badly Hurricane Katrina scared everyone. Everyone now knows that with the current government, if there's a natural disaster... you're on your own.

Weekly Comics to Come - September 28, 2005:

Let me just say, this looks like a phenomenal week, especially if you're a fan of small press stuff (Peng, Polly, Long Hot Summer) or OEL manga (Dramacon, I Luv Halloween, Steady Beat)

ALREADY READ:
Action Philosophers #1 2nd Printing (This was a fun surprise, the story of actual philosophers with a tongue-in-cheek narration style, akin to Jay Hosler's work)
Daredevil #77 (Two issues in, and the final story of Bendis and Maleev shows signs of bringing me back onboard the book to come back and pick up the hardcovers I've missed. Good stuff)
Jack Cross #2 (A weaker second issue, but still has its moments, including a great chase/gunfight scene)
New Warriors #4 (Continues to be funny and beautifully illustrated, one of Marvel's best books)
Runaways Vol 4 True Believers Digest (Still hoping for a hardcover ala volume one, but I think I'll pick up the digest just in case, because by the time this story ended, Runaways was back to being one of my favorite books again)
Silent Dragon #3 (Nice art, plenty of action, utterly confusing story. Pretty disappointing, actually)

HAVEN'T READ:
Action Philosophers Self Help For Ugly Loosers (See above re: Action Philosophers. This one should be fun, and worth a read)
Bprd The Black Flame #2 (Haven't read the first one yet, but the previous BPRD miniseries by this creative team was great)
Dramacon Vol 1 (One of the much-hyped OEL manga from Tokyopop, this one by Svetlana... I'll check it out)
Faceless Terry Sharp Story Gn (A spy story from some of the creators of The Black Forest, definitely worth a look)
I Luv Halloween Vol 1 (Keith Giffen's OEL manga which looks bizarre and fun)
Invincible #26 (Can't wait to see the cliffhanger from #25 resolved. Another of my favorite series)
Long Hot Summer Gn (Looking forward to seeing how this tale of mod/scooter romance comes out as well)
Losers #28 (I'm a couple issues behind on The Losers, but still greatly enjoying the book)
Night Mary #2 (First issue of this one was good, had a bit of a Dreamscape/Nightmask quality, for those of you into obscure references)
Peng One Shot (Kickball from the creator of Sharknife... which I really need to get one of these days)
Polly & The Pirates #1 (All ages pirate adventure from the creator of Courtney Crumrin)
Previews Vol Xv #10 (Down the Line coming next week)
Pvp #19 (Another issue of Scott Kurtz making with the ha-ha)
Steady Beat Vol 1 (One of the super-hyped OEL manga, this one has a terrific looking art style and is by an Austin local, so I'll definitely be checking it out)
Young Avengers #7 (Good to see another issue of this already... now we can see if the story gets underway or if it's more setup)

Hurricane Season:
So I'm a little bit freaked out. Turns out that there's a Hurricane headed near Austin.

As with Katrina, I'm late to the ballgame on this one. I only really started hearing about it (and worrying about it) in the last couple of days. My wife went out last night to go grocery shopping and stock us up on water (we've got enough canned goods to eat if the power goes out) and the store was out. So was Wal-Mart. Let me say that again:

Wal-Mart was out of water.

I didn't know Wal-Mart ever ran out of anything.

At any rate, I think folks are panicking a little too hard, and the dire predictions of Mark Carroll (a customer at my comics shop, incidentally) to Warren Ellis sound more than a little bit reactionary to me, but I am a bit worried. At the moment, though, I'm still planning on going to work on Saturday (in the rain, etc.) unless it's a lot worse than I'm guessing it really will be and planning on going to the manager meeting on Sunday. I don't think survivalists, cannibals and rabid dogs will be roaming rain-soaked streets later in the weekend. I think mostly folks are panicking because they saw tangible evidence with Katrina that being prepared is necessary, since the federal government will do dick-all to help on any sort of timely basis.

With any luck, I'll still be blogging, working on reviews and doing other such mundane tasks throughout the weekend, thinking about how everyone was over-reacting. But I'll sure as hell be glad when this weekend and the doomsaying that's preceding it is over, because it's giving me minor fits.

The New Fall Season - Tuesday & Wednesday:
The three of you who read this blog may have noticed that it's not so much daily of late. But it's still a damn sight more frequent than it used to be.

My Name is Earl: If this is the best new comedy of the season, than the season is definitely going to be a touch on the boring side. Not that this is a bad show. In fact, I'll definitely keep watching it. Jason Lee is terrific... the rest of the cast are as well, but Lee steals the show. There were several laugh-out-loud moments for me, most especially Earl's assumption that Carson Daly invented karma. It's just... it seems a bit conventional, especially when compared to the few sitcoms I really enjoy, like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development and Scrubs.

The Office: I know some people hate this American remake on general principles, but I started watching because I like Steve Carell and kept watching because I like the rest of the cast. It's not a great show, but it's a solidly-executed comedy, and definitely the best adaptation of a BBC show attempted by American TV. Not that this is saying too much, given that the competition includes Men Behaving Badly and the reportedly godawful American version of Coupling, which I quite liked in its original BBC form.

Bones: Haven't watched the second episode yet, which should indicate where it falls on my "must see TV" list (hint: It ain't at the top), but the chemistry between Boreanaz (who I really liked in this role, much to my surprise) and Deschanel (who I really like, although if it were her sister Zooey in the role, I'd probably be glued to the TV every Tuesday) is good, the procedural elements solid enough and the writing basically good enough. No competition from other shows in the timeslot, plus free time enough for me to watch it, means I'll keep up, at least for a little while.

Lost: I was not one of those disappointed by the end of season one last year. I loved this show from start to finish, and wasn't really surprised or pissed off that we didn't see what was at the bottom of the hatch on the finale. Especially given that the way what *is* at the bottom was revealed in the opening minutes of this episode, giving me a "huh. That's pretty cool" reaction and leaving plenty of mysteries still to come even while serving up answers. I really missed having Sawyer on the island, and I'm afraid that I still don't care all that much about Shannon, but otherwise the show is humming along nicely. Very solid opener, and I'm back in the "what's gonna happen next?" mode with this show. Which is gonna suck next week, when Veronica Mars takes over it's timeslot in my Tivo. Thank goodness for friends with DVR and a Lost addiction so that I can catch up every Friday.

Invasion: Was really curious to see this, and then stupidly forgot to set the Tivo for it. So I guess I'll catch it when the rerun of the pilot hits a week from Saturday.

The New Fall Season - Monday:
Though Fox already started, and HBO got an early jump with Rome, this week is really when the Fall season starts to kick in. I'll be posting my thoughts on the new and returning shows that I'm watching as the whim strikes me.

Arrested Development: The show does not miss a step in returning for its third season, and it wouldn't surprise me if the third season is better than the second, which was better than the first. The show always makes me laugh out loud, and I'm shocked by how they flirt with broadcast standards, provide smart comedy that rewards continuity-followers but doesn't exclude casual viewers and always seems to get the best out of the guest stars. Easily the best show on television right now, as far as I'm concerned.

Kitchen Confidential: With AD as a lead-in, it's only natural that Kitchen Confidential couldn't be as good. The mixed reviews for the pilot were earned, as there are some definite story hiccups and a contrived ending, but... the cast is exceptionally likable, some of the writing is very sharp, and I definitely got some laughs. I'll keep watching this and hope to catch How I Met Your Mother in reruns. Kind of funny that both Kitchen Confidential and How I Met Your Mother boast castmembers from Buffy, Freaks & Geeks and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. OK, it's funny to me.

Prison Break: We're in the fourth week of Prison Break, and I'm interested enough to keep watching but not really all that involved in it. There's a lot of contrivance going on, along the lines of 24, but the payoff isn't quite as strong in terms of making me want to come back, at least not yet. It's very much in the "I'll watch it because it's worth my time, but if there was competition in the timeslot it'd be gone" category for me.

A Brief Addendum:
I take it back. The best evidence of failed evolution is the group of people who decided that Everybody Loves Raymond is funnier than Arrested Development.

I mean, I knew the Emmys were full of shit, but that pretty much sums it all up right there.

The Daily Show & Evolution:
So I've just finished watching the week of shows in which The Daily Show looks at the debate between "intelligent design" and evolution, and while I realized that this was actually going on, I must say I'm a bit stunned. Seriously, we're still talking about this? Isn't it the 21st century? I've gotten over that we don't have our flying cars, but you're telling me there are still some people, possibly a majority, who DON'T BELIEVE IN FUCKING EVOLUTION?

You know, I get it... the whole faith thing. I do. Believe what you want to believe. Believe that evolution is a process guided by God, that's OK. Believe that God baked you up in the kitchen in Heaven with sugar and spice and everything nice, and that he put cows on the Earth so you could have a juicy T-Bone when you're hungry. But don't teach that unless you've got some scientific evidence and theory to back it up. Is evolution right? I dunno. Nobody does. Kind of the point of the scientific method. But it's a reasonable theory that's been tested.

Really, the best argument for evolution... is the people who don't believe in it! Clearly, some of us still have a ways to go in terms of developing higher cognitive function.

