The Videogame Update:
I really need to try and get back to posting on this thing more often, or it'll go as dead as it was for a few months there. Thus, posts like this one, where I run down my latest videogame experiences.

The PSP is a wonderful toy, and though I don't have much occasion to use it, I do cherish it on those occasions when it has come in handy. Times like my wait at Saturn for my 90,000 mile update (or more correctly, my wait for Suzanne to come pick me up, since the 90,000 mile update actually turned out to be an overnight thing), the drive to Dallas or the other occasional "waiting for someone" moment in life. The games I have tried on the PSP are:

SSX On Tour - Rented this one since I love the SSX 3 game on the PS/2, and was, well, mostly disappointed. It is basically SSX 3 again, with minor tweaks to the design and the addition of skis. Maybe it's just comparing the full-screen of TV to the PSP's (admittedly sharp) little screen, but I got bored quickly with SSX On Tour, and this makes me pretty unlikely to pick it up for the PS/2, as I had planned, at least until it comes down in price.

Burnout Legends - The reason I don't think it's the screen size as opposed to disappointment in the game with SSX On Tour is Burnout Legends. Burnout Legends is basically a port of Burnout 3, with music from Burnout Revenge, to the PSP and I love it. It's got all the fun of the PS/2 version (which I played the hell out of, and should theoretically be tired of if the game mechanics weren't so damn inviting) with the addition of little tweaks like an airport map or a pursuit mode where you play a cop trying to ram a perp off the road. I've played a couple of wireless games with my buddy Tess on her PSP, and it's a pretty glorious little feature as well. For my money, this is the killer ap of the PSP thus far.

Lumines - This, on the other hand, was the killer ap when it was announced, and having played it now, I can say that I understand the draw. Like Tetris, it's this deceptively simple puzzle game, and like Tetris, it is just remarkably addictive. Nice techno music background, fun gameplay and a few interesting modes like puzzle and versus make it a definite winner and perennial favorite of mine.

Burnout Revenge - Meanwhile, my PS/2 purchase for the year (I don't buy a ton of games) was Burnout Revenge, at full price. I don't regret it, even though the money spent was earmarked for Scrubs and Arrested Development Season Two, which now have to wait a little longer. Terrific update of the Burnout series, and I would have sworn they couldn't have gotten better after Burnout 3. But the new crash mode is a blast, much bigger and more open, the ability to "traffic check" same direction traffic makes a huge difference and the addition of shortcuts and more varied track maps is just glorious. I also dig the soundtrack, for the most part, just like I did the first one, although I could do without the SSX-like deejay. Absolute must-have game for the PS/2, especially if you do any game parties where you have folks over, when the three different crash multiplayer modes can easily take up a night or two.

Weekly Comics to Come - October 26, 2005:

ALREADY READ:
Chance Of A Lifetime #1 (The tale of a World War II-era superhero, with a slightly different perspective... worth a look, from Cellar Door Publishing)
Conan Vol 2 God I/t Bowl & Other Stories Tp (Not as good as the first Dark Horse Conan trade, but still exceptional stuff)
Jack Cross #3 (I'm not blown away by Jack Cross, but as 24 with a comic book budget filtered through Ellis's sensibilities, it's certainly readable)
Lost Squad #1 (World War II supernatural stories with solid potential. Review HERE.)
Loveless #1 (The stylized dialogue and moody artwork gets in the way of a clear first issue, but I don't always "get" what's going on in Deadwood on first viewing either, and I love that western. Not as stunned as I'd hoped to be, but it took me a few issues to get a handle on Azzarello's 100 Bullets, too. Definitely worth checking out for western (especially Deadwood) fans)
Solo #7 (Any comic that features Wonder Girl, Mr. Miracle and Hourman doing the Batusi has *got* to be worth a look... Michael Allred's issue of Solo arrives, and it's a lot of fun)