Some may find that insulting, I understand. I just... I don't get it. To me, you're basically pitting a theory in which we've got disease, congenital defects, infant deaths and a random but inevitable end programmed into our bodies as part of the flaws of an immensely complex natural order versus "Here's a nice bearded man who built an ocelet!" Sure, one is simpler... but as anyone who actually lives in the real world knows, life ain't simple. Why should the evolution of life be any different?

My Weekend:
Working weekend this time out. Worked Friday 9-5, worked Saturday 3-10, working tomorrow 9-oh, probably about 1 doing ordering for the month of November. 9 am, I hear you ask, so why are you up posting on your blog at 2 am? Or maybe you aren't. I dunno.

At any rate, the weekend proper is pretty well shot, although I'll at least have the afternoon and evening to spend with Suzanne and Katy. I've been a tad blocked on the writing lately, so I'm holding off on reviews until Thursday, hoping that I'll be able to give the two Xeric books in my review pile the attention they're due. (I've read them both, and liked them both, but that's hardly enough to say if I'm going to give them a decent review). So Sunday is a free day for me, aside from the morning work schedule... which really amounts to little more than taking some of my sleep time, since I tend to get up after noon on days off anyway.

Monday, though... Monday is when Burnout Revenge arrives at my house. And oh, what a glorious time that will be. I can see the cars smashing into one another at breakneck speeds, causing massive explosions of fire and metal, already.

Weekly Comics to Come - September 21:
ALREADY READ:
Birds Of Prey #86 (Interesting issue that sets up the "Birds of Prey" name officially, sets up their new base of operations and features art from Bruce Timm and David Lopez)
Bprd The Dead Tp (Terrific second arc of the BPRD series with gorgeous Guy Davis art and the introduction of the new zombie leader of the BPRD unit)
Hulk Visionaries Peter David Vol 2 Tp (I'd almost consider not buying this, since it's mostly the issues that I have in the old Hulk: Ground Zero TPB, but I'm enough of a format whore to want the entire Peter David Visionaries. At any rate, some of the dialogue and staging can be a bit hokey, but this is more of the beginning of a classic and maybe definitive run on The Hulk)
Seven Soldiers Mister Miracle #1 (Has its moments, and really nice Pasqual Ferry artwork, but the art switch-up for the last three issues and the strange disconnect I get from New Gods being revamped in Morrison-speak make this, to my mind, the weakest of the Seven Soldiers launches thus far)
Sleeper Vol 4 The Long Way Home Tp (The grand (and dark) finale of Brubaker and Phillip's undercover supervillain masterpiece. Glad to have the whole thing collected in trades)

HAVEN'T READ:
Black Forest Vol 2 Castle Of Shadows Gn (The first Black Forest was great, a nice mixture of WWI period setting, Universal monsters and a pulp feel. Looking forward to reading the new one)
Girls #5 (After the revelation at the end of issue #4, I'm dying to see more of this off-beat horror book)
Godland #3 (One of my favorite new books, a nice mixture of Kirby-esque adventure and Casey's sensibilities)
Goon #14 (More Goon is always good)
Green Lantern Corps Recharge #1 (The chaotic nature of Rann/Thanagar War makes me wary of this one, but my enjoyment of the Green Lantern series by Johns has me curious to read it at any rate)
Janes World #21 (More of Paige Braddock's delightful lesbian romance/humor comic strip collected)
Runaways #8 (Part one of this story was great, and I'm looking forward to part two, which promises more revelations about Karolina's alien "friend" and more Miyazawa artwork)
Stray Bullets #39 (Another dose of Lapham's "white trash pulp fiction" is always welcome)
Temporary A Dirt Nap #4 (Damon Hurd and Rick Smith tell another tale of their multiple personality temp Envy St. Claire)

I Miss Summer:
I don't mean the one that's ending now, I mean the summers from about 20 years back when summer meant summer vacation. I look at the vast piles of stuff I need to read, ranging from ever-increasing piles of comp comics to role-playing game books I bought over a year ago to novels I bought over two or three years ago and realize that I'm just never gonna get caught up.

I miss summers, when I didn't have any real adult responsibilities (aside from maybe a part-time job), and I could just sit down and read when I felt like it. I mean, it's not like I have no time now, but usually that time comes when I'm sort of not in that reading headspace, and I'd rather watch some TV or play some videogames or try to dig through my variety of RSS feeds and emails.

Truthfully, it's not my paid work that is interfering with my free time so much as my unpaid work for The Fourth Rail. I'd love to take a little time off, but taking time off means that comics aren't getting reviewed, and the pile of stuff I want to review will keep increasing, and that's just a vicious cycle. With any luck, I can get the comp pile under control again before Christmas, and then maybe take a nice couple weeks to a month off in December or January before diving back in again.

Yeah, I miss Christmas Break too.

So there's a story in the Austin-American Statesman:
The local paper has a story about a drag show getting quietly threatened by the Round Rock Mayor. (That's my take on it, btw, if you're going to talk about it elsewhere, be sure and read the story so you have the whole story). Basically, the implications of homosexuality worry Nyle Maxwell, the Round Rock mayor, who told the business owner (a coffee shop owner who has also hosted Christian band shows) "Sarah, you've got to look out after your business. You've hit a lot of people's radar screens" and "A single event like this will not affect the viability of business downtown or the overall environment or the family-first environment. We have too many strong, conservative values, and this is a single event. There may or not be more. That's up to how Sarah conducts her business."

He closes up with "This is not Sixth Street, Austin, Texas; this is Round Rock, and it's a world of difference."

You know what, Mayor Maxwell? You're right. There is a difference. The comic book store I work at is located in Round Rock... but when someone asks who isn't specifically asking for directions, I tell them it's in Austin. You know why? Because Austin to me symbolizes freedom of expression, strong human rights values and creativity, and Round Rock symbolizes bigoted "Christian" sleazebags like yourself. You don't like drag shows? Don't fucking attend them and don't call out the fire marshal to come look for code violations and then make veiled threats about the business owner not fitting in with your morals.

Something Important:
Rich Johnston's Lying in the Gutters is always must-reading (it's probably my favorite comic-book column, and one that I will drop everything else to read whenever it goes live), but this week's lead story is especially alarming.

While everyone is dancing around about how great it is that the bookstore market is picking up on comics and manga is booming, Diamond is teaming up with reader apathy and retailer difficulty and publisher talent-raiding to help stomp out the flames of the small press. There's so much great work out there that's being read by about 1% of the comics reading audience, and the decision to enforce a sharper sales cutoff on an already-struggling group seems to be an acknowledgement by what is essentially the monopoly of getting comics to the average reader that up-and-coming creators and a healthy small press is irrelevant to their view of the medium.

Diamond gets a lot of unfair flak in doing what is a tremendously difficult job. But they also get a lot of completely fair flak about favoring the larger publishers, and this is a particularly good example of this kind of thing.

Upcoming on Fourth Rail:
Just a quick post to let readers know what's coming up from me on Fourth Rail for the rest of this month. I think I've decided that this will be a "theme" month for Snap Judgments. Of course, I sort of already blew that by going non-themed in the first week, but oh, well. At any rate, this week will be a mini-comics review piece, with possibly a couple graphic novels and *maybe* (outside chance) Snapshot reviews as well.

Then, over the course of the next two-three weeks, I'll hit a handful of themed reviews I've been thinking about:

*Conan piece (Looking at Dark Horse's first Conan TPB, the last five self-contained story issues of Conan, three of the recent Chronicles of Conan trades (5-7) and the first issue of Dynamite Entertainment's Red Sonja, which is definitely trying to evoke a Conan feel)

*Xeric piece (A little mini-column about the Xeric Grant and why it's a cool thing, as well as reviews of 2005 award winners recently sent to me like Thread #1 and Blackmane, as well as reviews of past winners that I happen to have on hand.

*Active Images (A link to past reviews of Richard Starkings's Active Image Gold line, as well as reviews of the slate of new releases from San Diego, including Ballast, Solstice, The Fly Chronicles, Gunpowder Girl & Outlaw Squaw and more)

*Complete Series (I have in my head to do a complete miniseries review of Children of the Grave #1-4 and a review of the past 3-4 issues of Johnny Raygun at some point)

Most likely, somewhere in this time there will be a release week that makes me want to review some more of the recent release stuff, and I'll do at least Snapshots on some of these weeks as well. But that's a pretty good indication of the reviews I'll probably be doing over the next month or so.

Podcasting - Help!:
Dave and I did the first sound test for the podcast, and... it did not go well. Truthfully, I didn't expect it was going to be that easy. Basically, I was hoping to be able to get it all done with Audacity and a $10 mic that I bought at Circuit City. But the mic has noise reduction and needs to be right next to the podcaster, and Dave and I were hoping for more of a back and forth thing, and Audacity seems to only accept one input.

So... anyone out there got any advice? I'm hoping to stay under $100 in terms of investment, and ideally less than $20-30 would be great. My next thought is to get a headphone USB set for one of us so that we each have our own mic, but then I need a software program that accepts two mic inputs simultanteously. I have no idea where to go here, and while I'm sure I'll be Google searching, the sheer amount of information out there means it may take me a while to get into it.