HAVEN'T READ:
A Midnight Opera (Another intriguing OEL from Tokyopop about the undead and rock opera)
Age Of Bronze #21 (The continuation of the "Betrayal" arc specifically, and one of the best comics on the market in general)
Book Of Lost Souls #1 (JMS and Colleen Doran offer up a new, creator-owned story at Marvel that sounds like it might be along the lines of JMS's Midnight Nation... I'll check it out)
Bprd The Black Flame #3 (More of the great B.P.R.D. series from Dark Horse... look for a "Recommended Reading" on this series next Friday)
Daredevil #78 (How good has the "Murdock Papers," the final Bendis/Maleev story been? Good enough that it has retroactively reactivated my love for their run and gotten me to pick up the volume 4 hardcover to continue my collection)
Fear Agent #1 ('50s style sci-fi from Remender and Tony Moore)
Girls #6 (More of the Luna brothers' unusual horror comic)
Haunted Mansion #1 (The first Slave Labor/Disney offering, the art on this one looks fantastic)
Mark Of The Succubus Vol 1 (Preview art on this OEL manga looks really nice)
Marvel Monsters Monsters On The Prowl (Mostly disappointed in the Marvel Monsters stuff, but Fin Fang Four was great, so I'll give Monsters on the Prowl a chance as well)
Night Fisher GN (The much-buzzed graphic novel from Fantagraphics and R. Kikuo. This might be my most anticipated read of the week)
Noble Causes #14 (Interested in seeing what happens now that the Noble family has a supervillain opposite number)
Paris #1 (The new Slave Labor series from Andi Watson and Simon Gane, art looks terrific and I'm a fan of Watson's writing)
Previews Vol Xv #11 (Down the Line coming next week... they seem to come out fast when Dave and I are running late)
Psycomm Vol 1 (Psychic commando OEL manga cowritten by CBR columnist and Austin local, I'm curious to check it out)
Season Of The Witch #1 (Enjoyed the black and white intro comic for this unusual fantasy series, I'm looking forward to seeing more of the story in color)
SuperF*ckers #2 (Twisted superhero humor from James Kochalka)
Usagi Yojimbo #88 (I'm actually an issue behind on this, but the latest story, one of the big arcs, has been very entertaining)
Young Avengers #8 (One of my favorite Marvel books running right now)
Zombie Tales Oblivion #1 (Enjoyed the first Zombie Tales anthology, sure I'll enjoy this new series, which has one story and one creative team)

Something Different:
"Well. As we speak, it looks like a fucking fairy exploded in my kitchen. There is glitter everywhere. Glitter on the floor. Glitter on the wall. Glitter INSIDE the wee one's nose. Glitter INSIDE the bread bag. Glitter on my table. Glitter on the dog."

Kari Anne writes Haiku Mama, a frequently updated blog about her life with her child and all that this life entails, and it is (as you can see from the line above) frequently hilarious. Go. Seek.

Weekly Comics to Come - October 19, 2005:

ALREADY READ:
Amazing Joy Buzzards Vol 2 #1 (Wow. The gonzo trade paperback was fun, but Hipp and Smith have really upped the game with volume two of Amazing Joy Buzzards, which features a supervillain gathering, a CIA briefing, an impromptu legendary rock concert and a race with tricked-out cars and mysterious, sexy women. Basically, a pop-culture mismash owing allegiance to nothing specific, like what Saturday Morning cartoons used to feel like when you were a kid. The best thing I've read yet this week)
Astro City The Dark Age #4 (Nice finale to the first book of the Dark Age, revealing what exactly happened with the Silver Agent. It's not as mind-blowing as I'd hoped giving the build up, but it's certainly solid)
Marvel Monsters Fin Fang Four (This is easily the best of the Marvel Monsters books so far. The other two were a little bit on the bland side, but Fin Fang Four is a blast, with some neat ideas, the real spirit of the Kirby monster comics and Lee/Kirby FF blended together)
Nick Fury Howling Commandos #1 (I liked the concept on this one, but... yikes. Ugly artwork and clunky writing makes for a really disappointing book out of a pretty interesting concept)
Runaways #9 (Really fun reintroduction of Cloak into the Runaways world, interesting mystery plus tons of character stuff dealing with fallout from recent events... still one of the best superhero titles on the market)
She-Hulk 2 #1 (Starts off a little slow, more reminiscent of the second half of She-Hulk Vol. 1 than the first half, but has some fun moments and offers up a use of Hawkeye that doesn't make me groan, which is a change for the better from how he's been handled at Marvel of late)
Surrogates #2 (Amazing speculative sci-fi with beautiful color artwork by Brett Weldele)
Thread The Unraveling #1 (Xeric winner about paranoia and city living, I reviewed it HERE)
Transformers #0 (A really good reintroduction of the concept that is fun, light and exciting. And I say this as someone without much of a nostalgic attachment who found most of the Dreamwave stuff completely unreadable, *and* as a kid who owned Optimus Prime, Megatron and a whole bunch of other toys and watched the cartoon religiously. IDW has its head on straight with this property)

HAVEN'T READ:
1000 Deaths Of Baron Von Donut #1 (Not sure if this is a new #1 or the same one that came out before... unnecessarily confusing. But if it is new, hooray! The first one was hilarious)
Armageddon & Son Gn (John Layman's OGN from Oni about superspies and evil dads looks great from what I've read. Haven't sat down to read the whole thing yet, but what I have read was very fun)
Banana Sundays #3 (More of what is probably the cutest book on the market right now, about talking monkeys, high school and secrets)
Birds Of Prey #87 (Still my favorite DC Universe book, just hoping it keeps skirting the edges of the Infinite Crisis)
Black Hole Collected Hc (Looking forward to reading all of Charles Burns' morose, gothically beautiful story about a sexually-transmitted disease that disfigures its victims... the issues I've read have been stunning)
Chiaroscuro Tp (Curious to check out this long out-of-print Vertigo story about the life and times of Leonardo Da Vinci)
Conan #21 (Continuing the "Tower of the Elephant" story, which got off to a great start last issue)
Green Lantern Corps Recharge #2 (First issue had some interesting new characters and a nice take on the Corps. Worried about how tightly it'll tie into Infinite Crisis, but for now, I'm still reading)
Living And The Dead Gn (New Speakeasy graphic novel from Robert Tinnell & Todd Livingston, responsible for Black Forest and Wicked West... haven't read it yet, but it's going in my upcoming Speakeasy column, and I suspect it's gonna be good)
Official Handbook Marvel Universe Horror 2005 (These more fringe Marvel Universe books are kind of fun... the alternate worlds version from a few weeks back was really entertaining, and I suspect that a look at Marvel's horror properties will be cool as well)
Seven Soldiers Klarion The Witch Boy #4 (My enthusiasm for Seven Soldiers has cooled as I realize: A) DC's lame trade paperback plan for the series and B) The stories don't so much end as lead in to Seven Soldiers #1, betraying the "self-contained" nature of the miniseries, but I'm still curious to see how this all ends, and Frazer Irving's artwork continues to astound)
Walking Dead #22 (Finally! It's been a little while since we've had an issue of the industry's best zombie comic, and one of my ten favorite monthly books)

STAPLE! Poll:
OK, I missed the STAPLE! meeting because I had to work tonight (I also missed Lost), but that doesn't mean I can't link to the poll on the updated STAPLE! website. Whether you attended last year or are thinking about attending this year or just love polls, come on over and check it out.

Why I Still Love Comics:
I've got too many comics to ever review, and the state of mainstream superheroes and what's selling is remarkably depressing. Infinite Crisis #1 came out yesterday and it didn't piss me off like Identity Crisis #1 did. Instead, it BORED THE SHIT OUT OF ME. I'd say House of M is doing the same, but I only read issues one through three before getting so bored I stopped reading it, save the occasional skim for the highlights, so it's maybe not fair to use the present tense.

And one thing that pisses me off more than the stupid darkening of the DCU that began in Identity Crisis is how some of the same creators who participated in it are now trying to take credit for fixing it. Guess what, guys? If you hadn't *created* the fucking problem, you wouldn't have to fix it!

Mostly, though, I'm in an "oh well, don't care" place with much of DC and Marvel, and that's OK. Seriously, even if you ignore all the popular shit (depressing as it is to realize that what sells and what's good seems to be more diametrically opposed than ever), there's so much out there to read. Most of Vertigo is *great*, the smaller Marvel projects are remarkable (Gravity, New Warriors, Runaways, She-Hulk, etc.), Image, Oni and Dark Horse are kicking much ass and every few months we get a beauty of a graphic novel from guys like NBM, Top Shelf, etc. That's off the top of my head. Doesn't count the mini-comics and self-publisher guys putting their heart and soul into the medium for no money or even money flowing out of their pocket, or the numerous other smaller publishers. Doesn't count the promising news about mainstream bookhouses picking up on graphic novels like Flight or creators like Craig Thompson. Doesn't count Tokyopop and their intriguing line of OEL and ever-expanding line of manga, which seems to offer genre and style to every taste.