So if anybody out there is doing a multi-person podcast and not using professional recording equipment or something similar and can tell me what they're using and where to procure it, I would be very appreciative and certain to give you a shout-out in the first podcast at the very least.

More Recent TV:
Well, last night I finally watched the first couple episodes of Rome, and I have to say, I like it. It's not as strong as Deadwood, but it is comparable, evoking a period well but having a modern sensibility and lacing the story with plenty of sex and bad language to make it palatable to a more casual audience. I'm particularly interested in the political machinations, and I love the raucous version of the Roman senate. In addition, Titus Pollus is a *great* character, and I really like the actor who plays him so far.

Even better, while watching the promos that ran after the show, I discovered that Curb Your Enthusiasm's new season and Ricky Gervais's new show Extras both premiere in two weeks. If they conflict with Family Guy's time slot, that might be the last time I watch Family Guy for a while.

Recent TV:
What the hell, it's been a while since I've talked much about TV (except for about getting HBO). So, some thoughts on what I've been watching lately while waiting for the Fall season to start...

Rescue Me Season Two: There was a point about midway through where I realized I hated most of the main characters, but I can't deny that overall, Season Two of Rescue Me was better than the first, which I generally liked. The circumstances of the stories and some of the character arcs are hilariously over-the-top, and I'm starting to get worn down by the variety and depth of tragedy that gets put upon Tommy Gavin's character, but I can't deny that when I watch an episode, I pretty much immediately want to watch the next one to see what happens next. Of course, I've been waiting about three weeks between viewings, so I can do just that, which is an indication that it's not as much of a "must see" for me as a lot of the other shows I watch. Not as strong as The Job (the first collaboration between Leary & Tolan) or The Shield (F/X's other big drama), but very watchable.

Battlestar Galactica Season Two: This remains one of those pleasant surprises. I never thought a revamp of a cheesy '70s sci-fi show would result in some of the best starfaring science-fiction ever on TV (just behind Firefly in my estimation, and miles better than Babylon 5, which was at one time a favorite of mine in this category). Great cast, imaginative plotting and some really good plot twists have made this season very entertaining. I also really love that the executive producer is doing podcast commentaries on almost every episode, which are some of the best audio commentaries I've ever heard (and I've listened to quite a few). Must-watch TV if you're even remotely a sci-fi fan.

Weeds Season One: Took me a couple episodes to warm up to it, but I've gotten to that "must watch now" mode with Weeds as well. Some of the characters are beyond unlikable into outright despicable (Elizabeth Perkins' character in particular), but even her character has a sympathetic twist at the end of episode four, and Mary Louise Parker is amazing. She's definitely in the top five list of sexy women on TV, and not sexy just because she's hot but because she's so damn smart, funny and charismatic. Oh, and Kevin Nealon is hilarious in his supporting role. Fun stuff with some thought-provoking elements and a quirky tone, not unlike Showtime's Dead Like Me (which they cancelled, boo).

Entourage Season Two: I liked the first season when I rented the DVDs. I *loved* the second season so much that I bought the first season on DVD and ordered HBO largely on the strength of Entourage. Funny, great characters, nice use of cameos and there were some interesting plot twists this season as well. I can't wait for season three, and it's a ways off, given that season two just ended last week.

I've just started on Deadwood Season Two, and I like what I see (again, a step up from an already-impressive season one, which is a trend I like) and I haven't watched Rome yet, but it's on my "to do" list. Of course, I also just got Lost on DVD and can't wait to catch up on the extras and commentaries on that one.

Weekly Comics to Come - September 14:

ALREADY READ:
Action Comics #831 (The fight between Black Adam and Superman is good, but the Bizarro/Zoom race, a take-off on the classic Superman/Flash pairings of the past, is pure gold in Simone's hands)
Desolation Jones #3 (A bizarre collection of Ellis's fascination with violence, technology and porn, but somehow it works. JH Williams's gorgeous art probably helps)
Fables #41 (Quite possibly the best issue of the series ever, a great wrap-up to the excellent "Homelands" story)

HAVEN'T READ:
All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #2 (The first issue was disappointing to say the least, and may have killed my interest in the series entirely, unless the second issue is just miles better)
Ferro City #2 ("Robot noir," a nice blend of sci-fi and detective pulp with beautiful graytoned art)
Full Moon Fever GN (Werewolves... on the moon! Sounds like fun from AIT/Planet Lar)
Gravity #4 (Tied with New Warriors for my favorite Marvel miniseries currently running)
Thor Blood Oath #1 (Not a huge Thor fan, but I'll give this a look if only for Scott Kolins's artwork)
Hunger #4 (The unusual zombie in the bayou comic continues. I do wonder how the disaster in New Orleans is going to affect this comic, if at all)
Of Bitter Souls #2 (Same with this one, which made great use of the New Orleans setting in its first issue. Good superhero/mystical blend with art by Norm Breyfogle, a favorite artist of mine from the '90s)
PS238 Vol 2 TPB (I haven't read all of the issues in this collection of Aaron Williams's superhero elementary school comic, but every issue I've read has been good)
Punisher Max Vol 1 HC (Haven't read all the issues in this, either, but what I have read of the Punisher Max series, I've liked. I might pick this up, if only because I'm not getting anything else this week)
Stronghold #1 (New Phil Hester-penned series! That's all I need to know, and anyone who has read Deep Sleeper or The Coffin knows why)

I Bitch A Lot:
...about all the stuff I love that doesn't sell, so it seems only fair to point out when something I love *does*, too. Maybe all these folks jazzed for the bookstore market and what it means for indies are not being pollyanna (as I had begun to suspect) but are actually onto something. Because Tricked, the long-awaited (and worth the wait) follow-up to Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson, has sold 10,000 copies.

Aw hell yeah. This also gets me thinking... maybe working comics retail is the wrong place for me, and I need to start looking into working at an honest-to-God bookseller where the indy-minded folks seem to mostly be shopping these days. Except that starting at the bottom at yet another retail job, especially one that is largely focused on "not comics," seems like a suicide-inducing endeavor.

Right the fuck on:
Found this linked off of Peter David's blog. Be warned, Bush supporters (surely there can't be any of those reading my blog, right?), it's extremely critical of Bush's behavior in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

And despite my unease that the left might take this situation and misuse it as a political football, this is pretty much *exactly* how I feel. I don't really care to point fingers and say "why couldn't you have done this and that?" because that's the job of a government committee (one that will probably never be appointed or will be widely ignored like the 9/11 Commission), but I really would like to know just how anyone remotely human can act the way that Bush (G.W. and Barbara both) could in the wake of this disaster.

The nagging reality that if something like this happened to me and my family, the government as it stands would do *nothing* to help us and then have the balls to make light of the situation is just about as fucked-up a thought as I like to entertain right now.

I Am Weak:
No, this has nothing to do with my having missed posting yesterday. That would be "I am forgetful," as it was 3 AM and I was in bed when I realized "Oh yeah, I was gonna post something to the blog!" But all you guys missed were my thoughts on the correlation between indy movie guys going big budget (as discussed in this week's Entertainment Weekly) and the same phenomenon in comics... I'll probably cover it later.

No, today's post is about why I now have HBO. See, I've been wanting HBO for a while, since some of my favorite shows are Entourage, Deadwood and Curb Your Enthusiasm. But I only watch these shows on DVD. I have so much stuff to watch on the Tivo, though, and plenty of other options via Netflix and my own not-small DVD library, that I always managed to talk myself out of spending the extra money for HBO. With Entourage Season Two concluded and Deadwood Season Two concluded and Rome just barely tickling my interest, I figured I was safe for a while.

So, when I got a postcard from my cable company informing me that I could get HBO for half-price for 6 months... I resisted. Oh, sure, I kept the card for two days and even looked up the prices, but I managed to resist. I figured I was safe. Then I got one of those phone calls today from the cable company, the ones that make it sound like you're all set up and you just need to say OK? Same offer, HBO for half price, and while I usually turn down telemarketing flat on general principles, I couldn't resist another lure and I said yes.

So now I have HBO. Or I will in two days. And I told my wife it'd probably be something I'd keep for the 6 month half-price deal and then get rid of. I mean, all my shows are in reruns, right? So it'll be nice, but I'll realize I don't want it. Then I realized... about 6 months or so is probably about when the new seasons of Entourage, Deadwood, Curb, hell, maybe even more Ali G show will start. And so I am doomed, and will probably have HBO for some time now.

It's not TV... it's $12 more a month for cable. But only $6 a month for the next six months.

A glimpse of a bright side:
It's 3:30 AM, I'm exhausted and I can't sleep. That's not unusual in the past few days. It's not that I'm obsessed with the New Orleans situation - tonight I distracted myself with a viewing of Harold & Kumar, the Dawn of the Dead remake and the last three episodes of Rescue Me - it's that it's never far from my mind.

There's really nothing that can make me feel better about the bureaucratic clusterfuck hindering those who want to help in New Orleans. Or the bizarre, unreal "Thunderdome" style stories coming out of New Orleans, which are shocking because it's the kind of thing I never thought I'd hear about in America in my lifetime. But in looking at CNN.com (full disclosure time: I was looking for something to indicate how low Bush's approval rating is right now, to cheer me up so I can get to bed) I found a story that gave me a little bit of cheer.