Last week, I read The Quitter, Mary Jane Vol. 2 and True Porn 2. This week I hauled in Beg The Question, Essential Spider-Man Vol. 7 and the Livewires digest. That's not bad at all, and that's skipping all the monthly doses of goodness like Fables, Godland and Fell.

It's not always easy to recognize, but it's a good time to be reading comics. Now if only I could get off my ass and start getting more reviewing of them done, so I can get these comp piles down to less suicide-inducing size as well.

M.I.A. Again:
Yeah, I know, five days since my last blog post. But I have a good excuse... I took a vacation. Or what passes for a vacation in my current life.

Since I have Sundays and Mondays off, and go in late on Tuesdays, Suzanne and Katy and Corrigan (my dog) and I drove up to Dallas for the second birthday party of my nephew James Austin. I swapped my Tuesday with Dave so that I could come in at 7:00 PM instead of 2:00 PM, and spent what equated to a weekend up in Dallas.

I love Austin, but I like Dallas, or at least what I've seen of it, as well. It's a nice place to take a weekend, especially when we stayed in the monstrously huge house of my parents-in-law. I don't have any great desire to live in a gated community (and Suzanne would divorce me if I tried to move us into one anyway), and I love our small house, but man was it nice having an upstairs, a big kitchen, a big living room, etc. I just fantasized about having a whole room set aside as a "game room" to hang out with friends in, another room as a library for books, comics, DVDs, a "home theatre" room, etc. If I had the money, didn't hate moving and could find a big place that wasn't in a gated community (to list the main reasons in order), I'd definitely get a bigger house.

It was a good weekend all around. Suzanne drove, which was nice, so I spent the drive up in the backseat listening to my daughter talk back to Diego on the portable DVD player and playing Burnout Legends and World Series of Poker (not to mention an episode of Entourage) on my PSP. We got to my nephew's birthday party and that was a lot of fun. I didn't know a lot of the people there, but it's always nice to see my in-laws, and it was a blast seeing Katy have fun with the other kids there. She went to bed way too late after skipping her nap, but otherwise, it was great.

On Monday, we took Katy to get pictures taken for my mother-in-law. Katy is remarkably shy around guys, and the photographer was a guy, so it wasn't the easiest thing to do, but he did pretty well, and his wife sort of made faces and played with puppets and got her to smile now and then. There should be some cute pictures in there. After that, we went back to the house and hung out for a bit, and Katy took a short but much-needed nap.

That night, we got together with my sisters-in-law (all three of them), my brother-in-law Jason (Mark, my other brother-in-law, had gone out of town on Monday), and my two nephews James and JD and went to Fogo De Chao. How do I love Brazillian steakhouses like Fogo De Chao? Well, as I said to Suzanne during the delicious (if expensive) meal, "If they had beds, I'd live here." To top off the night, Jason had a friend coming into town from San Diego, and so he and his friends had set up a Texas Hold'Em game later that night, which he invited me to. I went along, and met up with a great bunch of guys, played poker until midnight and just had a lot of fun. I lost $20 and went out third of nine players, but I did knock one player out when my pocket Kings beat his pocket 10s, and for my second-ever game of Texas Hold'Em, I don't think that's too bad.

Part of what made this a vacation is that I didn't read any comics or Internet the entire time I was gone. I know that sounds like a weird qualifier for a vacation, but seriously, I read comics every day and read the Internet every day, and aside from checking email for any emergencies, I skipped all that while I was away and it was nice. Of course, every week I skip in reviews adds a week or two onto the other end, and I'm still playing catchup on RSS and email too, but it was nice. Makes me think I might like to take a bit longer off from reviewing, if only for a little while.

At any rate, good weekend.

Weekly Comics to Come - October 12, 2005:

ALREADY READ:
100 Bullets #65 (Start of a new story arc... dark, dark story featuring torture and strip clubs)
7 Days To Fame #1 (Speaking of dark... Buddy Scalera's new mini about a reality show about suicide is a little morbid, but definitely intriguing)
Astro City Local Heroes Tp (After a long wait, finally, a new Astro City trade paperback. Hooray!)
Essential Spider-man Vol 7 Tp (Still haven't gotten around to reading vol. 6 of the Spider-Man Essentials, but I'll keep buying as long as they keep printing them, or until we hit the end of the Roger Stern era at least)
Fables #42 (The arabian fables arrive in Fabletown and the aftermath of "Homelands" starts to resonate, and the result is a great first issue for a new story arc)
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man #1 (A little too cutesy in parts, and mired in an unfortunate crossover, but has some good moments... I'll most likely check back in when "The Other" ends)
Gravity #5 (Nice solid ending to McKeever and Norton's origin for a new and intriguing Marvel character)
Hack Slash Vol 1 First Cut Tp (Collection of Tim Seeley's Buffy the Vampire Slayer by way of slasher flick concept)
Livewires Clockwork Thugs Yo Digest Tp (One of my favorite Marvel series this year, can't wait to read the whole story all together and really looking forward to whatever Adam Warren does next)
Marvel Monsters Where Monsters Dwell (Three short and fun monster stories, plus one classic reprint)