The French Quarter is still standing. It seems stupid, I know, to focus on trivialities like this when the cost in human lives and property damage is so high, but seeing the sentence "Cafe du Monde, the home of sugar-dusted beignets -- puffy, rectangular doughnuts -- is still there" brought a few tears of joy to my eyes. See, Cafe Du Monde was a place I visited every time I was in New Orleans, it was a focal point for the city I remembered, and if it's still there, if the Quarter is relatively dry, then I can believe (as I haven't in the past few days) that New Orleans will rise again. It'll have scars, it'll be damaged by the events of the Hurricane and after, but it will exist again, and it won't have lost all of its history to an attack by nature most likely fueled by those who refused to believe that environmental damage was anything but a liberal fable.

New Orleans will be back. It will be changed, it has been hurt, but it hasn't been destroyed. And you can bet your ass that I'll be making a return trip to the city.

That actually took longer than I expected:
Warren Ellis noted that a conservative Christian group is suggesting that New Orleans was "punished by God" for its "public celebration of sin." Story HERE.

The balls it takes for anyone to get up and start *blaming* some group for bringing the Hurricane down on themselves aside, this is why I have no use for organized religion these days. If you are religious, you owe everyone an apology for scumfucks like these. There needs to be an organized religious group that gets out there and denounces these idiots every time they say something like this or, say, "let's assassinate the leader of Venezuela" or "Dear God, please kill off a judge for us" (Btw, God's apparently listening, Rehnquist died today). Because right now, I have no use for religion whatsoever, except of course for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism.

More on Podcasts:
I'm trying not to keep writing so much and dwelling on Katrina and New Orleans unless I can come up with something helpful. While I love seeing The Bush Administration take a beating for their failures, I feel like some folks are taking this opportunity to take political potshots beyond the scope of just calling the administration out for their legitimate failures, and that's really no better than the name-calling and bullshit that goes on regularly on the right wing, so I want no part in it. I'm pissed at Bush and cronies for pissing away so many lives and so much money on Iraq that we have less money and manpower to help out quickly and efficiently in New Orleans, but some folks are sounding like conspiracy theorists, that the rich are deliberately trying to kill the poor left behind in New Orleans with a program of incompetence and apathy. Maybe I'm just being naive, but my philosophy tend to be not to ascribe to evil motives that are more likely just human stupidity and incompetence. I've seen a lot of those two things, but true evil is something you don't see as often.

Well, that's a lot of text on New Orleans for a post that's not about New Orleans. At any rate, what I was going to say before I derailed myself with my attempted disclaimer was that I continue to explore what's out there in podcasts. I feel like I've barely dipped my toe in the waters, but I'll keep looking. So far what I'm really enjoying are the Battlestar Galactica podcasts from Ronald D. Moore (and David Eick, of late), the Ebert/Roeper review podcasts (even though I often disagree with both of them), I Read Comics (Lene Taylor's excellent and esoteric comics podcast) and Neil Gorman's Comicology (no relation to the short-lived but excellent magazine.) I tried Comicsgeekspeak, but the damn thing is like an hour and a half long, and I just don't have the patience for it. About 30 minutes is as long as I want to listen to a given podcast, it seems.

I'm sure there are good podcasts out there that I'm missing, but I'll keep exploring them until I find more that I like. Honestly, there's only so much time I have to listen to them, whether in the car or at my computer, so I don't need a lot of them. But there's some great work being done in the... medium? Is podcasting a medium? Or a delivery system for the audio medium?

Weekly Comics to Come - September 7:
ALREADY READ:
Ex Machina Vol 2 Tag Tp (The second arc of Ex Machina finally collected in trade. Hooray!)
Fell #1 (I've only seen the black and white version, but this Ellis/Templesmith collaboration is actually pretty fun, especially for those who liked Transmetropolitan)
Gotham Central #35 (Digging the "who killed Robins" story, although I suspect I'll like it even more when I can read it all at once)
Y The Last Man #37 (Jumping-on point that promises to spend some time in Australia and maybe finally reunite Yorick and Beth. Great as always)

HAVEN'T READ:
Bad Ideas TPB (Missed this the first go-round, but now that I've become a big fan of Crosland's art, I need to check it out)
Bakers #1 (More Bakers is always a good thing, as Kyle Baker's cartoons about his family are always fun)
Chronicles Of Conan Vol 8 Tower Of Blood & Other Stories Tp (Wow, am I behind on these. I think the last one I read was volume four)
Dracula Vs King Arthur #2 (Curious to see what direction this goes in, as I enjoyed the first issue)
Ghost Rider #1 (I'll give this a look, if only because Ennis is usually entertaining and Crain's art looks nice)
Pvp #18 (Not much new to say about PVP except that it's always funny)
Rex Mundi #14 (New artist Jim DiBartolo (the one who did my Captain Boomerang sketch) starts on this issue)
Sea Of Red #4 (I keep hoping this'll take on more of the tone of issue one and less of the "Hollywood vampire" story in the last two. Either way, art is terrific)
Serenity #3 (Looking forward to seeing the end of this story, and glad to realize that the release of the movie is less than a month away)
Seven Soldiers Guardian #4 (Another Seven Soldiers mini concludes, and I go back to the long wait for more Cameron Stewart art)
Sgt Rocks Combat Tales Vol 1 Tp (Digest sized full color reprint of Sgt. Rock tales, definitely worth a look, especially in a somewhat anemic week like this one)
Smoke And Mirrors #1 (New superhero title from Speakeasy, looked intriguing in the solicits)
Vaistron #1 (New sci-fi book from Slave Labor. Looked and read great in the short preview I saw on their website)
Villains United #5 (The only Infinite Crisis tie-in book I'm actually enjoying. Hell, it's one of about a half-dozen DC Universe titles I'm enjoying)

IN MY READING PILE:
Noble Causes #13 (This is the start of a "new season" for Noble Causes)
Runes Of Ragnan #1 (Viking fantasy story with nice looking art)
Shocking Gun Tales #1 (Anthology that looked pretty solid when I skimmed it, need to give it a read)
Vampirella Revelations #0 (Not much of a Vampirella fan, but there are some interesting names attached and they sent me a review copy, so I'll at least give it a look)

Note to Self - Check out War of the Worlds:
I keep forgetting that Dark Horse is serializing a webcomic adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds by the amazing team of Scarlet Traces (a post-WoTW story), Ian Edginton and D'Israeli. This is my reminder to check it out, as well as a pointer to fans who might also be interested.

Comics Stuff - Monthly Update for September:
This is the first monthly update to the left column of the blog, listing my Current Favorite Monthly Titles, which is my counterpart to Current Favorite TV series, as well as my five favorite first issues of the month and my ten favorite graphic novel reads of the month.

I was going to try a new feature where I'd do a monthly brief rundown of my thoughts on the top 10 in the Diamond 300, but then I realized that in July, I had actually read only one of the Top 10 books (All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder #1, which I found to be exceedingly mediocre) and at best skim-read the rest. So it was actually even more depressing than I thought it would be. Seriously, you had to go at least to 11 before you found a title I liked (Villains United #4) and all the way to #49 to find one I loved (Serenity #1), and #65 to find one on my top 10 monthly titles list (Seven Soldiers: Guardian). I have decided to go ahead and put the ranking of my Top Ten Favorite Monthly Books of the moment as they ranked on the July sales charts. Why would I do something so obviously ego-stomping? Hey, it keeps me humble. Relatively speaking. Also, there is that faint hope that some people will realize that even with the buzz, some of these books are still struggling, and maybe they'll throw some of those fat Infinite Crisis/House of M dollars the way of these smaller books.

A couple things of note in how I organize these things, for those who care. These listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. I've narrowed it down to five or ten, beyond that is further narrowing of which one I liked best than I want to do on a monthly basis, at least right now. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. And thirdly, I was pretty strict on the monthly series, in that it has to be a series that is solicited and actually printed monthly (for the most part, at least), and it has to be either ongoing or a long ongoing (at least 30 issues, which means Seven Soldiers just barely qualifies) instead of a limited series. This is why, for example, Banana Sundays (limited series), True Story Swear to God (bimonthly) and New Warriors (limited series) didn't make the list. In each case, I've provided a link for the listing, usually to one of my reviews (for further info on my opinion), but in the case of the monthly books and books I haven't reviewed, I've provided links to official publisher or creator sites or the best source of info I could find relatively easily.

Finally, the updates are for the month of August... September just barely started. So all my favorites will be anywhere from a week to a full month old, but these are meant to be sort of "standing" preferences anyway.

More New Orleans - this time with profanity!:
Truthfully, I feel just remarkably fucking stupid posting about anything but Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans right now. I hate to be so crass as to draw the comparison, but I think I'm actually more shell-shocked by this than I was by 9/11. When 9/11 hit, there was anger to aim at the terrorists who had perpetrated the act, but with Katrina, all I've got is sadness and disbelief and bewilderment.