HAVEN'T READ:
Ex Machina #15 (New story arc starts here)
Godland #4 (Loving this comic, a weird mixture of Casey's post-modern pop cultural awareness and a retro nostalgic Kirby riff)
Goon 25 Cent Comic (Great chance to try one of the best, funniest and most beautifully drawn comics on the market)
Goon Fancy Pants Ed Hc (Deluxe edition of aforementioned best, funniest and most beautifully drawn comics' early days at Dark Horse)
Hunger #5 (More of the strange zombie tale set in New Orleans)
Infinite Crisis #1 (Yeah, I'll probably hate it, but it's Geoff Johns writing a big DC event, which a few years ago, I would have been all over. I've got to at least give it a chance to impress me)
Middleman #3 (Really enjoyed the first two issues of this "Men in Black" style comedy/action series, by Lost writer/producer Javier Grillo Marxuach)
Of Bitter Souls #3 (Also really enjoyed the first two issues of this mystical/superhero blend set in New Orleans from Speakeasy)
Ring Of Roses Tp (Alternate history religious conspiracy with nice looking art)
Science Fair #1 (New Antarctic Press series about superscience gone wrong, looks like fun)
Star Wars Clone Wars Adventures Vol 4 Tp (These "animated series" clone wars stories are almost as good as the action-packed Cartoon Network shorts that spawned them)
Villains United #6 (Curious to see how this all shakes out, and ready to call for a Simone-penned Catman or Suicide Squad ongoing on the strength of the series overall)
Y The Last Man #38 (The second part of Yorick's travels in Australia, one of my absolute favorite monthly series)

The New Fall Season - Wednesday & Thursday:

Veronica Mars: Two episodes in, and the central mystery (or mysteries? the bus crash and Logan's "murder") seem vague enough to sustain the entire season but focused enough to provide good drama, as well as being personally connected to several of the characters, as the Lily Kane murder was. There's a lot of promise in the new characters (Guttenberg and Carpenter are both really good in their roles) and I love the notion of Keith Mars running for sheriff again. The second season opener didn't give me the drop-dead "must watch this" vibe that the pilot episode did, but it's still every bit as strong as it was. And good enough that I'll Tivo it even though it's up against Lost.

Lost: How good is Lost this season? So good that I'm watching it on TV, live, with commercials, which I don't do for *anything* any more. The second episode was a little weak, but overall, I'm loving the mixture of answers and more questions that we've gotten from what was at the bottom of the hatch, and the ensemble cast is still strong, although too many of them are very much background right now (we've barely seen Hurley, Said, Shannon, Charlie, Claire or Sun in the early episodes). I'm always wary of the "X-Files factor" with this show, and almost certain it will disappoint me in the end, but I'm still completely hooked right now.

Alias: And the reason I'm almost certain it will disappoint me in the end is Alias. Still very watchable in season five, but real world occurrences have damaged the show pretty badly. Vaughn's death as a way to get Jennifer Garner and her ex away from the awkwardness of playing couple in love, Sydney's pregnancy as a result of, well, Garner's pregnancy, Greg Grunberg's departure for "The Catch" and other roles... none of these moves are good for the show, in my opinion. I'm also unsure whenever a show basically adds new characters out of the blue, obviously to fill in for departed actors, although I like both actors who are coming in. And this is a show that really would have benefited from better closure on many of its ongoing stories, from the way SD-6 was resolved to the many resolutions of Rimbaldi, rather than an increasingly complex mythology (shades of X-Files) and the introduction of yet another shadowy conspiracy group with vague goals (Prophet 5).

The good news is, Carl Lumbly gets back in the spotlight as Marcus becomes more in the action, which is something that's been sadly lacking since around mid-season two, Jack Bristow is still very much involved and the Syd/Jack relationship is one of my favorite things about the show, Marshal continues to be a scene-stealing member of the cast and if you don't think too hard about the larger context of the show, the Prophet 5 stuff seems interesting enough as a way to propel the season. I stopped buying Alias DVDs after season three (and should have stopped at season two), but I haven't stopped watching, and I probably won't. I just don't care as much about the ongoing elements as I do the episodic, which is a shame.

Feast or Famine:
Yeah, so I go several days with no posts at all, and then two posts within hours of each other. That's just how I roll.

Anyway, was going through the comp pile (actually, comp piles is more accurate, since there are about six scattered throughout my office) and came up with what is likely my Fourth Rail reviewing schedule for the next few months. Of course, this is all subject to change depending on what comes in and my moods, but here's the plan, in no particular order:

*Speakeasy Focus (A look at the Hunger TPB (when that comes out will determine the timing of this review), The Living & The Dead OGN, Parting Ways OGN, Adventures of Bio-Boy #1, Spellgame #1 and a semi-review of the first four or so pages of Strangeways #1. If you're a Speakeasy creator who wants his/her book included in this round-up, drop me a line and you can either send me a PDF or I'll get you an address to send me the book)

*Snapshots (Covering some or all of: Zed, Malcolm Magic, Mr. Scootles, Vampirella: Revelations #0-1, The Colony, B.P.R.D: The Black Flame #1-2, Ferro City, Invincible, Usagi Yojimbo, Godland, The Goon, Girls, PVP, Rex Mundi, Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squadron, Star Wars Empire, Chronicles of a Bounty Hunter, True Story Swear to God, PS238, Nodwick, Grounded Fell and Jack Staff)

*Graphic Novel reviews including some or all of: Quitter, Mary Jane Vol. 2, True Porn 2, Black Forest 2, Sea of Red Vol. 1, Tales of Supernatural Law v.1, Runoff 2, Decoy Menagerie, Humor Can Be Funny, Full Moon Fever, 2 Sisters, The Ride, Tozzer 2, Electric Girl 3, Ronin Hood of the 47 Samurai, Wings of Anansi, And The Sky Turned White, Coyote v.1, Yets!, Ojo, The Legend of Wild Man Fischer, Hutch Owen: Unmarketable!, Grendel: The Devil Inside, Grendel: The Devil May Care, The Groo Odyssey and The Irregulars

*Book Reviews (whenever I get time to read them) including: Foul Play! (The Art and Artists of EC Comics), Path of the Just/Path of the Bold, Will Eisner: A Spirited Life, I Was Someone Dead, Superman On The Couch, Hellboy: Odder Jobs

*Manga Spotlight (mostly OEL) on Rising Stars of Manga Vol. 5, Steady Beat, I Luv Halloween, Naoki Urusawa's Monster (when it comes out will determine timing of this review), perhaps others)

*Another Indy Spotlight (Comic Pulp Vol. 1, Rocket Rabbit 1, The Calling, Something So Familiar, The Wandering Schoolgirl, Red Ice, Nothing Left to Lose)

*Series spotlights (Raider 1-3, Stylish Vittles: Fare Thee Well & Nothing Better #1-3, Cocopiazo #1-4, Students of the Unusual #2-6, Penguin Books' Treasure Island, The Wizard of Oz and MacBeth)

That is, of course, in addition to all the stuff that comes into my house and my comics shop on a weekly basis. If I reviewed nothing but this stuff from now on, I'd probably be done with all the reviews in, oh, about six months. As is, with other stuff coming in, there's probably some of this stuff that will still be waiting for a review six months from now, although I sure hope not.

So for those of you who have sent me stuff for review, I thank you for your patience and apologize that I need to ask for it, and if you're a creator or publisher who has sent me stuff and you don't see it on this list, that means it's hidden in another pile in my office or I haven't received it.

Weekly:
OK, so I maintained the blog daily for a little over a month. That's not bad, right? But daily doesn't seem to be in the cards right now. Turns out I'm not even remotely that interesting. However, I will now promise weekly. At the very least, each week I'll post my "Weekly Comics to Come" and there will probably be other posts throughout the week as well.

Like this one.

Not that there's any great news or anything, but here we go, what I've been doing lately.