I can be angry at the idiots who made the now infamous "finding/looting" distinction between black and white people trying to survive in New Orleans (Update: My wife informs me that this isn't a cut-and-dried racism thing as many are assuming... apparently, the "found" food was in fact floating on by down the river, so there is an actual distinction... it really was found! Just unfortunate that the photos chosen were white people who found floating food and black (or perhaps Hispanic, as I'm now hearing) people taking food out of a grocery store, which could be called looting, even if it's completely understandable in context). I can be angry at the fuckholes who would carjack a fucking rescue vehicle or take potshots at a rescue helicopter with their guns. I can be angry at our government for taking federal preparation money that could have alleviated the situation a little and putting it towards our sinkhole of cash and human lives in Iraq, or for the President's reprehensible conduct in not doing more for the people still in the area... But it's not the same, and I'm mostly just left with this nonspecific depression and sadness that comes and goes and leaves me in a rotten fucking mood pretty much continually.

But... I can't. I just can't focus only on what's going on there, because it's not healthy for me and it's not doing any good for anyone there or anyone who has gotten out. I donated what I could afford to the Red Cross, I'll do more if I can figure out what, and I'm trying to maintain a semblance of normalcy because it just doesn't do me any good to focus entirely on something so completely out of my control.

And so... I continue to post non-Katrina/New Orleans thoughts on the blog. I continue to try and work on comic reviews. Move along... the next post is about comics.

New Orleans:
I'm honestly feeling sort of emotionally numb in regards to the New Orleans hurricane. It hasn't affected me personally (I was happy to learn that my friends and their family got out and are staying with friends in Houston), but just seeing the devastation and hearing about what's going on out there... it's just hard to comprehend.

Which isn't to say that I'm wandering about depressed or lost, or that I can't think about anything else, but what's going on there is sort of always in the back of my thoughts. I've made my donation to the Red Cross, and would definitely suggest that anyone who can manage it do the same. They're set up for credit card donations on the Internet, so it's remarkably easy and painless if you can spare the money. Newsarama has an article on the many ways that folks can help out.

IHOP:
Just a warning... this is a lame post, made mostly to keep the "daily" thing going.

International House of Pancakes is, oddly enough, one of my favorite restaurants. Depending on the criteria you use. I mean, I don't go there for special occasions, I don't head there when I'm hungry for dinner and haven't got anything prepared. But I probably go there once every couple weeks, because it is the ideal late night place to eat. For somewhere between $11-12 (including tip), I get eggs, hash browns, some kind of meat (sometimes one kind, sometimes three) and some kind of dessert-y breakfast item (I'm partial to the stuffed french toast, although the funnel cakes and just plain pancakes are good too). It's a great meal to have after pulling comics until midnight on Tuesdays, which is when I usually venture down there with my co-worker Dave.

That's it... just a little appreciation for the wonder of late-night IHOP.

If You're in New York:
Or if you're going to be on Sept. 9-10, you might check out Semi-Permanent05 NYC (www.semipermanent.com). It's a two-day design conference where 12 speakers, representing the tops of their fields, gather to present their work and their views on design. This year, in addition to architects and graphic designers, the organizers have invited comic-book artist (and artistic genius, btw) Paul Pope to be one of the speakers. So, if you're a Paul Pope fan and you're in the area, you might check out the website and see what's what.

The Hurricane:
OK, yeah, I'm not as up on my news as I should be. So it was that while making my last round of reading of Boing-Boing and various other blogs on my RSS feeds that I discovered that Hurricane Katrina was headed for New Orleans and things were going to get ugly.

I have some friends in New Orleans, most notably the publisher of Antigravity, a free monthly magazine about local music that happens to run Snap Judgments as a syndicated column. I went down there to the N.O.D.I.Y. show that Leo runs and had a great time, and I've since seen him and his girlfriend Michelle and some of their other friends when they visited Austin for STAPLE. I was planning on making another trip down to New Orleans in October to see an event with Keith Knight, although now I'm not sure if that's going to go off or not. Anyway, all of this is just to indicate that my worries for New Orleans are not primarily whether or not my favorite cajun restaurant or the place that serves killer muffelattas will survive.

But I'm worried about that too. I went to New Orleans for my honeymoon, so I've got some memories attached to the place. And now it seems like the place I remember, the place that a lot of people live in, may be undergoing some serious fucking renovations courtesy of Mother Nature.

My hopes (I'd say prayers, but I don't pray and clearly God, if he exists, is on the other side of this one) and thoughts are with my friends and with all the other people living in New Orleans whom I've crossed paths with, knowingly or unknowingly, at some point.

The Mighty Ducks:
Just last week, I posted a review of The Life & Times of Uncle Scrooge, which was really my first exposure to the Disney comics of Don Rosa (and by association, sort of, the work of Carl Barks.)

On an average review, I tend to get between 0 and 2 pieces of email. Maybe something from the creator or a devoted fan, but I really only get more than about a half-dozen emails if I write something that strikes a nerve (like my early reviews of Identity Crisis) or if I make some glaring error that twelve people instantly write in to correct me on. :)

On the Ducks review, I have received over a half-dozen emails, all with more info on where to find more Barks/Rosa duck stories, what the good ones are, etc. That is one fanatical fanbase, and I have to admit, the enthusiasm is definitely infectious.

Spycraft 2.0 in review:
Last night was the first night of the new Spycraft campaign I'm running for my gaming group, so I thought I'd write a quick post-mortem of how the new game plays for anyone reading my blog who is interested in RPG stuff.

My overall impression is favorable, and I think that in most respects, Spycraft 2.0 is an improvement over Spycraft 1.0, which is a game that I really liked. I still had to house rule grenades and automatic weapons fire to account for my tastes, but the necessary modifications to Gearing Up, Mission Design and the Chase rules were made to improve all of these good but in need of improvement sections. The skills and classes probably didn't strictly need all the tinkering that was done, but the game in the end benefits from the changes, I think.

My largest complaint is that, despite actually having an index this time, the book still shows all the signs of not having been properly playtested or copy-edited with an eye towards game useability instead of readability. There are any number of very important rules that are mentioned once, in the midst of another block of text with no highlighting, and never again. The tables and charts are vastly out of control, and probably what should have been done is either find a way to make some smaller charts with all the key information in one place or, if that was impossible, to put all the charts into one "chart" chapter. Gearing up, running a combat, checking what skills are needed, all of these things take a lot more page flipping than they should, and it's very frustrating when you realize that, say, Damage Saves for NPCs isn't covered under the NPC rules, but instead under the Damage Save for equipment in the Gear rules, several hundred pages earlier. A little more repetition of key game mechanics, several flowcharts of combat, chases, etc. and a good number more examples would have made the book a lot more uesable right off the bat.

As is, Spycraft 2.0 is a game that is more complex than Spycraft 1.0, and it's going to take a bit of a learning curve for the GM and players to get used to it. I think the learning curve is worth it, and my complaints about parts of the game are mostly overshadowed by my general enjoyment of the game's simulation of action movie/TV espionage, but I do think that the game could have (and should have) been reworked and rewritten to be more user-friendly on a casual basis.

Weekly Comics to Come - August 31, 2005:
ALREADY READ:
Captain America #9 (The "Winter Soldier" stuff is killing my interest, but otherwise, this book has regained my attention. Some great action this issue as Cap, Sharon Carter, Nick Fury and a SHIELD team launch a covert attack on Russian badguy Lukin)
Runaways #7 (Great issue of Runaways, with guest art by Takeshi Miyazawa. A couple big subplots have big turning points, the cliffhanger ending promises a really fun story and I love any book that can make such great use of C-level villains as Swarm)
Slop Anacleta Tp (Gorgeous and quirky piece by Dave Crosland and Debbie. Review HERE)
Smoke & Guns Gn (Insanely fun and beautifully drawn, definitely one of the top picks of the week. Review hopefully up by Monday.)
Wha Huh (Half self-congratulatory stupid, half actually funny, with a couple pages that are really, really funny, all with great art by Jim Mahfood)
Young Avengers #6 (A great (if unfortunately late) ending to the first story arc. Six issues is a long time for setup, but I love a lot of things about this book, and I'd almost buy it just to piss off the homophobic shitheads polluting the letter columns with their "I'm droppin' the books 'cause I don't like gays in my comics" bullshit)