PSP: Well, I've dug into it a little bit more and, as with my iPod Photo, it's an expensive toy I didn't really need, but now I love it and can't imagine being without it. No buyer's remorse whatsoever. I bought a 1GB duostick to go with it for less than $100 (thank you, Outpost.com) and now keep comics (like the awesome PSP-formatted NYC2123), video (like this mock-up trailer for the Kubrick directed, Nicholson starring romantic comedy "Shining") and of course games at hand at all times.

While it was Burnout Legends that finally broke me, ironically I haven't played that much of it, or of Burnout Revenge on the PS/2... instead, what I'm hooked on is World Poker Tour, which allows me to play virtual Texas Hold 'Em using the skills learned by watching Celebrity Poker Showdown and listening to Phil Gordon. Clearly, the computer players are insane, as they'll bet stuff almost nonsensically at times, but in general, it's a pretty good simulation. And unlike real life, if you lose all your money you can quit out, come back out and have it again.

Car: My car has been having antifreeze problems lately, with a "low fluid" light on almost constantly. I had the radiator flushed and that fixed it for a few days, then it started again. So I started refilling it, figuring that it was burning a little hot, but I'd soon hit the 90,000 mile mark and take it in for 90,000 mile service to get it fixed. The refills started coming more frequently, though, and my wife told me she'd spotted some antifreeze on the driveway, so I took the car in about 800 miles early for the big service.

End result? Yeah, the radiator was leaking and needed to be replaced. Also, worn drivetrain, worn brakes, some other stuff, total cost about $1400. Which is a little less than 10% of my yearly salary, but fortunately I have some savings bonds (it's how I bought the PSP) and some savings, and this is really the first major expense this car has given me in 10 years, so I can't complain too much. It also gave me the chance to grab a brochure for the Saturn Sky, the new roadster they're putting out next year. I love the look of it, but at $23,000, it'll be a bit out of my preferred price range, and more importantly, with Katy, I can't really buy a 2-seater car. Ah, well... the mid-life crisis will have to wait until, well, mid-life. With the way I eat and the amount of Coke I drink, though, 34 may *be* mid-life. :)

Reviews: Great week this week, with the Mary Jane 2 digest having crisper paper than previous Marvel digests and looking fantastic, The Quitter being every bit as good as I expected and True Porn 2 living up to the quality of the first. And that's without getting into single issues, like the latest True Story Swear to the God or the gorgeously-illustrated (and intriguingly written) Spellgame #1. Of course, because of time constraints, I took the week off from reviewing, but I will get to this stuff. I'm actually taking a bit of a vacation, since I'm heading up to Dallas for the extended weekend with the family-in-law, so there will be no new reviews from me for Thursday, Monday or next Thursday. Should be Down the Line by the end of next week, though.

Dallas: Looking forward to attending my nephew James's birthday party on Sunday and seeing most of the in-laws again. I say most because Suzanne's parents will be out of town, but they came down and joined us and my parents for dinner at Katz's last week, which was really good. And Marc Katz himself came by the table, which was neat, especially since my in-laws had never been to the restaurant at all before... a nice little first time perk, chatting briefly with the owner, who was a gregarious and gracious host.

Of course, I'm also really looking forward to Dallas because I'm finally going to go to Fogo de Chao, the Brazillian steakhouse in the area. One of the best meals I've had in my life (and understand, I like to eat and I have a fair amount of experience here) was at the Brazillian Plataforma restaurant in New York, and I can't wait to have that food again. Everything I've heard from friends is that Fogo de Chao is amazing. It'll be expensive, but totally, totally worth it.

OK, that's it for this post. Next time out, I'll try to cover some more TV stuff for those who are interested (Alias, Veronica Mars, Everybody Hates Chris, Threshold and Invasion are all shows I can talk about now).

Coming in late - T-Shirts:
The sale is only on until tomorrow morning, and the stock is looking a little depleted at this point, but this website is just cool. Greg McElhatton pointed to it, and I would have bought about four or five shirts, except that they only had one design left in my size that I liked. I know I'll be buying more in the future, though.

At any rate, check it out before Monday, because right now all the shirts are on sale at $10 each, and they've got some great designs. The cool thing about the site is that it's user designs, and the site users vote on what designs get made into shirts.

If anyone's curious, the one I ordered was "Medio Victim." The ones I wanted (but which weren't in my size) were Yo-Fu, Robot Derby Girl, Game-set-Match, Outbreak girl and CTRL+Z.

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.