HAVEN'T READ:
30 Days Of Night Bloodsuckers Tales Vol 1 Tp (Need to check this out if only because Matt Fraction comics work is all too rare)
Astonishing X-Men #12 (Whedon and Cassaday conclude their first arc. I confess that I've lost a fair amount of interest, but I'm still curious to see how they wrap it up. I'm guessing there will be a huge gap between arc one and arc two to give Whedon and Cassaday time to get ahead again)
Astro City The Dark Age #3 (I'm enjoying this look at the darker side of Astro City, although I confess that I'd almost rather have it as the bright spot against the modern grim 'n gritty, the way it was a bright side to the late '90s grim 'n gritty)
Bprd The Black Flame #1 (Hooray! The previous two miniseries by this team were fantastic, and more Guy Davis artwork is always a good thing, especially when it comes with Dave Stewart colors)
Death Jr #3 (The conclusion to this surprisingly fun story of Death's son. Given the quality of story and art, you'd never guess that it was a videogame tie-in)
Desperadoes Banners Of Gold Tp (I lost track of this around issue two or three, so I need to catch up and read the whole thing)
Emily The Strange #1 (This is sitting in my stack waiting to be read. Looks goth-y)
Ex Machina #14 (Seems like it's been a while since the last issue of Ex Machina... maybe it's just that the cliffhanger had me chomping at the bit to see more)
Expatriate #3 (Going to give this one about a guy on the run from the CIA another shot and give it another chance to win me over)
Flash #225 (The last Geoff Johns Flash. Truthfully, ever since Kolins left the book (and even slightly before), the stories sort of went off in a direction I wasn't as interested in, but I'll still be reading to see Johns give a farewell to a book he really put a personal stamp on)
Green Lantern #4 (Another one, only two weeks later? Guest artist? At any rate, so far this is mostly Infinite Crisis-free, and last issue's showdown between Hal and two Manhunters was great superhero stuff)
Hero Camp #4 (The last issue of one of the more enjoyable miniseries I've read this year. Definitely hoping to see more of this series and its creators)
Hero Squared #2 (I liked the first issue quite a bit, curious to see where it all goes. Since I have this sitting in my "to read" stack as well, I guess I'll find out when I get home)
Losers #27 (The penultimate arc, I believe. This book really hasn't missed a step since the beginning. I'm glad to see it getting a definitive end, as that's sort of key to a great Vertigo book, but I'll be sorry to see it go.)
Love As A Foreign Language #3 (Another chapter in the entertaining saga of Joel, English teacher who hates the country he's stuck in but might stick around for a girl he's got a crush on. Beautiful art on this one from Eric Kim)
Seven Soldiers Shining Knight #4 (And the first Seven Soldiers mini concludes. Curious to see this, if only to see if it's a definitive ending, or more of a "Read the rest of Seven Soldiers to find out!" kind of thing. I'm guessing the former, although issue three of all the series did bring a little bit more crossover between all of them)
Silent Dragon #2 (The first issue was a little weak, storywise, but it looked beautiful, and Diggle's work on Losers and Adam Strange earns him at least two or three issues worth of chances from me)
Solo #6 (Of all the books I wish I'd gotten to read in the DC Preview Pack (which I didn't get this week), this is the one I miss the most. The first four pages, previewed over at Mile High Comics, look great. This book is a DC treasure that far too many people haven't discovered yet)
Usagi Yojimbo #86 (More of the latest Usagi epic, which has thus far featured some really great samurai action and new revelations about supporting cast members like Tomoe and Motokazu)

Podcasting:
The podcast I had casually mentioned as a possibility seems like a pretty likely prospect at this point. I was talking it over with Dave, who will probably co-cast with me, and we came up with a loose theme that we think could work and ideas for about a half-dozen shows or more. I'm planning on this being a monthly thing, although if time permits, we might also do a monthly "Previews highlights" type podcast... but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

First, I need to install Audacity (done), figure out how to use it (sort of done) and buy a microphone (on my to-do list, maybe tomorrow after work). Then I've got to find out if the bandwidth required for podcasting is within the limits of my current provider (should be, but I'm not sure) and get all the other tech details worked out.

Ideally? First podcast in September. Realistically? Late, late September. :)

Awesome:
I can't decide what's cooler: That this link exists, a flickr.com (and I need to look into this, flickr seems to be to images what blogger and livejournal were to blogs) gallery of the famous Isotope Comics artist toilet seat museum or the fact that I found out about it because it was high-profile enough to get blogged on Boing-Boing.

Some Thoughts on Comics Sales:
I've already mentioned how the July sales affected by Metti-Publisher ranking (I've since changed up my creator line-up quite a bit, from my ideal that I started with to something with a bit more of a realistic eye towards the market. I felt dirty doing it, even in make-believe, because it meant that I could say I understood how the market pressures lead to same 'ol, same 'ol marketing and editorial decisions), but The Pulse has now posted their analysis of Marvel and DC sales and I had some thoughts on sales as a result. Some of these are more or less responsive to comments or questions raised by the articles, and I recommend reading them at any rate.

1. The bump on sales from House of M, especially Hulk, has me wondering... what if Marvel were to just ditch continuity entirely, and have each, say, 4-6 months as an alternate reality that spins out of one or two writers' visions and the other writers would be encouraged to play in that playground? I mean, yes, mostly it would be an awful mess (kind of like House of M *rimshot*), but I wonder what the sales would look like? How long before the novelty of constant events won the war with fanboys missing their continuity?

2. "Ultimate Starts" month didn't do much for Ultimate sales. However, at least anecdotally, in my store, the Ultimate annuals have blown out the doors. I wonder if, rather than jumping-on points to new stories, the self-contained nature of those books might have encouraged people to jump back onboard books they had left behind. I haven't read any of the annuals, but I did give a skim-read to Ultimate Spider-Man Annual and found it to be the best issue of the book that I've read in quite some time. I'm not ready to jump back on the book, because the intriguing start to the MJ/Peter romance has now bogged down in typical "break up/make up" crap that might be realistic for a high school romance but which is kinda boring to read about, but it's a good start to a new relationship that could only take place in the Ultimate universe. Of course, I haven't read Ultimate Spider-Man since before the "Hobgoblin" arc, so I'm judging against word-of-mouth from customers and friends who read to keep up more than actual experience.

3. Runaways selling just inside the Top 75 I can deal with, although not happily. But selling less than the purposeless spin-off title Marvel Knights 4? OK, maybe it's time for Wolverine or Spider-Man to guest star... just to get the bump back to the 40K level that the book earned with the relaunch. It deserves higher than that, but it should at least be selling in the Top 50.

4. Marvel Team-Up, despite low sales and losing the big artistic draw of Scott Kolins (OK, he's not a mainstream draw, but he was one of the big reasons *I* was interested), gets a two-year commitment, which is cool for Robert Kirkman. Curious to see how this will do with the Spidey/Invincible issue, and this idea has spun off into the possible first podcast by me and Dave Farabee, possibly coming (if all technical details, like buying a microphone or two and figuring out bandwidth issues, go smoothly) early September.

5. New Warriors selling at 122, and it's one of the most interesting and unusual books Marvel is publishing. And Gravity, another of Marvel's new and interesting characters, sells lower than that. And Livewires, one of the best and freshest books Marvel has published in the last three years, sells lower than both of them. This kind of thing just pisses me off and depresses me.

6. Marc Oliver Frisch has this to say about top-selling All-Star Batman and Robin: "Of course, the book came with two different covers, but so did most of the titles listed above. For now, it seems unlikely that this number is going to be surpassed by anything anytime soon. If INFINITE CRISIS or ALL STAR SUPERMAN manage it, just pretend you never read that. I'd be surprised if they do, though -- for all intents and purposes, I suspect "Batman by Frank Miller and Jim Lee" exhausts all the potential the direct market is able to muster at this point."

From a retailer standpoint (again, anecdotal and based on gut feeling), I'm betting that INFINITE CRISIS will outsell it. I know that at my store, despite a higher price tag for IC than ASB&RTBW (I just wanted to abbreviate it), we ordered almost 40% higher (three digits instead of two), and that's just for my location, the smallest of the three stores in the chain. I'm also curious to see how the sales maintain on All-Star now that the reaction has been more akin to the response to Dark Knight Strikes Again than, say, Hush. Of course, Dark Knight Strikes Again sold gangbusters as well, but it only had to maintain for three issues, not twelve or more.

7. JLA - Again, anecdotally, we've sold out or damn close to it with all the issues of the Heinberg/Johns arc, so I doubt that retailers are sitting on much unsold stock.

8. Frisch points out the numerical possibility of Liefeld dropping the sales on Teen Titans, rather than giving the expected bump, and I can only hope that's true. Not because I wish Liefeld any harm, but because I've seen the issue, and good God that art is actually just as bad as or worse than some of Liefeld's most egregious stuff. The bendy Wonder Girl and immensely-thighed bad guy at the end are two of the more notable art gaffes, but Robin's "here's my crotch!" opening leap is pretty bad too. (Note: This is as close to a review as I'm going to do of this issue of Teen Titans, because those are the only three pages I've seen and they made my eyes bleed a little.)

9. Another sanguine point from Frisch: "Still, this may be one of the downsides of the company's current direction at display: If you emphasize continuity and "event-driven" storytelling over individual titles and creative voices, those stories which don't participate in the big thing of the minute will have an increasingly hard time fending for the audience's attention." This in relation to the slightly dipping (but still healthy, I hasten to add) sales of Legion of Super-Heroes. I think he's dead-on, and I'm not sure DC cares, with all the money being made on the lazy cash-in... excuse me, crossover books.

10. Y: The Last Man sells at 81. You'd think I'd be outraged, given that these sales numerically are about 1,000 copies below Runaways, but I'm not, because Vertigo is a different game, and seeing Y outselling a Batman title (even if it's Legends of the Dark Knight) warms my cynical black heart.

11. Also promising, albeit maybe too little too late: Gotham Central, at chart position #116, is *climbing* in sales. Nothing climbs in sales in comics anymore, doesn't it? It's a slow slide into cancellation, right? (Unless you're John Byrne's more rabid fans, in which case it's a vast conspiracy designed to deprive your God...er, favorite artist... of work) The Goon, at position #151, is also climbing, and about to get a bump from the 25 cent issue, and Invincible, in position #173, is climbing as well. This may mostly be because the sales are low enough that buzz and a few new readers can actually affect chart position at this level, because the gains are usually between 100-400 readers at best.

12. Hellboy: The Island was about 5K higher than the last Hellboy miniseries. Does this mean that the Hellboy movie netted 5,000 more comics fans for the title? I can't decide if that's really low or a pretty decent gain. Probably both.

Infernal Affairs:
After having this from Netflix for a week or so, I decided I was more in the mood to watch it than Donnie Darko, and popped it in the DVD player last night. I don't watch a lot of foreign film, but the buzz on this one had been great, and the buzz wasn't wrong.

The basic high concept is that a young cop goes undercover in the mob, and a young mobster goes undercover in the cops. This is all set up in a great montage/clipped storytelling style in the first eight minutes, and we're into the movie. It is not an action movie, despite fitting nicely into the "Hong Kong" sensibilities of something like Hard Boiled or The Killer. Instead, it's more of a suspense/psychological thriller, with a strong noir tone. The difficulties of going undercover, the questions of identity and loyalty, are all dealt with very well, and there are several nice twists and turns as the story progresses to its reasonably unpredictable, bittersweet ending. Fans of Sleeper especially should check out Infernal Affairs, as there's some definite commonality of theme, tone and even some of the common story elements of an undercover tale.

I know that they're working on an American remake of this movie, and I hope that they go the route of something like The Italian Job, taking the premise only and making a completely different film, because it's hard to imagine most American film stars and directors getting this story in quite the same way.

Now I'm sort of in the mood to finally see Donnie Brasco, and Infernal Affairs also inspired some ideas for the new Spycraft 2.0 campaign I'm starting soon.

My Future in Manga:
I've gotten a few manga recommendations from my readers in response to my most recent Monitor Duty column (but not a lot, leading me to believe that a lot more folks read my reviews and Down the Line than anything else I write... which is perfectly cool by me), and I think I've mapped out some of the manga I want to try out in the coming months.

1. Blame by Tsutomu Nihei (Wolverine: Snikt). Love his art, although the story didn't instantly grab me when I flipped through the early pages. Also hasn't sold a single copy at my store yet, leading me to believe my taste in manga is going to be just as off-the-popular track as my taste in comics, movie, TV and seemingly everything else these days.

2. Saikano - I've had two recommendations on this one, which is about, according to one reader, "a high school student and his girlfriend, who becomes the Army's ultimate weapon." Sounds interesting.

3. Peacemaker - Same reader recommended this as a "historically-based samurai drama" that deals with the beginning of the westernization of Japan. That sounds like fascinating subject matter.

4. Planetes - I've heard nothing but good about this story of space-age debris removal specialists (space garbagemen and women), and it's relatively short, so I'll definitely be giving it a shot.

5. Yotsuba! by Kiyohiko Azuma - Heard good things about this one as well, although I confess I don't know exactly what it's about.

6. Cromartie High School - No readers recommended this one, but two of my friends read and love it, and I'll probably check it out to see if it's as funny as I've been told.

7. Monster - Looks awesome, and I can't wait to read it. I covered this one in a recent Down the Line column.

8. Battle Royale - Honestly, I've already read a volume of this, but having seen the addiction that overcame my friends and how they've had to wait for the later volumes, I'm gonna wait out the last couple of volumes showing up so I can read the whole thing in one shot.

That's not all, and it will definitely depend on what I'm in the mood to read as to when I get to these, but that's at least a snapshot of some of the manga I want to try out.

Oh, and in the meaningless anniversary department, yesterday marks a whole month of me doing daily blog updates. So maybe I actually am going to be able to keep up with that schedule after all.

A Somewhat Odd Weekend Schedule:
We did ordering of comics for the month at the store today, which always throws my schedule off a bit. It was off even more this week, since we were short-handed (one of the employees is at GenCon) so I didn't get my usual tradeoff day off (Thursday for Sunday), but I did get some overtime pay (a rarity), which isn't a bad tradeoff.

At any rate, I'm always ready to get out of the store on Saturday night, but I'm especially ready when I have to close the store at 9:00 and then get up the next morning at 8:30 to go to ordering. So last night, the store got unusually busy from 8:30 to 9:00, and then literally one minute before the store closed, a guy came in, went to the bathroom and was in there for ten minutes after I closed and shooed everyone else out. A regular also showed up a little after 9:00 and asked if he could buy his week's comics, and he's a good customer, so of course I let him do that. So I was running about 15 minutes behind when I finally got everyone out and got the door locked.

While counting down the register, I got a phone call from one of these Internet relay places. They're a great idea, in theory, that a deaf person or someone who can't use the phone for whatever reason uses a relay to type messages which are then relayed to me, and they then type messages back. Like I said, it's a great tool... but this method of communication takes a lot more time, and when this was the phone call I got at 9:15 and I hadn't finished shutting the register down yet, I was mildly annoyed.

I became greatly annoyed when it became clear that the phone call was either a scam or a prank. The conversation went like this, once the relay was established. Imagine a two or three minute delay between each question and answer. It was also clear that whoever was typing was either not a native English speaker or a very slow typist. "Do you carry toys and games?" "Yes, we carry some toys and games." "Do you carry PS/2 and Game Boy Advance games and teddy bears?" "No, we mostly carry board and card games. No teddy bears." "Can you give me some brand names?" "I'm not sure I can help you. I should mention that I'm closed right now." "I need to buy some games and toys and have them shipped for my client in Nigeria. We will pay for them." Warning bells going off at this point. "We don't do shipping. I don't really think I can help you. Goodbye." Three minute wait, followed by me asking the relay person "Are we done, I really need to get my store closed down?" After a minute, she responded that the other end had said "OK, goodbye. Thank you!"

It was all a little genial to be a prank, and I suppose it's possible it was legitimate, but I think I basically endured the equivalent of voice spam. Which would have been annoying enough, but I was ready to leave anyway.

When I got home, as usual, I stayed up way too late (around 3:00, watching Arrested Development on Tivo, reading the Adam Strange: Planet Heist TPB, etc.) and had about five hours of sleep. So when I got home at around 4:30, I basically sat in the chair and fell asleep at around 5:30 and drifted in and out until, well, around now. Most likely I'll be up a while tonight as well, since my schedule is just bizarrely thrown off at this point. Tomorrow is errand day, though... need to take the car back to the mechanic (the low radiator fluid light is still blinking, even after the radiator flush), mow the lawn (it's about two weeks overdue), pay some bills and get some more reviews done.

For those of you who come here from Fourth Rail and just waded through this exceptionally boring personal story consisting mostly of whining and bitching, I'm sorry. The relevant portion is that because of my weird schedule, I haven't gotten many reviews done... a half-dozen Snapshots (which I traditionally hold for Thursday's update), a review of Tokyopop's MBQ Vol. 1 and half a review of The Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck. Don is out of town, so we'll have a Tuesday update instead of a Monday this week, and quite possibly nothing from me. I may instead save everything I've got to run on Thursday.

I Am a Bad Friend:
Despite the frequent ads in Speakeasy and having talked to him about it before it launched, I realize now that I have never actually linked over to Buzzscope, a comics/games/pop culture site that is run and supported by a number of friends past and present. Jon Haehnle is their producer/designer, and Joe Doughrity their senior comics editor, and I worked with both those guys during my time at Psycomic, and the site is sponsored by Midtown Comics, which was my comics shop for the six months I lived in New York. (I love Midtown Comics. I miss Midtown Comics.)

It's also worth noting that Joe just won Best Documentary at the San Diego Comicon's International Film Festival for his movie "Seven Days in Japan." You can catch the trailer HERE and see more about the movie and buy it online (only $10 plus shipping) HERE.

Metti-Publisher Round 1:
Wow, did I get a butt-kicking. Ranked 235 out of 290 players. Simone was definitely my top player, earning places for Villains United, Action Comics and Birds of Prey, with Peter David delivering three for Hulk (two issues) and Hulk: Destruction. Once some of his new stuff, like X-Factor and Fallen Angel, starts coming out that'll help. Most of the rest of my players had two books, many of them fairly low on the sales charts. No surprise, there... most of my favorite books are low on the sales charts.

However, I did beat out Augie by one place and I spotted Nate two places below him. So I take some solace in that. I take less solace in barely beating out folks whose entire teams were on the bench. *sigh* Guess I need to do some trading/moving around/thinking about this stuff.

Weekly Comics to Come - Aug. 24, 2005
ALREADY READ:
Battle Pope Color #2 (More Battle Pope! In color!)
Catwoman Wild Ride Tp (The final Brubaker/Stewart Catwoman, which includes the "Road Trip" arc and the Captain Cold issue, one of my favorite issues of the entire run)
Daredevil #76 (I've been off this for a long time, and mostly I still am, but the early stuff in this issue between Urich and the Kingpin is really, really good)
Giffens What Were They Thinking One Shot (Keith Giffen re-dialogues old war comics. I've only skimmed it so far, but what I've read is exceptionally funny)
Girls #4 (This may be the most bizarre horror story I've ever read. The attack of the hot naked chicks?! Bizarre, but entertaining, and getting better with each issue)
Godland #2 (More cosmic style adventure by Casey and Scioli)

HAVEN'T READ:
1000 Deaths Of Baron Von Donut #1 (I can't remember what this is, but the title means I'll at least look)
Banana Sundays #2 (One of my favorite comics of the last month returns with a second issue. Might be my most anticipated read of the week)
Grounded #2 (Enjoyed the first issue of this unusual superhero story, looking forward to reading more)
Hank Ketchams Complete Dennis The Menace 1951-1952 Hc (Still surprised to be buying this, but the sample strips looked genuinely funny)
History Of Violence Tp (Might check this out now, if only because the other Paradox stuff has been pretty good and the premise, now that I know it, sounds interesting as well)
Invincible #25 (Yay! Big Invincible anniversary issue! Plus Science Dog!)
Jack Cross #1 (Looks like Warren Ellis's take on 24's Jack Bauer, with of course the usual touch of cynical detachment and some gorgeous art by Gary Erskine)
JSA Classified #2 (Part two of Power Girl's origin, and I'm still curious, although it looks like it's going to tie into Infinite Crisis, so I'm getting less so)
Little Star #4 (Issue three finally hooked me, so I'm eagerly anticipating more of Andi Watson's story of the trials of parenthood)
Monkey In A Wagon Vs Lemur On A Big Wheel #1 (What I saw of this strange book in San Diego was just ridiculously funny)
Mutation #2 (First issue of this had fantastic art and great fights, but no plot to speak of. Curious to see what the second issue will bring)
Previews #25.9 (Down the Line coming next week)
Queen & Country Declassified Vol 2 #2 (This is the one by Greg Rucka and Rick Burchett about Tom Wallace. It's late, but good)
Queen & Country Declassified Vol 3 #3 (This is the one by Antony Johnston and Christopher Mitten about Nick Poole. It's on time, and also good)
Robot (Digital Manga mostly does yaoi, but this looks like something different, a full-color manga anthology possibly along the lines of Flight)
Sesame Street Cinemanga Vol 1 Elmo & Zoe Fly A Kite (Probably buying this, and the other one, Happy Healthy Monster, for my daughter. She loves Elmo, Zoe and Sesame Street in general)
Smoke #3 (One of my favorite comic series of the year comes to a close. Amazing Igor Kordey art on this one, and De Campi's writing debut is also just exceptionally strong)
Spike Old Times One Shot (Not much of a Spike fan, but I do like Peter David... might give this one a look)
Walking Dead #21 (One of my favorite comics running right now)

Found on Boing Boing:
New Cyberpunk comic that you can view online or download for your PSP. I managed to avoid the PSP's siren's call, but if they can actually turn it into a device for viewing comics on the go and it really works for that, I may not be strong enough to resist entirely.

Update: Five minutes later, after having read the first chapter... it's really damn good. Free, excellent cyberpunk comics on the web? Maybe the 21st century isn't all bad after all.

Actually, it really is cool:
I know a lot of folks have some sort of beef with Ain't It Cool News, but I'm a supporter, partly because I live in Austin and so I feel like it's a local site, partly because I have a friend who writes comic reviews for the site and partly because, from time to time, the geeky style of the site hits me just right.

Which isn't to say that AICN doesn't occasionally annoy the shit out of me, or that the Talkbacks aren't some of the more diseased message boards on the Internet. But all that sort of fades away when you see Harry posting with sympathetic glee about a 12-year-old film-loving girl in Austin who just got a $1000 grant to do her first zombie movie. 12. Years. Old.

I don't care who you are, if that story doesn't make you smile, then you have no heart.

Fanboy Rampage:
I don't generally read Fanboy Rampage, because I'm roughly a year behind on catching up on who's who and what's what in the Blogosphere. But I do read The Beat, who linked to Fanboy Rampage and the enormous clusterfuck of a thread reacting to Paul O'Brien's Ninth Art column, which I also linked to a few days back.

It's funny, because I agree with almost everyone in the thread on some points, but it does seem like a lot of people are willfully missing the point. Some of them doing it in a way that has them acting quite a bit like assholes. I was gonna chime in, but really, I don't read the blog, I'm not a community member, I didn't want to crash such a lovely party and it was all pretty much over by the time I read it. So, this being the 21st century, I figured I'd do what everyone else is doing... type my thoughts on my blog.

What's interesting is that everyone (including Heidi) is offering up: "How can you be bored? Look how many indy comics are great this year!" And I think what everyone is missing, or maybe this isn't the point and I'm just off my rocker, is that these indy comics aren't selling anywhere near where they should be. That maybe Paul is bored because the boring shit is winning. It's all anyone talks about, and, if you look at the Diamond Top 100, it's all that sells.

Now again, maybe that wasn't Paul's point... but I think that's where the common ground is to be found. Or maybe there's a different emotion going on here with me, not boredom but frustration, that the things a great deal of us find so boring or reminiscent of comics we read 10-20 years ago, are pretty much dominating the top 50 or so of the mainstream comics market right now, and there's not enough rewards to go around for the really great stuff. I know that that's where I keyed into Paul's column, not "Gee, I wish the X-books were better," which is what some people seem to be taking away from it. Personally, I could give a shit whether the X-Books are even published anymore, but I *still* got what Paul was saying.

OK, I probably shouldn't post this, because God knows I don't want to get into the middle of the Internet infighting that I've tried really hard to stay away from in recent years, but... Jesus. That thread was one ginormous clusterfuck of misguided indy rage, with a few calm heads (including, as always, the well-spoken (well-typed?) Kurt Busiek) making sense above all the noise.

Entourage:
I rented the first season of Entourage when it came out on DVD and really enjoyed it. The story of a young hot superstar actor on the rise and his hangers-on, agent and business manager could have been just ridiculously dull or hard to buy into, but I really enjoyed it and found it really funny. With all the buzz about season two involving Vince (the superstar) lining up to play Aquaman, it's been getting bigger play than usual in the geek sector, and so I've been hearing more and more about it.

So, finally, I broke down and decided I couldn't wait for season two on DVD, and went to my friend with HBO and Tivo and caught the first six episodes. And the second season is even better. It's funny, but I'm also just wrapped up in these characters' lives and their ridiculous problems, like whether they're going to get a multimillion dollar movie deal so they can keep their 4 million dollar house or who Eric, the manager of Vince and probably my second-favorite character, will wind up with after he's lost his girlfriend and had to settle for a one night stand with a Perfect 10 model.

I say second favorite character because, really, nobody can top Ari Gold, the super-arrogant, manic, insanely funny super-agent played by Jeremy Piven. I've always been a Piven fan, but Ari Gold is probably the best character he's ever played.

So, in short... Entourage. Really good. Sex and the City, but for guys. Together with Curb Your Enthusiasm and Deadwood, very much wearing down my resolve *not* to spend the extra money on HBO every month. The Fall season of network TV better be good, or I may have to break down and order the HBO.

Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland:
My buddy Chris (who put on a similar show here in Austin last year called STAPLE) is taking the trip up to Portland in October to go to the second Stumptown Comics Fest, which looks like a blast. I'm extremely jealous, and if I could manage the flight/hotel expenses, I'd be going too.

I really want to visit Portland at some point, and this would be a great excuse. Maybe next year. If any of you are in the Portland area, this looks like a great comics festival.

Car Update:
Went to my local oil change/tune-up place today, and they discovered that the antifreeze needed to be flushed, as it wasn't getting to the engine. That, and an oil change and a much-needed swap out of the windshield wiper blades, took care of the problems I've been having, and at just over $100, that's not too bad for routine maintenance. Nice when things aren't as expensive or catastrophic as you expect.

Car Trouble:
I'm pretty good about taking my car in to get the oil changed, every 3,000 miles or so. But the car is getting older, and seems to be developing some... well, let's call them quirks. Twice in the last half-dozen oil changes, the mechanic has told me that the oil was either or basically gone, despite the fact that I hadn't waited any longer than usual to bring it in. The other four times, it was fine.

A few months ago, I started getting warnings from my car that the antifreeze was low. So, after much delay, I finally went out, bought some antifreeze and distilled water, and refilled the thing according to the owner's manual. Worked fine, but then last week, it started giving me the same warning. Seemed odd, but I refilled it again. And then, yesterday, not even a week later, it started warning me again. So I go to check the oil and find that it is very, very low again.

Guess it's oil change time today, a little ahead of schedule. The 90,000 mile checkup is coming, and I'm guessing that they're going to find something expensive when they do that check. Jeez. Maintenance, inspection, gas prices at 2.30 and rising... when is someone going to invent my water-powered flying car, already?

Another Excellent Analysis of the Industry by Paul O'Brien:
Article 10: The Year Of Living Aimlessly is a brutally honest look at the trends that are driving the industry right now. The sad thing is, any number of people are saying what is wrong with the industry, but those voices are drowned out by the cha-ching of cash registers and the numerous people who are eating up the crossover/event marketing with a spoon.

Kind of like the '90s, really, except without the huge paychecks that at least allowed some of the creators to get rich off the crumbling of the American comics industry.